Consensus on caste census appears imminent.

Key Points

• 1The government's decision on caste census is typical of the “dominant party syndrome”.
• 2The idea of a Second Backward Classes Commission came into being during a non-consensual political atmosphere.
• 3The BJP attacked the idea on the grounds of endangering Hindu unity and being disruptive of the social order.
• 4BJP decided to tame the issue by appropriating it symbolically without an assurance of acting on it.
• 5The announcement that caste will be included in the next Census effectively postpones all serious discussion about caste.
• 6Two groups will be working to obstruct any efforts to radically alter current resource asymmetry — the upper castes and the more numerous communities from the backward castes.