The Reservation Policy: India’s Timeless Conundrum

Each time the Reservation Policy in India is debated upon, the discourse as to whether it should continue or not has always prevailed. This research paper aims to deliver a deep understanding of the socio-economic-political phenomenon called "Reservation" by critically analyzing the events that transpired and led to its inception. The authors identify, address and elucidate the rationale behind the need for its existence, concomitantly, examining the feasibility, viability and desirability of reservations altogether. The paper offers its readers with unconventional ideas and jolts them into consciousness by reflecting on subjects such a substantive and formal equality, equity and equality, caste-system, and further goes on to ascertain if reservation is a fundamental right or a constitutional mandate. Interestingly, the authors invite the individuals to think afresh without siding with either sides of the spectrum in this contentiously perpetual debate by provoking its readers into unlearning the notions that previously served them. The idea is to look at the crux of the matter with utmost objectivity without being overly affected by the accident of birth in either the "reserved category" or the "unreserved category", which all of us are, substantially affected by, while scrutinizing the Reservation Policy in India.