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The original justification for the SC/ST stuff was certainly a kind of progressive leveling ideology around class and race inequality by Westernized Congress elites.
But the system remains because simple ethnic/caste spoils logic makes it politically impossible to remove. Nigeria is in a similar position. In India, even the BJP doesn’t dare end affirmative action for fear of angering its own lower caste voters. Modi isn’t a firm believer in western progressivism, but he knows he can’t remove the policy. Aren’t like 75% of Hindus included in reservation now?
The US is different, black people are only 14% of the population and most elite Hispanics (ie the rest of URM) aren’t strong affirmative action / DEI activists even if they somewhat support it. Affirmative action in America isn’t a political necessity, it’s an act of charity engaged in for ideological reasons.
Most black normies don't expect to benefit from AA either. AA is purely a benefit to the black overproduced elites in competing with Jews and Asians. There's a very small percentage of the population that benefits or expects any benefit and summing it up as the 12.5% that's black is massively overstating it- it's a single digit percentage.
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I think it’s a political necessity in the sense that one of the political parties needs it to maintain its present coalition.
Incidentally, what’s the AA situation in Nigeria?
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The only reservation category that covers the majority of Hindus is the Economically Weaker Section category, and the benefits pale in comparison to SC/ST/OBC status, at least when it comes to big ticket carve outs like education and government jobs.
Beyond that, sure, I agree that AA is hopelessly entrenched here. The only way I see it being eradicated would be the hilarious situation where just about everyone and their dog is covered by something, such that there's no significant benefit from it. The EWS, well it's not quite there, maybe if the 80% who got it got an 80% reservation in jobs and education as opposed to 10%. But even that's highly unlikely, we're stuck in this equilibrium for the foreseeable future.
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