Best-selling author Amish Tripathi today said the prevalent caste system has become a "disgusting corruption" of ancient times when society was not segregated according to one's birth.
"The caste system in the country today is a disgusting corruption of what it once was. In ancient times, most of the evidence points to the fact that the caste system was actually not rigid. It was not based on birth," Tripathi said.
The author of the bestselling Shiva trilogy was participating in the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival here.
The banker-turned author said he chooses not to write his surname on the cover of his books as it served as a reminder of his caste.
Amish also said there was an ideological battle between two groups in the country over two extreme viewpoints on the history of India.
"There is one group of extremists that likes to believe that India was never a country, we did not have that much greatness, that the British came and civilised us. There is another group which believes that we are the only great country, and everyone else were barbarians.
"The truth is obviously somewhere in the middle. We were a great country, other countries were great as well. So both India and the world had an impact on each other's voice," he said.
The writer also stressed on the importance of taking pride in one's culture.
"Openness and liberalism does not mean that you will go on deriding your own culture. You have to be open to other cultures, but with a deep sense of pride," he said.
After penning the Shiva trilogy novels -- 'The Immortals of Meluha', 'The Secret of the Nagas' and 'The Oath of the Vayuputras' novels of the Shiva trilogy, the 41-year-old author has written "Scion of Ikshvaku" the first book in the Ram Chandra series, his interpretation of the epic Ramayana.
