Caste reservation

ORIGIN OF LOWER CASTES

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are communities that are accorded special status by the Constitution of India. These communities were considered 'outcastes' and were excluded from the Chaturvarna system that was the descriptive social superstructure of Hindu society in the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. These communities had traditionally been relegated to the most menial labour with no possibility of upward mobility, and subject to extensive social disadvantage and exclusion, in comparison to the wider community. The Scheduled Tribes were unable to participate in the community life of the Indian Society and were thus deprived of any opportunity for integration with the rest of the society and corresponding opportunities for educational, social and economic growth. The Scheduled Caste people are also known as Dalits; Scheduled Tribe people are also referred to as Adivasis. Gandhi used the terms Harijan and Girijan respectively.

HISTORY

The disadvantage faced by such a large section of Hindu society (SCs/STs together comprise over 24% of India's population, with SC at over 16% and ST over 8% as per 2001 census; this proportion has remained fairly stable for many decades). Starting with the Christian missionaries and other Indian visionaries, the problems began to be brought out into open discourse as early as the 1850s. At this time these communities were loosely referred to as the Depressed Classes.

Reformers like Jyotiba Phule of Pune had revolted against untouchability. The visionary Phule started primary schools for non-Brahmin boys and girls in 1848 and for the so-called untouchables in 1851. He asked the non-Brahmins not to engage Brahmin priests for marriages and also helped make a simple ritual of marriage, instead. He demanded representation of all classes, Brahmins and non-Brahmins, in all local bodies, services and institutions.
The early part of the 20th century saw a flurry of activity by the British Raj to assess the feasibility of responsible self-government in India. The Morley-Minto Reforms Report, Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms Report, and the Simon Commission were some of the initiatives that happened in this context. The Maharaja of Kolhapur, aggressively promoted the cause of the depressed classes, demanding special representation in local and legislative bodies and
led an agitation preceding the Montague-Chelmsford reforms. He argued this was necessary “To prevent Home Rule from culminating in oligarchy, we must have communal representation at least for ten years. It will teach us what our rights are.”This was also the time when the Depressed Classes had a politically and intellectually capable leader to champion their cause, in the form of B. R. Ambedkar. One of the hotly contested issues in the proposed reforms
was the topic of reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes in provincial and central legislatures.

In 1935, the British passed The Government of India Act, 1935, designed to give Indian provinces greater self-rule and set up a national federalstructure. Reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes was incorporated into the act, which went into force in 1937. The Act brought the term "Scheduled Castes" into use, and defined the group as including "such castes, races or tribes or parts of
groups within castes, races or tribes, which appear to His Majesty in Council to correspond to the classes of persons formerly known as the "Depressed Classes," as His Majesty in Council may prefer." This decidedly vague definition was clarified in The Government of India (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1936 which contained a list, or Schedule, of castes throughout the British provinces.After independence, the Constituent Assembly accepted the existent definition of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and gave (via articles 341, 342) the president and governors the responsibility to compile a full listing of castes and tribes, and also the power to edit it later as required. The actual complete listing of castes and tribes was made via two orders The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order,1950, and The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 respectively.

The Other Backward Classes (or OBCs) in India are a group of castes officially recognized as having been traditionally subject to exclusion. The Constitution of India recognizes the need to extend positive discrimination to this section. For example, the OBCs are entitled to 27% reservations in public sector employment and higher education. In the constitution, OBCs are described as "socially and educationally backward classes", and government is enjoined to ensure their social and educational development.The majority of communities classified as OBC belonged to the sudra varna[citation needed] in the traditional social hierarchy. This was the fourth and last varna, superior only to the out-castes or untouchables.