1. Background 

2. On social justice

• The social justice discourse in modern India can be traced to the initiatives of social revolutionaries such as Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Sahuji Maharaji and Periyar during colonial rule.
• But a sustained intervention with a concrete outcome in terms of policy prescriptions surfaced only with B. R. Ambedkar arriving on the national scene.
• The depressed classes (Dalits) and Tribals (Adivasis) as they were termed by the colonisers were already listed as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, respectively, by 1935.
• The benefits of reservation in education and employment for these social groups in proportion to their population were adopted as soon as the Constitution of India came into force.
• But a large section of the "Backward classes" and occupational caste groups remained socially and educationally backward; hence, their presence in the bureaucracy, the judiciary, academia or the media remained very bad.

3. Nehruvian Socialism

• The post-Independence years witnessed Nehruvian socialism losing its sheen.
• The polity and governance remained in the grips of cherry-picked Brahmanical minds.
• At this juncture, the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) Sounded the clarion call, "Sansopa ne bandhi gaanth, pichhda pawe sau me saath" (SSP was committed to 60 per cent share for the backward classes).
• The Constituent Assembly had debated caste-class division. It was envisioned that backward classes would be backward communities.

• But the Mandal report reaffirmed this with the line "a caste can be and quite often is a social class in India".

4. Kalelkar  & Mandal Commissions

• Article 340 of the Constitution entailed the egalitarian possibility that resulted in two Backward Classes commissions, the  (1953-1955) and the Mandal Commission (1978-80).
• The first did not yield anything. The Mobilisation campaign for implementing the recommendations of the Second led to a "Mandal Movement".
• The announcement of implementing one of its recommendations, of 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the central services on August 7, 1990, was the "Mandal moment".
• Even while Mandal Parties lost power at the Centre, the Mandal effect has continued.

5. Reservations to OBC

• The 73rd and 74th Amendments have furthered the idea of social justice by extending reservation benefits to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.
• Horizontal reservation was also extended to all women.
• In 2006, reservations were extended to OBC candidates in institutions of higher learning popularly known as Mandal II.

6. On fraternity

• The Popular understanding of secularism in India has undergone a sea change. Much has been written about its failings.
• The real test of secularism and social democracy hinged on the mutual co-existence of communities.
• Thus, secularism needs to be situated within the perspective of "Fraternity" as enshrined in the "Preamble" of the Constitution. This entails instilling confidence and camaraderie in minority communities.

7. Communal mobilisations and hate-mongering

1. The arrest of L.K. Advani by the Lalu Prasad-Led government in Bihar at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
2. The Mulayam Singh-led government in Uttar Pradesh ordered the police to fire at Kar sevaks assembled in Ayodhya near the Babri Masjid.

• Another point of merit derived from "Mandal" has been the identification of socially and educationally backward castes and communities by not letting religion become a barrier.
• The consciousness generated by Mandal Demolished a perception of Indian Muslims being a homogenous monolith.
• The disturbance around Mandal also led to the emergence of a Pasmanda (Backward in Persian) movement among backward Muslims demanding democratisation and representation.
• The Mandal report fairly recognised a large section of Muslims and Christians who converted from Hinduism, but a majority of them continued with their earlier caste-based occupations.
• Thus, Mandal situated backwardness at the intersectionality of caste and religion.

9. Blunders and Course Correction

• Mandal (ite) political parties have made serious blunders too by restricting key organisational positions to family members and extending favours to caste brethren.

10. Solidarity does work in politics

• The role played by two Dalit icons, Kanshi Ram and Ram Vilas Paswan for the mobilisation and implementation of Mandal has been immense.
• It is worth recalling how Kanshi Ram met with Successive defeats in the Lok Sabha elections from Allahabad and East Delhi in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

For Prelims & Mains