Dr Amar Chand Bhagat, Dr Kuldeep Dogra
The concept of reservation contemplated in the Constitution of India has arrested the minds of many political thinkers, jurists, statesmen and general public ever since India became a republic and democratic thereafter. The Constitution of India has secured the provision of reservation to secure socio – economic justice to the vulnerable and downtrodden sections of the society and thereby bringing them into the mainstream of the society and the nation. From many centuries the underprivileged and downtrodden section of India had been kept away from the social life of the society. As resultant to which they were denied the access to education, temples, shops, wells and other public places.
Therefore the makers of Constitution deliberately inserted the element of equality in the Constitution of India to ensure equal treatment to all irrespective of caste, age, sex, class, religion, language and place of birth. The makers of Indian Constitution also thought that the meaning of equality based on individual achievement was too hypocritical in our caste ridden societies where group identification has historically being used for the purpose of discrimination and separation. Therefore they adopted the policy of ‘inter-alia’ a policy of preferential treatment in favour of certain weaker sections of the society to offset the effects of inherited inequality and historic injustice.
Reservation in Constitution of India
The relevant Articles of the Constitution which govern the entire reservation set up are the following:- Article 16(4) “Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.”
Article 46 “The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.”
Article 335 “The claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State.”
Facts and Figures
In India caste is also the determinant of class and economy is not and was not the factor for securing the reservations by the weaker sections. It was the social backwardness which sustained and remained, as the weaker sections were kept far away from the resources of the country.
The Dalits had no basic rights, or the rights to hold property or profess a religion as they were treated as born – slaves by the upper caste Hindus and sanctified through their scriptures such as Manusmriti. There were instances when these poor outcastes Dalits’ lives’ were even offered and sacrificed to Hindu God’s and Goddesses’ in order to please them and use them as scap goats. However this trend was restricted and virtually abolished during British rule.
There are data available on various sources which give details of atrocities and discrimination meted with these sections even now. Some of the recent reported, registered and made heard cases were Unnao rape and murder case, Rohit Vemulla case, Vikas Jattav, seventeen year old boy murdered in UP for entering a temple, a youth murdered in Gujarat for riding a horse in his marriage procession and not to forget the lynchings done during the recent years.
Similarly during 2014 Parliamentary elections, a candidate in Utter Pradesh used to carry his own utensils to cook and eat and his own folding bed to sleep, during his campaigns. Another significant and recent example is of Ist person or President of India who was not allowed to enter and offer prayers in a temple in Odisha in 2018. This shows how strong is the caste hatred internalized in the hearts and minds of the upper caste Hindus who in order to maintain that age old hierarchical position of theirs, treat the people from lower castes poorly, even if the marginalized section somehow secures a position politically.
Caste reservations are given constitutionally in order to compensate the socially deprived sections of the society. There is no case of economy being the criteria to define caste reservations in India. Caste reservation is not a poverty alleviation programme and hence the economic criterion to determine an individual or community worthy for reservations, is simply invalid.
Also if at all, the mere percentage of the Scheduled Castes and other deprived sections, Government job holders are taking away the rights of upper caste Hindus, then how is it possible that all the dominating institutions of the society like polity, judiciary, bureaucracy, civil society, media industry, and universities are all dominated by the upper caste Hindus? So, in a layman language if caste reservation has to go away, then the historic representation of a person through his/her caste name also has to go.
Need of Reservations to ensure an Egalitrian Society
All the socialist republican democracies have reservation policy for the population of the country which has been socially deprived of rights and justice. Even the most developed county like US has a reservation policy to uplift the people of color who suffered indefinite discrimination throughout ages. So, it’s not democratic and morally just to provide equal treatment to all the sections of the society who have unequal access to the resources. Instead, it should be the unequal treatment of the state in order to provide substantial opportunities and to act in a truly democratic sense. It can be understood with the example of a race run by five people among whom one has a broken leg. So the criteria of running the race, destination and time span will be set different for this person. This is how equality is practiced.
Thus, if one says that ‘reservation’ is a black spot on India’s democratic set up, then one must also accept that ‘caste system’ is a much bigger and bitter reality of India’s society and hence a dark spot on India’s democracy and should also suggest ways to tackle this inequality which begins at the birth of a child and ends at the cremation ground, which also is labelled under a certain caste.
So we need reservations as almost every country has, as it is an important tool but it is not enough. We also need to morally be ready to accept people who were deprived of the basic rights. That is one of the important tools which can be used to annihilate the caste system.
(The authors are Chairman Mission Lok Adhikaar and Chairman Backward And Minority Community Employees Federation)
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