Caste Oppression Quotes

That the caste system must be abolished if the Hindu society is to be reconstructed on the basis of equality, goes without saying. Untouchability has its roots in the caste system. They cannot expect the Brahmins to rise in revolt against the caste system. Also we cannot rely upon the non-Brahmins and ask them to fight our battle.

Traditionally, Indian society was divided into four main castes. At the top, Brahmins, as priests and teachers; second came the Kshatriyas, the warriors and rulers; third, Vaishyas, who were merchants; last, Shudras, the laborers. And below them all, the Dalits, or untouchables, called Harijans, or “children of God,” by Mahatma Gandhi

We need not say that we are strongly opposed to Home Rule. We shall fight to the last drop of our blood any attempt to transfer the seat of authority in this country from British hands to so-called high caste Hindus who have ill-treated us in the past and would do so again but for the protection of British laws.

Untouchability is a many-headed monster and forms, some of them so subtle as not to be easily detected.

Why and how did our country fall from its brilliant antiquity to the degradation of pre-British days? The answer is that defeat of the oppressed castes at the hands of the Brahminic overlordship, of materialism by idealism, constituted the beginning of the fall of India’s civilization and culture which in the end led to the loss of national independence.

Some men say that they should be satisfied with the abolition of untouchability only, leaving the caste system alone. The aim of abolition of untouchability alone without trying to abolish the inequalities inherent in the caste system is a rather low aim.

The West remains obsessed by the caste system.

Untouchability, I hold, is a sin, if Bhagavadgita is one of our Divine Books.

Backward Classes like Pawar, Marar, Lodhi, Kasar etc. should be kept involved in the religious affairs so that their attention be kept away from political rights and they always remain slaves and supporters of Brahmanism. The political consciousness that has developed among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Religious Minorities has threatened the leadership of Brahmanism. Hence, such a confusion and conflict be created in them, that they keep on fighting among themselves…. Friends, the whole thing must be implemented secretly. This letter should not reach in the hands of lower castes. It is a secret letter.

I don't even know whether I am a savarna or not, I am a Kayasth, so I am not Brahmin or Kshatriya or Vaishya or Shudra.

The Pariahs, our fellow beings, ought to be educated by the higher castes.

Caste is about dividing people up in ways that preclude every form of solidarity, because even in the lowest castes, there are divisions and sub-castes, and everyone's co-opted into the business of this hierarchical, silo-ised society.

I was also pained to notice an institution which I certainly did not expect to find in this country – I mean caste. Your rich people are really Brahmins, and your poor people are Sudras.

Most modern Indians don't stick to their caste jobs any more. There is more inter-caste marriage, more fluidity, more freedom than ever before. But the outcastes are usually still outcastes, because they are still the ones who tan India's animals, burn its dead, and remove its excrement.

I would far rather that Hinduism died than that untouchability lived.

Untouchability is a hydra-headed monster.

We are too near the scene of tragedy to realize that this canker or untouchability has traveled far beyond its prescribed limits and has sapped the very foundation of the whole nation.

The idea of the nation [India] itself is incompatible with the institution of caste.

The closest Indian analogy to the position of black Americans is that of the Dalits - formerly called 'Untouchables,' the outcastes who for millennia suffered humiliating discrimination and oppression.

He apologizes for injustice …. Belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions…. He should be unceasingly and firmly opposed.

Untouchability is a terrible reality.