VIZAGAPATAM.
In the Agency the population in 1901 was actually less than that in 1891. Nine of the taluks showed a decrease, and the loss was especially heavy in Naurangpur. The decline has never been satisfactorily explained, and was probably due to careless enumeration. In Malkanagiri, Pádwa and Golgonda, however, considerable advances occurred.
The low country escaped the great famine of 1876, and therefore the growth of its population in the thirty years between 1871 and 1901 (though below that of its neighbour Gódávari)was in excess of the mean for the Presidency during that period. But in the decade 1881-91 the increase was much less than this mean, and in 1891-1901 it only just equalled it.
This result is largely due to the unusual amount of emigration which goes on. The census figures showed that in 1901 the Gódávari district contained no fewer than 120,940 persons who had been born in Vizagapatam, that Kistna included 17,524 more, and Ganjám another 8,795. On the whole, the net result in Vizagapatam of the movement of the people to and from other districts of the Presidency amounted to a loss of as many as 146,894 persons. From no other district in the Presidency did emigration occur on anything even approaching this large scale, and the inference arises that the people of Vizagapatam are not particularly contented with their lot.
Emigration to Burma is common, but the statistics do not distinguish genuine emigrants from ordinary travellers, so figures cannot be quoted; and apparently the emigration is usually only temporary (people going across for the paddy-harvest) and is almost balanced by corresponding immigration. Emigration to the Assam tea-gardens, which is so common in Ganjám, occurs in Vizagapatam on only a small scale. It is controlled under the Assam Labour and Emigration Act VI of 1901 1[1] and recruitment in the Agency is strictly prohibited. Two recruiter's depots have been established at Párvatipur.
The languages of the district form a veritable Babel. In the plains, 960 in every 1,000 people speak Telugu in their homes, 14 talk Uriya (Odiya), 9 Khond, 7 Gadaba and 5 Hindostáni; but among the same number in the Agency 481 speak Uriya, 206 Khond, 180 Telugu, 56 Savara, 30 ' Poroja,' 23 Gadaba, 11 Kóya, 3 Hindostáni, 8 Góndi and 5 other vernaculars, such as Lambádi, Bastari, Hindi, Chattisgarhi, etc. The 'Konda' language returned in the census reports appears to be merely
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- ↑ 1 A history of the control of this kind of emigration will be found in G.O.No.618, Public, dated 23rd August 1905.
