Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s2.14

c8.s2.14

The hierarchic division of the population into classes is practically universal, but the caste-system is a unique phenomenon. That Brahmanic ambition has taken advantage of it in order the more firmly to establish its domination is possible but not obvious. A caste-system is not the necessary basis of a theocracy. If theory has confused the two sets of ideas, this is a fact of secondary importance, as we have actually seen when dealing with tradition. In order to understand the historic development we must distinguish carefully between the two ideas; remembering, however, to investigate how they came to be finally combined. Sacerdotal speculation has obscured the facts by means of an artificial system, and we must be careful not to mistake the curtain which hides them from our view for the facts that are hidden.