| Fevers | 450,376 |
| Plague | 202,522 |
| Other diseases | 231,473 |
| ——— | |
| Total | 884,371 |
| ——— |
Fever is very rife in October and November, and these are the most unhealthy months in the year, March and April being the best. The variations under fevers and plague from year to year are enormous. In 1907 the latter claimed 608,685 victims, and the provincial death-rate reached the appalling figure of 61 per 1000. Next year the plague mortality dropped to 30,708, but there were 697,058 deaths from fever. There is unfortunately no reason to believe that plague has spent its force or that the people as a whole will in the near future generally accept the protective measures of inoculation and evacuation. Vaccination, the prejudice against which has largely disappeared, has robbed the small-pox goddess of many offerings. As a general cause of mortality the effect of cholera in the Panjáb is now insignificant. But it is still to be feared in the Kashmír valley, especially in the picturesque but filthy summer capital. Syphilis is very common in the hill country in the north-east of the province. Blindness and leprosy are both markedly on the decrease. Both infirmities are common in Kashmír, especially the former. The rigours of the climate in a large part of the State force the people to live day and night for the seven winter months almost entirely in dark and smoky huts, and it is small wonder that their eyesight is ruined.
Occupations.—The Panjáb is preeminently an agricultural country, and the same is true in an almost greater degree of the N.W.F. Province and Kashmír. The typical holding is that of the small landowner tilling from 3 to 10 acres with his own hands with or without help from village menials. The tenant class is increasing, but there are still three owners to two tenants. Together they make up 50 p.c. of the population of the Panjáb, and 5 p.c. is added for farm labourers. Altogether, according to the census returns 58 p.c. of the population depends for its support on the soil, 20.5 on industries, chiefly the handicrafts of the weaver, potter, leather worker, carpenter, and blacksmith, 9.4 on trade, 2.5 on professions, and 9.6 on other sources of livelihood.
Measures taken to protect agriculturists.—In a country owned so largely by small farmers, the first task of the Government must be to secure their welfare and contentment. Before plague laid its grasp on the rich central districts it was feared that they were becoming congested, and the canal colonization schemes referred to in a later chapter were largely designed to relieve them. But there is a much subtler foe to whose insidious attacks small owners are liable, the temptation to abuse their credit till their acres are loaded with mortgages and finally lost. So threatening had this economic disease for years appeared that at last in 1900 the Panjáb Alienation of Land Act was passed, which forbade sales by people of agricultural tribes to other classes without the sanction of the district officer, and greatly restricted the power of mortgaging. The same restrictions are in force in the N.W.F. Province. The Act is popular with those for whose benefit it was devised, and has effected its object of checking land alienation and probably to some extent discouraged extravagance. It has been supplemented by a still more valuable measure, the Co-operative Credit Societies Act. The growth of these societies in the Panjáb has been very remarkable, a notable contrast to the very slow advance of the similar movement in England. In 1913-14 there were 3261 village banks with 155,250 members and a working capital of 133¾ lakhs or £885,149, besides 38 central banks with a capital of 42¾ lakhs or about £285,000. Village banks held deposits amounting to nearly 37 lakhs, more than half of which was received from non-members, and lent out 71½ lakhs in the year to their members.
Tribal Composition.—Table I based on the Census returns shows the percentages of the total population belonging to the chief tribes. The classification into "land-holding, etc." is a rough one.
Fig. 31. Jat Sikh Officers (father and son).
Jats.—The Panjáb is par excellence the home of the Jats. Everywhere in the plains, except in the extreme north-west corner of the province, they form a large element in the population. In the east they are Hindus, in the centre Sikhs and Muhammadans, and in the west Muhammadans. The Jat is a typical son of the soil, strong and sturdy, hardworking and brave, a fine soldier and an excellent farmer, but slow-witted and grasping. The Sikh Jat finds an honourable outlet for his overflowing energy in the army and in the service of the Crown beyond the bounds of India. When he misses that he sometimes takes to dacoity. Unfortunately he is often given to strong drink, and, when his passions or his greed are aroused, can be exceedingly brutal. Jat in the Western Panjáb is applied to a large number of tribes, whose ethnical affinities are somewhat dubious.