The Current Reservation Debate

India has mob-ocracy, and not democracy.

When they came for the Pandits, I said nothing, because I was not a Pandit.
When they came for the sevaks, I said nothing, because I was not a sevak.
When they came for the doctors, I said nothing, because I was not a doctor.
Then they came for me --
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Sanjay, each man for himself.... don't expect help from other than self.

Abhishek:

Interesting post.

Tavleen Singh (hope I got her name right) echoes some of the points you make in this post. Singh has written a series of columns on this subject, and I find them to fairly balanced.


Kamla

Thanks for the kind words Kamla. I was under the impression that Tavleen Singh was more of a Page 3 columnist; never really cherished her write ups. Outlook gives space to mostly Congress types (Prem Shankar Jha) though Tavleen seems to be more of "pro BJP".

I stopped reading outlook couple of years back and haven't ventured to open it again. Much of the current reservation debate is discussed in The Pioneer and The Statesman. I d suggest that you head over there. At times, it's Business Standard that gets the cake for thought provoking write ups.

Parties like the BJP have only emerged as a reactionary backlash to the predations of the Congress and its fellow partners on the Left. Rather than deriding the "pro-BJP" label and implicitly endorsing the Left, sensible folk should be recognizing the moral bankruptcy of the Left/Congress camp, and acknowledging that they will always be seeking to engineer schemes to keep themselves in power, due to their lack of an ideological platform other than cult-worship of the Nehru family. Even if the Congress govt were to retreat on their stance today, they'll only wait until they can pull another stunt tomorrow or next week. With that party and its vacuous leadership, these things are inevitable. So don't knock the BJP -- at least they have a path forward. And why wouldn't they -- they're a non-Leftist party. The future certainly does not belong to the Left, hence their never-ending parade of desperate gambits.

Also it has to be noted, whenever there is a NON-BJP govt in power, only then we see these quotos and reservations put forth!

Congress has always supported reservations coz it is their vote bank. NOthing else.

Abhishek:

I do not think Tavleen Singh is a page 3 kind of person. She covered Parliamentary affairs for many years, and she always brings an interesting persepective. She is not a newbie and is a seasoned writer. I don't believe Tavleen writes for "Outlook." She is a syndicated columnist and her work appears in a bunch of newspapers. I am not sure if she is pro-BJP or pro-Congress...perhaps you have a much better idea about her leanings.

Yes, Pioneer and The Statesman have interesting articles.

kamla

First of all it will be utterly untrue to ourselves to say that India is united and politicians want to divide it. In India and abroad be it in a social circle, a university campus or even private companies, the divisivness is glaringly obvious.

There are small cliques of people belonging to certain caste and certain region. This is more so in the private IT companies in India, since it is totally unregulated and personal freedom is higher. So everyone who gets the pricy assignments to go abroad or make a promotion is either a person from the same caste or atleast same region/state.

Even on a premium educational campus in the US where I am located, casteism is evident even in the mailing lists which make crude jokes and opposing viewpoints are decimated using crude language and feudalistic tones. There is no diversity among Indian students here. Majority are upper castes. How do I know this? Because all these people are sure enough to go to lengths to explain what jaath they belong and how great it has been to be part of this upper caste clan. This comes out after the first 3 conversations.

Why else do we need a kannada brahmin association or a gujju brahmin association in the US? but to differentiate. Why is there an Andhra assoc, Tamil assoc, North Indian, South Indian..blah blah associations. India is a diverse country and it is divided on the basis of caste/religion/region. There is no need for politicians to do this.

The fact that there are few pro-reservation views in the electronic or the print media either in India or abroad shows the lack of diversity. If 74% people in India are back ward castes, and not many voices are heard on the media? Is it not abnormal?

It is a well researched fact that media belongs to the upper castes and the recent anti-reservation protests are being lionised by the media.

Reservation is required since in most cases even educated OBCs and Dalits are discriminated even when they are meritorious. Educated people can fight this,but what happens to the OBC/Dalit who is the first one from his/her family to reach that level and does not have a social support? How many of your grand fathers were not allowed to wear a moustache? How many of you has been asked disgusting questions like "you are from a lower caste and how come you are so fair?". How many of your friends have told you that they are not sure if they can take you home, since parents maynot like it?

How many of you upper castes who profess to be not conscious of caste have lower caste friends? How many of you know how they live? Is there any integration? Ask yourself and be honest.

Many social studies show that "Merit" is a combination of luck, goodmarks,educational resources, social networking, supportive parents, and some genetics. Social networking is esp. important in India. Backward castes are lacking in all of the above. Even genetics is lacking, thanks to the 3000 years of oppression by Manu's people.

Why is there no protest about capitation fee seats? Why is there no protest when friends of protesting doctors got in to AIIMs by backdoor tactics such as leaking question papers? Why is there no protest about 25% reservation that AIIMs students enjoy? Why is there no protest when Dalits/OBCs are not given coveted PG courses even when they are meritorious?

Neetha, you are right about the "diversity" per se. You have definitely raised a valid point here about what USED to happen and is still prevalent in the current scenario.

Caste affinities are based on the ideas of "clans"; The respective members of the clan tend to group together/ bundle together for percieved benefits. This is the modern age ghettoism.

However, there is no quickfix formula for the reservations in any of the spheres. As I had mentioned above, it has become synonymous with the "social agenda" that you speak of.

Education system has been designed as such which is attuned to making babus/ clerks. In the current scenario, specially with the mushrooming of call centres and alternative fields like MBA's getting more prominence, this system has failed miserably. Hence the need is to rationalise the structure; instead of encouraging the same lumpen elements that have been the cause of such miseries. Easier said than done to revamp the education system based on our felt needs.

You may be right about the "upper caste bias" in the media. That's your opinion. In my opinion, they are idiots who have somehow found some kind of an employment. I cannot generalise it to all because there are some notable examples; by and large the mess in media cannot be ignored. As for the "pro reservation" lobby, well, the word OBC/ SC/ ST was never in my lexicon till the current impasse introduced me to them. I don't make friends just because they have a different caste; or if they have a different faith. My best friends are Christians/ Sikhs while I am a Hindu. Anything wrong with that?

P.S. What 25% reservation do the AIIMS graduates enjoy?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1543278.cms
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+in0089)

In the present condition in India, reservation is necessary, but, only if it is implemented properly can it be phased out too. Mandal commission had put forth many recommendations, but reservation issue has been caught on and hyped about. Most of the recommendations such as strenghthening the elementary education, having good public schools etc. have to be implemented if the reservations have to be phased out.

In reality, majority of India live with the caste, there is no escaping from the caste esp. when you are born in a lower caste. There is a constant reminder everywhere you go either blatantly or subtly.

Even though my parents never taught us about caste, the disgusting questions me and my siblings faced and subtle and blatant discriminations was enough to give us a headsup on the reality. This has not prevented me from having friends who follow any caste/religion, but it has also made me realise that most of India and Indians are a few centuries behind.

I have reservations about Reservations! All of my reservations arise from 75% of my brain which has been die-casted and set aside for rational thought.

The ambivalence on such issues arises from 25% of my brain which is reserved for whirling eddies of irrational and primeval thoughts. but this portion has never been able to assert itself due to the preponderance of the other portion.

Do I need affirmative action to correct this imbalance?

More seriously, can we have an ism-less society? If we get rid of casteism, another ism will supplant it post-haste. Reason: distinctions arise in the human mind, external "isms" are just its tangible manifestations.

Rather than make subjective arguments on reservation (which will
always remain slanted and subjective viewpoints unless backed up
analytically with some reliable figures ), I think it would be
worthwhile to look at this from a more macro perspective.

Even though reservation in TN was recommended way back in 1967, till
the 80s very few of the OBCs ate into the open competition seats.
The trend changed in the early and mid-90s. Privatisation opened up
the job market and the mushrooming of computer institutes meant more
alternative choices in career. This period also saw a big departure
from the past - higher encouragement for girls to pursue careers,
burgeoning growth in students using vehicles and coaching centers.
Perceptions changed and a good professional education opened up hope
for a lucrative software job or a Masters ticket to the US. Whereas
in the early 80s, few people went for tuitions, and the tutors
themselves saw it as a secondary source of income, in the 90s it was
such a lucrative option that many schoolteachers quit their jobs and
started these mega-coaching centers. This was capitalism at its
best! Naturally it ended the monopoly of the forward castes.

As far as academics went, the top scorers invariably used to be from
Madras. Madras was famous for some really crazy coaching centers
especially in the Mambalam/Vadapalani/T.Nagar belt. The change in
lifestyle and modernization saw the emergence of coaching centers in
Tier 3 satellite cities(These are the smaller towns with wealthy
land-owning or industrialist OBC population, adjoining a larger Tier
2 city - examples would be Tiruppur, Namakkal, Nagercoil). The Salem-
Namakkal-Tiruppur belt became so notorious for heavy-duty drilling
centers that people in the central districts would send their wards
to these residential coaching centers, shelling out 12-15K for just
those 2 months between the Boards and the CET. As such these kids of
rich parents came from affluent homes and enjoyed all comforts,
their parents drove them around to coaching classes throughout the
year. The trend changed and the hold of the forward caste dominated
Madras schools was broken. More and more rankers hailed from the
districts. Wealthy parents invested in coaching classes rather than
pamper their wards. As a result Jayalalitha introduced a quota for
rural students and scrapped the entrance where the rural students
lost out. However the courts re-instated the entrance and now
Karunanidhi is making noises about scrapping it.

The upshot is that OBC power transformed the competition into a mad
rat-race and in the end, it's all a matter of finding the best
coaching centers, shelling out money, and then cram, cram, cram.
It's a free-for-all now. This applies to any field - you allow free
enterprise and some established giants will slip and fall. I'm
personally happy for this is the best way to get rid of reservation -
Give enough percentage to those lagging behind so that they catch
up and when they're neck and neck, it actually makes the scene ripe
to cut down the percentage, given the political will. Also, with the
entrepreneurs investing in engineering colleges as a cash-cow(240
engg colleges in the state), last year the supply of engineering
seats outstripped the demand by 7000 seats - so TN has become
something like the US - enough seats for everyone, only question is
the college. And if you aspire to be among the best no matter where
you go, some door will surely open for you.

The only negative side-effect is that OBCs had everything to gain -
they knocked off the forward castes from their power base and still
maintain their domination of the depressed classes.

PS: Regarding the clarification with Emmu, now I recollect that the
+1 Syllabus was changed in July 89 and when this batch finished
their +2 in Mar 1991, the aggregates were for a max of 250. In 1992
due to the CBSE high scores controversy, it was merely entrance for
50 pts and after that the quota for CBSE students was reduced to 2%.
Starting with 1993, it was changed to 300(200+100) and in July 95,
they changed the +1 syllabus again. The textbooks now resembled
Diamond Guides, with all paragraphs re-written in point form and
tailormade for a mug-fest. There was no change in the quality and
volume of, so exam scores skyrocketed compared to the previous
batches. The fun part was that compared to early 90s, Board exams
always saw more number of centums but the kids crapped in the
entrance - they just couldnt cram their way through. The last 10
years saw a lot of politics and messy administration in the
Education Dept and now they have recently raised the quality to near-
CBSE level.

Right from IIT

By Prof. Rahul Varman
( IIT Kanpur)

I teach at one of the IITs, and off late my students, colleagues, friends and relatives have been sending me mails, organising meetings, writing petitions, initiating e-tirades, etc. against the recent MHRD announcement and generally taking it for granted that I'll join them in their protests. Each time they are taken by surprise when I decline their offer, try to mumble something as to why I do not agree with them, or sometimes simply keep quiet if I have the advantage of an impersonal medium like the email. But increasingly it has been hard to shrug the whole issue away - every time I open my mail box, or as I walk along the corridor, and even as I bid farewell to my students of the outgoing batch, the sentiment against reservations seem to be thick in the air intermixed with the feeling of unease when one does not make the 'right' noises. And therefore I'll try to articulate at some length as to why I disagree with the 'anti-reservationists', (the issue is too complicated for a mere agree/ disagree vote); in spite of having little sympathy with MHRD and their 'motivated' methods.

Let me begin with an incident which occurred when I had just joined IITK way back in 1994. We were staying in the guest house then and some census officials knocked on our door one afternoon to make enquiries for filling up a questionnaire. On being asked about my caste my wife expressed her unawareness. When a brief consultation with each other trying to 'categorise' my surname did not yield any answer, the main person resolved the issue in an ingenious way. After confirming that I was a faculty member, he told his associate in quiet confidence, "likh do, Brahman honge". The point that I want to stress here is that it is not suddenly that either Mr. Arjun Singh today, or 16 years earlier Mr. B P Mandal, suddenly injected the caste divisions into our society (or, for that matter, in the elite educational institutes) as is being alleged by those against the reservations. The caste divide very much exists everywhere in our society and especially so in any of these elite institutes; my claim would be borne out by the names on the doors along the corridors in the faculty corridors or during the roll call in any of the class rooms. Only thing is that those who are on the right side of the divide can choose to ignore it. This will also be borne out by various kinds of statistics if we bother to look at them.

Some say that instead of caste we should talk about the economic deprivation and by bringing caste reservations we'll only bring in more divisiveness. I do not understand this argument; it is like saying that we should not address the gender oppression as an issue primarily concerning women, as men also have been sometimes oppressed; or that racial discrimination is not about the blacks and Hispanics in the US, as whites also are sometimes on the receiving end. Further, as if acknowledgement of this form of discrimination(s), instead of being a logical step towards affirmative action, would actually promote them. Coming back to reservations in the present context, it is true that a lot of men and upper castes are also oppressed, but here we are talking about a specific systemic historical subjugation of a massive magnitude, at present perhaps involving more than half a billion people. Reservations may not be answer to this problem but the issue cannot be addressed by bringing in every other kind of discrimination also while attempting to address this issue. Caste problem can be solved only by addressing caste issues; similarly if there are other discriminations that exist in the society (and of course they do) they need to be identified and addressed too, not substituting one form of redressal for the other. Further if the social and economic equity spreads it will not harden the caste identity but loosen it as I'll argue further through the experience of the southern states later.

Of course the most important argument of those protesting is that it is against the 'merit', that it is going to keep the 'meritorious' students out and bring in lesser students due to reservations, which in turn will 'lower' the standards and destroy the excellence of such institutes, which has been so assiduously and precariously cultivated as a part of the post colonial nation building project. Now this argument is at various levels and we can examine various parts of it one by one.

The first part of the above argument is that reservations will bring students who lack merit and hence will lower the standards of the elite institutions; hence they should be kept away from such reservations. The point is that what does this merit really mean? In any exam where lakhs appear and only thousands get selected, it is not that rest are 'bad' but only that there are very limited opportunities. But does it mean that if we go down in the performance list of the exams, others are incapable of undergoing the training and we as an institution are incapable of teaching them in whatever it takes to make them a good professional? Remember we are talking of half a billion people when we say 'backwards'. Can't we find handful out of them who have the 'capability' to undergo the required training? To me the argument does not sound very different from the ancient times where by their birth a large number were excluded from learning Sanskrit or entering the temples. It is very much like Dronacharya refusing admission to Eklavya. Moreover, we do not seem to even recognise the odds that the children from disadvantaged face; my friend who is from a village 100 kms from Kanpur tells me that his village has just one school where hundreds study across classes with one 18 year old teacher for all the classes put together! And the point is that, even in this school, dalit children are not even allowed to drink from the public pot kept for the rest of the children. In contrast, is it merit when we see that overwhelming majority of those who clear the JEE and CAT are able to do so, only after spending huge resources, money and time, as will be borne out from the newspapers inserts everyday and hoardings at every corner in vast urban parts of the country? What this shows is the singular lack of opportunities and the desperation of educated youth to find a berth in the elite institutions that will catapult them into a different social and economic orbit. Now the point is that these berths are being reserved in one way so far, the question is are we ready to alter that process?

If something sets the elite institutions apart it is the enormous resources that they attract, both human as well as material. And I do not see what stops such individuals who enter even after reservations from becoming good professionals given proper nurturing and resources. As far as failing of students in such institutes is concerned we'll find that students of all categories make such a list as the overwhelming reason for that is either lack of motivation and/ or the social context and not the lack of ability. Many students after clearing JEE, CAT, etc. lose the motivation to do well - they stop going to classes and studying and look for other expressions in life and simply feel alienated with the academics. The second reason is that many students simply find it hard to adjust to a westernised - elite culture of these institutions, especially those who come from rural or small town background. Since they are not able to find the right kind of supporting network of friends and peers they are not able to perform as a lot of learning in such institutions is collective. Many of the reserved category students have to further bear the stigma of coming through 'quota', of not being good enough and hence they get into a shell and are more likely to find themselves alienated, which finally reflects on their performance. If this is so, then what is required is more supporting systems within institutions and not stopping them at the gates.

As a teacher I have also seen cases where within a semester or two some of the so called 'poor students' are completely transformed. They have been able to adjust to the requirements of the system and flourish, may be with the help of a supporting friend, or a patient teacher, or through an activity where they could express themselves, or a combination of the above. Moreover if these institutes are not only abut learning inside the class as we never tire telling the fresh students, but about becoming a complete professional as so many alumni will vouch for, and transforming a teenager into a professional who is in touch with her surroundings, then of course this diversity can do wonders to the overall learning inside and outside the class rooms. I have learnt so much from those of my students who are different from my protected middle class upbringing - a village in eastern UP, a small town in Bihar, a construction site in Kerala, and so on. Though I understand nothing about the medical education, but I am sure if a student can bring his experience of a Chattisgarh village, it can contribute hugely to the real education in the class.

One can at this point ask a further question, is merit all about passing exams? After all, are the exams a means or an end? If the exams are means to look for ability to make better engineers, doctors and managers, then can there be better methods to look for such ability? After all in my first engineering class I was told that a good engineer is the one who can produce the best out of the least resources and similarly, management is supposed to find one's way in an uncertain situation - or allocate scarce resources in the most optimal way possible. If that is so, whatever I have seen of our deprived masses (of which overwhelming majority belongs to the backward, dalit castes or adivasis), they have the astonishing capacity to make something productive from almost next to nothing! For the last few years I have been studying small industry clusters, like Moradabad brass, Varanasi silk and Kanpur leather. Put together (all the clusters in the country), they are exporting more than the IT sector and their cumulative employment will be several times of the whole of IT industry. In all these clusters they operate with miniscule resources - small investment, no electricity, forget about air-conditioning, non existent roads, lack of water, and little formal education. These clusters are primarily constituted of these so called backward/ dalit castes and are truly a tribute to the genius that our society is. But in spite of centuries of excellence these communities have hardly produced any formal 'engineers', 'doctors' and 'managers', and conversely these elite institutions have not developed any linkages with such industries and their people.

This brings me to a further question, what do 'meritorious' students from these institutions do when they pass out? I recall what Srilata Swaminathan, the noted activist, had said at the beginning of her talk at IIMA in the early 1990s (I at the time was a student there), "I am told that this is the cream of the country, and what do you do, sell soaps and toothpastes (ITC, HLL, etc. were the most coveted recruiters those days)?". There was hushed silence in a room full of students and faculty. I remember in the mid-90s my sense of disbelief, when I was the placement coordinator for my department, the HR manager of one of the big three Indian IT companies told me, "as long as somebody can recognise a keyboard we take him" in response to my query about what they sought in a potential employee. Remember this company over the years has employed thousands of IIT-IIM engineers - managers. As a child I remember the famous surgeon in my home town, who would first cut up a patient and then renegotiate the price with the relatives, before proceeding with the surgery! Or everywhere around me I find 'meritorious' doctors employed in public hospitals, drawing comfortable salaries and doing roaring private practice! You are not even required to turn up in the village health centre even once if you have a rural posting. If the majority of our people usually have to do with the village quack, they would not mind a 'slightly less meritorious doctor' coming to take care of them, instead of finding solace in the fact that super-specialised doctors are ensuring that the elite of our country have no wrinkles, and such like grave ailments. I recall when some students from IITK, almost all of them belonging to the North from UP to MP to Orissa, went to participate in post Tsunami relief work in Tamil Nadu. After they came back the overwhelming feeling was this difference from the North that "things are different over there and they work!" My relatives and acquaintances prefer to go down south when they are seriously unwell and not to Delhi or Lucknow. Remember this is the same place which has implemented the 'quota' much before Mandal and much beyond it too. I hear of far less caste strife in Tamil Nadu than in UP where caste based reservations have been implemented for such a long time - it does not seem to have furthered the caste based identities in South into a full fledged war like Bihar and UP. Point is 'merit' is not about stopping somebody at the gates or throwing them out of these seats of learning, but in creating robust institutions which can cultivate and nurture the talent with all the complexities of a vast and disparate society that we are.

Let's put the creamy layer argument also in perspective now. Point is that such elite education which has so many barriers - expensive and time consuming coaching, expensive education, elite culture, etc. is under the present order going to be a preserve only of a select few. All we are saying is whether it is going to be the preserve of a few higher castes or some of the other castes can also find an entry. Even if it is backward IAS's daughter, so be it, finally many others are also IAS's wards, so how does it make a difference? As has been rightly said by the critiques, it's a populist measure for the votes. etc. But so is every single policy of the govt. and so it will be in a 'vote bank democracy' - either for the votes directly, or for generating resources for the next election. When an Ambani or an Enron is granted abominable concessions, why don't we come on streets and say, "it is for money for the next elections."

The difficulty perhaps is that we are only against certain kinds of reservation. When an Ambani becomes a CEO, when a Gandhi becomes a minister, we do not say it is against merit, when a professor whose son is not able to qualify JEE, is still able to send her child abroad for higher studies, we do not say it is reservation, when only Valmikis do all the cleaning work at IITK we do not say it is reservation, the point that we need to ponder is that why is it that we are only against certain kind of reservation and for certain kind of merit?

Finally for those of us who think that the present reservation exercise is ornamental and they would like to do something more basic and lasting, I recommend a reading of the Mandal report - they will find that the report goes to some length to capture the socio-economic indicators in understanding and classifying 'backwards'. Moreover reservation is a small part of their recommendation which includes things like special coaching for the disadvantaged to basic issues like land reforms. The difficulty is that in all these years, only the naxalite movement seem to have taken up some of the radical suggestions of the Mandal Commission! Meanwhile I have a question for those whose problem is the hasty implementation, that "how can we implement MHRD's recommendations so suddenly?" After all, the report has been available for debate, discussion, modification and implementation for all these 16 years! Why is it that we have suddenly woken up to bother about primary - secondary education as well as the economic upliftment of the masses, only when the government has started acting in its own bumbling ways? As far as I know, no academic body or business institutions like CII has debated these issues and no committees have been setup to examine the Mandal report all this while. Finally, history is catching up in its own imperfect ways. We need to ponder whether these institutions are meant only for supplying cheap labour for the American corporations. If they have to be more than that, the time has come for us to be self critical and look beyond the knee jerk response to the present quagmire.

Meena - thanks for providing the prof's comments.

Prof. Rahul Varman( IIT Kanpur): I bow down to your perspicacious and incisive approach in putting this issue (at least for this thread) on an even keel. even though I don't endorse reservations, I prostrate before your flawless exposition.

Regarding IIT Prof's write up:
1)In small scale industries, there is massive exploitation of labour. Only a handful of "hopefuls" have been able to adjust to the new market realities. Others are languishing due to combination of illiteracy and high component of taxes. One hardly gets to hear about "product innovations"; most of the "tricks of the trade" have been passed down the generations without any modification whatsoever. And in the same areas which employs and exports more than the IT industry, has remained on the fringes of national conciousness. It only makes news for "riots".

2)Too diffiicult to generalise the whole Indian polity under one stroke.

3)Merit is a specious argument. Agreed. The education system is flawed which overwhelmingly relies on "exams" to "judge the criteria".

4)Political/ Industrialist nexus is taken for granted as a part of the "arrangement". We don't come out on streets because we are too callous. Neither we demand any accountability in the next round of elections.

5)Agreed about the Mandal Report. Let the basics be revamped first. Let the HRD be made accountable for the crores spent on "education" or whatever version we have in the rural hinterland. But NO reservations in the professional mainstream.

6)It's easier to blame doctors for not sitting in the rural health dispensary. The salaries have stagnated for the past couple of years (by some estimates around 7-10 years). The rural health care infrastructure is next to non existent. No roof, no electricity, no access roads. Nothing.
When a doctor is being paid better, why wouldn't he stick on there?

Would the IIT professor quit his job to teach the kids in rural hinterland? If no, then why is it fashionable to aattack doctors for their lapses? There are black sheep in the profession; but to tar them with the same brush is stupidity.

There can be no final word on the issue of reservations. Let there be the middle path by not having reservations at all in ANY field and getting the basics right. A nuclear powered nation with interests to play an increasing role in the global affairs cannot be lagged down by such "forces".

Meena, beware -- if you think you can force people to accept second-class status by employing a discriminatory quota against them, then recognize that they will just leave. They will emigrate -- essentially voting with their feet. Just as societies seek to attract skilled immigrants because they gain from them, likewise Indians will only harm themselves if they chase skilled people out of the country. Actually, that's what we've already seen happening for decades.

I remember an anecdote which goes like this.

Hey man, what's that commotion about?

No sir, every thing was OK. Till he hit me back. Is it not unfair?

What a great article by Professor Rahul Varman. As a backward caste student myself who made it through IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad, I couldn't agree more with him.

A lot of my meritorous batchmates struggled to find their footing in the tough IIT env. Their "merit" was achieved through intensive coaching and tutoring at the best and most expensive coaching institutes - while they were already studying in one of the best schools. So to all those people who say, fixing the primary education will lead better representation of all castes in IIT/IIMs, we must also provide the resources for coaching/tutoring etc to have a level playing field for backward castes and dalits.

Also agree with Neetha's statement about caste discrimination being a reality in India or more precisely whereever Indians are. Some of my IIT batchmates would question my friends - if I came in through the SC/ST quota - "shaddu" being their friendly word for it. Being a dark skinned north indian who made it to IIT and whose surname does not have his caste prominently mentioned, immediately makes you a little suspect. Caste discrimination in urban India is a fact - it is usually a little more subtle than in villages and a little more sophisticated, but these prejudices in our upper caste brethren have been drilled for thousands of years and they are unlikely to go away in a couple of generations.

As a backward caste Indian, I feel saddened by my fellow upper caste borthers and sisters attitude. Their implicit support of a system of discrimination that has favoured them for thousands of years - and their shrillness and viciousness of attacks against reservations leaves me with grave doubts whether we can really achieve equality in our country.

To those who say, that we don't believe in caste and dont care for it - this is what I suggest - change your name - so that through your surname people can easily identify as a dalit or an obc. For e.g., Chamar or Valmiki or Dom. Change your kids name and then talk to me in about 20 years when your kids grow up. If caste really doesn't matter, then it wont make any difference to you and your family. If it does
however, you still can claim quota benefits for your children and rightly so.

Reservations are a simply a symbolic measure - but a powerful measure nonetheless, in achieving equality for all.

anjani:

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