Page:A Statistical Account of Bengal Vol 1 GoogleBooksID 9WEOAAAAQAAJ.pdf/54

Rh extended to 2788 square miles, and, according to the Police Returns, the population prior to 1870—the population exclusive of Calcutta—was stated to be 1,478,175 souls. These police estimates were based on information supplied by the village watchmen. An experimental census was made in June 1869 of several of the Municipalities, and will be referred to later, when I come to the town population.

A careful census of the District was taken, by authority of Government, in the early part of 1872. The Census of Calcutta was taken by the Justices of the Peace for the town; that of the suburbs and municipal towns, by the local municipal authorities, under the supervision of Subdivisional officers; and the rest of the District, by the Magistrate, with the assistance of the police and a number of the most respectable natives of the villages as enumerators. The Census was taken simultaneously throughout Calcutta and the 24 Parganás, on the night of the 25th January. The number of enumerators employed, exclusive of those in the city and suburbs, was 4732. Of these, 1173 were well-to-do agriculturists, residing in the villages they enumerated, 587 were gánthídíárs or small landholders, 839 mandals or village heads, 317 large landholders (zamíndárs), 49 náibs, 196 mahájans or village merchants, 94 teachers, 23 students, and 920 writers; the remainder being priests, pleaders, law agents (mukhtárs), doctors, contractors, or other respectable residents of the places which they were appointed to enumerate. Prior to taking the Census, it was directed that each enumerator’s block should be made to correspond, if possible, with the beat of a village watchman, and that on an average no more than eighty houses should be allotted to each enumerator, as this was the maximum which one man could count accurately in a single night. In jungly places invested by wild beasts, permission was given for the enumeration being done during the day of the 25th January. As to the accuracy of the results obtained, Mr. Graham, the Magistrate of the District, states:—‘I think I may venture to say that a very nearly accurate Census has been taken at a very small cost, and with no trouble to the people.’

The following sentences, illustrating the comparative density of the population in various parts of the District, are extracted from page 97 of the Census Report:—‘The population is naturally the densest in and around Calcutta. The town and suburbs taken together