Introduction

A few states/union territories of India reported a decrease in population immediately after decolonisation. The 1941 Census of India overestimated the population of Punjab and Bengal, the two provinces of British India that were directly affected by partition in 1947. In these provinces communities tried to boost their numbers to secure greater political representation and, eventually, a favourable alignment of borders in the event of partition. The overcount was corrected in 1951, resulting in the contraction of the reported population (GoI 1954a: 5; Natarajan 1972: vii). While the coverage error (error in the overall headcount) was corrected in 1951, content error (error in the sub-classification of headcount) persisted in Punjab. The 1951 Census data on language were affected by communal competition in Punjab, the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) and Himachal Pradesh. Two union territories, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1941–51) and Daman and Diu (1951–61), also reported negative growth rates in the decade of decolonisation. Nagaland's experience is quite different though.

Nagaland registered the highest growth in population across India between 1981 and 2001 (Figures 4.1A and 4.2). However, in 2011, it reported the lowest growth rate as its population contracted in the absence of epidemical disease, famine, natural calamity, war and any major change in its political status and socio-economic conditions. This was the first time that a state in independent India experienced a contraction in population. This chapter examines Nagaland's demographic somersault – decades of unusually high growth of the reported population followed by its sudden contraction (Figure 4.1B).

Errors in a census can be classified into two broad categories, namely, coverage and content errors. Coverage error ‘refers to either an under‐count or over‐count of units owing to omissions of persons/housing units or duplication/ erroneous inclusion, respectively’, whereas content error ‘pertains to the error in the characteristics that are reported for the persons or housing units that are enumerated’ (UN Secretariate 2010: 10). Content errors affect the distributional accuracy of the headcount, whereas coverage errors affect the accuracy of the overall headcount. Errors in census may not necessarily affect the overall headcount if they are restricted to the composition of population.