Hinduism Against Caste offers a bold reappraisal of one of the most enduring debates in the study of Hindu thought. Challenging the widespread assumption that Hinduism and caste are inseparable, Vidura Adluri argues that the tradition’s foundational texts contain a profound ethical critique of inherited privilege rather than a defence of social hierarchy.Focusing on the Mahabharata and its central yet often overlooked figure, Vidura, the book develops a close reading of the epic to show how questions of justice, moral responsibility, and human worth take precedence over birth-based status. Through sustained engagement with the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, and the wider Sanskrit intellectual tradition, Adluri contends that varna is understood primarily in ethical rather than hereditary terms and that the epic repeatedly exposes the dangers of privilege grounded solely in lineage.Bringing together textual scholarship, intellectual history, and philosophical interpretation, Hinduism Against Caste challenges long-established assumptions in both Indological scholarship and contemporary public discourse. It presents a compelling account of Hinduism as a tradition of ethical self-critique, offering fresh perspectives on caste, justice, and the continuing relevance of one of the world’s great intellectual traditions.
Vishwa Adluri
Vishwa Adluri is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College, City University of New York, and Core Doctoral Faculty at the Hindu University of America. He holds PhDs in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research, Indology from Philipps University, Marburg, and Sanskrit from Deccan College, Pune. His research focuses on the reception of ancient Greek and Indian thought in modernity, with particular emphasis on the Mahabharata, Indian philosophy, textual criticism, and the history of Indology. He is the author of Parmenides, Plato and Mortal Philosophy: Return from Transcendence; The Nay Science: A History of German Indology (with Joydeep Bagchee); and Philology and Criticism: A Guide to Mahābhārata Textual Criticism (with Joydeep Bagchee); and the editor or co-editor of several influential volumes on the Mahabharata and ancient philosophy.
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