All about reservation [Being Indian and Christian #3]
Hi friends,
Welcome to the third edition of Being Indian and Christian.
The Supreme Court of India recently passed a landmark upholding the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment that provides a 10 per cent quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of society in jobs and education. A few months ago, it had ruled in favour of reservation for oppressed classes of people in Post-Graduate medical courses.
Reservation as a topic is a decades-old debate going all the way back to the drafting of the Indian Constitution.
In this week’s blog post, I offer some thoughts on how we as Christians ought to be when we deal with the debate of the reservation policy in our country.
How should Christians think about reservation policies? — Jeyapaul Caleb
Although the Bible doesn’t give us a checklist of which policies please the Lord, it does specify what posture of our heart pleases Him. In other words, God is more concerned with our posture than our position. This posture includes the process we use to form our convictions and the language we use to express them.
As I was thinking about other articles to share with you all on the theme of the reservation policy, I was reminded of this excellent article by The Gospel Coalition that I had read a while ago. Why do we as Christians need to care so much about justice? It is because injustice reveals idolatry.
When we survey the Bible, we see again and again how injustice reveals false worship. Liturgy with oppression is seriously malformed.
For those of you who are interested in my position on the EWS judgement, I am rather saddened that the Supreme Court has upheld the 103rd amendment. If you are further interested in understanding why I would believe so, here is an interesting article that explains the original rationale behind the reservation policy.
EWS quota: Principles of social justice undermined | Deccan Herald
It was the moral duty of the post-colonial State to challenge such an oppressive social system and build the new nation on modern values of inclusion, justice and equality.
Extending reservation for the EWS makes the policy look like a poverty alleviation programme (which the reservation policy is not) and will now open the field for several interpretations and claims.
That’s it for this edition, folks! Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!
Caleb
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