cer: "_bahut affable hai, lekin
hand shake nahin karta_" (very affable, but doesn't shake hands).

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: _Sand Buried Ruins Of Khotan_, pp. 14-15.]

CHAPTER X

THE PEOPLE (_continued_): RELIGIONS

~Religions in N.W.F. Province.~--In the N.W.F. Province an overwhelming
majority of the population professes Islam. In 1911 there were 2,039,994
Musalmans as compared with 119,942 Hindus, 30,345 Sikhs, and 6585
Christians.

~Religions in Kashmir.~--In Kashmir the preponderance of Muhammadans is
not so overwhelming. The figures are:

Muhammadans 2,398,320
Hindus 690,390
Buddhists 36,512
Sikhs 31,553

The Hindus belong mostly to the Jammu province, where nearly half of the
population professes that faith. The people of Kashmir, Baltistan, Astor
and Gilgit, Chilas and Hunza Nagar, are Musalmans. The Ladakhis are
Buddhists.

~Religions in Panjab.~--The distribution by religions of the population of
the Panjab and its native States in 1911 was:

Muhammadans 12,275,477 or 51 p.c.
Hindus 8,773,621 or 36 p.c.
Sikhs 2,883,729 or 12 p.c.
Others, chiefly Christian (199,751) 254,923 or 1 p.c.

[Illustration: Fig. 36. Map showing distribution of religions.]

The strength of the Muhammadans is in the districts west of the Bias and
the Sutlej below its junction with the Bias. 83 p.c. of the subjects of
the Nawab of Bahawalpur are also Muhammadans. In all this western region
there are few Hindus apart from the shopkeepers and traders. On the
other hand the hill country in the north-east is purely Hindu, except on
the borders of Tibet, where the scanty population professes Buddhism.
While Hinduism is the predominant faith in the south-east, quite a
fourth of the people there are Musalmans. Sikhs nowhere form a majority.
The districts in the eastern part of the Central Plains where they
constitute more than one-fifth of the population are indicated in the
map. In six districts, Lahore, Montgomery, Gujranwala, Lyallpur,
Hoshyarpur, and Ambala the proportion is between 10 and 20 p.c.

[Illustration: Fig. 37. Raghunath Temple, Jammu.]

~Growth and Decline in numbers.~--There was a slight rise in the number of
Muhammadans between 1901 and 1911. Their losses in the central
districts, where the plague scourge has been heaviest, were
counterbalanced by gains in the western