How many caste communities does India have and how did they emerge? While there are several anthropological and historical theories pointing to possible answers, we do not have a definite answer. It is the same with the question: How many “Other Backward” communities does India have? Much less attended is the question: How many Denotified and Nomadic communities does India have? The DNTs started getting “notified” as “criminal tribes” with the infamous Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) of 1871. They were “denotified” in 1952, and placed variously in the SC, ST or General lists. India has no exact official count of the DNTs; we know neither the number of DNT communities, nor the exact population. As a historical irony, the CTA was passed in the year in which the first-ever Census was carried out.

It is surprising that we do not know the precise composition of Indian society. We also don’t have an accurate list of languages spoken in India and their scripts.........

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