But just in proportion to the triumph of Equality does Caste disappear.

This institution is essentially barbarous, and therefore appears in barbarous ages, or in countries not yet relieved from the early incubus.

In Hindustan, this dreadful system, which, under the name of Order, is the organization of disorder, has prolonged itself to our day, so as to be a living admonition to mankind.

Ascent from an inferior class was absolutely impossible: as well might a vegetable become a man.

The distinction was perpetuated by the injunction that each should marry only in his own class, with sanguinary penalties upon any attempted amalgamation.

The Brahmin was child of rank and privilege; the Sudra, child of degradation and disability.

Not for the most insufferable crime can he be touched in person or property; nor can he be called to pay taxes, while all other classes must bestow their wealth upon him.

Such is the Brahmin, with these privileges crystallized in his blood from generation to generation.

As much as the Brahmin is object of constant veneration, so is the Sudra object of constant contempt.

As one is exalted above Humanity, so is the other degraded below it.

The life of the Sudra is servile, but according to the sacred volume he was created by the Self-Existent especially to serve the Brahmin.

He holds no property which a Brahmin may not seize.

Such is the Sudra; and this fearful degradation, with all its disabilities, is crystallized in his blood from generation to generation.

Below these is another more degraded even than the Sudra, being the outcast, with no place in either of the four regular castes, and known commonly as the Pariah.

No person of the regular castes holds communication with the Pariah.

Milk, and even water, is defiled by his passing shadow, and cannot be used until purified.

It is now admitted, that, under constraint of necessity, the member of a superior caste may descend to the pursuits of an inferior caste.

But I am obliged to add that no modification leaving “distinctions” transmissible with the blood can be adequate.

So long as these continue, the natural harmonies of society are disturbed and man is degraded.

The system in its mildest form can have nothing but evil; for it is a constant violation of primal truth, and a constant obstruction to that progress which is the appointed destiny of man.

Here the caste claiming hereditary rank and privilege is white, the caste doomed to hereditary degradation and disability is black or yellow; and it is gravely asserted that this difference of color marks difference of race, which in…

When I consider how for a long time the African was shut out from testifying in court, even when seeking redress for the grossest outrage, and how at this time in some places the Chinese is also shut out from testifying in court, each…

In stating this assumption of superiority, which I do not exaggerate, I open a question of surpassing interest, whether in science, government, or religion.

Two passages of Scripture, one in the Old Testament and the other in the New, both governing this question, attest the Unity of the Human Family.

The first is in that sublime chapter of Genesis, where, amidst the wonders of Creation, it is said: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.