The caste survey conducted by the government of Bihar in 2023 set off a series of political aftershocks. First, the state cabinet decided to enhance caste-based reservation from 50 percent to 65 percent, and added 10 percent for the economically weaker sections. Then it formed the basis for the INDIA bloc, especially the Congress, to take it up as a national issue. The moves are efforts at achieving development with justice through positive discrimination.
The Preamble to the Constitution embodies the considered idea of India, which emerged through rigorous informed deliberations during the freedom struggle and was consolidated in the Constituent Assembly debates. After independence, India adopted a course of democracy and moved ahead step by step to realise those dreams of liberty, equality and fraternity through the creation of democratic values, institutions, laws and policies to address the challenge of correcting historical discriminations.
In order to bring the marginalised into the mainstream of development, the numbers of the caste census of 1931 were taken into consideration, as there was no other authentic data available—that is, till the Bihar census. The initiatives of positive discrimination got space, and many committees and commissions were put in place at the Centre as well as in states towards achieving this goal.
The initiatives included reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the Other Backward Classes (OBC). Further re-categorisation of the OBCs into the so-called creamy and non-creamy layers, extremely backward classes (EBC) and non-EBCs was also based on such extrapolation.
Therefore, fresh data on the distribution and structure of castes in India is the need of the hour. The Bihar survey provided a new dataset for the state with wider caste configurations, going ahead with 215 sub-castes even after the Rohini Commission’s deliberations, keeping in mind positive discrimination for delivering development with justice.
The to-and-fro on the Bihar census was revealing. It was the Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal that first raised the call for caste to be included in the 2021 census. Nitish Kumar followed suit and the proposal was moved in the state assembly and council on February 18, 2019; it was passed unanimously for recommendation to the Centre and a letter dated April 8 was sent. The support was reiterated unanimously on February 27, 2020 and the recommendation resent. An all-party delegation met the PM on August 23, 2021 to press the issue.
However, the BJP government at the Centre developed cold feet. Given the pandemic and other issues, it has not been able to conduct even the 2021 national census till date. This was the first time in the history of Indian census that a central government, voted to power with a clear majority, could not conduct the census in time. This provided an edge to the RJD-Janata Dal (United) combine to conduct the caste survey in Bihar. Although a saffron outfit went to court against the survey and the high court stayed it, the Supreme Court vacated the stay.
The survey conducted included salient caste-based indicators such as residential status, occupational structure, employment, monthly income, educational status and migration—besides counting citizens by the 215 caste categories. The report provides valuable inputs about many sub-castes. BCs and EBCs in the state constitute 27.13 percent and 36.01 percent, respectively. Among the BCs, Yadavs emerged with the highest population share at 14.27 percent, followed by Kushwaha (4.21 percent), Kurmi (2.87 percent), and Bania (2.31 percent). Among the EBCs, Telis emerged with the highest share (2.81 percent), followed by Mallah (2.61 percent). Among the SCs, the Dusadh, Dhari and Dharhi have the largest presence in the state with 5.31 percent, followed by the Chamar, Mochi, Rabidas, Rohidas and Charmakar with 5.26 percent, and Musahar with 3.09 percent.
Muslims constitute 17.71 percent of the population, but after this survey, they are no longer a monolithic category. The non-general castes among Muslims emerged as a 12.92 percent chunk, and general-caste Muslims constitute only 4.79 percent. Hence, the Pasmandas will have a stronger voice in their solidarity with the politics of BCs and EBCs.
Thus, political polarisation on the basis of religion may get diluted in Bihar after this survey. Moreover, the switching over of Nitish Kumar to the NDA before the general elections cemented the Muslims’ alliance with the INDIA bloc, and the division of secular votes by Nitish Kumar in favour of the BJP will be relatively difficult. Thus the caste survey may have reconfigured the political chemistry and social engineering needed in seat- and power-sharing as well.
The survey also reveals the caste-wise break-up of living conditions in terms of the highest incidences of poverty, with low education and poor residential conditions among the BCs, EBCs and SCs, despite an appreciable growth of infrastructure in Bihar with previous ‘double-engine’ governments. That’s why the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre did not want to get any uncomfortable data through the census in general and a caste census in particular before the parliamentary elections this year.
Rahul Gandhi has been trying to connect with people across India through his yatras, where he has been categorically assuring people that his combine would conduct a caste census, bring a law for minimum support prices, provide 30 lakh jobs every year and assured income to women. It remains to be seen whether these assurances would have a positive impact in upcoming elections.
It was difficult for the BJP to denounce a caste census publicly, but it tried to change the political narrative through the politicisation of the Ram temple consecration, uniform civil code discussion, and Citizenship (Amendment) Act notification. It shows that the BJP does not want to leave any stone unturned to turn the tide in its favour despite having adverse hard facts on the economy. The government announced relatively early that it would continue the free ration scheme for about 800 million people, which itself is an acknowledgement of the crisis for the majority of the masses even after a decade of ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas’.
D M Diwakar
Former Director, A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna
(Views are personal)
(dmdiwakar@gmail.com)