The Politics of Caste Census

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with a delegation of leaders from ten parties from the State, including RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and BJP representatives, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to press for a caste census. It is understood  PM Modi  did not give any assurances, though the meeting was described as positive.

So far the BJP has walked a tightrope on the issue, with leaders from Bihar speaking in favour of a caste census while the party leadership at the Centre has kept mum. The wider implication of such a census rests majorly on the party’s carefully crafted OBC (Other Backward Classes) bloc in Uttar Pradesh.

Given that the last caste census was done in 1931, the delegation argued that it would be a historic step, if the Prime Minister was to hold a census now.

Chief Minister Kumar said “Every person no matter which caste or religion he is from wants the caste census to take place. Once we have the caste data, then we can formulate policies for upliftment of each and every caste.”

Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a critic of the Chief Minister was part of the delegation said “The caste census is in national interest. It will help the poor and deprived sections of the society.” The caste census has seen a rare coming together of Yadav and Kumar despite their bitter against each other during the Assembly polls of 2020.

Congress MLA Ajit Sharma, who also attended the meeting, said that the caste census will remove the current hostility about reservation. “The census is essential to identify the creamy layer who have been cornering the reservation benefits so far which irks the forward caste,” Mr. Sharma said.

The recent narrative on caste census built up by the Bihar parties could impact the U.P. elections. A senior leader who was part of the delegation, said that when every political party in the country is demanding a caste census and with BJP themselves claiming that they are not against it, the Centre will be hard put to delay it.

“The OBC community in every State is getting restive. They feel that their population which is more than 55%, is not getting the benefits that they deserve. The reservation somehow is only applicable to class four posts. There is not a single secretary in any of the ministries here in Delhi who is from the OBC community,” JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi said.

Caste census and quotas a political minefield

A proper caste census, the last such census being the one done in 1931, is a long-standing demand that ruling national parties have managed to put off by substituting the census with a slightly different methodology that has far-reaching consequences. The Congress agreed to a caste census and then ended up by substituting it with the Socio-Economic and Caste Census in 2011. The data on caste was never fully released.

The BJP is in much the same boat. It agrees that a caste count should be done, but it refuses to commit to a census. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his  meeting with the all-party delegation led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, remained non-committal.

Caste census is not simply a head count: In the view of Shikha Mukerjee (senior journalist in Kolkata) “neither he nor the BJP can disagree with the demand for a caste census, nor can they afford to accept and agree to such an exercise. A caste census is not simply a head count; it comes with a commitment to reframe policies that fix the problems of inequality, relative deprivation and the skewed distribution of benefits to those castes and sub-castes that are found to be worse off and it reveals both the successes and the failures of the State in addressing the problem of marginalisation and deprivation and backwardness.

The OBC card: “One estimate indicates that of the 2,633 OBC sub-castes that figure in the Centre’s list for reservations in jobs, almost one-fourth or 25 per cent have been filled from about 10 dominant OBC sub-castes.”

Across politically crucial states, writes Mukerjee “the BJP’s success in pulling in OBC voters -- that is, the middle order that understands its strength and has learnt to use it -- has delivered some outstanding victories as the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies survey report reveals. In Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP pulled in between 41 per cent and 47 per cent OBC votes. In Karnataka it pulled in 50 per cent OBC votes for the Lok Sabha and 43 per cent for the state Assembly. In Bihar, in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP pulled in 26 per cent OBC votes; in the Assembly elections in 2020, the BJP pulled in only 19 per cent of OBC votes while the RJD garnered 29 per cent.

“The difference in voteshare between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls is the challenge that OBCs and the various sub-castes into which they are divided present to a ruling national party that is seeking re-election. The difference in the way OBCs voted is the capacity they have to negotiate.

“Passing the buck to the states as the BJP did with graceless haste in the recently-held Monsoon Session of Parliament by passing the 127th constitutional amendment that restores to the states the power to draw up their own OBC lists has not distracted politically savvy OBC leaders from their demand for data with which they know they can drive a much harder bargain.”

And significantly, “having allowed Mr Modi to play the OBC listing card, the BJP is now faced with the task of either doing it or ducking it. In both situations it will have to pay for the dissatisfaction that will follow from drawing up a fresh list of OBCs and the creamier layer; in key states including UP, Karnataka, Gujarat and Bihar, where it is in power, and in states like Rajasthan, Odisha and Maharashtra, where it is the party in waiting, the BJP has made its life more difficult.

“Caste politics, as the Bihar delegation’s visit underscored, is not a parcel that can be passed. It is a field of unchecked landmines that can explode under the slightest pressure. To negotiate about marginalisation within an already marginalised group based on contending  perceptions, because Mr Modi will not call for a caste census, is dangerously risky. Using an Excel sheet to calculate the incalculable effects of perception and dissatisfaction will be the BJP leadership’s biggest challenge.”

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