Educational Experience of Scheduled Castes and Tribes

Educational Experience of Scheduled Castes and Tribes Malavika Karlekar IT is flattering that even eight years after the publication of "Higher Education and the Scheduled Castes" I continue to be pilloried for my views. While some have branded me a reactionary, Krishna Kumar ("Educational Experience of Scheduled Castes and Tribes'', Economic and Political Weekly, September 3-10, 1983) finds my suggestion that all things being equal, the student who is from a Sans- kritised background should be given preference in access to a reserved seat, full of "facile candour". Is this a compliment or a loaded criticism? (The COD says that while facile means ready and fluent it can also be used in a derogatory fashion.) When, in his preceding arguments he has talked of the problems of retention of the SC/ ST students and later of the advantages of bourgeois values among a select group of the oppressed, one may, in all humility, hope that the point goes to honesty.