Colonial authority required first making a dispersed population graspable and controllable

Evidence

In effect the essential thing is to gather into groups this people which is everywhere and nowhere; the essential thing is to make them something we can seize hold of. When we have them in our hands, we will then be able to do many things which are quite impossible for us today and which will perhaps allow us to capture their minds after we have captured their bodies. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 318

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The phrase ‘everywhere and nowhere’ and capturing bodies before minds captures the heart of colonial power’s logic — the mind follows the body’s seizure. Dense and paradigm-shifting for understanding power.
• XREF: Echoes the earlier chapters’ theme of making populations visible and enumerable; connects to Scott’s ‘Seeing Like a State’ legibility work. — connects to: Colonial management required objectifying territories through maps and data-gathering surveys. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 311