BAPS has a long legacy of transcending caste barriers and empowering people from all backgrounds through the spirit of seva (selfless service).
On December 17, 2011 His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj released a statement rejecting caste-based discrimination.
The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha is against discrimination based on caste and birth-based social hierarchy since it devalues human dignity. We are guided by Bhagwan Swaminarayan's teachings that the spiritual ideals of Hinduism (the concepts of Atma and Paramatma) assert that human dignity and spiritual equality are meant for all members of society. As people of the Hindu way of life, we find caste-based discrimination morally unacceptable and urge everyone to collectively bring an end to it.— BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha
Historians note that Bhagwan Swaminarayan (1781–1830) was among the first Hindu leaders to crusade against caste-based discrimination, inspiring change through love, teaching, and personal example rather than coercion. That tradition continues under Pramukh Swami Maharaj — visits to dalits' homes, discourses in dalit areas, and conventions for dalit advancement. While Hindu temple priests have customarily come from upper castes, he initiates sadhus irrespective of caste; even pujari sadhus come from all backgrounds. At BAPS mandirs, devotees of all castes take meals, worship, perform yagnas, and offer service together.
Source: Hindu American Foundation — Statement Against Caste-Based Discrimination
The following are representative voices from the Dalit community and Dalit leaders.
“The contribution of BAPS towards SC/ST empowerment needs to be studied and recognized by scholars and policymakers”
Shri Kishor MakwanaChairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC)“I applaud BAPS Swamis' continued efforts to raise public awareness and enhance respect for tribal communities.”
Shri Harsh ChouhanChairperson, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)“I acknowledge the efforts of socio-spiritual organizations like BAPS in spearheading efforts to promote social harmony.”
Padma Shri Milind KambleFounding Member, Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry“If we are to find solutions to the challenges faced by scheduled castes, the Swaminarayan tradition would be the place to discover them.”
Dr. Bizay Sonkar ShastriFormer Member of Parliament“I highlight the noteworthy contributions of saints like Pramukh Swami Maharaj in promoting unity, equality, and universal human values.”
Dr. Kuberbhai DindorMinister for Tribal Development, Gujarat State“Pramukh Swami Maharaj's personal involvement in tribal affairs serves as a model for advancing Adivasi development.”
Shri Ramchandra KharadiNational President, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram“This was a very big problem for us [the government]. At the inspiration of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the BAPS organization stepped forward and embraced these Dalit families, offering them timely help and support. ”
As volunteers, we know our history. This tradition didn't start in 2011 when Robbinsville construction began. It didn't even start in 1971 when BAPS came to America. We carry a legacy 200 years old.
In the early 1800s, Bhagwan Swaminarayan established a revolutionary practice: mandirs would be built not by hired labor alone, but by volunteers as an act of devotion.
Before Robbinsville, volunteers helped build traditional stone mandirs across the United States, working alongside volunteer artisans with the same tradition of devotion and service.
Progress of Haveli Work — Chicago Campus
Volunteers pour concrete for the Haveli foundation — Chicago, IL, Jul–Aug 2000
Volunteer artisans carve intricate woodwork for the Haveli — Chicago, IL, Jul–Aug 2000
Volunteers work side by side polishing and finishing carved elements — Chicago, IL, Jul–Aug 2000
Mandir Construction — Stone Delivery and Foundation Work
Volunteers receive and unload crates of hand-carved stone pieces arriving from India — Chicago, IL, Nov 8, 2002
Volunteers and engineers work on the mandir foundation — Chicago, IL, Dec 20, 2002
Kumbhi Sthapan Vidhi — First Base Placing Ceremony
Women volunteers in hard hats perform the Kumbhi Sthapan Vidhi at the Atlanta mandir construction site — Apr 30, 2006
Volunteers and swamis celebrate after the Kumbhi Sthapan Vidhi at the Atlanta construction site — Apr 30, 2006
Padma Shila Sthapan — Central Dome Keystone Ceremony
Volunteer artisans guide the 4.5-ton marble keystone of the central dome into position — Chino Hills, CA, Aug 18, 2012
A crane lifts the intricately carved dome piece as volunteers watch from the construction site — Chino Hills, CA, Aug 18, 2012
Preparing the Akshardham Campus
Volunteers prepare the Robbinsville Akshardham site ahead of the Shilanyas Vidhi — Robbinsville, NJ, Aug 21, 2010
Foundation Ceremony and Early Construction
Volunteers with hard hats work alongside swamis and artisans at the Robbinsville Akshardham construction site — Oct 6-9, 2011
Swamis, volunteer artisans and lay volunteers at the Mahamandir Shilanyas at the Robbinsville construction site — Oct 6-9, 2011
First Pillar Installation
Thousands of volunteers and swamis gather at the Robbinsville construction site for the Stambh Pujan — installation of the first marble pillar of Swaminarayan Akshardham — Sep 3-4, 2017
Volunteer Seva During Mandir Construction
A volunteer artisan in a pink hard hat carefully works on intricate marble carvings inside Akshardham — Robbinsville, NJ, Oct 24, 2020
Volunteers and artisans work on the massive archway of Akshardham using scaffolding and scissor lifts — Robbinsville, NJ, Oct 24, 2020
Volunteers in hard hats work through the night on steel framework at the Akshardham exterior — Robbinsville, NJ, Oct 24, 2020
Volunteer electricians on scaffolding install lighting inside the carved interior of Swaminarayan Akshardham — Robbinsville, NJ, Oct 24, 2020
Volunteers and a swami work together lifting a large ornamental stone piece inside Akshardham — Robbinsville, NJ, Oct 24, 2020
Volunteers unpack and sort hundreds of sacred items in preparation for the Amalak Pujan ceremony — Robbinsville, NJ, Oct 24, 2020
As volunteers, we know these stories aren't isolated incidents. They show a consistent pattern of BAPS honoring artisans and serving marginalized communities — the opposite of what allegations claim.
From Gujarat in 2002 to Jodhpur in 2025 — volunteer artisans were honoured personally, at workshops, at mandir sites, and in special assemblies. This is a pattern, not an exception.
Pramukh Swami Maharaj Honours 7,000 Artisans — Delhi Akshardham
Pramukh Swami Maharaj visits artisan volunteers at a stonework workshop site in Rajasthan — Nov 2003
Pramukh Swami Maharaj personally honours artisan volunteers at one of 26 workshop sites in Rajasthan — Nov 2003
Artisan volunteers gather with Pramukh Swami Maharaj at a workshop site in Rajasthan — Nov 2003
Felicitation Day — Houston Mandir Inauguration
An electrician volunteer is honoured with an Amrut Kalash by Pramukh Swami Maharaj on Felicitation Day at the Houston Mandir inauguration celebrations — Jul 22, 2004
Volunteers and artisans are celebrated during the Felicitation Day assembly at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Houston — Jul 22, 2004
Volunteer Artisans Blessed by Pramukh Swami Maharaj
Volunteer artisans from the Robbinsville Akshardham project receive the blessings of Pramukh Swami Maharaj at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, New Jersey — Aug 18, 2014
Special Felicitation Assembly for Stone Artisan Volunteers — Robbinsville Akshardham
Mahant Swami Maharaj addresses thousands of stone artisan volunteers at the special Felicitation Assembly held at the Pindwara stone-carving workshop — Mar 5, 2017
Hundreds of artisan volunteers do darshan of Mahant Swami Maharaj at the Felicitation Assembly, Pindwara, Rajasthan — Mar 5, 2017
Mahant Swami Maharaj showers flower petals as a blessing upon the artisan volunteers gathered at Pindwara — Mar 5, 2017
Sadhus and artisan volunteers during the Felicitation Assembly at Pindwara, Rajasthan — Mar 5, 2017
Artisan volunteers gather with Mahant Swami Maharaj for a group photo at Pindwara, Rajasthan — Mar 6, 2017
Mahant Swami Maharaj visits the stone-carving workshop at Pindwara to personally observe the stonework being carved for Swaminarayan Akshardham, Robbinsville — Mar 6, 2017
Artisan volunteers with Mahant Swami Maharaj at Pindwara, Rajasthan — Mar 7, 2017
Shilpi Samman Sabha — Individual Artisan Honour Assembly, Jodhpur Mandir
Each artisan was individually honoured at the Shilpi Samman Sabha — garlanded, adorned with turban, offered tilak, worshipped, draped with garments, and given prasadam — Jodhpur, Sep 26, 2025
Artisan volunteers are honoured at the Shilpi Samman Sabha assembly at the Jodhpur Mandir — Sep 26, 2025
The Shilpi Samman Sabha (Artisans' Honour Assembly) — artisans felicitated one day after the temple consecration, Jodhpur, Sep 26, 2025
A joyful gathering of artisan volunteers at the Jodhpur Mandir felicitation assembly — Sep 26, 2025
By Sadhu Mangalnidhidas
From: Swaminarayan Hinduism: Tradition, Adaptation, and Identity — Oxford University Press, 2016
Caste as a social construct in South Asia has long been a subject of controversy — igniting fierce debates, mediating a variety of political aims, and sometimes sparking conflict and violence. Hindu sampradayas have approached the issue in a variety of ways, the complexity of which has sometimes been lost on reductive observers. A historical and textual study of Sahajanand Swami’s nuanced approach to caste offers insights into how he strove to reduce the negative impact of caste identification while tempering caste-related conflicts.
Sahajanand Swami taught the doctrine that everyone’s true self is the pure atma, the eternal, unblemished soul transcending any corporeal identity, and thus, caste distinctions are ultimately false. While his doctrine dictated the rejection of caste prejudices, his approach to changing social norms on the ground was not inflexible, but accommodating. He effected change through gentle persuasion, strategic accommodations, and unyielding emphasis on spiritual principles despite practical accommodations.
Throughout modern history, caste has been a contested construct that remains controversial and pervasive even beyond the boundaries of Hinduism. The word ‘caste’ was first used in the fifteenth century by Portuguese colonial observers to signify endogamous and hierarchical hereditary classes in India. Later, British colonial observers reified caste as rigid, hereditarily inscribed occupational groups. Nicholas Dirks (2001) explains that this colonial reification served colonial objectives by justifying their rational imperialism. Although Sahajanand Swami was contemporaneous with the early British consolidation of power on the Indian subcontinent, there is little evidence of colonial influence in his doctrine.
Sahajanand Swami was noted to welcome people of all castes into his sampradaya. A British official writes in the Asiatic Journal (1823): ‘people of all castes and persuasions resort to Swamee Narrain, and the number of his followers is very great … Hindoos of all the four classes, Mahomedans, and even Dhers are admitted.’ Nishkulanand Swami’s scripture Bhaktachintamani catalogues by name, caste, and village over 3,700 of Sahajanand Swami’s devotees from more than 750 villages and 55 castes — including those previously known as ‘untouchables.’
Gujarati intellectual Kishorelal Mashruwala observes: ‘It was not [Swaminarayan’s] method to mix the upper and lower castes together and bring about a lowering of cultural levels among the upper castes. It was on the other hand his method to uplift the lower castes to the level of upper castes’ (1940, 63–4).
“Caste distinctions should not be seen in devotees of God. Even if the devotee is an untouchable, he will attain liberation along with his entire family, while without devotion to God, a Brahmin possessing all twelve auspicious virtues cannot attain liberation.”
— Gunatitanand Swami, Swamini Vato [1902] 2002, 4:12
According to Sahajanand Swami, one of the most fundamental principles of the Hindu shastras was to understand the self as the atma (soul), a corollary of which was to realize caste identity as ultimately false. In a discourse on 23 January 1820, he states that the jiva ‘has a misconception in that … it believes itself to be the body … which is born sometimes to a Brahmin couple; sometimes to a low caste couple,’ but anyone who ‘believes the body to be his true self’ is ‘a fool’ (Vachanamrut, Gadhada I–44).
Sahajanand Swami’s occasional accommodations regarding caste were strategic — balancing the psychic violence of the caste system against the physical violence against his followers by those determined to preserve extant social norms. He emphatically protected those at the lower end of the hierarchy, warning: ‘I become angry if an arrogant person abuses a garib [downtrodden] person’ (Vachanamrut, Gadhada II–27); and ‘I detest even the sight of one who harms a garib person’ (Vachanamrut, Vartal 11).
Sahajanand Swami’s emphasis on the dharma of one’s varna and ashram was often misread as endorsing caste rigidity. In fact, his definitions emphasized universal moral principles such as non-violence and brahmacharya. Moreover, he repeatedly declared that ‘the dharma of one’s varna and ashram alone is extremely inferior compared to bhagvat dharma’ (Vachanamrut, Gadhada III–21).
“Sahajanand Swami did make certain accommodations to entrenched social norms related to caste. However, he continued to emphasize the fundamental spiritual principles of the atma and the presence of God in all, which showed the construct of caste as ultimately illusory and caste discrimination as injurious to one’s soteriological goals. This approach … loosened the hold of caste identities on contemporary and modern-day followers.”
— Sadhu Mangalnidhidas, concluding paragraph
