Should quotas in education and employment be treated as matters of policy and not of right? Is the individual or groups of the community the fundamental bearer of rights and capacities? Can past disparities be adequately redressed? The author begins to address these issues with a sociological critique of the equality provisions in the Constitution of India. He argues that the problem is not simply of the contradiction between the principle of equality and the practice of inequality, but also of the tensions between divergent concepts of equality. He focuses on the problem of balancing the principle of equal opportunities with the principle of redress, citing disparities between groups that were such a striking feature of traditional India. The author argues that if caste quotas are treated as matters of right and extended indefinitely, there will be irreparable damage to institutions such as universities, hospitals and banks that are governed by principles that are radically different from those governing the relations between castes.