Sharp divide opens up on Supreme Court’s verdict on sub-classification of SCs and STs

The Supreme Court’s judgement allowing states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to ensure the less advantaged groups among them have preferential access to reserved seats in public employment and educational institutions drew sharply divergent responses from within these communities.

Some welcomed the judgement saying it was important to identify and carve out sub-quotas for the most backward communities within the SC and ST fold. Others, however, questioned the rationale of the judgement.

“The categories of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were created to address historical injustice, not economic backwardness,” said Virginius Xaxa, a visiting professor at the Institute for Human Development, Delhi.

Xaxa, who belongs to the Oraon Adivasi community, is considered one of India’s foremost experts on tribal matters. He said reservations for Dalits “was to address the wrongs of untouchability”, while in the case of tribal communities, “one has to understand the long history and relationship of oppression by the state and larger Indian society which continues until today”.

Lack of representation

Support for the judgement came largely from those belonging to Dalit and Adivasi communities that believe they have lagged behind other, more dominant groups.

“We have waited 30 years for this order to be passed,” said Ambanna Arolikar, an activist from the Madiga Dalit community in Karnataka. In both...

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