Transcriber's Note
Apparent typographical errors have been corrected, and the use ofhyphens has been normalized. Text in black-letter font has beenbolded.
The author does not identify the transliteration scheme(s) used forIndian words in the text. Macrons (as in "ā") are used extensively andthere is some use of the "diacritic dot" (as in "ṇ").
The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature
THE PEOPLES OF INDIA
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
All rights reserved
Brāhmans
(Mirzapur district)
THE PEOPLES OF INDIA
BY
J. D. ANDERSON, M.A.
Teacher of Bengali in the
University of Cambridge, formerly
of the Indian Civil Service
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1913
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
With the exception of the coat of arms atthe foot, the design on the title page is areproduction of one used by the earliest knownCambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521
PREFACE
The writing of this little book has been delayedby the hope I once cherished of incorporatingin it some of the results of the Indian Census of 1911.This desire was inevitable in the case of a retiredIndian official, who, like most of his kind, has taken asmall part in one or more of the decennial numberingsof the Indian people. In this country, a Census affordsmaterial chiefly for the calculations and theories ofthe statistician, and the Registrar-General is notregarded as an expert in Anthropology or Linguistics.But in India the case is very different. If the districtofficer is always glad to learn as much as possible ofthe people with whom he is brought into contact, hisofficial duties often reveal only the seamy side ofIndian life, and it is only when he is in camp, orsnatching a rare and hurried holiday in shooting, thathe gets to see something of the people otherwise thanas litigants or payers of revenue. A census is anagreeable and welcome opportunity for looking atIndia from another and more genially human pointof view. In the first place, it is one of the least{vi}expensive of official operations, since it is chieflyperformed by unpaid and volunteer agency. Hencethe official, a little weary of litigants, touts, pleaders,and subordinates, who, however amiable in theirprivate lives, are apt to be indolent and obstructivein office, is glad to make acquaintance with newfriends, who, for the most part, take