Guna-karma theory underwrites reformers’ defense of varnashrama without birth-based caste.

Evidence

This shloka makes the case that the varna attribute is determined by worth (guna) and action (karma) and not by birth as purported by the Rig Veda (hymns 11–12, Sukta 90, Book 10) and subsequently by Manu and other smritis. The Arya Samaj, and figures like Gandhi and Aurobindo, who sought to defend varnashrama but denounce jati, cited the guna–karma theory to say that caste need not be birth-based. Contrast this with how Ambedkar examines the origin and genesis of caste, and what he terms the System of Castes in his 1916 essay “Castes in India” (in Rege 2013). — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1182

Categorization

• XREF: This is the ideological hinge of the Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on caste: the interpretive battle over whether scripture mandates birth-based varna.