The Census & the politics: 1871 to 1941 ( in process)

The Census & the politics

1871 to 1941 ( in process) 

The article is in process but meanwhile am sharing it too. Will write detail impression afterwards. Here just reproducing important commentary, tables etc only.

As par 1871 census there were 44 largest cities in British India and it had 5 cities that later included in Pakistan after August 1947. Among these cities largest city was Lhore with population 98,924. Other cities were Dakka 69,212, Peshawar 58,555 Mooltan 56,826 and Karachi 53, 526.

https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/2/public/page570d-3.html?title=1871&action=next&record=10

Only less than 3 percent people (i-e 55,94,913) lived in those 44 largest cities as par 1871 census that means those cities were for businesses and rest of 97 % population lived in rural & tribal areas. British constructed Calcutta & Bombay were largest cities with population 7,94,645 and 6, 44, 405.

interestingly among these 44 cities there were 4 cities from Punjab yet Amritsar with 1,35, 813 inhabitants was the largest Punjabi city and both Amritsar & Lhore were called twin cities.

Majority of population lived in small villages with less than 5000 population and its number were 4, 80, 437. Total estimated population as par 1871 in British India was 23,88,30, 958.

Authors of 1871 census had accepted that they could not carried enumeration in the Punjab, Audh and Berar but depended on previous reports of 1855 till 1870 but smart writers did not tell us its reasons. But if you read preamble of infamous Criminal Tribes Act 1871 you can easily smell the resistance being in force in the Punjab & Audh at that time where that tricy act was imposed.

 Religious Count in 1871 Census



Punjab & Sikhs
In dealing with the population of the Punjab it is necessary to take into consideration a third religion, that of the Sikhs, who in this province form an important element, though in the others they are so few as to be merely reckoned among the higher castes of the Hindoos. In every 100 persons in the Punjab there are, on an average, 53 Mahomedans, 34 Hindoos, and 6 Sikhs. As might be expected, the Hindoos are most numerous in the more southern divisions bordering on the North-West Provinces; in Delhi, Hissar, Umballa, and Jullundhur, they comprise 68, 74, 56, and 58 per cent. of the people, while in Umritsur they only form 24 per cent., in Mooltan 17, in Lahore 15, in Rawulpindee 10, in the Derajat 11, and in Peshawur not more than 5 per cent. The returns vary, however, some comprising the sweeper castes among Hindoos, while some, treating them as out-castes, include them in the "other" population. The Mahomedans muster from 21 to 30 per cent, in the four lower divisions, but in Umritsur, Lahore, and Mooltan they come up to 51, 57, and 65 per cent.; in Rawulpindee and the Derajat they have 86 and 87, and in Peshawur no less than 93 per cent. of the population. The stronghold of the Sikhs is the country between the rivers Ravee and Sutlej, including the central districts of Lahore where they form 17, Umritsur where they are 13 per cent. of the people, Umballa where they amount to 9, and Jullundhur where they are 8 per cent.; in the other districts they range from 3 per cent. to 1 in 300 of the inhabitants.

Sectarian basis population of Muslims

 It is, however, in Sind that they are to be found in the greatest numbers, three-fifths of the whole Mussulman population being included in that province, in each 100 of the inhabitants of which barely 18 are Hindoos, while 78 are followers of Mahomet.

In some of the provinces, the Mussulmans have been divided into the two great rival sects of the Soonees who acknowledge the succession of the first three Caliphs, and the Sheeas who hold Ali, the fourth, to be the only rightful successor of Mahomet, and reject the Book of Traditions which the Soonees accept as canonical. Not many of the Sheeas are found in Bengal, but the numbers are not given; in Oude, also, the Soonees are by far the most numerous, though the Sheea tenets are those of the ex-royal family and the greater part of the higher classes. In Mysore about 93 per cent. of the Mahomedans are Soonees, and in Coorg about 91 per cent. In Madras the pro- portion of Soonees is 89 per cent., to not quite 4 per cent, of Sheeas, the other 7 per cent. being unspecified. In Bombay the relative numbers are still more at variance, the Soonees in that Presidency amounting to more than 96 per cent., while in Sind more than 99 per cent. belong to this sect. Very few persons have returned themselves as Wahabees, the puritan sect founded at the close of the last century by Abdul Wahab, an Arab of the province of Nejd, whose tenets were brought to India by Syed Ahmed in 1823, and caught up by the fiery Pathans of the north-west frontier: no classification by sects is given in the reports for the Punjab and North-West Provinces, and in other parts of India the Wahabees do not appear to be at all numerous.

Christians in British India 

The Christian religion has throughout India not quite 900,000 believers, or less than one in two hundred of the whole population: and even of these some 250,000 appear to be Europeans, or to have European blood in their veins.

About three-fifths of the Christians in India are in Madras, where, in addition to those in the Native States, they number about 534,000, or One per cent, of the inhabitants; the number of Roman Catholics is 416,000, while nearly 118,000 are en- rolled as Protestants. In Bombay there are 126,000 Christians, forming. of the population; of these, nearly 83,000 are returned as Roman Catholics(chiefly the Indo-Portuguese, of whom there are more than 23,000 in the city of Bombay alone), 24,000 as Protestants(of whom four-fifths belong to the Church of England, and the remainder are Presbyterians, Baptists, and Wesleyans, while a few Armenians and Greeks are included), and about 19,000 simply as Native converts, the sect to which they belong not being specified. In Bengal there are 90,000 Christians, who form only 1/7th per cent, of the population. British Burma has 52,000, or not quite 2 per cent, of her inhabitants; in the North-West Provinces and Punjab there are about 22,000 in each case, the per- centage being 1/14th and 1/8th respectively. In Mysore there are nearly 26,000, and in the little State of Coorg the 2,400 Christians are not quite 1 per cent of the people. The numbers in the other provinces are such as to amount to from 1/8th to 1/25th per cent. of the population.

There are 69,000 Parsees, and not quite 7,600 Jews, almost all of both classes being in the Bombay Presidency; while in the Punjab 946,000 have been entered as "Miscellaneous".

In the Punjab the Jats are by far the most numerous caste, there being 1,876,000, while no other, except the Brahmins, contains so many as half a million; the Aroras number 477,000, and the Khatrees, who hold a very high social position, 385,000.

1881 Census The entire population enumerated on the 17th February 1881 is 253,891,821. It is thus distributed amongst the various British Possessions and Native States, ranking each of the series according to the number of the population

As might be expected, it is in the Punjab that we find the followers of the Prophet in the greatest numbers. But it is surprising to find that Bengal stands next to the Punjab, for the proportion borne by Mahammedans to the rest of the population.

Sunnis largely preponderate, contributing 46,765,206 to the total number for which statistics of sect have been secured (47,586,236). Of the remaining 821,030 people 809,561 are Shiahs, 9,296 are Wahabis, and 2,173 are Farazis.

So large a number of Mahammedans (2,535,349) have given no information as to their sect that the table loses some of its value, especially in relation to the knowledge it affords us of the number of the Puritan sects, the Wahabis and Farazis. These, though few in number, are not without political influence, and their hostility to a Christian Government has been markedly displayed on late occasions. The Sitana camp was largely recruited with men and money from Northern India; and the violence of individual professors of Wahabi doctrines has been fatally illustrated in two very conspicuous instances. But the numbers given in the provincial returns are no accurate measure of the real strength of these sects.

At Pages 26/27/28 in 1881 census you may find interesting details of Wahabis.

The Christians, who rank in numbers next to the Buddhists, are found in all the Provinces and States of India. Their home is in the south of the continent, Madras and Travancore accounting for 1,209,622 of the 1,862,634 who are found in India.

Some Facts 1911 Census

Composition of Hindus,Sikhs and Muslims in the Punjab 1871-1941, an interesting study. Both in 1871 and 1881 many Sikhs were counted in Hindus yet in next few census you will observe Sikhs got some awareness and after communal awards entry of Scheduled casts in census further shrunk Hindu population. How this religious counted negatively effected our socio political environment  is among the hidden areas we need to explore.