127 - Demographics of Sindh Province According to the Census of 1941

In October 2014, I wrote a post on the "Partition of Punjab in  1947"  (http://pakgeotagging.blogspot.com/2014/10/partition-of-punjab-in-1947.html) that proved to be the most popular of all my posts and drew most comments as well. Some of the friends from the other side of the divide argued that so what if some Muslim majority Tehsils were awarded to India, as same thing happened in Sindh, where many Hindu majority districts were given to Pakistan. Some other sources on the internet made similar observations and even made some fantastic claims. Anyway, this subject remained high on my mind and finally I found all the details I needed, maps showing Talukas and census figures for the year 1941, the last census of the British India. At the end you will find the details of my sources.  

The post has two sets of maps, the first two maps show the population of Muslims and Hindus in Sindh in 1941, district wise, and the second set of two maps show the populations of the two communities district wise. Other communities like Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsees, etc. made a very small proportion of the total population. I have tried to present the information in a simple way and hopefully, readers will find it easy and interesting to read the tables and the maps. 

Census of Sind Province in 1941
No	District	Population	Muslims	%	Hindus	%	Sikhs	%
01	Dadu	389,380	329,991	84.75	58,372	14.99	630	0.16
02	Hyderabad	758,748	507,620	66.90	245,849	32.40	3,669	0.48
03	Karachi	713,900	457,035	64.02	222,597	31.18	7,589	1.06
04	Larkana	511,208	418,543	81.87	91,062	17.81	1,549	0.30
05	Nawabshah	584,178	436,414	74.71	140,428	24.04	5,778	0.99
06	Sukkur	692,556	491,634	70.99	195,458	28.22	4,696	0.68
07	Thar Parkar	581,004	292,025	50.26	247,496	42.60	6,815	1.17
08	Upper Sindh	304,034	275,063	90.47	28,664	9.43	285	0.09
09	Khairpur State	304,787	253,690	82.96	49,604	16.22	1,616	0.53
	Total	4,839,795	3,462,015	71.53	1,278,555	26.41	32,627	0.67

The table given below provides the religious composition of Sindh Taluka wise, taluka is sub-division of a district. The two maps show the population of Muslims and Hindus accordingly. 

No	District/Taluka	Population	Muslims	%	Hindus	%
1	Dadu	389,380	329,991	84.75	58,372	14.99
i	Dadu	62,476	53,038	84.89	9,318	14.91
ii	Johi	55,851	49,685	88.96	5,883	10.53
iii	Kakar	62,609	53,621	85.64	8,982	14.35
iv	Kohistan Mahal	23,801	21,058	88.48	2,741	11.52
v	Kotri	45,146	32,872	72.81	11,963	26.50
vi	Mehar	86,491	75,206	86.95	11,120	12.86
vii	Sehwan	53,006	44,511	83.97	8,365	15.78
2	Hyderabad	758,748	507,620	66.90	245,849	32.40
i	Badin	78,835	65504	83.09	13,161	16.69
ii	Dero Mohbat	75,524	53551	70.91	21,810	28.88
iii	Guni	107,126	85,611	79.92	21,166	19.76
iv	Hala	116,615	91,744	78.67	24,343	20.87
v	Hyderabad	214,933	97,762	45.48	115,015	53.51
vi	Tando Allahyar	92,014	59,571	64.74	31,285	34.00
vii	Tando Bago	73,701	53,877	73.10	19,069	25.87
3	Karachi	713,900	457,035	64.02	222,597	31.18
i	Ghorabari	21,827	20,402	93.47	1,327	6.08
ii	Jati	30,356	28,506	93.91	1,749	5.76
iii	Karachi	435,887	208,866	47.92	195,257	44.80
iv	Keti Bunder	9,248	7,346	79.43	1,325	14.33
v	Mipur Bathoro	45,493	38,824	85.34	5,795	12.74
vi	Mirpur Sakro	38,757	36,043	93.00	2,578	6.65
vii	Shah Bunder	39,681	36,002	90.73	3,450	8.69
viii	Sujawal	37,922	33,658	88.76	3,874	10.22
ix	Tatta	54,729	47,388	86.59	7,242	13.23
4	Larkana	511,208	418,543	81.87	91062	17.81
i	Kambar	89,583	76,375	85.26	13,185	14.72
ii	Labdarya	82,058	66,778	81.38	15,042	18.33
iii	Larkana	103,018	74,772	72.58	27,434	26.63
iv	Miro Khan	45,870	42,197	91.99	3,542	7.72
v	Rato Dero	65,941	50,071	75.93	15,588	23.64
vi	Shahdad Kot	50,342	43,879	87.16	6,438	12.79
vii	Warah	74,396	64,471	86.66	9,833	13.22
5	Nawabshah	584,178	436,414	74.71	140,427	24.04
i	Kandiaro	87,116	69,814	80.14	17,172	19.71
ii	Moro	72,899	61,374	84.19	10,120	13.88
iii	Nawshahro Feroz	103,806	84,539	81.44	18,971	18.28
iv	Nawabshah	76,250	54,561	71.56	19,859	26.04
v	Sakrand	67,626	59,403	87.84	7,243	10.71
vi	Shahdadpur	120,254	71,177	59.19	47,761	39.72
vii	Sinjhoro	56,227	35,456	63.06	19,294	34.31
6	Sukkur	692,556	491,634	70.99	95,458	28.22
i	Garhi Yasin	79,426	65,602	82.60	13,502	17.00
ii	Ghotki	56,674	46,328	81.74	10,093	17.81
iii	Mirpur Mathelo	59,016	48,256	81.77	10,759	18.23
iv	Pano Akil	56,410	45,147	80.03	11,213	19.88
v	Rohri	95,365	63,447	66.53	30,172	31.64
vi	Shikarpur	151,878	101,561	66.87	49,774	32.77
vii	Sukkur	140,118	76,655	54.71	60,747	43.35
viii	Ubauro	53,665	44,638	83.18	8,998	16.77
7	Thar Parkar	581,004	292,025	50.26	247,496	42.60
i	Chachro	74,727	31,791	42.54	35,103	46.97
ii	Digri	59,243	31,338	52.90	25,194	42.53
iii	Diplo	34,001	23,962	70.47	7,219	21.23
iv	Jamesabad	41,357	19,752	47.76	20,395	49.31
v	Khipro	64,494	36,774	57.02	27,112	42.04
vi	Mirpurkhas	68,973	30,840	44.71	37,234	53.98
vii	Mithi	46,698	20,333	43.54	15,201	32.55
viii	Nagar Parkar	32,458	12,980	39.99	15,629	48.15
ix	Samaro	51,511	26,285	51.03	20,182	39.18
x	Sanghar	40,027	29,080	72.65	10,394	25.97
xi	Umarkot	67,515	28,890	42.79	33,873	50.17
8	Upper Sindh	304,034	275,063	90.47	28,664	9.43
i	Garh Khairo	47,554	45,245	95.14	2,296	4.83
ii	Jacobabad	63,307	52,814	83.43	12,236	19.33
iii	Kandhkot	75,481	69,429	91.98	6,021	7.98
iv	Kashmor	47,765	44,960	94.13	2,804	5.87
v	Thul	67,927	62,615	92.18	5,307	7.81
9	Khairpur State	305,787	253,690	82.96	49,604	16.22
i	Faiz Ganj	24,036	21,860	90.95	1,862	7.75
ii	Gambat	85,816	71,109	82.86	14,117	16.45
iii	Khairpur	93,725	73,494	78.41	19,418	20.72
iv	Kot Diji	47,121	40,618	86.20	6,429	13.64
v	Mirwah	41,420	34,581	83.49	6,681	16.13
vi	Nara	13,669	12,028	87.99	1,097	8.03

No.	City	Pop.	Muslims	%	Hindus	%
1	Karachi	386,655	152,385	39.41	183,883	47.56
2	Hyderabad	134,693	36,069	26.78	96,603	71.72
3	Sukkur	66,466	8,152	27.31	46467	69.91
4	Shikarpur	62,746	1,775	34.70	40,680	64.83
5	Larkana	28,085	7,834	27.89	19,969	71.10
6	Jacobabad	21,588	9,774	45.28	11,561	53.55
7	Mirpurkhas	19,591	5,086	25.96	13,947	71.19
8	Khairpur	17,510	9,639	55.05	7,786	44.47
9	Nawabshah	17,509	4,420	25.24	12,048	68.81
10	Tando Adam	17,233	2,994	17.37	14,049	81.52
11	Rohri	14,721	4,132	28.07	10,460	71.05
12	Shahdadpur	11,768	1,898	16.13	9,782	83.12
13	Kambar	11,681	6,297	53.91	5,621	48.12
14	Dadu	10,896	5,179	47.53	5,601	51.40
15	Kotri	9,979	5,137	51.48	4,436	44.45
16	Ratodero	9,925	2,393	24.11	7,942	80.02
17	Tando M. Khan	8,718	2,902	33.29	5,748	65.93
18	Tando Allahyar	8,406	1,690	20.10	6,622	78.78
19	Garhi Yasin	8,397	2,278	27.13	5,426	64.62
20	Tatta	8,262	4,198	50.81	4,054	49.07
21	Hala	7,964	5,042	63.31	2,597	32.61
22	Matiari	5,910	4,334	73.33	1,575	26.65
23	Ghotki	5,236	1,533	29.28	3,701	70.68
24	Gambat	4,893	1,989	40.65	2,897	59.21
25	Sehwan	4,364	2,218	50.82	2,203	50.48
26	Umarkot	4,275	986	23.06	3,218	75.27
27	Nasarpur	3,610	2,331	64.57	1,279	35.43
28	Manjhand	3,025	1,053	34.81	1,956	64.66

Cities & towns of Sindh.

I want to especially thank my friend Imran Javed for helping me in completing this post. I found the census report of the Sindh province but it was not properly scanned and was very difficult to read. Some pages were entirely missing. Here Mr Imran came to my rescue and contacted the office of the Census Commissioner of India and thankfully they replied within 18 hours and provided the link of their wonderful website with all the information I needed. 

http://lsi.gov.in:8081/viewer/common/split_document.jsp?viewType=single&doc=40138_1941_TAB.pdf123456789/7435/1/

An equally big hurdle was to find a map of Sindh, showing not only the boundaries of district but the talukas as well. I found the following two links very helpful and the maps are based on these two sources. 

https://southasiablog.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/why-wasnt-sindh-parititioned-in-1947/

https://www.citypopulation.de/php/pakistan-distr-admin.php

I have tried to be as accurate and objective as possible. The statistics are accurate, taken from the official website of the Census Commissioner of India, but the maps can be in need of some improvement. However, any inaccuracy is unintentional and will be corrected if found to be contrary to the facts. I hope readers having an interest in this subject will find it useful. 

Tariq Amir

May 14, 2020.

Doha - Qatar.