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 BENGAL. number

29s

of Europeans and non- Asiatics (including Eurasians) in Bengal

(rS8i) 34,47 t. Of this total, 25,566 are found in Calits neighbourhood, 1868 in the Twenty-four Parganas, 1673 in Howrah, 1043 in Dacca, 821 in Bakarganj, 687 in Darjiling, 772

Proper

is

cutta and

Bardwan, 366

in

in Hugh',

and scarcely more than 200

in

any other

In the Province of Behar, the Europeans and non- Asiatics

District.

number 4802; 2r65 being in Patna District and Monghyr. The European and non-Asiatic population in Chutia Nagpur is very small, bringing up the total to 39,473 for the entire Lieutenant - Governorship of Bengal. Of these, European British

(including Eurasians)

890

in

born subjects number 10,583; other Europeans, 13,638; Americans, 392 ; Australians, 88 ; Africans, 67 ; Eurasians, 14,705. Of the Eurasian community, 9581, or more than half, are in Calcutta and the Twenty-

Dacca; 759 in Bakarganj; and 702 in Howrah. Dacca and Chittagong there are colonies of Firinghis, mixed

four Parganas; 841 in

In

descendants of Portuguese,

who made

these places their head-quarters

in Eastern Bengal.

The population of Asiatics, other than natives of India, is 93, iro, for These are composed mostly of Nepalis in Darjiling and on the northern frontier of Behar. The Armenian community consists of 802 persons, chiefly in Calcutta and Dacca the Chinese number 309, nearly all shoemakers and carthe Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal.



penters in Calcutta; there are 1059 Jews, mainly in the metropolis;

and 156

Parsis.

and European together, numbered 90,000 in 1872, less than one-third being Europeans or East Indians. The native converts, who number altogether 86,306 persons, are chiefly found in the Presidency, Dacca, and Chutia Nagpur Divisions. In Chutia Nagpur alone there are nearly 40,000 converts, who belong Christians, native

and 128,135

in

1881;

mainly to the aboriginal

tribes.

Of the

different

denominations of Chrismost numerous

tians in the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, the

are

— Church of England,

23,162;

Roman

Catholic, 26,925; Lutheran,

23,556; Baptist, 16,985 ; and Church of Scotland, 3689. Aboriginal Tribes. The Census of 1872 returned 3,000,000 persons as belonging to aboriginal tribes, who had not adopted any form of

—

Hinduism. for the

In the Census of 1882, their number

Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal.

It is

is

given at 2,000,000

impossible, however,

draw any very distinct line between the aborigines and Hindu merge insensibly into one another. Large numbers of low-caste and outcaste people are aboriginal in blood, and can scarcely be said to be Hindu in any real sense, although they are entered as such in the Census returns. The low-castes have deities and religious observances of their own, and are only entered as Hindus because they do not come under any other specific race-name. The apparent decrease to

races, as they