Caste apologists presented the gotra and caste system as ancient eugenic engineering.
Evidence
For a good example of the use of eugenics to defend caste, see T.N. Roy (1927, 67–72), who begins with this assertion: “The greatest eugenic movement that the world has as yet witnessed originated in India. It was the institution of the caste system.” Arguing that “the earliest eugenic movement began with the institution of what is known as Gotra”, Roy blames the “downfall of Hinduism” on not observing caste distinctions well enough. “The Brahmin was originally created by eugenic selection,” he argues, and gives the finest examples of intellect in Bengal as being all Brahmin men—Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1071
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SEED: The striking claim that caste was ‘the greatest eugenic movement’ inverts modern genetics into a defense of hierarchy — a strong essay angle on how pseudoscience launders hierarchy.
- SHARE: For someone into the history of eugenics or Indian social reform: T.N. Roy explicitly calling the gotra system humanity’s ‘earliest eugenic movement’.
Related
- Caste apologists invoked eugenics to present endogamy as world-leading racial improvement (similarity 0.92)
- Eugenics gained popularity in India by justifying caste endogamy as racial purity. (similarity 0.80)
- Eugenics gained Indian popularity as a pseudo-scientific explanation for Hindu decline under colonial rule (similarity 0.78)
- Caste cannot claim a eugenic origin because heredity laws were unknown to its founders (similarity 0.78)
- Gandhi defended caste as superior to class on grounds of blood and heredity (similarity 0.78)