Counting caste : census politics, breaucratic deflection, and Brahmanical power in India / Trina Vithayathil.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vithayathil, Trina, author.

Series:

South Asia in the social sciences.

South Asia in the social sciences

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Caste--India.

Caste.

Anti-caste movements--India.

Anti-caste movements.

Social problems--India.

Social problems.

India--Politics and governments.

India.

India--Census, 2011.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxii, 273 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

States periodically agree to social justice reforms in response to organized demands for change. Counting Caste examines how and why governments make such concessions but then fail to implement them. Vithayathil unlocks the secrets of bureaucratic deflection-a process whereby political leaders and bureaucrats stall policy changes-through an in-depth examination of a caste survey in India. Political leaders conceded to collect caste-wise data in Census 2011 for the first time in India's post-independence history. Yet, in the year that followed, bureaucrats blocked a caste count in the census and rerouted it to an inexperienced part of the government. This book uncovers the plan to gather caste-wise data in an alternative project with a history of producing poor-quality data. The case of the failed caste count highlights how state institutions evade the documentation of caste power, the continued institutionalization of castelessness-which frames caste as a problem of the oppressed and hides caste privilege and power-and ongoing efforts at resisting caste hierarchy and Hindutva domination.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 Apr 2025).

ISBN:

1-009-70959-3

1-009-41413-5

OCLC:

1521500784