The Varna system wasn’t about birth—it was about function. It was a framework, not a fate. But like most things in history, what we know is often far from the reality.

Now we have a neo-varna system: General Category (GC), Other Backward Communities (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Earlier everyone wanted to be the higher varna, the dvija ...

While M K Gandhi was a critic of hierarchical caste and untouchability, he defended hereditary occupation. For Gandhi, learning how to make a living from our parent(s) at home allows us to spend most ...