[koba]

India did have a great civilization once. Even today, you can still see remnants of it like the Elephanta caves, ancient temples, even the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, the lower classes had higher birth rates while the educated classes had low birth rates. After a time, the lower classes took most of the land by weight of population. The elite class got diluted and the country is now a third-world country. Is this story starting to sound familiar?

[x]

Is that really what happened? It does seem that a caste society that segregates people off into various segments it plants the seeds of its own decline. When lower castes can't make their way up very far in society and upper castes can't make use of the expertise of arrivistes and aren't regenerated by newcomers, revolution or decline looks to be the likely result. The "fresh blood" justification of immigration is suspect, but within societies there does seem to be a dying away of high castes if intermarriage is restricted.

[aruanan]

Unfortunately, the lower classes had higher birth rates while the educated classes had low birth rates. After a time, the lower classes took most of the land by weight of population. The elite class got diluted and the country is now a third-world country. Is this story starting to sound familiar?

It's preferable to actually refer to history and draw conclusions from it rather than to look at the present and imagine a cause for it that happens to buttress a belief already taken for granted. Your's is one of those just-so stories like those used to explain why the bear has a short tail.

[RightWhale]

These ancient ruins seem to predate any of the Indian civilization as it is known today. They might not be related to the modern population. Still, there is the DNA analysis of a 9000 year old body in England that was related to a teacher still living in the same village.

BTW, the cast system is thought to be a remnant of successive invasions rather than a division of a single indiginous population.