Reserved about Reservations
Ever heard of a country where people are killed and buses are burnt just to be termed as a ‘Backward caste’? Ever heard of a people who turn the state topsy turvy just because they want to be termed as ‘minority’? Ever heard of arm twisting a billion people by dividing the nation on the basis of caste? It happens only in India.
This concept of ‘Reservation’ is so uniquely Indian. No where else in the world would you find anything that so vehemently divides its people on the basis of caste.
Reservations first began in 1921 when the Justice Party wanted to restrict Brahmins to 16% of the seats. In 1951, the first concrete measures were taken and 41% seats of educational institutions and government offices were reserved for the backward classes. And through time instead of reducing these caste reservations, they only seem to increase.
The underlying reasoning behind reservations is to give ‘Equal opportunity for all’. It is said that people from the backward classes have been oppressed and repressed for years. Hence they need to be given a head start by earmarking some seats for them in educational institutions, jobs and government offices. However this has proved to be more of a handicap to people who work their way up through merit. This logic may be true to some extent though I don’t approve of the methods used here.
Politicians hold no noble intentions of empowering the lower caste or anything closely gallant to that. It is only ‘Caste based politics’. The British taught us Divide and Rule and we faithfully want to carry on that legacy. Educated people don’t come out and vote. The poor and the backward classes are the only ones left. So they are bribed into these in exchange for the babu’s next seat in parliament.
It is a trade off. Politicians are trading off meritocracy and efficiency in general for their seat of power. Our premier colleges, institutions are subjected to sometimes as high as 50 % reservations. So the backward classes don’t need to prove their mettle. The 50 % students who work their way up poring over their books need to settle for something lesser. What a wonderful way to waste our national resources. It is a slap on the face of hard work and effort.
Would anyone in this whole wide world (politicians and so called Backward Castes included) ever risk their heart or appendix in the hands of an incompetent doctor? Would you ever want to construct a house on a rickety foundation thanks to an inept civil engineer? Then why do we hesitate to give merit a chance? Why do we bring roadblocks to dreams instead of constructing flyovers for them?
If the answer is ‘NO’ to the above questions, then who in the world is benefiting from such a system? The incumbent or the society? Of course it is only the vote hungry politician who is ostensibly gaining in the short run. Ostensible because they also belong to the great equalizing system called society. And nobody can escape the cascading effect this has on our system and our way of life.
And if you ever thought this helped in uplifting the backward classes, think again. The Dalits are still not allowed to enter high caste temples. Dalit women are still subjected to a lot of heinous crimes. They are still considered pollutants.
The recent uprising against the quota system was long due. In this country dreaming big and belonging to the ‘general merit’ category is a frustrating combination. You have to be either born with an ethereal gift of brains or develop wings and fly away to other countries that are making hay when the sun is shining. Most of us worldly beings simply prefer the second option. It is the only option more often than not. Studying abroad is as common as daylight in India. It is of no surprise how much higher educational institutions are benefiting out of us. Indians in US Colleges and jobs have given such an enormous thrust to their economy. And the exodus only continues.
I am not against reservations. I am against caste based reservations for professional courses. Reservations should be there for those in need of finance grass root levels.
It should there for people who cannot afford to go to school. Instead of a meaningless caste based system its time we focused on the poor. Its time we concentrated on the grass root level. We need to pull the children out of begging under traffic lights and fire cracker factories and send them to school. True empowerment starts from there. Only then the society and everyone in general would benefit. The needy need to be nourished and nurtured at that level. It is then when they are truly uplifted. Only then would rise above where they are now and hence help themselves and the society in general.
All this said and done, if you are a conscientious Indian you will agree with me.
This concept of ‘Reservation’ is so uniquely Indian. No where else in the world would you find anything that so vehemently divides its people on the basis of caste.
Reservations first began in 1921 when the Justice Party wanted to restrict Brahmins to 16% of the seats. In 1951, the first concrete measures were taken and 41% seats of educational institutions and government offices were reserved for the backward classes. And through time instead of reducing these caste reservations, they only seem to increase.
The underlying reasoning behind reservations is to give ‘Equal opportunity for all’. It is said that people from the backward classes have been oppressed and repressed for years. Hence they need to be given a head start by earmarking some seats for them in educational institutions, jobs and government offices. However this has proved to be more of a handicap to people who work their way up through merit. This logic may be true to some extent though I don’t approve of the methods used here.
Politicians hold no noble intentions of empowering the lower caste or anything closely gallant to that. It is only ‘Caste based politics’. The British taught us Divide and Rule and we faithfully want to carry on that legacy. Educated people don’t come out and vote. The poor and the backward classes are the only ones left. So they are bribed into these in exchange for the babu’s next seat in parliament.
It is a trade off. Politicians are trading off meritocracy and efficiency in general for their seat of power. Our premier colleges, institutions are subjected to sometimes as high as 50 % reservations. So the backward classes don’t need to prove their mettle. The 50 % students who work their way up poring over their books need to settle for something lesser. What a wonderful way to waste our national resources. It is a slap on the face of hard work and effort.
Would anyone in this whole wide world (politicians and so called Backward Castes included) ever risk their heart or appendix in the hands of an incompetent doctor? Would you ever want to construct a house on a rickety foundation thanks to an inept civil engineer? Then why do we hesitate to give merit a chance? Why do we bring roadblocks to dreams instead of constructing flyovers for them?
If the answer is ‘NO’ to the above questions, then who in the world is benefiting from such a system? The incumbent or the society? Of course it is only the vote hungry politician who is ostensibly gaining in the short run. Ostensible because they also belong to the great equalizing system called society. And nobody can escape the cascading effect this has on our system and our way of life.
And if you ever thought this helped in uplifting the backward classes, think again. The Dalits are still not allowed to enter high caste temples. Dalit women are still subjected to a lot of heinous crimes. They are still considered pollutants.
The recent uprising against the quota system was long due. In this country dreaming big and belonging to the ‘general merit’ category is a frustrating combination. You have to be either born with an ethereal gift of brains or develop wings and fly away to other countries that are making hay when the sun is shining. Most of us worldly beings simply prefer the second option. It is the only option more often than not. Studying abroad is as common as daylight in India. It is of no surprise how much higher educational institutions are benefiting out of us. Indians in US Colleges and jobs have given such an enormous thrust to their economy. And the exodus only continues.
I am not against reservations. I am against caste based reservations for professional courses. Reservations should be there for those in need of finance grass root levels.
It should there for people who cannot afford to go to school. Instead of a meaningless caste based system its time we focused on the poor. Its time we concentrated on the grass root level. We need to pull the children out of begging under traffic lights and fire cracker factories and send them to school. True empowerment starts from there. Only then the society and everyone in general would benefit. The needy need to be nourished and nurtured at that level. It is then when they are truly uplifted. Only then would rise above where they are now and hence help themselves and the society in general.
All this said and done, if you are a conscientious Indian you will agree with me.
posted by Aditi Bhagwat | 10:37 AM
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