The mischief of August 7, 1990 -- when the Mandal recommendations were officially accepted - has been finally undone -- if not in full measure, at least substantially. Howls of protests and threats against the "Brahminical" Supreme Court (incidentally headed by a Dalit at present), besides voluble promises of legislative rectification will follow the Supreme Court's March 29, 2007 interim order staying 27 per cent OBC reservations in professional institutions such as IIMs, IITs, AIIMS and a host of private centres of academic excellence.

The legal battle will be protracted: First, the Government will marshal all resources to argue Arjun Singh's case with vehemence when hearing resumes in August; second, even if the present Bench proceeds on the lines it has hinted at and confirms last Thursday's order, the Government may press for a review by a Constitution Bench. Meanwhile, the ramshackle ruling alliance at the Centre will come under extreme pressure from coalition partners like Lalu Yadav and M Karunanidhi, to put the issue beyond the pale of judicial scrutiny. That, however, is easier said than done, now that the Supreme Court has pronounced that even legislation parked in the Ninth Schedule is not above review by the judiciary.

In many senses, the March 29 order, taken together with the observations made by the Court, is explosive. It has not only questioned the numerical basis of fixing quotas for Other Backward Castes (euphemistically called Socially and Educationally Backward Classes or SEBCs in official parlance) but also struck at the very principle of caste-based reservations for them. In a stinging indictment of India's political drift, their Lordships have rightly remarked that nowhere in the world do castes and communities queue up to profess their "backwardness" in order to derive social or economic benefit. The Court has also said that quota-raj, currently in vogue, is a by-product of India's vote bank politics. Of course political parties would respond to these observations saying it is none of the Court's business. But they have no credible reply to the query regarding the empirical basis of reserving 27 per cent seats for OBCs, since it has rightly been pointed out that the last caste census was conducted 76 years ago!

It is here that the obdurate hypocrisy of India's political class stands shamelessly exposed. Despite frequent suggestions that a caste-based enumeration of the population has become necessary in view of the rabid casteism pursued by most political parties, politicians are unanimous that no such census need be conducted because (don't giggle), "Caste divides society"! However, to get around this problem, the Government periodically directs the National Sample Survey (NSS) to enumerate the representation of various castes in select districts by way of a sample survey. The latest NSS result puts the percentage of OBCs at 34.1, way below the 52 per cent BP Mandal arrived at by a process of elimination backed by a most cursory, limited sampling.

Mandal's logic was extraordinary. He took the 1931 Census (the last authentic caste record, as the 1941 Census was formally scrapped following reports of widespread fudging), noted the percentages of all castes including those of Muslims, picked out upper castes in quite an arbitrary manner overlooking regional diversities, and decided that the remainder consisted of OBCs. As there was no such recognised category till then, Mandal cannot be entirely faulted for producing a faulty report. The problem arose when his recommendations (thrown into the wastepaper basket by Indira Gandhi when she stormed back to power in 1980) was resurrected by her erstwhile camp follower, VP Singh, 10 years later to give a new direction to official policy and consequently Indian politics.

It is a fact that nobody knows precisely which castes can be placed in the OBC basket and what are the numbers in that category. The Indian caste system is probably the world's most complex (and yet, flexible) form of social organisation. For example, in Karnataka, Lingayats, generally considered an upper caste, are deemed to be backward in certain districts. It is common knowledge that the indigent Brahmin of Mithilanchal in North Bihar, ekes out a meagre existence often dependent on the munificence of the locally powerful Yadav - supposedly king of the OBC pack. On a personal note, I still don't know whether a Kayasth in Bengal is upper caste or Shudra (OBC). There are conflicting judgments by different courts on the issue - one saying that Kayasths are in the upper caste basket on account of their Kshatriya origin while another verdict classifies us as Shudra. But in Bengal, Kayasths, along with Brahmins and Vaidyas, are regarded as society's upper crust. Which Ghosh, Bose, Mitra, Dutta or Guha would "queue up to profess their backwardness" and claim eligibility to reservations? Interestingly, Bengali Brahmins in Maharashtra are classified as "backward" entitling the progeny of Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar (Ganguly) to benefit from the OBC quota!

In my limited understanding of the Indian social reality, the Hindu social order makes only one distinction: Those that are part of the Chaturvarna system and those that are excluded. The four varnas, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, were classified according to professional categories. Further, there was no strict prohibition regarding mobility within the varnas. I recall my intellectual guru and legendary Editor of The Times of India, Girilal Jain, occasionally thundering, "If I am not a Brahmin, who is?" His family may have become adherents of the Jain Tirthankaras centuries ago, but Giri believed he was probably a Vaishya and under Vedic rules of mobility an intellectual of his stature would have been anointed a Brahmin in ancient times. Interestingly, VP Singh, architect of the legitimisation of casteism in contemporary India, was beside himself with joy when pundits of Varanasi conferred the title of Rajrishi upon him in 1990, thereby categorising him as a candidate Brahmin!

The varna system, however, clearly predicates that those outside it have no caste or gotra. Hence modern day Scheduled Castes or Dalits (Chandals of ancient times) were excluded from the purview of the prevailing social order. Therefore, they remained unlettered (barring a stray Valmiki, author of the Ramayana), hopelessly poor and oppressed. Without an iota of doubt, Hindus outside the varna system fully deserve affirmative action to bring them at par with the rest of the varna order. That explains the across-the-board support for SC/ST quotas in jobs, educational institutions and legislatures, irrespective of Dalit messiah BR Ambedkar's derisive reference to reservations as a "crutch" that ought to be discarded after 10 years.

The upwardly mobile Yadav, Kurmi or Kamma, leave alone the prosperous Jat and Maratha, do not need reservations today because they are already politically dominant and economically successful. Many OBC aspirants nowadays qualify for elite services like IAS, IPS and IFS in the general category. Incidentally, one person led an education revolution in Bihar in the 1970s, opening a host of private schools and colleges - so much so that he earned the sobriquet of 'Education King". His name: Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav!

Courtesy: www.dialypioneer.com, April 1, 2007