Census Details 1872-1881.

ACCORDING to the 1881 census the population of the district was 900,621 or 168.43 to the square mile. Of these, Hindus numbered  846,781 or 94.02 per cent; Musalmans 42,036 or 4.66 per cent; Christians 9500 or 1.05 per cent; Parses 1574 or 0.17 per cent;) Jews 619 or 0.06 per cent; Chinese 78; Sikhs 30; and Unitarians 3.The percentage of males on the total population was 50.53 and of females 49.46. The corresponding returns for 1872 were a total of 921,353 or 180.69 to the square mile, of whom Hindus numbered 870,273 or 94.45 per cent; Musalmans 41,764 or 4.53 per cent; Christians 7415; Parsis 1286; Jews 504; and Others 111. Compared; with the 1872 returns the 1881 returns show a decrease of 20,732 or 2.25 per cent. This decrease is partly due to the famine of 1876-77 and partly to the readiness with which the people of Poona leave their homes in search of employment.

Birth-place.

Of 900,621 (males 455,101, females 445,520), the total population, 799,381 (males 402,414, females 396,967) or 88.75 per cent were born in the district. Of the 101,240, who were not born in the district, 22,232 were born in Satara; 15,184 in Ahmadnagar; 10,552 in Sholapur; 10,317 in the Kanarese districts; 7485 in the Konkan districts; 4967 in Gujarat; 3744 in Bombay; 3359 in Nasik; 1690 is Khandesh; 1585 in Goa, Daman, and Diu; 595 in Sind; 15,968 in other parts of India; and 3562 outside of India.

Language.

Of 900,621, the total population, 812,124 (406,908 males, 405,218 females) or 90.17 per cent spoke Marathi. Of the remaining 88,497 persons, 48,254 or 5.35 per cent spoke Hindustani; 12,384 or 1.37per cent spoke Gujarati; 10,776 or 1. 19 per cent spoke Telugu; 6990 or 0.77 per cent spoke Marwari; 5239 or 0.58 per cent spoke English; 2539 or 0.28 per cent spoke Portuguese-Konkani of Goanese; 1013 or 0.11 per cent spoke Tamil; 882 or 0.09 per cent spoke Kanarese; 98 spoke Panjabi; 75 spoke Hindi; 56 spoke Arabic; 55 spoke Burmese; 34 spoke Sindhi; 30 spoke Pashtu; 28 spoke Persian; 23 spoke Chinese; 10 spoke French; 6 spoke German; 2 spoke Baluchi; 2 spoke Greek; and 1 spoke Italian.

The following table gives the number of each religious class according to sex at different ages, with, at each age, the percentage on the total population of the same sex and religion. The columns referring to the total population on it religious distinctions but show the difference of sex:

Age.

POONA POPULATION BY AGE, 1881.

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The following table shows the proportion of the people of the district who are unmarried, married, and widowed:

Marriage.

POONA MARRIAGE DETAILS, 1881.

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POONA MARRIAGE DETAILS, 1881—continued.

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Occupation.

According to Occupation the 1881 census returns divide the population into six classes:

I.-In Government service, learned professions, literature, and arts, 28,026 or 3.11 per cent.

II.-In Domestic service, 14,261 or 1.58 per cent.

III.-In Trade, 9141 or 1.01 per cent.

IV.-In Agriculture, 293,364 or 32.57 per cent.

V.-In Crafts, 67,271 or 7.46 per cent.

VI.- In Indefinite and Unproductive occupations, including children, 488,558 or 54.24 per cent.

Houses.

According to the 1881 census, of 205,355 houses, 153,401 were occupied and 51,954 unoccupied. The total gave an average of 38.39 houses to the square mile, and the 153,401 occupied houses an average of 5.87 inmates to each house.

Villages.

There is one village or town to about every 4.51 square miles of land and each village contains an average of 760 people, and about 173 houses. Except eleven towns, including 184,700 people or 20.50 per cent of the entire inhabitants, the population of the Poona district, according to the 1881 census report, lived in 1177 villages with an average of 610 souls in each village. Of the whole number of towns and villages 85 had less than 100 inhabitants 170 had from 100 to 200; 438 from 200 to 500; 300 from 500 to 1000 135 from 1000 to 2000; 24 from 2000 to 3000; 22 from 3000 to 5000; 8 from 5000 to 10,000; and three more than 10,000 inhabitants.

Communities.

[Contributed by Mr. A. Keyser, C. S.] The bulk of the people of the village communities of Poona are of the Maratha Kunbi caste. At the head of the community is the patil or hereditary headman. In many villages two or more families either each provide an officiator or serve in rotation, but in most villages the headman is always taken from the same family. When there are more families than one the division may generally be traced to the sale of part of the headman's property and right to hold office. In the smaller villages there is seldom more than one Brahman family in which is vested the hereditary office of kulkarni or village accountant. The headman and the accountant jointly exercise all authority in the village. Authority is nominally vested in the headman alone, but the superior education and intelligence of the accountant, who has to write all reports and jury findings, give him almost the whole power. Next to the headman and accountant comes the village moneylender who is usually a Marwar or a Gujarat Vania, but is often also a Brahman and is sometimes a Maratha. He advances money to the husbandmen to pay their assessment and to provide funds for such emergencies as marriage and funeral expenses, and also for improving their fields and adding to their farm stock. His position as a monopolist enables the moneylender to make terms which to European ideas, accustomed to countries where money is cheap, are very harsh. At the same time the moneylender is by no means always an evil character. In many villages he is the people's best friend, without whom they admit they would neither be able to find seed to sow nor money to meet their necessary expenditure. That his terms are not so excessively harsh as they are sometimes represented, is shown by the fact, that, as a rule, his customers prefer to apply to him for advances to improve their estates rather than avail themselves of the more liberal terms on which money is offered by Government. As a middleman between the cultivators and the Government, who ensures the punctual payment of the land-rent, the moneylender is a valuable public servant. The other Government servants are the Mhars, who are messengers, scavengers, and general assistants to the headman and accountant, and the Ramoshis or village' watch. In a few cases Mhars and Ramoshis receive cash payment, but in most cases they are paid partly by grants of rent-free Government land and partly by a fixed proportion from each landholder's crop. Besides these two sources of income in the larger towns the Ramoshis often get fees from travellers whose carts they watch, and these payments in villages on the main lines of traffic sometimes amount to considerable sums. The headman and the accountant are paid by rent-free land and cash. And if the assessment which they escape paying does not amount to a certain fixed percentage on the revenue collected the sum is made up by Government, so that they are really paid in cash. Several other village servants are paid by the community. The chaugula or assistant headman whose functions are now almost obsolete, but who still takes a share in all village festivities and ceremonies; the sonar the gold and silver smith; the sutar or carpenter; the lohar or blacksmith; the parit or washerman; the kumbhar or potter; the nhavi or barber; the chambhar or currier and shoemaker; the dhor or Mang who makes ropes; the koli or waterman; and, in the larger villages, the gurav or priest who looks after the temple, and the gram-joshi, or Brahman astrologer who performs most ceremonies. All of these are usually paid in grain, but money payments, especially to clients from dependent or incomplete villages, are not uncommon. In the larger villages in the plains the fall staff of office-bearers and servants is generally found; in the smaller villages, especially in the hilly west, the staff is by no means complete. Many of the smaller western villages are composed of a few Koli families with one or even without any family of Mhars and with one accountant for a group who usually lives in the largest village of his circle.

Except in one or two large towns such as Junnar and Manchar, the Musalman population is small. With rare exceptions, they live on terms of perfect friendship with the Hindus, and in a few villages the head family or one of the head families is Musalman. The principal occupations of the Musalman portion of the community are those of butchers, weavers, vegetable-sellers, and labourers. Parsis, except as liquor-sellers and Government servants, are almost unknown. Though the various Hindu castes do not intermarry or eat together, with the exception of the Mhars, Mangs, Ramoshis, and Chambars, they mix freely, and use the same wells. Disputes between the different castes are rare. The chief exception to this is that Kunbis and Mhars have often serious quarrels regarding the death of cattle, the Kunbis charging the Mhars with poisoning their cattle in order to get the carcases. Besides the regular body of villagers, groups of reed-huts on the outskirts of a village often mark the camp or settlement of a gang of wanderers. Of these wanderers the chief are the Vanjaris or pack-bullock owners, the Kolhatis or rope-dancers, the Kaikadis or basket-makers, the Vaidus or herb-sellers, and the Vadars or earth-workers.

Movements.

In 1875 the Deccan Riots Commissioners came to the conclusion that the district exported little except its superfluous labour. During the eight months from October to June, especially during the latter portion of this period, a considerable proportion of the Kunbi or cultivating classes go to Bombay, where they earn a living as palanquin-bearers, carriers, grass-cutters, and labourers. It is impossible to make an accurate estimate of the proportion of the population who yearly move to Bombay in search of work. It is probably not less than five per cent. And, if the numbers are added who go to the local labour markets and ply their carts along the principal thoroughfares, the estimate may safely be doubled. [The 1881 census shows that 111,650 people born in Poona were in that year found in different parts of the Bombay Presidency. The details are: Bombay 69,000 against 54,600 in 1872, Ahmadnagar 14,800, Sholapur 9550, Satara 4690, Nasik 4340 Khandesh 3630, Kolaba 3280, Belgaum 840, Ratnagiri 660, Kaladgi 400, Dharwari 310, and Kanara 150.] This practice of a yearly migration in search of labour tends to preserve among the people a spirit of independence and self-reliance. In years of local scarcity the people scatter in search of subsistence to all parts of the Bombay Presidency, to the Berars, and to the Nizam's Dominions. The practice though attended with some inconveniences, was; of considerable assistance to Government in lighting the 1876 famine.