The Caste Census

The caste census. Not to be confused with the population census. The last caste census was conducted in 1931 under British rule. If it wasn’t conducted for almost a century, why is it being conducted again now?

 

Advocates for it say it is necessary to know the right numbers to serve as the basis for upliftment schemes and reservations. Opponents say it would only entrench the caste-based identity even further; that it would foment sub-divisions within caste as each group tries to grab a bigger share of the scheme/reservation pie.

 

Anand Teltumbde wrote a book on the topic titled The Caste Con Census. I haven’t read it and have only read Pranay Kotasthane’s review of the book. Kotasthane says he read the book because the author is a “data science professor, a Marxist”. In other words, a person who understands data and how it can be used, and with a worldview that most of us (Kotasthane included) do not subscribe to. Always good to read the views of someone you don’t agree with…

 

Teltumbde states right at the beginning that he is against a caste census. Why? He says, a caste census is not a neutral counting activity. Instead:

“Like its colonial predecessor, today’s caste census risks becoming a commanding ritual—one that does not simply reflect caste realities but actively shapes them, making caste more legible, administrable and politically salient.”

 

Teltumbde believes (like many including Shashi Tharoor in An Era of Darkness) that the oppressive caste system was definitely seeded and perpetuated by the Brahmins, but it was institutionalized by the British. Or to use a more descriptive phrase, the British “bureaucratized caste”. Why? Multiple reasons – for ease of organization, and yes, good old divide and rule.

“The bureaucratic recognition of caste accorded it semi-permanence and froze the caste status of communities in exchange for official recognition or state-provided benefits.”

Sadly, he says, even after independence, we have continued that practice of a “bureaucratized caste”.

 

Reservations were created with good intent – to uplift the lower castes who were denied all kinds of opportunities. But it got weaponized, as a tool for gaining votes and power. Even worse, no end date or exit criteria was ever defined for ending reservations. When/on what basis would we say “Mission accomplished”? And so it (reservation) continues endlessly. And since reservation doles out benefits, it creates the perverse incentive to identify oneself by caste so one is eligible for those benefits. The tool (reservation) that was intended for a good purpose now perpetuates the very system it was supposed to erase!

 

There are several points (as per the book review) that sound illogical and even contradictory, so I won’t go into that. But the above points do seem valid.

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