Within the Brahmo Samaj, the caste system was regarded as fundamentally incompatible with the vision of one universal God and the ethical equality of all human beings. Its thinkers rejected caste distinctions as lacking any true religious or rational basis, and they saw hereditary hierarchy as a social evil rather than a divine ordinance. All humans were understood as equal children of one God, so the elaborate gradations of purity and pollution associated with caste could not claim spiritual legitimacy. This theological stance led them to deny the authority of scriptural interpretations that upheld caste, and to affirm instead a form of monotheism grounded in reason and moral conscience.

This inner conviction translated into concrete reforms within the community’s religious and social life. Brahmo prayer halls and congregational worship were opened to people of all castes, with no segregation or ritual barriers, and caste-based restrictions on social interaction and commensality were explicitly rejected. Inter-caste marriage was not only approved in principle but actively promoted, with Brahmo leaders supporting legal measures that enabled marriage outside orthodox caste rules when traditional priests and institutions refused to cooperate. In their gatherings and ceremonies, they refused to recognize brahminical privilege or monopoly over religious functions, thereby challenging the very structure that sustained caste hierarchy.

At the same time, the movement’s practice did not always fully match its ideals. Many of its adherents came from educated, urban, upper-caste backgrounds, and traces of inherited social habits could persist even as they denounced caste in theory. The emphasis tended to fall on ideological, legal, and institutional change rather than on broad-based mobilization among the most oppressed castes, so the transformation was most visible within a relatively narrow, middle-class milieu. Yet, despite these limitations, the Brahmo Samaj’s sustained critique of caste and its attempt to embody equality in worship, marriage, and community life marked a significant spiritual and social reorientation, pointing toward a religious life in which birth no longer dictated one’s place before God or among fellow human beings.