List of articles

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Positive Discrimination in India: A Political Analysis  Table  Appendix
Partha S Ghosh

Abstract

In a plural society such as India the state generally faces demands from various caste, tribal religious and gender groups for social justice. Amongst such groups, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs & STs), are treated as deserving cases for historical reasons and on this, therefore, a national consensus has emerged. There is no agreement among the political classes as far as the other categories are concerned.

Yet as the demands on their behalf for inclusion in the affirmative action (positive discrimination in Indian parlance) categories have assumed serious political dimensions the state is under pressure to respond politically as and when the demands become persistent. In this article four such social categories, namely, the SCs & STs, the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the minorities, and women, are analysed from a political perspective. The scope of the article is limited to an assessment of the scheme at the federal level. References to the experiences of individual states are occasional and are only by way of supplementing a point or so.
Some questions have been raised about the future of the scheme if the Indian state is
forced to increasingly withdraw from the social sectors under the requirements of
liberalisation and globalisation of the economy.

  

Affirmative Action Policy in Malaysia: To Restructure Society, 
to Eradicate Poverty
Firdaus Hj. Abdullah

 

Abstract

This article reviews the Malaysian experience in rectifying the economic and social imbalances in Malaysia through a comprehensive system of affirmative action policies designed to benefit the politically dominant but socially and economically weak Malay majority.

The special focus of the article is on the initiation and implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in the wake of the violent racial clashes of May 1969. The NEP was an ambitious programme of social engineering aimed at redistributing wealth, eradicating poverty, and re-structuring society. The article argues that in the 20-year time frame of the NEP’s implementation, its objectives have been achieved to a considerable extent and that the Malays of Malaysia are socially and economically better off today than they were in the late 1960s.

Affirmative Action Policies in Pakistan

Mohammad Waseem

Abstract

Affirmative action policies pursued by successive governments in Pakistan were the product of a perceived need to improve the representation of backward regions in services. While these policies fell short of fulfilling the latter’s aspirations, especially Bengalis and Sindhis, they generally frustrated the Urdu-speaking migrants from India (mohajirs) who had traditionally enjoyed a privileged status in the bureaucracy. The nation is divided on this issue, with the tribal area, Azad Kashmir, Northern Areas, Sindhis and the Baluch committed to preservation of the quota system, and the Punjab and mohajirs opposed to it. Incessant waves of migration into Sindh, especially Karachi, which changed the demographic realities, and the practice of issuing fake domicile certificates have destroyed the credibility of the affirmative action policies. The courts have ruled that the present quota system has already relapsed, 20 years after its promulgation in 1973. The Nawaz Sharif government (1997-) has adopted a passive policy in this regard. It fears a backlash from the underprivileged communities, especially Sindhis, if the quota system is removed. Given the constellation of powers ruling Pakistan, affirmative action policies are likely to be allowed to relapse informally.

Affirmative Action Policies: The Sri Lankan Experience

K M de Silva

Abstract

Affirmative action policies or preferential policies came to Sri Lanka in the 1970s with the left of centre United Front government, and were confined to university admissions. Beginning as preferential policies designed to benefit the Sinhalese students they were transformed in the late 1970s to a regional quota system cutting across ethnic and religious identities. The introduction and implementation of preferential policies in Sri Lanka’s university system, and the impassioned resistance to modifying them, much less to reversing them, provide an excellent introduction to the complex nature of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, and the political
ramifications of rivalries between Muslims and Tamils, divisions among Tamils, and, of course, rivalries between Sinhalese and Tamils.
Despite appearances to the contrary language policy changes effected in the mid
1950s, were not affirmative action policies. Nor was any element of officially
sanctioned ethnic preference in employment in the state sector.

Book Reviews

Ajay Mehra

K M de Silva