Age and Empire in the Indian Census, 1871–1931

1999/07/01 by Timothy L. Alborn, Timothy Alborn · 2 citations
Mathematics · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Census #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Demography #Empire #Genealogy #Geography #History #Imperfect #Law #Linguistics #Literacy #Mathematics #Numeracy #Political science #Population #Sociology #State (computer science)

paper · doi:10.1162/002219599551912

openalex publication_date 1999/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The age returns in the British-administered Census of India between 1871 and 1931 were problematic. Owing to low levels of numeracy and poor records of births and deaths in India, census officials resorted to a number of technical innovations to generate useful statistical regularities out of the imperfect data. In the process, they came to realize that even so putatively a “universal” category as age might be impossible to determine accurately in a culture that lacked certain assumptions about time, and in a state that lacked the resources to tabulate when people began and ended their lives.

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• Artificial Intelligence from Colonial India: Race, Statistics, and Facial Recognition in the Global South
• Faraway futures: Life insurance and the human lifespan as a commercial time-horizon in colonial India

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