JAT-PAT-TODAK MANDAL OF LAHORE,-XV
But there is a set of reformers who hold out a different ideal. They go
by the name of the Arya Samajists and their ideal of social organization is
what is called Chaturvarnya or the division of society into four classes
instead of the four thousand castes that we have in India. To make it more
attractive and to disarm opposition the protagonists of Chaturvarnya take great
care to point out that their Chaturvarnya is based not on birth but on guna (worth). At the outset, I must
confess that notwithstanding the worth-basis of this Chaturvarnya, it is an
ideal to which I cannot reconcile myself. In the first place, if under the
Chaturvarnya of the Arya Samajists an individual is to take his place in the
Hindu Society according to his worth. I do not understand why the Arya
Samajists insist upon labelling men as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
A learned man would be honoured without his being labelled a Brahmin. A soldier
would be respected without his being designated a Kshatriya. If European
society honours its soldiers and its servants without giving them permanent
labels, why should Hindu Society find it difficult to do so is a question,
which Arya Samajists have not cared to consider. There is another objection to
the continuance of these labels. All reform consists in a change in the
notions, sentiment and mental attitudes of the people towards men and things.
It is common experience that certain names become associated with certain
notions and sentiments, which determine a person's attitude towards men and
things. The names, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, are names which are
associated with a definite and fixed notion in the mind of every Hindu. That
notion is that of a hierarchy based on birth. So long as these names continue,
Hindus will continue to think of the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra as
hierarchical divisions of high and low, based on birth, and act accordingly.
The Hindu must be made to unlearn all this. But how can this happen if the old
labels remain and continue to recall to his mind old notions. If new notions
are to be inculcated in the minds of people it is necessary to give them new
names. To continue the old name is to make the reform futile. To allow this
Chaturvarnya, based on worth to be designated by such stinking labels of
Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, indicative of social divisions based on birth,
is a snare.
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