Affirmative Action in India and the United States: The Untouchable and Black Experience 3 Indiana International & Comparative Law Review 1992-1993

3 Ind. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 101 (1992-1993)
Affirmative Action in India and the United States: The Untouchable and Black Experience

handle is hein.journals/iicl3 and id is 107 raw text is: Affirmative Action in India and the United States: the
Untouchable and Black Experience
by M. Van Chandola*
I. INTRODUCTION
To alleviate discriminatory practices against certain historically
oppressed groups, a small number of countries have adopted affirmative
action. In the United States, affirmative action is defined as a system
of preferential treatment for minorities and women which attempts to
compensate them for being denied opportunities of advancement due
to past and present discrimination.' Other countries, like India, have
adopted affirmative action to deal with the disadvantaged segments of
their populations.2 While it may surprise some scholars that countries
other than the United States employ affirmative action, India utilized
such preferential treatment well before the United States'. The United
States developed affirmative action to fight discrimination against mi-
nority groups and women, while India created affirmative action to
remedy its history of discrimination against groups, such as the un-
touchables, who occupy the lowest rung in the Hindu caste system.
Various names have been attributed to Indian affirmative action. For
the purposes of this note, the term compensatory discrimination, as
used by such legal scholars as Parmanand Singh and Marc Galanter,
will refer to India's affirmative action programs.4
The comparison between the United States and Indian affirmative
action systems becomes even more interesting upon observing that blacks
* Private practitioner in Tucson, Arizona.
1. LAURENCE H. TRIBE, AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW §S 16-22, at 1523
(2d ed. 1988). Professor Tribe also indicates that one of the remedial goals of affirmative
action is to create racial or gender diversity. Id.
2. Other countries, such as Japan and Israel, have also employed such forms
of preferential treatment. MARC GALANTER, COMPETING EQUALITIES 562, n. 15 (1984).
3. Id. at xvii.
4. Marc Galanter points out that the many names for affirmative action in
India are similar to the different names used in the U.S. for affirmative action such
as reverse discrimination. Other names that describe India's affirmative action
programs include special treatment, protective discrimination, special provi-
sion, etc. Id. at 2-3.

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