Of Minorities & Associated Dilemma

India is a vast country, with a commendable record of being a democracy, despite such diversity in the kinds & minds of people. However, the undercurrents of divisions along caste, religion are not too weak to go unnoticed. The day might not be far when these undercurrents turn into tides and wash away all hard-earned goodwill in international community.

The issue of minorities is really a serious one. Caste-based politics, religion-centric electoral campaigns raising their heads doesn't bode well for India. One must remember that it was something similar to all this that led to the massive human migration & manslaughter half a century ago. And one must not disconunt the fact that the presence of pan-Indian leaders at that time really prevented a civil war from raging the country. However, the point is: What is the issue? Where is the dilemma?

At the time of independence, our leaders thought that for the upliftment of socially and economically backward classes & other minority communities, it was a nice idea to ensure "reservation" for them in not only the decision-making bodies, but also academic institutes, public sector units etc. It was envisaged that within 10 years, the inequalities would be done away with & all sections of the society would be equally empowered. However, nothing of the sort seemed to have happened. Rather, a select few from these communities reaped all advantages, leading to even starker inequalities in the society. The same policy has not had any effect, whatsoever, at allievating any of their problems for the past 60 years. Clearly, it is not the right way of ensuring empowerment. Further, it has bred an increased amount of hatred for minorities among the majority population, who are obviously disgruntled, since meritorious candidates from majority communities get passed over, due to this policy of reservations.

Then what else? One might say: Let us remove all such "reservations". Well, that is easier said than done. Even if one was to take steps in that direction, it would be playing into the hands of the majority community. In such a scenario, little power and attention that the minorities attract because of "reservations", would also be gone. Who would then care about them, when all one cares to get is a larger vote-bank to end up in the parliament?

This presents an apparent dilemma for any democracy. However, our case is unique, since the diversity in terms of number of communities, is just too large! Most of the countries around the world have 3 or atmost 4 different kinds of peoples (though globalization trends might change that as well!). In India, my estimate would be somewhere around 500, which might turn out to be pretty conservative! Then, what can the leaders of our democracy do, to ensure that we are able to sort out this problem, and take huge strides in the global arena in the decades to come? It is pertinent that if we are to emerge as a global power to reckon with, our internal problems must all be taken care off first.

One step likely to give better results, is to do away with formal "reservations" gradually, and increasingly, through policy, stress upon better education for all minorities. There is no dearth of job opportunities in India at the moment. The best way to empower the disadvantaged would be equip them with sufficient skills, to make the best possible use of the "Great Indian Economic Boom". This might take a large time to produce results, and might even require the political parties to do away with many of the present vote-bank based populist policies, but I guess, the time has come for our leaders to show some amount of maturity and take some serious incremental steps in this direction. Let us not focus on ultra short term gains (5 yrs!), but atleast short term gains atleast (15 yrs). Education is a great equalizer. Let us use it to its full advantage.

It is also important to tackle this issue with utmost urgency in view of the terrorism becoming more and more global with each passing day. I'm sure Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorism is merely a backlash by a community exploited economically and socially for the past century by the West, for realizing its own political & economic ambitions. It could well have been the Jews, had the policies of West been aimed at exploiting them. Let us not embrace their problem! Let us ensure that the minorities live with dignity and pride in this country. Let us make India a great power.