MY BASIC PREMISE is that the increase in reservation will be accompanied by an increase in the total number of seats, so the existing seats in the general category do not change. In this case, it will only increase the average merit of the society, as some people – mainly from the backward castes – will get better off without worsening the condition of others, that is people from the general category. One should keep in mind that the reservation applies only for the entrance tests, and not for passing out. The minimum passing marks is same for both the general category students and the students from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes or the Other Backward Classes. So, the theory of worsening quality is wrong.
As far as the Communist movement in India is concerned caste is an important factor. The reason is as follows: the class of an individual depends on the position of that individual in the sphere of production. On the other hand, the position of an individual depends, in many cases in India, on the caste of that individual. So, there is a close relation between social class and caste as far as the Indian society is concerned. And hence, the class exploitation is closely related to the caste exploitation. Thus, the emancipation of the working class is not possible without addressing the caste problems.
Denial of land rights of these backward sections is the most naked form of exploitation. There are many examples, including the Narmada incident, where Dalits and tribals have been denied rehabilitation. The growing extent of landlessness is not merely a characteristic of this system but a necessity for the survival of capitalism. Landlessness makes these sections more vulnerable to exploitations. This is nothing but a bourgeois, state-sponsored imperialism. The other relatively non-visible forms of exploitation include denying these sections their basic rights, such as right to education, food, employment, health, etc.
To be sure, there is no altruism in the protest against reservation in higher educational institutions that we are seeing today. These protests are based purely on the class alignment and class interest. However, I will make a stronger point here: globalisation divides society, and hence the nation, into different interest groups which challenge the sovereignty of the nation. This adds fuel to the increased antipathy of the forward sections of society towards the backward ones. As the desire for getting integrated with the capitalist metropolis gets larger among the forward sections, they start thinking that it will become easier with the negation of the backward sections present in the same society and nation. This is a kind of separatist sentiment, which plays in the minds of the people of the forward sections. With the vanishing of the nationalist feeling – again a direct effect of globalisation – this kind of separatist tendencies increase.
Globalisation also leads to the separatist movement by the backward sections, as they are dealt unfairly. This kind of separatist movement will be a great setback for the democratic Left forces. This growing discontent among the backward section of the society is what the organised Left cannot afford.
The bourgeoisie will not sponsor a full-scale development at the grassroots level. They will only oppose this reservation policy, saying that the reservation is unfruitful in higher education and it is actually required at the secondary level in schools. But, when we demand reservation at the secondary level they will say it is actually required at the primary level. Even at the primary level, they will say it is required at more grassroots levels: it is because their main agenda is to postpone it.
The kind of grassroots development schemes the government currently undertakes is only eyewash, and it merely amounts to a kind of socialist rhetoric that a bourgeois government generally makes use of in order to stay in power in a parliamentary democracy. In this regard, one can take concrete examples of developmental schemes that are directed towards the people below the poverty line. But, there has been a gradual and secular dilution of the poverty line over the period from 1974 till today, thus leaving a large section of the poor out of official records (for details see The Republic of Hunger by Utsa Patnaik). Thus, such kind of developmental schemes miserably fall short of the required level.
For the emancipation of the working class in the current scenario democracy has to be used as a site for class struggles. Even in the case of higher education the reservation will have a positive linkage effects on the society in general and on the backward sections in particular. Those linkages can even reach at the grass roots too.
