Look through your reservations.

Esmond canceled your reservation and letter of credit.

Indeed, nowadays political parties dangle the carrot of reservations to ever more castes, and even promise to extend the policy to admissions into elite educational institutions and the private sector.

Business monopoly in some sectors causes higher profit bookings and further raising of prices.

There was a 25 per cent increase in hotel cancellations after the assassination of Mr. Hani in April 1993.

But boosters of caste politics claim that it is not economic deprivation but the social backwardness from which these castes have historically suffered that makes caste reservations necessary.

Every now and then, particularly before elections, caste groups demand to be placed on the list of other backwards classes (OBC s), in order to benefit from these reservations.

Caste based reservations (reserved places) in education and government employment are supposed to benefit India s most deprived, but in reality they have hardened, rather than eroded, India s ancient system of discrimination.

Hence, caste has not been an indicator of material deprivation, even during the early decades of the twentieth century. But boosters of caste politics claim that it is not economic deprivation but the social backwardness from which these castes have historically suffered that makes caste reservations necessary.

Some go so far as to argue that the recent rise of the lower castes in northern Indian politics and the implementation of reservations by the central government amount to a silent revolution, and that the politics of caste is secular and a bulwark against religious sectarianism.

Caste, once again, is casting its shadow over India s politics. Caste based reservations (reserved places) in education and government employment are supposed to benefit India s most deprived, but in reality they have hardened, rather than eroded, India s ancient system of discrimination.