History is always written by the victors. This is perhaps why most of the Bengali Bhadralok believes and has perpetuated that West Bengal is a state where caste is neither a factor for the people nor their politics.
‘We are casteless’ is a boast worn as a badge of honour.
But it’s a false belief. That’s what social scientists have been insisting on forever. Caste in West Bengal has been suppressed and made invisible. It is not non-existent.
“Although caste is a crucial reality in West Bengal, a declining Dalit movement post-Partition, the neglect of caste questions by the Left Front, and the failure of forging a broader Dalit solidarity due to fragmented Dalit constituencies have led to the invisibility of caste in the politics of the state,” wrote Sandip Mandal, a Ph.D. scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University in a 2021 article titled Demystifying Caste in Bengal.
Polymath Asok Mitra had said the same thing a quarter of a century ago. In a lecture at Asiatic Society in 1995, he said, “The Bengali’s claim that caste plays no part in politics papers over an unfortunate atrophy in Bengal’s body politic…No political party in the state …has ever thought of grooming up and projecting on the national scene in the last 100 years a single person of equivalent castes of the eminence of a BR Ambedkar, Kamaraj Nadar, Jagjivan Ram, Karpoori Thakur or Buta Singh…”
“Indeed, so absolute is the ascendancy of the top castes in Bengal that the subordinate castes take their subordinate status almost as a divine dispensation.”
Professor Partha Chatterjee remarks in a recent work, Caste in Bengal, how a minority upper caste in West Bengal—around 10 per cent—dominates 90 per cent of backward castes and yet there is no pushback to change the equation.
“Of all the states of India, West Bengal has the third largest proportion of Dalits in the population after Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. If one adds the proportion of Muslims, the majority of the population of the state is either Dalit or Muslim. How are the numerically tiny upper castes able to continue their political dominance…that is the peculiar problem posed by upper caste dominance in contemporary West Bengal,” he said.
All of them agree that the Partition of Bengal which led to the largest migration in history of 15 million people dislocated huge populations and changed the demography of the region. The 1931 Census, the only one to have listed caste, stated that in united Bengal, Hindus comprised 43.5 per cent of the total population and 37 per cent of that belonged to the depressed class, most of whom moved to West Bengal from East Pakistan.
The definition of depressed pre-partition or the backward class post-Independence varies. But how could caste not be a factor in West Bengal where the numbers are so large?
As per the Census of 2011, out of West Bengal’s population of 9.1 crore, 70.5 per cent are Hindus and 27.01 Muslims. The SC/ST break up was 23.51: 5.85 so a total of 29 per cent.
As per the Mandal Commission, 40 per cent of the population in the state were OBC, says Upendra Nath Biswas, retired CBI joint director who investigated the fodder scam case and served as Backward Class Welfare minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government from 2011 to 2016.
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West Bengal’s OBC list
BISWAS oversaw several caste surveys in Bengal. These reports put almost the entire Muslim population of the state in the OBC category, which mostly consists of non-Muslims.
With 27 per cent Muslim OBC and about 35 per cent non-Muslim OBC, the total OBC count in West Bengal shot up from Mandal Commission’s 40 per cent to at least 62 per cent. Adding 29 per cent of SC/ST to that spiralled the total backward class figure in the state to over 90 per cent.
On the basis of these surveys, Biswas spearheaded the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other Than SC/ST) (Reservation in Service and Posts) Act 2012.
In a state where 9 out of 10 people are of the backward class and 6 out of 10 are OBC, how can caste not be a factor?
It is with this context in mind that West Bengal should view the issue of the caste census or caste survey as taking political centre stage in the country. Nitish Kumar has done it in Bihar and Rahul Gandhi has turned it into INDIA’s agenda.
It is not clear how the issue has played out in Karnataka, where a caste churn has been going on ever since the Congress government overturned its predecessor BJP’s decision to give 4 per cent reservation to Muslims and allotted that 4 per cent quota to Vokkaligas and Lingayat castes. But West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s silence is deafening.
Banerjee is reported to have left the INDIA meeting in Mumbai ahead of time on 1 September. Apparently, she was unhappy that the issue of caste census had been brought up. Because of her reluctance, the political resolution to implement the caste census was dropped, it was widely reported.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) denies it. “No such thing,” says a senior TMC leader. “Her departure was planned and the caste census had nothing to do with it,” he said. “We have not said a word on the issue, for or against. We are considering our stand.”
Before this official statement, MP Sougata Roy was quoted by The Indian Express saying that Banerjee and TMC were opposed to a caste census because it would increase divides in society. He has not repeated that comment anywhere else.
If there is a go-slow in the matter, it could be because Banerjee knows that a caste census in West Bengal can potentially cause a tectonic shift in how people view caste—and caste politics. Especially, the 91 per cent backward class population, who, either spontaneously or due to political interventions, are waking up to the possibility of a different life story.
The West Bengal BJP would love a caste census in the state as it would embarrass the TMC and change the perception of minorities making huge progress on socio-economic parameters in the Mamata Banerjee government. But publicly, the BJP says it cannot stray from the central stand of the party of opposing the caste census.
This is probably why the National Commission for Backward Classes is suddenly taking interest in OBC lists and caste figures in West Bengal. In June and September, the NCBC chairman Hansraj Gangaram Ahir raised questions about the disproportionate number of Muslims in the state’s OBC list. A total of 179 castes are listed. Only 61 of them are Hindu and the rest 118 are Muslim.
“This is strange in a Hindu majority state,” Ahir said. “Appeasement politics is behind granting OBC status to so many Muslim castes.”
During field studies in the state, an NCBC team claimed that it found Rohingyas and Bangladeshis on the OBC list. The chairman has asked the state to explain.
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Casteless status under scrutiny
The OBC Muslim caste list is now under scrutiny. In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP had fanned expectations of several groups that want a change in caste status for better economic benefits. The Kurmis, for instance, who are SC are now agitating for ST status. The Mahisyas had asked for OBC status and TMC promised it to them in 2021. Banerjee is already having to grapple with this.
Can there be a caste census in this milieu?
Most unlikely, according to Himadri Chatterjee, professor of political science at the University of Calcutta. “What does a caste census or a survey do? It provides actionable knowledge. In electoral politics, a leader will seek and use actionable knowledge only if he needs consolidation of his own constituency or the fragmentation of opponents’ constituency.”
Chatterjee added that the TMC doesn’t need that consolidation and it won’t be able to divide its opponent’s votes.
The TMC may skip the caste census in West Bengal for now. But since it is taking centre stage in national politics, the Bengali Bhadralok should prepare to be shaken out of their casteless comfort zones.
The author is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)