Slavery in Ancient and Modern India
In 2016, a shocking 18.3 million people in India lived under conditions of modern slavery. [1] The 2021 estimate was 11 million. This shows a spectacular drop of 40%. Yet, to date, still millions of men, women and children are slaving in brick kilns of Punjab, behind spinning mills in Tamil Nadu, on farms in Odisha, and in quarries in Rajasthan. Children between 7 and 14, are being exploited in brothels and slate mines, forced to participate in hazardous medical tests and being abused for organ harvesting. There are endemic levels of debt-bondage and child labour, though India’s Constitution and the Bonded Labour Act prohibit these practices. We keep hearing horrific stories about tortured bonded farmhands or enslaved maid servants that end their live by suicide.[2] Almost all of these victims belong to the Scheduled Caste, formerly known as “untouchables” or “outcastes.”[3] These workers, their wife and children are forced to toil for 10 to 12 hours a day. The family head gets a shamefully meagre pay check for all the hard work put in by his family.[4] Contract-labourers have to pay back their travel costs to the boss that promised them to take them out of poverty. But these bosses pay them less than the legal minimum wage and also deduct an indecent sum for housing them in tiny derelict huts. Thus they will never be able to get rid of their debt. Thus they will stay in a position of bonded slavery for the rest of their life. The following words from a female brick kiln worker tell it all:
“… [M]y husband had been working in the kiln for 5 years but didn’t seem to be earning any money. In the kiln the work finishes only when it finishes; it is endless. We do not stop even if we are ill because we fear – what if our debt is increasing? So we don’t dare to stop. We are kept in the dark about how much we owe. Whenever we asked; the debt still was not paid.”[5]
Some people want to change this situation. One of them was Avijit Roy. This Bangladeshi-American anti-slavery activist was the son of a famous physics professor in Dhaka. He had a cushioned start in life, did well at school, and became an engineer. He chose to become a political activist, journalist and blogger. In 2001, he started an on-line discussion circle meant for secular humanists. This evolved in Muktomona, a website for free thinkers opposing arbitrary authority, religious dogma, and stifling traditions. They aim for a society based on compassion, humanism, equality, reason, and science.[6]
Avijit Roy stressed that India’s outcastes and untouchables are worse off than the enslaved Africans in colonized America.[7] He claimed that there is no other nation on earth that shows so much disrespect for one specific category of people. To date members of the scheduled still are being regarded as the lowest of the lowest. Many of them have to do menial jobs, such as cleaning other people’s dirt, including human faeces and other smelly jobs like preparing animal skins for the leather industry. People from higher castes will never do such jobs, though there has been at least one very renowned exception to this rule. In 1901, Mahatma Ghandi, returned from a long stint in South Africa where he had been campaigning against the racial discrimination of Asian-Africans. Back in India he became an assistant of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the Secretary of the Indian National Congress. The INC was founded in 1885 by an elite group of Indians that had received higher education in England. Most founders were reformists. They wanted the “Indianisation” of the administrative system by replacing British civil servants by well-educated Indians. A small group within the NIC wanted complete independence. Gokhale and Gandhi were moderates that wanted to achieve this goal in a constitutional and non-violent way. In England these INC-leaders had become pockmarked by western political ideas, such as liberalism, individual dignity, freedom of speech, secularism and social equality. However, when Ghandi arrived in Calcutta, he found that Hinduism’s cruellest prejudice against “untouchables” was still very much alive in the nation’s noblest institution. Ghandi, who always took a strong interest in health issues, was horrified by the filth and pollution on the Congress meeting grounds. Upper-caste volunteers refused to do some cleaning. To them, cleaning of tables. Floors and toilets was “scavenger’s work” that had to be done by “outcastes.” Gandhi shocked these spoiled and prejudiced youngsters, by cleaning his own latrine. Yet, the other latrines were left to fester and stink, turning into sources of contagious diseases.[8]
Upper caste people refuse to be near these outcastes, let alone touching them. They refuse to eat food touched by them. Some of them even reject food that is “touched” by their shadow. So, demanding respect and equal opportunities for this under class, like Avijit Roy did and Mahatma Gandhi had done more than a century before him, remains a risky act as long as droves of Hindu people think that the caste system is sacred. In India such actions trigger death threats and assassination attempts. As a result, several activist bloggers got killed.[9]
February 2015, against urgent advice of his best friends, Avijit Roy returned to Dhaka to attend the Ekushey Book Fair and to visit his aging mother too. February 26, two radicalized Moslems attacked him and his wife. He was killed. His wife, Bonya Ahmed, survived, despite some slashes with machetes on her left arm and shoulder, severing some fingers. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed responsibility. In 2018, to memorize his murder, the Freedom from Religion Foundation introduced the Avijit Roy Courage Award, to be presented to individuals that promote science, logic, and humanism despite death threads and other hurdles.[10]
To date, several Hindu scholars assert that there was no slavery in India before the invasion of Moslems in the 8th century.[11] To make their point they refer to Megasthenes, Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya, founder and first emperor of the Maurya Empire. He reigned from 320 BCE till 298 BCE. Megasthenes has written a book on Ancient India. It got lost. What remains are only a few short fragments and some lengthier quotations. He reported that there was no slavery in India comparable to the slavery in Athens.[12] Maurya Law ordained that no subject of Maurya“… shall under any circumstances be a slave.” Can we trust the ambassador? It is no secret that traditional practices often go on despite the introduction of new laws that forbids them. Should we trust a man who reported that there were unicorns in India: horse sized animals with the head of a deer and the tail of a swine? That there were ants as big as foxes, digging holes like moles, producing heaps of earth in which one could find nuggets of gold?[13] Surely, Megasthenes never observed unicorns in the flesh. But he might have seen several depictions of unicorns. Archaeologists have dug up hundreds of ancient seals and pendants with inscriptions and images of one-horned bulls or antelopes. Similar images have been found in Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. Clearly, three, four or five thousand years ago countless people believed in unicorns, just like Ancient Greeks believed in divine horses with a male torso. [14]
Nowadays Wikipedia and The Encyclopedia Britannica offer better information about slavery in the Ancient world, information that is checked and double-checked by specialists. Now everybody can read that merchants from Gujarat imported slaves from Africa, long before the first arrival of Moslems.[15] Now, we know that Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greek were busy trading slaves with India long ago. Roman historian Pliny the Elder refers to a logbook on navigation: “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.” About 60 AD its author advised traders to buy beautiful girls for concubinage, for there always is a strong demand for this kind of sex-slavery.[16]
Also there is evidence of enslavement dating further back in time, long before India became present-day India. Around 1600 BCE, small bands of adventurous people from the Pontiac-Caspian steppe crossed an unforgiving mountain range. The change of climate compelled them move to regions with a milder climate and greener pastures, suitable for their semi-nomadic way of life. These Aryans conquered many indigenous tribes, killing and enslaved many of their victims. A large part of the unforgiving mountain range that these steppe people crossed nowadays is known as “The Hindu Kush.” More than thousand years ago Moslems from Arabia and Turkey crossed these mountains too. They too defeated, subjugated and enslaved many groups of indigenous people. Moslem traders forced countless enslaved Hindus – men, women and children – to cross these risky mountain passes on their way to slave markets in Turkistan.[17] En route many died of exhaustion, hunger, thirst or a fatal fall. That’s why this range got named the Hindu Kush, meaning Hindu slayer.[18]
We return to the topic of the Aryan migration to India. It still is a very contentious topic. Long before they migrated to Ancient Iran and India, their ancestors had domesticated wild Eurasian steppe horses and turned these sturdy animals into obedient beasts of burden.[19] They had learned to ride these muscular horses while holding a sword, bow or spear, always ready to kill any deer, wolf or human adversary.[20] Archaeologists have dug up sacrificially buried chariots and paired horse-teams dating from before 2000 BC.[21] Their descendants, the mounted Aryan warriors, conquered less well-equipped tribes rather easily. Through the years, they subjugated ever more tribes, until they ruled over a huge territory that covers present-day India, Iran, Bengal and Pakistan. Long series of victories gave them the idea that they were invincible. Evidently, Indra, their supreme God, must have blessed them with special talents and qualities. Contents of the Avesta, the holy book of the Zoroastrians, show that these Aryans viewed themselves as members of a noble elite of pure, genuine, honourable, free, brave, worthy and high-minded people.[22] This view implies that other human beings are less noble, less pure, less worthy, giving Aryans a Divine or Natural right to suppress and enslave all non-Aryans.
To date, the Aryan footprint can be found in the DNA of millions of people in India and, most prominently, in Hindu religion and culture. Records of their arrival can be found in the oldest layers of the Vedas.[23] These Sanskrit texts reveal that Aryans originated from the wide steppes north of the Black Sea. Four centuries earlier, about 2000 BCE, other bands of Aryans had arrived at the Iranian plateau and forced the Elamites to yield or seek refuge elsewhere.[24] Sanskrit and the language of the Avesta show some remarkable correspondences.[25] In Sanskrit, the Hindu Kush mountain range is called upariśaina. The Avestan name is upāirisaēna, meaning covered with juniper.’ Their linguistic heritage can be found in many other languages too. The English word “juniper” and the Dutch words like “jeneverbes” clearly show that the Indo European languages have Eurasian roots that date from over 4000 years ago.[26]
Vedic texts present indigenous people as Dasa or Dāsa. Recent interpretations of these words mean “disorder, chaos, dark side of human nature”. There opposites are “order, purity, goodness and light.” Depending on the context linguists have proposed other meanings, such as servant or slave, or even devoted slave of a foreign God or demon.[27] For Aryans dasa also meant barbarian or enemy. In their world it was normal to kill or enslave captured enemies. Aryans disrespected the Dāsa for the latter could not understand them. (Of course, the Aryans could not understand the Dāsa.) Wrongly, the Aryans concluded that these darker skinned people lacked the talent to learn and understand the Aryan language and that God had deprived them of the talent to speak a proper language. Evidently, the Dasa must have angered Indra in the past. And now, to make matters worse, they refused to give offerings to the supreme Aryan God; all the more reason to enslave them. In ancient and not so ancient times many peoples have drawn the same absurd conclusion. The Greek called the people from North-West Africa Barbarians (Berber).[28]
The Vedas contain the core elements of the original Aryan belief. They are filled with detailed prescriptions for rituals and desired patterns of behaviour. Priests used specific memorization techniques, using familiar word patterns, rhymes and rhythms to learn these sacred verses by heart. Reciting them time and again, they were handed over to future generations. Thus these sacred verses did not get lost, but were kept intact and authentic. The entire body of Vedic literature is considered Shruti, meaning what avatars have heard during periods of meditation.[29] In ancient times, repeatedly listening to the same sacred, heroic stories and cautioning advices was a very important pastime. It cemented communities.
For centuries the Aryans held on to their own folklore, language and religion. Foreign oppressors refrain from adopting the language or culture of their victims. However, as time goes bye, frequent inter-ethnic contact will lead to incorporation of a substantial number of words, expressions, customs and cultural patterns. On the other hand, the subjugated people that want to go ahead in their new social situation will shift towards the language and culture of their new rulers. For them this language shift is a sine qua non.
Via the expansion of the Aryan “Empire” and the gradual adaptation, adoption and diffusion of core elements their religious ideas have been spread over the South-Asian subcontinent.[30] At first the names of the Aryan Gods might have sounded strange to indigenous people, but their existence and specialist functions as gods of the sun, the moon, storm, wind and fire, rain and thunder already were quite familiar. This helped the conversion process. Since then the Hindu have been worshipping these gods. However, nowadays in the heydays of worshipping authentic ethnicity and post-colonialism, nationalistic Hindus abhor the idea that the fundament of their sacred religion has been introduced by alien intruders. They see it as their mission to demonstrate that the source of their religion has to be located inside Ancient India.[31] They searched and searched. Finally they found an answer that suited them better. To them, the pure and non-colonial source of their ethnic identity and religion can be found in the Indus Valley Culture (IVC).
In 1921, archaeologists identified the remnants of ancient houses, workshops and storage rooms in Harappa, Punjab region, now considered the most ancient Indian urban culture. The following year, remnants of Mohenjo-daro, another ancient city, were found in Sindh, near the Indus River. Also these urban remains were being identified as part of the IVC. Long ago, these cities must have flourished. They counted between 20,000 and 60,000 people. Later, many more small cities and villages have been found. Now we know that the Indus Valley Civilization stretched from Balochistan in the west to Uttar-Pradesh in the east. It covered an area wider than Mesopotamia and Egypt, the two other great ancient river-delta civilizations.[32] The IVC population grew to about 5 million people. Nowadays the population of India is 300 times larger than five thousand years ago.
Many millennia ago the whole wide world was almost devoid of humans. For every family, there was plenty of space to build a stand alone house. Yet Archaeologists found ruins of clustered non-residential buildings, non-detached brick houses, and elaborate drainage and water supply systems showing clear evidence of well-developed urban planning, and a thorough knowledge of technological construction, handicraft and metallurgy.[33] Near these urban sites they also found long rows of eroded small rooms near Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. The archaeologists think that these must be remnants of slave quarters.
The majority of the Indus Valley people were farmers. They domesticated dogs and cats, humped and shorthorn cattle, and maybe also the Asian Elephant. The rich produce of these farmers created a lot of wealth. Nice profits were made from trading surplus food, ivory, shell inlays and ornaments, beads of gemstone and soapstone and perhaps also cotton goods, transported via ancient ports like Lothal.[34] Local merchants also traded enslaved people with Mesopotamia.[35]
The IVC or the Harappan Culture lasted from about 3300 BCE till 1300 BCE.[36] This culture bloomed during the Bronze Age. This new age witnessed a spectacular leap forward in technology. It exchanged stone tools and weapons for far more effective ones made from a strong alloy of yellow copper (messing) and tin. Despite this technological progress the IVC began to weaken and fall apart. Historians have attributed this decline to a long period of draught, an increase in tribal wars and/or a series of fatal epidemics in urban centres, which turned them into ghost towns; left to the slow but persistent negative forces of nature.
What more do we know of the Indus Valley Culture? Archaeologists have found more than 3,000 soap stone seals with pictographic inscriptions. Similar images have been found on copper and bronze plates, tools and weapons. Nonetheless, we still know very little of IVC beliefs, their laws and values. No one has decoded their language yet, despite career long efforts of renowned specialists. Linguists assume that the original Indus Valley tongue is the arch-source of several Dravidian languages, presently spoken by 250 million people in Sri Lanka, South-India, and Pakistan.[37] Linguist Ivratham Mahadeva has produced a small dictionary with decipherments of this script. He assumes, not surprisingly, that the sketchy outlines of a jar, a lance and a man are simple depictions of a jar, a lance and a man or a servant. He further suggests that simplified depictions of a jar-bearer and a lance-bearer represent a priest and a military officer. A sketchy harrow is supposed to represent a farmer, tiller or tenant.[38] Thus the first steps on the road to complete decoding have been set. So far, linguists only have detected a few dozen Proto-Dravidian loanwords in the Rig-Veda.[39]
To date, no IVC or Harappan text has been found about slavery. There is one Mohenjo-Daro seal that depicts a deity standing in a pipal tree. In front of him is a kneeling man with a horned headdress. Most probably he is a high-priest. On a stool or low table lies a head. We also see a giant horned ram, plus seven human spectators.[40] Some historians think it might be the head of a slave, to be executed for a heinous crime or to be sacrificed to the God in the fig tree. I see a similarity with the Hebrew, Christian and Muslim story in which God, cruelly demands Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son, to check whether his trust in God had no limits.[41] At the very moment that the extremely devout and obedient Abraham is going to cut his son’s throat, God shouts stop! The Lord tells him to sacrifice a wild ram that is entangled in the undergrowth nearby. I my view, this particular Mohenjo-Daro seal does not prove that there was slavery in ancient India. Yet, I am convinced that slavery existed among the Indus Valley people, for the Harappan people have been doing business with the Mesopotamians and Egyptians. And there slavery was quite common.
From where did the IVC people originate? According to the best scientists in the field we all originate from Africa. About 60,000 years ago the earliest ancestors of the Indus Valley people and that of the Eurasian steppe settled in the Middle East, in Mesopotamia. Others moved on, further to the north or the west, deeper into Asia and Europe. About 10,000 years ago, after the agricultural revolution in Mesopotamia, many of their descendants moved further east to the South-Asian Subcontinent. They settled and built simple huts, houses and stables, wherever they discovered enough fertile fields to herd their cattle and could farm in peace without the need to move on.[42] Some groups moved further northwards where sunshine was far less frequent and vigorous. Through the ages, their skins mutated to a lighter hue. A few millennia later, lighter tanned Eurasians turned southward again. Whenever the “Nordic Aryans” met the darker hued Indus Valley people, they conquered them, stole their valuables, gold and other gems. They raided their houses, crushed their temples, fortresses and defence walls and killed everyone who refused to obey. The intruders forced the subjugated wives and daughters to satisfy their sexual needs and compelled numerous victims to do all kinds of slave labour. Those that opted to be quite subservient and amenable to the Aryan way of life were treated much better.[43] It did not take long before many stable inter-ethnic family emerged.
Specialists have studied Sanskrit, the language of the Veda. “Veda” means knowledge or wisdom. It stems from the proto-Indo-European root “vid.” This root-word refers to phenomena that people have seen, to events or things that have been witnessed by other people too. Variants of this word can be found in many European languages: Dutch weten, English wit and witty, German wissen, Norse and Old-English witan. It is also linked to the Latin word video, meaning: I see. Linguists have made a reconstruction of the Veda language and called it Proto-Sanskrit, which they as the arch ancestor of a broad Indo-European language family. Classical Greek, Latin, Old-Iranian belong to this ancestral family. Also DNA-research shows that these mounted Aryans from the North-Western steppe.[44] They left a clear genetic imprint on the people of India. Other DNA-studies show that indigenous descendants of the Indus Valley have a non-Aryan origin.[45]
Old Veda texts offer solid proof for the existence and legitimation of slavery in Ancient India during and after Aryan intrusion. In this respect also belief in reincarnation is important. Being a reincarnation of a former human determines your karma or fate. Being a slave or member of a lower caste or under class is interpreted as retribution for evil deeds committed in an earlier life.[46] If reincarnation has led you in a bad situation, your best option is to live as an honest, hard working person. You should always show good intentions and do positive things, so that next time your soul will be reincarnated in a person that will enjoy better things in life.
In Indian mythology the first man ever was Svayambhuva Manu. He is the Hindu counterpart of Adam, the first man according to the Torah, Bible and Ku’ran. The words man, human and woman are clear descendants of the Sanskrit word Manu. In Sanskrit “man” also means “to think.” Aeons ago humans always made a clear distinction between beings that could act and think like them and those that could not. Thus they made a sharp distinction between humans and animals. Manu is viewed as the legendary author of the Manus-Smriti, the first book of “Indian” laws. Smriti refers to that what is remembered and written down by revered authors. Brahma, the great Hindu God, had conveyed these laws to Manu.[47] Of course, secular scholars disagree. They assert that Manu was a sage and a seer who based his code on the accumulated wisdom and legal practices of prehistoric India and adjacent civilizations.[48]
The most striking feature of Manu’s code is its strong focus on inequality, highlighting matters of socio-religious stratification (varnas, social classes or castes), pollution, ritual, penance.[49] Brahma (Indra), the most magnificent Hindu God, created four strictly separated and hereditary varnas or castes:[50] from his mouth (the Brahmans), from his hands (the Kshatriyas), from his thighs (the Vaishyas) and from his feet (the Shudra). The Brahmans are believed to be almost godlike. They have the highest social status. Secular scholars are convinced that the incoming Aryans suppressed the indigenous denizens of Indus Valley and put them in the lowest position, the caste of the Shudra.[51]
All castes are profiled for specific duties, positions and functions. Only Brahmins may teach sacred Vedic texts and perform religious ceremonies. Also Brahmin women have access to all branches of sacred learning. All other castes are subordinated to the Brahmins. The Kshatriyas (Rajanya or Rajputs) form the second caste. Kshatriya males are rulers, administrators or military officers. Their role is to protect citizens. They are allowed to study holy texts, but forbidden to teach them. The main task of the Vaishyas, the third caste, is taking care of cattle and trading. In other words: Vaishyas are farmers and merchants. The fourth caste, the Shudra, provides for artisans, manual workers and house servants. Their low status is comparable to that of serfs or slaves.[52] Shudra people must be subservient to all persons of the three higher castes. They are not allowed to study the Veda or to criticize people from higher cases.
People who violate Manu’s rules are forever banned from their caste. This created an underclass of “fallen” people, “outcastes” or “untouchables”. These disrespected men and women are compelled to do all the dirty work: cleaning toilets and pigsties or skinning smelly dead animals for the production of leather. This strong Hindu belief in the divine origin of the Indian caste system has laid the foundation for a blatant form of discrimination, a fixed division of labour and segregated housing.[53]
Also there is a strong divide between the sexes. Women ought to serve their husbands like semi-gods, even if he is stupid and lazy; even if he is adulterous, criminal or can’t support his family. During their entire life Hindu women are submissive to a male person; first to their father, then to their husband, and, as a widow, to their eldest son.[54] In modern times, there are countless exceptions to this rule, though it could be risky to be a famous exception to the rule. Indira Ghandi (née Nehru) became India’s prime minister in 1966 and stayed in office until 1977. Three years later she became PM again. The second stint in office lasted until her assassination on the 31st of October 1984. That day two Sikh body guards killed her from close-by. Thirty bullets entered her body.[55]
Manusmriti law compels all men to marry women from their own caste. If someone fancies a lovely woman from a lower caste, she can only become his second, third or fourth wife. Marrying her is definitely not allowed if she is an outcaste or Dalit. (Outcastes prefer to call themselves Dalits.) Bedding an “untouchable” wife will make the man “untouchable” too. The couple will be expelled from their village, compelled to live on burial grounds or rubbish dumps. Presently, many Dalits work as debt-slaves. Long ago their parents, grandparents, great-parents or even earlier generations of ancestors had indebted themselves for an expensive dowry, wedding party or cremation. In the course of time, these debts have risen to such high levels that their uneducated descendants don’t have the slightest idea about its real size. Devious masters keep telling them that the debt is too huge to be settled. Thus they remain enslaved forever.
Penalties depend on the caste of the victim as well as on the caste of the offender. Brahmans committing a crime receive very little punishment or no punishment at all. When Brahmins are the victim of a crime the non-Brahman offender will receive the highest possible sanction. Death penalties will always be executed, though not in case of convicted Brahmans. If a male Brahman has committed a heinous crime, his execution is symbolic. Only his hair will be shaven off. To put more shame upon him, he will be paraded on a donkey and branded with a mark of the crime he committed.[56]
No doubt slavery existed in Ancient India, thousands of years ago. The following quotation is taken from the Rig-Veda:
“You gave me 100 donkeys, 100 sheep that render wool and 100 slaves”[57]
Also the Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic, seven times bigger than the epic books of Homer, refers to slavery more than once, but there is no verse in which slavery is condemned. Therefore, we may safely assume that slavery was legal and widely accepted in the age of The Mahabharata.[58] Some see the Mahabharata as the fifth Veda. Its epic content had been kept alive orally for hundreds of generations. It was written down about 400 BCE. The Mahabharata contains over 100,000 verses and describes and glorifies the prolonged power struggle between two fraternal dynasties. The Mahabharata sheds a lot of light on social and political life in Ancient India, though some of the mentioned numbers appear to be highly inflated. For instance, the Mahabharata conveys that 88,000 graduates once received a bonus of 30 slaves each.[59] To make this happen one needs a reservoir of more than two and a half million slaves. Either the number of graduates must be exaggerated, or the number of slaves per graduate. Maybe both numbers are exaggerated.[60]
Often, many female servants were included in part dowries given to bridegrooms. When Arjuna, the son of Indra, married Lord Krishna’s half-sister Subhadra Krishna gave a very big and precious dowry:
“… One thousand fair complexioned, charming damsels with lustrous hair and adorned with gold and who were good at serving.”[61]
Chapter 13 of Manu’s Code outlines the treatment of slaves and bonded labourers. It forbids selling Aryans, but if a poor Aryan was unable to pay fines or taxes, his life could be mortgaged. His kinsmen were obliged to redeem him as soon as possible. He would regain his full Aryan-hood after the debt was fully paid back. Chapter 13 states that if Shudra people are being sold, their sellers will be fined. At first sight it looks positive to read that selling people is punishable. Actually, it means that issuing this law was urgent, because selling people into slavery happened far too often. Many impoverished people did sell some of their children. Selling or mortgaging one Brahman was punished with a fine of 48 panas. Selling a Kshatriya, a Vaisya or a Shudra was to be fined with 36, 24, and 12 panas respectively. Also Mlecchas (foreigners or barbarians) may sell or mortgage their offspring. Masters who deceived their slaves or sexually abused servants and slaves were being fined. When a master fathered a child with an enslaved woman, she and her child must be set free. Though, if the mother is unable to take care of herself and the baby, she will remain in bondage. Instead, one of her enslaved brothers or sisters must be freed.[62]
During a period of three millenniums state power and religious culture treated enslaved men, women and children unfairly. Yet Priests and Princes told to them to accept their life in humble servitude and humiliating discrimination. Moreover, philosophers and theologians produced some legitimation by teaching and preaching them that this was their karma.[63] For ages and ages, Hindu masters have seen slaves as personal property, as objects that one could possess, exploit, sell, rape or even kill if one wished to do so, without any feeling of remorse.[64]
Ancient Indian mythology placed slaves in the same category as asses and sheep.[65] Like most other ancient cultures, also ancient Hindu culture condoned the rape of the women and teenage girls of conquered tribes or nations. They simply were seen as spoils of war, to be enjoyed, used or abused. In some Hindu scriptures slaves are described as “blacks”, as “non-humans” or even, when they refer to female slaves, as “black vaginas”. Devout Hindus truly believe that Indra, their King of Heaven, created the sharp distinction between unworthy Dalits and noble and talented Aryans.[66] Dalits or Shudra were not supposed to socialize in other ways than by listening to and executing the orders of their masters. Close contact was tabooed. However, the Rig-Veda offers several examples of Kings and Princes who had their way with enslaved girls and women.[67] However, the Bhagavad-Gita states that lust is the biggest enemy of men and women. Verses 3:37-3:43 strongly commend one to conquer it before it destroys you. Everyday reality shows that the drive to satisfy one’s carnal lust is stronger than the fear of becoming some type of low-life in one’s next reincarnation.
Through the ages the caste system got more rigid. Long ago dining with people from a lower caste was not prohibited, but by the end of the nineteenth century this had become unthinkable.[68] By then it had become impossible to rise to a higher caste or to carry out functions assigned to another caste. Transgressors risked confiscation of their possessions and being expelled from their caste, district or country, in other words to become “outcastes”. The caste hierarchy did become so strict and compelling that even old and wise Kshatriyas had to show respect for each young and uneducated Brahman kid as if this kid was their father. To date the discriminatory spirit of Manu still haunts large parts of India and the Indian Diaspora. There is evidence of caste issues in Britain between London bus drivers of Indian extraction.[69]
Besides Hinduism there also is Buddhism. Buddhism emerged and expanded during the rule of Ashoka the Great (268 – 232 BCE).[70] Emperor Ashoka enlarged his territory until it stretched all over India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. His limitless desire for more power, more status, and a greater empire, caused countless deaths. One day, shocked by view of hundreds of casualties on the battlefield, he vowed never to make war again. He converted to the teachings of Siddharta Gautama Buddha, who propagated to search for a balance between self-indulgence and asceticism.
Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born around 500 BCE, destined to become the next king. He was raised and educated in a luxurious palace, sheltered from life’s harsh realties, kept away from the suffering masses. Raised as a Brahmin he always held on to core elements of Hindu thinking. Aged 29, married and father of a son, he fled from his father’s palace, forsaking his life of luxury. Outside the royal palace and without the help of scores of servants, he learned that life was hard, full of misery and suffering. He searched for relief in meditation and fasting. This did not lead to the elevated state of mind he yearned for. He concluded that it was better to follow the Middle Road between extremes and felt that he must teach his revelations to a wider audience. Soon his followers began to call him Buddha or The Awakened One. He rejected the sacrificial killing of animals and denounced the rigid system that privileged the higher castes and locked members of the lower castes in their low status and social position for ever. Buddha taught that anyone who lives according to his teachings could reach eternal salvation. These words attracted people from the lower castes, in particular the upcoming category of merchants.
In Buddhists texts, written in Pali language, Amaya-dasa and Kila-dasa have been translated as slave by birth and slave by purchase. Buddha rejected trading humans. He did not allow slaves to be come priests or monks. Yet Buddhist monasteries employed many Dasa slaves for all kinds of daily chores. It was Ashoka the Great who banned slave trading and commanded that all slaves should be treated decently.[71] Yet, more than thousand years later, Buddhist states codified slavery, combining local practices with elements from the Manusmriti.[72] Wang Mand, the Buddhist Emperor of China, outlawed the slave trade in the 9th century.[73] Nonetheless, slavery popped up again and again and the Buddhist belief in karma and reincarnation got amended to justify slavery.
The next great historical period of India, the Gupta period or India’s Golden Age, lasted from 320 CE and till 600 CE. It was a time of peace, economic growth and great leaps forward in astronomy, physics and mathematics.[74] But for women it was a time of regression. No longer were they allowed to marry the man of their choice. No longer could they own property. Widows were forbidden to remarry. Instead the abject institution of sati or suttee emerged. Under great cultural pressure Brahmin and Rajput widows felt impelled to place themselves ‘voluntary’ on the top of the pyre to be burnt together with the corpse of their deceased husband.[75] Officially, the practice is forbidden since 1829, but sporadically it still happened in remote regions by the end of the 20th century.[76]
India in medieval and modern times
Indians of all faiths traded in slaves till late in the colonial period. Portuguese buccaneers supplied Indian slaves to plantations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka until the late 1600s. Faith and old traditions legitimised ownership of humans. The British East India Company began trading slaves in the early 1620s. In 1774, British India made some political moves against trafficking, requiring legal deeds and prohibiting the sale of anyone not already enslaved. July 1789, Danish captain Peter Horrebow was arrested for smuggling 150 Bengalis. Seven weeks later, Charles Cornwallis, Commander of British India and Governor of the Bengal Presidency, issued a proclamation in which he banned the export of slaves because this was in violation to the Laws and Ordinances of this Country and the dictates of Humanity.[77] He helped to improve the Indian judicial and administrative system. This resulted in the so-called Code of Cornwallis. He had a benevolent and somewhat paternalistic attitude towards the lower classes and outlawed child slavery.[78] On the other hand, he positioned the British as an extra layer on top of the complex pyramid of castes, sub-castes and social classes. Like most European colonizers of his day and age, he believed that well-bred European gentlemen were superior to others, including children from ethnically mixed couples. In 1791, he issued an order that:
“No person, the son of a native Indian, shall henceforward be appointed … in the Civil, Military or Marine Service of the [British East India] Company.”[79]
Cornwallis may be credited for outlawing child-slavery, but British India had to wait till the Indian Slavery Act of 1843 prohibited East India Company employees to own slaves, a few years after the United Kingdom abolished slavery across its American territories. The practice of exporting Indians as indentured labourers to British colonies in America continued and even expanded.[80] As mentioned before, the official abolition of slavery did not free the majority of the outcastes and the Shudra. Countless members of The Scheduled Classes keep experiencing lifelong humiliation and exploitation.
For long, outcastes did not have the slightest chance of becoming free or rising to higher offices. Things changed under the leadership of Ghandi. Mahatma Ghandi was born in 1869 and raised in a Hindu family that belonged to the second highest caste, the Kshatriyas. His mother was a very devout worshipper of God Vishnu. At home great value was attached to non-violence, vegetarianism and fasting. Ghandi was pushed to study law in London. This was seen as crucial for a career in governmental offices. Young Mohandis was eager to explore the world. At the request of his beloved mother, he vowed that he would never touch wine or meat in London, though he had secretly been taking part in meat feasts with his friend Mehtab before he went to London. He had to travel to Bombay first before he could embark on a P&O steamer heading to England. September 29, 1988, three days before his nineteenth birthday, he landed in Plymouth. He arrived alone, without his young wife Kasturba and his son.
According to local custom, the marriage with Kasturba had been arranged, when Gandhi was thirteen years of age. In London, Gandhi never told his fellow students that he was married and father of a son. In this big western metropole, one of his biggest problems was finding suitable food. Except for the filling breakfast oatmeal, he “starved” the rest of the day, until he found a vegetarian restaurant. There he met members of The Vegetarian Society.[81] He got befriended with Dr. Josiah Oldfield, editor of The Vegetarian. Oldfield tried to convert him to the Anglican faith, urging him to read the Bible. Though Gandhi did not like the Old Testament, he was attracted to the New Testament, in particular the Sermon on the Mount. Thus he received Christian validation for his strong inclination to non-violent actions. He began to read the Bhagavad Gita (“Song of the Blessed One”) with other eyes, trying to reconcile its potent advocacy of violence with Jesus’ message to turn one’s other cheek to “whosoever shall smite thee.”[82]
The London climate forced him to buy British clothes, proper upper class clothes including a top hat. He took some private classes in French, elocution. He also tried dancing, but found it impossible “to keep time.” He enrolled at the most expensive Law School, the London’s Inner Temple. At this ancient college, the major prerequisite for becoming a barrister was “keeping terms” by paying for and attending at least six dinners per term in the Inn of Court for three years on a row. Students had to pass written tests in Roman Law, English Common Law, and Equity. Gandhi and other sons of wealthy Indian families eagerly filled their minds with concepts as the presumption of innocence and the freedom to express one’s ideas and opinions, whatever one’s colour, creed, class or caste might be. Unintentionally, the meetings in the Inn of Court helped to raise the nationalistic leadership of India.
Back in India Ghandi failed to establish a successful law firm. In 1893, aged 23, he was offered a well-paid job as a barrister to handle a big case for an Indian merchant in Durban, South Africa. He grabbed this opportunity. He was given a first-class ticket for himself and his family. He thought that handling this case would take less than a year. Again he decided to leave his wife Kasturba and his children behind with family in India again. However, his stay in South-Africa would take much longer and would change his personal and public life forever.
Life in Africa had a great impact on his personal and public life. Almost immediately after his arrival he underwent racial discrimination. In spite of being a member of India’s upper caste and his western upper class education, and ditto attire, and despite of having a first class ticket he was forced by a British PC to take a seat in the third class, for the simple reason that he was non-white. Being an Asian, he was labelled as “coloured”. In Africa he became leader of non-violent campaigns for civil rights for Asians. He returned to India in 1915. There he devoted a lot of time and energy in a non-violent campaign to improve the lives of untouchables. Gandhi called them Harijans, children of God. He attracted a growing flock of followers.
Mahatma Ghandi’s spectacular but non-violent actions helped to achieve that India became independent in 1948. His ideas for the new Constitution of 1949 provided a framework for the emancipation of outcastes and equality for all. Since then, the Harijans have become a politically active group. They chose to be called Dalits, meaning “those who have been broken.” This refers to the old days, in which they were compelled to drink and eat from damaged cups and dishes.
Though India’s new laws have made a significant difference, they did not eradicate the caste system. History shows that deep rooted social diseases like racism, ethnic discrimination and militant religious conservatism are hard to erase. And fighting them can be very dangerous as Ghandi would experience personally. 30th of January 1948, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, an ardent Hindu nationalist, fired three bullets in Ghandi’s chest and abdomen. He hated Ghandi for his position towards Muslims and his failure to prevent the partition of Pakistan from India. The murderer was sentenced to death. He and his collaborator were hanged on November 15, 1949.[83]
[1] Global Slavery Index: 2023. Walkfree.org. Retrieved: 12 February 2025
[2] Praveen Swami: Slaves of our History, May 17, 2019: /www.firstpost.com/politics/slaves-of-our-history-6649471.html. Retrieved: 29 March 2022
[3] Together these under-classes comprise about a quarter of the total population of India. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Wikipedia. Retrieved: 5 March 2025
[4] Slavery in India’s Brick Kilns & the Payment System. Anti-Slavery International: Volunteers for Social Justice. September 2017
[5] Idem: p. 5
[6] Atheist Avijit Roy “was not just a man … he was a movement.” The Guardian: 7 March 2015
[7] Rig-Veda (1/116) See: Slavery in Hinduism, mukto-mona.net; Retrieved: 18 Oct 2012
[8] Idem
[9] Avijit Roy: en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 10 March 2023; 13 March 2025
[10] Avijit Roy: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 8 March 2025
[11] Slavery system in Ancient India: indianexpresss.in/slavery-system-in-ancient-india-history-of-slavery-in-india/ Retrieved: 24-2-2022.
[12] Chandragupta Maurya: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 7-5-2025; Megasthenes: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 7-5-2025
[13] Singh Kalota, Narain. India as described by Megasthenes: Naurang Rai, Concept Publishing Company Delhi (1978). Google Books: Retrieved 25-2-2022; Megasthenes: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 1 April 2025
[14] Alfonso Colasuonno: Beyond Myth and Legend: tracing the footsteps of Unicorns in ancient Cultures. Updated 5 July 2023: Ancient Origins.net. Retrieved: 13 May 2025; Unicorn: Harappa.com Retrieved: 13 May 2025
[15] Gujarat is located on India’s north-western coast, on the Arabian Sea,
[16] Indian Ocean Slave Trade: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 23 May 2023
[17] Hindu Kush: Encyclopaedia Iranica online. Retrieved: 23 May 2025
[18] Hindu Kush: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 27 April 2025
[19] V.B. Kovalevskaya: Turning points in Horse Breeding in the Eurasian Steppe and the Near East. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia: 47 (1) 2019.
[20] Their war making became even more efficient after they had trained horses to tug spoke-wheeled chariots. As a result of these incursions many indigenous people migrated towards the south-east. That’s why we find predominantly “farmer genes” in the South and a majority of “steppe genes” in the North of India.
[21] The Andronovo Culture existed from 2000 BCE to 1450 BCE. They dwelled in a region that stretched from Siberia to the Eurasian Steppe Wikipedia. Retrieved: 21-5-2023
[22] Aryan: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 7-5-2025
[23] These Sanskrit texts were written down between 1400-1000 BCE, a few centuries after the first Aryans entered Ancient India. Vedic Period: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 18 March 2025
[24] This Sanskrit term ārya stems from the ethnic-cultural self-designation of the Iranians and the Indo-Aryans. History of Iran: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 22 April 2025
[25] The Avesta is the sacred text of the Zoroastrians. One could translate Avesta sentences word by word into correct Vedic. R. Schmitt. Aryans: Encyclopaedia Iranica. March 8, 2013. Iranicaonline.org. Retrieved: 16 May 2025; Avesta: Wikipedia.org; Retrieved: 16 May 2025.
[26] Of course, there are many more “European” words that show a legacy from Ancient Asia.
[27] In ancient Zoroastrians texts they are simply called non-Aryan. Anowar Hossain & Sadia Sultana: Unravelling the history of slavery in ancient Indian society; Humanities Journal; Research article: Published Online; September 20, 2024. Dasa: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 13-5-2025
[28] The Polish word for Germans is “Niemcy.” This means people who cannot speak intelligibly.
[29] Wendy Doniger: Veda (Hinduism); www.britannica.com. Retrieved: 10-3-2022
[30] This view is hotly disputed by Hindu nationalists; more on this later.
[31] Michel Danino: Flogging a Dead Horse: a Rejoinder to R. S. Sharma. www.academia.edu/29342477/Flogging_a_Dead_Horse_A_rejoinder_to_R_S_Sharma
[32] Indus Civilization: www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization. Retrieved: 26 March 2025
[33] Indus Valley Civilization: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 27 March 2025
[34] Lothal was deserted long ago, after the river that linked it to the Gulf of Cambay dried up. S. R. Rao: Shipping and Maritime Trade of the Indus People. Penn Museum: Expedition Magazine, Volume 7; Number 3. (Originally published in 1965) Retrieved: 28 March 2025
[35] Indian Ocean Slave Trade: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 23 May 2023
[36] It is also called the Harappan Culture, named after the site of the first and major archaeological findings in 1920. Indus Valley Civilisation: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 6 March 2025
[37] Some 70 Dravidian languages are spoken by about 225 million people in South Asia. The four major Dravidian languages are Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.
[38] Stephanie V.: Mahadevan’s Indus Script “Dictionary”. May 27th, 2014. Harappa.Com. Retrieved: 9 May 2025.
[39] Bhadriraja Krishnamurti: Dravidian Languages. Britannica.com. Retrieved: 2 May 2025.
[40] Harappa.com. Retrieved:
[41] Christians, Moslems and Jews believe that God is all-mighty and all-knowing. So why did God put Abraham to this horrific test? He knew that Abraham was prepared to follow his orders all the way?
[42] Of course, also the Aryans are distant descendants of people that had left Africa but their ancestors had migrated further north to the steppes of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Evolution has made their skins lighter, better suited for regions with less hours of sun.
[43] Ram Sharan Sharma: Sudras in Ancient India. Motilal Barnarsidass. Delhi, 1958 p. 11
[44] In the nineteenth century the Aryan Immigration Theory (AIT) got hijacked by White supremacists. In 1853, Arthur de Gobineau declared the Aryans as the white race, superior to all other races. He asserted that miscegenation would lead to degeneration and cultural decline. In 1861, Madison Grant published “The Passing of the Great Race”. He also warned against interbreeding between “Aryan” Americans of British and German origin, with “inferior races” such as Poles, Czechs and Italians. In 1925, Adolph Hitler fully embraced these views in his autobiography. He and his Nazis executed their plan to gas all Jews, Roma and Sinti living in the Third Reich. See: Arthur de Gobineau: Britannica: britannica.com; Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 18 March 2025
[45] Vasant Shinde et al. (2019): An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers. Cell 179 1-7. October 2019. Elsevier Inc. The Indus Valley settlers had a distinct genetic lineage. The Hindu: New Delhi: September 07, 2019. Updated: December 04, 2021 Retrieved: March 03, 2022
[46] William G. Clarence-Smith: Religion and the abolition of slavery – a comparative approach: London School of Economics; Conf 10 Clarence Smith. Retrieved: 17 March 2025
[47] Manu Mythology: Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved: 24 March 2025
[48] Presently, the majority of scholars agree that the text of the Manusmriti was composed sometime between 200 BCE and 200 CE. Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 8 March 2025. See also: Patrick Olivelle (2005), Manu’s Code of Law, Oxford University Press, pp. 41–49
[49] Manusmriti: Wikipedia. Retrieved: 21-5-2023
[50] The word casta was introduced by Portuguese merchants and colonists.
[51] Ram Sharan Sharma: Sudras in Ancient India. Motilal Barnarsidass. Delhi, 1958 p. 7
[52] Idem: p. 8
[53] This is a clear case of the Thomas Theorem introduced by William Isaac Thomas. “If men define things as real they will become real in their consequences.” William Isaac Thomas & Dorothy Swayne Thomas: The Unadjusted Girl. Boston: Brown 1923
[54] Lakshmi Chandrasekhar Subramanian (21 December 2020) Insight: Seven Women Luminars, Including Composers of the Vedas. mydigitalpublication.com: Retrieved: 19 May 2023
[55] Allegedly they acted in revenge for Indira Ghandi’s ruthless efforts to suppress Sikh separatists in Punjab.
[56] Verse 8.124: Corporal Punishment: wisdomlib.org; Retrieved: 19 May 2023
[57] Rig-Veda 8/56/3
[58] Was slavery allowed in Mahabharata times? Hinduism.stackexchange Retrieved: 29-3-2026
[59] The Mahabarata. Book 2: Sabha Parva. Sisupala-badhu Parva. Section XLVIII.
[60] The Arthashastra is a treatise on power, ascribed to Vishnu Gupta. He lived from 321-296 BCE. See: R. Shamasastry (1956); wisdomlib.org: Retrieved: 21-2-2022
[61] Mahabharata Aadi Parv, section 220
[62] Ch. 13: Rules regarding slaves and labourers. wisdomlib.org: Retrieved: 21-2-2022
[63] Sharad Patil: Problem of Slavery in Ancient India. Social Scientist: Vol. 1. NO. 11 pp. 32-18.
[64] Rig-Veda 1|19|8, 5|34|6, 6|25|2, 8|40|6
[65] Ram Sharan Shama: Sudras in Ancient India. Motilal Barnarsidass. Delhi, 1958 p. 23
[66] Rig-Veda 2|20|7, 10|22|3, 86|19; Atharva Veda 5|13|8
[67] Idem
[68] The same holds true for other rules. Long, long ago girls were married soon after they had attained maturity, but in the nineteenth century, they must be married before maturity, leading to numerous child marriages.[68]
[69] Hindus: Do We Have A Caste Problem? BBC One: 13 October 2019. Mobeen Azhar: Crossing Divide. BBC One: 13 June 2019.
[70] Ashoka means without pain or sorrow. The prefix a- or an- used in Indo-European languages often expresses negation or absence. See: apathy, anaesthetic, atom.
[71] William G. Clarence-Smith: Religion and the abolition of slavery – a comparative approach: London School of Economics; Conf 10 Clarence Smith. Retrieved: 17 March 2025
[72] Religion and slavery: wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 28 March 2022
[73] Faith in Action Ending Slavery – Free the Slaves. Freetheslaves.net/take action/faith-in-action-ending-slavery: Retrieved: 28 March 2022.
[75] When a woman’s husband has died, she should either practice ascetic celibacy or ascend (the funeral pyre) after him — Vishnu Smriti, 25.14[
[76] Sati (Practice): wikipedia.org: The oldest Vedic texts. Wendy Doniger: Suttee – Hindu Custom: www.brittannica.com. Retrieved: March 5, 2022
[77] Richard B. Allen: European Slave Trading in the Indian Ocean 1500 – 1850 (Also see
[78] Cornwallis in India: en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 31-03-2022
[79] Idem
[80] MINTZ, SIDNEY W. (1986) p.70. Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in Modern history. New York. Quoted by Richard B. Sheridan in CHANGING SUGAR TECHNOLOGY AND THE LABOUR NEXUS IN THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN, 1750-1900, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BARBADOS AND JAMAICA
[81] Stanley Wolpert: Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. p 20
[82] Idem, p 22-23
[83] Ghandi’s sons protested against their execution. Assassination of Mahatma Ghandi: en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 17-2-2022
[84] Ghandi’s sons protested against their execution. Assassination of Mahatma Ghandi: en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 17-2-2022