Sociological explanation of the reservation to the Other Backward classes in India on the basis of caste identity borders on the extremes of defying logic and and the creative acceptence of the empirical structural realities of the Indian socities.Andre Beteille says that the the so called OBCs occupy the middle rung of the social hierarchy and it is here that the fliudity of Indian caste system has been most visible.The Indian stat in granting OBCs the reservation has accepted the ritual aspect of the caste and has ignored the much more functional aspest of economic and political dominance. Barret in his study of a Kerala village has deduced precisly the same thing i.e. economic and political aspect more often than not take precedence over the ritual aspect of the caste in the determination of the hierarchy. Thus although the essential logic of granting the reservation holds ground ;its sociological underpinnings needs a much more rigorous and differentiated understanding for it to become an unqulified success. In the absence of it is imparting into the traditional institution of caste a new layer of complexity whose repercussions for the Indian society will be far from being harmonious.
Posts
