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Historical Trajectories of Official Information Gathering in India

Patricia Ahmed ^a

Rebecca Jean Emigh ^b

Dylan Riley ^c

^{^a}South Dakota State University, USA

^{^b}University of California, Los Angeles, USA

^{^c}University of California, Berkeley, USA

Elites, Nonelites, and Power

ISBN: 978-1-83797-584-6, eISBN: 978-1-83797-583-9

Publication date: 28 November 2024

Abstract

A “state-driven” approach suggests that colonists use census categories to rule. However, a “society-driven” approach suggests that this state-driven perspective confers too much power upon states. A third approach views census-taking and official categorization as a product of state–society interaction that depends upon: (a) the population's lay categories, (b) information intellectuals' ability to take up and transform these lay categories, and (c) the balance of power between social and state actors. We evaluate the above positions by analyzing official records, key texts, travelogues, and statistical memoirs from three key periods in India: Indus Valley civilization through classical Gupta rule (ca. 3300 BCE–700 CE), the “medieval” period (ca. 700–1700 CE), and East India Company (EIC) rule (1757–1857 CE), using historical narrative. We show that information gathering early in the first period was society driven; however, over time, a strong interactive pattern emerged. Scribes (information intellectuals) increased their social status and power (thus, shifting the balance of power) by drawing on caste categories (lay categories) and incorporating them into official information gathering. This intensification of interactive information gathering allowed the Mughals, the EIC, and finally British direct rule officials to collect large quantities of information. Our evidence thus suggests that the intensification of state–society interactions over time laid the groundwork for the success of the direct rule British censuses. It also suggests that any transformative effect of these censuses lay in this interactive pattern, not in the strength of the British colonial state.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

We thank Juan Wang for her comments and Michelle Marinello and Johanna Hernández-Pérez for their research assistance funded by a UCLA Faculty Senate Grant and the UCLA Social Sciences Dean. A previous version of this paper was presented at the SSHA Annual Conference in Washington DC in 2023.

Citation

Ahmed, P., Emigh, R.J. and Riley, D. (2024), "Historical Trajectories of Official Information Gathering in India", Emigh, R.J. and Riley, D. (Ed.) Elites, Nonelites, and Power (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 41), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 239-283. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920240000041009

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited