An Incomplete Caste Census: Not Data, but an Illusion

Suppose the officials of a forest department are entrusted with the responsibility of improving the health and condition of a vast forest.

If those officials venture into the forest and merely count how many sheesham (Indian rosewood) trees there are, how many babool (acacia), how many neem (Indian lilac), and how many peepal (sacred fig)—and submit a colourful report to the government simply noting down the numbers of trees—will that quench the forest’s thirst?

Those officials do not look to see which tree’s roots are being hollowed out by termites, in which zone the groundwater has dried up, which tree stands in desperate need of manure and sunlight, and which tree has flourished so abundantly that it casts a shadow over the entire forest. If we merely count heads of tree species without making any arrangement for manure and water, such a survey cannot salvage the forest; it will only tell timber merchants and woodcutters which species of wood can be felled to reap the maximum profit!

The entire debate currently raging in our country over the ‘Caste Census’ has arrived at precisely this crossroad.

The demand is being raised to count every caste by head. But not a single leader—whether from the ruling party or the opposition—is clarifying: will this census remain confined solely to counting numbers, or will it also record the bitter reality of the actual economic, educational, and living conditions within that caste?

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An Incomplete Count: Not Data, but a Social Illusion

If a caste census records only the names of castes and their population numbers, it will not become an instrument to understand society; it will merely become a fresh vote-bank map for electoral brokers.

In the chapter ‘An Incomplete Caste Census: Not Data, but an Illusion’ of his thought-provoking book ‘Ginti Se Satta Tak’ (From Headcounts to Power), N. Singh writes:

“If a caste census merely counts the numerical strength of each caste, it might well be statistical data, but not social reality. To ascertain the true social condition, it is imperative to measure the average income of every caste, the distribution of housing, land, and property across rural and urban areas, actual participation in public and private sector jobs, levels of education, occupational divisions, and intergenerational social mobility. Without this, a caste census will only tell us ‘who numbers how many’, but it will never reveal who is genuinely deprived, who is already empowered, and who is staking claim to resources solely on the basis of identity. Such a census does not become a tool for reform, but a roadmap for conflict.”
— N. Singh (Ginti Se Satta Tak, pages 149-150)

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Beyond Headcounts: Five Indispensable Indicators of Real Social Justice

If the state is genuinely honest and wishes to reach the most vulnerable individual in society rather than playing politics in the name of caste, it must look beyond the mere caste label and mandatorily measure the following five basic socio-economic indicators:

1. Average household income and debt burden: Within the caste, one must examine what the monthly family income is, whether it falls below the poverty line, and whether the household is trapped in the debt clutches of local moneylenders or micro-finance companies.
2. Distribution of land, housing, and immovable property: Does the family possess cultivable land? Do they have a pucca (permanent brick-and-mortar) roof over their heads, or are they even today eking out an existence under torn plastic sheets along railway tracks or on government wasteland?
3. Actual level of education and dropout rates: How many children in that household are graduates or technically trained? Are children forced by financial distress to drop out of school after class five or eight and resort to child labour?
4. Participation in government and the private unorganised sector: Are members of that caste engaged solely in unorganised and precarious livelihoods like daily-wage labour, sanitation work, and rickshaw pulling, or do they hold secure salaried jobs?
5. Intergenerational social mobility: Compared to the conditions during the grandfather’s time, has there been any qualitative improvement in the time of the father and the grandson? Or is the family, even after three generations, still breathing in the same shack and destitution?

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Mere Headcount Politics versus Multidimensional Social Justice

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Equating Caste with Poverty: Intellectual Simplification

Many so-called intellectuals and politicians in our country presume that ‘lower caste’ automatically means ‘poor’, and ‘upper caste’ automatically means ‘rich’ and ‘exploiter’.

Tearing this intellectual simplification to shreds, N. Singh writes:

“Equating caste with poverty is an appalling intellectual bankruptcy. The India of today is not the India of 1947. Today, every caste has both the rich and the poor; every caste has a power-wielding elite class as well as a helpless class begging on the roadside. If an actual reckoning of income, property, and education is not conducted, the affluent and dominant sub-castes within the reserved categories will masquerade as ‘deprived’ and corner the entire budget; and those who are genuinely hungry, landless, and weak will, being numerically smaller, remain permanently invisible! In this manner, reservation and welfare schemes, instead of serving as instruments of poverty eradication, will merely become a cruel tool for caste-based power balancing.”
— N. Singh (Ginti Se Satta Tak, pages 150-151)

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The Real Game of Power: Not Data, but Social Control

History bears witness that from the colonial British down to today’s power-hungry politicians—the data dearest to power has always been that which divides society into fragments so that it can be ruled with ease.

• The moment the public begins asking questions about unemployment, dilapidated hospitals, examination paper leaks, and a crumbling economy, the ruling class promptly rolls out the dice of a ‘caste census’.
• Following this, leaders of every caste start convening rallies of their own communities, and everyone begins staging chakka jams (road blockades) on the streets, claiming to have been “undercounted”.
• The consequence is that the ordinary citizen forgets all about their livelihood and their children’s future, reducing themselves to a mere foot soldier of their caste!

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A Four-Point Roadmap for a Comprehensive and Fair Census

1. Mandatory integration of economic and asset data: Along with caste, comprehensive data on annual family income, agricultural landholding area, income-tax returns, and bank loans must be digitally linked.
2. Public gram sabha verification: Instead of concocting bogus statistics behind closed doors in administrative block offices, a social audit of property and housing claims must be conducted in the open chaupal (village community gathering space) of every gram sabha (village assembly).
3. A dedicated window for castes on the lowest rung: Sub-castes that are numerically minuscule (such as the Nat, Musahar, Bawariya, Korku, and Gadiya Lohar) must not be left to the mercy of their headcount alone; rather, they should receive 100 per cent direct assistance on the basis of their economic destitution.
4. Delinking welfare schemes: Essential human necessities such as free rations, pucca (permanent) housing, and Ayushman health insurance must be completely delinked from caste and allocated 100 per cent on the basis of ‘economic and material deprivation’.

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A Question for Reflection (The Central Message of the Book)

Do we want to build an India where a person’s capability, their pain, and their hunger are judged solely through the prism of their caste? Or a nation where the tears of every citizen who is genuinely helpless and destitute are wiped away?

To understand this entire illusion of a caste census, the covert conspiracies of power, and the path to genuine social justice, this chapter from N. Singh’s acclaimed book ‘Ginti Se Satta Tak: Bharat Ka Ankaha Yuddh’ (From Headcounts to Power: India’s Untold War) is a must-read for every Indian who refuses to turn their face away from the truth.