View source for Sex Ratio: Census India 1931

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This article is an extract from <br/>
 
CENSUS OF INDIA, 1931<br/>
 
Report by<br/>
 
J. H. HUTTON, C.I.E., D.Sc., F.A.S.B., <br/>
 
Corresponding Member of the Anthropologische Gesselschaft of Vienna. <br/>
 
Delhi: Manager of Publications<br/>
 
1933<br/>
 
''(Hutton was the Census Commissioner for India) '' <br/>
 
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==Interpretation of the Returns==
===Sex Ratio===
The figures of the population of India by sexes show a further continuation
of the steady fall in the proportion of females to males that has been going on
since 1901. Various reasons have frequently-been repeated to explain this shortage
of females which is so characteristic of the population of India as compared to that of most European countries. 

The female infant is definitely better equipped
by nature for survival than the male, but in India the advantage she has at birth
is probably_ eutralised in infancy by comparative neglect and in adolescence by
the titiain of bearing children too early and too often. Sons are everywhere desired
not only among Hindus, where a son is necessary to his father's salvation, but
almost equally so among other communities as well ; daughters in many parts of
India mean great pecuniary expense in providing for their marriage, which moreover,
among the majority perhaps of Hindus, must be arranged by the time they
reach puberty. So strong indeed is the prejudice against the birth of daughters
that abortion is reported to be sometimes practised if the child in the womb is
foretold to be a girl. In every province in India the available vital statistics
indicate that fewer females are born than males. It is admitted that the vital
statistics are incomplete and that there is a definite tendency to omit to report the
birth of females in a greater degree than that of the similar omission with regard to
males ; at the same time the inequality which can be attributed to this source is not
enough to balance the excess of male births reported ; nor is there any evidence to
justify an assumption of widespread female infanticide, though that practice no doubt
lingers in isolated or remote areas, since as lately as 1930 the Jammu and Kashmir
State Government had to take special measures to suppress it in certain Rajput
villages, while the extraordinarily low female ratio of the Shekhawat branch of
the Kachwaha clan of Rajputs in Jaipur State, 530 females per 1,000 males, is indubitably
suggestive of deliberate interference with the natural ratio, when considered
with the Rajput tradition. 
[[File: diagram to show.PNG ||frame|500px]]
The next worst Rajput ratios are those of the
Bhadauria and Tonwar Rajputs in Gwalior State which are 634 and 622 females
per 1,000 males respectively and these are also so low as to appear extremely suspicious of the same thing, being very much lower than the ratio (754) for the
Hindu Rajputs of Jammu and Kashmir. Comparative neglect of female children is
however admittedly common and taking the population as a whole the superior
vitality of the female is unable to become operative at all until she reaches the age
of 20 years. Further, among Hindus and Jains the effect of the consequent limitation
in the number of females as compared to males is accentuated by a ban on
widow re-marriage.

In regard to the female ratio of the Kachwaha Rajputs, it is necessary to
quote the Census Superintendent of Rajputana :-
" In considering these figures one is at once struck by the very low female ratio (584 females
per 1,000 males) among Kachwahas. It is this that brings the ratio for all Rajputs as low as 796..
If they are excluded the ratio is 841 which approximates to those for the closely akin Indo-
Aryan races such as Jats, Gujars and Ahirs. 

The reason for the paucity of females must therefore
be sought for among conditions that are peculiar to the This large, important
and numerous clan acknowledges as its head the Ruler of Jaipur, a Statethe geographical position
of which renders the Rajput matrimonial adage of " Pa,chehoma ka beta our Runk ki beti"
difficult of fulfilment. A bridegroom from the West can only suitably be sought from the
Rathor of Bikaner and Marwar among whom the laws of hypergamy and the advantages of
propinquity render easy the obtaining of brides from the Parihars, Sesodias and Bhattis. The
most numerous by far of the Kachwaha clan are the Shekhawats, inhabitants of the Northern
and, by Nature most ill-favoured portion of the State. Poverty precludes the payment of the
substantial wedding dowry that is usually demanded and the family is traditionally haunted by
the prospect of unmarried girls. There has thus grown up such a studied neglect of female
infant life, both actual and potential, as results in a recorded ratio of 530 female Shekhawats
for every 1,000 males ...... Deliberate infanticide seldom comes to light but there is no doubt
that unwanted female infants are often so neglected, especially in some clans of Rajputs, that
death is the result. In Jaipur State, for 1,000 little Rajput boys aged from 0-6 there are only
659 little girls, while similar figures for Marwar and Mewar are 856 and 982 respectively. 

The diagram for the whole population shows that in childhood boys thrive at the expense of girls and
the sudden drop in the proportion of females after the age of 4 bears testimony to this "
It is probably significant that the ratio of females to males in Rajputana is higher
in towns than in rural areas. This is in contrast to the greater part of India, and
is suggestive of a conservative disregard of girl babies in the remoter areas. It may
here be pointed out that if infanticide were, as might be expected, most .frequent
in families in which daughters were most numerous and absent where many sons
and few daughters were born, the ultimate effect would be to petpetuate strains
in which males predominated at the expense of those favouring female births,
a point of some importance in connection with the considerations in the following
paragraph.
==Masculinity And Decline==
A good deal of recent work on sex ratios has tended to the view that an
increase in masculinity is an indication of declining population. Clearly that is
not the case in India as a whole. On the other hand it may have some correlation
to the low rate of increase among Hindus and Jains as compared. to that in other
religious bodies, as it is among Hindus and Jains that the disharmony resulting
from the low proportion of women is likely to be most acutely felt on account of
the non-remarriage of widows. It is not unlikely moreover that the caste system
itself definitely tends towards a preponderance of masculinity. Westermarek takes
the view that a mixture of race leads to an increase in the proportion of females
and he cites (History of Human Marriage, pages 476 to 482, 3rd' edn.) a number of
observations from various parts of the world to support this view, and quotes
incidentally Dr. Nagel's experiments in the sell-fertilization of plants as producing
an excess of male flowers, several cases of inbreeding herds of cattle in which bull
calves greatly exceed heifers, and two independent experiments in horse-breeding
indicating that fillies predominate among foals in proportion as the sire and dam
differ in colour. Heape, arguing from the breeding of dogs, likewise concludes
that inbreeding increases masculinity (quoted by Pitt-Rivers, Clash of Culture).

The obvious inference is that marriage within the caste will ultimately, at any
rate, increase the proportion of male to female children, and it is worth noticing
that the belief that endogamy has this result does not merely arise from modern
enquiries into the subject, since the Talmud is quoted as stating that mixed marriages
produce only girls. It cannot, however, be taken as definitely proved that
femininity increases with hybridization, as some investigations point in the opposite
direction, and it may be noted in passing that among the Andamanese, who are certainly declining faster than any race in India, women exceed men among the
pure-bred aborigines, whereas males exceed females among the half-breeds. The
same is the case with the Cochin Jews, where the White Jews, who are strictly
endogamous and pure bred -and who seem to be approaching extinction, number
more females than males, whereas the hybridized Black Jews, who show some increase
since 1921, have more males than females. 

The population concerned is, however, so small in the cases of the Andamanese and the White Jews that it is not
safe to draw any conclusion, but Anglo-Indian males exceed Anglo-Indian females,
whose ratio per 1,000 males is 942, and the disproportion is maintained throughout
the reproductive period. Pitt-Rivers, while admitting that miscegenation hae
lowered the excessive masculinity of the pure Maori, attributes this to the greater
adaptability of the mixed stock to vitally changed conditions and not to the effect
of an admixture of blood directly, and, if he is right in this, it is possible that the
failure of hybridization to increase the sex ratio in the case of Anglo-Indians is
symptomatic of a decreased adaptability to an unchanged environment, but on
the other hand the Anglo-Indian is anything but decreasing in numbers, his increase
during the past decade has been 22 .4% and during the past 50 years 122.9%.
The apparent connection therefore between inbreeding and masculinity may be
due to some other factor hitherto not appreciated. At the same time the fact
remains that there is a good deal of evidence to support the theory that inbred or
pure-blooded societies produce an excess of males, and Miss King's experiments
with rats (quoted by Pitt-Rivers, op. cit.) afforded evidence that the normal sex
ratio could be changed by breeding from litters which contained an excess of males.
Mr. Sedgwick, in the Bombay Census Report for 1921, pointed out that the Indian
caste system with its exogamous gotra and endogamous caste " is a perfect method
of preserving what is called in Genetics the ' pure line '. 

The endogamy prevents external hybridisation, while the (internal) exogamy prevents the possibility of a
fresh pure line arising within the old one by the isolation of any character not
common to the whole line. With the preservation of the pure line the perpetuation
of all characters common to it necessarily follows." 'Whether this proposition
be entirely acceptable or not, it may be conceded that if once a caste, whether
as a result of inbreeding or of some totally different factor, has acquired the natural
condition of having an excess of males, this condition is likely to be perpetuated as
long as inbreeding is maintained. Caste therefore would appear to be of definite
assistance to the Hindu in his superlative anxiety for male children ; moreover,
since the higher the caste the stricter, in the past at any rate, the ban on external
exogamy, this tendency would show more patently in the higher caste and explain
why the proportion of females to males increases in inverse ratio to social status.
In any case it would be interesting to have reliable statistics of the sexes of the
offspring of intercaste marriages. 
==Sex Ratio And community==
It is not, however, only Hindu society which suffers in India from a shortage
of females, though in the case cf Muslims, as also of Christians and of the Black
Jews above referred to, the original stock from which the community has been
recruited must have been very largely Hindu originally and may therefore be still
influenced by the proclivities encouraged by previous inbreeding. 

Local conditions may also have some bearing on the case, as the proportion of females to males is
much higher in the damp climate of the south and east than in the drier Deccan
and north-west, though here again it is not safe to infer, as was inferred in 1921
by Marten, that climate is responsible for the ratio, since in that case the ratio of
females to males should be still higher in the Nicobars than in Madras. In the
Nicobars, however, the indigenous ratio is 927 females to every 1,000 males, while
in the Andamans, where the basis of the local-born population is drawn from
all over India and Burma and where the climate approximates to that of
Madras and Burma, the ratio is far less, 356 female births being recorded
for every 1,000 males among non-Andamanese. 

The Andamans figures rather suggest that race is more likely to be the responsible factor than climate. One
other factor has to be mentioned and that is the great reduction of recent
years in mortality from famine. The India Census Report of 1911 (pages 220
—222) adduces some evidence to suggest that famine leads to a higher mortality
among males, and may therefore function as a corrective to an excessive male
ratio, so that a reduction of mortality from famine would automatically reduce
the ratio of females to males.

It is generally recognised that the ratio of females to males increases inversely
with social standing among Hindus. This is well illustrated by the figures for
Bombay where the whole Hindu population has been divided up according to
education and social status into advanced, intermediate, backward and depressed
classes. For the advanced castes the ratio of women to men is 878 per 1,000, for
the intermediate castes it is 935 per 1,000, for the aboriginal tribes 956 and for other
backward 953 while for the depressed classes it rises to 982 per 1,000 males. 

On the other hand the ratio for Muslims
taken as a whole in the same province
is only 809 females to pet
1,000 males, and even if the States
of Western India, where Muslim
females actually exceed males in
number, be reckoned in with Bombay
it only raises the ratio for
Muslim women to 829 per 1,000
males. 

These figures are possibly
not quite representative as they
stand, since many of the Muslims
in Bombay are immigrants, while
climatic or racial factors may
enter in since Sind is preponderatingly
Muslim as compared to
the rest of the Bombay Presidency,
and as has already been
stated, the preponderance of males
is greater in the dry areas in the
north-west of India, whatever the
reason may be. 

The figures are,
however, generally indicative of the
fact that the preponderance of males
over females is certainly no less
among Muslims generally than
among Hindus. It is probable that
some proportion of the excess number
of males both among Muslims
and Brahmans or other high class
Hindus is to be accounted for by the
purdah system, not so much because
there is any deliberate concealment
of females, as because it makes the
household generally more difficult
of access to the enumerator, who
might be tempted to put down the
names of the members of the household
personally known to him and
to omit those unknown, among
whom the women of the household
would naturally preponderate, to
avoid having to make himself a
nuisance to the inmates. 

There is, however, no reason to believe that
the short enumeration of women
due to this cause accounts for more
than a very small part of the excess
of males disclosed by the census.

The Census Superintendent for
Bombay has argued with some
plausibility for the view that in the
north-west of India, particularly
among Muslims, the census returns
have consistently understated the
number of females between 0 and 15 on account of indifference to their existence or of deliberate concealment ; his
arguments are attractive, but fail to account for the fact that the ratio of
females aged 0-1 is much higher than the total ratio, whereas it is just at that
period that it might be expected to be least, not only on account of the greater
number of males born but because concealment would presumably be just as
active a factor at that age as during the next 10 years or so while indifference
might be expected to be possibly even more active, nor does it account for the
existence of a progressive decline in the ratio from census to census. The all-India
ratio (Burma included) is 901 females per 1,000 males for Muslims and 951 females
per 1,000 males for Hindus. Here again, however, it has to be remembered that
Muslims predominate in the north-west where the ratio of females to males is lower
in all communities than in the south and east. If the Punjab alone be taken the
Muslims have the higher ratio 841 females per 1,000 males, Hindus having 826 and
Sikhs only 799 females per 1,000 males. 

The only provinces in which there is
actually an excess of women over-men are Madras and Bihar and Orissa, though the
Central Provinces can be added if Berar be excluded. In the Central Provinces and
Berar taken together males have exceeded females for the first time since 1891,
though in the natural population alone females still exceed males. In Burma
again if Burmese alone be taken there is an excess of women over men, and the excess
of males, as in the Federated Malay States, is due entirely to the immigration of
foreign males. Conversely the excess of females in Bihar and Orissa, in the
Central Provinces, other than Berar, and in Madras is partly accounted for by the
emigration of males. The excess in.Bihar and Orissa is mainly in Chota Nagpur
and Orissa, including the States. If the natural as distinct from the actual populations
of these provinces be taken, there is a ratio of 1,004 females per 1,000 males iu
the Central Provinces, 984 females per 1,000 males in Bihar and Orissa and
1,010 females per 1,000 males in Madras. Where females are in excess the
excess is still most marked in the lower castes and does not always extend to the
higher. 

Thus in Bihar and Orissa there are 964 Brahman females to every 1,000
Brahman males, but in the Hari caste there are 1,009 females to every 1,000 males.
Similarly in the Central Provinces there are 863 Brahman females to 1,000 males, but
965 Sonar,1,017 Kalar and 1,117 Ghasia females to 1,000 males of their respective
castes. The aboriginal tribes which have retained their tribal religions show for
India as a whole, an excess of females per 1,000, males. their ratio being 1,009.
For British Territory there is a decidedly higher ratio of 1,018 females to every
1,000 males, which is mainly due to the high ratio of females (1,025 per 1,000 males)
among the non-Hinduised tribes of Chota Nagpur and the Santal Parganas, since
elsewhere except in Burma (1,021) and in Madras (1,006 females per 1,000 males) the
tribal population shows a slight excess of males, the ratio being on the average
994 females per 1,000
males. 
[[File: female.PNG ||frame|500px]]

It seems likely
that this high ratio
of females among
the aborigines of
Chota Nagpur and of
the Agency Tracts of
Madras is partly due
to the recruiting of
males for labour on
the Assam tea gardens
and the figures for
emigration to Assam
confirm the supposition,
as the Census
Superintendent for
that province remarks
on the very poor recruitment
of women
coolies during the
decade. The ratio is
higher in the Bihar and
Orissa States (1,038)
laaps and in Chota Nagpur (1,040) than in the Santal Parganas though for Indian States generally there are only
993 tribal females per 1,000 males. Generally speaking however, except in the Nicobars
the numbers of the sexes are fairly well balanced in non-Hinduised tribes, being
much more nearly equal than in either Hindus or Muslims in India as a whole. 

The general conclusion as to the sex ratios of the population as a whole of India proper
is therefore that in the aboriginal tribes the numbers of the two sexes are approximately
equal, whereas in the rest of the community males exceed females.
The all-India ratio of the latter per 1,000 of the former is lowest among Sikhs (782
for India as a whole), next lowest among Muslims (901), and is 951 among Hindus ;
but this higher ratio is only maintained as compared to Muslims if the whole population
he taken together, since the bulk of the Muslim population is located in the area where the females ratio for the whole community is lowest. Taken by separate areas the ratio of females to males among Muslims
is equal to or higher than the ratio among
Hindus ; thus in Madras there are approximately
1 ,026 females per 1,000 males in both communities and in the Punjab and Muslim ratio of females per 1,000 males is, as we have
seen already, higher than the Hindu ratio.
Within the Hindu community the ratio increases
in inverse proportion to social position
and education. The table in the margin
and diagram above show the female ratio in
the first year of life as compared to that at all
ages censured, indicating the comparative
wastage of female life from whatever causes.
[[File:fem.PNG ||frame|500px]]

==Reproductive Period==
From the point of view, however, of the immediate increase or decrease of
population the sex ratio of the total community is of less importance than the sex
ratio of the breeding part of it, since on account of age or immaturity a considerable
proportion of the population is neutral as regards reproduction. If we examine the
relative proportions of females aged 15 to 45 and of males aged 20 to 50, which may
be taken to represent roughly the breeding age period of the population of India,
it becomes immediately apparent that the proportion of female to male is generally
higher than it is when the
ratio is based on the total
population. 
[[File:fem1.PNG ||frame|500px]]
The marginal
figures show the provincial ratios in British India, calculated first on
the reproductive ages,
compared with those calculated
on the total population,
and arranged according
to the number of females
per 1,000 males in ascending
order. The figures of Northern
Ireland (1926) have
been added for comparison.
As in India there are
areas, or at least one, Co.
Fermanagh, where males
exceed females, and have done so for fifty years. Delhi and the Andaman Islands
have been purposely omitted on account of the artificial composition of their
populations. Apart from Coorg, where as already pointed out the low female ratio
seems quite out of place and which calls for some special explanation not yet
forthcoming, the position of three provinces excites comment. 

Assam might be
expected to figure lower down in the list, the Nicobars lower still, and the Central
Provinces on the contrary higher up. The probability is that Assam and the
Central Provinces are inversely affected by migration, that is by able-bodied males
of the reproductive ages immigrating to the first as tea garden labour and emigrating
from the other in the same capacity. 

The figures of the Nicobars, with their
very small population, have been to some extent biassed by the presence of foreign traders and the crews of Chinese pearling boats, etc., whose comparatively
small numbers are nevertheless enough to impair the balance of the sex returns.
If these be excluded the number of Nicobarese females per 1,000 Nicobarese
males is 927 ; and if the reproductive ages only be considered, it becomes 991.
Taking India as a whole therefore, the sex ratio is very far from being as unfavourable
to a progressive population as the total sex figures suggest at first sight. At the
same time it must not be forgotten that the point at which the number of females is
adequate to the number of males is limited to the ages frail 15 to 30, and the probability
is that their deficiency from the ages of 30 to 60 is due to exhaustion by
breeding as soon as the reproductive period is reached. The Age of Consent Committee
reports as follows :-

"Inquiries into a large number of cases show that when the marriage of young people is
consummated at an early age, say, when the boy is not more than 16 years or the girl is 12 or
13, a fairly large percentage of wives die of phthisis or some other disease of the respiratory
organs or from some ovarian complication within 10 years of the consummation of marriage
The earlier deficiency is also responsible, since were the excess of females in age
group 0-5 maintained till group 15 to 20 the parity between the sexes would be
maintained for a greater period after that point. Actually more males are born but
there are more females in age group 0-5, after which the sudden drop in the ratio
may be taken to indicate the effect of discriminative neglect in favour of male
children during the earlier years. The Census Superintendent for Bombay comes,
among others, to the following definite conclusion :-

The death-rate amongst females is higher than amongst males in the 5 to 10 years age
group ; this is due to the neglect of female children. There is no reliable evidence showing
whether the tendency to neglect female children is more powerful in certain communities and
castes than in others, but prima facie it is probable that neglect of female children varies to
some extent with economic circumstances. A study of the specific death-rates shows that
after the age of 5 only in the 40 and over age groups is the female death-rate lower than the
male. 65 .8 per cent. of the female population is aged between 5 and 40 so that the heavy
death-rate affects the larger proportion of the female population."
There are more females again at 20 to 25 and for the third time more females at 70 and over. The dip in the age curve for 1931 between 15 and 25 years indicates a
recurrent feature of Indian age-returns, already referred to in the last chapter.
[[File:male curve.PNG ||frame|500px]]
Writing with reference to the curves of male and female vital statistics in the
United Provinces the Census Superintendent shows very lucidly the effects there
of immature maternity on the ratio of the sexes :-
" Nothing could demonstrate more plainly the
dangers to which the women of this province are
exposed owing to the conditions under which they
bear children ; and the fact that the curve rises
between 20 and 30 illustrates the fact that those
dangers are not limited to the birth of the first-born,
but continue as the result of subsequently bearing
too many and too frequent children, or as the result
of disorders and diseases arising from child-birth.
In the margin I give the sex-ratio at the
various age periods for 1921 and 1931. 

They are
most striking. Here we see at once that whereas
the sex-ratio in deaths has fallen since 1921 at all
other ages, it has risen at the reproductive ages of
15-30. This bears out what I have said elsewhere,
viz :—that in the absence of selective epidemic diseases the effect of the usual very high mortality of females at the reproductive ages becomes more noticeable, and so the sex-ratio in deaths rises."
In Cochin State on the other hand these conditions have been remedied :- " Further a steady rise in the age of marriage consequent on the rapid progress of female
education in the State and the gradual displacement of primitive methods of midwifery by
modern and scientific methods have considerably reduced the dangers which almost all women
have to face, and lowered the death-rate among young mothers to an appreciable extent. The
gradual rise in the sex ratio is but the natural outcome of these improved conditions."

It is necessary now to examine the figures by certain religions in the same
manner. Communities in which the women outnumber the men, figures of which
present no abnormal features, need not perhaps occupy our attention further.
Thus indigenous Burmese races show no marriages under 5 years and very few indeed
under 10 years, and their total figures of married persons show a slight excess of
females which is in no way remarkable. Indian figures are of course very different.
In India as a whole in all except tribal communities the males outnumber the females,
in spite of which we find a progressive instead of a regressive population, and at the
same time the contradictory condition in many places that parents of sons are able
to demand considerable sums from parents anxious to obtain husbands for daughters.

The latter custom is of course partly due to the rule that a girl must be married
before puberty, a point to which reference must be made in the next chapter,
while the progressive nature of the population has already been indicated
when pointing out that the inequality between the sexes was less at the
reproductive ages than when taken as a whole. It is from this point of view
that communities must be examined individually. Taking the Hindus it
appears that there are 54,473,448 females of the reproductive ages to 51,450,266
males, an excess of three million or 1,059 females to every 1,000 males. In
the case of the Hindus however the factor of the ban on widow remarriage
is important, for there are 8,313,773 widows at the reproductive ages and
when these are excluded the female excess is reduced to a deficiency of over five
million, of over 10 per cent. that is, leaving only 897 per 1,000 males. Similarly
among Jains the exclusion of widows leaves a deficiency of nearly 20 per cent.
of females in the reproductive period. Sikhs have an actual deficiency of over
15 per cent. of females at the reproductive period in any case, and though a considerable
number of their potentially reproductive males remain unmarried in
consequence, they are, compared to Hindus and Jains, a late marrying community,
while the remarriage of widows is not banned. In the case of the Muslims there is an excess of females (1,026 per 1,000
males) at the reproductive period, in spite,
of the fact that the female ratio for the
whole population is only 901 per 1,000
males.

The Christians have a still greater excess of females at the reproductive these proportions have some definite bearing on the rates of increase in the different
communities. It offers an explanation of the particularly small rate of increase of
Jains, and a reason why Hindus have increased at a slower rate than Muslims.
The comparative rate of Hindu increase would be lower still were it not for the
large additions received from tribal communities, a source of recruitment which
will not be available indefinitely. 

The exceptionally high Christian rate of increase
is of course similarly affected by the inclusion of converts, but the sex-ratio is probably
contributive. In the case of the Sikhs, which is very obviously an instance
to the contrary, it is impossible to ascertaro
what proportion of the abnormal
increase is due to accretions from Hinduism.
Considerable numbers of Hindus, particularly
of the Arora caste, are reported to
have turned Sikh in the Punjab, and there
is some evidence of a considerable propaganda about the time of the census to induce depressed castes in the Punjab to
return themselves as Sikhs. Sahejdhari Sikhs who returned themselves as Hindu in
1921 may have returned themselves as Sikh in 1931, and it is more than probable
that this was the case in the Punjab, where they can register as voters in Sikh
constituencies by making a declaration that they are Sikhs. In some provinces,
e.g., Sind, there have been extraordinary fluctuations in the numbers returned as
Sikhs probably on account of a varying classification of Sahejdhari•;. The Sind
variations are mentioned below (Chapter XI, para. 165) and must cause the
exceptional increase of 1931 to be regarded with much reserve. The percentages
of variation in Sind, where there were 127,000 Sikhs returned in 1881, were —99
in 1891 and —100 in 1901. In 1911, 12,000 were returned and the variations
for 1921 and 1931 were —42 per cent. and +164 per cent. 

In any case it
likely that the practice of late marriage by the community 'in general would
tend to a higher birth rate, or rather a higher survival rate, since it seems clear
that premature maternity is likely not only to deplete the number of married
women in the later age groups of the reproductive period but to reduce the number
of healthy children born to them. If this be so the same consideration would
apply to the analogous case of the Anglo-Indians already mentioned above. Another
striking case which at first sight appears to conflict with the. hypothesis proposed
is that of the Tribal Religions which suffer a decrease of 15 per cent. in spite
of the very favourable sex ratio of 1,143 females to 1,000 males in the reproductive
period. It will be seen from the figures given in Chapter XI that this decrease can
be entirely attributed to transfers from Tribal Religions to Hinduism and to
Christianity, but chiefly to the former. In this connection a reference may be made
to the diagram of the sex ratios at the last four censuses at paragraph 80 above.
It will be noticed that the Christian and Sikh communities, which have both shown
very remarkable increase in population at this census, have had a rising female ratio
for the past two decades, and it is possible that the rising female ratio of the Anglo-
Indians from 1911 to 1921 is also intimately associated with their 1931 increase, in
which case the falling ratio of 1921-31 should indicate a much reduced rate of
increase after 1941 if not before. No other community has shown any increase in
the female ratio since 1911, except the slight increases during the past decade among
Jains, Jews and Tribes. The steadily falling Muslim ratio is of some importance and
must inevitably lead to the cessation of the high increase in that community. It is
possibly to be imputed to the observance of the purdah system by the poorer classes
and the consequent prevalence of consumption and early mortality among women.
It also suggests a possible lowering of the age of marriage and maternity.
==Sex Ratio by Caste==
An examination of the sex ratio by caste might be expected to show an
immediate correlation to the ratio of prevalence of infant marriage to which
allusion is made in the next chapter, whereas at first sight these ratios appear in
almost inverse relationship. It must however be borne in mind first that the ratio
of the prevalence of infant marriage has been calculated on the number of married
aged 0-6 only, excluding all figures of marriage for girls beyond that age group and
secondly that the mere ceremony of marriage cannot of itself affect the ratio. The
practices which govern the female ratio in India, apart from possible climatic or
racial factors, the nature, degree and very existence of which are doubtful, are those
relating to the care of female children and to too early and too frequent maternity, neither of which have any necessary connection with the frequency of the marriage
ceremony when the bride is under six and
a hall years old an age at. which even the
most precocious can hardly bear children.

The marginal table therefore must be regarded as merely suggestive of the possible prevalence of the neglect of female children
And or of too early and too frequent materpity
as likely to be contributive to a low
ratio of females to males in the total caste
population. It may here be pointed out
that the figures for Rajputs (India) include
from some provinces both Sikh and Muslim
Rajputs, and that in Jammu and Kashmir
State, where it has recently (1930) been
found necessary to take special measures
to prevent infanticide among Hindu
Rajputs, the sex ratio among Hindu
Rajputs is 754 females per 1,000 males,
that among Muslim Rajputs being 918.
The Census Superintendent of the United
Provinces points out that there still appears to exist a differential treatment of
girl babies between different castes and continues :-

" It is only by preserving the girl babies that a sufficiency of females will remain at all ages.
The dangers of child-birth (dependent in large measure on the customs of the caste in respect
of the age of the consummation of marriage) largely control the ratio of the sexes in the total population of every caste." A reference may be made in this connection to the marginal table and diagram
above (paragraph 80) in which the difference between the female ratio in the first
year of life and the female ratio for the population as a whole is clearly indicated.
Only two purely Muslim groups have been tabulated and of these the
figure for Sayyids is so low as to make it doubtful if it represents a complete
enumeration of the females of the group. This doubt arises from an examination
of the returns under the head ' Pathan ' which, though available from
eight provinces and states, afford the very low ratio of 864 females per 1,000 males
and suggest that either some of the Pathans enumerated were temporary
visitors whose females reside outside the scope of census enumeration (e.g., in the
N.-W. F. P. Tribal Areas) or that females of the Pathan group have been returned
as Muslims merely without specification of tribe. It is possible that something of
this sort may have affected the returns of Sayyids also since the Muslim groups,
except perhaps in the case of the Momins, are not by any means so clearly defined as
are Hindu castes or primitive tribes. In the case of the latter again it must not be
forgotten that under one head are sometimes included not only tribesmen living a
detached and tribal life in their own hills but also Hinduised tribesmen whose life
and customs are hardly if at all distinguishable from those of other castes occupying
the same areas. 

Thus ' Sawara ' includes not only the hillmen of the Ganjam
Agency whose life and religion is purely tribal, but the Saharias of Gwalior who are
completely Hinduised. This difference is perhaps reflected in their sex ratios, for
the Gwalior Saharias have only 977 females per 1,000 males whereas the Madras
branch of the tribe have 1,024 and the C. P. branch 1,043. It has already been
pointed out that the highest female ratio is generally to be found either among
primitive tribes or low castes, among both of whom marital cohabitation does not
usually take place till approximate maturity is reached. The sex ratio is also
similarly high among the marumakkathayam communities of the Malabar coast
where female children are no less cared for than male and where, owing to the prevalence
of adult marriage very early maternity is unusual.