Kalyani Shankar
Will a caste census trigger a disaster or settle the demand of many political parties? While it plays such a dominant role in our social, economic, and political life, it is strange that no credible Caste data has existed since 1931. Also, the prominent four main castes, Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, and Shudra, have produced hundreds of subcastes and continue to create more sub-sections.
The demand to count castes is not new: Every Census in independent India from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes. Decennial Census until 1931 had data on Caste, but due to World War 11, the 1941 census was skipped. After independence, the Nehru government rejected the demand for a caste census. Indira Gandhi’s government turned the Mandal commission recommendation in the 1981 census. In 2001, the Vajpayee government rejected a similar proposal by the then Registrar General of Census. In 2010 the Manmohan Singh government too dismissed the inclusion of castes in the Census but surveyed on an economic basis instead. The Modi government released only its financial component (in 2015) and withheld the caste component. Unfortunately, the decennial population census of 2021 has been postponed due to the Covid pandemic.
Political Parties have already taken sides and sought votes in the name of castes and won. Caste-based parties have also sprung up like the BSP, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, etc. Parties such as JD(U), RJD, SP, BSP, YSRCP, and the DMK depend on certain caste groups for their political strength. They were leading a heavy campaign for the next caste census in 2021. Other leaders, including Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, remain in favour.
A caste count might result in a demand for inclusion for reservation. It comes…
