The Quintessential Outsider

This had to come. I am just too tired of discussing and arguing about reservations with anyone and everyone, so I am just putting all my thoughts over here. Now, I’ll just direct everyone here instead of talking about the same thing again and again.
To deal with such a complicated issue, I will go in chronological order, tracing my memory as far back as I can. I shall relate my own experience in this regard, which I hope will help you understand the way I think.
(By the way, if you do not already know details about the issue, or are not aware of both sides of the debate, Vivek Kumar’s blog is a good starting point, with the suggested readings at the end. My blog is purely for my ‘unique’ opinion, which is not wholly on either side)
I was too young when Mandal-I happened, and whatever I know of those times has been told to me later. I attended a Catholic school in Mumbai (or Bombay) throughout my childhood, which had no reservation of the kind we all know; however, about half their intake was of Catholic students (I do not remember whether it was a concrete reservation policy or just an unsaid principle). Also, the school followed the Maharashtra Board, and did not have exorbitant fees, which meant that there was quite a lot of diversity in the socio-economic background of the student population. In retrospect, there seems to have been a correlation between academic performance and socio-economic and religious background, which I will sum up in one line as – students from those families that put a high premium on education, seemed to do better.

Most urban English-speaking youth today do not know their caste (or at least they claim not to). However, for some reason, I knew it at a very young age. I also distinctly remember a few incidents from my school days which contributed to this.
As soon as my brother and I began to realize that one day, we would get out of school, we were driven by our parents to study harder to face the competition outside. Even though my parents were quite liberal and easy-going, they sometimes could not avoid comparing our performance with that of our friends (all this happens with all of us, I believe). It was during some such conversations that they remarked how some of our friends would have it easier because they belonged to a certain caste which enjoyed reservations. We could not see how these friends of ours, whose parents were also government officers, and who had had a similar upbringing, were disadvantaged in any way, so this revelation naturally led to a resentment.
I still believe that such people of the ‘backward castes’ should be included in a ‘creamy layer’ and excluded from reservation. Historical wrongs do matter, but only to a certain extent. Someone who is in a Group A government job (or equivalent income in any other field) has sufficient resources (without turning corrupt) to ensure a good education for his children, on his own (without depending on traditional family wealth). The only reason I see why my parents were able to do it, and certain others weren’t, is because they did not put a high premium on education and guide their kids in the right way (I am not saying ‘drive harder’ because there is a difference between just driving your kids to study all the time, and guiding them in the right way). It is true that there are some castes that have traditionally laid greater emphasis on education, and continue to do so, but at least in urban areas today, any parent (even of a caste which was not into education a few generations ago) should be able to realize the importance of education. In such a scenario, providing reservations leads to complacency in the minds of some of those who get it, and thus leads to the system being misused (I say ’some’ here because I have seen such complacency, but I have also seen examples of people who have not used reservation when they could have, and also those who used it, but still worked equally hard. However, such people do not need reservation in any case).
On the other hand, I also saw the way of life of the domestic servants in our neighbourhood. Most of them sent their kids to the local municipal schools, but some managed to send them to the same school as us, and their kids did well. I also saw in their families widespread alcoholism among the adult males (which made us feel that these people do not want to help themselves. This reminds me of a quote by Nani Palkhivala, that the same logic works at the global level, where sometimes, the developed countries do not want to give more aid to developing countries because they feel it will be misused by their corrupt governments. However, I digress here). I also saw, in some of the older teenage children of those servants, a resentment towards the upper classes, which explains why the ‘vote-bank politics’ of our leaders works with such people.
[By the way, I'll digress again, to explain why I put 'vote-bank politics' in quotes. I believe that it is an integral part of any democracy, and everyone from George Bush to Tony Blair to Sonia and Vajpayee does everything with the aim of winning elections. What is different is the attitude of the people, what issues do they care about, and are most vigilant about, whether they tend to follow a herd mentality or not. However, I shall leave it for a later post to have a more detailed discussion on democracy].
It is a tragedy that the people who actually need reservation the most, and whose opinions are mobilised by politicians in their favour, are the ones who do not benefit from it as much as they should, basically because the benefit of reservations has been concentrated to certain castes and groups of people within the backward castes, who have used it for several generations for the past 60 years. The caste system in India is not a simple one, and there are various levels of stratification among the upper and lower castes. Also, it has not disappeared, even in urban areas, and I do not think it will disappear soon. I also believe that any society which allows for individual enterprise and freedom cannot have complete equality. What we should try to ensure, however, is that it should be possible for someone from the lowest strata to rise to the top within one lifetime.
It is true that if one looks at the caste-wise populations in India’s premier educational institutions, the upper castes are disproportionately represented, and it is desirable that this be corrected and there be greater diversity in the student pool, even if it leads to a perceived ‘reduction in merit’. However, if there are some castes which are traditionally, or currently, stronger, in business or politics, and not in education and the professional field, they should be left that way. Only people who are socially AND economically backward should benefit from this. I am also doubtful about the motives of Arjun Singh & Co, and whether he or anyone else will try to correct the wrongs in implementation, and not include their own (or other politically powerful) castes in the OBC list. Therefore, before the implementation of any such scheme, there should be a detailed study of who deserves it and who does not. Some people argue that it is too late, and the current measures should have been applied along with the rest of Mandal’s recommendations, 15 years back. Also that why are we raising this issue now, why didn’t we have such a study already. Or as some politician said on TV, why is everyone asking for an increase in the education budget (from 3.8% to 6%) now, when the reservations issue has come up. The answer is simple, ‘better late than never’. It is better to take a well-calculated step with some delay than a hasty, but faulty one. And Mr. Politician (I forget your name), we thought if you are not going to spend enough money on education, you are also not going to interfere with it. If you now decide to interfere, then you will also have to take other positive steps.

At least the protests by medical students (especially after the support of the IMA) have ensured that these questions will be looked at while implementing the proposed reservations, if at all. As for the protests themselves, and the strike which paralysed hospitals, it seems there was no other way of making their voice heard, and they did manage to do it this way, finally. By the way, the doctors’ protests are mainly because there are too few PG seats anyway, and the fact that this is the main problem seems to be lost on most people involved in the debate. While the government has hinted at increasing seats, the question of whether the available infrastructure can sustain that many students should be looked at before any such move, in medical colleges, IITs & IIMs, and other Central Universities. Also, when you have just one or two seats somewhere, reserving them by rotation is a completely absurd idea, analogous to reserving the President or PM’s post. (By the way, I feel that those forwarded emails that the Indian cricket team and all other sundry places should have reservations are illogical and pointless, and I simply delete them)
Coming back to my own experience, I do not believe that ‘No Reservations’ would have gotten me into IIT in the first attempt, or that reservations stopped me from getting the branch of my choice when I did get through. ‘No Reservations’ might have gotten me a ‘better’ junior college after class 10, but that would not have made any significant difference in my life. Before that, my school did not have reservations, so on the whole, I personally do not feel (dis)affected by it. It is true that there are a lot of ‘borderline’ cases who are affected, but then, they are able to make it to the next best institute. Therefore, I do not see any sense in those ‘innovative’ protests by medical students where they act like sweepers or shine shoes. On the other hand, it makes a very big difference to those who get these reservations, which makes it all the more important to ensure that these reservations go to the right people.

Summing up, I believe that in the absence of any other scheme which does not depend on the ‘benevolence’ of the upper castes (like the so-called affirmative action in the US), reservation is the best policy for a place like India. However, the issue of getting it to the right people is very complicated, and this should be looked at properly before implementing any reservations. Also, the political motivation of our leaders is questionable, which makes me against Arjun Singh & Co in the current scenario. As for the protests, debates and discussions, I find most of them frivolous, and I hope people (students, politicians and even journalists, and especially the MTV people ) would spend more time educating themselves before opening their mouths. I also do not like the idea of blackmailing the State, but having said that, the brutality of the Mumbai Police on 13th May was really too much, and the subsequent strike was probably the best option the doctors had. The issue will not die out so soon, and I am sleepy, so I’ll end it here…

Update: A friend tells me the talks between the medical students and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee have failed. As I said, the issue will not die out so soon…