on caste

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Caste in Geetha:
It is not clear whether the present system of caste in Hindu society, based on heredity, was prevalent in ancient India, or whether it is a gradual petrification of ideas in the course of generations, aided by consolidation of vested interests.
The “varnashrama” system, on the other hand, is an idealized classification of professions and duties of man in the course of his life, based on the qualities of the mind.
In India, there has always been a tradition in all shastras, (ie. Sciences or philosophies), to classify the observed facts into sets, be it the number of worlds, elements, qualities, or actions. So it may have been natural to broadly classify the professions into those based on knowledge, defense, trade and service. In the same way, responsibilities in different stages of life were classified into education, parenthood, gradual withdrawal from activities, and final retirement.
These are at best guidelines for individuals during their existence, I would fancy. They are not directly associated with privileges or social status. In practice, those who were involved in the more authoritative professions could give a head start to their children, and thus they must have perpetuated a custom of “dynastic” inheritance.
However the serious texts have not given any support to this system, and always stressed on equality of all human beings. In Geetha it is said repeatedly that the divisions are based on qualities and actions, never on birth.
All great philosophers and saints in India, as indeed all over the world, have decried the inequalities and injustices of caste, and stressed on the equality of men. But it has not changed the caste system, as practiced in India, probably because it was based on social and political situations of the time, entrenched very deeply. Buddhha was the first religious leader who tried to change it; it was too premature and Buddhhism could not develop roots in India permanently.
Gandhi did his best to eradicate this, as Krishna in Geetha, through stressing the essential foundation for the divisions in qualities and vocations, and not on any birth rights. The social compulsions seem so strong that, in spite of all laws and regulations, it cannot be said to have really made much impact. The present day changes in economic and industrial production , as well as globalization, may ultimately succeed where all religious exhortations failed.
Can it be said however that this system continued for so long in India, only due to political pressure from the elite above? Hardly possible, especially in the face of mighty assaults from outside, religious as well as military. The system must have given each group, caste, a sense of autonomy, security in the form of non-interference from others in their internal management, something similar to the guilds in Europe. It must have given stability to the society during the changes in rulers, which must have appeared to occur somewhere above and too far to affect their daily life.
One result was that there was no national spirit, which could organize people into nations fighting for their identity. It was also probably the same in all societies, as they progressed from the feudal to the industrial!