One generation, one inheritance anyone?

Two years ago, I just came across a LinkedIn post that said that reservations in jobs and education entrance (I have specified 'entrance' because every student has to pass the same final exam even if they have been offered a handicap in the criterion of entry into the course) must not go beyond one generation and one family. Something to the effect of ONE FAMILY, ONE RESERVATION. The post went viral, gaining over 80,000 engagements. Obviously. Why obviously? Because the distribution of caste on a platform like LinkedIn is skewed in favour of those who come from privileged, upper-caste families. Nothing surprising there.

I wrote about it immediately. And forgot about it. But today, when someone referred to my article in something they wrote, it struck me that I have not shared it here. So, here goes.

Let's take a look at that claim once again: Each family that benefits from affirmative action must then be barred from using it again because they've 'had their chance'.

Along with this incredibly ignorant, not to mention arrogant, post, the person (obviously a caste Brahmin) has a write-up that, in what has now become yawningly boring template, claims she knows someone from a lower caste who is well-to-do and continues to reap the benefits of reservations (a slightly different take on, 'I know an SC/ST with a Mercedes' but essentially the same).

Of course, there is data to prove that affirmative action works (just look at the Brahmins and Savarnas who have cornered the market for almost every decision-making and influential position in our institutions, whether legislatures, courts, media, army, universities, temples, banks, PSUs, and even the private sector) and also data that shows that while there are almost 110 Crore Indians who are between the ages of 15 and 60 (around 68% of our population) and are therefore 'work-ready', only 2.15 Crore government jobs exist, which, even if 100% were reserved (they are not) would not constitute more than 3% of the total number of employable hands that this nation, its people, and its leaders must provide work for as part of their mandate.

But I will not go into that, or describe the thousands of years of oppression that has been perpetuated on an entire group of people who are more numerous, equally industrious, but less privileged than us Gadgils and Sharmas, Iyengars and Chatterjees, Tiwaris and Shastrys, and so on. What I will do however, is to propose that before we accept the ONE FAMILY, ONE RESERVATION formula, we legislate and implement a ONE GENERATION, ONE INHERITANCE law. That means that since most Savarnas’ wealth has been a result of thousands of years of claiming and retaining (by force, initially, but also through control of education, enterprise, marriage, ritual, tradition, and opportunity) only that wealth that has been earned by the generation immediately preceding yours may be inherited, and rest going back to the government’s treasury, to be redistributed to the oppressed classes (the details of this are immaterial; the point I am making is that inheritance must get limited to one generation only).

Let us do this first. And then, we can discuss the statute of limitations for affirmative action. Hai dum? Ya phutt gayi?

P.S.: This is not about giving up inheritance (unless you are one of those enlightened people who will do so voluntarily) because there’d be ignorant idiots who will start arguing that. This is about how silly it looks to claim that 5,000 years of oppression (and 'reservations' in our favour) can be nullified in one generation and that any more is unfair.

P.P.S: We, the Savarnas, have reaped the benefits of reservations for millennia, and now, in 2022, as if to rub salt over the wounds, we make posters and protest affirmative action, we rue the lack of ‘merit’ around us (obviously defining ‘merit’ as whatever we have), we speak disdainfully of it at cocktail parties, and we point at it as if it is something that we have been generous enough to 'allow' the oppressed castes to have. We haven't. It is not a gift. That is their right. We need to learn how to get out of the way quickly before we embarrass ourselves.