With reservations
Reservations for backward castes in our jobs and colleges have become a seemingly indispensable part of our politics, and I think the big reason for this has been the process of inclusion of India’s backward communities into our mainstream. Indian political scientists such as Ashutosh Varshney have pointed out that as the Industrial Revolution took off in the West, backward communities were rapidly absorbed into the growing economy and the expanding factory system. The right to vote and political clout came later, after decades of urbanized living and jobs.
But in India, our progress has been the other way round. In a country where growth stagnated for decades, and development has only recently begun to make inroads into the rural countryside, backward communities have had access to political power before economic power. Hence the demand for reservations - the Dalit voters who support the Bahujan Samaj party for instance, see political power as ‘the master key’ that will open all doors.
Had economic access come first, we would have probably followed the pattern of other countries that had caste hierarchies - Japan for example, had a fairly rigid caste system, and the most backward group, the burakumin, were highly ostracized. Development and urbanization however, helped absorb these caste groups into the general population (although the Japanese burakumin still face some discrimination). The rise of cities in fact, have been particularly powerful in dissolving caste barriers, as it becomes impossible to observe the silly notions of purity and untouchability in the anonymous, crowded city.
This has made our struggle in India with caste and backwardness fairly unique. And as our politicians balance the questions of better access for all versus more reservations, we are likely to see many more twists and turns on this issue.
Tags: Caste system, creating access, Reservations
April 17th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Indeed!
Do you think that political and economic power can be given at the same time? Or is it that there needs to first be a basic level of economic power for political power to have maximum effects. China seems to be going all-out in the empowering their citizens economically first.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Smart analysis.
I feel ..No politician will dare to change the rules of reservation game for at least 10 years.
Two decades back, Mandal commission was just a vote bank politics. But today, Information revolution and Globalization has enabled people to share information @ much faster speed than speed @ which goods-services can be traded. The aspirations of people excluded from development are shaping much faster than emergence of real institutions delivering the development. Reservation is our Social bargain to stop the social disruption, which is one way of looking at the reservations in today’s scenario.
With all the downsides of her politics, If Mayawati becomes prime minister once, say for two years, aam junta will get a sense that someone with no background can start a party and rise right from the ’start-up’ stage to become prime minister in just 25 years. Then one will have to conclude that it is possible to change equations of power and the playing fields are getting leveled in politics, too.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:30 am
You are very right in your observation that “… backward communities have had access to political power before economic power. Hence the demand for reservations …”.
I guess the Indian environment has somehow forgotten some basics: it is equality of opportunity that is fundamental, and not reservation or quotas; once the initial state is setup by any of the methods - equality of opportunity, reservation, etc. - it needs to be followed by survival of the fittest.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:39 am
can you please elaborate more on the point of
” access to economic power”. what exactly should backward get access to ?
How development of cities will help in dissolving castes ?
April 18th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
If the present system of reservation is continued, even in another hundred years lower castes will remain the same. Caste system prevails not only due to the prejudice of people, but also because of the competency gap between upper and lower castes. Once this is bridged the intensity of discrimination will reduce to a great extent. And the key factor for this is education.
The thing to do is to abolish all reservation for jobs and at the same time create infrastructure and environmemnt to provide affordable, geographically accessible and quality education. The objective should be once they complete the required education the lower castes should be on par with others in all respects except caste.
In the years following liberalisation and globalisation, Indian industry triumphed in the end simply because quality of products and services matched the world standards. All state intervention in the case of economic empowerment of people also should not compromise on ultimate quality, and all help should be provided upto that point and no further. Then the fittest will survive and surely among those fittest will be lots from the lower castes.
April 19th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Kasthamandap: That’s an interesting question. Historically in Western countries, I think we’ve seen economic power rise before political power.
However, countries that were ex-colonies of the British often declared themselves as full democracies soon after independence: in this case, those countries that also embraced capitalist systems early on (like some East Asian nations)saw political and economic power rise in parallel.
sachin: By access to economic power I mean access to those resources by which you or your children can participate effectively in the economy: good schools to educate your children, however poor you are or which caste you are from; capital and credit to fund your business; and land you can mortgage or sell for savings, or if you wish to migrate. All these have been historically lacking in India for the poor and the backward castes. Land ownership is especially crucial: the bulk of backward castes in rural India, particularly in the north, were landless labourers under the zamindari system as well as after it. The Dalit castes have long been the worst off, paid for their labour in grain rather than money, so they had little means of escaping their livelihoods.
Development and the rise of cities are emancipatory because, as the Dalit writer Chandrabhan Prasad pointed out once to me, cities are far more anonymous and multicultural compared to the village. People don’t know what caste you belong to. And crowded buses, teeming footpaths, and the daily contact you have with complete strangers expose untouchability and caste prohibitions for the nonsense that they are.
April 20th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Mr. Nikekani,
This is a little off topic from your Dalits post. But, I really like your book. I’m about 3 chapters in, will finish before the end of the month. Reading your book is bringing the patriot out of me, lol. Even though I am an American, I wish I can find ways to donate my time to bringing India up. If you know of any avenues to volunteer, for good causes let me know.
Kindly,
-jigish
ps. Your concept about the Dalits reminds me of a recent book I was reading about Abraham Lincoln. He was in the poorest class at the time, and worked his way up to prosperity. A French scholar during that time quoted that it was all inspiring to see the son of any man be able to succeed as long as he is willing to work hard, and that this could only be done in the United States. I think the challenge is on Indians to make India the same way.
April 21st, 2009 at 8:02 am
[...] I read an interesting blog post by Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, one of India’s leading IT companies, titled “With Reservations.” [...]
April 25th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Kanshiram rose to power through his brahmin hatred.. but its never a problem for our pseudo secular media, and the indian elites and intellectuals who follow them..
And a party that rose out of hatred for a particular caste has been hailed upon..
Reservation has been one of the powerful tools to create vaste divisions in our indian society.. Had reservations not been there, the caste system would have diffused long back.. but because of reservations, the caste got stronger and people started grouping along caste lines..
For most of the younger generations like me, caste got introduced only after 12th std, where reservation was major criteria for entry to professional colleges..
Instead of reservation, if government had taken steps to give special coaching and training to weaker sections, their skills and capability and competence would have improved, and they would have stand in a equal footing with other advanced sections like brahmins..
Also, if we look at the present situation, there are more than 700 industrial clusters in india, and almost all of them developed “NOT because of reservation”, but out of their hardwork, without any government support..
If the past governments (mostly the congress) had realised this potential and taken steps, many of the weaker sections would have developed economically..
I think, except for narasimharao who introduced self-employment scheme for youngsters, no other congress leaders ever thought of common man..
April 25th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
The following is an article in “the atlantic” in 1906, about india..
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/190810/nationalist-india
In the last page of the above article, it was mentioned, that the native state of Baroda and Mysore, were prosperous, and have superior education system than the rest of the british rule.. In Baroda, the education was compulsory and free for all..
Where do we find the discrimination and suppression of dalits in these states?
Also, i have earlier mentioned about dharampal’s book on education in india in his book “The beautiful tree”, where he states that there were more than 1 lakh schools in madras presidency alone and that almost all castes had their education in those schools..
April 26th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Dear Sir,
I am most interested in your thoughts on how and when India could become a meritocracy - where the brightest and most hard working minds can aspire to develop themselves, regardless of what caste or religion they are. Reservations ingrain caste and religious differences.
Thanks
A
April 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Shri Narayana Murthy has said that to increase the quality of our higher education, we can do five things:
One, enhance the autonomy of our higher education system;
Second, encourage them to collaborate with world-class institutions outside India, within India too, but most of them are outside India… ;
Third, bring in a sense of meritocracy in the selection of students and the appointment and promotion of faculty;
Fourth, create incentives for our faculty members to do more world-class research; and
Fifth, remove any licensing in the education system. We gave up most of industrial licensing in 1991. It is silly that we continue licensing of our educational institutions.
Later, Shri Narayana Murthy also adds that we need to value our technicians (the doers) as much as our engineers (the thinkers). Will this ever be reflected in the salary scales and incentives for technicians in our various industries?
How can these be achieved when the government interferes with our educational institutions and politicises education - such as through reservations? How can we reduce the power of the government so that strategically important sectors of the economy (education, defence, health) are not subject to the populism practices by political parties?
May 4th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
“backward communities have had access to political power before economic power ”
How many “non-backward class” prime ministers of India can you name ? Well, if they had political power and they constitue more than 60% of the population, why haven’t things changed yet?
IMHO the successive governments have been working for “economic upliftment” while denying political power. The result is that reservation policies don’t seem to have changed much.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
In India when we talk of reservations it is always about the lower caste. But let us also see the type of reservations that happens at a different level in the form of MANAGEMENT QUOTAS whether it is for medicine , engineering or any other subject..
Is it not true that even if you have scored low marks after all sorts of opportunities in life, if your parents can afford 20 lakhs plus, you still land up becoming a doctor, engineer or whatever else you want. Are we not scared that a lot of the so called professionals in India today have become professionals through this privileged reservation route? See the danger lurking in the corners of our hospitals, bridges and buildings !!?
Why no one discusses this in the context of reservations is a matter of concern.
May 9th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Even i don’t agree that lower caste people got the “political power” before “economic power” !!!
Especially reservation in education system didn’t help us much in the “tagged” university !!
You ask anyone who studied in the tagged inst, he will say that …. educators don’t like people who are selected through this… !! They don’t think we as a people working together with the govt to bring this lower caste people !!! In reality again, higher caste people control this somehow !!
June 25th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
democracy is a game of numbers. If high caste hindus had sufficient numbers and voted en bloc, the reservation system would now be redundant. sadly it is leaders of the so called ‘low castes’ who could whip up emotions of an entire community and garner votes. as also for muslims. the recent elections showed that people want a stable and capable government. so perhaps the old caste and community based politics will end. as will reservations.
the only other solution seems to be that caste hindus have more kids and increase their political clout. and have a party that advocates zero reservation-none for women either.