Thoughts on Social Capital and Affirmative Action for OBCs

A friend of mine recently blocked me from facebook.  His anger was probably directed towards my position on affirmative action.  I had argued that socially and economically disadvantaged sections of the society need a helping hand in the form of Affirmative action.    

A particular statement perhaps angered him beyond redemption.  I had said “the simple fact that one is born as an upper caste or a forward caste (with or without economic support) vests him with phenomenal levels of privilege in comparison to other lower castes”.  This statement apparently didn’t go well with my friend as he looked at affirmative action merely through the lens of poverty and destitution and not necessarily social progress or social backwardness.   Weeks passed by and I forgot about my statement.  Privilege is a Blinding force that is difficult to grasp.  I thought.

Two days back a Muslim relative came to meet me.  He is a well to do leather businessman from UP having his clients in Chennai.  He supplies leather to them to make his money.  In fact given his annual turnover, he can even be considered ‘rich’ by Indian urban standards though they both lacked the pretentious glamour which rich normally carry (expensive cell phones, gadgets etc)

However for all their education, both him and his wife are far from educated.   They have perhaps not seen the inside of a school or a college and know close to nothing in that regard.  Their reason to see me was to ask a humble question.  The question was simple “What is this MBA?”.   I was flabbergasted at the question.  It is difficult normally to answer questions as simple as this. 

This question was important to them because their son had now passed 10^th standard (with 50 percent) and wanted to choose “a group” in school to later join a “College”.   The utter complexity the situation presented and difficulty of the choice between group 1, 2 and 3 had become an existential question to them.  No wonder they travelled 40 kms to come to the other end of Chennai to “see an expert in education” to get things clarified (that’s me btw).

But “How did you hear of the MBA?” I asked.  Their source of Gordian knot was now revealed.   A relative of theirs was doing something called MBA-CAT-IIM in Delhi (ok that dude was attending Time coaching in Delhi for CAT and they thought he was in IIM doing his MBA.  Incidentally that dude’s parents in UP also thought the same as no one knows the distinction between MBA-IIM-TIME).  And they now wanted their son to join Time to do an MBA!!!

Understanding Social Backwardness of Indian Muslim

If you thought that my story was fictitious, I assure you that it is not.  I wish it were though.

And if you thought this particular family was not really a representative of Indian Muslims at large, perhaps you are right.   This family was economically upper-class but socially backward.   But an ordinary Muslim is both economically and socially backward.  

Now can one really compare muslim kids like these who take up IIT and IIM exams along with upper-caste who have a huge eco-system around them that builds, motivates and grooms them to tackle India’s most difficult exams (parents, uncles, aunts, coaching centres and constant competitions from cousins and discussions on cutoffs).  Ask a +1 upper caste boy and he will tell you the cut off of IIT delhi and IIT kharagpur in a blink and will tell you the best coaching centres.  Ask a Muslim student, unless one has chosen a good sample, there is a real chance that one would get an answer like “what is IIT?” or “what is IIM?”. 

Yes that is entirely possible.  The social backwardness of Indian Muslim is phenomenal.   Their level of knowledge is at abysmal level which keeps them further socially backward.  They are caught in a perpetual cycle of social backwardness.   The fact of the matter is that most Muslims of India lack social capital that is necessary to get ahead socially in the society.   

So what is this social capital we are talking about? Social capital is when your parents know well about educations and the competitions outside and wake you up to study at 5am in the morning.  Social capital is when your cousins compete with you in IIT entrance.  Social capital is when a passing uncle would give tips on how to tackle India’s toughest exams.   Social Capital is when there is someone to guide you to a scholarship scheme that could benefit your education.   Social capital is when there is abundance of information at your fingertips and you are constantly being disciplined and bettered by forces of change.  Social capital is all that force that pushes a person to move towards a pre-determined goal in an organized and informed manner.    One does not see such things in a Muslim family.  Why? To start with most families themselves know little or nothing about the entire picture.

Why? Because most Muslims aren’t educated themselves.   The Evidence for this comes from the sachar committee Report which had incidentally placed Indian Muslims below the SC/ST levels and recommended for equal reservations).  Later the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission further emphasized the deplorable condition of Muslims on socio-economic indicators and strengthened the findings, arguments and recommendations of the Sachar Committee report. 

Even a new study by an American think-tank, the US-India Policy Institute, assessing progress since the Sachar report, bluntly concludes that Muslims have “not shown any measurable improvement”. Even in education, Muslims’ gains are typically more modest than other groups’.

Consider for example, the Indian Policy on reservation states that Indian Muslims come under OBC (other backward class) category.  While there is a reservation of 27 percent, being in the creamy layer would automatically disqualify them automatically from all reservation benefits.  The Argument is that why should the state support reservation for people who are well off or who have money? 

But the policy fails to take into consideration that social backwardness is also a malaise that must be changed by the system.   The Fact of the Matter is that social backwardness is much more difficult to cure than economic backwardness.   The former can be easily cured with change in financial position which is not very difficult.  The later requires holistic change in the entire ecosystem of the society, the family that is more often than not backward looking.   While it may take merely a few years for financial position to change, the social change would require decades and even more.

If reservation policy can be used as a agent of social change, perhaps it should be.  Consider for example the education levels of Indian Muslim women.  Consider for example Kerala whose states have high level of social progressiveness compared to other states in social indices.  Even the Muslim community in Mallapuram and other places is better off than other Muslims in India as far as the economic conditions are concerned.  However socially te same is not true.  Muslim women in Kerala are married as early as 18 years without any formal college education.   There is a pressure on the Kerala Muslim families to ensure the girl is married after she has attained her age.  One can find countless profiles in shaadi.com with women as young as 18 and all from kerala (incidentally the website does not allow younger profiles than 18 years)

Now my question is why not use the tools of reservation to cure social malaise and bring social change in the society? Would not a kerala muslim family consider sending their daughter to IIM if she had gained a seat there by reservation (though she would have otherwise disqualified under creamy layer criteria).  Perhaps or perhaps not.

The underlying point is that the reason for social backwardness is again social backwardness and the result is also social backwardness.  This vicious cycle must some where be broken.  If that means that one needs to expand the confines of reservation policy beyond the “narrow crevice” of economic criteria, so be it. 

That will bring a lasting social change.

This is true not only about muslims but also about OBCs.  Social change can be brought in by strengthening the reservation system and helping to create an eco system which in turn will make the communities socially progressive.