They wouldn't have been able to even make physical contact with members of the formal Varna system. But despite all of that discrimination, he was able to get a significant education and eventually become India's first law minister, and not only that, but the principal architect of the Indian Constitution. And this is what he wrote about the caste system. "'Caste is not a physical object, "'like a wall of bricks or a line of barbed wire "'which prevents the Hindus from commingling "'and which has therefore to be pulled down. "'Caste is a notion. "'It is a state of the mind.' And if you look at modern India or if you talk to modern Hindus, many of them will say, hey, we don't take caste seriously.