THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION 13 



Among the agricultural population ought also to be 

 classed the majority of the 522,683 persons occupied in 

 the care of animals. 



The term zamindar covers all persons who have 

 proprietary rights in the soil, and includes both land- 

 lords in the English sense and peasant proprietors. 

 The Census of 1901 makes no distinction between 

 these two, but in the Census of 1891 the zamindars 

 were classified as follows : 



Landed proprietors, not cultivating ... ... 545,728 



Landed proprietors, cultivating ... ... 3,251,084 



Total zamindars ... ... 3,796,812 



As there is no reason to suppose that the proportion 

 between these two classes has been materially dis- 

 turbed, we may assume that the number of peasant 

 proprietors is about 3,000,000; if to these we add the 

 tenants and sub-tenants, we get a total of approxi- 

 mately 26,000,000 persons supported by the cultiva- 

 tion of small holdings. Thus, more than half the 

 population of the provinces are petty farmers (in- 

 cluding in this term the farmer's family) who raise 

 food primarily for their own consumption, and who 

 obtain the money which they need for rent, interest 

 on debt, or the purchase of minor luxuries by the sale 

 of their surplus produce. 



This agricultural population is scattered over the 

 level plains of the United Provinces in small villages, 

 each village constituting an industrial unit which con- 

 tains in itself all the labour, capital, and skill which 

 are in India considered necessary for the cultivation 

 of the soil. In almost every village there will be 

 found representatives of three distinct industrial 

 classes. The first of these are the landlords. The 

 land upon which the industry of the village is ex- 

 pended belongs either to an individual landlord or 

 landlords, or to a group of relations who constitute a 

 body of joint proprietors ; these landlords usually 



