Caste census and RSS’ pan-Hindu unity challenge

The convoluted argument of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)'s chief spokesperson, Sunil Ambekar, while replying to a query on whether his organisation’s stance on caste census came up for deliberation during the RSS’ three-day co-ordination meeting in Palakkad, Kerala, underscores that the idea’s time has come.

The RSS leader’s response lays bare two divergent sentiments within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological fountainhead. One is the realisation that the demand for a caste census has reached the stage from where an enumeration can no longer be held back at a national level.

All that remains to be decided is the time for formal acceptance of the principle, and preparation of a timeline.

Two, attempt is now to minimise the ‘damage’ that would emerge from such a listing. This explains ‘riders’ that the issue is ‘important’ from the perspective of ‘national unity and integrity’, and that caste census should not be championed for ‘electioneering and election practices and politics, but solely for welfare activities.’

Ambekar’s response on the caste census needs to be read alongside his reply to the question on the recent Supreme Court judgement, holding sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SC) as permissible, to grant separate quotas for more backward sub-castes within the SCs.

The RSS prachar pramukh said that consensus must be forged among all communities who currently avail benefits of reservations or the enshrined affirmative policy of India.

The RSS’ emphasis on agreement among various SC sub-castes must be seen in the context of the reference to the contentious and problematic ‘creamy layer among SCs’ by four of the seven-judge Bench which overruled the E V Chinnaiah judgement, and permitted state-specific sub-classifications within SCs.

That Ambekar, while responding to the question on the SC verdict, once again referred to the need to ensure ‘unity and integrity in society’, demonstrates that segregation of the Hindu community based on caste, remains a major worry for the RSS and its affiliates, most importantly the BJP, for which divergences among Hindus are essential to suppress.

Already, while maintaining silence on the apex court allowing states to go ahead with sub-categorisation within the SC/STs, the Union Cabinet has formally turned down the call of the four judges to develop a policy to identify the creamy layer within the SCs and the STs to exclude them from affirmative action benefits.

Undeniably worried by the narrative set by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and to some extent Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav during Lok Sabha elections that the BJP intended to change the Constitution, the Union government officially stated that the “the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar” does not have the “provision for a creamy layer in SC/ST reservation”.

Ambekar’s call for consensus among sub-castes availing reservation benefits and obliquely raising the worry of social (read Hindu) unity also highlights how the apex court’s judgement is intertwined with the political demand for caste census.

Importantly, the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, while delivering the landmark verdict, underscored the need for adequate ‘quantifiable and demonstrable data’ and not basing segregation on political convenience. The required data can be generated by merely rewording questions in the column in the proforma on ‘Household Schedule’, to ask the caste name in full of those belonging to the general category besides the SC/ST/OBC whose caste names are currently entered.

The dichotomous stance of the RSS on caste census stems from the issue of caste-based discrimination being a constant impediment to the Hindu Right-wing’s efforts to forge pan-Hindu political unity. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, whose 1923 text Essentials of Hindutva inspired Keshav Baliram Hedgewar to establish the RSS in 1925, campaigned against untouchability while in the Cellular Jail, Andaman Islands.

In jail, he noticed several untouchables converting to Islam because Hindu prisoners ostracised them. Later, between January 1924 and May 1937, when allowed to live with his family within the precinct of Ratnagiri, Savarkar had a leading role in a social reform campaign to eliminate untouchability.

RSS leaders who followed Hedgewar followed Savarkar’s footsteps, and campaigned in favour of inter-caste social mingling. However, all Hindu Right-wing leaders remained committed to the caste system and at various stages, through their writings or speeches, articulated views supporting casteism.

Balasaheb Deoras assumed the RSS sarsanghchalak’s position in 1973 in the backdrop of his predecessor, M S Golwalkar’s fiery defence of casteism. But in 1974, he delivered a public lecture on the theme of ‘Social Equality and Hindu Consolidation’, underlining the importance of ending caste divisions, and consolidating Hindus.

Little changed within the RSS, and Deoras continued waging a political battle against caste-based inequalities for a decade and a half. Eventually, the idea was embraced, at least cosmetically — when in November 1989, a Scheduled Caste member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad performed the Shilanyas ceremony in Ayodhya, and from 1991 the BJP started selecting candidates for elections based on caste identity: Kalyan Singh from the Other Backward Castes, was made Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

However, more than five decades after Deoras rolled out his socially inclusive blueprint, the objective of pan-Hindu unity remains a periodic challenge for the Sangh parivar. The Lok Sabha verdict was a pointer to the BJP’s diminishing support among the Dalits and other Hindu sub-castes on the margins.

It was not surprising that Ambekar announced that in its centenary year, the RSS would pursue certain programmes, most importantly, the organisation’s campaign of ‘samajik samrasta (social harmony)’.

The RSS’ highly tangled stance on caste census and sub-classification among Schedule Castes reflects contrasting pulls and pressures on an issue that is the biggest hurdle to lasting Hindu unity for political and electoral purposes.

(Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based journalist, is author of 'The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project'. X: @NilanjanUdwin.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.