Caste census: Why and for what?

Caste is a reality in India. Majority of people wants caste to continue. Many view caste as a blessing, but a few consider caste is a curse. In such a climate, system of caste become the foundation and the basic structure on which other superstructures hangs on. The trend has been pitched and going on makes some to wonder whether annihilation of caste is possible or feasible? Over and above, in this census it has been decided to include caste enumeration in the upcoming national census It is indeed a significant shift in how the state understands and respond to its people. Parties across the political spectrum went for it.
Going all out for caste census is being reasoned out that the planning process and budgetary provisions would be realistic evidence-based offering better clarity, objectivity, and purpose. A number of reasons have been given by those who push for caste census. Planning and in that allocation for development initiatives there have not been clear foci and emphases. They argue that the governments of the present and the past went all out towards pursuing GDP, GNP, digitalization, and for global competitiveness, and caste classification has been totally ignored.
According to them in the entire process of categorization was ignore as caste is hierarchical and top-down. The political class and planners have ignored caste either intentionally or ignorantly, but is detrimental to education, employment, healthcare, housing and social justice. The population data offers only the total number of populations, male-female parity, age, and others, and not insisting on caste which remained statistically invisible, despite its presence and functionalities in all the spheres of Indian society is so conspicuous. The caste ladder and hierarchy continues, the social equilibria seem to have widened, and the beneficiaries of the governments schemes and development initiatives by and large are from the dominant castes.
Those who are for caste census, the information needed should be expanded by adding other sub-castes in the scheduled list. Hence, caste enumeration is a must as it offers a chance to correct this anomaly. They argue that caste census would open-up not just their population size, but social and economic conditions they face. And this action should not be construed as re-imposing identities, but bringing to the fore the structural inequities and historical injustices. And so, it matters more now than the past. The data enables the planners and policy-makers to allocate the welfare schemes to the deserving communities in accordance to the need.
Another component that comes handy is diversity wherein socio-economic realities like education, occupation, asset ownership, and access to basic services. It would also help to furthering research for need-based studies. Those who object to the caste census believe that by entering into an exercise of caste enumeration we tend to legitimize and reinforce caste as the base structure in Idia. At the same time, let us not pretend as if caste is not there or saying caste is increasingly becoming irrelevant would only serves instilling new life to an old evil of a system which is a lived reality in contemporary India. Nonetheless, we should reckon with the fact that caste is the most powerful category in India.
After decades of governments’ ducking and dodging it has come to senses that the caste as a social category would have to be addressed because of increasingly awareness of lower and scheduled castes on policies like reservation. It has been viewed that by widening the perspective it is possible that a big picture be known and realized. Caste census would reveal the concentration of wealth, power, and privileges of the so-called ‘upper’ castes. For decades those who have been opposing caste census say it would polarize the society. Caste by itself is a divisive system known for polarization propelling inequalities. Then the Mandal decade that further ripped opened the glaring inequalities in the Indian society.
Somehow Ambedkar’s credo of ‘annihilation’ has been shelved by strengthening the argument that caste would continue to survive by sharpening the innate contradictions. There is no denying that caste is such a heinous system which by all means be dismantled. Nonetheless, after seven decades of India’s electoral process and parliamentary democratic system we need to think about the presence and practice of caste. The nationalists view that the caste enumeration would encourage political mobilization on caste lines and by ways of social engineering working different combination and permutations. There are certainly some truths in what those diverse views reflect. At the same time, by resorting to caste census there are possibilities of caste consolidation of dispersed caste communities into electorally powerful coalitions and blocks. If it becomes real those political parties having significant sway amongst the so called upper and dominant castes and classes would eventually suffer in their electoral prospects and politics. What we see nowadays is the absence of post-Mandal mobilizations. Instead, we have been witnessing in the last ten years the aggressive pan-Hindu mobilization by the Hindutva outfits.
Far-right Hindutva political parties did cut through the backward castes , classes, SCs and STs in employing divisions within and between castes in strategic and tactical ways across the country by bringing them those categories together on pan-nationalist religio-cultural ethos and oneness. What is important in this exercise is the current arrangement of caste-configurations and mobilization would certainly address the deep divisions within every major caste-clusters or the block such as OBCs, or the SCs.
As the politicians and ideologues keep experimenting based on social engineering, we see new configurations and permutations taking place. Those who are against the system of caste either allow the contradictions to grow or sharpen the contradictions. Further there is a basic asymmetry between in caste politics as we see using the lower castes as vote banks The so-called ‘upper castes’ would try all the games to protect their caste-class interests in electoral politics or outside of it. This is the first the so-called ‘dominant castes’ would be asked their caste identity openly and, in the process, unmasking their privileges, and other incentives.
Those who are for caste-census wants to know the data of all the castes especially of those in the socio-economic vulnerable caste brackets, so that the benefits of allocation of funds and projects goes directly to them, not to those who have been benefitting from the governments’ plans and programs. They also believe that caste census would be a tool towards leveraging those who are the socio-economic realms eventually leading to socio-economic equilibria and then moving towards annihilation of caste. Caste has been the main part of India for more than 3500 years and a vital link to all other areas of human activities of the Indian society. And so, those who push for caste census say we will start with it for the present and end without that.
Dr. John Mohan Razu