With the start of Census-2011 operations, the question of social identity has again acquired importance, particularly for religious and community leaders. The census department has made it clear that, for the purpose of enumeration,
Census-2011 does not cover the caste of citizens but only their religion. Nevertheless, many religious and caste leaders have appealed to members of their community to mention not only their religion but also their surnames to the enumerator, to establish a distinct identity for their community.
Haribhai V Chaudhari, president of Shree Akhil Bharatiya Aanjana Samaj Mahasabha, has published an appeal asking members of his community to mention their surname as 'Aanjana'.
"Aanjana Patels are a separate community and not the same as the Patels," he said. "The Patel community has two sub-communities - the Kadva Patels and the Leuva Patels - but Aanjana Patels are not Patels at all. Aanjana community members also use other surnames besides Patel, including Chaudhari and Desai."
Chaudhari said the Aanjana community is socially and economically backward and, for this reason, it has been placed in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
"As an OBC community, we are entitled to several benefits under government schemes," he said. "But the Patel, Desai and Chaudhari surnames that many members of the Aanjana community have cause confusion when they try to avail of these benefits."
Chaudhari added that Patel and Chaudhari are among the surnames used by people of various religions and communities.
The 'authentic' Patels, on the other hand, want both Kadva and Leuva Patels to be recognized as one community —just Patels. Former minister of state for industries, Anil Patel, is a Kadva Patel.
"We [the Kadva and Leuva Patels] are now moving towards a common identity as Patel," he said. "Efforts to bring Kadva Patel and Leuva Patels together have yielded positive results. Hence, we have adopted no resolution at the community-level to get ourselves registered as Kadva or Leuva Patel."
Similarly, Maganbhai Ramani, a businessman based in Bapunagar, refuses to be identified as a Leuva Patel. "Kadva and Leuva Patels are coming together and we want to be seen as one community," he said. "So I would like to be identified as just a Patel."
Religion is no less a sensitive matter for many people. The Jain monk, Muni Mitranandsagar Maharaj Saheb, is keen that Jains be identified as different from Hindus. He has appealed to Jains to mention their religion clearly as Jain and not as Hindu-Jain or Jain-Hindu.
"Everybody in India is Hindu and, in that sense, we are Hindus," he said "But our religion is Jain. We follow Jainism and it is different from Hinduism. So I have appealed to Jains to mention their religion as Jain in the box in the census form meant for religion, and not as Hindu-Jain or Jain-Hindu. This will help in arriving at the correct population of Jains in the country."
Manish Bharadwaj, director of census operations in Gujarat, made it clear that the Census-2011 was not a caste-based census. "There is one question in the census form about religion (question number 7)," he said.
"The names and codes of six religions are also given. But religions other than the six religions identified in the form, will also be noted by enumerators though these religions will be without a code. As for names and surnames, they will be not considered for the census. Hence, even if people register
their surnames along with the names of their caste, that will serve no purpose."
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