Originally intended as a tool to streamline governance and facilitate inclusion, Aadhaar has developed into an amalgam that engenders deeply concerning ramifications for Indian society. Enumerated as an inquiry into a technology-based public administration system, Aadhaar unveils a convoluted mechanism that poses pertinent questions regarding surveillance, governance, and identity. The study delves into the paradox of Aadhaar: how it acts as both a tool of governance and an instrument of identification surveillance, utilizing a combination of interviews, processing data analysis, and post-colonialism to unpack its workings within Indian society. Even while Aadhaar promises to make benefits accessible to people easily, practical possibilities present a challenge due to the presence of duplicate ID cards or living-active accounts of persons who died, for instance. This development consequently raises fears about mass surveillance and the privatization of public functions furthered by private companies such as OnGrid and Khosla Labs, which calls into great question issues of accountability and ethical consideration. In comparison with other global regimes such as the GDPR or the Social Security System, Aadhaar lacks strict mechanisms to protect an individual’s privacy and ensure accountability and all necessary levels of transparency. Aadhaar’s surveillance mechanisms, based on Foucault’s concept of the panopticon, normalize the state’s power to monitor and control its citizens through biometric tracking. This transcends inclusion into the realm of a new form of identity governance where those with lesser chances for acceptance-think migrants, poor people, and the unbanked-are again in a slightly more analytically navigable environment of exclusion. Hybridity, in the work of Bhabha, enables another way of comprehending the workings of Aadhaar in the post-colonial context: it is fluid and must be constantly redefined by surveillance. The critical post-colonial analysis outlined by Edward Said delineates how the Aadhaar has gone to mimic colonial systems of categorization while further fortifying power hierarchies and systematic, institutional exclusion. As Aadhaar increasingly shapes Indian identity, it does so not merely as a tool of inclusion, but as a system that systematically places citizens under surveillance — making identity synonymous with scrutiny and regulation, normalizing the power to monitor and control without consent or choice.