Why I support caste-based reservations in India
Viewpoint of an unreserved person
Born as a Deshastha Rigvedi (mom's side) - Yajurvedi (dad's side) Brahmin, I completely, vocally, and aggressively support, without a single speck of doubt, caste-based reservations for at least some caste groups (SC/ST/VJ/NT). Before I explain my logic, it is essential to clarify that I gave a central government entrance exam (KVPY) that had reservation-based cut-offs and selections and got my undergrad degree in a government college (IISER Pune) that too had reservations. As someone who was ineligible for any such reservation - I was 100% okay with it. So, it's not as if I don't have skin in the game and I'm barking from a distance. I'm deep into the game.
My logic is based on simple numbers. People from the "Open" category form about 35-37% of the Indian population. The caste-based reservation slab is 50%. So, "open" folks still get 13-15% more seats than OUR population representation. So, there's absolutely nothing to cry about, in most circumstances. Further, you knew while giving the exam what's the cut-off for you & how many seats are there for you. So, if you don't make it, you don't make it. Fuck off. Don't be a baby about it. Life is too long & the world is too big. Do well next time.
The reason you feel that although you are 35% of the population, you should still get 100% of the seats is because it is coming from a lot of socially learned deeply rooted casteist ideas of entitlement that you have never questioned. First, you assume that YOU are interested in, passionate about, and deserving of whatever educational training or profession you are in, but those from other castes are not. What basis is there for this assumption?
Second, historically your great-grandfather, grandfather, and maybe father got all the caste privileges and now you are not getting those, that's why you are pissed. But you need to realize that it was a casteist discriminatory privilege due to which several other people in our society suffered. Giving that privilege up is a step toward a fairer world.
Third, you assume & you've been told throughout your spoilt childhood that you are better than others, when - frankly - you are not. There is a subtle element of caste superiority here. So, when a larger system with rules shows you that you aren’t special or superior, you get pissed. Reservation is a policy that ensures that there is some (though not 100%) correction for historical injustices. If you feel so bad that the person competing with you for a seat got admitted at a lower score because of caste reservation, imagine how bad & inhuman it was when their ancestor was not even considered worthy of being touched by your ancestors.
I know that there are some tricky cases where caste-based reservations might seem particularly unfair to "open" folks. First, in places where there is only 1 seat & it gets rotated over years as reserved or unreserved, it's going to seem unfair because then you don't even have a chance when the seat is reserved. But in such cases, you should ask, advocate, or protest for more seats. In a country with 1.4 billion people & $5 trillion economy, why the fuck should there be 1 seat for something important?! That's a policy failure. It's not something to be proud of (in terms of the competition) or complain about (in terms of reservations).
Second, when someone who is similar to you (same residence, level of income, kind of schooling, or access to resources) but from a reserved caste gets in & you don't. I can totally see why this is unfair. TBH, this is what most "open" folks complain about when they complain about reservations. There are two ways to sort this out:
It's important to know that for every 1 person who is misusing (if you want to call it that) reservation in such a case, there are at least 10-20 others who really need it and benefit from it. Rural kids, poor kids, etc. You don't see them, but they are there. More in numbers than you can imagine.
Ask politicians for multi-criteria reservations. Reservations that are based on caste + residence (rural/urban/tribal) + sex-gender + level of income (rolling average of past 10 years of household income) + physical/mental health challenges. As a researcher on the topic, I'm an ardent supporter of multi-criteria reservations. However, even in this system, caste cannot & should not be ignored. It has to be the first criterion. Let me explain why.
Several parts of India still practice caste-based untouchability. Nationally representative surveys have shown that. Inter-caste unions/marriages form just over 5% of all Indian marriages. In several cases, brides and, more commonly, grooms from "lower" castes are still killed when they try to "marry up". Data tells us that jobs & admissions through networks & connections still favor "higher caste" folks in public & private sectors SOLELY on the basis of caste when everything else is the same across applicants. So, caste discrimination exists in India & it is still against the "lower castes" in a large number of cases.
Also, to people complaining about caste-based reservations - why don't you complain about the new EWS reservation where people make fake income documents to look poor? Why not complain about internal reservations (if you do undergrad, you'll be preferred for postgrad) present in several institutions including apex institutes like AIIMS? Why not complain about sibling & legacy (multigenerational preferential treatment) admissions present in private schools & companies? You seem to be selective in your objections when it comes to reservations, which reveals a caste bias.
It's understandable that we all form a worldview based on what little we see around us and that we have strong emotionally charged opinions about things that impact us adversely. Still, we all need to come out of that narrow mentality at some point & look at the big picture here. Reservations have helped in reducing the caste-based inter-generational mobility gap between SC/ST households and "open" households. That was the policy's purpose. So, it works!
BUT the gap is still there, so, we can't stop yet. We should definitely ask for modifications (like multi-criteria reservations). We should ask for more seats. More money needs to be poured into the PUBLIC sector of higher education in India. We should fight against the politicization of caste and caste-based reservations. And we should try to reduce caste bias. If you want to get rid of caste-based reservations in the long run, here's a small exercise - do not ask or try to judge the caste from the last name of a person for the rest of your life, including the day of your marriage. If enough people follow this simple exercise, there will be no need for caste-based reservations in India.