Arya Samajists proposed four value-based classes instead of four thousand castes

Evidence

But there is a set of reformers who hold out a different ideal. They go by the name of the Arya Samajists, and their ideal of social organisation is what is called chaturvarnya, or the division of society into four classes instead of the four thousand castes that we have in India. To make it more attractive and to disarm opposition, the protagonists of chaturvarnya take great care to point out that their chaturvarnya is based not on birth but on guna (worth). At the outset, I must confess that notwithstanding the worth-basis of this chaturvarnya, it is an ideal to which I cannot reconcile myself. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 910

Categorization

• XREF: This sets up the next chapters where Ambedkar dismantles chaturvarnya; ties directly to the reader’s aim of following how caste-annihilation thought was built and contested in India. — connects to: Ambedkar proposed replacing caste with liberty, equality, and fraternity; Ambedkar declared the four-caste system itself must be rooted out
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 910

Broader Connections

• Ambedkar declared the four-caste system itself must be rooted out #expands (0.60)
• Ambedkar proposed replacing caste with liberty, equality, and fraternity #expands (0.55)