It’s easy for us in the Anglosphere to believe that only the United States of America has experimented with affirmative action plans in order to help those who might traditionally have been economically and culturally disadvantaged take a full place in the society. But an article, part of which is reproduced below, on the centre Left Harry’s Place blog speaks of how a type of affirmative action, called ‘reservation’ one instituted by the British during the Raj period, has expanded under independent Indian governments. It was expanded in order to ensure that minority tribes, those of lower castes in Hindu culture and religious minorities, get opportunities that might have previously been denied to them. However as the author Mirax, who I believe has personal and familial contacts with the culture of India, says, maybe it’s time to ask some awkward questions about whether India’s affirmative action system is working as it should.

Mirax said:

Although the British started the reservation project in the 19th century, on a much smaller scale, independent India has committed wholeheartedly to its positive discrimination programme, the largest and longest in the world. The Indian constitution puts a cap of 50% on reservation but this has been breached in many states (Tamil Nadu has a reserved quota of over 70% )  and also by the BJP, which in 2019, added a 10% plan for the economically deprived from the general category! The BJP move was roundly castigated by the BBC as a gimmick but that points to the utter ignorance and bias of the BBC. There are dirt poor Brahmins, (they have cultural and religious capital, not money) and in states like Tamil Nadu which are ferociously anti-Brahmin, actually face discrimination and have long been forced to seek their fortunes overseas and in other Indian states. Leaving aside the brahmins, the other forward castes and other religious groups have badly  reduced chances of entering elite educational institutions and getting into desirable courses like medicine or law and their families bankrupt themselves paying for private college admission. Read this 2012 NYT article. Ignore the headline which has little to do with the content. The brahmin girl from Tamil Nadu who took her case of caste discrimination to the Indian Supreme Court was just another in a long line of such legal challenges.

It’s well worth taking the time to read Mirax’s piece on Harry’s Place as it’s a window on a world that many people might be unaware of. If it is the case that Reservation has not created an equal playing field for jobs and educational opportunities then it might be a similar situation to that which existed in the USA where, from the Nixon administration up until a recent Supreme Court judgement condemning racially biased university entrance policies, colleges could discriminate in favour of traditionally disfavoured groups. This favouring in the USA has meant that colleges had overt or covert quotas on the number of Asian Americans admitted to some colleges which meant that wealthy members of favoured demographics were admitted ahead of high achieving members of non-favoured demographics which I believe was an injustice. This policy was also worryingly reminiscent of policies in the early 20th century in US education where colleges had quotas of Jews to prevent ‘too many’ Jews from entering the higher education system.

I’d be very interested in hearing from any of this blog’s many Indian readers as to whether the problems outlined by Mirax and those whom they have quoted are as big a problem as they seem to be treated by Mirax. I know the caste system was in place for millennia and that it has created what some would say are injustices and I can see why Indian governments post 1947 tried to do something about it. However it certainly seems to be the case for me that in situations like education the primary admission criteria should be educational achievement rather than race, religion or caste.