Struggle Against Caste-Based Exploitation

The later-Vedic conception of four-fold division of Hindu society got further subdivided into numerous sub-castes due to racial admixture, geographical expansion and diversification of crafts which gave rise to new vocations.

The concept of Hindu chaturvarnashrama dictated that the caste of a person determined the status and relative purity

of different sections of population. It was caste that determined who could get education or ownership of landed property, the kind of profession one should pursue, whom one could dine with or marry, etc. In general, caste decided a person’s social loyalties even before birth. The dress, food, place of residence, sources of water for drinking and irrigation, entry into temples—all these were regulated by the caste factor.

The worst-hit by the discriminatory institution of caste were the ‘untouchables’ or the scheduled castes/dalits, as they came to be called later. The disabilities imposed on them were humiliating, inhuman and based on the principle of inequality by birth.