A Caste Census Is a Pandora's Box That India Needs to Open Anyway

Caste enumeration is a necessary exercise that will inevitably change the composition and politics of this identity marker

- SANJOY CHAKRAVORTY

It appears that India's much delayed 2021 Population Census will likely take place in 2027 and that it will include caste enumeration. If this does happen and the results are released, we will see caste data at the national level for the first time after 1931. The demand for a caste census has been growing for years, especially from the Congress, several other members of the INDIA block and many states. In fact, the 2011 Census had included an enumeration of castes, but the data was never released (for reasons discussed below). Bihar conducted a state-level caste survey in 2022. The governments of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, among others, have been vociferous in their support of this step. With the acquiescence of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs this April, all major political interests are now aligned in favour of a caste census.

Caste demography represents a massive and critical gap in India's self-knowledge. There is some information on the most marginalized groups: Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who comprise roughly 16.6% and 8.6% respectively of the population. Together, they make up about one-quarter of the country's people. Another 20% are people who do not identify as Hindu: Muslims (14.2%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.7%), Buddhists (0.7%), Jains (0.4%) and others, according to the 2011 Census. That leaves about 55% of the Indian population as undifferentiated Hindus, including Forward and Dominant Castes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Therefore, the purpose of a caste census is primarily to disaggregate and understand the composition of this 55%.