Tamil Nadu Reservation Paradox

[G.Subramaniam]

Tamil Nadu has a 69% reservation and is prospering
On the face of it, it looks like reservations are good for society

Let us start digging deeper

In Tamil Nadu, several upper castes that normally would be considered dwija in
north India are classified as Shudras or OBC

Banias - Chettiars are OBC
kayasthas - kanakku pillai ( counting pillai ) are OBC
Vellalas - Rich super landlords ( thakur type ) are OBC
Naickers - Descendants of Vijayanagar soldiers are OBC
Reddiars - Reddy migrants in tamil nadu ( landlords ) are OBC

In short the entire Dwija segment , minus brahmins is OBC

Much of this is due to historical stupidity of tamil brahmins
They were very reluctant to hand out dwija certification
For example, in Andhra, the Komati Chetty ( bania ) is a dwija,
whereas in Tamil Nadu, the Chettiar was not granted dwija and is an OBC

P.Chidambaram for example is an OBC

I am going to call this segment - OBC-Dwija or Dwijas masquerading as OBC

The net result is that in Tamil Nadu, the only Dwijas are brahmins,
Meaning in Tamil Nadu, the Dwijas are less than 3% of the population vs 25% in north India

In tamil nadu, the OBC-Dwijas have a 30% reservation
in addition they can compete in the open seats and possibly get 15% out of the 31% open seats

So 31% open seats are gotten by brahmins and OBC-Dwijas
30% OBC seats are gotten by OBC-Dwijas

Real OBC are called MBC ( most backward castes ) yadavas etc
They get 20%
Dalits get 18%, ST gets 1%

So

Dwijas -
Tamil Nadu - 61%, All India 50%

OBC -
Tamil Nadu - 20%, All India 27%

Dalits
Tamil Nadu - 18%, All India 16%

ST
Tamil Nadu - 1%, All India 7%

As you can see , Tamil Nadu is over-represented in Dwijas and is run by a higher average IQ group than the rest of India and no surprise it is doing well

Of course by not driving out the tamil brahmin they could do even better