Singh, Asha  and Donald, Nidhin <br/><br/>
Caste as a perilous promise? : Thinking with and beyond the Bihar caste survey/Census 

 - Economic & Political Weekly  
 - 61(23), Jun 6, 2026: p.65-74 
<br/><br/> Notwithstanding its serious gender blindness and other limitations, the Bihar caste survey report achieves two seemingly contradictory feats: one, it vindicates caste as a socially-intelligible category in Bihar, which captures certain aspects of under-representation and maldistribution; two, it questions the analytical and political purchase of caste and caste-funnelled governance by exposing the massive substratum of the Bihari “underclass” across castes. The survey alludes to the fact that caste does not stand by itself. Its workings are visible within the complex folds of material conditions. In other words, it brings out the tenacious “class character of caste.”- Reproduced <br/><br/>https://www.epw.in/journal/special-articles/caste-perilous-promise.html<br/>