One of my relatives is against reservations and the term 'OBC' in general. According to him, we should be allowed to get on with our lives without any of these terminologies defining us.
Some of my other relatives have the same opinion. They are against reservations and feel it didn't help them in anyway and they were further burdened by the negative portrayal and mockery of the OBCs by the privileged castes.
There is a grain of truth in this about the affirmative action if you consider numerically smaller castes like mine[1]. Most of the reservation benefits are cornered by the numerically stronger OBC castes. However, it need not be a deliberate injustice, as the effective qualified population of the numerically stronger castes is far higher as compared to the smaller castes and the jobs and education seats are highly limited. Also, the OBC reservation percentage(27%) is far lower than the OBC proportion (40-80%) in the population. With the new EWS (reservations for privileged castes), the situation has become worse for them. But it doesn't negate the fact that the opportunities are still better with the limited reservations for all OBC castes than the situation with no reservation.
But what these anti-reservation, anti-OBC relatives fail to understand is their lived experience as under-privileged castes is still true. The person I mentioned in the beginning of this post, started his own civil engineering consultancy. However, he had to close it down as he couldn't compete against the Telugu speaking feudal caste contractors in Bengaluru. According to him, they have a vice like grip on the construction scene because of their money and muscle power. While explaining this he made a strange observation.
He felt, the Telugu feudal caste had the monopoly because the Kannada feudal caste was weak and Tulu feudal caste didn't have numbers. He would have had a better chance if the native(Kannada/Tulu) feudal castes were stronger as the Telugu feudal caste was highly parochial as they wouldn't allow anyone else to prosper.
The whole conversation was a surreal experience. I wondered whether he was aware how pitiable situation OBCs like him find themselves in because of caste realities.
- He failed in a venture because a privileged caste has monopolized the industry
- He was hoping other privileged castes to counter them as he felt his own caste stood no chance
That's exactly the caste reality he has faced but doesn't even realizes it. The problem is failures make people put the blame completely on themselves. This probably is heightened by the "lower caste" birth. The failure to recognize injustice of the caste system stops them from identifying with the OBC identity.
Reference:
1. Less than 1% of OBC castes corner 50% reservation benefits, 20% get none, govt panel finds
