Previous Page Image Next Henry Waterfield , ( 1875 ), Memorandum on the Census of British India 1871-72 , London , Eyre and Spottiswoode , p. 22 In all modes of classification, the first rank is held by the Brahmin or priestly caste; out, so far from us being confirmed to religious duties, there are few trades in which some of its members are not engaged. So minute and endless are the ramifications of caste, that, when Mr. Prinsep took a census of Benares in 1834, no less than 107 distinct castes of Brahmins were found in that one city. The number of per- sons throughout British India who have returned themselves as Brahmins a little exceeds ten millions, of whom there are in Bengal and Assam not quite 2�, and in the North-West Provinces 3 J millions; in Oude they number 1,400,000, in the Punjab 800,000, in Madras 1,100,000, and in Bombay 660,000, while the remaining half million are scattered through the minor provinces. Brahmins:   Bengal 2,312,929 Assam 105,901 North West Provinces 3,234,342 Ajmere 15,397 Oude 1,397,808 Punjab 800,547 Central Provinces 287,168 Berar 49,843 Mysore 169,637 Coorg 3,270 British Burma 775 Madras 1,095,445 Bombay 658,479   10,131,541 Next in rank come the Kshatriyas, Rajpoots of warrior caste, of whom there are.-somewhat more than 5� millions in the provinces under British rule., Of these 1/14 millions are found in Bengal and Assam, 2,400,000 in the North-West Provinces, 660,000 in Oude, 720,000 in the Punjah (besides nearly as many more Rajpoots of the Mahomedan religion), and rather more than 600,000 in the other provinces. There are very few of this caste in Lower Bengal or in the southern Presidencies; Behar, the North- West Provinces, Oude, and the Punjab, are the homes of 85 per cent, of the Rajpoots. They are usually soldiers, landowners, or cultivators; not merely do they in large numbers swell the ranks of the armies in Bengal and Bombay, but they are also found in the service of Native Princes, or acting as overseers or retainers of the large landlords and bankers. Kshatriyas and Rajpoots:   Bengal 1,222,549 Assam 6,602 North West Provinces 2,395,688 Ajmere 14,330 Oude 62,946 Punjab 719,121 Central Provinces 176,948 Berar 36,831 Mysore 67,358 Coorg 2,800 British Burma 1,257 Madras 190,415 Bombay 144,293   5,641,138 The third of the primitive castes was the Vaisyas, who were occupied in agri- culture and trade, while the great majority of the Hindoo population was indiscriminately thrown together into the fourth, namely, the Soodra or servile class. This arrangement has not, however, been maintained in more than one or two of the Census reports; and, instead of attempting to keep up the old distinction, it seems better to enumerate a few of the castes which, from numbers or for any other reason, are of most importance in the several provinces. Among the intermediate castes in Bengal and Assam may be mentioned the Babhans of Behar, 1,000,000 in number, claiming to be Brahmins and rivals of the Rajpoots, and the Kayesths or writers, 1,600,000, chiefly found in the Lower Provinces; among the trading castes, those who are specially termed Buniyas or shopkeepers, amounting to not quite a quarter of a million; among the pastoral castes, the Goallas, the great class of herdsmen, 3,500,000, two-thirds of whom are settled in Behar, where they are notorious as lathials or clubmen, ready to engage in any riot at the bidding of their employer; among the agricultural castes, the Kaibarthas, 2,700,000, of whom two millions are in the Lower Pro- vinces, and nearly half a million in Behar, where they take the title of Chasa,� the Koeries, 1,000,000, chiefly in Behar, where they are a hardworking quiet set of people, celebrated as spade-husbandmen,�the Koormees, 970,000, mostly in Behar and Chota Nagpoor,�and the Sadgops, of Lower Bengal, 660,000, who form the highest of the cultivating castes; among the artisan castes, the Telees or Kaloos, 1,400,000, makers and vendors of oil; and among the weaver castes, the Tantees, who, to the number of 820,000, are enumerated under this the generic term for their occupation. Many of those who in other provinces are classed among the lower castes of Hindoos are, in the Bengal report, reckoned as semi-Hindooised aborigines. Of these the most numerous tribes are the Chandals, a hardy race, chiefly found in the eastern districts of Bengal, aggerating about 1,650,000 besides 116,000 Mals, with whom they are frequently identified; the Chanars or Muchees, 1,180,000, of whom the men are workers in leather and the women midwives; the Koch, Paliyas, and Rajbansis, an ancient people of Assam, whose orginal name is still to be traced in Cooch Behar, 1,560,000; the Dosadhs, the ordinary labouring