Over the past two decades, there has been a trend of several castes in India seeking official status as “backward communities,” to qualify for quotas in government jobs and places in good public schools. If the demands came from genuinely backward communities, they would be logical and acceptable, but lately the reservation seekers are communities that dominate the social, political and economic landscape in their respective states.
Take the Jats in northern India, for instance. Jats are essentially a farming community of landholders in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. They hold immense political and economic clout in parts of these states.
Yet the Jats have been seeking reservation in government jobs as well as preference for their children in public schools. Their agitations have frequently disrupted life in northern India and the Indian capital. Though the agitation is currently on the backburner, it is bound to rear its head again, with elections approaching in Rajasthan in about four months, and six months later in Haryana.
In Gujarat, the Patidars — also traditionally well-to-do landholders — brought the state to a complete halt last year ahead of local elections, forcing the government to open negotiations. And for the past two months, Maharashtra has been on the boil as the Marathas have been asking for reservation for themselves.
Demands by dominant castes for reservations put a question mark on the status and efficiency of the system, which was initially instituted only for two of the most excluded and backward sections of Indian society: The tribals and the Dalits, who have been exploited for centuries.
Jobs — in the government or even in the private sector — are rare, as are places in good schools, unless you can afford to pay about 100 times the average monthly salary in India.
Ranvir S. Nayar
In the late 1980s, in the face of massive social unrest, the government decided to extend reservations to another set of communities, called Other Backward Communities, and granted them their own quotas. It was this move that opened the Pandora’s box, leading to demands from all other communities, including Jats and Marathas, to seek their own set of reservations and be classified as OBCs.
Left to their own devices, politicians would have surrendered to them and granted reservations. Thankfully, the courts intervened and struck down the additional quotas, limiting the total number of reservations — for places in schools or jobs — to 50 percent of the total available.
Demands from even dominant communities across the country, including in the most well-to-do states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana, speak volumes about the current scenario in the country. India’s economy and education system are believed to have grown multifold over the last seven decades. However, the growth clearly has left behind large swaths of society, with a small minority of rich and well-connected groups creaming the benefits of development. This is clearly visible from the sharply rising inequality in India, which is amongst the highest in the world, with 73 percent of the wealth generated last year going to the top 1 percent of the population.
Jobs — in the government or even in the private sector — are rare, as are places in good schools, unless you can afford to pay about 100 times the average monthly salary as annual tuition fees.
Instead of creating additional quotas, politicians should ensure that the fruits of India’s development are spread across the entire country in an equitable and just manner. This would mean that the various communities could then compete and race ahead toward development, instead of wanting to go backwards.
• Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group, a global platform based in Europe and India, which encompasses publishing, communication, and consultation services.
