Mathematically, caste-by-birth could not have existed in Bharat

The Rational Hindu
The Rational Hindu
Published in
2 min readJul 26, 2017

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by Murali KV

This article originally appeared in http://rightlog.in/2017/06/caste-birth-india/

It is mathematically impossible that there existed caste-by-birth in India. Here is why.

Each one of us has two (2) biological parents, a father and a mother. Similarly, we have four (4) grandparents and eight great-grandparents (8) and so on. Put otherwise, as we go backwards for each generation the number of ancestors doubles from the previous generation. It is basically a simple mathematical phenomenon. In mathematical notation, it is written as 2^n (where n = the number of generations ago).

If one calculates the value for, say 10 generations we get a value of 1024 ancestors, that is great-great-…-great-grandparents. Continuing on to 20 generations ago, we get an astoundingly astronomical figure of 1,048,576 (ten lakhs forty-eight thousand five hundred and seventy-six only).

This is a mathematical reality and not a gimmick.

The current population of the Republic of India alone is about 130 crores (1.3 billion people). This excludes the population of “united India,” that is the pre-1935 Government of India Act territory nations of Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Pakistan and Bangladesh.

If everyone’s ancestral count 20 generations ago are added the total would exceed the number of humans ever lived on this planet.

Mathematicians had shown that just 20 generations ago our ancestors were all brothers, sisters and cousins: all of us alive now shared the same ancestors. This is technically called the “pedigree collapse.”

The implications of pedigree collapse are that there could have been no caste-by-birth in existence then as they were all from the same extended family. How can there be different caste-by-birth within a family? Of course, each one can become a doctor, a soldier, a priest and so on by merit though.

Thus our “eminent” historians and politicians have been perpetrating a lie used by the British Christians to further the agenda of divide and rule. Liar liar, pants on fire…

References:

1. Chang JT. Recent common ancestors of all present-day individuals. Adv. Appl. Prob. 1999: 31, 1002–1026

2. Rhode DLT, Olson S, Chang JT. Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans. Nature. 2004: 431, 562–56

3. Genetic evidence: http://www.pnas.org/content/113/16/E2215.long

This article originally appeared in http://rightlog.in/2017/06/caste-birth-india/

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