India revives colonial-era caste count

India plans to hold a full count of its citizens and their castes, the country's first since 1931.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet on Thursday approved proposals to hold the count separately next year after the ongoing general census is over, a government statement said.

The move largely aims to enumerate low-caste groups called Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which a government-appointed commission in 1980 reported makes up 52 percent of the population.

The last time India collected comprehensive caste data was under British rule, almost 80 years ago.

After gaining independence in 1947, India picked only two of its most disadvantaged communities in its decennial population calculations instead of listing all of them from Hinduism's complex caste hierarchy.

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