<P> Jyotirao Phule (1827--1890) vehemently criticised any explanations that the caste system was natural and ordained by the Creator in Hindu texts . If Brahma wanted castes, argued Phule, he would have ordained the same for other creatures . There are no castes in species of animals or birds, so why should there be one among human animals . In his criticism Phule added, "Brahmins cannot claim superior status because of caste, because they hardly bothered with these when wining and dining with Europeans ." Professions did not make castes, and castes did not decide one's profession . If someone does a job that is dirty, it does not make them inferior; in the same way that no mother is inferior because she cleans the excreta of her baby . Ritual occupation or tasks, argued Phule, do not make any human being superior or inferior . </P> <P> Vivekananda similarly criticised caste as one of the many human institutions that bars the power of free thought and action of an individual . Caste or no caste, creed or no creed, any man, or class, or caste, or nation, or institution that bars the power of free thought and bars action of an individual is devilish, and must go down . Liberty of thought and action, asserted Vivekananda, is the only condition of life, of growth and of well - being . </P> <P> In his younger years, Gandhi disagreed with some of Ambedkar's observations, rationale and interpretations about the caste system in India . "Caste," he claimed, has "saved Hinduism from disintegration . But like every other institution it has suffered from excrescences ." He considered the four divisions of Varnas to be fundamental, natural and essential . The innumerable subcastes or Jatis he considered to be a hindrance . He advocated to fuse all the Jatis into a more global division of Varnas . In the 1930s, Gandhi began to advocate for the idea of heredity in caste to be rejected, arguing that "Assumption of superiority by any person over any other is a sin against God and man . Thus caste, in so far as it connotes distinctions in status, is an evil ." </P> <P> He claimed that Varnashrama of the shastras is today nonexistent in practice . The present caste system is theory antithesis of varnashrama . Caste in its current form, claimed Gandhi, had nothing to do with religion . The discrimination and trauma of castes, argued Gandhi, was the result of custom, the origin of which is unknown . Gandhi said that the customs' origin was a moot point, because one could spiritually sense that these customs were wrong, and that any caste system is harmful to the spiritual well - being of man and economic well - being of a nation . The reality of colonial India was, Gandhi noted, that there was no significant disparity between the economic condition and earnings of members of different castes, whether it was a Brahmin or an artisan or a farmer of low caste . India was poor, and Indians of all castes were poor . Thus, he argued that the cause of trauma was not in the caste system, but elsewhere . Judged by the standards being applied to India, Gandhi claimed, every human society would fail . He acknowledged that the caste system in India spiritually blinded some Indians, then added that this did not mean that every Indian or even most Indians blindly followed the caste system, or everything from ancient Indian scriptures of doubtful authenticity and value . India, like any other society, cannot be judged by a caricature of its worst specimens . Gandhi stated that one must consider the best it produced as well, along with the vast majority in impoverished Indian villages struggling to make ends meet, with woes of which there was little knowledge . </P>

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