Dufferin Report

Dufferin Report resulted from an investigation into the conditions of the depressed classes of Bengal in the late nineteenth century. Supervised and compiled by P. Nolan, it was officially called as Report on the Condition of the Lower Classes of Population in Bengal, 1888. It was popularly known as Dufferin Report after the Governor General and Viceroy Marquis of Dufferin Report (1884-1888), who instituted the inquiry to know and understand the conditions of the labouring classes.

During the inquiry, about 100 villages were intensively surveyed by officials all over Bengal. The inquiry started from a classification of the rural population into four categories: cultivators, artisans, labourers and beggars. Investigators were instructed to gather information on each category of the depressed classes.

The village surveys revealed that on an average 26 percent of the households in rural Bengal were either landless or marginally landed and lived on wage labour. The highest proportions of destitution were reported for western districts, particularly Midnapur (43%), Maldah (42%) and Murshidabad (37%), and southeastern district of Chittagong (23%). The lowest proportions prevailed in the northern and eastern districts of Bengal: Mymensingh (4%), Tippera (6%) and Noakhali (6%).

Considered politically sensitive, the Dufferin Report was kept confidential. This report refuted the British claim that under their rule Bengal was flourishing agriculturally. The report asserted that the census statistics on the agricultural classes were grossly defective and the actual conditions were consistently understated. The Dufferin Report was the first official field survey conducted systematically and thus it is regarded by scholars as an extraordinarily important primary source for agrarian research. [Sirajul Islam]