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Why reservation? Or Why not reservation?

Note: Will be updated as I learn. We both will explore this together, so share comments after reading.

The topic of reservation came in while discussing with my friends & I felt I couldn't convey thoughts due to the lack of time. So thought of penning it down.

Before I start, we should consider a broader context of how caste has played in India since 400AD or earlier.

A backward family should only get one round of reservation benefit. 

People generally don't dig deeper to understand why caste based reservation came in India. There was a huge caste based social injustice against the minorities & Dalits etc. for many many years, in fact, few dates back to 400 AD. Few of those injustices I can recollect are slavery, untouchability, no right for education or enter school.

Think of a race (life as a race?) where the socially forward caste enjoyed the benefit for many years & generations. Now to get those who were socially left behind (for many years) to same speed & same position as that of the socially forward it will take many generations.

Will a rich family give up all riches and everything for equality then start fresh from next generation? No, everyone keeps the lead and it has resulted in a huge imbalance.

So I can't blame reservation system at least now compared to injustice those socially backward caste suffered which dates back since 400 AD & we're talking about reservation for the last 70 years.

Another argument is we should give reservation based on the financial capability. 

So many lawyers, businessmen etc hide a majority of their income. Many of them would become eligible for 'reservation' if the basis was one's financial capability. So doing it on a financial basis alone will result in a huge corruption. Currently once a family is in wealthy income range most of Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation doesn't apply but due to the corruption that doesn't get honored much as people still procure OBC certificates either by giving bribes or hiding true information.

First we need to offset caste based injustice which prevailed then start on financial backward reservations with proper tools and systems in place.

Another dimension other than offsetting the centuries of a injustice is to establish the equality. 

Reservation ensures that those minorities get to represent themselves rather than someone else represents them like the cases in the cabinet for Dalits, Women, and LGBTQ. Isn't that how we get equality? Think of someone else choosing the bride or groom for you.

Is the world fair? 

The world is an unfair place & a kid born in a well-placed family has a ton of advantages in the world right from inception time health. It will take many more years to offset the social caste injustice happened centuries before & have an huge impact. Say, if economics is about skill/advantages & politics is one of means to distribute power. Both are biased in favor of well-placed family born kids. All powers are moving towards economically strong ends. The destiny is pretty unbalanced & it takes a miracle to balance this out!


Ironic, the awareness is needed among the well educated socially forward castes to realize the importance of reservation while they enjoy what they have which are the end results of the privileges from the past. Does the privileges for centuries take of the compassion or love or is it need of power or greed in human? If we consume only what we need that can bring in equality.

Finally, why is this concept of the socially forward caste of the family? How about socially forward class breath better fresh air than poor? Why can't we live or survive with the basic what we need? Why don't we generate only what we need?

Needs more data & research:
  • Reservation always existed. The new age reservations are to offset the old age reservation! For eg: Only high-class caste folks were having the reserved right certain privileges like entering temple, school & doing certain tasks. Whereas low-class caste was reserved to only do cleaning of the drainage etc.
  • I'm still collection more data points which can be relied to understand the impact and spread. Some of the data point presented in Tedx AIIMS presentation by Mr. Yogendra Yadav points few things that there is a huge imbalance still in the society in education sector.
  • Creamy layer: There is an argument against the creamy layer it was a well thought out move to ensure that no one gets the reservation hence forth socially forward caste regained back the allocation.