Nothing is cast in stone

The decision to enumerate caste in the decennial Census for the first time after Independence. (Representative image)

The government’s decision to carry out enumeration of caste along with the next population census is politically expedient for the ruling party, and has pushed the Congress into the trap it had laid for itself. It takes away the only political plank the Congress has presented before the people, besides ongoing criticism of the conduct of the ruling party and the government.

The move is likely to help the BJP and the alliance it leads in the forthcoming Bihar assembly elections. But it would disappoint large swathes of the party’s traditional supporters, and throw up high expectations from vast sections of society, which the government would struggle to meet. The Census findings are likely to disrupt comfortable assumptions on which political alliances of social groupings have been built by different political parties, as well.

The UPA government had carried out a Socio-Economic and Caste Census in 2011, but before the data could be processed and a decision taken on publishing the results, the government changed. The Modi government released the findings, excluding the caste data. Now, it should publish the full report, complete with the qualifications on the limitations of the data.

Who ascribes caste?

The government should also clarify if incorporating caste into the next population census would delay the exercise, and if so, how long. Enumerating caste is a complex task. The same caste might have different names not just in different states, but also in different parts of the same state. What is a sub-caste and what, the main caste is another complex question. If all sub-castes have to be incorporated, as an anthropologist would clearly like to, that would vastly increase the number of fields a surveyor has to handle. If some castes or sub-groups are to be clubbed together, as the 1931 colonial Census did, based on occupation, what could be the criterion to be used now?

Economic development and diversification have created novel occupations that defy correlation with any caste: gig worker, computer programmer and security guard, for example.

How is caste identity to be ascertained? Should the respondent identify his own caste? If so, would the hope of getting additional government benefits persuade him to declare a ritually lower caste than his actual one? Or would the desire for social mobility lead him to claim a superior caste? In Assam, descendants of the defenders whom a king sent to battle riding cows, to dissuade an invading army of people who worshipped the cow, claimed a special kind of brahminhood thereafter, according to local tradition.

Should third parties, say the local village leaders, be asked to identify the caste of villagers? Would those long used to certifying ration-card entitlement based on a kickback do a fair job, or be swayed by the size of the commission a villager is willing to pay for inclusion in the caste of his choice?

Settling such questions would call for serious discussion and a consensus among academics acceptable to administrators. How long would it take to reach such a consensus? Would the process of reaching a consensus on caste enumeration delay the main Census? Such a delay would, incidentally, be convenient from the point of view of deferring the contentious issue of delimitation of constituencies, on which feelings run high in the South.

Two fallouts of caste enumeration

Two kinds of repercussions await the findings of the caste census. One relates to fresh demands in relation to reservations. Where would quotas for all backward castes in proportion to their share in the population leave those from groups not eligible for quotas, either because of not being backward, or on account of not being below the income ceiling that bars quota-eligibility?

Another set of problems relates to assumptions of how populous castes actually are in a region, and how beneficial has political power in the hands of some benefitted members of the caste at large. The practice of politics could change drastically, if the data throws up findings at variance with conventional assumptions.

Laloo Yadav and Mayawati ended the situation in which the local police would entertain complaints only from members of the upper castes. However, the little folks’ life demands more, beyond this basic political empowerment. If long years of backward caste leaders helming governments have left, according to the Census data, the conditions of the majority of the subaltern castes abysmal, it could prepare the ground for a new political paradigm in which caste loses salience. Class could rise in relevance.

If the data were to show that the non-backward castes are a tiny proportion of the population, would the criticism of the 10% quota for the income-deprived among the forward castes revive with redoubled vigour? Would the demand to scrap the 50% ceiling for quotas linked to social backwardness gain fresh strength?

Quota for private sector layoffs?

Rahul Gandhi has raised the demand for quotas in private sector jobs. Does he propose a quota in private sector layoffs, as well? If not, what is to prevent an employer from complying with a quota requirement in hiring, and proceeding to lay off those hired strictly for compliance purposes? If a quota is prescribed for layoffs as well, what is the link, in the political imagination, between employment and performance in a company that has raised capital from investors on the promise of maximizing returns, and borrowed money from banks, promising to service the debt based on the company’s performance? What if a promoter robs his company hollow, and blames the company’s failure on the quotas it was forced to fill? If a company goes under, and defaults on debt repayment to the bank, should depositors console themselves that they have underwritten the larger common good?

Economist Kenneth Arrow identifies two features of an effective design for affirmative action. One, it should not remove the incentive to excel, two, it should not reinforce perceptions of inferiority. Quotas fail on both counts. Can we think of alternative designs?

RIP anti-caste agenda

More fundamentally, what happens to the anti-caste agenda? Is it not perverse if affirmative action meant to give an even break to those whom caste discrimination had deprived of economic and cultural capital, and erode caste eventually, end up reinforcing caste sensibilities?

Caste does not go away on its own. It calls for change on a number of different planes at the same time. The religious sanctity for caste discrimination must go. Material life for the subaltern castes must improve, their access to quality education at all levels go up. Quotas made sense as a rationing tool at a time when educational opportunities were limited. Why should quality educational opportunities now be scarce?

Economic growth and job creation have to go up significantly. Failure to do that causes discontent. Making people squabble over quotas is a way to channel that discontent away from the government.

Harping on quotas as a panacea shortchanges the people, dividing them yet again for partisan political gain, without contributing to the democratic goal of eradicating caste.