I n his new book, The Caste Con Census , Anand Teltumbde argues that a caste census will be just another means of keeping the caste system going. In this excerpt, he discusses why Narendra Modi aims to reclaim narrative leadership around caste from regional parties such as the RJD in Bihar and the JD(S) in Karnataka.

Regional parties such as the RJD in Bihar and the JD(S) in Karnataka trace their lineage directly to the Mandal moment of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when OBC mobilization shattered upper-caste hegemony and reconfigured Indian democracy. For them, caste enumeration is no mere technical exercise but a radical tool of power redistribution; one that underpins demands for land reform, sub-categorization of OBC quotas and proportional representation in legislatures, bur

See Full Page