Reservations: In lieu of a Report

1. Introduction:

Kashmiris have come a long way indeed. From the struggle for government jobs in the 1930s, here they are, almost a hundred years later, still fighting for government jobs in 2025. Earlier, for representation. Now against reservations. This speaks about the strategy of economic development especially in the post-independence period which has focussed on output and not employment in the economy. It is also a comment on the lack of dissemination of developmental gains and upward socio-economic mobility of the majority over the last ten decades. A tellingly tragic tale that the Valley-centric political leadership should ponder over.

The current reservation row – stemming from amendments in 2023-24 to the J&K Reservation Act, 2004 to increase the reserved category quotas to 70 per cent -- is yet another episode in the long record of rebalancing the power relations in the polity of J&K. This battle is neither the first nor will it be the last. It is also not unique to Kashmir. It happens all over the country and across countries as well. More than two thirds of the countries in the world use some types of quotas for ethnic groups.

Beyond the merit versus non-merit debate, the legitimate articulations of meritocracy, there underlie many a fault line; some generic and some specific. In the case of reservations, many issues – constitutional, legislative, administrative, regional, social, and economic-- are cooking in the cauldron of electoral politics. The arithmetic of reservation is the result of these pulls and pressures of power play.

With the total employment pie being finite and fixed, every percentage point increase or decrease in one category, will be at the expense of the some other. This makes handling the reservation issue a zero-sum game for political parties driven as they necessarily are by electoral compulsions. All political parties face a competitive environment where the gain to one stakeholder necessitates the loss of another one.

The social base of political parties constrains their rational public policy stand, especially for those in power. Being a deeply political issue, opposition parties can and are, quite legitimately, making political capital out of it. In such a situation, an acceptable solution can be found through a consensual rather than a confrontational approach based on the political economy of reservation.

1. Reservation Matrix: Genesis of the Current position:

Even though reservation in political representation in J&K was first mooted by Glancy Commission in 1932, reservation in employment in J&K comes up for the first time only in the mid-sixties. Till then, starting from the thirties, the Valley was all about representation of the majority in government jobs. Jammu, on the other hand, saw an intensive political struggle of Dalits for political reservation.

Despite this, the policy for reservation for jobs gets formulated only in the mid-sixties. In July 1966 the government announces its plans to reserve certain posts for the Scheduled Castes. A government circular issued by E.N. Mangat Rai, then Chief Secretary, estimated the Scheduled Caste population of the J&K at 7.96 per cent. In Jammu Division it was estimated to be more than double, at 18.07 per cent.

Two years later, 1967, the Gajendragadkar Commission is constituted to formalise the need for reservation in government services and in education institutions for Scheduled Castes as applicable across the country. Earlier, in the mid-fifties, J&K government had not accepted the recommendations the First Backward Classes Commission (and later the Mandal Commission too) by invoking under Article 370.

Basis the Gajendragadkar Commission recommendations, a committee under the Chairmanship of Justice J. N. Wazir was appointed to draw up the list of Backward Classes of J&K based on criteria relating to social, educational and economic backwardness in 1969. The Wazir Committee report became the corner stone for affirmative action framework. About a decade later, a committee under the Chairmanship of Adarsh Sen Anand, 1977 suggested two broad categories viz (a) Weak and under privilege classes; (b) Resident of Backward Areas. The latter included Bad Pockets (RBA) and Areas adjoining Actual Line of Control (ALC).

J&K, under its own Constitution, had various constitutional provisions related to safeguards for protection and development of SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes like Section 13, Section 21, Section 23, Section 24, Section 25, Section 49, Section 50, Section 139 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.

The distinguishing aspect of the reservation framework of J&K, unlike the Centre, was reservation based on regions; for Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) and residents of Boarder Areas i.e. people living around the LoC as well as the international borders.

This last operating position was defined in The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules 2005 which came into force under SRO-294, dated 21st October 2005. The cumulative reservation of 56 per cent was distributed across categories as given in the accompanying Table I.

Table 1

With the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the existing reservation framework was, quite expectedly, superseded and aligned to the national framework. Indeed, of the many raisons d’etre of abrogating Article 370 was it having impeded social justice and equity to the most marginalised sections of the society.

Accordingly, the J&K government amended the Reservation Rules, 2005 on 20th April 2020, to grant 4 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for Pahari-speaking people under the Other Backward Classes category. This resulted in the reservation of OBC category being doubled. However, it did not meet the expectation of the Paharis. Given the focus, for obvious political reasons, on Paharis, the third largest linguistic group, after Kashmiris and Dogri, the deal was made sweeter.

In November 2022, based on the recommendations of the Registrar General of India and the Justice GD Sharma Commission, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes approved the inclusion of the Pahari linguistic group in the Scheduled Tribe list for J&K. A year later, Lok Sabha passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill in December 2023, providing reservation to Paharis in jobs, educational institutes, and the J&K legislature under the Scheduled Tribes category.

After this, the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Act, 2024, included the Paharis, and notified the amendment of J&K Reservation Rules of 2005. The notification stipulated that Paharis, and other newly added groups would receive an additional 10 per cent reservation, over and above the existing 10 per cent reservation for Gujjars, Bakarwals, and other communities. This decision increased the total ST reservation in J&K from approximately 10 to 20 per cent. The Gujjar and Bakarwal reservation remained at 10 per cent alleviating concerns among both Gujjar-Bakarwal as well as satisfying the Pahari communities.

Further, the administration sanctioned the inclusion of 15 more castes in the OBC category, while enhancing the overall reservation for OBCs to 8 per cent and reducing the Reservations for Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) from 20 per cent to 10 per cent. This marked a significant policy shift in J&K’s reservation matrix. With these changes, the reserved category for educational institutes and government jobs in J&K has become nearly 70 per cent. This policy is under legal challenge and the court has sought a response from the J&K government.

(This is the first of a three-part series on the current issue of Reservations in J&K. The second part, “Reservation Framework: Intent, Infirmities and Implications”, will appear tomorrow)

The author is Contributing Editor Greater Kashmir