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Home , Bhor Ghat, Gumani River, Haora River, Kiul River, Mahakoshal, Pachaimalai Hills

CENSUS ,OF 1961

VOLtJME I PART I-A (i) TEXT

IN;DIA

LEVELs' OF REGIONAL DEVEl.()PMENT IN INDIA Being Part I of General Report on India

A. MITRA of the Indian Civil Service 'Regis(fdY Generdz' and ex-officio Census ,.commissioner for India CENSUS OF INDIA 1961-UNION piJBtICA110N~

PART I General keporf.:'on the Census, Sub-divided into three sub­ parts, viz.; PART I-A General Report ,PART I-A(i)-TEXT Levels of Regional Development in India PART I-A(ii);-TABLES Levels of Reg!onal Development in 'India

PART I-B Vital Statistics of the decade PARTI-C Subsidiary Tables

PART II Census Tables on Population, sub-divided into: PART II-A(i) General,Population Tables PI\.RT II-ACii) Union Primary Census Abstracts FA~T II-B(i) General Economic Tables (B-1 to B-IV) P'A-R'" II -B(ii) General Economic Tables (B- V) PA~l. II-B(iii) General Economic Tables (B-VT to B-IX) PMi' II-CCi) Social and Cultural Tables PART IJ-C(ii) Language Tables lJART II-C(iii) Migration Tables (D-I to D-llI and D-V) PART II-CCiv) Migration Tables (D.IV and D-VI)

PART III PART IlI-(j) Household Economic Tables (14 States) PART III-(ji) Household Economic Tablcs (India, an~ Union , Territories)

PART IV PART IV-A(i) Housing Report PART IV-A(ii) Report on Industriaf Establishments PART IV-A(iii) . House Types and Villages layouts PART IV-B Housing and Establishment Tables

PART V . Special Tables for Scheuled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Ethnographic notes sub-divided into two Sub-parts viz., PART V-!\. Special Tables for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes PART V-B Ethnographic Notes

PART VI Village S~rvey Monographs

PART VII Monographs on Rural Crafts Survey and list of Fairs and Festivals PART VII-A Handicraft Survey Monograph P~:r VII-B Fairs and Festivals

~ART VIII Administration Report PART VIIl-A Administration Report (Enumeration) }NotJor sale PART VIU-B AdministratIon Report (Tabulation)

PART IX Census Atlas VoJutr.: PART X Special Reports on cities with Population of 1 million and over CONTEN'f"S

-Introductory Note CHAPTER I Natural Regions, Subr~ions and Divisions 1-7

CHAPTER 1I The Ranking Device 9-49

CHAPTER III Delineation of Natural RegioUl and levelsrof development 51-187

CHAPTER IV Association of Characteristics

CHAPTER V Relationship between patterns of shift from agriculture to non-agriculture 1951-61 and the levels of development 265-285 CHAPTER VI Distribution of Industrial Licences among districts arranged by levels of development • ~87-314 CHAPTER VII Cases of hire purchase under the National Small Industries Corporation among districts arranged by levels of development 315-346 CHAPTER VIII The Fourth Estate and the levels of development • 347-351 CHAPTER IX

ThC'General EI~iQns of 1957 and 1962 and the levels of development. 353~357 MAPS 1. INDIA, Natural Regions, Subregions and Divisions. 2. INDIA, Crop regions showing proportionate distribution of areas under crops, 19&8-59. 3. INDIA, Districtwise distribution of major languages, 1961. 4. INDIA, Distrlbution of three districtwise numerically strong'Schedufed Tribes, 1961. 5. INDIA, Percentage of members of Scheduled Castes to the total population, 19'61. 6. INDIA, Percentage of members of Scheduled Tribes to the total population, 1961. 7. INDIA, Levels of Development, 1961. 8. INDIA, Number of workers in registered factories engaged in food processing industries. 9. INDT A, Number of workers in registered factories producing sugar and gUL 10. INDIA, Number of workers in registered factories producing edible pil, and hydro­ genated oil. II. INDTA, Number of workers in registered factories producing tea, coffee. :rubber. apd rubber products.

12. INDIA, Number of workers iI). regjstered f~ctories engaged in tex.tiles (cotton and jute). 13. INDIA, Number of workers in mining industry. 14. INDIA, Number of workers in registered, factories producing 'cement and paper. 15. INDIA, Industrial licences ie.sued between January 1953 and March 1951,. unde:t' tIre Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, classified by major industrial groups and by district t'() which issued. '6. INDIA, Pattern of Gain or Loss of Votes in each district in 1962 over 11-957':'o'{-the Congress and all other political parties coml?ined in the Generjil Elections superposed on- the patteni' of levels of d'evelopI1iell'f, '1961: 17. INDIA, Gain or Loss in votes polled in General Elections of 1962 as percentage of those polled in 1957 by Congress Party. 18. INDIA, Gain or Loss in votes polled in General Elections of 1962 as percentage of those polled in 1957 by all parties (other than Congress) takyn together. PREFACE

This part of. tHe: Gentral Report orr the 1961 Census of India, was designed, ptbcessed an<:J. written- Oub almost entirely between the second half of May. and tlre.) end' of July tl1is ~eal'. T~ critical reader will naturally find in it many blemishes and. areas of irr'-'tlmplete- anal~si8' which a. more leisurely and careful treatment miglit have avoided. The pressures in the conduct of the Indian Census Programme liardty permit desira11le periods of gestatioll. This Report is therefore presented' more out of' regard! forllie: data:.it contains than any pretensions to other claims, for admitfedly the presentation: he];e' attempted is tentative and needs further calibration by means of principal components anal;ysisl The data are published in a separate volutnt' [Part·-I~1}.

This book started out with. two aims. First to dissolve the political and administrative outlines and let the natural regions, subregions and divisions emerge in their complex associations of natural features, social, cultural and general ecological characteristics. Secondly, to apply to the picture that emerged a .ranking device based on about three dozen, what appeared to the writer to be, significant indicators. This ranking device was based on a simple hypothesis. Given a certain amount of agricultural. general and economic infrastructure and a potential of human resources one is entitled to expect economic growth in the modern sense- of the word, parti­ cularly in organised industry, in direct relation to them. This process of delineation should be able to bring out zones of backwash and spread effect" and also those which a further instalment of economic growth might be able to retrieve from areas of backwash into those of spread. It was assumed that these areas of backwash and spread would set in motion forces of polarisation. It was therefore decided to apply several validity tests to verify this polarisation.

Of the fact of economic and even social and cultural polarisation there is little room for doubt. The main aim has been to let the facts speak for themselves. The abstract statements at the end of Chapter II bring out some of the salient ones. Fortunately for the country this polarisation has been far from regional, nothing like the north-south polarisation that one finds in Europe or the Americas, The picture that emerges is one of pockets and zones of backwardness invariably enclosed by areas of prosperity or spread effect. In very many areas except in the north and north east, the areas of prosperity and spread effect join hands across areas of backwash. Such a situation is particularly heartening for the logistics of development. It is no longer so mnch Ii matter of invasion of one region by another by organising and injecting all the prerequisites of economic growth, but of encircling and mopping up of pockets. How the sights should be set for this operation is of course outside the scope of this work. In the chClipter on Delineation I have quoted very frequently from O.H.K. Spate's India &. Pakistan (1954) and S. P. Chatterjee's Regional Patterns of the Density and Distribution of Population in India published in The Geographical Review of India, June 1962. Dr. Spate's book has served as a constant companion during my travels as well as Dr. Chatterjee's short piece and it is' quite likely that some of their own words have crept into my writing unnoticed despite every wish to acknowledge each observation to its author. I am indebted to Dr. B. S. Minhas of the Planning Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute for a very useful discussion on Chapter II and particularly on the tasks that lie unaccomplished. Dr. Miss P. Sengupta, Map Officer and her staff kindly undertook to design the physiographic table and ex~cute the-maps. My warmest personal thanks must go to my colleagues who processed and reprocessed, checked and rechecked all the statistics that 'were planned and designed and who enriched the final copy with useful suggestions, and to Shri-Prem Nariani, my Secretary, and Shri S. RRlagoplan who typed out a long and difficult manuscript. The brunt of the work fell on Shri O. P. Sharma and his team for whom Illothing seemed to be too biB a job. This book owes the most to their zeal and devotion. There is no greater pleasure for me than to acknowledge my debt particularly to : Shri O. P. Sharma Shrl Mahal Singh Shri V. P. Kataria Shri D. N. Dixit Shri N. S. Bhatnagar Smt. Tripta Sarin Shri P. S. Sharma Shri D. S. Mehra Shri R.. P. Bhatnagal' Shri B. R. Kalra Shri.P. N. Baweja Shri N. S. Soam Shri V. A. Deshmukh Shri Hal' Gopal Saini

Nnw ASOK MITRA September 30, 1964 Registrar General India INTRODuCTORY NOTE

INDIA'S FIVE YEAR PLANS aim to level ordinate to the compulsions of economic the local features which divide the country and administrative unity. into natural regions and subregions that have so long sheltered an immense variety Second, to which the first provides a of cultural and economic organisation. frame, a set of ad hoc indicators has been Natural regions and subregions have in the applied with the object of ranking the na­ past created much diversity and even exclu­ tural regions, subregions, divisions and dis­ siveness in many spheres of India's life, tricts by certain broad stages of social, cul­ thought and activity, to which the Plans tural and economic achievement. This now seek to give unity and cohesion. ranking will incidentally indicate which indicators generally constitute the strong India""'tsLbus at a most interesting stage and weak features of districts, divisions, of a dialectical process: the unity of social natural subregions and regions. and economic planning at grips with a many-splendoured diversity of natural re­ Finally, on the strength of this ranking, gj,Clns and subregions, economic situations, a regrouping of districts has been made to cultures, and to'ngues. The latter, enjoying bring into relief those areas which show a truly continental range, leaves room for greater affinity to each other in terms of more than one kind of classification. social and economic development and in doing so are either isolated from their im­ What is attempted below is, first, a fresh mediate neighbours or, ignoring the barriers classification of natural regions, subregions of natural regions and subregions, form and divisions of India. This classification tracts of their own astride them. These stClPS at the level of the administrative dis­ tracts which form either small islands or trict even when a district like Dehra Dun, continuous belts acmss natural regions and Madurai, Ganjam or Burdwan is composed subregions will show the extent to which of distin9t, mutually exclusive features, for the twin process of economic development it is''''both important and expedient to rea­ and cultural change is at work in any part lize that at this level its diversity' is- s'ub- of the country.

CHAPTERl

NATURAL REGIONS, SUBREGIONS AND DIVISIONS

Tins CLASSIFICATION differs in certain the West to the Brahmaputra and Surma features from the one adopted in the Census Valleys in the East. of 1951. It gerierally agrees with the classi­ 2. Uttar pradiesh-,The Jamun~-Ganga fication adopted in the National Atlas and Doab of Uttar Pradesh has been split into tlie 'fortlicomlng India Gazetteer, although two parts, the Upper and the Lower. Thd tlfele' are minor departures. As explained country north of the Ganga has been di~d­ above, the· classification goes down to the ed into four Divisions: Tarai or foothills; level bf all administrative district, and no ; Oudh; and the Eastern Dis­ further; even' when a district betrays dis­ tricts which are crisscrossed by the Gomati, tiItet and mutually exclusive natural featur­ the Tons, the Gha~a and the Rapti. ~, e~g., Midnapore or Dehra Dun. 3. Separate divisions for North The classification is laid down in State­ and South Bihar Plains. ment 1.1. In any classilication a balance has to be struck between too many and too few. 4. Separate divisions for Darjeellng; J al· The components should be numerous paiguri and Cooch Behar; Wes..t Dinajpur enough to throw real diversity into relief and Malda; Murshidabad, Nadia, Calcutta and yet not so prolix as to miss the wood and 24-Parganas. for . 'the trees. For example, while in the 5. Hooghly, Howrah and MidnapotC details of discussion it 'has been mentioned have been placed under the Damodar Delta. how Jammu and Kashmir falls into four convenient parcels-; the valley 6. The Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys composed of Srinagar, Baramulla and have been associated with the Northern Anantnag; the mountain districts of Doda, Plains. Poonch and Udhampur; and the foothill dis­ 7. The Central Hills and Plateaus bve tricts of Jammu and Kathua,-in the classi­ been considered to stretch from Sirohi in fication itself they have been combined into the West to the RajmahalHills (Santal Par­ only one Division, Jammu and Kashmir. ganas) and Rarh (Birbhum, Burdwan and At the other extreme, however, single dis­ Bankura) in the Ea&t. Separate division~ tricts like Bastar or Q.angs have been given within the same Subregions have been al· th~ distin¥uon of divisions by themselves, lotted for example to Delhi and Gurgaon because it was felt lhat they stood. apart obviously in deference to their political from their neighbours much too prominent­ jurisdictions but it was considered desirable ly to be ignored. to divide Subregion into " The following are some of the areas.. in Chambal Ravines (N. W. Madhya which the present classification has depait­ Pradesh), Trans Jamuna Alluvial Veneer ed from other classifications: and North Central ; into North Malwa Uplands and Malwa 1. The Northern Plains have been consi­ Plateau. Similarly the Vindhya Ranges and dered as one Region right from Bikaner in Plateaus have been divided into the

16S R.G.I.-~. 2

Vindhyas proper, Rewa Plateau (Vindhyan­ Mysore Deccan into Inland , Scarp Lands) and Kaimur Vindhyachal Northern Maidan, Central Maidan, Malnad (Mirzapur of U.P.). The Central Madhya and Southern Maidan; Tamilnad Hills and Pradesh Plateau has been divided into Uplands into Nilgiri and Coimbatore Narmada Valley (, Narsimhapur Plateau. and Hoshangabad), Western, Central and 9. Kathiawar has been split into two, Eastern Satpuras, Baghelkhand Plateau, Kanthadesh consisting of Banaskantha aJ'I9 Chha:tiisgarh and Dandakaranya. The Sabarkantha composed of the Aravalli put~ Orissa Hills and Upland districts have been liets and the alluvial shelf and KathiawaE diY1~rg ~to two divisions west and east Dangs has been named as a separate divi­ of , while Dhanbad, Santal .. (j J sion and so has Greater Bombay as QlhJl~ ~~r~anas, Purulia and Rarh (Birbhum, Basin. I have borrowed the :J{onkm'l ~urdwan and Bankura) have been c1assi- . ) Kerala Transition from O.H.K. ,Spate ~() fieq a~ ~eparate divisions. define a Subregion consisting of the Qo~ and the Karnataka Coast (North ~~ ''8. The Deccan has been divided -into South Kanara). I have als.o s~arate~ ~~ four Subregions; Deccan, Malabar districts from the former Travan­ Andhra Deccan, Mysore Deccan and Tamil­ core-Cochin ones. nad Hills and Uplands.. It is usual to re­ 10. In the Eastern Coastal Plain I have, ~d the fourth as a separate and independ­ broken the continuity of the coastIine"bYI efitl.fdaibr~. J' Maharashtra Deccan has been incorporating Ganjam in the Northr splfiHnt