Abstract
THE publication of the Report of the Census Commissioner for India in 1931 not only marks the completion of a stupendous undertaking; but also in its contents, which range far beyond the bare facts furnished by the enumerator, it serves as a reminder that whatever may befall in India in the course of the next generation-and it would be an act of extreme rashness to venture on prophecy-the contribution of the British official to the study of the peoples of India, their languages, their history, their customs and their institutions, will endure as a “monument more lasting than brass”. It little matters whether these studies were the outcome of a desire to satisfy intellectual curiosity in a country in which people, monuments and literature alike prompt inquiry into the past, or of the practical necessity for an understanding of the intricate ramifications of custom and religion in the administration of every-day affairs. It is enough that out of these inquiries there developed such great undertakings as the linguistic, archaeological and epigraphic surveys of India, which became the work of government departments, or those remarkable compendia, the various provincial surveys of tribes and castes.
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Racial Problems and the Indian Census Report, 1931*. Nature 132, 833–835 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132833a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132833a0