What Caste-Based Census May Offer To The Pasmanda Muslims In Bihar?
By
Syed Ali Mujtaba, New Age Islam
12 January
2023
The
Pasmanda Muslims of Bihar may have something to talk about after Bihar’s Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar ordered a caste-based census in the state. However, they
are unsure, of what it would eventually mean to them.
The Pasmanda Muslims, other backward classes,
Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes have long been demanding a census to
know their electoral strength and their real socioeconomic position but this
has been denied to them on pretexts or other.
Now, will
the caste-based census have favourable implications for the deprived section of
the society, or will it be another political engineering to manufacture
different entity boxes that can cater to the vote bank politics in vogue, since
Congress has left the centre stage of politics?
Initially,
the BJP supported the idea of a caste census but the Narendra Modi government
officially objected to its implementation in the Supreme Court. In September
2021, the Centre argued that a caste census was “administratively” not feasible
and that the judiciary could not direct the government to implement it as
having a caste count was strictly in the ambit of the executive.
Later, the
Union government decided to implement a 10% reservation to the ‘economically
weaker section’ to the ‘upper’ castes Hindus and that opened up a Pandora’s
Box. The recent Supreme Court judgment upholding the EWS reservation breached
the 50% quota limit set by the apex court previously in various other
judgments.
Also
Read: Caste System among
Indian Muslims, Slave Dynasty and Historian Ziauddin Barni
The SC had
closed the ceiling on the reservation to the 52% of the OBC population saying
they may get only a 27% quota, later the same
SC has broken the ceiling by upholding the 10% EWS quota to not even 5 %
of the population. This has given an opportunity to the really deprived section
of society to renew the demand for a caste-based census.
When Nitish
Kumar initiated the caste census, he categorically stated that his government’s
intention was clear that the caste census will give a proper estimate of the
poverty levels among communities, and that it will help it “in deciding what
can be done for them and their localities.”
The
caste-based census would not only help governments to reimagine their social
justice plank but also broaden the scope of development goals. Moreover, it
will eventually lead to greater participation of under-represented and
unrepresented caste groups in mainstream economics and politics.
However,
the caste-based census has started a complicated debate that whether such a
move is driven to shed being a single-caste party, or a genuine move to build
momentum around concerns of marginalized groups.
Also
Read: Caste System Was
Promoted By Delhi Sultanate in India
It remains to be seen what kind of real social
justice will emerge from the caste-based census in Bihar. Will it be an
affirmation of the political realization of Dalit leader Kanshi Ram’s famous
slogan; “Jiski Jitni Sankhya Bhari, Utni Uski Hissedari…” The greater a
community’s numbers, the greater its political representation... Or will it be
something else that remains to be seen.
---
Syed Ali
Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He comes from Bihar.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-sectarianism/caste-census-pasmanda-muslims-bihar/d/128854
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