Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/269

 — BENARES.

259

second crop of some other staple. Where small proprietors own the each holder generally tills his own plot in person but, as a rule, the greater portion is let out to cultivating tenants. The whole District is permanently settled, and the landlords are therefore unusually power-

soil,



and wealthy. They can raise their rents without restriction, and the number of tenants-at-will increases daily, as the older occupancy-holders ful

die out for want of heirs, or lose their privileges from inability to pay

The

the rent.

male adult agricultural population

total

is

returned at

The

141,790, cultivating an average area of 3 ‘98 acres each. agricultural population, however, wholly

dependent on the

soil,

total

numbers

Of the total 439)6 o 5, or 49'25 per cent, of the District population. area of 998 square miles, 971 square miles are assessed for Government revenue, and of which 723 square miles are cultivated 66 square miles still available for cultivation ; and 182 square miles uncultivable

and

Total Government assessment, including local rates and on land, ;^io4,739, or an average of 4s. 6^d. per cultivated acre. Total rental actually paid by cultivators, ;^i 69,499, or an average of 7s. i|d. per cultivated acre. In the city of Benares, owing to the wealth of its rich traders and bankers, and the constant influx of opulent waste.

cesses

pilgrims, the standard of living ranks decidedly higher than elsewhere in the

North-Western Provinces

element, bringing with in Calcutta,

does

it

much

and the presence of a

large Bengali

the habits and ideas of comfort which prevail

keep up the tendency

to

But

in that direction.

the crowded peasantry of the country pargands live in extreme poverty,

and have distress.

unskilled

or nothing upon which they can fall back in seasons of Coolies and Wages and prices have risen of late years. labourers now receive from 2;Jd. to 3|d. per diem; agricultural little

and carpenters, 6d. to 2s. men, while less than The children are paid from one-half to one-third the wages of adults. following were the average prices-current of food-grains in 1876 Wheat, 21 sers per rupee, or 5s. 4d. per cwt. best rice, 13 sers per

labourers, 2;|d.

per diem.

to 3d. per

Women

diem

obtain



bricklayers

about

one-fifth





rupee, or 8s. 7d. per cwt.



jodr, 30 sers per rupee, or 3s. gd. per cwt.



In 1882, wheat was 16^ best rice, 12^ sers per rupee, or

bdjrd, 29 sers per rupee, or 3s. lod. per cwt. sers per rupee, or 6s.

i^d. per cwt.

9^-d.

per cwt.



9W.

jodr, 29^ sers per rupee, or 3s. bdjrd, 28 sers per rupee, or 4s. per cwt. 8s.

I

Natural



Calamities.

— Although

neighbours from drought, and from it

Benares its

District

per cwt.

suffers



like

and its

natural consequence, famine, yet

appears to occupy an intermediate position between the centres of

distress in

by

Upper India and Bengal,

so as to be less severely affected

scarcity than either of the regions to the east

Benares was visited by famine in east of Allahabad,

common

with

including those of Behar.

and west.

all

In

In 1770, the other Districts 1783, the dearth