UP turns caste glorification into a crime against the nation
The dawn of a different social structure on the horizon- the Allahabad High Court made a landmark ruling that glorifying caste is “anti-national.” The Uttar Pradesh government followed with a sweeping order to remove caste mentions from police records and ban caste-based rallies and public displays. This is a step forward toward dismantling caste, the most consequential administrative moves against public caste-mobilization in recent memory.
The state order instructs police to delete the “caste” column from FIRs, arrest memos, and the state crime portal, to record parents’ names instead. Additionally, the government asks to remove caste stickers, signboards, and rallying around caste identity from public life. Unprecedented, huge sweeping steps with the potential to remove the stigma of caste in the largest state in Bharat.
What this achieves immediately is symbolic but important. Public displays and official repetition of caste identity reinforce social hierarchies and political salience, removing them from everyday administrative and civic spaces, and chip away at normalization. By treating caste-glorification as a public-order issue, the High Court and state are signaling that caste should not be a mass, performative political tool on the streets or in police registers[1].
How might this reshape caste-based politics in Uttar Pradesh, the largest and most politically pivotal state? In the short term, political parties that rely on overt caste mobilization (particularly, smaller regional outfits that trade in narrow caste loyalties) will find public rallies and billboard culture curtailed. The ruling BJP’s own allies, who built vote banks around narrow caste appeals, have already voiced discomfort[2]. The directive threatens the mechanics of mobilization even as mainstream parties may adapt more quietly.
Longer-term benefits are plausible if policy is sustained and implemented fairly and intelligently. Only time will judge the success of the implementation, as the public, as well as administrative structures, have a history of corruption in their DNA, which is taking too long, even under Yogi’s strong leadership. Nevertheless, even reducing visual and administrative markers of caste can:
- Lower everyday social signaling that fuels prejudice and segregation.
- Curtail opportunistic political polarization around caste flashpoints.
- Encourage institutions (such as police, schools, and workplaces) to treat citizens as individuals and rights-holders, rather than as members of caste categories in public-facing paperwork.
- Improve dignity for marginalized communities tired of being publicly stigmatized.
But the path is fraught with trade-offs and implementation challenges. First, caste is not only a public label: it is the basis for constitutionally mandated protections (reservations, enforcement under SC/ST atrocity laws) and for tracking socio-economic disadvantage.
A blunt erasure of caste from visible records risks making it harder to identify victims of caste crimes, to compile data for welfare, and to implement affirmative-action programs unless parallel, secure mechanisms for caste data retention are created for legitimate legal and planning uses. The High Court and government have recognized some exceptions, e.g., SC/ST Act cases, but developing operational clarity and understanding the challenges, while essential, will necessitate time and resources.
At the outset, the enforcement will be uneven, unsettling, and uneasy. For example, banning stickers on millions of vehicles is easier said than to police across 75 districts. How does one control similar posters/ displays in political rallies with a vibrant social media ecosystem? Political actors will develop coded symbols, euphemisms, or private assemblies to mask caste mobilization. They are perhaps already working to work around the court and state orders. The monitoring of social media will also raise free-speech and surveillance concerns.
There is bound to be political pushback and the risk of cosmeticism. Critics will argue that prohibition without socio-economic reforms is performative. Caste will persist in housing, marriage, hiring, and violence unless equalizing investments for land reforms, education, targeted welfare, and strict atrocity enforcement accompany the ban. Appropriately, an editorial in the press warns that banning rallies alone “won’t create a casteless society.[3]”
For this legal-administrative reset to produce durable change, Uttar Pradesh will need a multi-pronged strategy and investments:
- Preserve caste data privately and securely for legal relief, affirmative action, and monitoring of atrocities.
- Vigorously invest in anti-discrimination enforcement, socioeconomic uplift, and public education campaigns to change social attitudes.
- Local police must be trained to handle crimes without visible caste markers while retaining the ability to record and prosecute caste-based offenses when they occur.
- Civil society, media, and political parties must also be persuaded (or compelled) to shift mobilization away from identity spectacle toward programmatic issues.
In short, the High Court order and the state’s follow-up are a meaningful and long-overdue first step toward the de-normalization of caste performativity in public life. But dismantling caste as a lived structure will require concrete redistribution of opportunity, secure data systems for justice, sustained political will, and relentless societal change.
If any State can imagine enforcing it, it is decidedly Uttar Pradesh under Yogi’s leadership. He is more than capable with the willpower to bring about constitutional protections with this new public-space discipline. Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh has the potential to become a laboratory for social transformation that India sorely needs. Let us hope that the reforms don’t remain symbolic gestures in the face of entrenched social reality.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
3. The author acknowledges the use of ChatGPT in researching topics and the meaningful improvement of content.
Reference: –
[1] Ban On Caste-Based Political Rallies, Removal Of Caste References From Police Records, Vehicles : UP Govt Acts On High Court Order – Sept 22, 2025, Live Law
[2] Opposition, BJP allies push back as UP bans use of caste identity – Sept 23, 2025, ET
[3] Banning caste rallies won’t create a casteless society – Sept 23, 2025, The Indian Express
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Formerly, a researcher in Italy, Japan, and France, he has widely travelled and came to the US in 1978. He was a faculty and academic administrator in several different universities in PA, TX, NJ, MN, WI, and NY, and an Executive Fellow in the White House S&T Policy during the Clinton administration.
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