These Seats Are Reserved: Caste, Quotas and the Constitution of India

By:

Chandrachud, Abhinav

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Haryana Penguin Random House 2025Description: 247ISBN:

9780143472377

Subject(s):

Constitution of India

DDC classification:

342.540954 CHA

Contents:

Constitution of India

Summary: Reservation or affirmative action is a hugely controversial policy in India. While constitutionally mandated and with historians, political scientists and social activists convinced of its need, many resist it and consider it as compromising 'merit' and against the principle of equality of opportunity. In These Seats Are Reserved, Abhinav traces the history and making of the reservation policy. How were groups eligible for reservations identified and defined? How were the terms 'depressed classes' and 'backward classes' used in British India and how have they evolved into the constitutional concepts of 'Scheduled Castes', 'Scheduled Tribes', and 'Other Backward Classes' in the present day? The book delves into the intellectual debates that took place on this matter in the Constituent Assembly, the Supreme Court and Parliament. Several contentious issues are examined dispassionately: are reservations an exception to the principle of equality of opportunity? Do quotas in government service undermine efficiency? Can 'merit' really be defined neutrally? What is the thinking behind the rule that no more than 50 per cent of the available seats or positions can be reserved?

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Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Barcode
Books	MITSOG	342.540954 CHA (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available	208984

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Previous	342.540853 Offend, shock, or disturb	342.540853 Right to Information and good Governance	342.54092 BHA The Foresighted Ambedkar Ideas That Shaped Indian Constitutional Discourse	342.540954 CHA These Seats Are Reserved: Caste, Quotas and the Constitution of India	342.546029 Article 370 : a constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir	342.73085 We, the People	342.954 An Introduction to the Constitution of India	Next

WORDI/2025/CRB/517 2025-06-02

Constitution of India

Reservation or affirmative action is a hugely controversial policy in India. While constitutionally mandated and with historians, political scientists and social activists convinced of its need, many resist it and consider it as compromising 'merit' and against the principle of equality of opportunity.

In These Seats Are Reserved, Abhinav traces the history and making of the reservation policy.

How were groups eligible for reservations identified and defined? How were the terms 'depressed classes' and 'backward classes' used in British India and how have they evolved into the constitutional concepts of 'Scheduled Castes', 'Scheduled Tribes', and 'Other Backward Classes' in the present day?

The book delves into the intellectual debates that took place on this matter in the Constituent Assembly, the Supreme Court and Parliament. Several contentious issues are examined dispassionately: are reservations an exception to the principle of equality of opportunity? Do quotas in government service undermine efficiency? Can 'merit' really be defined neutrally? What is the thinking behind the rule that no more than 50 per cent of the available seats or positions can be reserved?

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