1. The true purpose of reservations is to ensure representation of lower castes in governance and administration. It is not a poverty alleviation measure, hence there cannot be quotas based on economic criteria, explains PS Krishnan in the Indian Express.
  2. In Seminar, Sukhdeo Thorat makes the case for why reservations are necessary.
  3. In the Indian Express, Seema Chisti has a short history of caste reservations in India.
  4. In the Quint, Divyani Rattanpal explains how the VP Singh government changed Indian politics by accepting the Mandal Commission’s recommendations for Other Backward Caste reservations.
  5. In Scroll.in, Sruthisagar Yamunan explains why Modi’s 10% quota for poor upper castes violates Supreme Court orders on reservations.
  6. In Bihar, the long term effect of Mandal has resulted in two power centres: an upper caste one and an upper Other Backward Caste centre, explains Jeffrey Witsoe in Outlook.
  7. Nearly three decades after Mandal, writing in the Caravan, Kancha Ilaiah Shephard explains the socio-political role of the Other Backward Castes in India today.
  8. In Scroll.in, Alok Prasanna Kumar writes on how a quota based not on caste but income attacks the very core of equality of all citizens under Constitution.
  9. In The Tribune, R Jagannathan is against the economic quota given it will end the arguments in favour of merit.
  10. What justifies an arbitrary 50% cap on reservations – when upper caste numbers are much smaller, asks Shoaib Daniyal in Scroll.in.
  11. Tamil Nadu has India’s most extensive system of caste reservations with a quota of 69% – a policy decision that has managed to transform the state’s social indicators, argues S Viswanathan in Frontline.
  12. Quota for upper caste poor is cynical politics, and cynical policy, argues Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express. Since we cannot create enough jobs, the token signal that the poor from the upper castes can be symbolically represented in the state is all that we can now offer.
  13. Should the Muslim community as a whole get reservations, asks Zoya Hassan in Seminar.
  14. In the Hindu, Nissim Mannathukkaren makes the case for caste quotas in Indian cricket.
  15.   While caste quotas should not be seen as the beginning and end of affirmative action, Caste still remains an indicator of disadvantage as distribution of both income and wealth are skewed along caste lines, explains Ashwini Deshpande in the Economic and Political Weekly [paywall].