Striving for Social Justice is Key to Caste Census

In the run-up to 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in particular talked of the need for a caste census. This was supported by many Opposition leaders. Congress-ruled states and National Democratic Alliance-ruled Bihar also carried out the census. This caste census issue was one of the major planks of the Opposition's slight revival from being in the dumps in that election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposed the caste census tooth and nail, stating that this was part of ‘urban Naxal’ thinking. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, said that it was a ploy to divide Hindu society.

In this background, when on April 30, 2025, the Modi Cabinet took the decision to include caste as a part of the forthcoming census, which was due in 2021, there are many guesses as to why BJP decided so at this point of time.

There is a view that this is being done keeping in mind the forthcoming elections in Bihar, in particular. As such, the timeline for this caste census and conversion of the findings into policy have not been outlined. The most likely reason may be the electoral compulsions in Bihar and in other elections in future.

The plank of Rahul Gandhi, in particular, has been caste census and lifting of the ceiling of 50% on reservations. This got a positive response from substantial sections of the electorate. Hence, the RSS-BJP might be venturing on this step for social justice, to which they are opposed to the core.

It can be unhesitatingly said that the emergence and foundation of RSS was mainly to oppose the rising awareness of Dalits for social justice, particularly after the efforts of Jyotirao Phule and later of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the pioneers of social justice in the past two centuries.

As Dalit awareness started rising, the upper caste started feeling the discomfort and came up with the concept of a Hindu nation. It goes without saying that Manusmriti was the core principle guiding their social values.

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The second sarsanghchalak (head) of RSS, M.S. Golwalkar, eulogised the laws of Manu as being most ancient, that needed to be emulated in the present times. As Gandhi, particularly after 1932, began his yeoman efforts to work against the caste system, going from village to village ensuring that Dalits can enter public places, temples and water sources, the RSS kept totally aloof from any such effort and kept training its swayamsevaks and pracharaks in the values of caste and gender hierarchy.

V D Savarkar, whom RSS regards greatly, did make some efforts against the caste system, but these were hardly deep set and in due course were eclipsed by his politics of loyalty to British rule. While opposing the Indian Constitution, he articulated that Manusmriti was the law today.

In opposing the Constitution, RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, said there was hardly anything Indian in the Indian Constitution, as it ignored the great values of their holy tome, Manusmriti.

Its major base initially was upper caste Brahmin-Baniya in particular. Other upper castes rooted in values of caste and gender hierarchy also backed RSS.

In due course, as electoral compulsions dawned upon the Hindutva forces, they consciously worked for co-opting Dalits, adivasis (tribals) and OBC (Other Backward Classes) into their vortex. They floated a ‘Samajik Samrasta Manch’ (Social Harmony Forum) to work among Dalits to win them over to the politics of Hindu Nationalism.

They praised different jatis/castes as great contributors to ‘Hindu Samaj’. Their publication of books in history and ‘greatness’ of various jatis was a statement to cajole the low caste into their net. Hindu Charmakar jati, Hindu Valmiki jati and Hindu Khatik jati were three major volumes that were released by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who stated that “all castes are equal.”

The RSS also identified icons from these castes and presented them as great heroes of Hindu society and gave an anti- Muslim slant to them. Raja Suhel Dev is an example of this strategy, where Suhel Dev of the Rajbhar community was projected for wooing Dalits. Eating with them was undertaken and this fed into the process of Sanskritisation, gradually winning sections of Dalits as their foot soldiers.

Various other strategies, such as campaigning among Dalits, proclaiming that BJP was the only party not appeasing Muslims, who are “enemies” of Hindu society. Dalits started being drawn to RSS shakhas (drills) and many of them were given some important positions. A section of Dalit leaders was wooed with power and resources, such as Ram Vilas Paswan and Ramdas Athawale. Chirag Paswan, Ram Vilas Paswan’s son, even declared that he was Hanuman for Modi.

The testing time for RSS-BJP and social justice was the implementation of the Mandal Commission. The upper caste responded to this in a very hostile manner, to the extent of self-immolation by one of them. RSS-BJP knew that opposing it openly would be detrimental to their electoral interests. So, they did not verbally oppose it, but drew a bigger line in response to Mandal in the form of Kamandal. They intensified the Babri Masjid demolition campaign with full gusto and succeeded in polarising the upper caste. This opened the path to electoral power for them and the electoral support for this sectarian politics zoomed up quickly.

This time round, it will be interesting to observe as to how the RSS-BJP handles the caste census to circumvent the interests of upper castes. The upper castes are aghast with the idea of a caste census by the party of their choice, the party that has been nurturing their interests.

One knows that RSS is deeply entrenched in the social and political system of the country. It is already said that the OBC census should not be used for political purposes. It is capable of devising a new language to halt the march of social justice while paying lip service to the caste census.

It is time that all political parties having deeper commitment to the Indian Constitution come on the same platform to stand with the agenda of social justice. Honest implementation of the results of caste census needs to be taken up on priority basis for having a just and humane society.  

The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.