How, with call for caste census, Congress has upped the ante

Demands for caste census troubles Hindutva strategists, who propagate a political outreach to OBCs and Dalits, though decision-making remains in hands of upper castes

The issue of a caste census is sensitive in certain quarters because it is expected to show a decline in population figures of upper castes and a commensurate increase in the numbers of socially- and economically-backward communities referred to as Other Backward Castes (OBC).

So far, India only makes public the census figures for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). It’s an odd situation, whereby reservation in government jobs and educational institutions is given to the OBCs based on estimates — not actual data. The catch about OBC reservation is that it stands at around 27 per cent while the actual population is upwards of 60 per cent.

Reservation is legally supposed to be capped at 50 per cent, although many states exceed the limit (each case is being challenged in the courts). But if we were to apply the principle of actual population figures to future quotas, then affirmative active through reservation would breach the halfway mark and the general category seats/jobs would shrink.

Also Read: Caste census important to ensure social justice: Kharge

That’s the rub. It naturally troubles the strategists of Hindutva, who propagate a political outreach to the OBCs and the Dalits, though decision-making remains in the hands of the upper castes. The leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is Brahmin-dominated, although Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from an OBC community. But beyond him, many significant players in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), from the finance and defence ministers to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, are from the forward castes.

The caste debate is also awkward for influential pillars of Indian society such as media, academia, and the higher judiciary that remain dominated by upper castes and have poor subaltern representation. That is why there has been some whataboutery from sections of the commentariat over the renewed Opposition thrust on fighting the 2024 general elections on a social justice plank. The Mandal era parties, the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) which are in power in Bihar have begun the exercise of having a caste census. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu recently invited the entire Opposition for what was billed as a meeting to take social justice forward. A core belief of the Dravida movement is that economic justice can only follow social justice. Tamil Nadu’s comparative performance on various indices bolsters the argument that social justice eventually bolsters economic growth.

What has possibly set the cat among the pigeons is the positioning of the centrist Congress on the caste agenda. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has recently made forceful speeches about removing the 50 per cent cap on reservation, and demanded that the Centre release the data of a caste census that he said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had undertaken in 2011. The Congress also came out with a slogan ‘Jitni abaadi/utna haq’ (rights should reflect population per centage). Campaigning in Karnataka, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge reinforced this line even as the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah created a flutter by promising a 75 per cent reservation in the state.

The Congress positioning is significant as it is not a caste- or region-based party. Historically, many influential decision-makers around the Nehru-Gandhi family have been from the forward castes. The Congress eclipse in north India is also linked to its inability to look beyond the upper castes in giving leadership positions. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, when it was the dominant party, the Congress chose only Brahmins as chief ministers in the 1970s — Kamalapati Tripathi, HM Bahugana, Narayan Dutt Tiwari — before the disruption of the Emergency in 1975 and the Janata Party rule that followed it.

Back in power in the state in 1980, the Congress also began to choose from another forward caste, the Thakurs, who would subsequently alternate with Brahmins to be chief ministers till 1989. Since then, the grand old party has not returned to power in Uttar Pradesh, and lost its primacy also in Bihar as the Mandal movement saw the birthing of parties led by politicians from the backward castes and the Dalit communities.

Subsequently, the post-2014 Modi-era BJP would merge Hindutva with a systematic outreach to the OBC and the Dalit voters. Yet post-election data shows the upper-castes being the most loyal voter bloc of the BJP. This combined with an ideological unease with reservation is possibly what drove the government to create a 10 per cent EWS quota (for the poor among the upper castes) through a constitutional amendment that was upheld by a 3-2 Supreme Court verdict in November (none of the Justices were SC/ST or OBC). The EWS quota breaches the 50 per cent ceiling and has, ironically, only given impetus to the demand for the caste census and extension of reservation in other states based on actual population figures.

(Saba Naqvi is a journalist and author)

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