Justice is a vast concept and it has many connotations. One of the connotations of justice is related to the past and it is a substantial way to understand justice. When an individual does an injury to another individual, there is a due process of law to understand whodunit and punish the wrongdoer and compensate the affected party.

When it comes to social wrongs, such as based on caste and race, the discrimination is rooted in the historic path. The members of one group benefit because of the wrongs they have done to the other communities and as the individual members are the parts of the group, their interests are affected.

Therefore, racial and social justice has the background of the history to decide how to correct the historic wrongs and it has the foreground of the future in which the justice is done. So the schemes such as reservation policies are not the debates about ideas, but they have be discussed and thought through on the basis of justice, which entails historic wrongs done by one community against another. The individual member cannot complain that their individual rights are affected.

The so-called upper castes in India benefit because of the history of exploitation because of their social history, they have greater advantages over the vast population of SC, ST, and OBC in many ways. Similar is the case of racial justice. So when the groups decide to form a bigger group such as a nation, they have to agree on certain fundamental values to forge that bigger group.

The SC, ST, OBCs quest for social justice is therefore about nation making. It is not about individuals or whims and fancies. It is about the creation of the community through peaceful practical policies.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist