Acceptance Of Caste Census Not Necessarily A Defeat Of BJP's Hindutva Agenda

News18

29-05-2025

Last Updated:
Hindutva needs the support of the OBCs, including the marginalised castes within the group, and the government realises that
The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has finally agreed to conduct the caste census. This will be the first such exercise in independent India as the last caste census was done in 1931 when the country was a colony of the British. Though the previous Congress-led UPA government tried to count caste in its Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) in the last census of 2011, the data on caste population was never published as the UPA lost power in 2014 to the BJP-led NDA whose government, citing anomalies, withheld the data on caste population.
While the populations of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) were counted in the past censuses, the new caste census will count the populations of Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and the general castes (so-called upper castes).
OBCs are the biggest caste bloc, which is a collection of many different castes and sub-castes. The OBCs, who are given 27 per cent reservation in Union government jobs and central educational institutions, believe that they are denied their proper share as their population is much higher than the reservation quota given to them. A caste census will give the population of the OBCs as well details of the many castes and sub-castes within the OBC bloc. It is this reason that the OBCs have been vocal supporters of the caste census.
Now that BJP has agreed for caste census, after being initially reluctant to the idea, the opposition INDIA bloc has claimed credit for this. Additionally, there has been commentary to conclude this as the victory of social justice over BJP's Hindutva agenda.
While it can't be denied that the BJP's central leadership had to agree with the caste census after witnessing INDIA bloc's pitch getting traction on the ground, particularly in the most politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh, the commentary that BJP's Hindutva agenda has been overpowered by the agenda of social justice, advocated by the socialist, Bahujan parties and now by Congress also, is based on simplistic arguments.
The BJP came to power in 2014 by securing a majority of its own for the first time and was able to repeat this feat, with a bigger mandate, in 2019. One of the main factors behind these achievements was, undoubtedly, the agenda of Hindutva. While Hindutva helped the saffron party, if one watched closely, one will realise that these victories also had the caste factor, which was shrewdly exploited while being kept under the Hindutva carpet.
In 2014, while the BJP projected its then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, an OBC, as a Hindutva face, he was also projected as a representative of the OBCs. This was done after getting support from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BJP's ideological parent, and its associated fronts on the ground.
To be fair, this strategy to weave caste equations within the Hindutva umbrella by the saffron party and the Sangh Parivar dates back to the 1990s when then party's general secretary KN Govindacharya first implemented social engineering—mixing Hindutva (Kamandal) with caste politics (Mandal). This Kamandal-Mandal strategy brought OBC leaders like Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar to prominence in the saffron party. This strategy helped the saffron party to come to power for the first time in Uttar Pradesh in 1993 and Kalyan Singh became the chief minister. However, the strategy later failed to move forward with the sidelining of OBC faces like Kalyan and Uma Bharti, who led the party to a gigantic victory in Madhya Pradesh in the 2003 elections, within the party with Govindacharya himself being sidelined in the early 2000s by the saffron party then led by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Lal Krishna Advani duo.
After facing back-to-back electoral setbacks in 2004 and 2009, the saffron party returned to the formula of social engineering and this helped it return to power in 2014 and then in 2019 and 2024. The party particularly targeted the non-Yadav OBCs, which otherwise aren't politically dominant, unlike the Yadavs. But the reduced mandate in 2024 elections once again served as a reality check to the BJP regarding its social engineering project. It was because the OBCs, who started to rally towards the saffron party from 2014, felt they weren't given the proper representation when it came to power sharing.
These were legitimate concerns. Despite OBCs being the dominant group in BJP's tally in the 17th Lok Sabha, they lagged behind the 'upper castes" in Modi 2.0, even after increasing OBC representation after reshuffling of council of ministers in 2021. This was reflected at the state level too. Take the example of Uttar Pradesh, where upper castes are over-represented in the BJP's power structure in terms of legislators and ministers.
It was only after the setback in 2024 that the BJP made more ministers from the OBCs in the third term of the Modi-led government, surpassing the 'upper castes" who had a majority in the first and second terms of the Modi government. This was a significant change, reflecting the efforts of the Sangh Parivar to accept the concerns and aspirations of the OBCs, who remained the largest caste bloc in the country.
Later, in the national conclave of the RSS held from August 31 to September 2 in Palakkad last year, the organisation announced its support for the caste census, arguing its importance for various government-sponsored welfare schemes. Before this, it had announced support for the caste census in 2023, when the Opposition started pitching for the idea.
No one can deny that caste is a reality. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar are also aware of this bitter truth. Hindutva needs the support of the OBCs, including the marginalised castes within the group. For that, the saffron party needs to accommodate the aspirations of the OBCs—and to do this, it had no other option but to accept the caste census. The announcement of the caste census by the Modi government reflects this thinking.
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As of now, it is futile to draw the exact consequences post-the caste census, which is yet to be conducted, but the conclusion that the caste census is necessarily a defeat of BJP's Hindutva is based on simplistic and hollow arguments.
The author is a political commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
First Published:
May 29, 2025, 14:37 IST