ARE

RESERVATIONS
NECESSARY IN
THE PRESENT
DAY?
CASTE SYSTEM BEFORE BRITISH

■ The caste system of old ages was not completely as rigid as we know it today, with the
four major group of people or Varna being – Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas,
Shudras.
■ In the early years, the caste system was more fluid and one could change professions
and or their “caste” based on their knowledge and skills.
■ However, later on, the system became much more rigid.
■ Even as such, this Varna system was not as widely known or followed. It was not
mandatory.
POST BRITISH
ARRIVAL
■ The British arrived in India at a time when information
was scarce but the Colonizer's power over that
information was absolute.
■ They simplified a very complex and diverse system to
make administrating the country easier for them. 
■ Henry Waterfield in the 1872 census came up with the
idea of classifying Indians based on the four castes of the
Varna system.
■ “It was applied with the most general of Orientalist
categories for the classification of social order with built-
in assumptions about hierarchy and precedence”
Henry Waterfield James Princep
BRAHMANWAAD OR
BRAHMANISM
■ The British were responsible for popularizing the Four Varna caste system
■ The Brahmans were considered the privileged class
■ Warren Hastings, in 1772, took up the task of formulating Hindu and
Muslim Law
■ Up until the arrival of the British, the Four Varna Caste system was not as
widely known or practiced.
■ After the Colonists surmised this “easy” classification of Indians and Hindus,
this Discriminatory system was implemented, popularized and ultimately
followed.
■ M N Srinivas described the difficulty of social mobility during the British
Raj due to the presumed superiority of the Brahmin class.
THE POONA PACT
■ Dr. B R Ambedkar was demanding separate representation for the oppressed or depressed
classes
■ In August 1939, British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald accepted Dr. Ambedkar’s
request for allowing separate electorates for the Depressed classes
■ Gandhiji declared a fast unto death upon hearing about the separate electorates because
he believed that this would exacerbate the gap between the Harijans and other Hindus.
■ When Gandhiji's health began to deteriorate, Dr. Ambedkar had to negotiate, and the
Poona Pact came into effect
■ The Poona Pact ensured the number of reservations for oppressed/depressed classes was
increased rather than a separate electorate.
WE THINK IF WE HAVE A
COMMON ELECTORATE THEN
WE WOULD BE SUBMERGED,
YOU SEE? [AND] THE NOMINEES
OF THE SCHEDULED CASTE WHO
WOULD BE ELECTED, WOULD BE
THE SLAVES OF THE HINDUS.
 DEMERITS OF RESERVATIONS
■ Reservation is anti-progressive because it does not reward merit or efficiency.
■ Reservation is a policy for appeasement of the masses and a chance to promote vote bank politics.
■ The “creamy layer” takes on the benefits of caste based reservation; the latter therefore promotes
further inequalities instead of removing them.
■ Such reservation systems reduce the motivation to perform to the best of one’s ability for
backward as well as non-backward classes.
■ Regardless of the intrinsic worth or dignity of such labours the moot point is that such skills that
the historically deprivileged possess are not acknowledged as social assets worth acquiring.
■ The most popular argument against reservation is that it would encourage inefficiency which
already is high in our system.
Continued…

■ Caste-based reservations cannot remove poverty, cannot end economic exploitation; they cannot "uplift
the poor”. They can only make some of the poor, non-poor. What they can do is end the caste-
monopoly of organised sector jobs, especially of the public sector.
■ This is a caste monopoly of the twice-born, most predominantly Brahmans, and as many have pointed
out, including S S Gill, secretary of the Mandal Commission, it is a caste monopoly that has arisen out
of a heritage of thousands of years of caste reservation in India in which Shudras and anti-Shudras were
forbidden access to power, wealth and status.
■ Destroying or lessening this caste-monopoly helps to create a middle class section among castes that are
largely poor - a fact that is sometimes used as a charge against caste reservations, but in fact it is
inevitable and progressive to the extent that it breaks up the correlation of 'caste and class’.
NEED FOR RESERVATIONS
■ According to a sample survey performed by Dalit Adhikar Abhiyan in 2014 and
supported by ActionAid, 88% of state schools in Madhya Pradesh discriminated
against Dalit pupils.
■ In Haryana, in 2015, 49 percent of Dalit children under the age of five were
underweight and malnourished while 80 percent of those ages 6–59 months were
anemic.
■ In a sample survey of Dalits done over several months in Madhya Pradesh and
supported by ActionAid in 2014, it was discovered that 65 percent of Dalit villages
were not visited by health field workers.
■ Dalits were denied access to ration shops in 47 percent of cases, and were given 64
percent fewer grains than non-Dalits.
 LANDMARK JUDGMENTS
■ State of Madras v. Smt. Champakam Dorairajan [1951] S.C.R. 525
• She, a brahmin woman, filed a mandamus restricting the madras government from belonging the
economically weaker sections in medical and engineering colleges
• This lead to the first constitutional amendment in 1951: to empower the state to undertake affirmative
action for the advancement of any socially and economically backward classes or categories of
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes by restricting the application of fundamental rights
■ M.R. Balaji and Ors. v. State of Mysore [1963] Suppl. 1 S.C.R. 439:
• For the purpose of article 15(4), backwardness must be both social and educational (caste cannot be
the only factor to determine social backwardness. Christians, Muslims and Jains do not believe in
caste system, thus identification of backward classes based on caste is bad)
• the reservation under article 15(4) must be reasonable (cannot cross 50%, though it is hard to predict a
permissible percentage)
• categorisation of backward classes into backward or more backward is not warranted by article 15(4)
Continued…

■ Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (AIR 1993 SC 477):

• Reservation excess of 50% will not be violative of article 14 and/or 16 but this reservation cannot be extended up to
100%
• In the identification of backward classes among Hindus, caste is a primary or dominant factor, but it is not the sole
criterion.
• The maximum ceiling of reservation can be fixed for posts in favour of any backward class of citizens. fixing the
percentage of reservation only up to the maximum of 50% is unsustainable.

■ Ajit Singh v. State of Punjab (1999, five-judge bench)

• “In view of the overwhelming authority right from 1963, we hold that both Articles 16(4) and 16(4A) do not confer
any fundamental rights nor do they impose any constitutional duties but are only in the nature of enabling provision
vesting a discretion in the State to consider providing reservation if the circumstances mentioned in those Articles so
warranted,” - SC's statements
• The policy of reservation cannot be implemented in a manner to block the merit channel and to make it dry and care
has to be taken that efficiency of the administration is not harmed and there is no reverse discrimination.
Continued…

■ M Nagaraj v. Union of India (2006 – five-judge bench)

• Ceiling limit of 50%, concept of creamy layer, and other compelling reasons (backwardness,
inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency) are constitutional requirements,
without which, article 16 would collapse
• For 'extent of reservation' state must show existence of compelling reasons and enable provision, state
must collect quantifiable data showing backwardness
• Even if the state has compelling reasons, reservation provision must not breach the ceiling-limit of
50% to obliterate creamy layer or extend reservation indefinitely.
• Govt. not bound to make reservation for the SCs and STs, but if it wishes to exercise discretion to
make such provisions, the state must collect quantifiable data showing backwardness of a class and
inadequacy of representation of that class in public employment
 CONCLUSIO
N
A policy and or judgement is only as effective as the people
who abide by it. This is a social issue that requires a much more
long-term approach which involves dismantling systemic
casteism and discrimination at the the most minute level. Until
such change occurs, reservations with timely judicial
intervention must be sufficient.