Tamil Brahmins are the new minority/ May 21, 2006, DNA

Gayatri Jayaraman
Sunday, May 21, 2006 00:13 IST

Mumbai: “The only person in the state to oppose reservations and to insist no new categories be added to it is me, and I have no takers” says Cho Ramaswamy, journalist and political commentator.

“Forget Jayalalithaa, even a paper like the Hindu will never oppose reservations in this state because the minority - the forward classes - have no voice.”

The reason behind the success of reservation in the state, he says, is its brilliant use as a political tool to sway the majority vote bank and the ‘pathetic state’ of the minority community.

“Reservations in Tamil Nadu have been in place seen pre-independence from the time of the justice party. Hence the electorate is accustomed to it more than any other state,” he says. All political parties in Tamil Nadu support reservation without opposition.

Very few statistics are available on the state of the ‘forward community’ in Tamil Nadu. P V Indiresan, a Padma Bhushan awardee and former director of IIT Chennai, says, “I am in Delhi because of the reservations in Tamil Nadu. My immediate family and of those I know have all migrated from Tamil Nadu to other states or other countries and will never return.”

On December 27, 2005, the Tamil Brahmin Association, headed by N Narayan, submitted a proposal before the state government seeking 15 per cent reservation for Brahmins in educational and governmental institutions.

Nothing, not unexpectedly, came of it.In Tamil Nadu, Backward Castes (BC) get 30 per cent reservation in educational institutions, Most Backward Castes (MBC) 20; Scheduled Castes (SC) 18; and Scheduled Tribes (ST) one per cent. The 1,224 medical seats then get divided into 354 for BCs; 247 for MBCs; 226 for SCs; and 13 for STs.

The rest of the 384 seats are allowed as open competition, where everyone competes, regardless of community. In 2005, the final tally released by the Directorate of Medical Education indicates only 28 students from the `non-reserved’ or Forward Caste (FC) have got into government medical colleges, representing about 2.3 per cent.

Are Brahmins a minority in the state and should reservations be extended to them? “Brahmins were always a minority,” points out Prakash, a financial analyst in a leading multinational firm.

“Their focus was always on education. So when they were denied that, they just left and began to find it elsewhere.” While few grudge the righting of a historical wrong, many fear the lack of educational opportunity will shut the door on them.