PH In India

[Johnson, Tracy]

Back to the discussion earlier this week ... 

Perhaps one needs to be in the right caste to be a PH programmer in
India?

Tracy Johnson
Measurement Specialties, Inc. 

BT







NNNN


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From: volokh-bounces at lists.powerblogs.com
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Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:04 PM
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Subject: [Volokh] David Bernstein: Affirmative Action in India:


Posted by David Bernstein:
Affirmative Action in India:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_06_03-2007_06_09.shtml#118126102
7


   [1]Taipei Times:

     Enraged mobs from one of India's myriad lower castes blocked roads
     with fiery barricades, stoned police and battled rival castes
     across a wide swath of northern India for a week to make a single,
     simple point: They want to be even lower.

     With 25 people dead, the unrest spread to the fringes of the
     capital before the Gujjars  a class of farmers and shepherds 
     called off their protests.

     They did so only after officials agreed to consider their demand to
     be officially shunted to the lowest rung of India's complex
     hereditary caste system, so they can get government jobs and
     university spots reserved for such groups....

     Discrimination under the system was outlawed soon after
     independence from Britain in 1947, but its influence remains
     powerful and the government has sought to redress discrimination
     against those on the lower rungs by setting up quotas for
     government jobs and university spots.

     But instead of weakening caste affiliations, the result has been a
     fracturing of politics along caste lines, with each of the lower
     groups vying for its share of the quotas....

     "Nowhere in the world do castes queue up to be branded as
     backward," [the Indian Supreme Court] said. "Nowhere in the world
     is there a competition to become backward."

   Affirmative action has its good points and bad points, but I think
   it's undeniable that when government distributes benefits based on
   particular characteristics, lots of people will want to be identified
   as having those characteristics, there will be lobbying to ensure
that
   the relevant characteristics become legally immutable at a minimum
,or
   broadened, and people will organize and lobby around their common
   claim to the relevant characteristic. This all makes it a lot less
   likely that the relevant societal distinctions that led to the need
   for the affirmative action policies to begin with will wither away.

   Query: If the Irish, Scandinavians, and Italians in the United
   States--all groups that were once suffered a great deal of
   discrimination and were relatively disadvantaged compared to the
   Anglo-Saxon/German majority (plurality?)--had been offered government
   benefits based on their ancestry one hundred years ago, would these
   groups be as integrated into American life as they are today? If not,
   than this is a cost to such policies that must be weighed against the
   benefits.

   Thanks to my colleague Lloyd Cohen for the pointer.

References

   1.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/06/06/2003364132

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