'Disapproval' of Caste system by Al Beruni

One of the principles of propaganda is to let someone else speak what the propagandist wants, especially if it is unpalatable.

Welcome to page no. 120 of NCERT book of History for class 12. The book is titled 'Themes in Indian History'.  The paragraph is titled 'Al - Biruni's description of the caste system'.

taken from website of NCERT

Whether Al Beruni was as big a despot as most of the Islamic theologians or he had to show his preference for Islam to survive the terrorists (remember Taslima Nasreen) of the creed, we will never know. But what we can do is check out what he said about 'Caste' system.

Here is an extract from his book

All other men except the Chandala (चाण्डाल ), as far as they are not Hindus, are called mleccha (म्लेच्छ ), i.e. unclean, all those who kill men and slaughter animals and eat the flesh of cows.

Nothing surprising here as the aversion of सनातनी हिन्दू धर्म to flesh eating in general and murder of गोमाता  in particular is well known.

It is the very next paragraph of Al-Beruni that exposes the forked tongue of आस्तीन के साँप  (love this expression) at NCERT. Here it is:

All these things originate in the difference of the classes or castes, one set 0f people treating the others as fools. This apart, all men are equal to each other, as Vasudeva says regarding him who seeks salvation: 

 "In the judgment of the intelligent man, the Brahman and the Candala are equal, the friend and the foe, the faithful and the deceitful, nay, even the serpent and the weasel. If to the eyes of intelligence all thingsare equal, to ignorance they appear as separated and different."

Al - Beruni continues:

Vasudeva speaks to Arjuna : " If the civilisation of the world is that which is intended, and if the direction of it cannot proceed without our fighting for the purpose of suppressing evil, it is the duty of us who are the intelligent to act and to fight, not in order to bring to an end that which is deficient within us, but because it is necessary for the purpose of healing what is ill and banishing destructive elements. Then the ignorant imitate us in acting, as the children imitate their elders, without their knowing the real aim and purport of actions. For their nature has an aversion to intellectual methods, and they use force only in order to act in accordance with the influences of lust and passion on their senses. In all this, the intelligent and educated man is directly the contrary of them."

Page 138 of 'Al Beruni's India', Volume 2 by Dr. Edward C. Sachau, published by Trubner & company limited

The message of भगवद गीता given by वासुदेव कृष्ण is definitely not meant for those who are on the payrolls of Italian mafia.