Friday, October 25, 2013

Book Review - Falling Over Backwards

Gujjars’ protest in Rajasthan to reclassify them as a scheduled tribe from other backward class turns violent ; Mayawati demands reservations for Dalits in private sector ; The newly formed government promises increase in reservation for backward castes – I am sure you would have read/heard these kinds of news. Did you ever wonder as to how did we land in such a soup? Why many castes have fought and tried to project themselves as backwards? What is the root cause of this phenomenon called reservation? This essay of Arun Shourie – “Falling over backwards” attempts to study the phenomenon in detail.

The theme of the book is centered on caste-based reservations – what the constitution actually says about it, the purpose of reserving jobs based on castes, how political class has turned reservation into an ax to grind, the judiciary’s part in it, the effect it has on the effective functioning on the administration and so on.



The book starts with the letter of Jawaharlal Nehru to the chief ministers in 1950 in which he warned about the dangers the caste-based reservations would loom the public at large. He was quoted saying – “This way lies not only folly, but disaster”. But as the history of independent India has shown, the warning went unheeded.

Some primary areas the essay focuses on:

  • Constitutional provisions : What the constitution actually says about caste-based reservations, what is made out of them
  • Social structure and dynamics of castes in India – past and present
  • From reservation for jobs, to the admissions in colleges to promotions – how all rules are thrown to the air, how warnings against it went unheeded, all in the name of “Social Justice”
  • The controversial system used for promotion – the roster system – how it works, the effects it has with many real life examples.
  • The opportunism of the political class, the activism of some “progressive” judges – the collective effect it has on the efficiency of the machinery of administration

The original intention of reservation and the time period of it have long been forgotten and it’s used for making hay for the politicians. There is perhaps no single politician worth his salt who hasn’t made use of reservation to his or his party’s ultimate ends. That which should have really empowered people has come to favor only a selected few and has been descended as a weapon in the armor of political class. The trend of increasing the percentage of reservations does what many judges had warned about – reverse discrimination. Reservation - which was supposed to create an equal society, which was supposed to abolish the caste differences, has only perpetuated the very ills that it was fighting against. But all the ills of reservations are passed off in the name of "social justice".

Arun Shourie does a neat job in – accumulating the facts (a laborious one, which involves thousands of court cases and judgments), analyzing them (which involves separating facts from fiction, puncturing the non-factual claims of the pro-reservationists with data and undeniable proofs), proposing a way out from all. Shourie is known for his meticulous research and rigorous analysis. This essay bears testimony to the fact.

No matter if one is for reservation or against reservation, this book is a compulsory study for all who are interested in knowing the caste-based reservations in India. But let me warn you – the book is huge, can get repetitive at times because of the underlying subject. It establishes that the grave traps are usually laid in the premises of lofty ideas. Most importantly, it gives a clarion call to the ills of reservations with facts hitting you in the face and proposes a way out.