Democratic substance requires artificially raising the vote’s value where caste devalues persons

Evidence

At the heart of Ambedkar’s approach to democracy was the question of how to ensure that all minorities—especially, but not only, the Untouchables—could successfully bargain for adequate protections. Democracy, in theory, was premised on the idea of ‘one person, one value’ and hence ‘one person, one vote’. But Untouchables, treated as lesser humans, were not accorded the same value as Touchables. To make democracy substantive in a caste-differentiated society, therefore, it required modification. In such a redesigned democracy, the value of a devalued Untouchable had to be deliberately raised through special provisions such as the double vote or the adoption of the principle of reservation, or both. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1321

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core justification for reservations: deliberately raising the electoral value of those caste devalues, not compensating for past harm.