HC Deb 22 October 1942 vol 383 c2091
55. Mr. Thorne

asked the Secretary of State for India the total population of India in 1930 and the population shown by the 1941 census, excluding Burma; the cost of taking that census; the number of enumerators; and whether he can give the individual population of Bengal and the United Provinces?

The Secretary of State for India (Mr. Amery)

The population of India (excluding Burma) as recorded in the Census of 1931 was 338,171,000. According to the Census of 1941 it was 388,800,000, of whom 60,314,000 resided in Bengal and 55,021,000 in the United Provinces. I have not been officially informed of the cost of the 1941 Census, but a Press report puts it as £375,000 and the number of enumerators at a million and a half.

Commander Locker Lampson

Is not this large increase in the population of India evidence of the success of British rule?

Mr. Thorne

The reason I do not put a Supplementary Question is that there are 137 Questions on the Order Paper.

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