Will the Modi Government Carry Out the Caste Census or Will it Remain an Eyewash?

On April 30, the Modi government took a sudden decision to include enumeration of caste in the forthcoming decadal national census. The founding fathers of the RSS − K.B Hegdewar and M.S.Golwalkar – would have never imagined such a step by a BJP  Government.

Both these founding fathers had the same mindset that the Poona Brahmins had during Mahatma Jyotirao Phule’s times. All of them believed that the caste system was part of the Sanatan Dharma. Their stand was that the Shudras/Dalits could never claim equality. Spiritual, social and educational equality were believed to be foreign to the Indian parampara (tradition) by all RSS leaders.

The idea of caste census is based on a modern democratic belief system that caste should be abolished and drive Indian society towards absolute equality. This is one of the ideals of Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar.

The underlying philosophy of Sanatan Dharma is that caste is created by divine intervention  and it can never be abolished. Democracy however believes that every individual, irrespective of caste, creed and sex should live as equals. The Hindutva school was against such democratic ideals .

However, the RSS ideologues, after forming the Jana Sangh and later the BJP, thought that caste must be only used for the advantage of upper castes by not allowing its identity to express itself in the political and spiritual domain, though it could be manipulated in the electoral arena. A national caste census will  go against that central ideology of the RSS/BJP.

Caste census and Congress

The last caste census data was collected in the 1931 decadal census by the British regime. That was the growth period of the Congress party under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi to achieve independence from the British. Most Congress leaders had the same mindset that the RSS top ideological leaders had on caste questions.

They too did not want caste to be abolished. Hence the  enumeration of caste by the British Government in the decadal census was seen by them against Indian parampara and the Hindu social order. The British enumerating caste was seen as a conspiracy.

Even in the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar had to struggle a lot to use the word caste among the conservative Sanatan ideologues all around, irrespective of their political affiliation. Among upper caste leaders of that era, except Rammanohar Lohia, no one else had an open stand on the Shudra/Dalit liberation question.

Nehru was more worried about other pressing issues as the Prime Minister and also believed in the theory of merit not social reform by confronting the caste system. But Ambedkar kept the lamp burning all his life time outside of and inside the Constituent Assembly. He continued that strategy while he was part of the Government till 1953.

His conversion to Buddhism sent a message that if the Indian constitutional democracy could not address caste issues, the oppressed castes would go out of Hinduism. This was a shock to the RSS. However, the Congress managed the system with the ideology of secularism. All university research programmes were confined to secularism and democracy without allowing any research on the caste system.  It was the 1990s Mandal movement that brought caste to the central stage because V.P. Singh was willing to allow that.

A turning point in the Congress history

Caste was the most difficult disease among the upper castes till Rahul Gandhi came to the political scene and demanded the ‘X-Ray of the country’ in his 2024 election rallies after making it part of the party’s election manifesto. That was a major turning point in the history of Congress.

Even at that point, the other Congress upper caste leaders were of the opinion that Rahul's caste census agenda was a negation of their history. But Rahul took an anti-caste movement leader's position much more categorically than Rammanohar Lohia and V.P. Singh.

Even after becoming the leader of the opposition after the 2024 elections he continued that position. Now his position in the Congress is more credible because the RSS/BJP has had to accept his demand. The detractors have nowhere to go.

The RSS/BJP upper caste forces around Narendra Modi had to accept to go for such an X-Ray because the OBCs in India now found a national leader having come from the same Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi family to take up their cause.

Also Read: How a Caste Census Can Lead Us Towards a Casteless India

Rahul has created an atmosphere of inevitability. He asked Telangana Government to go for the caste census and also asked the  Karnataka Government to release the caste survey done by the Siddaramaiah Government in 2015.  Rahul took serious political risk in pushing the issue to that far.

Let us not forget the fact that even Nitish Kumar went for a caste survey much against the will of the BJP when he was part of INDIA alliance within Bihar along with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The BJP had a serious problem with such a historical issue being raised, one that went against their ideological parampara.

A sudden turn

History of caste has turned 360 degrees after the Modi government’s announcement. The BJP ministers and leaders are attacking the Congress, particularly Nehru as anti-OBC reservationist after this turn. Its tongue twisting talk has really got exposed now. If there was anything that the RSS agreed with Nehru, was the question of avoiding caste census.

Now BJP spokespersons are projecting their Government as pro-OBC and pro-caste census, though they were opposed to the caste enumeration till just the other day.

The Congress and other regional parties must now see that the caste census takes place on a scientific basis. Just adding one column in the questionnaire is not enough. This is where the Telangana socio-economic, educational, employment and political caste survey, 2025 provides a good model.

The Registrar and Census Commissioner of India as a Constitutional body must take an autonomous view of the census and collect all possible methodological information from Telangana, Karnataka and Bihar Governments. This will not be a one time exercise. Every decadal census has to include caste census hereafter.

 The future discourse

The future caste discourse, in my view, is not for settling historical scores. But it will be and should be for changing the stagnant systems of India since millennia. Now the BJP, particularly Modi, will try to use this step for his advantage and the Congress has to unify its anti-census forces within its ranks. Several intellectuals, who held high administrative positions during the Congress regimes till 2014 were against caste census.

This is what Rahul Gandhi realised while pushing the caste census agenda and removal of the 50 percent cap. The RSS.BJP upper caste leaders saw the writing on the wall and took this decision.

The left parties were also against caste census and mobilising the OBCs around the idea of human equality and casteless society. The BJP Government’s sudden announcement about caste enumeration has created an ideological crisis among all parties, organisations, NGOs, individual intellectuals who were opposed to caste census.

So long as only Rahul Gandhi was speaking about caste census in India and outside, they thought that he was crazy. Many said that he was a man of without serious ruling and leadership qualities. But now he will be seen as a major change maker.

Also Read: What Does Telangana’s Survey Reveal About Caste Structures Among Muslims?

However, this turn of events would not have happened without the more conscious post-Mandal OBC electoral power. It is the educated OBC youth and leadership that has changed the course of history.

Now let us wait and see whether the BJP Government will really carry out a caste census or it will be just remain an eyewash announcement.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal top leaders and the Brahmin sadhus, etc. had hoped that RSS would never allow this to happen. Even the monopoly houses supporting the RSS/BJP for the last ten years thought that Rahul’s movement would fail because the RSS would not allow the caste census to happen. But now it is on the cards.

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author. He is the Vice-Chairman of Independent Expert Committe that the  Telangana Government constituted to examine its Caste Survey data and how it should be used for social justice governance.

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