In India, BJP’s Hindutva agenda at stake amid growing calls for nationwide caste census: ‘a very powerful weapon’
- Analysts say caste-based mobilisation could help prioritise social justice and disrupt the ruling BJP’s relentless focus on religion
- But marginalised communities may not be so easily swayed, as Modi accuses the opposition of trying to divide Hindus and ‘destroy the nation’
The calls to count the population of all castes and sub-castes across India gained fresh momentum after Bihar’s local government on October 2 released the findings of a landmark caste survey, which found that more than two-thirds of the eastern state’s 108 million people belonged to marginalised castes, while the so-called forward castes constituted about 15 per cent.
Marginalised castes include scheduled castes (formerly “untouchables”), scheduled tribes and indigenous communities. Other lower castes are collectively known as the “Other Backward Classes” (OBCs) by the Indian government.
Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2014 and 2019 general elections on the back of support from OBC communities.
But opposition parties, trying to ensure the BJP does not win a third time, are now eyeing calls for a national caste census as an opportunity to break Modi’s hold over OBCs and capitalise on the vast support they offer, analysts say.
Babanrao Taywade, national president of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh (The National OBC Federation), said the move for a national census was long overdue.
“We estimate that OBCs today constitute about 60 per cent of the country’s population,” Taywade said. “It is the demand of this 60 per cent to conduct a census, and give the OBCs their rightful share of [social and economic opportunities].”
