Reservations VI: Hollow arguments from Anti-Reservation groups

Why does the upper caste come up with roundabout reasons for not implementing the reservations instead of just plainly admitting that discrimination existed and exists?

In face of imposition of this new set of reservations for OBC, there is a furor amongst the upper castes and this is reflected amongst the media as well. Every question asked by a journalist actually reflects his/her own bias, though they try their best to keep an impartial face.

The reaction of anti-reservation groups to this implementation can at best be described funny. Why do I think it is funny? It is funny because they keep hopping from one topic to another giving 101 reasons why reservations-based-on-caste should not be implemented and they never admit that discrimination ever happened nor come with a concrete proposal on how this discrimination-based-on-caste that extended for such a long period in India could be addressed.

Let’s examine their train of though for a while because it opens up their hollow ideology.

1. The most common protest is that ‘merit’ will be destroyed- that reservations will bring ‘low-quality’, that institutes will lose their sheen, ‘islands of excellence’ will be destroyed, that we will lose our edge on competency, that we will have poor doctors who can’t operate, we will have poor engineers who are incompetent. So on.

But when pushed to a corner in a debate and ask for specific examples or statistics on how a SC/ST/OBC has failed to deliver displaying incompetence? OR How come there are so many institutes in India who enroll students under NRI category and capitation fee structure? Do they not affect the quality and the merit?

They immediately move to the next platform:

2. “Don’t give reservations. Give better facilities. That will automatically solve the problem”.

The whole reason why reservations are IMPOSED instead of recommended or suggested in India is because of basic mistrust that forward castes will continue their dominance and hegemony by ensuring that higher education and employment will be retained by them. How else do explain that no company, no organization or an academic institution promoted backward castes VOLUNTARILY before the reservations were imposed? How else do you explain that there are innumerable cases where the people in decision making capacities ensured that SC/ST/OBC do not actually avail reservation systems?

Better facilities- sanitation, schools, hospitals and Better incentives- free books, scholarships, free educations, free lunches can help lower castes and poor people to come into the mainstream. But how long will it take for Government of India to actually accomplish this? Should we wait for few generations for them to actually catch up? By then the divide between castes would have widened so much that an equal race will be impossible?

Most of these protestors do not understand that this race is not between individuals but between various classes of people. They need to understand that one cannot expect all individuals to start the race at the same place. This is not a sports competition or a race to moon. This is about basic standard of living that India should provide to its people. Reservations are for education and employment, which are considered basic requirements for self-dignity and a decent life. Sops are for other things- businesses, farming, industries, sports, military, etc.

Better amenities and incentives should go hand in hand with an even more aggressive policy of IMPOSING reservations onto India to ensure that SC/ST/OBC will not be discriminated against. It is like giving a boosting hand or pushing them into the mainstream by force so that they shed their social inhibitions, come out of their inferior-complexity shell, and actually avail these amenities by assuring them that there is a promised land beyond.

When asked how basic amenities which already exist in India to some extent, like thousands of primary schools which provide free education, free lunches, free books, staffed by literate teachers is not helping the situation, they move onto another platform:

3. “We want reservations based on economic status, not based on caste. The caste-based-reservations will only further the divide instead of bridging it”.

So, my question is simple:

If ‘merit’ is diluted by reservations-based-on-caste and you ARE against such dilution, how come you are ready to accept reservations-based-on-economic-status? Do you somehow believe that reservations-based-on-economic-status will ensure that merit is NOT diluted? OR, is that you are ready to make sacrifices as long as it is based on economic status, but NOT when it is based on caste?

Why should one adopt a wrong remedy to solve a well-understood problem? The present situation has arisen not because of discrimination-based-on-economic-status. It has arisen because of discrimination-based-on-caste. Shouldn’t the solution be based on caste lines ONLY?

I think the reason for such specious arguments is more fundamental than what has been discussed in the media.

• When you propose reservations-based-on-economic-status, every one has a faint hope that they could qualify. Forward castes are not debarred from it, and one could always get admission through other means. Everyone knows how inconclusive our findings are on one’s income.
• Also, if one were to accept reservations-based-on-caste, it is like accepting that discrimination did happen in this country. It is like accepting that you belong to the caste which oppressed others. Most of the forward castes would like to believe that they never discriminated, not even their forefathers; and if there is an imbalance in caste structure, it’s only got to do with circumstance of division of labor, nothing less, nothing more. They are not ready to accept that certain castes deliberately and forcefully kept some other castes out of education and employment, out of business or from owning property, for centuries.

So when asked how reservations-based-on-economic-status will ensure that merit is not diluted? they move to the next platform:

4. “The number of institutes and seats are so few. How could one accept such high % in reservations? The numbers is the problem. We may agree to reservations but the numbers are way too high”.

For this, the Government comes back to say that they will increase the number of seat such that the seats available in General Category remains the same after the increase in seats & imposition of reservations for OBC. In normal circumstance, all the rational people would have taken this is as successful result and go home happily because their numbers remain unaffected. But the true nature comes out now. Instead of accepting this proposal, they move to the next platform:

5. “We don’t have resources or wherewithal to implement this sudden increase. We don’t have necessary funds or faculty. We don’t have necessary building space or lab space to take care of this sudden increase. Government is unrealistic. We can’t increase the seats. That’s all”.

This is when all rational people start doubting the motives of anti-reservation protestors’ stand. My question is- If the Government is ready to increase the seats, why don’t we grab this opportunity and go for a binding agreement instead of giving 51 silly reasons why we can’t increase the number of seats. What is more comical is that same institutes asked for more seats in previous arguments (before anti-reservation protests). In spite of the government announcement to increase the number of seats, the anti-reservationists kept up their protests. Now, it is clear why they are fighting. They don’t want give up anything to accommodate reservations, based on caste or not.

In addition to the above excuses, they come up with even sillier reasons.

6. “A person can get fake caste certificate for Rs. 1500”

Yes. So what? A person can get a fake degree certificate. Do you abolish colleges? A person can get examination paper ‘out’ before the exam itself. Do you abolish examinations?

If reservations are based on economic status, how do you think this can be avoided? Can’t one get a fake tax statement? In India, everyone can know one’s caste but not their income. If we could know their income, we would have more than mere 3% taxpayers in this country.

7. “Only creamy layer gets benefited”.

Not really. Implementation of reservations for OBCs comes with exclusion of creamy layer. For more, visit http://ncbc.nic.in/index.html

It is clear from all these silly excuses that the argument of ‘anti-reservation’ group is untenable, doesn’t hold water and is downright apocryphal. They jump from one platform to another never staying on or clarifying at least one of their stands clearly.

In summary, their stance on this subject is this:

A. They don’t want to admit that discrimination ever happened in this country. That’s Denial. Since they deny it ever happened, no one apologizes.

B. They don’t want any discussion based on caste based distinction. It follows from (A). Allowing reservations based on caste is tantamount to accepting that discrimination was based on caste.

C. Any proposal to implement reservations is rejected in all forms. That’s Rejection. They are not genuine about their own proposals because some of their own suggestions contradict each other, like: How will reservations-based-on-economic-status not affect merit?

While I deride the protests and their core ideology, I extend my deepest sympathies, congratulate the protestors for their achievements and extend my thanks. Because of them, we will see a higher number of seats in Medical Colleges and in near future, hopefully, we will see more seats in engineering colleges and may be more IITs.

Reservations V: Apotheosis of IITs and myth of merit

Attacking apotheosis of IITs

Who are these elite IITians anyway? They are a group of students who have just passed an extremely tough entrance test at the age 16-18. Agreed, the IITians when they enter the institute after high school are one of the best in our country ONLY based on an examination conducted by JEE. But that's all there is to it, nothing more and nothing less. That doesn’t mean an Indian brain is just math, physics and chemistry. It only shows that they had the right combination of intelligence, hard work, privileges and social conditions, working for them during the time of the entrance test. 

There are many others who do not have access to or obtain that right combination at that age and fail to enter but may attain them at a later age to become even more successful. In fact, it is the duty of such institutes to actually provide some of those factors to under privileged. It’s unfortunate that our so called top institutes do not consider these other but essential factors into consideration durng admission process- such as diversity, social backwardness, inclusion of different religions, which are known to play a vital role in the health of an institute and an engineer.

 

Many technology institutes in the world are rated high for their quality of the program- characterized by the research output and industry association resulting in inventions, improvements and advances in Science and Technology, diversity of its students and faculty, and not just by the salaries of outgoing students. Attacking the hype, I would like to say that IITs are very average institutes. Their B.Tech program is arguably one of the best, but the actual research and concrete results coming from Masters and Ph.D. programs are almost negligible. 

To that effect, they are only good at supplying finest raw material or fodder material to MNCs, IIMs, MS and Ph.D. programs in US, but they do not by themselves produce any thing of great value in research content. There are no major inventions or innovations in technology coming out from these unnecessarily hyped Indian Institutes of Technology; except for some applications and solutions which look good in a Science Fare and Exhibition. As such I hold similar opinion of many other top-rated institutes of India- not just IITs.

 

[While I deride these institutes, I do know that all the alumni who feel proud of their alma mater will fight vehemently to support them. Even I felt very proud when my college was ranked in top 10 institutes of India. But frankly, we all know what kind of research actually takes place in those buildings. ]

When these institutes were formed in those initial days of Independence, the faculty was filled with forward castes, and it still remains that way. Currently, of the 400 member faculty at IIT Chennai 282 are Brahmins (only 3 from SC). No wonder, they are called ‘islands of excellence’ and ‘bastions of quality’. What they mean by that is that the ‘disease of reservations’ has not affected them. They have kept them ‘pure’ by avoiding the ‘contamination of lower caste’ that other institutes have suffered. This is the exact mentality that kept our caste system in fashion for thousands of years- that some castes are chaste and pure and are born from the head of Brahman himself, while some are soiled, impure, having sinned, and born from the feet or the soil under the feet of this Brahman.  

Its time to reject such ideas and bring IITs and IIMs into the mainstream to include people from all backgrounds and also its time for faculty and administrators of IITs to produce good research by combining forces with Indian Industry (more about that later), instead of perpetuating the myth of ‘cream of India’.

What is merit?

If one were to follow the news and media channels in the last 15 days of reservations hungama, one would have come across this word time and again. The word ‘merit’ is defined and used as antithesis of ‘reservations’. I would like to understand what they mean by it.

‘Merit’ in the present context is being defined as the ‘scores or marks or rank’ one gets in an entrance test or in an exam before entering another degree or job. So, if one were to write IIT-JEE and get a certain rank that is considered ‘merit’. A ‘meritorious’ student is one who gets a good rank.

 

Due to extreme competition, only 1% of the students who write the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) get to be admitted into IITs (approximately 3000 out 300,000). But having said that does that mean only the top 1% has the required qualifications and merit to carry on an IIT education? How about the guys who are in top 10%? Do they not qualify to carry on education at IIT to bring it the laurels it stands for? Compare that with any other college or institution in the world- even MIT and Harvard take in many students from top 25% and sometimes even from top 50% of the applicants. When we start giving out reservations to OBC/SC/STs that’s exactly what we do- instead of looking for candidates in top 1%, we widen the net to include the candidates in the top 10% (ranking 30,000 or so) or may be top 25% in some cases. Does that really affect an institute’s quality and performance? If it does, then there is something grossly wrong with such institutes which can only work with top 1% where it is believed that anything beyond 1% will taint and crumble the system. The snobbery of IIM and IIT professors is appalling. Some of them have said on TV that they can’t teach 'lower quality' students. If they are only good at grooming the top 1% and fail to groom top 10%, I propose they should move to countries ruled by monarchs to teach only the kids of emperors and kings. 

We are obsessed with scores so much that we are unable to see anything beyond them. Just to illustrate how we never seem to outgrow this: Just check the questions asked by Indian students in every week issue of Economic Times where this newspaper invites members of top Business Schools to answer Indian student’s questions, OR just attend any of the academic orientation or info session held by top US/Europe Business Schools in India. 95% of the questions are similar to this- “I got 7## score in GMAT. Will I get admission to your institute?” Now, all the answers from Admission Committee are the same- “The admission criterion consists of many other parameters in addition to your GMAT scores and there is no hard and fast rule to that”. The questions never change no matter how much they try to explain.

The admission criteria to top MBA schools in USA is broadly (not necessarily true for all schools) based on the following parameters: Bachelor Degree scores, essays and background information, Interview, Recommendation Letters, GMAT scores (and TOEFL if applicable), not necessarily in that order. A person with 540 score in GMAT may enter Harvard, while someone with 780 (out of 800) may be rejected- based on various parameters which include, in addition to those listed above, promoting diversity, promoting backward sections and weaker sections, etc.

An Indian brought up in India knowing that ‘merit’ is sole criteria to get admission doesn’t grasp how this admission process works. The belief system he held all his life gets punctured. Some learn to appreciate it, and some ignore it as some weird and quirky gimmick that Americans follow, and continue to assume that its “scores” which matter in the end. To them ‘merit’ (read “scores”) is inviolable and is worth fasting for and dying for. That's when another sacred entity called 'merit' joins the pantheon of many Indian sacred symbols. And it is our culture of sanctifying things that is the bane of our civilization. (more on that later!)

My Stand on Reservations IV

Why do so many young students, doctors, engineers and MBAs in India protest so vehemently against reservations-based-on-caste?

The answer lies in our primary education system.

Indian parents are obsessed with their kids performing well in their school. This only means one thing- “Get highest marks, no matter what”. There is heavy pressure on the kids to score higher and higher scores and the success in life is directly related to these marks. When I was a young kid, I used to get 5 out of 10 in all my art classes. If I had gone by what my art teacher thought of me, I would never have taken up art to become an artist. According to her, filling in the paint uniformly in those already-drawn-objects in a text book was considered art, and some girls who painstakingly filled them according to her mandate got 10 out of 10. If not for my parent’s encouragement which suggested that marks was not important and that I was more of an artist than what my marks suggested, I wouldn’t ever have taken up art in my life. Unfortunately, most parents in India judge their kids performance ONLY by their scores.

Therefore, the kids in India study their text books very well, learn everything by-heart and reprint the text as it is to earn appreciation from everyone. There is a tendency to believe that scores are necessary-and-sufficient criteria to judge a person’s competence. The school-going kid is protected from the realities of life, and he grows up knowing only Cricket, Bollywood and School text books completely oblivious to any social issue of India. All his life, this kid is told- “Study well, score more, and you will get into IIT”. He does that and only that. But when he is about to get into IIT, he suddenly realizes that 50% of those seats are actually reserved for a section of people who can enter with lower scores just because they belong to the so called lower caste. It dawns upon him that this world is out to deny him his admission, his rightful place in this elite institute he always dreamt of. He is enraged. He asks- “How could this stupid and selfish government, just to get more votes, impose these outdated and out-of-place rules to deny me my rightful position in spite of scoring really high marks? How can I accept that someone inferior to me in ‘merit’ and ‘quality’ can actually get the seat while I stand out?”

Why do we not prepare our kids to face the harsh realities that he would eventually face? The problem is with our primary education and parenting. The school texts and teachers teach and preach the glorified version of Indian history which had a great past. But he is not taught how we had a parallel history of prolonged and systematic discrimination and persecution. All ills are hidden or compeletely ignored. The kid grows up not knowing what it means to be a Dalit and doesn’t know any Dalits. Even if he does know one, that would be an IAS officer’s son who appears to be well off. So, when he realizes that such a thing called reservations-based-on-caste exists, he immediately sees himself as ‘victim’ and this rich IAS officer’s son as ‘profiteer’. He gets infuriated because now it means that he may not get a seat into IIT while this rich IAS officer’s kid may very well enter scoring lower marks. He makes this local comparison and feels discriminated against. He rationalizes that it is all a conspiracy by the Government of India and its politicians to discriminate him- and asks - why are they doing it to him? Only because he is from forward-class! Why should he pay for something that happened long ago?

His indignation is so high that he is ready to get out onto the street, go on a hunger strike and face police brutalities- because he knows heart-in-heart that he is fighting for a just cause. Even the media’s attention and focus tells him that he is fighting for a just cause. He believes he will be heard, and that the President of India, whom he held in high esteem till date would definitely understand his cause and come to his rescue. But when all these leaders do not budge from their stand, he gets disillusioned by the system, gets frustrated. He comes up with many antics, like, sweeping the streets with a broom. What he actually wanted to show was that he will have no job and hence will have to sweep the streets now. But what he doesn’t realize is that Dalits, for centuries together, were asked to sweep the streets and sweep their own footprints because they were considered untouchable. To mimic the same atrocity is sheer mockery of their plight. I don’t know whether its ignorance or its apathy. He puts up a hoarding saying- “I will go to US since my country has disowned me”. What he doesn’t realize is that when he does go to US he has to pay $120,000 to $250,000 to get the same medical degree. In addition, during the admission process he has to face competition within his own peer group (other Indians), while a Black American, Hispanic American, or a Tahitian, with much lower scores has better chances of admission. No wonder, many Indians go to US with the same discriminatory prejudices and never get the learning or schooling to change their views. (Readers must know that Indians living in US are more discriminatory towards Blacks than the Whites.)

Contrast this with a kid growing up in US. The kid learns in school that Blacks were systematically discriminated and hence to correct those actions US has implemented Affirmative Action. The affirmative action is explained in detail. The kid also learns how White Americans discriminated and killed many Native Americans and hence they are now given special privileges- like owning vast stretches of Reservations (land), owning and operating Casinos, etc.

Our Indian gets lost both in India and in US. He can’t understand why certain sections of people are given preference though they score less. He was always told ‘merit’ was everything. Some of these disillusioned Indians, over a period of time, make an attempt to learn and adapt to the US system appreciating such affirmative actions while most others continue to live in their protected environs mixing and rubbing shoulders only with fellow forward caste Indians, watching Bollywood & Cricket and debating how Reservations and Muslims have ruined this country (India).

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.

My Stand on Reservations II

“Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?”

There are some, like Francois Gautier of Rediff Columns, who pose questions like above. Dalits were backward not because they were poor. They were ostracized (that means they were put out of the mainstream, they were considered so disgusting that they could not be touched), persecuted (targeted and lynched), and discriminated against (that means they were treated as sub-human, and were not allowed to enter schools, temples, or other administrative offices), not because they were poor, but because they were born into Dalit family. The analogy with the present day poor forward classes like poor Brahmins is utterly and grossly flawed. The present day poor Brahmin is not targeted and kept out of college or school for being a Brahmin. Economic status could be changed over a generation or two, but discrimination and persecution kept going consistently, without wavering, ever increasing, for over two thousand years. The analogy is of bad taste even if the author is using exaggeration to drive his point.

Shouldn’t reservations be based on economic criteria?

This discrimination and persecution (as outlined above) was carried out on the name of ‘caste’, not based on religion, not based on gender, not based on language or class, and definitely not based on economic status of a person. A poor Brahmin or a poor Kshatriya had always access to education, water from the village well, and had access to any kind of employment, including being a munim/munshi during Mughal Empire or become an IAS officer during British Empire. A Dalit was out-casted not because he is poor but because he is born Dalit. Not much he could do in his life to change his status! He died not knowing what it means to read or write, not knowing what it means to look at this world as a literate man. Always an ignorant, he was continually exploited resulting in bonded labor where many generations served a family because of a small loan taken centuries ago by a forefather. He agreed with those who told them that he is derived from the soil under the foot of the God. He agreed to walk with a broom behind his back to remove his own foot prints because they were defiling the streets.

When we set out a massive pogrom of depriving a section based on caste for thousands of years, any corrective measure that one can come up has to be based on ‘caste’. It cannot be any other.

Many in India now argue that reservations should be based on economic status. ‘It’s the poor who should be given reservations, not backward classes’, they argue. This argument is absolutely fallacious and has to be rejected. There are other schemes for poor people, such as free education, free books, scholarships, etc. There are free sops to poor farmers. A poor person irrespective of caste can avail free education, free medication and scholarships in India. That will only solve the economic problems. But that is not going to solve the problems of discrimination-based-on-caste which is so deeply entrenched into our Indian psyche. No matter what the urban, forward classes and elite media want to believe and want us to believe, there are enough examples to show with absolute proof that discrimination based on caste exists in India, more so in rural India where more than 75% of India lives. This discrimination may have been subdued over time, unlike in the older times where it was overt, but it is still palpable in all schemes of things in life. Reservations based on caste is the only solace, the only avenue that tries to provide a fight against that discrimination, trying its best to narrow the divide that engulfed our sub-continent for thousands of years. Anything else is not valid and should be rejected.

Why do I think ‘reservations based on economic status’ cannot be effective?

First, the reservations were introduced to correct the wrongs this subcontinent practiced and the basis for that was ‘caste’ (explained above). Second, in India there is no effective way of knowing how much a person earns. Currently, only 3% of India pays taxes. Does the rest (97%) fall outside the tax bracket (where they are exempted)? Not necessarily. Many of them are tax-dodgers. There are many rich people who do not pay taxes and wrongly file that they earn less to get exempted. The whole purpose of imposing a scheme to correct the wrongs of discrimination-based-on-caste will be lost if the reservations are based on economic status because this is equivalent to leaving a big loop hole for the forward class to keep up its dominance and discrimination through alternate methods. Reservations-based-on-caste however flawed is the still the best recourse to address the problem at hand.

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.

Argumentative Bengali

I was reading ‘Argumentative Indian’ by Noble Laureate Amartya Sen. It’s a good book and brings new perspectives to Indian history. I really like his theories and interpretations of our history- that we are tolerant, that we are able to imbibe democracy and promote diversity because we have this ‘argumentative’ streak in us.

I have only one problem though – that Amartya Sen is Bengali. In my experience, a Bengali looks at every thing from a ‘Bengali Prism’. To him/her everything gets distorted to give a Bengali twist. They believe that the God is Bengali.

In this book, he quotes and refers to Rabindranath Tagore profusely, almost every other page – to the point of causing nausea to the reader. Whom would you quote when talking about tolerance, working for gender equality, bringing lower caste into manifold, preaching peace, etc? One has many examples in the contemporary Indian history- notable being Mahatma Gandhi. But for Amartya Sen it’s only Rabindranath Tagore and no one else. We all agree that Tagore was a great poet and author of notable works, a strong proponent of peace, and visionary who conveyed it through his words. On the other hand, Mahatma Gandhi was an activist, the person who actually put in action many of the principles and ideals that Rabindranath Tagore preached. When Sen wanted to give examples on how India tolerated different religions and castes, and how our culture embraced new ideas and thoughts, he went back to Tagore. There are innumerable examples from our Indian Freedom Struggle, but to Amartya Sen, the world starts and ends with Tagore.

He might as well have named the book “Argumentative Bengali” because all the examples he quotes are Bengalis as if there is no other Indian who could set an example for him. Ghosh, and other Bengali authors feature incessantly in his book as if the whole Indian history was constructed, influenced and delivered by Bengalis. How about I compile an Indian history where the only characters and examples are that of a Tamil King and Tamil Author and no one else?

My annoyance peaked when I saw a quote from another Bengali writer to illustrate why the nuclear bomb is bad. While talking of ill-effects of atom bomb, I would expect one to describe Hiroshima/Nagasaki or Chernobyl or may be radiation effects on Bikini Islands, but definitely not Arundhati Roy’s poetic description where rivers dry up, and how sun dances on earth. I have one message to all Bengali writers- “Come on, get out of your self-delusional world!” Times have changed. Great men and women come from different parts of India these days. Abdul Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanathan Anand and Narayana Murthy are not Bengali.

Apart from being a delusional Bengali, Amartya Sen is also a very ‘academic’ writer, which makes it worse. He repeats himself throughout the book. The same examples are quoted in more than one place. It is full of references within the same book like – As I described in the Chapter 1, Section 4, this will be discussed in Chapter 7, Paragraph 2, etc, as if it were some IEEE transaction or an academic publication. He doesn’t have many facts to corroborate his story either. His conclusion that Sanskrit has influenced Chinese languages is supported with one and only one example which is repeated again and again- that the word 'Mandarin' in Chinese is actually ‘Mantri’ in Sanskrit. Quoting one example to construct a theory does not make sense. One has to talk about more examples involving influence of syntax, grammar, and semantics, to say that these two languages have a relationship.

In summary, he makes an excellent point in the first chapter and describes all the examples in there. Rest of the book contains the same message repeated in many roundabout ways without giving any new insights. According to me, one could read just the first chapter and get the whole story in entirety. You may not want to read further unless you are a Bengali. :)

MF Husain and nude paintings

Now, the Home Ministry of India has ‘alerted police to take appropriate action’ against MF Husain for his controversial Paintings. Earlier, the Bombay High Court asked him ‘to file an affidavit in response to criminal action against him’ for his nude paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses.

What is with Artists and nude paintings? Why do most artists (including me) paint nudes?

For most artists nudity doesn’t necessarily represent obscenity unlike most common people. Artists tend to depict nature, people or the things that they see in various forms- like shedding it to bare, raw or simple forms, or seeing it in the most bizarre forms, or as abstract and unrealistic as possible. And the freedom for artistic expression is essential for such artists to thrive. Sometimes art can be offensive to some people, like some paintings, or certain books, or certain music albums, in which case they are NOT open to everyone but only to those who are ready to experience it. I put a picture of MF Husain Painting on the top to show case how an artist depicts his experiences. The picture above is that of MF Husain’s Durga (the goddess) and if it were to be nude, you can imagine how offensive it could be :)

Depicting a man or a woman in nude is one of the biggest challenges for an artist. And many artists do paint nudes one time or the other. Sometimes they may cover the private parts with a fig leaf or a small piece of flying cloth, but nevertheless, they are trying to capture human in nudity.

Is nudity a perversion of an artist?

Yes and No. Perversion comes from making every one, a king, a farmer, an angel, a laborer, a goddess, all equal by reducing them to their barest and truest form with no ornament, no garment or a man-made status symbol.

Artists in India have sculpted and painted all our gods and goddesses in nude, and sometimes exaggerated certain features by depicting prominent hips and breasts on a woman. This exaggeration is somewhat similar to a caricature, to highlight certain aspects, in this case sexual symbols. Almost all Indian temples of ancient times have nude figurines all over the place. It looks like our ancestors were either perverse or extremely liberal in their thought process. Whatever may have been that reason, we seem to have lost that reason and have become very conservative and orthodox in the recent past- Is it because of Muslim and British Rule? Or is it because the figurines and pictures of gods and goddesses were now entering common household instead of being restricted to temples? Whatever may be the reason for such a change in our outlook towards our goddesses, we have definitely turned intolerant. While we may tend to think that it is against our tradition and religion to depict a goddess nude, one look at ancient temples would reveal that it is exactly the opposite.

When does the ‘artistic freedom’ stop and ‘respecting other people’s sensitivities’ kick in?

While an artist should have his creative freedom, he is not free to do anything he/she wants. What if he wants to cut the body parts of a human to adorn his canvas? That involves hurting or mutilating another human and crosses the boundaries of artistic freedom and starts being trampling on other people’s rights (and bodies). Can I play offensive music loud in a street? I would then be causing inconvenience to others, and I do not have freedom to do that. Can I play the same offensive music in my headphones? Of course Yes, and if someone stops me from listening then they are trampling on my rights.

Can I put a nude poster on a huge billboard? If the society allows it, I can (like in Europe) and if the society feels offended (like in India), we should take it out. Can an artist paint nude figurine of anyone including a goddess? Of course he can! But can he showcase it in a public place? Of course not- if it offends certain sections of people. But can he put it in his place? Of course yes, and can he invite his friends and patrons to come in and look at it? Of course yes. There is no one forcing anyone to see it without one’s consent.

So, why should it bother anyone if MF Husain paints nude paintings of Mother India and Durga and showcase it in an art gallery which is restricted to only those who want to look at it? This is where the intolerant, orthodox and conservative Indian masses kick in. The common man, who has no idea of what culture or heritage he once had, gets to say what an artist can do. And they go about protesting and taking it to court. And the court agrees to uphold such intolerant concerns.

When does 'getting offended' translate into 'being intolerant'?

We are not able to publish books on how Hindus meted cruel treatment to Sikhs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, we are unable to uphold woman’s rights when she is divorced and forsaken by a Muslim Husband, and now we are unable to uphold artistic freedom that was always a part of this country’s history. The intolerance has reached gigantic proportions affecting the very fabric of our democracy and the values it promised to uphold.

People get offended by almost everything in the name of ‘Indian culture’. While our ancestors enjoyed and practiced Kama Sutra and depicted it in sculptures where gods and goddess perform various sexual positions in abandon and freedom, our generation looks at everything sexual as obscene. While most of the new songs on MTV and VH1 are quite vulgar, that seems to be OK, but nudity is a strict no-no. While young girls in India wear t-shirts with messages that are downright obscene, any show of skin is a strict no-no. It’s very confusing sometimes. Can’t actually say what offends us and what doesn’t. And offended people feel they have a right to come to my home and change the way I live at my home, if possible resorting to ransacking and pillaging my home.

Or is MF Husain targeted because he is a Muslim depicting a Hindu goddess in nude? Its like saying, ‘we can have these nude figures in our temples, because they are Hindu temples, but how come, you being a Muslim dare to paint our goddesses nude’? I see a great deal of 'progressive thinking' taking place within Hindus who are now emulating their brother nations like Iran by announcing Rs. 51 Crore prize money to anyone who beheads MF Husain. "If Afghans, Iranians and Arabians are intolerant, you haven't seen much, just give us some more time and you will see what we can come up with!"

Or is it because Muslims get their fun and frolic while relieving the frustration protesting the Cartoons of Prophet while Hindus don’t get any fun? Hindus need those occasional kicks too.

A Response: On Arundhati Roy

(Some readers have construed from my writings that I am OK with trampling rights of the people just because I support construction of the dam and pooh-pooh NBA. Here’s my response).

I am very much for people's rights. They cannot be trampled – I strongly believe it. While we seem to fight well for our rights, we seem to ignore many of our duties. I am just putting forth an opposing view because our nation seems to be enamored and wooed by the sentimental show put up my these two ladies, cashing in on methods employed by a freedom fighter fifty years ago. We seem to equate all those antiquity methods with virtuousness. Going to jail (even for murder), sacrificing (like Sonia did for other ulterior motives), fasting (like Medha Patkar severely affecting millions of others), taking out a yatra (like Advani to promote communalism), are all glorified only because this is exactly what Mahatma Gandhi did long ago. Whatever may be the 'goal' (selfish or selfless) the 'means' they employ seem to have a great impact.

When flooding happens, due to construction of dam- small or big, the government allocates land elsewhere. This happened with all dams before and so is happening with Narmada as well. Just to give you an instance- which involves a famous person- Captain Gopinath, founder and MD of Deccan Airlines, was a recipient of such land allocation. He was relating his story to many entrepreneurs in Bangalore- that he retired from Army, came to his hometown, around the time his father's lands were submerged due to construction of a small dam/canal nearby. Government allocated land elsewhere where his father had no interest to till. So, Captain Gopinath became a farmer for the next ten years. Rest is history.

Most of the time, the land is allocated at a different place (cannot be same place since it is being submerged), and sometimes it is compensated through money/cash. Whether you accept the new land or not, accept the cash or not is up to each individual. He may take the cash and blow it up on liquor- that’s his right.

In some countries, you have no option to refuse compensation. The US has mandated as a law that public interest works cannot be stopped by litigations- people will be compensated for and one has to accept it. Only in India, the rights are well fought for and duties well neglected.

I will be sad if my land is taken away. We all do. I may be happy or unhappy with the compensation- but I have to do it for the well-being of my country- that includes me and million others. I may be sad when paying taxes but I have to do it, because it is in the best interest of others as well mine. I could easily argue why am I the only one paying tax (because only 3% Indians pay taxes) while the rest (97%) is enjoying the benefits? May be, I should also go on a hunger strike to abolish taxes. This whole idea of stopping a development effort because you are not satisfied with compensation will never allow us to do anything in this country. People are always unsatisfied- they don’t want to pay wealth taxes or income taxes. Actually, they don’t want to pay up for anything. They encroach upon lands from forests and never give them up, they throw garbage on the streets and never pay for the cleaning, and they resort to illegal methods to avoid paying anything to the government. While they are ready to come out into streets to fight for their rights, they never step out to conduct their duties.

Many a times, encroachment by people shrinks the roads to narrow lanes, and when Government wants to widen them, we see a spate of protests and hunger-strikes. People squat on public lands, and when government tries to remove them, they go on strikes and mass movements, and people like Arundhati Roy supports them. Even when compensated, they are not happy with it. They just don’t want to move, no matter what the compensation is. And to make sure the project doesn’t take place, they do not even accept the compensation and blame government for inadequate rehabilitation.

NBA doesn’t want any compensation. NBA doesn’t want the Dam. Medha Patkar, in her initial days, even protested against any rehabilitation- she reasoned rehab would change the way those tribals lived. NBA has been changing their slogan- first it was ‘No Dam’ and now it is ‘First rehab, then Dam’. Then they will say ‘Let the rehab bear fruit, let the kids grow up liking the new place, let the people be happy and satisfied, and then may be a Dam’. By then millions would have died elsewhere after a series of droughts!

As a nation, we can’t stop such development activities to satisfy everyone. You don’t go about asking people if they want to pay taxes. If one were to take a poll, most of India would not want to pay taxes. It’s not a people’s choice- some of them are not. You don’t take a poll on whether you want to increase prices of oil. You just do it because its good for everyone, may not be for an individual.

Fight for your rights. And also do your duties. In my opinion, NBA is all about fighting for rights, and completely renouncing their duties.

Uttara Karnataka - a new state?

I am an ardent supporter of creating more states in India [I also ask for a separate Telangana]. My argument is simple (only to make it simple for readers, otherwise it is exhaustive and most often it doesn't get read) - if in a state there are two regions, one prosperous and another backward, and if no corrective measures (which need to be huge) are taken, it will result in a spiraling effect wherein, more and more investment, schemes and industry are drawn to the prosperous regions while the backward regions get more and more relegated, to an extent that you see stark difference in these two regions which cannot be corrected anymore if it remains a single state.

Here's an article from THE HINDU - Imbalance in industrial investment in Karnataka

May be, its time for creating another state!