Jump to content

Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/477

From Wikisource
This page needs to be proofread.

AREA AND rOPULATlON

133

II. Population according to Kace. Ill the census lesults the total population of India is divided into 118 groups on the basis of language. But even the different native languages do not denote separate ethnical groups, many of them being only dialects, and nearly all of them capable of classilication into a few groups. There were, however, 334 males and 29 females who spoke an unrecognisable language. The following table shows the chief linguistic groups, with the population (in millions and two decimals) assigned thereto : —

Aryo-Indic . 195-46 Mon-Annam . •23 Dravidiaii 52 96 Shan .... •18 Kolarian 2-96 Sinitic •71 Gyi)sy .... •40 Aryo-Iranic 1-33 Kliasi .... •18 Semitic •05 Tibeto-Burman 7-29 1 1 Aryo-Europcaii •25

The following table gives all the languages or dialects which are more pre- valent than English, with the population (in millions and two decimals) of those who speak them as parent tongues : —

i Languages Pop. Languages Pop. 5-43 Languages Pop. 1-08 Hindi. 85-68 i Malayalum . 1 ! Pushtu. Bengali 41 -34 1 Urdui . 3-67 Karen . •67 Telugu . 19^89 Sindhi . 2 59 1 K61 . •65 Mahratlii 18-89 Santali . 1-71 ' Tulu . •49 Punjabi 17-72 W. Pahari . 1-52 , Kachhi . •44 Tamil . 15-23 ! Assamese 1-44 ' Gypsy . •40 CJujarati 10^62 Gondi . 1^38 Oraon . •37 Kanarese 9-75 Central Paluii i 1-15 Arrakanese . •37 Uriya . 9-01 Mcirwadi 1-15 Kond . •32 Burmese 5-56

1 Returned as a separate dialect only in Sontliern, Western, and Central India,

The English language is next in order with a population of 238,499. The British-born population in India amounted, according to the census of 1871, to 64,061 persons, in 1881 to 89,798, and in 1891 to 100,551. In 1891, the total number of persons not born in India, including the French and Portuguese possessions, was 661,637. Of these, 478,656 returned as their birth-place countries contiguous to India ; 60,519 countries in Asia remote from India, including China ; 100,551 the United Kingdom ; 10,095 other European, American and Australasian countries ; while 11,816 were born in Afiica, &e., or at sea.