Census Administration Under the Raj and After

Contents: Preface. 1. Introductory. 2. Genesis of census in India. 3. The plowden committee for a general census in India. 4. Census administration: What it involves. 5. The first general census, 1881. 6. The census commissioner for India. 7. Field organisation. 8. The second World War and the census. 9. Census and caste. 10. Politics of census. 11. Legal basis of the census. 12. From phoenix to permanent organisation. 13. Census and the Government of India act, 1935. 14. Recapitulating and beyond. Appendix: 1. Report by the officers appointed to consider the suggestions for general census in India in 1881. 2. Census act, 1948. Index.

"The present work deals with the census in India. Which is one of the oldest activities of the Indian Government as also its single largest administrative exercise. Though the census is in existence for more than one hundred years, the present is the first study of its kind. The work traces the beginning of censusing under the British rule and describes, briefly but vividly, the earlier experience-gathering exercises in head-counting before the launching of the first all-India census in 1881. The first-ever general census is discussed in some detail capturing the contemporary people's perception to this novel and mystery-clad operation. The work examines the role and responsibilities of the census chief executive as also the sprawling field organisation under him with its penetration into the remotest hamlet. While Great Britain discontinued its census in 1941. India conducted it despite its being in the Second world War. This fascinating story is discussed in the work. With political awakening in the country, the census lent itself to linguistic, caste and religious manipulations and these issues are soberly discussed with all the policy implications. Equally analytical is the treatment accorded to the most exotic social institution of India, namely caste. Originally a phoenix organisation, how census got a permanent organisational base is examined in sufficient detail. Developments in census since Independence (1947) are discussed in the last chapter." (jacket)