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The political discourse in India instantly went back to what we know when the Telangana government published the results of its massive socio-economic and caste survey in April 2026. Immediately, analysts, television hosts and politicians were interpreting the data through a single narrow lens: Who will receive a bigger share of government quotas? Where does the affirmative action baseline go?

These questions are essential but, of course, the big story is the affirmative action program. Data does not transform itself and public debates on affirmative action miss the point of how deeply embedded inequality is, as critical policy thinkers have pointed out. The most important conclusion of the census in Telangana is not the count of government seats, but the ticking of the deprivation clock across all possible facets of life – in terms of housing, assets possession, spatial segregation and more. 

It is noticeable nowhere more than in a very peculiar category within the census itself: those who explicitly refused to declare anything, but registered themselves as “no caste.” In Telangana, 1,196,482 individuals – approximately 3.37% of the state’s population of 35.5 million – identified themselves as having “no caste.” 

For a long time, the move away from caste has been framed as a progressive and vanguard move towards a modern meritocratic society, the official word of the mainstream liberal commentators. However, the Telangana data gives an empirical corrective to this story by subjecting this “no caste” group to its 42-parameter Composite Backwardness Index (CBI). 

Also read: Telangana Caste Survey: What Did It Find and What Have Its Critics Said?

This is the first time we have hard empirical evidence of a major sociological fact: that in India, “castelessness” does not mean lack of caste, it means having already enjoyed the benefits of the caste system over generations.

The transatlantic mirage: From ‘castelessness’ to ‘colourblindness’

The term caste may be confusing to an outside observer of the social organisation of South Asia. It is a system of social ranking given at birth that determines a person’s social position, job opportunities and social connections.

This is a dynamic that is very similar to that of the United States’ race politics. In America, however, conservative and dominant groups tend to promote a “colourblind” ideology. On the surface, the argument seems laudable: If we talk to each other and ignore the colour of skin, racism will........

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