Divide and reserve
ANUKRITI PANDEY
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Social development loses its meaning if the divisive tendencies continue
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ON DECEMBER 14, the Lok Sabha unanimously passed the bill to extend 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Central higher education institutions.
The same evening members of the Resident Doctors' Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences went on a hunger strike. Déjà vu? Are we to witness the same bitter scenes in the country that took place not so long ago?
The objective of this piece is not to get into any technical or political questions pertaining to the bill. Enough has been written on the subject and no repetition of the technicalities involved or accusations of malicious `vote bank politics' is warranted here.
Disturbing aspect
The most significant as well as disturbing aspect is what this question of extending reservation has done to the mindset of the youth in the country. Let us begin from how it all started as far as the younger population in the country is concerned. One fine day a particular text message was forwarded all over India about how everyone needs to come together and protest against a proposed move i.e. extension of 49 per cent reservation.
Within a few days there were hunger strikes in premium medical institutions, engineering colleges and other higher education academies, lathi-charges, tear gas attacks, 24 hour news channels at it, print reports ranging from one end of the spectrum to the other, heated panel discussions, more text messages, posts on websites and so on.
What was the consequence of it all, besides an extremely bitter social climate in the country? Here comes the painful revelation. Young minds who had not even understood the serious issues of social stratification yet, who had little notion of what centuries of subjugation can mean for members not so `high' on the ladder, who probably were not even aware of the implications of belonging to a particular `caste' in India, were forced to take a fundamentalist stand on the issue of reservation.
This was because of the completely insensitive way in which the question of extending reservation was introduced. Everyone belonging to the political circle whether in or out of power had his own axe to grind. No one paid any attention to how the issue has managed to divide the entire country on caste lines all over again.
Class XI and XII students in elite public schools in metropolitan India and college going `freshers' were told by the senior protesters about how their chances of getting into a good medical or business school are about to become even lesser. With this half-baked knowledge, youngsters, who were probably untouched by the caste question hitherto, joined the bandwagon of protesters.
Losing the larger picture one became either `pro' or mostly `anti' reservation. Who cared about the historical context, sociological questions and phrases like the subaltern situation. All anyone knew was that in this day and age of high pressure and limited opportunities, their chances are going to get even more stalled if the reservation move came through. Fair enough, why blame the ignorance of our youth if those at the helm of affairs could not do better.
The protests which happened over the past few months and have started again will not prove to be some stray incidents in the general political history of the country. The question of development of those who have been the unfortunate victims of the social stratification system will get defeated even if the percentage of their getting admission to higher education institutions increases, precisely because of the hatred that has been thrust on the youth in the wake of the reservation issue.
Social development loses any meaning if the divisive tendencies continue. Why couldn't our political leadership think of conducting some kind of a proper information dissemination session or a healthy public debate regarding issues such as caste, affirmative action and reservation policies citing examples from Indian history as well as other democracies of the world before even introducing the move?
A great disservice has been done to the Indian youth, not because of the reservation extension bill as they imagine but because of how a shallow, angry and parochial notion of caste and social categories has been imposed on them.
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