[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930) › v2.c19.5 # History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.5 History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.5 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.5) ⁵¹ E. g. Sherring in his ':Hindu Tribes and castes' vol. III p. 274 says 'It has been said with some truth that caste promotes cleanliness and order and is in a certain sense a bond of union among all classes of the Hindu community. Yet surely these ends might have been attained in a simpler manner and by a less antagonistic process. \*The invention of a project so wonderfully elaborate and intricate—a\* project of bringing into absolute subjection two hundred millions of the human species by robbing them of their independence, ...... the invention of a project like this, so prodigious and far-reaching was not needed to accomplish such useful and beneficent ends. That another and very different object was in view from the very first is abundantly manifest. This object was neither more nor less than to exalt the Brahman, to feed his pride and to minister to his self-will.' Equally sweeping condemnation can be and has been indulged in as regards feudalism and modern capitalism. Fick (p. 331) entirely scouts the idea that the theory of castes was invented by the priests. There are several fallacies lurking in the above quoted passage of Sherring. In the first place, there is nothing to show that the caste system was invented by any body of persons who could impose their will on a continent. The system simply grew up in the lapse of ages. The population of Hindus when Sherring wrote may have been near two hundred millions, but it could not have been more than a small fraction of that colossal number during the thousands of years that the system has flourished. Besides writers like Sherring pass over the great achievements of Indians under the caste system in Literature, religion and philosophy, in handicrafts and in the fine arts and unduly exaggerate the defects of the system that have become glaring only in the machine-made civilization of the 19th and 20th centuries. These critics ignore the great adaptability of the system, whereby it preserved Indian society from social anarchy during ages of foreign invasions and internecine wars. While severely condemning the brāhmaṇas the critics altogether forget that the vast and varied Sanskrit Literature owes its production and preservation mostly to the sacrifice of the brāhmaṇas for ages. Under the caste (\*Continued on next page\*) (\*Continued from last page\*) system, no man was allowed to be useless to the commonwealth and his conduct was a question of honour with his group. When all work was turned out with the hands, the caste system tended to preserve and augment the skill of artisans. Moreover what social organization is to be substituted and how is not made clear by these critics. Most of these critics have the western social system based on wealth and the industrial revolution in view; but that system also is as evil as or perhaps worse than the modern caste system. - [Previous: v2.c19.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.4.4) - [Next: v2.c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.6) - [Up: v2.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.5) · Pramāṇa