Census Of India 1911 Vol Xiv Punjab Part - I

· 1912 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1490

24 #

3CenstiB Beport] 3 intboductobt. _ Ohapteb

4The entry commonly found in the case of Brahman priests or Mirasis and other

5.retainers Tvas ‘Birt Brahman,* * Birt Mirasi,’ etc., meaning the traditional

6occupation of a Brahman or Mirasi. On the other hand, similar terms like * Birt

7Bajput,’ ‘ Birt Jat,’ etc., were used in a converse sense, namely in the meaning

8of a person performing the traditional functions of his caste in the service of a

9Bajput or a Jat. The meanings were ascertained from each locality and the

10terms were classified accordingly. Such entries as ‘ pony hire,’.* mule hire,’ etc.,

11were capable of a double interpretation. Income from riding ponies or mules

12had to go to group 99, while plying pack animals fell in group 101. This doubt -

13was also cleared after local enquiry. Certain entries of teachers, without specifi-

14cation, were detected in sorting and wei’e relegated to the heads of *law,’ ‘music,’

15‘dancing,’ ‘drawing,’ etc., after a reference to the caste of the person enumerat-

16ed or after enquiry from the place of Enumeration. The inmates of jails often

17.gave their original occupations instead of being classified as ' ‘ convicts,’ ' under-

18trial ’ and ‘ civil prisoners,’ according to the special instructions given. Such mis-

19takes were corrected during Tabulation after reference to the Enumeration boo^

20of the jails concerned. Many employ6s of cotton factories did not specify

21whether they worked in a ginning, spinning or weaving mill. This omission was,

22.also supplied after local enquiry. Workers on coal did not specify whether their

23■occupation was connected with charcoal or mineral coal, and the omission had to

24be supplied with reference to other information. The makers and sellers of

25■articles could not be expected to distinguish clearly between the two factors

26•of which their occupation was composed. Some returned themselves as makers,

27others as sellers and some returned themselves both as makers and sellers. In

28the last mentioned case, they were included, in accordance with the instructions,

29under the industrial group of makers of that article, but, where one or the other

30factor was omitted from mention, there was no alternative but to go according

31• to the record. For instance, the districts of Lahore, Karnal, Bohtak, etc., show

32no manufacturers of aerated waters, while Lahore has 687 sellers of wine, aerated

33waters, etc., Karnal has 92 and Bohtak 31.

34Sweepers in the employ of Municipal committees, in many places, gave

35their occupation merely as ‘ Municipal servants,’ and have consequently been

36ahown in 'Municipal service ’ (group 146), although it was found a little too late,

37■ during Compilation, that 861 Chuhras were included in that group, most of whom

38must have been employed on the work of scavenging and should accordingly have,

39appeared in group 93. The inmates of hospitals were returned under their

40respective occupations, but no clear instruotions were given to the effect that they

41should be returned under the separate designation of inmates of hospitals. It

42was found impracticable to abstract the information from the Enumeration books

43of all the hospitals.

44ITumerous mistakes of sorting were detected, during the marking of

45occupations by groups in the Compilation ofhce and in preparing the classification %

46aheets. A few important ones may, however, be mentioned here : — Boti (bread)

47and Bui (cotton) are written very much alike in Urdu, so selling Boti and selling

48Bui were indiscriminately mixed up in Compilation. The confusion was dis-

49covered in the final checking and reierences to local ofiScers revealed the mistakes

50which were traced back to the initial stages of Compilation and corrected. The

51entry ^Boria. Baf’ means a mat-maker in the eastern Punjab and a gunny-bag

52weaver in the rest of the Province. The Compilers threw all the entries under

53group 23, Jute weaving; The mistake was discovered in the final checking and

54rectified after ascertaining the interpretation of the term from the districts. Borne

55mistakes were made in the compilation of Table XV C “ Dual occupations,’.’ in

56consequence of the erroneous classification of occupation entries. The mistakes were

57discovered on comparison with the figures of actual workers in Table XV A, and

58the whole table was recompiled after comparison of the Sorters’ tickets with the

59classification sheets of Table XV- A. Some misclassification also occurred during

60Compilation. For instance, 1 8 females were put down as actual workers under

61group 51 ‘ Manufacture of aerated waters ’ in the Hissar District. The entry

62being suspicious local enquiries were made and it was found that all of them

63were dependants. By tracing the figures back through the processes of

64Compilation, it was discovered that 5 male workers had been copied under