136 CHAPTER 4 MODERN BHILWARA the Objects of This Particular Section of This Present Chapter Are to Describe Economic and Social
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136 CHAPTER 4 MODERN BHILWARA The objects of this particular section of this present chapter are to describe economic and social developments which have occurred since 1947, to contrast the social structure of the town as it existed at the time of India's transition to self-government and to trace and describe the various influences which have contributed to the process of change over the past quarter-century with special concentration to the structure of economic activity as it has related to the emergence of a definitive labour force. A picture of Bhilwara's demographic, commercial, religious and educational characteristics, as they were shortly before Independence, can be ascertained from Table 4. DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE Table 5 displays the population variations occurring in Bhilwara District and its "metropolitical" centre over the last 80 years. Today, out of 26 Rajasthan districts, Bhilwara District ranks as eleventh in size of population. Although the district's population has grown by 271% since 1901, it still only comprises some 30, (approximately) of Rajasthan's total population, which was 10.5 million (approximately) in 1901 and 34.1 million in 1981: While Bhilwara District's growth rate over this 80 year interval was Rajasthan's eighth largest (Rajasthan's overall growth was 328.6%), it should be noted that this rate has continually exceeded the national Table 4 Bhilwara Tahsil - Population, commercial and educational characteristics, 1941 Urban Rural Khalsa Khalsa Thikana Bhilwara Pur Sanganer 138 estates app. Total M F M F M F M F Persons Population by religion: Hindu 5,873 5,282 2,334 2,195 1,057 1,068 30,237 28,717 76,663 Muslim 1,767 1,631 360 311 334 316 361 324 5,404 Jain 493 430 274 234 38 30 84 76 1,659 Total 8,133 7,343 2,868 2,740 1,429 1,414 30,682 29,117 83,726 18.48 10.10 28.58 71.42 100 No. of literate persons 2,729 209 379 7 353 30 4,407 251 8,363 35.10 9.20 44.30 55.70 100 No. of shops 524 141 68 486 1,219 42.98 17.15 60.13 39.87 100 No. of schools 1 1 1 0 3 A little less than two-fifths of this number was located at Hamirgarh alone, an estate barely 10 km south of Bhilwara and situated on the Ajmer-Kandawa railway. Source: Census of Mewar, 1941. Table 5 Population variations in Bhilwara District, 1901-81 3 3 3 3 3 3 Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 19814 Bhilwara district population 352,627 436,110 463,154 530,025 632,128 728,522 865,797 1,054,890 1,308,500 % population decadal variation +26.67 +6.2 +14.44 +19.26 +15.25 +18.25 +21.84 +24.04 Population 1 density /km 21 42 44 51 60 70 83 100 125 Sex ratio 9/1,000 d 920 931 940 943 943 934 906 910 942 Bhilwara town population 10,346 8,736 9,100 10,402 15,169 29,668 43,499 82,155 5 122,338 % population decadal variation -15.3 +3.85 +14.31 +45.83 +95.58 +46.62 +88.87 +48.91 Population density/km 22 2,666 2,251 2,345 200 292 573 365 689 1,027 Sex ratio 9/1,000 d 902 927 944 959 943 924 868 853 889 Ratio Bhilwara population to remain- ing district population 1:33 1:49 1:50 1:50 1:41 1:23 1:19 1:12 1:10 1. Area = 10,450 km2 2. 1901-21 area = 3.88 km 2 ; 1931-51 area = 51.8 km 2 ; 1961-81 area = 119.1 km2 3. Excludes inhabitants of Pur and Sanganer in Bhilwara town's population. Assumed to include inhabitants it.- of Shapura Chiefship in district population. 4. Provisional figures only. 5. Total urban population of Bhilwara district (incl. Bhilwara, Gangapur and Shapura) was 116,307 - ,--, c.. 42% more than Bhilwara town's population. cx) Sources: Census Reports 1961-81 and Census of Mewar, 1941. 139 average since 1921. Nevertheless, the district's growth rate over 1971-81 was Rajasthan's lowest, the overall percentage growth rate of the state being 32.4. 2 The population of Bhilwara Town has grown a hundred-fold since 1901, by half before Independence, and seven-fold after Independence. The area of the town has expanded thirty-fold this century, twelve-fold before Independence and two-fold again afterwards. The greatest population increase occurred during the Independence period of 1941-51 when Bhilwara's population doubled the level which it was previously. It is also important to note that, during this same period, no fewer than three new urban areas (5,000 persons+) emerged in the district. In addition to Bhilwara and Shahpura, these new areas were Jahazpur, Pur and Gulabpura. (Pur has since amalgamated with Bhilwara and Gulabpura has lapsed to the censal status of rural village. )3 It is equally important to note that the rise of Bhilwara's urban populations coincided with a reduction in the growth rate in the district's rural sector. Hence, one could reasonably presume that a significantly sizable rural-urban migration occurred over the 1941-51 decade. However, with the opening of MTM in 1942, labour was needed to maintain war production and was imported from Ajmer-Mewara, United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) and Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh) . 4 Following the sub-continent's partition into India and Pakistan, a small number of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Sind and we st Punjab came to settle in Bhilwara Town. 5 Hence, migration from outside the district could have measurably contributed to the growth of Bhilwara's population. 140 At the height of urban nationalist agitation, Bhilwara Towns range of political activities encompassed a praja mandal, a trade union, and societies formed for the uplift of members of social minorities such as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Therefore, some growth can be attributed to Bhilwaras emergence as a centre of "pilgrimage" or "refuge" for supporters of swaraj. 6 With the accession of the Rajput states to the new dominion of India, constraints on mobility and trade lapsed. The dissolution of the earlier ties of serfdom enabled emancipated villagers to pursue economic activities untrammelled by place of domicile or despotic overlords. In fact, well before 1947, the local nationalist movement led by Manikya Lal Verma was agitating very vehemently for the abolition of the thikana system. In 1981, 9.3% of Bhilwara Districts population resided in Bhilwara. (As 9.7% of Rajasthans population resides in the States district capitals, the proportion is comparable.) If the population of other urban centres Gangapur, Shapura and Jahazpur was included, the proportion would rise to 11.3% of the district population. Even so, the latter percentage is below the State averages (which are in turn below the national) of 17.98% for 1981, 17.61% for 1971 and 16.28% for 1961. 8 Furthermore, the growth rate of the district of the 1971-81 period, 24%, was the lowest in Rajasthan. 9 However, it is interesting that Bhilwaras intercensal growth rates between 1951 and 1971 were above the national averages of urbanisation rates." 141 Bhilwara Town An India 1951-61 44.62% 26% 1961-71 88.87% 38% MIGRATION According to the 1961 census, 95% of Bhilwara Town's inhabitants had been born within Rajasthan and, of this proportion, 93% had been born within the bounds of the district and, of that proportion, 83% had been born within the township. The fact that 64% of inhabitants of Bhilwara Town speak their mother tongue, the local Mewari dialect, and a further 24% speak Hindi as theirs, suggests further that immigration to Bhilwara from outside of the district and certainly from outside of Rajasthan is not numerous.11 DWELLINGS In 1941, Bhilwara boasted but 2,716 residential dwellings (plus 524 shops). By 1971, this figure had more than quadrupled to 15,274. While the ratio of residential dwelling to town population of 1:5 accorded with the ratio of district dwelling to district population, the corresponding Bhilwara Tahsil ratio was 1:4, one person lower.'2 VITAL STATISTICS In 1981, the live birth rate of Rajasthan's urban sector was 29.8 (35.8 in the rural). The death rate of Rajasthan in toto was 14.4 over 1977-79, a reduction of 2.2 in comparison with the period 1970-72. One 142 can only speculate as to urban Bhilwara's comparison with these State- wide trends. However, it is known that Bhilwara Town's live birth rate for the period 1961-69 was 14.73 and the death rate 5.2. Hence, one might infer that, comparatively speaking, the town's birth and death rates are unusually low. The district longevity rate for the period 1951-61 indicates that 39% of the population was below the age of 14 and that the percentages of persons older than 14 progressively decreased as age increased. Malarial, typhoidal and enteric fevers have been the major causes of death, at least within the Bhilwara's urban sector. Epidemics of these diseases have coincided in the past with onset of sever drought, the last one occurring in 1963. The National Malaria Eradication Program effectively began its campaign in Bhilwara in 1969 and the incidence of malarial death has since decreased.13 SEX RATIO At district level Bhilwara's sex ratio has not altered dramatically over the past 80 years.