70 Years of Affirmative Action in India

by philg

From Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives by Sunil Khilnani, a chapter on Bhimrao Ambedkar:

In his youth, Ambedkar had burned a copy of the Laws of Manu, a legal text by the legendary Brahminic lawgiver whose ancient decree was said to have created the caste order. Now he wasn’t about to waste the chance to subvert that order by pressing into the Constitution the most sweeping system of affirmative action anywhere in the world.

To Ambedkar, the caste system was generated by the exclusionary social and kinship rules of the Brahmins, and it spread because other groups, especially those lowest down the order, aped the Brahmins’ precepts. They did so believing that spiritual, social, or economic benefits might come to them, too. This analysis would lead to a crucial insight: that the caste hierarchy was able to enforce itself with minimal physical coercion. It operated largely by voluntary submission, based on what Ambedkar described brilliantly as “an ascending scale of reverence and a descending scale of contempt.”

A right to equality of opportunity in public employment has also been affirmed. Ambedkar did more than anyone to embed these principles in the Constitution. But out of them grew a politics of reservations, or affirmative action, that was paradoxical in its effects. Initially, the principles were supposed to sanction, for a finite period, the reservation of places (quotas), in government employment and educational institutions, for Dalits, tribal groups, and others defined as “economically backward.” (A ten-year jump start was the initial hope.) Yet the power to determine eligibility for reservations was given to India’s state legislatures, and a constitutional principle thereby became an electoral expedient. Politicians can promise, in the name of equality, to expand the number of reserved places, and to extend them to include newly defined “backward classes.” Caste groups, even successful ones, compete and sometimes campaign violently to be deemed backward in order to benefit from reservations, which today apply to just under half of all positions in India’s national government institutions. In one state, the figure approaches 70 percent. So, in terms of social mobility, down is the new up. It’s one of the profound ironies of India’s democracy: reservations, designed to erode caste identities and fortify individual citizens, have invigorated caste categories now defined by the state.

So everyone is equal in India under the Constitution, except that some people are entitled to jobs based on personal characteristics. And the sorting of job applications by personal characteristics was supposed to last from 1948 through 1958, but instead has endured through 2018 (more than 60 years past the expected expiration date).

Readers: Does this show that an affirmation action program inevitably ends up being permanent?

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6 thoughts on “70 Years of Affirmative Action in India”

  1. I am Indian and this was one of the reasons I moved out of India. If you are hardworking but belong to a “historically successful” economic “category”, you are doomed in college admissions, government jobs and government job promotions. My mother was chemistry masters topper, and ranked #10 in a state level exam to select high school chemistry teachers. She was called for vacant teacher position #400 after 10 years of waiting after 40 “backward” candidates less qualified than her were selected for each open position. My dad worked in a government institution in which the head of division for the whole of southern India was a “backward” candidate who entered as a data-entry typist and got promoted every year automatically because of quotas -skill doesn’t matter in this system. Those who enter the system due to quotas destroy the institutions due to their latent insecurity and corruption. Also India doesnt weed out the affluent from affirmative action, you just need to be in the right group.

    Private companies and the armed forces in India don’t have to implement affirmative action and look at how successful they are.

    I understand the underlying rationale for opening up opportunities, but it should have been stopped after 30 years.

    Lo and behold as I read about the US, it is from the frying pan into the fire. College admission quotas for diversity and diversity police run amok in private companies – worse than India at the corporate level.

    Those who took the high ground in the 60s and did not agitate to be called “backward” like most Indian Christians now look like fools. If you take a poll of Indian Christians these days 99% will vote for Trump.

  2. Regarding the manipulation of identity politics for personal gain: savvy prisoners in the New York City prison system will identify as Muslim so they can receive Halal meals, which are considered superior to the standard fare.

  3. It also leads to absurd situations like the majority (and quite well-off) Maratha community that dominates Maharashtra state (which includes Mumbai, India’s economic hub) agitating for that status and reservations.

    That said caste is a genetic, not just religious division. Indian population genetics show a country made of hundreds of genetically distinct groups around 3 million in size, that have managed to maintain over 99% endogamy (less than 1% marriage outside the group) over three millennia. The caste mentality is still alive and kicking, unfortunately.

    One bright spot is that the female infanticide that led to a skewed 1.14:1 ratio of boys to girls at birth is also causing the varna and jati marriage rules to break down as men are forced to “marry down” due to supply and demand.

  4. Affirmative action in India is like any government program anywhere else in the world that benefits one group, so it cannot go away without antagonizing that group, and, consequently, majority of votes from that group. Hence, such programs cannot easily be ended, and are nearly permanent in any democratic state, because most elections are won or lost by very narrow margins.

    Additional historical context:

    India had four primary casts (i) the Brahmins were mostly priests who commanded high respect, but usually had very little money or power; (ii) the Kshatriyas were warriors and kings, and usually had both power and money; (iii) the Vaishyas were businesspeople and had money and, (iv) the Shudras who had neither, and were indeed treated worse than other castes. In the present social system none of these really exist as they did historically. But people still identify with historical castes of their families.

    With a belief in rebirth and karma theory, all inequalities were supposed to balance out: no matter how high you were currently in social system, if you did not treat others properly, you would fall and in next birth would be lower, or even an animal or an insect, etc. And consequently, people in bad conditions were thought to be bearing fruits of their bad karma — however, if people higher in society treated them badly they would accumulate bad karma of their own and may go to hell (for finite time) and their next birth may not be all that pleasant. And people doing well in current positions would move higher in next life. All of this did not require belief in any particular god (which wouldn’t work anyway, because there were thousands of gods). This was supposed to be law of nature. So there was good incentive (based on belief systems then) to treat everyone well.

    Laws of Manu were one set of laws, and there were others, which kept changing according to conditions at given time and who the ruler was. Present laws will also change… for better or worse. In Indian philosophy, things are cyclic and nothing lasts forever. The goal was not heaven, because even that would end, but to escape all of this transient universe and attain liberation.

    And lot of these things changed significantly with invasions and foreign rules, such as multiple Islamic conquests and the British and Portuguese (in small regions) rule.

    About extrapolating things to present day United States (whether affirmative action is permanent, etc., and more):

    Today we think of India as a third world country. It was not always so. In fact, it was the richest and most powerful country for several millennia (Columbus was not searching for the United States, he was looking for a route to India).

    The United States is relatively much younger country, and has primarily only seen growth. It would be foolish to think that that growth will continue forever, if the citizens are not careful. And the current trend (all the issues that Philg highlights from time to time) does not appear upward.

  6. AA in India is not limited to Govt. jobs but higher education (IITs and IIMs) too. AA is not worth it if it divides the people and generates hate. For politicians it is convenient to use vote bank politics. People need to understand that free quality education for all is what we should be asking from the govt. and not quotas in jobs. Politicians know this is hard work and that is why they keep fooling people by offering job quotas.

    “But if you only got love for your own race
    Then you’re gonna leave space for others to discriminate
    And to discriminate only generates hate
    And when you hate then you’re bound to get irate
    Madness is what you demonstrate
    And that’s exactly how hate works and operates
    Man, we gotta set it straight
    Take control of your mind and just meditate
    And let your soul just gravitate
    To the love, so the whole world celebrate it” – The Black Eyed Peas
    —

    There are lot of funny sides of it too. Like people from various castes demanding to be declared “backward”. BTW who validates your caste, apparently a local govt. officer who can be bribed around $10 to get a caste “certificate”.

    It amazes me how constitution and laws can have such contradictions. Most of elected representatives are ignorant about constitution or Dr. Ambedkar’s writings. That is OK, as long as they have his garlanded photo in their office.

    Interesting link about Dr. Ambedkar’s stay in London:
    https://scroll.in/magazine/877754/the-reopened-ambedkar-house-in-london-holds-the-key-to-understanding-the-man-and-his-inspirations

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