What are the key goals of caste quantity?

Calculate more: PATNA: Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram celebrates the decision of the Centre to enumerate castes on May 1, 2025 in Patna. Image source: PTI

Story so far: The union cabinet has decided that the next census will include the caste issue listed on the Indian population for the first time in nearly a century. The decision is a reversal of the stance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling to date, leading the important elections in Bihar and posing numerous challenges.

Have Indians been counted by caste before?

When Britain first began to calculate the population of India in 1881, caste data were included in the collected information. Over the next half century, the tenth-grade census collected caste information. The last time the data was released was the 1931 census, which had 4,147 castes and subseeds nationwide. Although the 1941 census during the war also collected data from various castes, it has never been published. After India gained independence, the government decided to avoid caste issues in the census and count only the predetermined castes and tribes (SCS/STS).

In the report of the 1931 Census, then-business specialist JH Hutton refuted the arguments of those who did not wish to collect data on caste and religious, citing that they would permanently divide and noted that “but,” the census cannot cover its head like the well-known ostrich, but must be recorded as well as the well-known ostrich, but must be recorded so accurately. “Based on their perceived class in society, he defeated Britain’s previous attempts to list the hierarchy of caste hierarchies and instead chose to use occupations as the basis for classification, although this did not account for the mobility of caste identities and the changes in caste names across time and geographic locations. The 1931 census data was also the basis for the work retained half a century later. It found that 52% of the country’s population belonged to castes later classified as another backward category (OBC) category, which became the basis for the Mandal Commission’s recommendation for the 27% quota for OBC in education and government work.

In 2011, as part of its Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), the Ministry of Rural Development began another kind of caste practice. The data collected is intended to be used for research and policy development and effective design and implementation of development and welfare programs. Although a portion of the data was released in 2016, raw data on specific caste populations were not included. When the SECC left its problem on the caste open-ended rather than having them select castes from the set list, respondents often entered their last name, meaning that the SECC enumerator calculated over 4.6 million different castes.

Does a single state calculate caste?

At least three states conducted caste census. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led an effort to investigate the state’s caste breakup in 2023, finding that OBC and the extremely backward classes (EBC) account for more than 63% of the state’s population has stirred up a political pot demanding a higher representation of these castes in these politics, education and employment. The powers on Telangana in 2023 were based in part on its commitment to conduct a caste survey, which was released in 2024 and showed that the lagging class accounts for more than 56% of the state’s population. The caste investigation in Karnataka was also commissioned by the Congress government, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his first term in 2015. However, the results were released only ten years later and showed that the state's OBC population was nearly 70%.

What will this data be used for?

In addition to being used in academic research and policy making, the key import of caste data from a public and political perspective is the change it will drive in affirmative action or retention policies. According to the 1931 census forecast, the OBC education and government post quota was set for 27%; the new caste number could subvert these estimates well.

For example, in Karnataka, the caste survey found that the OBC population was much higher than the estimate, so there was a requirement to increase the state's quota from 32% to 51%. The hustle and bustle of more reservations, supported by caste population data, could also lead to the challenge of 50% reservations stipulated by the Supreme Court.

What is the background of this decision?

The decision of the BJP-led government is surprising, as the demand for caste census has been a major slat in the opposition polling movement. The BJP has long resisted demand, accusing Congress of using caste to divide Indians. Nityanand Rai's family secretary even answered questions in parliament, insisting that there was no plan to include caste in the next census, which was a “policy issue”.

However, the Bihar caste investigation triggered a political tinderbox that carried it into the 2024 general election. The opposition has also sparked fear among voters in its social justice movement that the BJP is seeking a vast majority to eliminate reservations and amend the constitution, which has led many voters to lower their votes in many constituencies.

Before the Bihar parliamentary elections, the decision to “steal thunder” in caste from opposition campaigns will certainly become a question of polls. The BJP is seeking to re-narrative narrative, claiming that Congress is all talkative and has no action because it never conducted a caste census at the national level when the center was in power. While the opposition is trying to demand the credibility of the government forcing the government to make this decision, it also involves the next step of the logic of the next step, requiring the retention of the findings of the caste census and seeking to violate the Supreme Court’s 50% cap.

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What is the implementation timetable?

The gain announced by the Centre is that the date of the next census has not been notified. The last census was held in 2011, and the 2021 census was delayed indefinitely, initially due to the 19th pandemic. The increase in caste components involved more census officials.

The next step will be to draft the caste code directory used in the census. Unlike SECCs that have an open query on the defendant’s caste, the census will likely provide respondents with a drop-down list of choices. Given that the center and state have different and often controversial OBC lists, how castes will be listed is a thorny political question. Language and regional diversity in caste names, dividing castes into sub-seeds over time, and disagreements about whether a particular caste is suitable for SC, OBC, or general categories can complicate the process. Religion put another factor into the mix and raised questions about how to recognize non-Indian groups and whether they would gain benefits based on caste census.