Reflecting on the Past and Future of Reservations in the Present

Abstract

The recently delivered court rulings on reservation provoke the question about the future and (ir) relevance of the policy to accomplish social justice in a liberalized market economy wherein formal state jobs are scantily available, higher education is increasingly privatized and the creation of the EWS category appears to undermine the logic of affirmative action. The moment urges us to reflect on whether we need a new policy framework to achieve the goal of social justice in the changed political economy. Any reflection on the future of reservations should not be ahistorical and detached from the past and changes in contemporary political economy.