Abstract

Drawing from James C. Scott’s treatise, Seeing Like a State, this article examines the concept of “legibility” and argues that a population census with ethnic cleavages is a political maneuver for the state to control its subjects. Under British colonial rule, “legibility” was easily attained as the censuses provided the authorities with a simplified view of the society which allowed observation, control, and manipulation (in non-derogatory terms). However, in the post-independence context of Mauritius, for electoral purposes, there is no attempt to make the society officially “legible” through an updated population census with ethnic categories. By choosing to no longer classify its population on ethnic criteria for the sake of national unity and while continuing to rely on the 1972 population census for electoral purposes, even though it is outdated, it is in the state’s advantage to ensure control of its subjects, where this control is spurred by the societal structure, the institutional design, the census politics, and the parties’ politics and interests.

摘要

取自 James C. Scott 的论文，Seeing Like a State，本文考察了“易读性”的概念，并认为具有种族分歧的人口普查是国家控制其臣民的政治策略。在英国殖民统治下，“易读性”很容易实现，因为人口普查为当局提供了一个简化的社会视图，允许观察、控制和操纵（以非贬义的方式）。然而，在毛里求斯独立后的背景下，出于选举目的，没有尝试通过更新的带有种族类别的人口普查使社会正式“清晰”。为了民族团结，选择不再按照种族标准对其人口进行分类，同时继续依靠 1972 年的人口普查进行选举，即使它已经过时，