THE MORAL OF reservations has been built on two grounds, which are often mutually contradictory, and yet, mutually complimentary.

 

In the first quarter of the 19th century the non-Brahman castes, led by the powerful upper other backward classes (OBCs), demanded, and got as well, reservation for non-Brahman castes, which included Dalits as well. The non-Brahman lobby had argued for dismantling the dominance (read monopoly) of Brahmans in government services. The argument about justice was not deployed till then. It later evolved into the anti-Brahman rhetoric. While the anti-Brahman sloganeering brought positive results, as it ended Brahmans’ monopoly in government jobs, the movement had an underpinning of negativism, as it harped on anti-Brahman, and not on anti-Brahmanism.

 

Dr Ambedkar had a radically different theory. To him the untouchables, or today’s Dalits, were a socially stigmatised community, with no rights whatsoever, and hence, the modern republic must draw this social class into the mainstream. Tribals on the other hand, are even demographically segregated, and hence they too must be brought into the mainstream India.

 

Dr Ambedkar, thus, argued from the moral of justice, seeking an India which would be socially inclusive, an India socially desegregated. The reservation in jobs and educational institutions was taken as one of the fundamental public policy tools. He, however, was concerned about the situation of non-Dwija castes, today known as the OBCs. He made a provision of reservations for them in the constitution and left the task of identifying the OBC castes to the future leadership of India.

 

To that end, the Kaka Kalekar Commission was set up in 1953, which identified 3,500 castes, but it failed to offer any pragmatic solution. The Janata government was formed in 1977, and in 1978 it set up a Backward Classes Commission, which was headed by B P Mandal. It gave its final recommendation on 31 December 1980, which V P Singh government implemented in August 1991.

 

The Mandal Commission, however, contained an OBC project for a new India, where the Brahman hegemony would be replaced by the OBC hegemony. Incidentally, the Mandal Commission had only one Dalit member, L R Naik, who had refused to sign the Mandal recommendations. Thus, the commission became controversial from the day it submitted recommendations.

 

The nation must now ponder over as to why the only Dalit member of the commission refused to sign the Mandal recommendations? Neither V P Singh addressed this riddle, nor is Arjun Singh considering it. We can understand V P Singh’s compulsions. He was faced with a political crisis. He implemented Mandal I to stay in power, which he eventually lost. But, the UPA government does not have any crisis. Yet, it did not bother to consider the dissent of Naik while announcing Mandal II. This riddle has, in fact, never been addressed by the social justice intelligentsia of India.

 

While refusing to sign the Mandal report Naik gave his reasons in the form of a note of dissent, which Mandal, a Yadav landlord, refused to accommodate. Naik argued in his note that the OBCs are made up of two larger socio-occupational blocks, one related to agriculture and other the artisans and traditional service providers. The traditional, agriculture-related castes, such as Yadav (Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lallu Yadav and Sharad Yadav), Kurmi (Nitish Kumar), Lodh (Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharati), Gujjars (the late Rajesh Pilot), and later Jats (Ajit Singh, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hudda and the former chief minister Chautala) and their equivalents in the rest of India, became powerful after the abolition of the zamindari system. These castes within the OBCs are called the upper OBCs.

 

The traditional artisan castes related to craft and service providers are blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers, potters, florists, fisher folk, etc. have remained backwards. These castes constitute about half of the OBC block, and they are now often more backward than Dalits in terms of education and opportunities in jobs or business. These castes are now known as the Most Backward Castes (MBCs).

 

Naik, while advocating social justice, demanded that the OBC quota be split into two, so that the MBCs could get their share of jobs, which Mandal declined. In return Naik decided to abandon the Mandal Commission.

 

The Dalits and tribals are India’s traditional social proletariats. But, because of reservations they have now gained a breathing pace in the urban India. As a result of the social changes which have occurred since 1950 in India the rural India has gone in the hands of the upper OBCs and the urban India in the hands of the upper castes or Dwijas. The MBCs are now a new social proletariat, and the entire Mandal belongs to them.

 

The other social category which has lost out since Independence is the OBC Muslims or the Muslim MBCs. Dalits and tribals, the MBCs, and the Muslim MBCs are the true claimants of reservations today, either through the Mandal Commission or otherwise. India must now draw a new social manifesto and create a crisis-free society.