Mymensingh District, 1908
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
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Mymensingh District
Physical aspects
{Maimansingh). District in the north of the Dacca Division, Eastern Bengal and Assam, lying between 23° 57' and 25° 26' N. and 89^ 36' and 91"^ 16' E., with an area of 6,332 square miles. It derives its name from the old pargana or fiscal division of Maimansingii. On the north and east the District marches with Assam, being bounded on the north by the Garo Hills, and on the east by Sylhet ; on the south-east it adjoins Tippera, and on the south Dacca ; on the west it is separated by the Jamuna (or Brahmaputra) from the Districts of Pabna, Bogra, and Rangpur.
Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the main stream of the Brahmaputra flowed through the middle of the District from north to south ; and although it now passes along western boundary and the Old Brahmaputra has shrunk to a mere fraction of its former volume, its channel cuts the District into two great natural divisions with a marked difference between the country on either bank. The people to the east of it resemble in their dialect, social customs, and observances those of the adjoining District of Sylhet, while those to the west are like the inhabitants of Pabna, Dacca, and Farldpur. To the east the country is intersected by marshes or haors, where large herds of buffaloes are grazed in the cold season, and the whole country is submerged during the rains, except the crowded village sites which are artificially raised above the ordinary flood-level.
The general elevation of the country west of the Old Brahmaputra is higher, and it contains a great part of the formation known as the Madhupur jungle, which stretches northwards from the boundary of Dacca District almost as far as the town of Mymensingh. This tract, which may be said to constitute a third natural division of the District, has an average height of about 40 feet above the level of the plains, and nowhere exceeds 100 feet ; it is about 45 miles in length and from 6 to 16 miles in breadth, with a total area of about 420 square miles. The formation, which consists of a stiff layer of red ferruginous clay resembling that of the Barind in North Bengal, is of considerable depth and capable of offering a tenacious resistance to the erosive action of rivers ; and when the Old Brahmaputra, after having raised its bed and lost its velocity, was no longer able to hold its own against the Meghna, this bank of clay forced it to sw^ing westwards and to mingle its waters with those of the Jamuna. The Susang hills rise on the northern border ; but elsewhere the District is level and open, consisting of well-cultivated fields, dotted with villages, and intersected by numerous small rivers and channels.
The Madhupur jungle divides the District into two portions. 'I'he western and smaller portion is watered and drained by the river system connected with the Jamun.\, the eastern by the Old Brahma- i>UTKA and its branches together with other numerous streams, which, issuing from the Garo Hills on the north, flow eastwards and south- wards into the Surma and Meghna. The numerous branches and tributaries of the Jamuna afford exceiitional fiicilities for river trade : of the former, the Dhaleswari, and of the latter, the Jhinai, an effluent of the Old Brahmaputra, are the most important. The Surma (also known as the Dhaleswari or Bheramona) comes down from the Surma valley in Assam and forms generally the eastern boundar)-, taking the name of the Meghna in the extreme south-east of the District.
Two branches of the Meghna, the Dhanu and the Ghora-utra, are navigable throughout the year. The Kangsa, a narrow stream, but deep and navigable throughout the year by boats of considerable burden, forms the boundary for a short distance between Mymensingh and Sylhet. There are several marshes in the east and south-east of great size and depth, which swarm with fish.
The greater part of the District is covered with recent alluvium, which consists of coarse gravels near the hills, sandy clay and sand along the course of the rivers, and fine silt consolidating into clay in the flatter parts of the river plain ; beds of impure peat also commonly occur. The red ferruginous clay of the Madhupur jungle belongs to an older alluvial formation.
The District contains no Government forests, but the iMadhu[)ur jungle is covered with a dense growth of tall trees overrun with creepers, with numerous large grasses at their base. The forest is similar in composition to that under the Himalayan range, containing a mixture of Leguminosae, Combretaceae, Anacardiaceae, Urticaceae, Meliaceae, and Sapindaccae. In the north the Susang hills are covered with a thick thorny jungle. The surface of the marshes in the east and south-east of the District either shows huge stretches of inundated rice, or is covered by matted floating islets of sedges and grasses and water-lilies, the most striking being the makufia {Euryale ferox) ; while the river banks and the artificial mounds on which habitations are situated are, where not occupied by gardens, densely covered with a scrubby jungle of semi-spontaneous species, from which rise bamboos with a few taller trees, among which the commonest is the jiyal (Odifia JVodicf) and the most conspicuous the red cotton-tree {Bovibax malabaricum).
Leopards are found throughout the District, and tigers, buffaloes, and wild hog are numerous in the Madhupur jungle and the sub- montane tracts in the north. Deer are abundant in the same localities, the sambar {Cervi/s unicolor) and the hog deer being the most common ; the barking-deer is also found, and the barasinghd {Cervus duvaiiceli) is also met with in the grassy plains at the foot of the hills. Elephants abound in the Garo and Susang hills, and occasionally commit great depredations among the crops in the vicinity. The rivers and marshes swarm with fish, which are dried at Kishorganj and exported to Assam, Chittagong, and Rangpur.
The temperature changes but little between April and October ; the average maximum falls from 91° in xVpril to 86° in October, while the highest average minimum is 78° in July, August, and September, and the mean is almost constant at 82°. In January the average minimum falls to 53° and the mean temperature to 64°. The monsoon rainfall begins in May and, owing to the ascensional motion of the monsoon current caused by the Garo Hills, is heavier throughout the season than in any other inland tract of Eastern Bengal. I'he fall is ri inches in May and ly-g in June, after which it slowly diminishes to 1 2-3 in September; the average fall for the year is 86 inches. The heaviest fall recorded was 134 inches in 1865, and the lightest 57 inches in 1883. Though floods may occur in any monsoon month, very heavy precipitation occurs either early or late in the season, being due to depressions from the Bay which break up on reaching the Assam Hills.
The earthquake of 1885 caused considerable damage, especially along the north of the District, which lay on the arc of greatest intensity. The great earthquake of 1897 shook the T)istrict even more violently, especially in the north, below the (iaro Hills, in the Jamalpur and Netrakona subdivisions, throughout the District brick buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged : houses were half buried ; sand was upheaved through fissures in the soil, and spread over the surface, damaging the rice crop ; wells ran dry, and tanks had their bottoms raised by the upheaval of the soil. The mischief, how- ever, did not end here, for the beds of a large number of rivers formerly navigable were raised, rendering boat traffic impracticable except during the rains, roads and bridges were injured, and consider- able damage was also done to the permanent way and bridges on the Dacca- Mymensingh Railway, where traffic was suspended for a fortnight. The cost of repairs in Mymensingh town to Government buildings alone was estimated at a lakh ; the private losses in the whole District were estimated at 50 lakhs, while 50 lives were lost.
History
In ancient times the District formed part of the old kingdom of Pragjyotisha, or Kamarupa as it was subsequently called, whose ruler Bhagadatta was one of the great chiefs who is said to have fought at the battle of Kurukshetra.
the Mahabharata he is styled the king of the Kiratas, and his kingdom is said to have extended to the sea. His capital was at Gauhati in Assam, but the site of a palace believed to have been erected by him is still pointed out in the Madhupur jungle at a place known as Bara Tlrtha ('twelve shrines'), where a fair is held annually in April. The kingdom was ruled by a succession of princes of Mongoloid stock, and was still flourishing when visited by Hiuen Tsiang in the seventh century. At that time its southern boundary seems to have corre- sponded with the present DhaleswarT in Dacca District, while it extended westwards as far as the Karatoya river. The portion of the District to the west of the Old Brahmaputra was included in Ballal Sen's dominions, but not so the tract to the east of that river ; the system of Kulinism instituted by that monarch is still in full force in the former, while it is almost unknown in the latter, tract.
The Muhammadans first entered Bengal in 1199, but Eastern Bengal was not subdued till later. In 1351 the whole province was united by Shams-ud-din Ilyas Shah ; and Sonargaon, near Dacca, became the residence of the governors of Eastern Bengal. Eastern Bengal subse- quently became the seat of dissensions and rebellions, but it was again subdued by Mahniud Shah in 1445. His family reigned till 1487, and during their time this tract formed the province of Muazzamabad, which apparently extended to Laur in Sylhet at the foot of the Garo Hills. Local tradition ascribes the subjugation of eastern Mymensingh to Sultan Husain Shah and his son Nusrat Shah. The former estab- lished a fort at Ekdala, not far from the southern boundary of the District, whence he sent an expedition against the Ahoms. Pargafia Husainshahi is said to have been named after him, and Nusratshahi, including Susang and twenty-one other farga/ias, after his son. '
The conquest does not, however, seem to have been complete, and in the latter half of the sixteenth century we find that Eastern Bengal was again split up into a number of petty States ruled by independent chiefs locally known as Bhuiyas. One of the best known of these, Isa Khan, the founder of the great Mymensingh family known as the Diwan Sahibs of Haibatnagar and Jangalbari, had his head-quarters at Sonar- gaon, and is said to have ruled over a large kingdom, including the greater part of Mymensingh, till his death in 1598 ; he is mentioned by Ralph Fitch, who visited Sonargaon in 1586, as being the 'chief of all the other kings.' Another important Bhuiya of this period, ruling over Bhawal in Dacca and the adjoining pargana of Ran Bhawal in Mymensingh, was the head of the Ghazi family founded by Palwan Shah, a military adventurer of the early fourteenth century.
At the time of the settlement of 1582 by Todar Mai, Mymensingh formed part of the great sarkar Bajuha, which stretched eastward from sarkdr Barbakabad across the Brahmaputra to Sylhet, and southward as far as the city of Dacca. When the District passed into the hands of the Company, on the grant of the Diwani in 1765, it formed part of the nidbat which extended from the Garo Hills on the north to the Sundarbans on the south, and from the Ttppera Hills on the east to Jessore on the west, so called because it was governed by a naib or deputy of the Nazim. The District of Mymensingh was formed about 1787, and placed under one Collector with the revenue charge of Bhulua, which comprised the Districts of Tippera and Noakhali. This union lasted only till 1790, when Bhulua was again separated; and in 1 79 1 the head-quarters of the Collector, which had apparently been at Dacca, were transferred to their present site in Mymensingh. Some changes of jurisdiction have since taken place, of which the most important were in 1866, when the Sirajganj thdna was transferred to Pabna, and the Diwanganj and Atia thCuias were added from Bogra and Dacca respectively.
Archaeological remains are meagre. The most important is an old mud fort covering 2 square miles at Garh Jaripa near Sherpur, probably built more than 500 years ago as an outpost to check the incursions of the hill tribes.
Population
The population recorded at the Census of 1872 was 2,351,695, rising to 3,055,237 in i88r, to 3,472,186 in 1891, and to 3,915,068 in 1 90 1. The climate is generally salubrious, but the Durgapur ihdna at the foot of the Garo Hills has a reputation for unhealthiness. The majority of the deaths are ascribed to fever. Cholera and small-pox often occur in an epidemic form. Leprosy is more common than elsewhere in Eastern Bengal.
The chief statistics of the Census of lyoi arc shown below
here is little distinction between the rural and urban population, as even in the towns the houses are scattered, and a large proportion of the inhabitants are engaged in purely agricultural pursuits. Outside the so-called towns there is no village with more than 5,000 inhabitants, and nearly half the population lives in villages with less than 500. Of the towns, the largest are Jam.\i,pur, Tangail, Klshorganj, and NASik.\B.4D, the head-quarters. Owing to the sparse population in the Madhupur jungle and in the hilly north-eastern tract, the District, as a whole, is less thickly inhabited than other parts of Eastern Bengal. In some parts, however, the population is very dense, and two thanas of the Tangail subdivision and one in the centre of the District support more than 1,000 persons per square mile. During the ten years ending 1901, every thatia in the^District with one exception showed an increase of more than 8 per cent., the only tract which did not share in the general advance being the swampy north-eastern tarai in the Durgapur thdna, which supports only 299 persons per square mile.
Mymensingh suffers a slight loss by the ordinary movements of population, chiefly in the direction of Rangpur, whither some of the riparian inhabitants have gone to cultivate the accretions formed on the right bank of the Jamuna. On the other hand it gains considerably from Tippera, whose women are in request as wives and maidservants. Large numbers of labourers flock in from Saran and the United Pro- vinces during the winter, and are employed on earthwork, /(?/>^/-bearing, and domestic service. The vernacular is a dialect of Bengali known as the Eastern or Musalmani dialect : some people of Garo origin talk Haijong, a coxx\\]}i patois of Bengali. Muhammadans number 2,795,548, Hindus 1,088,857, and Animists 28,958; the first increa.sed by more than 16 per cent, during the decade ending 1901, and now form 71-4 per cent, of the population.
The majority of the Muhammadans are probably the descendants of converts from the aboriginal races whose representatives are still numerous in the District: namely, the Namastldras (156,000) and the Rajbansis or Koch (52,000). Of iht- common Hindu castes of Eastern Bengal the Kaibarttas (131,000) are the most numerous. Garos and other cognate aboriginal races — such as Haijongs, Hadis, and Dalus — are found along the foot of the Garo Hills. The Garos are for the most part Animists, but the number so returned is diminish- ing, owing to the well-known tendency of the aboriginal tribes to adopt Hinduism as they approach civilization. Four-fifths of the population, or more than three million persons, are supported by agriculture, iO'2 per cent, by industries, i per cent, by commerce, and 1-3 percent. by the professions.
The Victoria Baptist Foreign Mission has been in the District since 1837, and has three branches, at Nasirabad, Tangail, and Birisiri. Its work lies mainly among the Garos ; and the Christians enumerated in the District, who increased from 211 in 1891 to 1,291 in 1901, are mainly Garo converts. Considerable attention is paid to education ; a girls' orphanage is maintained at Nasirabad, a normal school for Garo teachers and a girls' boarding scliool at Birisiri, and a number of primary schools.
Agriculture
The greater portion of the District is a highly cultivated plain watered by the great rivers and their offshoots and feeders, but the Madhupur jungle is for the most part waste. The north lies comparatively high and is generally above flood level, but the south is lower and is subject to annual inundations and deposits of fertilizing silt. In the neighbourhood of the big rivers the soil is a sandy loam, admirably suited for jute and spring crops.
The principal agricultural statistics for 1903-4 are shown below, areas being in square miles : —
Rice forms the staple food-grain of the District ; the winter rice covers 44 per cent, of the cultivated area, early rice 15^ per cent., and spring rice 5 per cent. The aiis or early rice is sown from iSIarch to April and even May, and is reaped from the middle of May till the middle of September. The harvest takes place earliest in the west of the District, and latest in the southern tracts. In the east only two kinds of aiiS are cultivated — the jali and the aus proper; in the west the varieties are much more numerous, but all of them do best on a dry soil. Winter rice is sown in the late spring and reaped in the autumn and early winter ; some of the varieties grow in marshy land, while the rest grow best in dry lands. . The rupd or transplanted winter crop is grown in moist soil, being sown in June, transplanted a month or two later, and reaped in November, December, and January. The long-stemmed rice, which rises with the floods, is common in the deep swamps. The spring rice, known in the District as bora, is sown early in the winter and reaped during the spring months ; it is a transplanted crop, and grows best in low marshy lands.
A fourth of the Bengal jute crop is raised in Mymensingh District, where the fibre occupies 1,015 square miles, or 27 per cent, of the cultivated area ; it is grown in all parts, but particularly in the rich alluvial tracts formed by the Brahmaputra between Ghafargaon and Bhairab Bazar. Oilseeds cover 19 per cent, of the cultivated area, yielding nearly an eighth of the rape and mustard grown in Bengal. Pulses are extensively grown, and a little wheat and barley are raised. There are considerable plantations of sugar-cane in the Husainshahi and Joar Husainpur/«r^a«a^. The betel-vine is cultivated, and tobacco is widely grown. Irrigation is little practised, except for the spring rice crop. Owing to the regular and copious rainfall, famine is unknown, while the large export of jute and oilseeds brings large sums of money into the District ; and there is consequently little need for Government loans.
No attention is given to the feeding or breeding of calde, and the local varieties are weak and undersized. Young bulls are allowed to run among the herd before they are fit for the plough, and are the only sires of the young stock. In the cold seasoji cattle are grazed on the rice stubble; but during the rains pasturage is very limited, and the cattle get only what they can pick up on the sides of marshes, tanks, and roads. In the submerged tracts they are fed on straw or grass. In the south-east of the District, however, there are considerable areas of rich pasture, where clarified butter {gJii) and the so-called Dacca cheeses are prepared ; in the Madhupur jungle and Susang hills abundant pasturage is also available. Cattle of a better class, imported from Bihar, are in demand throughout the District ; and buffaloes are also used for agricultural purposes, especially along the foot of the Garo Hills. Pack-ponies of a small and weak variety are in common use.
A large number of fairs are held, some of considerable antiquity and largely attended. At the SaraswatI mela held in NasTrabad in February, and at the Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition recently instituted at Tangail, agricultural produce and stock are exhibited for prizes.
Trade and communication
In former times the muslins of Kishorganj and Eajitpur were of considerable note, and the East India Company had factories at both places; weaving is still widely practised and supports more than 30,000 persons. Cloth {endi) is woven at Sandhikona in the Netrakona subdivision from wild silk. Fine sitalpati mats are made on a large scale in the east and south-east, where the marshes furnish an abundant supply of reeds {Phrytiium dichoioinum) for the purpose. Brass and bell-metal ware is manufactured at Islampur in the Jamalpur subdivision and at Kagmari in Tangail, and the cutlery of Kargaon and Bajitpur in the Kishorganj subdivision has a local reputation. Cane boxes, molasses, and mustard oil are also prepared in some quantities.
Trade is carried on chiefly by rail and river ; where there are no rivers, carts and pack-ponies are used. The chief export is jute ; in 1903-4 the amount carried direct to Calcutta exceeded 76,000 tons, and more than double this quantity was probably baled at Sirajganj and Narayanganj for export. Other exports are pulses, rice, oilseeds, hides, raw cotton, cheese, ghl, dried fish, and brass-ware. The principal imports are salt, kerosene oil, European piece-goods, cotton twist, molasses, sugar, corrugated iron, coal and coke from Calcutta ; tobacco from Rangpur ; raw cotton from the Garo Hills ; cotton, betel-nuts, and chillies from Tippera ; and coco-nuts from the southern Districts. A large proportion of the trade with Calcutta is at present carried via Narayanganj, but the recent extension of the railway to Jagan- nathganj will possibly in time divert this portion of the traffic to the more direct route via Goalundo.
The large trade-centres mark the lines of water communication ; Subarnakhali, lying on the Jamuna and connected by road with both Jamalpur and Nasirabad, is the principal emporium in the west of the District. Nasirabad, the head- quarters town, and Jamalpur are on the banks of the Old Brahmaputra, on which also lie Saltia, a large cattle market, Datt's Bazar, and Bhairab Bazar ; the latter, at the point of the confluence with the Meghna, is the largest and most important mart in the District. Katiadi, Karimganj, Kishorganj, and Nllganj are markets whence large quantities of jute are sent via the Lakhya and Meghna to the presses at Narayanganj. In the east and south-east are Mohanganj and Dhuldia, large fish markets ; and in the north are Haluaghat, at the foot of the Garo Hills, where the hillmen bring in their merchandise, Nalitabari, and Sherpur. Among the Hindus, the Telis and Sahas are the chief trading castes ; there is also a large community of Marwaris. Middlemen and brokers are usually Musalmans.
The Dacca-Mymensingh branch of the Eastern Bengal State Railway (metre-gauge) enters the District at Kaoraid, whence it runs north through Nasirabad to Jamalpur, and from thence south-west to join the Jamuna at Jagannathganj, having a total length within the Dis- trict of Syi miles. The railway has already done much to open out the country, and the proposed extensions to Tangail and Netrakona will develop those subdivisions. The railway has seventeen stations within the District, most of which are connected by feeder roads with the marts of the interior. The most important roads are those connecting the head-quarters town with Dacca, Subarnakhali on the Jamuna, Kishorganj via Iswarganj, Durgapur, Tangail via Phulbaria, Jamalpur, and Netrakona. Including 1,620 miles of village roads, the District in 1903-4 contained 2,484 miles of road, of which only 45 miles were metalled.
Steamers ply on the big rivers which flow along the east and west of the District. The most important of these are the daily services between Calcutta and Cachar via the Sundarbans, and between Goalundo and Dibrugarh, both of which stop at several stations within the District. The usual country boats of Eastern Bengal are em- ployed for trade, and dug-outs are used on the hill rivers in the north. There are 171 ferries, of which 5 are Provincial, while the remainder belong to the District board. The most important are those at Sambhuganj, Jamalpur, Husainpur, and Piarpur.
Administration
For administrative purposes the District is divided into five sub- divisions, with head-quarters at Nasir.\bad, Netrakona, Jamalpur, Tangail, and Kishorganj. They are of unusual size, having an average area 01 1,266 square miles, and a population of 783,000. Subordinate to the Magistrate-Collector, the staff at head-quarters consists of a Joint-Magistrate, seven un- covenanted Deputy-Magistrate-Collectors, and one Sub-deputy Magis- trate-Collector. Three of the Deputy-Magistrate-Collectors are em- ployed exclusively on revenue work, and there is also a Deputy- Collector in charge of the partition work of both Dacca and Mymensingh. The other four subdivisions are each in charge of a Deputy-Magistrate-Collector, the subdivisional officer at Tangail being assisted by a Deputy-Collector, and at Netrakona by a Sub-Deputy- Collector.
Civil work is in charge of the District Judge, who is also Sessions Judge ; subordinate to him are an additional District and Sessions Judge, three Subordinate Judges, one additional Subordinate Judge for both Faridpur and Mymensingh, and nineteen Munsifs : namely, three at Mymensingh, and fifteen permanent Munsifs and one temporary Additional Munsif at Tangail, Netrakona, Kishorganj, Bajitpur, Iswarganj, Pingna, Jamalpur, and Sherpur. The criminal courts include those of the Sessions Judge, the District Magistrate, and the above-mentioned Joint and Deputy-Magistrates. The wealth and the litigious habits of the people make the criminal and civil work very heavy, and disputes about land give rise to numerous and complicated cases. The District has gained an evil notoriety for kidnapping, abduction, and rape; and in 1899 it was found necessary to depute special officers to inquire into such cases.
At Todar Mai's settlement of 1582 the present District fell within sarkdr Bajuha, which also contained a portion of Dacca District, and it was subsequently included in the province of Dacca, from which it was not separated until 1787; the separate revenues collected by the Muhammadan government cannot therefore be ascertained. The revenue permanently settled in 1793 seems to have amounted to 7-20 lakhs, which in 1903-4 had risen to 7-68 lakhs (payable by 9,534 estates), mainly by the resumption and assessment in the first half of the nineteenth century of lands held free of revenue under invalid titles.
In addition, Rs. 70,000 is payable by 178 tem- porarily settled estates, and Rs. 26,000 by 80 estates held direct by Government. At the time of the Permanent Settlement only a quarter of the District was cultivated, and the result is that the share of the produce of the soil which is now taken as revenue is probably smaller than in any other part of Bengal. It is equivalent to only R. 0-5-8 on each cultivated acre, or 11 -8 per cent, of the rental, which itself by no means represents the real value of the lands to the zamJnddrs, as they impose a large premium, varying from Rs. 5 to Rs. 100 per acre, at the beginning of each tenancy.
A few tenures are peculiar to the District. The nagaiii jajua tahik, an under-tenure held subject to a quit-rent, is a relic of the period when tenants were in demand; having been created by former Rajas of Susang to induce people to settle on their estates, A dikhli taluk is an absolute transfer in consideration of the payment of a lump sum, in addition to rent fixed in perpetuity ; and a daisiidhi ijdra is a usufructuary mort- gage either for a definite period or until repayment. Rents vary widely over the District, being highest in pai-gana Juanshabi, and lowest in pargana Khaliajuri. The rates for homestead land range from 9^ annas to Rs. 8-9-6 ; rice lands are divided into three classes, the rates varying from Rs. 1-14-9 to Rs. 4-5-6 for first-class lands, and from Rs. 1-3 to Rs. 2-7-6 for those of the third class.
The following table shows the collections of land revenue and of total revenue (principal heads only), in thousands of rupees : —
Outside the eight municipalities of Nasirabad, Jamalpur, Sherpur, kiSHORGANj, Bajitpur, Muktagacha, Tangail, and Netrakona, local afiairs are managed by the District board, with subordinate local boards at each of the subdivisional head-quarters. In 1903-4 the income of the District board was Rs. 3,81,000, of which Rs. 1,99,000 was derived from rates; and the expenditure was Rs. 4,37,000, in- cluding Rs. 2,63,000 spent on public works and Rs. 87,000 on education.
There are 19 police stations or tJidnas and 11 outposts. The regular force subordinate to the District Superintendent in 1903 consisted of 6 inspectors, 7 7 sub-inspectors, 38 head constables, and 592 constables, including those employed for patrolling purposes within the municipal areas. The rural police numbered 7,307 village watchmen and 714 head watchmen. The District jail at Xasirabad has accommodation for 550 prisoners, and the lock-ups at the subdivisional head-quarters for 89.
Education is still very backward, and in 1901 only 3-7 per cent, of the population (6-9 males and 0-4 females) could read and write. A considerable advance, however, has been made since 1881. Education is most backward in the north of the District, and among the Muham- madans, only 3-3 per cent, of whose males are able to read and write, compared with 16-2 per cent, among the Hindus. The total number of pupils under instruction, which was 54,284 in 1882-3 and 51,082 in 1892-3, increased to 65,812 in 1900-1. In 1903-4, 67,266 boys and 5,878 girls were at school, being respectively 22-2 and 2-0 per cent, of the children of school-going age.
The number of educational in- stitutions, public and private, in that year was 2,618, including 2 Arts colleges, 133 secondary schools, and 2,255 primary schools. The expenditure on education was 3-84 lakhs, of which Rs. 26,000 was met from Provincial funds, Rs. 83,000 from District funds, Rs. 2,000 from municipal funds, and 1-98 lakhs from fees. The chief educa- tional institutions are the Mymensingh Government school and City College at NasTrabad and the Pramatha Manmatha College at Tangail. Special institutions include 12 upper primary and 2 lower primary schools, maintained by the District board for the aboriginal tribes in the neighbourhood of the Garo Hills and the Madhupur jungle.
In 1903 the District contained 33 dispensaries, of which 14 had accommodation for 137 in-patients. The cases of 370,000 out-patients and 2,082 in-patients were treated, and 11,253 operations were performed. The expenditure was Rs. 49,000, of which Rs. 2,000 was met from Government contributions, Rs. 9,000 from Local and Rs. 11,000 from municipal funds, and Rs. 27,000 from subscriptions.
Vaccination is compulsory only within municipal areas. Elsewhere there is still some opposition to it, but 154,000 successful vaccina- tions were performed in 1903-4, representing 25-4 per r,ooo of the population.
[Sir W. Hunter, Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. v (1875).]
