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MAIRWARA. 
 
LONDON : PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTT1SW00DE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 AND PARLIAMENT STREET 
 
GIEMEBAIL HAL1L,€* 
 
 London .-Longmans <SrC° 
 
THE STORY 
 
 OF 
 
 M A I R W A R A 
 
 OR 
 
 OUR RULE IN INDIA. 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1868. 
 

 HENRY MO 
 
 RSE STEFHBW 
 
 • • ■• , • 
 
 i • » . . > • 
 
 • * • • • • 
 
 • • ■ • , 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This work is an account of the progress of 
 a State in India which was civilised under 
 our rule, and which it is now proposed to 
 hand over, against the wishes of its people, 
 to certain Native Princes. It is published with 
 the object of appealing to the protection of 
 public opinion in England, on behalf of a 
 loyal and industrious population. 
 
 The Portrait facing the title-page is that 
 of General Hall, C.B., who was the founder, 
 and main promoter, of the reforms in Mair- 
 wara. 
 
 512936 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Introductory Remarks i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 An Account of Mairwara, up to the Year 
 1848 9 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 An Outline of the History of Mairwara, 
 from 1848 to the Present Time ... 90 
 
 Appendices A to F 119 — 134 
 
v ! *• 
 
 THE 
 
 STORY OF MAIRWARA 
 
 &c. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Mairwara is a small Spartan state in Cen- 
 tral India, adjacent to Ajmeer. On taking 
 the latter territory from the Mahrattas, in 
 1818, we found ourselves compelled, by the 
 injuries we had sustained, and the incursions 
 to which we were exposed, to reduce the pre- 
 datory people of Mairwara also. This we 
 accomplished in 1822, and they became, in 
 our hands, a peaceful, prosperous peasantry, 
 the modern instance of able, active govern- 
 ment. In the Great Mutiny of 1857, — which 
 broke out not far from their borders — they 
 
;. ::.:•.:>;''«•: ; ,«/, : 
 
 2 7/£<? Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 remained, though tempted and tried, our 
 loyal friends. It appears there is reason to 
 apprehend that the India Home Government 
 contemplates the transfer of this people from 
 our rule, to that of two native princes, who 
 claim them as their own, but whose preten- 
 sions are repudiated by the whole Mairwara 
 nation. This proceeding, we are told, is to 
 take place in pursuance of what is denomi- 
 nated c The Mysore policy/ the principle of 
 which purports to be, a generous consideration 
 of the claims of the native princes. It is 
 further feared, that the cases of these princes 
 are now being artfully advocated, and unfairly 
 represented, by their well-paid agents in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 The c Friend of India,' a well-known organ 
 of the Indian press, under date August i, 
 1867 (p. 903), says:— 
 
 Emboldened by the success of the Mysore party, 
 the chiefs of Meywar and Marwar, now claim vil- 
 lages which have been under us for nearly half a 
 century. Colonel Taylor, in the pay of the Marwar 
 
Our Rule in India. 3 
 
 chiefs, is now strongly urging his employers' claims 
 in London. 
 
 Again, in the next page, the same journal 
 says : — 
 
 And now, we would ask, is Meywar fit, any 
 more than in 1847, to be trusted with the lives 
 and happiness of a whole people, born, bred, and 
 fostered under British rule ? Let her chiefs, con- 
 stantly at war with each other, and often success- 
 fully resisting the orders of the Durbar itself, her 
 roads quite unsafe for travellers, and her villages 
 ground down by the farming system, return an an- 
 swer to the question. Is Marwar now fit to govern 
 a race who hate, and have sworn never to obey her 
 rule ? Let the by no means despicable civil war 
 now raging there, in which the Maharajah's troops 
 have been invariably worsted, with loss of guns and 
 men, and her people fleeing into British territory, 
 to escape the heavy exactions of rapacious robbers, 
 be the reply. 
 
 Again, and in the same page : — 
 
 The Mairs were free, and gloried in their free- 
 dom, until the prowess of the British, tempered as it 
 was with mercy, made them as proud to be under 
 our rule, as they previously had been of their free- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 dom. What made them robbers in days gone by ? 
 — The bad policy of native states. What has made 
 them a contented people, who stood by us to a man, 
 during the eventful years of the Great Mutiny ? 
 — British good government ! And now, well-paid 
 intrigue is brought to bear on gross ignorance, and 
 false sentiment, to force the responsible Government 
 of India, to make this people over to capricious 
 and despotic native potentates. All the results of 
 years of noble work, on the part of men like Colo- 
 nels Hall and Dixon, are to come to naught and 
 disappear, just as they are bearing full fruit. The 
 Mairs are once more to forsake their peaceful habits, 
 and to resume their plundering career. The British 
 province of Ajmeer, is again to be exposed to the 
 depredations of men rendered desperate, by the 
 double sense of tyranny, and breach of faith. That 
 these will be the results of making over the Mairs 
 to rulers who cannot yet govern what they have, 
 no one who knows them, and their history, can for 
 a moment doubt. 
 
 We take a further expression of opinion on 
 this subject, from another organ of the Indian 
 press, the c Delhi Gazette,' dated August 8, 
 1867 : — 
 
 However opinions may differ concerning the 
 
Our Rule in India. 5 
 
 recent decision of the Government on the Mysore 
 question, one thing is certain, that by this course of 
 action, they have entailed on themselves and their 
 successors, an unheard-of amount of worry, and of 
 troublesome solicitation. They have placed them- 
 selves in the position of a party known to give with 
 liberal hand, in a country where beggars are not 
 scarce. Following the lead of the fraternity else- 
 where, the word has been passed to every royal, and 
 other jolly beggar, throughout the length and breadth 
 of India — that a soft heart, conjoined with a head 
 perchance no less soft, rules the Indian Council, and 
 that now is the time to revive every obsolete claim, 
 and to press for the concession of every unfounded 
 pretension. 
 
 It does not therefore surprise us to hear, from 
 authentic sources, that the chorus of claimants has 
 been begun, and led off by no less a personage than 
 the Maharajah of Jodhpore. Colonel Taylor, for- 
 merly an officer in the East India Company's ser- 
 vice, but now in the Maharajah's pay, has recently 
 been sent to London, ostensibly for other objects, 
 but really, to revive and press the claims of his 
 master, on a large portion of the British district of 
 Mairwara. The Oodeypore Durbar, will not be slow 
 to second his efforts, and to c go in ' for their share 
 or" the spoil ; and unless an enlightened and powerful 
 
 
6 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 public opinion be aroused, and its pressure brought 
 to bear on the Home Government, there is no saying 
 to what length the India Office may not be carried, 
 in weak conciliation of Indian princes. 
 
 We feel ourselves called upon to adduce 
 these extracts, for the purpose of showing, in 
 the first instance — what many may be dis- 
 posed to doubt — that there are grounds for 
 apprehending, that even so extreme a measure 
 as the transfer of a great part of Mairwara, is 
 contemplated by the Indian Government, or 
 some section of it, and that, if not already 
 decided on, it is, at all events, a debatable 
 question, now in some form before it. The 
 extracts show that, whatever public feeling 
 exists upon the subject in India, is strongly 
 opposed to any movement of the kind. 
 
 Soon after the publication of Colonel 
 Dixon's expensive quarto, entitled c A Sketch 
 of Mairwara,' there was a notice of it in the 
 c Dublin University Magazine ' for July i 853, 
 under the title of — c The Story of Mairwara, 
 and the Labours of Colonel Hall.' This was 
 
Otcr Rttle in India. 7 
 
 written by the compiler of the present work 3 
 and as it gives, in a condensed form, whatever 
 information he could collect upon the subject 
 of the Mairs, their singular polity, their re- 
 markable usages, their material and moral 
 progress, he thinks it will answer his purpose 
 to reprint it simply as it is, only premising 
 these introductory observations, and adding a 
 supplementary chapter, which may bring down 
 the account of Mairwara from June 1848, 
 the date of Colonel Dixon's last published 
 report, to the present time. 
 
 An authentic narrative of the advancement 
 of a wild, but bold and independent people, 
 from the condition of an impoverished robber 
 state, to one of order, industry, prosperity, 
 and a considerable amount of civilisation, 
 embracing, improving agriculture, extending 
 commerce, the abolition of slavery, and of 
 cruel customs, the establishment of schools, 
 and the introduction of Christian teaching, can 
 hardly fail to awaken a strong interest in their 
 favour, and may possibly help to save them 
 
8 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 from losing the security of British connexion, 
 and from being handed over to native princes, 
 whose claims they disavow, and whose incom- 
 petence they despise. 
 
Our Rule in India. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF MAIRWARA UP TO THE 
 YEAR 1848.* 
 
 In the history of British India, we occasion- 
 ally meet with passages which, while varying 
 from its epic tone, strike us as not less de- 
 serving of admiration, than the spirit-stirring 
 triumphs of that brilliant narrative. Among 
 the most attractive of such episodes is the 
 c Sketch of Mairwara.' It tells of a wild and 
 warlike race, famed for the ferocity of their 
 forays — a nation of Rob Roys, and Robin 
 Hoods — or something worse, partly Mussul- 
 mans, partly Hindoos, but so much laxer in 
 their observances than either of these persua- 
 
 * 'Sketch of Mairwara.' By Lieutenant- Colonel C. J. 
 Dixon, Bengal Artillery. 4to. Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 London. 1850. 
 
io The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 sions, as to be disavowed by both. Their 
 mountain fastnesses were for ages, the Adullam 
 caves of the neighbouring lowlands, and, ac- 
 cordingly, their community grew up, recruited 
 from the worst characters of the cities of the 
 plain. Thus circumstanced, they became an 
 organised robber state, and continued for 
 centuries, idle, independent, and unsubdued, 
 plagued at frequent intervals by pestilence, 
 or peeled by famine, until the year 182 1, 
 when they came into contact with our arms, 
 and were reduced to subjection. Soon after- 
 wards, their districts were confided by the 
 East India Company, with little either of 
 interference or of aid, to the management of 
 an officer, whose appointment affords a fresh 
 instance of the marked discretion with which 
 such selections were usually made ; and who, 
 in the perfect accomplishment of a task of 
 signal difficulty, established his claim to be 
 rated amongst the ablest officials of that well- 
 served Government. This v/as General Henry 
 Hall, C.B., at that time a captain, acting 
 
Our Rule in India. 1 1 
 
 with the army in Malwa and Rajpootana, 
 under Sir David Ochterlony, and whose ser- 
 vices and gallantry had attracted the notice 
 and elicited the commendations of his dis- 
 tinguished commander. Through the exer- 
 tions of General Hall, the robber -system was 
 put down, a native battalion was formed, 
 roads were made, the passes were opened, 
 traffic was encouraged, and a regular govern- 
 ment was, for the first time, established 
 throughout Mairwara. The Mairs — for so 
 are these people named — were won over to 
 abandon their demoralising habits, and by 
 their own acts, in their own councils, to 
 abolish their pernicious usages. Slavery was 
 prohibited; infanticide, which it had been 
 found so difficult to check elsewhere, was 
 completely put an end to ; and their peculiar, 
 and most barbarous of all savage customs, 
 that of selling their mothers and wives, was 
 wholly given up. A form of trial by jury 
 was introduced, a jail was erected, and main- 
 tained without cost to the Company, and a 
 
12 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 system for the administration of justice was 
 established, which was inexpensive, and so 
 efficacious that, since the year 1824, the 
 punishment of death has been in no instance 
 inflicted, and but three persons have been 
 transported. To secure a supply of water — 
 the great want of these districts — and to 
 husband it for the purposes of irrigation, the 
 people were encouraged to sink wells, and 
 taught to construct tank-embankments. Agri- 
 culture was improved, much waste jungle- 
 land was brought into cultivation, new villages 
 were built, and, in fine, through the labours 
 of General Hall — unremittingly pursued, with 
 quiet devotion, for thirteen years — this people, 
 once so wild, were reclaimed to fixed habits 
 of industry, and order, and are now living in 
 security, and comfort, defraying the charges 
 of their own establishments, and yielding, 
 willingly, a remunerative tribute to their be- 
 nefactors and protectors — the Supreme Go- 
 vernment. This is the sketch of a c Sketch,' 
 the crime de la crime of the f Sketch of Mair- 
 
Our Rule in India. 1 3 
 
 wara,' made to bespeak the interest of our 
 readers. As, however, we apprehend that 
 their attention will not be very readily ac- 
 corded to a far-off district, with an unknown 
 heathen name, and that, possibly, our glowing 
 picture of these happy valleys, may have less 
 the appearance of reality, than of romance, 
 we think it well to add, that the c Sketch of 
 Mairwara' comes before us with unusual 
 vouchers, as well for the substantial accuracy 
 and unexaggerated truth of its averments, as 
 for the importance of the labours which it 
 records. The work was prepared by Colonel 
 Dixon, the successor of General Hall, in pur- 
 suance of an order of the Court of Directors 
 of the East India Company, and printed at 
 their expense, c chiefly ' (as the Minute con- 
 veying their order states) c for the purpose of 
 being .circulated among all public officers 
 who may have an opportunity of rendering 
 similar services, in other quarters/ The 
 better to secure the full effect of so good an 
 example, it was ordered that the book should 
 
1 4 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 contain scientific plans, sections, and drawings 
 of the most material works executed, founded 
 on actual survey, and measurement, without 
 which their nature could hardly be under- 
 stood, the difficulties encountered appreciated, 
 or sufficient information given, to enable 
 others to construct like works, in similar 
 localities. The drawings of the specimens 
 selected are accordingly given, with minute 
 details of the mode of construction, rates of 
 work, mode in which used, and all other 
 circumstances. These details, however, em- 
 barrass the narrative, and with the plans, 
 drawings, and illustrations, render the book 
 too high-priced for extended circulation. The 
 main object of the Directors — the instruction 
 of their own officers — may in this manner be 
 best attained; but, besides instructing, it is 
 good to encourage officers, a maxim- which 
 no public body can be more ready to assent 
 to, than the Court of Directors. We there- 
 fore, with all respect to them, submit that 
 they may do more justice, both to the indi- 
 
Our Rule in India. 1 5 
 
 viduals whose names are so honourably con- 
 nected with Mairwara, and to themselves, by 
 the simple step of having this cumbrous 
 c Sketch ' denuded of its quarto honours, 
 disencumbered of work-details and expensive 
 attributes, and reduced to the compass of a 
 railway volume. Thus may the labours of 
 General Hall meet, in the earnest applause of 
 the public, the reward which will be at once 
 most grateful to him, and most stimulating 
 to ethers : thus, too, may the millions know, 
 that, besides gathering those laurels of which 
 we are so justly proud, extending our com- 
 merce, affording occupation, and amassing 
 wealth, the East India Company, far from 
 meriting the taunt of being indifferent to the 
 internal condition of the country, is actively 
 employed in improving it, and has been, for 
 a length of time, unostentatiously engaged 
 in the silent ministry of doing good. 
 
 Mairwara forms a portion of that mountain 
 chain known by the name of the Arabala 
 Hills, and running N.N.E. from Guzerat, 
 
1 6 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 to within a few miles of Delhi. It is bounded 
 on the north by Ajmeer, separates Meywar 
 on the east, from Marwar on the west, and 
 to the south, has the hill possessions of Mey- 
 war. The territory is about a hundred miles 
 in length, with a breadth of from twenty- 
 five to thirty : — 
 
 There are no rivers in this tract, and as the rain, 
 descending from the hills, made its way to the 
 plains, with the force of a mountain torrent, agricul- 
 ture was extremely precarious, since the crops only 
 received advantage from the rain, while falling. It 
 will be shown, in due course, that arrangements 
 were made, to obviate the want of water for 
 purposes of cultivation, by damming up the moun- 
 tain streams, whereby the calamities arising from 
 drought, have been reduced to a minimum point. 
 The soil, composed of the debris of the hills mixed 
 with decayed vegetation, is extremely fertile ; the 
 return from a beegah of wheat, or barley, being from 
 ten to twelve maunds, while in Marwar, and Mey- 
 war, immediately below the hills, the produce only 
 ranges from six to eight maunds. The arrange- 
 ments adopted in the hills, of diking up the fields 
 with walls of dry stone — whereby moisture is re- 
 tained, and the decayed vegetation, washed down 
 
Our Rule in India. 1 7 
 
 from the hills, arrested — conduce much to the fertility 
 of the soil. The portion of the country now most 
 productive, was, before the subjugation of the Mairs, 
 a dense jungle, infested with wild beasts, and 
 scarcely ever traversed by man, save along the foot- 
 paths,which served as roads, communicating between 
 the few villages dispersed through the hills. At the 
 time the army penetrated the tract, no single village 
 was inhabited in what is now denominated, Pur- 
 gunnah Beawr, though at the present time it has 
 165 villages and hamlets in a high state of cultiva- 
 tion, and consequent prosperity. — (Sketch, p. 2.) 
 
 The Mairwara territory, now under our 
 control, belongs, in unequal portions, to the 
 East India Company, to Meywar, and to 
 Marwar. On the subjugation of the Mairs, 
 the villages which had paid allegiance to these 
 states, were given up to them ; but some of 
 them, proving too refractory, were subse- 
 quently made over to our management. The 
 district, as at present constituted, consists of 
 nine purgunnahs, or divisions ; of these, four 
 belong to our Government, and form, pro- 
 c 
 
1 8 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 perly, part of the British territory of Ajmeer. 
 They embrace 143 villages and 63 hamlets, of 
 which only 1 8 were inhabited, when the coun- 
 try first fell into the hands of General Hall. 
 Meywar owns three divisions, comprising 
 76 villages and 13 hamlets. Their land is 
 fertile, and has been much improved by the 
 provision made for irrigation. Marwar has 
 but two divisions; with 21 villages and four 
 hamlets. These are mostly placed in moun- 
 tain fastnesses, and have but little available 
 land. One of the early objects of General 
 Hall, was the making of roads : — 
 
 Formerly, there was no carriage-road from Aboo 
 to the southward, to Khurwah in Ajmeer, north- 
 ward, across the hills. Over the passes of Dewair, 
 Chapulean, Peeplee, Mundawur, and Kot-Kuran, 
 a traffic on camels, and bullocks, could only pass 
 under the protection of large military escorts. 
 Commerce was, in consequence, subjected to much 
 expense, and interruption. The communication 
 from Guzerat, or Marwar, to Meywar, if not 
 effected over these ghattas, was extremely circuitous, 
 being carried on, either through Ajmeer to the 
 
Our Rule in India. 1 9 
 
 north, or altogether to the southward of the Arabala 
 range. The reduction of the hill-tribes, permanently 
 opened these lines of intercourse, thereby, materially 
 conducing to the interests of the adjoining state. 
 Colonel Hall opened a road passing through the 
 cantonment of Beawr, for cattle, over the Arabala 
 range, in 1826. On the formation of the town of 
 Nya Nuggur, in 1836, this pass was made practi- 
 cable for wheeled carriages. It is now undergoing 
 considerable improvement, and with other plans, 
 being carried out, the communication between 
 Marwar, and Meywar, has been so much facilitated, 
 that the route by Nya Nuggur, has now become 
 the great line of intercourse between the northern 
 portion of Marwar, to Malwa and the Deccan. 
 The arrangements for protecting trade, and tra- 
 vellers, through the Mairwara Hills, are so good, 
 that a robbery is a matter of very rare occurrence. 
 When such cases happen, the onus of satisfying 
 the injured parties, rests with the village where the 
 injury has been committed. Various other inter- 
 mediate passes have been opened, and are fre- 
 quented by all sections of the community, without 
 fear, or apprehension. The heretofore much- 
 dreaded Mair Hills, offer convenient routes of inter- 
 course, between the two great principalities of 
 c 2 
 
20 The Story of ' Mairwara, or 
 
 Meywar, and Marwar, through their whole length ; 
 and life and property are much more secure, from 
 the responsibility which devolves on the people, 
 than while traversing any of the states of Rajwara. 
 —{Sketch, pp. 3, 4.) 
 
 Whatever we know of the history of these 
 mountaineers, was collected by General Hall, 
 from a comparison of such records as they 
 possess, with the depositions of their chiefs. 
 The Mairs were no clerks, but, though un- 
 acquainted with reading, or writing, it was 
 their usage to employ itinerant historians, who 
 marked down the main events of their career. 
 Through these sources, their origin has been 
 traced to the twelfth century ; and it appears, 
 that as they grew in numbers, they became 
 troublesome to the states around them, and 
 were, in consequence, the objects of some very 
 formidable expeditions ; all of which, however, 
 had the one result of being unsuccessful. This, 
 their courage, their martial character, and the 
 difficulties of their mountain fastnesses, render 
 quite credible. From the year 1754 to 1800, 
 
Our Rule in India. 2 1 
 
 repeated movements were made against them, 
 by princes of the Singh family. In 1 807, Baleh 
 Rao, a Mahratta, led a force of 60,000 men 
 against them ; but their whole population rose 
 in arms, and, attacking this numerous army, 
 compelled it to retire. In 18 10, and again 
 in 18 18, they were assailed by other Powers, 
 who experienced the like fortune of defeat ; 
 and thus, a long series of successes increased 
 their confidence, both in themselves, and in 
 the impregnability of their position. 
 
 In 18 18, the city of Ajmeer, some twenty- 
 five miles north of the frontier of Mairwara, 
 was occupied by the British forces, who soon 
 became aware that they were in the neigh- 
 bourhood of marauders, whose audacity made 
 it unsafe for anyone to go beyond the city 
 walls, after sunset. They were called, as we 
 were told, Mairs, and lived by levying black- 
 mail, on the cultivators and chiefs around. 
 It was at that period that we first heard of 
 their existence. A young officer, on his own 
 entreaty, obtained leave to go amongst these 
 
22 The Story of M air war a , or 
 
 mountaineers, and sketch their unknown hills. 
 This was Captain (now General) Hall, who 
 was thus the first European who trod their 
 virgin soil, and whose name, in the hereafter, 
 was to be for ever associated with the history 
 of their race. 
 
 An agreement was entered into with these 
 Mairs, by which they bound themselves to 
 abstain from plundering. This they ob- 
 served only as long as they could not help it, 
 and it became necessary to use compulsion. 
 The hazardous task of gaining a knowledge 
 of the features of the country, and other in- 
 formation before attacking it, was undertaken 
 by Captain Hall : — 
 
 With a view (says Colonel Dixon) to gaining 
 the knowledge of the features of the country, so 
 necessary for the successful conduct of military 
 operations, a party of four officers, accompanied by 
 a strong escort, of a company of infantry, a troop 
 of cavalry, and a number of hurkaras, proceeded 
 from Nusseerabad, via Loolooa, to Shamgurh, in 
 Mairwara. Of this party was Colonel (then Cap- 
 tain) Hall, of the Quartermaster-General's Depart- 
 
Our Rule in India. 23 
 
 ment, who afterwards was entrusted with the charge 
 of the district, and who commenced, the then ap- 
 parently hopeless task, of improving the morals of 
 the Mairs. There was also an officer of Engi- 
 neers ; and the party was accompanied by Devee 
 Singh, the Thakoor of Mussooda. Having pro- 
 ceeded thus far without molestation, they attempted 
 to penetrate, by the Jak Ghatta, to Dilwara ; but the 
 Mairs collected in force, and occupied the pass in 
 front of them, and they were obliged to alter their 
 route, and passed, via Soorajpoora, to Khurwah, 
 where they halted for the night. Some consider- 
 able robberies were committed during the night, 
 and a chuprassie was reported to have been wounded ; 
 but no serious attack was made upon them, and the 
 necessary local information having been gained, the 
 party returned to Nusseerabad. — (Sketchy p. 19.) 
 
 In this passage there is a small mistake. 
 The escort was merely for Captain Hall while 
 reconnoitring ; but wishing to see, and learn, 
 more than he could while so attended, he left 
 the escort, and entered Shamgurh, the chief 
 town of the Mairs, accompanied only by an 
 officer of Engineers. Their escape was provi- 
 dential ; the Mairs being well aware that we 
 
24 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 were contemplating an attack upon them, and 
 having, at the moment, actually sent an agent, 
 to inspect and report upon the British force. 
 The account which their messenger gave on 
 his return, does not do much credit to their 
 Intelligence Department : — 
 
 The first thing (says Colonel Dixon) which he 
 saw, was a number of Sepoys, undressed, bathing 
 and eating ; and observing so many of them with 
 the Juneo,or Brahminical thread, across their bodies, 
 he conceived the idea, that the regiments were com- 
 posed chiefly of Brahmins — seeing that, in Rajpoot- 
 ana, the distinction is almost entirely confined to that 
 caste — and held them in light esteem accordingly. 
 He next saw them, in the evening, dressed in their 
 red coats, and drilling on their respective parades : 
 the exhibition seems to have fairly puzzled him, 
 and, on returning to his friends, he reported that 
 the British regiments, were composed of Brahmins, 
 and women. — (Sketchy pp. 19, 20.) 
 
 The Mairs had, before long, an opportunity 
 of improving their acquaintance with these 
 Brahmins and women. In 1 8 1 9, a Sepoy 
 force, with some light guns, mounted on ele- 
 phants, was brought against them, and a 
 
Our Rule in India. 25 
 
 simultaneous attack was made on two of their 
 strongholds — Loolooa, and Jak. The plan, 
 which was framed by Captain Hall, was per- 
 fectly successful, and the Mairs were again 
 allowed to enter into an agreement, binding 
 themselves to good conduct for the future ; 
 this, however, they did not much regard, and 
 in another year they were in open arms against 
 us. It had by this time become manifest, 
 that all attempts to advance the prosperity of 
 our possessions in Rajpootana would be un- 
 availing, until the Mairs were reduced to 
 order ; and it was accordingly resolved on — 
 first, to subdue, and then, if possible, to keep 
 them quiet. Their subjection was attended 
 with more of difficulty than was probably ex- 
 pected ; while the keeping of them quiet — 
 to all appearance almost impracticable — was 
 thoroughly accomplished through c that more 
 excellent way ' which was pursued by Captain 
 Hall. 
 
 In pursuance of this determination, at the 
 close of 1 8 20, a British force again marched 
 
26 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 against the Mairs, and, attacking them at 
 Huttoon and Burar, met with, on each occa- 
 sion, a very spirited resistance. At the for- 
 mer place, the well-directed fire of their 
 matchlocks, taught us to regard them with 
 respect ; and at Burar, they twice charged 
 our artillery, sword in hand. These places, 
 however, were both captured ; and Bhoput 
 Khan, the leader of the Mairs in this last 
 movement, fled to Ramgurh, situated in the 
 midst of these fastnesses : — 
 
 Certain information having about this time been 
 received to this effect, a detachment of eight com- 
 panies, with a party of cavalry, marched off in the 
 evening, as soon as it was dark, and proceeded all 
 night through a most difficult country, where, in 
 many places, the pathway would not admit of two 
 men marching abreast ; and even for one, the road 
 was so difficult, that a mile-and-a-half an hour, was 
 about the rate accomplished by the detachment. 
 However, struggling on, they arrived at, and sur- 
 rounded Ramgurh, by dawn. Just as arrangements 
 were being made for an attack, the inhabitants dis- 
 covered the unexpected danger that impended over 
 them, and the alarm was given ; but it was too late. 
 
Our Rule in India. 27 
 
 No time was lost on our part ; and the troops, 
 penetrating into the town on all sides, killed and 
 wounded 150 men, and took about 200 prisoners. 
 Bhoput Khan, of Huttoon, was among the former. 
 --{Sketch, p. 23.) 
 
 This surprise, in their own stronghold, 
 attended as it was with the loss of their 
 leader, ought to have been a decided blow 
 to the Mairs; but they were slow at compre- 
 hending a defeat, and in another week, en- 
 countered us again. The lesson they received 
 on that occasion, concluded the campaign. 
 
 We have felt it to be but justice to those 
 undisciplined mountaineers, to show that, in 
 their several conflicts with our troops, they 
 made a resistance worthy of their fame for 
 courage — worthy of men who encounter 
 tigers with no other weapon than a' sword, 
 and of whom it has been remarked, that they 
 never boast. It is also, we think, a matter 
 of some interest, to note that Captain Hall, 
 who was afterwards the true regenerator of 
 the Mairs, was the first British officer who 
 
28 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 entered their territory, and that he took a 
 prominent part* in every service against 
 them. 
 
 * The surprise at Ramgurh was arranged and conducted 
 by Colonel (then Captain) Hall. In announcing the capture 
 of this place, the officer who commanded on the occasion, re- 
 fers particularly * to the arrangements of Captain Hall, of the 
 Quartermaster- General's Department,"' by which 'the de- 
 tachment was brought to the scene of operations, exactly at 
 the most eligible moment — a matter of great importance to 
 the success of the enterprise." A postscript adds, in accord- 
 ance with the passage cited from Colonel Dixon, that *J:his 
 decided operation, was effected after a night-march of thir- 
 teen hoars, through a trackless and, then thought, impassable 
 country.' 
 
 The despatch of the officer who commanded, on the oc- 
 casion of our final encounter with the Mairs, and which 
 is dated January 24, 1821, refers as follows, to Captain 
 Hall :— 
 
 ' If I omitted to notice the valuable services rendered on 
 this occasion by Captain Hall, the Deputy-Quartermaster- 
 General, who accompanied the detachment, I should fail in 
 my duty. The very correct nature of the information he 
 was in possession of, enabled him to conduct the detachment 
 directly upon the enemy, who were found to occupy (as he 
 had previously informed me they did), in very considerable 
 numbers, the whole length of an extensive and high range 
 of difficult hills j the detachment driving them before it, but 
 previously having to extend itself, for a distance of more than 
 two miles, along the foot of the range, and under the observa- 
 tion of the enemy. The exertions of Captain Hall, when 
 the attack commenced, were equal to the previous intelligence 
 
Our Rule hi India. 29 
 
 These successes, which took place in 
 January 1821, were followed by the formal 
 submission of the Mairs, who have never since 
 rebelled against our rule. Before, however, 
 that rule could be fairly established, there 
 were difficulties to be overcome, which ori- 
 ginated in the too generous spirit of the East 
 India Company. On the conquest of Mair- 
 wara, many of its towns and villages were 
 claimed by the neighbouring Rajpoot states of 
 Meywar, and Marwar, as of right belonging 
 to them. Their claims rested, in fact, on but 
 slender grounds, but they were unfortunately 
 admitted, and the districts made over. Thus 
 the Mairs, who had never before known any 
 ruler, were, in the first instance, placed under 
 separate governments — part of their territory 
 being ceded to Marwar, part to Meywar, while 
 the remainder was affixed to the British pro- 
 vince of Ajmeer. There was, in consequence, 
 
 with which he had conducted the detachment to the scene of 
 action ; and he led in person one of our parties, ascending 
 the most difficult part of the lange, and driving before him 
 the enemy.' 
 
30 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 no controlling authority, to enforce order — no 
 unity of purpose, to effect remedial measures. 
 Confusion was the natural result. The 
 criminals of one jurisdiction, found shelter 
 in another — punishments were arbitrary, and 
 severe — and the country was infested by or- 
 ganised banditti. We may add, that the 
 Political Agent, who was in charge of Ajmeer, 
 had already enough to engage" his best atten- 
 tion. The obvious remedy for such a state of 
 things, was the subjection of the territory to 
 one authority, and the vesting that authority, 
 in some officer of known ability. This was 
 at length arranged. The Meywar and Mar- 
 war villages were, in 1823-24, placed, for a 
 certain number of years, under our manage- 
 ment ; and in 1822, Captain Henry Hall 
 (now General Hall, C.B.) was selected, by the 
 Marquis of Hastings, for the important ap- 
 pointment of Superintendent, political and 
 military, in Mairwara. - * Within six months 
 
 * It appears that Captain Hall was, on the earnest recom- 
 mendation of Sir David Ochterlony, the Resident in Malwa 
 
Our Rule in India, 3 1 
 
 after, the predatory bands were broken up, 
 their leaders captured, the passes were opened, 
 and traffic permitted to proceed without im- 
 pediments. Single constables took the place 
 of armed troops, for all purposes of police 
 and revenue ; c and thus/ says Colonel Dixon, 
 c under the guidance of one master-hand, a 
 regular government was for the first time 
 established/ 
 
 The hand of Captain Hall, though often 
 unseen, was indeed guiding every step of pro- 
 gress in Mairwara. In the suppression of the 
 
 and Rajpootana, * lent ' from the Quartermaster- General's 
 Department for this service ; and in noticing the appointment, 
 and the formation of the Mair Battalion, Colonel Dixon 
 speaks of the complimentary tone, in which the Governor- 
 General was pleased to invest this officer with his political 
 and military authority. ■ The prominent feature,' he adds, 
 when speaking of the order to raise the Mair Battalion, * was 
 the option accorded by the Government to the Commandant, 
 of retaining command of the corps after it had been raised, 
 and reported disciplined, by the General Officer of the divi- 
 sion ; or of returning to the Quartermaster-General's Depart- 
 ment, with the benefits of any promotion to which he would 
 have succeeded had he never quitted it.' Such condescension 
 and kind consideration on the part of the Government, are 
 matters of extremely rare occurrence. — (Sketch, p. 41.) 
 
The Story of ' M air war a, 
 
 or 
 
 border combinations just mentioned, as well 
 as in the more important proceedings which 
 affected the social organisation, or the political 
 condition of the country, he was active. It 
 was, as we have before observed, his principle, 
 to effect as much as possible through the in- 
 strumentality of the Mairs themselves, that so 
 they might feel each act to be their own, and 
 not one to which they were, in any way, com- 
 pelled. To bring this to pass, however, much 
 of previous effort was needed, to lead them 
 more fully to appreciate the evils of existing 
 circumstances, as well as the advantage of the 
 proposed change. 
 
 One of the early acts of Captain Hall, was 
 the formation of the Mair Battalion. He saw 
 that these hardy mountaineers would make 
 good soldiers, but his first advances towards 
 enlisting them, met with small encouragement. 
 The elders heard his invitations to enrol their 
 sons as Sepoys, with coldness and distrust ; 
 and when at length recruits came forward, 
 the first proceeding to which it was necessary 
 
Our Rule in India. 33 
 
 to submit them, was that of being washed with 
 soap and water. A high medical authority, 
 soberly assures us, that c every Chinaman goes 
 unwashed, from his cradle to his grave;'* 
 and, in this particular, the Mairs may be said 
 to emulate the children of the Flowery Land. 
 They scarcely ever bathe, or change their 
 clothes, from the day they are first put on, 
 until they are fairly worn-out. Many, after 
 having served a short time, returned to their 
 villages, duty and subordination being, as 
 they thought, incompatible with their feelings 
 of independence. Recruits, too, went back 
 to their homes at night, and on its being 
 made known to them that they must either 
 stay in their quarters, or give up the service, 
 a new report got abroad, well calculated to 
 render enlistment still more unpopular. It 
 was said, and no doubt thought, by some of 
 the elders, that the real object of our Govern- 
 
 * This is stated on the authority of Dr. Wilson, who 
 had charge of our hospitals in China. Vide * Medical Notes 
 on China.' By John Wilson, M.D., F.R.S., Inspector of 
 Naval Hospitals and Fleets. 
 
 D 
 
34 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 ment was to collect the youth of the country, 
 nominally to be enrolled as Sepoys, but ac- 
 tually to be made away with, so that we 
 should receive no opposition, save from the 
 old people. Apprehension and distrust, how- 
 ever, yielded to forbearance and consideration, 
 and, before long, service in the corps was 
 eagerly sought after. From the reports of 
 some reviewing officers of distinction, referred 
 to in the c Sketch,' it appears that, in their 
 opinion, c the Mairwara local corps, would 
 stand the test of comparison, with some of 
 the best-disciplined regiments in the service ; 
 and Colonel Dixon speaks of occasions, on 
 which the conduct of this battalion in the field, 
 under his command, fully supported these 
 high anticipations. We, however, desire to 
 view this corps in another phase — as an agent 
 in civilisation, and in this respect it appears to 
 have realised the warmest hopes which even 
 Mr. Joseph Kaye* would entertain, of the 
 
 * Vide ' The Social Condition and Education of the 
 People. 1 By Joseph Kaye, Esq., M.A. 2 vols. Longmans. 
 London: 1850. 
 
 
Our Rule in India. 
 
 35 
 
 good working of a Jandwehr system.' c The 
 corps ' [says Colonel Hall, in an extract from 
 his Report on Mairwara, dated December 
 1834, cited in Colonel Dixon's work] c has 
 contributed materially towards reforming the 
 Mair population. The regularity of conduct, 
 punctual discharge of duty, cleanliness, and 
 unqualified submission required; the good 
 faith observed in all transactions ; the con- 
 genial subsistence offered to many ; the full 
 confidence reposed, and the kind treatment 
 shown, could not fail of conciliatory effect ; 
 besides, on the other hand, being a body for 
 coercion, which the population must have been 
 well convinced it was fully qualified, from 
 bravery, fidelity, and local knowledge, to in- 
 flict ample punishment, should the necessity 
 be imposed.' In addition to habits of order, 
 the young men acquired, in the battalion, 
 dexterity in useful labour, in the digging of 
 wells, in the construction and repairing of 
 embankments, weirs, and other works of the 
 first importance in their locality ; and as the 
 
36 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 period of service was not long, and discharges 
 were easily obtained, these acquirements be- 
 came rapidly diffused, exhibiting their results, 
 in the improved appearance, both of the 
 country, and its inhabitants : — 
 
 Until 1835, many of the Mair corps were ac- 
 customed to take their discharge after three years' 
 service — their intention in entering the corps being 
 to save sufficient money for the purchase of a couple 
 of bullocks. Having attained the object of their 
 ambition, they would return to their villages, to take 
 up the occupation of husbandmen. Since that pe- 
 riod, Tukavee advances have been freely imparted, 
 to all persons to whom it was desirable to afford pe- 
 cuniary aid, for agricultural purposes. Still, dis- 
 charges from the corps are frequent. The construc- 
 tion of works of irrrigation, by which waste land is 
 brought into productive fertility, when taking place 
 at the villages inhabited by the Sepoys, induces them, 
 at once, to seek their discharge, and become culti- 
 vators. Havildars and naicks, with the pension 
 establishment only a few years in prospective, have 
 been induced to quit the corps, and apply their en- 
 ergies to the tilling of the land. Thus the battalion 
 is the school, in which the youth are taught obedi- 
 ence, and the arts of civilised life. Remaining with 
 
Our Rule in India. 3 7 
 
 it sufficiently long to have attained confirmed habits 
 of civilisation, they return to their homes, to impart 
 their knowledge to their village, and themselves 
 become tutors. In this manner, has the corps 
 proved an instrument of great utility, in dissemina- 
 ting knowledge, and conducing to aid us, in the 
 social advancement and improvement of the rural 
 population. — (Sketchy pp. 45,46.) 
 
 Another of the civilising agencies intro- 
 duced by Colonel Hall, related to the admi- 
 nistration of justice. Prior to the subjugation 
 of the Mairs, the sword most usually decided 
 controversies, and redressed wrongs. Every 
 man stood on his own strength, or that of his 
 kindred. Loss of life ensued, and feuds 
 were generated. The only peaceable modes 
 of adjudication resorted to, were various kinds 
 of superstitious ordeals. Colonel Hall es- 
 tablished a form of Punchayet, or jury elected 
 by the parties, for the determination of all 
 complaints of wrong, excepting cases of 
 crime, which has been found to work well. 
 The course of procedure is in some respects 
 singular ; but it is admirably suited to the 
 
38 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 character and condition of the people — con- 
 siderations which have been too often lost 
 sight of, by the paper reformers, and Ben- 
 thams of our day : — 
 
 The complainant presents a written petition, in 
 Oordoo, in. which is embodied the particulars of his 
 grievance. At the close of his complaint, he 
 expresses his willingness, or otherwise, to have his 
 case settled by Punchayet. An order is then passed 
 for the attendance of the defendant. On his appear- 
 ing, the complaint is explained to him, when he 
 delivers in a counter-statement, signifying, at the 
 same time, by what mode he wishes to be tried. 
 Should each party desire a Punchayet, each names 
 his respective arbitrators, the number of whom is 
 alone limited by the pleasure of the contending 
 parties. Sometimes the jury consists of twelve 
 members on each side. Generally speaking, on 
 the score of economy, each restricts its quota to 
 three or four members. Objections to members on 
 account of nearness of kin, or other reasonable 
 grounds, are allowed, and substitutes are named, to 
 supply the place of those challenged, or rejected. 
 The complainant, and defendant, then enter into 
 engagements to abide by the decision of the Pun- 
 chayet, except in case of disapproval, by paying a 
 
Our Rule in India. 39 
 
 fine to the Government, when a new trial is allowed. 
 In like manner, the arbitrators bind themselves by 
 engagements, to do strict and impartial justice, in 
 the case submitted to their decision ; in failure 
 thereof, a stated sum is forfeited. All preliminaries 
 having been arranged, the case comes under investi- 
 gation. Each party finds its arbitrators in food, 
 which varies in quality, according to the means of 
 the parties. On the decision of the case, the 
 expense devolves on the losing side. As the elders 
 are chiefly selected, from their respectability, and 
 inferred knowledge of right, for this duty, delay in 
 coming to a decision is not unusual — influenced, 
 perhaps, by the circumstance that they are found in 
 food, whilst engaged in such investigation. Feelings 
 of pride, and the imagined honour of their clan, 
 more frequently induce delay, when matters between 
 two opposite septs are under discussion. Punchayets 
 have taken a month, or five weeks, to consider the 
 questions at issue. Having at length come to a 
 decision, their opinion, recorded in writing, is read, 
 and explained to the complainant, and defendant, 
 who approve or disapprove of the decree of the 
 1 Punch/ according as their feelings prompt them. 
 Their decision, generally speaking, is unanimous. 
 When otherwise, the opinion of three-fourths of the 
 members is necessary, to make their decree binding. 
 Although dissentients are at liberty, on paying the 
 
40 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 stipulated fine, regulated in reference to the large- 
 ness of the case at issue, to demand a fresh trial, 
 this privilege is rarely claimed. The Mairs, when 
 allowed time for consideration, are open to reason, 
 and they well know, when there is a large majority 
 opposed to them, cogent reasons exist for the deci- 
 sion — the more particularly as these arbitrators, or 
 a portion of them, have so decided the case. The 
 superintendent will generally know when the deci- 
 sion of a c Punch ' is not consonant with the usages 
 of the people. His explanation is received willingly 
 by the arbitrators, when any deviation from common 
 usage is pointed out to them. In this way, by ob- 
 serving a temperate, conciliatory tone towards the 
 jury, a slight modification of their decree, not un- 
 frequently, has the desirable effect of bringing round 
 a razeenamah* on both sides. — (Sketch, pp. 77-8.) 
 
 This extract will be sufficiently intelligible, 
 notwithstanding its hard terms of Eastern law. 
 It shows that the system was selected, not for 
 its symmetry, but for its suitability to the 
 people. They had before a Punchayet, but 
 it was rarely resorted to, because there was 
 no authority to enforce its decrees. This 
 
 * A written acknowledgment of the settlement of a 
 cause. — (Sketch, p. 240.) 
 
Our Rtde in India. 4 r 
 
 imperfect tribunal, remodelled by Colonel 
 Hall, has been found to answer so well, that 
 for the last forty-six years — that is, during 
 the whole period of our rule in Mairwara — 
 no appeal has been made beyond the Superin- 
 tendent of the district. 
 
 Minor offences are punished by imprison- 
 ment; serious crimes, by transportation or 
 death. Death has never been inflicted from 
 the first pacification of the country in 1824, 
 and, in the long period that has since inter- 
 vened, but three persons have been trans- 
 ported. These simple inland people, how- 
 ever, look on the punishment of transportation 
 beyond sea, with far more of terror, than that 
 of death. c Their imagination/ says Colonel 
 Dixon, c fails to depict the state of suffering, 
 and privation, experienced by those who are 
 consigned to " Khala Panee." ' c Their state 
 is that of complete uncertainty. Hence the 
 criminals that have been transported, live 
 vividly in the recollection of their friends ; 
 and hence it is, that this punishment is re- 
 garded more awfully than death, which at 
 
42 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 once removes the subject of all doubts about 
 him.* 
 
 It is a peculiar and striking feature in the 
 penal system of Colonel Hall, that offenders 
 are compelled to make good the value of 
 stolen property, and, further, to provide for 
 the expenses of their own support whilst in 
 gaol, as well as to defray their share of the 
 expenses of conviction. In some instances, 
 poverty precludes this; but, as a general rule, 
 prisoners are required to arrange these con- 
 tingencies, and, if unable to liquidate them at 
 once, to bind themselves to contribute a fixed 
 sum at each successive harvest. This is 
 practicable in a country where every peasant 
 is more or less a cultivator, and has some 
 share of the lands of his village : — 
 
 The system [says Colonel Hall, in his Report, 
 already cited] is efficacious, notwithstanding its 
 mildness. Besides being a direct preventive of 
 crime, it has tended materially to soften the character, 
 to remove atrocity, to enlist the feelings of the 
 country, and consequently its active support, in aid 
 * * Sketch of Mairwara,' p. 79. 
 
Our Rule in India. 43 
 
 of the police, and to render resistance to capture, 
 even by a single chuprassee (constable), very rare. 
 In such a country, two thousand policemen would 
 be ineffectual, without the cordial support of the 
 inhabitants, so that their good will is of primary 
 importance. 
 
 The inhabitants of Mairwara are, as we 
 have before observed, separated nominally 
 into two religious divisions, Mussulmans, and 
 Hindoos ; but they intermarry, and, save that 
 the former practise circumcision, and bury 
 their dead, their customs are almost identical. 
 The Hindoos are the least sectarian of all who 
 anywhere profess that ancient infidelity. They 
 wholly disregard the set forms of ablution, 
 preparation of food, and other peculiarities. 
 They pay no religious reverence to the idols, 
 worshipped by the orthodox of their persuasion, 
 elsewhere, but have their own deities. Their 
 principal food is Indian-corn, and barley -bread; 
 they eat, without hesitation, of sheep, goats, 
 and even cows, have no interdiction as to the 
 use of spirituous liquors, but never touch 
 hog's flesh, deer, fish, or fowls. 
 
44 The Story of Al air war a, or 
 
 The most remarkable and pernicious of 
 the Mair customs were — the sale of women, 
 female infanticide, and an extensive system of 
 slavery. Women were looked upon as pro- 
 perty, to be disposed of or transferred, with 
 the same facility as cattle, or land. On the 
 death of a father, the mother lapsed to the 
 son, as part of the paternal inheritance, and 
 he could sell her at his pleasure, provided he 
 adhered to the rules of his clan. A wife 
 might be disposed of at any time. These 
 usages arose from no defect of natural affec- 
 tion (which we are assured this people possess 
 as much as others), but from an equity of 
 their own, having its origin in their .marriage 
 contracts. On a marriage engagement taking 
 place, the first step, the most needful, and 
 the most strictly enforced of all, was, that a 
 certain sum — and, in reference to their con- 
 dition, a high one — should be paid to the 
 wife's father. From this flowed the right of 
 sale, whether as wife or mother, it being 
 regarded as no more than an equivalent for 
 
Our Rule in India. 45 
 
 the sum invested in the original purchase. 
 Strange as such a practice may seem, it will, 
 no doubt, appear still more singular, that it 
 was never regarded by the women as either a 
 grievance, or a degradation. On the con- 
 trary, they were rather flattered, at being the 
 subjects of so clear a test of value. This 
 was their custom from time immemorial, and 
 when spoken to about it, neither woman nor 
 man felt it to be in the least wrong. The 
 well-known eulogy on the French sauce, that 
 it might tempt a man to eat his own father, 
 had its pendant amongst the Mairs ; for one of 
 them declared, without reserve, that c he had 
 sold, and eat, his own mother/ meaning that 
 he had expended on himself the money he 
 had gained by selling her. Colonel Hall 
 traced this demoralising practice, and that of 
 infanticide, to their cause, and, dealing with 
 that cause, succeeded in putting them down. 
 c The measures,' says the work before us, 
 c which were adopted in view to the complete 
 prohibition of female infanticide, and the 
 
46 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 marked success which characterised these 
 proceedings, are fully detailed in Colonel 
 Hall's report, under date 31st July, 1827/ 
 Colonel Dixon then gives the principal para- 
 graphs of that report, of which we transcribe 
 the following : — 
 
 Para. 5th. It is most satisfactory to be able to 
 report the complete, and voluntary abolition of the 
 two revolting customs — female infanticide, and the 
 sale of women. Both crimes were closely con- 
 nected, having had their origin in the heavy ex- 
 penses attending marriage-contracts. The sums 
 were payable by the male side ; were unalterable, 
 equal for the rich and poor, without any abatement 
 whatever, in favour of the latter. What first esta- 
 blished the payment is unknown, but it was so sacred, 
 inviolable, and even a partial deviation so disgraceful, 
 that the most necessitous of the tribe would not 
 incur the imputation. 
 
 6th. Hence arose as decided a right over the 
 person of women, as over cattle, or other property. 
 They were inherited, and disposed of accordingly, 
 to the extent even of sons selling their own mothers. 
 
 7th. Hence, also, arose infanticide. The sums 
 payable, were beyond the means of so many, that 
 daughters necessarily remained on hand after ma 
 
Our Rule in India. 47 
 
 turity, entailed immoral disgrace, and thus imposed 
 necessity for all female progeny, becoming victims 
 to their family honour. 
 
 8th. On the establishment of British rule, both 
 evils gradually diminished. Females were not 
 allowed to be transferred, except for conjugal pur- 
 poses ; their consent was to be obtained, and their 
 choice consulted ; kind, humane treatment was 
 enforced, and the whole system of considering them 
 as mere cattle, was discouraged, without any indica- 
 tion, however, of interference with a right of property 
 so long existing. 
 
 9th. Female infanticide was at once prohibited ; 
 and though many, no doubt, still fell secret sacrifices, 
 from the great facility of undetected destruction, yet 
 the danger, aided by improved feeling, increased the 
 survivors so considerably, as to force upon the Mairs 
 a due sense of the root of the evil, and a general wish 
 • for its removal, by a reduction of the regulated sum 
 of contract; but they were averse, indeed declared 
 their inability, to alter their long-established sacred 
 custom themselves, and earnestly entreated it might 
 be effected by an order of authority, binding all to 
 obedience by heavy penalties. This was promised 
 in a general way, in case of necessity ; but as there 
 were many points to be settled, and it was ad\ isable 
 to ascertain the general feeling with accuracy, as 
 
48 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 well as to avoid interference, if possible, a general 
 Punchayet was strongly urged, either to decide the 
 matter, or, at all events, aid in the forming of appro- 
 priate regulations. 
 
 loth. After the lapse of a few months allowed 
 for consideration, the whole was settled in public 
 Punchayet, and its resolutions were confirmed 
 without the slightest alteration, so that the proceed- 
 ing originated with, and has been carried through 
 by, the inhabitants themselves ; nor has there been 
 a single petition against it, either pending or subse- 
 quent to adjustment. 
 
 nth. They have lowered the sum payable on 
 marriage-contracts, abolished all right of subsequent 
 sale, and fixed a year's imprisonment, or 200 rupees 
 fine, with exclusion of caste, as the punishment for 
 deviation. — (Sketchy pp. 30, 31.) 
 
 We pause to admire the discretion with 
 which Colonel Hall made this people, to 
 such an extent, their own reformers, effecting 
 as much as possible through themselves, so 
 that, when authority was used, it was hardly 
 apparent. It will, however, be obvious, that 
 such results could not be attained without 
 much, both of previous arrangement, and 
 exertion : — 
 
Our Rule in India. 49 
 
 Thus [says the c Sketch,' after citing the para- 
 graphs we have just transcribed] — thus infanticide 
 received its deathblow through the diminution of the 
 expense attendant on marriage, which was now 
 brought within the means of all sections of society. 
 For many years past, no female children had been 
 put to death. The practice has fallen altogether into 
 desuetude. Indeed, so greatly have the ideas of 
 the people changed, on this and other usages, since 
 the introduction of our rule, that the commission of 
 such an act would now be viewed as a most heinous 
 crime. Personal advantage has, however, had its 
 weight in bringing round the desired reform. 
 Daughters are no longer looked upon as a source 
 of trouble and anxiety ; marriage being open to the 
 poorest classes, they are much in requisition. Hence, 
 fathers rejoice on the birth of a daughter, seeing 
 they are more regarded as a source of wealth. — 
 [Sketch, p. 31.) 
 
 In the convention just spoken of, the re- 
 muneration for a bride's father was restricted 
 to 106 rupees, and the remarriage of widows 
 was also provided for. Twelve days after the 
 death of a husband, two mantles were placed 
 before his widow — one red, the other white. 
 If she took the former, it implied her prefer- 
 
50 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 ence for remarriage, and the person who ac- 
 cepted her was bound to pay her sons — or, in 
 case she had none, her brothers — from 200 
 to 500 rupees. The money thus realised 
 went to provide these sons, or brothers, with 
 wives. If her choice fell upon the white 
 mantle, it indicated her desire to bring up her 
 family, and remain at the head of her own 
 household. In these arrangements of the 
 Mairs, we have another instance of the sin- 
 gularity of their sentiments. In their esti- 
 mation, a widow is worth more than a maid. 
 The remuneration on the marriage of the 
 former varies, as we see, from 200 to 500 
 rupees, while, in case of that of the latter, it is 
 fixed at the far lower rate of 106 rupees. 
 We know not whether it will be regarded as 
 equally remarkable, that, of all the decrees 
 made at this convention, the hardest to en- 
 force was that which prohibited husbands 
 from selling their wives. Our text informs 
 us that — 
 
 Though infanticide has been at once checked by 
 
Our Rule in India. 5 1 
 
 the decree of the Punchayet, yet it was a matter of 
 considerable difficulty to restrain husbands from 
 selling their wives. The interference of authority 
 was necessary, on all occasions where a deviation 
 from the decision of the elders was made known. 
 The bargain was annulled, the wife taken back, and 
 the money returned ; a small fine being imposed on 
 both parties, on account of their dereliction from 
 established rule. Should the husband refuse to 
 take back his wife, he was at liberty to give her 
 leave to follow the bent of her own inclination, but 
 on no account was her sale sanctioned. — {Sketch, 
 
 p. 3*0 
 
 After enumerating so many eccentric usages, 
 we must add that, notwithstanding these, the 
 Mairs have strong domestic affections, and a 
 high sense of honour. Colonel Dixon repre- 
 sents them (p. 33) as c faithful, kind, and 
 generous,' with a strong clannish attachment 
 to each other. c They are/ he says, c very 
 regardless of life, and always ready to take 
 their own, or those of others, for trifling 
 causes. They are, moreover, much attached 
 to their families, and the dishonour of their 
 wives is avenged by death alone/ 
 
52 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 Colonel Hall was equally successful in 
 abolishing slavery, which, though generally 
 exempt from the character of illusage, pre- 
 vailed extensively, and was necessarily pro- 
 ductive of many evils. In addition to its 
 ordinary source — war, or the seizure of people 
 in forays, and who were not redeemed — there 
 were three modes and varieties of slavery, 
 peculiar to the Mairs. The first of these 
 was denominated c Chotee-kut ' : — 
 
 A man suffering great oppression proceeds to 
 one of the chiefs, solicits his protection, and cuts off 
 his c Chotee,' the lock of hair preserved by the 
 Hindoos on the top of the head, saying — ( I am 
 your Chotee-kut ; preserve me from oppression.' 
 The chief places a turban on his head, and renders 
 him all the support in his power, keeping him in 
 his own village. On the demise of the Chotee-kut, 
 his property lapses to the chief, unless any of the 
 relatives of the deceased reside in the same village. 
 The chief, in return for his protection, receives a fourth 
 of his gains arising from all plundering expeditions. 
 
 Another kind of bondage is called c Bussee,' 
 which differs only from Chotee-kut, from a written 
 engagement being entered into, instead of cutting 
 off the lock of hair. All castes may become Bus- 
 
Our Rule in India. 53 
 
 sees, while Chotee-kut cannot be provided from 
 amongst those who lean to Mahommedanism. 
 
 c Oonglee-kut ' is a third kind of servitude. 
 It is of a milder form than those mentioned, since 
 the duty and respect paid, are those of a son towards 
 a father. Nor is any power exercised over life and 
 property. The ceremony of Oonglee-kut is per- 
 formed by cutting off the little finger, and giving 
 some of the blood to the chief, whose protection is 
 accorded. It extends to all castes. — (Sketchy p. 3 ?.) 
 
 Those three forms of voluntary bondage, 
 were traced by Colonel Hall to the condition 
 of the country as he found it. c A poor man/ 
 says the work before us, c could not obtain 
 justice, and being unable to bear up against 
 his powerful oppressors, desperation drove 
 him to seek shelter from some chief; and as 
 he possessed no means of remunerating his 
 protector, • he relinquished what is prized by 
 all, his personal liberty, rather than live under 
 grievances too keen for endurance.' * 
 
 Many of the social features which we have 
 noticed, and most of the miseries of Mairwara, 
 
 * Vide ' Sketch or' Mairwara,' p. 33. 
 
54 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 were connected with its physical character. 
 The hills of the country, like the flats of 
 Holland, required that certain precautions 
 should be taken, before they were fairly habit- 
 able. The object of the Dutch, however, was 
 to exclude, while that of the Mairs must be 
 to retain, the water. The measures needed 
 to secure a supply of that essential element, 
 called for both labour and expense; but with- 
 out these, industry could not be established, 
 order could not last — the labours of Colonel 
 Hall would be unavailing, and his plans 
 visionary. This was, probably, the first re- 
 flection which he made in Mairwara, as it 
 could hardly fail to strike any observant 
 person who mounted its hills, or crossed its 
 valleys. 
 
 The country is, as we have said, mountain- 
 ous ; there are no rivers or perennial rivulets, 
 and as the rain runs off with extreme rapidity, 
 the soil is but partially saturated. The rains, 
 too, are precarious, bad seasons being the rule, 
 and good the exception. The whole amount 
 of rain, in good seasons, rarely exceeds twenty- 
 
Our Rule in India. 5 5 
 
 two inches, and usually ranges from eight to 
 twelve. In 1832, no single shower fell, and 
 the province experienced all the miseries of a 
 famine. The cattle perished, and numbers 
 of the Mairs fled to Malwa, while those who 
 remained had, in many cases, only the alter- 
 native of death by starvation, or of living by 
 plunder. In ordinary seasons, too, a break 
 of twenty-five or thirty days, without a 
 shower, often induced results almost as 
 disastrous. Some villages were destitute of 
 water, even for domestic purposes, during 
 the hot months, and their inhabitants were 
 compelled to emigrate to more favourable 
 localities, until the rains returned. At other 
 places, the people had to carry water from a 
 distance of two miles. Thus were the labours 
 of the inhabitants interrupted, their minds 
 unsettled, and their amendment rendered 
 hopeless, unless it could be shown to them, 
 that it was practicable to provide against such 
 calamities. Colonel Hall then saw, at once, 
 that the great want of the district was water, 
 and that it must be his first object to con- 
 
56 The Sto7y of M air war a, or 
 
 struct tank-embankments, and to teach and 
 encourage the people to sink wells, and to 
 make dams, weirs, £ narrees,' and every other 
 appliance and form of reservoir of which it 
 was possible to avail themselves, either for 
 the purposes of irrigation, or for the preser- 
 vation of water. All this was, in his position, 
 attended with peculiar difficulty. The pea- 
 sants he had to deal with were, at that period, 
 idle, indolent, untrained to labour, and with- 
 out confidence in themselves ; and he knew 
 that the Government would not, at first, 
 sanction any large outlay on tank-embank- 
 ments, or other public works which they 
 might regard as experimental. 
 
 A tank in Mairwara is a very different 
 thing from what it is in Europe, or even in 
 Bengal. In Europe it means a small reservoir 
 for holding water, known chiefly in ships, and 
 manufactories. In Bengal, it is a rectangular 
 excavation, of no great size, filled by rain, 
 and used either for ornament or for bathing. 
 In Mairwara it is a lake — an artificial lake or 
 
Our Rule in India. 5 7 
 
 spread of water — formed by embanking up 
 a stream with earth or masonry, or both com- 
 bined, for the purposes of irrigation, or to 
 serve as a fountain-head to the springs of 
 wells. The native name is c tulao,' or c tulab,' 
 and tulaos are distinguished from the smaller 
 reservoirs of Bengal by the circumstance, that 
 the latter are excavations, while in Mairwara, 
 the water is retained by a bund, or embank- 
 ment, and spreads over and above the land. 
 It is remarkable that Mairwara, where such 
 works are indispensable, is admirably adapted 
 for their construction. To the making of a 
 tulao, it is necessary that the face of the 
 country should possess an irregular uneven 
 surface, traversed by hollows and correspond- 
 ing elevations. The bund is thrown across 
 the low grounds, whereby the water is ob- 
 structed in its passage ; and being collected 
 into a body, it constitutes a tulao, or tank. 
 Mairwara has precisely the features here de- 
 scribed, and, besides, usually affords other 
 facilities, in the provision of stone and lime, 
 
58 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 and a supply of wood, for calcining. Still, 
 though these needful works are happily at- 
 tended, in that country, with less than their 
 ordinary cost elsewhere, they necessarily in- 
 volve, in labour and other ways, a large expen- 
 diture, which, as we have intimated, Colonel 
 Hall could hardly expect the Government to 
 authorise very freely, until he was enabled to 
 exhibit their value and importance. Under 
 these circumstances, he was obliged to pro- 
 ceed more gradually than he could have 
 wished ; and the marvel is, how he advanced 
 the industry of the country so rapidly, as 
 materially to aid him in carrying out his re- 
 forms, and raising its character and condition. 
 During the time he was in Mairwara, Colonel 
 Hall constructed seven of these vast irriga- 
 tion lakes, or tank-embankments, besides re- 
 pairing others of large extent, which had 
 never been available for agricultural purposes; 
 and he succeeded in leading the people to sink 
 wells, and to avail themselves of smaller works, 
 and inexpensive contrivances, for husbanding 
 
Our Rule in India. 59 
 
 the rain. His great tank-embankments are 
 models of work of that description. One of 
 these, the c Gohana tank-embankment/ was 
 selected by the Government of Agra for an 
 example, and its plans and details are given 
 in the 'Sketch' (p. 164). c It forms,' says 
 Captain Baird Smith,* c a very beautiful lake, 
 securing 250 acres of cultivation, giving food 
 and occupation to fifty-nine families, and 
 amply repaying the State's outlay/ It has 
 now stood five-and-twenty years, in a climate 
 well calculated to test its stability, and is 
 likely to last as long as the hills around it. 
 The Mairs saw, by the result of these works, 
 that it was in their own power to guard 
 against the hazards of the seasons, and learned 
 to expect, with confidence, the return for their 
 labours. Thus was the main impediment to 
 their industry removed ; and thus, with an- 
 cillary reforms, and the constant inspection 
 and unfailing encouragement of their bene- 
 
 * Vide the valuable and interesting work on l Italian 
 Irrigation.' By Captain R. Baird Smith. Vol. i. p. 418- 
 
60 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 volent governor, and supported by the con- 
 viction that the East India Company was in- 
 terested in their advancement, were these wild 
 mountaineers of 1820 — these Ishmaels of the 
 hills, these outlaws, uncivilised, half-famished, 
 and unclad — transformed into peaceful, happy 
 peasants, living in security and comfort on 
 the fruits of their own industry ; and when, 
 after thirteen years of incessant labour, Colonel 
 Hall was warned, by broken health, to bid 
 them a long farewell, he had the deep satis- 
 faction of knowing that he left the poor Mair 
 trained to good habits, formed to good prin- 
 ciples, c clothed, and in his right mind * : — 
 
 Thirteen years' continued and undivided atten- 
 tion to the affairs of the district had [says Colonel 
 Dixon] impaired Colonel Hall's health. Taking 
 into consideration the great anxiety of mind which 
 was induced, and the constant labour and expense 
 that were necessarily imposed on him, in training 
 the wild tribes of the hills, and substituting regu- 
 larity and order, for anarchy and disorder, the result 
 was by no means a matter of surprise. A more 
 arduous undertaking, in which the exercise of 
 temper and conciliation, combined with firmness. 
 
Our Rule in India. 6 1 
 
 were essentially requisite, could not be well ima- 
 gined. The reform he had to introduce could not 
 be effected in a moment. Time and confidence were 
 indispensable to its gradual advance, and ultimate 
 permanency. The customs of a country had to 
 be changed •, and honest labour, and settled habits 
 of thrift, to be exchanged for an uncertain, preda- 
 tory life. The difficulties to be encountered were 
 extremely formidable ; yet, all were met with pa- 
 tience, and subdued through perseverance. His 
 exertions had been attended with signal success. 
 The regret of the people was great, on hearing that 
 he was about to leave them. The question in their 
 minds was, who should take the kind interest in 
 their welfare that had been manifested by him, 
 during the thirteen years of his administration ? 
 
 Whatever may have been since effected in ame- 
 liorating the condition of the people, or in advancing 
 them in the arts of civilised life, it is to Colonel 
 Hall that the credit is due, for having laid the 
 foundation of these good works. — {Sketch, p. 82.) 
 
 Colonel Hall gave up his charge in 1835, 
 and the East India Company, with their cus- 
 tomary, judgment, selected in Captain (since 
 Colonel) Dixon, the person who, of all others, 
 was probably the best qualified to succeed him. 
 
62 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 The new Superintendent applied himself at 
 once to working out the measures, and de- 
 veloping the plans, of his predecessor ; and as 
 the Indian Government was, by this time, 
 well acquainted with their advantageous re- 
 sults, there was but little difficulty in obtain- 
 ing its sanction to the construction of large 
 tulaos, at the public expense, and to making 
 advances, in certain cases, for minor improve- 
 ments. In his first year, Colonel Dixon 
 erected two tulaos, and as he evinced the 
 zeal and ability that were expected from him, 
 he was soon enabled to proceed more rapidly ; 
 so that up to 1 847, the date of his last Report, 
 the number of tank-embankments and weirs 
 in Mairwara, amounted to 290. Of these, 
 seven were constructed, and some others re- 
 paired,* by Colonel Hall, the remainder 
 being all erected under the direction of his 
 successor. This refers only to works of the 
 
 * The ' Sketch,' in several places, states that Colonel 
 Hall made or repaired several tanks. This is a mistake. He 
 constructed seven tank-embankments of the larger class, and, 
 besides, repaired others. 
 
Our Rule i?i India. 63 
 
 larger class, besides which there was, since the 
 date of Colonel Dixon's appointment, a posi- 
 tive increase of 3,915 in the number of wells, 
 and a like progress in the minor appliances 
 for irrigation. Thus was the primary ob- 
 ject of Colonel Hall carried out, and the 
 province prepared against the contingencies 
 of famine. 
 
 The attention .of Colonel Dixon was not 
 confined to irrigation-works. He converted 
 wide tracts of jungle-land into fruitful fields, 
 and observing that the improved condition of 
 the people, rendered it desirable that an im- 
 pulse should be given to the encouragement 
 of trade ; that there was scarcely a merchant 
 settled in Mairwara ; that the Rajpoot towns 
 monopolised the dealings of the peasantry, to 
 their serious loss ; that an open market and a 
 bazaar were needed ; and that capital, where- 
 by cultivators might procure advances of 
 cash on fair terms, and so accelerate advance- 
 ment, was much required — he came to the 
 resolution of meeting these wants by building 
 
64 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 a town. Accordingly, in 1836, he founded 
 the town of Nya Nuggur (new city), which 
 has answered all his expectations. Traders 
 and mechanics flocked to occupy his handsome 
 shops ; neighbouring villages replaced their 
 mud hovels by solid habitations, resembling 
 those of the new city ; and rival bazaars arose, 
 in various parts of the country. The popu- 
 lation in 1847 consisted of 1,955 families, 
 and the average annual value of the merchan- 
 dise imported, exported, and passed through 
 the city, in the three preceding years, amount- 
 ed to 147,191/. Provision has been made 
 for amply supplying the inhabitants with 
 water ; trees give their refreshing shade in 
 the chief streets, at the gateways, and in the 
 roads which approach the town ; and by hav- 
 ing broad streets parallel to each other, inter- 
 secting the town from north to south, and 
 from east to west, ventilation has been en- 
 sured, and health preserved. Uniformity in 
 the buildings, and regularity in their construc- 
 tion, have been attended to; and in 1838 a 
 
Our Rule in India. 65 
 
 rampart-wall, six feet wide, twelve in the 
 bastions, seventeen feet high, and twenty-one 
 in the bastions, and two miles in circuit, was 
 carried round the town. The work of all 
 this rampart is so good, that Colonel Suther- 
 land, on seeing it in his tour of inspection, 
 observed that c the building of the town- wall 
 of Nya Nuggur, was enough to immortalise 
 one man.' 
 
 Another of Colonel Dixon's many success- 
 ful efforts, was the establishment of an annual 
 fair, at Nya Nuggur, by which an opportunity 
 for more general intercourse was afforded to 
 those secluded mountaineers. We can imagine 
 the interest with which he, and his predeces- 
 sor, must alike regard this picture of the first 
 fair : — 
 
 The fair was numerously attended by the people, 
 decked out in their best attire, and accompanied by 
 their minstrels. Clans, kept apart by the feuds of 
 ages, now met on one neutral spot, and greeted 
 each other. Opportunity was then afforded for 
 forming a judgment as to the industry or sloth of 
 particular sections. The dress of the industrious 
 F 
 
66 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 shone conspicuous, while shame, and a firm resolu- 
 tion to amend, characterised those whose appear- 
 ance was shabby. The females of the industrious 
 classes were extremely well-dressed. Seated on 
 the flat roofs of the bazaars in clusters, or moving 
 about the fair, they more resembled the wives of 
 Sahookars, in appearance and attire, than the ma- 
 trons and daughters of the wild predatory race of 
 Mairs. By this simple expedient of holding a fair, 
 were the people of two purgunnahs gathered to- 
 gether at one spot ; the condition of each village, 
 indeed of each separate family, was freely imparted 
 to each other; the sedulous had their reward in 
 self-approbation, in having made so good an appear- 
 ance, and then returned home confirmed in their 
 habits of thrift. The wives of the slothful were 
 the only sufferers, amidst the gay and happy mul- 
 titude. Plunder and robbery were interdicted, 
 and the only certain road to independence was, 
 application to labour. Their lords and masters were 
 importuned to improve their condition, and thus, 
 example had been highly beneficial. Much good 
 feeling had thus been generated amongst the people, 
 and all returned home intent on amendment. — 
 Sketchy pp. 1 20-1. 
 
 The fair is regularly maintained, and is 
 attended by 8,000 or 10,000 Mairs, as well 
 
Our Rule in India. 6 J 
 
 as by Rajpoots, and others from the adjoining 
 provinces. 
 
 The building of a town, and the establish- 
 ment of the fair, were so far successful move- 
 ments; but there is a circumstance connected 
 with them, which leaves our praises not un- 
 mingled with regret. Colonel Dixon — c the 
 subject/ as he says, c having received mature 
 deliberation'* — thought proper to dedicate 
 the fair to a Hindoo idol, c in whose wonder- 
 ful deeds/ as he again says,j" c the people 
 place implicit faith ; ■ and, moreover, he erected 
 the effigies of this idol, or hero-saint, mounted 
 on a horse, sculptured in stone, in the centre 
 of his town. If Colonel Dixon could do no- 
 thing for the furtherance of true religion, he 
 ought not, at all events, to have lent the sanc- 
 tion of his station, and of the Government he 
 represented, to the encouragement of idolatry. 
 This was, according to the phrase of a great 
 diplomatist, c not only a crime, but an indis- 
 cretion.' Nothing has so strongly excited 
 
 * Vide 'Sketch/ p. 118. f Ibid. p. 118. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 public feeling against the East India Com- 
 pany,* nothing in their near hour of trial will 
 so much endanger their continuance, as their 
 alleged discouragement of Christianity ; and 
 the mere fact of this uncalled-for idol at Nya 
 Nuggur, may be a fresh item in the long list of 
 charges against them. 
 
 The progress of the Mairs was not un- 
 heeded by their neighbours. The Ajmeer 
 chiefs complained that their tenants were 
 leaving them, tempted by better terms in 
 Mairwara. Their Superintendent wrote to 
 this effect to Colonel Dixon, who, in reply, 
 showed that the cause of these emigrations 
 lay, not in invitations from him, or reduction 
 in assessments, but in irrigation works and 
 field improvements ; and that, if the Ajmeer 
 chiefs adopted these, their people would not 
 leave them. Eventually, Colonel Dixon was 
 directed to proceed to Ajmeer, and introduce 
 there the irrigation works and field improve- 
 
 * This was written in 1853, before the great change in 
 our Indian Government. 
 
Our Rule in India. 69 
 
 ments, which had been so successful in Mair- 
 wara. This he did, to the great advantage 
 of the district, although, from the inferior 
 fertility of Ajmeer, and other causes, the re- 
 sults were not altogether so striking, either in 
 production or in revenue, as in Mairwara. 
 
 The Mairs [says the ' Sketch'] have been singu- 
 larly fortunate in the authorities who have been 
 appointed to rule over them. Colonel Hall, C.B., 
 devoted thirteen years to the amelioration of their 
 condition. He taught them the arts of civilised 
 life, and the duties of a soldier. The present in- 
 cumbent has striven to follow in the steps of that 
 able officer. 
 
 Colonel Dixon is truly entitled to the high 
 praise of having emulated alike the zeal, and 
 the success, of his predecessor, and it is mani- 
 fest that the Mairs have been fortunate in 
 their rulers — both in having two successive 
 Superintendents of rare administrative talents, 
 and, during so long a period, but the two. 
 One of the infirmities of our Asiatic empire — 
 incidental in a great measure to its being ruled 
 by Europeans — is the frequency of change in 
 
70 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 its provincial governments. A Superinten- 
 dent has hardly become acquainted with his 
 position, when he is transferred by promotion, 
 or compelled to leave by sickness. Thus, 
 Ajmeer has had its rulers changed eleven times 
 in twenty-three years, while the happier Mair- 
 wara has, in thirty-one years, known no other 
 governors than Colonels Hall and Dixon. 
 
 It is, we trust, evident that we have no 
 desire to disparage the high claims of Colonel 
 Dixon ; but there are, in his quarto volume, 
 some perplexing passages, to which it is right 
 to refer, especially as they have already occa- 
 sioned overt misapprehensions. 
 
 Colonel Dixon embodies in his text, and 
 adopts the following extract, from a report 
 made by Colonel Sutherland, a high authority, 
 who visited Mairwara on a tour of inspection 
 in 1841, and wrote as follows, for the infor- 
 mation of the Governor-General of India : — 
 
 Much was achieved for the peace and agricultural 
 prosperity of Mairwara by Colonel Hall, C.B., and 
 the people have a lively sense of the benefits which 
 
Our Rule in India. 7 1 
 
 they derived from his administration. The high 
 degree of prosperity which it has now attained 
 arises, however, from the system introduced by 
 Colonel Dixon. He may be said to live amongst 
 the people. He knows minutely the condition of 
 each village, and almost of its inhabitants indivi- 
 dually ; is ready to redress not only every man's 
 grievances, but to assist them to recover from any 
 pecuniary or other difficulty in which they may be 
 involved. It may be supposed that such a system 
 could not be of any extensive application ; but from 
 what I have seen here, and from my experience 
 elsewhere, I am satisfied that in unimproved coun- 
 tries, if men of Colonel Dixon's energies and dis- 
 position could be found, this system of management 
 may be of very extensive application. Colonel 
 Dixon has no European assistance, but his native 
 establishment is so admirably disciplined and con- 
 trolled, that whether in the construction of tanks, 
 in the assessment of the revenue*, or the adminis- 
 tration of justice amongst this simple and primitive 
 people, these establishments conduct all matters to 
 almost as happy an issue as he could himself. I 
 described at some length, in the fifteenth paragraph 
 of my Khalsa Report on the condition of Ajmeer, 
 the system pursued by Colonel Dixon; and I need 
 here only repeat, that it is simply to take, from all 
 
72 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 classes alike, the money-value of a third share of 
 the produce — to assist them to the utmost extent, on 
 the part of Government, to obtain water for irriga- 
 tion — and to assist them individually with money, or 
 by a remission in the share of produce, according to 
 the work to be done, in the accomplishment of all 
 -objects acknowledgedly remunerative and useful. — 
 Sketchy p. 72. 
 
 This passage is sufficiently perplexing. It 
 speaks of a system introduced by Colonel 
 Dixon, to which the prosperity of the district 
 is ascribed, while it names, expressly, two 
 systems, and describes a third. Our com- 
 plaint concerns not style, but facts, and, in 
 making it, we join in every eulogy on the 
 energy of Colonel Dixon. He did all that 
 might become a man, and all that was left 
 for him to do ; but he did not introduce 
 either of the two systems named, or the third, 
 described in this extract — they being all in 
 successful operation, when he took charge of 
 Mairwara. 
 
 As we impugn this passage, we desire to 
 be distinct. 
 
Our Rule in India. 73 
 
 First, we are told that the prosperity of 
 Mairwara arises c from the system introduced 
 by Colonel Dixon. He may be said to live 
 amongst the people. He knows minutely,' &c. 
 Surely, Colonel Dixon knows, and Colonel 
 Sutherland ought to have known, that all this 
 was, for thirteen years, the system and prac- 
 tice of Colonel Hall ! 
 
 Secondly, as to the system, not expressly 
 named, but described : c Colonel Dixon has 
 no European assistance; but his native esta- 
 blishment is so admirably disciplined -/ &c. 
 Now, Colonel Dixon knows perfectly well, 
 that this identical establishment was trained 
 to his hand by Colonel Hall — trained, too, 
 from a class who were, at that time, habituated 
 to falsehood and fraud, and that (what is 
 unusual in administrative changes in India) 
 he had not to part with a single member of it. 
 
 Thirdly, the second system actually named, 
 and the third described above, is : c To take 
 from all classes alike, the money-value of a 
 third share of the produce — to assist them to 
 
74 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 the utmost extent > on the fart of Government : , 
 to obtain water for irrigation * &c. 
 
 The money- advances for irrigation works 
 were, as we have seen, greatly extended in 
 the time of Colonel Dixon, and he was 
 thereby enabled to accomplish all that he did 
 so well ; but public works of the same de- 
 scription had been erected, and advances made, 
 in like manner, in the time of Colonel Hall ; 
 and it was in consequence of the beneficial 
 operation of these works, and their proved 
 results, that the system of advances was ex- 
 tended. It was a rule of the Indian Govern- 
 ment at that time, not to sanction advances 
 for agricultural improvements, until their 
 value and importance had been thoroughly 
 ascertained. On this account, Colonel Hall 
 was not enabled to proceed as rapidly with 
 irrigation works, as his successor; but the 
 system was the same, and its value was tried, 
 established, and strikingly exhibited, in the im- 
 proved condition, both of country and people, 
 before Colonel Dixon ever built a tank. 
 
Our Rule in India. 75 
 
 Thus are the three averments, in that short 
 extract, all inaccurate. Colonel Sutherland 
 was, no doubt, justly pleased with the activity 
 of Colonel Dixon, and the condition of his 
 province, and possibly, in an access of official 
 facility, forgot for a moment that he ever had 
 a predecessor. 
 
 We have good reason for remarking on 
 this extract. Mr. Kaye, in his well-known 
 work* on c The Administration of the East 
 India Company/ takes his account of Mair- 
 wara from the c Sketch '; does some injustice 
 to the claims of Colonel Hall ; and cites this 
 passage in a note, as one of his main autho- 
 rities. In the heading of his chapter on the 
 c Progress of Civilisation/ we have, c Dixon 
 and the Mairs/ but not the name of Colonel 
 Hall. The latter is afterwards introduced 
 to us as c Captain Hall, of the 1 6th Bengal 
 Native Infantry, an officer who, in the Quar- 
 termaster-General's Department, had exhibited 
 
 * * History of the Administration of the East India Com- 
 pany. 1 By John William Kaye. One vol. 8vo. Bentley : 
 London, 1853. 
 
76 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 considerable ability and force of character/ and 
 the moral and administrative reforms are 
 mostly referred to him ; but the irrigation 
 works are as wholly ascribed to Colonel Dixon, 
 as if his predecessor had never once thought 
 about them : c He (Dixon) saw at once what 
 was the great want of the country. Eager 
 to develope the productiveness of an unyield- 
 ing soil, and to stimulate the industry of an 
 unyielding people, he addressed himself to 
 this great matter of the water-supply, and left 
 untried no effort to secure it.' * c The 
 financial results of the experiment were highly 
 favourable ; the moral results were more 
 favourable still.' j- . . . c His (Dixon's) name 
 will live as the regenerator of the Mairs. It 
 is no small privilege, to the compiler of such 
 a work as this, to chronicle, even in a few 
 imperfect pages, the recent annals of Mair- 
 wara, and to show how a wild and lawless 
 
 * Kaye's • History of the Administration of the East 
 India Company,' pp. 468-9. 
 f Ibid. p. 469. 
 
Our Rule in India. 77 
 
 people were reclaimed by a single European 
 officer, taken from an expense-magazine/ * 
 
 The readers of Mr. Kaye's very clever book 
 — for such it is — may admire his style ; but, 
 as we have shown, they have some reason to 
 distrust his infallibility. 
 
 The extract on which we have been ob- 
 serving, is from a report made by Colonel 
 Sutherland, embodied, indeed and adopted in 
 the c Sketch ' ; but we have now to ask the 
 reader's attention to another, which is alto- 
 gether Colonel Dixon's own. After recording 
 the retirement of Colonel Hall, and his own 
 appointment, Colonel Dixon proceeds to 
 say : — 
 
 It was manifest that water was the great deside- 
 ratum, and that the first step towards improvement, 
 must be to provide for its supply. It was the one 
 thing necessary to bind the inhabitants to the soil, 
 to attach them to our form of government, and to 
 admit of our moulding them into the habits of life 
 we desired. It was evident that on its provision, 
 
 * Kaye's ' History of the Administration of the East 
 India Company," p. 472. 
 
78 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 which would ensure the ripening of the crops, de 
 pended future prosperity. It has been said that the 
 rains are light and uncertain ; but though the fall, in 
 reference to more favoured climes, is small, still, 
 were arrangements matured and carried out, for re- 
 taining all the rain that fell on the soil, there was a 
 confident promise that sufficient would be reserved 
 for the purpose of the cultivator. The plan was easy 
 of conception — the difficulty was to carry it out. 
 Its enforcement involved the outlay of considerable 
 sums of money. The people at that time were too 
 much impoverished to afford any gratuitous assistance. 
 Measures involving an immediate expenditure for 
 what might have been considered a problematical 
 benefit, were not likely to be favourably entertained 
 by the Government. Colonel Hall, during his thir- 
 teen years' administration, had made and repaired 
 seven tulaos. The benefit to the people and the 
 return of revenue had been great, but the outlay had 
 been inconsiderably small. To have progressed at 
 the slow rate which then prevailed, would have been 
 to have protracted the final completion of all the 
 works of irrigation that were necessary, to an inde- 
 finite period. The Superintendent had been recently 
 appointed. His character might not be sufficiently 
 known to the authorities, to warrant a deviation 
 from the then established rule, which was, to dis- 
 
Our Rule in India. 79 
 
 courage advances or outlays, on agricultural purposes. 
 Still, some essay towards effecting improvement was 
 imperative. The subject was brought to the notice 
 of the Government, such circumstances as favoured 
 the project being duly set forth. The proposition 
 was favourably entertained, and sanction accorded. 
 The requisition embraced the construction of two 
 tulaos. The work contemplated was inconsiderable 
 in respect to what was to be accomplished — to place 
 the country in a position to withstand a season of 
 drought. But as the Government had vouchsafed 
 its sanction, there was a confident expectation that 
 its support would be continued, and more liberally 
 extended to the outlay of larger sums, on the utility, 
 alike to the people and to the State, of works of 
 irrigation being made palpably manifest. The ques- 
 tion of the support of the Government having, hap- 
 pily, been answered in the affirmative, it became 
 necessary to arrange, systematically, for the spread 
 of improvement throughout the district. The ex- 
 pense of the larger works, it was evident, must be 
 borne by us ; but there was no reason for allowing 
 the inhabitants to remain inactive. It was desirable 
 to enlist their hearty co-operation in the fulfilment of 
 contemplated improvements. — Sketchy pp. 85-6. 
 
 We submit that the impression which 
 this passage is calculated to convey is, that 
 
80 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 although Colonel Hall built a few tanks in 
 thirteen years. Colonel Dixon was the first 
 who saw the real value of irrigation works, 
 and gave the impulse to their construction ; 
 that, when he took charge of the district, the 
 advantages arising from these, might have 
 been regarded as c problematical ' by the Go- 
 vernment, and their utility as not yet made 
 c palpable.' This is, accordingly, the impres- 
 sion imbibed, not only by Mr. Kaye, but 
 also by Captain Baird Smith, who, in his 
 valuable book on c Italian Irrigation/ * gives 
 an abstract of Colonel Dixon's book ; and it 
 appears again, in a notice of the c Sketch/ in 
 the February number of c Blackwood's Ma- 
 gazine' of the year 1853. c Blackwood,' and 
 Baird Smith, give each their meed of praise to 
 Colonel Hall ; but the reader will rise, from 
 the perusal of both, with the conviction that 
 the order of the respective merits of Colonels 
 Hall, and Dixon, refers the social reforms to 
 
 * < Italian Irrigation.' By Captain Baird Smith, Bengal 
 Artillery. 2 vols. Blackwood: Edinburgh, 1852. 
 
Our Rule in India. &i 
 
 the former, while the irrigation works and 
 agricultural improvements, are the fruits of 
 c a new system ' — c a new era/ introduced by 
 the latter : — 
 
 For thirteen years [says Captain Baird Smith*] 
 Colonel Hall devoted himself to the social ameliora- 
 tion of the Mairs ; to the abolition of demoralising 
 and pernicious customs \ to the substitution of honest 
 labour and settled habits of thrift among the people, 
 for an uncertain, predatory mode of life. Though 
 it was reserved for his successor, to develope irriga- 
 tion work, as a great engine for the improvement 
 of the country, and of the people ; it was Colonel 
 Hall who first tamed the wild race, who substi- 
 tuted law and order, for anarchy and disorder, and so 
 laid the foundation of all subsequent ameliorations. 
 
 Let the reader compare this passage with 
 another in the next page (p. 405), when, 
 after speaking of the appointment of Captain 
 Dixon, he adds : — 
 
 It soon became manifest to the new Superin- 
 tendent, that water was the great desideratum in 
 Mairwara, and that the first step, &c. 
 
 The same views are reproduced in c Black- 
 
 * * Italian Irrigation, ' vol. i. p. 404. 
 G 
 
82 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 wood/ a magazine which, we need hardly say, 
 is not more esteemed for its ability, than for 
 the straightforward character of its articles. 
 In the number for February 1853 (p. 208), 
 after enumerating the moral and social re- 
 forms of Colonel Hall, it adds : — 
 
 In 1835, ill-health drove Colonel Hall to 
 another climate, and he was succeeded by Captain 
 (afterwards Colonel) Dixon, of the Artillery : with 
 him began a new era in the history of Mairwara. 
 
 It soon became manifest to the new Superinten- 
 dent, that water was the great desideratum in Mair- 
 wara, &c. 
 
 And so it is assumed, throughout both the 
 abstract of the c Sketch ' in Smith, and the ar- 
 ticle on Mairwara in c Blackwood's Magazine/ 
 that the merit of the irrigation movement — 
 without which, as we have already observed, all 
 other reforms would be unavailing — belongs, 
 not to Colonel Hall, but to Colonel Dixon. 
 
 We do not impute to these writers any 
 intentional disparagement of the claims of 
 Colonel Hall. They have, probably, been 
 misled by a want of clearness in their only 
 
Our Rule in India. 83 
 
 book of authority, the c Sketch.' Colonel 
 Dixon makes many acknowledgments of the 
 services of his predecessor ; but it so happens, 
 that these are vague, save in their reference 
 to social reform, and that, when compared 
 with other passages of his work, they leave 
 those very impressions, which have been taken 
 up by every author who has referred to it. 
 
 It is but justice to Colonel Dixon to add, 
 that the errors of his work, may arise from 
 its being prepared amidst absorbing duties ; 
 from its having passed through the press 
 while he was far away ; and from its having 
 been originally made up, less for the English 
 public than for the Indian Government, who 
 were well acquainted with the real facts. How- 
 ever this may be, it is certain that when Colonel 
 Hall left Mairwara, the importance of tank- 
 embankments in that province, was not c pro- 
 blematical/ nor had their c utility' to be made 
 c palpable/ This officer had availed himself 
 of every means in his power, to encourage 
 irrigation works, and had made their results 
 
84 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 palpable, in the changed aspect of the 
 country, and the improved condition of its 
 people. In proof of this, we can adduce the 
 independent testimony of an accomplished 
 observer, who had no disposition to describe 
 the doings of the East India Company too 
 favourably. The French naturalist, M. 
 Victor Jacquemont, visited Mairwara, and 
 wrote of what he saw, as follows ; we cite 
 from the c Letters from India/* 2nd vol., 
 p. 285, first English edition: — 
 
 I have seen the superb Jeypore and the delight- 
 ful Ajmeer; and during my very short stay in the 
 latter, I have contrived to visit Mairwara, the former 
 abruzzie of Rajpootana. It was well worth eighty 
 miles of riding, in little more than twenty-four 
 hours. I saw a country whose inhabitants, since 
 an immemorial time, had never had any other means 
 of existence but plunder, in the adjacent plains of 
 Marwar and Meywar — a nation of murderers, now 
 changed into a quiet, industrious, and happy people 
 
 * ' Letters from India during the Years 1828, 1829, 1830, 
 183 1. By Victor Jacquemont. 2 vols. London: Churton, 
 1834. See Appendix B., p. 121. 
 
Our Rule in India. 85 
 
 of shepherds and cultivators. No Rajpoot chiefs, 
 no Mogul emperors, had ever been able to subdue 
 them. Fourteen years ago, everything was to be 
 done with them, and since six or seven years, every- 
 thing is done already. A single man has worked 
 this wonderful miracle of civilisation — Major Henry 
 Hall, the son-in-law of Colonel Fagan, of whom I 
 have written to you at Delhi. 
 
 As I know it will be gratifying to your feelings, 
 and to your opinions on the subject, I shall add, my 
 dear friend, that Major Hall has accomplished this 
 admirable social experiment, without taking a single 
 life. The very worst characters of Mairwara he 
 secured, confined them, or put them, in irons, at 
 work on the roads. Those who had lived long by 
 the sword, without becoming notorious for wanton 
 cruelty, he made soldiers ; they became, in that ca- 
 pacity, the keepers of their former associates, and 
 often of their chiefs ; and the rest of the population 
 was gained to the plough. 
 
 Female infanticide was prevalent with the Mairs, 
 and generally through Rajpootana ; and now female 
 casualties among infants, exceed not male casualties 
 — a proof that the bloody practice has been aban- 
 doned, and scarcely has a man been punished for 
 it. Major Hall did not punish the offenders ; he 
 removed the cause of the crime, and made the 
 
86 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 crime useless, even injurious to the offender, and it 
 is never now committed. 
 
 Major Hall has shown to me, on the field, the 
 corps which he has raised from amongst these for- 
 mer savages ; and I have seen none in the Indian 
 Army, in a higher state of discipline. He was justly 
 proud of his good work, and spared no trouble to 
 himself, that I might see it thoroughly, in the few 
 hours I had to spend with him. Upwards of one 
 hundred villagers were summoned, from the neigh- 
 bouring villages and hamlets. I conversed with 
 them on their former mode of life ; it was a most 
 miserable one, by their accounts. They were naked 
 and starving. Now, poor as is the soil of their 
 small valleys,, and barren their hills, every hand 
 being set to work, there is plenty of clothes and 
 food ; and so sensible are they of the immense 
 benefit conferred on them by the British Govern- 
 ment, that willingly they pay to it, already, 500,000 
 francs,, which they increase as their national wealth 
 admits of it. 
 
 Often I had thought, that gentle means would 
 prove inadequate to the task of breaking-in popu- 
 lations, addicted, for ages, to a most unruly, savage 
 life — such as the Greeks, for instance ; yet the 
 Klaphtes were but lambs, compared to the Mairs — 
 
Our Rule in India. 87 
 
 and the Mairs, in a few years, have become an in- 
 dustrious and well-behaved people. 
 
 I see by the Bombay papers that M. Capo 
 d'Istrias has been murdered. I wish Major Hall 
 were his successor ; for now I have the greatest 
 confidence in the efficacy of gentle means ; but a 
 peculiar talent, too, which is a gift of nature, is 
 required in the ruler, without which, the most be- 
 nevolent intentions would prove useless.* 
 
 In connection with Jacquemont's most in- 
 teresting letter, we transcribe, from a printed 
 document, a note addressed to Colonel Hall, 
 by the late Lord Metcalfe, then Governor- 
 General of India : — 
 
 Allahabad, 10th February, 1835. 
 
 My dear Colonel, — Many thanks for your 
 kind letters. I have read your interesting report 
 regarding Mairwara. 
 
 Your management there will immortalise you! 
 It has already brought your name before the public 
 with proud distinction. Jacquemont says, you 
 ought to be King of Greece. 
 
 * Jacquemont, again referring to Major Hall, says (vol. 
 ii. p. 291): — 'There are few Major Halls to work the 
 miracles he has done.'* 
 
88 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 You have my wishes to be whatever you may 
 desire to be. 
 
 Yours, most sincerely, 
 
 C. T. Metcalfe. 
 
 Jacquemont visited Mairwara in 183 1. 
 Colonel Hall left that province in 1835. 
 Thus it appears that, four years before this 
 officer left the Mairs, he had changed them 
 c into a quiet, industrious , and happy people of 
 shepherds and cultivators ; ' that he had 
 c gained them to the plough;' that c there was 
 plenty of food and clothes ; ' that, at this period, 
 he had accomplished their reformation — had 
 c worked this miracle of civilisation. 1 Colonel 
 Dixon, we gladly repeat, evinced the most 
 enduring zeal, reclaimed large tracts, induced 
 new settlers, extended irrigation works, built 
 a town, and (as was said of him by a com- 
 petent authority) c did enough to immortalise 
 one man.' Still, the system he pursued so 
 well, had been introduced, and proved, by his 
 predecessor. 
 
Our Rule in India. , 89 
 
 The testimony of Jacquemont would alone 
 establish the claims of Colonel Hall. We 
 persuade ourselves that there was no actual 
 intention of impugning them ; but as they 
 have been, in fact, impugned, our duty, and 
 our desire, is to defend the right. 
 
 In closing this chapter, we must express a 
 hope, that the more popular form in which we 
 are now presenting c The Story of Mairwara,' 
 may help to make known to widening circles, 
 the fruitful labours of Colonel Dixon, and 
 General Hall. Such workers are the stars of 
 India, worthy of being numbered with those 
 whose names we honour, and to whom we 
 erect statues. 
 
90 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF MAIRWARA, 
 FROM 1848 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 Impelled by the ordinary feeling in favour 
 of fair-play, we tried, in the preceding chapter, 
 on its first appearance, to set right some mis- 
 apprehensions in reference to the respective 
 shares of Colonel Hall and of Colonel Dixon, 
 in the civilisation of the Mairs. We discussed 
 the topics simply with the desire of doing 
 justice, and do not think it necessary, on our 
 reconsideration of the subject, to alter what we 
 have said, or to advert to it any further. 
 
 Colonel Dixon was not inferior in energy 
 to his predecessor, Colonel Hall. Within a 
 year of his appointment, he had made a per- 
 sonal inspection of all the districts then under 
 him, and laid before the Government an im- 
 
Our Rule in India. 9 1 
 
 portant Report, calling on them to assist him 
 with a largely increased expenditure, for irri- 
 gation, and other field-works. In this he met 
 with all the encouragement he could have 
 hoped for, and was thus enabled to carry out 
 the many great undertakings, to which we 
 have referred in the preceding chapter. In 
 the same first year, he founded and reared a 
 city, thus seeking to extend to commerce, the 
 momentum which had been already given to 
 agriculture. We have spoken of Nya Nug- 
 gur ( c The New City ') before, but so great an 
 achievement deserves a further notice. Up 
 to the period of the building of Nya Nuggur, 
 there was scarcely a trader in all Mairwara. 
 Their long ancestral fame for robbery and 
 rapine, was far too firmly fixed to allow of the 
 Mairs being looked on, by the merchant class, 
 without some lingering feelings of apprehen- 
 sion and distrust ; and although Colonel Hall 
 had, with a view to the promotion of trade, 
 established some lines of intercourse, still 
 these were chiefly used for cattle ; and the 
 
92 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 people got such articles as they required from 
 Nusseerabad or Ajmeer, distant, respectively, 
 some thirty or forty miles, paying, of course, 
 enhanced prices. As the country was pros- 
 pering, this form of dependence was incon- 
 venient. Colonel Dixon accordingly circu- 
 lated notices in the neighbouring towns, 
 intimating his intention of building a city 
 which would be well situated for commerce, 
 being between the states of Marwar, Meywar, 
 and Ajmeer ; and that a wide field was thus 
 open to merchants, for the investment of 
 their money, while all settlers should find 
 protection, and be received with kindness. 
 It was added, that the customs-duties, leviable 
 on merchandise in the new town, should be 
 remitted for the first two years. These invi- 
 tations were well received, and people came 
 in numbers to learn particulars, and to judge 
 for themselves. The houses were to be of 
 stone, the streets regular and broad, and to 
 have the shade of trees ; and provision was 
 made for a good supply of water. Candi- 
 
Our Rule in India. 93 
 
 dates at once came forward for forty shops, 
 and the buildings were begun. The bazaar 
 was to be after the model of that at Ajmeer, 
 and was opened for traffic three months after 
 the first stone was laid. Religious edifices 
 were added, and in due time c the business of 
 life/ says Colonel Dixon, c fell into the course 
 of steady regularity which characterises the 
 internal economy of old towns/ 
 
 Two years later, Colonel Dixon completed 
 another great public work — that is, the ram- 
 part-wall, already spoken of, which surrounds 
 his town. This was a concession to the resi- 
 dent traders, to secure their increasing stores, 
 from the hazards of possible raids. 
 
 The building of Nya Nuggur appears to 
 have answered the objects for which it was 
 undertaken. In his last published Report, 
 dated 1848, Colonel Dixon says: — 
 
 The tables have now been turned, and, in place 
 of seeking supplies from distant towns, we have 
 ourselves become the source of supply to surround- 
 ing countries. In the course of twelve years, a 
 town has been built, and fortified by a wall two 
 
94 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 miles in length. A population, numbering perhaps 
 nine thousand souls, entire foreigners to the country, 
 have come to settle with us, and, having built their 
 shops and houses, are now sedulously engaged in 
 their own immediate callings. An extensive and 
 prosperous trade has arisen, and has become 
 cemented by time ; while Nya Nuggur presents a 
 great variety in its manufactures, and is a sample of 
 industry worthy of imitation by our neighbours. — 
 Sketch, p. 109. 
 
 It is now twenty years since the last date in 
 Colonel Dixon's c Sketch/ and we are happy 
 to hear, from persons who have the means of 
 knowing the country, that it is prosperous, 
 and fairly progressive. Nya Nuggur has 
 not, of late, increased much in population; 
 but it has become the centre of a well-rooted, 
 thriving cotton-trade with Bombay, as well 
 as with other places ; and an active com- 
 merce in other articles — such as grain, salt, 
 sugar, spices, tobacco, opium, and wool. 
 
 Colonel Hall and, after him, Colonel Dixon, 
 took long-continued pains to train their people 
 to industrious ways. They had them in- 
 structed in building, in the making of tank- 
 
Our Rule in India. 95 
 
 embankments, and of all field-works, and 
 supplied them with tools and implements. 
 Their desire was, to have every individual 
 employed, and every foot of ground under 
 careful cultivation. They even led the min- 
 strels, who were chartered idlers, to turn their 
 soft hands to farm- labour. It is gratifying 
 to find that the good habits, so cherished and 
 enjoined, continue still. As to their success 
 in agriculture, a competent observer, now in 
 Mairwara, writes as follows : — 
 
 Better cultivation than that which is brought to 
 bear on its narrow strips of hill-bosomed land, I 
 have seen nowhere else out of Scotland. Indeed, 
 it would compare favourably with the model farming 
 of Mid-Lothian. In these hill-valleys, no foot of 
 ground is lost, and at this season (February) a 
 sheet of vivid green, from wheat or barley, spreads 
 from base to base of the hills, and pushes the village 
 footpaths up on the bare hill-sides, where no corn 
 can grow, or fertile soil be lost. 
 
 The cardinal events of the later history of 
 the Mairs are, — the death of Colonel Dixon, 
 and the revival of the claims of the native 
 princes, to have a large portion of their territory 
 
96 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 transferred to them. We shall discuss the sub- 
 ject of the transfer presently, but must first pay 
 our tribute to the memory of Colonel Dixon. 
 Early in 1 857, the year of the Great Mutiny, 
 Colonel Dixon, worn by climate, and by the 
 responsibilities of an arduous position, died, 
 and was truly mourned for, by the people he 
 had served, so devotedly, and so well. We 
 remember reading, in the Memoirs of Warren 
 Hastings,* that for long years after his depar- 
 ture from India, no native from the provinces 
 entered the Government-Hall in Calcutta, 
 without doing reverence to his portrait. This 
 was the unbought homage, the genuine tes- 
 timony, of public opinion, which consoled him 
 for the Athenian gratitude he had experienced 
 at home. Colonel Dixon, and General Hall, 
 had no ingratitude to encounter, but they 
 too found, in the strong regards of their 
 people, the reward they valued most. Their 
 names are always spoken of in tones expres- 
 
 * * Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Warren Hast- 
 ings.' By the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A., 3 vols. Bentley : 
 London, 1841. 
 
Our Rule in India. 97 
 
 sive of veneration and regret. c Ah,' they 
 said, c the days of Hall Sahib, and Dixon 
 Sahib, are no more ! They took us, when we 
 were as wild beasts on the mountains, and 
 made men of us!' c The name/ said an 
 elder, c of Hall Baba will be known amongst 
 us, as long as our mountains last/ 
 
 We have seen the remarkable success of 
 the moral, social, and economic measures in- 
 troduced by General Hall in Mairwara, and 
 that, after an experience of forty-five years, 
 their good results continue, and abide. Order 
 and industry have become established, slavery 
 has been abolished, the cruel customs of sell- 
 ing wives and mothers have been put down, 
 and female infanticide — one of the great diffi- 
 culties of statesmen and philanthropists in 
 India — has been wholly eradicated. The tes- 
 timony of Captain Baird Smith, who knows 
 India well, is : — c The sale of women, and 
 female infanticide, are among the customs 
 thus abolished ; and so effectually, that the 
 former is scarcely ever heard of, and the latter 
 
 H 
 
98 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 is regarded as a heinous crime, by the Mairs 
 themselves/ * 
 
 Mr. Kaye, in his c History of the Adminis- 
 tration of the East India Company/ and in a 
 chapter on Female Infanticide which does them 
 honour, tells of the efforts made by ener- 
 getic men, in various parts of India, to put 
 down this revolting practice — by such men 
 as Duncan, Walker, Wilkinson, Willoughby, 
 Erskine, Lang, Ludlow, Unwin, Macpher- 
 son, Campbell, and others ; of their failures, 
 their partial and temporary successes — and 
 then refers to the result of General Hall's 
 measures in Mairwara, as c The first unequi- 
 vocal success,' as one which had stood the 
 trial of more than twenty years. His words 
 are, c The result appears to have justified the 
 sanguine expectations of Colonel Hall.' 
 
 Writing more than twenty years after- 
 wards, his successor, Colonel Dixon, says — 
 
 Thus infanticide received its deathblow, through 
 the diminution of the expenses attending on mar- 
 
 * • Italian Irrigation,' vol. i. p. 404.. 
 
 
Our Rule in India. 99 
 
 riages, which were now brought within the reach of 
 all sections of society. For many years past, no female 
 children have been put to death. The practice has 
 fallen altogether into desuetude. Indeed, so greatly 
 have the ideas of the people changed on this, and 
 other usages, since the introduction of our rule, that 
 the commission of such an act, would now be viewed 
 as a most heinous crime.* 
 
 The twenty years above referred to, may 
 now be written down as forty-five, and the 
 reports of missionaries, who have been living 
 amongst this people for the last eight years, 
 state, that infanticide is as little known there 
 now, as it is in England. They add, that in 
 all that time, they heard of but one case of 
 wife-selling, and that was surreptitious, and 
 known to be illegal. These peaceful triumphs 
 were all devised and carried out by Colonel 
 (now General) Hall, and all, as Jacquernont 
 adds, with evident exultation, by gentle 
 means. 
 
 We have two other topics to touch upon, 
 
 * Vide Dixon's ' Mairwara,' as cited in Kaye's ' History of 
 the Administration of the East India Company,'' pp. 564-5. 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 in order that our readers may have a just 
 impression of the actual condition of Mair- 
 wara. These are, — Education and Religion. 
 Whatever has been done in either of these 
 departments, appears to have been owing, 
 altogether, to the United Presbyterian Church. 
 In 1858, some members of that denomination, 
 moved by the terrors of the recent Mutiny, 
 and by the more appalling barbarism which 
 they disclosed, and desirous of sharing in the 
 evangelisation of India, came to the deter- 
 mination of sending a mission there. The 
 field they selected, was the British provinces 
 of Ajmeer and Mairwara. They had learned 
 that the hillmen were less under the in- 
 fluence of customs, and superstitions, than the 
 dwellers in the plains, and that, accordingly, 
 Gospel-teaching was more likely to make 
 progress amongst them. In 1 860, they sent out 
 one medical and two ordained missionaries; 
 and they appear to have now eight European 
 agents there, engaged in preaching, and teach- 
 ing. They have fixed stations, with central 
 
 
Our Rule in India. 161 
 
 schools, whence they supervise and inspect 
 other schools in the villages about them. 
 From these stations, they itinerate through 
 given districts, preaching and ministering as 
 occasions offer. 
 
 In their eight years' experience, they have 
 found no serious hindrance to their efforts, 
 but only, now and then, some little difficulty 
 arising from caste, or prejudice, or super- 
 stition ; and their addresses are listened to, 
 with grave attention. Neither do the people 
 make any difficulty about sending their 
 children to the mission schools, although 
 the missionaries uphold the healthy doctrine, 
 that secular education and religious teaching 
 should go hand-in hand. Indeed, the farmers 
 and peasantry (the real original Mairs), take a 
 very practical view of the value of education. 
 Having been hitherto wholly unacquainted 
 with what, in days gone by, the Irish school- 
 master was used to call the c three R's '(reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic), they found themselves 
 obliged to entrust the keeping of their ac- 
 
102 The Story of Mairwara> or 
 
 counts to the Bunneahs, or merchant-class, 
 who, at stated times, came round to assist 
 them. These people are said, as a rule, to 
 falsify accounts, and, through fictitious re- 
 presentations of debt, to practise a great deal 
 of oppressive fraud. Hence, fathers have 
 become very sensible of the advantage of 
 having their children able to assist them in 
 the keeping of their accounts. 
 
 In 1 865, the missionaries had twelve schools 
 in and around Beawr, with a daily attendance 
 of 470 children ; and, in the following year, 
 there was a public examination of their schools, 
 in the presence of the authorities of the neigh- 
 bourhood. In addition to the ordinary stu- 
 dies, they were examined in mental arithmetic, 
 and in the first seven chapters of the Acts of 
 the Apostles, and answered well. The number 
 in actual attendance then was 470 ; but one 
 school, numbering 1 00, and said to be well pre- 
 pared, refused to attend, having taken it into 
 their heads that they were all to be spirited 
 off to an imaginary place called Willayat. The 
 
Our Rule in India. 103 
 
 Pundit said that, to oppose them, would be to 
 break up the school, so they had their way. 
 
 The same day afforded another instance 
 of the impulsive character of this people, 
 and of the suddenness with which they act 
 on their impressions. General Hall had 
 directed that a remembrance-feast should be 
 given, in his name, to such survivors as had 
 served under him in any capacity. About 
 140 veterans came forward, many of them 
 walking from a considerable distance. They 
 rested in groups, beneath the banyan and 
 orange trees, enjoyed their hookah and their 
 talk; and the feast, consisting of piles of 
 pastry and of sweets, and of all such things 
 as they think good, was announced. At 
 that instant it was suggested, that the whole 
 object of the feast was to make them Chris- 
 tians, and that there was something wrong 
 mixed with the food. All hesitated, and 
 some got up, and tying pieces of cocoa-nut 
 in their turbans were going off, leaving the 
 feast untasted. Fortunately for the enjoy- 
 
]04 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 ment of the day, there was one sensible man 
 amongst them. He pointed out to them, 
 that the eatables had come direct from their 
 first confectioner, whose shop their best 
 Brahmins frequented daily ; and, showing 
 round the photograph of General Hall, he 
 asked them if they could believe that he 
 would practise such a contrivance on them ? 
 No one, on consideration, believed it, and the 
 appeal was triumphant. 
 
 In addition to the schools around Beawr, 
 there are village schools connected with the 
 several stations, and in all these, adults may 
 be seen, as well as children — young farmers 
 reading with the Scripture classes, and an- 
 swering from a Catechism, which the mission- 
 aries have rendered into the Hindee. While, 
 however, they are openly, and with their own 
 goodwill, teaching them great truths, the 
 missionaries are by no means disposed to re- 
 ceive converts hastily, and have declined 
 admitting several. 
 
 Colonel Dixon was not inattentive to the 
 
Our Rule in India. 105 
 
 value of schools. He had twelve in Nya 
 Nuggur — ten in which Hindee was taught, and 
 two for instruction in Persian. The number 
 of children attending, at the date of his last 
 report, amounted to 118. Besides these, he 
 had village schools, amounting in all to fifty. 
 They were of little use, and have nearly all 
 disappeared since Colonel Dixon's death ; 
 owing partly to there being no system of 
 inspection, and partly to the pundits (or 
 teachers) being idle, ignorant, and under- 
 paid — their wages being hardly better than 
 those of a cooly, or common porter. 
 
 When the missionaries first came, there 
 were, in all the Mugra or Hill country, but 
 eight schools. Two were Government schools, 
 paid for by the Indian treasury, and the remain- 
 ing six were supported, partly by a sum taken 
 from the land-tax of the district, and partly 
 from other funds at the Commissioner's dis- 
 posal. The Government teachers received six 
 rupees a month, the others four The result, of 
 course, was, that such schools were altogether 
 
106 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 useless, and this the peasantry quite under- 
 stood. When asked to send their children, 
 their ordinary answer was, c Why should 
 we ? They learn nothing there, and they are 
 of some sort of use to us in the fields.' 
 
 No schools will do in India which are not 
 under a vigilant superintendence, and, for want 
 of that, Colonel Dixon, with all his energy, 
 was wholly unsuccessful. The missionaries 
 take a more judicious course ; they content 
 themselves with establishing schools within a 
 morning's ride of their stations, and postpone 
 attempting their further extension, until they 
 have centres which may bring them within 
 their reach. In want of these, they have de- 
 clined applications for schools from farmers, 
 with offers of support. 
 
 Having now completed our outline of the 
 history and present position of Mairwara, we 
 revert to the topic with which we commenced 
 — the transfer of large portions of this territory 
 to the two native princes who claim them 
 as their own. These claims have been doubt- 
 
Our Rule in India. 107 
 
 ful and doubted, since our first subjugation 
 of the country, and have been the subject of 
 many arrangements, but of no final agreement 
 as yet. They were at first too easily con- 
 ceded, and hence the great trouble they have 
 given us. The officials to whom the Com- 
 pany of that day referred the examination of 
 their titles, were deceived by evidence which 
 they who offered it knew to be untrue. For 
 example, the Mairs were accustomed, at cer- 
 tain festivals, to offer a goat or a hare, or 
 some such trifling present, to the lowland 
 lord near whom they lived. These were re- 
 presented as symbols of allegiance, when they 
 were, in fact, nothing of the kind, but only 
 tokens of respect, for which they received in 
 return an allowance — usually a too liberal 
 allowance — of drink. 
 
 The truth, as it is now known, is, that the 
 chiefs of Meywar and Marwar have no title 
 to any portion of Mairwara, unless it be that 
 of their having made continual claim to it. 
 The Mairs were never in bondage to any man, 
 
108 The Story of M air war a, or 
 
 They have been an independent people from 
 a period of great antiquity — it is said, even 
 from the thirteenth century. They never paid 
 tribute, but had long and regularly levied it 
 from districts, which chose to buy from them 
 that protection which their own chiefs could 
 not afford them. Some chiefs compounded 
 with them for an annual payment in corn or 
 cash, and some by the assignment of a village. 
 It is quite true that the question of these 
 claims is not free from difficulty. We ac- 
 cepted them in the first instance, and have 
 dealt with them in agreements and treaties. 
 Still, it may be urged that we were led into 
 all this, by misstatements and wrong represen- 
 tations, and might justly repudiate a title so 
 tainted with, what a court of equity would 
 call, fraud. This course is not unattended 
 with difficulty ; but had we only a choice of 
 difficulties, it would be incomparably better 
 to accept it, rather than resort to the fearful 
 alternative of handing a whole people back 
 to barbarism, and foregoing all those moral 
 
Our Rule in India. too, 
 
 obligations which a long connection with 
 them has induced. 
 
 We have, however, yet another course. 
 These claimant-States entered into agreements 
 with us, to make over what they called their 
 districts, to meet the expenses of the Mair 
 Battalion, and, in the treaties made in refer- 
 ence to these districts, it is expressly stipu- 
 lated c that they should be held by us so long 
 as may suit our convenience.' We may then, 
 as is suggested by the two Indian journals, 
 cited in our first chapter, fall back upon this 
 clause, and keep the provinces as long as we 
 please. This course may be practically the 
 best, but neither is it without its difficulty. 
 The whole agreement appears to contemplate 
 only a temporary retention of the districts, 
 and is calculated to preclude the Mairs from 
 ever regarding their connection with England 
 as permanent. 
 
 In any negotiation that may be entered 
 into with these two neighbour States, it may 
 be well to bear in mind, that, on the subju- 
 
no The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 gation of the Mairs, we were the only party 
 who had a right to their country. The Mairs 
 had forfeited all rights. Such Ishmaelites 
 knew they had none. They had broken 
 agreements, violated treaties, and assailed and 
 plundered us in incessant raids, and so com- 
 pelled us to subdue them. France had not a 
 more righteous title to Algeria than we had 
 to Mairwara — an unquestionable right by 
 conquest. The princes of Mey war, and Mar- 
 war, were never regarded by the Mairs as 
 anything more than pretenders. This people 
 respected our fame in arms, and acknowledg- 
 ing and feeling our title by the sword, 
 
 ' Deemed it 
 No loss of pride ■ 
 
 to accept and obey our rule. They have 
 learned to value their union with us, by nearly 
 half a century of the truest services, and, come 
 what may, we must not abandon them. 
 
 We shall now refer to some short docu- 
 ments, which show in what light the proposed 
 transfer was regarded by high officials in 
 
Our Rule in India. 1 1 1 
 
 India, as well as by the Mairs themselves, 
 when it was debated in 1846. 
 
 The first is the opinion of Colonel Suther- 
 land, Lieutenant-Governor of the North- 
 western Provinces. We transcribe it from 
 Colonel Dixon's s Sketch' (p. 224) : — 
 
 It may be a question whether the British Go- 
 vernment would be justified in now withdrawing its 
 protection. Under the native governments no 
 limit to the demands of the State exists, but the power 
 of one party to exact, and the ability of the other to 
 pay. If, by mild and conciliatory measures, the 
 Mairs have been reduced from a state of wild ferocity 
 to one of civilisation and industry, it would amount 
 to almost a breach of faith to give them over, in 
 their present comparatively helpless condition, to be 
 plundered by persons whom they hate. 
 
 The probable results of their transfer would be, 
 their impoverishment, the diminution of their culti- 
 vation, and their more or less rapid demoralisation, 
 till they resumed their old habits of plunder, and 
 became such a source of uneasiness to their neigh- 
 bours, and disquietude to the country at large, as to 
 render our interposition again necessary. But it 
 could not then be rendered with the same effect as 
 now. The remembrance would be fresh of what 
 
1 1 2 The Story of Mairwara, or 
 
 would appear to the people a betrayal of their 
 interests, They would be slow to adopt habits and 
 to follow suggestions which, at some future time, 
 would only make them the better objects of plunder. 
 
 We next show a document drawn up by 
 the Mairs themselves in 1832, when it was 
 rumoured that our rule was about to be 
 abolished, and the Mairs given over to the 
 native princes who claimed them. The cir- 
 cumstances of their position then, and now, 
 are the same ; only their aversion to being 
 transferred has become stronger by length of 
 time, and by their greater experience of the 
 advantages of good rule. 
 
 The document is a petition from the Mair 
 zemindars of Shamgurh, dated 12th June, 
 1832:— 
 
 The government of the English extends to thou- 
 sands of koskos, and they are kings of the earth. 
 We never yielded to any Raja, or Bhoomeah, when- 
 ever any such came with troops to attack us, we 
 never submitted, but beat them back with our own 
 power. What have the Bhoomeahs to do with us, 
 that we should pay them revenue ? On the contrary, 
 
Our Rule in India. 113 
 
 they (such as the Thakoors of Mussooda and 
 Khurwa) paid us revenue, that we should abstain 
 from plundering them. When you came to reduce 
 our hills, we recognised you as our king, and made 
 no resistance, but as the subjects of a king consented 
 to pay revenue. Our lands were given to us by 
 no one. At one time King Akbar took our an- 
 cestors to Delhi, circumcised them, rendered us 
 his subjects, and gave us those towns. From those 
 days to this, no government has been established in 
 Mairwara. Considering you our original kings, we 
 pay you revenue. We have derived our injuries 
 from you ; but such benefits have followed, that 
 nobody is in want of food or raiment, and we are 
 as happy, if not more so, than in former times. 
 But now that the Thakoors of Mussooda, and 
 Khurwa, have told us that they will take revenue 
 from us, desire us to cultivate well, and point out 
 our boundaries ; we represent to you, that these 
 lands do not belong to Thakoors, or Bhoomeahs. 
 Boundaries have never been fixed ; and it cannot 
 be that the Thakoors of Khurwa or Mussooda shall 
 take revenue from us. If only one of your chu- 
 prassees came, all the inhabitants of the district are 
 obedient, with supplicating hands, but we never will 
 submit to any other masters except you. 
 
 In 1843 ^ s question of the transfer was 
 
 1 
 
H4 2% Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 again revived, and is referred to by Colonel 
 Dixon, as follows : — 
 
 This paragraph expresses the sentiments I 
 entertained in 1840. Nor have I, after a lapse of 
 two years and a half, any cause for changing those 
 opinions. On the contrary, further experience has 
 satisfied me of the correctness of the views I then 
 formed. By way of illustration, it may be remarked 
 that during the last month, reports have been rife that 
 our arrangements in Mairwara were to be broken 
 up, and the villagers given over to the States bearing 
 their names. Numerous petitions have been re- 
 ceived, and all breathing the same painful and heart- 
 breaking sentiments : extreme despondence that 
 they should be transferred to States to which they 
 only paid a nominal allegiance ; that the British Go- 
 vernment, through extreme kindness, conciliation, 
 and liberality, had weaned them from their former 
 predatory habits, and had taught them the arts of 
 peaceful industry; that, under the favour and soli- 
 citude of that paternal government, their children 
 were becoming an industrious peasantry, looking 
 alone to the produce of their lands as the means of 
 their livelihood ; that at present they were eating the 
 bread of industry, in full security that what they 
 earned was their own, and in full confidence that 
 
Our Rule in India. 115 
 
 they, and their posterity, would live in happiness 
 under the shade of the English Government ; that 
 they had sunk all their savings and profits on the 
 improvement of their paternal lands ; that their 
 separation from the British rule would dissipate, and 
 utterly destroy all the visions of happiness they had 
 so fondly hoped would be permanent, and descend 
 from father to son in perpetuity ; that now, each man 
 received a patient and willing hearing from the 
 Superintendent. The Kamdars would treat them 
 with haughtiness and tyranny, fleece them of all 
 their hard earnings, and ultimately drive them to 
 desperation — forcing them either to quit their native 
 soil, or to have recourse to the paths of their fore- 
 fathers in resuming a predatory life. These are a 
 {qw of the melancholy anticipations which rumour 
 alone has created, in the breasts of the denizens of 
 Mairwara. — (Sketch, p. JO.) 
 
 The Government had decided on making 
 over a number of the villages to the State of 
 Marwar ; but on receiving the above remon- 
 strance from Colonel Dixon, they reconsidered 
 their views, and came to an agreement with 
 the Raja of Marwar, for their further con- 
 tinuance under British rule. The arguments 
 in the remonstrance are, in the main, as appli- 
 
1 1 6 The Story of ' M air war a, or 
 
 cable to the Mairs of the present day, as they 
 were to those of 1843. No doubt Mairs, 
 born and bred under our rule, are less likely 
 to recur to predatory habits than their fathers 
 were. Still, there is too much reason to be- 
 lieve that, if long placed in unfavourable cir- 
 cumstances, they would relapse into all bad 
 ways, and that it would be more difficult to 
 reclaim them than ever. 
 
 Before leaving this part of the subject, 
 there are one or two circumstances which it is 
 worth while noticing. Part of the arrange- 
 ment come to in 1843, was > tnat certain vil- 
 lages which had been placed under our 
 management in 1835, snou lci be given back to 
 Marwar, the State that claimed them. With 
 us they prospered, and their revenue had 
 nearly trebled ; but on their re-transfer, veri- 
 fying the prophetic fears of Colonel Dixon, 
 they deteriorated, the land relapsed into 
 waste jungle, and many of the inhabitants 
 migrated to within our jurisdiction. 
 
 These villages, we have seen, fell away 
 
Our Rule in India. 117 
 
 from the advancement they had made under 
 us. We have the cases of other Mair vil- 
 lages, which, in our first arrangements, were 
 left in the hands of the chiefs that claimed 
 them, and which never attained to any ad- 
 vancement. We speak of the villages on the 
 western side of Mairwara. Thus it would 
 appear, as far as these examples teach, that 
 the native princes of India have little taste 
 or talent for statesmanship, even while they 
 see beside, and around them, the gains and 
 the comforts of active rule. 
 
 If, in despite of the enough that has been 
 said, and of the more that might be added, 
 the Mairs are to be indeed abandoned ; if sen- 
 timental conciliation, and the cloud-capp'd 
 principle of nationalities, are to be extended 
 to the yet happy valleys of Mairwara, let 
 them at least have that semblance of freedom 
 — that nominis umbra which is implied in a 
 plebiscite. Were such a course practicable, 
 we are persuaded that no influence would 
 avail to prevent their showing to all the world 
 
1 1 8 The Story of Mairwara. 
 
 what their feeling is, and that our Govern- 
 ment would find itself compelled to protect 
 them. If, however, transfer is their fate, 
 abandonment their doom, their country will 
 soon fall back into anarchy, and our conquest 
 of 182 1 will have to be re-enacted. That 
 accomplished, there will remain this disastrous 
 difference between our present, and our future 
 positions. The Mairs will no longer feel the 
 enthusiastic attachment to English connection 
 which actuates them now : they will have 
 lost all faith in European justice, all trust in 
 British truth. 
 
 ... In now closing our case in behalf of the 
 Mairs, we desire to submit it to the sure 
 tribunal of public opinion, in the hope that, 
 for the sake of our own fair fame, for the 
 sake of our influence in India, for the sake of 
 the Mairs — whom, up to this time, we have 
 signally served — so fatal a measure as this 
 dreaded transfer, may never be allowed to 
 receive the sanction of any section of our 
 Government ! 
 
Appendix A. 119 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The Mairs face tigers with as much indifference as 
 they would any domestic animal, and, with sword 
 and shield, think themselves safe against man or 
 beast. A few facts, out of many we have been 
 supplied with, will show this. They are of no rare 
 occurrence. 
 
 A tiger came near a village, and seizing a dog 
 ran off with it in his mouth. One of the inhabit- 
 ants seeing this, ran after it, and struck it with a 
 stick. The enraged animal dropped the dog, and 
 flew at him. Another of the villagers came to his 
 aid, and the tiger, dropping the first man, seized 
 him. A third came and shared a like treatment, 
 while the inhabitants, collecting to the number of 
 fifteen, assailed the tiger with sticks, until he dropped 
 the man and went off. The three men recovered 
 from their wounds. 
 
 A Mair, cutting wood on a hill, was snapped up 
 by a tiger ; but, having a stick in his hand, he beat 
 the animal so soundly about its head and ears, while 
 
120 Appendix A. 
 
 actually in his mouth, that the tiger was glad to let 
 go his prey and escape. 
 
 This poor man died of his wounds, after linger- 
 ing for some time. 
 
 Two Mairs were cutting grass, when one of 
 them was snatched up by a tiger. His comrade 
 pursued, and beat the animal until it let him go. 
 The wounded man recovered. 
 
 A cow having been killed by a tiger — a very 
 common incident — a Mair lay in ambush all 
 night with a loaded matchlock, with intent to kill 
 him as he should come to feed again. The animal 
 came, and was wounded by the matchlock-ball, but 
 got off. Soon, however, some thirty or forty vil- 
 lagers collecting, set off in pursuit of the abscond- 
 ing tiger, and found him on a hill. He was 
 assailed in various ways, and two or three of the 
 villagers were severely wounded in the encounters. 
 One, at length, went up singly, with his sword and 
 shield, put the shield in the tiger's face, and inflicted 
 two or three deadly wounds with the sword ; but 
 we are sorry to add that the gallant fellow lost his 
 own life. 
 
 The villagers, wishing to recover their comrade 
 from the grasp of the tiger, had resort to throwing 
 stones ; but, perceiving that the animal was motion- 
 less, they approached and found him lying dead, 
 
Appendix B. 121 
 
 with the bold Mair cruelly torn, but close beside 
 him. 
 
 These facts respecting tigers, were communicated 
 to the author by General Hall. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Victor Jacquemont, a distinguished naturalist and 
 an accomplished traveller, was, at the instance of 
 Baron Cuvier, sent by the French Government to 
 visit India. Before entering on his voyage he came 
 to London, and was given all the facilities which 
 our public men and men of science could afford him. 
 He made the tour of India, visited the Punjaub, 
 crossed the Himalayas, entered China, and, re- 
 turning, explored Cashmere, where he remained for 
 five months. He had the advantage of being made 
 known to Runjeet Singh — the Lion of Lahore — by 
 General Allard, a French officer, who trained that 
 monarch's soldiers to European drill. Runjeet Singh 
 was so much attracted by his talents and acquire- 
 ments, and impressed by his character, that he urged 
 him to accept the appointment of Viceroy of 
 Cashmere, with, what may be well called, a fabulous 
 income. The offer does credit to Runjeet's sagacity ; 
 but it was, unhappily, as we think, declined. 
 
12 2 Appendix C. 
 
 The wish expressed that Colonel Hall should 
 be made King of Greece is playfully referred to by 
 Lord Metcalfe, but was probably thought of in sober 
 earnest by the young philosopher, who, as we have 
 seen, had occasion to ponder well the subject of 
 princely positions, and fairy-tale-like fortunes. 
 
 Jacquemont was early lost to science, and to the 
 many circles in which he was highly regarded. He 
 died in India. 
 
 A new edition of his Travels and Letters was 
 brought out by c Michel Levy, Freres, Paris/ in the 
 close of last year. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 The following tells of a new form of asking a 
 favour : — 
 
 Colonel Hall was alone, in his tent, without a 
 defensive weapon, and with no one near him, when 
 an armed brigand sprang in, and demanded pardon 
 for all his past offences. c No,' said Colonel Hall ; 
 c they are too great for that. All I shall grant you 
 is one quarter of an hour to escape. After that I 
 shall do my best to have you brought to punish- 
 ment.' 
 
 The robber, and the difficulty, disappeared at 
 once. 
 
Appendices D and E. 123 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Colonel C. J. Dixon, a native of Scotland, entered 
 the army, and was appointed to the Bengal Artillery, 
 in 18 1 2. He succeeded Colonel (now General) Hall, 
 in 1835, as Superintendent, or Governor, of Mair- 
 wara, and attained his rank of Colonel in 1854. 
 He died in India in the early part of 1857, tne y ear 
 of the Mutiny. He had thus been twenty-three 
 years in India when he was nominated to the charge 
 of Mairwara, and forty- five when his services were 
 terminated by his death. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 General Henry Hall, C.B., of Knockbrack, 
 County Galway, and Merville, County Dublin, is 
 descended from a collateral branch of the family 
 of Roger Hall, of Narrow Water, County Down, 
 Ireland. He is the fourth son of the late Vene- 
 rable Archdeacon Hall, by Christiana, daughter 
 of — Trail, Esq., and was born in 1789. In 1827 
 he married Sarah, eldest daughter of the late General 
 Fagan, Adjutant-General of the Bengal Army. 
 
1 24 Appendix E 
 
 General Hall entered the army in 1804, sailed 
 for India in 1805, an d arrived in Calcutta on his 
 seventeenth birthday. He was sent on at once to 
 Cawnpore, where he was placed under the command 
 of Captain Delamaine. On the first introduction of 
 Light Infantry into the Bengal Army, Captain Dela- 
 maine gave young Hall the command of the light 
 company of his regiment. At the close of 1806 he 
 was sent, with his regiment, on service in Bundel- 
 cund, where they formed part of a force which was 
 destined to complete the subjugation of that country. 
 The district was studded with forts, to the number 
 of four-and-twenty, each with its independent chief. 
 After taking two minor forts, they attacked a third, 
 which presented serious difficulties, and where they 
 lost two of their officers, and put about three hundred 
 men to the sword. Captain Delamaine received a 
 wound in the head, which ultimately led to his death. 
 After this, Lieutenant Hall was appointed adjutant 
 of his battalion, and was ordered to Benares. Thence 
 he proceeded again to Bundelcund, and was engaged 
 in the reduction of forts. One of these, built on 
 the summit of a hill some eight hundred feet high, 
 was regarded as very formidable. Before, however, 
 they had reached it, they had to attack a fortified 
 position named Regoulee, where they found a much 
 stronger force than they had counted on, advantage- 
 
Appendix E. 125 
 
 ously placed. Hall led the assault up a steep ascent, 
 with much gallantry, and had a ball through his hat. 
 Soon after this, the fortress, which they thought 
 would give them so much trouble, unexpectedly 
 surrendered, and their campaign was for a while 
 broken up. 
 
 In 18 17, Captain Hall, having filled with credit 
 several staff appointments, was nominated, by the 
 Marquis of Hastings, to the Ouartermaster-Gene- 
 raFs Department, and joined a force, which, under 
 the command of Sir David Ochterlony, was pro- 
 ceeding against the Pindarees, whose subjugation 
 was, in the result, effected. 
 
 In consequence of the absence of his senior, 
 Captain Hall had, at this time, the advantage of 
 being led into direct communication with the 
 General. 
 
 Their next exploit was to reduce the hill-fortress 
 of Paragur, at Ajmeer, which was regarded as 
 well nigh impregnable. They had further to put 
 down some troublesome chiefs in the Jeypore States, 
 whose towns and forts they captured. Captain 
 Hall received, for his services on these occasions, the 
 marked thanks of the General. 
 
 Captain Hall was next directed to join Brigadier 
 Knox, at Ajmeer, where he had to lay out the 
 largest cantonment then in India. His senior officer 
 
126 Appendix E. 
 
 having been removed to another station, Captain Hall 
 was left at the head of his department in Rajpoo- 
 tana. While there, he employed himself in making 
 surveys of the country. Next came his active 
 efforts for the reduction of the Mairs, and, subse- 
 quently, his appointment as Commissioner, Super- 
 intendent, or Governor of Mairwara. This was in 
 
 1822, and from that period, until his departure from 
 India in 1835, his life is part of the history of 
 that country, as we have sketched it in our text. 
 
 Meagre as this summary of General Hall's services 
 must be, we ought not to omit stating that his name 
 was publicly noticed on many occasions — on the 
 occasion, for example, of the attack on Regoulee, 
 and at the siege of Adjeehur in 1809, at Callingur 
 in 18 12, at Modherajpoona and Neepreeda in Raj- 
 pootana in 18 18, and in a short campaign in Mair- 
 wara in 18 19, besides the first campaign there, 
 before adverted to. We must add that he volun- 
 teered to conduct one of the columns in the night- 
 attack on Modherajpoona, and that his name ap- 
 peared in the c London Gazette ' of the following 
 dates, as well as in those of other dates not men- 
 tioned: 'London Gazette,' August 7, 18 19, pp. 
 1388-1389 j March 20, 1822, p. 490; March 24, 
 
 1823, pp. 479-480. 
 
 General Hall thus served in India for thirty-two 
 
Appendix E. 127 
 
 years. He was made a C.B. in 1838, and became 
 Lieutenant-General in 1858. He is a magistrate 
 for the counties of Galway and Dublin. 
 
 We have taken the particulars of the family of 
 General Hall, from a work entitled c The County 
 Families of the United Kingdom,' and those of his 
 military services, chiefly from a printed document, 
 which had to be laid before the late East India 
 Company. 
 
 Jacquemont, after observing that there were c few 
 Major Halls to work the miracles he has done,' 
 adds, in another letter, that ' a peculiar talent, too, 
 which is a gift of nature, is required in the ruler, 
 without which the most benevolent intentions would 
 prove useless.' This just remark appears to be 
 illustrated in the character and career of General 
 Hall, whose talents for government 2 re, in fact, part 
 and parcel of his nature. In advanced life, and 
 amid the bereavements which render it so solitary, 
 and so deeply sad, he retains and exhibits the energy, 
 the assiduity, the benevolence, the active benefi- 
 cence, and the unfailing judgment which, in other 
 days, achieved for him such great results in India. 
 At the age of eighty, he is one of the most effective 
 magistrates of his neighbourhood, and the chief 
 man of business of many institutions, committees, 
 and public societies. He is a regular attendant at 
 
1 2 8 Appendix F. 
 
 the Poor-house, some miles' distance from his resi- 
 dence, and takes a lead in the management of its 
 details, and a personal interest in the boys' and girls' 
 schools, giving them frequent prizes to stimulate 
 their progress. On his estates in the West of Ire- 
 land, he shows the same capacity as marked his 
 Mairwara days, and is the generous promoter. of 
 advancement in every form — in agriculture, in 
 education, in the promotion of religious objects ; 
 and, amidst these many activities, never forgetting 
 the interests of that far-off Indian people, who have 
 now, for forty long years, looked up to him, and 
 will ever continue to regard him, as their first re- 
 former, and their great benefactor. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 Remarks,* by General Hall, on perusing the article, 
 on the subject of Mairwara, in the c Dublin Univer- 
 sity Magazine' for July 1853 : — 
 
 The observations contained in this Sketch of 
 Mairwara, as to the injustice done to General Hall, 
 are generally correct ; but he is convinced, without 
 
 * These Remarks were printed some years ago, for pri- 
 vate circulation. As they refer, partly, to a matter of much 
 public interest, the abolition of Female Infanticide, they are, 
 with General Hall's permission, now added. 
 
Appendix F. 129 
 
 any intention, either on the part of Colonel Dixon, 
 or the reviewers adverted to. 
 
 It is obvious enough that Colonel Dixon must 
 have compiled the work, as ordered by Government, 
 under the serious disadvantage of great pressure in 
 the carrying on of his current business, and without 
 an opportunity of revisal, preparatory to its going to 
 press. 
 
 The length of time which intervened between 
 General Hall's relinquishment of office, and Colonel 
 Dixon's compilation, must have contributed much to 
 the apparent intermixture of their respective labours. 
 
 But the very complimentary manner in which 
 Colonel Dixon so frequently refers to his prede- 
 cessor, together with the frank acknowledgment 
 contained in the few lines (p. 81 of the Review), 
 that c whatever may have been efFected in amelio- 
 rating the condition of the people, or in advancing 
 them in the arts of civilised life, it is to Colonel 
 Hall that the credit is due, for having laid the 
 foundation of these good works,' clearly indicates 
 the absence of all intentional misrepresentation. 
 
 The fact however is, as the reviewer states, that 
 from the nature of Colonel Dixon's statements, any- 
 one cursorily reading the compilation would infer 
 that he had been the originator of the highly im- 
 portant undertaking of irrigation, in all its branches, 
 
130 Appendix F. 
 
 though the most decided proof to the contrary is 
 contained in the work ; and even one of the lakes 
 (Gohana), constructed by General Hall, was selected 
 by the Governor of Agra, for the publication, and 
 appears there in full, with drawings. 
 
 Captain Baird Smith calls it, in his work on irri- 
 gation, c A very beautiful lake, securing 250 acres 
 of cultivation, giving food and occupation to fifty- 
 nine families, and amply repaying the State's out- 
 lay.' * 
 
 More need not be said for the prqsent purpose ; 
 for such ample testimony, afforded so many years 
 after General Hall's labours had terminated, must 
 be quite conclusive of his having established the 
 system, and procured to the Supreme Government 
 its great advantages, thus enabling his successors 
 to proceed with well-assured and rapid success ; 
 and though General Hall's time was so much occu- 
 pied with all the preliminary rough work, his mea- 
 sures for irrigation were not slow, considering the 
 circumstances in which he was placed. 
 
 The approbation of Government was to be gained 
 — success to be rendered certain ; the supply to keep 
 pace with the demand, rather than all at once (even 
 if he could) to have run into a large expenditure, 
 which could not be remunerative until long after ; 
 
 * 'Italian Irrigation/ vol. 1. p. 418. 
 
Appendix F. 131 
 
 besides reserving at command the means of affording 
 employment to the people, in times of scarcity or 
 famine. 
 
 As carried out, in some instances, the expense 
 was covered by the increase of revenue the first 
 year, and it contributed most materially to the relief 
 of multitudes, during one of the most severe famines 
 that, perhaps, ever visited any country, completely 
 destroying the food of both man and beast. 
 
 No one can be more ready to acknowledge the 
 admirable manner in which Colonel Dixon has car- 
 ried on his duties, than General Hall, and, in fact, 
 his feelings towards him are of a most grateful 
 nature, on that account ; nor does he make these 
 observations in the way of complaint, nor would he 
 ever have commented on these errors, had they not 
 been rendered prominent by the notice in the 
 c Dublin University Magazine.' 
 
 As General Hall never contemplated his exertions 
 in Mairwara becoming public, he would be wanting 
 in the ordinary feelings of human nature, were he not 
 much gratified at his measures, and their results, 
 being so favourably noticed. 
 
 His abolition of female infanticide, alone, saved 
 numbers of lives annually, and Mr. Kaye* pro- 
 
 * See Mr. Kaye's very valuable work, ' The History of 
 the Administration of the East India Company,' pp. 563-4. 
 
132 Appendix F. 
 
 nounced it as the c only instance on record of com- 
 plete success/ but with some infelicity of remark 
 detracts from his merits, by ascribing it to a simple 
 municipal regulation. 
 
 Now, this was far from being the case : it cost 
 him very great preparatory exertion, in order to 
 effect it through the people themselves, being satis- 
 fied that by no other means could permanent results be 
 reckoned upon. 
 
 Prohibitory orders would have been useless, as 
 proof could rarely, if ever, be obtained, when all 
 were united in keeping up the practice. No medical 
 men could be scattered through such an extent of 
 country; nor can corpses remain unburied,to await 
 examination from a distance. 
 
 It was by gaining the confidence of the people, 
 working upon their feelings in various ways, dis- 
 covering and showing them the causes of the cus- 
 tom, and how easily they could be removed, to the 
 great future benefit of the community at large ; by 
 noticing occasionally female children, and appealing 
 to parental affection, that all were eventually con- 
 vinced, and won over to a general consent; so that, 
 so far from the abolition of infanticide being the re- 
 sult of a merely municipal regulation, the latter only 
 gave effect to a long course of anxious preliminary 
 measures, bearing on the wished-for result. 
 
Appendix F. 133 
 
 In conclusion, it must be admitted to add not a 
 little to his satisfaction, that while General Hall 
 was simply carrying on his unpretending duties, he 
 has in some degree contributed to do justice to the 
 Indian Government, by exhibiting the advantages 
 of its administration to the great country confided 
 to its charge. 
 
 P.S. — It is a most interesting and important fact, 
 that the fidelity of the Mair troops and people, 
 contributed wonderfully to the safety of the Euro- 
 pean community, when the mutiny broke out at 
 Nusseerabad. The city of Ajmeer stands in re- 
 lation to the country, as the city of Delhi stood to 
 its neighbourhood. The former, as well as the 
 latter, had a treasury, a well-stocked magazine, jail, 
 &c, &c, and all defended by a wall and bastions. 
 There were 250 of the Mair corps there ; the 
 mutinous sepoys, only ten miles distant, tried to 
 seduce them, but happily failed, and thus was 
 Ajmeer preserved from becoming a second Delhi. 
 
 On that dreadful occasion, all the European 
 families found refuge in the cities of Ajmeer and 
 Beawr, the head-quarters of the corps ! On a 
 subsequent occasion, the Mair corps distinguished 
 themselves against the mutineers, under Brigadier- 
 General (now Sir G. St. P.) Lawrence. 
 
134 Appendix F. 
 
 Colonel Dixon died in the year of the Mutiny 
 (1857), but before the outbreak. 
 
 It is only justice to his memory to say, that had 
 he not retained the confidence of the Mairs, and 
 kept up the efficiency of the Mair Battalion, Mair- 
 wara, Ajmeer, and the whole of Rajpootana, would 
 have been in rebellion against us. 
 
 H. HALL, General. 
 
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