266 Chapter-6 Cultural Changes Culture is a very much big spectrum to study. Culture is generally defined as the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people at a particular time. So in study of demography the aspect of culture must come in the way of discussion and the demographic changes also leading to the cultural changes drove us to examine and indicate those changes so that any crisis or question emerged from that changes may be conciliated indicating the basics of those changes. In this context the study of cultural change from historical perspective is of a great significance. As we have seen a voluminous and characterized changes in demography happened throughout a long period of 120 years from 1871 to 1991 census year, there might be changes happened in the cultural ingredients of the people of North Bengal. Religion, Caste, language and literature are regarded the basic ingredients of culture. S.N.Ghosh, Director of Census Operations, West Bengal wrote that ‘Religion is an important and perhaps the basic cultural characteristics of the population.’1 On the other it has been opined by Sri A. Mitra that ‘The caste system provides the individual member of a caste with rules which must be by him observed in the matters of food, marriage, divorce, birth, initiation, and death.2 This exemplifies the role of Caste in cultural practices in human life. In this chapter I shall examine the changes in religious and caste composition of demography of North Bengal for the whole period of my discussion and highlight over the changes in numerical growth of persons speaking different languages and then I shall try to indicate to the changes in cultural habits and practices of emerging North Bengal people. I Like the other parts of Bengal North Bengal also constituted by the bulk of two major religious communities- the Hindus and the Muhammadans. Mr. Adam, in his report on ‘the state of vernacular education in Rajshahye district’ in 1836 wrote that “Before visiting Rajshahy, I had been led to suppose that it was a peculiarly Hindu district. Hamilton on official authority (the estimates of 1801), stated that the proportion to be that of two Hindus to one Musalman and in a work published by the Calcutta School Book Society for the use of Schools the proportion is said to be that of ten Hindus to six Musalmans.”3 However further investigations by Mr. Adam led him to infer the proportion ‘seven to three in the proportion of 1000 Musalmans to 450 Hindus.’4 In fact, thannah to thannah this proportion varied which led the investigators to make different opinions. It may be said the Muslim capitals in Bengal may represent most numerous number of Muhammdans. But the cases of investigation did not find it. In case of North Bengal Maldah with the city of Gour represented only 46 percent population of Muhammadans whereas in Dinagepore Muhammdans were found more than half of the population. So it was 267 rightly concluded in the Census of Bengal, 1872 that “This circumstance again seems to point to the conclusion that the existence of Muhammadans in Bengal is not due so much to the introduction of Mughal blood into the country as to the conversion of the former inhabitants for whom a rigid system of caste discipline rendered Hinduism intolerable.”5 This is very true in context of North Bengal that the Muhammadans in this region at the time were mostly converted from the Hindus of this region. Francis Buchanan in his account of Rungpore said that “the faith in Muhammad seemed to be daily growing ground owing to converts who no longer could have been received in their original castes.”6 However though he found Musalmans in Julpigoree fewer but in Dinagepore no less than 70 percent of the total population as Muhammadans. However the Hindu landlords and their agents being aware of the fact of Muhammadan majority, made efforts the district to be settled by their coreligionist Hindus. So Buchanan estimated half of the Hindus of the district constituted by the Hindu people from other parts of India especially from Kamrup. It may be assumed here that local people of this region had a good traditional and cultural relation with that of Kamrup leading their settlements in the district. This probably led to the estimation of Muhammedans in the district to 53 percent during the census operation of 1871- 72. The Census of 1872 also reflected a larlge number of SemiHinduised aboriginals in North Bengal, barring whom the population in North Bengal as a whole might be framed by the Muhammadans. Besides the Buddhists, Jain, Christians and animists also constituted a significant part of the population of North Bengal at the time. The following chart will provide a clear picture of the religious composition of present day North Bengal during 1870s. Table-6.1 Population of North Bengal with reference to religion 1872 District/state Hindus Mahomedans Buddhists and Jains Others Dinagepore 702,235 793,215 295 5,908 Maldah 356,298 310,890 …. 9,195 Darjeeling 69,831 6,248 1,368 16,709 Julpigoree 182,375 144,980 8 586 Cooch Behar … …. …. …. Source: The Report on the Census of Bengal, 1872, p.8 From the above table it may be seen that the total number of Hindus including Semi Hinduised aboriginal tribe in North Bengal were 1310739 (barring Koch Bihar State) among total population of the four districts 2691727 containing 48.70 percent during 1870s. On the other hand in the four districts the Muhammedans numbered 1255333 with a 46.64 percent of total 268 population. If we take the populatin of Koch Bihar district and the others, stated in religion’s list of the report, who were mostly Hindus the Hindus will become in large number than the Muhommadans. Whereas the other religious groups like native Christians (396), Buddhist and Jains (1671) were not in a significant proportion. If we analyze the census data it will be noticed that the religious ingredients of Maldah district population were Hindus, Muhammadans, aboriginals, Vaishnavs and in a very small proportion the Brahmos and Christaians. The following Chart will represent religious demography of Maldah district in 1870s.7 Table-6.2 Police station wise population description by Religions, 1872 District of Maldah Subdivision Thanhah Hindus Muhammadans Buddhists Christians Others Sudder English Bazaar 54831 30,579 … 19 273 Maldah 34,402 15,375 … … 786 Gorgoriba 45,888 15,541 … … 4,119 Khurba 53,350 37,559 … … 1,102 Gajole 40,504 14,049 … … 770 Kaliachuk 60,966 58,287 … 2 120 Gomashtapore 19,051 29,294 … 7 647 Sheebgunge 27,082 78,823 … 11 301 Nawabgunge 20,224 31,890 … 4 1077 District Total 356,298 310,890 … 43 9,195 Sources: Compiled from Bengal Census, 1872, pp.liv-lv Table-6.3 Police station wise population description by Religions in Percentage to Total Population Maldah District Subdivision Thanhah Hindus Muhammadans Buddhists Christians Others Sudder English Bazaar 64.0 35.7 … … .3 Maldah 68.0 30.4 … … 1.6 Gorgoriba 70.0 23.7 … … 6.3 Khurba 58.0 40.8 … … 1.2 Gajole 73.2 25.4 … … 1.4 Kaliachuk 51.1 48.8 … … .1 Gomashtapore 38.9 59.8 … … 1.3 Sheebgunge 25.6 74.1 … … .3 Nawabgunge 38.0 60.0 … … 2.0 District Total 52.7 46.0 … … 1.3 Sources: Compiled from Bengal Census, 1872, pp.liv-lv 269 The census of Bengal 1872 enumerated 356298 number of Hindus in Maldah district, who formed the 52 percent of total population. This obviously included the semi Hinduized aboriginals, 135562 in number, the Vasihnavs 5849 in number and Gosains 843 in number and the Brahmans. The Brahmosamajists had no hold in the district as the Collector accounted six umber of Brahmosamajists in the district, even who were not the natives of Maldah.8The Muhammedans of Maldha district in 1872 was found 310890 in number constituting 46 per cent of the district population. The Statistical Account of Hunter described them thus, “They are for the most part an active and energetic race, a fact which may be due to their being largely descended from the conquerors of Gour and Panduah. A number of the Muhammadans were from Farazi and Wahabi sects in the district.9 The aboriginal tribes coined as ‘othes’ in the Census report numbered 9195 prsons comprising 1.35 percent of the total population. This ‘other’ aboriginals were mainly constituted by the immigrants of the Chhutia Nagpur hill region. Among the different thannahs of the district Gomasthapore, Sheebgunge and Nawabgunge were largely populated by the Muhammadans and English Bazaar, Maldah, Gorgoriba, Khurba, Gajole were largely populated by the Hindus. Kaliachuk was constituted almost by the equal proportion of Hindus and Muslims. The population of Dinagepore district composed mainly composed of Hindus and Muhammadas during the census period of 1872 with a handful number of Buddhists, Jains, Christians and animists. The Hindus comprised 702,235 numbers of people in the districts in 1872 with 46 per cent of entire population. The greatest number of population was comprised of the Muhammadans numbering 793215 with 52.8 percent of the total population in the district. Regarding the growth of Muhammadans of the district W.W.Hunter wrote that “The mass of the Muhammadan population are the descendents of converts from Hinduism.”10 Numbering 25 were recorded as Brahmos who actually belonged to Dacca and the eastern districts employed in Dinagepore. There were 295 Buddhists consisted of 151 males and 144 females in the district in 1870s.