The side that is not spoken about, generally.

I had to reverse my understanding of the recent announcement regarding caste census. I read up a few articles on this and have come to this conclusion.

From the time reservations were introduced, no caste, that was included in the quota, has come out of it. That means, while the inclusion increases, the percentage remains the same at an all India level. Hence it makes sense to reassess what is the caste composition of our society and update the percentage.

In case the reservation percentage increases and they resort to, may be, a proportional representation, would that not lead to India being officially ridden with caste ? Yes. Then this becomes official and no whitewashing like ‘Ramasamy Naicker- Annadurai Mudaliar eradicated caste’ etc would hold water anymore.

What could help improve is an economic criteria for all castes. Would all parties agree for that ? I don’t think so, for all they are concerned about is to claim oneupmanship and ‘i said you did’ tom tomming.

When all castes are included in the reservation spectrum ( proportional), then the directive not to use one’s caste name gets watered down.

Which castes would not be affected by this new enumeration in TN : All Brahmins, some Chettiars, some Reddiyars, many Pillais, Anglo Indians and some Jains. As if they have not been affected till date šŸ™‚ with the 75% reservation in vogue for the last three decades.

However, I expect a pushback from the numerically stronger OCs in Northern India. But in an increasingly numerous OBC-SC-ST demographic, the OCs’ voice would only matter less.

Social scientists could extrapolate and analyse what Pt.Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi would’ve done had they been in this situation.

-Amaruvi

04-05-2025

Leave a comment