Census in Sri Lanka: When youth got a scare

It’s census year in Sri Lanka. Enumeration of people had been done from ancient times as detailed in the Report on Census of Ceylon 1946.

This is the second of two articles based on facts and figures of the report authored by Superintendent of Census A.G. (later Sir Arthur) Ranasinha, who became Secretary to the Treasury and later Central Bank Governor. Part one was published on April 21st

By D.C. Ranatunga

Sri Lanka has had a population of 70½ million at the time of the ancient Sinhala kings. Reference is made by E.B. Denham, Superintendent of Census, in his report on the 1911 Census in Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then called) that an ancient ola manuscript of uncertain date said to have been “kept in the temple town of Tissawa in Seven Korales” quoted this figure. The people had been spread over 400,000 villages in each of three divisions of the country.

‘Rajavaliya,’ the17th century chronicle recording the history of Sri Lanka up to the end of the Portuguese period, states that during the time of King Parakramabahu II (1236-70 AD) there were 1,470,000 villages in the three Ratas which he had unified. Of these, 450,000 were in Pihiti or Raja Rata, 250,000 in Maya Rata and 770,000 in Ruhunu Rata.

On the basis of only a million, two houses to a village and five persons to a house, Census Superintendent A. Mahadeva (1901) calculated a population of ten million in the early 14th century of the Christian era.

Huge population during prosperity

Early British writers quoted “the great and general remains” as evidence that the population of the island at the zenith of its prosperity must of necessity have been many times as great as it was at the period at which they wrote.

Emerson Tennant wrote: “The labour necessary to construct any one of these gigantic works for irrigation is in itself an evidence of local density of population, but their multiplication by successive Kings, and the constantly recurring record of district after district brought under cultivation in each successive reign, demonstrate the steady increase of inhabitants and the multitude of husbandmen whose combined and sustained toil was indispensable to keep those prodigious structures in productive activity... No one who has visited the regions, now silent and deserted, once the homes of millions, can hesitate to believe that when the island was in the zenith of its prosperity, the population of Ceylon must of necessity have been at least 10 times as great as it is at the present day.”

While no record of a census by the Portuguese has been found, the Dutch Census of 1789 had given a population of 817,000 in the maritime territory of the Dutch East India Company, which they occupied. The Census of 1827 directed by British Governor Edward Barnes gave a population of only 889,584 persons.

First modern census

The first census using modern techniques was done in Ceylon in 1871 under the superintendence of W.J. Macarthy. It was the beginning of the series of decennial censuses. Legal sanction was obtained under Ordinance No. 5 of 1868 which was framed on the lines of English law covering censuses.

It was conducted through enumerators under the direction of the Government Agents of the several Provinces and their District Assistants and the particulars of information were furnished on schedules left at each house to be filled by the householder.

The schedule asked questions relating to sex, age, occupation, race, religion, conjugal condition, place of birth, relationship to head of family, infirmity and also particulars of the roof, walls and accommodation of each dwelling house.

It was interesting to note that in certain districts, the information was written on ola leaves. People also had different interpretations on the census. Some said new taxation was to be introduced. In certain districts the number of marriages registered began to increase. This was because of a rumour going round that the census was to discover the number of unmarried youths to be sent over to Europe “to fill the gaps caused by the late war,” the Franco-Prussian War of 1870!

The date of the census was 27 March. The population stood at 2,400,380. There was a 15% increase by 1881 February when the figure read 2,759,738. In 75 years the population had increased by 4,256,959 (177.3%) to record 6,657,339 in 1946. The rate of increase was more than twice the world’s rate of growth of its population.

Distribution of population

Superintendent of Census (1946) A.G. Ranasinha makes an interesting observation on the distribution of population:

“It appears to be the evidence of history that in all the great civilisations of the past, even where the vast majority of the people were peasants, the greatest populousness was to be found in and around the dominant city which through its prestige and influence gave its name to the prevalent pattern of civilisation. Thus it was to be expected that till about the close of the first millennium of the Christian era, Anuradhapura and the territory around it would have had the greatest density of population.

“For three centuries thereafter, the centre of populousness would have shifted somewhat towards the South-East, and Polonnaruwa and its environs would have had the greatest concentration of people in the Sinhalese kingdom, although towards the 13th century A.D. the largest number of villages seems to have been found in the Rohana-Rata, the vast tracts of land to the South and South-East of Mahaweli Ganga, and the Kalu Ganga, comprising the Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Southern Provinces and the Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Batticaloa Revenue Districts of today.

“With the rise of the capital cities of Kotte and Sitawaka, and the relative stability of of government which was assured to the inhabitants of the area in the occupation by European Powers, the population of the Western Littoral and its immediate hinterland seems to have increased, so that when the British enumerations began early in the 19th century A.D. the Maritime Provinces were found to contain more than double the population that was to be found in the territory over which Sri Vickrema Raja Sinha had ruled. That superiority in numbers still holds, notwithstanding a large influx of new immigrants into the plantations of the Hill Country.”

At the census of 1827, the population in the Maritime Provinces was 505,105 as against 290,469 in the Kandyan Provinces (Total: 885,574).

Four regions

The 1946 Report demarcates the country into four regions taking into account the pattern of life prevalent in various parts of the country. Region A extending from the Chilaw District along the western and southern coasts up to and including the Matara District had the largest population of 2.8 million in 1946, followed by Region D – the Kandyan hill country, which included large plantations, with 2.6 million.  Region B consisting of the Northern and Eastern Provinces was third with 759,000 and Region C comprising the dry zone (the NCP, Puttalam District, Matale North Division, Lower Uva and Hambantota District) had the lowest – 461,000. In the last named region, living conditions were the hardest with the arid conditions of climate and soil determined a similar mode of living.

The population in the urban areas was one million (15.5%) in 1946 as compared to 419,000 in 1901. On a provincial basis, the Western Province had the largest population (629,000 – 1946; 219,455 – 1901). The Central was second – 100,751/43,608. The others were: Southern: 104,619/61,771; Northern: 72,294/41,085; Eastern: 42,544/21,264; North Western: 32,445/15,766; North-Central: 12,314/3,672; Uva: 16,333/5,924;