CENSUS OF INDIA, 1961 VOLUME XV UTTAR PRADESH PART VI VILLAGE SURVEY MONOGRAPH No.5 General Editor P. P. BHATNAGAR of the Indian Administrative Service Superintendent of Census Operaticm.r, Uttar Pradesh VILLAGE THAPLI (TAHSIL PAURI, DISTRICT GARHWAL) BY R. C. SHARMA, M. A. of the Uttar Pradesh Civil ServiCe Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations .,., 0 78" f>.OE.S H sf st as ~'" ~'v ~ o ~ Jl (J I '!" ~ ", UTTAR PRADESH :J: -f , SOCIa-ECONOMIC SURVEY. .;A 0 '7' .., '" z ~ ~ ::J ~o Ai MILES 60, 40, 20, 0 20 40 (' I I I I II,---h 80 60 40 2D 0 2040 6080 KILOMETRES p 8· -'I L :z: "". ~ 0 <I- 7 r- 0/1 " 8 -;. 0 26 1;. 0 .l: 25· \ \ .. \... 0" -< , ..'" i i.. .... 'I A 0 'l 'l- ~ ''-'1./ oS 24· ~ Iy co o o 79 82 8J PSUP-A.p.-l c["'s{.'~1964. (OFfSET) (c) OOvtRwMEWOP1NP1A COPYRIGHT 1963 Hosed upon Sun'eY of I"dio }.fop ""Ih Ihe Pt'rmISJ",n of Ihe S"",,,)'o, General of India, CENSUS OF INDIA, 1961 Central Government Publications Census Report, Volume XV-Uttar Pradesh is published in the following parts .- [-A (i-ij) General Report I-B Report on V:tal Statistics I-C(i-vi) Subsidiary Tables (in 6 books) II-A .• General Population Tables [[-B (i-vii) General Economic Tables (in 7 books) H-C (i-vi) Cultural and Migration Tables (in 6 books) I1I-A Household Economic Tables III-B Household Economic Tables (concluded) IV-A Report on Housing and Establishments and Housing and Estab- lishment Tables (E-Series Tables-except E-IJI) IV-B Housing and Establishment Tables (E-III) V-A Special Tables for Scheduled Castes V-B Reprints from old Census Reports and Ethnographic Notes VI Village Survey Monographs (Monographs on selected Villages) VII-A Handicraft Survey Reports VU-B Fairs and Festivals in Uttar Pradesh VIII-A Administration Re~ort-Enumeration (for official use only) VIII-B Administration Report-Tabulation (for official use only)· IX Census Atlas of Uttar Pradesh X Special Report on Kanpur State Government publications 54 Volumes of District Census Handbooks CONTENTS Page FOREWORD PREFACE IV CHAPTBR. I The Village 1 CHAPTER II The People and their Material Equipments 4 CHAPTER III Economy .. 14 CHAPTER IV Social and Cultural Life 31 CHAPTER V Conclusion ..- 50 TABLES •• 53 GLOSSARY 58 BmLIOGRAPHY 60 LIST OF VILLAGES SELECTED FOR STUDY 61 SCHEDULES 63 LIS T o F TABLE,S TABLE I Area, Houses and Population TABLE II Population by Age Groups TABLE III Size and Composition of Households TABLE IV Caste and Nature of the Family TABLE V Households classified by Religions, Castes and Sub-castes TABLE VI Age and Marital Status TABLE VII Education TABLE VIII Workers and Non-workers by Sex and broad Age Groups TABLE IX Workers classified by Sex. broad Age Groups and Occupation TABLE X Households by Number of Rooms and by Number of Persons occupying TABLE XI Livestock TABLE XII Agricultural Produce of Cultivation run by the Households and its Disposal TABLB XIII Indebtedness by Income-groups TABLE XIV Indebtedness by Causes MAPS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND SKETCHES I. Maps- 1. Map of Uttar Pradesh showing location of villages selected for survey Frontispiece 2. Notional map showing location of Thapli •• .. Facing page 1 II. Photographs and Sketches- 1. A distant view of village Thapli 2 2. A view of the village and its fields } 3. A view of the locality of Shilpkars I i'- 3 4. A typical house in Thapli J 5. Nath,jltumka and hansli 6 6. Bulak and guluband ., I I 7: Laung and hundey I 8 Phooli and jhumka I >- between pp. 6-7 9. Necklace I I 10. Karey .. I 11. Pajeb .. J 12. Paunta 7 13. Jhanwar and bichhwa .. } 14. Some utensils of daily use •• 8 15. Set of bigger utensils } 16. Two women on way to water source I 9 17. Woman taking water at nauli J 18. Some agricultural implements 18 19. A Shilpkar engaged in tailoring •. 19 20. A Shilpkar engaged in wall construction } 21. Boy offering prayers before Gram Devta 37 22. The Primary School at Thapli . } 23. The Junior High School at Thapli 38 24. The Junior High School at Jakheti } FOREWORD Apart from laying the foundations of build up a picture for the whole State in demography in this subcontinent, a quantitative terms on the basis of villages hundred years of the Indian Census has selected statistically at random. The also produced 'elaborate and scholarly selection was avowedly purposive: the accounts of the variegated phenomena of object being as much to find out what was Indian life - sometimes with no statistics happening and how fast to those villages attached, but usually with just enough which had fewer reasons to choose change statistics to give empirical underpinning to and more to remain lodged in the past as their conclusions'. In a country, largely to discover how the more 'normal' types illiterate, where statistical or numerical of villages were changing. They were comprehension of even such a simple to be primarily type studies which, by thing as age was liable to be inaccurate, an virtue of their number and distribution, understanding of the social structure was would also give the reader a 'feel' of what essential. It was more necessary to attain a was going on and some kind of a map of the broad understanding of what was happen­ country. ing around oneself than to wrap oneself up in 'statistical ingenuity' or 'mathe­ A brief account of the tests of selection matical manipulation'. This explains why will help to explain. A minimum of the Indian Census came to be interested thirty-five villages was to be chosen with in 'many by-paths' and 'nearly every branch great care to represent adequately geogra­ of scholarship, from anthropology and phical, occupational and even ethnic di­ sociology to geography and religion'. versity. Of this minimum of thirty-five, the distribution was to be as follows: In the last few decades the Census has increasingly turned its efforts to the pre-. (a) At least eight villages were to sentation of village statistics. This suits be so selected that each of them would the temper of the times as well as our poli­ contain one dominant commu~ity tical and economic structure. For even with one predominating occupatIOn, as we have a great deal of centralization on e.g. fishermen, forest workers, jhum the one hand and decentralisation on the cultivators, potters, weavers, salt­ other, my colleagues thought it would be makers, quarry workers etc. A village a welcome continuation of the Census should have a minimum population tradition to try to invest the dry bones of of 400, the optimum being between village statistics with flesh-and-blood 500 and 700. accounts of social structure and social (b) At least seven villages were change. It was accordingly decided to to be of numerically prominent select a few villages in' every State for Scheduled Tribes of the State. Each special study, where personal observation village could represent a particular would be brought to bear on the inter­ tribe." The minimum population pretation of statistics to find out how much should be 400, the optimum being of a village was static and yet changing and between, 500 and 700. how fast the winds of change were blow­ (c) The third group of villages ing and from where. should each be of fair size, of an old Randomness of selection was, therefore, and settled character and contain eschewed. There was no intention to variegated occupations and be, if possible, multi-ethnic in composition. situ of material traits, like settlement By fair size was meant a population patterns of the village ; house types ; diet ; of 500-700 persons or more. The dress; ornaments and footwear; furniture village should mainly depend on agri­ and storing vessels; common means of trans: culture and be sufficiently away from port of goods and passengers; domestica­ the major sources of modern commu­ tion of animals and· birds ; markets attend­ nication such as the district adminis­ ed ; worship of deities, festivals and fairs. trative headquarters and business There were to be recordings, of course, of centres. It should be roughly a day's cultural and social traits and occupa­ journey from the above places. The tional mobility. This was followed up villages were to be selected with an in March 1960, by two specimen schedules, eye to variation in terms of size, pro­ one for each household, the other for the ximity to city and other means of village as a whole, which, apart from modern communication, n,earness to spelling out the mode of inquiry suggested hills, jungles and major rivers. Thus in the September 1959 conference, intro­ there was to be a regional distribution duced groups of questions aimed at sens­ throughout the State of this category ing changes in attitude and beha­ of villages. If, however, a particular viour in such fields as marriage, inheri­ district contained significant ecological tance, moveable and immoveable pro­ variations within its area, more than perty, industry, indebtedness, education, one village in the district might be community life and collective activity, selected to study the special adjust­ social disabilities forums of appeal over ments to them. disputes, village leadership, and organisa­ It is a unique feature of these village tion of cultural life. It was now plainly surveys that they rapidly outgrew their the intention to provide adequate statis­ original terms of reference, as my tical support to empirical 'feel', to colleagues warmed up to their work. approach qualitative change through sta­ This proved for them an absorbing voyage tistical quantities.