Caste and Census

Not surprisingly, the Group of Ministers has decided to go in favour of the first caste Census of independent India. The last caste Census was in 1931. Though the first Commission on Backward Classes under Kaka Kelkar had recommended a caste census in 1953, the government had rejected it then, upholding Sardar Patel's words that 'A caste census would never be held in independent India.' How the times have changed indeed!

Caste in India is a phenomenon that has defied all attempts to destroy it. It survives through Khap panchayats, honour killings and forced marriages. It is a fundamental factor in deciding one's status in the society. The same government that claims to be fighting against casteism, refuses to grant reservation based on economic criteria and chooses caste as the basis instead. This is an example of how the policy of government is different from the actual ground position.

So, finally, let us face the truth. Caste will not go away from the Indian society. Even the religions transplanted to India which originally had nothing to do with caste now promote and practise their own versions of casteism. Indeed it appears that the line 'Kuch baath hai ki hasthi mit-thi nahi hamari' was written about the survival of the caste system through the centuries. Buddhism failed, Jainism failed, even Islam failed in spite of its idea of 'Universal Brotherhood'. What can a mere government do to eliminate a system that even Gods and their prophets failed to change?

The government seems to have recognised that instead of hanging on to the utopian dream of Sardar Patel of 'an India of equal citizens', it is better to do some real work on the ground to uplift the citizens belonging to the so-called 'Backward Castes' of India. The Caste Census will provide the Government with accurate data of the beneficiaries it intends to target in its programmes for 'inclusive growth'. It is quite bewildering to think that the government had been relying on the extrapolations of the 1931 Census data and sample surveys to calculate the number of people belonging to the Backward Classes. So it is well and good that the government has finally decided to go in for caste census.

The opinion that the Census would divide the country on caste line is illogical. Caste considerations influence politics heavily even otherwise. One has to just look at the candidate list and the dominant castes in the constituencies they are contesting to be convinced of it. This tendency has already reached its peak in India. The census is in no way going to accentuate it.

However, it is one of the paradoxes of history that the caste census would take place along with the biometric stage. Mixing the highly sophisticated technical stage with the archaic caste consideration. Symbolic of India - on the path of growth with the help of technology but still heavily influenced by irrational cultural elementts. One is tempted to say 'It happens only in India!'