Have the Reserved got what they Deserved?

Written by: Murshid Hussain, MSc Cognitive Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar

Please Email Murshid at murshidhusain@iitgn.ac.in for comments and compliments!

The rationale behind reservation in higher education institutions in India has been highly debated by eminent scholars, students, and other stakeholders equally. The necessity and aftereffects of the reservation system have been questioned on repeated occasions. It’s only natural that students have developed their own attitudes and opinions towards the matter over the course of their educational life based on their personal observations and experiences.

Awaam, the society and politics hobby group, conducted an informal-anonymous survey among the student community of IIT Gandhinagar that attempts to understand the attitude of the student community towards the reservation system in India. Our survey received 128 responses which is a significant increase in the number of responses compared to the last survey conducted by Awaam. This inflation in responses shows that the IIT Gandhinagar student community feels obliged to respond and happens to have opinions to share already.

80.5% of the responses were from male students, while 14% were from females. 1.6% reported themselves as gender-fluid, 0.8% identified as non-binary, and 3% preferred not to reveal their gender. These gender differences represented beyond the binary mindset are also crucial in analysing the responses. Although representation from female, non-binary, gender fluid categories is still comparatively less, it marks the awareness and gradual progressiveness seeping in the student crowd which might not seem overtly so.

76% of the participants revealed that they entered IIT Gandhinagar through the general category and the rest 24% through the reserved category. Moreover, around 74% hail from Urban areas, while 26% of the participants belong to rural parts of India.

Also, 82% of the participants affiliated themselves with Hinduism. The second most chosen religion was Islam i.e., 3.1%. Buddhism, Animism/Tribal, Sikhism, Christianity, Indian, Jainism & Atheism collectively characterized 15% of the participants.

Attitude and Knowledge about Reservation System

More than 90% of the sample knew about the reservation prior to entering the university. In contrast, only around 10% had little to no knowledge about it. This result shows how well-informed the population is regarding the matter at hand.

Our sample suggests that most of the students have undergone a relatively gradual change in attitude towards the reservation system during higher education, more than 67% say they had a change in attitude. 42% of the total sample said that their attitude has changed from positive to more negative, while 25% stated that their attitude has become more positive towards the reservation system. 1.6% of responses supported the notion that ‘reservation should either be removed or based on economic conditions.’ 0.8% of the sample supported the present reservation system but expressed that some significant changes are needed to be implemented. Moreover, another 0.8% said that they are still confused about the subject.

The fact that a large portion of the sample had a negative shift in their opinions about reservation after entering the institute is alarming and cause for concern. This indicates that individuals believe that reservation in its current form is ineffective in uplifting oppressed individuals, and is being misused by comparatively privileged individuals.

Perception about the Implications of the Reservation System

The respondents believed that the general (unreserved) category is not privileged in comparison to reserved categories and that the students who benefit from the reservation system are less meritorious than students from the general category. The impression that the reservation system decreases the motivation to study hard for those who benefit from it was also reported to be very common among the participants. Further, there was a widespread sentiment that the reservation system in higher education eventually produces a negative effect on the quality of the job market. This reflects that the majority understands the concept of reservation as a measure of appeasement rather than as a measure which was put forward by the constitution-makers to earnestly address the historical and systemic inequality among people on the basis of caste and ensure that there are fair chances for everyone to get representation. It is often perceived that the law dictates that no individual should be given special privileges in the name of equality but what is often missed is that inequality results from unequals being treated equally. Hence, the need for measures like reservation.

Basis of Reservation

The majority of the respondents believed that the reservation system should be based on economic grounds. 25% of participants supported reservation on the basis of historical or social marginalization. While 15% argued reservation should be on the basis of gender, 19% of the respondents expressed there should not be reservation in the first place. In addition to the collective notion of reservation based on economic grounds, 69.5 % of the respondents also believed that adding a 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) to universities is important. This implies that a majority of the participants do acknowledge the need for reservation in uplifting minorities, but debate the basis on which it should be introduced.

Peer-to-peer Relationship in Campus

A majority (72%) of the respondents perceived the peer-to-peer relationship between reserved and general category students on the campus as normal and professional. It shows that regardless of people's opinions and attitudes towards reservation, the relationships between students in IITGN stays mostly unaffected. However, 16% of respondents think the relationship is tense, and when we broke down the data on the basis of reserved and general respondents, a third (34%) of the reserved category students reported tense relations with peers at the university. It is possible that resentment against reserved category students appears in the form of subtle microaggressions which may not be readily apparent to the public at large.

As one student pointed out, “I don't which exact word to use, but when some of my batchmates asked my JEE rank I said my rank and said that I belong to OBC, they were like "oh, I scored 1 marks more than you, but I didn't get my desired branch which you got."

This is concerning and highlights how prejudice against reserved category students and their abilities filters into the topmost educational institutes of the country. Reservation is a legislative measure, and id unfortunately being used to drive discrimination against reserved category students according to our analysis.

Caste Discrimination

When asked about the prevalence of caste discrimination in the respective participant’s part of India, many of the participants (43%) agreed that there is an existence of discrimination on the basis of caste in India. Caste Privilege is sometimes invisible and only becomes apparent when individuals are deprived of it. For example, a member of the student body stated;

“Even though I live in urban part of India but i have also experienced caste discrimination in my school, in friends house and let me tell you one think I didn't know till the age of 16 what SC,ST,OBC is so I didn't get it at that time why they used to behave in certain way with me. Anyways it was definitely better than untouchability which my grandparents experienced. As my grandparents were illiterate it impacted on my parents education so they are also not much educated. Believe it or not the privilege of being upper caste and educated does positively impact further generations. “

However, the majority (61.7%) did not agree that caste-based discrimination exists in IITGN or caste/identity politics influences the IITGN student body election.

However, when we divided the data into responses from reserved and unreserved category students, it was apparent that a large fraction (Almost 60%) of the reserved category participants did believe that caste-based discrimination exists at IITGN. This implies that there is a stark difference in the perception of intergroup relations in the institute on the basis of caste.

Do we live in a Meritocracy?

The fundamental clash between reserved and unreserved categories arises from how merit is worshipped in India. A sizable portion of the reserved category students (25%) believe that reserved category students are less meritorious than general category students. This indicates the internalisation of merit in determining one’s position in society. At IIT, there is immense respect for individuals based on their attained rank in JEE, and students from reserved categories may experience imposter syndrome upon entering the institution with a lower rank. There is an implicit assumption that in an impoverished, competitive nation like India, hard work alone can determine one’s upward mobility in society. Reservation cheats this system by providing an unfair advantage to students who are often perceived as being lazy and privileged in society.

However, any student can also attest to how broken and unfair the education system in India is. NCRB data from 2019 reported that more than one student commits suicide every hour in India, and this number has only gone up due to pandemic-related stresses. Perhaps instead of asking “who is taking away our seats?”, we should be asking ourselves “Why aren't there enough seats for all of us?” The brutal outcome of the Indian education system is that it provides students with little time to introspect on the invisible inequalities which are ingrained in society, and we should be questioning its protection by the reigning institutions to find a 'solution' to reservation.

How to go Forward?

We received a range of different opinions on how to remove caste-based discrimination in India. The very prominent opinion among them was by condemning casteism at all levels and through education. Some participants shared the fear that reservation itself has induced discrimination too. One of the comment was “Education is a way it can be removed but again giving reservation in education causes unreserved people to feel discriminated and contribute to discrimination. So, reservation adds to the same problem it wants to solve. Thus, overall in my view, it isn't helping in solving the problem. So, while the discrimination is usually seen in the rural area, reservation has caused discrimination to rise in urban areas as well. Making reservations on the basis of economical background would help more.”

There were some concerning comments given regarding the matter as well. One person stated “Reservation system and Caste system are two pillars of Indian politics. India needs a Hitler kind of personality to try at least to bring any change.” This way of thinking is very haunting. One can only speculate that either the respondent does not believe in the effective governance of democracy or has misjudged the failed implementation of certain components of democratic rule to be only rectified with dictatorship without giving much thought to the additional ramifications of such drastic change in governance. Another respondent went on and said “This is a stupid question. Are IITians sociologists? Stop making a mockery of such sensitive issues. It’s because of forums like these that every other uninformed idiot feels entitled to have an opinion even though they don’t know jackshit about it.” Yes. IITians aren’t sociologists. But forums like this might find a way to understand and reflect on how students of a premier public institute of higher education think and believe. And it is through questionnaires like this, the students can be encouraged to engage in these sensitive issues because no matter how uniformed a person is their opinions still get translated into the kind of politics our elected representatives subject upon the citizens. Opinions about society are not just for sociologists. Everyone should develop their own opinions on the basis of proper facts and logic in order to be able to behave as an informed citizen.

However, there were a large number of participants who responded from a positive, productive, result oriented perspective as well. They talked about awareness, desensitization, necessary representation in media, education and government offices, law and order & policy changes. One person expressesd, “I don't see reservation as 'caste-based discrimination', and I don't think it should be removed yet. I see caste-based reservation as a reparation towards those who have been wronged throughout history. Certain groups of people in our country were extremely marginalized; they were not allowed to own land, enroll in a university, access high-paying jobs etc. Basically, they were totally shunned from civil society. We cannot just wake up one day and declare that from now on, everything will be based on merit without first levelling the playing field. Reservation for me is a means of levelling the playing field, and this objective has not yet been achieved. Maybe 50 years from now, the field will be balanced for everybody, and then we can remove reservations.”

Concluding with a quote of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee of The Constitution of India, “Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self too.” Let’s take an oath to do our part in making society equal on all possible levels - Long Live Constitution!