Ban surnames, not caste-based rallies
Updated On: 29 September, 2025 08:14 AM IST | Mumbai | Ajaz Ashraf
Last names are far bigger impediments to forging national unity than public expressions of identities, which the Uttar Pradesh government has forbidden
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On the orders of Uttar Pradesh government, the traffic police cracks down on caste indicators on vehicles in Noida. Pic/Getty Images
The Uttar Pradesh government has prohibited public expressions of identities such as caste-based rallies and display of jati names on vehicles and signboards. These measures have been taken on the directive of Justice Vinod Diwakar, of the Allahabad High Court, who thought the flaunting of caste militates against the “spirit of national unity and progress” and is, therefore, “anti-national.” His formulation presumes that caste pride among the people of India subordinates their sense of being Indian to that of belonging to a social group.
Yet the national unity the UP government and Diwakar wish to forge can’t be achieved as long as India has thousands of surnames, with most of them reserved for the exclusive use of countless subcastes spread across all religions. Surnames are like neon lights, silently flashing the caste identities of those bearing them. They have immense relevance in cities, whose citizens, mostly having atomised, anonymous existences, rarely know, unlike those in villages, the intimate histories of each other — their surnames are codes that are cracked for identifying their caste, without having to be ‘impolite’ or ‘casteist’ by asking them about it.
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