Gandhi defended varnashrama as wholesome and opposed intermarriage until the mid-1920s

Evidence

Gandhi here is restating his views on the benefits of varnashrama explicated by him in one of his earlier writings (Young India, 13 August 1925; CWMG 32, 286), in which he says: “Varnashrama, in my opinion, was not conceived in any narrow spirit. On the contrary, it gave the labourer, the Shudra, the same status as the thinker, the Brahmin.” Even earlier, he wrote (Young India, 25 February 1920; CWMG 19, 417): “I am one of those who do not consider caste to be a harmful institution. In its origin, caste was a wholesome custom and promoted national well-being. In my opinion, the idea that inter-dining or intermarrying is necessary for national growth, is a superstition borrowed from the West.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1220

Categorization

• DEFINE: Quotes the load-bearing texts that define Gandhi’s varnashrama position, which Ambedkar’s AoC directly attacks.
• XREF: Shows precisely the position Ambedkar’s entire anticaste argument is aimed at; the disagreement between Ambedkar and Gandhi was not over strategy but over whether varna itself was harmful.