1. The document discusses the origins and development of the caste system in India. It argues that the caste system emerged from observations of natural principles like heredity and the division of labor, rather than as a conspiracy of oppression. 2. Over time, the caste system became rigid and unjust as job roles became fixed based on caste rather than individual ability. This led to discrimination and social harm. 3. The document advocates overcoming casteism through universal access to enlightenment and empowerment, not through policies like reservations alone. Total stress management for all can help establish a just and harmonious society.

1. STRESS
RESERVATIONS
AND
COMMUNALISM
DR.
SHRINIWAS
KASHALIKAR

2. Merely belonging to different castes, different religions
or merely following certain customs, which are running
through the generations in a family and a community
etc. do not make us discriminatory, unjust, prejudiced
and communal; and does not produce STRESS of
communalism!
According to the world book dictionary, communalism
refers to self-governance of a commune or communes
and this is a kind of federalism. Communal means
related to commune.
In Sanskrit there is a SUBHASHITA
PINDE PINDE MATIH BHINNAH
KUNDE KUNDE NAVAM PAYAH
JATO JATO NAVACHARAH
NAVA VANEE MUKHE MUKHE
The meaning of this SUBHASHITA is simple and
enlightening. It boosts the spirit of tolerance.
It implies, every individual has different intellectual
capacity, every source of water contains water with
different characteristics and composition, every

3. community has different tradition; and different
linguistic expression is present in every individual
mouth!
But in India this word has different connotation. In
India, communalism implies disproportionate pride,
concern about one’s caste, tribe, religion or any such
group and disproportionate contempt, hatred and
prejudice about those of others.
This is almost always associated with practices harmful
to others. Communalism has become an everyday
problem. It has infiltrated every walk and every stratum
of life; like a cancer. Thus political parties, a variety of
unions, various organizations etc and associations are
diseased with communalism. Similarly, policies
regarding employment, promotions, admission to
different educational careers, competitive examinations
in almost every sphere of life have been infiltrated by
communalism.
To understand and overcome the menace of
communalism and bring about harmony and justice in
society effectively; we have to understand the caste
system and the caste specific job distribution that has

4. come into existence and remained for centuries and the
emergence of religions and their impact on social life. In
this article; we will consider the development of caste
system.
In my view, (my theory of the emergence of caste system
that disapproves the conspiracy and exploitation
theories) the caste system in India was based on the
physiological principle of homeostasis where many
different type of cells perform different functions so as
to maintain constancy of internal environment and
thereby health of the organism.
Secondly it was based on the principle of variety,
complementarity and harmony in nature. Thus the
emergence of caste system was based on the observation
that neither in body nor in nature the individual
components perform the same work or job. In fact this
kind of “equality” is dangerous. Complementarity of
components is important and conducive to health. This
entailed distribution of different jobs. This distribution
of the jobs initially depended on the capacity.

5. However the distribution of jobs gradually became
independent of the capacity and started depending on
one’s caste. How could have this happened?
Firstly, it appears to me that this took place because of
the observation; that the tissues performing a particular
function in body; give rise to the cells with the same
functions.
Secondly; there is heredity in nature. The mango tree
gives mango fruits, banana tree gives banana and
coconut tree gives coconuts. The offspring of a tiger is
tiger and offspring of a cat is a cat.
Thus the fact the tissues give rise to daughter cells
performing the same function and the plants and
animals reproduce their own replicas; was probably
extrapolated to the human society.
It must have been thought that such heredity must be
working in human beings also. In fact, such
extrapolation must have been buttressed by the
observations that children do carry the traits of their
parents which may include, from mathematical talents
to musical skills, besides physical constitution and looks.

6. In fact even today we use expressions such as “There is
music in his blood”, “There is acting in his blood”
“There is business in his blood” and so on. These
expressions are based on observations of centuries. So
every community was seen or perceived as a particular
organ or tissue, which would give rise to specific type of
cells; and subserve the homeostasis in the organism viz.
holistic welfare or blossoming of the mankind!
The second reason for this change must have been due
one of the most prevalent concepts viz. KARMA
PHALA SIDDHANTA. In Marathi this is expressed as
KARAVE TASE BHARAVE. In English this is
expressed through “As you sow, so you reap”.
This concept gives a basis for why a particular child is
born in a particular community or caste. This led to the
notion that those who are born in a particular caste are
born according their deeds in the past life. This lent a
conceptual foundation for the stability and continuance
of the caste dependent job distribution. So every
individual in a particular community, caste, subcaste;
was conceived as a particular individual cell in a tissue.

7. Now it can be appreciated why there were restrictions
on all the communities (analogous to organs or tissues)
to do a particular job.
Obviously this was to achieve social homeostasis
(analogous to homeostasis in an organism). Clearly this
was to avoid competition based on petty selfishness and
unabated personal ambitions, which could, jeopardize
the welfare of a society (analogous to endangering the
homeostasis and life of an organism because of different
tissues competing to perform the same functions).
The caste system also had one more and important
aspect and that was punishment at local level. This
punishment depended on the nature of “crime” or “sin”
and the verdict of the traditional beliefs, conventions
and consensus. This particular system included the
punishment of outcasting.
Outcasting means; removing out of the community. The
person or a family could not live in; and get any
facilities from their community. There was total
noncooperation. This was a kind of imposition of
sanctions.

8. It is well known in India that the father and mother of
the world famous saint of 12th century, saint
Dnyaneshwar were outcasted and forced to commit
suicide; for their “crime” of going against the then
prevalent conventions.
Those who were outcasted were condemned to live as
the outcaste. This system of giving “justice” by
consensus; apparently did not have any provision for
the upward traffic of the outcasted “lower” castes, who
actually were not merely the conquered people or slaves.
They included the “upper” castes individuals and
families, which had to enter into “lower” castes because
of what was then considered a “crime”.
However one does not know with certainty whether
there were any ways of absolving from those so called
“crimes” and promoting to “upper castes”.
Today most of these “crimes” may not be considered as
crimes, blunders or even mistakes; because of the
individualism, superficiality, pettiness as well as ideas of
(right as well as wrong) freedom.

9. It appears that these castes, which were forced to live
outside the villages, were declared untouchable. Due to
the same notion of heredity, which consolidated caste
system, their progeny was also considered inferior and
forced to stay out of the village border, was made to
accept dirty jobs and were declared untouchable. This is
why; many villages in India used to have and still have;
in many regions, the formerly untouchable people
staying beyond the boundaries of the villages.
The caste system has been primarily a result of all that
has been said above and NOT A CONSPIRACY;
though it became unjust and perverted; through the
subsequent influence of other factors such as vested
interests, misuse of cultural superiority and authority,
emotional blackmailing, exploitation of gullibility,
religious persecutions, outright sadism, brutality,
foreign invasions, forcible conversions, fear of the
unknown, fear of the society, etc.
It can be clearly understood from the foregoing that the
caste system in India which deteriorated into
increasingly unjust and grave perversion; was to start
with; NOT A CONSPIRACY; as is made out to be by
many misguided individuals.

10. The theory that it was a conspiracy; can prejudice and
mislead; the young and innocent people; and can create
division, hatred and strife; amongst different castes. But
since it does not go to the root cause; it can not solve the
burning problems of the billions. In fact this has been
vindicated by the history of many ad hoc measures;
such as; reservations and other caste-caste interactions
in India in last several decades.
The fact that the caste system did not develop as
conspiracy can be clearly evident if following points are
considered.
1) Caste system to be the conspiracy has not primarily
been a result of political wars or religious wars also. The
subsequent influence of such factors; however; can not
be entirely denied.
2) Political, dictatorial, oppressive, exploitative reasons
appear too simplistic to explain the phenomenon of
casteism and untouchability, which has spread all over
India and in every nook and corner of even the interior
most aspects of country (which were ruled by extremely
different rulers with extremely diverse backgrounds).

11. 3) Caste system to be a conspiracy has not been
primarily a result of winner-loser relationship. If that
had been the case then there would not have been as
many restrictions on certain “upper” castes as have
been there in India.
4) If there had been winner loser relationship between
two groups then one would have found fairly uniform
characteristics amongst “upper” and “lower” castes.
This is not so. Everyone would agree that there are
people with very low capacity in so called “upper” castes
and there are people with far greater capacity in so
called “lower” castes. In fact almost all types of people
are seen in all the castes. This applies not only to
capacity but also to morality and social commitment.
5) The skin complexion of the individuals from “upper”
castes and “lower” castes is also not uniform. Thus
brahmins are not uniformly fair in complexion and the
“lower castes” are not uniformly dark in complexion.
6) Caste system was not based on equality. But it was
basically and to start with not based on inequality,
injustice and exploitation also. It was based on; as is

12. said earlier; the interpretation of homeostasis, heredity
and complementarity, and its extrapolation to society,
social harmony, social stability, social order and optimal
social blossoming in holistic health.
7) In the ancient times; most of the rulers and great
scholars were NOT brahmins and the scriptures were
the products of consensus and any particular
community.
It has to be appreciated that because of this, even as
most of the saints did not practice caste discrimination,
religious discrimination or any kind of discrimination
for that matter, they did not condemn or allege the
Indian scriptures with malicious and vicious intentions.
These scriptures (MANU SMRUTI, PARASHAR
SMRUTI, VASISHTHA SMRUTI, NARADA SMRUTI,
YAJNAVALKYA SMRUTI) were codes of conduct for
different age groups, different professionals, different
members of the family etc; such as and so on.
This was because they knew that by condemning them,
the old wisdom of social homeostasis would be lost and
by supporting and practicing it; the exploitative,

13. coercive and inhuman element would be justified and
would continue.
For this reason they chose the middle way. The saints
did not make any disruptive and provoking statements;
because they knew that this was not the solution to the
evils of caste system. They knew that the solution to the
evils of caste system lied in the opening of the floodgates
of enlightenment and empowerment for one and all.
This is why, without making any stunts and gimmicks
they spent their lives in trying to open the floodgates of
enlightenment and empowerment for one and all.
They suffered during their lifetime because of the
harassment from callous, rigid, orthodox and inhuman
conservative elements; and centuries after their death;
still continue to be misunderstood, misquoted,
condemned and ridiculed by many misguided elements.
From the work of the saints it appears that the saints
had diagnosed the flaw in the caste system; and hence
foreseen and predicted; the end of caste system (without
losing the essential concept of social homeostasis)
through generalized enlightenment and empowerment;
irrespective of caste, religion, region etc, which is of

14. paramount importance and inevitable and indispensable
(but neglected) in really annihilating the castes even
today.
The major flaw; in the caste system that rendered it
extremely exploitative, coercive and inhuman; is the
omission or ignorance of i) Human beings are different
from tissue cells; by virtue of greater freedom and
flexibility ii) mango, coconut, tiger and cat do not have
the choice and freedom to transcend their mango-ness,
coconut-ness, tiger-ness and cat-ness. In contrast human
beings have this potential and hence must get choice and
freedom to transcend their caste characteristics, the
process which is called enlightenment or self-realization.
The saints seem to have realized that the children are
not of the parents (to get exactly the same
characteristics or to be blamed for the “sins” of their
parents), but they come through the parents.
The saints also seem to have realized that it is a great
fallacy to condemn some one as sinful; merely because
of being born in a particular caste; and punish him/her
for the so called sins/crimes of the past generations or
past lives.

15. The purpose of this article is not to glorify or to
condemn anybody, or to describe the detailed history of
caste system but only to i) conceptualize the theory of
the mergence of caste system based on the
understanding physiology and ii) having gone to the root
of the caste system and the main determinants of the
caste system; take it to its logical end by blossoming
everybody; at individual and global levels in every
possible way!
This implies that everything coercive in caste system
would come to an end and the wisdom of harmony and
complementary would continue.
This is because, we must remember that while evolving
out of the caste system, and annihilating it; mankind has
already begun to be plagued by and suffer from;
individualism, pettiness and superficiality.
Those, who attribute all the evils to the caste system in
India; must be explained; that; in rest of the world;
where there was no caste system like that in India,
individualism, pettiness and superficiality are playing
havoc and proving to be malignant and fatal!

16. We must learn from the saints; the importance of
opening the floodgates of self realization to people
irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion, nations and
study, practice and promote; the Total Stress
Management (the core of which is NAMASMARAN),
which embodies holistic perspective, policies, plans,
programs and actions; for individual and global
blossoming; through international laws, rules and
conventions; in holistic healthcare, holistic productive
education, and every field of life!
As and when this begins, everybody would become self
reliant, independent, empowered, self sufficient, and
enlightened; and the ad-hoc steps such as reservation
policy, free education, concessions, free food, subsidies,
loan wavers etc; would become redundant and
unnecessary. Moreover; majority would begin to realize
that in absence of this; even 100 percent reservations in
parliaments, assemblies, jobs and everywhere; for that
matter; would NOT solve the problems of the suffering
billions.