Indian Census In Perspective

Author : J. D. Anderson
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781975844653
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (446 download)

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Download or read book The Peoples of India written by J. D. Anderson and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-08-27 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature THE writing of this little book has been delayed by the hope I once cherished of incorporating in it some of the resul of the Indian Census of 1911. This desire was inevitable in the caae of a retired Indian official, who, like most of his kind, has taken a small part in one or more of the decennial numberings of the Indian people. In this country, a Census aff0 1-ds material chiefly for the calculations and theories of the statistician, and the Registrar-General is not regarded as an expert in Anthropology or Linguistics. But in India the case is very different. If the district officer is always glad to learn as much as possible of the people with whom he is brought into contact, his official duties often reveal only the seamy side of Indian life, and it is only when he is in camp, or snatching a rare and hurried holiday in shooting, that he gets to see something of the people otherwise than as litigantjl or payers of revenue. A census is an agreeable and welcome opportunity for looking at India from another and more genially human point of view. In the first place, it is one of the least expensive of official operations, since it is chiefly perfonned by unpaid and volunteer agency. Hence the official, a little weary of litigants, touts, pleaders, and subordinates, who, however amiable in their private lives, are apt to be indolent and obstructive in office, is glad to make acquaintance with new friends, who, for the most part, take an intelligent and amused interest in the unfamiliar task of number-ing. For many busy weeks before the a, ctual counting takes place, the district officer has to ride far and near, to satisfy himself that all necessary preparations have duly been made, to issue the instructions that may be called for by the zeal, inquisitiveness or density of his volunteer colleagues. In the process, he has many pleasant and some amusing experiences. On one occasion I rode into a little village on the north-eMtern frontier, inhabited by semi-savage Tibeto-Burmese people. Official orders as to the numbering of all the house in legible figures had apparently not been obeyed I simulated wrath and disappointment, but the worthy headman on whom I vented my (purely official) indignation was not dismayed. '' Bring out your drums ! '' he shouted Every householder produced the family kettle-drum, on the head of which the number of his house had been duly inscribed in large figures. There was no paper in the village, but parchment was invented before paper, and the headman deserved the commen-dation I was glad to bestow. On another occasion, I found a house numbered indeed, but grievously dilapidated and obviously deserted '' "\Vhy is this empty house numbered, I asked. ''It is haunted by a ghost, sir, '' answered the enumerator. I confess I felt sorry not to allow him to include this ghostly visitant in a census of living men. Other incidents, more ethnologically important than these, will fre-quently occur. In any case the Census Report of an Indian province is by far the most interesting official doc11ment in existence, and each census adds some-thing to our knowledge of Indian humanity, if only because each Census Commissioner, always an officer of unusual ability and attainments, looks at his task from a point of view somewhat different from that of his predecesso.rs, and stamps his individuality on the work of his subordinates. Those who have read Mr E. A. Gait's article on Caste in the Dictionary of Ethws and Religion will expect the census of 1911 to contain new views and fresh information as to the actual working of the caste system in various provinces, and its relation to the religious ideaB of the people