— 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
