1 m
2 ORIGINAL PREFACE
3 TO THE REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF 1881.
4 In vvntmg the accompanymg report on the Pan jab Census of 1881 I
5 have steadily kept two main objects before me. Firstly, I have attempted' to
6 produce a work which shall he useful to District officers as a handbook of
7 reference on all the subjects dealt with in the Census Schedules, and which
8 shall stand with regard to such subjects in a position somewhat similar
9 to that occupied by the modern Settlement Report in respect of revenue
10 matters. Secondly, I have endeavoured to record in some detail the experience
11 gamed at this Census, for gui.lance on the occasion of future enumerations.
12 My pursuance of each of these objects has helped to swell the size of the
13 report.
14 It would have been easy to wi-ite a short notice of some of the more
15 obvious conclusions to be drawn from the Census totals of the Province as a
16 whole ; and such a notice would doubtless have technirallv sufficed as a report
17 to Government upon the operations which I had superint^.ded. But it would
18 have been of small use for future reference, and would liave served no pui-pose
19 beyond that of furnishing the text for a Government resolution. A Census
20 report IS not meant merely for the information of the Secretariat • it is
21 mtended to be constantly refemd to in every office of the Province The
22 mere results would ill serve th's end in the absence of an interpreter. It is of
23 but small advantage to cast voluminous tables of naked figui-es at the heads of
24 District officers, without at the same time explaining what they represent
25 which can be done by no one but him who compiled them, and drawino- from'
26 them the more miportant conclusions to which they lead, which few will draw
27 but he whose special business it is to do so.'
28 In the ordinary routine of district work, information is constants needed
29 regarding some feature or other of the society which we govern That in-
30 formation often exists in print ; but in India libraries are few and books scarce •
31 while where the latter are available, they are often too detailed or too learned
32 for the practical pui-poses of the District officer. It has been my endeavour to
33 furnish such a sketch of the salient features of native society in the Panjab
34 as will often supply the immediate need, and at the same time to indicate
35 '^^^''^' '^ anywhere, further details may be found. A Census report is not
36 . Much of the length of the report i, due to the exceptionally large number of the aHminLh,*-
37 units tor which the separate figures had to be discussed. (See section 929 na»f ^S ^ T « IT!!''*
38 States took great pains with the Censas ; and, apart from the intrU.s"c value of^he reiltJlt T.
39 have been ungracious to discuss their tigures leas fully than our owt, "^''' '^ '^^'-^