भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

The caste-system based on birth and Parentage and the National Penalty of Ostracism 383. Much earlier than the Muslim invasions of India, i.e. just after the Hindus conquered the Huns completely, hundreds of Hindu leaders tried on all sides all over India to restore political, religious and social stability in the society and the nation. The Hindu leadership of the time naturally devolved on them rising warrior class of the Rajput royalty, who were staunch devotees of the Vedic Hindu religion. In this very attempt at reconstruction, the vast Hindu community was being moulded with meticulous care into the framework of the parentage-dominated caste system. Slowly but surely, this caste system became an inherent and essential feature of Hinduism. Not only in the four former classes (वर्ण), but in more or less four thousand castes, born out of those four classes and many other accidental sources, sanctioned by the religious law, was the whole Hindu community everlastingly and almost unanimously divided internally. In a sense, the social transition of the Hindu nation was occosioned by the historical neccesity of the time. 384. The main principle underlying this caste-system was this: Only he who was born in a particular caste, could remain in it. To have food or to drink even water with or from one of another caste was considered liable for penalty. Is it any wonder then that the inter-caste marriages of boys and girls were strictly prohibited? To these very religious practices of the time, we have ascribed, in our various articles on the caste-system, the names ‘Lotabandi (prohibition of drinking water), Rotibandi (prohibition of food), Betibandi (prevention of inter-caste marriages), Sparshbandi (untouchability) and the ones that we are going to discuss hereafter viz., Shuddhibandi (prevention of purification of religious converts), Sindhubandi (ban on sea voyage) etc. These seven ‘bandis’—or bans— which arrested not only the progress of the Hindus but also impaired their normal way of life were, in fact, seven fetters. These fetters were not forcibly fastened to the feet of the Hindu nation by any Muslim, Christian or other foreign power; they were so fastened by the Hindus themselves, in their extreme anxiety for the protection of their religion. That is why we have been calling them through spoken as well as written words not foreign shackles, but as ‘seven native fetters’. 385. It is not necessary here in this book to discuss fully the caste-system of the Hindus, nor is this the place for it. Those desirous of getting