A Statistical Account of Assam (Volume I)
William Wilson Hunter
A Statistical Account of Assam (Volume I)
William Wilson Hunter
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This edition published in 2020 ISBN : 9789354171611 (Hardback) ISBN : 9789354172816 (Paperback)
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PREFACE TO THE STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF ASSAM.
THESE volumes stituted
in
deal with the Province of
1874.
The
tract
Assam
then withdrawn
as con-
from the
Governorship of Bengal, and formed into a Chief - Commissionership, consists of two river
Lieutenant
-
separate On the north, the valleys with a lofty hill tract between. of area an covers 20,683 square miles, Brahmaputra Valley
name of From Assam.
or one-half the whole Province, and gives the
its
former dominant
its
race,
the
Ahams,
to
southern edge rises the hill country, a wild broken region of To 14,447 square miles, inhabited by non-Aryan tribes. the south of these intervening mountains, again, lies the smaller valley of the Barak and Surma, extending over
6668 square
miles.
The whole
is
divided for administrative
purposes into eleven Districts, with an aggregate population of 4,132,019 persons, and an area of 41,798 square miles, yielding an average of 99 inhabitants to the square mile.* The preparation of the Statistical Account of Assam was * The above figures are based on the Census of 1871-72, and reckon the Eastern Dwars as part of Goalpara District. The latest Parliamentary Return but takes (1878) leaves the population and average per square mile untouched, the total area at 55,384 square miles, owing to the fact that it includes an
estimate for the unsurveyed tracts in the Cachar, Naga, and
VOL.
I.
)
Lakhimpur
A
Hills.
PREFACE.
2
retained in
my
hands, in addition to
my
duties as Director-
General of Statistics to the Government of India. four
years,
I
1869-73,
District Officers,
collected
and personally
southernmost of the two
the materials
During from the
visited the Districts of the
namely, that of the In 1874, I compiled the draft Accounts, forwarded them to the Chief Commissioner, river valleys,
Surma and Barak. and
in 1875 with a request that they might be carefully revised on the In this way I endeavoured to bring to each District spot.
Account the
local
knowledge and experience of two separate namely, those who had supplied the
sets of District Officers
—
original materials in 1869-73,
and those who revised them
interval, Assam had been 1875-77. removed from the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, and
For during the
in
erected into a separate Administration. In 1876, I visited the northernmost of the two valleys, namely, that of the
Brahmaputra, and found that the administrative changes would involve large additions to, and modifications of, my draft
Accounts of the
Districts.
Accounts were returned to after
me
During 1877 and 1878, the from the Chief Commissioner,
having been revised by the Local into their present shape. In
Officers,
worked up
and were
this last stage of
the process I have specially to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. J. S. Cotton, M.A., late Fellow of Queen's College,
Oxford, and of Mr. C. A. Dollman, Director-General of Statistics.
Head
Assistant to the
.
The brief period which has
elapsed since
Assam was
into a separate Administration, has rendered
erected
impossible
volumes up to the standard aimed at in Accounts of the older Provinces of Bengal.
to bring these Statistical
it
my I
book only as a basis for a more complete compilaby the officers engaged in the administration of Assam. But I beg that those who come after me, may, in improving on my work, remember the conditions under which it had to be done. When I commenced the collection offer this
tion in the future,
PREFACE.
3
of the materials ten years ago, no one knew the population of any single District of Assam and the different depart;
ments of Government were wont to base their calculations on separate, and often widely discrepant, estimates, both as to the area and the number of inhabitants. My personal acquaintance with the Province was derived, not from being employed in its administration, but from such notes as I rapid official tours. The statistics the most part, to the year of the Census, 1871-72, and to the period immediately following the erection of
could
make during two
refer, for
Assam
into a separate Province in
1874.
The whole work
had to be done amid the pressure of my duties as DirectorGeneral of Statistics to the Government of India. Nevervolumes form the only attempt at a systematic Account of Assam, and I hope that they may prove of use both to those engaged in its administration, and to the public.
theless, these
If they shall
of accuracy
be found to have attained to a
and completeness,
fair
their success will
standard
be due to
the District Officers who, during the past ten years, have supplied, with unfailing courtesy, the local materials required
A
each stage of the work. general account of the Province will be found in my Imperial Gazetteer of India,* and for
is,
therefore, not reproduced here.
W. W. H.
Article
Assam,
pp. 238-255 of Vol.
I.
of that work,
now
in the Press.
ERRATUM. Page 200,
I
shall
line 26.
be grateful
For Jungthung read Jangthang.
for
which occur to the reader. at the India Office,
any corrections or suggestions
They may be addressed
Westminster.
to me,
TABLE OF CONTENTS: DISTRICTS OF KAMRUP, DARRANG, NOWGONG, SIBSAGAR,
AND LAKHIMPUR.
DISTRICT OF KAMRUP.
Boundaries, General Aspect, Hills,
.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. District of
Kamrup— continued.
—
The People continued. Hindu Castes,
32-35 35
Immigration, Religious Division of the People,
....
Distribution into
Towns,
Town and
Country,
Religious Gatherings, Fairs,
Rice,
42 42-44
44
.
—
Area under
45
Cultivation,
Out-turn of the Crops, Condition of the Cultivators,
Domestic Animals,
46
46 46-47
.
47
Agricultural Implements,
Wages, Prices,
40 40-42
etc.,
Ancient Indigenous Institutions, Material Condition of the People,
Agriculture
35-40
47 Weights, and Measures,
43
Land Tenures, Spare Land, Waste Land Tenures,
49 50-52
Survey and Settlement, Rates of Rent, Irrigation,
Natural
52-53 53
Calamities,
Famine
Rates,
54
Foreign Landholders,
55
Industrial— Roads and Means
of Communication,
Manufactures,
57
Commerce and Trade,
57-6o
Capital and Interest, Tea Cultivation and Manufacture, Institutions,
Income Tax,
55-57
.
60 60
60
TABLE OF CONTENTS. District of
Kamrup —continued.
AdministrativeHistorical Sketch,
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
8
District of Darrang-
The People—
-continued.
Population, Census of 1871-72,
TABLE OF CONTENTS. District of Darrang
Administrative
—
—continued.
Revenue and Expenditure,
.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. District of
Nowgong—continued.
The People — continued. Hindu
Castes,
TABLE OF CONTENTS. District of
Nowgong — continued.
Administrative
—continued.
Educational Statistics,
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