WHY IS CASTE BASED CENSUS LIKE A RED RAG TO A BULL?
T.G. Jacob
The biggest population census of the world is in doldrums. The census process had already started when the issue of caste based census cropped up. Very fast the ruling coalition as well as all the other mainstream parties got embroiled in the issue with individual political parties themselves facing divergent opinion within them due to the caste composition. The media is yet to address the issue in its many serious ramifications but the latent seriousness is clear.
The question is by no means a new one. Ever since the preparations for the first census in post-47 India were made demands were always there for caste based census. But none of the successive central governments paid any heed to this demand which was made mainly by the Dalits and other oppressed castes and communities. Subsuming caste identities under phony egalitarian nomenclatures had over a period of time become the standard reply of the policy makers and bureaucrat politicians in power. At the same time numerous demands and agitations on the exact status of castes cropped up in different parts of the country and these were mainly triggered by the limited advantages accruing from the policy of reservations which are enshrined in the Constitution of the country itself. The phenomenon of caste, instead of disappearing as thought by the official leftists, has only become ever more complex over the last few decades. It has become a tinder box with multidimensional consequences which do erupt from time to time.
It is simply ridiculous to listen to those who do not want a caste based census. They assert that such a procedure will only “resurrect” the “divisive” forces of caste which will not be for the good of the nation. There is absolutely no need for resurrecting caste. Instead of being dead it is very much alive and is growing in complexity and strength. This is not to say that caste is something static. With the growth of industrialization caste has been effectively exported to the cities and towns too. And the oppressor castes have cornered the gains of industrialization because to start with they are in an advantageous position. It is also interesting to note that these very same people are those who are dead against any reservations to the marginalized and oppressed castes and communities vociferously asserting that reservations drag down the quality of services while what they call “merit” keeps the quality of man power high. All their arguments are ostensibly cloaked with the welfare and progress of the nation not themselves. When the Mandal Commission report was accepted by the V.P. Singh government the Pandora’s Box burst open and their real fangs came out with the Brahmins and the brahminised going berserk on the streets. In the elite educational institutions of the country any talk of reservations or its proper implementation is a perennial red rag to the bull.
Caste as a social and economic categorization has a long history and it is mainly a history of rampant multifaceted oppression and discrimination. None of the anti-caste religious and social movements could ever succeed in eliminating this vicious monster. Buddhism which was the most powerful challenge to caste system was physically eliminated from the land of its origin. Other movements like the Basaveswara movement were first physically attacked and then co opted into the folds of Hinduism. The same happened to many other reform movements. The resilience of the caste system is well known. Dr Ambedkar along with many other Dalit leaders understood very well that elimination is the only way out of the vicious system but ultimately he had to settle for reservations thinking that it will be a means to gradually mitigate the more open vicious characteristics of the caste system. Even then the elite educational institutions and services were assiduously kept out of the reach of the oppressed. It is in this background that we have to look at the demand for caste based census.
Actually, caste based census should not be confined merely to population figures alone as is being contemplated at present. It should be much more comprehensive and exhaustive covering every aspect of social and economic life. Such caste based data will go a long way in defining the exact status of the oppressed castes, which is very much necessary for planning and implementing measures of ameliorative nature. Distribution of productive assets, especially land, is highly uneven between castes and communities and from micro studies it is evident that this unevenness has become more acute over the last few decades. Moreover the victims of the so-called development are predominantly the oppressed castes and tribes which mean that the phenomenal growth of the corporate sector has dispossessed millions belonging to the oppressed castes. Those who are dispossessed in this manner have no other option but to become slum dwellers in urban and semi urban shanties leading a highly insecure and below subsistence level existence. In all these processes the caste bias is prominent. As far as reservation goes it is well known that only in the lowest paid and meanest occupations reservations are implemented while in the higher paid and better off jobs the eternal argument for not implementing the Constitutional provisions is that lack of minimum qualifications for such jobs are absent in the case of the oppressed castes members.
1931 census was the last one that took the caste variable for enumeration and it was by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. An exhaustive caste based census which will cover all the social and economic variables will certainly present the relative and absolute position of the oppressed castes and this will be uncomfortable for the ruling classes. It will expose the bankruptcy of claims of welfare of the vast majority of the oppressed people/castes which will have political consequences and it is precisely this consequence that is sought to be avoided. In the absence of scientific data vested interests like the far right Hindu communalists are able to spread canards about minority communities and oppressed castes which are reactionary to the extreme. The question of religious conversions and blind assertions concerning the so called disproportionate increase in the population of Muslims are obvious illustrations of such anti-people reactionary propaganda.