Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/328

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 * | Thana Nattore, Rajshahi, Hindus to Musalmans as || 50 || to || 100
 * | City of Moorshedabad || 100 || to || 48
 * | Thana Dowlatbazar ditto || 100 ||  to || 86
 * | Thana Nanglia, Beerbhoom || 100 ||  to || 7
 * | Thana Culna, Burdwan || 100 || to || 23
 * | Thana Jehanabad, South Behar || 100 || to || 17
 * | Thana Bhawara, Tirhoot || 100 || to || 9
 * }
 * | Thana Culna, Burdwan || 100 || to || 23
 * | Thana Jehanabad, South Behar || 100 || to || 17
 * | Thana Bhawara, Tirhoot || 100 || to || 9
 * }
 * | Thana Bhawara, Tirhoot || 100 || to || 9
 * }
 * }

If these Thanas be taken as fair average specimens of their respective districts or Zillahs; and these districts or Zillahs fair average specimens of the rest of Bengal, this would give an average for all Bengal, in the proportion of 100 Hindus to 43 Musalmans, or considerably more than 2, or less than 3 to 1. Even this gives a vastly larger aggregate of Musalman population than has been ordinarily imagined or believed; as nothing is more common in ordinary converse and popular writings than the round assertion that the Hindu exceeds the Musalman population in the proportion of 10 to 1. But our chief concern is with the relative amount of scholastic culture possessed by these two great classes respectively. And one may at once say, that all the best authenticated facts go to prove that it is in favour of the Hindus. Thus in Nattore, Rajshahi, while the proportion of Musalmans to Hindus is that of two to one, the proportion of Musalman to Hindu children receiving domestic instruction is rather less than one to four. In all the other districts there is a somewhat similar or rather greater disproportion in favour of the Hindus against the Musalmans. Let the eye be simply directed to the above table of the proportions of the Hindu and Musalman population, and compare the different items successively with the following statements of the relative numbers of Hindu and Musalman children in the elementary vernacular schools:—

This gives us an aggregate of 22,951 Hindu to 1,260 Musalman scholars; whence we deduce the grand result, that, whereas the Hindu population is to the Musalman in the proportion of rather more than two to one, the Hindu scholars, enjoying the benefit of an elementary indigenous education, are to the Musalman scholars in the proportion of about eighteen to one! This vast disproportion may, as Mr. Adam observes, be so far explained by the fact already stated, viz. “that a very large majority of the humblest grades of native society are composed of Musalmans, such as cultivators of the ground, day-labourers, fishermen, &c.,