Aligning intent with impact

Revisiting the reservation system to analyze its implications.

Caste, by definition, stands for a system of social hierarchy people are ranked based on their birth. The caste system, or “varna” as it was known back then, has majorly consisted of 4 subdivisions, and when the British colonizers came in, they formalised the caste system along the lines of those subdivisions. But at any point in time, there being more than just 4 sub-castes is exceedingly doubtful, like in Banaras in 1834 there were 107 casts of brahmins.

The princely state of Mysore was among the first to do it in 1921, wherein they reserved seats for backward communities in government jobs and education. Soon, Madras and Bombay followed, in the 1930s. The Britishers proposed the idea of separate electorates, but Mahatma Gandhi was adamant on his point of reservation. So after independence, the political reservation meant quotas in elected bodies like Parliament and state assemblies, which was supposed to be reevaluated after 10 years but in typical Indian fashion, there is no evaluation, but only extension, the latest being in 2019, where the SC/ST quota was extended by another 10 years.

In 1979, a new commission was set up, The Second Backward Classes commission, popularly known as the Mandal Commission which was headed by BP Mandal, former Chief Minister of Bihar. He took around 2 years to finish the report in December 1980, when the government had changed. Now, Mrs Indira Gandhi’s government did not touch the observations of the Mandal Commission. In August 1990, the then prime minister, Mr VP Singh, decided to take out the dusted Mandal Commission observation, which headlined that 27% reservation should be given to Backward Classes. He decided to implement the Machiavellian suggestions by the commission.

This decision was received with massive protests across India where hundreds of students took to the streets in major cities and dozens of them set themselves on fire but the government pushed on the 27% quota for OBCs. At this point, the reservation pile of India looked something like this.

A new wave of politics was triggered, where leaders hijacked the narrative and, instead of social justice, reservation became a political tool. If you want community X to support you, buy them with quotas, that became the trend.

To prevent the misuse of reservation quotas, the Supreme Court intervened in 1992 when they delivered a historic verdict which capped the reservation at 50%.

After 75 years of our independence, the question we must ask ourselves is if reservation quotas have actually contributed to the cause behind its formation? Have ostracized communities come to find themselves uplifted?

And if not, why are we not revisiting it or even getting done with it?

In the last 5 years around 4,300 IAS and IPS appointments have been made where OBCs, SCs and STs made up 27% of that but their share of population, being about 75% is much higher. Similarly, with colleges, around 42% of teaching posts reserved for these communities are lying vacant. These outcomes have led to another problem, that is, every other community is now demanding reservation. The Patels of Gujarat, Yadavs of Uttar Pradesh, Jaats of Harayana, and many more, are some of the most influential and affluent communities of their respective states, but they have now hit the streets in protests of reservation for them.

Reservation is a means to secure social and economic justice and should not be allowed to become a vested interest.

To come down to a clear analysis of the root problem, we need a proper caste census to be conducted. In 2011, the OBC data was collected but not published and the current government specified that, the 2011 data is now unusable. In 2021, the government ignored the need to conduct a census. Numbers drive policy and to increase transparency, there needs to be a designation of where what work needs to be done and what gaps need to be bridged.

While the Supreme Court has now commanded the states to identify the “creamy layer” among the OBCs to strengthen quotas and get it to people who actually require it. There is a need to revisit the EWS categories as well so that better requirements can be set, to avoid people, who have climbed up to become elite members of society, also reap the benefits of reservation.

Amongst all this debate, the nation needs to understand that,

“कोई बड़ा या छोटा नहीं होता, बड़ा वही होता है जिसके साथ बैठके कोई छोटा महसूस नहीं करता”