The varnas can be seen as specialized forms of capital: the brahmin has intellectual capital, the kshatriya has political capital, the vaishya has business capital, and the shudra has labor. In ancient times these distinctions prevented undue consolidation of power in any one institution. This was India’s equivalent of the modern separation of church and state.
Varna had the added benefit of keeping religion and politics out of business. India’s corruption can be seen as a violation of the varna principle that political groups should not accumulate wealth, which is the prerogative of the vaishya. Nor should religious groups accumulate wealth or political power, and industrial capital should not be used for political influence. In ancient India, these principles helped ward off theocracy.
In the Vedas, the four varnas are interdependent parts of the divine body in the form of the cosmos: all must be healthy. Brahmin varna represents divinity manifested as knowledge and wisdom. A Brahmin pursues disinterested learning and embodies purity, piety, and reverence for mind and spirit. Scientific research and other scholarship is an example of this varna. Those who claim to be brahmins by birth but violate the high standards expected of them are, in effect, fake brahmins.
Kshatriya varna represents the cosmic principle of power that sanctions, upholds and enforces social order. A kshatriya protects the weak, and must have courage, chivalry, strength, self-confidence, self-mastery, and nobility of character. Today’s politicians, lawyers, public servants, civic leaders, and activists all occupy posts that ought to be guided by kshatriya-dharma. Too many have become corrupt, craving power and the aristocratic life.
Vaishya varna is the divine manifested as production, development, material enjoyment, and harmony for the benefit of society. A vaishya must embody high ethical values, mercantile good faith, and philanthropy. However, today’s variety tends to be dishonest and greedy, accumulating wealth without regard to sustainability or social impact.
Shudra varna is the divine manifested as service to others. Shudras must display obedience, attention to detail, and selfless dedication. They carry out with precision what the other three cosmic principles require. Nowadays, with nepotism and materialism turning varna into birth-based caste oppression, shudras are often impoverished and exploited.
Varna should not be confused with jati, which generally refers to a community that perpetuates itself through biological descendents. Over time, as jatis became specialized professionally, they were reified into the caste system.
The table below highlights the main characteristics that were expected of each varna.
Brahmin
Kshatriya
•Protectors of others
Vaishya
•Competitive
Shudra
•Hands-on, meticulous
As numerous foreign visitors testified in earlier times, India was a healthy multi-varna society which enjoyed a high standard of living. The British came as vaishyas and took over the thriving Indian Ocean trade, then studied India’s textiles and steel industries and replaced them with its own factories. Next they acquired territories such as Madras and Bengal and became kshatriyas (rulers); this in turn gave them colossal opportunities to extort taxes. Between 1750 and 1850, vaishya capital and industry shifted from Indians to the British, impoverishing India’s shudras and enriching Britain’s workers, who had, until then, a standard of living lower than that of Indians.
The final varna to be depleted was brahmin varna, which occurred as the British replaced India’s traditional educational system with its own. The result was the degeneration of education into a kind of factory which produced brown-skinned babus to serve the empire.
Over the past 500 years, the West has grabbed and controlled the brahmin, kshatriya and vaishya forms of capital, relegating the rest of the world to the oppressed shudra class. However, things are once again shifting in the geopolitics of varnas, as India’s industrialists gradually win back vaishya capital and place it in Indian hands. But unfortunately, since there is no appreciation of varna principles, the required social balance is not being restored. Vaishyas indulge in self-gratification and pomp, neglecting social responsibility. Brahmin capital is lacking, as India neglects to modernize its spiritual and scientific research, and there is altogether too much mimicry of the West (reflected in the importation of intellectual capital). Politicians, who ought to serve as models of kshatriya-varna, are mired in pettiness and corruption. Worst of all, the shudra (workers) are disempowered and exploited.
As we have seen, the varna model can be an aid in analyzing past problems, but it can also serve as a guide for achieving a balanced, multi-varna society today.
