Report of the Backward Classes Commission (Volumes III to VII)

“There is equality only among equals. To equate unequals is to perpetuate inequality” –  so begins the first part (Volumes I and II) of the Report of the Backward Classes Commission, released on December 31, 1980. This is the second part, containing Volumes III to VII, of the report.The commission was appointed by Morarji Desai – then prime minister of India – on December 20, 1978, with B.P. Mandal as its chairman. At the time, Mandal was Member of Parliament from the Madhepura constituency in Bihar.The commission was set up to determine the criteria for defining socially and educationally backwards classes, and providing recommendations for their advancement. The rest of its members included S. S. Gill (secretary), Dewan Mohan Lal, R...