M. K. Gandhi opposed the census enumeration of “untouchables,” or Dalits, as a separate group in the Census of 1931. As a “Hindu reformer” who fought against untouchability, Gandhi wanted to include “untouchables” within the larger political category of “Hindu.” Yet this view ran against the lived experiences of Dalits, who pointed to the hypocrisy of the political construction of “untouchables as Hindus” when they were systematically excluded, humiliated, and treated as less than human, and blocked from entry into temples—reinforcing the “line of untouchability” that separated “untouchables” from “caste Hindus.” Political scientist Vivek Kumar Singh describes the irreconcilability of this position, arguing that “untouchables could, therefore, neither enter the temple nor leave it.”

Ambedkar vehemently opposed Gandhi's position. Gandhi saw himself as representing “the vast mass of untouchables” and believed that “untouchables” should remain within the Hindu fold, while Ambedkar demanded self-representation for “untouchables” through separate electorates and reservations. Gandhi resisted both separate electorates and reservations and also argued that the census enumeration of “untouchables” as a separate community would further enhance caste divisions, instead of empowering “untouchables.” Gandhi's perspective in the 1930s strongly influenced Congress political leaders, who believed they were the legitimate political representatives of “untouchables” as one of many communities within the “Hindu majority” during negotiations with the British to “quit India.”

Gandhi's advice to a government committee on how “untouchables” should be enumerated in the census—as Hindus—highlights the embeddedness of census politics within the politics of representation and the distribution of political power in “decolonizing” India.