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BENGAL.

299

suburban municipality, and the municipality of Howrah on the opposite river. These various suburbs are as much a part of Calcutta as Lambeth or Chelsea is of London, and give it a gross

bank of the

population of 790,286. Even excluding the suburbs, the central municipality of Calcutta with its 433,219 inhabitants is only exceeded

by Liverpool and Glasgow. capital of Behar, with

side

Calcutta and

its

r

Next

to

Calcutta comes

suburbs, the

town

largest

The city of Murshidabdd, the former seat Nawabs Nazim, has now only 39,231 souls.

Patna,

the

In Bengal Proper, out-

70,654 inhabitants.

is

Dacca, 97,076.

of Government under the

There are altogether 33 towns in the Province with upwards of 20,000 inhabitants, and 200 with over 5000. Most of these so-called ‘towns,’ however, are mere collections of rural hamlets in which all the operations of husbandry are carried on.

The 33

chief towns are the following



Thirty-three Towns in Bengal (1881) containing upwards OF 20,000 Inhabitants. Towns.

Calcutta (without suburbs). Calcutta Suburbs, Patna,

.... .... .... .... .... .... .....

Howrah,

Dacca, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Darbhangah,

.

Monghyr,

Chapra, South Suburban Municipality of Calcutta,

Behar, Arrah, Cuttack, Muzatfarpur,

.

Murshidabad,

.

The

Towns.

Population.

433.219 251.439 170,654 105,206 79.076 76,415 68,238 65.955 55.372 51,670

Dinapur,

Bardwan, Midnapur, Hugh and Chinsura, Agarpara, Baranagar, Santipur, Krishnagar,

.... .... .... ....

Serampur, Hajipur,

Berhampur, 51,658 48,968 42,998 42,656 42,460 39,231

Puri Naihati, Bettiah, Sirajganj,

Chittagong, Balasor,

Population.

37,893 34.080 33.560 31,177 30,317 29,982 29,687 27,477 25.559 25,078 23,605 22,095 21.533 21,263 21,037 20,969 20,265

actual urban population of the 200 towns containing upwards 5000 inhabitants amounted to 3,664,229, or about 5‘26 per cent, of the entire population. In the smallness of its urban population, Bengal ranks last among all the great Provinces of India, the Central Provinces coming next with 6*04 per cent. Of the 264,765 villages and towns, no fewer than 165,263 contained less than two hundred inhabitants; 67,307 had from two to five hundred inhabitants; 23,561 from five hundred to a thousand ; 6994 from one to two thousand 1058 from two to three thousand; 340 from three to five thousand; 146 from five to ten thousand; 49 from ten to fifteen thousand; 14 of