A Rant Against Reservations

Science is generally divided into hard sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc., and the so-called soft sciences. Pseudo-sciences generally fall into the soft sciences category. Social “science” is one such pseudo-science. Then there is a category whose academics and practitioners have mental capabilities that rarely rise above those of pond scum. Political “science” falls into the last category.

Social sciences, in order to gain some credibility, attempt to use certain simple mathematical or statistical techniques. Political “science” as practiced in India does not even have such pretences; hence the comparison to pond scum.

The argument was advanced during the writing of the Constitution of India that certain social imbalances and historical wrongs must be ameliorated by the new order. While there is some merit to this argument, there seemingly was no cause-effect analysis. In fact, ad hoc arguments were used justify the reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) written into the Constitution. Of course, the sunset provisions that would have closed out these reservations were extended in order to gain votes and then the reservations themselves extended to cover Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The argument is that historically the Forward Castes (FC) discriminated against the rest of the society and this past discrimination should be compensated by assigning quotas in educational institutions and government jobs to SC/ST/OBC.

Let us take the case of Scheduled Tribes first. It is well known that the Nagas were headhunters who killed any non-Nagas who strayed into their territory. This was probably the extension of their habit of beheading their enemies killed in battles and preserving and displaying those heads. The question that would arise in any reasonable mind is: were the Nagas systematically discriminated against by the Forward Castes or were they feared by the rest of Indians who avoided all contact with them? Why should this murderous tribe be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes deserving of special treatment?

The Tamils are a plains-dwelling people. Mountains seem to strike awe in their hearts and they do not venture up the mountains. For example, it was only in the 19th century that a Christian missionary went up the Kodaikanal hill in Tamil Nadu to find sheep for the Lord’s flock. That would mean that contact between any tribes inhabiting the hills and the plains would have been few and far between. Perhaps the tribals came down periodically to sell wild honey and a few medicinal plants and retreated up the hills when the trade was done. When you read up about Ooty, you find the same story: it was the British who surveyed the region, constructed rough roads, built their vacation cottages and set up schools for their children. All this happened in the 19th century. One could reasonably infer that the Badagas and Todas of Ooty had minimal contact with the plainsmen until then. Then where is the question of 2,000 years of discrimination that needs to be remedied? Why are the Badaga, Todas, etc., in the list of Scheduled Tribes?

If one looks at any of the tribes inhabiting Central India, you would find that a similar story obtains. They lived in thick forests, there were no roads or even rough trails to their settlements and the Hindus settled along the banks of rivers such as the Narmada or the Mahanadhi. Contact between the tribes of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa and the Hindus would have been limited to periodic trades in forest products after which the tribesmen would retreat back into the forests.

Why should the lack of civilizational advances on the part of these tribals be blamed on Hindu society? If these tribals could not evolve a script for their language, had no concept of numbers, had no interest in learning about other people, why should the “other people” be held responsible for their failures? It is time we accepted the fact that backwardness amongst the tribals is caused by their own sloth, indolence, apathy and vacuousness and not by any organized and systematic discrimination.

Let us take the Sentinelese of the Nicobar Islands. They continue to fight any intruders, going so far as to kill any shipwrecked persons unfortunate enough to wash up on their shores. Are Caste Hindus responsible for their primitiveness? Is that deserving of remediation through reservations?

Let us next take a look at the canard that has been propagated that the Upper Castes monopolized education to the detriment of SCs and OBCs.

Dharampal, a historian, has published a book titled “The Beautiful Tree”. This book is based on the reports of various British Collectors who reported back to their masters on the state of education in India. Here are some findings.

“The government of Madras presidency completed a survey of Indian educational institutions in 1823-24. After that it came to be known that despite the poverty and disturbance, there were about 13,000 schools and 740 colleges under the presidency. According to this survey the original number of students in school and colleges were 1,88,650 out of which 42,502 were Brahmans and 85,400 were from the castes known as Shudras. The remaining were Vaishya, Mohammedan and from other Hindu castes. The numbers of girls were only 4540, but according to the report this lesser number of girls as alleged was mainly due to the prevalence of home education of girls. But the number of Mohammedan girl students in Malabar district was very large. The number of girl students there was 1,122 and for boy students 3196. .

The Government of the Presidency of Madras on 10 March 1826 ultimately reviewed the reports of the collectors. The Governor, Sir Thomas Munro, was of the view that while the institutional education of females seemed negligible, that of the boys between the ages of 5 to 10 years appeared to be a ’little more than one-fourth’ of the boys of that age in the Presidency as a whole. Taking into consideration those who were estimated as being taught at home, he was inclined ’to estimate the portion of the male population who receive school education to be nearer to one-third than one-fourth of the whole’.

The caste-wise division of students provides the more interesting and historically more relevant information. This is true not only as regards boys, but also with respect to the rather small number of girls who, according to the survey, were receiving education in schools.

Furthermore, the information becomes all the more curious and pertinent when the data is grouped into the five main language areas -- Oriya, Telugu, Kannada. Malayalam and Tamil. These constituted the Presidency of Madras at this period, and throughout the nineteenth century.
In the Tamil speaking areas where the twice-born ranged between 13% in the south Arcot to some 23% in Madras, the Muslims were less than 3% in South Arcot and Chingleput to 10% in Salem, while the Soodras and the other castes ranged from about 70% in Salem and Tinnevelly, to over 84% in South Arcot.

In Malayalam-speaking Malabar, the proportion of the twice born was still below 20% of the total. Because of a larger Muslim population, however, the number of Muslim school stu-dents went up to nearly 27%, while the Soodras and the other castes accounted for some 54% of the school going students.

In the largely Kannada-speaking Bellary, the proportion of the twice-born (the Brahmins and the Vysees) went up to 33%, while the Soodras, and the other castes still accounted for some 63%.

The position in the Oriya-speaking Ganjam was similar: the twice-born accounting for some 35.6%, and the Soodras and other castes being around 63.5%.

It is only in the Telugu-speaking districts that the twice born formed the major proportion of the school going students. Here, the proportion of Brahmin boys varied from 24% in Cuddapah to 46% in Vizagapatam; of the Vysees from 10.5% in Vizagapatam to 29% in Cuddapah; of the Muslims from 1 % in Vizagapatam to 8% in Nellore; and of the Soodras and other castes from 35% in Guntoor to over 41% in Cuddapah and Vizagapatam.

The main subjects, which were reported to be taught in the schools of Bellary and also in Rajahmundry, were reading, writing and arithmetic. Ramayanum, Maha Bharata, Bhagvata, were some other books which were reported to be taught in these schools.”

[Source: Education in Pre-British India by Pankaj Goyal, http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_es/t_es_goyal_ed ucation.htm]

If these reports are to believed, and there is no reason not to, then education was widespread among children of all castes except the Scheduled Castes. The so-called OBCs who are essentially Shudras have no reason to claim that they were subjected to discrimination. I will grant that the Brahmin students went to learn the Vedas and Sanskrit from a learned priest in addition to the local language whereas all the rest learnt the local languages and simple arithmetic from their teachers.

But evidence such as this is completely ignored in the debate on reservations and quotas. Instead, social status is equated with backwardness and it is the social status that an attempt is made to remedy through quotas.

The fact is all the money in the world did not buy the Chettiars and the Mudaliars of Tamil Nadu social status. The current belief is that professional degrees earned through dubious means would be the ticket to social status. It actually is, but only within their own communities. If a Mudaliar has a B. Tech. Degree, his value in the marriage market goes up compared a groom with only a high school education or a lowly B. Sc. in the sciences. However, that Mudaliar is not going to look for a bride among Scheduled Castes nor is a B. Tech. degree holder from the Scheduled Castes going to be acceptable to a Chettiar bride.

The reservations are the worst fraud committed on the Indian society by pond scum masquerading as politicians and their fellow travelers who call themselves academics, journalists, etc.

It is time we in India faced some disturbing facts and not hide behind myths. The inexorable conclusion that the above-mentioned facts on education in Pre-British India leads to is that OBCs are responsible for their own backwardness and for not transferring to the schools that the British opened in India like the Upper Castes who had the most to fear about caste pollution did. A secondary conclusion from the demand for “crutches” in the form of quotas is proof that these crutches are in fact needed because of their mental deficiencies and not because of past discrimination.