Changing preferences and societal dynamics: Analyzing public attitudes toward preferential discrimination policy in urban India

Abstract

This article analyzes public preferences toward affirmative action (reservation policy) designed for disadvantaged social groups in India by examining the co-relational and causal relationship between the perceived fairness of the reservation policies and the citizens' preferences for reservation policies available in the political sphere, government jobs, and higher education institutions; and how urban India—particularly the metropolitan cities—utilizes better opportunities for socioeconomic mobility. I argue that there are opposing trends in discourse, primarily based on self-interest or motivation-based community interest. Examining citizens' preferences by adding more variables to the analysis and testing them with the data (N = 1800) is imperative since self-motivation or community interest cannot be the sole factor. The findings allow us to represent potential interaction effects based on caste, education level, and place of birth. These are the primary reasons for citizens' choices, and they all have an additive effect rather than being present as an individual factor of analysis.

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