‘REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1882-83.’ [‎68r] (144/498)

1SS2-83.] DETAILS OP THE LAST CENSUS, 81 Chap. I.
POLITICAL.
dilations will afford a rough notion of the case. The age-tables of the normal districts, from Population ani>
^hich the average increase-rate has been deduced, as mentioned earlier in this abstract, may Census.
be taken as representative of the usual distribution of the population between the ages of one Bombay City.
and sixty, assuming that the very apparent errors are constant throughout the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. .
With this as a standard, it is possible to recast the city population of 773,196 in accordance
w itk the normal distribution of a Mofussil community, or with that which Bombay would show
if it were situated in, say, Gujarat or the Deccan. The result will be that an excess of over
bg 400 males will be found, and these at certain periods of life. The birth-place and caste
returns show the large proportion of persons coming to the capital for trade and labour, and it
is known that there are numbers of boys employed in the mills, and brought up to finish their
education at the higher schools and the colleges. The average age of the wives of the com
munity in a normal condition is also known; hence a comparison of the two tables will show
that about 24 per cent, of the males in the city, or 112,677, and 5 per cent, or 17,600 of the
other sex are in excess, and that the males are of the ages of from fifteen to fifty, and the
females are between fifteen and twenty-five. The rest of those borne outside the city may be
surmised to be settled residents, and the ratio of females to males will thus rise to about 830,
instead of, as now, 664 per mille. As at present returned, there are but 592 females per mille
of males amongst the immigrants, and 882 of this sex to 1,000 males in the city-born popula
tion. The calculated distribution strikes a fair mean between the two. In default of better
data this estimate of 642,900 may be taken as the permanent or monsoon population, so to
speak of the city in 1881; but owing to the influx of strangers in 1877 there is no datum,
even as slender as this, for the calculation of the rate at which the city is really increasing year
by year. The utmost that can be said is that it is not likely that the rate during the next
decade will be without some extraordinary stimulus, equal to that (2 , 045 per annum) recorded
between 1872 and 1881.
Little need be said of the age and sex distribution of the city population, as the more pro
minent features have been mentioned just now. There is throughout life a deficiency of
females, but the great preponderance of the other sex appears during the working age, or
twenty and forty. In a selection of 1,000 males of that period there will be found an excess
of as compared with the average of the rest of the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. Division, whilst in the
same number of females the excess will be only 86-9. Temporary residence for labour or
commerce seems to be the main cause of this discrepancy. The returns by race show that the
Jains have relatively to the males the fewest females, and next to them the Europeans. All
other classes have more than half the number of females compared to the other sex; though
the Brahmans, many of whom are clerks and domestic or temple priests, only exceed that
proportion by 4 in a thousand. The Parsis are the only people that in this respect show any
thing like a settlement in the city. This is borne out by the marriage returns, into which it
■s not advisable to enter in this place.
The religious component parts of the population are necessarily very various. Hindus bear
a proportion of 650 per mille ; Muhammadans, 205 ; Europeans, 15 ; Native Christians, 40 ;
Parsis, 63; Jains, 22; the remainder consisting chiefly of Jews, Eurasians, Buddhists and
unspecified. A comparison with the results of preceding enumerations shows that amongst
Hindus the greatest growth has been at the top and the bottom of the social scale, that is, in
the Brahman and the depressed, or unclean community. Both Native and European Chris
tians have increased above the average ; as, too, the small Jewish colony ; but the Muhammadans,
Parsis and Jains, though evidently growing in numbers, have not quite kept pace with the
rest of the main branches of the population. As to castes, the circumstances of a large and
shifting community, apart from the high pressure of commercial life in co-operation and com
petition with Europeans, tend to render the distinctions in a social point of view less strongly
marked, and less important than in the rest of the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. . The castes that are relatively
more than usually strong in numbers in the city are the Brahmans, Writers, Traders, Eisher-
men, Servants, and Labourers. The Maratha, who is here as much of a labourer as an agri
culturist, still heads the list, and the Mahar and Dhed, too, follows him. But then the relative
order changes, and some Wanias of Gujarat and Cutch, with two classes of Brahmans, appear
high in rank, and the artisans are also in comparative prominence. The chief agricultural
caste is that of the Bhandaris, who till the rice fields near the capital, and are also largely
engaged in cultivating and tapping the palm-trees from which the raw toddy for distillation is
collected. The classification of the Muhammadans is not satisfactory, and only 46 per cent, are
tabulated under specific headings. The trading and artisan classes can, however, be traced
clearly enough, whilst a large number of the unclassed belong, no doubt, to the uneducated
masses, who would, if pushed, assume the title of Shaikh. The greatest expansion is to be
found in the foreign trading communities of the Khoja and Meman, but the allied class of the
Bohorahs shows but a moderate increase.
Occupations .—The main features of the industrial distribution of Bombay are the low
proportion of its female adult workers, the extended employment of boys and girls, and, in
general, the relatively high proportion of its commercial and manufacturing classes. More
than 80 per cent, of the females are unoccupied, which lowers the ratio of the productive class
to 51, as compared with 47 in the rest of the division. Classed according to the general
system adopted, there are of the males 4‘63 per cent, in the professional, 9'69 in the domestic,
13'24 in the commercial, l’84 in the agricultural, 22'86 in the industrial, and 47'/4 in the
labouring and indefinite class. The relative proportions of the females are different, as no less
than 86'83 per cent, are found in the sixth and last class, which, besides the unoccupied, con
tains also the general labourers, a large class in Bombay. If this last be omitted as far as the
b 594—21