STATISTICS IN THE SERVICE OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT IN INDIA 1 The article is devoted to the origin and process of institutionalization of the statistical service in colonial India; analysis of procedures and methods of collecting, systematizing and interpreting information by British officials. The center of the research is the problem of objectivity and scientific character of "colonial knowledge", its relationship with the authorities, their needs and requests. The article is based on a report on the state of local education in Bengal and Bihar (1838), which was the result of many months of field research conducted by an official of the East India Company, William Adam, in 1835-1837. Keywords: colonialism, British India, statistics, information, colonial knowledge, education, Bengal, Bihar. STATISTICS AS A MEANS OF THE COLONIAL POWER IN INDIA The paper is devoted to the birth and process of institutionalization of statistic survey in the British India, methods and procedures of collection, systematization and interpretation of the information used by the British officers in the nineteenth century. The author focuses on the problems of "colonial knowledge " and its relations to the colonial power. This study is based on the "Report on the State of Education in Bengal; Including Some Account of the State of Education in Behar" (1838) resulted from two-year study tour and field research conducted by the officer of the East India Company William Adam in 1835-1837. Keywords: colonialism, British India, statistics, information, informational order, colonial knowledge, education, Bengal, Behar. The well-known British historian C. Bailey, in his study "Empire and Information" (Bayly, 1996), devoted to the organization and activities of the British intelligence service in colonial India, used the concept of "information order", borrowed from the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells (Castells, 1989). In this case, the" information system " is understood as a set of institu ... Read more