Lohia recognised that caste, more than class, was the huge stumbling block to India’s progress. It was Lohia’s thesis that India had suffered reverses throughout her history because people had viewed themselves as members of a caste rather than citizens of a country. Caste, as Lohia put it, was congealed class. Class was mobile caste. As such, the country was deprived of fresh ideas, because of the narrowness and stultification of thought at the top, which was comprised mainly of the upper castes, Brahmins and Baniyas, with tight compartmentalisation even there like the Brahmins dominant in the intellectual arena and the Baniyas in the business. A proponent of affirmative action, comparing it to turning the earth to foster a better crop, he urged the upper castes, ‘to voluntarily serve as the soil for lower castes to flourish and grow’, so that the country would profit from a broader spectrum of talent and ideas.