What are reserved seats?
When minorities fail to “naturally” make it into legislatures through the regular electoral competition they can be guaranteed some representation through “communally based” reserved seats. Reserved seats are those seats in parliament, either elected or appointed, which are set aside for designated communities. Such parliamentarians may be chosen by only the members of the represented group (based on a communal roll) or by the voters as a whole, among candidates from just the one group. By their very definition reserved seats usually rely upon a pre determined assessment of what constitutes a group and how large the group is. Reserved seats are a useful way of guaranteeing at least some minority voices will be in parliament. Today over thirty states reserve seats for communal or minority groups or have a special mechanism in place. But there are problems with reserved seats. One conundrum is how to choose which groups are recognized as eligible for special treatment. Do minority groups
