Modern India by William Eleroy Curtis
page 60 of 506 (11%)
page 60 of 506 (11%)
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Grocery dealers 1,587,225
Sweepers and scavengers 1,518,482 Fishermen and fish curers 1,280,358 Fish dealers 1,269,435 Workers in cane and matting 1,290,961 Bankers, money lenders, etc. 1,200,998 Tailors, milliners and dressmakers 1,142,153 Officers of the civil service 1,043,872 Water carriers 1,089,574 Oil pressers 1,055,933 Dairy men, milk and butter dealers 1,013,000 The enormous number of 1,563,000, which is equal to the population of half our states, are engaged in what the census terms "disreputable" occupations. There are about eighty other classes, but none of them embraces more than a million members. Among the curiosities of the census we find that 603,741 people are engaged in making and selling sweetmeats, and 550,241 in selling cardamon seeds and betel leaves, and 548,829 in manufacturing and selling bangles, necklaces, beads and sacred threads. There are 497,509 teachers and professors, 562,055 actors, singers and dancers, 520,044 doctors and 279,646 lawyers. The chewing of betel leaves is one of the peculiar customs of the country, even more common than tobacco chewing ever was with us. At almost every street corner, in the porticos of the temples, at the railway stations and in the parks, you will see women and men, squatting on the ground behind little trays covered with green leaves, powdered nuts and a white paste, made of the ashes |
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