What was the population of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent in 1800 AD?
score:3
The Muslim proportion in "undivided India" - today's India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - has risen from 21% in the late 19th century to about 31½% today, but there can be little doubt that the rate of increase was slower in the C19, much of the 20th-century growth being concentrated in the area now forming Pakistan which saw exceptional agricultural development from the 1880s. This is consistent with experience elsewhere: past populations were on the whole less mobile and less subject to rapid economic transformation than in recent times.
A tentative reconstruction for c.1850 based on McEvedy's breakdown into today's areas (Atlas of world population history, Penguin 1978) suggests about 11 million Muslims in what is now Pakistan, 23m in today's India and 15m in Bangladesh (against 15m, 29m and 19m respectively in 1901) - in all roughly a fifth. In 1800 with a total population of 190-200m we're probably looking at a Muslim contribution of 35-40 million (about a fifth of them in Pakistan, a half in India and 30% in Bangladesh) as there is no reason to assume any disproportionate advance in areas of predominantly Muslim settlement. It's certainly a good deal more than 25m or the first source's 13%, numbers derived from extending 20th-century trends into the 19th where they simply don't apply.
Of the three present-day states, Bangladesh has shown the least change in its share of the subcontinent's Muslim population, rising to 32% in the 1960s before falling back to 27% today: population movements at the time of partition raised Pakistan's share from under a quarter to more than a third while lowering India's from 45% to 35%: today Pakistan and India each contribute 36-37%.
Upvote:1
The graph in this answer to another question puts the population of the Indian subcontinent in 1800 at around 190 million. 13% of that would be 24.7 million, which corresponds very closely to your estimate of 24.05 million. So "25 million" is probably the right order of magnitude.
Upvote:9
India's first (& most reliable) census was from 1867 to 1871, known as the 1872 Census of India. The Government of India confirms this in their census history. So, there is no data prior to this census, hence all numbers below are estimates.
In terms of estimated population, circa 1800 to 1850, The Cambridge Economic History of India, Volume 2, c.1751–c.1970 provides estimates on p.466, Table 5.1 (the range is from different authors' estimates):
- 1800: 157 to 214 million
- 1850: 183 to 247 million
I cannot find any information on estimates of Muslim population circa 1800 to 1850, but hopefully the range of total population might come in useful.
Your estimated Muslim population of 13% is extremely close to the Government of India's (2001 Census Data) estimate: 13.4%.
More post
- 📝 Was pie crust originally meant for throwing away in England?
- 📝 Did Cahokia have any communication with Mexica or Mayan civilization?
- 📝 Penalty for patricide in Ancient Rome
- 📝 Are there historical instances of settlers who were largely uncontacted and undisturbed after settling?
- 📝 What / When was the first use of concentration camps in history?
- 📝 What do they do with corpses after a battle?
- 📝 Strange jeep-hold cable used during Operation Horev
- 📝 Age of Finnish soldiers in Winter War and Continuation War
- 📝 St. George's Monastery in the West Bank
- 📝 Was the Gulf War 1990 a complete surprise, or was a military build up evident?
- 📝 What exactly did the 1868 Szepes Petition do?
- 📝 Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?
- 📝 Why didn't Germany attack Turkey during WW2?
- 📝 Did native Mexicans prefer Spanish rulers to the Aztecs?
- 📝 Why did the north and south struggle to control the territories before the American Civil War?
- 📝 Where can I find history of Pune or `Peshwa's`?
- 📝 Why were brothels legal?
- 📝 What does Russia want in Chechnya?
- 📝 Who really fired on Ft. Sumter - the South or Local Charleston, SC militia?
- 📝 How were the first computers on the internet connected?
- 📝 Was there a historical figure named Fecund?
- 📝 Did 9/11 change people's behavior during the playing of the national anthem?
- 📝 Why was John Paul Jones pardoned in Whitehaven in 1999?
- 📝 Was there a plan "B" for the D-Day?
- 📝 Why did the Ming treasure fleet voyages end?
- 📝 Is there any record of ancient Israelite contact with Indo-Europeans?
- 📝 Why are the signatures on the United States Declaration of Independence structured as they are?
- 📝 What would be a typical rank for KGB intelligence officers spying abroad in the 1980s?
- 📝 References or accounts in historical Egyptian literature about the Exodus
- 📝 What do we know about the character of William Adelin, son of Henry I?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the population of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent in 1800 AD?
- 📝 What was the population of Indian subcontinent in 1000 AD?
- 📝 What was the estimated population living in Egypt around 1446 BC?
- 📝 What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?
- 📝 What was the status of Shia Muslims in the Ottoman empire?
- 📝 What was the world population around 970 BC? Does it fit the biblical narrative?
- 📝 What was the fate of Latvian Jewish population sent to gulags in June 1941?
- 📝 What was the social status of a man who failed the civil service exams in Imperial China ( 1200 - 1800 AD )?
- 📝 What was the relationship between Indian caste system and martial skills?
- 📝 What was the estimated population of the Mississippi Valley before contact with Europeans?
- 📝 What was the population within the Aurelian Walls of Rome during its peak?
- 📝 What was the lowest available population to the Soviet Union in WW2?
- 📝 What percentage of the population was in the clergy (chastity vows) in Europe *at its peak* between 500-1500)?
- 📝 What was the exact time of announcement of Indian independence?
- 📝 What was the population of late Pre-Islamic Arabia and the population of Arabic speakers before Islam?
- 📝 What was the population of the Roman Empire around 210 AD?
- 📝 What was the population of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 CE?
- 📝 What was the natural population growth of Scotland between 1600 and 1900?
- 📝 What was the population of the Parthian Empire around (AD) 1 CE?
- 📝 What was the official policy of British administration about the integration of Indian Princely States in 1947?
- 📝 When Genghis Khan took power, what was the population of Mongolia?
- 📝 What was the population of the main area of settlement in New York City in 1890?
- 📝 What was the most effective instrument used to disenfranchise the black population in Louisiana?
- 📝 what was the world population around 1880?
- 📝 What was the population of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?