Bias Project on the Indian Caste Census by Julia White

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-28 13:29:22 UTC

Citation

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-28 13:32:05 UTC

Sarkar, Alisha Rahaman. “What Is India’s Long-Awaited Caste Census and Why Has It Sparked Outcry from Modi’s Followers?” The Independent, 2 May 2025, www.the-independent.com/asia/india/modi-india-caste-census-rahul-gandhi-b2743030.html . Accessed 23 May 2025.

Bias in this Article

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-28 13:36:52 UTC

This article primarily contains bias by photography and bias by headline. It takes a picture of a family in India waiting patiently for the census to be taken. This evokes the reader to feel that the caste census is beneficial to the people, who are ready to take it. In regards to headline bias, the title of this article is "What is India's Long-Awaited Caste Census and Why Has it Sparked Outcry from Modi's Followers?" By using language such as "long-awaited," the author of this article shows that the focus of this article is on how the caste census will do good.

Audience

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-28 13:41:13 UTC

The audience of this article is to the world: people who don't know anything about the subject of censuses, primarily caste censuses. The title explains that it is going to tell about what the Caste Census is, from the words "what is," giving the reader a sense of what they are going to read about next. Also, by telling the unknowing reader what the caste census is about, they can be influenced by any information.

Central Argument

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-30 12:21:47 UTC

The central argument of this article is that the caste census will benefit India due to the roots of caste. Caste still takes a roll as a determining factor of population in India according to this article and should be added into the information taken during their decennial census.

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-30 12:25:13 UTC

Citation

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-30 12:25:35 UTC

“Who Is Afraid of a Caste Census? - the Wire.” The Wire, 18 Aug. 2024, thewire.in/caste/who-is-afraid-of-a-caste-census. Accessed 23 May 2025.

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-30 12:26:17 UTC

Citation

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-30 12:26:46 UTC

“India Will Include Caste Details in Its next Census.” NPR, 2 May 2025, www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5384777/india-caste-census.

Bias in this Article

28jwhite3 — 2025-05-30 12:49:03 UTC

This article uses bias by headline and word choice to affect their readers. For headline bias, the title of this article is "Who's afraid of the Caste Census," and enforces a sense of fright into the eyes of the audience. It also makes you want to read it because it asks a question: "Who's afraid...?" For the other kind of bias, bias by word choice, the article uses words like: heartlessness, regime, and civil societal crisis to convey their opinion on the content. When reading these words, the audience will believe that what is happening with the caste census will be detrimental to the Indian population.

Bias in this Article

28jwhite3 — 2025-06-02 17:28:56 UTC

This article, while not showing any forms of outright bias, still contained bias through the deletion of statistics. Without showing some real-world numbers, the argument of this article is weaker than the other two. The information that the audience is taking in is also substantially lower than the other two, giving the readers of them a better feeling while reading the other two.

Audience

28jwhite3 — 2025-06-02 17:30:35 UTC

The audience of this article is for people in the world who are looking for an easy read to just understand the caste census in India. Despite the deletion of statistics within the content of this article, it still presents an equal amount of evidence from both sides to give the susceptible audience an unbiased opinion of the event.

Central Argument

28jwhite3 — 2025-06-02 17:32:52 UTC

The central argument of this article is on the two sides of the caste census and how they differ. It tries to show that one side believes that the caste census will benefit the Indian population, but then also talks for the other side that believes that the caste census will bring widespread societal instability.

Audience

28jwhite3 — 2025-06-02 17:34:23 UTC

The audience of this article is towards someone in the world who has no previous bias about the caste census. This allows the article to present information in a heavily biased way and get the audience to believe it.

Central Argument

28jwhite3 — 2025-06-02 17:35:30 UTC

The central argument of this article is that the caste census was imposed upon the people of India suddenly, bringing disrupt into the population of India and effecting the social statuses already in place/

28jwhite3 — 2025-06-02 17:46:35 UTC

It is important to consider differing perspectives because without doing so, bias can affect an unaware population with ideas that aren’t true, or don’t take into account both sides of the argument. The newly imposed caste census in India shows this argument well, as when looking at 3 different articles, they each showed differing perspectives on the event. From an article called “What Is India’s Long-Awaited Caste Census and Why Has It Sparked Outcry from Modi’s Followers?,” a bias is presented through the title with the words “long awaited," and "outcry," that could make or break the audience’s decision to read the article set before them (Sarkar). The observed article was called “Who Is Afraid of a Caste Census?” also uses word choice in the title to sway the audience to read their article, in a similar way to the previous article (Chinnaiah). Reading either of these articles will give the reader a biased opinion on the matter for the rest of their lives. The final article is right in the middle, neither for or against the caste census. Called: “India Will Include Caste Details in Its Next Census,” the only bias it presents is the reason it doesn’t include statistics on either side of the argument (The Associated Press). This article would be a good place to start, giving the reader an idea of the issue, but not swaying them in a certain direction. Overall, the issue presented by these three articles proves the point that bias is best prevented when many articles are read and analyzed in order to weed out unfactual evidence.