Anand Neelakantan's Blog - Posts Tagged "reservations"
The reservation question
The union government recently announced 27% reservation for OBC and 10 % reservation for the economically weaker societies in medical courses. As expected, this decision gave rise to extreme reactions supporting and condemning this move from various quarters. Caste is an eternal curse of India and like any other bane, it cannot be just wished away.
For thousands of years, caste discrimination had kept away most members of our society from positions of power. Contrary to popular perception, the quota system didn’t begin after Independence. In fact, the idea of the affirmative program that started in 1950s was the culmination of at least seventy years of effort. During the British era, some communities like Brahmins dominated in the government service despite being less than 3 percent of the population. In Travancore, on 1st of January 1891, a plea known as the Malayali memorial was submitted for fair representation of other communities in Travancore’s government jobs that were dominated by Brahmins. Though no immediate government action followed, it paved the way for the idea of social justice and representation by the quota system. In 1882 and 1891, the princely state of Kolhapur introduced reservations in favour of non-Brahmins in the government. In 1921, the provincial government of Madras Presidency under the Justice party passed a government order that entailed power-sharing agreement between six communities, Brahmins, non-Brahmin Hindus, Mohammedans, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, and Europeans. The quota system as we know now started in 1954 with the ministry of education reserving 20 percent quota for SC and ST and relaxation of qualifying marks by 5 %. In 1982, the quota was split between SC and ST as 15 % and 7.5 % respectively.
The biggest and most controversial change that happened was when Mandal Commission was implemented in the 1990s. The commission constituted in 1979 had no contemporary data regarding the population of each community or their social status and used the 1931 pre-partition, pre-independence census to arbitrarily decide the communities to be included in the OBC and allot 27% quota. This was a purely political decision and the most powerful and numerical castes forced their way into this quota system with their vote banks. In 1992, Supreme Court put a cap on the quota system at 50%, but this hasn’t stopped many states from adding more and more communities into the OBC categories and even SC and ST. In Tamil Nadu, the reservation applies to 89% percent of the population, defeating its entire purpose.
As expected, the vast majority of those who criticise the quota system are from the upper castes. The most vociferous argument is about the erosion of merit due to reservations. They argue for economic status-based reservation. The pro-quota proponents counter this by saying reservation is not a poverty alleviation programme but is meant for social justice and representation. Both these arguments are tenuous at best and absurd at worst. How do we measure merit? Performance in a competitive test taken in one’s twenties is a measure of a person’s worth for the rest of his life? Does any test measure compassion, competency, creativity, etc that is needed to perform a job? How is someone who has the privilege of money, caste, and means for specialized coaching to crack competitive exams meritorious than someone having none of these and yet scores slightly lesser marks in a test? If we take reservation as just a means of representation, what is the purpose of the test itself? The communities should elect or nominate their representatives for each job and profession rather than ask them to compete. How is a community as a whole benefitted if a few members of it gets some privilege?
The caste system in India is more layered, hierarchical, and complex than the racial discrimination practiced in many countries. Solutions like positive affirmation which may work in a society that has clearly defined privileged versus underprivileged like white versus black in USA, will not work in a society like ours where every caste is an oppressor and privileged compared to the ones that are one rung lower to them. In many Indian states, castes that hold vast swathes of lands and from who the scheduled communities face the most oppression are now beneficiaries of other backward community quota. Where is the social justice here? There are countless sub-castes in SC and ST and the benefit of reservation has gone only to the creamy castes within the Dalits, leaving many sub-castes in lurch.
In a country like ours with so much inequality, most of which are caste based, there should be no debate about the need for reservations for the underprivileged and the marginal. The debate should now move on to how we rationalize the quota. How can we ensure more equality? Perhaps, a social backward index could be the answer. Each individual can be ranked based on criteria like their caste, economic status, the caste’s relative status with respect to other communities, family status like how many members have already enjoyed/enjoying the quota, and so on. The total marks obtained in a test could be multiplied with such an individual index to arrive at the actual merit. This is not a foolproof method, but it would stop the clamor for every community vying for backward status and a creamy layer hogging all benefits.
For thousands of years, caste discrimination had kept away most members of our society from positions of power. Contrary to popular perception, the quota system didn’t begin after Independence. In fact, the idea of the affirmative program that started in 1950s was the culmination of at least seventy years of effort. During the British era, some communities like Brahmins dominated in the government service despite being less than 3 percent of the population. In Travancore, on 1st of January 1891, a plea known as the Malayali memorial was submitted for fair representation of other communities in Travancore’s government jobs that were dominated by Brahmins. Though no immediate government action followed, it paved the way for the idea of social justice and representation by the quota system. In 1882 and 1891, the princely state of Kolhapur introduced reservations in favour of non-Brahmins in the government. In 1921, the provincial government of Madras Presidency under the Justice party passed a government order that entailed power-sharing agreement between six communities, Brahmins, non-Brahmin Hindus, Mohammedans, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, and Europeans. The quota system as we know now started in 1954 with the ministry of education reserving 20 percent quota for SC and ST and relaxation of qualifying marks by 5 %. In 1982, the quota was split between SC and ST as 15 % and 7.5 % respectively.
The biggest and most controversial change that happened was when Mandal Commission was implemented in the 1990s. The commission constituted in 1979 had no contemporary data regarding the population of each community or their social status and used the 1931 pre-partition, pre-independence census to arbitrarily decide the communities to be included in the OBC and allot 27% quota. This was a purely political decision and the most powerful and numerical castes forced their way into this quota system with their vote banks. In 1992, Supreme Court put a cap on the quota system at 50%, but this hasn’t stopped many states from adding more and more communities into the OBC categories and even SC and ST. In Tamil Nadu, the reservation applies to 89% percent of the population, defeating its entire purpose.
As expected, the vast majority of those who criticise the quota system are from the upper castes. The most vociferous argument is about the erosion of merit due to reservations. They argue for economic status-based reservation. The pro-quota proponents counter this by saying reservation is not a poverty alleviation programme but is meant for social justice and representation. Both these arguments are tenuous at best and absurd at worst. How do we measure merit? Performance in a competitive test taken in one’s twenties is a measure of a person’s worth for the rest of his life? Does any test measure compassion, competency, creativity, etc that is needed to perform a job? How is someone who has the privilege of money, caste, and means for specialized coaching to crack competitive exams meritorious than someone having none of these and yet scores slightly lesser marks in a test? If we take reservation as just a means of representation, what is the purpose of the test itself? The communities should elect or nominate their representatives for each job and profession rather than ask them to compete. How is a community as a whole benefitted if a few members of it gets some privilege?
The caste system in India is more layered, hierarchical, and complex than the racial discrimination practiced in many countries. Solutions like positive affirmation which may work in a society that has clearly defined privileged versus underprivileged like white versus black in USA, will not work in a society like ours where every caste is an oppressor and privileged compared to the ones that are one rung lower to them. In many Indian states, castes that hold vast swathes of lands and from who the scheduled communities face the most oppression are now beneficiaries of other backward community quota. Where is the social justice here? There are countless sub-castes in SC and ST and the benefit of reservation has gone only to the creamy castes within the Dalits, leaving many sub-castes in lurch.
In a country like ours with so much inequality, most of which are caste based, there should be no debate about the need for reservations for the underprivileged and the marginal. The debate should now move on to how we rationalize the quota. How can we ensure more equality? Perhaps, a social backward index could be the answer. Each individual can be ranked based on criteria like their caste, economic status, the caste’s relative status with respect to other communities, family status like how many members have already enjoyed/enjoying the quota, and so on. The total marks obtained in a test could be multiplied with such an individual index to arrive at the actual merit. This is not a foolproof method, but it would stop the clamor for every community vying for backward status and a creamy layer hogging all benefits.
