Notes From Nowhere

Neera Chandhoke has written an interesting article on the reservations in

the recent issue of EPW. It is a well written article that demolishes some of the

myths about the reservations. She has criticised the left for abandoning class in

favor of caste. I am sure that the captive intellectuals of the left will react to this.

But their reasoning as expressed in the pages of Peoples Democracy is sloppy.

Let me cite few sentences from her article.

"Reservations are important, but they should be taken seriously and employed
sparingly. The dominant perspective of redressing inequality should be

egalitarianism, or the provision of a social minimum to all that require it.

But reservations, which should have formed one component of egalitarianism,

have come to substitute for egalitarianism."