Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ut-sally.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!ut-sally!raghu From: raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghunath Ramakrishnan) Newsgroups: net.nlang.india Subject: Re: In defense of caste-based reservation Message-ID: <1672@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Mon, 22-Apr-85 01:25:40 EST Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1672 Posted: Mon Apr 22 01:25:40 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 24-Apr-85 02:39:07 EST References: <403@sftri.UUCP> <1638@ut-sally.UUCP> <410@sftri.UUCP> Reply-To: raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghunath Ramakrishnan) Distribution: net Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 65 Summary: In article <410@sftri.UUCP> rajeev@sftri.UUCP (S.Rajeev) writes: >y's loss. The explicit intent of reservation is to improve the lot of the >historically oppressed, the lower-caste poor, and it does this. Obviously, >it is in the interests of other segments of society to take this away. Question: Shouldn't the objective of any reservation policy be to help all those who need (and deserve) help, rather than just one such group? If it creates an environment where one set of people find themselves unfairly discriminated against, there is something wrong. History should be used as a signpost to mistakes that should be avoided, rather than a compendium of wrongs to be righted. >From the point of view of objective justice it is unfair, because the >lower castes are still oppressed. How many upper-caste people would trade >in their upper-castehood to gain (along with the stigma) the reservation >benefits of lower-castehood? Not many, I'm sure. Remember Meenakshipuram? Unfair? Because it doesn't achieve the things it set out to achieve? I think unsuccessful is a better word. I agree that the caste system still exists, as a mental attitude in most cases, as a way of life in others. I am ashamed and disgusted that it is so. My solutions? Try to identify your prejudices, on a personal level. On a social level, ostracize anyone who is casteist (is that a word?!). On a national level, design a set of laws that disallow casteist distinctions, and ENFORCE them. This last is the most difficult. How does one design laws that can be enforced and at the same time do not infringe on the individual's rights? I don't know. But this is what we should be thinking about. The way to eliminate one set of caste based distinctions does NOT lie in introducing another such set. > >> No system is perfect, and there are bound to be people who rise to (or >>beyond!) their level of incompetence. This does not mean we throw up >>our hands and grant positions of responsibility to those who are clearly >>incapable of handling it - this applies equally to an incompetent >>Harijan benefitting from misguided reservations and to an incompetent >>'higher-caste' person benefitting from some other loophole. > >"No system is perfect", but some are fairer than others. The above >statement is an instance of unfair stereotyping: even a competent >Harijan is assumed incapable because of his/her Harijanness, which >should be irrelevant, and that is the injustice. I'm not advocating >incompetency, but a recognition that the attitudes ingrained in many >of us, and demonstrated by such seemingly innocuous statements, have >yet to change. And that is why we need government-legislated programs >such as reservation. Otherwise, the lot of the downtrodden will never >improve. I get the impression that my statement has been misinterpreted. The Harijan referred to is not incompetent by virtue of his Harijanness, but as a hypothetical, incompetent Harijan. No stereotyping was intended. If the point is that many people do indeed apply this stereotype, yes, that is true. That is true of many other things as well, and I see no solution other than individual honesty in evaluating others. Incidentally, if Harijans are held in low esteem, the reservation system may well be one reason since it pushes many people into positions that are beyond their capabilities. When one sees many people of a given denomination doing their jobs incompetently (of course, there are always exceptions) the usual tendency is to go away with a low opinion of those people. Let me emphasize something. I think the caste system, in its rigid, prevalent form, is evil and nauseating. I merely disagree with the policy of caste-based reservations as an approach to this problem.