Do Patels deserve reservations?
- In Society
- 04:28 PM, Sep 21, 2015
- Bhanu Gouda
Couple of decades back a good friend wrote to me, no not the email but an actual “letter” about campus life in America. He just got into the college for a Master’s degree in America. He was eager to share his experiences with me. While explaining the Indian origin people in America, he was referring to himself, an Indian born who came to United States as a “Desi” and the non-Indian American such as Caucasian Whites and Blacks as “Videshi”.Then he mentioned something called ABCD. The American Born Confused Desi aka the second generation Indian Americans. It sounded funny back then, but I would not say that anymore. I would change it to “American Born Confident Desi”. There are no confused Desis in America only Confident ones. Interestingly the ABCD did not end with those four letters, it goes all the way to Z.
“American Born Confused Desi Emigrating From Gujarat Housed In Jersey Keeping Lots Of Motels Named Omkar Nath Patel Quickly Reached Success Through Underhanded Vicious Ways Xenophobic Yet Zestful”
That is the first time I understood the prominence of “Patels” in America. My friend went to college in the New Jersey state. He lived close to the Edison, a city with a large Indian population, most of them coming from Gujarat. Few years later I ended up in New Jersey and lived 10 minutes away from Edison, which is referred to as Little India. There are many businesses owned by the Patels in NJ, the Gas stations, Motels, Dunkin Donuts, Subway restaurants, Indian Groceries, and Indian Restaurants. My day would not end without doing business with Patels. I also made a few friends while doing business with them. Fast forward to 2015, the Patel name showed up in Indian media almost for weeks. Hardik Patel a 22 year old guy wants reservation for Patels or Patidar community and his massive rally at Ahmedabad caught attention of the media. The Indian English Media reporters filed regular ground reports to their studios on “The Movement”. You know that one “Movement”, every mainstream media waits for their TRP ratings to go up faster than the latest drone.
The media in general, since the time it was born, evolved based on their single most important human trait- “questioning”. But, they have this habit of forgetting to ask the right questions. Rather than focusing on the core problem - ‘Do Patels need reservation?’ they are digging into the background of Hardik Patel. Who are his role models? Who is behind him? When did the movement start? When did he start rallying people? Was there an issue between him and the current Chief Minister? Is Praveen Togadia behind this? Is Aam Aadmi party behind him ? , and the inane questions go on.
The media will debate about it for a few weeks, until they will find their next ‘Movement’. Luckily for the media, many issues cycle through, and so, they will never run out of ‘Movements’. The current one is on Hardik Patel, whose cell phone, I am sure, might be the busiest one in the country. Google might have deployed additional resources to pull all information they can from the virtual world. Nevertheless, in the middle of this frenzy, a simple question was not emphasized enough by the media -“Does the Patel community need reservation?”
Since the days of Rajiv Goswami (I know everyone must be Googling the name now), reservation issue was used by political parties as a fine tool to reach the public and sway their opinion. The muhurat for this reservation mess started the day when Herbert Hope Risley created the Hindu caste system for the British India’s census. A man who had no idea about the country’s social structure, who didn’t know the customs and the diversity, completed a study on people living in Bengal to create a one-size-fit-all system. The flawed system was imposed on the entire India’s populace. That was the seed for dividing the country on caste basis. The Rajiv Goswami incident was a watershed moment in the reservation agitations. It was probably the first time someone self-immolated in front of the media. It was the first time the forward caste students took to streets to stop the Mandal Commission's recommendations. We can argue till cows come home on the merits and demerits of this reservation issue without concluding anything. The bigger picture cannot be addressed without taking another look at the current status of castes, the economic progress and the progress in education. So let us leave aside the bigger picture and focus on just one thing and only one thing, i.e. do people from the Patidar caste who have done well since 1947, need reservation?
I think the Patels are one of the most hard working, smart and affluent communities from India. I am sure many agree with me. The most famous of them is the Iron Man, Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Karsan Bhai Patel (remember Nirma detergent powder)’s name also comes to mind. He used to go door to door to sell the Nirma soap. Past Chief Ministers Chimanbhai, Keshubhai and the current chief minister Anandiben are all Patels. They succeeded in getting the highest governing power of the state. Many doctors and engineers have Patel as their last name. Then there is the 10th class dropout Mansukh Bhai Patel, who innovated the cotton stripping machine. He even got patents in both India and United States (Indian patent 198755 in the year 2001 and US patent US6543091B2 in the year 2003). Then there is the powerful association, “The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). According to their own website, the Patels who are a majority in this organization, own 20,000 hotels with a $128 billion in property value. They employ 578,600 full-time and part-time workers with a $9.4 billion payroll.
Forget the doctors and engineers or the businessmen, even in the sports field, Patels have excelled. The Indian diaspora settled in Kenya, England, New Zealand consists of Gujaratis, mostly Patels. Cricketers Deepak Patel and Jeetan Patel played for New Zealand. Ashish Patel, Hiral Patel played for Canada. Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel played for India. Wait a second, is there a Munaf? A Muslim Patel? Yes there are Muslim Patels too. Most Indian Muslims are Hindus who converted to Islam, but kept the same last name, in this case ‘Patel’. A strange thing happened in one of the English county match, there were 15 Patels out of 22 players in a match. Check the YouTube links to view Patel bowling another Patel while few others Patels fielding!
I have immense respect for people with the last name Patel. They are one of the hard working communities in India and in any country they call their home. They are proud patriots in the country they live. They are compassionate business people who give back to the community. The Indian family values are imbibed in them from generation to generation. Especially in the USA, we see many Patels establishing successful hotels and other retail businesses. Once they establish their own business, they expand by partnering with other family member or friends. It’s this win-win attitude that makes them one of the prosperous communities.
Hence, asking for reservations for such a well-to-do community is wrong. We see many exceptions in terms of economic progress in all castes. There are many poor people belonging to the forward castes, and several rich families from the OBC/Dalit castes. However, these are exceptions, not a general statistic. So, using the exceptions to enrage the youth in the name of social justice is a bad thing. After the Patels, Gujjars in Rajasthan and Jats in Haryana started rallies. The youth energy is like a battery which must be used in a constructive way. The country is laying groundwork to become an economic power and these disruptions are slowing the process of development. Youth of the country will be hurt in the long run, as students who should be asking for building colleges focus on agitations and reservations.
Education disqualification of a bright student based on the caste is a bad thing. Creating more colleges is a solution as it creates opportunities for private entrepreneurs. It solves the issue of higher education for the students from the Patidar community. Hardik Patel is a bright young man, who rather than spending energy on rallies and instigating the youth, he can use the same energy to lobby for more educational institutions, .He is popular now, and he can get funding for few colleges from his economically strong community. Life is just not about getting into a medical college or an engineering college, it is about being happy and successful in whatever one pursues for a living.
The country has this notion “Government is responsible for everything” and it was created by the leftist socialist of the bygone era. This effectively helps recruit youth and channelize the public’s anger towards the government. Government is responsible for education but not for providing jobs. Finding a job is the responsibility of the citizen. Government or the society will help the citizen in his/her efforts to find a job and build a career, but the youth should realize that they are equally responsible for their future. Reservations will become irrelevant once the private sector starts creating even more jobs. The issues are dime a dozen in India. It will be a slow process to uplift the entire Indian society. The new investments and growth of private sector will help create more jobs.
Hope more mature people from the community think calmly and guide the young Hardik Patel to not resort to such agitations, especially when the country is charting its course to economic prosperity. He can become another Rajeev Goswami or Mansukh Bhai Patel, choice is his!
By Bhanu Gouda
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