Counting Power: The Caste Census and the Four Faces of Exclusion in India

Abstract

India’s decision to reintroduce caste enumeration after nearly a century marks a pivotal moment in the country’s democratic journey. While often framed as a technical or administrative challenge, this paper argues that caste data collection is inherently political—shaped by power asymmetries that determine who is counted, how categories are constructed, and whose claims are rendered legible to the state. Drawing on Archon Fung’s “four faces of power” framework—constitutive, agenda-setting, deliberative, and operational—this paper critically examines how exclusion operates at every stage of India’s data architecture. Through case studies of the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), state-level surveys in Bihar and Karnataka, and judicial rulings on caste-based reservations, the paper reveals how dominant groups use technical ambiguity, institutional opacity, and selective data release to maintain structural advantage. Complementing this power analysis with theories of data justice and intersectionality, the paper underscores how even when data is collected, it often erases or misrepresents multiply marginalized groups such as Dalit women, Denotified Tribes, and transgender persons. By combining normative critique with empirical analysis, the paper makes the case that caste enumeration is not a divisive act but a democratic necessity—one that can shift India from symbolic recognition to structural redress. The act of counting, this paper concludes, is not merely statistical; it is a form of political reckoning.