Every election in Bihar has the commentariat bemoaning the grip caste has over the state. This time, though, their bemoaning is mingled with the hope that the performance of former political consultant Prashant Kishor’s party, Jan Suraaj, in the impending Bihar Assembly elections could provide a measure of the state’s preparedness, and willingness, to become a post-caste society. All this talk must be dismissed, brusquely, as arrant nonsense.

Let alone Bihar, even India seems many decades away from becoming a post-caste country. Nobody has yet defined the term ‘post-caste’, but, in electoral terms, it would mean the Indian citizenry, constituting at least the majority, voting for candidates not because they belong to their own caste, but because they have been rationally assessed for contributing to the greater good. Bihar has lagged behind other states, the commentariat anguishes incessantly, because its people still vote on caste lines, electing leaders incapable of efficient governance.