The oppressive caste becomes validated in constitution for the first time. 10% reservation

With so much pain I had to write this because there is hardly any sincere effort to discuss caste system. We hardly have media to express our views, neither do we  own the online space. Its sad and pathetic. with this intro read the text. This has been point that reservation has been hardly debated in India on its true sense.

“Old wine in new bottle” the present reservation is nothing but a reservation policy for exclusively  upper caste Hindus. Protest demanding reservation and stalling the government’s day to day life has been a frequent affair in different states. As a response to the violent protest the state government provided reservation without due process and was struck down. The present policy though it is an infringement on the current reservation policy provided to SC/ST/OBCs, which was based on facts and had a vision for an equal society, it has formalized caste as a permanent category for all.

In the past the Supreme Court struck down policies that did not meet then existing reservation guidelines. According to the constitution article 15 (4) grants state to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and economically backwardness, SC/STs. Article 15 (5) argues states to make provision of reservation into education institutions including private schools and colleges. In this background the caste Hindus were never eligible to be qualified as social backwardness. The present central government has introduced 124^th amendment to the constitution of India which allows special provision for the advancement of any economically weaker sections other than the classes mentioned (SC/ST/OBC) in clause 4 and 5. The reservation would be in addition to the existing reservations and subject to a maximum of ten percent of the total seats in each category. With the present bill the government could certainly take credit for addressing the long pending demand from caste Hindus such as Maratas, Patels Jats etc. If demonetisation was introduced as a shock to all which was 2 months prior to the Uttar Pradesh elections, the quota for ‘economically weaker section’ is introduced by 3 months before Parliament election. Only time would show whether like demonetisation which shook the opposite parties in UP, will 10% quota win BJP back to power in 2019.

Many in the media, political parties and public opinions have welcomed reservation for caste Hindus. The same people on the contrary opposed Mandal commission reservation based on caste. Now instead of arguing the reservation for caste Hindus, its argued as ‘economic backwardness’ or case neutral. The present introduced reservation policy has many unanswered questions most importantly I argue it has diluted the essence of reservation policy itself.

How are the caste Hindus being only weaker sections?  Does economic weaker section for dominant castes become a criteria  for jobs. Most important the present policy has removed 10 % meritorious/open seats from 51% that would have been used by all castes. India would be the first country to provide reservation for caste Hindus, who are socially and economically forward a complete opposite to the makers of constitution who provided reservation for social backwardness and to protect against harassment and discrimination. It was sad to witness the dalit politicians and parties in the parliament who argue representing and protecting Dalits have completely failed by supporting a reservation which goes against the policy itself.  The only opposition was seen on Facebook and Twitter.

Discussion in the parliament and newspapers equated General category to particular caste category. Such argument is an outcome of misreading of the existing reservation policy. For long the reservation debate has moved away from the vision of the policy to protect SC/ST/OBC from harassment and discrimination, to arguing as an upliftment of SC/ST/OBCs. Those supporters of reservation policy argued it’s a policy to equalise the past wrong. The makers of the constitution imagined a nation without caste discrimination without banning caste system and to maintain a competition that is above caste, religion etc. In other words the constitution makers believed the rule of law would automatically change the society or societal practice of inequality. Earlier the BJP government at the center tried to review the constitution and then president of India K.R.Narayanan in  his republic day speech asked “ Lets us examine whether the constitution has failed us or we have failed the constitution” and stopped the BJP governments move to review.

The present reservation policies provided are in blocks, SC/ST/OBC category.  General or open is not a particular caste category rather an open list that anyone can be part of General. For an example, in a 100 seats the 50th person scored 64% marks and if that is the cut-off for SC/ST/OBC, those candidates from among them who score less than 64% would not qualify as per this cutoff. While those who score more than 64% will already have got admission in the general category. Therefore, General was never reserved for one particular group in philosophy. It was a vision of the constitution makers to bring all caste together in due course to the General list and remove reservation completely.

Why such reservation policy at the first place?

In the past and present Dalits who are qualified are not being recruited to the job even after they qualify. They are still secluded and ghettoised into colonies and the statistics of violence on SC/ST are still rampant. Firstly the makers of the constitution made a provision to allow special provision to SC/ST that allows them to contest elections. The makers believed an equal society without basing caste discrimination henceforth they did not make SC/ST reserved seats as the only block for SCs. They allowed SC/STs to contest in General Seats but in practice if not for the reserved seats SC/STs would not be present in the Parliament and state assemblies. In other words, the General seats are unofficially reserved for caste Hindus.  SC/STs are unwelcome to contest in these seats, sadly even dalit political parties are mostly given these reserved seats to contest. Until now the caste Hindus do not appreciate Dalits to contest elections on general seats. Lets not forget the caste Hindu society doesn’t accept Dalits to lead or make policies for them. Take the case of Panchayat presidents in Tamil Nadu, Murugesan a panchayat president in Melavalavu contested and won an election with majority but was beheaded only as he sat on panchayat presidents seat. Even if a SC/ST wins s/he wins the elections still are not able to function as president. Its this very reason that the SC/ST reservation in political arena would continue until the Caste Hindus shed their caste arrogance and hegemony. If its asked whether it’s the right solution, certainly it’s debateable.

Historically Dalits were not allowed to study. Until 1993 manual scavenging was an official job recruited by the governments in state and centre. Dalits were encouraged by the local authorities to join the job. Only recently after Ambedkar centenary there started a wide spread demand for Dalits to get education. Therefore until now different departments, jobs in the state and central government is fully occupied by caste Hindus. When Dalits apply for jobs they are discriminated against applying and even after applying they don’t get calls to the qualification they have. For example the employment office used to send advertisement of sweepers jobs to scavenging castes irrespective of their qualification. I even after completing MA at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages got a letter of advertisement to apply for sweeper jobs. A caste Hindu is given a job in the garden while an untouchable even after qualification is forced to join sweeper job. To fight the Caste Hindu’s mentality from stopping Dalits in entering academics the reservation was introduced.

Therefore, General category is not another caste category as many argue. It’s not only a place for all  casteless, but it is also a list for the recruiters to accept all castes are equal and only marks matters. In practice the implementation was against the spirit of the constitution where openly the recruiters or after admission teachers have asked in the past “you already have respective SC/ST/OBC exclusive reservation why do you have to come under General”. The first activity of any Ambedkarite movement in universities has been to monitor whether the qualified SC/STs are in general list or pushed under category.

The populistic belief including Dalits argue its an elevation like the picture below. Certainly this is a misinformed idea on reservation.

The main purpose of providing reservation was to make sure that SC/ST to be given equal treatment because it was not the stool but the fence was demarcated based on once caste. Most debate surrounds the stool than the fence itself. Its this very understanding leads many to justify the present reservation policy provided on ‘economic backwardness’. Until 2000 the reservation policy was not even implemented in many central universities and they claimed they did not find suitable students. The rising suicides of SC ST students in central universities are result of such discrimination. To understand the blatant reason for reservation is to look at the buses seating arrangement.

The seat arrangements on a city bus in Chennai, like many other cities, reminds me the importance and the history and the debate behind the reservation policy. Unlike other cities in Chennai the seats are divided by two rows, one for women and other one not informed or branded. The unbranded seats according to the law anyone can sit, irrespective of gender. Since women have an exclusive sitting space, if men wants to sit he can only sit on the unbranded seats, which dosent mean this is reserved for men alone though where even women can also sit.

In all these years I have seen only one instances where a man argued to a woman sitting on a seat not reserved for anyone that these unreserved seats are not for women but for men. Have also seen women standing even though the unreserved seats fall empty. In practice mostly, these unwritten seats are unofficially reserved for men. Now why do women get their seats reserved while men don’t get reserved seats in these buses? It is not because women don’t have the energy to stand. This is one of the prominent explanations where one argues women are physically not fit, this understanding still continues in the popular culture. Its such understanding which leads women to be less paid than men. Many still believe this, at least hoping the readers of this article will know that this argument is built not on facts or any scientific findings but rather a very masculine understanding of gender, in India rooted in religion. The division of seating in the bus was brought to address women from being harassed by men in crowded buses. It is this very simple and similar reason SC/STs were provided reservation not because they are non-merit or unfit but because they have been stopped even after qualification. In other words the interviewer drew the finishing line based once caste of the student. If a dalit applied for a post there was no finishing line while for others there was. It is this very reason in most selection committees a SC/ST is included in the committee only to monitor whether the finishing line is drawn based on merit and not based on once caste.

It deeply worries to see the upper caste Hindus are exclusively provided reservation for their status. While anti-caste movement have been discussing about the problem of upper caste Hindus in the villages and problematising the identity, the government rationalises the identity and justifies the upper castes Hindus as a category to be focused on. The present move is completely opposed to the existing reservation policy provided for social and economic backwardness. Usually any policies are debated in public and statistics are formulated on to argue the rational behind it. In the present policy only Patels breaking public property and ransacking the state, Jats stopping the Delhi highway and molesting women and the government’s bad policies that left many jobs less. These are the only rational and to garner support from the upper caste Hindus to win elections, the present BJP government had arm twisted blackmailing the elections.

We have entered into a different phase of reservation.  

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