by Aryeh Neier

About the author: Aryeh Neier is president of the Open Society Fund and Open Society Institute, which provide scholarships and grants to students in Eastern Europe and South Africa. His “Watching Rights” column appears regularly in the Nation.

When I visited India [in 1990], two disputes dominated the news there. One involved demonstrations and riots by students opposing a plan by the government of then–Prime Minister V.P. Singh to set aside a certain proportion of government jobs for the disadvantaged—“scheduled castes” (untouchables), “scheduled tribes” and “other backward classes.” Over a period of several weeks some 160 young men and women, apparently members of higher castes who feared that their own employment opportunities would be diminished, tried to burn themselves...