I don't think this past episode merits a thread move at all. There are simply different facets of understanding the varna system at play. Satyaban ji you are indeed understanding the varna system according to its historical and economic logic.
However there has always been a different perspective.
The Gurus had definitive arguments against it because the varna system sustained social, political and economical corruption, the currying of favor with Muslim overlords to maintain status on the part of the upper castes, the terrorizing of women and of the lower castes, Brahmin abuse and use of the khatri to do their dirty work. Many of the "hindu" holy men of the Shabad Guru shared these views and preached against it. Mohatma Gandhi continued to the lot of sudras in the 20th Century. Varna was a way to maintain social order and equilibrium in a disequilbrated time for political reasons. He kept the entire matter within the framework of reincarnation. Shudras would do well to pass through the 84 lakh joons in order to purify the soul and get the work of the masses done at the same time. Shudras he felt should be proud of their role as the humble. That is why he fought for proportional representation for voters and went on one of his many hunger strikes in order to cow Ambardek, a political scientist and Shudra (first to gain a doctorate), who actually penned the Indian constitution, into submission.
Guru Nanak said through Shabad Guru we would be freed from reincarnation, from passing through the 84 lakh joons. And he meant that quite literally. The passage through lifetimes occurs until one varna is accomplished and one 's next life starts with the next varna, purifying the soul as one takes one's interminable journey. Cast aside varna, Guru Nanak said, because it is only there to keep the masses subdued. Cast aside varna and the entire proposition of reincarnation made no sense in traditional Indian society.
The varna system was a legacy of ancient tyranny of indigenous peoples of India by Aryan invaders. If they had a spiritual message to go along, it has faded in the fog of time. What is certainly clear is that it lasted centuries and kept India so locked into rigid patterns of belief and behavior that its peoples could not successfully unite in a way that would help them prevail against the invasions from the north and the incursions of the British. Today the sorrows of being trapped in a colonial consciousness, the remnants of defeat and humiliation, still plague the peoples of the subcontinent.
Don't fight. Discuss issues. thanks. And we should leave the varna system now and move back to the "just war" concept that is the basis of this thread.
