A happy confluence of planning and statistics: Bombay and Calcutta in the 1901 census

In India in 1901, a rare statistical event occurred. A confluence of interests gave a group of nascent planners new influence over the conduct of a census, with the result being a rich body of published information for Bombay and Calcutta. Useful in its day, this material now offers exceptional insights into social conditions, and the concerns of planners, in two great colonial cities. Having sketched the confluence of interests, this research note outlines the nature of the evidence that it produced and illustrates how it may be used by historical scholars, with particular reference to Bombay. The 1901 census can provide documentation of land use, living conditions, and the social geography of the city at a geographical scale that is finer than that of any other published census of the period.