Caste is back. The recent release of data by the Bihar government of its specific caste ‘survey’—remember, a ‘census’ is not appropriate yet—has set caste among the pigeons. Caste is really the cat that has lived among us all along. A cat we imagine doesn’t even exist. But it does.
Caste and its sub-variants of every kind are really the lowest common denominators of differentiation that Indian society has lived with for years. India has believed in this item of differentiation since forever, if the 3,000-plus years of history of the caste system is to be believed. This rather rigid differentiation system has been the operating system of our society for a long time.
In the last several years, caste has become a politically incorrect terminology to seek out, use and talk about in civilised society. You never go out and ask a person his, her or their caste today. Application forms for various government services, which would hitherto ask for this data, are that much more circumspect on this ask today. Caste, however, has gone nowhere despite all this. It lives and thrives in our midst, in our society, in our institutions, and most importantly, in the politics of the land. Whenever the political class has found it expedient to use it, it has. And whenever it has thought it not to be, it has been brushed under the carpet. As of last week, this carpet has just been dusted, and the dust of debate is all around. Let me add my two bits to it as well.
If we peep into our society and our daily lives, caste bothers few in the big metropolis. It starts taking on a life and meaning of its own as we dive deeper into the terrains of the smaller towns, villages, and more so the deep rural spaces. The deeper you go, the more caste you find. Caste is therefore as real as it is being made out to be.
Indian society is all about its many divisions. Politicians in the decades after independence have seen it expedient to use these divisions to their advantage. The first division is that of religion. India today boasts of three big religions which comprise the bulk of the nation’s population: Hindus (79 per cent), Muslims (15 per cent) and Christians (2 per cent). The division then deepens within each religion on many counts. Caste and denomination is but one. Add to it the very important issue of those deprived and those not. Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Economically Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, and more. Add a gender subdivision to each of these categories, and the complexity of the caste and reservation debate comes to the fore. Add a number to complicate it as well. India today has 3,000 castes and as many as 25,000 sub-castes on the roster.
The current debate stoked by the Bihar government and its caste survey is set to cascade into a talking point of big impact as we near the 2024 general elections in India. Politicians of every ilk understand clearly that the basic division of society along religious lines has been done and laid out deep and clear. Newer formations such as the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, and older formations that do not belong to the ruling National Democratic Alliance coalition are going to dip into this new-old issue and monetise it for votes. The idea is a simple one. Divisions on the basis of religion have been done to death. Time to go micro. The biggest piece of Indian society is Hindu society. There is a sitting opportunity to micro-divide on the basis of caste. The old debate during and prior to Mandal was all about the forward castes versus the backward castes (the latter was weighted heavily in numbers). If the idea then was to keep the upper classes away from reservations, the current caste survey cry seems to be to give every part of society its share. The “jitni aabadi, utna haq” call is a conscious strategic call of opposition parties in India to micro-divide the debate. To advantage.
If one just peeps into the data in the Bihar caste survey, the upper castes occupy a small 15.54 per cent. The balance 84.46 per cent comprises people who belong to every other caste constellation. If you peep into the composition of Bihar’s society in terms of education opportunities, particularly at the secondary and higher education levels, the caste survey throws up disparities that are rather glaring. The same is true when it comes to jobs on offer and its current occupants. Merit aside, if you count castes, sub-castes, the many years of affirmative action and more, the picture can look embarrassing.
Therefore, do you want to change the way you look at reservations—in education and jobs—as it is in practice in India today? Must you change it altogether based on real-time caste dispersions and their economic status? And what is the end goal of affirmative action and its many tools that India has used since independence? How many more years will it take for India to stand up proudly and say that all Indians are alike and all Indians have equal opportunities to excel?
Indian society has many needs, wants, desires and aspirations. When we talk caste and its many dimensions, we still talk at the level of ‘basic need’. Food, water, clothing and shelter are the real basic ones. Add to it education and all our basic rights as enshrined in the Constitution of India, and that is our ‘basic want’. If you add reservations in education and jobs for the most depressed and oppressed parts of society, that is a matter of ‘basic desire’. And now, as the caste debate cascades into a robust political movement of the future at the grassroots level of Indian democracy, caste-based reservations (for both the creamy and not so creamy layer of Indian society) all across will be positioned as a ‘basic aspiration’ for all. Watch the election campaigns for 2024 for more.
There is an important question to answer at this juncture. Should India’s long-delayed decennial census (next in 2025) be an all-India caste census as well? Should it be one that collects details of both caste and economic status of every individual? And will this be the basic clamour of the 2024 elections? Has Nitish Kumar set the caste among the pigeons?