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.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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Such is the Sudra; and this fearful degradation, with all its disabilities, is crystallized in his blood from generation to generation.
He holds no property which a Brahmin may not seize.
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.
As one is exalted above Humanity, so is the other degraded below it.
As much as the Brahmin is object of constant veneration, so is the Sudra object of constant contempt.
Such is the Brahmin, with these privileges crystallized in his blood from generation to generation.
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.
The Brahmin was child of rank and privilege; the Sudra, child of degradation and disability.
The distinction was perpetuated by the injunction that each should marry only in his own class, with sanguinary penalties upon any attempted amalgamation.
Ascent from an inferior class was absolutely impossible: as well might a vegetable become a man.
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.
This institution is essentially barbarous, and therefore appears in barbarous ages, or in countries not yet relieved from the early incubus.
But just in proportion to the triumph of Equality does Caste disappear.
The French Revolution did much to shake this irrational system; yet in many parts of Europe, down to this day, the son emancipates himself with difficulty from the class in which he is born.
It is little that I can do; but, taking counsel of my desires, I am not without hope of contributing something to that just judgment which shall blast the effrontery of Caste as doubly offensive, not only to the idea of a Republic, but to…
Looking into his soul, he will there find the great irreversible Law of Right, universal for the nation as for himself, commanding to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and under the safeguard of this universal law I now…
There it stands in colossal form with constant lesson of Equal Rights for All, while under its inspiration government proceeds according to laws which cannot be disobeyed with impunity, and Providence is behind to sustain the righteous…
Above the State rises the image of Justice, lofty, blindfold, with balance in hand.
Nor do I see reason to doubt, that, in the evolution of events, the time is at hand when government will be subordinated to unquestionable truth, making diversity of opinion as impossible in this lofty science as it is now impossible in…
From a succession of particulars the general rule is deduced; and this is as true of government as of chemistry or astronomy.
As a science, it is determined by knowledge, like any other science, aided by that universal handmaid, the philosophy of induction.
Though in many respects still an Art only, it is fast becoming a Science founded on principles and laws from which there can be no just departure.
Thus far government has been at best an Art, like alchemy or astrology, where ministers exercised a subtle power, or speculators tried imaginative experiments, seeking some philosopher’s-stone at the expense of the people.
Men must know before they can act wisely; and this simple rule is applicable alike to individuals and communities.
Politicians like Charles Sumner
