Should India continue with Caste based reservation?

Caste based differentiation of people in India remains an enigma and a tricky topic to deal with socio-politically. At times I get surprised by the simplistic view some of the westerners have about the evil of caste system in India. I understand their situation. It needs first-hand experience of living and growing in the Indian society intimately and mere fancy spiritual and adventurous sojourns do not offer the right insight into this complex social system of India.

A quick recap of the caste system:

Among the loosely coupled group of people in the south east Asia, who call themselves Hindus; the society is believed to be divided into 4 class of people or the 4 castes: The Brahmins, or the ones who derive their livelihood by rituals, worships, priesthood etc. acting as a channel of communication between human and divine; the Kshatriyas or the ruler and the warrior class; the Vysyas or business community and lastly, the shudras or the lowest rung of people meant for doing the menial jobs.

Though it is seen as a parallel to apartheid, the basis was different. People were categorized based on their profession rather than colour or creed. They had flexibility to change their caste by switching the profession; however, over the time the practice became degenerated, oppressive and disgusting. The lower caste people in India were oppressed for generations. They had little opportunity to excel and were out rightly downtrodden. They were considered untouchable; did not have access to temples, place of worship, public amenities and education.

Provisions for quota or Reservation System:

When India got independence and its constitution was written, many progressive leaders felt the need for upliftment and inclusiveness of this section of the society. It was felt necessary to make provisions for rapid progression of this society. It was agreed that this was a temporary measure and the need for reservation should be reviewed periodically and should be abolished in a period.

This led to the reservation system in India. Though it differs from state to state; roughly the reservations as they stand are:

Scheduled caste               = 15%
Scheduled Tribe               = 7.5%
Other Backward Caste     = 27% (This was added later on recommendations of Mandal Commission)

Apart from these broad categories which account for nearly 50% of the seats; there are some more provisions for Defense personnel and their dependents, women, minority communities like Sikhs, Muslims, Christians and now Jains. These quotas apply to all the educational institutions, government jobs, promotions in jobs and there are electoral seats reserved for people from reserved category to ensure representation in the parliament. From a reserved seat, only people from reserved category can contest elections. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled tribe people are also protected by very strict legislation against exploitation.

Though started for a noble cause; the Reservation system soon became a tool for the corrupt Populist politics in India. It has become clear now that the maximum benefit of reservation system is being reaped by the rich and affluent people of the reserved category. The poor people under reserved category are still not able to get suitably benefitted by the reservation provisions as those are consumed by more resourceful rich people under reserved categories. Reservation in technical higher education and promotion in jobs raises a serious question on negligence of merit in the field of technology, life sciences, research, governance and policy making. A very large number of people below poverty line also belong to the so called upper class castes. They remain deprived of these provisions of reservation for the weaker section of the society. This also creates lots of frustration and rebellion in the heart and mind of underprivileged upper caste poor people. The hatred and the chasm between castes remain wide open.

Arguments given in favour of continuing with the current provisions of caste based reservations:

Most of the political leaders from backward classes vehemently support the caste based reservations and are equivocal on when these provisions should be resolved or if they should be resolved at all.

Ram Vilas Paswan, president of Lok Janshakti Party who used to hold records in Guinness Book of World records for winning Parliamentary elections with largest vote margins is of the opinion that caste based discrimination prevailed in India for thousands of years so the caste based reservation should remain for a very,  very long time. The solution as per him is that all the boys and girls from upper caste should willingly marry the girls and boys from lower caste. This way, the social stigma of caste will be abolished and everyone will get similar benefits.

Mayawati, head of Bahujan samaj party and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has based her carrier on the dalit or oppressed card. She wants to be seen and remembered as the epitome of dalit empowerment. To prove a point, she loves to splurge the government money on commissioning hundreds of statues of her own self, public parks and gardens dedicated to herself; all carved out of tax payers’ money. She accepts donations and buys palatial houses for herself costing billions, likes to be weighed in gold at public ceremonies. During her regime, she built a road from her residence to the CM office which would be shut for public. The road used to be dusted and sprinkled with water before her trip to the CM office and the road would be hurriedly closed after her caravan of vehicles would have passed. She would move around with Z+ level of personal security with scores of commandoes; had half a dozen food tasters who would consume the food prepared for her before she would take the plunge. Her take on caste based reservation is not very clear. Lately she seems to agree in principle to consider the poor people from upper castes as well to be considered for the reservation benefits. The details are not clear.

Lalu Prasad, supremo of RJD has been a champion of Mandal Commission implementation and had been a hard player of caste based politics.

Congress Party has been speaking about this for some time and now the rhetoric is getting louder that they want to implement the caste based reservation to the private sector jobs as well. This step looks inspired by populist politics more than any larger ideology. Congress Party seems to be out of game in these upcoming national elections and they are struggling to make a last moment impact.

I am not very aware of what AAPs vision on caste based reservations is. Probably they are yet to include this on their election agenda.

What I make out:

“Moving on” is the need of the hour. Indian politicians and people of some communities should stop lobbying for things for personal advantage and should not differentiate between the needy people. We are a country of limited resources and unlimited asks; let us spare a thought for all the needy people irrespective of the castes and help them come out of it and participate in the all-inclusive growth of the nation. Seeing the political situation in the country; looks highly improbable in the near future. 

Remembering Jayaprakash Narayan and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar

It was a lazy Saturday some 25 years back. That time, I was studying in St. Michael’s high school in Patna. My mother was a teacher in a government school, Sir Ganesh Dutta Patliputra High School on Jagat Narayan road, Kadam kuan.

I used to have both days of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) off while my mother would have to go to her school for half a day on Saturdays. This particular Saturday, my mother wanted to take a casual leave. The procedure for this was to write a formal leave application (in Hindi) to the principal of the school and submit at his office before start of the classes. My mother tore off a page from my notebook and scribbled her leave application. She read through, made some corrections and crushed the page into a ball and threw it. One by one she wasted 5 pages from my notebook before she prepared the final leave application and handed it to me to submit at her head master’s office. I liked making fun of my mother.

I took the application and read it aloud. It was written in chaste Hindi.

श्रीमान,

सेवा मे सविनय निवेदन है कि व्यक्तिगत कारण से आज मैं विद्यालय आने मे असमर्थ हूँ| अतः मैं प्रार्थना करती हूँ कि श्रीमान मेरे आक्स्मिक अवकाश के आवेदन को स्वीकार करके मुझे अनुग्रहित करें| आपकी इस अनुकंपा के लिए मैं सर्वदा श्रीमान की आभारी रहूंगी|

भवदीय

After spending sufficient time, laughing at my mother’s application, I took on my bicycle and rode to my mother’s school. I knocked at the door of the headmaster’s cabin and entered the room with best of my etiquette. The headmaster stared at me with his probing eyes. On realizing that I was son of one of his staff, he took interest in knowing a lot of things about me. Finally I was able to get off the hook and started my journey back.

I had gone just a short distance from the school in the narrow lane that I saw some people, sitting in a jeep waiving at me and asking to stop. My eyes went on the number plate of the jeep. The vehicle was from West Bengal. It was not long ago that I had learnt how to interpret the number plates of vehicles.

“Where is JP House?” An elderly Bengali man demanded of me from the jeep. “I don’t know.” Pat came my reply. My answer seemingly annoyed the elderly man. “You do not know Jayaprakash Narayan’s house? Do you know who was JP?”

“I do not know where his house is. Do not waste your time and ask someone else.” I replied wryly and moved on.

Of course I was aware of Jayaprakash. I have heard tits and bits about him. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and Jayaprakash Narayan apparently were my two celebrity neighbors, a stone throw distance from each other. One was called Loknayak, leader of the masses, for some reason and the other was a rastrakavi, a national poet. The names were ubiquitous. JP Golambar, JP Narayan Aerodrome, JP Murti, Dinkar chauraha...

I must confess, I was more aware of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar than this JP guy. There was a nondescript statue of Dinkar on our school bus route. For years, our school bus would stop there to pick up students.
One day, suddenly we saw the statue getting some face-lift. They painted the statue with bright colours. A barricade was built around the statue and some plants were planted and a small manicured garden was built around.

Some of Dinkar’s poems were included in our Hindi text book. I loved to quote him in my Hindi essay assignments.

“क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को जिसके पास गरल हो; उसे क्या जो दंतहीन विष हीन विनीत सरल हो|”  

Forgiveness looks good on a snake with venom, not on those who are toothless, venom less and simple.

Coming back to Jayaprakash, I was vaguely aware of him being a national leader who was a freedom fighter and also opposed Indira Gandhi and started a popular agitation, JP Movement, against her corrupt government around 1975. Many of the non-Congress national leaders came out of JP movement.

Shambhu Sharan Lal, or just “Lal sir”, our history teacher was a staunch supporter of Congress party. We enjoyed his classes because he always talked as if he was giving first person account of incidents. Jayaprakash Narayan had inspired people to join hands against the corrupt government of Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi had a humiliating defeat and was sent to jail in 1977 on corruption charges.  - This was one of the most painful pieces of information that Lal Sir had to pass on to us as part of his teaching duties.

He would be quick to complement this with what happened after the Janta Party came to power.  They did not have leadership qualities. Morarji Desai and Chaudhry Charan Singh messed it all in internal tussle and JP went and told to Indira, “Daughter, you were better!”

“JP was a great visionary however his movement generated leaders with dubious records.” Lal sir would smile ear to ear telling us.

I stumbled upon this TV report on Jayaprakash Narayan recently.

http://aajtak.intoday.in/video/aandolan-on-aaj-tak-jp-movement-emergency-and-indias-second-freedom-1-753139.html

This helped me close my gaps in understanding about JP whose house I passed umpteen times. A man of vision, fearlessness and great grit. A man who brought the power blind Indira Gandhi to her toes with his vow of non-violent principled means.
I also came to understand why everyone from Anna Hazare to Baba Ramdev to Arvind Kejriwal prefer to have their protests at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. It is this place that JP delivered his famous speech reciting his friend and neighbor, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar.

दो राह, समय के रथ का घर्घर नाद सुनो, सिंघासन खाली करो की जनता आती हैं ।

Hope this country has more Jayaprakash and Dinkar. It was very unfortunate of India that JP died of ill health soon after Janta Pary came to power. (some say he was poisioned while in jail in Chandhigarh during emergency)

When I see Lalu Prasad, one of the prodigy of JP movement, Sushil Modi, Ravishankar Prasad et al; I also understand what Lal sir meant by JP having unworthy inheritors. Nitish Kumar, the current CM of Bihar also came out of JP movement and he still gives lots of hope.