In a bid to resolve the Karnataka caste conundrum, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has mandated yet another survey of backward classes, the fifth since 1975. But if competing interest groups can strong-arm a state government into rejecting survey data, can the exercise result in an objective identification of socially and economically backward groups? The move brings into focus the increasing complexity of India’s quota system and the need for rationalisation based on accurate data.

In the case of Karnataka, the 2015 Kantharaj Commission conducted an exhaustive survey that covered almost the entire population of the state, but its report was kept in abeyance until 2024. The full data is not yet available, but the politically influential Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities have complained of massive undercounting of their respective populations. Media reports quoting the 1986 Venkataswamy and 1990 O Chinnappa Reddy commissions alleged a sharp decline in the share of the population of Lingayats in particular, from 17 per cent in 1986 to 11 per cent in 2015.

The state government has sought to avert a political firestorm by ordering a fresh survey. The opposition, which highlighted the lack of transparency vis-a-vis the findings of the Kantharaj Commission, has pointed out that a pan-India caste census is scheduled for the coming year, so there’s no justification for spending Rs 420 crore of the........

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