The indian government's intention of introducing caste based quotas for the "other backward classes" in centrally funded institutions of higher learning and the prime minister's suggestion to the private sector to ‘voluntarily go in for reservation', has once again sparked off a debate on the merits and demerits of caste-based reservations. unfortunately, the predictable divide between the votaries of "social justice" on one hand and those advocating "merit" on the other seems to have once again camouflaged the real issues. it is necessary to take a holistic and non-partisan view of the issues involved. the hue and cry about "sacrificing merit" is untenable simply because merit is after all a social construct and it cannot be determined objectively in a historically unjust and unequal context. the idea of competitive merit will be worthy of serious attention only in a broadly egalitarian context. but then, caste is not the only obstacle in the way of an egalitarian order.
Answers
The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic case of position. It has beginnings in old India, and was changed by different decision elites in medieval, early-present day, and current India, particularly the Mughal Empire and the British Raj It is today the premise of instructive and occupation reservations in India. It comprises of two distinct ideas, varna and jati, which might be viewed as various dimensions of investigation of this framework.
The caste system as it exists today is believed to be the consequence of advancements amid the crumple of the Mughal time and the British pilgrim routine in India.The fall of the Mughal period saw the ascent of influential men who related themselves with rulers, clerics and monks, avowing the lofty and military type of the rank perfect, and it likewise reshaped numerous evidently casteless social gatherings into separated standing networks .