"Why should those f**king people of lower caste get reservation in higher education and people like me suffer because I am part of General category", I bemoaned after looking at my average marks and the realization sunk in that I would not make the cut off for the school I intended to join. I must have ranted for a couple of days because a girl whose marks were much lesser than I got the seat (which was meant for me) owing to her caste reservation. I hated this act of reservation which effectively meant that certain scheduled caste / tribe students got preferential seats over us students of the general merit.
"Its enough, stop you complaining. You could still have got admission if you had tried harder and got in the top 5 percentile" said my father, clearly tired of my constant cribbing. He also told me that I was more depressed that I did not get in the school I wanted, and my complain should not be about who got in. "You knew the rules before the exam. So don't complain now. Don't be a sore loser" he said. Was that true? In some measures probably, but I still felt strongly that caste based reservation was a bad idea that was encouraging mediocrity in what should have been meritocracy. Us students used to secretly hate these "special category" students and few of us used to be vocal about it to their face. I am sure we didn't mean to, but we did end up making the caste barrier more visible during the school days.
Few years ago, I saw a speech made by my favorite politician Mr. Shashi Tharoor on youtube, where he was making very cogent arguments in favor of reparation owed to us by Britain - our colonial master for over 2 centuries that came to an end in 1947. Mr. Tharoor pointed out that the colonial rule was not meant for emancipation of Indians but rather for the colonial masters to make wealth off its colonies, often at the cost of lives, here in India and across other colonies. It got me thinking, wow! I would not have imagined that even after 60 years of independence we could feel so strongly about the tragedies of the colonial rule and could make a case for reparations owed to us.
Then it got me thinking about another book I had read about the life of Dr Ambedkar (a founding father of India) and the hardships he faced in his life because he belonged to a lower caste. I realize how empty the phrase sounds - "Lower caste", I am only using it for emphasis. Dr Ambedkar goes into details of how certain communities in India have been ill treated for centuries now because of our rigid caste structures and prevalent medieval mindsets. Today, after the Constitution declares us all as equal citizen of India, there are still vast segments which are governed by medieval mindsets. Emancipation of these lower castes is still not complete. Today, if my fellow citizen looks up to me and says, "I know you don't like me getting benefits of reservation policy, but don't you owe me any reparation for centuries worth of deprivation faced by my ancestors at the hands of yours".
Honestly, I feel we got off the hook easy. If we actually calculate the reparation we owe to dalits for almost 2000 years worth of deprivation of their rightful place /share, we would never be able to pay it off. The next time we feel "why reservation", remember you are just trying to make right for 2000 years worth of wrongs committed by your forefathers. While I agree, its not your fault, but you do owe the society this much due.
So long......
"Its enough, stop you complaining. You could still have got admission if you had tried harder and got in the top 5 percentile" said my father, clearly tired of my constant cribbing. He also told me that I was more depressed that I did not get in the school I wanted, and my complain should not be about who got in. "You knew the rules before the exam. So don't complain now. Don't be a sore loser" he said. Was that true? In some measures probably, but I still felt strongly that caste based reservation was a bad idea that was encouraging mediocrity in what should have been meritocracy. Us students used to secretly hate these "special category" students and few of us used to be vocal about it to their face. I am sure we didn't mean to, but we did end up making the caste barrier more visible during the school days.
Few years ago, I saw a speech made by my favorite politician Mr. Shashi Tharoor on youtube, where he was making very cogent arguments in favor of reparation owed to us by Britain - our colonial master for over 2 centuries that came to an end in 1947. Mr. Tharoor pointed out that the colonial rule was not meant for emancipation of Indians but rather for the colonial masters to make wealth off its colonies, often at the cost of lives, here in India and across other colonies. It got me thinking, wow! I would not have imagined that even after 60 years of independence we could feel so strongly about the tragedies of the colonial rule and could make a case for reparations owed to us.
Then it got me thinking about another book I had read about the life of Dr Ambedkar (a founding father of India) and the hardships he faced in his life because he belonged to a lower caste. I realize how empty the phrase sounds - "Lower caste", I am only using it for emphasis. Dr Ambedkar goes into details of how certain communities in India have been ill treated for centuries now because of our rigid caste structures and prevalent medieval mindsets. Today, after the Constitution declares us all as equal citizen of India, there are still vast segments which are governed by medieval mindsets. Emancipation of these lower castes is still not complete. Today, if my fellow citizen looks up to me and says, "I know you don't like me getting benefits of reservation policy, but don't you owe me any reparation for centuries worth of deprivation faced by my ancestors at the hands of yours".
Honestly, I feel we got off the hook easy. If we actually calculate the reparation we owe to dalits for almost 2000 years worth of deprivation of their rightful place /share, we would never be able to pay it off. The next time we feel "why reservation", remember you are just trying to make right for 2000 years worth of wrongs committed by your forefathers. While I agree, its not your fault, but you do owe the society this much due.
So long......
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