India, May 1 -- It was always a question of when not whether. Wednesday's cabinet decision to conduct a caste census along with the next census has now confirmed that the when is going to be sooner (no dates have been announced yet) rather than later. The fact that the recent demand for a caste census was resurrected and championed by the Congress along with its Mandal allies is going to make it look like the Narendra Modi government has conceded this point and its opponents stand to make significant gains. But it might be too early to jump to this conclusion. It is important to understand the chronology of Mandal politics in India to understand this point.

Let us first begin with an explanation of what the restoration of the caste censu...