Introduction

“The Shudra must not acquire knowledge and it is a sin and a crime to give him education. - If the Shudra intentionally listens for committing to memory the Veda, then his ears should be filled with (molten) lead; if he utters the Veda, then his tongue should be cut off"- The Code of Manu (Manusmrithi - which is still one of the scriptural basis for contemporary Hindu civil law in India

Caste system is practised all over India and its implications have been discussed and debated widely, then and now. It has led to dividing the society into groups and thus sowed the seeds of discrimination and separation among the people. The Indian Government has been trying to improve the conditions of the underprivileged classes, by compensating for the opportunities they have been deprived of.

              Caste based reservation system is one of the most hotly debated issues in the contemporary Indian Society. The vociferous voices for and against the system is still heard from different corners of the Indian subcontinent. There have been questions of whether the criteria of reservation should be caste or class. The debate is still on and the Indian public is yet to reach a consensus on the same. The primary intention of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution on enshrining the notion of reservation was to allow the deprived classes to come at par with the forward classes .This, they thought, would ensure equality of opportunity and status in the Indian Society. The reservation is supposed to prolong as long as the backward classes are uplifted socially and stabilised economically.

               Despite the Government efforts, we are still not in a socio-economic system where all are treated equally and given the equal opportunities. The very fact that the scenario hasn’t changed after 67 years of Independence proves the necessity of continuing the system of reservation. However, the blog aims to study the background in which the reservation system evolved in the Indian Society and the present environment in which it functions. The blog also contains a detailed analysis of the arguments for and against caste-based reservation system.