Report on the Census Of India, 1901

The Report on the Census of India, 1901, was written by Herbert Hope Risley and Edward Albert Gait, both British colonial administrators. The census presented an overview of British India’s history between 1891 and 1901 and summed up religious and social movements, educational efforts, and commercial and industrial progress. In the authors’ view, the census also “enables the rulers of India to take stock of their position and see how it has fared with the people committed to their charge,” besides providing statistical data on which all administrative action should be based. The census surveyed every province and gathered data on population, age, sex, religion, education, occupation, infirmities, languages and ethnic diversity. It also recapitulated data from earlier censuses about famine, and outbreaks of cholera and malarial fever that had led to declining birth rates and enhanced death rates.