India, Oct. 4 -- Nothing like a modern census existed before the first such exercise was conducted between 1865 and 1872 and then in 1881 by the English colonial government that ruled India. However, the first reliable Census is considered to be that of 1901 when India's population was estimated to be close to 30 crores. Before then there had never been either a synchronous or non-synchronous census to enumerate just how many people lived in the subcontinent. Between 1901 and 2011 censuses, there has been an over 350% increase in India's population which has crossed 1.4 billion. After a delay of over six years India's latest Census is set to begin in 2026-27.

How then do we possibly understand India's demography in pre-modern times? As w...