What's the caste composition of India? The recent controversy over reservation has once again opened the lid off India's caste cauldron. So, what is the percent of OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in India's population. The figures range from 28% to as high as 38%.
As per ancient system, except Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, all the rest are Shudras (almost 90% of India's population). The Shudras include all OBCs, Dalit/SC, Scheduled Tribes and intermediary castes. In the pie chart, Upper Castes includes Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya etc.
The non-Hindu OBCs include Muslims. The intermediary includes Hindu castes of Jat, Reddy, Patel and Maratha (as per their status in various areas). The Upper Muslims are non-OBC and non-ST while the rest include upper Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and rests.
Is this distribution/ caste composition correct? I don't know, frankly. The 14% Muslims are thus divided as per their castes in this chart. So are the OBCs most numerous in India? I was recently reading an article published in a weekly paper about the by-poll in an assembly constituency.
And it was shocking to see the detail of caste configuration--they had mentioned each and every group that even constituted over 1% of the population--so there were castes like Dangi, Kiraar, Lodhi and what not! One wonders how much fragmentisation we will witness in the years to come.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
The caste composition of India
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7 comments:
wow! where did u get these figures? And about fragmentation.. they can only divide those who want to be divided..
Hallo,Will get surprise to see Hindu girl in the Blog but u must know the Todays Generation is all against the stupid things of Religion etc. We all beleive to be Indian.anyway
I really like this article. Its really with a great thought. Thanks for releaving such issue with deep study and thinking. Keep it up.
Why should I get surprised Jayashree? Most of my friends are Hindu, almost all of them. So you are welcome and keep coming to the blog.
Jayashree, do you really mean that today's generation is against caste systems? Well, I think they care a damn about caste, but they dont understand when they get exploited. For example, we are all a great fan of cricket. Some really worship the cricketers thinking that they are some real talented Gods. But is it mere co-incidence that all of Indian cricketers are Brahmins? Is it a mere co-incidence that minority classes do not really make it big in the Indian Cricket team. Even if they make it big there position comes under threat at the minute chance(like Zaheer Khan,Harbhajan etc.). I recently read an article about this. A real interesting one If any of you want I suggest you visit this website and leave your comments there bcoz the writer seems to have great faith on the members of the webcommunity. Here is the link:
http://www.merinews.com/newsPortal/JSP/catFull.jsp?articleID=238&catID=5&category=Sports
Do you know that there were no caste based census in India after 1931? So, whatever you publish here, is not scientific data. There are several resources publishing contradictory results.
Diganta bhai, I got it from somewhere and in a country like India it is difficult for caste data to be accurate. These days Chauhans are Dalits! Malviyas are OBCs and etc etc A Muslim may be counted in UC, backward, dalit or even Tribal in a some areas. So it is all a foolish thing, the fragmentation that is what I mean. The more we try to increase and inflate our share, the more we become even vulnerable.
Adnan
Correct you are :). That's why I support economy based reservation.
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