Reservation
Boon or Bane
Vatsal Trivedi, 3rd Year BSL
It dates back to 1932! Mr. Ramsay MacDonald,
British premier gave birth to the concept of
communal awards1 to promote various castes to
participate in elections in India. One never knew
that this would initiate the era of multilevel
reservations which still continues. Dalit
representative Dr. B.R. Ambedkar willingly
accepted the change but this class legislation was
not favored by Mahatma Gandhi as it had potential
to rip off the society. Consequently ‘Poona Pact,
1932’ was signed and the history is known.
Reservation of electoral seats up to 19 % for
depressed class out of general electorate was the
main agenda of the pact. These provisions of
primary election to choose panel of candidates for
election to central as well as provincial legislatures
were to end after 10 initial years.2 But instead of
ending, it slowly merged its way into every sphere
at every level; even after independence this was
extrapolated by the government and continues
today after 84 long years.
“Reservations metamorphosed from one form
to another, changing the lives of people bit by
bit, drifting its way through the Indian
economy, affecting people’s rights
consequently, and leading to today’s
Conflicts. A temporary provision transformed
to an ongoing tradition.”
Currently, as per the government policy, 15% of
the government jobs and 15% of the students
1Foundational basis of separate constituencies for
minorities who were under portrayed in Governmental
sphere.
admitted to universities must be from Scheduled
castes; and for the Scheduled tribes there is a
reservation of about 7.5 %. Other than this, the
state governments also follow their own
reservation policies respectively based upon the
population constitution of each state.3 Today, only
fifty percent of seats are reserved for open
category, and that is also because of supreme
courts guidelines.4
Now moving up to the current scenario; there are
plenty of the cognitions which were the need of the
hour then. But can’t justify its need in present time.
People in India are fighting to be called as
backwards! Somewhere something is not going
right.
Even after around 70 years of implementation the
questions are still that what is the condition of the
benefited castes? Are they actually assisted? Have
the policies evolved with the time? We all know
that this system is used as political weapon but we
should not go extensive into that. What I am
pivoting on is that the practical consequence of the
policy is far away from that what was anticipated
in the theory.
Despite of certain advantages, Quota system is
injurious to society in many aspects; in general, for
the say biggest drawback is loss of opportunity;
many of us gave palliation or heard others giving
that they might have better career, if there was fair
competition.
In 2014-15 in CAT Exams, a General category
person with a 98 percentile (Rank 4000 out of
200,000) did not get into IIM Ahmedabad.
2 report by Lothian Committee
3 Open Government Data (OGD)
4 M R Balaji v Mysore AIR 1963 SC 649
However, a 20,000th ranked from OBC, 56,000th
ranked from SC and a staggering 40 percentile
(120,000 ranked and probably a negative score)
from ST category did.5 Did the general category
guy failed? No, but the system did.
Our realm is giving us the Right to Equality
Without discrimination on the basis of the religion,
race, caste, sex or place of birth.6
And in the same nation for getting Admission in to
the educational institute your castes matter more
than your marks …! Hypocrisy it is.
But hold, this is not the biggest backlog. Real
accumulation is psychological anguish of our said
backward friends.
Here I would like to furnish very famous example
of Stanford University’s prison experiment; it was
study of the psychological upshot of becoming a
prisoner and prison guard. Students were asked to
select the roll of either of it. In inceptive stages it
was normal as the both categories-that are
prisoners and guards were friends but as the time
passed the participant’s behavior were modified
due to the fact that they were watched as opposed
to a lurking variable. Even knowing they were
being observed, guards and prisoners acted
differently than normal. Some of the guards need
to show their dominance even when it was not
inexorable. With no control, prisoners learned they
had little effect on what happened to them,
ultimately causing them to stop responding and
give up. Quick to realize that the guards were the
highest in the hierarchy, prisoners began to accept
their roles as less important human beings. 7
What happens when you put good people in an evil
place? That is the biggest snag of the system.
people belonging to particular caste are given
advantages by birth and they always make felled
5In reply to RTI, filed on 11th march, 2014. By – J Albert
Xavier.
by others that they are backwards and inferiors to
others, here is how they are not able to apparatus
what true potential they actually have.
Not saying India did not need to up lift the
backwards, but “the drug named reservation for
diesis of the casteism is killing our youth.”
“Reservation is ‘help’ offered by the system and
not a fundamental right.”
“Help should be given on economic
considerations and not on caste. It is
true that we are tied up with certain
rules and conventions about helping
Scheduled castes and tribes. They
deserve help, Let us help the
backward groups by all means, but
never at the cost of efficiency. How
are we going to build our public
sector or indeed any sector with
second rate people? I dislike any
kind of Reservation, particularly in
service. I react strongly against
anything, which leads to inefficiency
and second rate standards. I want
my country to be first class country
in everything. The moment we
encourage the second rate, we are
lost.”
From Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru’s letter to chief
ministers on June 27, 1961
Time has proved again and again that whatever
Pt. Nehru had said was correct.
For most politicians, it’s about securing a vote
bank no matter what. For some in General
Category, it is one of the mitigations for not having
succeeded in life or for not working hard in
government jobs. For some in SC/ST/OBC
category, it’s just a question of opportunity and the
reason to get into the habit of never try to work
6 See Arts 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 335 of the Constitution of
India.
7 http://www.prisonexp.org/
hard. There are some positives aspects but overall,
the great Indian reservation system looks like it’s
all messed up. In a lighter way: Modiji, we want
“casteless India rather than cashless India”

At the end just want you all to think; How anyone

can decide just because a person is belonging to
the particular caste he is socially or educationally
developed or not?

“Don’t give them fish to eat, help them learn how to catch
the fish.” - Lao-Tzu