Public opinion on the Karnataka caste census is mainly negative, with deep skepticism about its use for political manipulation instead of facilitating social reform. Concerns are prevalent about its potential to worsen caste divisions for electoral gains and to increase reservations, leading to societal unrest. While some see the census as a tool to enhance policy-making for social equity, the predominant fear is that it will serve political ends and distract from addressing broader socio-economic issues affecting all communities.

Karnataka Government

Political Parties

General Public

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Won't be the first time Anuradhaji has burned the liberal crowd. She's somewhat of an expert atp.

[deleted]

This lady is getting too much attention, PPL acting like she is the first person to receive such comments due to her caste, but the thing is it's common for every caste on sm

Ok-Negotiation-2267

Opened the news article just for the picture and ignored the comments

David_Headley_2008

Declaring yourself as a Brahmin can be problematic because it can reinforce social inequalities tied to the caste system, which has been a source of discrimination. It can also create unnecessary divisions, making it seem like you're emphasizing differences based on birth rather than merit. In today's world, where equality and inclusivity are valued, identifying with a caste, especially one seen as "higher," can feel out of touch. Plus, it might come off as insensiti

ajatshatru

I hope you understand why this is problematic. This only reinforces the idea of power and supremacy.

Key_Vanilla9890

Only if OP had the brain to understand the difference

SargasmicOwl

NormalBaba

So if I dislike someone mentioning caste..how does it translate to me supporting congress? 😂😂😂..unless you mean..anyone who does like to flaunt their caste are all related to BJP???

ManNo786

Op, you may not be able to comprehend. But caste census and flexing caste on social media are completely two different things. 

Caste census is important to maintain a proper distribution of social services and money. 

Flexing caste on social media encourages the discrimination and superiority complex among the people., which doesn't make any sense ( if Brahmin gene were so good, why there are so many people containing  Tiwaris,  Tripathi, Sharma etc in their names are losers in the society, some do sexual assaults also ) 
 

She can flex her fitness level,can  give credit to her family genes, or her dedication towards fitness but not to caste.

Newton_Sexual

Probably because the census will likely be used by many political parties and interest groups to demand reservation beyond the 50% cap that the Supreme Court set.

Bangladesh saw a whole-ass revolution over less.

Caste census should take place alongwith socio-economic census. Together the same should be used to refine reservation policy and exclude those people who have risen on socioeconomic scale. 

In any case, there is no argument for not conducting any kind of census to ascertain numbers for policy making. Imagine you are living in a country where you don't even know how many people live and who deserves what kind of benefit. A country without data of its people. 💀

oopsydoosydoo

Bcoz ppl in India are highly sensitive towards Caste and Religion. No matter how many census you conduct, there will be innumerable allegations of Data Fraud, misrepresentation etc. Political leaders / parties will use this knowledge to bolster their numbers and will also cause Inter-Caste Violence.

Extension-Try161

This is what grandson of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Prakash Ambedkar has to say regarding the demand of 75% reservation in Maharashtra. [https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/national/2024/10/04/bes9-mh-ambedkar-sharad-pawar.html](https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/national/2024/10/04/bes9-mh-ambedkar-sharad-pawar.html)

So, people who oppose caste based census, believe that it will incentive the political parties to demand increase in reservation. While, avoiding responsibility towards providing citizens with a good quality of life.

Rather than taking the responsibility of crafting policies that allow jobs to be created in large number. All that politician has to do is that just give speech how reservation will be increased and you can end up getting job. And, end up polarising the election without any accountability.

Also, someone in this post has excellently compared this protest with that of CAA-NRC. The one's in support of it, were telling pros like proper information of the illegal immigrants, proper idea of how much strain such illegal immigrants are putting on our national resources and etc. But, the one's protesting knew cons like afterwards it would be used to target anyone deemed not one of us(iykyk).

Same way, one's in support of caste census, give pros like proper granular data, proper idea of how after 78 years of independence. We can know which community or caste lags behind and which community or caste has succeeded. While, the one's protesting know cons like how it would just become a road to increasing reservation, while not reducing it for those that have exploited it.

It might open Pandora's box. No one knows what will happen.

BaseballAny5716

Because the wrong people get the benefit of such caste census. People who have the numbers and the muscle power.

liberalparadigm

Because instead of trying to curb the caste methods, govt is trying to leverage it for political benefit. Don't you think there's enough hatred between UC vs LC so far?

__I_S__

Why did people resist CAA? 

Coz we know what's next, increased reservations with no creamy Layer concept. Which makes sure that a majority of people from these communities don't get any opportunities. 

There is a massive need for a creamy layer in sc/st community, without reducing the reservations the government should exclude wealthy SC/ST from reservations. Not because they don't 'deserve' it , but to ensure that the poor vulnerable people from these communities get these opportunities instead.

assistantprofessor

Most Indians are not inherently against a caste census. If knowing the exact number of ppl from each caste, their education, employment, health etc is a great way to come up with better ways to uplift ppl. But most Indians are also pragmatic and know that such a census is not used for better policies but only used as a political gimmick. We know that our politicians are not sophisticated to have long term vision and better statesmanship. They'd use the caste census numbers only to further strengthen their vote bases, divide the society even further.

SambarDip

The creamy layer in all categories will be revealed.

Dramatic_Set9261

It will further put division in country and society

ProfessionalCap9999

Rahul Gandhi is the simple answer, his keen interest in removing the 50% cap on reservation will deteriorate situation. Their is a possibility of riots in country, because general category even after getting 78 can't get IISC but some sc/st can get in at 50k rank.

It will undoubtedly create more divide in the society.

The reason people are resisting is political. There are two major factions in Indian politics. One performs better when the caste divisions are large. The current ruling party comes in the other faction which statistically performs worse when caste divisions are high. So they know they're going to lose votes hence their leadership and supporters are resisting this. It's an unfortunate situation that some parties have to rely on keeping caste divisions alive. But it's politics, morality is not the concern. If more division helps them, they will try to do it.

SilverfangX70

StarredFlyer242571

sable zesty seed plucky rainstorm decide brave continue cause plants

 *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev/home)*

okay, you do the caste census and then what? if you want to introduce welfare measures you can do that through a normal census too, ek baar if i know ki gareeb kaun hai tab uss aadmi ki jaati jaanke kya karna hame? reservation badhaoge aur? that will be a clear violation of our rights under article 14, article 21 and the indira sawhney judgement laid down by our judiciary

even considering the fact that our constitution is a living document and does not have a doctrine of originality like USAs constitution we do have a doctrine of basic structure and if the core values of our constitution are challenged by increasing reservations incessantly then we have failed as a nation.

Disastrous_Fee3703

Tell one logical way it would help the people. 
It would help the politicians, create more divide. Also the issue is about equal opportunities, caste census drives the discussion towards equal outcomes which is not efficient or leads to actual progress and development.

reddituser5514

You want to eradicate caste, not appreciate it. Plus, we need Rahul Gandhi's Jati to start with

Upbeat_Golf3138

No one is resisting, infact I would want caste base census

Rahul_Soniya_Gyandoo

Does countries like the US and other western countries have reservations?? Yes they are doing census but that country also believes that merit has more value then giving free reservations.

highlander145

It will help Congress in their vote bank politics and freebies.

Julian_the_VII

cast base census is break Indian Integrity ( particularly Hindu got united under NAMO leadership )to get opposition chance to power, secondly western world countries dnt like India become a world power in any manner, politically , military, or economically. ( they notice changes after NAMO rule) so inorder to destebilize India, they playing proxy n using oposition parties like Congress, SO, TMC etc by paying them money.
Now we can't be a isolated country , world is a Small village , 
take e g of our asian neighbour countries, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka. Pakistan, latest Bangladesh, they trying these countries to use against us. our hinduisam,

If conducting such census,we need to go the whole way,like conducting caste census of criminals, census of those who pay personal income tax etc.

callousedenigma

So that upper caste one will always be enjoy the supremacy

Spiritual_Second3214

I guess you are not well versed with history. 

  
in my opinion, a caste based census will be as bad as the Morley Minto reforms. Such a census will lead to further social divisions. The last thing we want right now.

Paladin_5963

shree2107

The reservation limits will have to increase.The population of the castes who have reservation have increased significantly(2X) since the last census.The general category will get screwed as the demand for reservation quotas will increase.The politics will become more caste-centric as the tensions in society will increase.

Herr_Doktorr

Us Census is sex, age, race. religion is not documented fertility rates have to be extrapolated on your own if you want that, and the entire planet thinks the caste system is abhorrent.

jw071

no law/ rule  in India restricts marriage with anybody, irrespective ,of cast
u can , but when those marriages fails, body gets packed in suitcase/fridge, u starts shouting for help , 
At the time of marriage/relationship u ignoring all pros n cons  , but once it fails, u start bleming, parents, society , govt, n even laws
One or two good example doesn't guarantee all intercast relation will sucessed.
inshort be happy within our CIRCLE/LIMITS

It would be okay when India is US. But India isn't that and looks like it won't be for a few Centuries. There is not even money to provide half decent and dignified life to over 90% of the people. People are just under a thin veil of self control in this case. Do caste survey and the uncomfortable results come out, the country will be irreversibly gone to flames. 

That's as simple the reason as it gets.

Ordered_Albrecht

The forefathers of modern India didn't want it because it would legitimise caste even more. They wanted the non dalits to eventually merge and forget about caste. This will reinforce it. 

Advanced_Poet_7816

There is no religion based census in the US. Your race and gender is optional. You can choose to leave it blank.

stockorbust

Because like Mandal Commission, it will be extremely disruptive to the society. 

But don't worry, it will happen.

Indian politics don't have leadership that can lead society beyond caste vote bank politics. 

Only two nations which have overcome their historical divisions are Japan and Korea. They did it not by affirmative action/reservations, which keeps the divisions alive 
But by utterly ignoring suppressing any public expression of those divisions.
People can't today identify whose ancestor was which caste 

India could have taken that route, since Indians too, we can't tell by looks if the names don't indicate, but instead decided to imitate the US racial equity policies, which is idiotic because Blacks can always be told apart from Whites.

Caste census will happen and everybody except maybe the Brahmins will get a piece of the percentage of pie.

And merit of course can emigrate itself out of the country.

I don't know how until recently most people thought the abolishment of the caste system was perhaps the best thing the Britishers did for India and suddenly it is making a comeback in modern India.

Sure, there are social classes everywhere. But castes are a completely different thing. Impenetrable. Like racial segregation only worse. And the only reason it is not like that yet, is because it is not normalized. If it becomes normalized the amazing social fabric called India will be ruined for the benefit of the elite.

salazka

OP, as you can see people are getting so triggered by the mere mention of caste based census, because the results don’t paint a pretty picture in their minds.

But they should understand that the population needs to be accounted for, whether you like the results or not. 

Let it happen at least, for God’s sake!

SurvivorLady

I think Indian census cover all . They get all info including caste during the census.

MSB_the_great

First Rahul Gandhi will have to tell his caste in parliament.

Cause the dominant castes are afraid that they won't remain numerically powerful if the numbers come out. It will be easier for political parties run by persons not from dominant caste to get the equation right. Again, the reservation quote will need to be revised.

Perfect-Quantity-502

Because if they do caste census rhe bjp govt will have to do something for them. But they play on the discrimination of religion not caste so they don't do it

Big_Relationship5088

Because division by religion makes it 80-20 as Yogiji many times mentioned.


The caste census will show the reality behind the 80%, and show who amongst them is eating the cake and who's cleaning the gutter.

Lost-Letterhead-6615

Caste census is an easy way for political parties to create new and consolidate existing vote banks. The only thing the caste census will show is decline in UC as a % of the population. It will accelerate calls to increase reservation beyond 50%. The woke dolts of this country will further entrench the caste system and socialism in this country by using euphemisms like representation and affirmative-action. Next will come the demand for reservation in private sector. Each caste will keep fighting to increase their share of the pie, instead of increasing its size.

We are poor today because we prioritized social justice (via socialism) over economic growth. The best weapon for a marginalized community is education and economic independence, but instead of focusing on that we are still stuck with archaic ideas like reservation, hating on business men (Tata-Birla, Ambani-Adnai, Suit-Boot-Ki-Sarkar), glorifying farmers and clamoring for government jobs.

PersonNPlusOne

It's simple.

We're debating and making policies based on outdated data. 

Having a caste census means we'll have the latest data and understand where the reservation has worked and where it has not. 

DATA is the most important thing here. Without it we're just shooting in the dark. 

That being said, even if a caste census is done I simply have zero expectations from our leaders to come up with any good change or policy.

But still having the data is a step in the right direction. 

And about other issues, yeah they're also there and must be dealt with so your question makes zero sense actually. If they work on education, you might simply question "what about crime?". If they work on crime, "what about pollution?". So yeah, that's just not productive.

life-is-crisis

As of now it’s a political tool and the current political climate favors it. That’s all there is to it.

someonenoo

Whoever thinks that Caste census is in need of an hour are soo naive that they think political parties will use the caste data to make policies accordingly resulting in betterment of everyone. 

U guys so come out of the closet and understand that they want a caste census only to increase the reservation.

Ok_Review_6504

Congress conducted caste census in karnataka 2015. Still, they haven't released it

Puzzleheaded-Pea-140

In my view "caste" census, only reaffirms caste system, it does not dismantle it. Instead, we should do an economic census, about how many people are below the proverty line, what is the degree of social mobility, if economic opportunities are available for the people especially women or not, etc. We should be collecting detailed data on stuff that actually matters, not data on which politicians can play divide and rule.

Amn_BA

Caste Data is needed for establishment to create Divide and Rule. Even right now, politicians make infuriating and provocating statements like "See that particular caste is only 3% but still own so much of wealth and positions". But once these statements are rubber stamped with official GoI census data, imagine the wrath and agony of some people!

pyeri

Kisi ko census ki itna chinta nahi hai jitni caste census ki hai lol

Kaam4

It will only help politicians use caste politics more instead of actually systematically target upliftment. 

OBC want to know their status so that they can ask for more. 

SC/ST just want reservations to persist.

I-wish-to-be-phoenix

Rahul Gandhi has turned into a dangerous human, from a laughing stock, and it isnt funny anymore. Dangerous to the nation, not to a particular case/religion.   
Congress does 0 governance, has 0 forward looking policies.

NoStoryYet

Data should be available to implement any sort of affirmative action

Wally_Squash

We are so regressed that we can't study financial and social status of individuals so we do this study on caste groups as if everyone belonging to a single caste is in the exact same situation

Kschitiz23x3

So that they can properly divide and rule

EffectiveMonitor4596

It’s easy for our netas to play politics with caste and win elections. They don’t have to do any work on the ground to build hospitals, primary schools, sanitation, etc. Or invest in women empowerment. All these things take time and are not a guaranteed election winner. 

Also, the clamouring for caste census is nothing but a power grab by dominant land-owning castes to leech of the state’s resources and deprive people who truly need help.

TheThinker12

Because without proper data of caste, we are shooting in the dark when it comes to affirmative action and reservations.

With the help of data we can reform reservations to make it more scientific and less suited to the whims of the public or politicians.

Also, a caste census will show us how wealth is distributed across castes.

schrodingerdoc

It will get representation to the unrepresented. The V4 are not represented as per their population in bureaucracy

tryst_of_gilgamesh

It's data. Data is information. It tells you how you're doing and what you need to do moving forward. 

The bigger question is what possible motivation som4on4 could.have to oppose more information on this topic.

Dark_sun_new

Any form of census should note all possible data as they can. Caste census is simply a small part.

AkaiAshu

The problem is not the caste census itself. The problem is the politics behind it. Rahul Gandhi and others have publicly declared that representation should be in proportion of population. **The representation here implies not your MLA or MP but rather admissions in higher education, government jobs (don't know if it will extend to private jobs) and promotions etc.** 

&amp;#x200B;

The practical experience has been that the people become more rigid in their outlook towards caste, forever fighting to be included in a lower category and looking out to allies within their caste at the work place. My uncle is a professor in a tier-2 university and his SC colleague advices  SC(his caste) PhD students to report professors for caste discrimination if his thesis is not approved or if the professor was critical of their work. 

&amp;#x200B;

**Also, till date, I have not come across anyone advocating that a group should be removed from reservation list if they are over-represented. Like if Jatavs in UP or Meenas in Rajasthan are over-represented in scheduled castes, they should be moved to OBC.** The politics seems to be OBC+SC+ST are probably 70% of population, lets increase the reservation limits to 70%.

darklordind

"Jitni Abaadi Utna Haq" is probably the most retarded concept to have ever existed in India. You literally have a live case study of how Lebanon has become a failed state because of it. Just further dooming this country beyond repair in the name of "social equality" and " social justice".

stalin_kulak

Come on we can do better than a two para case for equal representation based on proportion in population if we can divide labour of debunking each of the claims and present the reforms needed within the current system then its not a debate, only I haven't been able to find data or a clear methodology we can go about creating a case for caste based census.

Simple reforms that come to mind is the ews bullshit 8 lakh limit be lowered to 5-4 lakh ,for dalits  a ~15 lakh upper limit  and for obc ~10 lakh upper limit (creamy layer with harsh penalties if found fudging income/wealth) with exclusions if beneficiary is third gen govt job holder at same status/level ( 1st 2 gen  are able to get reservation 3rd gen is not),also more stricter penalties for caste violence perpetrators

Also the private sector must accept some burden of upskilling historically disadvantaged communities by undertaking skill development and training for some representation for dalits and sc/St in private sector ,if they get tax cuts and benefits from a publically educated ,young low wage workforce  and most CSR go to vanity and bullshit causes surely increasing the consumer base by hiring from backward classes who are capable to do the work general category do only need a little more time in training will find the returns coming back to the private sector entity a few years down the line

MarvinIrl

ukoan7

Saying someone backward and disadvantaged on the basis of only caste is unjust. There can be several things that can make a person backward and disadvantaged apart from caste like living in rural areas, living in hilly areas, third gender, loosing both parents, not having any skill or education, poverty etc..

But NO, every govt is hell bent in caste. Why? Because it can give maximum and secured votes. Earlier it was poverty and now caste and religion.

Here goes my useless rant. Full disclosure, I'm a "upper caste privileged kid" or "meritdhaari." My fee fees aren't hurt by these adjectives.

What we need, more than anything, is data about social progress. An open discussion on reservation and caste.  Caste census may/may not be it. This is just hiding agenda in plain sites. It's for votes based on caste based politics. It's not about making people's lives better. 

If we want to talk social progress, lets talk social progress. One can simply look for data about education outcomes of second/third/fourth gen kids of parents benefitting from reservations. Are their education outcomes as good as the other "privileged kids"? What if that sort of data came out and it's not favorable for pro reservation crowd, would it just be hand waived away because "muh endless oppression"? 

Do all your caste census but when you compare outcomes of one group vs the other and all your insight boils down to "well only oppression can explain this", the one being dishonest is you.

Also representation  guarantees fuck all progress. Bihar was a shithole before JP andolan launched the careers of all these caste krantikaris. It has had OBC CM since. It's still a shithole. You can have your 100% representation, you still won't come close to outcomes of "privileged upper caste". This can be proven by data even today and will be proven years hence, after full Lebanonisation has been achieved.

reddit0r_

Obsession with castes is a retarded thing and "caste census" is as backward and third world concept as it gets. 

The claims of "upper castes are privileged" is pure nonsense. It is not even clear what this "upper caste" is and not sure what "privileges" any one in this country of $2000 per capita income has. 

Most of the narrative around castes is pure grift by handful of clever and manipulative people and academics who are otherwise unemployable. 

Let us address the "caste census". I would love to see the proponents of this idea get into the details of this concept. 

**1. How does the census officer note down a person's caste ? Does he go by purely what is self reported ? Or does he apply his own logic ? Is there any evidentiary criteria ?** 

Most people who claim their are OBC or SC/ST for sake of reservations, like to claim they are actually "upper caste" because they want prestige. Rarely anyone anywhere says "I am a poor oppressed dalit" when there is no really financial benefit associated for claiming to be oppressive. 

  
**2. Caste is mutable unlike race or religion**

A Meena travels from Haryana to Mumbai for work. What is his caste ? He marries a Brahmin girl what is the child's caste ? What is the caste of his wife ? Castes change all the time because people mix across groups. How does one account for this ? 

**3. How will caste data impact current reservation system ?** 

Each caste can be impacted by caste census in three possible ways. A caste's reservation goes up. A caste's reservation goes down. It remains same. All this is a zero sum game as total reservations remain constant. Are you saying a lot of castes will see their reservations actually reduced based on what they tell the census officer ? Good luck getting the right answers then. 

**4. Targeting welfare schemes**

The only people who need welfare are poor people. There is no reason why any caste family should get any welfare benefits if they are rich enough. Caste is currently irrelevant for any welfare schemes and we have an excellent metric called 'poverty line'. 

We also have excellent macro economic signals for every district or even tehsil. For example we already know Bihar is extremely poor (any caste) and Goa is reasonable rich (any caste). What possible benefit does one get by further slicing along the caste lines when everyone is pretty poor ? 

  
**5. Resource Allocation has no caste component.** 

Why should "resources" be caste dependent at all ? Do you build roads only for one caste and not for other ? What if a district has 90% of OBCs with per capita income of $2000 and another district with 90% GC with per capita income of $700 ? Where would the resources go ?

MartianManhunter0987

[https://write.as/8lqvuohk29bhb.md](https://write.as/8lqvuohk29bhb.md)

Caste census is fine if it is used to make the govt provide more incentives to backward communities, build more schools where they are needed more.

But, it will be used to further increase reservation. Anti- meritocricy will destroy the Indian economy.

Make reservations unconstitutional and conduct as many caste censuses as possible.

Nevermind_kaola

souravtxt

Caste reservation is a state discrimination, so it is nazism. It perpetuates the animosity between the castes.

Creamy layer exclusion should be strictly implemented in all caste reservations, so that this caste politics lobby will stop

Critifin

And what exactly are your ideas on how we can use the caste census? Why not focus on providing basic education, healthcare and employment opportunities to all instead of focusing on caste?

Suitable_Success_243

If they found out that particular caste which is currently classified as Open is socioeconomically or by whatever other parameters they measure, backward will the government add that caste to the list of SC or ST. inversely if some caste has made enough progress that surpasses some of the Open catagory caste will the government remove the reservation for that perticular caste? If not open category people will see the caste census as unidirectional, i.e., it will only be used to increase reservation if possible not reduce it. No matter what the report says, the best case scenario for open category people is reservation will stay as it is and not that it will be reduced if reports are good.

Miserable_Man

&gt; implement more effective affirmative action policies to address inequalities. 

come on we know that is not going to happen

whathedawgdoing

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Was it a caste survey or caste census. And what were the procedures through which this survey/census was done. Did they interview 3000-4000 people or did they take data from entire populace? Coz I have some friends whose family in Bihar were not asked to give caste data

RigidAsFk

CC 20- Kadar

What happened in the past decade for this jump?

kaisadusht

Why does this matter?
Unhe proper reservation to mil hi raha na. Kam pad raha ho to aur badha do. Vo log khush rahne chahiye bs. 63.5% is reserved, we can take that to 80% if they are not getting apt representation

Controversy surrounds a caste census report in Karnataka, criticized by community groups and political figures, leading to government reconsideration and public debate on its findings.

Karnataka Caste Census Controversy

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