Large numbers of people in India participate in movements to get themselves, their castes, tagged as backward in ways that can get them preferential and promotional treatment in government run educational institutions and government jobs. There are in fact so many people claiming that a percentage be reserved for them in jobs and seats in colleges, that I find it funny that all percentages - reserved and unreserved - have to add up to a cent and probably none of them realizes that cent is a pie of fixed size. Thanks to whoever fixed the max limit at 50% for all reservations, we at least have a cap on the reserved part. It can surely be amended, but for now, we have some bounds for positive discrimination, although positive to someone would be negative to someone else.
Fundamentally, the intention of reservation is to bring about equality in class to people of all the castes, although in a very twisted way. It assumes all people of the backward castes are hindered in their ability to grow, because of resources and opportunities not being accessible to them; and the reservation system provides them with easy rides, combination of both resources and opportunities. And if someone belonging to one of those castes is not really hindered, it's simply his/her good luck. And implicit in all this is also an assumption that all people of the so called non-backward castes have ample resources and opportunities to achieve what they want, and if anybody doesn't, it's his/her bad-luck. And with 60+ years of reservation already gone, there's a further assumption that things haven't improved any bit with anyone in any of the backward castes, and in fact may have worsened considerably, which calls for more reservation. And over these 60+ years, it's been found that many more castes qualify to be considered backward - some had to fight to prove it - and therefore deserve to be awarded with some reservation. Such castes are the few which have managed to cross the line separating the haves from the have-nots.
All these may be partial truths and logical ways of looking at things, but the funny part is, everyone knows it's none of it which is really driving things. It's something else... the screwed-up political system of India, the way our leaders think, the incentives that drive our peoples - which is really shameful, and the sadly manipulative democracy that we consider ourselves, which ironically the common man is incapable of changing much for good. A model where claiming backwardness is incentivised forever can only degrade a culture and screw up the self-esteem of its people. But we should not complain, coz our forefathers were another bunch of mental cases, who practiced the equivalent of slavery in India for centuries, and someone has to pay the price for it now. And to make matters worse, there are millions of mental-cases even now who are carrying forward the legacy of those forefathers with depraved minds.
The worst downside of this positive discrimination called reservation and all the allied set of benefits that come with it, is that the youth of this country, most of them, who don't otherwise believe in caste-bullshit, get frustrated at losing out in the race to someone less deserving - even if one accounts for access to resources and opportunity - and then the whole system seems unfair, yet incapable of change. And this somehow leads to stronger feelings of casteism - rooted in hatred resulting from frustration - it's difficult to expect someone so frustrated to not have such thoughts and feelings. Especially when the whole system that wronged them is visibly driven to a large extent by opportunism rather than any real concern for the backward and downtrodden. And whatever were the intentions of introducing the whole reservation system, we've ended up promoting the very problem it tried to solve.
The worst downside of this positive discrimination called reservation and all the allied set of benefits that come with it, is that the youth of this country, most of them, who don't otherwise believe in caste-bullshit, get frustrated at losing out in the race to someone less deserving - even if one accounts for access to resources and opportunity - and then the whole system seems unfair, yet incapable of change. And this somehow leads to stronger feelings of casteism - rooted in hatred resulting from frustration - it's difficult to expect someone so frustrated to not have such thoughts and feelings. Especially when the whole system that wronged them is visibly driven to a large extent by opportunism rather than any real concern for the backward and downtrodden. And whatever were the intentions of introducing the whole reservation system, we've ended up promoting the very problem it tried to solve.
Everyone in India knows these things. Then what's the point of writing it down again?
And I don't see a point in trying to suggest solutions either - coz firstly it's nothing nobody has ever thought of - and secondly, for any social challenge, when the political solution and the real issue are not aligned and yet the political class is the beneficiary of the prevalent solution, what's the incentive for the political leaders to enforce or try to put forth an alternative solution less beneficial to them in the short run? And who really thinks long-term these days? Indian political class of today has mostly built its career on issues like caste and religious differences, not on growth and development. For such politicians to think differently would mean playing against their strengths.
Possibly reservation, over the years, has been designed to preserve the caste & religion based divides in our societies, so that our political class, which draws its power from such divisions can continue to thrive. Therefore for reservation itself to end, this political philosophy has to end... But our leaders come from among us. Before we talk about cleansing of our political class, we have to therefore talk about cleansing of our social mindset, which allows these politicians to draw their incentives by playing on divisions like caste and religion. The most challenging part of this transformation is to bring the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the reservation system on a common and equal platform - no appeasement, no demeaning - and design a new social fabric for this country. It does need a strong and charismatic leader who can bind all together with a common message. Who is also capable of thinking long-term, even way beyond his/her lifetime. (S)he may be killed before (s)he succeeds. And another leader has to emerge. And (s)he will. I hope its not an endless pursuit. I hope it begins for real. And ends too. I hope human minds are really capable of achieving happiness and equality for all, and together.
And I don't see a point in trying to suggest solutions either - coz firstly it's nothing nobody has ever thought of - and secondly, for any social challenge, when the political solution and the real issue are not aligned and yet the political class is the beneficiary of the prevalent solution, what's the incentive for the political leaders to enforce or try to put forth an alternative solution less beneficial to them in the short run? And who really thinks long-term these days? Indian political class of today has mostly built its career on issues like caste and religious differences, not on growth and development. For such politicians to think differently would mean playing against their strengths.
Possibly reservation, over the years, has been designed to preserve the caste & religion based divides in our societies, so that our political class, which draws its power from such divisions can continue to thrive. Therefore for reservation itself to end, this political philosophy has to end... But our leaders come from among us. Before we talk about cleansing of our political class, we have to therefore talk about cleansing of our social mindset, which allows these politicians to draw their incentives by playing on divisions like caste and religion. The most challenging part of this transformation is to bring the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the reservation system on a common and equal platform - no appeasement, no demeaning - and design a new social fabric for this country. It does need a strong and charismatic leader who can bind all together with a common message. Who is also capable of thinking long-term, even way beyond his/her lifetime. (S)he may be killed before (s)he succeeds. And another leader has to emerge. And (s)he will. I hope its not an endless pursuit. I hope it begins for real. And ends too. I hope human minds are really capable of achieving happiness and equality for all, and together.
The only purpose reservations serve is political mileage. No government would ever want to disturb that. Ideally it should be about equal opportunity provisioning and not have different measures based on your caste or creed. All it achieves today is discrimination deeply rooted into our system.
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