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Reservations: A Spark and the Blaze
CASTE AND RESERVATIONS, the problem and the solution, are yoked together in public discourse. They incite great passions. A conversation about caste ends up being about reservations. A savarna of privilege attacks the very idea as undermining ‘merit’.
Reservations started as a policy to ensure that the most oppressed and excluded sections of Indian society, the dalits and adivasis, are guaranteed representation. Today, it has been extended to powerful communities such as the brahmins and marathas in the guise of economic quotas.
What role does class play in caste society? Anand Teltumbde offers a dispassionate history and analysis of the connected issues and shows us how the solution has become the problem.
Teltumbde offers a way out.
Reservations started as a policy to ensure that the most oppressed and excluded sections of Indian society, the dalits and adivasis, are guaranteed representation. Today, it has been extended to powerful communities such as the brahmins and marathas in the guise of economic quotas.
What role does class play in caste society? Anand Teltumbde offers a dispassionate history and analysis of the connected issues and shows us how the solution has become the problem.
Teltumbde offers a way out.
- GenresIndiaNonfiction
118 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2024
About the author
Anand Teltumbde
22 books116 followersAnand Teltumbde is a leading public intellectual and is known for his critical insights on many a contemporary issue. A civil rights activist of long standing, he is currently General Secretary of the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR). He is also associated with the All India Forum for Rights to Education (AIFRTE), which is spearheading the movement for common school system, as a member of its Presidium and many other Peoples’ movements.
A regular contributor to Economic and Political Weekly, wherein he writes a monthly column ‘Margin Speak’. He also regularly contributes to other progressive journals like Mainstream, Frontier, Seminar, etc. and most English and Marathi newspapers.
Some of his recent books are Dalits: past, Present and Future (Routledge, 2016), Mahad: Making of the First Dalit Revolt (Aakar, 2016), Persistence of Caste (Zed Books, 2010); Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop (Navayana, 2008); Anti-Imperialism and Annihilation of Castes (Ramai, 2005); and Hindutva and Dalits: Perspectives for Understanding Communal Praxis, (Ed) (Samya, 2005). He is widely translated into most Indian languages.
He has been a CEO of a holding company. After his corporate stint, he joined IIT, Kharagpur, where he teaches Business Management.
A regular contributor to Economic and Political Weekly, wherein he writes a monthly column ‘Margin Speak’. He also regularly contributes to other progressive journals like Mainstream, Frontier, Seminar, etc. and most English and Marathi newspapers.
Some of his recent books are Dalits: past, Present and Future (Routledge, 2016), Mahad: Making of the First Dalit Revolt (Aakar, 2016), Persistence of Caste (Zed Books, 2010); Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop (Navayana, 2008); Anti-Imperialism and Annihilation of Castes (Ramai, 2005); and Hindutva and Dalits: Perspectives for Understanding Communal Praxis, (Ed) (Samya, 2005). He is widely translated into most Indian languages.
He has been a CEO of a holding company. After his corporate stint, he joined IIT, Kharagpur, where he teaches Business Management.
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April 15, 2026
This book consists of two essays. The first essay is an assessment of reservations. Tetumbde argues that reservations are needed for the representation of Dalits in administration and legislature. He points out that although the ritual aspects of caste has vanished, other aspects such as endogamy, purity and pollution are practiced. He agrees that benefits of reservation have been cornered by the better off sections of the Dalit community. He makes a case for reservation within reservation. He suggests that denying reservation to people who have already been its beneficiaries would be the right way to go about it rather than denying it to whole communities within Dalits. It is a rambling essay and covers a lot of ground.
The second essay is about caste vs class. He makes the well worn argument that the communists in India failed since they saw caste purely as an attribute of the super-structure and not needing direct attack. Tetlumbde argues that caste and class converge in the Indian situation and reinforce each other.
The second essay is about caste vs class. He makes the well worn argument that the communists in India failed since they saw caste purely as an attribute of the super-structure and not needing direct attack. Tetlumbde argues that caste and class converge in the Indian situation and reinforce each other.
Displaying 1 of 1 review