Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/82

 72 U D H hot season, from March to June. The mean temperature at Lucknow for the thirteen years ending 1880 was 78; in 1881 it was the same, the maximum temperature on any one day during the year being 111, and the minimum 35. The heat proves most oppressive in the rainy season. The heaviest downpours occur in July and September, but are extremely capricious. The average annual rainfall at Lucknow for the fourteen years ending 1881 amounted to 3 7 5 7 inches. Population. Oudh is probably more densely peopled than any other equal rural area in the world. The census of 1881 returned the population at 11,387,741 (5,851,655 males and 5,536,086 females), distributed over an area of 24,245 square miles. The following table exhibits the areas and populations of the districts separately. Divisions. Districts. Area in Square Miles. Population (1881). Lucknow. Lucknow 989 1,747 1,768 2,251 2,312 2,992 1,689 2,741 2,875 . 1,738 1,707 1,436 696,824 899,069 1,026,788 958,251 987,630 831,922 1,081,419 878,048 1,270,926 951,905 957,912 847,047 Unao Sitapur Faizabad (Fyzabad). Rai Bareli Tota Bara Banki Sitapur Hardoi Kheri Faizabad ... . Bahrdich (Bharaich) Gonda Rai Bareli Sultanpur Partabgarh (Pratapgarh) 1 24,245 11,387,741 Divided according to religion, the population consisted of 9,942,4 1 1 Hindus, 1,433,443 Mohammedans, 1154 Sikhs, 9060 Christians, and 1673 others. The Mohammedans are subdivided into the four classes of Sayyids, Shaikhs, Pathans, and Mughals, but they have lost greatly in social prestige since the downfall of the royal line. In the higher rank they still number seventy-eight tdlukddrs. Some of these, as the rajas of Utraula and Nanpara, trace their descent from local Mohammedan chieftains. Others belong to ancient Hindu families. The Mohammedans still furnish the ablest public servants in the province, and supply almost entirely the native bar. The lower orders make industrious cultivators and weavers. Among the Hindu population, the Brahmans preponder ate, numbering 1,364,783, about one-eighth of the entire population. They include, however, only six tdlukddrs in the whole province, and two of these acquired their wealth during the later days of Mohammedan rule. Large numbers of them follow agriculture, but they make undesirable tenants, most of them refusing to hold the plough, and cultivating their fields by hired labour. They supply good soldiers, however, and many are employed in trade. The Kshattriyas, or Rajputs, form the great landholding class, but the majority are now in decayed circumstances. The Mohammedans, Brahmans, and Kshattriyas compose the higher social stratum of society, and number altogether about a fourth of the entire popu lation. Amongst the lower Hindus, the Kayasths, or clerk and scrivener class, number 147,432. The Sudras or lowest class of Hindus include 1,185,512 Ahirs, cattle graziers and cultivators. The best tenantry and most industrious cultivators are to be found amongst the Kurmis, who number nearly 800, 000. Of the aboriginal or semi-Hinduized tribes some, such as the Pasis, who number 718,906, make good soldiers, and furnish the greater part of the rural police. Others, like the Bhars and Tharus, live in small isolated groups on the outskirts of the jungle or the hill country, and hold no communication with the outer world. The Nats and Kanjars wander like gipsies over the country, with their small movable villages or wigwams of matting and leaf-screens. The Koris and Chamars, weavers and leather-cutters, reach the lowest depth of all. In the northern districts many still practically occupy the position of serfs, bound to the soil, having seldom spirit enough to avail themselves of the remedy afforded by the courts of law. They hold the plough for the Brahman or Kshattriya master, and dwell with the pigs in a separate quarter of the village, apart from their purer neighbours. Fifteen towns in the province have a population exceeding 10,000 persons, according to the census of 1 881, namely Lucknow, 239, 773 ; Faizabad, 38,828 ; Lucknow Cantonment, 21,530 ; Bahraich, 19,439; Shahabad, 18,510; Tanda, 16,594; Sandila, 14,865; Khairabad, 14,217; Nawabganj, 13,933; Ajudhia, 11,643; Rudauli, 11,394 ; Bilgram, 11,067 ; Mallawan, 10,970 ; Laharpur, 10,437 ; Hardoi, 10,026. Thirty-six other towns have a population exceed ing 5000. The general population is essentially rural, spread over the surface of the country in small cultivating communities. Over 90 per cent, of the population belong to the rural class. Agriculture. There are three harvests, reaped respectively in September, December, and March, while sugar-cane comes to maturity in February, cotton in May, and sdmcun in almost any month of the year. The principal September crops are rice, Indian corn, and millets. Fine rice, transplanted in August from nurseries near the village sites, forms the most valuable item of the December harvest, the other staples being mustard-seed and pulses. Wheat forms the main spring crop. Sugar-cane occupies the land for an entire year ; it requires much labour and several waterings, but the result in ordinary years amply repays the outlay. At the date of the annexation of Oudh in 1856, 23,500 villages, or about two-thirds of the entire area of the province, were in the possession of the great tdlukddrs, heads of powerful clans and representatives of ancient families, a feudal aristocracy, based upon rights in the soil, which went back to traditional times, and which were heartily acknowledged by the subordinate holders. The new settlement paid no regard to their claims, and many landholders were stripped of almost their entire possessions. The mutiny of 1857 suddenly put a stop to this work of disinheritance, and it is hardly to be wondered at that throughout Oudh, the whole tdlukddri, with a very few isolated exceptions, joined the sepoys. On the restoration of order the principle adopted was to restore to the tdlukddrs all that they had formerly possessed, but in such a manner that their rights should depend upon the immediate grant of the British Government. About two-thirds of the number accepted an invitation to come to Lucknow, and there concluded political arrangements with the Government. On the one hand, the tdlukddrs bound themselves to level all foils, give up arms, and act loyally, to pay punctually the revenue assessed upon them and the wages of the village officials, and to assist the police in keeping order. On the other hand, the British Government conferred a right of property unknown alike to flindu and to Mohammedan law, comprising full power of alienation by will, and succession according to primogeniture in case of intestacy. The land revenue demand was fixed at one-half the gross rental ; subordinate tenure- holders were confirmed in their ancient privileges ; and a clause was introduced to protect the actual cultivators from extortion. Snch were the main features of the sanads issued by Sir C. Wingfield in October 1859, which constitute the land system of Oudh to the present day, subject to a few minor modifications. The detailed operations for giving effect to this settlement were carried out by a revenue survey, conducted both by fields and villages, begun in 1860, and finished in 1871. The total assessed area in 1881-82 was 14,877,020 acres, the total assessmi-nt as land revenue being 1,449,147, or an average of Is. ll^d. per acre. The total culti vated area is 8,274,560 acres ; cultivable and grazing lands are set down at 4,035,351 acres ; and uncultivable waste at 2,567,109 acres. The estates on the revenue roll are divided into three classes : (1) those held under the tdlukddri rules described above ; (2) those held by ordinary zaminddri tenure ; and (3) those held in fee-simple. There are altogether about 400 tdlukddrs in the province, of whom about two-thirds, with an area of about 2^ million acres, hold their estates under the rule of primogeniture. The zaminddri estates, locally known by the name of mufrdd, may be the undivided pro perty of a single owner ; but far more commonly they are owned by a coparcenary community who regard themselves as descendants of a common ancestor. The fee-simple estates, which are very few in number, consist of land sold under the Waste Land Rules. The sub-tenures under the above estates are (1) sub-settled villages comprised within tdlukddri estates; (2) lands known as sir, daswant, ndnkdn, and dihddri, held by proprietors who have been unable to prove their right to the sub-settlement of a whole village ; (3) groves held by cultivators, who, according to immemorial custom, give the landlord a certain share of the produce ; (4) lands granted, either by sale or as gifts, for religious endowments ; and (5) lands held rent-free by village servants and officials. Commerce and Manufactures. Under native rule the only exports were salt and saltpetre, while the imports were confined to- articles of luxury required for the Lucknow court. Since the introduction of British authority, although Lucknow has declined, countless small centres of traffic have sprung up throughout the country. The staple exports consist of wheat and other food grains, and oil-seeds ; the main imports are cotton piece goods, cotton twist, and salt. Cawiipur, though lying on the southern bank of the Ganges within the North-Western Provinces, is, in fact, the emporium for the whole trade of Oudh, by rail, road, and river. The enormous exports of wheat and oil-seeds from Cawnpur represent to a great extent the surplus harvest of the Oudh cultivator. A brisk trade is also carried on with Nepal, along the three frontier districts of Kheri, Bahraich, and Gonda. The policy of the Nepal court is to compel this traffic to be trans acted at marts within its own dominions. At all of these a con siderable number of Oudh merchants are permanently settled, whereas Nepalis rarely cross the frontier to trade except for tha purchase of petty necessaries. The principal exports from Oudh into Nepal are Indian and European piece goods, salt, sugar,