Representation

In the name of democracy, the constituent assembly of India adopted certain specific individual and collective rights to religion. Democracy, however, is not just about rights; another integral component of democracy is representation. This essay argues that the granting of a range of individual and collective religious rights to the minorities was used, in the constituent assembly, to justify the refusal of their demand for more adequate mechanisms of representation, for instance, for proportional representation or for reserved seats in the legislatures.

The Constitution of India excludes religious minorities from the purview of group-preference provisions because the dominant nationalist opinion in the Constituent Assembly held that resort to such safeguards was legitimate only for enabling backward sections of the population to overcome their disabilities, not for facilitating the preservation of distinct cultural identities.

Reservations: Experience as Framework of Debate Kancha Ilaiah In the ongoing debate on reservations, the long-term impact of these provisions in education at the individual and social level has not received enough attention. A personal account of what it really means to have access to education, only because of reservation, to the individual, the community and to the village society I AM one of those who became a lecturer in Political Science under the BC reserved quota in Osmania University. Given the unwritten laws of patronage and access that determine who gets jobs in our institutions my first class MA. subsequent M Phil and several publications in all-India journals would not have brought me a job but for the reservation. In my university out of 1,200 teachers about 160 became teachers only because of reservations to QBCs, SCs and STs.

Discrimination Karuna Ahmad We have completed 30 years of experimentation with the policy of protective discrimination in favour of Scheduled Castes and Tribes and it is time to review its gains and drawbacks.

After two decades of special concessions to bring them on par with the general population., Scheduled Castes remain at the rear end of development. While the caste system prolongs their handicaps, such pro- tective legislation against it as there has been touches only the untouchability aspect