Backward Caste Mobilisation and the Caste Census in Bihar: Some Reflections

There has been a growing demand1 since the late twentieth century to enumerate caste, especially the backward castes, in the censuses conducted by the Union Government every ten years (a practice commonly referred to as a ‘caste census’). Enumeration of all castes in a census has never been carried out in post-independence India, the exception being the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs), although the Kalelkar Commission had recommended it for the 1961 census. The last time such an exercise was conducted was by the British in 1931.