The H. Kantharaj Commission that conducted the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey in 2015 had identified 1,351 castes and sub castes from Karnataka at the time of survey. However, commission sources said that by the time survey was completed, it had the list of 1,821. Explaining the increase, sources said that these new castes were of those who had migrated to Karnataka from other States. “A column to mark new castes had been given to enumerators. The new castes have been identified here and many of them could belong to backward classes in their States.” A few names included Solanki, Sood, Punjabi Jat, and so on. Interestingly, many identified themselves by their language or State such as Odia, Malayalam, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Nepali, and others. There were also 398 caste names that could not be identified specifically. These constitute 3,750 individuals from 965 households, forming 0.006% of surveyed population. How many minorities? About 91 lakh people out of the 5.98 crore (15.19% covered under the survey) belong to minority communities, in which Muslims and their 101 …