Who Is Afraid Of The Politics Of Caste?

The promise of a caste census could influence outcomes in the upcoming assembly elections but not do much for the cause of universal welfarism

- Suryakant Waghmore

Assembly elections have been announced in five states and caste census or politics of caste seems to have taken centre stage for parties opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s politics of Hindutva. The politics of caste is not necessarily identity politics. It has some emancipatory potential. Those at the margins, therefore, traditionally made claims for representation and recognition based on caste.

Kanshi Ram, the founder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who coined the slogan, Jiski Jitni Sankhya Bhaari Uski Utni Hissedari, has a very unlikely political inheritor in Rahul Gandhi now. Rahul Gandhi is now advocating a caste census and repeating the slogan of Kanshi Ram-which is in several ways antithetical to the political tradition of the Congress.

In academic and political circles alike, the caste census was considered a device of the colonial government to divide and discipline Indians. The last caste census was held in 1931 and no government since Independence has undertaken a caste census. At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, we gained freedom and thereafter, the State attempted to create a caste-free India under a framework of Nehruvian socialism. Both the Congress and the BJP have since then opposed a caste census and the former's position has been taken over by the latter now.

Today, the Congress is increasingly mimicking the "bahujanist" position on caste. A debate is raging over the moral, political and practical needs of a caste census as the Congress, along with its newfound love for bahujan politics and ideology, turns pragmatic. Do we need a caste census? What will it help achieve? What new aspect will it bring to our public life?