INDIA. 



846 



10.1)00 to 20,000, and 10-58 in those of 100,000 

 and above, while in places U-low 5,000 there was 

 no increa-e. Bombay is the largest city, having 

 a population of !<,.' 1. 7<>( i within the corporation 

 limits. Calcutta has a larger aggregation of peo- 

 ple if tlic straggling suburbs are included, con- 

 taining !(?M,;!?O inhabitants; but if only the two 

 Immediate suburbs arc counted, the number is 

 711.1 10. Madras has 462,520 inhabitants; Hyder- 

 abad, inclusive of suburbs, 415,000; Lucknow, 

 J ;:;.<;::<; Benares, 219.470. Besides these, there 

 , cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, 

 and is juices have between 50,000 and 100,000. 

 Among the instances of rapid growth, that of 

 K a n>cld. which was 43 per cent, in ten years, 

 and that of Rangoon, which was 34-4 per cent., 

 are notable. Cawnpore increased 24-6 per cent. 

 Some of the large towns, as Patna, Surat, Ainrit- 

 sar, and Merzapur, have declined in population. 

 The returns aecordini; to religions are: Hin- 

 dus, 207,654,407; Mussulmans, 57,365.204; 

 Christians. 2,284,191; Jains, 1,416,109; Sikhs, 

 1,907,830; Buddhists, 7,101,057; Parsees, 89,887 ; 

 Jews, 17,180; animistic worshipers, 9,302,083; 

 atheists, agnostics, etc., 289. Among the Hindus 

 are included 3,401 Brahmos and 39,948 Aryas. 

 The Brahmosare chiefly in Bengal, the Aryas in 

 the northwest and the Punjab. The latter re- 

 turn themselves as Vedic or Aryans by religion, 

 sometimes as Hindu Aryans, while even a few 

 Sikhs describe their sect as Aryan. Some of the 

 t HI >es that are classed as animistic in one locality 

 have been included by the enumerators among 

 the Hindus in others. A comparison of the re- 

 sults of the censuses of 1872, 1881, and 1891 

 tends to show that the forest and hill tribes that 

 have followed the low superstitious religions of 

 ghost worship, fetich worship, tree worship, de- 

 mon worship, and other primitive cults, classed 

 together as animistic or nature worship, are em- 

 bracing the Hindu religion. Including these 

 semi-Hindus, and all the animistic worshipers 

 and the reformed and theistic Hindus, Hinduism 

 is the faith of 75-5 per cent, of the whole popu- 

 lation of India, while Mohammedanism is the re- 

 ligion of 19-96 per cent., 2-48 per cent, are Bud- 

 dhists, 0-8 per cent. Christians, 0-66 per cent. 

 Sikhs. 0-49 percent. Jains, 0-03 percent. Parsees, 

 and 0-09 per cent. Jews, agnostics, and others. 

 Separating the tribes that were formerly classed 

 as nature worshipers from the Hindus, they 

 make 3-23 per cent, of the total population. The 

 increase in the Hindus, including the animistic 

 group, has been for the ten years 10-74 per cent., 

 and that of the Mussulmans 10'7 per cent. The 

 Buddhists, owing to the natural increase in the 

 population of Lower Burmah, have increased 24-5 

 per cent., and the Christians, owing mainly to 

 conversions among the forest tribes, have in- 

 creased 22-16 per cent. In Chutra Nagpur, for 

 example, the Roman Catholic missionaries alone 

 have made 40,000 proselytes in ten years. Among 

 the Karens of Lower Burmah the Protestants 

 have gained a large number of adherents, and in 

 Madras and along the west coast of Hindustan 

 the growth of the Christian community has been 

 considerable. The Jews, including the new set- 

 tlers in Aden, have increased 21 per cent. The 

 Parsees have grown 5-25 per cent. The Jains 

 have recovered some who had embraced Hindu- 

 ism, and show an increase of 15-89 per cent. 



The growth of the Sikhs has been only 2 per 



cent. Of the children under fifteen years of age, 

 5-9 per cent, of the boys and 17*02 per cent, of 

 the u'irls are returned as married, and in every 

 10,(HM) of the general population there are 20 

 boys and 51 girls under fifteen who are returned 

 as widowed, more than one quarter of whom an- 

 not yet five years old. The educational Mati.-tics 

 for about 262,000,000 people show that 89-1 per 

 cent, of the males and 99'4 per cent, of the 

 females are unable to read and w -ite. Accord- 

 ing to the census, only 3GO,<)00, not including 

 Kuni|. ran- and Eurasians, are able to read and 

 write English. 



The average death rate for British India varied 

 from 20-98 per mille in 1880 to 27'98 in 1880. 

 The number of births per mille in 1890 was 22-76 

 in Bengal, 36-98 in the Northwest Provinces and 

 Oudh, 40-28 in the Punjab, 39-30 in the Central 

 Provinces, 21-15 in Lower Burmah, 31-20 in As- 

 sam, 30-9 in Madras, 36-49 in Bombay, and 16-36 in 

 Coorg. The ratio of deaths was 25-03 in Bengal, 

 31-11 in the Northwest, 32 in the Punjab. 43-79 

 in the Central Provinces, 17-7 in Lower Burmah, 

 30-7 in Assam, 23-5 in Madras, 31-51 in Bombay, 

 and 22-92 in Coorg. 



Pauperism among Europeans and Eurasians, 

 especially in Calcutta, has been a question that 

 has engaged the attention of Anglo-Indian pub- 

 licists for a long time, and recently the Govern- 

 ment of Bengal has been studying the best means 

 of dealing with an evil which has a political as 

 well as an economical aspect, because the sight 

 of so many helpless and degraded Europeans and 

 half-castes tends to lower the opinion entertained 

 by the native races regarding their rulers. Of 

 the Europeans and Eurasian* domiciled in Cal- 

 cutta, nearly one sixth are in actual receipt of 

 charitable relief. Among the Eurasians, 22-3 per 

 cent, of the entire community are dependent 

 wholly or partly on charity. Of the European 

 population of pure descent, 7'9 per cent, are pau- 

 pers. The East India Company in early times 

 took forcible measures to prevent the growth of 

 a poor white class by expelling every unsatisfac- 

 tory European from the country. In later times 

 the Indian Government found employment for 

 large numbers of Europeans and men of mixed 

 blood in the departments of opium, finance, cus- 

 toms, and other branches of the uncovenanted 

 civil service. They were in demand also in mer- 

 cantile establishments on account of their Eng- 

 lish education. Although favored because of 

 their race, they have been crowded out of private 

 employment by the natives, who are eager to do 

 the same work for less pay, and of whom there 

 are many who are admirably fitted for such oc- 

 cupations since the spread of English education. 

 The Government has deprived them of t lie mo- 

 nopoly of the minor posts in the civil^ service by 

 throwing them open to nathe-. The liberal 

 grants to European and Eurasian schools have 

 not contributed to the improvement of the situ- 

 ation. Excluded from their former occupations, 

 they are unable to enter into competition with 

 the laboring ela-^s below them. Their defects of 

 character bring them down to pauperism with- 

 out a struggle, for of the male paupers among 

 them 7(> per cent. .and of the female 50 jer>nt., 

 are reported to be able-bodied. The only reme- 

 dies proposed, besides a more judicious adminis- 



