136 HAPPY INDIA 



for 1921 about 319,000,000. From 287,000,000 in 

 1891 to 315,000,000 in 1911 the population increased 

 about 28,000,000 in twenty years that is, just 10 per 

 cent., or at the rate of 5 per cent, in ten years. If 

 we take only the population immediately governed 

 by the British, the population in 1891 was 221,000,000, 

 in 1911 244,000,000, so that there is an increase of 

 23,000,000 in twenty years ; this, again, is just 

 about 10 per cent., or 5 per cent, in ten years. 

 In the ten years ending 1921 the increase of 

 population was comparatively small, because of the 

 enormous death-rate, in 1918 and 1919, from fevers, 

 probably due to partial famine, and also the con- 

 sequent diminution of the birth-rate. 



The question is, Is it desirable that the population 

 depending upon agriculture should continue to 

 increase at the average rate of the last forty years ? 

 Some people think that the population of India 

 will never be well fed, well housed, well clothed, so 

 long as it continues its efforts to increase at a rapid 

 rate. How that may be I cannot say, but it is to 

 be hoped that there will come some change in their 

 habits. I have been told that it was not always the 

 case that the women were married so young as 

 now, twelve or fourteen that it began a long time 

 ago. There are many Indians who are trying to 

 set the fashion of later marriages, and it would appear 

 to a European that it would be a good thing if 

 marriages could be put off to the age of twenty to 

 twenty-five. 



If as a result of later marriage there were fewer 



