Chaturvarnya fails because individuals cannot be pigeonholed into four classes.

Evidence

The criticism to which Plato’s Republic is subject is also the criticism which must apply to the system of chaturvarnya, in so far as it proceeds upon the possibility of an accurate classification of men into four distinct classes. The chief criticism against Plato is that his idea of lumping individuals into a few sharply marked-off classes is a very superficial view of man and his powers. Plato had no perception of the uniqueness of every individual, of his incommensurability with others, of each individual as forming a class of his own. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 917

Categorization

• XREF: The Plato parallel is a striking cross-cultural structural argument — worth connecting to the reader’s interest in how hierarchical stratification systems get theorized.