Colonialism played a significant role in shaping the perceptions of caste in India, although it is crucial to note that caste itself existed long before the British colonized India. However, colonial powers used caste as a tool to understand and control Indian society, which had long-term implications on how caste was perceived, categorized, and institutionalized. The British colonial administrators, in their quest to understand Indian society and administer their rule, relied heavily on the existing social structures, including caste. Early British scholars, such as Thomas Macaulay and James Mill, were deeply influenced by their own Eurocentric worldview, which saw Indian society as static, primitive, and hierarchically structured. The British colonial system, with its emphasis on law, order, and categorization, sought to understand and codify these traditional social structures, including caste, in a way that fit their administrative needs. In doing so, they unintentionally shaped the way caste was perceived and how it was operationalized within the colonial framework. One of the major ways colonialism shaped caste perceptions was through the process of formalization and codification. Prior to British rule, caste was a fluid concept, with regional variations, fluid boundaries, and less rigidity in its practice. The caste system, while hierarchical, was not as rigidly enforced in all areas of India, and local customs and traditions often blurred these lines. However, British colonial officials needed to categorize the Indian population for purposes of governance, revenue collection, and military conscription. They employed a method of classification that created rigid categories, turning the social structure into something more formalized and institutionalized. This process was partly driven by the British reliance on census data. The first Census of India in 1871, followed by subsequent censuses, played a critical role in this. The census classified people into fixed categories, which had far-reaching consequences. This categorization system emphasized the fixed nature of caste identities, reducing a complex, regionally varied system into simplistic, uniform categories. For instance, the colonial census, which asked people