ABSTRACT
Economic status has proven a complicating factor when it comes to determining who is eligible for reservations in India. Policy-makers, judges, and disadvantaged groups all face difficult questions regarding how or if class should be taken into consideration when identifying the legitimate recipients of reservations. Should these boundaries be drawn along caste and religious lines, or would economic criteria be a more appropriate basis for allocating benefits? Should more complex or comprehensive definitions of disadvantage be developed? Recent challenges to reservation policies have focused on the issue of class. These challenges, like the religious disputes discussed in preceding chapters, have thrown the very categories of group identity into question. This chapter considers contemporary claims and policy revisions on the basis of class or economic criteria.
