Census and syllabus: How British rule played a long game to brand tribals of India as ‘non-Hindu’
dhruv
September 29, 2026
By the 1931 census, the separation was formally complete. Tribal communities were officially listed as a religion separate from Hinduism across British India. Sixty years of work. Six censuses. Six different names for the same manufactured category. The legal identity vacuum was now fully established on paper.
