India Population Census District Handbook Archive

Census of

Glossary

452 districts+ 14 not enumerated

Show districts with:

Glossary

Handbook
The District Census Handbook for one district in one census.
Part
A section of the handbook set out by that year's census, named as the census printed it. In 1991:
  • Part XII-A Village and town directory, by CD block.
  • Part XII-B Village and town primary census abstract, by CD block, with the 0-6 population and nine-fold classification of main workers.
A part the census prescribed is not proof that every state published it. [1,2]
Volume
One bound book. A large part could be split into several volumes ("Part X-C, Volume II").
Combined
Two or more parts bound as one volume, written as the covers print them: "Part XII-A & B".
Missing
The archive has no copy of the handbook or of a part.
Incomplete
The archive holds a part, but other districts in the same state have a volume of that part that this district lacks, so a volume is probably missing. It may instead be that the volume was never published for this district, unlike the others, but we cannot tell which. A part is also incomplete when the archive holds a later volume but not an earlier one (Volume II but not Volume I); there the earlier volume is taken to have existed, since the numbering implies it. Incomplete districts are counted among those with missing books.
No known gaps
The archive holds a handbook for the district and no missing part or volume has been found. For years without a part scheme (1951, 1961) completeness has not been verified.
Partial gaps
The archive holds a handbook for the district, but a part is missing or incomplete. Counted among the districts with missing books.
No handbook
The archive holds no handbook for the district (a book for a district formed later does not count). Counted among the districts with missing books.
Not enumerated
Outside the Census of India that year: not yet Indian territory, or no census was held there. [3]
* Formed later
A book for a district formed after the census, listed under the district(s) it came from.
District, state
Districts are those of each census as defined by the India State and District Evolution Database (ISDED), named as the census named them. States are the state names on that year's handbooks. [4]

Sources

  1. Census of India 2011, Assam, District Census Handbook Kamrup, Part XII-A, Foreword, paragraphs 3-6 (DCHB 1991-2011; held as pdf-2891), PDF pp. 12, 13
    The pattern of 1981 Census was followed by and large for the DCHB of 1991 Census except the format of PCA. ... One of the important innovations in the 1991 Census was the Community Development Block (CD Block) level presentation of Village Directory and PCA data instead of the traditional Tahsil/Taluk/PS level presentation. ... As regards DCHB of 2001 Census, the scope of Village Directory was improved by including some other amenities ... The data of DCHB 2011 Census have been presented in two parts, Part-A contains Village and Town Directory and Part-B contains Village and Town wise Primary Census Abstract. Both the Parts have been published in separate volumes in 2011 Census.
  2. Census 1991, Series-7 Gujarat, District Census Handbook Bhavnagar, Part XII A & B (A and B bound as one volume)
  3. Census of India 2001, Series-30 Karnataka, Paper 1 of 2001, Provisional Population Totals, Figures at a glance for India and States/UTs, note 3 (catalogued by NADA as Series-12), PDF p. 13
    While working out the percentage decadal growth of population of Jammu and Kashmir the population figures for 1991 have been worked out by interpolation as 1991 Census could not be held there owing to disturbed conditions.
  4. Shivakumar Jolad, Madhav Singh, Mehr Kalra. India State and District Evolution Database, 1872-2025, version 1.1 (2026). India State Stories, Harvard Dataverse. doi.org/10.7910/DVN/D1AGUR. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Map attribution

The 1951–2001 maps use India State Stories' census-year state and district boundaries (indiastatestory.in), digitised from the Census 2011 Administrative Atlas of India and obtained as GeoJSONL from ramSeraph/indian_admin_boundaries. We have made our own corrections and improvements to the boundaries.

Bulk downloads

To download PDFs in bulk, such as every handbook for a census year, email us at info@devdatalab.org and we will gladly help. If your work is adjacent to ours, we would also love to hear from you.