Even though the mammoth Social and Educational Survey in Karnataka — set to begin in early December — is popularly called “caste census”, its purpose goes beyond identifying the numerical strength of each caste.

In fact, when the surveyors come knocking on your door some time in early December or January in the house-to-house survey, you can even opt not to identify yourself by any religion, let alone caste. You have the option of identifying yourself as an ‘atheist’ or saying that you “do not know” your religious identity. You can even simply refuse to state it. There are separate codes to innumerate all these choices, apart from names of religions.

Chairman of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes H. Kantharaj said the survey hopes to get an all-round perspective not only on caste, but also on issues of economic, educational, social and political backwardness through an elaborate questionnaire with about 53 questions. Enumeration in each household will take 40 to 45 minutes.

“Our constitution envisages a casteless society. But in order to achieve that, you need to identify caste as the enemy first. To fight the enemy, you should first be able to recognise and know the enemy,” said Mr. Kantharaj. A survey of this kind, he said, was the only way to evaluate where different communities stand in society in terms of entitlements and “compensate them if they are not equally placed”.

The commission website (http://www.backwardclasses.kar.nic.in) lists 1,065 castes which are “known to be existing in Karnataka” to serve as a lead, based on various Government Orders, reports by earlier commissions and Edgar Thurston’s iconic book Castes and Tribes of Southern India. An additional 160 caste names were later added based on representations. Apart from this, there are 101 Scheduled Castes and 50 Scheduled Tribes.

The list is an interesting sociological study in castes and sub-castes. For instance, there are about 20 subsections for Christians, prefixed by caste names, including Brahmin, Reddy and Madiga. There are more than 50 subsections for Lingayat, 30 for Brahmin and over 50 for Muslim. The list on the site starts with ‘Achari’ and ends with ‘Zanderahut’.

The enumerators will also ask for alternative names by which communities are known in the course of the survey, so that one caste known by two names in different regions are not listed as two castes.

They will also make a special effort to ensure that homeless and nomadic tribes, who tend to be at the bottom of the scale on social and educational indicators, are not left out of the survey.