Can the Hindu caste system of India have any redeeming qualities in our modern age of equality and personal rights? Author Alain Daniélou believes so and builds a cogent defence of the system, viewing it not as racist inequality but as a natural and supportive ordering of diversity.
      Initially the thinking reader might hesitate to pick up this book, written in the 20th century by a European author who, although living extensively in India, was in the end, a foreigner. Yet the very fact that the Indian caste system is so foreign and clearly misunderstood by Westerners should encourage us to research it before we quickly dismiss it to the dustbin of curious antiquity.
      In his book, India: A Civilisation of Differences, Daniélou argues that negative stereotypes about the inequality of Indian society were invented by Westerners to justify the goal of colonialism.
      In classical India, he argues, social ethics are based on each individual’s functional role in society. These roles vary according to caste and serve to maximise the person’s effectiveness to society.
      He points out that it is still up to the individual to achieve perfection in the state to which he or she has been born. Everyone must accomplish their individual spiritual destinies while remaining members of their particular group or caste. This ensures a stable society that can continue to form a strong mechanism supporting the spiritual growth of all.
      Daniélou argues that a person born into an “upper” caste may feel just as oppressed by his or her position as the lowest of the low, the Untouchables, who must perform the most menial of tasks. All of this is justified by India’s all pervading belief in the spiritual system of transmigration of the soul.
      Any visitor to the subcontinent becomes immediately aware of the country’s adherence to spirituality. Every village has at least one shrine or temple to one of over three million deities. Everywhere people wear the marks of their faith on their face or body, and the scent of incense and flowers given to celebrate one festival or another, permeates every nook and cranny of this amazingly colourful world.
      The basic belief is that the universal force of the wheel of life ensures those born as princes will inevitably be born again as paupers. This wheel of reincarnation and karma ensures that those who do not live in harmony with their neighbours create negative karma, and this results in a lower incarnation.
      Daniélou thoughtfully explores the other side of the caste debate and offers ample proof that, given the belief in transmigration of the soul, the caste system is the most logical and supportive system for such a large and diverse country.
      Of course, the system would not work and could not be sustained if it were not for the religious belief that everything balances out in the end. What of those who no longer adhere to this spiritual principle? Many young Indians are rejecting the caste system as they embrace Western culture, and so the question of whether the caste system can be sustained in the 21st century needs to be asked.
      Alain Daniélou died in 1994, and this book is a collection of his writings and essays, including never before published articles. He offers an in-depth look at the structure of Indian society before and shortly after Western colonialism.
      Does the caste system have anything to teach us about ourselves?
      It is important to remember that the caste system offers a clear and precise pathway to spiritual growth that we lack in the West. Any casual observer of the “new age” movement soon discovers there is a huge desire to understand our life purpose, which many of us see as a job or career. This question is automatically answered in the caste system because a person is literally born into a career.
      In the West, we try desperately hard to find time to meditate or do spiritual work, yet in India there are dozens of festivals and ceremonies where everyone is expected to attend. Perhaps most importantly, we should examine the final role of the caste system, that of becoming a sanyasin. When a person reaches retirement, he or she relinquishes his or her caste, and goes out onto the road as a travelling spiritual mendicant. In the West, we retire to the golf course or even worse, the retirement home where we are forgotten.
      The caste system has served India for generations. It has clearly been forged by ancient sages to provide a solid framework to encourage the soul of the individual to mature. These sages knew that it is not what you do, but what you are that counts. They also encouraged a system where elders happily stepped into becoming spiritual adepts, handing all their wealth over to their sons before death, something that is quite a rarity in the West.
      This is definitely a very personal view of a country where the author studied music, philosophy and Hindu traditions, however that personal touch brings magic to what might have been a rather controversial subject matter.
      I recommend this book to any student of philosophy, sociology or spirituality because Alain Daniélou shows the ancient framework that allowed the mystics, mahatmas and sages to spring up in India and gift us with their wisdom.