© PRG.174.28(N) 750 C ENS U S 0 F ~ N D I A, 1961 VOLUME Xl MYSOH.E PART VI VILLAGE SURVEY MONOGRAPHS No. 28. MAHAGAON VILLAGE GULBARGA TALUK, GULBARGA DISTRICT Editor K. BALASUBRAMANTAM of the Indian Administrative Service Superintendent of Census Opprations, Mysore PRINTED BY THE MANAGER GOVERNMENT OF INDIA PRESS C01MBATORE AND PUBLISHED BY THE CONTROLLER OF PUBLICATIONS DELHI-6 MAP OF MYSORE 17· Hi· 1S' ARABIAN SEA i4tr;ct .. a/uk ., It. 7 S· 7 S· -Frepared- by. K. V.LAXMfNARA9IMHA FOREWORD Apart from laying the foundations of d'Cmography a. At least eight village were to be SO selected in this subcontinent, a hundred years of the Indian that each of them would contaiu one dominant Census has also produced 'elaborate and scholar! y c:ommunity II ilh one predominating occupa· accounts of the variegated ph'cnomena of Indian life­ tion, e.g. fishermell, forest workers, jhum culti· sometimes with nu statistics attached, but muall), vators, potters, ,,,,eavers, salt-makers, quan y with just enough statistics to giv'c empirical under­ workers, dc. A village should have a minimum pinning to their conclusions.' In a country, largely population of 400, the optimum being between illiterate, where statistical or numerical comprehen. :iOO and 700. sian of even such a simple thing as age was liable tu b. At lea,t SCyell villages were to be of numeri­ be inaccurate, an understanding of the social structun.: cally prominent Schedlll'cd Tribes of the State was essential. It was more llecessary to attain a broad Eac:h village could represent a particular tribe. understanding of what was happening around oncseH The 1ll1l11111ll1ll population should be 40n_ than to wrap oneself up ill 'statistical ingelluity' or The optimum being between 500 and 700. 'mathematical mallipulation'. This explains wh~ tht Indian Census callle to be interested in 'mall)' by· c. The third gwup of ,illages should each be paths' and 'nearly every branch of scholarship (Will of fair si1.e, of all old and s'ettled character and anthropology ,llld sociology to geography ami contaill variegated occupations «nd be, if religion' . possible, multi-ethnic in composition. By fair ~ize was meant a popUlation of :-,()O·700 persons tn the last lew decades the Census has iIHTea,­ or morc. The village should mainly depend ingly turned its efforts to the presentation of villag(' on agriculture and be sufhciently away from statIstics. This suits the L't:lllper of the limes as well the major source., of nwdt:rll communi,arion as our political and economic structure. For even a, such as the district administrative' headquar­ we have a great deal of centralization on the one halld ters and bWiiness centres. It should be roughly and decentralisation on the olher, m}' colleag II L':; a day's juurney from the above places. The thought it would he a welcome continuation ol tlie villages Irerc to be s'clected with an eye to Census tradition to try to invest the dry bones of variation ill telms of size. proximity to city and village statistics with flesh-and-blood accounts of social other means of moderll communication, near­ structure and social change. It was accordingly deci· ness to hills, juugIcs and major rivers. Thus ded to select a few villages in every State for special there \Ias to be a regiollal distribution through­ study, wh'ere personal observation would be brought out the State of this category of villages. If, to bear OIl the inlerpr<:ration of statistics to lind out however, a particular district contained signi­ how llluch of a village was stati( and yet changing ficant cwlogical lariations within its area, and how fast the winds of change were blowing and more thall olle village ill the district might be from where. selected to study the i:ipecial adjustments to Randomne~s ot ~elcctioll was. tilcrciure, escln:wed. them. There was no intention to build up a pictllre for illL' Il whole State ill qllantil~!ti\(: term, (Ill the b'lSis u[ is a lllliqlrc feature of the'ie village surveys that villages selected s~atisticalh at random. The ,electioll tht) rapidly outgrew their original terms of reference. was avowedl)' purposive: the object being as Illudl as 1lly colleagues warmed up to their work. This pro­ yed for them an absorbing voyage of discovery and to find out what was happelling and how fast t( I those villages which had fewer reasons to ChOO'l' their infectious enthusiasm compelled me to enlarge change and more to remain lodged in the past ,lS the inquiry's scope again and again. It was just a~ to discO\'cr how the Illore 'normal' types of village., well cautiously to' feel one's way about at first and were changing. They were to be primarily type stu· then venture further afield, and although it accounts dies which, by yirtue ot their number and distribu­ to some extent for a certain unevenness in the quality tion. would also give the reader a 'fed' of' what WdS and coverage o[ the monographs, it served to compen­ going on and some kind of a map of the coulltry. sate the purely honorary and extramural rigours of the Llsk. For, the Survey. along with its Jllany ancii­ A brid ac,ount of the tests of selection will help laries like the survey of fairs and festivals, of small to explain. A minimum of thirty. five villages was LO and rural industr~- and others, was an 'extra', over be chosen with great care to represent adeq nate[ y and above the crushiug load of the 196 J Census. geographical, occupational and even ethnic div(Tsity. Of this minimum of thil'ly-five. the distribution 1\'a~ 11 might be or illtere~t tu recount briefly the ~tage to be as follows: by which the Survey enlarged its scop'e. At the first (iii) Census Conference in September 1959 the Survey offered, and also because the 'consanguinity' sch'Cdule set itself the task of what might be called a record in remained to be canvassed, By November 1961, how­ situ of material traits, like settlement patterns of the ever. more was expected of these survcys than ever village; house types; diet; dress, ornaments and foot­ before. There was dissatisfaction on the one hand wear; furniture and storing vessels; (OUUllOn means with too many general statements and a growmg of transport of goods and passengers; domestication desire on the other to draw conclusions from statistics, of animals and birds; markets attended; worship of to regard social and economic data as interrelated deities, f'eotivals and fairs. There were to be record­ processes, and finally to examine the social and eco­ ings, of course, of cultural and social traits alld OCCll­ nomic proces,es set in motion through land reforms pational mobility. This was followed up ill March and other laws, legislative and administrative mea­ 1960 by two specimen schedules, one for each house­ sures, technological and cultural change. Finally, a hold, the other for the village as a whole, which, study camp was organised in the last week of Decem­ apart from spelling out the mode of inquiry suggt:s­ ber 1961 when the whole field was carefully gone ted in the September 1!:is 9 conference, introduced through OVer again and a programme worked out groups of questions aimed at sensing changes ill atti­ closely knitting the various aims of the Survey to­ tude and behaviour in such fields as marriage, inhel·j­ gether. The Social Studies Section of the Censw; tance, moveable and immoveaLle Froperty, indw,lry, COlllmissioll rendered assistance to State Superinten­ il1llcblcuness, euucation, cOlllmunity lite ,mu {:ollec­ uelll~ by way uf scrutiny and technical comment on tive activity, social disabilities forums of appeal over the frame of Survey and presentation of results. disput'es, village leadership, and organis:ttioTl Df cul­ tural life. It was now plainlv the intention to pmvid'c Thi, gradual unfolding of the aims of the Sun'cy adequate statistical support to empirical 'fccI', to app­ pn::vel1lcd my colleagues frOUl adopting as many vil­ roach qualitative change through statistical quantities. lages as they had originally intended to. But I believe It had been difficult to give thought to the importance that what may have been lost in quantity has been of 'just enough statistics to give 'empirical underpin­ more than made up for in quality. This is, perhaps. ning to conclusion', at a time when my colleague:, for the first time that such a Survey has bee!1 conduc­ were straining themselves to the utmost for the suc­ ted in any country, and that purely as a labour of cess of the main Census operations, but once the love. It has succeeded in attaining what it S'et out to Census count itself was left behind in March, 1961, achieve; to construct a map of village India's social a series of three regional seminars in TrivandrUlll structure. One hopes that the volumes of, this Survey (May 1961), Darjeeling and Srinagar (Jum: 1961) te~­ will help to retain for the India Census its title to tared their attention to ,this field and the importance 'the most fruitful single source of information about of tracing social change through a number of well the country'. Apart from other features, it will devised statistical tables was once again recognised. perhaps be conceded that the Survey has set up a new This itself presupposed a fresh survey of villages Census standard in pictorial and graphic documen­ already done; but it was worth the trouble in view tation.