INDIA 615 



BHOPAL. The population of the Bhopal Agency in 1911 was 1,050,735, showing an 

 increase of 13.4 % during the decade, due to recovery after famine. The population of the 

 city was 56,204, showing an apparent decrease of no less than 27 %, due to plague at the 

 time. The Begam of Bhopal, who is a most enlightened ruler and travelled lady, was a con- 

 spicuous though veiled figure at the Coronation in London and also at the Delhi Durbar, where 

 one of her sons acted as an A.D.C. and another as a page of honour. She received the 

 decoration of G.C.S.I. on January i, 1910, and that of C.I. in December 1911. 



See A Pilgrimage to Mecca, by the Begam of Bhopal (Trans. Calcutta, 1906); and An 

 Account of My Life, by the Begam of Bhopal (Trans. 1912). 



BIKANER. The population of this native State in 1911 was 700,983, showing an increase 

 of 19.9 % during the decade, due to recovery after famine. The Maharaja, as A.D.C. to the 

 King, was a conspicuous figure at the Coronation and also at the Delhi Durbar, where one of 

 his sons acted as a page of honour. He was created G.C.S.I. on the occasion. In June 

 1911, he had received the honorary degree of LL.D. at Cambridge. In September 1912, 

 he celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his own accession by opening the Dungar 

 Memorial College in his capital, named after the elder brother to whom he succeeded, and by 

 announcing the formation of a legislative council. He has recently converted an infantry 

 regiment, 500 strong, into Imperial Service troops' and he has offered to contribute towards 

 the construction of a railway through his state to connect Delhi more directly with Karachi. 

 The town of Bikaner is now lighted throughout by electricity. An English officer has been 

 lent to the state to reform the land revenue system. 



BOMBAY CITY. The population of Bombay city in 1911 was 979,445, showing an appar- 

 ent increase of 26.2 % during the decade. But when the Census of 1901 was taken plague was 

 raging in Bombay, and a special enumeration in 1906 returned a total of 959,537- /It is 

 also suggested that again in 1911 many persons had left the city owing to depression in the 

 cotton industry or through fear of plague infection. 



Bombay city has enjoyed almost unbroken peace and prosperity, its citizens being too 

 well-to-do and too sensible to be affected by the "unrest" that manifested itself in other 

 parts of the Presidency. The only serious trouble was caused in December 1909 by riots of a non- 

 political character between rival sects of Mahommedans at the Muharram festival. It was 

 found necessary to call out the troops, who fired on the mob and 20 lives were lost. Bombay 

 was the scene of the arrival of the King and Queen in India, and also of their departure; and 

 it was there that the King delivered two of his sympathetic speeches. It has been decided 

 to commemorate the Royal visit by erecting an archway on the historic Apollo Bandar. 



Two undertakings of the first magnitude are in progress at Bombay. One is the work 

 of the Improvement Trust, which has already reclaimed 90,000 sq. yards from the foreshore 

 for buildings, opened two wide roads through former slums, and erected sanitary chauls or 

 lodging houses for 15,000 poor persons. With the aid of a special grant of 333,000 from the 

 Government of India, it is now engaged in opening out the north of the island, which is diffi- 

 cult of access and sparsely inhabited. The other is the work of the Port Trust, which should 

 be completed in 1913 at a total cost of more than 5,000^000. This consists in the con- 

 struction of the Alexandra Dock, 50 acres in extent, with a dry dock 1 ,000 ft. long, and a mole 

 where the mail steamers can lie alongside; and the reclamation of 600 acres for export traffic 

 and a new railway station. Three other projects may be mentioned: the provision of elec- 

 trical energy from water power in the Western Ghats, which has been commenced by a 

 company with more than 1,000,000 of Indian capital under the auspices of the Tatta firm; 

 a grandiose scheme, still in embryo, for the reclamation of no less than 1,000 acres in Back 

 Bay, at an estimated cost of nearly 2,000,000, to betaken in hand by the Government; and 

 the proposed electrification of all the railways in the island. 



See Gazetteer of Bombay City, 3 vols. (Bombay, 1910). 



BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. The total population of the Bombay Presidency in 1911 (includ- 

 ing Sind, Aden and native States) was 27,084,317, showing an increase of 6.3% during the 

 decade, due mainly to recovery after famine. Agricultural seasons were on the whole 

 favourable, except in Gujarat in 1911; but plague continued to be prevalent. In British 

 territory alone (excluding Aden) the population was 19,626,477 and in native States 7,41 1,675, 

 the rate of increase in each being almost equal. 



Bombay claims to be the province where education is most widely spread and also most 

 efficient. Under the stimulus of encouragement from the Governor, Sir George Clarke 

 (who retired at the end of 1912, with a peerage as Lord Sydenham), great" progress has 

 been made in recent years, especially as regards the higher teaching of science. The 

 university has revised its courses and made arrangements for post-graduate study. In 

 Bombay city three wealthy merchants have subscribed 126,000 for the establishment of 

 a Science College, and their example has been followed at Ahmedabad (q.v.). Conse- 

 quently the Science College at Poona has been converted into a college for engineering. A 

 first class agricultural college has been built at Poona. Nor has primary education been 

 neglected. During the two years ending 1911 no less than 1,100 new schools were opened; 

 but it is admitted that there are still 100,000 children whose parents would willingly send 

 them to school if there were schools for them. 



The first Indian member to be appointed to the executive council was Mr. Mahadev 



