‘BJP may use caste census to undermine caste-based reservation and legitimise EWS’: Anand Teltumbde

The highly polarising caste census debate took an unexpected turn when the BJP-led NDA decided to enumerate castes in the upcoming census, much against the ideological positions of the RSS-BJP. Though this was widely celebrated in social justice circles, public intellectual and anti-caste proponent Anand Teltumbde is unamused. He speaks about his latest book, Caste Con Census.

The social justice circle is celebrating the political consensus on this issue but you call it a con. Why?

I am not against the caste census. As someone from a data science background, I cannot be against data. However, have post-colonial regimes shown concern for people’s issues? This will marginalise other issues and create caste turbulence. The fact that the BJP has turned around from its earlier vehement opposition connotes something fishy.

You question the BJP’s track record in data management. Why? 

Data is not a neutral thing. There’s politics at every stage in surveys extracting caste data. The conceptual design itself is political and BJP’s track record is well known — international institutes are disbelieving Indian data, and the IMF has given our GDP data a ‘C’ grade. Various inferences could be drawn from the same data.

As a critic of the BJP’s EWS scheme, do you think this data may be used to argue against caste-based reservation?

Yes. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, PM Narendra Modi mocked the caste census as an ‘Urban Naxal’ idea but the Cabinet suddenly announced this (on April 30) without any explanation. Can you not smell a rat? The 2024 Lok Sabha elections were a defeat of sorts, where the BJP relied on Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu’s support to retain power. With Nitish supporting the caste census, it would seem odd for the BJP to oppose it before the Bihar elections. The BJP will not go against the long-term ideological goal inherited from the RSS of removing caste-based reservation. Wealthy sections of the upper caste, like Sudha Murty and Narayana Murthy, will not participate in this census. Only the economically weaker upper castes will be enumerated, using which the BJP can create a narrative that even the upper castes are as backward as others. This will be used to abolish the caste-based reservation system.

Though you favour data analysis, some conservatives have misinterpreted the positions in your book as anti-reservation.

I have not come across such criticism about my book but I am aware of these general comments around me. I have said several times that I am not against reservation, but people should realise that neoliberal policies have devastated the public and government sector.

Don’t you think the caste census sensitises society about the power asymmetry along caste lines?

My counter question is whether you need a caste census to know that. Because there are many bits of data that can show that. Even if you see the SECC survey, the leaked data showed that the upper castes are not even 15% – they are 8-12%. Kanshi Ram’s dictum was 15% (upper castes) vs 85% (other castes). Reformers like Jyothiba Phule could instinctively sense the numerical superiority of the backward communities and hence coined the slogan: ‘Shudra-Ati Shudra’ as opposed to ‘Shetji-Bhatji.’

Why do you think that the idea of the caste census as introduced by the British tried not to annihilate but rather solidify caste? 

The British rigidified the caste system, which was earlier a local and contextual system. The caste census codified caste, linking people from different states based on caste similarity. Each caste wanted to enumerate itself as superior to its societal status. That’s how the Bhumihars in Bihar, a landed and powerful caste counted as Shudras, started enumerating as Bhumihar Brahmins. However, the reservation policy in the post-colonial period has led to competitive victimhood — each caste trying to fight for its quota share.

Ideologies like Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, the Bhakti movement, etc., were philosophically opposed to the caste system, but caste remains strong. Why?

The caste system has assimilated all kinds of economic, cultural and political relations into its fold. Shramanic ideologies like Buddhism and Jainism ideologically opposed it but did not strike it at the structural level. So, the society remained unchecked. The first dent came when Muslim civilisation stabilised in India and there was a demographic shift of many people from the lower caste backgrounds converting to Islam. But nobody intervened with the ideology (of caste). A bigger change occurred during the colonial times, which brought in opportunities for lower castes. But the British implemented its divide-and-rule policy through caste census and rigidified the caste system.

You have written how successive ruling parties, started by the Congress and mastered by the BJP, have appropriated B R Ambedkar’s legacy. Do you think the support for the caste census but hesitation to spell out our actual policies arises from this appropriation? 

Yes, it is a universal strategy to co-opt opponents when you cannot vanquish them. The co-option of Babasaheb operated through the post-Ambedkar period, and the entire devastation of the Dalit movement could be attributed to that. In the caste census, though it is not entirely co-option, the approach of the government shows the co-option of the opposition’s demand.

In the Constituent Assembly debates, some members argued untouchability couldn’t be removed without eradicating the caste system. Tell us about it. 

Pramod Ranjan Thakur, the first barrister from the Dalit community, asked how untouchability could be abolished when the caste system survives. Only two people—Suresh Chandra Bannerjee (Brahmin) and D N Mitra (Kayasth)—supported Thakur, while the rest kept quiet.

You point out that in the unequal neoliberal set-up, universal capacity building is essential for reservations to work. Why? 

Reservation, which tries to correct caste-structured exclusion, is on a different axis than neoliberalism, which creates inequalities in the present through the market system. Reservation cannot address the concentration of wealth, corporatisation or the withdrawal of the State. Universal capacity building is necessary for reservations to work. If you look at Nordic countries, targeted schemes worked on the basis of universal capacity building. In India, neoliberalism started eroding the base for reservations, but that was also the time when rural dominant castes, who were losing agricultural subsidies, sought reservation. At the same time, reserved categories sought sub-categorisation
(Mala - Madiga issue). These are the twin reactions for the new neoliberal devastation.

Doesn’t the rise of Mandal politics in the 1990s, which increased demand for reservations, contradict the simultaneous erosion of reservations under neoliberal policies?

Yes. This actually shows our intellectual poverty. We shouldn’t get carried away by the discourses created by the State. 

You conclude the book by saying that the caste census shouldn’t substitute the ultimate goal: the annihilation of caste...

The reservation discourse has some vested interests, who bristle at the mention of caste annihilation. They adore Ambedkar, but Ambedkar himself gave the mantra of caste annihilation. This is doable . I am not against short-term measures like reservation, but they should go alongside the long-term goal to annihilate caste.

Why do you advocate for a broad coalition of caste and class politics as the long-term solution for annihilating caste?

Caste cannot be dynamited without a revolution. All oppressed and exploited people have to come together because only the oppressed caste cannot address this gigantic problem.