Karnataka’s Social and Educational Survey, commonly referred to as the caste census, has stirred up a hornet’s nest and given fresh impetus to the never-ending political discourse about caste in Indian society — a debate that is dominated more by distortions, deliberate misrepresentations, and hyperbole than by truth and accuracy.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sermonised: “If there was equality in our Hindu community, then why would anyone convert?"

Bengaluru Archbishop Peter Machado, weighing in on the controversy, stated that “Christianity teaches that all are equal before God. Caste distinctions are not part of our faith." But that did not stop him from instructing his flock to indicate their caste and sub-caste in the survey in an attempt to garner privileges.

These remarks by the archbishop represent an astounding degree of duplicity. In one breath, you claim that Christianity has no caste distinctions, and in the very next, you encourage Christians to document their original caste so that they can benefit from caste-based affirmative actions that are exclusive to Hinduism and other Vedic religions.

The prevailing misconceptions and deliberate misrepresentations about caste and Hinduism call for clarification and correction.

Does the Hindu religion, as per its scriptures, sanction discrimination based on caste? And is caste a function of birth alone and immutable?

The answer to both questions is a resounding no.

The first thing to note is that the word caste is not of Indian origin; it comes from the Portuguese word ‘casta’, meaning “lineage" or “breed," which in turn derives from the Latin ‘castus’, meaning “pure" or “unmixed." The Portuguese used this term to describe, at best, their limited understanding of the prevailing social order in India. Over the years, caste became synonymous with Hinduism, carrying with it a negative connotation. But whether this word does justice to the traditional social structure of our civilisation is open to question.

Varna is the term used to describe the social structure of the Vedic civilisation according to Hindu scriptures. The word jati (derived from born) also does not figure anywhere in the Bhagavad Gita.

Chapter 18, Verse 41 of the Bhagavad Gita states:

brahmana-kshatriya-visham shudranam cha parantapa

karmani pravibhaktani svabhava-prabhavair gunaih

Translated into English, this literally means: “The duties of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras are distributed according to their qualities — in accordance with their gunas (and not by birth) and karma."

A deeper interpretation suggests that all of us have within us varying degrees of these qualities, and the predominance of one or the other is what defines our identities — not birth.

Hindu scriptures do not mandate that birth is the sum total of one’s earthly destiny. In fact, there are instances that clearly negate a rigid association between birth and social upward mobility.

Ved Vyasa is one of the most revered figures in Hinduism — the author of the Mahabharata and the compiler of the Vedic mantras into four distinct texts. One would assume that he was a Brahmin, but he was not. He was an illegitimate child born to........

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