Reservations in India - Myths and truths
Contributed by: Ra. Ravishankar and PalaM-Ni Ramu (palramu@gmail.com)
In April 2006, the government of India announced
that it is likely to provide 27% reservation in
higher education admissions including elite
educational institutes to other backward classes
(OBCs). This announcement created a stir
among the upper caste and the largely upper
[1]
caste national media eagerly latched on to the
upper caste discontent. A policy like reservations
to OBCs that provides traditionally
underrepresented and oppressed communities
an opportunity to get access to higher education
was projected as an anti national policy. In this
article, we hope to shed some light on the
objectives of reservations in India.
In a democratic setup like India, the idea of
reservations is to provide the basic needs to the
underprivileged that will create an opportunity for
every individual the equal right to access
resources irrespective of caste, creed, gender,
class and economic disparities. The government
identifies the underprivileged who qualify to
receive the reservations as Other Backward
Classes (OBCs). A community is a candidate to
be OBC based on a complex set of social,
education and economic criteria as reported by
the National Commission for Backward Classes
[2] [3]
(NCBC) . Besides, OBC is a dynamic notion .
Evaluation of the community’s backwardness
should be done periodically and the ‘creamy
layer’ exception should be applied as suggested
[4]
by NCBC .
The primary argument that is used against
reservation is the bogus ploy of merit. Initially
people used academic performance as a
measure of merit. Then, when the oppressed
(with limited resources) began to make inroads in
this aspect the focus changed to performance
[5]
and later into ‘personal potential’ . Eventually,
the measure of merit is so formless, cannot be
defined and is adopted according to the grounds
of argument. There is a general misconception
that reservation in elite institutions will degrade
* †
the institute’s quality. In the AIIMS and IIT
entrance examinations, the difference between
the toppers in open and reserved category is
[6]
large of the order to 20 to 30% . However, when
it comes to the last successful candidate in either
lists, the difference narrows down to about half of
it. In 2005 and 2006 IIT entrance exams, many
students would have made it even without the
quota. In AIIMS, the difference is mostly because
of the smaller pie. In spite of these
developments, it leaves one wondering why the
* ‡
AIIMS – All India Institute of Medical Sciences
†
IIT – Indian Institute of Technology
upper caste intellectuals are against reservations.
The only reason is that they see the reservations
as a mode to limit the share of future generations
of their families and castes. The point to be noted
is that these upper caste people never agitated
against any policies that might have adverse
[9]
repercussions if implemented . Neither did they
protest against lack of healthcare facilities, work
to improve technology, management in rural
areas. It all boils down to the fact that they are
not bothered about the quality of the education,
nation’s growth but truncated opportunities to
their families and castes are of major botheration
[7]
to them .
Another major argument is that reservations
‡
should be based on economic criteria rather
[5]
than caste system . Firstly, it should be
understood that reservation in India follows the
concept of protective discrimination compared to
egalitarianism. Egalitarianism aims at equality by
providing the disadvantaged individual the bare
minimum that allows him/her to qualify to join the
main stream. But protective discrimination is
something more, in the sense that it addresses
individuals who are disprivileged in more than
one category like social, economical,
psychological, gender etc. It is very clear that
reservations are meant to address something
more than economic depravity and cannot be
viewed as counters to poverty. Moreover, some
opine that India needs to have US -style
affirmative action instead of reservations. This
argument has fundamental flaws because
affirmative action is framed in terms of formal
equality whereas India has institutionalized the
notion that a commitment to equality entails not
just formal equality, but substantive equality in
the form of preferential treatment to overcome
[11]
the historic disadvantages suffered by groups .
Affirmative action is not based on quota or lower
eligibility criteria but provides a preference to
women and Afro-Americans over the whites
when they are equally qualified. An alternative
argument presented is that reservations promote
further casteism. This is not true; the policy of
reservations is recognition of the brutal reality of
casteism and a meager attempt to counter the
caste order. Protests by upper-caste Indians
(who constitute less than 15 percent of Indian
population) against the attempts of Indian
government to make elite educational institutions
accessible to those who have suffered centuries
of oppression is disingenuous. However, majority
[10]
of the Indians supported reservations in India .
There was a discussion on the same during Dr. Pandey’s
visit to UF on 11th June 2006
It is the media’s bad to blow up the opinion of a
small percentage of the people regarding
reservations.
Reservations and development go hand in hand.
The south Indian experience is a classical
example. Cities like Chennai, Bangalore have
become more modern centers because of the
participation of lower castes in all markets
[9]
compared to Delhi and Kolkatta . In India,
reservations provide a smooth transformation of
the caste-centered system and allows for equal
sharing of resources. Instead, if the upper caste
is going to continue their attacks, the nation will
have to get ready to face violent struggles as the
Nepal Maoist movement or the civil strife in Paris
in 2005. The upper caste intellectuals who have
occupied the majority of academic, administrative
and executive positions, including over 95
percent of the appellate judicial positions haven’t
really produced any major changes in the
proportional growth of the nation. Proportional
growth does not refer to GDP but to the state of
ordinary man. Rich getting richer is not growth
but improvement in state of ordinary man is
[8]
growth. As Ilaiah puts it, where does the Indian
upper caste merit stand compared to the merit of
China where the former working class (aka lower
caste) occupied all key positions after the
revolution and successfully developed science
and technology through self reliance.
Reservations are a mode to avoid social unrest
based on casteism. It is reported that individuals
coming from village level caste communities have
enormous common sense and logical thinking but
[8]
no exposure to institutional education .
Reservations provide the chance for these minds
to get exposed to systematic thinking and
analysis. The guided energy of these individual
might show exceptional talent in discovering new
ways of doing things that could enhance the
knowledge base of the nation. In conclusion,
reservations for OBCs are important for the
above cited reasons like education for all,
efficiency, equality and the proportional growth of
the nation. But they should be adopted seriously
and applied properly.

[1] Upper caste dominates national media. www.hindu.com/2006/06/05/stories/2006060504981400.htm

[2] Guidelines for consideration of requests for Inclusion and complaints of under inclusion in the central list of
OBCs. http://ncbc.nic.in/html/guideline.htm
[3] Reservations for OBCs in India: Friends of South Asia (FOSA) ww.friendsofsouthasia.org/caste/reservations/
[4] Persons/Sections excluded from reservation which constitute the “creamy layer” in society
http://ncbc.nic.in/html/creamylayer.htm
[5] Anand Teltumbde, Reservation in Private Sector: An Overview of the Proposition
http://www.ambedkar.org/vivek/reservation112204.htm
[6] Quota for undeserving? Here’s a reality check http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/10044.html
th
[7] Neera Chandhoke, Three Myths about Reservations, Economic and Political weekly, June 10 2006.
[8] Kancha Ilaiah, Merit of Reservations, Economic and Political Weekly, June 17, 2006
[9] Jayathi Gosh, Case for Caste-based Quotas in Higher Education, Economic and Political Weekly, June 17,
2006
[10] Majority of Indians want quota. www.ibnlive.com/news/the-vote-is-out-quotas-good-for-the-nation/12705-3-
single.html
[11] The Furore over Reservations: A Primer. http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issues/2006/june2006.html