Reservation..A curse or A boon?

The topic of reservation is the hot cake of this era. Students, teachers, politicians, philosophers, cinema, and many revolutionary writers have criticized the sense of justice of the government of India on various public platforms. Let me make few things clear before putting forward my opinions. Firstly I belong to the general category of students and secondly, I don’t belong to any political party and thus my opinion is completely personal and not at all biased.

 We all know about the word “scheduled caste (SC)”, “scheduled tribes (ST)” and “other backward classes (OBC)”; but how many of us know the reason behind calling them so? The reason is, the constitution of India has 395 Articles and 12 Schedules. Certain castes and tribes were placed under these schedules who needed special attention and care to bring them into the modern trend of the society. Such tribes and castes were called the scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.

Now let us take a stroll into the pre-independence scenario of India. The evils of caste system had crept into the society deeply enough to affect the growth of the ‘Shudras’ or the ‘untouchables’. The ‘Brahmin’ dominated the society and exploited the lower caste. They were denied education and even a human behavior. 

They were treated as commodities. We have the evidence of exploitation of lower caste even in the holy books of ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’. So we can say that exploitation of the lower caste has been in practice from time immemorial.  Finally, in 1950, there came an end to the endless sufferings with the enforcement of the Constitution of India which in due course gave rise to the never ending controversies regarding reservations.

General grievances of the people are “why should there be reservations? It’s completely against the rule of equality!” some even say “it has been 66 years. Why do they need reservations still now?” some say “it’s because of these undeserving people that some deserving one's loose chance” and thus the cursing ceremony goes on. Well, the answers to the above questions are very simple if u see from the eyes of humanity but equally complicated if your eyes are blindfolded with the hatred towards lower castes which have been passed down as the legacy from your forefathers. Answer one is, reservations are not against the rule of equality.

Indian constitution clearly states that equality should be between equals, and if any special privilege is to be given to any person or group of people for the improvement of society, it is not against the rule of equality. So, there should be reservation because that is the only way you can bring forward those sections of society whose mere existence was a curse a few years ago. 

The answer to the second question is, it has just been 66 years which is nothing as compared to the time for which they have been tortured, humiliated and deprived. And moreover in a developing country like India where a person has to go through a thousand of problems every day including corruption and thus curtails the efficiency of reservations. The answer to the third question is completely subjective and depends entirely on the morals and ethical values of a person and this upbringing.

As the law of the land says ‘a single innocent person shall not be convicted even if hundreds of criminals are set free,' the same law is applicable in this case. A single person should not be deprived of his rights even if hundreds are taking undue advantage. And as far it is concerned with the academic achievements, so my dear friends you were aware of it right from birth. You should have known how many seats were allotted for you and prepared accordingly. Just because you did not perform well does not mean you will curse the mighty government.

These were just a few topics I have put forward, but the questions and grievances are never ending and so is the debate, but it is my humble request to all the readers that please be patient and give time. I know at times it does get frustrating but for once try to see through humanitarian eyes, and trust me things would not be so distasteful. United we stand and divided we fall. 

We should stand beside our government and those people rather than against them. That is the only way our society will progress and one day there will be no need of reservations. Maybe not us, but our future generations will breathe in a society minus reservation with the help of the efforts we put in today. It’s entire upon us if we would treat it as a curse or a  boon.