My Stand on Reservations I

My love-hate affair with this issue has been tumultuous. I started off on a vehement ‘anti-reservation’ stand as a young boy and fought many debates with my Dad. I left India to pursue my higher studies when I was twenty, and over time having known the world to some extent, slowly converted to become a strong ‘pro-reservation’ proponent.

This is my attempt to unravel my own understanding of the issue of reservations.

Why did our forefathers moot the idea of implementing reservations in Indian education system?

The idea of reservations was mooted to rectify the Indian social system which was far more debilitating than the Indian economic system. For centuries, spanning nearly two thousand years, a large section of India was persecuted, discriminated and ostracized by a minority community on the name of caste. Caste was and is inviolable to all Indians- it was decided two thousand years ago for all generations to come. Contrast this with a feudal system- a farmer can become a landlord in 2-3 generations and thus completely change his social status. In a religious system, one can espouse a new religion to escape persecution. But in a caste system, one cannot change his caste and hence will continue to be discriminated for generations. This inviolable and deeply entrenched caste system in India was used to ostracize and oppress a low caste majority by the high caste minority, keeping them out of all social systems- education, religion, business, administration, employment, etc, and this was carried out systematically through many centuries.

Our forefathers came up with the idea of reservations in education system and employment to bridge this huge gap between different sections in India which was so starkly divided on caste lines. Education and employment was the sole weapon used by high caste to oppress the low caste. Hence the idea of reservations was mooted in education and employment to force the Indian institutes and administrative offices to recruit low caste so that a balance can be achieved over a period of time. However, that time period was grossly underestimated by our forefathers. In practice, it is turning out to be a longer and much harder exercise for India to implement reservations. The newer upper caste generations growing up in urban and protected environs never experience, contact or know what it means to be born a Dalit and hence they are now fighting tooth and nail against implementation of reservations.

A poor high caste person could escape poverty within a generation or two through education or employment, but a Dalit, however willing or determined he was, he couldn’t get admission to a school and hence could not get the means to overcome that poverty. When such a pogrom is carried out on such a mass scale cutting across regions and languages of India to become a highly efficient and well-oiled machine of blatant and flagrant discrimination in the name of caste, it induces a social handicap. That handicap cannot be overcome by scholarships, free admission and free lunches. It has to be tackled much more aggressively by reserving certain seats so that the oppressed can walk in, may be with trepidation and diffidence, to become self-confident over a period of time so as to go back and encourage others from his families to come in trickles and then in hordes to espouse education and employment which they believe is denied to them.

Did reservations help anyone?

Yes. The statistics prove again and again that more and more SC/ST/OBC are entering the mainstream of India. They were almost completely absent in educational institutes, government offices, administration, etc, during the time of independence. The idea of reservations was to bring these people into mainstream and it is achieving its purpose, though not at the pace it was originally intended. It only means that it has to be made more effective and has to be carried out for a longer time than originally intended.

Look at the southern states of India. Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been implementing reservations for quite some time now and they are one of the most developed states in India, where the literacy levels are the highest, population growth is the lowest, and now, even the business is flourishing.

We have been able to have a Dalit for a Vice-President of India. Chief Ministers, Governors, IAS officers, administrators, and bureaucrats. Many officers are hailing from lower castes of India. But are we there yet? Not really. We still have a long way to go to correct the deeply entrenched social system which still discriminates and ostracizes lower castes in rural and tribal areas where a major chunk of Indian population resides.