Title: Groups, Individuals, and Affirmative Action
Speaker: Bastian Steuwer, Ashoka University
Chair: Arudra Burra, Department of HUSS, IIT Delhi
Abstract:
Anti-reservation advocates often invoke a progressive sounding idea, the idea of individualism. Quotas are group based and prominent justifications for reservations invoke idea of group inequalities of such as the “upliftment” of Dalits and oppressed caste groups. In response, I show two ways how group inequalities can be relevant even if we believe, as we should, that individuals are morally fundamental. First, individual and group inequalities are linked in the concept of status inequality. Second, group inequalities in outcomes can be proxies for individual inequalities in opportunities. Both arguments extend beyond caste inequalities to other group inequalities. Some proponents of caste-based reservations wish to limit the scope of affirmative action to caste (and perhaps a small set of similar traits). I reject two proposed distinctions: the idea that caste inequalities are social as opposed to natural inequalities and the idea that caste inequalities are historical as opposed to contemporaneous inequalities. This result, I argue, is no reason for despair but a welcome conclusion.
Speaker Bio:
Bastian Steuwer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ashoka University. He works in moral, political, and legal philosophy. Much of his recent work has focused on equality, discrimination, and caste.