Merit, Capital and Middle Class: Exploring the Linkages

Abstract

Earlier this year in January 2022, the Supreme Court of India in its judgement on the counselling process for the stalled centralised medical entrance validated the need for reservations and elaborated on the much-debated issue of merit vs. reservation. In India, there has been a long-standing debate over whether reservations impinge on the idea of merit. This article attempts to crucially appraise the very idea of merit in contemporary societies. Further, through an exploration of its characteristics and the process of its construction and reproduction, this article attempts to trace the origins of merit in the Indian context and understand its importance in relation to caste as well as class, particularly in relation with the middle classes; in doing so, this article will seek to understand how merit as a notion is constructed and operationalised in academic and employment discourse and whether the claim of equality of opportunity translates into equality of outcome.