Reservation in India: Social Justice or Political Agenda?

Abstract

With more than 3000 castes and all the major religious groups of the world, India is certainly a personification of religious and cultural diversity. The Constitution makers were very well aware of the fact that this diversity entails a form of segmental equality owing to which the idea of compensatory discrimination was included in the constitution. Therefore, through Article 16(4) and 46, reservation in matters of public education and employment were provided for the upliftment of the backward and deprived classes, namely the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). However, politicians have increasingly used this instrument of social justice to divide groups for “vote bank” politics. The routine extension of the reservation quotas through amendments and the inclusion of new groups like Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) represents the increasing politicization of caste in politics at the cost of social justice.

The motive of this paper is to question whether reservation has become a political agenda rather than an instrument of social justice as well as to give an insight on how the policy has been misused for political gains. With an amalgamation of facts and unique analysis, it also sheds light on the attempts of privileged groups like the Jats in Haryana to demand reservation thereby showcasing how the true meaning of reservation has been eroded in India political scenario.