Kolhapur’s Shahu pioneered reservation policy as early as 1902.

Evidence

In May 1920, backed by Chhatrapati Shahu, the Maharaja of Kolhapur, known for his anti-Brahmin views and for pioneering the policy of reservation in education and jobs as far back as 1902, Ambedkar and his colleagues organised the first All-India Depressed Classes Conference in Nagpur. It was agreed that no Untouchable representative chosen by a caste-Hindu majority could (or would) genuinely work against chaturvarna. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 317

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Dates the origin of Indian reservation policy (1902), a concrete data point for the reader’s project on how caste annihilation scaled.

Related

• Kolhapur’s Maharaja pioneered caste reservation policy from 1902 (similarity 0.96)