@article{article_1768488, title={Colonial Census and the Making of ‘Indian Muslim Identity’ The Case of Punjab}, journal={Trabzon İlahiyat Dergisi}, volume={12}, pages={223–243}, year={2025}, DOI={10.33718/tid.1768488}, author={Masatoğlu, Mehmet}, keywords={History of Religions, India, Punjab, Indian Muslim Identity, Hindu-Muslim Relations}, abstract={This article examines the role of colonial censuses conducted in British India between 1871 and 1941 in the construction of Muslim identity, focusing on the Punjab case. It argues that the censuses were not merely instruments of demographic record keeping, but rather constituted a fundamental part of a knowledge regime that transformed flexible, overlapping forms of belonging into rigid, hierarchical, and standardized categories. In the Punjab context, caste affiliations, biradari networks, and sectarian divisions were reinterpreted through this colonial interpretive framework; rural–urban distinctions and tensions between zamindars and artisans intersected with census-based classifications in areas such as representation, education, employment, and military mobilization. Methodologically, the study relies on a close reading of the Punjab Census Reports between 1871 and 1941 and related administrative regulations; it traces their reflections in political demands, petitions submitted by Muslim community leaders and organizations, electoral practices, and struggles for representation, while also engaging in a comparative analysis with the literature of the history of religions. The findings reveal that census categories were not only externally imposed structures but also instruments strategically appropriated by local actors. For example, peasant communities highlighted their names in official records to obtain tax exemptions, Sufi sheikhs sought to have their disciples classified under separate sectarian categories, and merchant guilds made use of specific identity classifications to protect their economic interests. While Syed Ahmad Khan incorporated census data into a modernist program aimed at strengthening Muslims institutionally, politically, and educationally, Muhammad Iqbal, in his The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, articulated a dynamic vision of Islamic identity that transcended static classifications, nourished by the concepts of khudi and collective subjectivity. Iqbal’s approach inspired postcolonial Islamic politics to interpret identity not as an essentialist construct but as a field of consciousness and action that is constantly renewed. From the perspective of the history of religions, the censuses not only made visible the internal plurality of Islam (Sunnī, Shīʿī, Ahl-i Hadis, Deobandī, Barelwī) but also reshaped boundary-making with Hindu and Sikh traditions. Building on this observation, this study argues that colonial censuses functioned not merely as administrative instruments but as key mechanisms of epistemic and political transformation, through which Muslim identity in Punjab was constructed.}, number={Özel Sayı}, publisher={Trabzon University}