1 ( 24)
2 That there should be less than 200,000 Sikhs to a total population of
3 three and a half millions ina Division,which contains the religious capital
4 of Sikhism, Umritsur, and the original and peculiar Territory of the Sikhs,
5 the Manjha, is very remarkable. The disproportion soclearly shown by,
6 these figures bear out what was set forth in para. 498 of the Second Punjab
7 Report, regarding the decay not only of the Sikh religion and polity, but
8 also of its numerical strength and the absorption. of Sikhism into
9 Hindooism. Besides the Sikhs of the Lahore Division, there is of
10 course a Sikh population in the Cis and Trans-Sutlej States, and
11 also in the Chuch Doab, of which the exact number is unfortunately
12 not distinguished. But with this included the number must be small,
13 as compared with the strength exhibited by the’ Sikh nation, a very
14 few yearsago. The old Sikhs are dying out; the new Sikhs initiated
15 are but few ; the children of Sikhs are, and remain, Hindoos. A vast
16 number of Sikhs, though organized and linked together by political bond,
17 were as regards faith and religious practice but little different from
18 Hindoos. Now that Sikhism is politically defunct, they return to
19 Hindooism, and thus the numerical paucity of Sikhs at the present day
20 may be explained.
21 25. Here, as elsewhere, there seems to exist a slight preponderance of
22 males over females in all sections of the people and in each District
23 In the Punjab the per-centage of males on total population stands at 55,
24 in the North-Western Provinces at 53°4. The excess may be contrary
25 to European experience, out it uniformly appears every where in India,
26 and every successive Census that has been taken in any part of our
27 Eastern Dominions exhibits the same peculiarity. The subject has been
28 ably discussed in paras. 532 to 543 of the North-Western Provinces
29 Census Report. The very same peculiarities there adverted to are per-
30 ceptible in the Punjab Census. Here, as there, the excess is uniform in
31 every District (the per-centage of males on total population ranging in
32 the Punjab from 52 to 56,) the excess of males is greater among Hin-
33 doos than among Mahomedans, the per-centage of males being 58 among
34 the former and 54 among the latter. Among both classes however, and
35 especially the Hindoos, allowance must be made for the large numbers of
36 _ Soldiers and Camp-followers from Hindoostan, Oudh, and other places,
37 _ who are serving in the Punjab, unaccompanied by their families. This
38 circumstance has doubtless caused an apparent derangement of the pro-
39 portions in several Districts where Military Forces are cantoned, In the