.19 20th Century English "benevolent Dictatorship" Under The Rule Of The Census Of India

The 15th Indian National census was started on April 1,2010 and involved collection of data about caste which had been forbidden since 80 years ago. Such decision triggered the great opposition, mainly because of the social problem stemming from the census of India in the colonial era. This thesis, based on the census reports of 1872-1911, considering the feature of the government in the late 19th and early 20th which is the beneficent autocracy, analyses the influence of the census hosted by the colonial government on India society from the positive and negative aspects. The thesis consists of three parts:The first part sketches the governance of the beneficent autocracy. It was not only the alleviating measures from the lessons of the Indian Revolt, but also the compromise propose for the public opinion that the empire was burdened with so much colonial countries' affairs. On the one hand, the British took their own criteria to measure the India, emphasizing the fitness of their domination. On the other hand, for the peaceful government, the colonist thought it was necessary to protect certain interest of the Indians. The census executed under such ideology, must both have the beneficent aspect, and the arbitrary aspect.The second part focuses on the beneficent aspect of the census in this time. After a long practice, the colonist leaved the Independent India the mature conditions of taking census, integrated the Indians into a community in the conscious level, forming the foundation for the sprout of nationalism, and dealt with many social problems by the result of the census. To some extent, the census ensure the weal of people and the progress of the country.The third part explores the arbitrary aspect, mainly on the religion and caste. For the religion, through generalizing the definition of Hinduism, the colonial government made it the greatest religious sect, and utilized the dispute of population size between Hindu and Muslim to achieve the aim of divide and rule, intensifying the relationship of the two. For the caste, the extravagant elaboration of the differentiating strengthened the caste consciousness and the hierarchical arrangement by the opinion of people stimulated the contention of social precedence, exacerbating the conflict of the high-low castes and the castes of the same class.In the ending part, the thesis points out that Independent India must take special caution while they carry out the census in the society where the social problem handed down by the colonial government has not yet resolved.