I belong to the General Category and I support Caste Based reservation.

Now as soon as I mention this opinion of mine in a public place, all the anti-reservation activists and pro-merit fundamentalists pounce upon me viewing me as some holier-than-thou Devil’s advocate. They try to convince me why merit should take place precedence and how the long-term future of the nation requires more liberal environment instead of shackled reservation-bound system.

Believe me I have given due thought to this argument and I respect their opinion as I am entitled to mine. Therefore, in the name of libertarianism, I request the reader of this post to read it with an open mind. If you have already made up your mind that reservation needs to go, then read no further.

Its going to be a long post, and therefore to keep it less monotonous, I shall be adopting the Feynman Technique by answering the usual questions that the above mentioned pro-merit activists put up.

Q. You qualified IIT without having to suffer the pain of being left behind in this highly competitive JEE exam. You know nothing of the ordeal that a general candidate goes through by missing out by inch while seeing his friends of SC/ST/OBC category qualifying with lesser marks.

A. I gave Civil Service Examination, 2012 in which I cleared Mains, gave Interview but could not make up to the final list by a few marks.Moreover, some of my coaching batchmates with lower scores became officers as they belonged to category and their cut off was lower than my marks.

Did I feel frustrated?

Yes, I studied for around 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days an year for 1.5 years for that attempt. I rarely took any break. So its natural to feel frustrated when you do not qualify after such an ordeal.

But I still hold my opinion. Should administration do away with its objectives and goals merely due to emotions of some frustrated individuals who could not qualify in the final list? Its analogous to saying that judiciary should ground its judgments on the sentiments of relatives of the aggrieved and not on impartial jurisprudence.

The administration must do a fine act of balancing by being sensitive to public opinion without allowing mere public sentiments to emerge as the arbiter of law and policy making. The tendency of basing the decisions on the society’s shifting notions of rights and wrong should be curbed, but instead decision making process should derive from a long term perspective and constitutional morality.

Therefore, those who discredit Reservation system solely on the basis of some touching stories of general category students who could not qualify certain exam, I am sorry to say, need to make a more debatable argument.

Q. Caste is a phenomenon of the past that is slowly fading away. Caste based Reservation will only accentuate the underlying ills of the Caste System.

A. One need to realize that Caste is not fading away.

The harsh reality is that caste system in the contemporary period has tended to become “invisible” for the upper caste, upper middle and upper classes. For these groups, who have benefitted the most from the developmental policies of the post colonial era, caste has appeared to decline in significance precisely because it has done its job so well. Their caste status has been crucial in ensuring that these groups had the necessary economic and educational resources to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by rapid development. In particular, the upper caste elites (back then, elites belonged only to upper caste) were able to benefit from professional education in science, technology, medicine and management. At the same time, they were also able to take advantage of expansion of state sector jobs in the early decades after Independence. In this initial period, their lead over the rest of the society (in terms of education) ensured that they did not face any serious competition. As their privileged status got consolidated in the second and third generations, these groups began to believe that their advancement had little to do with caste. This the reality of today’s merit.

For SC/ST/OBCs, the opposite has happened. For them, caste has become all too visible, such that their caste has eclipsed all the other dimensions of their identities. They have inherited no education or economic capital and now since they must compete with already established upper caste group, they cannot afford to abandon their only collective asset: their caste They still continue to suffer from discrimination of various kinds. The policies of reservation are their only source of inspiration, rather, their lifelines.

For some of us, who still do not see or do not wish to see how these other Castes are discriminated against, I invite them to see the following documentary.

Its time we take our ostrich-like heads from the convenient sands and realize the truth.

Documentary: India Untouched

Q. What is the issue with granting reservation on economic basis? Why not abolish the caste basis and usher a more equal reservation?

A. If you have watched the above video, I think this query should have been automatically answered.

But anyways to answer this question, I ask a counter-question:

“Is it OK to consume a medicine, meant to cure head ache, for stomach pain? After all, both are medicines.”

You would indeed wonder at the stupidity of the question. Yet some of you suggest Economic Reservation as an alternative for Caste Based Reservation.

Caste is a unique and peculiar social phenomenon based on the principles of:

1) Hierarchy (Inherent inequality: Dalit women are frequently raped merely to remind the untouchables of their position in society. Yet some of us say that Caste is a phenomenon that is rapidly fading away.)

2) Purity-pollution continuum (Dalits are at the receiving end of this continuum. Some of them have to carry a broom with them as they walk to swipe away their footprints EVEN TODAY)

3) Ascriptive (determined by birth: never a matter of choice. Its, in principle, impossible for a person to ever change his/her life circumstances.)

4) Endogamy (hence, every way of getting out of this rabbit hole is blocked)

5) Related to Occupation (A Dalit cannot change his occupation even if he wants to. He is incapable of seeing a better future for his children. Just think of it.)

6) Rules of Conduct (Food sharing: A dalit cannot drink tea in the same cup as rest. What about the self-confidence of children who grow up in such an environment?)

Now, I ask, which among these atrocities, are shared by the curse of Poverty. How can we ever equate the two?

We need to remember that Reservation is not like an unemployment-allowance.

Its a serious effort to bring a sense of equity to an unjust society. Its not a dole out.

Q. But what about equality. Isn’t giving quota to selected few another form of injustice?

A. It should always be remembered that Equality is always among equals and to treat unequals as equal is nothing but perpetuating inequality further.

The picture below describes this thought process wonderfully.



Those who believe in political democracy must also believe in social and economic democracy otherwise the lofty goals of establishing an egalitarian society would remain mere goals.

Suppose we have a race involving 2 runners. The first person is supposed to carry a rucksack bag of 50 Kgs on his back while the second person is free to run without any load. After half of the race is finished, the load is removed from the first person “ushering an era of equality” and both of them are told to finish the race on their “merit”. Is it what we term as equality? The worst point is that the first person is still carrying the load.

Q. The founding forefathers envisaged the reservation only for a period of 10 years. Why is it continuing till now?

A. Well, apparently our Constitution makers quite under estimated the depth upto which the Caste based inequality is entrenched in our Society.

For a detailed answer to this question, I would invite the reader to carefully study the Ambedkar-Gandhi debate (Post Communal Award Debate) and Ambedkar vs Nehru discussions.

Along with a reading of such debates, the statistics should also be kept in back of our minds. How many of the top posts of our nation (both public and private) are occupied by these communities? Is it a mere co-incidence that a nation that has produced brilliant minds like Ambedkar, fails to send even a handful of people to the top echelons, inspite of reservation ??

So the main question is, instead of debating on the number of years, we should ask whether the Reservation System been followed in a bona-fide manner?

Q. But the reservation system is used for Vote- Bank politics and actual deserving SC/STs never get the opportunity and the seats are taken up by more affluent candidates that belong to the category.

A. Now this is a good question.

I completely agree that the current implementation of the reservation system leaves much to be desired. Some of the points that could be debated include:

1) Creamy layer in SC/STs

2) Once in a lifetime benefit

3) A Transparent system of Appraisal and consequent abolition of Caste based promotions.

4) Percentage distribution of seats

5) Principle of Inclusion/ Exclusion followed to allot seats.

All these points are definitely worth debating over but a meaningful debate can only occur in an environment that is conducive to free flow of ideas and not shackled by emotionally-founded fundamentalism.

The main purpose of imposing a time limit was not that our forefathers were in a hurry to do away with this system but rather they expected that an egalitarian society shall be achieved sooner.

Q. But what is the mistake of the general category students? Why should they suffer due to an unequal society?

A. Can the Rights of the citizens take undue precedence without any obligation of duties towards the nation. When we are born into society, we automatically inherit the privileges and responsibilities attached with its membership. Its our utmost duty to ensure that a degree of equity is established in the society and goals of inclusive development are fulfilled.

Agreed that there are flaws in the system. So, indeed there is a need of correcting it and debating over it with an open mind keeping the broader realities in mind. But to say that the whole system must be thrown out because my personal interests are being harmed in the short run, is definitely a disservice to our nation.

Some extracts taken from : Indian Society, Hindu Newspaper