The second President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan strongly advocated the caste system and the practice of endogamous marriages by emphasising their merits in his book ‘The Hindu Way of Life’. According to him, “The four castes represent men of thought, men of action, men of feeling and others in whom none of these is highly developed.” He further argues in favour of endogamous marriages by saying, “It is a point of social honour for every member to marry within his own caste…..While every attempt should be made to energise the weak and the lowly by education and moral suasion, indiscriminate marriage relations do not seem to be always desirable…..If a member of a first-class family marries another of poor antecedents the good inheritance of the one is debased by the bad inheritance of the other, with the result that the child starts life with a heavy handicap.” He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in the year 1954.