Who's afraid of caste census?
Jun 11th, 2010 -- Kancha Ilaiah
Ever since the Centre announced that it would collect data on various
castes during the ongoing Census, the media has created a hue and cry
saying that this would harm the nation and open a Pandora's Box of
caste conflicts. On the other hand, those who seek caste enumeration
are of the view that this would clear the cobwebs and deliver proper
data on other backward classes (OBCs) that will help implement
reservation policies and welfare schemes better.
The collection of caste data was not a decision taken by the
government on its own. The OBC leadership across the country has
demanded it and the Supreme Court advised the Centre to go for such a
Census to ensure that an accurate population database was made
available.
Let us not forget the fact that even at the time of the 2001 Census
there was a strong demand for caste census. The then deputy Prime
Minister L.K Advani, in fact, went on record to say that caste data
would be collected. But Right-wing academic forces — particularly a
group of sociologists and anthropologists — advised the Bharatiya
Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government not to go for
such an enumeration as it would go against the interests of the ruling
upper castes and communities.
It should be noted that the opposition to caste data has been coming
from upper castes that still control the levers of power. The lower
castes have never opposed such a proposal.
It is fallacious to argue that society would get further divided if
the population of each caste is known to the policymakers and to the
public.
Caste culture is all around us. In the dalit-bahujan discourse, the
upper castes are being shown as constituting less than 15 per cent.
This could be totally wrong. Even within the lower castes there are
several false claims about numbers. Every caste claims that it is
numerically the strongest and keeps asking for its "rightful" share.
How to tell them that their claims are wrong? When caste has become
such an important category of day-to-day reckoning it is important to
have proper data at hand to tell communities that they constitute this
much and cannot ask for more than their share.
It is true that we cannot distribute everything based on caste. But
caste census is the right basis for statistics such as literacy rate
and issues like the proportion of representation. Once we cite the
Census data there cannot be any authentic opposition to that evidence.
The upper caste intelligentsia is afraid that once detailed data on
number of people in lower castes is available it would become a major
ground for asking for accurate proportional representation in certain
sectors, such as education and employment.
For example, once the caste data is available, the 50 per cent limit
on reservations imposed by the Supreme Court could be questioned on
the basis of numbers. This would in turn help in sustaining the
overall system of liberal democracy. The system of democracy would
only get deeper with the discourse of numbers.
Democracy is in effect a system of numbers unlike communism, which
does not deal with numbers while institutionalising a government. In a
democracy, the governing system is institutionalised through an
electoral process and in such a system the people must be counted from
all angles — sex, race, religion, caste and so on. In a democracy
based on numbers, any section of society can come to power.
Based on the counting on the basis of religion, Hindus have realised
that they are the majority. And because of that understanding they
have claimed power. When Mahatma Gandhi suggested that Muhammed Ali
Jinnah should be made the first Prime Minister in order to avoid
Partition, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel put forth the argument
that India was a Hindu-majority nation and would not accept a Muslim
as its first Prime Minister. Where did the notion of Hindu
majoritarianism come from? It came from numbers.
With the same logic what is wrong if women, cutting across religious
divides, count themselves, and organise themselves to come to power?
They constitute about 50 per cent of the population and if they want
to fight for gender democracy, they too can come to power. So should
there be a demand for abolition of gender enumeration, too?
If caste census is done, the India democracy would thrive on the firm
support of the lower castes who keep hoping of getting their share
based on their numbers. The upper castes may feel desolate with the
system of democracy itself, if this shift begins to take place. They
might call such a shift "castocracy". But would they call a state or a
nation being ruled by women "womenocracy"?
Cognitive social psychology says all such theories are constructed on
a convenience known as "comfort zone". If brown upper castes live in
white societies they see brown bashing but black bashing remains
hidden in their blind spots. In white societies the browns are not in
their comfort zone but in India they are and do not want to see the
other's "discomfort zone".
Many upper caste intellectuals say that caste was a construction of
the colonial census system. They talk as if caste never existed before
the British started an enumerative process. By their logic we should
come to the conclusion that before the British enumerated people based
on religion, there were no religions in India. There are many such
blind spots in India and that is why we still remain backward in
theories of knowledge.
Let all castes — not just OBCs — be counted for strengthening our
democratic system. I know that even mine is a blind-spot theory but it
may have the effect of an antidote.
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