The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c5.s4.5

c5.s4.5

While establishing his thesis that there has scarcely been any society whose strata are absolutely closed Sorokin brings into bold relief the facts of vertical social mobility even in the caste society of the Hindus. He quotes Manu and Gautama to demonstrate that not only did the Brāhmaṇas fall but that the outcastes also rose. It is pointed out that “in the seventh generation,” as says Gautama (IV), “men may obtain a change of caste either being raised to a higher or being degraded to a lower one." He admits that in vertical mobility, although less intensive, Indian history was but repeating the stories of Greece, Rome, Egypt, China and medieval Europe (pp. 139-141, 161).