Gokulananda Nandan

Column
Caste and caste-based reservation: Parasites weakening the development in India
Hailing from a small town in India and having studied all the way through public schools,
which hardly have any good infrastructure such as computer lab, technology-equipped
classrooms like private schools, its not a rocket science to understand that I didnt get
equal opportunity as compared to students who have gone to well-known private
schools such as St. Xaviers, Calcutta or DPS RK Puram, Delhi or Doon Schools, etc.
Did I have a choice to attend these prestigious only-made-for-affluent-kids schools? No.
Having belonged to a very moderate economic family and having considered the
premium amount of tuition fee it was a luxury to reckon on studying in those schools. So,
should people like me start demanding that students from meager economic background
should get reservation? The fact is that in spite of not having any sort of reservation I
have attended the best university for humanities in India and now I am in one of the top
journalism schools in the US and the world. I can successfully compete with any student,
educated all through in Harvard or Stanford or Cambridge or so. No one gave me any
reservation.

However, in
India caste and
caste-based
reservation is
what are
creating chaos
and have stalled
development in
India.
Reservation in
India is the
process of
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setting aside a
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certain
percentage of seats (vacancies) in government institutions for members of backward and
under-represented communities (defined primarily by caste and tribe). Reservation is a
form of quota-based affirmative action established by B.R. Ambedkar in 1956.

Caste is a real social problem. But reservation is not the solution. It will only create more
division among people and encourage corruption and crime. Government should set up
good schools, make decent education available to all, campaign aggressively against
social discriminations (all sorts of discrimination, including caste system, religion, gender
etc.) Nepotism and corrupt recruitment practices is very high in India which in turn
favors upper castes as they traditionally occupies most of the high positions, be it
government or private. But people from lower caste are equally corrupt when they get to
taste power. After all, we all (lower or upper caste) are coming from the same society,
product of the same system. That explains why we dont get Gold medal in Olympics or
Nobel Prize even when there is no reservation. Upper caste professionals are not
necessarily the better one.
In 2006 the intervention of Indias Supreme Court in the controversy over the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments plans to expand caste-based reservations
(mandatory affirmative action programs) at the countrys premier universities and
professional institutes, saying the issue requires judicial review was a wake-up call for
all patriotic and eligible Indians. We are facing this situation and years of underdevelopment mainly due to our corrupt, illogical, mediocre or below-mediocre
politicians. They are supported by equally corrupt and least efficient bureaucrats in Asia.
These people thrive and can successfully impose their wrong policies on all of us because
of wide spread illiteracy and then poverty (both are interconnected). The other main
reason, we, the middle class, so called intellectual Indians do not like politics but no less
corrupt if given a chance. We hate politics and politicians in public but do not have the
courage and moral high ground to oppose them. Our education does not build our
character but teaches us only to survive even without a backbone and dignity. In this
whole process caste is irrelevant.
In general, only the worthless, criminal minded students enter politics in postindependent India. On top of that, some families treat this as a family business to
maintain power and source of easy money (caste is irrelevant here). So they send their
sons and daughters to US or Europe, buy some degrees and go back to India to keep the
cycle of corruption and inefficiency going. This situation will not change until a good
number of honest intellectuals take up politics as profession. May not be while studying
or working, but may be after retirement. Else we will keep on blaming on politicians but
situation will not change. These bunch of corrupt politicians control our everyday life
while we hardly have any control over them (vote in India is nothing but farce though
changing very slowly).

So come on, join politics with a long-term plan and eradicate these parasites from policy
making. If good people do not come, the positions will be occupied by these parasites and
policies like reservation will be implemented.

Word count: 758

Audience: Indians residing in the US.