The 1881 census was in many senses the first 'proper' census of India, in particular unlike the 1871-72 census, which is actually based on reports gathered over a number of years in different parts of the country, the 1881 census was actually carried out over a short timespan in the manner normally adopted for the implentation of a census. It was also very influential in that it established many of the categories which were later considered to be the standard categories by which census data were to be collected. This is particularly so in the case of the categories used in the reports on caste, religion and occupation.

The first volume is a kind of general report on the census findings. The second volume consists of 33 tables of the data collected. The third volume contains a number of tables and a series of extracts from the Presidency level reports. There are some problems with the digital version of the second volume. At current it consists of 33 tables, some of which are really too big too display correctly which were prepared by the Centre for Data Digitisation in Belfast for us. I am currently working on reformating them to match the original pagination and have discovered that in some cases they also missed out parts of the data from certain tables. It is hoped that these problems will be rectified.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Census of British India taken on the 17th of February 1881 Volume I.
Author: W.Chichele Plowden
Publisher: Eyre and Spottiswoode
Place: London
Date: 1883.

Title: The Indian Empire Census of 1881 Statistics of Population Vol. II.
Author: W. Chichele Plowden
Publisher: Superintendent of Government Printing India.
Place: Calcutta
Date: 1883.

Title: Census of British India taken on the 17th of February 1881 Volume III
Author and Editor: W.Chichele Plowden
Publisher: Eyre and Spottiswoode
Place: London
Date: 1883.