Caste remains a vital axis for political mobilisation in India. How would the caste census address the aspirations of people? Discuss. (2025, 15 Marks)
On 30 April 2025 the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chose to enumerate caste across all communities in Census 2027, something no census has done since 1931. Parties have organised around caste since the first general election, yet caste policy has rested on estimates for nearly a century.
Caste as an Axis of Mobilisation
- Dipankar Gupta (Interrogating Caste, 2000) argues that democracy has turned a ritual ladder into discrete identities competing side by side, each claiming its own dignity and share.
- Tickets, ministries and welfare schemes are still apportioned with an eye on caste, and voters expect their own caste’s representatives to deliver.
- Mobilisation continues. Lokniti-CSDS found the NDA’s Dalit vote down about five points in 2024 amid fears for reservation. Dominant castes such as Marathas and Jats now seek backward status, and backward castes want shares matching their numbers, in the spirit of Kanshi Ram‘s call that each group’s share should follow its size.
How the Census Addresses Aspirations
- Recognition. Many small castes, such as nomadic and artisan groups, do not appear in any official statistics. Being counted gives them what Nancy Fraser calls recognition, the partner of redistribution.
- Evidence in place of estimates. The Mandal Commission’s 52% was extrapolated from 1931 data. SECC 2011 failed because it was not run under the Census Act and produced about 46 lakh unusable caste names. A count under the Census Act 1948 would give caste policy a legal statistical basis.
- Justice within categories. State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (2024) allows sub-classification only on quantifiable and empirical data. Pattali Makkal Katchi (2022) struck down Tamil Nadu’s Vanniyar quota because no quantifiable data supported it. A census would let the most backward sub-groups show they have been left out.
- Targeting. Caste data linked to education, assets and occupation would let scholarships and welfare reach particular groups.
- State precedents. Bihar’s 2023 survey counted 215 castes and found the politically prominent Yadavs to be 14.26% of the population. Telangana’s survey (released February 2025) put backward classes, including Muslim BCs, at about 56%.
Limits and Risks
- Pressure on the ceiling. Bihar raised reservation to 65% on the basis of its survey, and the Patna High Court struck the law down on 20 June 2024. National data will put more pressure on the 50% limit set in Indra Sawhney.
- Hardening identity. André Béteille and others warned that official counting gives caste new life. The largest groups may use numbers to bargain for bigger shares rather than help the most excluded.
- Data quality. The 2027 schedule records caste as an open-ended entry, and Tamil Nadu and Telangana have warned of a repeat of SECC’s confusion.
- Beyond quotas. Public employment is shrinking; jobs, schooling and health decide mobility.
Conclusion
The caste census answers the aspiration to be seen and counted, and gives the demand for fairness within reserved categories a basis in evidence. It cannot decide how the data will be used. Whether it widens access or becomes a bargain over shares depends on policy after 2027, backed by broader efforts towards social equality.