Documenting Conditions of Life in India: Official Inquiries of the Late Nineteenth Century

This article deals with the findings of a study being undertaken on the economic conditions of India during the nineteenth century under the auspices of the Indian Council of Historical Research. It deals mainly with information collected in response to a Government of India’s directive (1887) to enquire into the actual conditions of life of the common people. Wherever the enquiry was well undertaken by local officials, dire poverty could not be denied. Since the official enquiries were not often meant for publication (though some were printed for circulation among officials), there were in large part honestly conducted and so form an important mass of evidence enriching our knowledge of the conditions of India at the close of the twentieth century. The present article presents illustrative evidence drawn from these reports, covering parts of Eastern, Southern and Northern India.