PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh recently informed parliament that caste will be included among the queries in the current census. This was after Yadav leaders and OBC (other backward communities) members of Parliament raised the issue which provoked a heated debate.

The question arises why it is necessary to mention caste while counting people of India when even religion has not been included in the census form.

It also raises doubts in the minds of minorities. Maulana Madani, a Muslim leader and Rajya Sabha member has threatened to launch an agitation if column of religion is not included in the census form.

These are controversial issues. Some people feel why one should include caste and religion columns at all while making a count of the people because these are divisive categories and that people should be counted only as Indians.

However, since there is reservation for Scheduled Castes and Tribes only these two columns should be included. The last caste census had taken place in 1931 during the British period.

In post-independence India caste was abolished constitutionally and hence caste as a category was not included in censuses. The question of caste again became important when the recommendations of Mandal Commission were implemented in 1990 by V.P.Singh government. The exact number of OBCs was disputed.

The Mandal Commission arrived at 52 per cent figure for OBCs through interpolation of 1931 data but the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments, had expressed its doubts about Mandal Commission's figure in the absence of counting.

First, let us deliberate on the need for counting or not counting on the basis of caste. It is true caste is an anathema in a secular democracy and must be abolished and the constitution rightly abolished it.

But what is the reality? India is highly stratified, multi-layered, multi-cultural and multi-religious society. This stark reality faces us all in society. The stratification has not diminished even a wee bit. On the contrary it has intensified several folds.

Inter-caste marriages sometimes lead to brutal murders even by parents themselves or other members of the family. Today, many dalits cannot fetch water from village well; a low caste person cannot contest for the post of Sarpanch, and is murdered, if he does.

For upper caste people, caste is not only an identity, it is also a great prestige. This sense of prestige increases if economic disparities increase, low caste people continuously going down the scale.

Also, all the elections are fought on the basis of castes, clans and communal identities. These identities are fully utilised by political aspirants. Tickets are given not on merit but on the basis of these identities. Even those who were not aware of their sub-castes are demanding their share on that basis. The case of Gujjars in Rajasthan is a case in point.

The Gujjars launched a prolonged agitation for reservation in government jobs in which more than 40 persons lost their lives and there was violence between Minas and Gujjars as the former with their tribal status were getting more jobs.

India is going to live with increasing stratification for a long time to come. We can hide our head like ostrich in the sand of unrealistic ideas or ideals we violate on every step. Our very culture is caste culture and it is being reinforced by our ethos, our status symbols and above all our politics. Despite the constitution having abolished caste, in last sixty years no government can boast of a single concrete step taken to mitigate, let alone abolish, it. And implementation of Mandal Commission, though a right step in the prevailing political conditions, further enhanced the importance of caste in Indian politics.

In view of all this, not to mention caste in the count would amount to defying India's socio-political reality. It would also help find out exact number of OBCs though by no means it is an easy task.

The Census Commission Report, reproduced by Indian Express in its Mumbai edition of May 9, 2010, show it was quite a messy affair. Besides other factors, the status of castes varies from region to region. But nevertheless counting has to be done.

If it is indeed 52 per cent or more, as being claimed, the 50 per cent moratorium on reservation in government jobs, presently imposed by the Supreme Court, may have to be revised upward as in some of the southern states reservation for various caste categories has reached 69 per cent. Not counting caste would be not only unrealistic but would create ever-mounting problems.

The political culture of Indian society is leading to more and more social contradictions. On the one hand, we aspire to become an egalitarian society but the caste culture negates this very aspiration.

And it is ironic that Indians cannot become egalitarian without the help of this very caste culture, at least in economic sense. In order to pull the backward castes up we must know their numbers thereby reinforcing caste identity.

So, we are in a bind. We must do away with caste system to create an egalitarian society and our caste ethos and caste culture requires that we do justice to them in terms of government jobs thereby reducing economic gaps and fulfilling aspirations of backward castes.

There is hardly a way out. Thus caste will continue to play contradictory role in our society for quite some time to come. Our caste culture is so deep rooted that even an egalitarian society cannot be created without its help although caste leads to non-egalitarian social structure.

Similarly, there is another sensitive demand for introducing column for religion and it is the religious minorities, especially Muslims, who are demanding it. Today, of course, there are no religion-based reservations at all and the constitution does not provide for them either. Constitution has given this concession only to Sikhs or Buddhists who are supposed to be offshoots of Hinduism.

However, Justice Rangnath Commission Report which was submitted subsequent to Justice Sachar Committee Report has recommended 10 per cent reservation for religious minorities especially for Muslims and some political leaders are demanding implementation of Justice Rangnath Commission Report. Of course, this is a highly sensitive matter and the Congress government is hesitant to implement the Rangnath Commission Report. Not only that, it is even hesitant to table it in parliament.

Therefore, since there are no religion-based reservations, there is no need to introduce religion column in the census but if it is introduced it will be much better. With greater democratisation and increased awareness minorities will agitate for religion-based reservations and then there will be need for knowing exact number of religious minorities as we need to know today exact number of OBCs.

In multi-religious and multi-cultural societies the number of contradictions is on the rise. These include western societies as well for they are also becoming increasingly multi-religious and multi-cultural. Western democracy is essentially based on individual rights and this can work very well if the society is homogenous or monolithic, but there arise serious contradictions if it is multi-cultural.

India had always been a highly diverse and stratified society and hence paid heavy price in the form of partition in 1947 as the two major communities could not agree to acceptable arrangements for power distribution.

Now in post-independence period new contradictions are emerging which were then dormant (except in case of dalits which was solved through reservation) as religion became principal contradiction at the time of partition.

In western society which is becoming multi-cultural due to immigration from various former colonies new political as well as social problems are emerging and political tensions and contradictions are causing grave problems. In western concept of democracy voting right is strictly individual but in multi-cultural society it becomes both individual as well as communitarian.

An individual remains conscious of the religious or caste identity and his/her voting is affected by considerations of his/her community, justices or injustices done to it, and this brings pressure on the system. Also, since democracy supposedly is imbued with egalitarian ethos and communitarian inequalities militate against this egalitarian ethos, these contradictions often become explosive.

In a way, one must accept the fact that India, with its amazing diversity, has been able to manage these contradictions more smoothly than many other countries which take India as a model in this respect. However, this is not to say that there are no serious problems of governance. Thus challenges of caste and communal identities are to be taken more seriously.

These identities will continue to play contradictory roles both regressive as well as progressive and would not fit into any neat logic as many of us expect. Contradictions would remain very much with us for long time to come. The socio-cultural complex that we have inherited is very much part of our psyche and would continue to influence our political behaviour along with our socio-cultural behaviour.

The writer is chairman of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.