I'm an ethnic Indian student, born and raised in the US. Indeed while both affirmative action & reservations are muddy issues without clear solutions, it must be noted that they are not comparable. In the US, affirmative action is targeted for minority students--but not all minority students. This policy solely benefits African-Americans, Latinos, & Native Americans. Indians and most other Asians, for example, are not included. Why? Primarily because there is a strong basis of decades of inequality towards the former group. The latter on the other hand migrated largely as educated professionals (though this is not all-inclusive). Affirmative action policies are so controversial in the US because they often blindly take ethnicity & race into consideration, neglecting economic inequality. In fact, many universities are now trying to correct this problem by accepting students that show promise, even if their applications are slightly weaker than more economically advantaged students. IMO, India & the US both can benefit if they adjust their admittance policies to adhere to accepting economically disadvantaged students regardless of caste, religion, and/or regional background, etc.
