Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/344

 336 LUC Are 37 31 11 Proportion of agriculturists.* The rural population is mostly Hindu, and it is the latter people that absorb nearly all the agricultural pursuits. Not more than twenty-five per cent. of the whole Muhammadan popula- tion aro employed in the tillage of land. Of this rural population of 697,499— 621,307 Hindus. 76,192 Muhammadang, 392,632 agricultural. 304,867 11on-agricultural. The last two classes slow a proportion of 56:3 to 437. The proportion of Hindus to Muhammadans, and agriculturists to non-agriculturists, varies throughout the seven parganas of the district. The proportion of agriculturists does not seem to depend much upon the amount of cultivated land. It ranges very high in Bijnaur, which has least percentage of all of cultivation, and it is lowest in Malihabad, which has most; nevertheless it is high in Mahona, which is very finely cultivated, and the conflicting results observable in Bijnaur and Malihabad are pro- bably due to the facts that, while the population in the former pargana is very agricultural, in the latter it is altogether sparse, and the soil is occupied by numerous village communities who affect to be above the labour of tilling the soil with their own hands. The great cry is want of land, not scarcity of hands, and, except in the parganas of Malibabad and Mahona, there is not much land awaiting the cultivator, though, with improved cultivation, infinitely more could be got from the soil. Castes.--At present it seems that the owuers of the soil have but little affinity with the majority of its inhabitants. The census taken by the khasra survey was designed to slow the number of members in each caste; but though much trouble was taken, and probably the results for cultivators are very approximately correct, the difference on the whole population is very considerable. While the census of 1869 shows 697,499, that taken by the settlement establishment shows only 594,642, or a difference of more than 14 per cent. But for the cultivating classes this is much less. The regular census shows 133,976, while the settlement census shows 127,621, or a difference of only four per cent. If this error be distributed throughout the different castes it becomes very small. In any case the error will not be very great. The following list will show predominating Hindu castes and the percentage that each bears to the whole Hindu population : Chhattri Brahman Káyath Ahir Gararia Dhobi Pási Lodh Νάο Kori Kalwar Kumbar 0 400 8:41 1.82 2:13 1:58 1.4 • ace , 10:55 11 .. 6.17 1.96 2019 1:14 14 1. 14 e. Report, and the figures do not always correspond with later calculations.
 * 11.12
 * Thig and the remainder of the chapter are taken from the Lucknow Scttlement