Reservations : the homefront perspective

There has been enough brouhaha over the reservation issue not to warrant another addition in the shape of a blog titled "Je ne sais qua". However, I would very much like to record a rather tense encounter I had with close relatives a month back, on the controversy.

Now these people aren't 'close' in the absolute sense of the word. Sure, we have a few laughs together, I land up once in a while at their doorstep, I take the monthly(or so)update on momentous events that escaped my notice, feign the appropriate modicum of interest in happenings mundane and trite, sup, crash and return none the wiser to the hostel. Unfortunately for the indifferent nephew, an aunt with a chronic case of hypochondria can be bad news indeed(believe me). Add to that the fact that she is loquacious to an extreme, and nice in most other ways, and there I am in an awkward dilemma.

To cut the story short, the only way I saw, that lazy afternoon, to channelise nervous energies into more constructive and tolerable channels, was to raise the sensitive issue of the moment....

My friends and I had heatedly scrutinised the issue from all angles worthy of scrutiny and by virtue of instantly appealing arguments, combined with noble impulses, all laid bare by a vastly informed classmate of mine, in his usual blunderbuss fashion(:)), had concluded tentatively that the move was positive. Of course, the fact that it had borne fruit in a stray situation - TamilNadu medical entrance examinations - was the straw we needed to grab at and run with. But again, I am not going to present the details of that debate.... Just that, as I picked up the thread again at home, I was convinced the proposal was a beneficial one.

The jousting began with the now-old chestnut about how we need 'higher portals' of learning to enter confidently onto the international arena. When I gently reminded them that the Government had the say in that, and that if it recognised that our ideals carried over from Independence remained just that, they could seek alternate ways towards 'social equality', in the process alienating several groups. That of course set off the series of 'revelations' : "Corruption runs deep", "The Indian political scenario is too vast for a sudden opinion reversal to make much of an impact", "The Government needs a fundamental makeover", "They must be potty. Why else would they pass an ordinance on Private sector reservations, knowing fully well a repeal would be forced?", "Well, maybe they did vote for increased reservation with overwhelming majority, but the Assembly elections are around the corner, remember, and vote-bank politics rears its ugly head", and such pithy truisms.

Then the discussion veered off on a tangent: "You slogged it out for so long. What if you had been denied your rightful seat?","My son is preparing for so and so, and due to BCs entering through the general quota, he missed out by so and so". Counter--"Isn't that the point of reservation? That eventually people shall get in on the general 'merit' basis? Of course, in TNadu, the situation has already attained saturation and reservation has somewhat served its purpose. But nothing is being done to monitor and compensate for the backlash. In other states, which eschewed the TNadu policy, as things change for the better, a few generations shall suffer, it is inevitable, but surely the end justifies the means?"

Naturally, things had to get personal at this point. I very cautiously touched on the oppressive regime of the Brahmin class over the ages, in usurping positions in education, and consequently relegating BCs to vocations they were practically born into, and saw no way out of. Immediately, I was assailed relentlessly from all sides. "What is the current position of Brahmins? We are a minority. We have no say any longer. In Triplicane, this priest's son is denied entrance into blah blah....". Recently I was sent an unbearably overbearing article that bemoaned the plight Brahmins find themselves in today.

My first reaction was, "We shall pay for our forefathers, till the balance is achieved", but I knew that was too reactionary and callous. But then, what was the explanation for the 'minority'(granted) of Brahmins(mostly well-educated and hopefully, thus, socially responsible) abstaining from casting votes? No logical answer, except the supremely, and despicably evasive "What difference will it make?".....

Onto economic reservations then. The fact that reservation needs to cater to "economic" and not "religious or class" differences has been done to death, exhumed, and done in again and again(something like the prayer "Poverty needs to be eliminated"), and cannot be designated a panacea to the problem. Obviously, the definition of the 'creamy layer' needs review, since my aunt owned that she knew of well-off people who had taken advantage of the reservation system, coupled with the "generally poor occupation of seats in the BC quotas", which was her triumphant justification(sheesh!), again, for the condemnable practice.

Then again, coming to 'innate merit', reasoned(unreasonably) everyone, "without improved primary education, nothing can be accomplished", which I had iterated approximately 63 times previously in the debate, in as many, or more words, with varying degrees of fervour. "So wait till that target is scored, then talk about violating the hallowed turf of higher institutions". I was defeated. If 50 years of identical talk and irresponsible administration had taken us nowhere, was it logical to expect things would see a dramatic turnaround in the near future? No comments, defiant looks and glances towards the blaring television set.

Then came the personal feedback that I consider most significant. "Those people (I regret to say that they used the lamentably derogatory term 'shudra gumbal', which might translate crudely, and euphemistically, to 'the worker-class crowd', but really implies more than that) do not value education. They'd rather have money and blow it away on liquor and gambling." Though this is an unforgivably gross generalisation, I find this to be the general outlook of most upper-middle class Brahmin families. Apparently, efforts to 'educate' children of maidservants, vegetable-mongers or gardeners had been spurned, or disregarded.

My feeling was that when such few opportunities were being made explicitly available to them, when the age-old caste system prevailed at least in the minds of people, defiling the social landscape, rippling the ocean surface, when even the nominal reservations are not implemented, why should these people aspire impossibly high? We, who have the luxury of a quality and wide-ranging education, complete with strong financial backing, are expected to dream big, achieve bigger, and do great things. But what about the dispossessed(in a word)? Sadly, most of the so-called efforts of my brethren were accompanied by that indefinably stuffy air of superiority--"I helped them. They turned the help down. Uruppuda maattaa(They shall not prosper)".

The discussion was losing steam. Not because I was being led to recant my beliefs(again, I do believe that mere reservations are futile: essentials -- grassroot level emancipation of the backward classes, plus a continuously revised reservation system to ensure that once admission through the general quota was representative of the general demographic, reservations should effectively cease), but because I was fighting a dying cause. Personal bias is a deadly thing, even though the parting line of another aunt of mine was admittedly on a lighter note, "I'll be selfish. I want my child to get the best education. I don't want someone less deserving to rank alongside her, and be judged thus. Let there be separate institutions for BCs. Leave the IITs alone. They are a powerful and desirable brand."

And if these self-same(necessarily) expatriates do not contribute to progress? "Do you plan to?", they rejoined. I was cornered there, and broke off for lunch, but not without confirming that it was a bracing thought that people had given all this some thought after all(and this was just after the one statement by Arjun Singh), even if it looked to be a one-way decision.



Meanwhile, petitions galore continue to be signed, and just yesterday, a call inciting students to fast(unto death?...unlikely. Students today are too lily-livered to allow their lukewarm and selfish passions to inconvenience themselves) against the proposal, did the rounds. And I rolled my eyes heavenward for the umpteenth time.

So I guess I have done what I assured you I wouldn't. But for more enlightenment, watch the headlines. This issue is not going to go down very well in history, for a variety of reasons. And we shall learn that blatant ignorance can drown, comprehensively, the voice of compulsive(?) reason, even in a supposedly right-thinking world.