Are political parties ready to commit to the difficult path after caste census?

The big task for political forces wanting a caste census to ensure that the top echelons of society, economy, and its institutions see the presence of oppressed castes will be to ensure a complete overhaul of the processes of production

Caste seems to be emerging as an interesting battleground in Indian politics. On April 30, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided to include ‘caste enumeration’ in the impending decadal census. He stated that the caste census “will strengthen the social and economic structure of our society”. Thereafter, Congress, in a press conference led by Rahul Gandhi, took credit for pressuring the government to announce a caste census. He wanted the government to eliminate the 50% cap on reservations and announce a timeline for the census.

The Congress’ plank of social justice will face a challenge if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes up with a detailed caste census plan, if it conducts it successfully without hiccups, and comes out with results before 2029. Concerns were raised by some quarters about whether the census would happen online.

The census will be only the first step in the electoral game. It will also be interesting to see how the reincarnated politics of ‘mandal’ and ‘kamandal’ (caste and religion) will play out. The Congress, after this announcement, is also asking questions about what happens after the census. It is trying to challenge the government into answering how it will address the increased number of backward castes and Dalits in the population, which the census is most likely to throw up.

Vaishnaw emphatically distinguished between caste surveys and a caste census. One assumes he is stressing about some methodological point, which at this point will be difficult to ascertain the difference till the details of the content and the methodology of the census come out. Unless the census commissioner has already worked it out and puts it in the public domain, it might be a difficult job to ascertain the contents. Any researcher will tell you that the research questions are determined by what the researcher wants to ascertain. There is no space for objectivity in research, howsoever hard researcher tries to argue.

Hence, the purpose of the census will determine what kind of questions will be in the questionnaire, and, subsequently, where the government wants to pitch it. There can very well be a census which does not lead to any significant policy decision on the question of caste-based social and economic justice. There may also be manipulations of different kinds during enumeration.

To take an exaggerated example, if the census reveals that most of the backward castes and Dalits comprise an overwhelming part of the population, but their share in the economy is minuscule in managerial or decision-making positions or ownership of means of production, what will be the reaction of the government? The kind of policies the government will enact will ensure their participation in these economic spheres. The Answer to these questions in the kind of political framework within which most parties function will have wide-ranging ramifications.

We live in a society where the concentration of wealth is in the hands of upper-caste Hindus. About 62% of micro, small, and medium firms in India are owned by upper-caste businesspersons. Upper-caste groups occupy 90% of leadership positions in the media. After appointments in 2023 in the Supreme Court, it appeared that around 36.4% of the judges came from Brahmin community. Representation of Dalits in the higher judiciary has not been proportionate to their population. The corporate sector also has a dismal performance when it comes to oppressed caste groups in leadership positions.

Similarly, the landless primarily come from oppressed caste groups, and the arithmetic will have to change there as well. Is there any serious thought about how all these figures will be changed when they have not been changed even 75 years after Independence? Will the government be ready for a land reform in favour of giving land to the tillers and taking it away from absentee landlords? This is the big picture unless those talking about the caste census are restricted to mere counting of people and their caste.

Will the shrinking public sector and expanding private sector create jobs to ensure that everyone across caste gets jobs at all levels without discrimination? Everyone might be giving a message about their unstinting support for the caste census and their commitment to go beyond it. But the question of how would the results of census be translated into policy measures remain unclear for each political force because it is not merely giving the oppressed castes their share in employment and decision making to run the affairs of country; but, along with it are tasks such as how to reduce the dropout rates of their children in schools when even today as per conservative government records nearly a quarter of tribals and a fifth of Dalits dropped out of school in Classes IX and X in 2019-2020 compared to just one in nine among ‘general’ category students.

It must be a complete package which ensures every child gets the best education, without discrimination based on class and caste, and becomes ready to take those positions. Hence, the commitment to socio-economic justice must focus everywhere.

When one talks of caste census with the aim of improving the condition of oppressed castes, it implies that all this picture will have to be turned upside down. The minority caste groups cannot continue to dominate the scene simply on account of their money, ritual supremacy, and political power. The moment this picture is turned upside down, the societies will experience birth pangs of an extreme kind and the political dispensation, if interested in transformation, must acknowledge that this will happen and be ready for the same.

Bihar, Karnataka, and Telangana have already undertaken caste surveys, and the results have not been taken kindly as it will upset the existing reservation and politics in these states. While the Bihar exercise went to court, one awaits the answer to what follows the survey in Karnataka or for that matter Telangana. Questions have been raised on a dip in backward caste numbers and contradictory figures in the Telangana caste survey. In Karnataka, the dominant communities have challenged the veracity of the enumeration. The reaction may be violent in states in the Hindi heartland, and quite naturally if caste census results in upsetting the power equations and dethroning those who always imagined themselves as rulers.

Remember that this is not merely about being an MLA or MP in politics, but it would ideally transform the social relations emanating from the new material conditions if the results are implemented properly. That will have far-reaching reactions. How far political forces contending to take credit will be ready for it has to be seen.

The big task for political forces wanting a caste census to ensure that the top echelons of society, economy, and its institutions see the presence of oppressed castes will be to ensure a complete overhaul of processes of production; in other words, a revolution of sorts, and they may not be ready for it.

Sadly enough, all this must not remain rhetoric. It is high time that socio-economic justice starts talking in terms of concrete material transformations of society, and the reign of society, polity and economy is handed over into the hands of those who have been governed till now in every sphere with dexterously designed mechanisms of social, cultural, and economic oppression.

(Ravi Kumar is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, South Asian University.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.