The EWS Reservation: The Caste People vs. The Poor

CASI Seminar

A co-sponsored public lecture with the Caste and Race Initiative, Dept. of South Asia Studies

K. Satyanarayana
Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad
In-Person Lecture — 4:30pm EDT
*This event does not offer a virtual option*
Robert S. Blank Forum
PCPSE Building (2nd Floor)
133 South 36th Street
Philadelphia PA 19104
*Masking is optional*

About the Lecture:
The Supreme Court of India recently delivered its judgment in Janhit Abhiyan v Union of India and held that the 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 is constitutional. The Act provides 10 percent reservations in public employment and education for economically weaker sections (EWS) based on economic criteria. It uses the equality provisions of the Indian Constitution (Articles 15 and 16) to introduce reservations for the EWS as a separate quota other than the reservations for SC, ST, and OBC categories. The inclusion of the category of EWS under the system of reservations is an attempt to undermine the caste basis of the reservations. The majority judgment constructs the EWS category as a class category with no identifiable caste identity. It reinforces the stereotypical view that India has empirically identifiable "caste people" (SC, ST, OBCs) and the abstract "poor" people. Drawing on the minority judgment that foregrounds the caste basis of reservations in India and the role of caste in making the poor, Professor Satyanarayana attempts a critique of the category of EWS and argues that caste is an important category to understand inequality in India.

About the Speaker:
K. Satyanarayana is a Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad, India. Currently, he is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania. He is the author or editor of numerous essays and books in the fields of Dalit studies, literary history, and cultural theory. These include two co-edited volumes of new Dalit writing: No Alphabet in Sight (Penguin, 2011) and Steel Nibs Are Sprouting (Harper, 2013); two co-edited collections of critical essays: Dalit Studies (Duke University Press, 2016) and Dalit Text (Routledge, 2020), and most recently Concealing Caste (forthcoming 2023 from Oxford University Press). 

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.