In a landmark transfer, the jap Indian state of Bihar has launched the findings of the first-ever caste census because the nation’s independence in 1947. The survey discovered that greater than two-thirds of the state’s inhabitants of 100 million individuals belonged to ‘backward’ or ‘backward’ individuals . marginalized communities.
As a part of the federal government’s decades-long affirmative motion, marginalized communities have been categorized as backward, extraordinarily backward, scheduled caste (the erstwhile ‘untouchables’) and scheduled tribes (the indigenous communities). India is among the most unequal international locations on the planet, with nearly all of sources and jobs within the palms of the privileged castes.
The findings have the potential to upend the nation’s politics, with calls for for the same nationwide census, opening the door for a assessment of the nation’s affirmative motion plans, amid requires proportionate advantages to be granted to marginalized castes in accordance with their share within the inhabitants. .
Nonetheless, these calls for threaten to weaken the maintain of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist get together, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), over many of those marginalized castes, simply months earlier than the 2024 common elections.
What does the Bihar caste census present and why are its findings so vital?
Though India’s Hindu group has historically been divided into totally different castes, correct information on the populations of those castes and sub-castes haven’t been obtainable for many years.
The final time a caste census was carried out was in 1931, when India was nonetheless underneath British colonial rule.
The shortage of current information meant that constructive motion was inadequate and infrequently deceptive. For instance, the Bihar caste census information exhibits that the dominant castes represent solely 15.5 p.c, whereas the marginalized castes represent as a lot as 84 p.c of the state’s inhabitants.
Regardless of this, affirmative motion for these marginalized castes has been restricted, with solely 50 p.c of presidency jobs and academic alternatives reserved for them.
Bihar’s transfer to make this information public is more likely to set off nationwide campaigns amongst marginalized communities to rethink affirmative motion insurance policies. As well as, these campaigns may trigger political unrest within the nation.
What do the findings say about India’s social construction?
It’s identified that the marginalized castes in India are deprived and undergo from lack of alternatives. They face widespread discrimination and stigmatization, though untouchability was abolished instantly after India’s independence.
Whereas the brand new information reiterates this, it provides a glimpse into the enormity of the issue. It’s a step in the direction of repeating that marginalized castes type probably the most dominant bloc in India’s social construction, but stay disadvantaged and discriminated in opposition to.
“The information reiterates how a small part of dominant castes have occupied and managed every part from politics to media to enterprise,” mentioned Yashwant Zagade, a researcher who research the politics of backward castes on the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). ).
India has grown into the fifth largest economic system on the planet, however the hole between the richest and the poorest individuals is big. Oxfam India, in its 2023 report, mentioned that 60 p.c of the nation’s wealth is held by the richest 5 p.c of its residents.
Why are Indian opposition events pushing for a nationwide caste census?
India’s opposition events, a part of a coalition referred to as INDIA, have pushed for the same caste census throughout the nation.
After a decade of electoral marginalization, opposition events are actually searching for to problem the BJP’s politics of Hindutva, highlighting rising inequality and company management over sources.
Opposition Congress Get together chief Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly pushed for proportional illustration of marginalized communities in getting their rights, relying on their share of the inhabitants.
After being criticized for failing to current an alternate imaginative and prescient for the nation, the opposition events appeared to have discovered their mojo in taking up Modi and his BJP by way of this difficulty. An awesome majority of Indians belong to marginalized castes. A 2021 Pew survey discovered this to be 69 p.c of India’s complete inhabitants.
By making their case, the opposition alliance hopes to woo them, broaden its widespread base and defeat the dominant BJP, which has gained two snug majorities since 2014.
Second, Modi has sought to blur caste traces and as an alternative consolidate assist for a unified Hindu id, as a part of his get together’s Hindutva agenda, which has polarized Indians alongside spiritual and ethnic traces. The BJP has been criticized for its canine whistle in opposition to Muslims, who make up about 15 p.c of India’s 1.4 billion individuals.
The brand new caste-based actions threaten to derail these efforts, specialists say.
“The demand for a caste census may create a brand new caste consciousness among the many numerous marginalized castes and threaten the Hindutva mission of the BJP,” Zagade mentioned. “If caste turns into the central difficulty, it’ll push Hindutva away,” he added.
Does this growth pose a menace to Modi and his get together’s dominance?
In its dominance over the previous decade, Modi’s BJP has sought to create a various voter base amongst Hindus, comprising each dominant and marginalized castes, together with tribals and Dalits.
Modi, who himself belongs to a ‘backward caste group’, has reiterated his caste id at public rallies to drum up assist.
Nonetheless, an opposition marketing campaign to push for extra rights for India’s marginalized castes may crack Modi’s assist base.
“Within the 2022 elections in Uttar Pradesh, Modi’s Different Backward Caste (OBC) vote fell. Subsequently, the BJP shall be fearful that this new growth may additional break its franchise,” mentioned Sudha Pai, political scientist and writer of a brand new e book that research the BJP’s maintain on Dalit politics. Dalits, the previous untouchables, are on the backside of the complicated Hindu caste hierarchy.
Historical past may additionally fear Modi and his aides. Within the early Nineteen Nineties, the BJP’s makes an attempt to come back to energy by way of a community-charged marketing campaign to construct a temple on the alleged web site of the beginning of the Hindu god Ram have been undermined by the Mandal Motion, which alternative and constructive motion.
The Mandal Motion has denied the facility of the BJP for a minimum of a decade. The opposition events hope for an encore. In consequence, whereas most different events, together with a few of the BJP’s allies, have pushed for a nationwide caste census, the BJP has remained reluctant to embrace this demand.
Modi, on the day the census findings have been introduced… accused the opposition events of “committing the sin” of “dividing the nation alongside caste traces”.
Will the caste census difficulty make caste a central difficulty in Indian politics?
Most observers consider it’s too early to say how the problem will develop, however in any case, caste identities shall be “some of the vital poles” within the 2024 common elections, when India elects a brand new authorities, mentioned Pai.
Zagade, the scholar, mentioned whereas the opposition events are eager to make a nationwide caste census their fundamental marketing campaign difficulty, their efforts on the bottom will resolve whether or not it’ll ring a bell with the meant beneficiaries.
“Political events should construct momentum on the problem and create consciousness amongst voters on how such caste information can profit them,” he added.
Specialists consider {that a} data-driven dialog on caste will allow equitable distribution of sources and alternatives to those that want them most.
“Thanks to those talks, we’ll see extra welfare applications for the backward castes, and extra budgetary allocations for them,” Pai added.
