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Chapter 12. Caste, tribe, race and nationality |
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increase and decrease in certain castes and tribes |
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156. ...The Lhotas who numbered over 22,000 in 1891 have gradually decreased at each successive census until today they number just over 18,000. In the case of the Angamis it is necessary to calculate from 1911 as many previously unadministered Angami villages were incorporated in the Naga Hills district between 1901 and 1911. In 1911 the Angami tribe was about 44,000 strong: they now number 49,000 but according to the census statistics, practically the whole of this increase took place between 1911 and 1921 and there has been no increase since 1921. I suspect, however, that a few thousand Kachha Nagas were returned as Angamis in 1921. Even so an increase of 11.1 per cent in 20 years is a very poor rate of increase for a hill tribe of Assam. The Semas are increasing and so too are the Aos. Among the Aos the proportion of Christians is so large that any comparison with previous "caste and tribe" tables, which did not give the number of Christians, is difficult but from the language table it is clear that the Aos have increased from 29,000 in 1911 to 30,000 in 1921 and to 33,000 in 1931. The Naga tribes of Manipur after the bad setback which they received in 1911-21, owing to the influenza epidemic, have recovered their lost ground and show satisfactory increases...Why the Naga Hills alone should be the one area where depopulation has apparently set in and why it should be confined to the Lhotas and the Angamis is a matter which I must leave to the anthropologists. The matter has been dealt with in an illuminating note by Mr J.P. Mills, I.C.S., Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills, which is published as Appendix A at the end of this volume. |
