Page:Second Report on the State of Education in Bengal (1836).djvu/20

Rh and I can, therefore, only estimate the probable number of individuals of each class. The total number of individuals is 195,296, and of families 30,028, which gives the high average of 6.5 individuals to each family. This gives an average of 65,656 Hindus to 129,640 Mahomedans, making the proportion of Mahomedans to Hindus as 1,000 to 506.488. Nattore is in this respect not an exception to the other thanas. According to the opinions I have been able to collect, the thanas of Bhawanigunge, Hariyal, Chaugaon, Bilmariya, and Bauleah, are considered to have nearly an equal proportion of Musalmans with Nattore, which latter, if any difference exist, is believed to have rather a larger proportion of Hindus than any of the five former; while in Manda, Tannore, Dubalhati, and Godagari, the proportion of Musalmans is alleged to be in excess of what it is in all the others, certainly amounting to not less than three to one Hindu. If we assume that the first-mentioned six thanas have the proportion of two Musalmans to one Hindu, and the four last-mentioned that of three to one, the aggregate average will be that of seven to three, or the proportion of 1,000 Musalmans to 450 Hindus. The returns of 1834 make the proportion to be that of 1,000 to 587, which is the highest proportion of Hindus that can be assumed. It is not difficult to perceive how a contrary impression has gained ground among the European functionaries, and from them has been transferred to the publications of the day. The Hindus, with exceptions of course, are the principal zemindars, talookdars, public officers, men of learning, money-lenders, traders, shop-keepers, &c, engaging in the most active pursuits of life, and coming directly and frequently under the notice of the rulers of the country; while the Musalmans, with exceptions also, form a very large majority of the cultivators of the ground and of day-laborers, and others engage in the very humblest forms of mechanical skill and of buying and selling, as tailors, turban-makers, makers of huqqa-snakes, dyers, wood-polishers, oil sellers, sellers of vegetables, fish, &c.,—in few instances attracting the attention of those who do not mix much with the humbler classes of the people, or make special inquiry into their occupations and circumstances.