In India, the evils of the caste system have persisted for several thousand
years. It has bestowed hierarchically-graded privileges on some sections of
society while inflicting a series of disabilities on others. In this
hierarchical social order, created by the so-called 'higher' castes, the
downtrodden were even stripped of the equitable opportunities for social,
political, economic, and educational development. It is against this backdrop
that India's political leaders were compelled to adopt the policy of social
justice with an emphasis on compensatory discrimination as an equalizer to those
who were weak - socially and economically - and hence the reservation policy
came into being. This present study examines