Sunday, November 01, 2015

Lavanya Kolluri on reservations

Lavanya Kolluri after linking to an article on reservations by Sukhadev Thorat writes:
"How can one be human and not support reservations? The conditions necessitating/facilitating their removal are nowhere in sight and probably never will be. We do not have a level playing field where every child can compete on an equal footing for 'merit'. How can those who have been historically excluded from education, who are first-generation learners, who do not have the cultural, social and educational capital of the historically privileged castes, be expected to compete? But it has been my experience that if I post in support of reservations I get ugly vicious reactions... most of which assume that I am a wretched 'lower caste person ' who wants to appropriate without merit. My feet curl in shame when I think of the abuse that the so-called 'lower castes ' must be facing on a daily basis."
Around 1994, I stayed for month in a hotel in Guntur. My father was about to depart in a few months and I visited him daily in the hospital. The hotel was cheap but there were lot of young workers and it is usually frequented by farmers from neighbouring villages. I used to get a coffee in the mornins through them and spend the rest of the day with my father. When I was about to leave most of them came to say goodbye and said the customers were very abusive and they were sorry to see me go. What all I used to say in the mornings was "Can you get me a cup of coffee?" Apparently they were often addressed as donkey and such. possibly a way to keep them under control. Even now, whenever I go home, i hear a lot of complaints about unreliable domestic help in the towns and uppity labour in the villages.

P.S. I got acquinted with Lavanya Kolluri during an inquiry about her grandfather S.Minakhisundaram, one of Indiaa's most eminent mathematicians. About his work here and one in Teluu here.

No comments: