This book examines the widespread perception that Hindu religion is largely inegalitarian, and demonstrates that such a conclusion is only supported by a part of the evidence, and not by the entire range of evidentiary material which can be brought to bear on the point. Moreover, those parts of the evidence on which such a conclusion is based do not, upon investigation, always support it. Finally, it also emerges that the present view lacks theoretical nuance. It does not define egalitarianism adequately and does not distinguish sufficiently between various forms of egalitarianism, such as proportional and radical egalitarianism