Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c10.54

c10.54

⁵² How destructive to population can be the effect of a combination of intermittent warfare, foreign invasions, famine and pestilence, is brought home from the example of Srinagar in Kashmir in the nineteenth century. "Moorcroft, who visited the city in 1823, estimated the population at 240,000; the judicious and cautious Elphinstone (*Account of Caubul*, p 507), in the early part of the present [nineteenth] century, at '150,000 to 200,000'. By another authority (Von Hugel, II, p 258) the population of Srinagar was subsequently computed not to exceed 40,000. Vigne (II, p. 118), as well as Cunningham, estimate the population at 80,000. This appalling reduction of the population in so brief a period has been the combined effect of oppression, pestilence, and famine".\ Thornton, *op. cit.* (I, n. 7), IV, pp. 540-541.