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Abstract
The paper focuses on how the survey of the princely states of Travancore and Cochin and the district of Malabar viewed the Hindu population and what Hindoo was in the early decades of 19th century. The paper also views on how the term Hindoo and its definition of population content attempted to generate an idea of homogenization of people who didn’t belong to Semitic religions. It also views on how the differences in terms of life patterns, religious beliefs and practices and social hierarchies in terms of jati latent in the societies of these regions were reflected in the surveys exposing the irreligiosity of the term Hindoo.