The General Report on the Census of India for 1891 is a fascinating account of India at the height of British power in South Asia. It contains data on Indian geography, politics, population, occupations, ethnography, language, race, caste, tribe, literacy, infirmities and sex and age distribution. Data on individuals names is not available as far as is known.

It is far from a simple dry collection of statistics and it includes lots of anecdotal details which give a vivid picture of India in the late 19th century. For instance on page 98 there is a description of some of the occupations returned in the census, which include, amongst others, " living happily".

The General Report on the 1891 census was written by Sir Jervoise Athelstane Baines (1847-1925) and originally published as the General report on the Census of India, 1891. London : Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1893.

Credits

The copy of this book which the OCR version was made from is in The La Trobe Collection of The State Library of Victoria. who have given permission for the images of its pages to be reproduced on this site.