Colonial statistics carried authority precisely because they were precise, despite acknowledged flaws

Evidence

Admitting the results to be “not completely favorable,” the commission published the statistics nonetheless, despite confusion about who had asked the questions and who had answered them; the large numbers who were noncompliant; and the fact that in some districts the “less well-off” demanded to be distinguished from paupers and excluded from the inquiry, whereas elsewhere they did not. So how many paupers were there? With all of the “misunderstandings” and with all the state’s caveats that it was simply striving to gain a general picture, the figures were authoritative—not rounded but exact. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 949

Categorization

• CANDY: The verb phrase ‘the figures were authoritative—not rounded but exact’ is a lovely quirk of colonial knowledge production.