Census enumeration, religious identity and communal polarization in India

Abstract

Census is considered to be a scientific exercise. However, it leaves a deep impact on religious and ethnic identities. This is because through census enumeration not only are boundaries of communities fixed, but also actual size and growth are known. This adds a new sense to the identities of the religious communities in the sphere of democratic politics. In India, the census was started around 1872 during the British rule, seven decades after the first census was held in Great Britain in 1801. The question on religion was included right from the first Indian census, unlike the British census which only included it in 2001. This paper shows that the inclusion of the question on religion, and the consequent publication of data on size and growth of population by religion during British rule, invoked sharp communal reactions. The demographic issues found a core place in the communal discourse that continued in independent India. The paper argues that the demographic data on religion was one of the important factors that raised Hindu–Muslim consciousness and shaped the Hindu and Muslim relationship in both colonial and postcolonial India. As a result, several demographic myths have found a place in the communal discourse shaping the political imagination of India.