ABSTRACT
The Survey’s formal relationship with the colonial state in India and the imperial government in Britain was loose and flexible rather than carefully managed and supervised. This gave Grierson a certain degree of autonomy. Initially the Survey was linked to the Census, but as it progressed, it ceased to be subordinate to the Census. A number of its aims and findings were also at odds with the Census. The successful conduct of the Survey is thrown into sharp relief by the failed Linguistic Survey of Burma, where multiple pressures from different parts of the colonial establishment and tensions between the latter and its superintendent derailed it.
