Legibility and the Politics of Ethnic Classification of the Population in the National Census of Mauritius: A Statist Perspective

Abstract

Drawing from James C. Scott’s treatise, Seeing Like a State, this article examines the concept of “legibility” and argues that a population census with ethnic cleavages is a political maneuver for the state to control its subjects. Under British colonial rule, “legibility” was easily attained as the censuses provided the authorities with a simplified view of the society which allowed observation, control, and manipulation (in non-derogatory terms). However, in the post-independence context of Mauritius, for electoral purposes, there is no attempt to make the society officially “legible” through an updated population census with ethnic categories. By choosing to no longer classify its population on ethnic criteria for the sake of national unity and while continuing to rely on the 1972 population census for electoral purposes, even though it is outdated, it is in the state’s advantage to ensure control of its subjects, where this control is spurred by the societal structure, the institutional design, the census politics, and the parties’ politics and interests.