Transcriber's Note: Apparent typographical errors have been corrected, and the use of hyphens has been normalized. The author does not identify the transliteration scheme(s) used for Indian words in the text. Macrons (as in "ā") are used extensively and there is some use of the "diacritic dot" (as in "ṇ"). Text in italics is indicated by _underscores_ and text in black-letter font is indicated by +plus signs+. Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature THE PEOPLES OF INDIA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS +London+: FETTER LANE, E.C. C. F. CLAY, MANAGER [Illustration: university crest] +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_ [Illustration: Brāhmans (_Mirzapur district_)] [Illustration: title page 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 at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_ PREFACE The writing of this little book has been delayed by the hope I once cherished of incorporating in it some of the results of the Indian Census of 1911. This desire was inevitable in the case of a retired Indian official, who, like most of his kind, has taken a small part in one or more of the decennial numberings of the Indian people. In this country, a Census affords material chiefly for the calculations and theories of the statistician, and the Registrar-General is not regarded as an expert in Anthropology or Linguistics. But in India the case is very different. If the district officer is always glad to learn as much as possible of the people with whom he is brought into contact, his official duties often reveal only the seamy side of Indian life, and it is only when he is in camp, or snatching a rare and hurried holiday in shooting, that he gets to see something of the people otherwise than as litigants or payers of revenue. A census is an agreeable and welcome opportunity for looking at India from another and more genially human point of view. In the first place, it is one of the least expensive of official operations, since it is chiefly performed by unpaid and volunteer agency. Hence the official, a little weary of litigants, touts, pleaders, and subordinates, who, however amiable in their private lives, are apt to be indolent and obstructive in office, is glad to make acquaintance with new friends, who, for the most part, take an intelligent and amused interest in the unfamiliar task of numbering. For many busy weeks before the actual counting takes place, the district