Removed From The WhatsApp- A Bitter Of Caste & Reservation Two Perspectives- One Nation

In the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India conducted in 1907, the Zero Milestone (ZM) to measure distances across the country was established at Nagpur. Featuring four horses and a pillar made of yellow sandstone,  the ZM  is located at the intersection of lines connecting major metro cities—Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and New Delhi—making it the heart of the Indian subcontinent. Geography apart, it is also the headquarters of the RSS, the ideological fountainhead of Hindutva thought on the one hand, and is also the place of the sacred monument Deekshabhumi which is a major pilgrimage centre of Navayana Buddhism where Dr. B.R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism  on October 14, 1956. To him can be traced the incorporation of provisions relating to reservations for SCs and STs , which were later extended to the non-creamy OBCs in 1990 and to EWS in 2019.

Two Nagpur-based Books

The opening paragraph is important for this is  also the city of Sushila Takbaure, whose Hindi  book Shikanje Ka Dard was  recently translated into English as A Shackled Life and reviewed in this column a few weeks ago. This week’s book is also a Nagpur-based entry in the genre of non-fiction: Removed from the WhatsApp: A Bitter Tale of Caste and Reservation ~ Two perspectives – One Nation written by engineer and proud Ambedkarite Pankaj Rangari. As the name suggests, this is based on a real-life exclusion from a school WA group of middle aged professionals. Spread across cities and continents, the digital reunion after twenty-four years (since 1997) was ‘like opening a time capsule’. Old friends swapped photos, stories of teenage infatuation, receding hairlines and the struggles of ballooning midlines. All this was fine – but then one fine morning, after a group member forwarded posts and messages  ridiculing the caste-based reservations in education and employment, all hell broke loose. Before sunset that evening, fault lines had become more than visible in questioning the very element of ‘fraternity’ which  along with liberty and equality is embedded as a founding principle in the Preamble to our Constitution.

Let’s take a look at this group of eight active members (and others who come in with their occasional insights). This  includes our protagonist NM and his mentor KK, an Ambedkar acolyte who supports reservation and is willing to engage on this subject with  conceptual clarity, empirical data and  the arguments brought up while signing the Poona Pact. Then we have a well-educated Brahmin boy (KJ) who professes a liberal outlook, but supports the caste system as divinely ordained. The third  is a Brahmin girl (DN) from a family of priests, who opposes reservation, albeit less vehemently, since she sometimes takes a neutral stand. The next member of the group  (PB) is an ancestral landowner from the Kshatriya caste who rejects caste and opposes reservation. An OBC girl KB from a traditional background with no clear views on the reservation debate is the fifth member of the group. The sixth, an OBC male SD is aware of the evils of the caste system, and takes advantage of reservation while arguing against it. Then there is the ST (ML) male who has leveraged reservation to his benefit, but prefers to remain silent on the reservation debate. The eighth (SG) is a SC girl from a well-educated Amedkarite family who vocally supports reservation.

As many of us are aware, administrators of WhatsApp groups often stipulate that controversial topics like religion, reservation and politics should be  avoided. However, whether we like it or not, the subject does come up – sometimes deliberately, but often inadvertently in the guise of a debate on ‘merit’.   During T20 and other cricket matches, the debate becomes more toxic when comments like extending  the quota    to sport are made rather loosely. Then there are the odd comments which we are all familiar with about  the lackadaisical  quality of engineers and medicos from the ‘special  stream’.

Our protagonist helps us steer this conversation by talking of five big ideas. The first of these is the Constitutional Promise, for  the right to vote is not synonymous with social equality. Then there is the Historical Wound — the brutal realities of caste which refuse to die down in our social  discourse and interaction. The third is the Merit Myth which insulates talent from context, especially when those who sit in judgement are blissfully unaware of their own implicit bias(es). The Time Frame required to correct these anomalies is the fourth point, but this depends more on the on-ground situation rather than propositions on paper.  Last but not the least is the strongest - that of Human Connection which offers a possibility to bridge deep ideological fissures.

KK  helps NM understand the finer  nuances of the debate  by listing  the thirteen historical milestones in the reservation discourse: starting with the Hunter Commission of 1882, which in turn was based on the memorandum of Jyotiba Phule. This was followed by the Morley Minto reforms of 1909 which expanded the Legislative councils but  introduced separate electorates for Muslims. The 1919 Southborough Committee  before which Ambedkar now proposed a separate electorate for the Depressed Classes. In   1920, under the auspices of  Manegan Parishad a pact was signed between Ambedkar and the Kolhapur ruler Sahu Maharaj. Four years later, the Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha adopted the  mantra of ‘Educate, Agitate, Organize’. This was followed by the Mahad Satyagrah in 1927  on the right to access drinking water from the Chavdar tank. The seventh milestone was Dr Ambedkar’s representation to the Simon Commission. This was also important in the context of the ‘Simon Go Back’ call of the Congress. This  was  followed by the Round Table Conferences and the Communal Award of 1932 which created a separate electoral college of the Depressed Classes. The 1932 Poona Pact   accepted the principle of reserved seats in legislatures, but Depressed Classes were counted as Hindus. The Constitutional provisions were the tenth milestone: Articles 14, 15, 16, 17 (Fundamental Rights) 46 & 335 (Directive Principles of State Policy), Articles 330 & 332 (political reservation in legislatures), Articles 338 & 338A (National Commission for SCs/STs) and Articles 341 & 342 (Presidential power to notify SCs and STs). The eleventh point was on the guidelines for the implementation of the Mandal Commission  recommendations for OBCs. The Indira Sawhney judgement of 1992 froze the reservation cap at 50% besides not extending benefits to promotion. The last milestone relates to the  103^rd CSTA of 2019 which breached the 50% quota for the EWS.

Society and Social Media

Buttressed by these arguments, KM was able to speak facts with firm equanimity and without anger.  And finally when the group met again physically in the city of Nagpur, all members raised a toast to ‘friendship, the ultimate affirmative action’.   That this conversation had a positive  ending is indeed heartening, because  I am aware - both on my personal experience and the anecdotal recall of others - that these discussions can indeed be quite toxic. And let me also confess and question: but for reservations, would I have made the friends I did while at JNU (1979-1982)  and in the Service (1985-2021)? In the interregnum of three  years that  I worked in the Times of India (1982-1985) there was not a single Dalit in either the newsroom or the editorial desk.

On behalf of Team VoW, I would  like to congratulate the publisher of this book Sujit Murmade for  ensuring that the manuscript has seen the light of day. For even after eight decades of Independence, the fact that as a society and a  nation, these faultlines continue to define our public discourse is proof enough that travellers on the journey of the ‘Annihilation of Caste’ are ‘Still Waiting for a  Visa’.

For me, the key takeaway was the patient’s will. And what better way to describe this than the review of My Tryst with Cancer: A Diary by Anju Rana, my vivacious neighbour at USHA Dehradun. She is our innovative emcee at tombola meets, giving a new tongue twister to each of the ninety-nine numerals, besides coming up with ever innovative ways of creating new prizes (along with the conventional ‘full house’ and four corners). When she was diagnosed with the Emperor of All Maladies, she not only decided to put up a fight but also to document it and later publish her memoirs for others to read — she endured the malady, and recorded a full recovery.

The book covers sixteen crucial months. From early symptoms of severe backache, abdominal rashes and a UTI in November of 2023 to hardness in the upper area of the breast in February 2024, the diagnosis and the treatment for breast cancer from March 2024 to the final conquest in May 2025. The narrative is spread out in the form of the journal entries on different dates which she wrote in a blue diary gifted by her elder son for a ‘cathartic experience’ and ‘to help divert the mind from the ill -effects of medicine’. Making these entries may have been difficult at times, but in retrospect they serve as reminders that ‘tough times don’t last, tough people do’. This then is the story of her eight rounds of chemotherapy, one major surgery followed by 9 cycles of immunotherapy, twenty sessions of radiation and eight cycles of oral tablets for chemo. Let me highlight some key points from the milestone entries in this Diary.

The first entry, dated 20^th March, is from her parental home Ghaziabad as she copes with the aftereffects of hair loss – she writes that this made her feel like Peris Khambatta ! On 30^th March she called the barber to shave off her hair, in the process reminded of her father who too had lost his hair early on in life. On 31^st March she notes her gratitude for all the communication devices that keep her connected to the world at large in this difficult phase in which one can feel so alone. On 2^nd April, she paid her tribute to researchers like Mukherjee, because of whom the malady is now curable.

Interspersed with her personal predilections come words of eternal wisdom like that of time being the best healer, and the importance of not holding any grudges. But there are moments of weakness: the thought of her Fauji son going to the Kashmir Valley on duty gives her sleepless nights. On 5^th April, she recorded her therapeutic gossip sessions with her sister-in-law Priti, who had earlier insisted that she ought to take the symptoms more seriously. The entry on 10^th April is interesting: it is a clear role reversal when the son offers parental advice on how much our protagonist should exert towards household chores. Two days later, she feels like Lady Diana ‘giving an audience to those who wish to call on her’.

We learn of her chemo cycles, and the process of coping with them. Even though each cycle leads to weight loss, she keeps her spirits high and on 12^th May, she describes herself as ‘quite a cheerful cancer patient’. As she knows what to expect, she prepares herself for the aftereffects by engaging in reading, writing and OTT movies. The fifth cycle is scheduled in the month of May — when the mercury in the NCR is soaring — and there is a natural sense of relief when she returns to her home in Dehradun on 12^th June. On the 14^th of June she wonders about the laws of karma and whether this illness was a recompense for sins from the previous births. Monsoon arrives in July, but her entry on the first of this month is not about the joys of Sawan; it is about humidity, insects, snakes and slush! Her keen connect with her house-plants is clear from multiple entries, especially on 7^th July. Twenty days later, the mood of detachment sets in, but by the first day of August, she has a feeling ‘Yes, I can do it’. She has been through five months of this battle, and realises that ‘the human body has immense capacity to tolerate and also to heal on its own’.

Entries on the 24^th /26^th/ and 31^st August give a pen picture of the surgery on the 28^th, her coping mechanisms, and the great sense of relief on her return to her sister’s house after surgery with family members surrounding her. She had a ‘normal lunch on the dining table’, but this was on account of the pain killers and the adrenaline rush. By 3^rd September she records the nightmare of severe after effects in the following week.

Meerut is where her grandchildren waited excitedly for Amma to come back home. As she records in her entry on 21^st September, this gave a big boost to her healing process. Ipso facto for her video interactions with the grandkids in Singapore. USHA figures twice in her account when she is on the road to recovery: first on 26^th October to mark Diwali celebrations when she wears a ‘nice yellow suit, and a wig’ and then on 10^th November when the ladies Club welcomed her as the Tambola Queen back in their midst. On 6^th December her eldest teenaged grandson had his first ball dance with Amma, and she enjoyed a family wedding. Back in Meerut by the 22^nd February of 2025, she looked forward to the golden Jubilee Alumni meet of Sophia school, and by 24^th April the medication had stopped. The last entry on 16^th May 2025 confirms that she had indeed emerged victorious in the battle with cancer! The Emperor of Maladies lost to this feisty woman, who emerged through this ordeal as a ‘better and more optimistic person’ who has thrown out Hurry, Worry and Curry from her lexicon, and replaced them Forgive, Forget, Patience and Gratitude.

But there are some nagging questions – especially about the many difficulties which CGHS card-holders have with some of the Max Hospital establishments, and the larger issue of overcrowding in government hospitals. Many readers of this column are likely to be covered by health insurance, but what of the vast majority for whom hospitalisation is unaffordable? Thanks to the PMJAY, some basic services are now available, but even then the out-of- pocket expenses are enough to upset the precarious balance in the life of people on the margins. Anju Rana has also flagged the issue of the break-up of the joint family – recalling an ideal when all the siblings, parents, parents-in-laws, nieces and nephews and other extended family was available and willing to extend financial, logistical and emotional support to those going through illness.

In fine, this is a book of hope, of courage, of fortitude, of friends and family, and most importantly, the need to stay positive — for the circumstances which surround us are never in our control, and it is our attitude to them which defines who we are and how we face them.