The 1901 census of India contains a wealth of detail that reflects some of the preocupations of its age. It contains exhaustive treatments of issues related to population change and religion and civil condition and the other matters normally recorded in the census reports. A major introduction in this census report, not seen in the previous census reports, was the study of the "anthropometric" readings of racial characteristics which is introduced into its discussion of "Caste, Tribe, and Race" in chapter eleven of the work. There is also a very extensive discussion of the origins of caste in the census report which has provoked much controversy. Sir Herbert Risley also wrote a major work on Indian Castes called The People of India which he published in 1908.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Census of India 1901, Volume 1, India, Part 1 – Report
Authors: H.H. Risley and E.A. Gait
Place: Calcutta
Publisher: Superintendent of Government Printing
Date: 1903. (xxv, 582)