Census Of India 1901 Vol.23 (kashmir) Pt.1 (report)

· 1902 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1happened, that a favourite police officer here, a responsible forest incumbent

2there, or, for the matter of that in the Revenue Department even, a pet patwari

3would sometimes, on the call for help in the operations, by responsible local

4authorities, resent and prove refractory, and raise futile objections in one case

5and technical in the other. It is not to be inferred from the foregoing

6remarks, that the heads of any Department were in the least inclined to coun-

7tenance the attitude assumed by their subordinates, inasmuch as, whenever

8the matter was brought to their notice, the recalcitrant offender was invariably

9brought to a sense of his duty and never spared.

1018. Raises of cities, members of municipal boards, rural notables,

11zaildars and the like, constituted the ranks of the superior agency, while

12village headmen, literate shop-keepers, priests, Pandits, Maulvis and small

13land owners, as well as students from schools, helped in the enumeration. Of

14the above named agency some rendered assistance to the authorities either

15through hope or fear, but some, I am pleased to remark, took a geuuine

16interest in the work and looked upon the whole proceeding as a solemn

17function, in which they thought it to be a privilege to assist ; learning

18all the directions by rote like a parrot, so much so, that sometimes even the

19least hint of a word to them would make them reproduce the whole passage,

20whereas a sensible question on the same quotation was sure to confound their

21best intellect, and failed to elicit the desired answer. Such class of people

22took the greatest pride in their tempDrary association in the affairs of the State,

2319. Such material, however, as was available had to be made the best use of,

24and a good many persons who had the requisite qualifications, and many who had

25not, were pressed into the service. As a rule, the enumerators were chosen, as

26far as possible, from among the residents of the area to be enumerated ; but in

27oases where no capable man was forthcoming, arrangements had to be made from

28the neighbouring towns or villages according to circumstances.

2920. Preliminary Records. — Having sketched out the work for them,

30selected the agency, and practically trained the same ; the officers in charge

31began, after the advent of the New year (1901), the preparation of the preliminary

32records, which were, after certain corrections due to subsequent births, deaths,

33and movements of the people, to represent the results of the census night as

34the outcome of the whole operations. The village population is comparatively

35a stationary one, and the alterations made in the entries on the census night

36were comparatively few. It was made and corrected at leisure, daring the

37month of February 1901, and during the greater part of that month, the staff set

38apart for the Census Operations, was busily employed ; the enumerators

39going round their blocks from house to house, putting down the required

40particulars from each person; and the superior officers riding from village

41to village and from block to block, inspecting, examining, checking and

42correcting throughout their respective charges. In certain far off and remote

43areas of the State, these enumei’ations were conducted so early as December

441900. I’he attainment of ai’eally accurate I’ecord depends not only upon intelli-

45gence, but also on the exercise of tact, patience and perseverance. Allowance,

46however, under all circumstances, will have to be made for want of due intelli-

47gence in the enumerators, and the illegibility of their hand-writing ; and it is,

48therefore, not to be wondered at, that in a great many instances, the record was

49practically prepared by a supervisor or a patwari, rather than by the enume-

50rator himself. In cases where supervisors also were not above the cornmou

51ruu of the enumerators, a patwari had to attend to the records made by the

52supervisor.

5321. There is no doubt about it that the position of the initial recording

54scribe sometimes became very awkward, where the answers to the questions

55seemed to conflict with his own preconceived theories. In case.s like this, he

56was directed not to give scope to his notions or use his discretion ; though at

57the same time, it was very difficult to take the stat^>raents of the people interro-

58gated, at their own words. Thus where a tottering old man would represent

59himself to be a young man of 30 or 35, and especially when the same old man

60would increase or decreu-c the number of years to an indefinite amount, each