Affirmative Action and New Populism

India was one of the earliest laboratories of positive discrimination policies initiated by the British. Given the centuries-old caste-based discrimination and consequent concentration of social and economic resources in hands of upper castes, incorporation of caste-based-reservations into the constitution was well-founded. While the original idea behind reservation was to hasten the redistribution process based on caste, the idea, scope, and constituency of reservation have undergone significant transformations over time. As protests erupted demanding reservations and against reservations by the 1980s, bringing in political mobilizations and social polarization, reservation also qualified to be a populist weapon. Contemporary India is witnessing rising demands for reservations based on caste, religion, economic status, and domicile. Political weaponization of reservation by Indian populist leadership draws parallels with populist movements in different parts of the world such as the “Son of the Soil” movement in the USA. The increasing weaponization of reservations, driven by fallacies and often masking realities, is not desirable for either Indian democracy or society.