The New York Times has a piece today critical of India’s version
of affirmative action, known as reservations, which may help
wealthy students take slots meant for the disadvantaged. But a
new study suggests the opposite. “The program in India is a vast
system of political patronage that increasingly works to reward
the powerful rather than uplift those in need,” Gardiner Harris
writes. India’s reservations system sets aside a certain number
of seats in public institutions of higher education—which tend
to be the highest quality, most competitive, and cheapest
options there—for members of so-called “backwards” castes and
tribes. It is a widely-held belief in India that the system ends
up helping members of those castes and tribes who might not
actually need it (known as the “creamy layer”), leaving the
poorest members of society out of luck when it comes to college
admission. It’s a similar argument to the one made by those who
oppose race-based affirmative action in the United States.
Harris does not cite st