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PRO. 174. 31 (N) 1,000 CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOLUME XI MYSORE PART VI VILLAGE SURVEY MONOGRAPHS No. 16, KAGINELLI VILLAGE Byadgi TaIuk, Dharwar District Editor: K. BALASUBRAMANYAM, of the Indian Administrative Service, Superintendent of Census Operations in Mysorc. 1970 PRINTED IN INDIA AT THE MANIPAL POWER PRESS. MANIPAL (SOUTH KANARA) AND PUBLISHED BY THE MANAGER OF PUBLICATIONS, DBLH(.6 Price: Inland Rs. 3.15 or Foreign 7 sh. 5 d. or 1 S 14 Cents. 7 . 7 • -. 17' 13' istrict J./~GcI·QuRrtus a/uk " illig'~ S~}ected tate boundary ., 7 S· VILLAGE SURVEY REPORT ON KAGINELLI Field Investigation, Tabulation and Draft Report Sri M. S. Ramachandra, B.SC. Invej tigator. Supervision and Guidance Sri K. L. Suryanaraynan, B.A.,B.L. Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations in Mysore (Socio-Economic Survey) Final Report Sri C. M. Chandawarkar. B.SC. DepulY Superintendent of Census Operations in Mysore, (District Hand Books) Bang%re Photographs Sri S. Ramachandra. B.SC. Senior Technical Assistant FOREWORD Apart from laying the foundations of demography (a) At least eight villages were to be so selected in this subcontinent, a hundred years of the Indian that each of them would contain one dominant Census has also produced 'elaborate and scholarly community with one predominating occu­ accounts of the variegated phenomena of Indian life­ pation, e.g. fishermen, forest workers, jhum sometimes with no statistics attached, but usually cultivators, potters, weavers, salt-makers, quarry with just enough statistics to give empirical under­ workers, etc. A village should have a mini­ pinning to their conclusions.' In a country, largely mum population of 400, the optimum being illiterate, where statistical or numerical comprehen­ between 500 and 700. sion of even such a simple thing as age was liable to (b) At least seven villages were to be of numeri­ be inaccurate, an understanding of the social structure cally prominent Scheduled Tribes of the State. was essential. It was more necessary to attain a broad Each village could represent a particular tribe. understanding of what was happening around oneself The minimum popUlation should be 400. than to wrap oneself up in 'statistical ingenuity' or The optimum being between 500 and 700. 'mathematical manipulation'. This explains why the (c) The third group of villages should each be Indian Census came to be interested in 'many by-paths' of fair size, of an old and settled character and and 'nearly every branch of scholarship from contain variegated occupations and be, if anthropology and sociology to geography and possible, multi-ethnic in composition. By religion'. fair size was meant a population of 500-700 In the last few decades the Census has increas­ persons or more. The village should mainly ingly turned its efforts to the presentation of village depend on agriculture and be sufficiently away statistics. This suits the temper of the times as well from the major sources of modern communi­ as our political and economic structure. For even as cation such as the district administrative head­ we have a great deal of centralization on the one hand quarters and business centres. It should be and decentralisation on the other, my colleagues thought roughly a day's journey from the above places. it would be a welcome continuation of the Census tradi­ The villages were to be selected with an eye tion to try to invest the dry bones of village statistics to variation in terms of size, proximity to city with flesh-and-blood accounts of social structure and and other means of modern communication, social change. It was accordingly decided to select a nearness to hills, jungles and major rivers. few villages in every State for special study, where per­ Thus there was to be a regional distribution sonal observation would be b::ought to bear on the throughout the State of this category of villages. interpretation of statistics to find out how much of a If, however, a particular district contained village was static and yet changing and how fast the significant ecological variations within its area, winds of change were blowing and from where. more than one village in the district might be Randomness of selection was, therefore, eschewed. selected to study the special adjustments to There was no intention to build up a picture for the them. whole State in quantitative terms on the basis of villages It is a unique feature of these village surveys that selected statistically at random. The selection was they rapidly outgrew their orginal terms of reference, avowedly purposive; the object being as much to find as my colleagues warmed up to their work. This proved out what was happening and how fast to those villages for them an absorbing voyage of discovery and their which had fewer reasons to choose change and more infectious enthusiasm compelled me to enlarge the to remain lodged in the past as to discover how the inquiry's scope again and again. It was just as well more 'normal' types of villages were changing. They cautiously to feel one's way about at first and then were to be primarily type studies which, by virtue of venture further afield, and although it accounts to some their number and distribution, would also give the extent for a certain unevenness in the quality and cover­ reader a 'feel' of what was going on and some kind of a age of the monographs, it served to compensate the map of the country. purely honorary and extramural rigours of the task. A brief account of the tests of selection will help For, the Survey, along with its many ancillaries like to explain. A minimum of thirty-five villages was to the survey of fairs and festivals, of small and rural be chosen with great care to represent adequately geo­ industry and others, was an 'extra', over and above graphical, occupational and even ethnic diversity. Of the crushing load of the 1961 Census. this minimum of thirty-five, the distribution was to It might be of interest to recount briefly the stage be as follows; by which the Survey enlarged its scope. At the first Census Confererence in September 1959 the Survey cause the 'consanguinity' sdlcdu1e remained to be set itself the task of what might be called a record in can..,assed. By November 1961, howeV'er, more was situ of material traits, like settlement patterns of the expected of these surveys than ever before. There was village; house types; diet; dress, ornaments and foot­ dissatisfaction on the one hand 'With too many general wear; furniture and storing vessels; common means statements and a growing desire 00 the other to draw of transport of goods and passengers; domestication conclusions from statistics, to regard social and eco­ of animals and birds; markets attended; worship of nomic data as interrelated processes, and finaUy to deities, festivals and fairs. There were to be recordings. examine the social and economic processes set in motion of course, of cultural and social traits and occupa­ through land reforms and other laws, legislative and tional mobility. This was followed up in March 1960 administrative measures, technological and cultural by two specimen schedules, one for each household, change. Finally, a study camp was organised in the last the other for the village as a whole, which. apart from week of December 1961 when the whole field was care­ spelling out the mode of inquiry suggested in the Septem­ fully gone through over again and a programme worked ber 1959 conference, introduced groups of questions out closely knitting the various aims of the Survey aimed at sensing changes in attitude and behaviour in together. The Social Studies Section of the Census such fields as marriage, inheritance, moveable and Commission rendered assistance to State Superintendents immoveable property, industry, indebtedness, educa­ by way of scrutiny and technical comment on the frame tion, conununity life and collective activity. social dis­ of Survey and presentation of results. abilities forums of appeal over disputes, village leader­ This gradual unfolding of the aims of the Survey Ship, and organisation of cu1turalli~e. It was now plainly prevented my colleagues from adopting as many vill­ the intention to provide adequate statistical support ages as they had originally intended to. But I believe to empirical 'feel', to approach qualitatiVe change through that what may have been lost in qnantity has been statistical quantities. It had been difficult to give tho­ more than made up for in quality. This is, perhaps, ught to the importance of 'just enough statistics to give for the first time that such a Survey has been conducted empirical underpinning to conclusion', at a time when in any country, and that purely as a labour of love. my colleagues were straining themselves to the utmost It has succeded in attaining what it set out to achieve; for the success of the main Census operations, but once to construct a map of village India's social structure. the census count itself was left behind in March, 1961, One hopes that the volumes of this Survey will help to a series of three regional seminars in Trivandrum (May retain for the India Census its title to 'the most fruitful 1961), Darjeeling and Srinagar (June 1961) restored their single source of information about the country'. Apart attention to this field and the importance of tracing from other features, it will perhaps be conceded that social change through a number of well-devised statis­ the Survey has set up a new Census standard in pic­ tical tables was once again recognised. This itself torial and graphic documentation. The schedules presupposed a fresh survey of villages already done; finally adopted for this monograph have been printed but it was worth the trouble in view of the possibilities in Appendices I and II to the monograph on Village that a close analysis of statistics offered, and also be- Iggalur, Bangalore District.

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