India's Reality: Voting their Caste

The demand of pro-Muslim groups that any caste census should include them and all religions is legitimate. Depriving others would be a travesty of justice and contrary to the constitutional principles

- Manish Rohilla

BLACK’S Law Dictionary defines census as the official counting or enumeration of people of a state, nation or district. The first detailed pan-India caste census was conducted in 1881.

In India, caste-based census has seen its fair share of lows and highs. It was in 1891 that main castes and sub-division of castes was recorded in the census. Later, in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the caste of Hindus and Jains and tribe or race of other religions was recorded. Finally, in the 1921, 1931 and 1941 censuses, caste, tribe or race of all individuals enumerated was recorded. Post-independence, The Indian Census Act, 1948, came into force.

Pursuant to the policy of the government to discourage community distinction based on caste, the 1951 census marked a complete departure from the traditional recording of race, tribe or caste. And the only relevant question on caste or tribe incorporated in the Census Schedule was to enquire if the person enumerated was a member of any “Scheduled Caste”, “Scheduled Tribe”, any other “Backward Class” or if he was an “Anglo Indian”.

In the 1961 and 1971 censuses, information was collected only for SCs and STs. There has been a long-drawn debate for inclusion of caste as an important factor in the national census.

After a gap of 60 years, the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) was conducted during the Manmohan Singh regime. But there was a lot of criticism about its implementation and the detailed caste-based enumeration data never saw the light of day.