Sarcouncil Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract: The narrative taught in Western school curricula, which claims that contemporary Hindus practice racism through the caste system, is a comparison often seen as equivalent to asserting that present-day Europeans and Americans are practitioners of brutal colonization and chattel slavery. This paper aims to demonstrate that Hindus have moved away from caste-based prejudice as significantly as White populations have moved away from racism against non-Whites. This progress in India has been enabled by proactive steps taken by some elected leaders of its democracy over the past 75 years after independence. The caste system, while historically part of Hinduism, originated as a division of labor, positing that all societies require specialists: in the material world (Shudras), the financial world (Vaishyas), the governance world (Kshatriyas), and the spiritual world (Brahmins). Hindu scriptures suggested that expertise would develop if, for example, Shudra parents trained their children at home in the profession, and that certain professional traits might also be biologically inherited.