Exclusive Inequalities- Response Paper In the essay written by Satish Deshpande, he examines the problem of Caste reservations, discriminations

against lower castes now known as SC/ST/OBCs and the importance of Merit within the Indian society. A survey conducted by NSSO in 1999-2000 regarding the number of graduates and post graduates in urban India, showed the dominance of Hindu upper castes when it came to higher education. The Hindu upper castes were more privileged and occupied more than 60% of the total graduates in fields like medicine, engineering, agriculture & non-technical subjects. Their share in the highly educated is twice their share in the general population. Inequality and discrimination might be necessary but it isnt enough to prove the existence of injustice as said by Deshpande. The Hindu upper castes believe it is injustice towards them when reservations are made for the lower castes while inequality and discrimination towards the lower castes exist from before, the lower castes believe they can finally catch up with the unfairly privileged upper castes. Firstly, Higher education isnt a fundamental right unlike primary education, health care etc. everyone has a right to educate themselves primarily but no person of any caste has a right to become a highly educated professional compulsorily. Secondly, because of its nature it is a selective field which gives it the face of elitism as Deshpande puts it. Higher education functions like the funnel effect meaning some are left out and some get through. Because of this there is a need for some sort of examination to sort out the applicants. According to him examinations are a form of legitimized exclusion to discrimination. The more sought after a field is, the more the competition will be and the stricter the examination will be. Thirdly, higher education plays the role of nurturing and preparing the present to face the future. It can be exempted from the normal rules and responsibilities of life as it isnt a compulsory tool for life.

He moves on to talk about higher education in poor and big countries. In the first feature he talks about how the elite are going out of the country for basic undergraduate studies and the middle classes are moving on from state schools to private ones. But state institutions for higher education like IITs and IIMs are sought after as they offer world class education at a subsidised fee and with the implementation of quotas, everyone gets a fair chance unlike in previous times when the privileged class would be given admission on the basis of them being well off. The second feature being that it is considered as credential capital in todays world. During the era of Nehru, many upper castes converted their landed assets into credential capital and managed to occupy important positions in society today. The third feature is that it is seen as resource discrimination . We know of the advantages higher education gets an individual. It gets a person access to certain economic and political resources and guarantees an edge over others. Merit discrimination is considered to be desirable and legitimate while resource discrimination isnt. the fourth being that it functions as an avenue of mobility and is seen to help lower classes move upward in society. The connotations and denotations of examination and merit acquaint us with the benefits of higher education and about its exclusivity. The social functions of exams are to produce evidence of inequality within candidates and to say no to a large number. While on the other hand they are measures of realising ones capability and potential and moral worth. He concludes the piece by talking about merit and resource discriminations and says that merit alone is not the sole reason for caste discrimination. There are other intrinsic factors responsible too. Deshpande has taken facts from the NSSO to explain the current conditions of respective castes within the society regarding higher education. He could have explained certain conditions in a better manner and does not clearly explain why Hindu UCs are elite institutions.