True to expectation, the announcement that the 2001 census will also record a citizen's caste has been greeted with moral indignation. To criticise the Union Government's decision as a regressive measure calculated to re-inject casteism into daily life is to be supremely unrealistic.Granted, everyday transactions in urban - and, to be fair, even large parts of rural - India are no longer governed by caste factors. Granted, many Indians have relinquished, even forgotten their caste identity and there is confusion about how the census will tackle them. Even so, caste remains fundamental to the larger Indian existence. For instance, it is the most convenient category for political mobilisation. This is not a wholesome situation, in fact it is downright disgusting - but there is no getting away from it. The immediate provocation for a caste-based census is of course Mandalisation - the process unleashed after V.P. Singh decided to reserve government jobs for Other Backward Castes (OBCs). Those who welcomed such a policy - and today there seems to be a consensus - reasoned caste was a better indicator of social inequity than class. A caste-based census only takes this idea, cogent, unconvincing or plain disingenuous as it may be, to its logical conclusion.The Mandal Commission's report drew from the census of 1931, India's last comprehensive caste-specific census. Since then, the country's population has ballooned, its demographics have changed. Yet, the reservation of a chunk of state and Union government jobs and of educational seats is based on outdated and thereby flawed statistics. This is what makes a fresh caste-wise enumeration imperative. The real battle must be against casteism, the system of prejudice which discriminates between appparently upper and lower castes. The aspiration must be for a truly rational quota mechanism linked to economic parameters. To simply ask for the next census to be free of the question on caste is to fight the symptom. The disease lies elsewhere..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Published By: AtMigration Published On: May 11, 1998--- ENDS ---
