Reservations

CASTE AND RESERVATIONS, the problem and the solution, are yoked together in public discourse. They incite great passions. A conversation about caste ends up being about reservations. A savarna of privilege attacks the very idea as undermining ‘merit’. Reservations started as a policy to ensure that the most oppressed and excluded sections of Indian society, the dalits and adivasis, are guaranteed representation. Today, it has been extended to powerful communities such as the brahmins and marathas in the guise of economic quotas. What role does class play in caste society? Anand Teltumbde offers a dispassionate history and analysis of the connected issues and shows us how the solution has become the problem.