http://www.greaterkashmir.com/today/full_story.asp?Date=11_4_2010&ItemID=25&cat=17
What Inter-District Recruitment Bill (Amendment April 2010) means to Kashmir
Arjimand Hussain Talib
The cloud of confusion and suspense over the bill banning inter district recruitment is over. The battle lines are clearer today. So is whose heart lies where in the state’s power politics. The bill in its amended form – quietly decided by a handful of Congress and NC leaders - appears a recipe for political disaster for the state. Firstly, it is patently unjust for the state’s Muslims, particularly from the Kashmir Valley. Secondly, it is due to divide communities and groups on newer geographical lines. J&K’s political monolith and Muslim culture will stand defeated.
To understand this issue better, it is important not to see this bill in isolation. We need to go to the genesis of India’s reservation politics and the manner its introduction in J&K systematically divided this Muslim-majority state on linguistic, ethnic, caste and geographical lines. Deep divisions now manifest even at district, tehsil, village and mohalla levels. Lack of inter-district mobility is bound to create island mentalities of petty interests. This politics of engineered divisions needs to be questioned now.
As per the amended bill, the people with ‘Scheduled Castes’ (SC) status – who comprise of certain Hindu social groups in Jammu - will have eight percent reservation in all the state’s districts. Although there are no SCs in the 10 districts of Kashmir Valley, yet they will enjoy reservation here.
This is a classic case of the Congress, the BJP and the Panthers Party consolidating their vote banks in Hindu-dominated Jammu areas at the expense of Muslims here. It is sad National Conference became a party to this scheme. The problem is that this bill does not only mean a disadvantage to the state’s Muslims, it also raises serious questions on the very idea of reservation as applied to J&K state.
The fact is that caste is an institutionalized social order in the Hindu religion. According to ancient Hindu scriptures, such as ‘Manu Smriti’, caste is Varnasrama Dharma, which translates to "offices given according to class or occupation". Islam’s idea of universality, as we know, does not differentiate human race based on any such differences. Reservation, as such, is an anti-thesis to Islamic principles of human equality and equal opportunities. As such, it should never have been applied to J&K state in the first instance.
Ever since 1947, India’s judiciary has been averse to some aspects of reservation, which it saw in contravention to the principle of equal rights as enshrined in the India’s constitution. Supreme Court of India held that caste cannot be the sole criterion for determining whether a person is backward within the meaning of article 15 and 16. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then PM of India, brought in the First Amendment Act in 1951 which read “Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.” The same was applied to J&K state.
The government of India-appointed First Backward Classes Commission (Kakasaheb Kelekar Commission) in 1953 listed 2399 castes as ‘Socially and Educationally Backward Classes’ in India. Subsequently, in 1956, New Delhi asked J&K government to appoint its own committee to do the same job. The result was startling. The committee reserved 30 percent avenues in education and government jobs for SCs and STs from Hindu community in the state. The then J&K government under a Government Order (GO) took to another extreme: it reserved 50 percent vacancies for Muslims of Kashmir, 40 percent for Jammu Hindus and 10 percent for Kashmiri Pandits. But the decision was intrinsically flawed: it was done on communal lines, which was antithetical to India’s Constitution.
The Supreme Court of India subsequently struck down this GO when a Kashmiri Pandit Triloki Nath Tiku filed a petition before it in Triloki Nath Tiku vs State of J&K AIR (1969) case.
Based on 1967 Gajendragadkar Commissions recommendations (formed on New Delhi’s advice), J&K government in 1969 formed the Backward Classes Committee headed by Justice J N Wazir. On Wazir Committee’s advice, J&K government framed the J&K Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation Rules) 1970, which provided for 8 per cent reservations for SCs and 42 per cent for backward classes, including 2 per cent reserved for Ladakh District.
As the Supreme Court disapproved with this reservation norm, J&K government again constituted a committee with Justice Dr. A. S. Anand as its chairman in September 1976. Justice Anand’s report in September 1977 recommended a new reservation structure: Scheduled Castes – 8 %, Gujjar and Bakerwal - 4%, Other Social Castes - 2%, District Leh - 2%, District Kargil - 2%, other Backward Areas - 20%, Areas near the Actual Line of Control - 3%, Children of Freedom Fighters - 2%, Children of Permanent Residents Defence Personnel - 3%, Candidates Possessing Outstanding Proficiency in Sports - 3%.
This atrocious system of reservation was followed by recommendations of the Mandal Commission in 1980. Surprisingly, the commission in its report identified 63 castes/communities as ‘Socially and Educationally Backward Classes’ (SEBC) in J&K state and recommended 27% reservation for them. Since the OBC reservation in its recommendations was based on caste rather than socio-economic conditions, the same got applied to J&K as well.
In year 2000, the Indra Shawney v Union of India case resulted in something interesting. Supreme Court ruled that in order to declare any section of society as OBC or SEBC there has to be a full fledged committee report which would ascertain the average backwardness in terms of education and social mobility of that community.
Some states have done something more interesting. For example, West Bengal introduced the ‘Creamy layer exclusion’ system – meaning once a person gets the benefit of quota, subsequent generation of the immediate family will not get benefit. It also employs ‘Economic basis of exclusion’ – meaning only those families having an income of less than 4.5 lakhs per annum would be brought under the quota.
In this backdrop J&K state stands at a crossroads today. It has to make a choice: either to live with this slide or take a longer term vision for its future based on inclusiveness, meritocracy and competitiveness. One of the reasons that the state’s governance remains in a shambles is that reservation-based official machinery is dogged by mediocrity. Although this system is a handy tool of maintaining political order and conflict management, it also underlines how precarious our political situation is.
At the end of the day, we are again confronted with the same question – can we afford to live so many divisions? What about a common future of the state based on equal opportunities?
Feedback at arjimand@greaterkashmir.com
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Kashmir's brain drain
DATELINE SRINAGAR (Greater Kashmir, Sunday March 28)
Kashmir’s brain drain
A loss or a blessing? Time will tell
Arjimand Hussain Talib
Kashmir doesn’t really look the same. Does it? There are two perceptible changes: one is the change in the manner we do the daily business here. In that, there is a feeling of a vacuum. A vacuum of energetic, passionate and able people. Second is the disturbing street, which, again, gives a feeling of physical emptiness. A feeling that something is amiss. And then there are some silly-sounding, but really genuine, questions.
Why is vibrancy missing in Srinagar? Why are streets not that busy? Why are village boys disappearing every other day, leaving in search of better education and jobs? Why are workplaces devoid of people who would yesterday adore those spaces? Why a greater number of Kashmiris throng the virtual world of Facebook to connect to each other than meeting in the real world? Where are the people whom we would meet on the Residency Road or at the Regal Chowk every other day?
There could be, of course, many factors why things look this way in Kashmir. But have a look around and you would surely see many people missing. The fact is that today Kashmiri youth are leaving their land as never before. Come backs are rare. Kashmir’s brain drain has reached an unprecedented level. And there are both good and bad sides of this story.
A deeper cost-benefit analysis may, perhaps, help us understand if we collectively would be net losers or gainers in the long run. For now, some people believe, the loss content outweighs the gain content. Some, on the contrary, believe this migration will pay us better in the longer run.
The questions that we need to ask today are: can this situation be reversed? Is reversal really desirable? While the vacuum of the political and the administrative spaces is disturbing, wouldn’t this kind of renaissance be rewarding in the days to come?
The first thing we need to confess is that we are today not in a position to retain educated and talented people. We don’t have enough productive work areas to harness their intellectual or technical talent. Internet has given Kashmiri youth great and easy access to the globe. The globe is there with open arms, calling them for education and jobs. Globalisation and greater global movement is also taking a greater number of our business people away. And gone are the days when the lure of our great weather and homely comforts would bring people back.
The fact is that migration of Kashmiri youth for education and jobs is not a wholly new phenomenon. In the past, places like Lahore, Aligarh and other areas of the erstwhile United Punjab have been popular for education and jobs. Then in the 90s it was mostly South India which was in vogue. That was a time when Kashmiri youth would normally come back home and settle down here for good. Today’s situation is little different. Today, Kashmiri youths’ reach has gone beyond India’s geographical borders, as such coming back home is not that easy option. They are truly international.
While looking at how all this is going to shape our future, we also need to see how people outside the Valley view all this.
I once asked a Jammu University’s senior academic of politics how she saw Jammu city’s economic progress and public administration dominance vis-à-vis Kashmir? Her answer was quite a food for thought. She conceded Jammu was developing better economically and that it was marking a good presence in the state’s civil secretariat. But, she said, her worry laid somewhere else: Jammu’s ‘slow and steady intellectual degeneration.’
To many Kashmir watchers, she said, the Valley, over the years, had grown intellectually significantly. The state’s centre of opinion making through media was now Srinagar. When it came to quality education, Kashmir was doing better. In the private sector’s competitive domains, ‘Kashmiri students were better placed because of their better articulation, presentation and physical appearance.’ Kashmir produces writers, thinkers, poets, and the like at a good scale. It had a rich crop of articulate activists. Internationally, it was taken much more seriously.
This part of the story may be true. But there is another part as well. Kashmir’s work place has degenerated tremendously over the last 20 years or so. There is a dearth of discipline. Work ethics aren’t that impressive as they used to be. Any workplace outside a government office is a place for time pass. Or, at best, a transition site. People rarely put their souls in workplaces which are not that of government.
The last 20 years of conflict and abnormal social conditions have bred aggression among the youths. No doubt people attain greater levels of education but their employability remains low. Then there is the bigger problem – there are very little jobs for the highly educated Kashmiri youths. Favoritism, nepotism and reservations frustrate the talented ones, who eventually migrate.
Those who come back are rare to find the going easy. People normally suffer a serious problem of maladjustment. I know some friends who after coming back have faced depression. They have found themselves like misfits in Kashmir’s work culture. Some people, who have started their own businesses, find working in the high-corruption ridden environment chocking.
The good part of the migration is that those who come back are normally known to bring back good work practices. Migrants also bring remittances, which, if eventually invested in Kashmir, would help the local economy. They anyway help the overall prosperity. One of the biggest assets of those who go out is their exposure to the world’s multiple realities. Once back, Kashmir is sure to be enriched with the wisdom so acquired.
There are some other interesting aspects of this brain drain. While earlier only children of an elite section of Kashmiris would go out for education and jobs, today it is anybody’s story. In fact, today the youth of the lower social and economic strata forms the bulk of the Kashmiri Diaspora. Times have changed.
But there is another reality whose desirability is debatable. This segment is also today least politically active. It does not take interest in Kashmir’s power politics – which it sees demeaning and unjust. Dejected with the turn of things, and overwhelmed by India’s economic and military might in sustaining the struggle for right to self determination, it is generally indifferent to the azadi movement as well. And that is how, it seems, time plays. That is it.
Feedback at arjimand@greaterkashmir.com
Kashmir’s brain drain
A loss or a blessing? Time will tell
Arjimand Hussain Talib
Kashmir doesn’t really look the same. Does it? There are two perceptible changes: one is the change in the manner we do the daily business here. In that, there is a feeling of a vacuum. A vacuum of energetic, passionate and able people. Second is the disturbing street, which, again, gives a feeling of physical emptiness. A feeling that something is amiss. And then there are some silly-sounding, but really genuine, questions.
Why is vibrancy missing in Srinagar? Why are streets not that busy? Why are village boys disappearing every other day, leaving in search of better education and jobs? Why are workplaces devoid of people who would yesterday adore those spaces? Why a greater number of Kashmiris throng the virtual world of Facebook to connect to each other than meeting in the real world? Where are the people whom we would meet on the Residency Road or at the Regal Chowk every other day?
There could be, of course, many factors why things look this way in Kashmir. But have a look around and you would surely see many people missing. The fact is that today Kashmiri youth are leaving their land as never before. Come backs are rare. Kashmir’s brain drain has reached an unprecedented level. And there are both good and bad sides of this story.
A deeper cost-benefit analysis may, perhaps, help us understand if we collectively would be net losers or gainers in the long run. For now, some people believe, the loss content outweighs the gain content. Some, on the contrary, believe this migration will pay us better in the longer run.
The questions that we need to ask today are: can this situation be reversed? Is reversal really desirable? While the vacuum of the political and the administrative spaces is disturbing, wouldn’t this kind of renaissance be rewarding in the days to come?
The first thing we need to confess is that we are today not in a position to retain educated and talented people. We don’t have enough productive work areas to harness their intellectual or technical talent. Internet has given Kashmiri youth great and easy access to the globe. The globe is there with open arms, calling them for education and jobs. Globalisation and greater global movement is also taking a greater number of our business people away. And gone are the days when the lure of our great weather and homely comforts would bring people back.
The fact is that migration of Kashmiri youth for education and jobs is not a wholly new phenomenon. In the past, places like Lahore, Aligarh and other areas of the erstwhile United Punjab have been popular for education and jobs. Then in the 90s it was mostly South India which was in vogue. That was a time when Kashmiri youth would normally come back home and settle down here for good. Today’s situation is little different. Today, Kashmiri youths’ reach has gone beyond India’s geographical borders, as such coming back home is not that easy option. They are truly international.
While looking at how all this is going to shape our future, we also need to see how people outside the Valley view all this.
I once asked a Jammu University’s senior academic of politics how she saw Jammu city’s economic progress and public administration dominance vis-à-vis Kashmir? Her answer was quite a food for thought. She conceded Jammu was developing better economically and that it was marking a good presence in the state’s civil secretariat. But, she said, her worry laid somewhere else: Jammu’s ‘slow and steady intellectual degeneration.’
To many Kashmir watchers, she said, the Valley, over the years, had grown intellectually significantly. The state’s centre of opinion making through media was now Srinagar. When it came to quality education, Kashmir was doing better. In the private sector’s competitive domains, ‘Kashmiri students were better placed because of their better articulation, presentation and physical appearance.’ Kashmir produces writers, thinkers, poets, and the like at a good scale. It had a rich crop of articulate activists. Internationally, it was taken much more seriously.
This part of the story may be true. But there is another part as well. Kashmir’s work place has degenerated tremendously over the last 20 years or so. There is a dearth of discipline. Work ethics aren’t that impressive as they used to be. Any workplace outside a government office is a place for time pass. Or, at best, a transition site. People rarely put their souls in workplaces which are not that of government.
The last 20 years of conflict and abnormal social conditions have bred aggression among the youths. No doubt people attain greater levels of education but their employability remains low. Then there is the bigger problem – there are very little jobs for the highly educated Kashmiri youths. Favoritism, nepotism and reservations frustrate the talented ones, who eventually migrate.
Those who come back are rare to find the going easy. People normally suffer a serious problem of maladjustment. I know some friends who after coming back have faced depression. They have found themselves like misfits in Kashmir’s work culture. Some people, who have started their own businesses, find working in the high-corruption ridden environment chocking.
The good part of the migration is that those who come back are normally known to bring back good work practices. Migrants also bring remittances, which, if eventually invested in Kashmir, would help the local economy. They anyway help the overall prosperity. One of the biggest assets of those who go out is their exposure to the world’s multiple realities. Once back, Kashmir is sure to be enriched with the wisdom so acquired.
There are some other interesting aspects of this brain drain. While earlier only children of an elite section of Kashmiris would go out for education and jobs, today it is anybody’s story. In fact, today the youth of the lower social and economic strata forms the bulk of the Kashmiri Diaspora. Times have changed.
But there is another reality whose desirability is debatable. This segment is also today least politically active. It does not take interest in Kashmir’s power politics – which it sees demeaning and unjust. Dejected with the turn of things, and overwhelmed by India’s economic and military might in sustaining the struggle for right to self determination, it is generally indifferent to the azadi movement as well. And that is how, it seems, time plays. That is it.
Feedback at arjimand@greaterkashmir.com
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