first census in india was conducted under the rule of
Census of India prior to independence The 1865 census of the North-West Provinces is sometimes referred to as the first proper census in India.[4] By 1872, the only administrative area of British India where there had not been an attempt to conduct a region-wide enumeration was Bengal Province.[5] The various limited exercises conducted prior to 1869 have been described as "fragmentary, hardly systematic and lack[ing in] any uniformity".[2][a] In 1872, the British Raj authorities concluded the first "all-India census." However, S. C. Srivastava says that it did not in fact cover all of the country and that it was asynchronous, being conducted between 1867 and 1872 after an initial 1856 decision to introduce decennial enumerations from 1861 was disrupted by the 1857 Rebellion.[7] The first synchronous decennial census was conducted in 1881[8] and has continued thus since,[9] although the 1941 exercise was severely curtailed and very little of its data was published due to World War II.[10] The 1931 census is often considered be the last British-administered census.[11][b] The report of the 1881 census comprised three volumes;[2] that of 1931 comprised 28.[12]