STATES AND MINORITIES 447
Appendix IV
STATISTICS OF POPULATION
The population of the Scheduled Caste in 1941 is estimated at 48,793,180. Can this figure be accepted as accurate ?
In coming to a definite conclusion on this issue the following points must be borne in mind : —
(i) The population of the Scheduled Castes in 1941 as compared with their population in 1931 shows a decline.
(ii) The population of all other communities during the same period shows an increase of 15 per cent.
The question is whether there is any special reason why the population of the Scheduled Castes should have declined.
Was the basis for computation of the population of the Scheduled Castes in 1931 the same as in 1941 ? The answer is in the affirmative. The figures given for 1931 are the result of recasting of the Census of 1931 in the light of the definition of “Untouchables” given by the Lothian Committee. The same basis was adopted in 1941. It cannot therefore be said that the decline in the population of the Scheduled Castes in 1941 was due to an over-estimate made in 1931.
It is true that the Census for 1941 does not give any figures for the Scheduled Castes for Ajmer-Merwara and Gwalior State. But even adding to the total for 1941 the figures for these two areas as they stood in 1931 the population comes to only 49,538,145 which still shows a comparative decline.
The want of any proper explanation for the decline of the Scheduled Caste population and an increase in the population of all other communities during the same decade only reinforces the impression which every honest student of Indian census has formed namely that the Census of India has over a number of decades ceased to be an operation in demography. It has become a political affair. Every community seems to be attempting to artificially augment its numbers at the cost of some other community for the sake of capturing greater and greater degree of political power in its own hands. The Scheduled Castes seem to have been made a common victim for the satisfaction of the combined greed of the other communities who through their propagandists or enumerators are able to control the operation and the results of the Census.
In the light of these circumstances it is fair to demand that an accurate figure for the population of the Scheduled Castes would be the Census figure as corrected by the inclusion of the population for Ajmer-Merwara and Gwalior State plus an increase of 15 per cent to give them the benefit of the general rise in the population.