Affirmative Action vs True Assimilation

 This blog relates to the issue of affirmative action by states or individuals to help and give rights to individuals, groups of persons advantages in the form of representation in seats of power, selection reserved in seats for education and jobs. 

Genesis of the problem as I view it relate to progress of man in general. As societies and civilizations developed and prospered some kind of restrictions and rules of law were needed. The law of the jungle or concept of might is right or big fish eat small fish had to give way. The hunter gatherer gave way to domestication, agriculture and division of labor. Ownership of land and domestication of animals for human needs started happening. This relatively settled existence lead to leisure and man started to exercise his intellect and instead of living with body consciousness he started become aware of emotions and slowly developed a faculty of thinking. From exercising rudimentary intellect in relation to terrestrial earthly matters he progressed to exercising his intellect on extraterrestrial matters relating to elevated states of consciousness. 

The tribal chieftains gave way to Kings and warrior families who by virtue of strength gave protection to the weak and common man. This came at a price extracted in the form of taxes or benefits. The concept of money taxes, state came into being. But at the same time the contemplative man with his intellect created the concept of God and Religion. This was literally a binding force for religion word is derived from re ligare to bind. Along with all this human curiosity led him to discover explanations of hitherto unexplained phenomenon. This was evolution of Science and mans ability to conquer nature. So for all practical purposes the humans based on their proclivity, ability took up the roles of Priests and preachers of religion, Kings and warriors of the nation, financers and traders for commercial activities and the manual workers or laborer class.  

While all these developments were leading to the development of an society and civilization based on rule of law rather than law of the jungle, the different sections seemed to settle and lead a harmonious co-existence as each class depended on the other to provide services. Across the world this led to progress but till the arrangement was flexible interchangeable and based on individual freedom there was not much of a problem. However, man is a slave of desires and mimetic desires are encoded in his DNA, so this led to inequalities and conflict. Also, the tendency of the ruling class of warriors and priests to monopolize power and look down on the trader, scientist and laborer as inferior, sowed the seeds of oppression and exploitation. The next conflict was that between man of Science and Religion as the ordained truth and the concept of God based on supernatural phenomena which created an aura of fear was challenged as the scientists were able to explain a lot with reproducible consistent evidence based research. 

The gradual progress of civilization from small communes to villages, towns, cities came in the wake of the industrial revolution and the model of factories and mills which became manufacturing hubs but in terms of food cities were consumers. The ability to transport goods and the mobility afforded by land, sea and air transport, further gave a boost to development, but the growth of population and the non availability of local resources gave an impetus to colonization and this led to a further exacerbation of inequality and exploitation on an unprecedented scale. Differences based on color of skin, race and colonized vs colonizers led to many going into a never ending cycle of poverty and exploitation. 

Two broad reactions occurred to all of the above as movement to correct these wrongs, Democracy and Socialism. Both of these movements evolved over long periods of struggle and push backs to try and create a just and equal society where certain rights and duties were conferred on individuals but the state held the authority to certain restrictions. This was mainly to ensure that the greater common good was taken care of. Both the systems had flaws but democracy was more about individual freedom and socialism was more about the centralization of powers in the hands of the state and curbing of individual freedoms. 

So both systems are aimed at creating an equal and fair society, one by giving freedom and equal opportunity to individuals and allowing fair competition and the other by coercive redistribution of wealth by centralizing ownership of resources. However, both systems despite seeming good intentions fail to achieve the objectives of free and even relatively equitable societies.

However, across the world especially in democracies it was recognized that the availability of resources and the opportunities given to certain sections of society was limited on account of historical oppression, backwardness and socio-religious customs  created by higher classes like warriors, priests and even traders. In India, the social evil of a rigid caste structure dictated by birth made it very difficult for the lower classes to exercise the rights to liberty, equality and justice. The Indian Constitution therefore decided to enshrine the principle of affirmative action. While Scheduled castes called Dalits or Harijans 18% of the population and Scheduled tribes comprising 8% of the population qualified automatically for this action, the other backward classes were not clearly defined. Still 30-40 % of population besides these faced discrimination based on caste equations. These constitute what is called the Other Backward class. Dr. B. A. Ambedkar who today is one of the most revered Indian in terms of followers after or equal to Gandhi was in favor of empowerment of the Dalits and Scheduled Tribes thought of reservations as a temporary measure till India became a free society in terms of true Liberty Equality and Fraternity as enshrined in the Indian Constitution. This measure was supposed to be reviewed every 10 years and discontinued if found unnecessary. This has never happened and is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future as political will to look beyond vote banks is lacking. 

We need to answer a few questions about how positive affirmation had intended and unintended consequences. A Dalit family given a chance to educate himself or herself did seem to struggle initially especially in areas of higher education and professional courses but there many I have seen who actually worked doubly hard and excelled. The incremental benefits of educating one or getting a good job created an upliftment of one generation and created a situation where further generations came out of the never ending cycle of poverty and oppression. The unintended consequence was that in a situation of scarcity of resources and opportunities the meritorious candidates were deprived opportunity to get the education they deserved or desired. As the competition increased the students stopped pursuing education to improve knowledge or equip themselves with the abilities needed to face life situations but started concentrating on cracking the code to secure the maximum without any relevance to education. Pursuing knowledge for sake of knowledge became a waste of time. Right from Kindergarten to even before children were born parents scrambled to get admissions in schools and coaching classes to crack the system rather than ensure education which should be based on knowledge, practical skills and emotions (the 3H Head, Heart and Hands model). Another problem is that instead of creating an environment of harmony and inclusion the merit general population resented the disadvantaged brethren and started treating them poorly and the caste wars increased rather than decreased. This was not the situation in all cases and the pluralism and diversity which occurred as a result of positive affirmative action did foster an understanding among persons of privilege that there existed another world besides our small areas of privilege. Although, to urban folks like us we have come a long way from the old times severe ostracization and untouchability there are still today severe forms of oppression in vogue. There are statistics that the representation of all the categories have risen from a mere 1-2% to 7-10%, yet it is still less than the population percentages. The maximum utilization occurs in politics where reservation has been fully availed of but even though these category persons can stand for non reserved seats, very few have got elected from such seats which means that without reservation the backward classes and Dalits would go unrepresented. One more unintended consequence of reservation was the race to the bottom where castes agitated and clamored for being declared back ward to avail of the reservations which became tools of vote bank politics. 

A few surveys point to the fact that to this day many forms of untouchability continue being practiced relating to scavenging, customs of eating and worship. Certain occupations continue to be linked to caste and derogatory terms continue to be used for the backward classes. The phenomenon of honour killings of girls daring to forge alliances with lower castes. There have been many reformers and leaders from across class and castes working to change society, the foremost among them being Gandhi and Ambedkar but the approach of both were different. Gandhi wanted to work at the grassroots and believed that the bottom up approach would create reasonable equality which would last rather than the path of affirmative action which would work but not create a true change of heart or lasting reform. 

To my mind the Gandhian solution is the way for achieving social equality, but in the short term affirmative action is needed. However, certain caveats need to be placed. The facility given to the individuals should be twice in one's lifetime. Once for higher education and once for a job. After a few generations of upward mobility defined by certain parameters the facility of reservation must be withdrawn, it can reviewed after a few years. I do not claim that this suggestion is original as it came from a seasoned Indian political figure, late Mr. Biju Patnaik former Chief Minister of Orissa. 

The devil lies in the details and implementation of this requires bold farsighted leaders wedded to the welfare of the people and willingness to put national interests before self interest. This is indeed rare in the best of times but surely rarer in today's age and times. 

Dr. Vispi H. Jokhi