CENSUS ,OF INDIA, 1,961 MYSORE PART VI VILLAGE SURVEY MONOGRAPHS , No. 31 UMMATHUR VILLAGE Chamarajanagar Taluk, Mysore District Editor : K. BALASUBRAMANY AM. of the Indian Administrative Service, Superintendent of Census Operations in Mysore 1976 l'BINTBD Df DfDIA. A.T 'l'lIll OOVEBl!f1D:NT BR4NOB PRESS, DBABA. WA.D A.KD PUBLJSBJU) BY 'l'lIll IlANAORR 0:1' PUBLICATIONS, DlILBI-6 1 1 . MAP OF MYSORE 17' ARABIAN SEA IND£r triet H~ad'Qu~rters k " j I J 7 PrtptI:,.,d at the offict of the SUl'trillltncknt of Ctrr.nu Opt'fatwlfI Mysort, BANGAU)NE.19~4 VILLAGE SURVEY MQIrotHtAPH ON UMMATHUR '. -'1 i: 1,:. " Field investigation and first draft I) Srt S. Raja Rao, Investigator 2) Sri,~ G.. N anjunda Gowda, Investigator Supervision and guidance . Lat,e_, Sri.t K. ~. Suryanarayanan, Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations in, Mysore Final draft Sri. C. M. Chandawarkar, Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations in Mysore Photographs Sri. Dasa:ppa, , Department of Information .and, Publicity, Govt. of Mysore " Tabulation Sri. M. S. Rangaswamy . , Senior Technical Assistant ,. 0 Il It ll~l) '.*0 ' ',' A1!art ftom laying: the·foundation. of'ae~~phy i~ this 8uboont.iDHD·t• .a hUDdr,~ yeazs, ....~:the. .In,," Ce~ :h~s a.lso pl'ojQeed., felaborate<'atid sclwlarlj' Q,cr:ounts of the variegated phen~ iI'aI Indian Jif&-8ometrmes with ilo~8ta.ti.gties attaohed ~ hut 'W3Ually with jlll'lt (~Il()Ugh stat.iSti(lI'I tk. J gi"" empirio;al nnder.:.pinning to. their .colldlttsjons·•. In a oountry, hLrgdy illitt'rate, wline 'si-atiatical ' at nUiherical comprehension of -ev~n. such a. simple thing as age WI~S lillbL(~ t,() bc) inM:el1mt(:, an understanding of the,social !ffir'Uctnre was essential. It was more necessary to attain ~L broad uudl'rRbulCljng of \\'W. ., was happening around oneself than to wrap oneself up in 'statistical ingenuity' .or 'mathemati?31 .mW" _ ',wa-tion'. This explains :why the'In'dian Oensus came to be inter~ste(rln 'many by-paths' aJ!_d 'nearly ttvery branclliof scholarship from anthropology and sociology to geography. and religion'. - " - .' In the last few decad4ila th~ Census has increasingly turned its efforts to the presentation of village statistics· This s1i\ts the temper of the t~mes as well a,s our political and economic structure: For even .&S we have 8. grea.t deal of cen.tralizatlOn on the one hand and decentralisation on the other, my colleagues thought.it would be a welcome con~inp.ation of the CensllS tradition to try to invest the dry bones of Tillag~ statistics with flesh-and-plood accounts of social structure and so~ial change. It was accordingly decided to sele~t a f~w villages_in every State for special study, where personal observation would be brought to bear on the interpretation of statistics to find out how much of a village Was static. and yet chaztling, and pow fast the winds of ch!Jonge were blowing and from where- . .Randomness of selection was, therefore, eschewed- There was no intention to build up a picture for the whole State in quantitative terms on the basis of villages selected statistically at random- The selectIon Was avowedly'purPosive : the object being as much to find out what was happening and' how fastCto those villages whlch had fewer reasons to choose change and more to remain lodged in the past as',tp discover how the mor~ 'normal' types' of villages were changing- They were to be primarily type studies which, by vi~tue of their 'number and distribution, would also give the reader a <feel' of what was going on and some kind of a map of the country- A brief account of the tests of selection wili help· to explain- A minimum of thirty-five villa.ges. was to be chosen with great ca;re to represent adequately geographical, occupational and eVen ethnic iiversity- Of this minimum of thirty-five, the distribution was to be as follows : At least eight villages were to be so selected tha.t each of them would contain one dominant community with one predominating, e- g- fishermen, forest workers, jhum cultivators, potters, weavers, salt-makers, quarry. workers, etc· A village should have a minimum population of 400, the optimum being between 500 Itnd' 700. At least seven ~v~lla.ges were to be of numerically prominent SchedUled Tribes of the State~ Each villag3 could represent a. particular tribe- The minimum population should be 400. , . The optimum being between 500 and 700. The third gr:oup of villages sh~)lud ea.ch be of fair size. of an old and settled character and ~ontai:n varie~ted occupation alid be, if possible, ·roll-lti-ethnic in composition- By fair fJize was meant a population: of500-700 persons or more· The village should ~ainly dep~n~ on agriculture and be sufficiently away from the major sources of modern communication such as t~e district administrative headquarters and business centres- I;t shoul!l he roughly a day's j(}!lrney from the above places- The villages were to be selected f"Uh an 'eye 'to variation terms of size, proximity to city -and other means . of modern communi- cation, neai:neas tQ hills, jungles and major rivers- • th1J.s there was to be a regional distri­ butjon throughout the S~te of this category of villages. If, however, a particular district cntained significant ecological variations within its area more than Qne village in the district might be selected to study the special adjustment to them· iv It is a unique fea.ture of. these village surveys that they rapidly outgrew their origID8-l terms of reference, as my colleagues warmed up to their w~rk- This pJ'oved for them an absorhing vOY"l5e of uiscovery and their infectious enthusiasm compelled me to enlarge the inquirTB scope again and again­ It was just as well oautiously to feel one's way about at first and then venture further afield, .and ..although i.t accounts to some extent for a certain unevenness in the quality and ooverage of the mono~raphs, it served to compensate the purely honorary and extramural rigours of [the task. For, the Survey, along with its many ancillaries like survey of fairs and festivals, of small and rural industry and others. Was an 'extra', ove)" and above the crushin8load of the 1961 Census. It might be of interest to recount briefly the stages by which the Survey enlargGd its scope· At the first Census Conference in September 1959 the Survey set itself the task of what'. might be called a record in situ of material traits, like settlement patterns of the village; h<;lUse typ~s; diet; dress: ornalJlents and foot-wear; fUrniture and stroing vessels; common means of transport of goods and passengers; domestication of animals and birds; .markets attended; WQrskip of deities, festivals and fairs- There were to be recordings, of course, of cnltural and socjal traits and Qcchp~tiona} mobility­ This was followed up in March 1960 by two speciman schedules, one for each household, the other for the Village as a whole, which, apart from spelling out the mode of inquiry suggested in the September 1959 conference introduced groups of questions tl.imed at sensing cha.hges in attitude and behaviour in such fields as marriage, inheritance, moveable and immoveable property, industry, indebtedness, education commu~ty life and collective activity, 80cial disabilities forums of appeal OVer disputes, village leadership anJ. organisation of culturallUe- It Was now plainly the intention to provide adequate statistical ~upport to empirical 'feel' to approach. qualitative fchange through statistical quantities. It had been diffcult to give thought to t~e importance, of just enough stati­ stics to j:;ive empirical underpinning to conclusion', at a tiDle when my colleagues were straining themselves to the utmost for the success of the main Census operations, but once the Census count itself was left behind in March, 1961 a series of three regional seminars in Trivandram ( Kay 1961), Darjeeling and Srinagar (June 1961) restored their attention to this field and the importance of tracing social change through a number of well-devised statistical tables was once again recognised. This itself presupposed a fresh survey of villages already done; but it was worth the trouble in view of the possibilities that a close analysis of statistics offered and also because the 'consafguinity' schedule remained to be canvassed· By November 1961, however, WQre was expected of thes¢ surveys than ever before. There was dissatisfaction on the one hand with too many general sta.tements and a growing desire on the other to draw conclusions from statistics, to regard social and econonllc data as interrelated processes, and finally to examine the social and economic procellses set in motion through land reforms and other laws, legislative and administrative measurt!f'I, technolo{oical and cultural chanE;e. Finally, a study camp was organis~d in the last week of December, 1961 when the whole field was carefully gone through over ttgain and a programme worked out closely 'knitting the various aims of the Survey together. The Becisl Studies Section of the Census Oommission rendered assistance to State Superintendents by way of scrutiny and b~chnical comment on the frame of Survey and presentation of results- This gradual unfolding of the aims of the Survey prevented my colleagues from a.dopting as. many villages a.s they had originally intended to. But I believe that what Dlay have been lost in quantity has been more then made up for in quality. This is, perhaps, for the first time that such a survey has bee.n conducted in any country, and that purely as a labour Qf love.