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From: raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghunath Ramakrishnan)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: quotas based on caste
Message-ID: <1434@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Apr-85 00:11:22 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1434
Posted: Mon Apr  1 00:11:22 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Apr-85 07:42:03 EST
References: <219@cmu-ri-leg.ARPA> <188@sbcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghunath Ramakrishnan)
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 53
Summary: 

>
>I've always been uncomfortable about quotas based on ancestry.  I do believe
>that if quotas were to be necessary at all -- and I can't see a defensible
>need for them beyond college/university admissions -- they should be based
>on economic status rather than caste.  Any comments?
>-- 
>Saumya Debray
>

i agree. while it is true that there are many people from the 'backward' castes
who need help in the form of reservations, their need stems from their economic
status rather than their lineage. as a matter of fact, those people who need 
help the most are often without the basic education required to benefit from
these reservations, and many who take advantage of them (the reservations) are
wealthy, well-educated and certainly stand in no need of further help. on the
other hand, there are many poor people from the so called 'forward' castes who
do need such help. so if the objective of these reservations is to extend help
to those who need it, in order to make the system more equitable, economic
status seems to be a better yardstick to measure need with. 

i doubt that anyone would argue that these reservations are by way of revenge or
restitution for the injustices done to the 'backward' castes by the 'forward'
castes. such injustices (and admittedly, they are not entirely in the past,
especially in backward areas) are best addressed by a seriously administered
punitive approach.

not only does the system of caste-based reservations fail to achieve its
objective of an equitable (and, by extension, a more integrated) society, it
is in fact self-defeating. it has made the 'forward' castes feel like second
class citizens, and it has underlined the caste system. for people who benefit
from the system, it is not an unmitigated blessing: they are branded in some
sense as inferior, and come away feeling defensive about their priveleged 
status. actually though, i don't feel too much sympathy for the rich kid who
becomes a doctor because he is from a 'backward' caste. i feel rather worried
about his patients though!

a more fundamental question is whether any kind of reservation is good, since 
it devalues individual merit and ability. personally, i think it is justified,
in a limited sense, because any measure of ability should consider the 
opportunities that the individual had to develop that ability, if it is to
measure the true potential of that individual. however, if the system has
reservations at all levels of the hierarchy, the loss in quality cannot be
sustained. 

to summarise: i think a system of reservations based on economic status (or
some other reasonable yardstick) would be justified as a means of determining
entry into a program (initially, at both the college and job levels, later
just at the college level), but not as a determinant of promotion through
the job hierarchy.

on a realistic note, since a vast majority of voters are from the 'backward'
castes, i doubt that we will see any major departure from the present system
of caste-based reservations.