Census as an Instrument of Political Technology in the Age of Biopolitics

Abstract

Human are other-driven beings. It is a dialectical process in that the need to construct the other is primarily driven by an urge for self-realisation and self actualisation. It is a universal urge in every individual and social group. It is particularly this urge to construct the other that motivates the human to venture into colonising relentlessly. Initially, colonisation was restricted to nature and its objects, but under capitalism it has become a generalised and universal phenomenon. Today, it has reached its climax after venturing into the last colony i.e. colonisation of life, its forms and processes. Human beings have used various tools and techniques for creating the colonies at different points of time. Census enumerations have adopted the universal political technologies under capitalism for the purpose of colonisation of life, its forms and processes.