Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/698

 662 INDIA.

Non-Aryans : —

Madras 650,000

Central Provinces 1,995,663

South Bengal 4,000,000

North-East Bengal 1,000,000

Karens. 402,117

Khyens and Yabangs. . . 61,562

Best of India 4,000,000

Total 12,099,342

Not included in the above statement are Parsees, to the estimated number of 180,000; Eurasians 91,000, and Jews about 10,000. Leaving out of account the Native States, the following may be roughly accepted as the relative proportions of creeds and races in India :—

Asiatic Christians 1,100,000

Buddhists 3,000,000

Aborigines or Non- Aryans 12,000,000

Mussulmans 25,000,000

Hindoos 110,000,000

The English population in India amounted, according to the re- turns made by the several Governments, to 125,945 persons at the census of 1861. Of these. **4,083 went to compose the British officers and men of the Indian army; while 22,556 consisted of men and boys in civil lif« including the civilians in the public service ; the remaining 19,306 being females, of whom 9,773 were over 20 years of age. When the census was taken, the number of females of English origin in India above the age of 15 was 11,636, including 8.356 wives and 1.146 widows. Of the officers and men of the Royal army 93 per cent, of all ages were unmarried, while the pro- portion of unmarried civilians amounted to 50 per cent.

Efforts for spreading education among the population of India have been made since 1848, in which year the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra brought forward a scheme for giving a schoolmaster to every village, of at least a hundred families. After three years' discussion, the Court of Directors of the East India Company accepted the groundwork of the plan, and orders were issued directing that a good vernacular school should be established for every ' circle ' of villages, called ' Nulkabundee,' and that the teacher should be paid from a cess of 2 per cent, on the land revenue. The State takes 50 per cent, of the net produce of the soil, the peasant proprietor takes 45, and the remaining 5 is devoted to schools, roads, and police for the villages. As each 30 years' settlement, or leases, fell in, this cess was made compulsory, beginning with Jhansi. From the year 1852 the cess has spread all over India, except part of Bengal, form-