CENSUS OF INDIA, 1961 PUNJAB DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK No.6 SIMLA DISTRICT R. L. ANAND Superintendent of Census Operations and Enumeration Commissioner, Punjab Published by the Government of Punjab 1965 SI MLA DISTRICT .() (J '-. HI .... ACHAL PRADESH TERRITORY \ \ A L 20 10 o 20 MILES REFERENCE 30 o 30 kiLOMETRES STATE BOUNDARY DISTRICT 1/ RAILWAY LINE METALLED RO.(D IJNME. TALt..ED 1/ RIVER o TAHSIL HEAD QUART fR ® DISTRICT /I • URBAN CEN T RE CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 A-CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS The publications relating to Punjab bear Volume No. XIII, and are bound separately as tollows :- Part I-A General Report Part IV-B Tables on Housing and Establish­ ments Part I-B Report on Vital Statistics Part V-A Special Tables on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes _" PartI-C(i) Subsidiary Tables -'-. Part V-B Ethnographic Notes on Scheduled Part I-C(ii) Subsidiary Tables Castes and Scheduled Tribes Part II-A General Population Tables Part VI Village Survey Monographs: 44 in number,each relating to an Part II-B(i) General Economic Tables (Tables individual village B-1 to B-IV, B-VIII and B-1 X) Part VII-A Report on Selected Handicrafts -Part II-B (ii) General EConomic Tables (Tables B-V to B-VII) Part VII-B Report and Tables on Fairs and Festivals Part II-C (i) Social and Cultural Tables Part VIII-A Administrative Report : Enumera­ tion (Not for sale) _.-" Part II-C (ii) Migration Tables PartVlII-B Administrative Report: Tabula­ Part III Household Economic Tables tion (Not for sale) Part IV-A Report on Housing and Establish- Part IX Socio-Economic Atlas ments B-PUNJAB GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS 19 Volumes of District Census Handbooks :- DCH-I Hissar DCH-ll Ludhiana DCH-2 Rohtak DCH-12 Ferozepur DCH-3 Gurgaon DCH-13 Amri~sar DCH-4 Karnal DCH-14 Gurdaspur DCH-5 Ambala DCH-I5 Kapurthala DCH-6 Simla DCH-I6 Bhatinda DCH-7 Kangra DCH-17 Sangrur DCR-S Lahaul and Spiti DCH-I8 Patiala DCH-9 Hoshiarpur DCH-19 Mahendragarh DCH-IO Jullundur PREFACE The main reports and statistical volumes pertaining to the 1961-census fall under three broad groups on the basis of territory coverage. The All-India Reports and Tables compiled in the office of the Registrar General, India, encompass the entire country. The reports compiled by the State Superintendents relate to individual States and Centrally Administered Territories. The third group consists of District Census Handbooks the scope of which is limited to individual Districts, and they give information for each town and village. The Hand­ books have been compiled by the Superintendent of Census Operations, but are published by the State Govern­ ment. The District Census Handbooks were published for the first time at the 1951-census. They proved very useful with the officers working in Community Development Blocks, Tahsils and Districts, and were consul­ ted in connection with elections and by students of social sciences interested in local problems. It was, therefore, decided to continue with this series at the 1961-census. This Handbook contains the essential census data for each village and town (according to wards) in the District. Besides, some very useful information collected from various State Departments has been included in it, trying to make it a self-contained book of reference for the District. The book is divided into four parts. Part I is mostly descriptive and consists of four chapters. Chapter I introduces the District, giving hlformation on its location, physical features, climate, fauna and flora, towns and places of interest, a brief history of the District and its administrative machinery. In Chapter II are discussed the use of land, main crops and irrigation, industries, trade and commerce, and communications. In Chapter III the salient features of population are discussed. Chapter IV deals with social and developmental activities, and achievements during the First and Second Five-Year Plans. In Part II are presented the statistics secured from various Government Departments relating to rainfall, temperature, land utilisation, irrigation, area and yield of principal crops, livestock, industry co-operation, education, printing and publishing, entertainments, medical and health, births and deaths, transport and communications, community development activities, banks and insurance, and justice. Then comes a Table on the fairs and festivals in the District. The Tables relating to the 1961-census are presented in Part III. Part IV contains a Directory of Villages and Towns, showing the location of educational institutions, hospitals and dispensaries, post and telegraph offices, electrification and protected water-supply; area; number of occupied residential houses and households living therein; popUlation; persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; number of literate and edu- cated persons; number of workers in nine broad industrial categories; and number of non-workers. The book contains several maps. There is a map of the District showing the administrative boundaries, roads and railways, rivers and canals, and location of towns. Another map shows the distribution of population in the District by dots: the population <1f towns is shown by proportionate circles; and of rural areas by dots, one dot representing 200 persons. For each Tahsil in the District two types of maps have been prepared, one showing the Im.ation of social amenities, and the second showing the boundaries of villages and towns. These maps were prepared in the Cartographic Section in the State Census Office, jointly by Kumaris Ranbir Sokhi and Satwinder H. Singh, both M.As' in Geography. This publication is the outcome of the joint efforts of a large number of workers and Government Departments, and grateful acknowledgement is made of the help received from them. Within the Census Organisa­ tion mention needs to be made of Shri Jaswant Singh Dilawary, Statistical Assistant and Shri Vishwa Mitter, Supervisor, under the supervision of Shri T. P. Garg, P.C.S., Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations, for preparing the Tables presented in Part II and of Shri Goverdhan Dass Singla, Statistical Assistant and Sarvshri Dharam Paul Jain and Joginder Nath Suri, Tabulation Assistants, under the supervision of Shri Pawan Kumar, Tabulation Officer, for preparing the Tables presented in Parts III and IV. Shri Sjta Ram, P.C.S., Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations, Punjab, paid a number of visits to the various parts of the Simla District, and after collecting information by personal observations and discus­ sions with a large number of persons, produced the draft of t)1is Handbook. My thanks are due also to Shri K. C. Kuriyan, Controller of Printing & Stationery, Punjab, and his Deputy, Shri Tara Chand, for their personal attention in the printing of the book. R. L. ANAND, CHANDIGARH : Superintendent of Cen-;,"" n··· .... ,December 15, 1965. " .. A n·-·~ CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE iii PART I-INTRODUCTION TO THE DISTRICT 1-43 Chapter I-Introduction 3 Chapter II-Economy 19 Chapter III-Population 27 Chapter IV._Social and Developmental Ac~iviti8s 35 PART I1-DEPARTMEN TAL STATISTICS 45-89 Explanatory Note 49 Tables 54 PART In-CENSUS TABLES 91-219 Explanatory Note 97 Tables 123 PART IV-DIRECTORY OF VILLAGES AND TOWNS i-lxii Explanatory Note ii Directory iv Alphabetical List of Villages liii MAPS Administrative Map of Simla District FronUspiece Simla District Map showina Population Facing page 27 Map of Kandaghat Tahsil showing Schools. Dispensaries and Pos~ Offices Facing page 3S Map of Kandaghat Tahsil showinS boundaries of Villages Facing page Iv PART I INTRODUCTION TO THE DISTRICT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Name.-The District of Simla takes its name after the name of the town of Simla, its headquarters. According to Long·, "Simla derives its name from 'Shyeamalay', the house built of blue slate erected by a Paqir on lakhu, the first nucleus of the settlement". Another version is that the word 'Simla' has its orjgin in 'Shamla', which means a 'blue female' and may be another name for the goddess Kali. It is stated that at a site near the Rothney Castle on the Jakhu hilI, there existed a small temple dedicated to Kali. It had a small wooden image of 'Majee' which was worshipped by the native people. Sometime during the early British settlement in the locality, this image was removed to the present site of the Kali Bari. Location and boundaries.-Simla is one of the six Districts of the Ambala Division and lies towards its north-east. It is hedged in by Himachal Pradesh from all sides except a little in the south and south-west, where Ambala District touches it, and has enclosed within itself chunks of the territory of Himachal Pradesh. On its south-east, it is bounded by the District of Sirmur (Himachal Pradesh), the river Giri forming the boun­ dary to a considerable length. On the east, north-east, north-west and west lie the territory of Mahasu District (Himachal Pradesh). Ambala District lies towards its south-west and south. Area.-The District is an irregular piece of territory extending from Simla in the north-east to Kalka in the south-west. At the time of the 1951-census, the District consisted of the Simla municipal limits and Jutogh Cantonment area, but in 1959, Tahsil Kandaghat of Patiala District shorn of its Pinjore Kanungo circle was annexed to it. The District now consists of Simla Sub-Tahsil and Kandaghat Tahsil. The total area of the District is reported as 267 sq. miles .by the Surveyor General of India, and 222.1 sq. miles by the Director of Land Records, l'unjab, distributed as follows: Area (sq. miles) Total Rural Urban Sub-Tansil, Simla 7.55 7.55· 'Tahsil Kandaghat 214.55 211.34 3.21 Simla is the smallest District in Punjab, being about 1/24 the size of Hissar (5,363 sq.