Anand Teltumbde: 'Caste census is meant to distract us'

Anand Teltumbde’s latest book critiques the upcoming caste census in 2027. Pic/Atul Kamble

Rajgruha Chowk is quiet on a Tuesday afternoon. The police officers sitting guard outside tell us that the museum is closed. A little back and forth, and the man himself, Anand Teltumbde, steps out through the small wrought-iron gate of the house where he resides with his wife Rama Ambedkar, granddaughter of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Teltumbde comes out wearing a blue shirt, grey pants and his rectangular spectacle frames that have become synonymous with the activist. The occasion? The release of Teltumbde's book, The Caste Con Census published by Navayana, on November 5. Throughout the book, Teltumbde's experience as a data scientist is evident, along with his ability to break down the chronological order of origin story of caste, which gives us an insight into what kind of teacher he must have been as well.

Teltumbde served as a senior professor and chair of Big Data Analytics at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) until April 2020, when he was arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case. He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in November 2022, and the Supreme Court upheld this decision in the same month, dismissing the National Investigation Agency's appeal.

He was released from Taloja Central Prison after completing bail formalities, the legal proceedings of the case are still ongoing. But even before, during and now after his imprisonment, Teltumbde has always published books about the realities of Dalits in India.

Today, he says the book came about because he is sceptical about the reason behind the government announcement of the caste census that will begin from January 2027. "As a data person, I am not against the caste census as it is providing data. I am against the politics undergirding it. People see the census in black and white: for or against. Well, if I am forced to pick one, then yes, I am against it. Because the kind of public money that would be wasted on this useless exercise is something I am against. Because there is not going to be any tangible return from it," he says.

Teltumbde feels that many from the Dalit Bahujan Adivasi and Vimukta (DBAV) and even its allies seem to have been taken with the thought of the caste census. "I am critical of those people who are enamoured of it, because they are unable to fully grasp its impact. For example, what is the likely outcome of this census? Also, the census is not a neutral data extraction. The methodology with which you extract data, the way you visualise data, and all subsequent processes necessarily involve politics. And what are you going to do with data? Data on its own is not going to do a damn thing. You have to have political will to use the data for social justice politics. Where is that will? It is sheer bankruptcy of political understanding that drives people to support such a populist move," he adds.

Teltumbde points into the amorphousness of caste and therefore the difficulty in measuring and eradicating it. "It also smacks of basic ignorance about caste. Caste is a notion; it is not a physical object made of brick and mortar to have a definite boundary. In that case, how are you going to measure it? They [political parties] will surely mislead you. The only solution to the caste question is its annihilation as Babasaheb Ambedkar said," he adds.

Teltumbde theorises that data extraction itself is a "political process". "You can see what kind of politics is going on in the country. In that context, you suddenly sublimate to the caste census and start shouting your support. Rahul Gandhi has picked up the old slogan coined by Kanshi Ram - jiski jitni sankhya bhaari, uski itni hissedari. But beyond the slogan, he does not say a word. What does he mean by bhagidari? Bhagidari in what? Are you going to do land reforms? Are you going to reform the educational system that has been reproducing inequality? Are you going to redistribute the wealth of the country, being amassed by a handful of rich? Are you going to abolish inheritance? None of these questions will have an affirmative answer from either Gandhi or his supporters," he criticises.

The census, Teltumbde believes, will end up in what the British did and what he has extensively dealt with in the book - divide and rule. The British for example were the first in beginning the caste census initiated in 1871-72 and systemised by 1881. This, Teltumbde says, "fortified caste and religious identities, transforming fluid, relational social affiliations into rigid, state-recognised pan-Indian categories".

"The entire initiative is an exercise in deflection of our attention from basic things - the ingredients of capacity-building of the people such as equal quality education, healthcare, livelihood security. As I mentioned in the book, even the extant reservation for the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes cannot succeed unless there is a universal base of capacity-building created among all people. You can't effectively provide targeted benefits to a set of people and induce a sense of deprivation in others." he says.

As we step back out of the wrought-iron gate, Teltumbde's dedication to the book comes to mind - "To my co-accused in the Elgar Parishad case, companions in the struggle against caste and class, and standing proof of the state's fascist fangs". It was hard to match these fiery words with the mild-mannered, soft-spoken, inconspicuous 74-year-old we had just met.

The pen may still be mightier than the sword, after all.