Tehsil
Also called: Taluka, Mandal, Block, Circle
The administrative unit between a district and a village.
A tehsil sits below a district and above a village, and is the level at which land revenue records are kept. The name changes by region: tehsil across most of the north, taluka in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, mandal in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and circle or block elsewhere. The census treats them all as the same tier, which is why this site uses one word throughout.
Where you will see this on the site
This term appears in the census tables reproduced across state, district, tehsil and village pages. How we source and handle those figures is set out on the about the data page.
Related terms
- Revenue village · The smallest unit with its own land records, which …
- Sex ratio · The number of females for every 1000 males.
- Child sex ratio · Females per 1000 males counting only children aged …
- Literacy rate · The share of people aged 7 and over who can read an…
- Rural and urban · How the census decides whether a place counts as a …
- Household · A group of people who normally live together and ea…
Page last reviewed: August 2026. Back to the glossary