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 GON

552

A revised assessment was made in 1869

and 1870 A.D., and the Government an average of Re. 1-5 per acre of total area, and Rs. 2-1-9 per cultivated acre. The immense rise of Rs. 1,69,044, or more than 66 per cent., probably reflects, with some approach to accuracy, the rapid extension of cultivation during fifteen years of English peace. Four hundred and sixty-one villages, with a revenue of Rs. 3,35,312, are held by taluqdars, of whom the principal are Rdja Krishan Datt Ram, the widow of the late Mahfoaja Sir Man Singh, and the thakurains of Birwa and Deotaha. Independent zamindars hold 182 villages, paying a revenue of Rs. 88,933. demand, with

The

cesses, settled for thirty years at Rs. 4,24,045,

total population

by the

late census returns

amounted

to 272,378,

which gives an average of 536 to the square mile, and 1'35 souls to the They are distributed among 643 inhabited villages and cultivated acre. 1,943 hamlets or isolated homesteads, and average 4'1 souls to each house. Muhammadans number 24,235, or 9 per cent, of the whole population, which is slightly below the average of the district. They have among them no large landed proprietors and though there are a few village zamindars,

the great majority are either cultivators, or weavers, or servants in all capacities, either of Government or wealthy Hindus. The proportion of females to males among Musalmans is 95'9, and among Hindus 93'9 per cent. Of the latter by far the most numerous caste are the Brahmans, who number 60,713, or between a quarter and a fifth of the whole population. They are all, with the exception of a family here and there, which has immigrated within historical times, of the great Sarwaria division, and retain no tradition whatever of their first settlement in the district, of which it is probable that they are among the most ancient inhabitants, having survived the vicissitudes of Buddhist, Jain, and Muhammadan conquests.

them to smoke tobacco, eat flesh, or drink spirits, as to employ themselves in the more useful pursuit of driving the plough. strictness of their asceticism does not prevent them from being

It is as unlawful to it is

The among the most turbulent

as well as the most dishonest classes in the province; and they contribute out of proportion to their numbers to the rioters and cattle-thieves of the district jail. Time was when their energies found a more legitimate opening, and their fighting qualities, unrivalled between the Gogra and the hills, raised their rajas to an undisputed preeminence among the chiefs of Gonda and Bahraich. Later on they joined the English standard in large numbers, and the Pande gave a generic name to the whole native army. The mutiny, which they were among the foremost to join, threw hundreds out of employment ; but they still send over two thousand men to the defence of their country. There is hardly a village in which they are not the leaders, either as old proprietary communities recognised by the raja's birt, or as lessees, and they almost monopolise the rural grain trade and money-lending business. Next in number to them are the Koris, the opposite end of the social scale, with a total of 28,458 souls. If in matters of religion they transgress on every point where the Brahman is holy, and not only drink spirits when their wretched poverty allows them the indulgence, but are found very constantly at the plough-handle, there are some particulars in which they contrast not unfavourably with their masters. simple, oppressed race, they are

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