The Gita according to Gandhi 141

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

The Four Varnas and Svadharma Quite an amount of ignorant criticism is levelled at the doctrine of the performance of svadharma (one's duty or function) taught in the Gita and the reason for it is the much-abused varna system. This is no place for making out a case for or against the so-called 'caste-system'. It is necessary here to make a few points clear and to point out the bearing of the system on the Gita doctrine. Much of the criticism is directed against a thing which is just a shadow of what existed ages ago. There was a system which existed in ages gone by, which served the then existing social organism magnificently, which was elastic and hence made it possible for a number of different groups of the same race and several races to live together in amity and peace. What we see today is its travesty, a fossil formed out of the incrustations of customs and practices of several centuries. Let not one judge the original from the ghost of it, and say that the author of the Gita sought to clothe a loathsome thing with divine sanction.