Jat agitation: Caste-based reservations are breaking India apart

Harried by the Jats rampaging through the streets of Haryana, demanding reservation in government jobs and education institutions, the BJP government has made a huge blunder.

The Centre announced on February 21, after Union home minister Rajnath Singh met leaders of the Jat panchayat, that a bill to grant other backward class (OBC) status to the community will be brought during the upcoming session of the Haryana Assembly, and a committee under Union minister Venkaiah Naidu will be set up to examine the Jats' demand for reservation in Central government jobs.

This came after the Jat agitation, stretching over two weeks, had led to more than a dozen deaths, considerable damage to property, cancellation of more than 700 trains, skyrocketing air fares, and hindering the water supply in the nation's capital.

A way out of this mess was necessary, but the BJP government took the easy way out - that of appeasement, which is unfortunate, especially when you consider that a prominent slogan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been "development for all, appeasement of none".

Also read: How could ML Khattar let Jats hold Haryana to ransom?

This policy of appeasement, driven, of course, by the "exigencies" of vote bank politics is worrisome because it will give a licence to other communities to get their demands, howsoever illogical they are, accepted by the government, through similar tactics of blackmailing as the Jats employed, and as the Gujjars did a few years back, or as the Patidars did only last year.

But let's consider the idea behind protective discrimination as is prevalent in the country, and how it has been sacrificed at the altar of populism, and in that backdrop, debate whether the Jats deserve the reservations that they have been agitating for. Let's also debate if there is any merit in the system of caste-based quotas that operates in the country, and if there can be an alternate way for social welfare.

Also read - Jat quota stir: Act now, act tough, Mr Khattar

Reservation: Propping up the socially deprived

The framers of the reservation policy felt that there were certain communities which, owing to years of deprivation, were unfit to hold their own in free, meritocratic competition with the rest of the society. Accordingly, the erstwhile untouchables and tribals, later rechristened, perhaps euphemistically as the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes respectively, were identified for preferential treatment by the state in order to give them a headstart in life so that they can make up the ground lost by them. 

The reservation policy, however, was sought to be extended according to the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, which constituted in 1979, was tasked with identifying other communities, who were "socially and educationally backward". 

Also read - Reservations for all or none: Mallika Sherawat on Jat agitation

There is a popular belief that if one is politically not privileged and is economically poor, it must be because of his "low birth", in caste terms.

The Mandal Commission proposed 27 per cent reservations for OBCs in government jobs and education institutions, which sparked off huge protests, when the government decided to implement the recommendations in the early 1990s.

The foregrounding of caste as the basis for protective discrimination is not surprising in India, because the Indian mentality has always been informed by the caste considerations.

Consequently, all our actions, mundane or ceremonial, bring the caste factor in, often subconsciously. So even to the legislators, it seemed that caste was the only exploitative system that one needed to ameliorate. Even the lot of tribals has been interpreted in the caste language.

But let's try to problematise the concept of caste-based reservation.

Real motive behind caste hierarchisation

The real motive behind hierarchising people on caste lines is to divide societal tasks, carrying unequal prestige and rewards among the various caste groups. Thus it may seem, and indeed, it is held in popular perception that caste is a form of class.

This is the premise, precisely on which the treatment of OBCs rests, for while OBC is the acronym for other backward classes, the category is essentially comprised of castes that are depressed socially, economically and educationally.

Caste is not a form of class

The differentiation of individuals on ritual lines may occasion for them fixed sets of secular consequences. However, to use natural distinctions interchangeably with social inequalities is to commit a technical blunder, for the caste system works on completely different principles than other stratificatory systems, the congruence between them notwithstanding.

One of the shortcomings of the protective discrimination system prevalent in India is that there has been a tendency for the rich and powerful within particular communities to appropriate quota sops. However, the secular clout of this "creamy layer" within the so-called deprived communities doesn't justify their classification as "backward". Even the Supreme Court had ruled to keep out the "creamy layer" among the OBCs out of the quota ambit.

And here we are talking about the Jats, a whole community whose secular pre-eminence hardly merits preferential treatment by the state.

Do the Jats need reservation at all?

Granted that they have been hit by an agrarian crisis, but caste-based reservation is not the answer.

Jats are the predominant caste group in Haryana, comprising nearly 30 per cent of the electorate. Of the ten chief ministers since the formation of Haryana in 1966, seven have been Jats. Currently, the leaders of the two main opposition parties - Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Congress) and Abhay Singh Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal) are Jats.

According to the KC Gupta Commission set up by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in April 2011, Jats had a representation of 17.82 per cent in class I and II government jobs and as high as 40-50 per cent in lower grades. The community's representation in government education institutions was 10.35 per cent.

Reservation for the Jats was one of the main poll promises of Hooda. The KC Gupta Commission, in 2012, recommended the inclusion of the Jats in the category of special backward classes. The Hooda government accepted the report and ten per cent quota was granted to the Jats. This was, however, set aside by the Supreme Court. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had also struck it down.

Notably, the Backward Classes Commissions set up by the state, had in 1995 and 2011, excluded the Jats as a community deserving quota sops.

Again, the UPA government had proposed to extend OBC reservations to the Jats in central government jobs. But the Supreme Court, in its verdict on March 17, 2015, struck it down. The NDA government filed a review petition against the verdict in April, 2015 in the Supreme Court, a decision on which is pending.

The stand by the current Haryana and Union governments has given the Jats hope again, but more reservation in Haryana is expected to fail judicial scrutiny, because there is already 50 per cent reservation in government jobs in the state, and that's the ceiling imposed by the Supreme Court.

So going strictly by secular considerations, Jats, as a caste group, don't merit reservation, which proves the fallacy of caste-based protective discrimination.

An alternative to caste-based reservation

Reservation, therefore, might as well be based on class, rather than caste, because secular prowess can indeed be measured irrespective of purported ritual make-up.

That way, many other individuals, irrespective of caste affiliations, will duly be benefited from protective discrimination whose economic and political deprivation is not necessarily a result of their caste membership.

Moreover, that there would be a hierarchy of varying secular endowments is not contested, but what may legitimately be contested are the upper reaches of the class hierarchy. Yet there are not likely to be disagreements over one's position in that hierarchy, as it can be proven to be rightful. Efforts at amelioration of one's secular impoverishment, in this regard, may take the form of scholarships and other such monetary grants to the deserving candidates.

Moreover, in order to make the weaker sections self-reliant through initial help, protective discrimination should be provided, if it has to be provided, at the earliest stages of one's life, most appropriately, at the primary school level and not when much time has elapsed in the careers of the individuals.

This is because it has been felt by numerous experts that at the level of higher education, it is very hard to rectify years of crude and unsophisticated education that the poor and downtrodden of the country can only afford, and those coming in through quotas are not able to cope too well with the rigour of studies in the world-class institutions of higher learning and feel overawed and shaky among people, who have had more polished training in their formative years and thus are more confident of themselves.

Therefore so much for the line of thought that argues that since all students, admitted through quotas or not, have to meet stringent standards before they are certified, the quality of these institutions would not be harmed. However, on the contrary, quality is bound to slide, given the number of misfit students that have been taken in through quotas.

Similarly, quality of the government's functioning is bound to decline if misfit individuals are employed as a result of reservations.

These individuals from the weaker sections who feel they can't stand on their feet without the crutch of protective discrimination fail to realise that their subordination persists and they are held to be "second grade" citizens, who have almost a morbid dependence on the state.

It is here perhaps worthwhile to point out that caste-based reservations can't usher in a casteless society, for firstly, the caste mentality is too well-ingrained in our minds and then, such reservations reinforce that mentality, by giving undue importance to caste. However, if we want to bring about a relatively egalitarian society, we must look at objective inequalities between people and address that.

The government's policy of appeasement of the Jats, meanwhile, and promising them reservations may bring it short-term gains, but is inimical for the country's development in the long-run. Is the Modi government scared of the Jats and their violent means?