l l RG. 174.34 (N) 750 CENSUS OF INDIA, 196 1 VOL U ME Xl MYSORE PAR T VI VILI"AGE SURVEY MONOGRAPHS No. 3.4, BHATAMBRA VILLAGE BHALKI T ALUK, BJDAR DISTRICT Editor K. BALAsunRAMANY~M of the Indiall Administrafire Senice Superintendent of Censlls fJpcl"llfiol1.1', Mysorc ",'d) I'IJIlIISIi[IJ BY ]HE C'O"fROLLER OF PUIlLlC\I'lO'S "TW 1)11111-110001 1976 Pri('(': fl/!i/nd Rs. 2.75 or Foreign £ 0.32 o/' S O.9(). 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Senior Technical Assislant, (Handicrqft Suney) (i i) FOREWORD Apart from laying the foundations or demography be chosen with great care to represent adequately in this subcontinent, a hundred years of the Indian gcographicaL occupational and even ethnic diversity. Censu~ has also produced 'elaborate and scholarly Of this minimum of thirty-five, the distribution was accounts 01' the variegated phenomena of lndian llte­ to be as follows: ~ometimes with no statistics attached, but usually (/. At least eight villages were to be so selecteJ \\ ith just enough statistics to give empirical under­ that each of them would contain one dominant pinning to their conclusions'. In a country, largely community with one predominating occupa­ illiterate, where statistical or numerical comprehen­ tion, e.g. fishermen, forest workers, jhum culti­ sion of even such a simple thing as age was liable to vators. potters. weavers, salt-makers, quarry be inaccurale, an understanding of the social structure workers, etc. A village should have a minimum was essential. It was more necessary to attain a broad popUlation of 400. the optimum bein&,- between understanding of what was happening around oneself 500 and 700. than to wrap oneself up in 'statistical ingenuity' or 'mathematical manipulation'. This explains why the b. At least seven villages were to be of numeri­ Indian Census came to be interested in 'many by­ cally prominent Scheduled Tribes of the State. paths' and 'nearly every branch of scholarship from Each village could represent a particular tribe. anthropology and sociology to geography and The mlllimum population should be 400. rdigion'. The optimum being between 500 and 700. In the last few decades the Census has increa­ c. The third group of villages should each be singly turned its etIorts to the presentation of village of fair size, of an old and settled character and statistics. This suits the temper of the times as well contain variegated occupations and be, if as our political and economic structure. For even as possible. multi-ethnic in composition, By fair we have a great deal of centralization on the one hand site was meant a population of 500-700 persons and decentralisation on the other, my colleagues or more. The village should mainly depend thought ;t would be a welcome continuation of the on agriculture and be sufficiently away from Census tradition to try to invest the dry bones of the major sources of modcrn communication village statistics with flesh-and-blood accounts of social such as the district administrative headquar­ structure and social change. It was accordingly deci­ ters and business centres. It should be roughly Jed [0 select a few villages in every State for special a day's journey from the above places. The study, where personal observation would be brought to bear on the interpretation of statistics to find out villages were to be selected with an eye to how much of a village was static and yet changing variation in terms of size, proximity to city and and how fast the winds ot' change were blowing and other means of modern communication, near­ rrom where. ness to hills, jungles and major rivers. Thus there was to be a regional distribution through­ Randolllne~s of selection was, therefore, eschewed. out the State of this category of villages. If, There was no intention to build up a picture for the however, a particular district contained signi­ whole State in quantitative terms on the basis of ticCint ecological vanalJons within its area, villages selected statistically at random. The selection more than one village in the district might be was avowedly purposive: the object being as much selected to study the special adjustmwts to to !lnd out what was happening and how fast to them. those villages wh ich had fewer reasons to choose change and more to remain lodged in the past as It is a unique feature of these village surveys that t(l discover how the more 'normal' types of villages they rapidly outgrew their original terms of reference, wei'e changing. They were to be primarily type stu­ as my colleagues warmed up to their work. This pro­ dies which. by virtue of their number and distribu­ ved for them an absorhing voyage of discovery and tion, would also give the reader a 'feel' of what waS their infectious enthusiasm compelled me to enlarge going on and some kind of a map of the country. the inquiry's scope again and again. It was just as well cautiou~ly to feel one's .way about at first anti A brief account of the tests of selection will help then venturc further afield. and although it accounts 10 explain. A minimum or thirty-five villages was to tn snl11c extent ror a ('t'rlain unevenness ill :he quality (iii) (iv) and covcragc u[ the monogr,) phs. it ~crvl.'d to compen­ devi~cd-~t,t{L'ljcal tabk~ wa~ UIlCI: again fl',-·ogni~ed. sate thl.' purdy honorary and extramural rigours or This itsdf pn:surpased a fresh ~urvcy of villages the task. For, thl.' Survey, along with its many anci!­ already done; but it was wortll the trouble in view laril.'S like the :,urvey of lairs and festivals, of small of the possibilities that a do~e analysis of statistics and rural industry and others, was an 'extra', ovcr alTered, and also becall~e the 'consanguinity' schedule and above the crushing load of thc 1961 Census. remained to be canvassed, By November 1961. how­ ever, more was expected of these surveys than cver before. There was dis~atisfaction on the one hand It might be intal.'sl to recount briefly thc ~tage l'r with too many general statements and a growing by which the Survcy enlarged its scope. At the tirst desire on the other to draw conclusions from statistics, Census Conference in September 1959 the Survey to regard social and economic data as interrelated set itself the task of what might be called a record ill ,Iitll of material trails, like selllcmeQt patterns of the processes, and flnally to examine the social and eco­ village; house types; diet: dress. ornaments and foot­ nomic rrocesses set in motion through lanLl reforms wear: furniture and storinC! vessels, common means and other laws, legislative and ad~inislrutive mea­ of transport of goods and-passengers; domestication sures, technological and cultural change. Finally, a of animals and birds: markets attended; worship of ~tudy camp was organised in the last "Week of Decem­ deities, festivals and fairs. There were to be record­ ber, i961 when the whole field wa;; carefully gone ings, of course, of cultural and social traits and ()c~u­ through over again and a programme worked out pational mohility. This was followed up in March closely knitting the various aims of the Survey to­ 1960 by two specimen schedules, one for each house­ gether. The Social Studies Section of the CcmLls hold, the other for the village as a wholc, which, Commission rendered assistance to Slate Surerinlen­ apart from spelling out the mode of inlluiry sugges­ dents by way of scrutiny and tecbnicul comment on ted in the September ]959 conference, introduced the frame or Survey and presentation of results. groups of questions aimed at sensing changes in [\tti­ This gradual unfolding of the aims of the Survey tude and behayiour in such fields as marriage, inheri­ prevented my colleagues from adopting as many vil­ tance, moveable and immoveable property, industry, lages as they had originally intended to. But I believe indebtedness, education, community life and collec­ that what may have been lost in quantity has been tive activity, social disabilities, forums of appeal over more than made up for in quality. This is, perhaps, disputes, village leadership, and organisation of cul­ for thl.' first time that such a Survey has bcen conduc­ tural life. It was now phlinly the intention to provide ted in any country, and that purely as a labour of adequ<lte ~tutis[ical support to empirical 'feel', to app­ love. It has succeeded in attaining what it set out to roach qualitative change through statistical quantities. achieve: to construct a map of village India's social It had been difficult to give thought to the importance structure. One hopes that the volumes of this Survey of 'just enough statistics to give empirical underpin­ will hclp to retain for the India Census its title to ning to conclusion', at a time when my colleagues ·the most fruitful single source of information about were straining thcmselves to the utmost for the suc­ the r,;ountry'.