Why has India not conducted a comprehensive caste census since 1931? Critically evaluate the case for and against including an OBC-specific column in Census 2027.

India's last comprehensive caste enumeration was the Census of 1931; Census 2027, following the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs' decision of April 2025, is the first since Independence to capture caste data [1]. Yet its questionnaire pre-codes only SC/ST, reviving the demand — voiced in the Telangana Assembly's unanimous resolution of September 2026 — for a distinct OBC column [5].

Why no full caste count since 1931

• Policy choice after 1951: enumeration was confined to SCs and STs, who have express constitutional identification machinery under Articles 341–342; counting all castes was seen as reinforcing the identities the new Republic sought to dissolve.
• Administrative difficulty: thousands of caste names, synonyms and regional spellings, with no single national caste register — Census is a Union subject (Entry 69, List I) while OBC lists are maintained separately by the Centre and each State.
• Political and legal caution: post-Mandal, caste numbers directly unsettle quota arithmetic; the SECC 2011 did collect caste data but its caste tables were never officially released.

Case for an OBC-specific column

• Enables evidence-based reservation policy — the Rohini Commission on OBC sub-categorisation found benefits inequitably distributed, a finding that needs quantifiable data to act upon [4].
• Supports periodic review of the creamy layer and targeted welfare, such as BC sub-plan budgeting [5].
• Restores parity: SC/ST responses are coded against official schedules while OBCs remain untabulated text [2].

Case against

• The notified open caste column already records caste; the Registrar General can map entries to central/State OBC lists after enumeration, avoiding pre-classification [2].
• Divergent Centre–State OBC lists make pre-coding error-prone, and the questionnaire is already notified and deployed on a fully digital platform [3].
• A census is a headcount, not a backwardness survey; deprivation still requires socio-economic indicators.

Caste data is now unavoidable for credible social justice; the real question is method, not principle. A transparent post-enumeration tabulation protocol, published with NCBC consultation under Article 340, would deliver OBC numbers without destabilising the ongoing exercise — advancing the equality promise of Articles 15–16 and SDG-10.