Opinion On caste census, the BJP was rattled into action by Congress's demand

Indian Express

02-05-2025

The BJP-led Narendra Modi government has relented grudgingly, and that's good news. It has announced that the Census will enumerate caste. There is little doubt that for the past few years, the government was rattled by Congress's constant demand for such a Census — a demand which was accompanied by the charge that the current regime is a votary of status-quo norms. Congress's objectives were always clear — resources must be apportioned according to the needs of communities, and for that, the magnitude of historical deprivation must be out in the open. The government resisted — till it couldn't.
The BJP 's response to Congress's demand had been either evasive or diversionary. In late 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on to say that only four castes exist in India — the poor, the youth, women and farmers — ironically appropriating the classic Marxist dogma of social divisions. The class-based repudiation of caste, though a trite, even well-meaning rhetorical device, had a different intent for the PM. First, it was meant to weaken the voices calling for a caste census by initiating so-called welfare schemes for targeted classes. These schemes were essentially compensation for the government's economic blunders. But the government appeared to see them as magical potions of sorts that would suddenly turn caste into class.
Second, there was already a slow project to expunge references to caste discrimination in textbooks and university curricula. For instance, Delhi University removed celebrated writer Mahashweta Devi's short story 'Draupadi' — about an eponymous tribal girl who wages a gritty battle against patriarchy — from its BA English course. Another text chronicling caste-gender relations by Bama, a Dalit Christian writer from Tamil Nadu, suffered a similar fate. And NCERT's policing has created an impression that social divisions were absent in the past.
Meanwhile, Congress, along with other opposition parties, kept up the pressure on the government. In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi emphasised nyay or justice. Throughout the journey, tough and disturbing questions on India's asymmetrical social order were repeatedly asked. Who wields real power and who follows orders? Who owns and who serves? How representative are our executive, bureaucracy, judiciary, and newsrooms? How equitable are our everyday encounters? The yatra was a springboard of uncomfortable truths, belying those who had suggested that the politics of caste census would not be able to sustain itself.
Congress had a history to protect. Social justice was a challenge but the party had ensured notable victories. Reservation, as an empowering tool, was added to the Constitution in 1951 by the First Amendment. This was followed by the abolition of untouchability and the institution of quotas in promotions in government service. The latter was significant because discrimination, as yet, has no expiry date — access to power does not ensure that people from historically marginalised sections continue to wield it. That is the reason hierarchies of bureaucratic authority mimic traditional caste stratification, with privileged groups cloistered at the top.
The Rajiv Gandhi government enacted the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, while the 73rd and 74th Amendments enacted by the Narasimha Rao government mandated women's reservation in panchayats. The Manmohan Singh -led UPA-I implemented OBC reservation in higher education institutions, while UPA-II initiated the Socio-Economic and Caste Census — the first time since 1931 that such a Census was conducted. The government's term came to an end before the report could be made public. The UPA was working to include reservation in the private sector, emphasising the responsibility of all stakeholders to be agents of social justice.
If the caste enumeration is undertaken, then the almost primitive debates over reservation and its perceived antithesis, merit, will no doubt rage again. Along with the caste census, there has been a demand for removing the 50 per cent cap on caste-based quotas. In 2015, the RSS chief called for a review of the reservation policy, mouthing a widely held right-wing belief. It's surprising that many who call themselves liberals publicly agreed with him. The peddlers of meritocracy must be exposed, since in India, it is a direct function of the entitlements and opportunities accorded by caste. That is why the economic argument for reservation does not hold — wealth and poverty are dynamic categories while caste attributes are inherited. To a great extent, caste-based reservation can mitigate these age-old polarities, which is why it must be given full play.
The bogey of merit needs to be debunked.
There is now consensus that Congress's clarion call for a caste census, and the BJP's own low tolerance for social justice, led to a big fall in the ruling party's seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It has been forced to apply correctives, albeit only in nominal terms. With the BJP government, there is, of course, no guarantee that the Census will run its course. But the question of injustice needs to be settled. It remains among the incomplete tasks in the process of nation-building. For many of us, caste discrimination is a shameful scourge. For some others, it appears that such discrimination never existed. With the Census, it will be apparent that it did.