One Hundred and Fifty Years of Census in India (1872 - 2012).

Besides examining the gigantic nature of works carried out by the census operators at various levels, the paper also attempts to analyze the course of development of census operation in the country during the last one hundred and fifty years. The evolutionary course of census in india has been discussed in the paper under four phases. viz. the Formative, the Constructive, the Emprical and the Development phases. Though the seeds of census operation in india were sown by the British during the mid-19th century, but it should not be considered that we have been just carrying on the colonial legacy; instead, during the last six decades census of india has markedly undergone certain changes. During the initial decades after independence, it was also influenced by the concepts of some American anthropologists, and gradually, by introducing new elements in census operation, Census of india has been establishing its own identity. Role of anthropology is increasingly realized in census today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]