I was privileged to watch a nice debate few days ago on Positive Discrimination. The debate was quite interesting as the speakers were undergraduate students from some of the best colleges in India. A lot was said about how 'merit' is superior criteria for judging someone, as against caste.
I am in a 'premier law school' of India, and got there is because of merit. Then I started thinking about it a little more. How did I get this so called 'merit' which I seem to have acquired through sheer hard work.
In my case, I don't know much about you, it was because I went to a brilliant school which my parents were able to afford. I got access to all the books i ever wanted. I was never told that i could not have some book. I got access to cable television, encyclopedias, internet, and all similar sources of knowledge.
Why did I have access to such things? The answer is quite simple; my parents had access to them too. If i were to draw this train of thought i realized that this is because my forefathers (not very long ago) were the first to take advantage of the European system of education when it was introduced to India.
Though I may have not directly benefited from exploiting the lower castes in India, indirectly I am a big beneficiary. By keeping out a large portion of the society from access to education I as an upper caste today enjoy the lack of competition that would have existed if all Indians had access to good education (let us not talk about the government schools). Therefore to hold merit at high esteem seems to be quite ridiculous in my case. The day I was born it was preordained that I would have the 'merit'. This is because I was born in a specific caste which has had these advantages.
To deny the fact that a large majority of children in India will not have the training or access to resources to have even a slim chance at cracking the law school entrance tests seems to take out the air from my merit.
Therefore at an intensely personal level I have come to realize that there is not much in the merit argument as it can be inherited just like a lot of things. It does not look like a big personal achievement any more.
We, don't seem to mind when a NGO opens a little school for Dalit Children under a tin shed with three teachers and a black-board. When the government says that it will put more Dalits in the best colleges of India, and do so without reducing the number of seats for students who got there by 'merit', we act like a right has been deprived. I will probably need quite a few hajmolas to swallow and live with this contradiction. Are we saying 'that all these Dalits deserve are those crappy schools'?
I am in a 'premier law school' of India, and got there is because of merit. Then I started thinking about it a little more. How did I get this so called 'merit' which I seem to have acquired through sheer hard work.
In my case, I don't know much about you, it was because I went to a brilliant school which my parents were able to afford. I got access to all the books i ever wanted. I was never told that i could not have some book. I got access to cable television, encyclopedias, internet, and all similar sources of knowledge.
Why did I have access to such things? The answer is quite simple; my parents had access to them too. If i were to draw this train of thought i realized that this is because my forefathers (not very long ago) were the first to take advantage of the European system of education when it was introduced to India.
Though I may have not directly benefited from exploiting the lower castes in India, indirectly I am a big beneficiary. By keeping out a large portion of the society from access to education I as an upper caste today enjoy the lack of competition that would have existed if all Indians had access to good education (let us not talk about the government schools). Therefore to hold merit at high esteem seems to be quite ridiculous in my case. The day I was born it was preordained that I would have the 'merit'. This is because I was born in a specific caste which has had these advantages.
To deny the fact that a large majority of children in India will not have the training or access to resources to have even a slim chance at cracking the law school entrance tests seems to take out the air from my merit.
Therefore at an intensely personal level I have come to realize that there is not much in the merit argument as it can be inherited just like a lot of things. It does not look like a big personal achievement any more.
We, don't seem to mind when a NGO opens a little school for Dalit Children under a tin shed with three teachers and a black-board. When the government says that it will put more Dalits in the best colleges of India, and do so without reducing the number of seats for students who got there by 'merit', we act like a right has been deprived. I will probably need quite a few hajmolas to swallow and live with this contradiction. Are we saying 'that all these Dalits deserve are those crappy schools'?
