My Stand on Reservations III

There are two parts preceding this. To read them go here.

Isn’t affirmative action implemented to promote minorities?

T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan of Rediff Columns writes:

'Affirmative action' in the United States is aimed at the minorities. As such, in India it should focus on Brahmins. They constitute no more than 3 per cent of the population.

There is nothing far from truth than the above statement.

Affirmative Action in US is focused on correcting the wrongs of the past which include systematic discrimination meted out to certain sections of people based on attributes- color, race, gender or ethnicity. Within this affirmative action, there is progressive affirmative action which is a proactive and corrective mechanism introduced to uplift the discriminated sections- who were persecuted and discriminated based on race (like ‘Black’ and ‘Red Indians’, the political correct names being ‘African American’ and ‘American Indians’). There are so many minorities in US- for example, Indian Americans (coming from India) and Japanese Americans form a minority in US but they are not helped by affirmative action. Promoting diversity (to include people from different ethnic, religious and racial groups) is not the same as affirmative action (to correct the discrimination with proactive steps). Minority groups like Jews in US and Parsis in India are in minority but extremely well represented and rich compared to other groups. Sikhs, Muslims, Jains were not persecuted or discriminated in India. Do they need a corrective and proactive affirmative action? Sounds ridiculous!

Isn’t reservations same as affirmative action?

Though the core idea behind the two is same, they are not necessarily same as practiced in India and US, respectively. Reservations ‘mandate’ certain quota of seats in education and jobs, while affirmative actions deploy means and methods to lower the barrier to entry to persecuted people and promotes their participation in education and jobs.

Almost all Fortune 500 companies in US support affirmative action voluntarily and promote diversity voluntarily. For some reason, they don’t seem to share the belief of their Indian counterparts that affirmative action or inclusion of lower castes will decrease the excellence and quality of their organization. Instead, they seem to be quite proud of promoting discriminated sections (like Blacks, American Indians, Women and Physically handicapped people) through affirmative action. Affirmative action in US was earlier imposed by State and now is self-imposed by each organization and institution. Such maturity amongst US schools and corporations is quite admirable but definitely absent from Indian Universities and Industry.

As for as India is concerned, lack of such mature ideals is one of the reasons for mandating and forcing reservations instead of leaving it up to the colleges and industries to implement such corrective measures voluntarily. There is no way I can think of where in Indians would agree to rub shoulder with a Dalit in a college, a coffee shop or a working environment in a company other than the reservations imposed by Indian Government. There is need to actively force these people to tolerate and include them in their midst. If it were left to Indian Academia and Business people, they would have continued the discrimination and persecution under the garb of ‘merit’, ‘excellence, ‘quality’ and ‘skill’, leaving these sections outside the mainstream forever, for another two thousand years if possible. First they have done in the garb of religion, now they would do it under the garb of merit.

You have to give kudos to our forward castes though. They have been able to continue this discrimination and persecution making it an inherent part of the religion for more than two thousand years. All other persecutions that happened elsewhere were sporadic and were limited in geography and time. Even Hitler’s mass persecution of Jews was limited in time (though the persecution of Jews was as long as ours). Persecution of Cossacks in Russia, feudal System in Western Europe, slavery in New Continents, etc, all stand pale in comparison to the widespread, deeply routed and prolonged discriminated that Indian higher castes meted out a majority Indian lower class- unremitting, unwavering, flawless, and forever.

Americans took thirty years to correct the wrong of discrimination meted out to 10% of their population that spanned 200 years period. How long should India take to correct the wrongs of discriminations meted out 70% of its population spanning 2000 years? Even a rough and equivalent comparison would put the number to 2100 years of continued reservations. That number is too large but a realistic sense would demand at least another fifty to hundred years of continued reservations to bring the system to a stable ground. How come we are expecting the corrections within 60 years of reservations? Ludicrously optimistic almost to point of being demented, I would say.