Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya was a pandit[1] and one of a group of Hindu nationalists who held a benevolent view of the traditional role of caste in Indian society at a time, in the late nineteenth century, when social reformers were challenging the concept.
He called the traditional varna system, comprising a four-tier ritual hierarchy, a "golden chain" that had been willingly worn by the population, and he expounded on his beliefs in an 1896 book - Hindu Castes and Sects - which was, in the opinion of Susan Bayly, "one of the first modern anthropological treatises to be produced by an Indian scholar.
He also headed a Brahmin organisation that claimed to provide rulings regarding what it considered to be matters of Hindu tradition, and which was known as the Nadia College of Pandits.
The traditional caste-related notions, including that of varna, were things that in the past had marshalled the country into an orderly togetherness despite its diversity and the frequency with which it was invaded.
He "embraced assertive nationalist ideals, yet spoke from the platform of a 'modern' Hindu 'revivalist' organisation, not as a would-be caste reformer but as a passionate defender of established Brahmanical norms.