Blaming others of propaganda or hate will only perpetuate the fantasy that caste system was a wonderful thing.
Nobody (including me) is saying that the caste system was/is a wonderful/infallible thing--only that it does have positive aspects; and that the systems of hierarchy that exist in today's modern social life are not any better than the caste system in many--although different--respects.
The plain fact is that all men are not treated equal because all men are not created equal. When this fact is accepted without any qualms in the other hieararchies of social life, all the hue and cry raised against the caste and varNa system are only deliberate attempts to disown and mislead, without getting into its purportedly spiritual design.
Since all men are not created equal they have varying capabilities which chalk out their life styles. As to the question of providing leverages to the meritorious, it has always existed in the Hindu Indian society right from the Vedic times.
Fourth, comparing the hierarchy of caste system to that of the business and corporate world is absurd. While nepotism and corruption may be prevalent to varying degrees, the hierarchy is (i) not birth based (ii) people move from one layer to the next based on merit and experience, and (iii) there is no coercion, people are free to leave for better opportunities at any time, etc.
I wouldn't be so sure about all the three points, or say it for the sake of argument:
(i) Popular and successful political/business/corporate ventures are bent on promoting the succession by birth concept and strive hard to make their ventures family/dynastical systems.
(ii) Not everyone who is meritorious and has experience gets the promotion, simply because the applicants are many and the posts are few. Thinking that everyone gets his/her due invariably and without exception in all hierarchical systems is utopian.
(iii) Coercion in indirect and subtle forms exists, at least here in India, specially in some public sectors such as the banking. The latest grapevine is that the team at the helm in some banks have been coerced by the government and political machinary of the ruling party to bring down the performance levels of their banks, in order to force the merging ventures envisaged, against the wishes of the bank employees.
Again, there is intense coercion by the union/association leaders that results the top-management to promote people with less competence. The only redeeming provision against such practices is that the affect people are free to quit for better prospects elsewhere.
Fifth, if these coporations were to follow a caste system type hierarchy, then, not only can class IV employees never rise above that rank, but their sons can never be anything other than class IV employees, and their daughters can be nothing more than domestic servants for all class III and above.
This is vitaNDA-vAdam. Impartial studies by some scholars have pointed out that social restrictions existed in the varNa system of ancient India, not because of the whims and fancies of the law-makers of the SmRties, but because of the circumstances that necessitated them then, and different smRties applied at different times. That most such restrictions do not exist today is mostly welcome and is proof that our Hindu soceity is constantly updating itself, without discarding the caste and varNa system.
Svadarma and athma sadhana are obfuscations. It exists only on paper to convince ourselves of our fantasies. To do athma sadhana, whatever that is, we don't need caste system.
Whoever says whatever, the design of the Hindu varNa system (that developed into a caste system later) is based on svadharma and Atma sAdhana and not on the desire-based worldly ambitions.
People who seek to attack the caste system, since they cannot be convincing if they support the ideals of Hinduism, seek to attack Hinduism itself and its concepts, simple! This is the reason that most people who speak against the caste and varNa system are atheists and Hindu haters, who call themselves rationalists (such as the DMK and DK people), apart from the people of other religions.
If the inequalities of the caste system were due to spiritual and social/occupational status, the inequivalities of the hierarchical systems are motivated by sheer greed for money and power. And neither system can be abolished in the foreseeable future, nor is there any such necessity.
)
