How does a General category student feel about an academically adept reserved student, and what it is like for a reserved caste student to have a good academic record?

I'm a general category student and I don't know the category of more than half of the students in my batch. When I came to know that an academically good student was SC/ST I was surprised for a moment but didn't give it a second thought. Now before someone blames me for being surprised, here's the reason. It is rare to find an academically excellent student belonging to SC/ST category not because of his/her cast but because of the fact that if he/she can perform as good as the top students in my college (IITG), he/she should have got into IIT B/D/K owing to reservation. EDIT: I have no idea why this was downvoted!

I wouldn't normally answer this, but I got an A2A, so I'm going to try. I'm a general category student. I usually don't post anonymous answers, but I'm doing so to protect the identity of my friend whom I'm writing about because he may or may not want to be recognized. My friend had a SC background and he did badly in the JEE. His general rank was nowhere close to the cut off for his branch in my IIT, but he got in because of his reservation status. Since he was in my sub-batch, he was one of the first people I met. He stuttered, had minimum control over the English language (one of the reasons why he performed badly in the JEE, I later found. He had prepared completely in Hindi, but had to write the paper in English), and was insecure. As soon as he told me the rank (yes, I went around asking people's ranks. It was my first day, forgive me), I immediately formed an opinion about him. I thought that he might be smart, but he was bound to suffer. As a strong dissenter of the reservation system, I guess I also harboured a slight patronizing attitude towards him. He struggled a little with the syllabus and lifestyle initially. He was financially not that strong (and with strong morals to boot), so the usual means of socializing (over dinner at a hotel, over the first drink, over the first cigarette) were shut off for him. So he mainly socialized with others in the situation as him. He had an average performance that semester. There was a huge change in the second semester. During the vacations, he read a few motivational books. He started practicing spoken English rigorously. He started studying harder. And most important of all, he started speaking with more people and socializing more. He was no longer closeted, and formed a larger group of friends. This was the most important step that he took. Sure, he still struggled a little with the GD and interviews in his final year. Sure, he didn't get a job he wanted (he was more research oriented, at odds with the job he had to finally accept). But he ended his 4 years as Rank 1 in the department and Rank 2 in the institute. He walked out of the institute with more confidence than he had when he walked in. He walked out of the gates with his head held high. Watching this transformation was an experience for me. And my opinions changed as well. Though I am still against the reservation system, I began respecting him more and more over the four years. Sometimes I feel like he is the perfect icon for the argument against reservation. If a student like him with his insecurities and low confidence can achieve so much in the four years here, then there needs to be no reservation for anybody. All that one needs is an iron will. And there will be a way.

The most interesting A2A I have got till date this one. Rather than answering this question using the thoughts that fill my mind as of now, I would like to carry you through the whole thought processes and the many shifts in them I went through after learning for the first time about this topic which is quite 'infamous' in the Indian academic circles. PROLOGUE: I was mostly oblivious to the reservation system and it's ways till I had passed from high school as I had never really cared much about a person's background, always being more interested in the person itself. Though it might be necessary to point out that even during that time some of my school-mates used to differentiate(only in speech, and that too behind the backs of those concerned) on the basis of one's caste. But as I said, I remained mostly oblivious. Even then, most of us didn't have an idea about how profound the impact of reservation on the Indian education system really was. It was only when I got started with my preparation for competitive exams that I got to know about it(reservation system in institutions) fully, or at-least what I thought was everything I needed to know. At first for some days I felt contempt towards both the system and it's beneficiaries. I felt that the students were hampering the educational institutions in a big way by filling-in the seats which could have instead been given to an academically more deserving candidate. But then I got back to my normal self and stopped bothering myself with these matters for the time being. I can answer the rest of the question in a general way but that would render the point of the question itself useless. Instead I would use the example of two class-mates( one from coaching, the other from my school) of mine who are currently in two of the more reputable institutions of the country(read IITs). Let me start with one of my school-mates. He had been one of the toppers throughout his school life and was a NTSE scholar. He was one of the brightest minds I had met and almost everyone he knew respected him for his abilities and prowess. He was expected to clear JEE and he sure enough did. But when the results came out, everyone of his classmates including his best of friends were in for a mild shock. The thing was he belonged to the OBC category and somehow none of us, even those who had known him for years knew about it. He had got a 4-digit rank (XXXX) but owing to the privilege he had been granted by the 'respectable' government he was able to clinch a seat which required a general rank XXX. Many of those who knew him suggested in whispers that he was cunning so as to not disclose his case identity all these years. But these whispers died soon enough. The reason ? Well the reason was very simple and it is the same reason for which his 'secret' so as to say had never got out in all these years. He was so good at something by himself that we never would wander our minds towards any other direction regarding his identity. He had created his own identity which was complete by itself. I, personally, always respected him the same for his abilities as I used to before knowing about his caste. Simply because I knew he was deserving to be where he was. If there is anything bad about this situation at all,  it is that his privilege did make him slack a bit. He could have got a better general rank but he was so convinced that his 'abilities combined with the reservation' would get him through that he slacked a bit. Point No.1: I respect an academically qualified or adept person for his abilities. I would rather look towards his demeanor and personality rather than looking at his caste-certificate. Point No. 2: The thing which I dislike about some of the academically good 'reserved category' students, and infact most of the reserved category students is that at times they don't give it their all and instead slack a bit using reservation as a cushion. When instead they could have done better for themselves by just focusing on the task at hand solely. This is getting long, eh! I am sorry about that but bear with me please. Now about the second student I will be talking about was an acquaintance I had as my batch-mate at a coaching class I attended for some time. He had cleared AIEEE with a decent rank in his first attempt and combined with his OBC reservation tag was entitled for a seat in one of the new IITs too. But he had decided to drop instead. He had always been a quite guy who went about his work. He was academically strong obviously but not someone who came across as an outright genius. But what he held dear was a dream to get into one of the old IITs. Fast-forward to the result-dates and I got to know that he had cleared JEE with a decent rank almost akin to the guy I have mentioned above. I was sure that now he would get a seat in one of the old IITs and I was okay with it mostly though because he had worked his way through. I knew he would continue with the passion even in college. Fast-forward again to the seat-allotments. What I was in for now was an even bigger shock than above. The guy had barely managed to scrape in one of the old IITs. He had appeared as a general candidate that time (which was his second attempt) rather than appearing as an OBC. What followed was the development of immense respect in my heart and anyone who knew him and how much he had wanted the 'Old IIT seat'. The thing which makes it even more wonderful is that he had failed once and that too with his reservation quota in place. And that had meant a broken dream. But still he appeared for the second time refusing to take the advantage which he had supposedly been handed on a silver-platter by our 'honorable' government.That dude will command respect from me till the end of days. Simply because no matter what we might say it is almost ' too hard' for most in this competitive age to give away such an advantage. And that he put his conscience over his dream. That is a rarity now-a-days. Point No.3: The rare breed of students who choose to give up their caste advantage and battle it out on their own take up more respect in my mind than even those general students who might end up getting much better ranks than them. Because they have in abundance, something which our society lacks. CHARACTER! Why this respect? Well, it is there because they are the ones who actually fight the caste-system really, more than anyone protester or cribbing general category student. It's almost impossible for human psyche to give up on such advantages now. It takes a huge amount of character. If you ask me, most of the cribbing general category student, had they been in the place of the reserved students would not have given up the advantage. It is mainly human psychology more than anything else which is the root cause of this system. The student who gave up the advantage believed himself to be equal and ended up proving it. THAT IS HOW YOU FIGHT THE SYSTEM !! NOT BY CRIBBING. NOT BY DISCRIMINATING.   Thanks for the a2a.

I belong to SC and from childhood I was good (If getting 1st/2nd rank in class is considered to be good) in academics. I first came to know about my caste when I had to fill my NTSE form in 10thClass and I asked my father what to fill in it, he said SC I asked him what is SC?? He then explained me what is caste and how SC/ST are given certain percentage of seats/scholarships fixed in govt institutions etc. etc.. I first question is it beneficial??? Means let say SC total students are 100 but reserved seat are only 12 and for say general students are 100 but they have rest (100-12-16 blah blah.. = 50 now) so the probability of a SC getting seat is less than general but later I realized the no. of general students taking exams is very high plus the no. of students in SC/ST who have access to education is very low so actually stats would be more like 12/100 (SC)   5/100 (Gen.) appr. Ok coming back to when I came to know about my caste in NTSE form, I refused to tick SC since I believed why should I be given special benefit when I have all the facilities as compared to all my friends (there only I came to know all my friends were of general class). Result: I cleared NTSE in general class Then comes the time for preparation for IIT/JEE. I joined Bansal Classes in kota and was performing quite well (if ranked in Top 2 batches is considered to be well) and there I realized what it is to be from SC/ST… I read heard many stories about how SC/ST being treated in villages and blah blah… but though that it exist in villages but not in cities and I totally disagree with this now. I will give few examples below I had many friends and some of us got through NTSE (around 8/~20) and choose to prepare for JEE and all joined Bansal classes. We all use to come together for the classes and I was second hoshyar bacha (if you consider marks/rank in test/ability to solve question, first was my close friend who was actually from general class),we all were very good friend but after 10th ( I guess all of us know about caste  only after we fill our NTSE form) there was a sort of awkwardness among us, I am still not trying to explain/express that but somehow even though I was good in academics than them but I felt low, I don’t why but YES it was true, it hampered my performance also drastically when I got rank of 110th from 26th and was moved to second batch. The worst part was my friend who was in 7th batch consoled me by saying its ok you are SC so you don’t have to worry you will anyways get admission. I still remember that day, the same person who comes to me to ask all his doubts till 10th suddenly telling me all this shit even though till that date I had never took advantage of reservation. These kind of incident than become day to day affairs where all my friends talk about reservation and I had to leave the conversation stating that I have to solve DP or I have to prepare for quiz but all I got reply from them was WHY DO YOU NEED TO STUDY YOU GOT RESERVATION… all this hampered my studies quite a lot from 26th to 110th to 120th rank for first 3 months, I use to cry at night thinking why I am from SC and what difference does it make????? Later I cut contact from all my general/SC/ST friends and tried to regain my focus on studies but got bad rank further 26th à110à120à145à85à80à76 ~ app. I don’t remember exactly but I use to track my performance. Later as you can see from rank I got stabilized and focused only on studying  and finally  I got admitted to IIT Bombay and there also the same shit even though the person knows half of what I know but being from general class gave him birth right to be above SC/ST. I struggled a alot with all these, though I was not able to understand why other SC/ST students are least bothered about all this and concentrate on whatever they want to do ( sports/politics/music/academics etc etc … ) Now since I graduated from IIT with quite decent grade and a decent paying job still sometime I feel the same. Now comes the funny part…. The friends I was talking about earlier, it seems 4 or 5 I don’t know the exact no. seems to be from OBC and then that quota for OBS was implemented and is now all of them are in IIM’s using the OBC quota and now they says” it’s an opportunity and they didn’t ask for it” Coming back to the question: Yes it sucks to be good in academics with your caste being SC (I use to think this) but now after interacting with so many people seeing life, I believe it’s more important what YOU think about yourself than what others think. I have achieved height in everything when I don’t think about all this SC/ST and seen worst with spending all day just think about these stupid things…

Well , this what happened with me when I cleared JEE and went to IITR. . . Lets get this clear ,after we clear an exam it doesn't matter what category we belong to , we all are happy for clearing it.Whether it is general or category it doesn't matter. So now we come to the place of our dreams. The college starts with me meeting our roommates , making new friends , enjoying ourselves and every bit of what we are around. but often this happens initially when general guys live along with category guys, meanwhile on the other side.... and then as time passes who remembers who is what, we are all sailing in the same boat . We all get along make friends and the best of friends............................ their is no demarcation line as 'General' or 'Category'...... And this is it........ Happy Ending..!!! . . Their is no such thing as one thinking high of himself and the other thinking low of himself , what solely remains is what we do with ourselves. I have seen times when category students score better than me in academics , perform better than me in sports and party even harder. Time has passed to think all this we get along as we live the same life of IIT.