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717
No doubt both Brahmins and Shudras belonged to the same human race. The inequality that prevailed between the Aristocrat and a captive in Ancient Europe was not so horrible as that between Brāhmins and Shudras in that age. The difference bet. ween Brahmins and Untouchables even in modern age has been proverbial.
Owing to this class warfare and animosity, India was on the path of moral retrogression. That the acquisition of learning is the fountain-head of all uplift is a known thing. There is no pleasure on the earth excepting the solely carnal and bestial pleasures which may not trace its origin to the uplift in learning. This class-warfare closed the doors to the advancement in learning. Shudras were entirely excluded from their right to knowledge. It had been the sole monopoly of Brāhmanical sect.
The majority of Indian population was non-Brahmin and as a necessary corollary the overwhelming majority of the people remained without the light of learning.
Just consider that had the primceval conditions of disequilibrium continued to this day in England there would have been very few excepting the particular families of Russel, Covendish Slanwley etc who would have acquired learning and the modern civilty and culture of England would have been an impossibility. Set aside the poets, philosophers and scientists, but how would have Watt, Stevenson and Arkwright ever come in historical record ? The same condition prevailed in India, not only that but the sole monopoly enjoyed by the Brāhmanical sect for learning reaped very evil consequences due to the stigma of class iniquity. That sect became the master as it were, of all other sects and closetted learning as the bulwark of their mastership. With the monopolisation of learning, they saw that their lordship would assume a permanent character, and in course of time such mastership would extend. They adopted a policy whereby
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