The superficial area of India is nearly two million square miles, or equivalent to that of the United States minus Alaska, Oregon, and California.
The population is nearly 300,000,000, or about one fifth of the human race. The population is 167 to the square mile for the entire Empire, including mountain, desert and jungle, as against 21.4 in the U. S. In the Province of Bengal, the population is 588 to the square mile. Some parts of India have a larger population to carry than any other part of the world.
India has every variety of climate. One portion of its territory records the greatest rainfall in the world; another, of several hundred thousand square miles is seldom watered with a drop of rain.
One hundred and eighteen distinct languages are spoken in India, and 59 of these languages are spoken by more than 100,000 people each.
There are over two million Christians out of which more than one million are Roman Catholics, 453,612 belong to the Church of England; 322,586 to the orthodox Greek Church; 220,863 are Baptists, 155,455 Lutherans; 58,829 Presbyterians, and 157,847 miscellaneous Christians. These Christians (Somewhat over 2,000,000) include the foreign population, the British army, the foreign missionaries, etc. Thus the native converts to Christianity do not make a large figure, and these Christians who have been proselytized in India come from the lowest castes – the higher castes are altogether untouched. The British Government spends Rs. 4,500,000 annually from the Indian Treasury on Christian religion.
According to the last census, the enormous area of 546,224,964 acres is under cultivation, which is an average of nearly two acres per capita of population, and more than 22,000,000 acres produce two crops a year. As many as 175,735,000 people are wholly engaged in agriculture. 25,468,000 are more or less employed upon farms. 3,646,000 are engaged in raising cattle, 14,576,000 in producing food and drink. 11,220,000 are serving in households. 12,611,000 are engaged in the manufacture of textiles, 2,361,000 in the manufacture of glass, pottery, and stoneware, 3,285,000 in manufacturing leather (all of the latter are Mahomedans, 4,293,000 in the manufacture of wood, cane and matting, all Mahomedans). Millions of Hindus are in what the census terms “disreputable occupations” – doing absolutely nothing. If they cannot do what their fathers did before them, they will do nothing.
Out of a total of 140,496,135 women in India, only 543,495 are able to read and write – less than one out of a thousand. The total number of illiterates recorded is 246,546,175 out of a total population of 300 000,000.
In 1900, 54,000,000 people were affected by famine. In the year of the Durbar 5,000,000 died of starvation.
The struggle for life is becoming greater every year. Wages are going down instead of up, notwithstanding the increase of industries, the extension of railway systems, and other sources of wealth and employment that are being rapidly developed.
More than 200,000,000 persons in India are living upon less than 5 cents a day. More than 100,000,000 are living on less than 3 cents a day, and more than 50,000,000 upon less than 1 cent a day. At least two – thirds of the entire population do not have food enough during any year of their lives to supply the nourishment demanded by the human system. In many parts of the country, families are compelled to live upon the average of a quarter of an acre of land, and millions more upon half an acre.
The men and women who work in the cotton fields of India are not paid more than $ 1.5 a month. One cent is paid for a shave. The postmen employed by the Government, the letter – carriers, receive a maximum of only 12 rupees a month, which is about $ 3. Able bodied and skilled mechanics, masons, carpenters, and blacksmiths get no more than $ 2 or $ 3 a month; and bookkeepers, clerks, and others having indoor occupations, from $ 4 to $ 5 per month. Taking together all the wage – earners in India, their compensation per month is just about as much as the same class receive per day in the U. S.
Nearly two thirds of the entire population are dependent upon rainfall for their prosperity and, one may say, their lives. If there is a drought, there is a famine. They cannot earn enough to lay up food against starvation. Not lack of food, but lack of money causes the suffering from famine, as generally when there is famine in one part of India there is enough, and sometimes more than enough food raised in other parts of the country.
The net profit which the British Government derived in one week from the Railway departments was $ 7,600,000 (the week of March 24, 1904.) This is increasing constantly.
Ninety five per cent of the Government employees in India are natives, and they receive only 35% of the entire sum paid to Government employees. 65% goes to the 5% which is made up of English officials.
The income of all foreign missionary societies for the year 1903 was $ 20,298,057. This was used mostly in India.
The beginning of British capitalism in India dates from the founding of the East India Company in India in 1600, with a capital of & 70,000. East India Company trade was abolished in 1833, from which date until 1858 the Company was simply an administrator of India, and in 1858, after the Indian Mutiny, the Company itself was abolished; but their policy remains. Their capital was paid off by loans which were made into an Indian debt on which interest is paid from Indian taxes. The Empire was purchased by the Crown from the East India Company, but the people of India paid the purchase money. The Indian debt, which was £51,000,000 in 1857, rose to £ 97,000,000 in 1862. During the 40 years of peace which have succeeded, the Indian debt has increased continuously. In 1901 it amounted to £200,000,000 on which the people of India have to pay an annual interest charge of between 3 and “million pounds sterling, or from 15 to 20 million dollars. This – is equivalent to a debt of a thousand million dollars on which they pay interest annually. What country in the world could stand anything like this? The Home Charges, remitted annually out of Indian revenues to Great Britain, have increased to £ 16,000,000. The pay of European officers in India, virtually monopolizing all the higher services, comes to £10,000,000 {$o0,000,000).
One – half of the net revenues of India, which are now £ i4,000,000, flows annually out of India.
(The above facts are given on the authority of a book published in England, “The Economic History of British India” by Sir Romesh Dutt, C I E)
The number of widows in India in 1901 was 5,439,360. There are 265,922 child widows in the Province of Bengal.