The Caste Con Census

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Anand Teltumbde

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  • Binding: Paperback
  • ISBN: 9788198697035
  • Number of Pages: 252
  • Size: 5.5 x 8.5”
  • Subject: Politics, Nonfiction
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It is the C word that counts.

It has been almost a hundred years since the last nation-wide caste count. The 1931 Census, a British exercise, accounted for 4,147 castes. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011 returned over 46 lakh caste names. Castes are countless. Caste, by definition, divides. And in the modern period, castes have only multiplied.

Many advocates of social justice believe that counting castes will help redress inequalities. Is this true? What will a more detailed headcount reveal? How will the data be used? In an age when the state often fudges truth and numbers, what are the consequences? Will there be a quota for everyone? Can annihilation of caste ever be a reality?

Anand Teltumbde wades through the history, maths and dynamics of this debate, and lays bare all that is at stake.

 

Anand Teltumbde is one of India’s most outspoken public intellectuals. He has authored over twenty books in English and Marathi; among them are Republic of Caste: Thinking Equality in the Time of Neoliberal Hindutva and The Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. He lives in Mumbai.

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In the media

‘The caste census can be just another means of keeping the caste system going’—An excerpt published in The Hindu

‘If equality is the aim, a caste census can never deliver it’—An excerpt published in The Print

‘BJP is no longer denying caste; it is managing it politically’—An interview with Anand Teltumbde in Frontline

‘Uproar Over Reservations, Caste Enumeration Serves To Humiliate Dalits, Not Uplift Them’—Anand Teltumbde speaks to Article 14

‘A provocative new book that warns about the hardening of a deeply discriminatory caste system’—BBC

An interview with The Print’s Rama Lakshmi on the nature of caste and its political exploitation:

An interview with Anand Teltumde on the Frontline YouTube Channel:

‘Rarely have I learnt more from a disagreement’—Yogendra Yadav, Bharat Jodo Abhiyan

‘Dazzlingly scholarly, accessible, pungently polemical’—Nivedita Menon, author, Seeing Like a Feminist

‘An essential book … that tells us why managing inequality is never enough; the real struggle lies in eradicating it.’—Alpa Shah, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford

‘A thought-provoking book about annihilating caste’—Tony Joseph, author, Early Indians

‘The debate over caste will be richer with this work’—Suhas Palshikar, political scientist, Pune

‘Powerfully argued … demands urgent attention’—Gyan Prakash, author, Emergency Chronicles

‘Dissects the politics of caste … a must-read book’—Jens Lerche, Emeritus Professor in Agrarian and Labour Studies, SOAS University of London

‘This will displease both the right and the left’—Balmurli Natrajan, Professor of Anthropology, William Paterson University