Quota within the Quota: What’s the Hassle?
Is it a case of a storm in a tea cup? The cabinet has cleared 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities within 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in central educational institutions.
The centre’s decision is to have an immediate impact on admissions in IITs/IIMs/NITs, AIIMS and 44 central universities and educational institutions. Muslim leaders, intelligentsia and social activists have welcomed it as a positive step towards justice to the minorities especially Muslims who are educationally and socially backward—the Muslim OBCs in particular. The CPM has demanded that the quantum be 10 percent and not 4.5 percent. But the BJP has dubbed it a pre-poll stunt, a move that will cause a ‘civil war’ in the country.
But why is this quota within quota being opposed in the first place?
There is no question but that the Muslims among the minorities are among the most educationally, socially and economically backward sections of the population in this country. It is therefore that the Ranganath Mishra Committee had asked for 10 per cent reservation for Muslims and 5 per cent for other minorities based on economic and social criteria. The 4.5 percentage in the minorities’ sub-quota, allotted under the OBC quota, means that those who would benefit would be actually the socially and educationally backward and not others. So what if this percentage belongs to the minority groups and not the dominant majority group? They are socially and educationally backward nevertheless.
The backward groups that will benefit here are those people who have been systematically oppressed over centuries. They have been denied political power, positions of status and prestige, and socially suppressed. Under centuries of Muslim rule in India, those who held power were always the royalty, nobles, zamindars, moneylenders and other who were members of the forward groups in Muslim society. The forward groups had traditionally held power or had been favoured by the ruling class.
Those who were denied a good social status and kept out of the political framework were actually the backward groups—the Ansaris, the Julai, Teli, Kasai, Khumra, Kunjra, Dhobi and others— who had been suppressed by the ruling class and forward groups for a long time. So much so that they had their own places of worship and they could not freely mix or intermarry with the forward castes. They have over time suffered discrimination at the hands of the diminant Hindu groups as well as their own brethren. These groups were again the victims of the partition of the country in 1947 when communal violence ripped the nation apart. While many of the forward castes among Muslims moved over to the newly-formed Pakistan, the backward castes were left behind. They suffered the brunt of the communal ire directed against the Muslims. Now, if after centuries of oppression, these backwards groups can hope to look for social and educational equality, why is it being seen as a move that will result in a ‘civil war’? Should they be denied equal social and educational opportunities just because they are Muslims, as the BJP and other groups seem to hint? That would amount to discrimination (in offering reservation for the OBCs) based on religious grounds. If OBCs need quota for social and educational advancement, then all OBCs need them, and not just Hindu OBCs. If the BJP can agree to reservation for Muslims in Karnataka and Bihar where it runs the government, then why should it object if the centre provides OBC minorities a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent?
For a long time in India now, the forward castes or groups—both Hindus and Muslims—have had a honeymoon. They have favoured only the forward castes when it came to power-sharing or granting favours of land and other forms of wealth. Even the mainstream freedom movement was one led by members of forward castes from both the Hindus and the Muslims. After independence, efforts have been carried out to provide the socially and economically backward Hindus reservation in educational institutions and government jobs. Now, there is an attempt to provide the backward groups from the minority communities a similar opportunity. Why, then, so much opposition? Is it because some parties and groups want the minorities to remain backward? To be oppressed socially and economically while the majority community moves on towards advancement, taking the OBCs among them along?
The center has boldly taken a step in the right direction by granting minorities a quota within a quota. For it is high time the socially and economically backward among all communities are given their due without discrimination.
The centre’s decision is to have an immediate impact on admissions in IITs/IIMs/NITs, AIIMS and 44 central universities and educational institutions. Muslim leaders, intelligentsia and social activists have welcomed it as a positive step towards justice to the minorities especially Muslims who are educationally and socially backward—the Muslim OBCs in particular. The CPM has demanded that the quantum be 10 percent and not 4.5 percent. But the BJP has dubbed it a pre-poll stunt, a move that will cause a ‘civil war’ in the country.
But why is this quota within quota being opposed in the first place?
There is no question but that the Muslims among the minorities are among the most educationally, socially and economically backward sections of the population in this country. It is therefore that the Ranganath Mishra Committee had asked for 10 per cent reservation for Muslims and 5 per cent for other minorities based on economic and social criteria. The 4.5 percentage in the minorities’ sub-quota, allotted under the OBC quota, means that those who would benefit would be actually the socially and educationally backward and not others. So what if this percentage belongs to the minority groups and not the dominant majority group? They are socially and educationally backward nevertheless.
The backward groups that will benefit here are those people who have been systematically oppressed over centuries. They have been denied political power, positions of status and prestige, and socially suppressed. Under centuries of Muslim rule in India, those who held power were always the royalty, nobles, zamindars, moneylenders and other who were members of the forward groups in Muslim society. The forward groups had traditionally held power or had been favoured by the ruling class.
Those who were denied a good social status and kept out of the political framework were actually the backward groups—the Ansaris, the Julai, Teli, Kasai, Khumra, Kunjra, Dhobi and others— who had been suppressed by the ruling class and forward groups for a long time. So much so that they had their own places of worship and they could not freely mix or intermarry with the forward castes. They have over time suffered discrimination at the hands of the diminant Hindu groups as well as their own brethren. These groups were again the victims of the partition of the country in 1947 when communal violence ripped the nation apart. While many of the forward castes among Muslims moved over to the newly-formed Pakistan, the backward castes were left behind. They suffered the brunt of the communal ire directed against the Muslims. Now, if after centuries of oppression, these backwards groups can hope to look for social and educational equality, why is it being seen as a move that will result in a ‘civil war’? Should they be denied equal social and educational opportunities just because they are Muslims, as the BJP and other groups seem to hint? That would amount to discrimination (in offering reservation for the OBCs) based on religious grounds. If OBCs need quota for social and educational advancement, then all OBCs need them, and not just Hindu OBCs. If the BJP can agree to reservation for Muslims in Karnataka and Bihar where it runs the government, then why should it object if the centre provides OBC minorities a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent?
For a long time in India now, the forward castes or groups—both Hindus and Muslims—have had a honeymoon. They have favoured only the forward castes when it came to power-sharing or granting favours of land and other forms of wealth. Even the mainstream freedom movement was one led by members of forward castes from both the Hindus and the Muslims. After independence, efforts have been carried out to provide the socially and economically backward Hindus reservation in educational institutions and government jobs. Now, there is an attempt to provide the backward groups from the minority communities a similar opportunity. Why, then, so much opposition? Is it because some parties and groups want the minorities to remain backward? To be oppressed socially and economically while the majority community moves on towards advancement, taking the OBCs among them along?
The center has boldly taken a step in the right direction by granting minorities a quota within a quota. For it is high time the socially and economically backward among all communities are given their due without discrimination.
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