NEW DELHI: India is trialling mobile software systems as it prepares to conduct the world&#39;s largest &mdash; and first fully digital &mdash; population census in 2027. The upcoming census will be the country&#39;s first since 2011 and will, for the first time since independence, register people&#39;s castes -- a politically sensitive exercise last undertaken in 1931 under British rule. A 20-day trial begins Nov. 10 in selected areas of the southern state of Karnataka. It will test a mobile app&ndash;based data collection system and self-enumeration options designed to replace traditional paper-based methods. &quot;The objective is to assess the functioning and efficiency of the digital application across diverse areas -- from urban regions to those with limited mobile network connectivity,&quot; the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. &quot;This trial marks a significant step toward India&#39;s first-ever fully digital census, replacing traditional paper-based schedules.&quot; The exercise presents an immense logistical challenge -- voting in the 2024 general elections was electronic, and polling took place in seven phases over six weeks. But a census must be conducted at a single point in time to capture a single snapshot of the population -- and avoid double-counting. The main count is scheduled for March 1, 2027. But in high-altitude Himalayan regions -- including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, and the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir -- the census will begin earlier on Oct. 1, 2026, before snowfall begins. Caste remains a powerful determinant of social status in India, shaping access to resources, education, and opportunity. More than two-thirds of India&#39;s 1.4 billion people are believed to belong to historically disadvantaged communities, long subject to systemic discrimination. The millennia-old social hierarchy divides Hindus by function and social standing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#39;s Bharatiya Janata Party has in the past opposed the idea of enumerating people by caste, arguing it would deepen social divisions, but backed the new survey in May. Proponents say detailed demographic information is crucial for targeted social justice programmes, including earmarking university seats and government jobs for socially disadvantaged communities. Successive governments have avoided updating caste data, citing administrative complexity and fears of social unrest. A caste survey conducted alongside the 2011 census was never released after officials said the results were inaccurate.

India

The upcoming census will be the country's first since 2011 and will, for the first time since independence, register people's castes -- a politically sensitive exercise last undertaken in 1931 under British rule.

Indian digital system to register people's castes in politically-sensitive census

Maham Khan

In late October 2025, Indian audiences watched a Bollywood hero demand a DNA test of the Taj Mahal. In &ldquo;The Taj Story&rdquo;, the protagonist claims the 17th-century mausoleum was originally a Hindu temple &lsquo;stolen&rsquo; by Muslim rulers. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has repeatedly rejected this theory, and centuries of historical and architectural records credit Mughal emperor Shah Jahan with commissioning the monument for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Yet in Narendra Modi&rsquo;s India, history is increasingly subject to reinterpretation. When cinema becomes a vehicle for myth presented as fact, and when millions absorb propaganda as entertainment, it amounts to a systematic reframing of Muslim contributions to the subcontinent, and of the identities of the 200 million Muslims who live in India today. India&rsquo;s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have refined a strategy of cultural revision: rewrite textbooks, challenge monument origins, recast Mughal history as occupation, demolish mosques and build temples in their place, and enlist Bollywood as a mass-scale amplifier. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/6cb9827c-b2ee-4b47-837d-1d998cce1d25-2.png" alt="2.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Paresh Rawal promoting his movie The Taj Story on X.</figcaption></figure> The temple that never was The claim that the Taj Mahal was once a Shiva temple, &ldquo;Tejo Mahalaya,&rdquo; originated with P.N. Oak&rsquo;s 1965 book. Historians and the ASI have long dismissed the idea. In 2022, India&rsquo;s Supreme Court rejected a petition to open 22 sealed Taj Mahal rooms to search for Hindu idols, calling the request &ldquo;publicity interest litigation.&rdquo; The ASI has stated that the rooms are simple maintenance spaces. Even within India, voices are raising eyebrows over this narrative. Before the film premiered, many were quick to label it as propaganda.&nbsp; &quot;I think this story is pure propaganda,&rdquo; one Indian X user bluntly put it. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/bd64d234-dec7-4248-a489-c62aad1266b5-3.png" alt="3.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">An Indian X user stated that the entire story was &quot;pure propaganda&quot;. (X)</figcaption></figure> Some went further, openly hoping for the movie to flop &quot;badly&rdquo;. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/e36968de-f78d-4d9a-838b-627efa0fb68d-7.png" alt="7.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">(X)</figcaption></figure> One particularly sharp-witted user quipped, &ldquo;Nothing says trusted research like watching a movie [and] rewriting history! 22 mystery chambers, divine murtis, courtroom &lsquo;eyewitnesses&rsquo;&mdash;all checked. &quot;Next up: history books sold at the popcorn stand. Taj Mahal facts brought to you by Bollywood, not archaeologists.&rdquo; <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/4d663e50-9c31-4bc8-ab9e-45ee20c20879-9 (this).png" alt="9 (this).png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">(X)</figcaption></figure> And it wasn&rsquo;t just the narrative itself that irked people. The main actor&#39;s shifting stance didn&rsquo;t go unnoticed. A user unearthed an&nbsp;October 2017 post&nbsp;from Paresh Rawal, where he had stated, &ldquo;Taj Mahal&mdash;Symbol of Love becomes the symbol of Hate!!!(sic)&nbsp;Stupid [and] unnecessary [and] sad [and] pathetic controversy.&rdquo; As the&nbsp;user wryly noted, it looks like Mr. Rawal may have had a &quot;change of heart&quot;&hellip; or perhaps a change of narrative. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/0db6e1bb-c756-4612-a431-f3ae9829f95f-6.png" alt="6.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">(X)</figcaption></figure> When myth shapes law The Taj Mahal&nbsp;debate evokes an earlier, far more consequential case: the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu nationalist groups spent decades claiming the 16th-century mosque stood atop the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram. In December 1992, tens of thousands demolished the mosque. The violence and riots killed thousands. After a 17-year inquiry, the Liberhan Commission named BJP and RSS leaders &ldquo;responsible&rdquo; for the demolition. But in 2019, the Supreme Court, while declaring the mosque&rsquo;s destruction illegal, awarded the land to a Hindu trust. In January 2024, Modi inaugurated a new temple on the site in a nationally televised ceremony. The message many took from the sequence was clear: demolish first, wait, then receive recognition. Rewriting identity in classrooms The historical revision extends to classrooms. School textbooks have been reworked to minimize the cultural, architectural, and scientific contributions of Muslim dynasties, particularly the Mughals, who shaped Indian identity for centuries. Mughal emperors are increasingly framed as &ldquo;foreign occupiers&rdquo; rather than rulers whose legacy is interwoven with Indian music, language, art, and city-building. Curriculum is not neutral. What children learn determines who they believe belongs. The politics behind the rewrite Proponents of these changes argue they are restoring &ldquo;authentic Hindu history&rdquo; suppressed by earlier scholars and Muslim rule. But the effect is to cast Indian Muslims as historical outsiders in their own country. If the Taj Mahal, a globally recognized symbol of India, is reframed as &ldquo;originally Hindu,&rdquo; then Muslim claims to Indian cultural heritage are weakened. If mosques are reclassified as former temples, then every mosque becomes contested. Pluralism erodes quietly, long before violence erupts, through shifts in who is considered rightful. What is at stake The Taj Mahal itself will not change. Marble does not respond to political pressure. But the idea of India that built the Taj, a state where Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other communities participated together in shared cultural production, may not survive if historical narrative becomes a tool of exclusion. The transformation unfolding is not simply about monuments or textbooks. It is about defining who belongs in the world&rsquo;s largest &#39;democracy&#39;. When a nation with 1.4 billion people and one of the world&rsquo;s largest Muslim populations reorders its history around a singular religious identity, the implications are global. Cinema scenes can become political reality. A fictional demand for a monument&rsquo;s DNA test reflects a deeper shift: the attempt to rewrite not just history, but citizenship itself.

Articles

India’s ruling BJP have refined a strategy of cultural revision: challenge monument origins, recast Mughal history as occupation, demolish mosques and build temples in their place, and enlist Bollywood as a mass-scale amplifier.

Taj Mahal: Hindu nationalist revisionism reshapes India’s monuments and memory

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: An Indian lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Medha Kulkarni, has come under criticism after leading a controversial &quot;purification&quot; ritual at a historic site in the western city of Pune, following a video showing Muslim women offering prayers at the location.&nbsp;Kulkarni, a BJP Member of Parliament, led a group that poured a mixture of cow dung and urine at the Shaniwarwada fort, describing it as an act to &ldquo;cleanse&rdquo; the site. The move came after a short video circulated online showing a few Muslim women offering namaz, Islamic prayers, in a quiet corner of the fort.&nbsp;Speaking to local media, Kulkarni defended her actions, saying:&nbsp;&ldquo;If offering namaz is not a crime, then neither is prarthana [Hindu prayer]. We only performed prayers and purification to maintain the sanctity of this place.&rdquo;&nbsp;However, the act has been widely criticized by opposition parties, minority rights groups, and heritage activists for promoting intolerance and politicizing a public monument. Opposition figures in Maharashtra accused Kulkarni of &ldquo;disturbing communal harmony&rdquo; and &ldquo;misusing religion for political visibility.&rdquo;&nbsp;A senior opposition leader from western state of Maharashtra said in a televised statement:&nbsp;&ldquo;No religion teaches hatred. This fort belongs to every Indian, not to one community. Such acts of provocation serve no purpose other than deepening divisions.&rdquo;&nbsp;Local civic groups have also pointed out that Shaniwarwada is a protected heritage monument, not a temple, and is open to visitors of all faiths. The fort, built in 1732, was once the seat of the Maratha Empire&rsquo;s Peshwas and is an important cultural landmark in western India. Notably, the Maratha leader Baji Rao I lived there with his wife Mastani, who was of mixed Hindu and Muslim heritage, a historical symbol of plural coexistence.&nbsp;Growing concerns over religious polarizationThe incident comes amid growing concern over rising religious polarization in India. Analysts and rights observers say that Hindu nationalist politics under the BJP has intensified communal rhetoric, often targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims.&nbsp;Since the BJP came to power in 2014, human rights monitors have documented multiple incidents of violence linked to accusations of cow slaughter or interfaith relations. Several of these have resulted in mob lynchings and social boycotts of minority communities.&nbsp;Social activists warn that events such as the &ldquo;purification&rdquo; ritual at Shaniwarwada risk normalizing exclusionary ideas under the guise of cultural pride.&nbsp;&ldquo;Such symbolic acts, though seemingly minor, reinforce a message of division,&rdquo; said a Pune-based social worker. &ldquo;India&rsquo;s strength lies in its shared spaces and inclusive heritage, not in rituals of separation.&rdquo;&nbsp;Historical significance of ShaniwarwadaThe Shaniwarwada fort, an architectural symbol of the Maratha legacy, holds deep historical and cultural value. Despite its association with Hindu Maratha rulers, the fort also embodies India&rsquo;s composite heritage, reflecting centuries of cultural intermingling.&nbsp;The incident has sparked debate within India over whether religious practices of any kind should be performed at protected monuments. Heritage experts have called for stricter enforcement of archaeological site regulations to prevent political or religious appropriation of historical spaces.&nbsp;Broader implicationsObservers in South Asia note that such developments highlight a worrying pattern of identity-based politics encroaching on cultural heritage and public life.&nbsp;For Pakistan and the wider region, the episode underscores the importance of safeguarding pluralism, tolerance, and respect for all faiths, principles that have historically underpinned South Asia&rsquo;s shared civilization.

Indian MP Medha Kulkarni faces backlash after leading a 'purification' ritual at Shaniwarwada fort following a viral video of Muslim women praying there.

Articles tagged with "Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)"

Indian digital system to register people's castes in politically-sensitive census

Taj Mahal: Hindu nationalist revisionism reshapes India’s monuments and memory

Indian lawmaker sparks outrage with ‘purification’ ritual at fort