Indian cosmology, Industry 4.0 and the coming end of work

India’s ancient sages believed that a balanced society relies on the contribution of four “varnas”, generic categories representing workers, merchants, protectors, and teachers. When one of the four varnas is neglected or sidelined, society becomes conflicted and fails to reach its full potential.

The varna concept later devolved into a rigid caste system (jāti), used for political oppression, but its original framework remains valuable for understanding the modern world. The varna concept suggests that communism failed because it sidelined the merchants, and that capitalism is failing because it sidelines the workers.

Scholars have drawn parallels between the varna concept and Marxism, equating class struggle with “caste struggle.” They equate workers and merchants in the varna concept with labor and capital in Marxism. However, the four categories of the varna concept offer a more nuanced view of society and have a cosmological basis.

Varna is part of an ancient Vedic prophesy. The four varnas take turns leading society. Each varna stage advances the human condition to the next level until it reaches a new spiritual age. The prophesy is comparable to the Second Coming in Abrahamic traditions. Both offer a vista to a better world to come.

But the true value of the varna system today is that it offers a different lens for looking at the contemporary world with its many apparent contradictions, complexities, and conflicts, including the seemingly intractable conflict between the US and China.

Varna

The concept of varna was first mentioned in the Vedas around 1500 BCE. The ancient sages observed that people naturally gravitate toward specific roles within society. They classified these roles into four generic types or