Mandal moments

If contemporary Indian history were to be captured in a slide show, one photograph could telescope a decade8217;s worth of political and social churning. In it a young man grimaces through swirling flames. In that frame is captured a moment in time that altered for ever the equation between caste and politics as well as the framework for affirmative action. It was a vanishing moment. For just a moment the Delhi University student8217;s act of self-immolation to protest V.P. Singh8217;s decision to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations appeared to be emblematic of urban India8217;s verdict on job reservations. For just a while Rajiv Goswami was propelled to herohood. His hospital bedside, as he recuperated, became a pilgrimage site for politicians still gauging which way the wind was blowing and urbanites still unsure of the impact caste-based reservations would have on their job prospects. A square in Delhi was named after him. He swept the university elections. Then he was forgotten. On Tuesday, when Goswami breathed his last in another Delhi hospital, hardly anybody came a-calling.

Fact is, the opposition to reservations that Goswami represented and in that September month in 1990 rallied vociferous street protests for was in the end untenable. It failed to fit in with the unrealised aspirations of millions of Indians kept out of political and bureaucratic institutions because of their caste and the economic and social disadvantages that neatly went with their caste status. Mandal proved to be an immediate catalyst in sparking mobilisation and assertiveness among the Other Backward Castes. And for politicians initially supportive of Goswami8217;s dissent it made a little pragmatic sense to ignore the votes these castes represented and the entitlements they now demanded as rightfully theirs. That photograph then captured the last moments of an older India.

It was perhaps Rajiv Goswami8217;s misfortune that he got carried away so idealistically in a doomed protest. More than a decade later, it would perhaps be apt to take stock of the implementation of the Mandal Commission8217;s recommendations and determine correctives to deliver social justice more effectively.