Social Network Analysis of the Caste-Based Reservation System in India

Abstract

Being as old as human civilization, discrimination based on various grounds such as race, creed, gender, and caste has existed for a long time. To undo the impact of this long-enduring historical discrimination, governments worldwide have adopted various forms of affirmative action, such as positive discrimination, employment equity, and quota system. In India, people are considered to belong to Backward Class (BC) or Forward Class (FC), and the Indian government designed an affirmative action, locally known as the “Reservation" policy, to reduce the discrimination between both groups. Through this affirmative action, the government provides support to people from the backward class (BC). Although being one of the most controversial and frequently debated issues, the reservation system in India lacks rigorous scientific study and analysis. In this paper, we model the dynamics of the reservation system based on the cultural divide among the Indian population using social network analysis. The mathematical model, using the Erdös-Rényi network, shows that the addition of weak ties between the two groups leads to a logarithmic reduction in the social distance. Our experimental simulations establish the claim for the different clans of frequently studied social network models as well as real-world networks. We further show that a small number of links created by the reservation process are adequate for a society to live in harmony.