Mandal, Merit & Mobility: Reservation, Capability, Social Cohesion and India's Development Trajectory to 2047 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781764954013)

India's reservation debate is one of the most important and contested questions in the nation's journey towards 2047.

Mandal, Merit & Mobility: Second Edition examines how affirmative action has shaped education, public employment, representation and social mobility in India, while asking a harder question: how should a policy created to remedy historical disadvantage evolve as society itself changes?

Drawing on constitutional history, the Mandal Commission, judicial decisions, census and economic evidence, indigenous education debates and contemporary policy developments, the book examines both the achievements and the unintended consequences of India's reservation framework.

This substantially expanded Second Edition explores the relationship between caste and colonial classification, the constitutional purpose of affirmative action, the Mandal moment and its political legacy, creamy-layer principles, merit and institutional competence, the position of general-category citizens, the 2026 UGC controversy, economic mobility, Census 2027, and international experience.

Looking towards India@2047, the book argues for a transition in which excellent education and capability-building are available to every child, discrimination is addressed through equal civic protection, and positions carrying significant public, professional or strategic responsibility increasingly converge on common standards of merit and competence.

Neither a simple defence of the existing system nor a history of Mandal alone, this is an evidence-led examination of a larger national question: how can India reconcile social justice, equal citizenship, merit, mobility and national capability while building a more prosperous and cohesive society?