Caste census: A controversy since 1910

Counting Dalits among Hindus in the census has been contentious in the past. While dominant caste Hindus did not want the caste column in the questionnaire, Muslims opposed counting Dalits as Hindus. 

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ON Monday, Indian National Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said at a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting that a nationwide caste-based census would be conducted if the party is voted to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Kharge also tweeted the promise, detailing that a caste-based census is crucial for effective government programmes and welfare schemes.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the second Dalit to become president of the Indian National Congress (INC) after Babu Jagjivan Ram in the early 1970s has supported a caste census, echoing his ally, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who released the results of the Bihar caste survey, with the sanction of Supreme Court.

Results of the caste survey revealed that 27.13 percent of Bihar's population is in the backward class and 36.01 percent is in the extremely backward class. The survey also revealed that the so-called 'general' category consists of only 15.52 percent of the state's population. The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore.

Caste matters

On Tuesday, INC leader Rahul Gandhi said in a rally in Madhya Pradesh, "Caste-based census is like an X-ray that will detect the problems of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Dalits and tribals of the country and how much representation they should get."

"OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis are being injured. Let us find out the injury by conducting an X-ray. We want to find the number of OBCs and how much representation they should get," he added.

Meanwhile, questioning the Congress' proposition that the rights of a community should be in proportion to its numbers in the society, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 3 asserted that poor people should have the first rights over the country's resources as they formed the biggest chunk of the population.

Also read: The case for a caste-based census in India

Interestingly, Modi overlooked a 2021 UN finding that five out of six multidimensionally poor people in India live in households headed by a Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC), or Other Backward Class (OBC) member.

The ST group, also known as Adivasis, is the poorest, with half of India's tribal population, or 65 million out of a population of 129 million, living in multidimensional poverty. Similarly, 94 million of India's 283 million Dalits live in multidimensional poverty.

Despite India's economic progress, these two groups remain disproportionately poor compared to the privileged sections of the population. India also continues to have significantly more poor people (381 million) than any other country in the world. Additionally, Dalits are still subjected to extreme forms of violence and discrimination due to their caste status despite being frequently impoverished.

A deep dive into the census history reveals that it was the 1931 Census which focused first on caste, spending around Rs 14 crore (current rate).

In an unpublished book (uploaded in BAWS), Political, Dr B.R. Ambedkar has detailed the early stages of the census, what was the stand of Hindu majority political parties and the protests led by the Muslim community.

Finding the 'Untouchables'

The 1931 census gave a figure that there were 50 million Untouchables (Dalits) in the subcontinent.

As Untouchability is not a legal term and was a social concept, it was hard to define. Moreover, there has always been serious opposition by dominant caste Hindus to the enumeration by caste in the census report.

They had insisted on the omission of the question regarding caste from the schedules and the suppression of the classification of the population by caste and tribe.

A proposal to this effect was made in connection with the 1901 census.

Interestingly, these grounds of objection did not have any effect on the census commissioner. In the opinion of the census commissioner, enumeration by caste was important and necessary.

Also read: 'No object found, violates privacy': Why Patna HC stayed Bihar's caste-based survey

He details that caste is still "the foundation of the Indian social fabric," and the record of caste is still "the best guide to the changes in the various social strata of Indian society".

"Every Hindu (using the term in its most elastic sense) is born into a caste and his caste determines his religious, social, economic and domestic life, from the cradle to the grave," he said.

"Whatever view may be taken of caste as a national and social institution, it is useless to ignore it, and so long as caste continues to be used as one of the distinguishing features of an individual's official and social identity, it cannot be claimed that a decennial enumeration helps to perpetuate an undesirable institution," he added.

In the 1911 census of India, the government introduced a questionnaire containing ten tests to group together castes which satisfied those tests. This was done in response to concerns among dominant caste Hindus that the Untouchables would be removed from the total Hindu lot. 

Dominant caste Hindus assumed that this was a result of the Muslim memorial to the Secretary of State and its aim was to separate the Untouchables from the Hindus and thereby to reduce the strength of the Hindu community and its importance.

This objection to the enumeration by castes in the census was carried out, but it continued to be a contentious issue. In 1920, a resolution was tabled in the Imperial Legislative Council attacking the caste inquiry on the grounds that it was undesirable to recognise and perpetuate the system of caste differentiation and that the returns were inaccurate and worthless.

The resolution against the caste inquiry was not discussed, and the census commissioner was able to carry out his inquiries in the usual manner.

The first general census of India was taken in 1881, but it did not classify Hindu castes into higher and lower or Touchable and Untouchable. The second general census of India was taken in 1891. This was the first census that attempted to classify the population on the basis of caste, race, and grade. The third general census of India was taken in 1901. This census adopted a new principle of classification, namely 'classification by social precedence as recognised by native public opinion'.

Also read: Does the tongue belong to the 'Thakur' as well? In solidarity with Manoj Jha

The first attempt to ascertain the population of the Untouchables was made by the census commissioner in 1911. This was a period during which the Morley–Minto Reforms were in incubation. Around the same time, Muslims had started their agitation for adequate representation in the legislatures by separate electorates.

As part of their propaganda, the Muslims waited upon Lord Morley, the then Secretary of State for India in the council, in deputation, and presented him a memorial on January, 27 1909, urging separate enumeration of the Untouchables.

This irked caste Hindus. They saw this as a move by Muslims and British to weaken Hindus. But the census commissioner was determined to carry out a separate census and made a chart.

In order to identify Untouchables in India, the census commissioner introduced 10 tests in 1911. These tests included a caste's stance on the supremacy of Brahmins, receipt of mantras from Brahmins, adherence to the Vedas, worship of Hindu gods, service by Brahmins, Brahman priests, access to temples, pollution, burial practices and beef consumption.

In 1911, the census commissioner found that there were 41.9 million Untouchables in India. This number was not questioned by dominant-caste Hindus until the Indian Round Table Conference proposed sharing seats for Untouchables based on their numbers in 1932. At this point, dominant-caste Hindus began to deny the number of Untouchables. However, in 1935, Untouchables were designated as Scheduled Castes in the government of India Act.

On October 26, 1947, Dr B.R. Ambedkar said that the census of India has over several decades ceased to be an operation in demography.

"It has become a political affair. Every community seems to be attempting to artificially argue its numbers at the cost of some other community for the sake of capturing greater and greater degree of political power in its own hands," he said.

Also read: The right to religion and the Shudra predicament

"The Scheduled Castes seem to have been made a common victim for the satisfaction of the combined greed of the other communities who through their propagandists or enumerators can control the operations and the results of the census," he added.

What Ambedkar said 76 years ago about Scheduled Caste victimisation is continuing, and since a census would expose that, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and its leading party Bharatiya Janata Party are afraid of it.