lxxiv REPORT—1890. 
I am to add that Viscount Cross has read with satisfaction the testimony your 
letter bears to the scientific character and importance of Mr. Risley’s work in 
hebianilak Faies I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
A. GODLEY. 
Professor W. H. FLOWER, C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c., &c., M 
President, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
22 Albemarle Street, W. 
India Office, Whitehall, S.W- 
August 15, 1890. 
Sir,—In continuation of my letter of March 31 last (R. & S. 264/90) I am directed 
by the Secretary of State for India in Council to forward herewith a copy of a letter, 
with its inclosure, from the Government of India on the subject of the proposals 
made by you on behalf of the British Association, that the ethnographic and anthro- 
pometric researches recently undertaken in Northern India should be extended to 
other parts of India, and that advantage should be taken of the approaching census 
of India for recording the exogamous and endogamous groups into which the 
different castes and tribes are divided. 
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
A. GODLEY. 
Professor W. H. FLowe"Rr, C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., 
President, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
22 Albemarle Street, W. 
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA—HOME DEPARTMENT. 
To the Right Honourable Viscount Cross, G.C.B., 
Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India. 
Simla, July 15, 1890. 
My Lord,—We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship’s: 
Despatch No. 31 (Statistics), dated April 3, 1890, forwarding a copy of a letter from 
the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in which, 
with reference to the ethnographic researches undertaken by Mr. H. H. Risley in 
Bengal, it is suggested that similar anthropometric data should be collected in other 
parts of India, and that advantage should be taken of the approaching census to: 
ascertain the exogamous and endogamous groups to which the members of the 
different tribes and castes of the population belong. 
2. We need not assure your Lordship that any proposals upon these subjects to 
which the British Association has lent the weight of its authority will receive our 
very careful consideration. We observe that the Council considers that the data 
collected by Mr. Risley possess considerable scientific interest, but we have our- 
selves not yet been able to form an opinion as to the merits of his work, as we have 
not yet received from him the volumes recording the results of his researches. 
These we do not expect to receive till after Mr. Risley’s return from furlough in 
England at the end of November next. We shall then consider the question whether | 
his investigations cau usefully be supplemented in other parts of India. 
3. We are of opinion that it would be quite impracticable for the enumerators 
who will be employed in filling in the census returns to undertake the task of 
collecting data as to endogamy and exogamy. The work involved in the prepara- 
tion of the schedule which we have sanctioned will sufficiently tax the energy and 
intelligence of the enumerators, who, it must be remembered, will for the most part 
be men of little education, and any addition to it would greatly increase the risk of 
inaccuracy in the statistics generally. We think, however, that it will be possible, 
after the different castes and subdivisions of castes have been fully enumerated, to: 
ascertain by local inquiry their relations as regards endogamy and exogamy. Such 
an inquiry can be undertaken at leisure, either when the census results are being 
compiled for each Province, or later, when the Local Govermnent or Administration 
is able to provide some specially qualified agency for the purpose. 
Your Lordship will observe from the form of schedule prescribed for the enume- 
rators at the census that we have already determined to make a complete religious. 
census as far as possible, but we do not think that the results of ascertaining, as pro- 
