Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-11-27
THE CENSUS OF BRITISH INDIA,
The Numbers, Religion, Nationality, and
Occupation of Queen VictOria's Eastern
Subjects,


the late report on the census of British
India we extract the following. The
total of the population of India under
British administration, as ascertainedby
this census, amounts to 19O,563, ,O4S.
The area in square miles is 904, ,O49.
The average number of persons per
square mile is 211; of houses per square
mile, Al; and of persons per house, 5.14.
In India, including thefeudatory States,
the total area is in square miles ,45O,-
744, and the total population 23S, $780,
958. The population per square mile of
England is 400; of England and Wales,
800; and of Great Britain and Ireland,
265. But owing to the vast tracts of
waste and forest, the average population
of the inhabited parts of India is much
denser than that given above, the aver
age for Bengal being 397, for the north
western provinces 430, and for Dude
468 to the square mile. Among the
towns foremost in India, and second
only to London in the British empire, is
Calcutta, with population of $4,000;
while Howrah, the Southwark of CAL
cutta, contains nearly 100000 more.
Bombay contains GA, 900, or about 150,-
900 more than Liverpool; and Madras
398,000. Among English cities, Man
chester and Birmingham have each
$50, 900; Leeds and Sheffield, 250,000 in
habitants; between these in size comes
the fourth city of India, Lucknow, with
$4,000. Classified according to re-
ligion, the population of British India is
divided into 140, 100000 of Hindoos (n-
Guiding Sikhs), 40, 1900 of Moham-
medans, and $3.50, 900 of others, includ-
ing Buddhists and Jains, Christians,
Jews, Parsees, Brahmins, and Hill Men,
of whose religion no accurate descrip-
tion can be given. Thus nineteen in
every twenty persons in India are of
either the Hindoo or the Mohammedan
religion, and there are seven of the for
mel to two of the latter
The Christians in India number not
quite 900, 900, or less that one in two
hundred, and of these some 250,000 are
Europeans or of European extraction.
Three-ffths of the Christians in India
are in Madras, where they number one
and three-fourthsper cent. of the inhabi-
tants. In Bombay they form three
fourths per cent. in Bengal, one-seventh
per cent; in Burmah, not quite two
per cent. of the population. There are
many people, we believe, who still i'm
agine that the natives of India are of one
allied race, similar in manners, customs,
and speech. 1t may surprise such per-
sons to learn that this report enumerates
no less than twenty-three distinct Ian
guages spoken throughout the peninsula,
exclusive of the innumerable dialects of
the aboriginals and various hill tribes,
while there are still greater varieties in
Burmah. The diversities of nationali-
ties, however, is as nothing compared
with the variety of castles. In the north
west provinces three hundred and seven
distinctive appellations of Hindoos are
specified, and in Bengal Mr.. Beverley
estimates the number of castles at not
less than thousand.
With regard to occupations we find
that ], 1886, 900 persons are employed in
the government service of one kind or
other; $4,000 are engaged in re-
ligious or charitable operations, includ-
ing $40 Christian ministers and preach
ers; 10000 devotees and religious men
dicants; 10000 astrologers; fvewizards
and 465 ,,devil-drivers 1S9, ,000. persons
are engaged in education, literature, and
science, of whom 518 are poets. 1t will
probably not greatly detract from the
pleasure which his royal highness the
Prince of Wales will derive from his
tour should he learn that among the
190,000,000 of her majesty's subjects,
who will welcome him with greater or
less enthusiasm, there is to be found but
one "speech-maker." Thirty three
thousand persons are engaged in law,
and rs, 900 in medicine, while 218, 900 are
recorded as devoting themselves to the
"fne arts" though the claim of all these
to be artists is very doubtful, as under
this head are included votaries of mu-
sic in every form, descending even to the
cognate professions of acrobats, wres-
tiers, snake charmers, and monkey
dancers. Thirty-seven and a half mil
lions, or three-ffths of the entire popu-
lation, are engaged in agriculture, and
$50, 900 are concerned with elephants,
camels, horses, cattle, etc., or gain their
living as hunters, trappers, or fowlers.
The commercial classes are estimated at
3,441, 900, and the artisans at STAT, 900.
The non productive classes comprise
2,265, 900, some of whose professions
appear to be very singular-twenty.
two have returned themselves as gam.
blers, five as pigeon-hiers, and forty
nine MS spies, 361 are professional thieves,
and thirty are rogues and vagabonds
but whether they have 80 described
themselves, or have been so classified by
their friends, we are not informed
There would appear, however, to be
some improvement in this respect since
the last census was taken, for Mr., Plow
den, who drew up the report for the
northwest provinces, remarks that
"there are no 'fatterers for gain ol
sturdy beggars' recorded on this occa
sion, and the 'vagabond' who announced
/ :. : L = l. A = L