Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/330

 — 320

BENGAL.

the rural watch of the ancient

Hindu commonwealth, and paid by grants

of land, or by the villagers and landowners.

In 1881-82, the strength of

the regular police in Bengal was 78 superior

and men. returned at 6073

officers, and 17,669 inferior these must be added the municipal police

To

officers

—

total,

regular police control,

The village watchmen are not under 23,820. although they discharge police duties. The

number of village watchmen in Bengal is put down at 183,641; and the cost of their support, which is defrayed by the villagers, is estimated at ;^589,634. The total number of persons brought to trial total

during the year 1881 was 217,964. Of these, 67,498 were discharged without trial or were acquitted, and 147,210 were convicted ; 228 persons

were found guilty of murder, 203 of culpable homicide, and 135 of

The commonest

ddkdiii or gang robbery.

convictions; and assault,

r

offences are theft, T2,io2

The

2,803 convictions.

daily average prison

population was 16,747, of whom 664 were women. These figures show I prisoner always in jail to every 4r5o of the population, and i woman in jail to every 52,577 of the female population.

The

was 6 '6 5 per was 414,346

disposed of in 1881

rent suits.

The

cent.

total

number of civil

suits

of these, 144,587 were suits for money,



jail

etc.,

death-rate

and

149,

r

19

—The

number of scholars in all the schools supported, Government was, in 1881-82, a little over a million, or 1 1 per cent, of the children of a school-going age, assumed The standard of instruction is virtually determined by at 10 millions. Education

.

aided, or inspected by

There are about 1200 scholarships annually divided between the primary, secondary,

the standard fixed in the examinations for scholarships.

and superior ^•ith

schools.

The

grant-in-aid principle

is

generally in force.

few exceptions, the whole of the primary and secondary schools,

and a

large portion of the superior schools

and

colleges, are aided or

private institutions, receiving a subsidy from the State

on the condition

of conforming to certain rules and submitting to Government inspection.

The eight Government colleges and the normal schools are the only purely Government

institutions in Bengal.

In 1881-82, out of a total expendi-

ture of ;^64 i,2oo on education, ^,£’265, 000 was paid by the State, and ^376,200 by the people. The primary schools had 880,937 scholars,

These elementary institutions are or about 80 per cent, of the whole. almost entirely developed out of the indigenous schools of the country,

and give the education which the people themselves had found most suitable long before the British Government took the task of popular instruction in hand.

The

primitive teaching of the old indigenous

imparted in an improved form and of a better quality, in our elementary schools. But it has been the aim of the Bengal Government to develope public instruction on the basis of the indigenous school

is

institutions



and

to

improve those institutions without superseding