ABSTRACT
The apparent termination of data collection on the basis of community in the postcolonial census, and its replacement with additional statistics on class and economy, might also partially account for the contrast in the amount of attention it has received in the historiography when compared with the colonial census. Census data on language could be incorrectly recorded and knowingly refashioned in the interests of the enumerator's own community ahead of linguistic reorganisation. This chapter argues that the use of this data by the state often served to retrench the community identities it otherwise sought to challenge and uproot. It demonstrates that state monitoring of its citizens on the basis of their community was not totally abandoned in the immediate postcolonial period. The chapter considers the existing historiography on the census in greater depth, demonstrating its relative lack of attention towards both language and the postcolonial census.
