Challenges and Limitations of Counting Jati during the Bihar Caste Survey

The political intent of the Bihar Caste Survey of 2023 was to capture the socio-economic realities of different jati groups in the state. Given that such surveys trigger new forms of political mobilisation, it is necessary to examine internal differentiation and the limits of the state’s classification process to understand the continuing significance of caste in contemporary politics. Situating itself amidst historical and contemporary debates surrounding caste enumeration in India and drawing from fieldwork in Patna and a nearby peri-urban block, this article argues that broad administrative categories of the kind deployed in the survey often fail to reflect the complexity of jati identities. Given challenges in and limitations of the survey process, including enumerator bias and visible political contestation around caste data, the article posits the enumeration process as constitutive of social realities through creation and legitimisation of particular caste and jati identities.