Lavanya Kolluri after linking to an article on reservations by Sukhadev Thorat writes:
"How can one be human and not support reservations? The conditions necessitating/facilitating their removal are nowhere in sight and probably never will be. We do not have a level playing field where every child can compete on an equal footing for 'merit'. How can those who have been historically excluded from education, who are first-generation learners, who do not have the cultural, social and educational capital of the historically privileged castes, be expected to compete? But it has been my experience that if I post in support of reservations I get ugly vicious reactions... most of which assume that I am a wretched 'lower caste person ' who wants to appropriate without merit. My feet curl in shame when I think of the abuse that the so-called 'lower castes ' must be facing on a daily basis."
Around 1994, I stayed for month in a hotel in Guntur. My father was about to depart in a few months and I visited him daily in the hospital. The hotel was cheap but there were lot of young workers and it is usually frequented by farmers from neighbouring villages. I used to get a coffee in the mornins through them and spend the rest of the day with my father. When I was about to leave most of them came to say goodbye and said the customers were very abusive and they were sorry to see me go. What all I used to say in the mornings was "Can you get me a cup of coffee?" Apparently they were often addressed as donkey and such. possibly a way to keep them under control. Even now, whenever I go home, i hear a lot of complaints about unreliable domestic help in the towns and uppity labour in the villages.
P.S. I got acquinted with Lavanya Kolluri during an inquiry about her grandfather S.Minakhisundaram, one of Indiaa's most eminent mathematicians. About his work here and one in Teluu here.
"How can one be human and not support reservations? The conditions necessitating/facilitating their removal are nowhere in sight and probably never will be. We do not have a level playing field where every child can compete on an equal footing for 'merit'. How can those who have been historically excluded from education, who are first-generation learners, who do not have the cultural, social and educational capital of the historically privileged castes, be expected to compete? But it has been my experience that if I post in support of reservations I get ugly vicious reactions... most of which assume that I am a wretched 'lower caste person ' who wants to appropriate without merit. My feet curl in shame when I think of the abuse that the so-called 'lower castes ' must be facing on a daily basis."
Around 1994, I stayed for month in a hotel in Guntur. My father was about to depart in a few months and I visited him daily in the hospital. The hotel was cheap but there were lot of young workers and it is usually frequented by farmers from neighbouring villages. I used to get a coffee in the mornins through them and spend the rest of the day with my father. When I was about to leave most of them came to say goodbye and said the customers were very abusive and they were sorry to see me go. What all I used to say in the mornings was "Can you get me a cup of coffee?" Apparently they were often addressed as donkey and such. possibly a way to keep them under control. Even now, whenever I go home, i hear a lot of complaints about unreliable domestic help in the towns and uppity labour in the villages.
P.S. I got acquinted with Lavanya Kolluri during an inquiry about her grandfather S.Minakhisundaram, one of Indiaa's most eminent mathematicians. About his work here and one in Teluu here.
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