The answer to this question depends on the precise differences that will distinguish the proposed body from the existing one. A modest agenda will limit itself to placing the NCSEBC on par with the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes (NCST). At least one press report has indicated that the government also intends to amend Article 366 of the Constitution (which contains basic definitions of important terms) by inserting a definition of “backward classes”. The electoral gains are clearly substantial, apart from the long-term benefit for the ruling party of retaining its upper and dominant caste constituencies without alienating the new adherents it may have acquired within the backward castes. But both courses of action are framed by the larger contradiction in the Indian state’s attitude towards caste — the wilful misrecognition and truncation of exclusion and discrimination as merely deprivation and disadvantage.

Source: Indian Express April 11, 2017 19:50 UTC