BASIS OF THE CASTE SYSTEM IN HINDUISM

The caste system of India actually had its origins in the sacred writings of the Hinduism:Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Manudharmasastra. There are four orders of human beings: Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. The Brahmins, Kshatriya, and Vaishyas are called dvija, or twice-born, because they are entitled to the sacrament of initiation to the study of the Veda, which initiation is regarded as their second or spiritual birth. The study or even over-hearing of the Vedic scripture by the Shudras was forbidden under the most drastic penalties. Below this society were a number of excluded casts, whose contact, shadow, or even sight polluted. They perform impure work such as scavenging, disposing of the dead, leatherwork, and so forth, and had to live outside the community. They were made to bear distinctive marks and to strike a piece of wood to warnpeople of their approach.1 1. VEDAS: According to the PurusaSukta (Rig Veda 10.90) brahmans are born from the head of the primeval man, whereas the other three classes are born from his arms, trunks, and feet, respectively. According to which it is clear that every human being is not equal by birth. Please note that this classification is not based on the work (duty) they perform, but by creation. The creation of the world is sometimes traced to an original material as it were; in the PurusaSukta we find that the gods are the agents of creation, while the material out of which the world is made is the body of the great Purusa.2 Here is the English Translation of PurusaSukta: 1.10.90Mantra 90 Purusa (Author: Narayana) 1. A THOUSAND heads hath Purusa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide. 2 This Purusa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be; The Lord of Immortality which waxes greater still by food. 3 So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Purusa. All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in heaven. 4 With three-fourths Purusa went up: onefourth of him again was here. Thence he strode out to every side over what cats not and what cats. 5 From him Viraj was born; again Purusa from Viraj was born. As soon as he was born he spread eastward and westward o'er the earth. 6 When Gods prepared the sacrifice with Purusa as their offering, Its oil was spring, the holy gift was autumn; summer was the wood. 7 They balmed as victim on the grass Purusa born in earliest time. With him the Deities and all Sadhyas and Rsis sacrificed. 8 From that great general sacrifice the dripping fat was gathered up. He formed the creatures of-the air, and animals both wild and tame. 9 From that great general sacrifice Rcas and Sama-hymns were born: Therefrom were spells and charms produced; the Yajus had its birth from it. 10 From it were horses born, from it all cattle with two rows of teeth: From it were generated kine, from it the goats and sheep were born. 11 When they divided Purusa how many portions did they make? What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet? 12 The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made. His thighs became the Vaisya, from his feet the Sudra was produced. 13 The Moon was gendered from his mind, and from his eye the Sun had birth; Indra and Agni from his mouth were born, and Vayu from his breath. 14 Forth from his navel came mid-air the sky was fashioned from his head Earth from his feet, and from his car the regions. Thus they formed the worlds. 15 Seven fencing-sticks had he, thrice seven layers of fuel were prepared, When the Gods, offering sacrifice, bound, as their victim, Purusa. 16 Gods, sacrificing, sacrificed the victim these were the carliest holy ordinances. The Mighty Ones attained the height of heaven, there where the Sidhyas, Gods of old, are dwelling. 2. UPANISADS: The earliest passages incorporating the belief of rebirth are Chandogya, V.3.10 and Brhadaranyaka, vi.2. Though the law of karma is not yet committed to any precise equivalence between merit and experience, still it is asserted that the nature of the birth depends on the conduct of man. ChandogyaUpanisad, v.10.7 Those whose conduct has been good will quickly attain some good birth, the birth of a Brahmin, a Ksatriya or a Vaisya. But those whose conduct is evil will quickly attain an evil birth the birth of a hog, or dog, or a candela. Here again the caste is connected to the persons birth based on the karma, but not based on the work (duty) he performs.
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Sources of Indian Tradition, Second Edition, Vol-I, P-221, Penguin Books, edited and revised by Ainslie T. Embree Indian Philosophy Vol-I, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, P-76, S. Radhakrishnan

3. THE BHAGAVAD GITA The Bhagavad Gita says in Chapter Four, Verse Thirteen: The Lord says: The fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of Guna and Karma. Chapter Eighteen, Verse Forty says: There is no being on earth, or again in heaven among the gods, that is liberated from the three qualities born of Nature. Chapter Eighteen, Verse Forty-one says: Of Brahmanas, Kshtriyas and Vaishyas, as also the Sudras, O Arjuna, the duties are distributed according to the qualities born of their own nature. Chapter Three, Verse Thirty-Five says: Far more conducive to the ultimate good is ones own code of conduct (sva-dharma), even though deficient in quality, than an alien code of conduct, far easier to be practiced though it may be. 4. MANU SMRTI Manu Smrti 1.87-98, 102, 107, 108: For the sake of the preservation of this entire creation, the Exceedingly Resplendent One assigned separate duties to the classes which had sprung from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet. . Man is stated to be purer above the novel than below it; hence His mouth has been declared to be the purest part by the Self-existent One. Manu Smrti 8.15 Dharma, when violated, verily, destroys; dharma, when preserved, preserves: therefore, dharma should not be violated, lest the violated dharma destroy us.

Dharma [from a root dhr, to sustain] is so called on account of its capacity for the sustenance of the world. On account of dharma, people are sustained separately in their respective stations.3

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar noted: Caste is a notion, a state ofmind. Its destruction means a notional change.

The Hindus observed caste not because they are inhuman and wrongheaded. They observe caste chiefly because they are deeply religious.
They are not wrong in observing castes. What is wrong is their religion which inculcates this notion of caste. The real enemy is the shastras which teach them this religion of castes. Destroy this belief in the sanctity of the shastras scriptures destroy the authority, the sacredness and divinity of the shastras and the Vedas.
(Dr. Ambedkar Life and Mission by DhananjayKheer, P-271, Popular Prakashan)

Ambedkar became a Buddhist not because he was convinced that awas his true ultimate aim or that the Four Noble Truths revealed the deepest insight into reality, but for the more practical reason that Buddhists did not observe caste rules His adoption of Buddhism was accompanied by the declaration: I renounce Hinduism. When Hindu missionary MasurkarMaharaj asked him to desist from his conversion to Buddhism, Ambedkar declared that he would be willing to postpone his decision under the following condition: an untouchable should be made Sankaracarya and a hundred Citpavan Brahmins should every day bow down before him
(A Survey of Hinduism, Klaus K. Klostermaier, P-378, State University of New York Press)

The institution of caste, independent of the government and with social ostracism as its most severe sanction, was a powerful factor in the survival of Hinduism. The Hindu, living under an alien
(The wonder that was India: A.L. Basham, P-152, Third Revised Edition 2004, PICADOR)

political order imposed from above, retained his cultural individuality largely through his caste, which received most of the loyalty elsewhere felt towards king, nation, and city.
I think these facts are enough to show that Castism is inseparably interwoven in to the Hinduism. Since caste is attached to the core beliefs like birth, karma and rebirth of Hinduism, we can not renounce castism without renouncing Hinduism. That's what Dr. Ambedkar did when he embraced Buddhism.
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Sources of Indian Tradition, 2nd Edition, Vol-I, P- 217, Penguin Books