The grand machinery of the national census has once more been set in motion across the country. The initial phase—a self-enumeration household survey completed by citizens heading households—drew to a close on the 30th of June. Thereafter, the enumerators' diligent door-to-door task is to continue until the 30th of September. The definitive population count is subsequently expected to be completed across the vast majority of states by February 2027. Tasked with taking count of a populace now exceeding 1.47 billion, India's census stands as a gigantic undertaking, mobilising a vast legion of 33 lakh enumerators. The last decennial census was last conducted in 2011. Though the 16th census was originally due in 2021, its commencement was long delayed by the constraints imposed by the pandemic and, it must be assumed, further postponed by the shifting priorities of the Union government.
A distinctive feature of the 2027 Census is that it will include a caste-wise enumeration, something not undertaken since 1931. In 2011, a Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was conducted separately from the decennial Census. Yet neither the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government nor the succeeding National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government made its findings public. It is said that when respondents were asked to fill in the caste column, most entered in the open-ended caste column the names by which they identified themselves, resulting in an astonishing list of nearly 4.5 million caste names, in stark contrast to the 4,147 actually recorded in the 1931 Census. For years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had turned their back to demands for a caste census. It opposed the proposal vehemently, arguing that it amounted to little more than pandering to vote-bank politics and would deepen social divisions. Gradually, however, it found itself compelled to accept the demand. There were two principal reasons for this shift. First, the demand was consistently championed by Rahul Gandhi throughout the Bharat Jodo Yatra and in public forums for nearly two years, and although the BJP decried the calls, it could scarcely ignore the fact that a substantial majority of socially and educationally backward communities across most Indian states supported it. Secondly, while Nitish Kumar served as Chief Minister, the Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar conducted a caste survey and mounted an extensive campaign in its favour. Once the party rejoined the NDA, the BJP, too, was obliged to embrace the exercise. Meanwhile, beyond Bihar, caste surveys were also carried out in Karnataka during Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's first term in 2015 and in Telangana under the Congress government in 2023.
Similarly, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and, on the official side, the Modi administration stood firmly opposed to the inclusion of caste data in the national census. Indeed, in February 2021 and again in July 2023, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, informed Parliament that caste information would not be incorporated into the census. As recently as last September, the Union government further submitted before the Supreme Court that, as a matter of established policy, caste-wise enumeration had been discontinued after 1951. Yet, other than Bihar, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh were likewise witnessing the persistence of caste dominance and, in response to it, the growing consolidation of the backward and marginalised communities. BJP's political mind-set would normally demand resisting and defeating such a mobilisation. However, recognising that such an undertaking would be easier than done—and with the latter-day wisdom that the electoral successes it had secured in various states by winning over the backward classes could be repeated—the BJP, it would appear, ultimately consented to a caste census. Viewed as a whole, the party's strategy is to blunt the edge of the Congress-led INDIA alliance's campaign for a caste census by appropriating the very demand as its own.
To the crucial question of what criteria shall govern the classification of castes, the Union government offers no definitive answer. According to the latest figures, the country comprises 1,170 Scheduled Castes, 890 Scheduled Tribes, and 2,650 Other Backward Classes. In addition to these, the various state governments maintain their own separate lists. It was to dispel the ambiguities arising from this multiplicity of classifications that the Opposition called for a broad and open public discussion. In Parliament, Rahul Gandhi further enquired whether the government intended to publish a draft of the census questionnaire or invite suggestions from the public. In his reply, which was far from straight forward, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai stated that the draft questionnaire had already been subjected to extensive pre-testing for its practical viability and had been prepared with due regard to the lessons drawn from a century and a half of the country's census-taking experience.
The Centre responded in much the same manner to questions concerning the delay that persisted long after the COVID-19 pandemic had subsided. All that was announced in June 2025 was that the population census and the caste enumeration would be conducted together in two phases and completed by the end of February 2027. Thus, the Union government proceeds with the 2027 census while leaving behind much ambiguities and unresolved questions. The manner in which the exercise is being pursued is such that one cannot help but wonder whether the timetable has been deliberately devised to ensure that the findings are released at an electorally opportune moment, thereby enabling announcements calculated to yield political advantage. Unless the government places a clear and transparent roadmap before the public, citizens cannot be expected to understand the true character of a population census incorporating caste data—one that is intended to serve as the foundation for the nation's governance and welfare policies.