Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA. 39
atically dealt with in all its aspects in the reports of the other Provincial Superintendents,
but which will here be regarded merely from a statistical point of view.
Within the limits of Burma proper the followers of the Prophet are more in number
than the spirit-worshippers, even if we admit that practically the whole
population of the "estimated" areas (where data regarding religion were not
collected) was—as no doubt it was—Animistic. Subsidiary Tables Nos. 1 1 1-
and III-B appended to this Chapter show respectively the general distribution
of Musalmans in the whole of Burma and in Lower Burma at the last and at
the preceding Censuses. In Lower Burma the total Moslem population has risen
during the past decade from 210,649 to 287,187, i.e., by 36 per cent. Of every
ten thousand souls in Lower Burma 509 are now, on an average, Muhammadans.
In i88i,and also in 1891, in a similar number of persons 452 Musalmans would
have been found. In his 1891 Report Mr. Eales, in commenting on the identity of
the figures for the two earlier years, pointed out that this meant that the increase
in Musalmans between 1881 and 1891 had kept step exactly with the increase of
the population of Lower Burma as a whole. The 1901 figures show that the rate
of progress in the Musalman population has since quickened somewhat. In
Upper Burma the rate of growth is not so high as in Lower Burma. In Burma
proper as a whole, the increase in the Musalman population is from 253,031 to
337,083 ;
in other words, the provincial total is now 33 per cent, higher than at the
last Census. The proportion of Musalmans to every ten thousand persons of all
religions has risen from 333
49,896, or rather less than one-sixth, were at the 1901 Census enumerated in Upper
Burma, the remaining five-sixths and over in the Lower Province. The stronghold
of the faith is as is to be expected, when regard is had to the proximity of
Chittagong, the Akyab district, which in itself is responsible for 155,162 or
nearly half the Musalman population of the entire Province. Nearly one-third
to 365. Of the total Muhammadan population,
of the inhabitants of Akyab profess the faith of Muhammad. No other district
in Burma approaches it in the matter of Musalman residents. Rangoon comes
next, but far behind, with a total of 43,01 2, a figure which represents a trifle over
18 per cent, of its total population, and Mandalay district follows with 20,342.
In all the Muhammadans aggregate 3*7 percent, of the total inhabitants of Burma
proper whose religions have been returned. If the calculation is made on the
population of the Province as a whole including the Shan States and the Chin
Hills the proportion falls to 3*3 per cent,, for outside Burma proper there are
comparatively few Muhammadans. Taken on these larger figures Muhammadanism
occupies the third place among the religions of the country.
54. There were 279,975 Hindus in Burma proper at the date of the 1901 Census.
Within this particular area, therefore, Hinduism
lllCU '
outnumbered Animism—even with the concession alluded
to in the preceding paragraph— by at least twenty thousand adherents, though,
when the Shan States and Chin Hills figures are taken into account, this excess is
^converted into a deficit of rather over alakh.
At the 1891 Census the Hindu population
of Burma proper—excluding the political areas—totalled 171,577 only. The
Subsidiary tables appended to this chapter thus show us that in that area the
Hindus have increased within the past ten years at the rate of no less than 63
percent., and that of every ten thousand persons inhabiting Burma proper, 303 on
an average now profess the Hindu faith. The rise of 63 per cent, is lower than that
which took place during the preceding decade (77 per cent.), and, when compared
with the 1872-81 figure (140 per cent), dwindles into comparative insignificance.
As it is, however, itts nearly double the Muhammadan rate of growth during the
same decade. Everything points to the fact that the Hindus are gradually asserting
their vast numerical superiority, and that, when their prej udices against sea voyages
have been overcome, they are bound to outstrip all other competitors. In 1872
the number of Musalmans in British Burma was nearly three times as great as
that of Hindus. Year by year during the past thirty years the disparity has been
reduced ; Census after Census has shown that the Hindus were creeping up.
They are still
behind the Muhammadans in number, and, so far as one can judge
at this stage, they are not likely to have passed them even at the next decennial
enumeration, but there seems to be no question that, unless the resources of
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