#5: Implementation of the Mandal Commission
Despite not holding the grandeur of wars and governmental turmoil, the implementation of the Mandal Commission would alter the way in which caste was handled in India. What was the Mandal Commission?
The Mandal Commission was enacted by Moraji Desai to identify and assist socially marginalised and backwards classes and consider the quotas in place for schools and employment opportunities. This was in an effort to address the prevalent issues of caste discrimination and even the playing field in both a social, economic and educational sense, The commission requested that a 27% reservation quota be set for OBCs thus resulting in a 49.5% quota in government jobs and public universities.
Why were these needed in the first place?
A “TL;DR” version of the story is depicted in the diagram above. India, pre-colonisation, functioned under a rigid caste system that still finds its remnants today. While certain castes ranked lowers than others, the Untouchables, ie. the Dalit caste and other such sectors were severely marginalised and did not have access to the same resources as others; thus, emphasising the need for the Mandal Commission.
On the 7th of August, 1990, former Prime Minister, Vishwanath Pratap Singh (VP Singh) announced historical legislation in Parliament. He stated, to both the Lok and Rajya Sabha, that marginalised classes, explicitly, Other Backward Classes (more commonly known as OBCs) would receive a 27% reservation in jobs in government and public sector industries. This reservation was fulfilled the first half of the recommendation — the second half (reservation in educational institutions was only enacted in 2006).
Despite this being a major win for backwards and historically disadvantaged castes and communities, everyone did not see this as a positive enactment. Protests began to emerge in 1990 and they began in large magnitudes — they would be known as Anti-reservationists protestors. These protests aimed to fight against individuals being given jobs solely due to their caste by birth as opposed to their merit. Due to the sheer magnitude, the protests shut down highways, transport services and many other parts of Indian society. Some notable unique features of the protests were the Dharnas (a type of swarming), Hartals (a form of shutting down municipal entities) and Bandhs (a type of strike). This along with looting, various other riotings, and large series of self-immolations (notably that of Rajiv Goswami) gave major rise to this cause.
At the time these protests provided popularity to an otherwise, unpopular topic, and fueled the political organisation of the OBC castes which aided in the formation of many current regional parties. Today, many provisions have been made in order to pay reparations to other backwards classes. However, with an ever-controversial and partisan state, reservations and quotas continue to be deeply controversial.
