Gandhi’s writings on the issue of Caturvarṇa, despite their apparent lacunas, dogmatic tones and seeming inconsistencies, are available to a convincing reconstruction. With this purpose in view, the first section of this paper will attempt to give an anti-foundational reading of Caturvarṇa—where varṇa is seen to be based neither on the different proportions of the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas), nor on a system of hereditary professions, but as abstract dimensions that are not mutually exclusive—and at best serves to give an orientation to our cognition and actions. This reading, while borrowing heavily from Shri Aurobindo’s reading of Caturvarṇa, will seek to give it a more neutral and expansive direction, shorn of all associated suggestions of intransigence and empirical contingencies, in order to effect the best possible synthesis with Gandhi. The second section of this paper will concentrate on appropriate portions of Gandhi’s commentary on Gῑtā, trying to track down Gandhi’s reservations against any psychological determinism with respect to varṇa. His direct but scattered observations on varṇa and caste will be addressed in the last section—to see how far our neutral reading of Caturvarṇa can be responsibly reconciled with his distinction between varṇa and caste—indicating a way to dissolve the Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on varṇabheda and jātibheda. Overall, this paper attempts a paradigmatic reconstruction of Gandhian Caturvarṇa in the light of his approach to the notion of niṣkāma karma.

甘地关于Caturvarṇa问题的著作尽管存在明显的空白，教条主义的语调和看似不一致的地方，但可以令人信服地进行重建。出于这个目的，本文的第一部分将尝试对Caturvarṇa进行反基础性的解读，其中varṇa既不是基于三种guṇ（sattva，rajas和tamas）的不同比例，也不是基于世袭职业体系，但作为不相互排斥的抽象维度，充其量只能为我们的认知和行动指明方向。该读物在大量借鉴Shri Aurobindo对Caturvarṇa的读物的同时，将寻求给它一个更为中立和广阔的方向，摒弃了所有与顽固性和经验性偶然性相关的建议，为了实现与甘地的最佳合成。本文的第二部分将集中讨论甘地关于以下内容的评论的适当部分：古塔（Gῑtā）试图追查甘地（Gandhi）对任何关于瓦ṇ（varṇa）的心理决定论的保留意见。他对var addresseda和种姓的直接但分散的观察将在最后一节中讨论-看看我们对Caturvarṇa的中性阅读可以与他在varṇa和种姓之间的区别负责任地相符-指明了解决甘地-安贝德卡关于varṇabheda辩论的方法和jātibheda。总体而言，本文根据甘迪安·卡迪瓦拉（Nandhāmakarma）概念的方法，尝试对甘迪安·卡迪瓦拉（Candvarṇa）进行范式重构。