There was an uproar when people expressed displeasure over the OBCs getting reservations in higher education and employment. Who are these OBCs? How much have they suffered from discrimination during the period of the Kings and nobility? Scratch the past and look for them.....they are none other than people who had lived good lives in the past. Comparing them on one hand with Brahmins and on the other with the SC/STs or lower rung, they were basically people who had lived well.
To face the truth squarely, except for respect in society, the Brahmins got nothing from the vedic caste based system. Rich people were the kings and the business class. The Brahmins had education all right and so did the other two., the kashatriyas and the vaisyas. The working class called the Sudras were talented skilled workers and artisans, who had no education, here it means vedic education.Nobody learnt Engineering and Medicine as professional courses till the Modern Era. They lived middle class lives with the earning they made. Therefore, the only miserable lot discriminated against were the SC and STs, which the entire foursome looked down upon. They were not even treated well by the sudras, who claim to be really backward. Much below them and treated with derison, they were the scavengers who cleaned the toilets and maintained sanitation in the society. They were the cleaners and the purifiers of the environment, who were looked down upon on accout of the nature of their  work.

As for the Brahmins, they were discriminated against too, in many ways. For one, they were forbidden to earn money. They were supposed to teach Vedas and do nothing else and accept whatever gifts were offered and never demand any.. They were invited for yagnas and poojas for which they had to maintain purity of body and mind or they had to take bath and do their sandhya prayers to purify themselves. For everything purity was insisted and that is why they came to look down upon others. This is not to justify them but to explain the "why" question. It would do us good to remember that this caste system was not money based but purity based (as was the system those days)
But I repeat, there was no payment for service as far as Brahmins were concerned and therefore they had to be protected. They were to be vegetarians and were to keep themselves pure to do puja any time. They were to perform their pujas everyday for the benefit of society and eat late. They would be granted gifts by kings and rich merchants and they were to live on that. The point is they could not demand. Those who were not talented stayed poor.Their families lived a life of penury. But a wife was to adjust and improvise on what little the husband could provide and not leave him on any occasion.That was how our society worked. and none had any complaint as long as it worked well oiled, each aware of his duties. Even today, there are many brahmnin families who live on a day to day basis, do their rituals and repeat the vedas, making little lucre. .But society gladly closes its eyes on inconvenient truths.

With time, the brahmins lost their culture and started earning money, when their education was utilized but the payments were not forthcoming. Comparing their monetary status to other castes, the kings lived off the treasury they maintained after tax collection. They were the warriors ready to lay down their lives for their kingdom so all that luxury was allowed. The merchant class were rich and landed gentry. The sudras were middle income group and some talented ones were rich aachaaris who were paid well for their work. They were to be kept happy.As the sloka says about what a good king does-

Sudhro sukhino bavantooo.

A society’s job was to keep the sudras happy or it can never thrive. Pay them well for their work. So unless a brahmin was really lucky, brilliant and acknowledged for his scholarship, earning was not very easy. But they all got respect, irrespective of their talent.

Now back to the OBC? Were they the scavengers? No. The discriminated group were the SC/STs only who faced a lot of challenges and were totally crippled when social prejudices engineered their misery. They were the ones who really felt the pinch of the discriminatory system most , without even realizing it. To be frank, many among them are not yet equipped to use the crutches provided by the Government. Were their children sought out on a planned measure and provided free education along with accomodation by the Government? How much have they enjoyed the support structure of  the so-called post independent  Indian Government? Precious little. They are still in their low status. Who is to bring them up? Why this pandering to OBCs who have all along done nothing right from the beginning , other than taking good care of themselves?

Talking of poor people in modern India, there are poor people in all castes today in the modern society. To pander to one group alone is not a wise way to run the nation, but who will bell the cat?