Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

26 REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
activity and immigration from the Chinese Shan States appear to have brought
about the rise in the population of Bhanio.
40. If it is desired to obtain a comprehensive view of the relative indebtedness
of the different districts of the province to
Extent of foreign immigration in
foreign countries for their population, reference should
the vanous districts.
^^ ^ g^;^^No IT Bj appended to
this Chapter, which indicates how many people in each ten thousand of the population
of each district were born within the limits of the province and how many
outside those limits, whether in India or elsewhere. Rangoon naturally shows the
highest proportion of Indian immigrants. A trifle over half its inhabitants are
foreigners of this class. Akyab has the next highest figure. 1,531 Indians (for
the most part Bengalis) in each io,ood of its population. Hanthawaddy has 903
and Amherst 850 out of a similar total. The districts with the largest proportions
of inhabitants born in Asia beyond India are Myitkyina and Bhamo (638
and 524, respectively, in each 10,003 of the population). These Asian immigrants
are from China arid the Northern regions beyond our administrative border. Next
to these two districts, in point of numbers, come the Ruby Mines, and then
follows Rangoon, with 382 non-Indian Asians in every 10,000 citizens. These are
presumably mostly Chinamen. Malays, Siamese and Chinese form the bulk of the
349 Asian-born foreigners who figure in every 10,000 of the Mergui district.
Elsewhere, except in the case of the Northern Shan States and Amherst the
proportion of persons born in Asia beyond India is less than 1 per cent, of the
total population. The column in Subsidiary Table No. II B headed "Born in other
Continents " may be said practically to indicate the distribution of the European
population over the province, and the fact that, after Rangoon and Mandalay city the
districts showing the highest ratios per 10,000 of the population are Shwebo (26)
and Thayetmyo (13) is significant of the share borne by British troops in the total
European population of the province. The mercantile community of Moulmein
places Amherst next in order of strength, but after Amherst come the Military
districts of Bhamo and Meiktila. I n the province, as a whole, 458 persons in every
10,000, that is to say 4*5 per cent, of the total population entered in the schedules
on the :st March 1901, claimed countries other than Burma as their birth-place.
In 1851 the number of foreign-born in each 10,000 of the population was 429.
The difference (29)
is no real measure, however, of the growth of the foreign population
during the decade, for in 189 1 the Chin Hills were not at all, and the Shan
States only partially, represented in the returns.
41. The figures relating to towns given above settle one question incontestably.
We are at any rate not at present faced with a prd-
^Movemer.t from rural to urban
blem that is agitating economists in England and
doubtless in other European countries, namely, how
best to cope with the tendency of the rural population to gravitate in undue numbers
into urban areas. In Tavoy there seems to have been a movement of this
nature, but Tavoy is a significant exception to the general rule. The Burman,
fond as he is of gaiety and the amenities of city life, is quite incapable of responding
to the calls that it makes upon his energies. In industrial matters he finds it
hopeless to compete with the Native of India or the Chinaman and, though
precluded by no caste prejudices from taking up fresh occupations, soon learns
that it is in the non-industrial pursuits of the country that he can best ho!d his
own. The following table showing the increases or decreases, . as the case may
be, among the Buddhists, the Hindus and the Musalmans in six of the largest
commercial centres in the province, will demonstrate how little the indigenous
races are responsible for any growth in population that may have takfen place
in the larger towns of Burma during the decade under review. We shall here
be proceeding on the assumptions, firstly that Buddhism is the sole religion of
the provincials and next that none but the indigenous profess it. Neither assumption
is, strictly speaking, correct but, for the purposes of a comparison such
as it is here desired to give, the non-Buddhistic people of Burma may be treated
as a negligeable quantity, while the fact that .many foreigners (such as Chinese)
are to be included among the Buddhists only serves to emphasize the point which it
is desired to establish.