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
