Unraveling India's Caste Quotas and Census Debate

In 1932, Gandhi's hunger strike forced a deal with Ambedkar: they scrapped separate Dalit electorates in exchange for reserved seats, setting the stage for India's caste-based reservations.

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Mahatma Gandhi was lying weak in Yerwada Jail, several days into a fast unto death. Outside, frenetic negotiations were underway between Gandhi's emissaries and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, champion of India's "Depressed Classes" (Dalits). The British government's Communal Award had granted Dalits separate electorates – a move Ambedkar welcomed, but Gandhi vehemently opposed.

Under immense pressure, Ambedkar and Gandhi struck a compromise on September 24, 1932. The resulting Poona Pact averted Gandhi's death and replaced separate electorates with reserved seats for Dalits in joint electorates. It is a seminal moment: an early framework for affirmative action in India, trading independent Dalit political representation for guaranteed representation within the Hindu fold.

Nearly six decades later, Prime Minister V.P. Singh rises in Parliament and announces the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, extending government job quotas to "Other Backward Classes" (OBCs). The news explodes like a political bombshell. Protests erupt nationwide; students from upper-caste communities block roads and railways, some resorting to the most extreme form of protest – self-immolation. The nation is convulsed by debates over merit versus social justice, unity versus caste identities. Yet, despite the turmoil, the courts uphold the new OBC reservations, solidifying India's most sweeping affirmative action policy since independence.

These two turning points – the Poona Pact of 1932 and the Mandal revolution of 1990 – bookend a complex history of caste-based quotas in India. Together, they set the stage for today's renewed debates over caste census and the very counting of caste in policy.