Should caste be included in Indian census?

For the first time since 1931 India is debating whether to include caste in census, many experts say that it can be used for better governance and will help government in implementing its socio-economic development programmes while other say that’s it will divide India on basis of caste and will harm sovereign concept of nation.

The census is the largest single source of a variety of statistical information on different characteristics of the Indian people. The census operation, held once in 10 years, will cover 1.2 billion people — and more — in one single database.

Supporters of caste enumeration argue that caste is an inescapable reality of Indian society and census categories merely reflect existing classifications, and that only the census can provide the figures necessary to map inequality by caste. For social justice, we are made to believe there is no alternative to reservation, and for reservation, no alternative to counting caste.

This caste-based census is nothing but an identity politics in our elections. The politicians who are interested in the caste census data are not as interested in advancing the living standards, as they are in organising them into vote banks. If they are so interested then what were they doing till now, waiting for this Census.

“Demand for caste based census is only the illogical product of quota based politics.”

This Census will give rise to new problems. It has been asserted by the government that this data will not be subjected to analysis. Caste groups and their status differ from region to region. A certain caste in a particular state having the same name can be an upper caste, a backward caste in another state and the most backward in the third state.

In the last 70 years, some caste names have changed, quite a few new ones have emerged, several castes have merged with others or have moved up or down the social hierarchy, and many have become politically active.

Also, such legitimisation of casteism will strengthen the hands of reactionary and obscurantist like khap panchayats.

There is no doubt that stringent affirmative action policies are required to make formal institutions more socially inclusive, but to shackle the census to this agenda betrays a failure to learn from the past or to think imaginatively about the future.

Caste based census is nothing but a ploy to further the segregation of Indians into a myriad of entities which can be relied upon as vote banks.

In the 21st century as the whole world is concerned more and more of development, there is no need for furthering casteism and caste-based vote banking.

We need to change this caste based ugly reality into a better future. Therefore, there is a need for a different approach to remove this caste-based politics and differentiation. Reservation should be given only to those who are socially and economically backward and not to those who belong to a particular caste.

“Census recording of social precedence is a device of colonial domination, designed to undermine as well as to disprove Indian nationhood.”

Let us end this politics of division, of reservation, of favour and corruption now. Let us acknowledge what shameful legacy of caste we Indians have been given by our forefathers and refuse to reenact it through the census. Let us once and for all face it down and bury it.