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 ;

BENGAL.

292

compared with

that of 1872,

the decrease of the aboriginal popula-

is

real, and the But it is also to some extent an index of the increasing rapidity with which the aboriginal races are merging in the general population. Early Estimates of Population. The Census taken during the cold weather of 1871-72 was the first that had been attempted

tion.

This decrease

result of a

different

is,

however, apparent rather than

system of

classification.

—

throughout

Bengal.

Previous

that

to

date,

partial

either estimates

enumerations

made from time to time but these were based upon the number of houses in the District

of special areas had been

,

drawn from experience and general and entitled to little reliance. The population shown by the Census of 1872 far exceeded the total of any such previous estimates. With few exceptions, every District in the Province was found to be more thickly peopled than the most liberal official calculation had anticipated. In 1765, the population had been assumed at 10 millions; Sir William Jones in 1787 thought it might amount incorrectly computed, or conclusions

observation,

to 24 millions; Mr.

Dr.

Colebrook

in

1802 calculated

Buchanan - Hamilton had, however, about of

estimate

much

the

population

of

several

higher than other authorities.

it

30 millions. made an which he put at

this period

Districts,

In the years just before the

Census, the population had been generally accepted at about 40 for the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, which then

millions

included Assam.

The Census

of 1872 suddenly disclosed a population of 62,705,718 Bengal, e.xcluding Assam, or more than 50 per cent, above the The Census of 1881, taken nine years previously accepted estimate. for

showed

afterwards,

that

the

population

had increased during

that

period to 69,536,861, being an advance of 6,831,143, or xo’89 per cent., which yields a yearly rate of progress of 759,015, or 1-21 per cent. part of the increase thus shown is, however, only nominal, being due

A

and defects in the Census of 1872. This vast population is spread over an area of 187,222 square miles, residing in 264,765 towns and villages, and occupying 11,036,774 to omissions

Classified according to religion, there were in 1881

—

Hindus, 45,452,806; Muhammadans, 21,704,724; Buddhists, 155,809; Christians, 128,135; Jains, 1609; Sikhs, 549; Brahmos, 788; Parsis, 156; Jews, 1059 ; and ‘others,’ consisting almost entirely of hill and jungle houses.

tribes professing aboriginal faiths, 2,091,226.

Density

.

—The density of the population

the average

number of persons

is

subject to wide variations

to the square mile in 1881 being

524

throughout Behar, 505 in Bengal Proper, 412 in Orissa, 156 in Chutia Nagpur, and 77 throughout the Tributary States. The average over the whole inhabited area

of the

Lieutenant

-

Governorship in 1881