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Scope of the Report

CensusIndia

The area covered by the sixth general census of India is approximately identical with that covered by the census of 1921 and differs little from the area of previous occasions from 1881 onwards; 2,308 sq. miles containing some 34,000 inhabitants have been added in Burma and in the North of Assam, while on the other hand, six sq. miles have been lost to Nepal. The statistics therefore cover the whole empire of India with, Burma and the adjacent

islands and islets (Exclusive of Ceylon and the Maldives) as well as Aden and Perim Island, but not the Kuria Muria Islands* and Sokotra, which is part of the Aden Protectorate, administered from Aden on behalf of the Colonial Office, and not part of British India. The statistics the tables do not of course cover those parts of the peninsula, which are not parts of the British Empire, that is

size, part of which is well within the temperate zone while part is almost equatorial, the diversity of condition both of theopulation and of its environment must be very great indeed. Geologically, while the peninsula is one of the oldest of the world's formations, the Himalayas are one of the most recent. Not unnaturally therefore there is a great variety of physical feature, varying not only from the loftiest mountains of the world to flats salted by every tide, but from sandy deserts with a rainfall of five inches or less in a year in the north west to thickly wooded

evergreen hills which have never less than 100 inches and here and there get 500 inches of rain or even more in the east and south. Again in northern India there are extremes of temperature - 120 o of heat dropping to cold below freezing point, while in the south the temperature is almost static in its heats and humidity. As might be expected the physical features of the inhabitants are no less variable than those of their environments. Any haphazard collection of Indians will afford types of very different ethnic groups, to say, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and the French and Portuguese possessions, the area and population of which, together with the rate of increase since 1921 where available, are shown in the marginal table. For the rest the scope of this census extended to the whole of the peninsula of India, forming what is commonly described as a sub continent between long. 61 o and 101 o E. and lat 6 o to 37 o N. Some information has also been included with regard to natives of India resident permanently or temporarily outside the Indian Empire or serving on the High Seas at the time the census was taken. Obliviously within an area of such though the

composition would vary according to the locality. The number of languages, as classifieds by sir George Grierson in his Linguistic Survey of India and exclusive of dialects, is 225 by the returns of 1931. Creeds may be less numerous, but castes, customs and sects must be no peoples to be covered by this report present every aspect from that of the latest phase of western civilization to that of the most India, still exist by hunting and collecting forest produce without ever apparently of so large and diversified an area must, if it is to be contained in a volume, be of a superficial nature, leaving the closer examination of the figures and facts revealed by enumeration to the reports severally undertaken for each of the provinces and larger States.

Note : The population of these islands remains conjectural, and the only information that can be had about them was obtained in 1920 from the senior naval officers at Aden it is printed in part III of this Report, since, although out of date, it appears to be the latest information available. The question of the language of Sonora formerly perhaps written, but now a spoken language only, is of some interest, as are likewise habits and customs of the populations of these islands some of whom in Sonora are cave dwellers; it is therefore unfortunate from a scientific point of view that no investigation has ever apparently been made.

2.At the same time in spite of this great variety the existence for the most part of a uniform system of administration and of a fairly general distribution of the different racial types from which the population is drawn, together with a similar, if perhaps less even distribution of religious and social systems, contribute to give a certain uniformity, if not unity, to the whole, which in spite of local differences is obviously capable of national consciousness which increases with the spread of education. For the difficulty occasioned by great diversity in treating India as a whole is experienced likewise to a more limited extent in each in treating India as a whole is experienced likewise to a more limited extent in each Province and in most States, since the political boundaries have generally little relation to any other. The difficulty of dealing with the population question by natural divisions in thus greatly enhanced. Obviously the density of the population is in immediate relationship to the conformation of the soil, to the rainfall and to crops, all of which are inter dependent, but since the boundaries of administrative units run counter to the divisions of nature, any treatment of the population according to natural divisions is likely to involve the dissipation of figures returned by administrative units into a set of entirely different combinations. This has been attempted for India as a whole on some previous occasions, but the information obtained by such a treatment, however interesting academically, is of little or no administrative value. Demography by natural divisions therefore has been limited to the individual reports of provinces, since in some of the provinces and states the natural divisions are less diverse from divisions political than they are when India is treated as a whole, and within the administrative unit may even be of some practical application.

3. In addition to the actual population of India some attempt has been made to give information as to Indian nationals in other countries or on the High Seas. These figures are necessarily incomplete, but perhaps go further than they have done on previous occasions by including returns of Indian crews on ocean going vessels shipped during the eight months or so that preceded the final enumeration. Though not in India at the time of the census, these crews form a permanent part of the population visiting their homes from time to time and in many cases returning agriculture as a subsidiary occupation. Strictly speaking therefore, although the census in intention is one of the de facto population that is of the numbers found in India on February 26 th , 1931 and not as in the case of the United States, for instance, a de jure population, the terms of a census of actual population have not been observed with excessive punctuality. This indeed would have been impossible, since the remoteness of some parts of India, the difficulty of communications and limitations imposed be water, snow and wild animals make a completely synchronous enumeration of the whole