Caste Census: BJP Yields To The Congress Demand Of Caste Census Finally

Euphemisms, however artfully deployed, cannot mask the truth: the BJP-led government at the Centre has capitulated to the growing demand for a caste-based census. What was once dismissed as divisive and regressive is now being actively pursued under the weight of electoral necessity. This political volte-face is not rooted in ideological change but in a pragmatic understanding of ground realities — especially in caste-fractured states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where elections are won not on nationalistic rhetoric but on the arithmetic of social justice. The demand for a caste census has existed for decades, with support cutting across regional and ideological lines. Ironically, both the BJP and the Congress resisted it for a long time. The Congress, under political compulsion, eventually yielded and conducted a Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in 2011, along with the decennial census. However, by the time the data was ready, a new government led by Narendra Modi was in power. Rather than making the SECC findings public, the government chose silence — not offering any explanation for its reticence.

This deliberate suppression was not born out of administrative oversight but political calculation. The data, had it been released, would have revealed a more accurate picture of the caste composition of India — a picture that could upset the carefully balanced coalition of castes and communities that the BJP had sought to engineer. Instead, the government sat on the report, despite the fact that caste remains a primary criterion in the allocation of welfare benefits and job reservations. The decennial census, which was due in 2021, was first delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. But what followed was a conspicuous and deliberate silence. The Centre did not announce any new timeline for the census, reinforcing the suspicion that the real hesitation was rooted in the caste census question. To conduct a nationwide census without including caste data would invite criticism from opposition parties and social justice groups; to include it would risk unsettling the BJP’s narrative of a unified Hindu identity.

The change in stance must be understood in the context of the Bihar elections. In 2022, the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar conducted its own caste survey, revealing that over 60 per cent of the population belonged to either the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) or Other Backward Classes (OBCs), while Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for another 22 per cent. This means that upper castes, despite being a numerical minority, continue to wield disproportionate control over political and administrative power. Now that Nitish Kumar is aligned with the BJP, the party could no longer oppose caste-centric governance. In fact, the BJP had to tread carefully, knowing full well that its victory in Bihar during the previous elections hinged on a split in the Muslim vote rather than broad-based caste support. With such fragile arithmetic, Bihar is far from a safe bet for the BJP-JD(U) alliance.

It is in this light that one must interpret Prime Minister Modi’s urgency in joining the Bihar campaign, even cutting short his visit to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack. Equally worrying for the BJP is the precedent set by the Congress, which has gained political traction in Karnataka and Telangana by championing caste-based surveys and targeting welfare schemes accordingly. Caste politics is not a passing phenomenon in India; it is an entrenched reality, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These are states where identity determines opportunity, and numerical strength translates into electoral power. Parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Samajwadi Party have long understood this; their entire political strategy rests on a clear understanding of caste demography. This growing consensus among political players left the BJP with little choice but to revise its position. Not long ago, in September 2021, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that excluding caste data from the census, barring SCs and STs, was a “conscious decision”.

Yet, beyond the political compulsions, the very idea of a caste census raises uncomfortable questions. What does it say about India, a nation aspiring to be a global superpower in the 21st century, that it still identifies itself through thousands of castes and sub-castes? The last caste-based census was conducted in 1931 under British colonial rule, a fact that many post-Independence leaders used to distance themselves from the caste discourse. But the truth is that caste never disappeared; it merely went underground, only to resurface more visibly in the age of Mandal politics. The Mandal Commission’s recommendations for reservations for OBCs brought caste back into the national spotlight, leading to classifications within classifications: “most backward”, “backward”, and “extremely backward”. All this while, the data being used was based on extrapolations from the 1931 census, adjusted crudely for population growth. It was unscientific and insufficient for serious policymaking.

In this context, the need for a caste census becomes self-evident. If caste is to remain the basis for affirmative action, welfare distribution, and political representation, it is necessary to have accurate data. A modern, transparent, and methodologically rigorous caste census will not only correct historical distortions but also help governments design better policies to uplift the truly marginalised. Now that the BJP has agreed to conduct a caste census, there should be no further delay in launching the full census exercise. The findings will be more authentic than piecemeal surveys conducted at the state level and will enable a national consensus rooted in evidence rather than political conjecture.

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