Reservations Vs Merit

I have never written about "casteism" in my blogspace. It is a very popular and blogworthy subject and thousands of blogs have been written over it. I am just adding my own. A very long one! The recent "Gujjar Vs Meenas" riots in Rajasthan were the catalyst in nudging me to vent my frustration. For the un-initiated, the core issue is that Gujjar's want to be "downgraded" as "scheduled tribes" just so that they can get a share of the pie called "reservations" and "affirmative action". Meenas already "enjoy" that "proud distinction" and obviously do not want to share their spoils with the Gujjars. Hence the riots.

This incident should have been a very big source of embarassment and also eye opener to all those politicians who are championing "reservations" as a tool for eradicating social inequality in my country - India. This blog is an open letter to Hon. Indian minister for HRD, Mr Arjun Singh who I percieve as the current representative of the entire reservations brigade for the purpose of this blog. I should also mention that I belong to the so called "upper castes" and I might be a very ignorant intellectual on this subject but these are just my personal views, whether right or wrong, to accept or reject it is your choice.

Sir,
With the Rajasthan incident as the backdrop, don't you think that it is time to reconsider the merits or de-merits of your strong opposition to withdraw reservations for the "creamy layer", and from instituions of higher learning (read IIM) and private companies (read IT companies)?

Let me place my view points in perspective vis-a-vis yours :

I am Not opposed to reservations if they are designed to help ONLY the needy. My definition of needy is a "person who is oppressed, is poor by Indian standards i.e lacks basic necessities like food shelter and clothing education and finally, lacks access to internet, because then he cannot read my blog and understand his or her rights". In a nutshell reservations must be made available only to the needy and not necessarily to a person belonging to so called "lower caste".

I remember reading your comment somewhere about reservations that it were not incorporated in our constitution for the purpose of upliftment of poor but instead as a tool to eradicate the social inequality. I fully agree with the spirit in which this dictum was written by our national forefathers. HoweverHowever I am now 100 percent sure that our honorable forefathers NEVER foresaw a situation similar to what we recently witnessed in Rajasthan. It never occured to them that the very people for whose upliftment they were struggling would one day desperately want to remain classified as "downtrodden"and all because of this "reservations" policy. Oh I wish they were alive to see this rotten fruit of their labor!

Sir, did it occur to you why this anti-climax happened ? I think I know few reasons why. Listen.
My simpleton 2-dimensional belief is that when ancient Indians flourished they never meant to create caste based society, it was supposed to be a role based society. A potter, a blacksmith, a king, a knight and a teacher are some role based examples. Very logical indeed in those stone age days. Over the years, the teachers, by virtue of learning and Kings by virtue of power flourished and progressed well beyond other fellowmen. The "vaishya's - business men" did not really become "Brahmins" but due to virtue of richness were not really considered "Shudras". The people left way behind in the race were potters, blacksmiths etc, basically unskilled labourer class who finally grew into "lower caste". This disparity slowly evolved and turned the entire society into caste based where somesection of society called themselves "upper cast" and rest as "lower caste". Some of these ancient people nowbelonging to "upper caste" wrote the dictats of the Hindu religion and the vedas and everyone else simply followed it. Thus the one-way wheel of religion and caste was set in motion. Give or take some from this story but I believe thisis the bottom-line of our caste based society. If you need a modern equivalent of this evolution cycle just look at the economic disparity brought by IT revolution, people working in IT can afford the sky while similarly placed public servants cannot! One day this will turn us into another "Class" based society! Who knows....

Note the glaring absence of "omnipotent" GOD from this story. I dont want to complicate it by adding the 3rd dimension that it was GOD who created upper caste (Brahmins) from His forehead and Lower castes (Shudras) from His feet and blah blah...

Presently, it is a known fact that Hindu Religion and Vedas cannot be re-written. It is therefore IMPOSSIBLE to completely eradicate casteism from psyche of Indian people belonging to both castes simply because the provision to upgrade someone from lower caste to upper caste DOES NOT exist in Hindu Religion or Vedas!! So you have to be born a Bramhin to belong to upper caste and if you are born in a lower caste, you are done for life that way. No matter how many reservations you reservefor the lower caste. UNFORTUNATELY this distinction will always remain in one form or other. Period.

So then, what is the real "solution" to this problem? I feel it can only be two pronged:
1. Abolish reservations based on caste, instead make it available only to economically backward. Because as we have seen in Rajasthan it only encourages people from "Lower Caste" to be proud of themselves but it does not really help abolish casteism!
2. Encourage social equality in a very social way, namely through MARRIAGES. Encourage inter-caste marriages AND announce HEAVY reservations for any FAMILY which is wedlocked from lower and upper caste. Provide police and legal protection to such families from harassing and opposing parties.
My challenge to you Sir, is the above. Can you pass laws to make and promote inter caste marriages? Do you have the political guts to incur the wrath of so called "upper caste" and cajole or lure grooms or brides from upper casts to wed someone from lower caste? Only when this is achieved the real social equiality will return to our society. Any other solution is farcical and only politically motiviated.

Now you may call me a dreamer to even believe that such inter caste marriages will gain acceptance. To this I would once again point you back to Rajasthan episode. What Gujjars are doing is out of greed, and greed comes naturally to us Indians !! So if you dangle the reservations carrot to "Upper caste" for marrying their children into lower caste I am sure atleast 8 out of 10 will fall for this carrot sooner or later. Maybe even I would have, had you shown me this carrot before I got married!! The reservation benefits will be obvious and lucrative enough to bend even the most adamant. Divide and rule, buy them if you cant mend them! Havent we learned from Britishers? You may question about the quality of emotional bonding which such marriages born out of greed will have. But that is something we can try risking. Boys and and girls from upper caste will surely think twice before they fall to their greed and they will be mentally prepared before they wed into such marriages. Even if this does not happen in large volumes at least a time will come when even people from upper caste who dont agree to do it themselves will atleast not look down upon other who embrace it. It may take decades but will SURELY succeed. With your current approach, it will never succeed to remove the equality even if it may help people from lower castes to become rich. And that is not what you really want! I believe if my solution is achieved we will not only achieve social equality but it will also promote a merit based society and help the really needy -the economically backward! Its a win-win situation for all. I urge all to think over it seriously.

Say NO to reservations and Say YES to MERIT. Our country needs Merit badly.

~Amit