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 124th 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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