Summer of discontent sweeps India

PROTESTS: In India this is a season of protests. Anger is spilling over to the streets. All over Delhi and other big cities, people are coming out in the open and demonstrating over some issue or the other.

There is an anti-big dam activist Medha Patkar opposing the move of the government to raise the height of the Narmada dam in Gujarat, which in her reckoning would displace some 1600 families on top of the thousands that had been shifted from this area.

Patkar has been agitating over the dismal rehabilitation of the dam oustees. She has got big support from a galaxy of writers and activists including Arundhati Roy.

Patkar's sit in is taking place at Jantar Mantar- a replica of an old observatory.

All over Delhi there are violent face offs between the traders and the municipal inspectors who are resisting their attempts to enforce the High Court order to seal shops that are operating in residential areas.

It is a really messy issue in which no politician or a government official wants to either stand up to the court or execute its orders.

Then there is a country-wide agitation-taking place in State Bank of India. The bank employees are protesting over pension and want a better deal. Losses in millions of dollars have been reported since the strike struck the bank some days back.

But all these demonstrations and protests could pale in comparison to what may unfold in the coming days. The students are in a state of ferment over the government's decision to reserve 27 per cent seats for the backward castes in all the educational institutions.

This is on top of the 22 per cent seats that are reserved for "dalits" or those who are socially and educationally the most deprived in the society.

The decision to have a quota for the backward castes flows from a commission's report where it stressed the need for affirmative action to help the backward castes to raise their education and economic standards and correct the injustice of thousands of years of societal oppression.

The latest reservations recommended by the government would not exempt India's top engineering and management schools.

This move has raised the hackles of the media and industry honchos like Ratan Tata and Rahul Bajaj who believe that this decision of the government could hurt the "integrity and unity" of the country and lower the quality of education in these institutes of excellence. They have been insisting that primacy should be given to merit rather than castes.

All this sounds very good, but there is no denying the fact that India is a viciously casteist society. The system of caste put together by Manu, a sage, has not only endured these thousands of years, but it has become worse.

Earlier it was believed that growing urbanisation and industrialisation would slice through the caste divide, but nothing like this happened. Majority of marriages still take place amongst the same caste. Seldom does one come across upper castes Brahmins marrying anyone from the lower or intermediate castes. Most of the top jobs are held by the upper castes.

Many premier colleges in Delhi like St.Stephens, Hindu College does not have very many people from the intermediate castes. If the constitution had not mandated reservations for the lowest castes dalits then they would not have found space in any of these colleges. Even India's cricket team, symbolic of a united India, is dominated by the upper caste.

Still the upper caste in India is not open to reason. It is difficult to fault them on their anger. Getting admission in schools and colleges is a nightmare. Even without the latest 27 per cent reservation admission, it is impossible to get an entry into colleges with a high percentage.

In colleges like St. Stephens and Shriram College of Commerce in Delhi the cut off percentage of marks for admission are as high as 85 to 90 per cent.

And if the new reservations are introduced for the backwards then for those in the general category the percentage for gaining admission would go beyond 90 per cent or more.

Getting admission to these colleges would be beyond the reach of ordinary students. And once the school pass outs fail to get admission to these schools then they would curse their birth and hit the streets.

This is precisely what they did in 1990 when the then Prime Minister V P Singh made the first attempt to enforce the reservation for backwards.

There were violent mass protests with a young man immolating himself. The reservation for backward communities was put on hold, but it has been resurrected once again.

Mass media, which is controlled by the upper caste, has become very powerful and it is at the vanguard of the campaign to prevent the government from enforcing this new quota.

Newspapers like Times of India are hysterically recalling the sacrifice of the student that immolated himself and wondering whether the agitation would be similar.

TV channels are building a movement by seeking text messages from those who oppose the government's decision. The outcome of the media hype of this issue is that the discussion in cocktail parties is changing and it is possible to hear heated debate over the issue of castes and reservation.

Anger is slowly welling up and it is a matter of days before large protests start showing up on Delhi roads. And when this happens then the happenings of 1990 would be quickly forgotten. Maybe 24/7 satellite news channels- unknown then-would have something to do with this.

(The writer is the Editor of Hardnews India. He is a former Asiaweek correspondent.)