omfia^ 1885 to 1890 f ■ ; t ' I £ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES BOM BAY 1885 TO 1890 A STUDY IN INDIAN ADMINISTRAIION SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, K.C.S.I. M.A. (Bali.iol Culi,.). LL.I). iCambridge, LONDON: HENRY FROWDE, AMEN CORNER, E.G. BOMBAY: B. M. MALABARI, INDIAN SPECTATOR OFFICE O;eforb HORACE HART, IRINTER TO THE LNIVEKSITY DS CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. The Scope of this Book 9 II. Physical Aspects of the Bombay Presidency . . 17 III. Political Divisions of the Country— The Four Provinces of Bombay 22 IV. The Framework of the Presidency Government . 49 V. Dealings with the Native States .... 80 VI. Education 126 VII. Forests 189 VIII. Land Administration 225 IX. Public Works 275 X. Finance 34° XI. Excise and General Taxation 362 XII. Protection of Person and Property : Justice, Police, Jails 402 XIII. Local Government: Municipalities and District Boards 429 XIV. Military and Marine 449 XV. Sind, Aden, and the Portuguese Possessions . 466 INDEX 487-504 1272455 PREFACE Oaken Hoi.t, Cumnor, Berks, \st January, 1892. Dear Miss Florence Nightingale, Some time ago you asked me to write a book which would show the practical working of British adminis- tration in an Indian Presidenc}'. You pointed out that while the yearly 'Statement of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India " supplies Parliament with the materials for judging of the results of our rule in India, there is no work readily available to the public which exhibits the local methods by which those results are attained. The constitution of the Supreme Government of India has, indeed, been ably treated of; but similar facilities do not exist for gaining a clear view of the modern mechanism of the Provincial Governments, and of their actual impact on the people. The Presidency of Bombay discloses in a striking light the progressive and the conservative aspects of Indian administration, and the problem of State-ownership of the land in its most direct form. The recent Governor of vi PREFACE. liombay was peculiarly qualified to deal with questions arising in such a Province, for while trained in an hereditary conservatism of an almost archaic type, he was by personal character and conviction essentially a man of progress. I do not think that I could better fulfil the promise made to }-ou, than by this account of the administration of Western India during the governorship of Lord Reay, from 1885 to 1890. In laying out the work. I have not been forgetful of the points to which you drew my attention as helpful to a correct understanding of the subject. I open, therefore, with a brief sketch of the country, and of the diverse peoples which inhabit its four speech-divisions. I then explain the framework of the Presidency government, its internal con- stitution, and its relations on the one hand to the Supreme (iovernment of India, and on the other to the Provincial administrative body. Its dealings with the multitudinous Native States, which form so conspicuous a feature of South- western India, next pass under review ; illustrated, I believe for the first time, by an attempt to bring out in a clear light the various personal types presented by the Feudatory Chiefs. Having thus exhibited the system of Provincial govern- ment, alike in regard to its internal constitution and its external relations, I proceed to exhibit it in contact with the population of the British Districts ; and first of all its attitude to the progressive classes as expressed by the great Department of Plducation. The State ownership and State management of the land, from the initial questions connected with the conservation of scarcely inhabited forest tracts to the complex problems arising out of tenant-right in densely peopled and closely cultivated areas, occupy the central PREFACE. vii chapters of the book. The functions which the Government, as at once the chief landlord and the chief capitalist in India, is called on to undertake for the material progress of the country by means of public works, follow. I then endeavour to explain the new and extremely interesting developments which the decentralisation of Indian finance is bringing about. The Provincial taxation, apart from the land revenue, leads to a discussion of the much-vexed question of Indian excise, with its effects on public morals and on the discouragement, or the spread, of intemperance. The chapter on the protection of person and property reviews the judicial and police systems. I next pass to the question which is, perhaps, the crucial question of Indian Provincial administration in our time, and to which you asked my particular attention — the development of local self-government by means of municipal institutions and District Boards. An account is then given of the changes in the armament and defences of Bombay during the five years under review : and the volume concludes with certain questions which may materially affect the Presidency government at a not distant date. Now that the work is done, to whom can I more fitly dedicate it than to you, dear Miss Nightingale — to you whose life has been a long devotion to the stricken ones of earth ; to you whose deep sympathy with the peoples of India, no \ears of suffering or of sickness are able to abate? I am. Your Sincere PViend, W. W. HUNTER. BOMBAY 1885 TO 1890 A STUDY IN INDIAN ADMINISTRATION CHAPTER I. THE SCOPE OF THIS LOOK. IN 1S69 Lord Mayo directed me to visit the Indian Presidencies and provinces with a view to draw- ing up a Plan for a Statistical Survey of that empire. Among his instructions was one which dealt with the relations of the Government to the land and the landed classes. I was to oain a knowledfye of the different provincial systems by which the State dis- charged its fundamental duty as owner of the soil, and of the local variations in administrative methods to which those differences in the land-system gave rise. The part of India which struck me as the most interesting in this respect was Bombay ; for in that Presidency the problems of State-ownership in the land are presented in their most direct and irreducible terms. In other provinces of India the Government deals with great landholders, or with coparcenary I o BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. village bodies, or with joint communities claiming from a common ancestor, or with peasant proprietors or occupiers. In Boml)ay it deals with each field. In other provinces the State-demand is fixed by a series of complex inductions as to the average value of the crops, the average cost of tillage to be allowed, and the usagres which should determine the division of the remainder between the cultivator or tenure- holder and the Government. In Bombay the State fixes its demand by laying out the whole arable area into little blocks, and then minutely ascertaining and classifying the natural qualities of the soil in each. Further experience disclosed how profoundly the whole scheme of administration in Bombay is af- fected by this extremely direct form of State-owner- ship in the land. In the first place, the headquarters stafii" for working the system struck me as very large in proportion to the population, when compared with the corresponding establishments in the northern pro- vinces. This applied not only to the honorific en- tourage of the Governor of Bombay, but to the actual number of working-officials in the Council, secretariats, and central departments or bureaux. In the next place, the demands made by the system on the general body of the rural administration seemed especially onerous. In Bengal, with its large proprietors inter- mediate between the State and the cultivator, a District Officer is seldom in tents for more than sixty days in the cold weather, and spends the remaining ten months of the year under the shelter of a good roof. In the North-Western Provinces and the Pun- THE SCOPE OF THE BOOK. ii jab, with their village communities and coparcenary bodies, the ordinary District staff, not specially told off for settlement work, may spend perhaps ninety da}'s of their longer cold season on tour through their districts. But in Bombay the period under canvas, and in defiance of the more vertical sun, is nearer i8o or 200 days. Indeed, the good Assistant-Collector of the Bombay Presidency is the young man who is only driven into the Station from his tent life amono- the villagers by the deluge of the monsoon. To an officer from Bengal the Bombay Civil Service seemed a small but exceedingly active body with a very big head. Not less interesting are the native races among whom this very precise form of State-ownership has been introduced. In Northern India the most quick- witted people with whom the British system has come into contact are the inhabitants of Lower Benral. But the Bengalis, notwithstanding their capacity for adminis- trative work, have never been a conquering race, nor, until the establishment of the British Power, had they been a (rovernino; class. On the other hand, the Mara- thas of the Bombay Presidency were essentially both a conquering and a governing race in India. It was they who gave the coup de grace to the Mughal Empire, and who pounded to pieces the States which that Empire left behind. On the ruins they very nearly succeeded in erecting a Hindu Empire of their own. The pro- vinces which they did not seize upon and actually subjugate to their own authority, they laid under a heavy tribute. The British did not conquer India from the Mughal Emperors. Nor did they con([uer 1 2 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. India chiefly from tlie revolted Muhammadan Viceroys of those Emperors. The final British conquest of India (apart from the Punjab) was mainly effected by three wars with the Marathds, and by the subjection of the five Mardtha Houses who had parcelled out the provinces of the ' Great Mogul.' The destruction of the Maratha power not only gave us the larger part of the Bombay Presidency, but also removed the last rival for the over-lordship of India. The practical working out of the most direct form of British State-ownership in the soil among the most aggressive of the Hindu military races in India is full of significant problems. In no other province has the impact of the British land-system been so close, and in no province has it met with a Hindu race so capable of resisting it. It will be seen from the following pages that the Maratha Brahmans, instead of adopting a policy of resistance, have adopted a policy of acceptance, and that they are at this moment the chief native adminis- trators of the system which superseded their own. Another feature of the Bombay Presidency which struck me in 1869, was the many-sided character of the interests with which the Government has to deal. Not only does it contain four distinct British provinces, each inhabited by a well-defined population speaking a lanofuasfe of its own, but it controls a vast collection of Native States that have not been brought under direct Ensflish Rule. These Native States are the survivals of a condition of things which in some parts of India has almost disappeared. In no other Presi- dency do the Native States occupy so large a propor- THE SCOPE OF THE BOOK. 13 tionate area or furnish so considerable a part of the population. Nor are they in any other Province so intricately interlaced with the British districts. Bombay presents an object-lesson of British and Feudatory Rule in the closest contact with each other, without analogy on an equal scale in any other part of India. Bombay is, moreover, the essentially maritime pro- vince of India. In length of seaboard it may be rivalled by Madras. But the Madras coast is destitute of harbours, and its open roadsteads during many months of each year lie at the mercy of the monsoon. The great port of Bengal, Calcutta, is really a river emporium, whose communications with the sea are only kept open by a marvellous combination of human energy and skill. The Bombay Presidency contains the ancient his- torical harbours of India, long since decayed and silted up. It was also the chief scene of that Indian maritime activity which, in its early phase, took the form of pirate fleets, and now finds vent in lawful commerce. The modern port of Bombay is one of the largest, safest, and most beautiful harbours in the world. The Port of Karachi, with its railway system tapping the long valley of the Indus and the wheat-bearing plains of the Punjab, is one of the world's harbours of the future. On the southern coast, Karwar and Marmagao afford fair facilities for sea-borne trade during the greater part of the year. This distinctively maritime character of the Bombay Presidency affects many cpiestlons connected with its local administration. But perhaps its most con- 14 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. spicLious result is the commercial activity which it has developed. That commercial activity is on one side essentially of a modern t)pe. But on another side it is the natural evolution of the native methods of ancient trade. Commerce in Bombay thus helps to bridge over the gulf between the old and the new order of things in India, to a degree unknown in the other provinces. At this day the bankers' guild in Surat devotes a part of the fees that it levies on bills of exchange to animal-hospitals ; true survivals of King Asoka's second edict, which provided a system of medical aid for beasts, 250 years before Christ. Bombay is essentially the progressive Province of India on the modern commercial basis, yet its progress has its roots deep in a conservatism of its ow^n. The competition of races, European and Indian, although as keen as in any other province, is tempered by common interests, mutual forbearance, and a certain reciprocal respect, which impart a moderation to Bombay public opinion and to the Bombay press in political crises. When, therefore, it was suoraested that I should write an account of Bombay and its administration, with special reference to the five years ending 1890, I gladly accepted the proposal. Ample materials, official and non-official, were made available to me for the purpose, but on the clear understanding that whatever views or conclusions I might arrive at should be my own personal conclusions and my own personal views. I entered with the greater willingness on the task, as the conditions and problems of Western India are comparatively a fresh field for independent research. The administra- THE SCOPE OF THE BOOK. 15 tive system of Northern India, its local institutions, its land tenures, and its races, have been rendered familiar subjects to Englishmen by the many biographies of District Officers and Administrators whom the Mutiny brought to the front. If I were asked how a man ma)- best learn the actual facts of rural administration in Northern India, I should answer read Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence, Merivale's Life of Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Herbert Edwardes' Year on the Punjab Frontier, Captain J. Forsyth's Highlands of Central Asia, Colonel Sleeman's Tour, and Sir Charles Elliott's District of Undo. No such literature, of equally general interest and of recent date, exists for South-western India. Its place is taken, and most effectively taken for adminis- trative purposes, by Mr. James Campbell's Gazetteers of the Bombay Districts. I can speak with knowledge of the value of these works, for it was my duty to follow each stage of their preparation, and to read each volume as it issued from the press. They supply materials for an accurate knowledge of the Bombay Presidency, perhaps unequalled and certainly unsur- passed by the corresponding publications for any other part of India. But the very merits of Mr. Campbell's work, its minute accuracy, its patient elaboration of detail, and its completeness invaluable for administrative purposes, tend to place it beyond the range of the non-official public. To find a litera- ture for South-western India equally copious and of equally general interest to the books mentioned in the last paragraph as illustrating the modern conditions i6 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of the northern provinces, one has to go back seventy years to the times dealt with in the Lives of Mount- stuart Elphinstone, Malcolm, and Munro. 1 offer the following pages merely as a short study of the Bombay Presidency in our own time. It makes no pretensions to the fulness of knowledge which a District Officer of that Presidency would bring to the subject. My official life in India was spent in other provinces. But it formed part of my duty to visit from time to time each of the different sections of the Bombay Presidency, and it was my privilege to be permitted to see some of its ablest District Adminis- trators at their actual work. I have done my best to sift out the facts of permanent interest from the mass of reports and documents issued by the Bombay Government during the recent period with which this volume more particularly deals, and to fill in gaps b)- personal enquiries from those who were engaged in the administration. But I have not confined myself to that period. My aim has rather been to get at the permanent essentials of the Bombay administrative methods, and to use the special period as a practical illustration of the working of the system. Those who desire a complete record of the administration of an Indian province during any specified year, must go to the local Administration Reports. The mass of details with which they deal are not susceptible of presentment in a popular form. My humbler aim is, by the aid of historical retrospect and recent illustra- tion, to give a general view of how a great Presidency of British India is governed in our own da}'. CHAPTER II. PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. THE Bombay Presidency consists of two distinct geological areas divided, roughly speaking, by the Narbada River. The north-western area includes the maritime, deltaic, and fluvial provinces of Gujarat, Cutch, and Sind. The southern division is made up of a coast-strip and the inland tracts behind it, known as the Konkan, the Deccan, and the Marathd country. The eeolop^ical differences of these two main areas are accentuated by their climatic conditions, as the monsoon, after deluging the narrow coast-strip of the Konkan, is checked before it penetrates to the broad inland dis- tricts of the Deccan, while to the northern maritime provinces of Gujarat and Cutch it brings an abundant rainfall. To begin with the southern area. In the Mardthd country the surface is, for the most part, composed of basalt and similar rocks. It rolls out in wide plateaux, broken by long ridges of hog-backed hills which descend by natural terraces to the lower ground, or are at places cut off from the plains by black precipitous crags. The tilth formed from the disintegrating basalt or trap-rocks yields the famous black cotton-soil of South-western 1' 1 8 B 0MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 890. India. In the Deccan the rocks arc similar to those of the adjoining parts of the peninsula. The Konkan is a coast-strip, rich in alluvial detritus, and furrowed by torrents from the adjacent hills. In the northern geological region of Bombay, which stretches north-west from the Narbadd,a strlkingf chano^e takes place. ' The rocks of Gujarat, Cutch, and Sind,' wrote Mr. Blanford, when Deputy-Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, ' are only partly represented in the Indian peninsula, and must rather be considered as belonging to continental Asia, being continuous, as has long since been shown by Dr. Carter, with the forma- tions found in Persia and Arabia. To the northward, the Sind rocks extend to the foot of the Himalayas. To this striking change in the geology is due, to no small extent, the difference in the physical features of the countries north-w^est of Gujarat. Instead of plateaux covered by black soil [as in the Deccan], we find undu- lating sandy plains, with scattered craggy hills. The immense alluvial flats to the north of Cutch and Guja- rat are for the most part deserts of blown sand, and the fertile country consists of a belt rapidly diminishing in breadth to the westward, along the borders of the sea ; its verdure is due to the humidity caused by the neigh- bouring ocean. In Sind even this ceases, and the country, except on the banks of the Indus, or where reclaimed by irrigation, is an arid tract of gravel and sand, from which arise the steep scarps of limestone ranges.' 1 he geological characteristics of the two great divi- sions of the Bombay Presidency have profoundly PHYSICAL ASPECTS. 19 affected their fortunes, and underlie their administrative problems at the present day. But, geographically, the Presidency may be divided in a different manner. There is a long coast-strip, swelling out into broad deltas and fertile valleys in the northern part of the Presidency, and contracting to a narrow line on the southern seaboard. Behind this strip rise the Aravalli Mountains in the regions of the Narbadd and Tdpti Rivers. On the south of the Tapti commences a rugged and mountainous country which trends south- ward down the coast under the general name of the Sahyidri or Western Ghats. This great range runs almost parallel to the sea, for five hundred miles, with a general elevation of over 2000 feet, and with peaks rising to more than double that height. Generally speaking the strip between the Ghdts and the sea is from forty to fifty miles, but much narrower in some districts. The Western Ghats thus form a true mountain wall, often as much as twenty miles broad, which intercepts the rain-bearing monsoon. Behind it, to the eastward, stretch the plains of the Marathd country and the Deccan, broken by spurs or masses of rock jutting inland from the maritime mountain wall, and diversified by isolated peaks and hog-backed ridges of basalt. The great rivers of the Bombay Presidency lie in the northern division. The Indus ends its long course, of 1800 miles from beyond the Himalayas, in the wide- spreading delta of Sind. The flood-season begins about March and continues to September. The river, which in the dry season varies from a quarter B 2 26 BOMB A Y ADMIXISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. of a mile to a mile in breadth, spreads across the country in irresistible inundations at places three miles wide. The depth increases at sections from nine to twenty-four feet, the velocity of the current from three to seven miles an hour, and the dischargee of water from 40,857 cubic feet per second in December, to over four million cubic feet per second in August. The chief rivers of Gujarat are the Narbada and the Tapti. But the Narbada spends only a short part of its course, of 800 miles from central India, within the British Districts of Bombay. The alluvial plain of Broach which it has silted up near its mouth forms, however, one of the richest Districts of the Presidency. The Tapti, although inferior in length and size, plays a more important part in the Bombay Districts. After 150 miles among the Satpura Ranges of the Central Provinces, the Tapti waters, during its next 180 miles, the uplands of Khandesh in the Bombay Deccan. At the narrow passage of the Deer's Leap it descends by a wild course of rapids and deep basins, crowned by high cliffs, through the Dang forests into Gujarat. It gives fertility to the rich central plain of Surat, and falls into the sea at the ancient, but now silted up, harbour of Surat city. Two minor streams also water the province of Gujarat. The Sabarmati and Mahi rise respectively at the northern and the southern end of the Mahi Kantha Hills, and pass through northern Gujarat to the head of the Gulf of Cambay. The silt which they bring down, together with the detritus of the Narbadd and Tapti, have blocked up with shoals and mud-banks PHYSICAL ASPECTS. 21 the sea-approach to that once famous resort of Indian maritime trade. While the northern provinces of Bombay are thus abundantly supplied with rivers, the southern tract is destitute of great streams. The Ghats stand as a wall against the monsoon. The drainage which rushes down their western escarpment and across the narrow strip to the sea are destructive torrents in the rainy season, and often dry beds of rock and sand in the hot weather. The drainage from the Ghats to the inland or eastern side supplies the head waters of the Goda- vari and the Kistna. But these mighty rivers do not attain their full dimensions till they pass beyond the eastern boundary of the Bombay Presidency, on their long course towards the Bay of Bengal. Together with their tributary streams such as the Bhima, the Tunga, the Bhadra, and the united Tungabhadra, they form the somewhat scanty water-system of the Maratha country and the Deccan. CHAPTER III. POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY. HISTORICALLY, the Bombay Presidency is di- vided into four Provinces, or speech-divisions. Each of these divisions has a language of its own, customs of its own, and a population traditionally distinct from its nei""hbours although merping- into them. In the north. Sind or the lower valley and delta of the Indus River had in 1881 an area of over 54,000 square miles and 2^ million inhabitants \ Gujarat, or the well-watered northern coast districts, had an area of about 70,000 square miles, with a population of 10 millions. The Maratha country, including both the Marathi-speaking coast districts of the Konkan and the inland districts of the Deccan, comprised about 56,000 square miles, with also nearly 10 million inhabitants. The Kanarese-speaking dis- tricts extended over about 25,000 square miles, with a population of under 4^ millions. I shall very briefly describe each of these speech-divisions of Western India. ^ All figures of population are taken from the Census of 1881, unless otherwise mentioned, as those were figures on which administration was based during the five years, from 1885 to 1890, more particularly dealt with in this book. THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BO MB A V. 23 Sind Is essentially a Muhammadan province, alike in regard to its history and its population. It is divided into five British Districts ^ and the large Native State of Khairpur. Sind was the earliest province of India invaded by the Muhammadans, whose conquering fleets reached its delta from Arabia about the year 713 a. d. During the next century the Khalifas, however, lost their hold upon this distant province beyond the sea. Native kingdoms rose and fell, and after various invasions by northern Muhammadan races who poured into India via the land route through Central Asia, Sind was regularly incorporated as a province of the Mughal Empire under Akbar in the sixteenth century. On the decline of that Empire, at the close of the seventeenth century, a long and sanguinary con- flict took place between the Daiidputras, weavers and wandering warriors by profession, and the equally wild Mahars, a race of Hindu origin. In the next century, the eighteenth, the Talpur dynasty established itself firmly in Sind amid the general break-up of the Mughal Empire. They partitioned the province between their three branches, and maintained a Muhammadan rule for a further period of over fifty years, until it was subverted by Sir Charles Napier in 1843, when Sind became a British Province. The Muhammadan conquest of Sind was thus be- gun from the sea nearly three hundred years before the Musalmans entered India by the land route from the north, and during eleven centuries Sind has been ^ Namely, Kardchi, Haidarabad, Shikarpur, Thar wilh Parkar, and the Upper Sind Frontier. 24 BOMB A Y ADMIXISTRA TION, 1 8S5-1 890. more or less continuously under jNIuhammaclan rule. In 1 88 1, 78^ per cent of the population were Muham- madans, while the Hindus only numbered 12^ per cent, the Sikhs 5^ per cent, and the non-Hindu aborigines 3^ per cent. The Sindis represent the ancient Hindu population converted to Islam under the Ummayide Khalifas, and by a long succession of Muhammadan dynasties. Little admixture of Arab blood seems to have taken place. But Afghans have settled in several localities, and the Baluchi's, or mountaineers from the wild barren hills to the westward, crowded into the armies of the Talpur dynasty, and can easily be dis- tinguished from the surrounding population at the present day. The Sindis are of dark complexion, but taller and more robust than the corresponding population in the Gangetic delta of Bengal. Their detractors represent the bad type of Sindis as idle, apathetic, intemperate, and with a name for untruthfulness, among the neigh- bouring races. On the other hand, the Sindis as a whole are quiet and inoffensive, kindly, faithful to their friends, and honest in their dealings. In religion they are Sunnis, and are subdivided into about three hundred clans or tribes, without, however, the strong caste demarcations of the noivlslamised Hindus. Their language belongs to the pure Neo-Sanskritic group, and contains less of alien admixture than any of the cognate tongues. It stands closer to the old Prakrit than does either Marathi, Hindi, or Bengali, and It has preserved many ancient grammatical forms which have dropt out of the other vernaculars. Its THE FOUR PROVIXCES OF BOMBAY. 25 literature consists mainly of translations from the Arabic, chiefly theological, and a few national ballads. The Baluchi settlers are comparatively fair-skinned, taller, more muscular, and hardier than the SIndis ; with genuine although peculiar ideas of honour ; brave soldiers, and strongly imbued with the pride of race. On the other hand they are quite illiterate, rougher in their manners, violent, revengeful, and fond of a hard drinking-bout. About eighty clans of them settled on the plains, and like the native Sindis they are now Sunnis. The chief trade of the province Is in the hands of a small residue of the population, Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Jews, The Khwajas, or the Muhammadan commercial class of the Bombay coast, have also a strong body In SInd. They profess the Shia doctrines of Islam. The commerce of Sind Is centred in Its seaport and modern capital, Karachi, situated on the bay of the same name. Notwithstanding its admirable position for sea-going commerce, KardchI scarcely emerged into importance under the Native dynasties. The town may be regarded as almost a creation of British rule. Its extensive commerce, splendid harbour-works, and flourishing institutions, have all sprung up since the introduction of our settled administration in 1843. In 1843-44 the total sea-borne trade of Karachi, with the neighbouring villages, only amounted to ;^ 12 1,1 50. In forty years it had increased In 1882-83 to over seven millions sterling, and to twelve millions sterling In 1890^ Kardchi has an importance In Sind much * Taking the rupee at the old conventional standard. 26 BOMB A Y A DMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 S90. greater than the number of its population (73,560) would seem to imply. For the only other large towns in the province are Shikarpur (pop. 42,496), the depot of transit trade across the Bolan Pass into Khorasan ; and Haidarabad (pop. 48,153), the capital of the old Talpiir dynasty ^ But the two railway-stations at the point where the magnificent cantilever bridge crosses the Indus at Sukkur, and whence the Sind Punjab and Delhi line branches southwards to Karachi and eastwards to the frontier, are rapidl)- springing into importance, with an aggregate popu- lation of about 40,000 persons in 1881. The problem of British rule in Sind is how to adapt its administration to an old-fashioned, unenergetic, de- clining Muhammadan people, once the governors of the Province. The fundamental principle of our ad- ministration is to secure the most efficient men for its work. But while the Hindus of the Western Presi- dency, and conspicuously the Maratha Brahmans, press on in the paths of Western education, and strenuously fit themselves for administrative employments, the Muhammadans in Sind have, until within the past ten years, held comparatively aloof from modern progress. Down to the time of the Indian Education Commission in 1884, they were classed among the Backward Races. The British system of la carriere ouverte mix talents, if inconsiderately worked, would fill all the public offices in Sind with Hindus, and might practically subject a Muhammadan province to the * For the reason already stated, all populatii)ns are taken from the revised Census of 1881. THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMBAY. 27 Maratha Brahmans, This volume will disclose the methods by which the Bombay Government endea- voured, during the five years ending 1890, to deal with this difiicult problem, and to help forward the Muhammadans of Sind to their proper position in the body politic. Proceeding southwards from Sind, the next speech- division of the Bombay Presidency is Gujarat, including the peninsula of Kathiawar. It is bounded on the north by Rajputana, on the east by the spurs of the Vindhya and Satpura Ranges, on the south by the Konkan, and on the west by the sea. This fertile pro- vince^ comprises five British Districts, a large collection of Native States under the Bombay Government, and the extensive scattered territories of the Gaekwar of Baroda, the premier Hindu Feudatory Prince of India, who is in direct relations with the Supreme Govern- ment. The Native States of Gujarat contained an aggregate of seven millions of people in 1 88 1 , as against three millions in round fioures in the British Districts. On the other hand the three millions of British subjects dwelt in thickly peopled Districts, covering only 10,000 square miles, while the seven million inhabitants of the Native States were spread over thinly populated tracts aggregating 60,000 square miles. Gujardt is in several respects the antithesis of Sind. ' It is divided into the live liritish Districts of Aliniad;ibad, Kaini, Panch Mahdis, Broach, and Surat ; the State of Baroda in the centre; the Mahi and Rewd Kantha states in the east ; Rajpipia, Sachin, Bdnsdd, and Dharampur in the south ; the peninsula of Kdthiawdr with nunierous native states in the west; the isohited states of Cutch in the north-west ; and of I'alanpur and Rddhanpur in the north. 28 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. The most important period of its history is Hindu, and its population remains essentially Hindu to the present day. It figures from the third century b. c. to the seventh century a. d. in rock inscriptions, in the Greek geographers, and in Indian chronology, as a seat of Hindu dominion in which the struijorle between the Brahmans and the Buddhists fought itself out. Between the seventh and the fourteenth centuries Gujardt was subjected to thirteen Muhammadan invasions, the first eight of them by Arab fleets from the Persian Gulf. In the fourteenth century it passed for 170 years under the rule of the Muhammadan local Sultans of Ahma- ddbad, and w^as afterwards incorporated in the Mughal Empire of Delhi. But from the middle of the seventeenth century Gujarat began again to pass under Hindu sway. Sivaji, the founder of the Maratha power, pillaged Surat in 1664 and in 1669 ; his son plundered Broach in 1686. On the breaking up of the Mughal Empire, Surat was attacked by the Marathas in 1702, Ahmad- dbad in 1 707, and the Maratha power was firmly established in Baroda about 1720. During the next century Gujarat became the seat of a military Hindu government, chiefly represented by the Marathd House of Baroda. This is, for present political purposes, the essentially important period of Gujarat history. For it is this period which has l^equeathed the characteristic land customs and that intricate commingling of Feuda- tory territory with the British Districts, which furnish the administrative problems in the Gujarat of our day. The final Marathd w^ar in 181 7 left the English as the THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMBAY. 29 Paramount Power in Gujarat. Their authority was formally accepted by the Gaekwar of Baroda, who entered into subordinate dependence to the British Government and agreed not to interfere wath the tribu- tary chiefs except through the medium of that Government. The task of administration in Gujarat divides itself, as may be inferred from the foregoing paragraph, into two branches. A large collection of Native States have to be managed for their own good with a light but firm hand. A closely packed Hindu population, occupying the smaller territory under our direct rule, have to be governed in such a way as, on the one hand, not to interfere with their religious prejudices or to press unduly on their industry, but on the other hand, so as to extract an adequate revenue from the fertile districts in which they dwell. The Muhamma- dans of Sind are an ex-rulinof race. The local Hindu population of Gujarat have during six centuries been accustomed to a more or less alien rule, whether by the Muhammadans, or by the Marathas, or by the English. Until recently they did not disclose the keen activity of the Maratha Brdhmans in pressing into public em- ployments, or advancing themselves generally in the struggle for life. As in Sind, although for different reasons, the British Government has found it necessary to stimulate the Gujaratis in the path of progress, if they were not to be outstripped by the practical Mardthd intellect ever on the watch to make the most of the chanofinof circumstances of the times. The third speech-division of the Bombay Presidency 30 BO MB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. is the Mai'citha country, consisting" of two distinct tracts, the Konkan or Marathi-speaking coast, and the Deccan or TvTardthi-speaking districts inland from the Ghdts. The Konkan inchides the lowland maritime strip, running southwards from Thdna district and Bombay Island, in all 11,400 square miles with a population of 3^ millions in 1881 ^ The Konkan first emerges into history under the Mauryan dynasty in the Eighth Edict of Asoka, 250 i?.c. — the edict found in the Thana district thirty-seven miles north of Bombay. The period of Buddhist rule left behind it the great rock temples, specimens of which may still be seen in the districts of Thana, Kolaba, and Ratndgiri. The notices in Ptolemy {chx. 150 a.d.) and in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea [cii^c. 247 a.d.) indicate that Greek traders from Egypt had dealings with the Konkan coast. After a succession of Hindu dynasties, the Konkan passed for a time under the loosely estab- lished authority of Muhammadan invaders from Delhi (about 131 5 A.D.) ; and subsequently under the Muham- madan Bahmani dynasty of Southern India. It was next partitioned between the Musalmdn rulers of Bija- pur and Ahmadnagar. From 1 500, and onwards, the Portuguese appear as a conquering power in the Konkan, with Goa as their capital. Arabs and Abyssinians, both before and after that date, established themselves in the strongholds along the coast. After a short period of almost ^ It is divided into the four British Districts of Thdna, Bombay Island, Koldba, and RatnAgiri, with the Native States of Jawhdr, Janjira and S-lwantvvddi. THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMBAY. 31 nominal rule by the Mughal Emperors, the Konkan became one of the central seats of the Maratha power. In 1662 SIvaji chose the hill-fort of Raigarh in the Konkan as his capital, was there crowned with much pomp in 1674, and there died in 1680. From that time down to the establishment of the British power at the beginning of the present century, the Konkan remained one of the most important dominions of the Maratha confederacy. The English had, however, rooted themselves firmly in Bombay Island, which was ceded by the Portuguese to Charles II in 1661 as part of the dowry of his Queen, Catherine of Braganza. At the end of the Maratha war, the Konkan finally passed to British rule in : 81 7-18. The great area of the Maratha country, however, consists of the districts which run inland to the east- ward from the Ghats, and comprise about 45,000 square miles with a population of nearly six millions of people in 1881. It is divided into six British Districts ^ and seven Native States or groups of States. This extensive tract, the ancient Maharashtra, figures prominently from the earliest times as a power- ful Indian kingrdom. Asoka is said to have sent a missionary to convert its people to Buddhism about 240 B.C. During the first centuries of the Christian era the country formed the centre of the over-lordship or empire of the Andhrabhritya dynasty. After an obscure period of Buddhist or Rajput invasion from ' The Ikitish Districts are : Khdndcsh, Nasik, Ahmadnagar, Poona, ShoI;lpur and Satara. The Native States are: the Dangs, Surgdna, Akalkot, nhor, Thaltan, Aiiiidh and Jalh. 32 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. the north, it again rose to power under the ChaUikya rulers from about 560 to 11 90 a.d. During most of this period the Maratha country was a Buddhist, or Buddhistic Hindu, over-lordship, and its splendid rock temples at Ellora and elsewhere attest the zeal and the wealth of its sovereigns. After the year 11 90, the supremacy of the Maratha country passed to the Yadava dynasty, under which it became conspicuous for the Sivite revival of the Brah- manical faith. The Yadavas remained more or less continuously in power until the Muhammadan invasions from Delhi early in the fourteenth century. The Musalman power gradually established itself in the Maratha country from 13 10 onwards; and in 1340 the Emperor Muhammad Tughlak even resolved to trans- fer his seat of empire from Delhi to the Maharashtra capital of Daulatabad. But Hindu potentates still re- mained both within and around the Maratha country. It was not until 1565 that the great Hindu dynasty of Vijayanagar, the most powerful over-lordship in Southern India, was destroyed by a confederacy of the Muhammadan kings of the Deccan at the battle of Talikot. The Mardtha country forms the heart of Southern India, and is known in history by the loose general designation of the Dakshiiia, or Deccan, literally the South. For if centuries, from about 1350 onwards, it formed the backbone of the Bahmani dominions, that is to say of the independent Muhammadan sove- reigns who set up for themselves in Southern India. When that dynasty broke up (1489 to 1525), it was THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMBAY. ^Z partitioned among the five Musalman kingdoms which established themselves in the Deccan. To subdue those kingdoms, and to incorporate them in the Delhi Empire, was the one fixed idea of the Mughal sovereigns of Northern India. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this enterprise dominated the whole military policy of the Delhi Court. But the task was beyond its strength. The intervening tracts of mountains and forests, now pierced by rail- ways, but which then separated Northern India from the South, presented insuperable difficulties to an effective incorporation of the Deccan into the Delhi Empire. Akbar and his successors down to Aurangzeb succeeded, indeed, in destroying the independent Mu- hammadan kingdoms of the Deccan, and in subjecting them more or less completely to the authority of military Viceroys, supported by standing armies from the North. But before the last of the Muhammadan kingdoms was conquered, towards the close of the seventeenth century, a third party had arisen in the Deccan, which was destined to ride roughshod over the ruins both of the independent Muhammadan kingdoms and of the Mughal Empire itself This third party in the Deccan was the Marathds. As already mentioned, they developed into a powerful Hindu confederacy under their leader Sivaji, in the second half of the seventeenth century, Aurangzeb, the last of the really Great Moguls, solemnly devoted himself to the conquest of Southern India, alike from the heretic Muhammadan dynasties and from the infidel Marathas. It was his self-appointed life task, c 34 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. commenced in youth as the Heiitenant of his imperial father, and continued with unshaken resolution through- out his own reign of half a century (i 658-1 707). During the first five-and-twenty years of his reign he endeavoured to accomplish this task by hurling power- ful armaments against the South, while he himself from his northern capital directed the resources of the Empire to the work. Finding that the South could not be subdued by his generals, he deliberately gave up the splendours of Delhi, and consecrated the second twenty-five years of his reign to the accom- plishment of his task, leading a soldier's life from one great camp to another, and heading his armies in the field. So much persistence and self-devotion, spread over a vigorous reign of fifty years, was not without its reward. The last of the independent Muhammadan kingdoms of the South were submerged by the suc- cessive floods of invasion which Aurangzeb brought down upon them from the North. There were how- ever by that time, as I have indicated, not two parties, but three parties in the Deccan : the imperial armies from the North, the remaining independent Muham- madan kingdoms of the South, and the Hindu military confederacy of the Marathas. Had Aurangzeb been as far-seeing as he was zealous, he would have discerned that the real peril to his Empire lay in this new third party. He would have patched up the quarrels among Muhammadans (whether orthodox Sunni or heretic Shia), and combined the whole force of Islam in India to crush the Hindus, The task before him was not THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BO MB A Y. 35 merely the old one of subduing the independent Muhammadan kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda, but also of stamping out the more dangerous indige- nous growth of the new Hindu power. In \(>'^i Aurangzeb arrived at the head of his grand army in the Deccan, where he w^as destined to spend his old age in the field until death at last released him in 1 707. After a fiercely protracted struggle, the last of the independent Muhammadan kingdoms of the South fell before his arms in 1688. But their destruc- tion only left the arena bare for the Mardthds. Indeed, it was with the aid of the Marathas that Auranofzeb had prepared the way for the extinction of the inde- pendent Muhammadan States. The remaining twenty years of the Emperor's life (1688-1707) was one long miserable struggle against the rising Hindu power. Their first great leader, Sivaji, had (as we have seen) proclaimed himself King in his hill-fort in the adjoin- ing Konkan in 1674, and died in 1680. Aurangzeb captured his son and successor, Sambhaji, in 1689, and cruelly put him to death ; seized the Maratha capital, with many of their forts, and seemed in the first year of the new century to have almost stamped out their existence (1701). But after a guerilla w^arfare the Marathas again sprang up into a vast fighting nation. In 1705 they recovered their forts; while Aurangzeb had exhausted his health, his treasures, and his troops, in the long and fruitless struggle. His soldiery murmured for arrears ; and the Em- peror, now old and peevish, told the malcontents that if they did not like his service they might quit c 2 36 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. it, while he disbanded some of his cavalry to ease his finances. Meanwhile the Marathas were drawing closer round the imperial head-quarters. The Grand Army of Aurangzeb had grown during a quarter of a century into an unwieldy camp-capital. Its movements were slow, and incapable of concealment. If Aurangzeb sent out a rapid small expedition against the Mard- thas who plundered and insulted the outskirts of his camp, they cut it to pieces. If he moved out against them in force, they vanished. His own sol- diery feasted with the enemy, who prayed with mock ejaculations for the health of the Emperor as their best friend. In 1706 the Grand Army was so disorganised that Aurangzeb opened negotiations with the Marathds. He even thought of submitting the Mughal Provinces to their tribute or chaiith. But their insolent exulta- tion broke off the treaty, and the despairing Aurangzeb, in 1706, sought shelter in Ahmadnagar, where he died the next year. Dark suspicion of his sons' loyalty, and just fears lest they should subject him to the fate which he had inflicted on his own deposed father, left him alone in his last days. On the approach of death, he gave utterance in broken sentences to his worldly counsels and adieus, mingled with terror and remorse, and closing in an agony of desperate resignation : ' Come what may, I have launched my vessel on the waves. Farewell ! Farewell ! Farewell ! ' As the Marathas were the proximate cause of the destruction of the Mughal Empire, so they were the THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMB A V. 37 principal gainers by its downfall. They gradually overran the whole provinces of India from the Rohilla country at the foot of the Himalayas to the southern districts of Madras. Some of the provinces they made their own. Five powerful Mardthd Houses established themselves at Poona in the Deccan, at Baroda in Gujarat, at Indore in Central India, at Ndgpur in the Central Provinces, and at Gwalior on the fringe of the Gangetic Valley in the north. Quickly reviving from their defeat at Pdnipat, in 1 76 1, they sprang upon the metropolitan districts of the shattered Mughal authority, seized Delhi, and kept the blinded Emperor in their hands from about 1 771 until he was delivered by the British troops in the campaign of 1803-4. The provinces which the Marathds did not bring under their direct rule, they subjected to crushing- contributions. This system of organised pillage de- veloped in the hands of their Brdhman financiers into a regular revenue-system of black-mail. They claimed one-fourth of the revenue of such provinces as they did not actually subjugate. The miserable Muham- madan Viceroys or generals who had more or less openly set up for themselves amid the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, had to choose between incessant invasions or the payment of chanth, i. e. ' quarter- revenue,' to the distant Mardthd Courts. Even the remote valleys of the Lower Ganges had to accept these degrading terms. In 1751 the Viceroy of Lower Bengal gave a formal grant of chaidh to the Mardthds, together with the cession of Orissa. 38 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. The three critical wars, by which the British gradually broke down this new Hindu P2mpire of plunder, form the essential history of the establish- ment of our rule in Southern India, The Muham- madan usurpers of Mysore were finally crushed at Seringapatam in i 799. But during forty years, from the first Marathd war in 1779-81, to the last Maratha war and its resulting treaties in 1817-18, the English and the Marathas were the two great powers in India which stood face to face. That long struggle has, how- ever, been so fully described, that a mere reference to it must suffice here. But in order to understand the present problems of government in Southern India, and the aptitude which the Marathas disclose for administrative employment and political combinations under British rule, it is necessary to realise the strong elements of which they consist, and which seemed for a time to point them out as the successors to the Mughal Empire. The Mardthas of the first half of the seventeenth century formed the ideal type of a Hindu people in arms. The bulk of their troops was derived from the hardy Hindu peasantry of the Deccan or Konkan, and particularly from the highlands of the Ghdts. Their military leaders were either soldiers of fortune who rose from the ranks, or petty chiefs, some of whom had more or less well-founded pretensions to Rajput descent, while others bluntly acknowledged their humble origin. Thus of the two great northern Maratha Houses, Holkar was descended from a shep- herd and Sindhia from a slipper-bearer. This military THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMBAY. 39 array was skilfully organised and consolidated into a political power by the Marathd Brahmans, The Marathd Confederacy realised, therefore, in a striking manner the ancient theoretical constitution of a Hindu State, consisting of the peasantry, the war chiefs, and the Brahman ministers, as sketched out in Manu, with a royal family as the cope-stone of the edifice. The royal family, or descendants of Sivaji, soon became a shadowy power, and the Brahman ministers, or Peshwas, practically superseded the Marathd kings. The Brdhmans supplied the brain power to the whole. They directed the internal councils, controlled the external policy, and monopo- lised all the lucrative posts in the administration. The Mardthd Confederacy stands as an example in modern history of both the strength and the weakness of a national organisation on strictly Hindu lines. It was firmly welded together by the spiritual authority and the secular abilities of the ablest class, the Brdhmans. On the other hand the strengrth of the Brdhmanical control became the weakness of the royal power. While the religious forces of cohesion were strong, the civil forces of cohesion were weak. As during the invasion of Alexander the Great, and as throughout the whole history of the Rajput races, so in the Mardthd Confederacy, there was no central force strong enough to maintain an effective and a permanent over-lordship. The Mardthds, therefore, with their tremendous energy of destruction against external States, were unable to unify their power against their own military leaders. Their internal 40 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. dissensions and the conflicting interests of their five Ruling Houses, form the domestic history of their ruin. Those dissensions and internal conflicts ren- dered the issue of a struggle with a persistent Power like the British, animated by common aims and directed by a permanent central authority, only a question of time. We have been so long familiar with the results of the struggle, that it requires almost an effort of the imagination to conceive that it might have had any other issue. But the contemporary records prove that in the minds of the early British rulers of India, the result was by no means a foregone conclusion. If an effective over-lordship had been maintained at Poona by a dynasty of warlike kings, worthy to be the successors of Sivaji, a Marathd Empire might have been established which would have altered the present map of India. It must be remembered that not till 1565 did the last of the great Hindu over-lordships of Southern India go down before the Muhammadans on the field of Talikot. That within less than a century from that date, the Hindu military revival in Southern India had commenced under Sivaji, and that in less than a century and a quarter the Mardtha leader had publicly crowned himself a Hindu king. That in a century and a half from the field of Tdlikot the Mardthas had practically shattered the Mughal Empire. That in just a little over two centuries (1565 — 1771) the Mardthds had subjected almost the whole Indian provinces of that Empire to their actual rule or to their system of revenue tribute, and were holding prisoner the THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMB A V. 41 successor of the Mughal Emperors as a convenient puppet at Delhi. The problem of administration in a Marathd country is, therefore, to deal not with a quick-witted Hindu people like the Bengalis who had long been accustomed to foreign subjection, but with an equally able Hindu people who had been accustomed to consider them- selves a conquering and a governing race. The problem is further complicated by the circumstance, that while war meant misery and exactions in Bengal, it meant prosperity and a most profitable business to the Marathas. During nearly a century, I repeat, the Marathas elaborated armed aggression into a lucrative revenue-system. Their troops returned laden with pay and plunder from their distant expeditions ; their financiers swept into their central treasuries a quarter of the income of the provinces which they did not actually subject. For a time the wealth of India poured into the Mardthd kingdoms. Under such a system agriculture became a merely secondary occupa- tion for the Maratha peasantry during the intervals when they had not more profitable work on hand. Even a high rate of land-tax would have pressed lightly on them, but the exactions from other provinces enabled their rulers for a time to deal lightly with the peasantry of their central districts in the Mardtha country. With the gradual establishment of the British Power a double change took place. The cessation of the chaiiih or revenue contributions from distant provinces, and the increasing difficulty of deriving an income from 42 BOMBA y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. external invasions, compelled the Marathd rulers to force up the taxation from their own peasantry. The Marathd peasantry, deprived of predatory excursions as a source of profit, had to turn again to agriculture as their sole means of livelihood. They on their side could not so well afford to pay a high land-tax, as in the days when they enjoyed the plunder of other provinces, while their rulers w-ere compelled to levy a more stringent taxation on the Maratha lands. We shall see how this aspect of Marathi history affected the British land-revenue system of Bombay. With the fall of the Marathas as a predatory power, the collapse of the Maratha system of finance ensued. When the British took possession of the Maratha country, they found that the extortions which the Marathd rulers formerly practised on external provinces, had been concentrated upon the peasantry of the Mardtha country itself. The Marathas have in them the grit of the best of the old Dravidian races, combined with the quick per- ception and constructive energy of the Aryan or Brahman stratum which, in pre-historic times, super- imposed its higher religious conceptions on the earlier peoples of the South. The result has been to develop in a high degree alike the active and the reflective sides of the Maratha character. For the Marathds are scarcely more distinguished as a military than as a literary race. Their language while of an advanced Aryan type and possessing structural complications attractive to the Indian student, bears witness to the strong original element which still forms the backbone THE FOLK PROVINCES OF BOMBAY. 43 of the Maratha peasantry. Bishop Caldwell, while estimating the non-Aryan element in the modern Aryan languages of Northern India at one-tenth of the words in their vocabularies, placed the same non- Aryan element as high as one-fifth in Marathi\ The Marathas are a people proud, not only of their history as a conquering and governing race, but also of their national literature. One of the earliest Marathi poets of fame was the famous Nam Deva, about the end of the thirteenth century. Like his fellow-country- man and contemporary, Dnydnoba, the author of the Dnyaneshwari, he was deeply impressed with the spiritual aspects of life. Indeed, almost all the Marathi writers are religious poets. About the year 1 571, Sn'dhar compiled his Marathi paraphrases or translations of the Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata, the Ramdyana, and the Bhagavata. Marathi poetry reached its highest flight in the Abhangas or spiritual poems of Tukaram or Tukoba [circ. 1609). This famous devotee started life as a petty shopkeeper ; but also applied himself to religion and literature. The object of his adoration was Vi- thoba, whose shrine he regularly visited twice a year. Tukardm was the popular poet in Western India of a reformed Vishnuite faith, similar to that which Chait- anyd had taught in Bengal. Me inveighed with peculiar unction and beauty against the riches of the world. In the eighteenth century, Mayiir Pandit ' It is right to mention that the more recent investigations of Beames, Hoernle, and Grierson render such dicta, alike of Bishop Caldwell and Lassen, doubtful. 44 BOMB A V ADMJNISTRA TION, 1 885 - 1 890. or Moropanth poured forth his copious song in strains which some regard as even more elevated than the poems of Tukardm, Besides its accumulation of religious verse, Marathi possesses a prose literature, among which the chief compositions are the Bakhars or Annals of the Kings, It is also rich in love songs, and in farcical poetry of a broad style of wit. A very brief sketch of the fourth speech-division of the Bombay Presidency, namely, the Kanarese districts, must close this chapter. For a considerable portion of the Kanarese-speaking country lies beyond the limits of the Bombay Presidency, while another con- siderable portion of it is really a debateable land be- tween the true Kdnarese districts and the Mardthd country in which both languages are spoken. Includ- ing Kolhdpur, the Kdnarese-speaking section of the Bombay Presidency has an area of about 25,000 square miles, with a population of 4^ millions in 1881. It is divided into four British Districts^ and eig^ht principal Native States ^, When it came within the cognisance of the British, it was under the rule of the Poona Peshwas, and it thus obtained its popular English name of the Southern Mardtha Country. The more accurate official phraseology of the present day prefers the designation of the Bombay Karnatik. Like the true Mardthd country the Kdnarese-speak- ing districts of Bombay have a history which goes as ' Namely, Bijdpur, Belgium, Dhdrwdr, and North Kdnara. "^ Namely, Kolhdpur, Mirdj, Sdngli, Jamkhandi, Kurundwdd, Mudhol, Rdmdrug, and Savanur. THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMB A V. 45 far back as the reign of Asoka, who sent a missionary to preach Buddhism in this tract about 240 B.C. After a long succession of Buddhist and Hindu dynasties it passed for a time under the local Muhammadan king- doms of Southern India, and for a still shorter period under the nominal control of the Mughal Empire. But for practical purposes the modern history of the Kdnarese country begins with the establishment of Marathd power under Sivaji in the seventeenth cen- tury. After the breaking up of the Mughal Empire in the eighteenth century, the parts of the Bombay Karnatik not Included in the home-territories of the Marathds were ruled by the Muhammadan princes of Haidardbad (the Nizam) and of Mysore (Haidar All and TIpu). On the general pacification by the British, which followed our final overthrow of the Marathas in 181 7, the Bombay Karnatik was brought under the Company's rule by Colonel Munro, almost without opposition. The secret of his success consisted, to no small extent, in his recognition of the ruling families or native chiefs in the newly annexed territories. The British accepted the status qiio ; and the Native States of the Bombay Karnatik or Southern Mardtha Country form a prominent feature in this speech-division of the Bombay Presidency at the present day. The foreg^oino- brief account of the four historical areas which make up the Bombay Presidency, although a mere sketch with many details not filled In, suffices to bring three essential administrative facts before the reader. 46 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. In the first place it shows that the Government of that Presidency has to do with races and populations distinct alike in their history, their speech, their intel- lectual capacity, and their political needs. An adminis- trative organisation which Is to deal satisfactorily with these deep-lying differences, must be no hard and fast system prescribed on a priori principles from a central bureau, but one which is freely susceptible of local adaptations to meet local necessities and local facts. Secondly, it places in a clear light the special feature of the Presidency Government of Bombay, as compared with most other of the Provincial Governments In India. This feature Is that the Bombay Government has In every part of Its territories to deal not only with a population of British subjects, but also with a popu- lation under Native Chiefs, situated In the very heart of our own districts, and often Interspersed among, or interlaced with, them In a perplexing and Intricate manner. In the third place, it indicates what may be called a fundamental problem of British government, as contra-distinguished from British administration In Southern India. That problem is as old as the earliest military occupations of the South by the Delhi kings six centuries ago. It is the problem of uniting Southern India Into one strong Empire ruled from the North, in spite of the physical difficulties Imposed by distance and Intervening tracts of mountain, forest, and desert. To the early Delhi dynasties those difficulties proved insuperable. It was the fixed idea of the Mughal Empire to overcome them, and that Empire, in the THE FOUR PROVINCES OF BOMB A Y. 47 height of its power and in the plenitude of its despotic authority, shattered itself in vain efforts to accomplish this self-imposed task. The attempts of the East India Company to march troops from Bengal to Bombay proved how precarious would have been the control of Southern India by the Governor-General in Calcutta, if the British had had to depend upon the land route. It was the maritime power of England which enabled her to weld together Northern and Southern India into one Empire. It is the maritime power of England which enables her to uphold that Empire. But her hold upon India no longer depends solely on her fleets. Since the time of Dalhousie the long-est distances within India itself have, for the purpose of strategic move- ments, been brought under the control of the railway system. England as a basis of great military opera- tions is now many weeks nearer to Bombay than Delhi was under the Mughal Emperors. For immediate striking purposes, our most distant cantonments of the North, Calcutta, Lucknow, Ambala, or even Peshawar on the Punjab frontier, could concentrate their forces upon the districts of Bombay in one-tenth of the time that a Mughal army took to march from the military centres in Northern India to the nearest districts of the Marathd country. It was as a Sea Power that England won India. It is as a Sea Power and as a Railway Power that she has welded Northern and Southern India into one Empire under a strong central control. If, therefore, this book is to reach the heart of the matter, and to deal adequately with the problem which underlies all other 48 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. problems of British Rule in Southern India, it must devote some space not only to the relations of the Bombay Government to the Supreme Government in Northern India, but also to the naval, or in official phraseology the ' marine,' resources of Bombay itself, and to the railway system by which every part of the Presidency is now brought within striking reach of the whole military power of the Empire. CHAPTER IV. THE FRAMEWORK OF THE PRESIDENCY GOVERNMENT. THE Government of Bombay is the historical development of the government of the old fac- tory of the East India Company at Surat \ Until towards the close of the seventeenth century, Surat was the principal seat of the Company as a trading power in India. It was ruled by a President and a Council of eight members, five of whom were to be always resident. In 1687 the seat of the Presidency was finally transferred to Bombay. It was at this same time that the Company's servants in Bengal, broken in spirit by the oppression of the Native Viceroy, resolved to abandon their factories ; and em- barking themselves and their goods, sailed down the Hugh, and despondently anchored off Balasor on the Orissa coast. It was not until nearly a century later that the Regulating Act in 1773 appointed the Gover- nor of Benoal to be Governor-General of India, and ' This chapter is to some extent based on the ' Report on the Adminis- tration of the Bombay Presidency for 1882-83,' issued in 1884, the year previous to the five years with which the present volume deals. Printed at the Government Central Press, I'ombay. I have also freely used the information collected for the Gazetteers or Statistical Accounts of the fiombay Districts, by Mr. J. M. Campbell, and my Impefial Gazetteer of India, and Ifititan /im/>ire. D 50 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TIOX, 1 885- 1 890. laid the foundation of that central control which has knit tocfether the scattered fras^ments of the Mucrhal dominions into a new and stronger Empire. In 1884, the year preceding the period with which this volume deals, the Government of Bombay con- sisted, as it still consists, of a Governor as President ; and a Council of two Ordinary Members selected from the covenanted Civil Service, together with the Com- mander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army. The Governor and his Council, thus constituted, form the Executive Government of the Presidency. For legislative pur- poses the Executive Government is expanded into a Legislative Council consisting of the Governor, the Members of his Executive Council, and a certain number of Additional Members, at that time (1885-90) four to eight in number, selected from the non-official community, European and Native, or from officials of rank. The Governor is President of both the Executive and Legislative Councils. For the sake of convenience, the business of Government is divided into Depart- ments, of which the Political, the Judicial, the Educa- tional, the Revenue, the Public Works, and the Military and Marine, are the chief. The supervision of each Department forms the special work of one or other of the Members of the Executive Government. The practice of regarding each of the Executive Councillors as a Minister holding the portfolio of a separate Department, which has gradually developed with such good results in the Supreme Government of India, has thus reproduced itself, although not with so strongly FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 51 marked lines of demarcation, in the internal govern- ment of Bombay. The Governor has by law the power to overrule the decisions of his Council, and to set aside their unanimous opinion in exceptional cases, recording his reasons. He has, moreover, the casting voice when his Council is equally divided — a power of considerable importance. It is, however, the object of every wise Governor, by patiently threshing out each question, to reconcile differences of opinion among his council- lors, and thus to render his decisions in reality as well as in official style the united action of himself and his Council. While, therefore, Government by Parliament as in England is a government by debate and voting, Government by Council in Bombay is a government by discussion and agreement. ' The result,' says the authoritative Report ^ on the VForm of Administration,' 'is that the chief is in- dividually and effectively responsible for every act of the Government. The Members of Council have only an individual responsibility ; but it is always known, from documents capable of being produced, and wliich, if called for by Parliament or public opinion, always are produced, what each has advised, and what reasons he gave for his advice : while from their dignified position, and ostensible participation in all acts of Government, they have nearly as strong motives to apply themselves to the public business, and to form and express a well-considered opinion on ^ Report on the Administ7-ation of the Bombay Pfvsidency for 1S82-83, folio 20. D 2 5 2 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 890. every part of it, as if the whole responsibihty rested with themselves, ' All papers connected with public business reach Government through the Secretariat, where they are properly arranged, and submitted to the Member in charge of the department to wdiich they belong, tocjether with all available material for coming to a decision in the shape of former correspondence, Acts or Resolutions relatino- to the same or an analosfous subject, and also with the recorded opinions of the Secretary or Under-Secretary in the department in question, or of both. The strength of the Secretariat is as follows. For the Revenue, Financial, and General Departments, a Secretary and Under-Secretary, w4io are covenanted civilians, and an Assistant-Secretary who is an uncovenanted officer ; in the Political, Judicial, Educational, and Secret Departments, a covenanted Secretary and Under-Secretary, the latter of whom also officiates as Secretary to the Legislative Council, and two uncovenanted Assistant-Secretaries ; in the Military, Marine, and Ecclesiastical Depart- ments, a Secretary w^io is a military officer, and an uncovenanted Assistant-Secretary ; and in the Public Works, Railway, and Telegraph Departments, a Sec- retary, a Joint Secretary, and three Under-Secretaries, who are either Ro)"al or Civil Engineers, and two Assistant-Secretaries, one of w^iom is a Civil Engineer and the other an uncovenanted officer. The senior Civil Secretary to Government is entitled the Chief Secretary.' Certain changes have since been made. The constitution of the various Departments of the FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 53 Government, Political, Revenue, Judicial, Police, and Public Works, &c., will be explained under the chapters dealing with these branches of the Administration. The present chapter treats only of the Government at head-quarters which directs the whole. The central figures in the Government of Bombay are the Governor, his two Civilian Councillors and the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army. During the five years, from 1885 to 1890. with which this book deals, the Governor was Lord Reay, and his Civil Councillors w^ere successively Sir James Braith- waite Peile, Sir Maxw^ell Melvill, Sir James Richey, and Sir Raymond West. The Commanders-in-Chief of the Bombay Army during the same period were successively Sir Arthur Hardinge, Sir Charles Arbuth- not, and His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught. This book is not written in the praise or dispraise of any living man, and with one exception, Lord Reay and his colleagues are still in the world of the living. That exception is the late Sir Maxwell Melvill, and in a later part of this chapter I shall endeavour to show wdiat manner of man he was. The Governor, however, stands in a different cate- gory from his colleagues in Council. He is not only the central motive power but the conspicuous figure- head of the Government for the time being. It largely depends upon his personal character whether his Government is strong or feeble, courageous or timid, skimming: over the surface of thinijfs or ijoincj to the root of each matter. It is, therefore, necessary in order to understand the attitude of the Bombav 54 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885- 1890. Government towards the successive grave questions which came before it in the five years from 1885 to 1890, to have some idea of the personaHty of the Governor during that period. I hope that in attempt- ing the most dehcate of tasks, a biographical notice of a living man, I shall be found to confine myself strictly to a narrative of the influences (hereditary and personal) which shaped his mind and gave direction to his views on public affairs. Donald James, Chief of the ancient Scottish clan Mackay and eleventh Baron Reay in the peerage of Scotland, took his seat as Governor of Bombay on the 30th March, 1885. He represents one of the famous Scottish families who sought service about three cen- turies ago in the armies of Europe, and gained for themselves high positions in their adopted countries. 'When King James Sixth of Scotland became also King of England,' says the historian of Mackay's regiment, ' there followed a lengthened period of peace and quietness throughout the two kingdoms,' during w'hich ' numbers of brave and adventurous men,' who ' could not remain idle,' ' left Scotland in search of fame and fortune, and took service under the banners of the various princes who were then warring for supremacy on the continent of Europe^.' One of these gentlemen. Sir Donald Mackay-, raised a regiment among his clansmen, and headed the Scots ' 'An Old Scots Brigade, being the History of Mackay's Regiment, now incorporated with the Royal Scots.' By John Mackay (late) of Herriesda!e. Blackwood &: Sons. 1885. Dedicated to the present Lord Rcay. ^ Born 1590 ; knighted by King James, 1616; created a baronet, 1627, and Baron Reay, Peerage of Scotland, 1628: died 1649. & FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 55 Hrigade which did splendid service for Holland and Sweden in the Protestant cause during the Thirty Years' War. A scarce monograph of the last century ''ives a stirring account of the battles and sufferinos of this orallant body of Scotchmen ^ Its Chief, the first Lord Reay. on hearing of the distress of his sovereign Charles I, hastened over to England from the Conti- nent to join the losing cause, was taken prisoner on His Majesty's surrender, and thrown into gaol. Being liberated by the intervention of the King of Denmark, Lord Reay returned to that country. He 'continued in the s'^ Kino's service during- the remainder of his days ; and upon hearing of the murder of his G[racious] Sov. K[ing] Ch. I, he took it so to heart that he took his bed and dyed in 3 days y^' after ' (February, 1649) ^. The Kino- of Denmark sent over a frio-ate with the bod)' of the loyal old soldier, to be interred in the ancient burying-place of his House in the Scottish highlands. The tyranny of James H led to as hard a struggle between loyalty to the Crown and fidelity to the Pro- testant religion among the Scottish regiments serving in Holland, as among his subjects at home. The Dutch regiments of the Scots Brirade, under General Mackay, made up a large part of the armament which brought over the Prince of Orange to England in ' 'An Historical Account of the British Regiments employed since the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I in the formation and defence of the Dutch Rcpuljlic, particularly of the Scotch Brigade.' T. Kay. London. 1795. '•* John Mackay's An Old Scots Brigade. Appendix H, p. 252. From a family manuscript written between the years 1678 and 1700, in the possession of the present Lord Reay. 56 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. October, 1688. It fought for him at KiUIecrankie, where indeed the commanders on both sides, Viscount Dundee for King James, and General Mackay for Kine WilHam, had been bred to arms in the Scots Brieade. On the fall of Lord Dundee in the battle, another cx-officer of the Brigade, General Cannon, who had commanded one of the Scots regiments brought over from Holland on the occasion of Monmouth's rebellion, took command of the Royalist Highlanders. In 1 69 1 at the siege of Athlone, the storming of the fortress was allotted to the Scots Brigade under General Mackay. From this period the careers of the regiments of the Brigade which had been brought over to England and those which remained in Holland diverge. Until the close of the eighteenth century the Mackays and their followers in Holland considered themselves Scotchmen, and indeed were almost ready to mutiny rather than to give up their national colours or uniform. They had the keen animus redeundi which still characterises the Scot in foreign countries. But from the end of the eitrhteenth century the Dutch section of the Scots Brigade began to consider Holland as their fatherland. Colonel Aeneas Mackay, of the Scots Brigade (born 1734, died 1807), the great-grandfather of the present Lord Reay, fairly settled in Holland, and through his marriage with the Baroness de Haeften in 1 763 brought the Dutch estate into the family. His son Barthold, the present Lord Reay's grandfather, wore the uniform of the Dutch navy. His son, the loth Baron, the present Lord Reay's father, was the first of the race to enter a FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 57 Dutch University, and to take an important part in the government of their adopted country. He became Minister of State and Vice-President of the Privy Council of the Netherlands. The present Lord Reay's mother was the dauMiter of Baron Faorel, a distin- guished Dutch statesman \ One of his mother's uncles was the Dutch Ambassador in London, another held the same post in Paris. The present Lord Reay(born 1839) was educated at the gymnasium at the Hague and at the Leiden Uni- versity. His tutor at the latter seat of learning was the eminent jurist in Roman law, Professor Goudsmit. The Dutch Mackays were high Conservatives of the old type, philosophical Tories and Divine Right men. Lord Reay's father combined these principles with the doctrines of free trade, and was a Liberal in colonial policy. Lord Reay himself chose for his dissertation when he took his Degree at Leiden, a purely colonial subject, namely, the administration of Netherlands India under Field Marshal Daendels, the road- making Governor-General in Java. On leaving the Univer- sity, Lord Reay entered the Dutch Poreign Office, and was attached to the Dutch Legation at the Court of St. James's to study English institutions. P'rom the Foreign Office he was transferred to the Dutch Colonial Office to «:et a thoroucfh knowledge of its Colonial system. In 1866 he made a tour in America to examine the institutions of that country, and there laid the foundation of life-long friendships with some of * The Fageliana of the Dublin library belonged to the Fagel family. 58 BOMB A Y A DMIXISTRA TION, 1 885 - 1 890. its most clistino'itished citizens, incluclino- Lowell and Longfellow. Being appointed President of the Society for the Promotion of Dutch Industries, Lord Reay gave special attention to questions connected w^ith capital and labour; and in 1869 organised an industrial ex- hibition at Amsterdam, for the benefit of the working classes — the first attempt to illustrate in this way the relations of capital and labour in Holland. The exhibition proved a great success, and although the more extreme Conservatives looked on it as a Socialist innovation in disguise, the late Queen of Holland gave it her cordial support, and continued to the young politician the intimate friendship with which she had honoured his parents and grandparents. In 187 1 Lord Reay entered the Chamber of Dutch Representatives as a Liberal Member for Tiel, the district in which his family estates lie, and was again returned in 1875. In the Chamber his special sub- jects w^ere foreign and colonial politics, secondary and agricultural education, and industrial c^uestions, especi- ally those connected with co-operative labour. His father succeeded to the Scotch title in 1875, ^^^ ^^i^<^^ in the following )ear. The present Lord Reay suc- ceeded to the family honours in 1876, and was natural- ised by Act of Parliament as a British subject in 1877. This step gave considerable umbrage to many of his Dutch friends, the more so as the family then held a very conspicuous position in the political life of the Netherlands. Lord Reay's cousin and heir-presumptive w^as President of the Second Chamber, and was till FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERXME^T. 59 August, 1 89 1, Prime Minister of Holland. In 1881, Lord Reay was raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom under the title of Baron Reay. Throughout his career, both in Holland and England, Lord Reay's attention had been strongly directed to foreign politics and to colonial administration; and in 1885 he was appointed Governor of Bombay. A. Liberal, of what is now known as the federal but decentralising type, Lord Reay brought to his task a life-long conviction of the necessity of binding together the Colonies and India with the mother-country; by strengthening the interests which the various parts of the Empire have in common ; and by non-interference with local institutions and susceptibilities. In home politics, which however interested him less than Indian, colonial, and foreign affairs. Lord Reay was a decided Liberal and free-trader of the Cobden and Bright school. That is to say, of the school which resisted with equal firmness any steps in the socialistic direc- tion on the one side, or any tampering with free-trade principles on the other. In foreign and colonial politics, Lord Reay was, alike by hereditary training and by personal conviction, opposed to the laissez /aire policy, and in favour of great vigilance in the maintenance of British interests. He was one of the original members of the Federation League, and heartily went with Lord Rosebery and his friends in their programme of making India and the colonies living factors in the national organisation of Greater Britain. It follows that he believed in the necessity of a strong army and navy for the mother-country, 6o BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. and of a cautious but vigilant frontier policy in India. There was one question of domestic politics to which he had given much attention. He had always been a steady and powerful advocate of popular Education, and especially of Technical Education. He regarded the instruction and true enlightenment of the people as the best, perhaps the only permanent, weapon of civilisation against the socialistic tendencies wdiich threaten to divert the democracy in Europe from the sure although slow paths of economic progress. On Lord Reay's arrival in India he found himself associated with a military colleague of great ability. The Commander-in-Chief of Bombay, General Sir Arthur Hardinge, K.C.B., knew India and the Indians well and was a thorough man of the world, with literary tastes and varied social accomplishments. As the head of the Bombay Army his strong point was believed to be infantry tactics. He rendered a lasting service by enforcing the principle of selection for regimental commands on the ground of personal quali- fications, rather than on hard and fast seniority claims. In the discussions which then occupied the attention of the Government with rei^ard to the reform of the ' Silladar' system of Irregular Cavalry, he also took a decisive part. His successor. Sir Charles Arbuthnot, K.C.B., R.A., was in many respects Sir Arthur's com- plement — a hard-working soldier, of retiring manners, whose elaborate and carefully considered Minutes on the Bombay, Aden, and Karachi defences form State FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 6i Papers of high historical importance. His successor in turn was the Duke of Connaught. The popularity of His Royal Highness with the army both European and Native, the plans which he set on foot or supported for its welfare, the mark which he left on the military organisation of Bombay, and the universal regret testified at his departure alike by the Native Chiefs and by the various races and communities in the British districts, will long be remembered. During his tenure of office there was no detachment of the Bombay Army which he did not personally inspect. His colleagues in Council had special reasons for appreciating the tact with which His Royal Highness reconciled his rank as the son of the Sovereign with his official position as second in the governing body of an Indian Presidency. The Duke and Duchess of Connaught made every one feel that they really enjoyed India and Indian service, and that they frankly identified themselves with the life of those around them. The Civil Members of Lord Reay's Council, men of my own service and some of them personal friends, I must touch off with a light hand. Sir James Peile, K.C.S.I., was the Revenue Member until i8S6, when he was advanced to the Council of the Governor- General of India. He was regarded as the represen- tative civilian of the ' head-quarters' type ' in the Bombay Council ; reserved in manner, very methodical in work and preferring to do it in writing rather than by oral discussion, fond of old lines, but in educational matters progressive. In forest and excise affairs he was opposed to change, and a stcad}^ supporter of the 62 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. permanent officials of those departments ; strongly putting forward the revenue aspect of each question. He had acquired valuable experience in dealing with Native States as a Political Officer, and had mastered the working of the central mechanism of Government, both in the Secretariat and in various special employments. He knew Kathiawar thoroughly, with its multitudi- nous petty States, and rendered important service to education in our own districts as Director of Public Instruction. In 1885 he acted as Governor and President in Council in Bombay, during the brief interval between the date on which the out-eoine Governor laid down his Office and Lord Reay's arrival. The Feudatory Chiefs held him in rever- ence, and the new Governor heartily acknowledged his obligations to him in questions connected with their management. Although best known as what is called in India 'a strong departmental man,' Sir Jarries Peile recognised the necessity of according a more effective voice to Native opinion, and proved a firm supporter of Lord Dufferin's policy in regard to an extended Native representation in the Legislative Councils. He was succeeded by a civilian of a different but equally well-marked type. Sir James Bellot Richey, K.C.I.E., was essentially a ' District officer,' with the minute and painstaking knowledge of the local ad- ministration and of the people which that term connotes. An agreeable colleague in Council, very open-minded, not afraid of innovations, conciliatory, and popular, he inclined to the more liberal view in FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 63 the forest and excise measures which were destined to form so important a feature of Lord Reay's ad- ministration. Sir James Richey unfortunately suffered from bad health, and when compelled to go home on leave, Mr. Pritchard, C.S.I.\ acted for him. Mr. Pritchard was a strong representative of the revenue interests in all measures. He had himself increased the revenue from the excise, and this subject was with him one of keen personal conviction. In forest questions he inclined to what was regarded as the Liberal party in the Government. Both Sir James Peile and Sir James Richey were Oxford men, the former of Oriel, the latter of Exeter College. Together with their colleagues, Sir Raymond West and Mr. Naylor, to be presently mentioned, they were among the early fruits of the competitive system for recruiting- the India Civil Service. Sir Raymond West, K.C.I.E.. M.A., became a Member of the Bombay Council in 1887. His service had been chiefly in the Judicial Department, and it was as Judicial Member that he proved of great value to Lord Reay's Government. In addition to the ordinary acquirements of a barrister-at-law and a High Court Judge, Sir Raymond West had the enthusiasm and special learning of a jurist, and as such was apt to be regarded as tending towards the doctrinaire type of administrator. A writer of erudite Minutes, ex- ceedingly lo)al to Bombay interests, and opposed to any undue interference of the Government of India, he fought effectively with pen and tongue for the views ' Now Sir Charles Pritcliard, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. 64 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. of himself and his colleagues. Generally speaking he belonged to the Liberal party in the Government, was a scientific political economist, a strong advocate of education, and very popular with the Natives. Sir Raymond West was probably the best debater in the Legislative Council of Bombay during the five years under review. Mr. Naylor, C.S.L, who acted as a temporary member of Council on two occasions, belonged to the less strongly pronounced type of judicial officer ; con- scientious, avoiding friction, fond of a tough piece of work, he will be remembered as the practical author of the new municipal constitution for the city of Bombay. The most brilliant member of the Bombay Council during the five years under review was, by common consent, Sir Maxwell Melvill. This genial and ac- complished man is now no more, and I may therefore with propriety give a somewhat fuller sketch of his character and career than would be suitable in the case of his coUeas^ues still livincr. Arrivinsf in India in 1855, ^'^^ early disclosed a bent towards the judicial branch of the administration, and marked himself as a man certain to obtain the highest positions which it offered. Havin^j served as an Assistant Mao-istrate and Collector, and as an Assistant Judge in the Bom- bay Presidency proper, he won distinction as Judicial Assistant Commissioner in Sind. After not more than about eight years' service he was offered the coveted and lucrative appointment of Judicial and Political Secretary to the Bombay Government by FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 65 Sir Bartle Frere, one of the finest judges of men who ever ruled Western India. This extraordinary piece of promotion the young civiHan decHned, out of friend- ship for Mr. Mansfield, under whom he had served in Sind, and who, he knew, desired the post. He acted for a short time as Registrar-General of Assurances, and in 1866 was appointed Judicial Commissioner and Judge of the Sadr or Chief Court in Sind. In 1868 he was selected as one of the Commissioners to enquire into the failure of the Bank of Bombay, and in the following year, 1869, he took his seat as a judge of the High Court. This office he held for fifteen years, until advanced to the Bombay Council in 1884. He declined the offer of a membership of the Viceroy's Council — the highest appointment open to a Bombay civilian — on the ground of weak health. But Sir Maxwell Melvill, or Max Melvill as he was affectionately called throughout his career, was an important personality and a living influence quite apart from his official work. In economics he did not shrink from declaring himself a protectionist of the American type — that is to say an advocate for pro- tection not for a single isolated country, but for a great continent like America or India made up of a number of States, possessing within them the resources for almost every kind of production, indeed for almost every form of human industry, and capable of a self- sufficing economic development. One of those who knew him best believes that it was this consciousness of holding views not in accordance with the prevailing doctrines of the Government of India, which influenced E 66 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. him in declining the seat in the Viceroy's Council. The same friend writes to me : — ' What used to strike me most in the character of his mind was that he combined a strong turn for the poetical and pic- turesque, with the most accurate matter-of-factness. In dealing with a question he would puff away all the froth of exaggeration and false sentiment with a few witty remarks, and present what remained in a manner that always interested. There was nothing didactic about him, and his cleverness was of an infectious sort that made the person he talked with feel on equal terms. He always liked to hear what others had to say, and mended or adjusted his own views as the conversation proceeded. A dispute with him was a real pleasure. ' I used also to be struck with his many-sidedness : for he was a keen sportsman, and a man of society as well as a w^orker. He was always a centre of refine- ment and cheerfulness, and had a happy knack of finding something humorous in all the minor troubles of life. And the wonder was that he could do all this with a frac{ile constitution that would have excused a life of apathy and inertia. He was scarcely ever really well, and on two or three occasions at death's door from weakness. His work would of course not compare with that of some others in India from the elaborative point of view ; and one may say that its characteristic was ease, not effort. But his work was sound, and true all the same — and probably few men have made so few mistakes.' His hospitality was proverbial even in hospitable Bombay. He moved FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 67 through hfe with a grace and tolerance that made him a favourite among a wide circle, and with a capacity for sincere and self-abnegating friendship that will long dwell in the memory of the few who knew the inner nature of the man. I have dwelt on the different types of Lord Reay's civilian colleagues in Council, because those types are truly representative of the Bombay Civil Service at large — the Service whose varied experience and often conflicting opinions have to be amalgamated and har- monised in the corporate measures of the Presidency Government ; the Service, moreover, by which those measures have to be practically carried out. For although made up of widely diversified component parts, the Government of Bombay, as of other Indian Provinces, presents the outward form of an entity firmly compacted together, and wielding the strength of the Greek ideal of 'the one in many.' In its external relations it ordinarily deals with the Supreme Government practically represented by the Governor- General-in-Council at Simla or Calcutta, but on cer- tain occasions with the Secretary of State direct. Its internal business with the Bombay Presidency Adminis- tration it discharges through the medium of the Secretariat, assisted and humanised by the personal intercourse of the Governor with the District Officers and the Heads of Departments. It is necessary here to say a few words in regard to the external relations of Lord Reay's Government towards the Supreme Government of India. The decentralisation policy which Lord Mayo r: 2 68 BOMBAY ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885 - 1 890. inauourated, in 1871, in Indian finance has, in its later developments, given a new importance to the relations between the Central and the Provincial Gov^ernments. The remarkable feature of those relations at present is that on mere matters of detail constant reference to the Central Government may be necessary, while on many large questions involving important principles, such references may almost be avoided. Thus to take an example in the Depart- ment of Public Instruction. I am informed that the foundation of the Ferousson College in Poona, which amounted to a new departure in the self-education of the Maratha country, did not necessitate a single communication between the Simla and Bombay Sec- retariats ; while the endowment of a new Professorship at the Grant Medical College, affecting no question of general principle, required a lengthy correspondence between the two Secretariats. Even in legislative matters the lines of local initiative and of Central control are not clearly demarcated. Theoretically the Local Legislature deals with local legislation. But, speaking practically of the period under review, the Bombay Government passed several important acts without interference by the Central Government, whilst other bills not of a strictly local character, yet not more important in their consequences, were considered to require amendment in detail by the Governor-General-in-Council. It is not possible, therefore, in the present transition state of India, to define exactly the limits of local legislation and administration in regard to the Central FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 69 control. But the growing burdens imposed on the Supreme Government by the extension of the Empire, steadily make for decentralisation, and the centrifugal force is always gathering strength. Lord Reay, like other self-reliant Provincial Governors, believed that this tendencv is in the ricjht direction. He regfarded the spectacle of the ablest and most experienced administrators in India, one set of them at Simla and another at a provincial capital, spending their best days in keen dialectic controversy over administrative details, as a spectacle altogether unsuited to the India of the present day. As a matter of fact, although the demarcating lines as to which questions are imperial and which provincial are nowhere clearly defined, a tacit understanding has gradually grown up. It is right to add that the influence of both the Viceroys, Lord Dufferin and Lord Lansdowne, during the period under review, was opposed to needless interference by the Simla Secretariat with the Provincial Governments. Personally, Lord Reay was in full accord with Sir Stafford Northcote (Lord Iddesleigh) in favour of further decentralisation. Routine is the bane of bureaucracy. It is a natural parasite of the Anglo- Indian form of government, and to it a peculiarly dangerous parasite. Lord Reay regarded a cautious extension of the powers of the Provincial Governments as a practical antidote to the paralysing influences of routine, and in his relations with the Supreme Govern- ment of India he acted frankly on this conviction. As regards the internal division of labour within the Government of Bombay itself, the Governor's relations 70 BO MB A V A DMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. are primarily with his Members of Council, and in a secondary although an almost equal degree with his Secretariat. Lord Reay retained in his own hands the more special charge of the Political, Military, Ecclesi- astical, and Public Works Departments, throughout his whole tenure of office. During the last year of his Government he had also charge of the Department of Public Instruction. The Judicial Department, includ- ing the judicial side of our political relations with the Native States, formed the particular charge of one of the two Civilian Members of the Council, commonly known as the Judicial Member. In like manner the other Civilian, or Revenue, Member of Council was responsible for the initiation and conduct of the Government in the Revenue Department, including under that comprehensive term the relations of the Government to the land and the cultivators, besides the various branches of administration which it ordin- arily embraces in European countries. The questions in the Revenue Department are, however, so vitally important to the welfare of the people, and their economic side is so deeply interesting to any one accustomed to deal with landed property in Europe, that no conscientious Governor can divest himself of an enormous amount of work connected with them. As a matter of fact, very few Minutes written by Lord Reay's colleague in Council in the Revenue Depart- ment were returned to the Secretariat without some exchange of thought between the Governor and the Revenue Member. The branch of the administration which came least FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 71 within Lord Reay's direct and personal management was the Judicial Department. Lord Reay's studies under one of the most accomplished of continental jurists made him realise the extremely intricate and technical character of the mixture of English with Hindu and Muhammadan law administered in the Indian Courts. Indeed, it would have been unwise for any Governor appointed from England to attempt to override the long and comprehensive experience of such colleagues as Sir Maxwell Melvill and Sir Ray- mond West in the practical conduct of Indian judicial questions. Such questions are even more essentially matters for Indian experts, and of even a more technical character, than those which arise in the Public Works Department itself. Lord Reay took the view that the constitutional advisers of the Governor are his Members of Council in a much more direct sense than his Secretaries. He held that to govern chiefly on Secretariat Notes is a dangerous although a not uncommon error in India. The Secretaries to an Indian Government are very important functionaries, younger and often personally more vigorous than the Members of Council, with their further careers still before them, and chosen for their powers of quickly grasping questions and smoothly performing many kinds of work. Lord Reay carefully chose the strongest men he could find in the Service for his Secretaries, quite independently of whether their personal views coincided with his own. But he realised with great distinctness the tendency of the Secretariat to run in bureaucratic grooves, and he 7 2 BO MB A V A DMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. endeavoured to correct this tendency by freely and constantly consulting with the District Officers direct, and with the heads of the European and native com- munities. He believed that as an English Chancellor of the Exchequer maintains personal communication in reofard to the lars^er matters of finance with the leaders of the City, so an Indian Governor should maintain a personal communication with the non-official leaders of the Provinces which he administers. The Secretaries had always the right of stating their views to him with absolute frankness in their Secretariat Notes, and of giving personal explanations if they desired to do so. But having a Council appointed under Act of Parlia- ment, it seemed to Lord Reay that personal discussion should ordinarily take place between himself and his Members of Council, rather than with the Members of the Secretariat. As this is a question which arises under every new Governor in India, and as Lord Reay held strong opinions in regard to it, it may be proper to state at a little further lenofth his own views. He held that a Governor must not allow himself to become the mouth- piece of his Secretariat, That it is as President of his Council, and with the Members of his Council, that all important business should be transacted. That it is even necessary to guard against the Secretariat invad- ing the province of the Council. That when a Secretary and a Member of Council take divergent views with respect to any question, the difficulty is aggravated if the Governor backs his Secretary, unless his Council are well aware that he is not under Secretariat in- FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 73 Alienees. Acting on this conviction Lord Reay departed from the system of receiving regular weekly visits from the Chief Secretaries, and of transacting work with them in person. He thought that that system, while certainly saving trouble, and while necessary in the more complicated mechanism of the Supreme Government of India, exposed a Provincial Governor to the temptation of not looking himself so closely into each question as he would otherwise be forced to do. Lord Reay preferred reading what the Secretaries had to say, and then talking over their opinions with the Members of Council in cases where a difference of opinion arose. On matters of trade and finance Lord Reay was always anxious to consult the Members of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, and especially Sir Forbes Adam, the distinguished head of that body. In railway matters he advised freely and personally with the managers of the chief lines ; in the Public Works Department with the leading engineers ; on Military matters with experienced officers ; on Educa- tional questions with the leading professors and inspectors of schools, in addition to the Director of Public Instruction; on Revenue questions with the District officials, both European and Indian, and with the Native I ndmddrs or landholders who were qualified by their special knowledge to give an opinion. This system of consultation outside the Council and Secre- tariat, added both to the labour and to the interest of Lord Reay's work. It is a system which all energetic Governors make use of, to a larger or smaller extent 74 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. But with Lord Reay it formed a cardinal principle, as he believed that it helped to counteract the tendency to bureaucratic onesidedness which he regarded as a constant danger to Indian government. On the one hand it increased the knowledge of the Governor, and the confidence of the public which soon became aware that the Governor did not act on ex parte statements and that his w^as not a government by ' file.' On the other hand it was sometimes not altogether agreeable to the immediate entourage of the Governor, and perhaps tended to temper the enthusiasm with which some Governors have been regarded by their Secre- tariat. In the difficult matter of patronage, Lord Reay endeavoured to make all other considerations sub- ordinate to individual fitness. Where two candidates were of equal fitness, seniority prevailed. But Lord Reay made it clearly understood that for the higher or more special appointments, fitness, not seniority, guided his selection ; and that, for example, a Com- missionershlp of a Division was not necessarily given to the senior Collector on the list. This principle was not always popular with the Service, but it was fully endorsed by the Government of India. The presence of an officer at head-quarters, consti- tuted, in Lord Reay's opinion, no special title to promotion. Good district work, knowledge of the people and of the living forces among them, were regarded by Lord Reay as superior claims to an indoor acquaintance with rules and regulations. Appoint- ments based on such considerations did not always FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 75 give complete satisfaction in a Service in which seniority has, and rightly has, strong rights. But similar principles were adopted by Sir Arthur Hardinge as Commander-in-Chief, in filling up vacancies, con- spicuously in the case of colonels of regiments ; and Lord Reay believed that the Bombay Army was indebted to Sir Arthur Hardinge for an increase of efficiency on this as on other grounds. In regard also to the difficult question as to the employment of military officers in civil or political appointments, Lord Reay entertained distinct views of his own. On various occasions he expressed his opinion as to the high character of the Civil Service in general and of the younger members of it in particular. Very few services in the world, he thought, could show such an amount of honest hard work, or so high a standard of personal honour in positions of isolation, where a man's work and a man's conduct have to be regulated so decisively by what is right in his own eyes. Lord Reay was not in favour of employing military officers in civil departments. He heartily acknowledged that a good soldier makes a good official. But he thought that the system of drawing away the most promising among the young regimental officers for civil employ meant a serious loss to the army, especially at a time when the military authorities were complaining of the insufficiency of officers for regimental duty. He believed that the reasons which in former times rendered it expedient to employ military officers in the political department, that is to say in the relations of the British Govern- 7 6 BO MB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. ment towards the Native Chiefs, had lost much of their old force, and that other imperative considerations had arisen on the other side. In the majority of cases he thought we are now bound to place at the Native Courts civil officers who have had experience in the working of the rural administration in British Districts, and who carry with them into political employment the knowledge and standards which they have thus acquired. Such men seemed to him best qualified to aid the rulers of Native States in the improvement of their territories. The Governor of a Presidency like Bombay, divided by the history, language and character of the people into four distinct Provinces, is essentially a peripatetic ruler. Lord Reay attached great importance to his tours, as they brought him into personal contact alike with Native Chiefs and their Ministers, with the District Officers, and with the heads of the local communities. As he carried on the business of govern- ment with the same personal care while on tour, as when residing in one of his three administrative head- quarters (Bombay, Poona, and Mahdbaleshwar), a very large amount of his work had to be done on paper. He preferred to personally discuss questions with his Members of Council individually, to the more formal meetings of the Council itself. It so happened that his principal colleagues during his five years of govern- ment took the same view, and two at least of them were famous as Minute writers. The result was that Councils were only held when the collective decision of the Government was required, while on the other FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 77 hand the State Papers and Records referring to the five years under review are particidarly full and able. The shortest Minutes are those by the Governor, and few heads of Indian Provinces have been more studious of brevity in this respect. Lord Reay's own view was that by steady individual discussion with his colleagues a question was more likely to be thoroughly threshed out, than at a formal meeting of Council at which it might be more difficult for a member to give way after once delivering his opinion. Lord Reay regarded the Secretariat as an instrument of administration, not of Government. This is an important distinction, and one which, with the growth of municipal and other organisations of local self- government in India, becomes every year more sio^nificant. It is one thinsf to deal with administrative principles and to practically work them out ; another to deal with the principles of government which under- lie alike the principles and details of administration. With regard to the first class of business Lord Rea)-, with a special knowledge of the bureaucratic regime in European countries, has recorded his opinion that it would be impossible to assign too high a place in all the essentials of efficiency to the Anglo-Indian bureau- cracy. He became more and more impressed with the administrative merits of that bureaucracy, the more intimately he became acquainted with its inner working. He believed that the Indian Service presents a com- bination of theoretical and practical ability, together with a high standard of personal character not to be found in cither of the two European Countries in which 7 8 BOMBAY ADMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 890. the bureaucratic system has been carried to its highest perfection, Germany and France. But he held, not the less firmly, that a bureaucratic administration must understand that its horizon is limited by the nature of its duties, and that there are other and higher functions which must be reserved to the Government. There is something to be said in favour of a clearly defined view of this kind ; something, too, against it. Sooner or later an Indian Governor has to recoofnise that in India, with its vast territories and diversified local peculiarities, the district administration is, in a much more than European sense, the actual Govern- ment of the country. By 'government' Lord Reay understood the grasp of the political and social situa- tion, and the reaction of the one on the other. For example, the Indian administration is apt to look upon what has been called the temperance movement, or the opposition to excise facilities for the liquor traffic, as a spurious movement. Lord Reay, on the other hand, believed it to be a movement which represented a certain amount of conviction on the part of many con- cerned in it, and an engine of agitation by which others sought to win the sympathies of a powerful party in England. Or to take another and more important example. Many Indian officers hold that local self- government spoils good administration. Lord Reay was willing to acknowledge that a thoroughly good civilian works an Indian District more efficiently than municipalities or local boards can at present be expected to do. But he also held that municipal self-government is the necessary school for the exten- FRAMEWORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. 79 sion of local institutions, and of that expansion of the Legislative Councils which he regarded as inevitable in the near future of India. He believed that an unchecked bureaucracy in India would, with the progress of Indian education and enlightenment, produce sooner or later the same un- fortunate results which it has produced in Ireland. But, on the other hand, that no man can be a grood Indian Governor who does not appreciate and make full use of the wonderful administrative instrument which he possesses in the bureaucratic organisation of the Indian Civil Service. He thought it possible to reconcile these two views, and he never lost sight of them in the practical work of Government. Whether it is really possible to reconcile them without a con- siderable amount of friction, is one of the chief problems in governing India during its present transition stage. CHAPTER V. DEALINGS WITH THE NATIVE STATES. LORD RE AY retained in his own hands, through- out the five years under review, the charge of the ' Pohtical Department ' which conducts the rela- tions of the British Government towards the Native States. For the duties of this Department his early diplomatic training had given him both a personal taste and a special aptitude. The territories under Native Princes or Chiefs formed more than a third of the whole area of the Bombay Presidency and aggregate 82,324 square miles ^ This is inclusive of the great Hindu State of Baroda (8570 square miles); of which the political control was transferred, in 1875, from the Bombay Government to the Governor-General in Council. The Native States which remain under the supervision of the Government of Bombay have an area of 73,753 square miles-, and a population in 1881 of seven million inhabitants. The relations of these Native States to the British * Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. iii. p. 48. Ed. 1885. '■^ Parliamentary Statistical Abstract relating to British India. State- ment I, 1889. The areas and population are always given according to the Census of 1881 — the Census which regulated administrative statistics during the five years under review. THE NATIVE STATES. 8i Government are regulated by a long series of Treaties and Engagements many of which date from the third quarter of the last century. But broadly speaking, and for present purposes, they rest upon the general settlement effected for Western India at the close of the third Maratha War in 1818-20 ^ Some of the States are of great extent and are thickly peopled ; others are under petty chiefs, thinly inhabited and in a backward state ; others again are mountainous or jungly tracts. For administrative purposes, and ex- clusive of Baroda, they are divided into eighteen States or groups of States, presenting many varieties of internal government, and wide differences alike as to the powers exercised by their Chiefs and as to the social condition of their people. Thus the great Kdthiawdr group had in 1881 an area exceeding 20,000 square miles, and a population of close on 2^ millions. The little State of Savaniir had barely 70 square miles, while Narukot had only 6,440 inhabitants. With regard to the pressure of the population on the soil, which forms a dominant factor in the problems of Indian administration, they present equally striking contrasts. Starting from the Khdndesh States (the Dangs) with 1 5 persons to the square mile, or Khairpur with 21 persons to the square mile, they proceed in an ascending scale through a general average of no persons to the square mile, to the densely peopled districts of Kolhapur with a popula- tion of 284 to the square mile. ' Sir Charles Aitchison's ' Treaties, E7igageme7iis and Siennuds,^ vol. iv. Foreign Office Press, Calcutta. Ed. 1876. F 82 BO MB A V A DMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. The political relations between the British Govern- ment and the Native States are maintained by the presence of a British Agent or representative at the principal Courts. The position and duties of this Agent vary in the different States, and are regulated either by the terms of the original Treaties or by more recent sanads or patents granted by the British Government. In some instances, as in Cutch, the function of the Accent is confined to t^ivino- advice, and to a general surveillance of the policy pursued by the Native Chief. In other cases the Agent is in- vested with an effective share in the administration ; while States whose rulers are minors — and the number of these is always large — are directly managed by European or Native officers, or by mixed Regencies, appointed by the Government of Bombay. In all cases the Political Agent is in close and confidential communication with the Political Department of the Bombay Government — the Department which Lord Reay retained as his special charge. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the eighteen groups of the Bombay Native States is the extraordinary number of petty principalities into which they are sub-divided. The Kathiawar group alone contains no fewer than 187 separate States. The recognition of these multitudinous jurisdictions is due in part to the circumstance that the early Bombay administrators regarded the dc facto exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction by a landholder in Feudatory territory as carrying with it a ^//^^/'-sovereign status. In most of the States the British Agent exercises not THE NATIVE STATES. 83 only a political but a judicial control. A large amount of judicial work accordingly devolves on the Governor- in-Council, who in criminal cases acts as a Court of Reference and Appeal, and in civil matters as a Court of Appeal, from decisions in the Native States. But greatly as the Bombay Native States differ in respect to their size, to the condition of their people, and to the degree of political control exercised by the British Government, they present still more striking diversities in resfard to the characters of their rulinsf chiefs. We are apt to speak and to think of the Native Chiefs of India as if they were a homogeneous class, differentiated indeed by religion into Muham- madans and Hindus, but governing on the same old-world patterns, and regulated as to their motives and conduct by a common love of laisscz fairc. In the following pages we shall see how wide apart is this popular conception from the actual facts. The comparative isolation of the Indian Princes tends to develop in each of them a strong individuality, whether for good or for evil. Indeed, so important is the personality of the Chief of a Native State, that any attempt at a comprehensive survey of the separate types which they exhibit would involve an elaboration of treatment quite beyond the scope of the present book. Instead, therefore, of losing the thread of this chapter in multitudinous details, I propose first to exhibit the general principles which guided Lord Reay in his dealings with the Native Chiefs ; then to give a sketch of certain of them with whose characters he became personally intimate ; concluding with a F 2 84 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1S90. summary of the principal transactions in the various groups of States during the five years of his govern- ment of Bombay. Lord Reay beheved that in the pohtical control of the Native Chiefs, there should be a minimum of interference, a maximum of encouragement to those who had at heart the good administration of their States, and in confirmed cases of misrule such a form of intervention as should protect the interests of their people without trenching on the hereditary right of succession vested in the family of the Chief. He did not expect the Chiefs to introduce all our methods of administratuDn. On the contrary he held that while we are trying to develop local self-government in our own municipalities and Districts, even at a possible sacrifice of efficiency for the moment, it would be unreasonable to deny a free hand in local self-govern- ment to the Native Chiefs on their own lines, even if those lines are not exactly those which we should prefer. Thus the regular payment of a fixed Land-Revenue in cash is a fundamental principle in the British Dis- tricts. But if a Native Chief thought it better to preserve the more elastic method of paying in kind, or of paying a large sum in favourable seasons and a smaller sum in bad ones, Lord Reay did not deem it needful to press for uniformity. Again, if Native Chiefs applied for officials trained in our service, the Boml)ay Government made a point of complying, but equally made a point of not urging the Chiefs to make such applications. On the other hand it steadily kept THE NATIVE STATES. 85 before them the advantages of improved roads, and in certain States of railways, of irrigation, of education, and of the aboHtion of those grievous internal tariffs or customs duties which stranirle trade in a conMomera- tion of petty separate Chiefdoms such as Kathiawar and other of the Bombay groups. The surrender of revenue derived from this latter source was in some instances considerable during the five years under review, and reflected the highest credit on the Chiefs. The question of jurisdiction over railways in the Native States demanded the serious attention of the Bombay Political Department. It is natural that the Chiefs should wish to keep that jurisdiction in their own hands, when the railways are constructed out of their own revenues. In States where there are fair magistrates and an efficient police, and which are willing to introduce our Railway Act, Lord Reay thought that not much harm would probably arise from such independent jurisdictions, as long as the line of railway did not form part of a trunk system. On the whole, however, he held that, in a pfis^antic railway system like that of the Indian Empire, the safety of the travelling public and of goods in transit requires a continuous police and magisterial supervision which can only be secured by a central control, and an unbroken chain of responsibility. The post and the telegraph are Imperial departments for this reason, and the railway system will in time probably become so, alike in the British Provinces and the Native States. During the period under review, the Bombay Government acted on the principle that, where the 86 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. public interest did not clearly demand interference, no interference should be exercised. In States like Bhau- nagar and Morvi, in which an intelligent initiative introduced important railways, the Bombay Political Department held it impolitic to disquiet the Rulers by any curtailment of their railway jurisdiction, unless the public safety absolutely and imperatively compelled it. Lord Reay believed that the spread of railways through Native Territories is of much greater importance than the immediate exercise of British jurisdiction along the lines ; and that our efforts should rather be directed to persuade the Chiefs to adopt our Railway Act, and thus secure to travellers and goods the safeguards which it provides. Non-interference was thus the key-note of Lord Reay's policy towards the Native States, but where the Governor felt that intervention was necessary to protect a people from callous and obdurate misrule, he did not hesitate. In the State of , for example, extreme measures were found needful. The Chief represented a peculiar type. A religious devotee and a miser, with little concern for his people, obstinate as Pharaoh but a man of pleasant manners and a good deal of humour, he filled his garners with hoards of grain which he allowed to rot rather than serve it out to his subjects during famine. After many fruitless remonstrances. Lord Reay's government found it need- ful to depose this Chief, and to bring his State for a time under a British officer. An EnMish Adminis- trator was accordingly appointed, with instructions to put an end to the abuses of which the people had THE NATIVE STATES. 87 justly complained, but to refrain from an)- sudden or violent reforms which might shock native prejudices. This temporary measure completely altered the con- dition of the State. The treasure which the Chief had accumulated at the cost of the misery of his people, was brought forth from his palace and em- ployed in giving wages to a multitude of labourers, employed on railway and other useful public works. The people soon forgot their old discontent, and it was found possible to introduce cautious yet beneficial reforms not only in the judicial and revenue adminis- tration, but also with reference to education, forests, public works, and the coinage and miscellaneous cesses current in the State. Perhaps in no position has a civilian a better oppor- tunity for the exercise of his powers, than in a Native State which has been suffering from misrule. Assisted by good native officials, and not hampered by too minute instructions from his own Government, he can bring order out of chaos in an incredibly short time. Indeed, the moment that British rule is established in such a State, the people take for granted that extortion will cease and justice will prevail. But the reforms, although easily introduced, do not always take deep root under such a system of temporary administration. Lord Reay realised this, but he felt it his duty to make it clear that our administration could only be of a temporary character ; that the rights of the ruling house were only in abeyance ; and that its restoration was only a cpiestion of time. In the State of , the Bombay Government 88 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. had to deal with a Chief of a more hopeless class. The personal habits of this petty potentate at length rendered him unfit to discharge the duties of his position, and a British officer was appointed to reform the abuses into which he had allowed his Administra- tion to sink. The other Native Chiefs felt no alarm, being w^ell aw^are of the temporary character of the remedy applied, and of the causes which rendered that remedy imperative. In a very short time the State recovered under its British, superintendent, and the hereditary rights of the ruling family were clearly maintained throughout. In regard to the vital question of Adoption, the Bombay Political Department while under Lord Reay's charge maintained its liberal policy. The more important Chiefs hold sanads or patents con- veying the right to adopt a son not only to succeed to their private property, but also to their public statits as Ruler of the people. The principle was laid down in the Queen's Proclamation on the transfer of India from the Company to the Crown in 1858, and received immediate effect by a multitude of sanads granted shortly afterwards. Acting on this principle, Lord Reay favoured a policy of further extending the grant of sanads to Chiefs not previously in possession of them. In his speech on the Jubilee of the Queen- Empress, Lord Reay could truly state : ' "We shall respect the rights, dignity, and honour of Native Princes as our own" are the words of Her Majesty's Proclamation. This pledge also has been carefully redeemed.' THE NATIVE STATES. 89 In connection with the right of adoption, Lord Reay felt very deeply the responsibility which devolved on him personally, when the minor sons, whether natural or adoptive of Native Chiefs were left to the care of the British Government by the death of their father. His provision for the education of the young Raja of Kolhapur will serve to illustrate this side of his political work. The Rajas of Kolhapur, a Maratha Principality of the first class with a population of nearly a million, have long held a conspicuous position among the Native States of Bombay. The great Maratha houses of the Gaekwar, Sindhia, and Holkar, esteem an alli- ance with the Kolhapur dynasty as an honour. The tragic fate of the last two Rulers of Kolhapur ap- pealed in a special manner to the sympathies of the British Government on behalf of the present minor. In 1866, the Raja of Kolhapur died without a natural heir. His adopted successor, a young Prince of great promise, died at Florence, while returning to India from a European tour; in his turn leaving no natural heir. His adopted successor became insane, and dying in 1883 without issue, was again succeeded by adoption, by the present minor, who was the son of the Regent of the State. Lord Reay endeavoured to discharge his duty to this representative of an ancient and powerful, although recently unfortunate family, by a close personal care over his education. The young Rdjd was at first sent to the College for Native Princes at Rdjkot in Kdthidwdr, accompanied by his )ounger brother the 90 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 S90. Chief of Kagal, a youthful uncle, and another boy. After a time Lord Reay thought it right to bring the young Chief nearer to his own dominions, and devised a special scheme for his education. He selected as his place of residence the healthy town of Dhdrwdr, a British Station of the first class in the southern ]\Iarathd country, where the young Chief would be surrounded by manly English influences. At the same time he took care not to segregate him from his own countrymen, and to this end formed a group of five other youths of princely or noble birth, to be educated along with him. The group of six consisted of the young Raja of Kolhapur, his brother the Chief of Kagal, his juvenile uncle, and another young Maratha nobleman, tosfether with the son of His Highness the Maharaja of Bhaunagar and a young- companion from Kathiawan An able junior civilian, Mr. Fraser, was appointed tutor to the six youths, aided by picked instructors. Lord Reay kept up a friendly personal intercourse with the lads, and was rewarded by their confidence and esteem. His ward, the young Raja of Kolhapur, came frequently to visit him, and still continues to write to him in England. The main object of our education of young chiefs. Lord Reay maintained, should be to give them a high sense of honour, of truthfulness, and of responsibility towards their people. The branches of knowledge which he considered most important for them, are English and Indian history and literature. Political Economy, and the principles of Jurisprudence. He urged the employment of men of talent for the in- THE NATIVE STATES. 91 struction of Native Princes, men who had the oift of interesting their pupils, and rousing their faculties, so that the Chiefs should not abandon their books when raised to the State-cushion. He held that as much of their education as they can receive in India, should be given to them there ; and that they should as a rule only be permitted to go to England after they have obtained a complete command of English. He insisted that we oueht never to lose siMit of the fact that the Chiefs are to spend their lives among their own people, and that we cannot with impunity sever in earl)- life the ties which bind a Chief to his native country. The benefits of an English educa- tion or of a visit to England would be too dearly bought, if the Chief were to reach manhood devoid of sympathy for his people or bereft of their affection and confidence. Several of the Chiefs are now on their own initiative sending their boys to obtain* a complete liberal educa- tion in England. Lord Reay did not deem it his duty to throw impediments in their way, but still less did he think it his duty to urge such an experiment upon them. He believed that the true policy of educating the Native Chiefs was to adhere firmly, although tem- perately, to the lines laid down by Lord Mayo, and to encourage Colleges for Chiefs, like those at Rajkot and Ajmere which will ever be identified wdth Lord Mayo's name. But he realised the very great difficul- ties with which such Indian Etons have to contend. The boys are of all ages, with every conceivable defi- ciency in their [)revious education, so that it becomes 92 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. almost impossible to work a well-regulated class-system. The usual incentives to steady work are absent in the case of the eldest sons ; and for the vounfrer sons of the Indian Princes there is unhappily, at present, no career which they can make for themselves by profi- cienc)' in any branch of knowledge. This latter consideration weighed heavily both with the Governor and with His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught during their residence in India, and a partial remedy suggested itself to both their minds. They believed that, not only w^ould it be an excellent opening for the younger sons of Chiefs, but also an additional source of stability to our rule, if a Military education and commissions in the Army could be granted to the elite of the young Indian aristocracy. The Supreme Government did not however find it possible to give immediate effect to this proposal. For the present organisation of our Native Army is based upon regimental promotion from the ranks, on the ground of tried courage and proved fitness. This system has great merits. It not only secures a steady upward flow through the non-commissioned to the com- missioned grades in the Native Regiments of a most valuable class of officers, but it also maintains the status of military service In the ranks as an honourable pro- fession alike for gentle and simple in Native society. The problem of the future Is how to combine the two systems, so as to allow of direct commissions to specially qualified sons of Chiefs, without rendering the ranks less attractive to the upper rural classes and the sons of small landholders. The Governor and THE NATIVE STATES. 93 His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught favoured the estabHshment of an Indian Sandhurst, as a step in this direction ; with due provision also for promotion by merit from the ranks. The possibility of employing the younger sons of Chiefs in our civil or political administration also formed a subject of anxious thought with Lord Reay. At pre- sent a Native Chief and his younger brothers are practically debarred from taking any part in the British administration. Lord Reay had hopes that the College for Chiefs at Rajkot might receive such a development as would render it an avenue to civil employment under our Government. He did not advocate its affi- liation to the Bombay University, because a University education does not proceed upon the lines best suited to the requirements of the native aristocracy. But he thought that a certificate of good conduct, merit and capacity by the Rdjkot College might be recognised as a ground for granting to the younger sons of Chiefs an admission to certain offices under the Bombay Govern- ment. In order that such certificates should carry real weight, however, he perceived that it would be necessary to raise the standards of the College, and to require a more satisfactory previous education than that which the younger sons of Chiefs usually bring to it. It would be unwise to hide the difficulties underlying these proposals, and the further difficulties arising from the fact that the )oung gentlemen arc not in the strict sense of the word British subjects. But the importance of the resuks to be obtained seemed to the 94 BO MB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. Governor to justify some elasticity in the methods employed. The Bombay Presidency has so large a number of States and especially of petty States under its Political Supervision, that if their co-operation could be secured by the conviction that the Rajkot College afforded a practical outlet for their sons, the College might be equipped on a perfect footing by the aid of contributions from the States themselves. The intimate personal relations which the Governor had with many of the Native Chiefs, convinced him of the excellent material which, with vigilant care and more elastic methods, may in the future be developed out of their order. The most important of the Bom- bay States, Baroda, is, as I have mentioned, in direct relationship with the Supreme Government. But the Governor of Bombay has necessarily much intercourse with His His^hness the Gaekwar of Baroda as the Premier Hindu Prince of India. His Highness talked freely and earnestly with Lord Reay as to his views and hopes in life. It was the great ambition of His Highness that Baroda should become a pattern Native State, and that the standards of rural administration should be assimilated as nearly as possible to a British District. His careful education by Mr. Elliot and His Hiirhness's residence in Enofland, have taucjht him a contempt for a merely superficial appearance of good government, or for administrative shams of any sort. His aim is not to have a show capital with fine palaces, hospitals, colleges, a public library, and public gardens (although his large revenues and careful finance permit him also to enjoy these luxuries), but to have his dis- THE NATIVE STATES. 95 tricts well administered and to spread education among his people. To assist him in his task the Gaekwar recruits from the best of the Native officials in the Bombay Presidency. Every year the number of rural schools in his territories is increased. The Gaekwdr Avon Lord Reay's sincere admiration by the great pains he took to master both sides of each question as it arose. His Highness is a discreet and cautious ruler who, while appreciating the high results attained by British ad- ministrative methods, thoroughly realises the necessity of carrying his subjects with him, and of suiting the pace of progress so as not to break away from what is good in Native tradition, or to sacrifice the confidence and affection of his people. The Gaekwdr has strong sympathies with his own race the Marathds, and is in an especial manner bent on promoting their interests and raising their status. He never forgets that, although the Premier Hindu Prince of India, he is first of all and above all the foremost man of the ancient Maratha race. He clearly sees that the progress of that race must now be made on industrial lines. He devotes both time and money to the spread of education in all parts of his territories, to the construction of railways, the introduction of a plentiful supply of good water to his capital, and to numerous public works. As an illustration of the pains which His Highness takes to master administra- tive details may be mentioned a lengthy conversation which he had with the Governor on the vexed question of the subsoil water assessment — a question which, as 96 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. we shall see, has exercised the ingenuity of the ablest of our own administrators in Gujarat, The value of the Gaekwar's moral influence, alike upon his Court and upon the upper classes of his subjects, can hardly be exaggerated. His home life is pure. He does not spend money on costly trifles, and his palaces are furnished like English country-houses. Hospitable to strangers, and fond of a quiet talk with an English visitor, he appreciates chief of all straight- forwardness and candour among those by whom he is surrounded. His subjects are proud of him, and the more His Highness resides among his people, the more they grow to understand and to like him. Being a strong ruler, he is naturally sensitive to interference with his own affairs, and in the matter of railway jurisdiction he objects to it stiffly. As the Baroda territory overlaps and intercepts the British districts of Gujarat in every direction, the public works carried out by the Gaekwdr are of great benefit to our own subjects, and involve close personal relations between the British and Baroda administrators — relations which the Governor, as the Member of Council in charge of the Bombay Political Department, maintained on an amicable footing of reciprocal confidence. Perhaps the most important group of Native States under the Political Department of the Bombay Govern- ment are the 187 Chiefdoms of Kathiawar. Of these, 13 pay no tribute, 105 pay tribute to the British Government, 79 to the Gaekwar of Baroda ; while 134 also pay a tribute to the Nawab of junagarh. They exhibit a perplexing congeries of jurisdictions. THE NATIVE STATES. 97 with a mixed tributary responsibility to the British Government and to the two Native Princes just named, the result of a long history of disquiet and warfare brought to a close by numerous treaties. The delicate and complicated control required for the management of so large a group of Chiefs, some of them ancient and powerful, others of them poor, and all of them proud, must ever be a subject of personal and peculiar interest to a Governor of Bombay. As many of them are connected by marriage with the Princes of Rajputana, Lord Reay thought it his duty to cultivate cordial relations with the great Rajput houses. He visited Udaipur, Jodhpur, and Jaipur, and brought away with him very pleasant remembrances of their hospitality, and a high impression of the loyalty of these Chiefs to our rule. The Maharana of Udaipur, the most ancient of the Rajput princely families, struck Lord Reay by the simplicity and strength of his character. His private life is regulated by the same pure standards as those of the Gdekwdr, although he did not have the same educational advantat/es as those which the Gdekwar has enjoyed. The Mahdraja of Jodhpur seemed to Lord Reay a real native king — living in affectionate friendship with his family and dependents, supporting his distinguished brother Sir Pratab Singh in his plans for improving the condition of his army and his subjects, wisely generous in his expenditure on railways and irrigation, and sparing no effort to rear up the heir to the State in liberal and manly instincts, so that he too may be a true Rajput ruler. At Jaipur Lord Reay was especially impressed G 98 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. by the vitality of Hindu art under an enlightened Native Prince aided by able European advisers. Even careful writers are apt to speak and think of the Kathidwdr group of States as an entity. As a matter of fact their 187 Chiefs present as widely different types as are to be found among the nobles of Europe, from the semi-Tartar Russian prince to the haughty and languid Spanish grandee. If we are to understand the problems involved in our political control over Kathiawdr, we must first realise the striking diversity in the character and the aims of its Rulers. Let me endeavour, therefore, to place a few of their strongly marked personalities before the eyes of the reader. In Bhaunagar for example, the Chief, although he has never visited England, forms his system of adminis- tration upon British models. Educated at the College for Chiefs at Rajkot under careful European super- vision, he determined after consulting Lord Reay to re-cast the framework of his government upon the basis of a Council, each member of which should have a special Department. Among these, his most trusted adviser is the English head of his Public Works Department. His Judicial Councillor is an experienced Parsi, formerly a Presidency Magistrate in Bombay. His Revenue Councillor is a Brdhman. By means of this Council, the Maharaja of Bhaunagar has quietly but effectively freed the State from the monopoly of offices formerly exercised by the too- powerful caste of Nagar Brahmans. He spends the revenue of his State wisely and liberally on State THE NATIVE STATES. 99 purposes, promotes railways, and is thoroughly loyal to the British power. The Grand Cross of the Star of India was conferred on His Highness, in recog- nition of his merits as the Ruler of a pattern State. In the Kathidwar principality of Gondal ^ on the other hand, the Chief has been much in England, and is again, studying medicine in the University of Edinburgh. Extremely reserved, but hospitable in a princely manner to visitors, well aware of his own treaty rights, and determined to allow no infringement either on his political status or his personal dignity, his single grievance against the ruling power was the permission accorded during his minority to his Mu- hammadan subjects at Dhoraji to slaughter kine for food. He is an example of the new type of Chief developed by frequent visits to England. Such a Chief sees for himself how Eng^Hshmen treat each other, and he returns to India, disposed neither to fear nor to flatter the English political officers with whom he has to deal. He accordingly bears himself with a more manly personal attitude towards the Government than the older school of Chiefs ; but at the same time with a more complete conception of the strength of the Paramount Power, and of the unity of interest which has grown up between that Power and the Native Princes. His Highness is perhaps the only Rdjput Chief in India whose princess accompanies him to England, and drives out with her husband and visits English ladies in Bombay. ' Area, 1024 square miles. Population, 159,741 persons in 1S91. Revenue, Rs. 1,200,000. Tribute, Rs. 110,721. G 2 I oo BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. The Thakur of Gonclal has a Parsi as his Prime Minister, and his State is admirably managed. The State took an active part in the construction of the Gondal-Bhaunagar Railway, and during Lord Reay's tenure of office the Chief carried out his share of the important line which connects the town of Dhoraji with the harbour of Porbandar, Having studied medicine in the University of Edinburgh, he maintains six hospitals which, in the year 1890-91, gave relief to 49,914 patients, and performed 1,466 operations. His system of State medical relief includes a travelling hospital, and it has succeeded to a remarkable degree in winning the confidence of his female subjects ; 28,784, or over 57 per cent of the whole patients, being women and children. A vaccination department looks after the rising generation, while an asylum and orphanage pro- vide for 792 of the aged and infirm, and for those who are left without natural protectors to the care of the State. Seventy-five schools, aided and inspected by the State, give instruction to 4,619 pupils, with all the latest improvements for female education, and night schools for the poorer cultivating classes whose sons cannot be spared from the fields during the day. The administration of justice is conducted by seven courts, the Chief presiding in person in the Supreme Court of Appeal, and his place being taken by the Prime Minis- ter durino^ the absence of His Hitrhness in England. Examinations are held of the police officers in the criminal law and rules of evidence current in the Gondal territory, and a conference with the Police THE NATIVE STATES, lOi Superintendents of the neighbouring States was held to concert measures for the suppression of crime on their frontiers. An Administration Report of his State is regularly published, drawn up on the system of chap- ters prescribed for the similar reports in the British Provinces, and dealing quite frankly with the successes and failures of the administrative year. The result of ofood sfovernment in a Native State is illustrated in a very practical form by the census of Gondal taken during the year 1891. While the increase of popu- lation from 1881 to 1 89 1 throughout the British Pro- vinces, after adjustments for changes of area, is returned at 1 1 per cent,^ the people in the State of Gondal increased by nearly 18 per cent. The progress of municipal life, a new element of hopefulness in India, has been still more rapid. Gondal has five municipal towns, each with a local government of its own. The average increase of population in these five municipali- ties was i<^\ per cent during the decade from 1881 to 1891 ; and in two important towns it reached the extra- ordinary rates of 23^ and 25 per cent. The Chief of Morvi is a ruler of a different type. He has all the traditional features of the noble Rdjput, is fond of every manly exercise, and a first- rate rider. Following the most vigorous examples of the old Native School, he allows no body of ministers to grow up between his own personality and the people, but governs for himself with a keen eje to the revenue, ^ I have to take this rate from the preliminary Census tables furnished to the Secretary of State— the only returns which have yet reached England, September, 1891. I02 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. and a disdain of anything like philanthropic ostentation, although he has model schools to show when needful. In his dealings with strangers he displays the old- world courtesy of the Rajput prince, and, like other princes of that type, he has a good many troubles with his numerous brotherhood and blood relations. This type he has firmly adhered to notwithstanding a resi- dence in England and in our North American Domi- nion. In his intercourse with British officers he demeans himself as a comrade and fellow-sportsman — as one who thoroughly understands and likes their ways, and who has driven his dog-cart down Piccadilly and purchased a tract of land in Canada. He thoroughly appreciates the necessity of a liberal ex- penditure on railways, if a Native State is to hold its own in these days, and has not only brought his own territories into the railway system, but has invested money in lines outside them. One of his most intimate friends is the English gentleman at the head of his Public Works Department. He has sent his son to be educated in England. The Chief of Jasdan was a ruler of a still older school. A strict upholder of ancient etiquette, and a recognised referee on Kathiawdr local customs, and as to what could and could not be done by the numerous classes of Chiefs, he enjoyed in a marked manner the respect alike of his brother-rulers and of the Paramount Power. His manners were perfect, extremely courteous, dignified and full of self-respect. A fine rider, and a good chess-player, very sagacious in the management of a State upon conservative lines, he frankly declared THE NATIVE STATES. 103 himself a man of the old school. Nevertheless, he recognised the new condition of things which was growing up around him, and sent his son to Cam- bridge to fit him for the altered future of the Indian feudatory order. The Thakur of Lakhtar clung even more closely to ancient traditions. He urged the necessity of a more religious (or orthodox Hindu) teaching at the College for young Chiefs at Rajkot, and was wont to vigorously press this view, together with a grievance which he had about the Salt Revenue, in his personal conversations with Lord Reay. The Governor deemed it a part of his duty to encourage the Native Chiefs to lay open their minds to him, and to make them feel that his intercourse with them was not merely an exchange of courtesies, but an interchange of views on the subjects which they had at heart. In thus trying to give reality to his personal relations with the Native Chiefs, Lord Reay frankly faced the fact that he could not always expect to obtain their support for his own measures. Thus the Rao of Cutch \ a thoroughly well-educated man and always most courteous and friendly in his intercourse with the Governor, proved little accessible to arguments for the abolition of Customs duties, and on other subjects in regard to which His Highness thought that his State held a peculiar position. His Highness has the advantage of having a long coast-line for his main frontier, and he believed it to be his best ' Area of Cutch, 6,500 square miles. Population (1881), 512,084. Revenue, Rs. 1,603,050. I04 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. policy to maintain his isolated position as a maritime Chief rather than to open up his country by railways. In spite of these differences the Rao of Cutch came frequently to see the Governor, and went to England for the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen-Empress. His Highness's domestic life is exemplary. He is a keen sportsman, very fond of his brother, but not seeking intimate relations with any beyond his own family circle. Lord Reay endeavoured to become really acquainted with the personal characters of the Chiefs, and with the views, traditions and ideals which they might be chary of expressing on paper, but which regulated their action both in public and private affairs. It would be wrong, however, to let it be supposed that all the Chiefs of the Kdthiawar belonged to the pleasing types which I have indicated. Thus the Thakur of disappointed every effort which the Governor could make for his welfare. Addicted to drink, he lacked courtesy and dignity in his private intercourse, and wasted a keen intelligence through infirmity of moral character. He died despised by his subjects, and his death was a relief rather than a regret to those responsible for the political supervision of his State. I ought to add that this was by no means the only case of the kind with which Lord Reay had, to his sorrow, to deal. Having thus summarised the widely different types presented by the Kathiawdr group of Chiefs, it may be well to take a single State, and to exhibit at length the system which the Bombay Government has pursued THE NATIVE STATES. 105 in relation to it during the present generation. As a single example is all that space allows me to select by way of illustration, I shall take the first-class Kath- idwar State of Bhaunagar, in regard to which I have some personal knowledge, and I have also to thank its former joint administrator, Mr. Percival, for much valuable information \ In regard to the States already mentioned, I have confined my view to the period of Lord Reay's administration. I select Bhau- nagar as an illustration of the general principles of policy, steadily and continuously applied by the Bombay Government to the Native States under its care. On the death of the late Thakur of Bhaunagar, in 1870, there was no member of the family with suffi- cient ability and authority to be entrusted with the control of the State. The present Thakur (since advanced to the rank of Maharaja) was then 12 years old. Bhaunagar State enjoyed the reputation of being well governed by certain families of Ndgar Brahmans, who exercised the chief authority, and at the head of whom was Gaurishankar Udeshankar, the Diwdn or Prime Minister, a man of great talent. The Governor of Bombay at that time, Sir Philijj Wodehouse, determined to place the authority exer- cised by the late Thakur, as the chief of a first-class State, in the hands jointly of a member of the Bombay Civil Service, Mr. Percival, and the Brahman Prime Minister, Gaurishankar. The object was to obtain a ' The following account of Bhaunagar is condensed from a manuscript narrative from Mr. Pcrcival's hand. io6 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. continuity of Native rule, improved by English influence, without introducing any new system which the )oung Chief mioht be unable or unwillino- to maintain when he came to power. The officials of the Bhaunagar State had been brought into unusually close contact with the authorities of the adjoining British district of Ahmadabad, owing partly to the position of the State on the coast near to several British ports, and also because a large portion of the State had been for half a century placed under the British Courts of Law, in consequence of an act of cruelty done by one of the previous Thakurs. Gauri- shankar's conduct of the delicate relations with the Bombay Government, which finally resulted in the withdrawal of the British Courts, showed the highest ability and tact. He was also successful in the manage- ment of the turbulent Kathi landowners, who had until recent -times constantly disturbed the peace of Kdthid- war by open resistance to the Chiefs, or by going into outlawry (bdhirwatia) and committing atrocities upon innocent villagers, in order to force the States to comply with their demands. These Kathis are numerous and powerful in Bhaunagar, but Gaurishankar arranged terms with most of them, and kept the rest from serious outbreaks such as from time to time occurred in other parts of the province. The high price of cotton during the American Civil War largely increased the revenue of the State, and a considerable balance had been accu- mulated in the treasury. In 1870, therefore, the joint administration of Mr. Percival and Gaurishankar com- menced under favourable circumstances. THE NATIVE STATES. 107 The chief offices In Bhaiinagar were held by famiHes of Nagar Brahmans, all more or less related to each other and to the Prime Minister Gaurishankar, It was by means of this strong organisation that he and his predecessors had been enabled to control the State. The moderation of the ruling Brahmans, in a position of great temptation, had been praiseworthy, and they were not slow to accept new ideas. The first matter for consideration by the joint administrators was the education of the ) oung Thakur Takhtsingji, and fortunately it had shortly before been decided, under Lord Mayo's auspices, to build a College for the Kdthiawar Chiefs and their relatives at Rajkot. In January 1871 the College was opened, and Takht- singji, with three of his dependents, was the first to enter it. The sons of Chiefs, who up to that time had always been suspicious and jealous of each other, now met for the first time under one roof, and, thanks to the admirable system and temper of the Principal, Mr. Macnaghten, learned to grow up together on friendly terms. Takhtsingji was just 13 years of age, and he contributed to the success of the new College by frankly submitting to its rules, by taking with him only a small retinue of servants, and by encouraging other young Chiefs to come. On his return to the Collegre after his first vacation, his brother, ao;ed 11, was to have gone with him, but his mother absolutely refused to part with him, and threatened to dash her head against the wall if he went. The young Thakur went without him, and it was only after considerable delay that the mother's scruples could be overcome. io8 BOMB A y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. After three years at the Rajkot College, Captain H. L. Nutt was appointed tutor to the young Thakur in 1874, and the Chief continued his education at home, or in travelling with his tutor. In accordance with the custom of the family he was early married — in 1874. The joint administrators had only to arrange for the wedding ceremonies ; as the young Chief had been betrothed by his father to five girls, one of whom had died, and the marriages of the remaining four were all carried out at the same time in April 1874. A new wing to the palace was built, in which each lady was provided with a separate suite of rooms, something like a modern flat. Each lady received a similar present of jewellery ; the store of jewels in the treasury sufficing for most of what was wanted. It is usual to build a large temporary hall for receptions on such occasions, but a permanent iron structure supplied its place. When covered with tinsel and richly fur- nished, it made a magnificent hall for the ceremonials, and now serves as a market. The accounts of the State for several years previous to the Thakur's death had been placed under seal, and, an independent examination of them being required, a special Hindu auditor, now the Diwan of Junagarh, was invited to undertake it. A mixed body of State dependents, consisting of horse and foot, household and outdoor servants, relatives, slaves, men, women, and boys, to the number of about 2000, appeared be- fore Mr. Percival to receive a year's pay at the Diwali or New Year of 1870. A great many of these had little or no duty to perform, and their allowances had THE NATIVE STATES. 109 been given as pensions or as charity. A more regular system was gradually introduced, but it was probably not so economical to the public purse, for a good native master puts up with an old servant as long as possible, rather than dismiss or pension him. The same kindly careless feeling- had existed with regard to the animals owned by the State. There were thirty elephants ; a great and useless expense, especially since the price of their food had risen. They had grown out of date as roads and the use of carriages increased. Native Chiefs found that a four-in-hand of horses could be kept for about the same cost as one elephant, and on public occasions smart four-in-hand carriages were begfinnincj to be the fashion. There were 800 buffaloes, of a very fine breed, which took prizes at all the shows ; besides 2000 other animals, camels, horses, cows, bullocks and goats, which had never been weeded out as they became old and useless. There was a strong feelingf aeainst selling the superfluous buffaloes and cows, and at first even against the sale of horses. No objection, how- ever, was made to giving away the old animals, and a crowd of pious mendicants were set upon horseback and rode away whither they would. Twenty elephants and 1 50 camels were sold at once, and in the course of two years the other domestic animals were reduced to about half the original number. The State requires a large supply of horses, and has facilities for breeding them. An establishment for this purpose was started with excellent results in improving the breed. The pure Kdthiawdr strain 1 1 o BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TIOiY, 1 885-1 890. is hardy and enduring, but too small for purposes of draugrht. The most pressing \vant in 1870 was a supply of water for the town of Bhaunaear, which had become a harbour with a considerable import and export trade. Many hundreds of bullock-carts, laden with unpressed cotton, daily entered the town at the beginning of the hot season, when there was scarcely enough water for the inhabitants to drink. The animals could not stay in the town a single day, and besides the inconvenience and harm to the townspeople from a limited supply of bad water, the business of the port was carried on with increasing difficulty. A young English engineer, Mr. Monckton, had been employed by the State in the time of the late Thdkur to carry out public works, and his hands were now full. The services of Mr. East, an engineer who had been on the Madras Irrigation Company's works, were engaged, and finally he took a contract to carry out a scheme of water supply to the town. The * Gaurishankar Lake,' a body of water about two miles long, was constructed, and its waters were admitted to the town on the 22nd August, 1872. The present development of the town, with its gardens and largely increased population, could not have been possible without this assured supply of good water. The appointment of Mr. Proctor Sims by the Bombay Government in i 875 to superintend the public works of the State, marked a new departure. He had control of an expenditure of from seven to eight lacs of rupees a year. Under his administration the High School and THE NATIVE STATES. in Courts of Justice at Bhaunagar have been built from designs by Major Mant, lighthouses have been erected, and dispensaries, district courts, and other necessary- buildings have been completed. Even more important work has been done in the construction of a Qfood system of roads, of which i6o miles bridged and 50 miles unbridged have been brought into use. An instance of the interference which may be caused by the opposition of an unprogressive neighbouring Chief to the efforts of an enlightened administration may be here noted. The State prevented the erection of an important bridge over the Bhaunagar Creek, not- withstanding the serious inconvenience caused to the steam ferry by the strength of the tide. Not satisfied with roads, the joint administrators strongly advocated the construction of railways, but it was not until 1877-78 that Bhaunagar, Gondal, and other States commenced the survey for the present line at their own cost, and without insisting on a guarantee from the Supreme Government. The armed police force which maintains order in the Bhaunagar State, consists of 200 men, and the only other disciplined body is the Thdkur's escort of 50 cavalry commanded by the son of an English chaplain, who has been converted to Islam. The jail is very well managed, although on January 15, 1872, it was the scene of a serious outbreak, in which three of the armed police and fourteen prisoners were killed. Notwithstanding the importance of its customs-duties levied on the sea-borne commerce, three-fourths of the revenue of the State of Bhaunagar is derived from 1 1 2 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1885- 1 890. the land, and the introduction of the British- Indian system of settlement has had a marked effect upon the prosperity of the country. When the joint adminis- trators began their work in 1870, the land-revenue was levied in kind or as a share of the gross produce. This method had the usual good and bad results. It bene- fited the landlord in good years and relieved the tenant in times of scarcity; but it discouraged the energy and skill of the cultivator and checked the growth of capital in his hands. All produce had to be carried to the villaee orrain-yard, where it was measured and divided between the State and the cultivator; much was begged or pilfered in transit, much was eaten by peacocks and other birds, and much was spoilt by exposure. So great was the damage caused to cotton, the staple crop, that Gaurishankar attempted to have it measured while still standing ; an attempt which had to be abandoned owing to the complaints of cultivators, who were unable to pick their cotton when it was ready, because the valuer had not come in time or the ' permit' had not been given. When Mr. Percival joined Gauri- shankar in the administration of the State, this wasteful system was replaced by cash payments. At the end of two years, that is by 1872, cash settlements were made of every holding in the State on the basis of the former nett receipts, and the payments were fixed for four )"ears. The new scheme was received with unexpected enthusiasm, and though it was declared optional and not enforced by law, only 10 or 12 per cent of the cultivators preferred to continue on the old system, and these were chiefly inhabitants of poor villages. THE NATIVE STATES. 113 As the necessary sequel of the introduction of the land-system in use in British territory, a careful survey of the State of Bhaunagar was under- taken. In October, 1872, Mr. T. R. Fernandez, of the Gujarat Survey, was placed at the disposal of the joint administrators by the Bombay Government, and in about seven years the country was carefully measured and mapped, and boundary marks were erected. In 1876 the first rough settlement, which had given such satisfaction, was revised, and continued for another four years. In 1878, after the Thakur had himself assumed the administration, the results were thus recorded in the annual report : ' This settlement has worked extremely well. Its advantages to the State are very great, and that the bulk of the cultiva- tors prefer it to the old system is shown by the fact of their almost universal acceptance of it. Its financial result has been to keep the revenue of the State at much the same total as before its introduction, though large quantities of waste land have been brought into cultivation.' The successful introduction of the land-settlement into Bhaunagar is an instance of the influence for good exerted by the Bombay Government upon the Native States politically connected with it. Not only did it render the land-revenue less onerous to the cultivators, without diminishing the income of the State, but it facilitated economic reforms in other departments. The joint administrators reduced the special tax on sugar-cane fields ; they suspended the tax on fruit- trees until the trees were bearing well, with the result H 114 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. that in 1876 no fewer than 1660 mango and 430 cocoa- nut trees were planted by rayats on waste land ; they replaced the tax on the sale of houses by a moderate stamp dut)' on registered sales ; and they kept the customs-duties so low that traders were encouraged to use the port, and soon raised it to an unprecedented condition of commercial prosperity. Where the coun- try was bare of trees from its open and exposed posi- tion, the joint administrators started extensive protected plantations, one of which at Mhowa contained nearly 100,000 cocoa-nut trees. They also opened dispen- saries in all the chief towns and founded numerous schools. Bhaunagarwas the first State in Kathidwar to welcome inspection by the Bombay Department of Education, and to maintain girls' schools, the chief officials and the Thakur himself setting an example by sending their daughters to the school in the capital. Care was taken to secure the impartial administration of justice in both civil and criminal cases. A judge was appointed in each district, with a Court of Appeal of three judges at Bhaunagar, from which lay a final appeal to the Thakur. The State has a short code of law of its own ; but prac- tically the Indian Civil and Criminal Codes are in force, and supersede the old local regulations. The chief difficulty in a small Native State is to secure the independence of the judges. The revenue officer in each district is an autocrat, and expects to be consulted in every case of any importance. No change of system can alter this, but higher salaries, improved courts, and the selection of suitable men have tended to strengthen THE NATIVE STATES. 115 the judges and give the people more confidence in them. The young Thakur, when he took the reins of government into his own hands, found his State in good order. He has received a greater reward than even his Grand Cross of the Star of India, or the friendship of successive Governors of Bombay, in the love of his people. ' It was interesting to observe,' writes Mr. Percival to me, 'the devoted loyalty of the people to the young Thakur. The old minister who had con- trolled the state for many years, passed almost un- noticed, whilst crowds followed the boy about, wher- ever he went. When a native State is absorbed in British territory, we destroy a source of happiness to the common people, for which we can provide no equivalent.' The Maharaja of Bhaunagar, now a man in middle life, continued to successfully govern his State during the five years under review. By establishing a Council of heads of departments re- sponsible to His Highness only, he started a valuable administrative and financial check on abuses and extravagance. I have now given several examples of Hindu Native Rulers. But before concluding my account of the Native States under the Bombay Government, I must also refer to two which are governed by Muhammadan dynasties, Khairpur and Junagarh. Khairpur is the one Native State situated within the limits of Sind. It is governed by the descendant of the only Talpur Mir whose independence was spared at the time of the conquest of Sind in 1843, II 2 1 1 6 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. and comprises an area of 6109 square miles, with a population of 129,153 according to the census of 1881. The Amir of Khairpur, Mir Ali Murad Khan, was in 1889-90 an old man of 77, but he still adminis- tered his State with the help of his sons. His ad- ministration is of the ancient oriental type. Justice is done by the Amir in person in patriarchal fashion, assisted by his sons, and is swift, summary, and cheap. The revenue is collected in the same primitive style. There has never been a survey or a land-settlement. The land-revenue is paid in kind, and not content with import and export duties at his frontier, the Amir collects them at the boundaries of each taluka or sub- division. The chief industries of the State also, metal work, loom work, lacquer wood work, and munj grass work are managed on behalf of members of the Amir's family. The Amir of Khairpur maintains a considerable army and military police. The men are armed with native-made guns and swords, for which purpose the Amir supports some clever families of cutlers and gun- smiths. A considerable expenditure Is also devoted to the Amir's medical establishment of five hakims or native doctors, attached to his own person. These five physicians follow his camp everywhere ; while another is maintained at Khairpur. The purely oriental and patriarchal administration of Khairpur contrasts with the civilised methods of the Kathiawar chiefs. It is interesting as one of the last survivals of the past, and is not likely to be disturbed during the lifetime of the present autocratic Amir. THE NATIVE STATES. 117 He refuses to move an inch from the paths of his ancestors. But he manages to keep on good terms with the Bombay Government, and made a loyal con- cession to the Government of India by suppressing the manufacture of salt in his dominions. In spite of his great age the Amir is still a keen sportsman, and strictly preserves the game in his jungles. This manly old chief suffered two severe domestic afflictions durinof the period under review, by the death of a son in 1887 and of another in 1888. He more than once visited Lord Reay, when the Governor was on tour in Sind, and was present at the opening of the Lansdowne Bridge at Sukkur on March 27, 1889; on which occa- sion his salute was increased by two guns. Another Muhammadan State which merits special notice is Junagarh. This sea-board principality has an area of 3283 square miles, with a population of about 400,000 soulsj and ranks as a first-class State under the Political Agency of Kathidwar. It presents the two- fold set of problems arising from a considerable mari- time trade and from a wild hilly interior, for ages the haunt of banditti, and now one of the few recesses of India in which the lion still lingers. Its chief town, Jundgarh, situated under the Girnar and Datar hills, is among the most picturesque cities in the world, and has a history dating from the ancient Buddhist period — a period to which its stronghold of Uparkot still bears witness by its rock-hewn monastic caves. The densely wooded tract of the Gir, in some places hilly, at others sinking into dark malarious hollows matted with jungle and flooded during the rainy season, formed the scene n8 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. of the lion-hunt given to H.R.H. the late Duke of Clarence and Avondale by the Nawab of Junagarh. At the commencement of the five years under review, 1 885-1890, Junagarh was much disturbed by robber-gangs, who took advantage of the breaking out of agrarian disputes to renew their old life of plunder. The peasantry, discontented with the land arrange- ments, and doubtful of effective protection, in some localities sided with the dacoits, and preferred to come to terms with them rather than to trust to the State police. This condition of things, and certain maritime differences arising between the Junagarh and the Portu- guese authorities, attracted the serious attention of the Bombay Government, and Lord Reay twice visited the State in person during his tenure of office. On his first visit the road had to be strongly guarded : the watch- men being at places perched upon trees so as to com- mand a view of the intervening woods. The internal disturbances were put an end to by the deputation of a carefully selected British officer, Major Humfrey, who reorganised the State police in such a way as to render gang-robbery at once a perilous and an unprofitable trade. I shall refer more fully to the change which he effected at a later page. The Muhammadan Wazi'r of the State and the Hindu Diwan cordially worked together, under the encouragement of H. H. the Nawab, to place the land-settlement on a better footing. The jurisdiction dispute with the neighbour- ing Portuguese harbour of Diu was adjusted with a moderation and mutual forbearance creditable to both parties. His Highness the Nawab found his finances THE NATIVE STATES. 119 improve, and came forward as a large contributor to the railway system of Kathiawar by constructing a line to the Junagarh port of Verawal. It was Lord Reay's good fortune both to cut the first sod of this line and to open the railway on its completion. The Nawab of Junagarh was created a Grand Commander of the Indian Empire in recognition of the progress made by his State, and of the reforms which had been quietly but firmly carried out by the efforts of Mis Highness and his ministers. In the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to place before the reader the personality of several typical Chiefs of Bombay Native States, together with some characteristic features of the populations over which they rule. I shall conclude the chapter with a summary of the principal events in the history of the Native States superintended by the Bombay Govern- ment, from 1885 to 1890. The summary must be very brief It does not pretend to completeness ; but merely notes a few salient points. As regards the supervision of the Native States, the most important innovation was the breaking up of the historic political group, known as the ' Satara Jaghirs,' by a notification of the Government of India, suggested for administrative purposes by the Bombay Government. By this alteration, which came into effect from November, 1887, the jaghirs of Jath and Daphlapur were placed under the political charge of the Collector of Bijapur, that of Bhor was transferred to the Collector of Poona, and only Phaltan and Aundh remained, as the whole group had formerly been, under the supervision 1 20 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of the Collector of Satara. In the internal adminis- tration of the Native States many changes occurred. The most important of them arose out of the death of princes, or their supersession by the Bombay Govern- ment ; and the appointment of new ministers or Diwdns. Special attention may be drawn to an interesting experiment tried in the State of Radhanpur, where in November, 1888, the Nawab appointed a Hindu and a Muhammadan gentleman joint ministers of State, in order that the Hindu and Muhammadan communities might be equally represented in the government. As is inevitable in a Presidency where so many States march with each other, there were numerous boundary disputes during the five years. The most serious took place in the Mahi Kantha Agency, between the Bhils of Mewar and the Bhils of Pol. It led to armed raids, the loss of several lives, and the destruction of property to the estimated value of Rs. 70,000. Peace was finally restored in 1888 by an authoritative demarcation of the boundary. Turning next to the maintenance of order within the several States ; special police forces, including the Pdlanpur Agency Police, the Mahi Kantha Agency Police, and the Kathiawar Police, were formed. They took the place of His Highness the Gaekwar's sowars, or irregular horse, who had not proved efficient in the suppression of dacoity. This crime had never been stamped out in Kathidwdr, In 1886-87 it was re- ported ^ that ' the country is infested with bands of robbers and dacoits, who commit outrages with almost ' Bombay Administration Report for 1886-87, p. xii. THE NATIVE STATES. 121 perfect immunity, and who, even when arrested, are in the great majority of cases subsequently released, owing to the difficulty of identification. In the course of the year 117 robberies and 78 dacoities took place. In these affrays, property worth nearly one lakh of rupees was destroyed or stolen, 11 persons killed, 61 wounded, and 24 carried away as hostages.' In 1887-88 the area of disorder spread from Junagarh to Gondal, Nawanagar, and other States. Property worth Rs. 1,14,365 was plundered or destroyed, 17 persons were killed, 45 wounded, and 29 carried off as hostages. The Imperial Mail was robbed on one occasion, and stopped on three others. Of the 875 persons con- cerned in these outrages, only 2 1 7 were captured and 63 convicted. In consideration of this serious state of affairs, the Bombay Government lent to the Chiefs of the three States above named the services of Major Humfrey. He carried on a vigorous campaign against the dacoits, and it is satisfactory to read that in 1889-90 there was 'a complete cessation of or- ganised crime \' The Kathiawar Agency Police, which helped to bring about this result, consists of 816 men, of whom 251 were mounted and 60 camel police. These dacoities were largely attributed to the Mekranis, then in rebellion against the Junagarh State. Their most daring chief, Movar Sadhani,was captured in Jodhpur territory, after an arduous pur- suit, by Captain Salmon in 1885. Movar Sadhani was a sort of Kathiawdr Rob Roy, with a good deal ' Bombay Administration Report for 1889-90, p. iv. 1 2 2 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of popular sympathy on his side. Several persons, including one of the minor chiefs in the Palanpur Agency, had to be prosecuted for harbouring the out- law. An equally notorious robber-chief was ' Kadarbux,' another Mekrani, captured and executed in 1886. In 1885, an instance of sympathy with robbers was given by the armed opposition of the Bhils of the village of Jhaila in the Mahi Kantha Agency to a party of police, who came to arrest dacoits. In the affray two police- men were killed, and the Bhils of Jhaila and of the neighbouring village of Kalianpur then decamped across the border and escaped. Two cases of bad jail management also took place in Native States during the period under review. In 1885-86 the prisoners in the Edar jail had to be fired on by the native guard, who killed eight and wounded fourteen of them. In 1886-87 eleven desperadoes broke out of Gondal jail. The reasons which induced the Bombay Government to lease the abkari or liquor tax and salt duties in Native States will be explained in the chapter dealing with the Excise administration as a whole. The question of transit duties is more complicated. It is difficult to persuade native rulers that such duties are disas- trous to commerce, and the Bombay Government endeavours to obtain their abolition by persuasion, not by purchase or by peremptory orders. Good progress was "made in this direction during the five years under review, and at the end transit duties had virtually dis- appeared in the Bombay Native States. In 1885-86 all import duties and export duties were abolished in the State of Kolhapur ; and the taxes of that nature known THE NATIVE STATES. 123 as deshdan in the Kathiawar States of Nawanagar and Junagarh. In 1886-87 all transit duties were abolished in the Palanpur and Mahi Kantha Agencies, in all the States in the Rewa Kantha Agency, except Baria, and in all the Satara Jaghi'r States, except Bhor. In 1887-88 they were abolished in Mudhol, one of the South Maratha States, and in 1889-90 considerably reduced in Dhrangadra, one of the States of Kathiawar. Lord Reay on various occasions recognised the sacrifices made by chiefs in order to meet his free-trade views. The influence of the Bombay Government appeared in every branch of the administration of the Native States, but especially with regard to education and public works. To enumerate even the principal schools and educational institutions for boys and girls main- tained by the chiefs is far beyond the scope of this sum- mary. Mention must, however, be made of two institu- tions. The School of Art at Bhiij, the capital of Cutch, was carefully fostered by His Highness the Rao of Cutch, and its beautiful work obtained diplomas both at the International Exhibition at Antwerp in 1885, and at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1887. In March, 1887, the Jayasing Rao Ghatge Technical School at Kolhapur, founded in memory of that able administrator of the Kolhapur State, was opened. The most important public works in Native States during the period under review w^ere the extension of the Kathiawar Railways and the construction of the Kol- hapur State Railway. These I shall speak of in a later chapter, as they formed part of the general ex- tension of the railway system in the Bombay Presi- 1 24 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. dency. But numerous local works, such as roads, bridges, harbour works, and administrative buildings, were also undertaken and completed. Hospitals were built by the rulers of many States. In Cutch, a private citizen, Shekh Datubhai Ibrahim, presented Rs. 35,000 for the establishment of a hospital at Mandvi in 1885. Large donations were given by many native princes to the Bombay Branch of Lady Dufferin's Fund for providing lady-doctors for the women of India. The Rao of Cutch gave Rs. 10,000 to be expended in charitable relief of his subjects in Bombay City. An interesting movement is going on in the Mahi Kantha Agency. A Bhagat or Bhil saint, who says he possesses a divine mission, has set up a new religion. The principles he advocates are abstinence from those vices to which the Bhils are particularly prone, namely, crimes of violence, theft, and intemperance. He encourages habits of cleanliness, and has induced the authorities to open two schools for Bhils, promising to fill them with pupils. This chapter may fitly conclude by recording the enthusiasm and loyalty displayed by the Native Chiefs of Bombay on the Jubilee of the Queen-Empress in 1887. In addition to the public almsgivings at the time, numerous institutions were founded as permanent memorials. Most of these memorials took a useful form. Among many others may be men- tioned the Jubilee Waterworks for Bhiij, the capital of Cutch, and for Bhaunagar ; the Jubilee Institutes at Palanpur and Radhanpur ; a Jubilee Clock Tower at Sadra, in the Mahi Kantha Agency; a Jubilee Muni- THE NATIVE STATES. 125 cipal Hall at Balasinor; a Jubilee Dispensary at Dharampur ; a Jubilee Dharmsala, or rest-house for travellers, at Bansda ; and a Jubilee Bridge over the Hiranyakeahi River at Ajra, in Kolhapur. But the number was so great that I almost fear I may be accused of partiality in referring to some without enumerating others, equally important for the loyalty and liberality displayed, and for the usefulness of the purposes to which they are devoted. CHAPTER VI. Education. IN the last chapter I tried to enable the reader to realise the living personalities with whom the Political Department of the Bombay Government has to deal. I now pass from the feudatory relations of that Government towards the Native Chiefs, and come to its direct administration of the British Districts. The most conspicuous branches of internal administration are the collection of the revenue and its expenditure on the protection of person and property. But in India there is a smaller special department which yields, perhaps, a clearer insight into the people as they are and as they aspire to be. This is the Department of Public Instruc- tion. I have always considered it a fortunate circum- stance in my own life, that, at an early period of my service, I was diverted for a time from the regular work of the administration, and placed in educational charge of Orissa and South-Western Bengal as Inspector of Schools. I believe that I was thus enabled to obtain fairer and kindlier views of the people than I should have gained until a much more mature stage of my Indian experience. I propose to adopt a similar course in the present EDUCATION. 127 attempt to exhibit the government and the people of Bombay, Instead of plunging at once into the chapters exclusively devoted to administration, I should like to show the administrative problems which incidentally arise in the education of the Indian races. I think we shall thus be enabled, at the outset, to get nearer to the facts of native life in the Bombay Provinces than we should, if we were to start with the more conspicuous branches of government, such as the revenues, justice, or police. The five years under review had, moreover, a special importance from an educational point of view. A Com- mission had been appointed by the Supreme Govern- ment in 1882, to reconstitute the Indian system of Public Instruction on a broader basis. Its report, after consideration by the Governor-General in Council and the Secretary of State, formed the subject of an authoritative declaration of the educational policy of the Government of India in October, 1884. It fell to Lord Reay, on his accession to the Bombay Govern- ment in March, 1885, to give practical effect to that policy ; and to adjust the new departures indicated and the general principles of expansion laid down by the Education Commission, to the local conditions and needs of Western India. But in order to clearly understand the educational measures then taken by the Bombay Government, it is necessary to start with some idea of the history of education in India since the British be- came the paramount power, and, in particular, of its progress in the Bombay Presidency. In India education has always been highly valued, 128 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. as is testified by the wealth and the variety of the ancient Sanskrit Hterature. Megasthenes, the Greek Ambassador at the court of Chandra Gupta about 300 B.C., found science and philosophy honoured, and from early days the first of the four stages of a Brahman's life, embracing his youth and early manhood, was that of a Bramachari or learner. The Muhammadan con- quest introduced a new feature, and the mosques became in India, as in other countries of Islam, centres of instruction and of literary activity. When the power of the East India Company was finally established, it had, therefore, to rule over a people who were accustomed to instruction and respected learning. It found four ancient methods of education at work : (i) the teaching given by Brahmans to their disciples ; (2) the tols or seats of Sanskrit learning; (3) the ruak- iabs and madrasas, or schools and colleges of the Muhammadans ; and (4) the village schools. The East India Company was not altogether un- mindful of its duties in this respect, and the history of education in British India under the Company and the Crown is marked by steady, although tardy, progress. That history divides itself in Bombay into six periods. The first period lasted until about the year 1825, when the provision of the Charter Act of 181 5, appropriating a lakh of rupees annually for educational purposes, was carried into effect. The characteristics of this period throughout India, and particularly in the Bombay Presidency, were the growing activity of the Christian missionary bodies and the quiescence of the State. The Roman Catholics continued to labour upon the Western EDUCATION. 129 coast of India as they had done ever since the estab- lishment of the Portuguese power, when friars and Jesuits invariably accompanied the famous ' conquista- dors.' The American Missionary Society opened a school for boys in 18 14, and ten years later the first school for Native girls, in Bombay. The Scottish Church worked in Bombay city and the Konkan. The London Missionary Society established itself in Surat and other towns in Gujarat. The Church Missionary Society extended its operations over the Deccan, the Konkan. and even as far as Sind, while the Irish Pres- byterian Missionary Society exerted itself in Kathia- wdr. Stimulated by this exhibition of energy, the Bombay Education Society, .supported by voluntary contributions, was established in 18 15, and the Native School-book and School Society in 1822. Mountstuart Elphinstone, that far-seeing ruler whose name is connected with many measures of progress in the Bombay Presidency, was the first chairman of the School Society. Under his superintendence it obtained help from the State \ and endeavoured to organise and extend the work of education. It was Elphinstone, also, who applied towards its original destination a por- tion of the dakshina, or grant made by the Peshwas for the encouragement of learning at Poona, and who in his Minute on Education in 1824 defended and justified the creation of the Poona Sanskrit College, which had just been founded in the capital of the Mardthas. The services of Mountstuart Elphinstone to the cause of education in the Presidency were ' Report of the hidian Education Cottuntssion, p. 12. I 130 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. recognised by the establishment of the Elphinstone College at Bombay, at the cost of nearly four and a half lakhs of rupees subscribed on his retirement from the Governorship, in 1827, to perpetuate his memory. The second period ended in 1839, when Lord Auckland published the Minute which decided the long controversy between the ' Orientalists ' and the ' Anorlicists.' The ' Orientalists,' who advocated edu- cation on the old lines througrh the medium of the Oriental classics, were defeated. The ' Anglicists' ' victory was mainly due to the eloquent support of Macaulay, at that time Legal Member of Council. They urged the use of English and the Vernaculars, This second period (i 825-1 839) was, on the whole, a period of unsystematic official effort, marked, how- ever, by the consolidation and extension of various educational societies and committees which had strug- gled into existence. In Bombay, the inadequacy of a system of educational institutions partially under Government management, but not directed by a special agency, became manifest. The Elphinstone College, in spite of its ample funds, did not prosper. The District Schools in Gujarat, which were removed from the superintendence of the Native School Society and placed under that of the local revenue officers, dis- tinctly deteriorated. As the result of much experience, the Bombay Government resolved to create a special agency, and in 1840 established a Board of Education of six members, three nominated by Government, and three, as its last act, by the School Society. The history of Bombay education during the third EDUCATION. 131 period from 1840 to 1855 is the history of this Board, and of the continued efforts of the various missionary societies. The stronof man of the Board was Sir Erskine Perry, Chief justice of Bombay, who acted as its president from 1843 to 1852. He was a strenuous advocate of higher education. He beheved in concen- trating upon the higher education of the few the available Government grant, which he considered quite inadequate to make an impression upon the masses. He held what was called the 'downward filtration' theory, and argued that the thorough education of the upper class would react upon the ignorance of the rest of the population. Under his vigorous influence the number of English schools in the Bombay Presidency and the attendance at them doubled. In 1855, when the Board of Education resigned, there existed a High School, in which English was taught, at (I believe) every head-quarter station in the province except Kaira. The encouragement given to higher or colle- giate education was a marked characteristic of this period throughout India. In the Bombay Presidency it was signalised by the foundation of the Grant Medical College, and the addition of the English branch to the Poona Sanskrit College now known by the name of the Deccan College. The great Educational Despatch of the Court of Directors of the East India Company in 1854 closed the first epoch of the history of education in India, which, as has been seen, is divisible into three distinct periods. This despatch is believed to have been drafted by John Stuart Mill, and the principles laid I 2 132 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. down by it were accepted and confirmed by the Secre- tary of State for India in 1859, after the East India Company had been succeeded by the Crown. The education of the people of India was definitely declared to be a duty of the State, and means were suggested for its extension and improvement. It was recom- mended that Universities should be founded in the Presidency towns, that separate departments of educa- tion should be established for each Province, and that regular and consistent inspection of schools by the Government should take the place of vague encourage- ment. On the publication of this Despatch, the Education Department of Bombay was formed in 1855. Its first Director, Mr. C. Erskine, C.S., mapped out its future policy, which differed in one important respect from that pursued in other provinces of India. In the words of the Report of the Education Commission : ' The work, which the Department [in Bombay] set before itself, after a careful census, was one of creation rather than of incorporation^.' It deliberately endea- voured to supply the educational wants of the popula- lation by originating institutions under departmental management, instead of aiding the existing primary schools or stimulating the development of private enterprise. The distinctive characteristic of this fourth period (1855-1870) of education in India, inaugurated by the Educational Despatch of the Court of Directors in 1854, was the extension of secondary education and the ^ Report of the Indian Education Cominissiojt, p. 33. EDUCATION. 133 encouragement of High Schools, in which EngHsh was reco2:nised as the mecHum of instruction. In that respect the Department of PubHc Instruction in Bombay had the labours of its predecessor, the Board of Edu- cation, as a good foundation on which to build. Like the Board, it endeavoured as far as possible to keep the management in its own hands. It was not until 1863 that it offered grants-in-aid to missionary and private institutions, and not until 1865 that it offered them on a sufficiently liberal scale to elicit private effort ^ Not less important than even this develop- ment of secondary education was the foundation of the University of Bombay in 1857, which by means of its examinations has exercised a regulating and controllinof influence over the whole course of studies in the Bombay Presidency. In 187 1 the fifth period (i 871-1883) was opened by the transfer of the control of education, under Lord Mayo's decentralisation scheme, to the Local Governments. This measure did not very directly concern Bombay, which has always been indepen- dent, but simultaneously with it came a great in- crease in the attention paid to primary education, the necessary foundation for all true educational progress. In 1882, the Indian Education Com- mission, after collecting evidence in the various pro- vinces, endeavoured to consolidate what experience had proved to be the best schemes and systems, so far as consolidation was consistent with local requirements. It made provision for all classes and races of the Indian ' Report of the Indian Education Connnission^ p. 364. 134 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. population, and laid down the lines on which the various local Departments of Public Instruction might expand into a truly national system of education for India. The publication of the Education Commission's Re- port, and its adoption by the Supreme Government, in 1884, inaugurated the sixth period in the history of Indian education — the period which is still cur- rent, and with which this chapter more particularly deals. When Lord Reay arrived in India in 1885, he found that the Bombay Government had the Report of the Commission under consideration, and he at once set himself to adapt its conclusions to the local system. Every branch of the educational administration of the Presidency was examined, and wide-reaching reforms were introduced. Of the various classes of education perhaps the most important for the welfare of the people is pri- mary or elementary instruction. The ' downward filtration ' theory had been generally acknowledged to be untenable ; the extension of primary education invariably leads to the development of an upward tendency; the converse has not yet been proved. The Missionaries and the Native School-book Societies in Bombay always recognised the paramount importance of establishing elementary schools, but it was not until 1853 that the Board of Education practically accepted it as the duty of the State to provide for primary in- struction. It did so in that year by undertaking to open a school in any town or village in the Presidency, on condition that the inhabitants would pay half the EDUCATION. 135 master's salary and would build a school-room and supply school-books. This policy was continued by the Bombay Education Department, The first Di- rector of Public Instruction, Mr. C. Erskine, gave every encouragement to the foundation of new primary schools, to be inspected by the Department and super- vised by district school committees of the Local Boards. Efforts were made to secure efficiency by providing school-houses and training masters, and a high standard was maintained by careful and system- atic Government inspection. This sustained effort to create a departmental system of primary instruction bore good fruits, but it was accompanied by a neglect of the existing popular institutions, the indigenous villasfe schools. It is not needful to blame the Bombay Education Department in its early years for this neglect. It may now seem that it would have been alike more econo- mical and more consistent with sound administration to develop the village schools, and to endeavour to improve the ancient methods of instruction preserved in them, than to found new schools and introduce Western ideas. But it may well have appeared hope- less to the educational administrators of the time that any change for the better could be made in the exist- ing village schools. To their minds the arguments for superseding them by Government institutions proved irresistible. The following account of an in- digenous Bombay village school, which had preserved its character intact, to some extent justifies their attitude. The description reminds one of the old- 136 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION 1885-1890. fashioned hedge-school of Carleton's Talcs of the Irish Peasantry. 'The ordinary daily routine of a Hindu indigenous school is nearly the same in all parts of the Presidency. Each morning at about 6 o'clock the Pantoji, who is in some cases a Brahman and the priest of many of the families whose children attend the school, goes round the village and collects his pupils. This process usually occupies some time. At one house, the pupil has to be persuaded to come to school ; at another, the parents have some special instructions to give the master regarding the refractoriness of their son ; at a third, he is asked to administer chastisement on the spot. As soon as he has collected a sufficient number of his pupils, he takes them to the school. For the first half-hour a Bhupali, or invocation to the Sun, Saraswati, Gaupati, or some other deity, is chanted by the whole school. After this the boys who can write trace the letters of their kittas, or copy- slips, with a dry pen, the object of this exercise being to give free play to the fingers and wrist, and to accustom them to the sweep of the letters. When the tracing-lesson is over, the boys begin to write copies, and the youngest children, who have been hitherto merely looking on, are taken in hand either by the master's son or by one of the elder pupils. The master himself generally confines his attention to one or two of the oldest pupils, and to those whose instruction he has stipulated to finish in a given time. All the pupils are seated in one small room or veran- dah, and the confusion of sounds, which arises from EDUCATION. 137 three or four sets of boys reading and shouting out their tables all at the same moment, almost baffles description ^' In spite of the defective methods pursued in the old Bombay village schools, the Education Commission, acting on the experience gained in other provinces of India, had no hesitation in recommending (1883) the careful development of indigenous schools in pre- ference to the creation of. new departmental primary schools. Lord Reay at once adopted this recommen- dation, and took measures to carry it into effect. His aim was to improve existing institutions, to stimulate private enterprise and to guide it into proper channels. He did all in his power to induce the local authorities to establish and supervise primary schools, and en- couraged them by greatly increasing the amount of financial support given to elementary education by means of orrants-in-aid under the manasfement of local Boards, The enhanced proportion of Govern- ment assistance given to primary instruction is best shown by the fact that during the period under review it was increased from Rs.2, 90,893 to Rs.5,48,035. The Governor was not only ready to spend money on elementary education, he also endeavoured to guide it in the rioht direction. Hitherto, the instruction given in the primary schools had been mainly re- garded as the first step of the educational ladder, up which an apt pupil might climb through a secondary school and a college, by means of scholarships and studentships, to a University degree. This is a laud- ^ Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 65. 1 38 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. able idea in itself, and Lord Reay recognised its im- portance. But in practice it tends unduly to increase the number of University graduates, for all of whom it becomes impossible to find fitting employment in the public service ; while it provides those lads who are unable to climb the whole ladder, not with a com- plete education suited to their needs, but with a train- ing preliminary to a classical education, which is com- paratively useless to them. Lord Reay had been familiarised with the aspects of this problem by his study of the corresponding controversies in Europe, and in a Minute, dated 12 August, 1885, he laid weight on the necessity for giving a practical turn to education, with a view ' of suggesting to the younger generation what they ought to do, to become good artisans, good cultivators, &c.' At this early date in his government, therefore, he disclosed that policy towards the encouragement of technical education which afterwards occupied so large a share of his attention. He indicated that such education should have its proper place in the elementary schools. He held that these schools ouo^ht to Qfive a sound training" to the majority of their pupils who have to labour for their bread, and should try to rear them into intelligent working men, and not concentrate their efforts on the small minority of embryo University graduates. While neglecting no means to improve and develop the system of primary instruction, Lord Reay did not fail to perceive the importance of a simultaneous reform in secondary education. Secondary or middle educa- tion in India is the stage which leads from the primary EDUCATION. 139 to the collegiate course. Its goal was the matricula- tion standard of the Universities. It implies, therefore, in its higher grades a thorough knowledge of the English language, which is the medium of instruction in the colleges. I have mentioned that Sir Erskine Perry and the Bombay Board of Education did much to encourage English education in the Bombay Presi- dency, and that, before 1855, schools teaching English had been established in every district except Kaira. Notwithstanding this excellent basis, the Bombay Education Department failed for a time to make much progress in secondary education, and the lack of Govern- ment assistance led to little being done by private enterprise. The Indian Education Commission found itself constrained to report, in speaking of the progress of education between 1854 and 1871 : 'Compared with some other provinces, therefore, the development of secondary education in Bombay during this period must be pronounced to have been weak ^' The system of grants-in-aid, however, introduced in 1863 and on a more liberal scale in 1865, although hampered by a too rigid enforcement of payment by results, led to im- provement and indicated the direction to be pursued in the future. A bright side, also, was discernible in the eagerness of the people to avail themselves of the higher grades of instruction, for the Education Com- missioners go on to say : ' A marked feature of the Bombay secondary system is that the schools, though few in number, have a much larger average attendance ' Report of the Indian Education Coi/uiiission, p. 185. I40 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. than in any other Province in India, being between two and three times as large as in Madras or Bengal \' The action of Lord Reay's Government upon second- ary education was as important, though it did not involve so large an increase of expenditure, as his de- velopment of elementary education. Of his great reform, effected by a wise extension of grants-in-aid, and the abolition of payments solely by result — a re- form which had a beneficial influence on every class of education, mention will be made later, when the whole subject can be discussed at length. The special reforms with regard to the secondary schools followed the same lines as those adopted for the primary schools. An attempt was made to transfer the Government schools to the local authorities, — an attempt immediately successful only with the Ahmad- nagar High School. Greater success crowned the Governor's efforts to widen the direction and the aim of the studies pursued. If it is true that the elementary schools were mainly regarded as the first step of a ladder leading up to a full University education, it is still more true of the old curriculum in the secondary schools. The Matriculation Examination of the Uni- versity of Bombay became the goal, towards which all secondary education was directed. The number of passes obtained at that examination formed the official test of efficiency. The one-sided effect of this system, which forced all the brighter minds along one path and destined all the best scholars for the crowded ranks of the Govern- ' Repoft of the Indian Education Coinjnission, p. 186. EDUCATION. 141 ment service or the learned professions, had attracted the notice of the Education Commission. One of the standing questions put to the witnesses whom it exam- ined ran thus : ' Is the attention of teachers and pupils unduly directed to the Entrance Examination of the University ? ' The replies of the witnesses were unani- mously in the affirmative, and the Commissioners go on to say in their Report : ' The University looks upon the Entrance Examination, not as a test of fitness for the duties of daily life, but rather as a means of ascer- taining whether the candidate has acquired that amount of general information and that degree of mental dis- cipline which will enable him to profit by a course of liberal or professional instruction. In these circum- stances, it appears to be the unquestionable duty of that Department of the State which has undertaken the control of education, to recognise the present de- mand for educated labour in all branches of commercial and industrial activity, and to meet it so far as may be possible with the means at its disposals' The evidence of Sir Raymond West, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bombay during the earlier part of Lord Reay's administration, clearly set forth the need for reform in the curriculum of the secondary schools. ' The preparation for ordinary business,' he says, ' may with advantage proceed up to a certain point along the same course as that for literature and science. It is a defect of our system, as I understand it, that it does not provide for a natural transition to the further studies which may be the most proper for a man ' Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 220. 142 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of business, nor even propose to encourage and con- duct such studies. When a boy reaches the age of about fourteen he may have plainly shown that he has not the gifts that would make him a good subject for literary culture. His tastes or his circumstances may disincline him to be an engineer or a chemist. He ought not then to be forced on in a line in which failure is almost certain. He should be put to work upon matters that he really can master, unless quite exceptionally dull, such as arithmetic, rudimentary economics, mercantile geography, the use of manures, or others determined by the locality of the school and its needs The extension of this knowledo^e should be along those lines where it will be grasped and incor- porated by the interests and teachings of active life. Still it should be education, aiming at making the mind robust and flexible, rather than at shabbily decking it with some rays of "business information" or low technic skill. For these different aims the present system makes no sufficient or distinct provision ^,' Supported by the authority of the Report of the Education Commission, and the testimony of Sir Ray- mond West, Lord Reay, himself well-acquainted with European theories and systems of State education, did all in his power to forward what is known as the 'bifur- cation of studies.' His conviction of the necessity for technical education was not to be satisfied with any idea of * downward filtration,' He did not think it enough to establish Technical Institutes. He en- deavoured, in addition to fostering higher and special ^ Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 220. EDUCATION. 143 technical education, to stimulate what is known as the modern side in the ordinary secondary schools, in which the pupils who were not fitted for a University education or not desirous of it, might be trained for the practical w^ork of life. Nor was this the only measure to free the secondary schools from being swayed solely by the standard of the University Matriculation Examination. To secure greater elasticity in their curriculum, he arranged that the University should undertake a School Final Ex- amination, with a wide range of optional subjects, which was to qualify for admission to the lower grades of the public serviced The rules regulating this new examina- tion were published on April 4, 1888, and were received with general approbation. Not only did they encourage the private and aid secondary schools by emanci- pating them from strict subservience to a single and detailed examination, but they gave room for a greater variety in teaching, and relieved the excessive pressure on the University by providing another door of entrance into the public service. The Bombay Government, under Lord Reay, thus showed in its treatment of secondary, as well as of primary schools, that it under- stood the real meaning of the word education, as em- bracing every branch of sound mental training, and not merely special literary and scientific instruction. As the ' ladder theory ' has formed the subject of much discussion in India, and as Lord Reay held a decided personal opinion regarding it, I ma)' perhaps ' In 1890-91 the number of candidates who presented themselves for the University School Pinal Examination was 820; of whom 331 passed. 1 44 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. be permitted to quote a letter which he addressed to me on the question. * I think,' he says, * the main point with reference to the " ladder " theory is that primary education should be preparatory to secondary education as well as to the more humble walks of life ; while secondary education should be preparatory to higher education but also complete in itself for those who have to enter upon a profession at eighteen. Bifurcation in the higher classes of secondary education is needed to secure this object, and also to divide the classical scholars from those who enter upon a scientific career, either as doctors, engineers, or scientific agriculturists. There are three main divisions : pure classics, pure science or modern literature, and the third division for those who do not get to the University, but stop short either after primary or after secondary education, and who therefore do not want to be prepared. The B.A. degree for the first division, the B.Sc. for the second, that is what I wished to secure, but the University did not adopt the B.Sc. as imperative for the medical stu- dents or engineers. ' A very important question was a training school for secondai'y teachers. We decided that secondary teachers should as a rule be University graduates, and then get their pedagogic training in certain specified second- ary schools with good head-masters — a less expensive and more efficient method than a training school. For primary education, both male and female, we paid great attention to the improvement of our Training Colleges.' The pension scheme for teachers in primary schools, an extremely intricate matter most important EDUCATION. 145 to the teachers, also received close and successful atten- tion from Lord Reay. Higher, or as it may more properly be termed in India collegiate, education rests entirely in the hands of the Arts Colleges affiliated to the Universities, and of the special colleges and classes which give instruc- tion in the different faculties recognised by the Univer- sities. The fact of having passed the Matriculation Examination o^uarantees that the student has some command of English. The subsequent collegiate teaching is imparted in English by lectures, and follows Western methods. The Arts Colleges in the Bombay Presidency are nine in number. Two of them, the Deccan College at Poona and the Elphinstone College at Bombay, have a long and honourable history, and are still under Government management. Two, the Rajaram and Samaldas Colleges, are maintained by Native States. Four are aided by the Government, the College of the Free General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, called the Wilson College after the famous missionary Dr. John Wilson, and St. Xavier's Roman Catholic College, both at Bombay; the Gujarat College at Ahmadabad, and the Sind College at Karachi. One is unaided, the Fergusson College at Poona. For instruction in professional studies, there are also the Law School at Bombay and the Law Class at the Deccan College, the Grant Medical College at Bombay, and the College of Science at Poona which has de- veloped out of the Poona Civil Engineering College. The chief events of Lord Reay's administration in connection with collegiate education were his efforts K 1 46 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 890. to amalgamate the two Arts Colleges at Poona (the Deccan and the Fergusson) ; the transference of the Elphinstone College to a more suitable situation and the addition of another professor to its staff ; the con- version of the Gujarat College from a Government into an aided institution ; the foundation of the Sind College ; the improvements effected at the Grant Medical College ; and the development of the agri- cultural branch of the College of Science at Poona. The oldest of these colleges, the Deccan College at Poona, has had a chequered history. When the East India Company annexed the territory of the Peshwas in 1819, Mountstuart Elphinstone found that it was the custom to distribute a large sum of money, called the dakshina, to the Brahmans of the capital every year. This grant, originally intended to encourage education and learning by the donation of valuable prizes, had so degenerated that when the English took possession of Poona, it had become a mere dole of alms to all Brahmans who applied. Mountstuart Elphinstone recommended that part of the dakshina should revert to something like its original purpose. He suggested that it should not be expended in gifts to proficients in Hindu theology, as had latterly been the case, but should be allotted to those skilled in the more useful branches of learning, such as law and mathematics, and to a certain number of professors maintained to teach those sciences. On this subject Mr, Elphinstone wrote a memorable paper, which explains his fame as an educational reformer on pre-existing lines. ' There exist in the EDUCATION. 147 Hindu languages,' he said, 'many tales and fables that would be generally read, and that would inculcate sound morals. There must be religious books tending more directly to the same end. If many of these were printed, and distributed cheaply or gratuitously, the effect would, without doubt, be great and beneficial. It would, however, be indispensable that they should be purely Hindu. We might silently omit all precepts of questionable morality, but the slightest infusion of religious controversy would secure the failure of the design. It would be better to call the prejudices of the Hindus to our aid in reforming them, and to control their vices by the ties of religion which are stronger than those of law. By maintaining and purifying their present tenets at the same time that we enliohten their understandinirs, we shall brinfj them nearer to that standard of perfection at which all concur in desiring that they should arrive ; while any attack on their faith, if successful, might be expected in theory, as is found in practice, to shake their reverence for all reliuion, and to set them free from those useful restraints which even a superstitious doctrine imposes on the passions ^' These were the principles which actuated the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone in directing the foundation of a college for the encouragement of the study of Sanskrit and of ancient Hindu literature and science at Poona in 1821. The Court of Directors, however, d'd not share the Governor's enthusiasm for Sanskrit ^ MctJioranduni on tlie Origin and Development of the Poomi and Decean Colleges^ p. i. K 2 148 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. or altogether sympathise with his ideas about the education of the Hindus, and they suggested that the newly established institution should be closed. Mr. Elphinstone answered his critics in his elaborate Minute on Education of March 1824, which contains this powerful argument : ' It would surely be a pre- posterous way of adding to the intellectual treasures of a nation to begin by the destruction of its indi- genous literature ; and I cannot but think that the future attainments of the natives will be increased in extent, as well as in variety, by being, as it were, engrafted on their own previous knowledge, and im- bued with their own original and peculiar character \' The college was, after this eloquent defence, allowed to exist under the name of the Poona Sanskrit College, and did good work on native lines until the establish- ment of an English Department, consisting at first of only a single class, in 1842. This department rapidly developed in importance. In 1852, instruction in Eng- lish was recognised as of equal value to the teaching of Sanskrit philosophy and science, and the institution received the name of the Poona College, The next stage in the history of the College was marked by the appointment in 1859 of Dr. Martin Haug, the celebrated Oriental scholar, to superintend the Sanskrit studies, on the ground that Sanskrit ought no longer to be taught as a vehicle of super- stition, but treated as an ancient language and literature by the modern methods of scientific philology and ' MciiiorandiiDi on the 0>igin and Development of the Poona and Deccati Colleges, p. 2, EDUCATION. 149 criticism. The usefulness of the College was, however, diminished and its growing prosperity checked by its situation in the heart of the city of Poona, and by the lack of suitable lecture-rooms. This was brouirht to the notice of the eminent Bombay philanthropist, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who in 1863 offered a lakh of rupees towards the erection of a new building, on condition that Government should contribute an equal sum, and grant an appropriate site. The generous offer was accepted, and in 1864 Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, laid the foundation-stone of the present edifice. He announced, on completing the ceremony, that its name would be altered from the Poona to the Deccan College, in order to signify that it was intended for the higher education of the whole Deccan and not merely for the city of Poona. In 1865 the Principal was able to restrict the College to its proper function, as a home for higher education, by refusing to admit students who had not passed the Matriculation Examination of the University of Bom- bay, and in 1868 the new building was opened. Such had been the history of the Deccan College, typical in many ways of the growth of higher education in India during the present century, and indissolubly connected with the o^reat name of its founder. Mount- Stuart Elphinstone. In its more recent developments the Deccan College has had the advantage of the able and sympathetic management of Dr. Wordsworth, one of the most distinguished- public teachers who ever laboured in India. But it had no longer sole posses- sion of the field of hii^her education in Poona. A 150 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. young and vigorous rival existed, founded to do honour to the memory of Lord Reay's immediate predecessor, and called after him the Fergusson College. The history of the Fergusson College is almost as interesting as that of the Deccan College. During the last days of Sir James Fergusson's government, the Poona Brahmans, under the name of the Deccan Education Society, conceived the idea of founding an institution to perpetuate the memory of the departing Governor. The Kolhapur and Southern Maratha chiefs subscribed liberally, and the college was started with an able principal, Mr. Apte, and a staff of young Brahman professors. These men were enthusiastic teachers. They received hardly any pay and formed a patriotic fraternity, stimulated by an ideal view of the dignity and importance of education. The students were all poor but anxious to be taught, and the institution soon attained a high degree of success in the first stage of collegiate education, that is, in the preparation of candidates for the Previous Examination of the University of Bombay — the first examination after Matriculation towards the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Lord Reay saw the anomaly of the existence of two Arts Colleges at Poona, when many other im- portant cities had no provision for higher education. He foresaw the undesirable effect likely to be produced by the competition of two institutions, the one main- tained by Government and the other independent. He found that the Fergusson College, although singularly EDUCATION. 151 successful in preparing candidates for the Previous Examination, was not able to give the necessary instruction for the whole B.A. course, and this sup- plied a ground for urging the amalgamation of the two institutions. The Education Commission had strongly enjoined the policy of replacing Government by State- aided education, wherever possible, and Lord Reay thought he saw an opportunity in this way for econo- mising the resources of the Presidency. Actuated by these motives, His Excellency entered into personal negotiations with representatives of the Fergusson College at Mahabaleshwar in 1887. He proposed to merge the two colleges into one, which should be under the superintendence of the Deccan Education Society, and which should receive a liberal grant-in-aid from the Government, like the Gujarat College at Ahmadabad and the Sind College at Karachi. Notwithstanding the Governor's earnest interven- tion, the negotiations led to no result. Many of the leading native scholars distrusted the ability of the professors of the Fergusson College to pre- pare for all the University Arts Examinations, even with the assistance of some of the English pro- fessors from the Deccan College. It was feared that the fusion would lead to a diminution of the Government errant towards higher education in fc> o Poona. The Fergusson College fraternity were jealous of the introduction of a European element : the professors at the Deccan College naturally pre- ferred their status as Government officials. This opposition to the scheme of amalgamation could not 1 5 2 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 890. be overcome, and Lord Reay's failure to carry out his scheme illustrates his principle of respecting the views of local responsible bodies, even when those views were a disappointment to himself. His other efforts to improve the condition of higher education in Arts Colleges were entirely successful. By the liberality of Sir Dinshaw Manekji Petit, who presented a suitable building for the Central Press, the Elphinstone College at Bombay was removed to a more appropriate situation, close to the University, and Lord Reay used the money saved by the reduction of the staff of European inspectors of schools to add another English professor to its staff. Of even greater importance to the cause of higher education in the Presidency were the conversion of the Gujarat College at Ahmadabad into an aided institution and the foundation of the Sind College at Karachi. The conversion of the Gujarat College is a good example of Lord Reay's policy of withdrawing the Government from the direct management of educa- tional institutions, wherever practicable, and of sub- stitutino; orrants-in-aid. The collecre at Ahmadabad is not so old an institution as the Deccan and Elphin- stone Colleges, but it had exercised a considerable influence upon the higher education of the Gujarati- speaking population as a Government institution. It was, at the end of March, 1887, separated from the Government High School, to which it had been attached, and made over to the management of a Board of Control, consisting of the Trustees of the College PLndowment Fund and of three representa- EDUCATION. 153 tives of Government. An English principal was also appointed in the person of Mr. Waddington, a dis- tinguished Oxford graduate. The establishment of the Sind Arts College at Karachi, in January, 1887, marked an interesting- stage in the history of higher education in the Pre- sidency. When the progress of education is con- sidered province by province, it will be seen that Sind, which had hitherto been the most backward province of all, made a remarkable advance during the five years under review. Not the least remarkable step In this advance was the establishment of the Sind Col- lege, which owed its origin to local endeavour, aided by the advice and active assistance of the Government. It is under the manag^ement of a Council, conslstlno; of three nominees of the Government, six representatives of the Sind College Association, and one representa- tive of each Municipal or Local Board which con- tributes not less than 500 rupees annually towards its expenses. A lakh of rupees was quickly raised as the nucleus of an Endowment Fund; the Municipality of Karachi granted a site, and the Viceroy of India laid the foundation-stone of the building on November 14, 1887. This building is 'estimated to cost two lakhs, of which Government give half under the grant-in-aid rules. It bears the name of the late Honourable Daydram Jethmal, Member of the Governor's Council. The various Arts Colleges, however, fill only a portion of the wide field of higher education. The attainment of the deijrce of Bachelor of Arts, or even of that of Master of Arts, which Is only granted 154 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TJON, 1885-1890. by the University of Bombay after a severe examina- tion in Languages, History and Philosophy, Mathe- matics or Natural Science, merely gives evidence of prolonged and systematic study. It does not qualify a young man for a learned profession. General education must be supplemented by professional education, and in the development of the professional colleges in the Presidency Lord Reay took an active part. The most important institution for professional training in Western India is the Grant Medical College at Bombay, which bears the name of Sir Robert Grant, Governor of the Presidency from 1835 to 1838. Sir Robert Grant throughout his tenure of the governor- ship showed the deepest interest in medical education. He introduced the modern ideas of medicine and surgery into the medical department of the Sanskrit Colleije at Poona. He suQforested the creation of a Medical School at Bombay, and no more fitting me- morial could have been devised to do honour to his memory and to perpetuate it than the establishment of the College. In 1843, the foundation-stones of the Grant Medical College and of the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital (the gift of the famous Bombay philan- thropist) were laid, and from the first the two insti- tutions worked in harmony. The most important points in the history of the Grant College down to 1885 were its affiliation to the University of Bombay in i860, and the consequent supersession of its diploma by the University degree of Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery ; the improvements effected in its system EDUCATION. 155 of teaching by the appointment of a Professor of Phy- siology and of several other professors in 1867; the estabhshment of provincial medical schools at Poona, Ahmadabad, and Haidarabad in 1878 for the instruc- tion of hospital assistants, which relieved the College of the vernacular classes ; and the opening of its course of instruction to women in 1884 ^ The Jam- setjee Jejeebhoy Hospital also developed, and its use- fulness was trebled by the addition of the Motlibai Lying-in Hospital and the Petit Hospital for Women and Children, due to generous donations received by Lord Reay from Motlibai, a wealthy Parsi lady, and from Sir Dinshaw Petit, Bar^. One serious deficiency of the Grant College was the absence of a proper laboratory, fitted with the modern appliances for scientific teaching and re- search. This deficiency was supplied under the in- fluence of Lord Reay by the liberality of Mr. Framji Dinshaw Petit, son of the above-named baronet, who presented the College with Rs. 60,000 for the construction and Rs. 15,000 for the equipment of a first-class modern laboratory, suited for physiological, pharmacological, pathological, and chemical research. ' For his assistance in removing this obstacle to the practical work of the College,' writes the Principal, Brigade-Surgeon W. Gray, ' our Governor, Lord Reay, is entitled to the lasting gratitude of both the present and future professors and students.' ' Medical Edticaiion in Bombay : an I>itrodudo>-y Addi-css delivered at the Grant Medical College, by Brigade-Surgeon W. Gray, Principal and Professor of Surgery. 1889. 156 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. The Petit Laboratory is not the only result of the Governor's interest in medical education. He induced the Gaekwar of Baroda to ouarantee the salary of an additional professor at the Grant College, and filled the new Chair by the appointment of Dr. Bahadurji, a Parsi graduate of the University of London, who had paid special attention to pharma- cology. The importance of trained nursing also occu- pied Lord Reay's attention ; and his friend, the Maha- raja of Bhaunagar, gave a lakh of rupees as the endow- ment of a Lady Reay Nurse Fund, while a Native gentleman, Mr. Bhownaggree, gave part of the money for the establishment of a Nurses' Home in connection with the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital. As a me- morial of the services rendered by the Governor to medical education, a late very distinguished Principal of the Medical College, Dr. Vandyke Carter, Honorary Surgeon to the Queen, has founded a lectureship in the Grant College to bear the name of the Reay Lectureship. In Bombay, as in other provinces of India, the keenest intellects are attracted in preference to the study and practice of the law. The graduates in law are scattered all over the Presidency; they represent the educated class in the municipalities and local boards ; they exercise great influence on the formation of native opinion ; they closely watch the administra- tion of justice, and it is of the utmost importance that they should be properly trained and educated. The Law School at Bombay originated in the establishment of the Perry Professorship of Jurisprudence, which was EDUCATION. 157 founded to commemorate Sir Erskine Perry, Chief Justice of Bombay. Other professors were added from time to time, but none of them were obHged to devote the whole of their attention to teachincr law. o As a rule, attendance at their lectures was o-iven merely to fulfil the obligation imposed by the Uni- versity, and the students prepared for their examina- tions at home. The result did not prove altogether satisfactory, and the best remedy appeared to be the appointment of a principal or professor, who should o^ive his whole time to the work of teaching. Lord Reay strongly advocated this course. Before he left India it had been resolved to have a 'full-time ' Pro- fessor of Jurisprudence, and the resolution was await- ing the sanction of the Supreme Government. In fillino- the leral Chairs which fell vacant durino- his tenure of office, the Governor sought for able jurists, whether Indian or European. He nominated ]\Ir. Kashinath Trimbak Telang, now a Judge of the High Court, and Mr. Sethna, a Parsi who had carried off many prizes at Lincoln's Inn, to professorships. It should be noted that, in addition to the Law School at Bombay, a Law Class is maintained at the Deccan College at Poona, which, however, only prepares for the first University Examination in law. Next to medicine and law in the University of Bom- bay ranks engineering. Most of the candidates in this department are prepared in the Poona College of Science, formerly known as the Poona Civil Engineer- \\\Si Collef{e. This institution irrcw out of a school established by the Government at Poona in 1854 for 158 BOMBA Y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. the purpose of training subordinates for the PubHc Works Department. Agriculture and Forestry have been added to the old curriculum, and under the management of its able and energetic principal, Dr. T. Cooke, the Poona College of Science has become celebrated for efficiency. In extending its range, its original purpose was not forgotten. A thorough pre- paration is given for the Bombay University degree of Licentiate of Civil Engineering, which requires from two to four years' practical training in workshops as well as sound theoretical knowledge. So high is the reputation of the College of Science, that the Mysore State finds it both advantageous and economical to send students to be trained at Poona, and the Nizam is said to be thinking of closing the Haidarabad Engineering College and following the example of Mysore. The development of the Agricultural and Forestry branches, and the attempt to meet the demand for technical education in its workshops, were the points in regard to the Poona College of Science which occupied most of Lord Reay's attention. The whole question of technical education will be discussed later, but some- thing must be said here of Dr. Cooke's endeavour to secure the recocfnition of aofriculture as a distinct sub- o o ject for higher or collegiate education. The main difficulty with which he met was the refusal of the University of BombajT^ to grant a degree for Agricul- ture, or even to admit it as a subject for examination for the degree of Bachelor of Science. The opponents of this scheme argued that the EDUCATION. 159 theory and practice of Agriculture could not be taught in such a way as to give a training comparable to that demanded in the examinations for the existing degrees. Dr. Cooke contested this notion in an able memoran- dum, in which he pointed to the course prescribed by the University of Edinburgh for a certificate, namely the General Principles and Economics of Agricul- ture, Geology, Botany, Physics, Mechanics. He also added to these subjects Agricultural Chemistry and Veterinary Science. Lord Reay heartily concurred in Dr. Cooke's views, but the authorities of the Univer- sity only consented to grant a diploma, not a degree, to students of Agriculture. The Governor succeeded, however, in arranging with Sir Edward Buck, the Secretary to the Supreme Government of India in the Department of Revenue and Agriculture, for the appointment of an expert agricultural chemist, whose salary was to be defrayed by contributions from all the provincial treasuries, and w4io was to visit each province in turn. The Governor also arrano-ed with Sir E. Buck for the establishment of the first Pasteur Laboratory in India in connection with the Poona College of Science, and laid the first stone of the building for this important institution in the winter of 1889. The instruction in Forestry had the practical advantage of training men for the Poorest Department, but some difficulty was experienced in getting the Forest Department to take these men to fill vacant appointments. At the summit of the educational edifice in the Presidency stands the University of Bombay, founded 1 60 BO MB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. in 1857 in accordance with the Education Despatch of the Court of Directors in 1854. As has already been indicated, the University of Bombay is an examining body, hke the University of London, not a teaching University, hke Oxford and Cambridge. The control which it exercises over higher education is all-power- ful, for its Matriculation Examination forms the standard of the secondary schools with regard to pupils who propose to attend one of the colleges, and its degrees form the goal of the colleges. Lord Reay, while desirous of expanding the scope of its examina- tions, as in the matter of an agricultural diploma, strictly respected the self-governing character of the University, and left the consideration of all proposed changes in the curricula to the various Faculties. An important controversy arose over a measure for University reorganisation brought forward by Sir Raymond West. This measure did not meet with the approval of the Senate of the University. Sir Raymond West had proposed that the University should exercise a direct supervision over the colleges. This would not have been acceptable to aided institutions, and the Senate rejected that part of his scheme. In other clauses, the Senate inserted amendments which altered the scope of the measure. The Bombay Government decided not to accept the bill thus modified, and for- warded it to be dealt with by the Supreme Govern- ment. On the administrative side. Lord Reay bestowed much care in filling vacancies in the governing body of the University, and inaugurated a new departure by appointing, as Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. EDUCATION. 16 1 Mackichan, Principal of the Wilson Free Kirk College, as a representative of the voluntary and professorial elements. In this sketch of the various classes of edu- cation in the Bombay Presidency and of their progress during the administration of Lord Reay, two principles appear to have guided his policy ; namely, the desire to withdraw the Government from the direct conduct of the work of education, except in a few institutions which were to be of the highest type ; and the desire to promote technical education in its widest sense. These two principles deserve a more detailed examin- ation. It has been already stated that the traditional policy in Bombay kept education as much as possible in the hands of the Government. In spite of the recommen- dations contained in the Despatches of 1854 and 1859, the first Directors of Public Instruction, Mr. C. Erskine and Mr. Howard, upheld the soundness of this policy, and consistently pursued it. When grants-in- aid were at length offered to the schools maintained by the Missionary Societies in 1863, the managers found the terms to be ' so illiberal as to make it not worth while to offer their schools for inspection under the rules in question ^' It was not until Sir Alexander Grant came into office as Director of Public Instruction, in 1865, that a more generous scheme of aid was adopted and substantial encouragement promised to private effort. The Education Commission of 1882 reported that 'aided education [in Bombay since 1865] has made considerable progress relatively, though its total ' Report of tJie Indian Edtication Commission, p. 364. L 1 6 2 B 0MB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. amount is still but small \' and strongly recommended that it should be further developed. This was the situation when Lord Reay arrived in Bombay. The new Governor found, as has been said, the Report of the Commission still under consideration, and he endeavoured to carry its recommendations into effect. He held with the best authorities that the proper function of the Government in State education consisted in inspection, not management. He firmly believed that institutions started by private effort, and administered or superintended by persons of local influence, were likely to have more vitality and elasti- city, and to attain a greater measure of success than purely Government institutions, of which the managers were necessarily less bound by local ties. He realised that private schools afforded more variety and scope for individual ability than Government schools under the direction of a public department, and under the restric- tions imposed by a uniform curriculum. His Excellency, therefore, did his best to transfer the existing Govern- ment institutions to local authorities, and to encourage private efforts, such as those of the missionary societies and native bodies. In respect to the primary schools legal enactments secured success ; but as regards secondary schools and colleges Lord Reay's efforts did not so immediately bear fruit. He managed, however, to transfer the Ahmadnagar High School and the Gujarat College at Ahmaddbdd to Local Committees, and to found the Sind College at Karachi and the Victoria Jubilee ^ Report of the Indian Education Co/iiniission, p. 365. EDUCATION. 163 Technical Institute in Bombay, on the basis of local subscriptions and representative management. The gradual withdrawal of the Government from the actual manacrement of schools and colleges was not the only reform, suggested by the Education Commission, which received support from Lord Reay. The grants-in-aid given to private colleges, schools, and educational institutions had been regulated, since the introduction of the system into the Bombay Presidency in 1865 by Sir Alexander Grant, on the basis of results attained, as attested by the reports of the Government inspectors. This uniform system of payment by results, which has caused much acrimonious controversy in England, was implicitly condemned by the Indian Education Commission of 1882. In 1885 the system of fixed grants was applied to colleges. In 1887 it was extended to other higher institutions. These grants were ' in no case to exceed one-half of the local assets or one-third of the total expenditure of the institution during the previous official year,' supplemented by liberal building grants towards new institutions. The advantages secured by the change soon became apparent. The Government inspector became a kindly visitor and critic, whose hints were valued and whose supervision was welcomed. The managers and masters were also freed from the incubus of having to satisfy one particular set of tests of efficiency. Lord Reay hoped that the reform would bring about the follow- ing results : (i) to give elasticity to educational methods and to encourage individuality; (2) to give L 2 i64 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. the managers of the best schools orreater freedom and security in their finances ; (3) to stimulate originality in teachers ; {4) to relieve inspectors from the burden of a great amount of routine work and to give them more freedom of action in adapting local educational efforts to local needs ; and (5) to give to the best schools a greater amount of aid. It is too soon to judge how far these expectations have been justified, but it is stated that not a single complaint against the changed system of grants-in-aid was received by the Government while Lord Reay remained in India, Not merely was the reform based on sound principles, it also proved economical ; and it was owing to the financial saving effected by the aboli- tion of an English inspectorship of schools, rendered possible by it, that Lord Reay found the means to found the new English professorship at the Elphin- stone College. The greater encouragement of aided institutions and the substitution of fixed grants for payments by results, which modified the whole structure of the educational system in the Bombay Presidency, were administrative reforms suggested by the Indian Educa- tion Commission. Widi regard to technical education, however, Lord Reay was an originator, and his fame as an ' educational ' governor of Bombay rests chiefly on his clear perception of the importance of this ques- tion and on his measures for establishino- a sound basis on which to build hereafter. He believed that the concentration of all energy upon the development of a purely literary education, which overcrowded the EDUCATION. 165 professions, could best be remedied by the co-ordination of a system of practical training-. He strove to impress upon the minds of the people the necessity of education not only for the training of doctors and lawyers and engineers, but also for mechanics, artisans, weavers, and cultivators. In a Resolution of Government, pub- lished in November, 1886, Lord Reay defined what he understood by the term ' technical education,' and the lines on which he wished to work. ' It is universally felt,' he says in the concluding para- graph, ' that new channels should be opened, not to repress the intelligence of the country, so largely developed by means of the education imparted during the last thirty years, but to dissuade it from overstock- ing one field by providing other appropriate ground. Various gradations of technical education, forming ends in themselves for various classes of the community, must all tend to develop the material resources of the country, and to improve the general condition of the people. The public no doubt realises that financial pressure obliges the Government to be most careful in what they do, and that otherwise they would have been glad to extend the basis of operations as regards tech- nical education. Being thus restricted financially, His Excellency in Council would earnestly appeal to all local authorities and associations, as well as to the wealthy classes, to come forward and co-operate heartily with Government in their efforts to enter the arena which several European countries have entered not so long ago, achieving signal success in a very short time ; countries, which cannot be called rich, but which realised 1 56 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TIOiY, 1 885- 1 890. the conditions imposed upon them by the keen com- petition which threatened their prosperity. ' His Excellency in Council wishes to make a cautious and small beginning ; to establish a basis out of which gradually a more complete fabric may be developed by the process of natural evolution ; to utilise existing resources ; to labour in a few and selected fields ; to work out the scheme almost en- tirely through native agency ; to improve such native agency by giving them opportunities of completing their education in Europe and of witnessing the in- dustrial, agricultural, mechanical, artistic, and mercantile development of the western world. The scheme is not academic, does not include legal and medical edu- cation, because it is not intended for the academic, but for the producing, classes. Its success cannot be tested by examinations, but rather by exhibitions and by statistics of imports and exports, prices and wages. Its main object is to enhance the well-being of the people at large by giving increased employment in the Presidency to labour and capital, and by cementing the harmonious relations which should exist between both.' I shall briefly relate the manner in which Lord Reay endeavoured to carry out his programme. Technical education may be roughly divided, for the purpose of the Resolution, into practical training in agriculture, the artistic industries, and the mechanical industries. Something has already been said of Lord Reay's encouragement of higher agricultural educa- tion from the scientific point of view, and of his desire that it should be recognised by the University of EDUCATION. 167 Bombay. But agriculture has its practical as well as its scientific side. It would be well indeed if the ser- vants of the Government and of the native princes thoroughly understood the science of agriculture, and the applications of chemistry, botany, and geology to it. But this cannot be hoped for from the ordinary cultivator. What he needs is a knowledge of the simple and practical facts which would aid him in his daily labour, such as the uses of different manures, and the rules for breeding cattle — a subject of vital importance to prevent the stock from degenerating. From this point of view, lessons in the practice of agriculture form a branch of technical education, and in an agricultural country like India perhaps the most important branch. Lord Reay found the Poona Col- lege of Science (under Dr. Cooke) ambitious not only to teach the science of agriculture, but also to become a normal school for instructing teachers in its practice. The Governor did what lay in his power to encourage Dr. Cooke in his efforts. The experimental farm attached to the College of Science for practical work was enlarged, and a veterinary hospital and an ob- servatory were added to the establishment. Agricultural classes were also developed in connec- tion with several of the secondary schools which give practical instruction, and they are annually inspected by the Principal of the Poona College of Science. With regard to these classes, notice should be taken of the efforts made by the Education Department to transfer them to the superintendence of the local authorities. ' The farm at Sholdpur,' it is stated in the Report of i68 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. the Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency for the year 1887-88 \ ' has been transferred to the District Board, and arrangements are being made to bring in Kunbi boys - from the tdlukds and to give them a practical course of instruction. The farms at Ahmadnagar and Nasik have been refused by the Boards, and are shortly to be abolished. The farms at Dhiilia and Belgium are to be offered to the Dis- trict Boards. At Nadiad the farm belongs to an agri- cultural society which is liberally disposed, as it admits the High School students to its land, and pays scholar- ships to two of the best boys in the class. This year five senior boys and the teacher went to the Songarh Cattle Show, the Society paying their expenses.' Lord Reay not only encouraged agricultural education in connec- tion with the College of Science at Poona, but also in- duced the Gdekwar to establish a chair of Agriculture in the College at Baroda, with promising effects in the future for Gujarat. Closely connected with the study of scientific agri- culture, if indeed it may not be termed a branch of it, is veterinary science. On July i, 1886, the Bombay Veterinary College was opened under the superin- tendence of Veterinary-Surgeon Steel, A.V.D. It was established in a bungalow on the Parell estate of the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and gives clinical instruction in the hospital belonging to that Society. It started with 69 students in the first year, of w^iom 28 were Parsis and 27- ^ Page 40. ^ That is to say, boys of the hereditary agricultural class. EDUCATION. 169 Hindus, and it is worthy of notice that all the first graduates and licentiates of the College at once obtained work at regular salaries ^ It began humbly with only a forge, a dissecting-room, a lecture-room, a small museum, and a library, but its remarkable success attracted general notice, and in 1890 Sir Dinshaw Manekji Petit presented a Patho-Bacteriological La- boratory to the institution. Practical instruction in agriculture and in veterinary medicine and surgery may seem, however, hardly to come within the popular English idea of technical edu- cation, which mainly applies to systematic training in the artistic and mechanical industries. The central in- stitution for the teaching and encouragement of art in all its forms in the Presidency is the Jamsetjee Jejee- bhoy School of Art at Bombay, Painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts were being efifici- ently taught in it under the management of Mr. Griffiths, when Lord Reay took up office. It has full scope for important work. The Indian eye for colour and form is famous throughout the world, but, as in Japan, the competition of the cheap machine-made productions of modern Europe is forcing the Indian craftsman to turn out more hurried and therefore less highly finished work. It even seemed as if his powers of invention and artistic imitation were diminishing, and it was feared that some of the most renowned arts of ancient and mediaeval India, such as carving and decorative metal work, were in danger of extinction. ' Report of the Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency for the year 1886-87, p. 47. 1 70 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. To counteract this decline the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art was founded at Bombay. But it is not suf- ficient to teach the principles of art; what is wanted is to secure the application of those principles to the artistic industries. During Lord Reay's Government the Reay workshops were established under the supervision of the School of Art. He did not try to introduce new artistic industries by means of such workshops, but to revive those which were languishing or deteriorating for want of care and encouragement. His plan was to have promising craftsmen, belonging to local indus- tries of the Presidency, sent to Bombay, and practically trained in the workshops of the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art by the best masters of their craft, so that they might become efficient teachers in their own localities. Lord Reay did not initiate the teaching of drawing in the primary and secondary schools of the Presidency, but he fostered it as the first step towards artistic training. New drawing-classes were being constantly opened during his administration, and were annually inspected. The advance made in this direction may best be shown by the statistics. In 1886-87, only 784 candidates from 52 institutions offered them- selves for the first-grade examination In drawing, and 22 for the second-grade examination. By 1889- 90, the numbers had increased to 15 15 candidates for the first-grade, and to 177 for the second- grade examinations. Still more striking is the rapid growth in the number of children reported to be learning drawing in the schools for ordinary education, EDUCATION. 171 who in 1889-90 numbered 8413 as against 1600 in 1886-87. Under Lord Reay's government an institution was founded for practical instruction in the mechanical in- dustries, which should become the normal school for teachers of technical education throughout the Presi- dency — the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute at Bombay. The scheme had many difficulties to sur- mount, among which may be noted the poverty of the Government and the suspicion of certain native gentlemen, deeply interested in educational work, that the money spent on technical education would be taken from other, and in their opinion more important branches. A grant from the Ripon Memorial Fund was obtained for the Textile Department. The Munici- pality of Bombay gave Rs. 80,000 and promised Rs. 5,000 annually. The Bombay Government felt justified in promising Rs. 25,000 a year, and sub- scriptions flowed in from wealthy merchants when the project was associated with the celebration of Her Majesty's Jubilee. It was wisely resolved not to be too ambitious at the start. The school was to be a technical, not a technological, institute. Only so much science as was required to make an intelligent and efficient workman, was to be taught ; the training of millowners and managers in the higher branches of technology was not at first to be attempted. Sir Dinshaw Manekji Petit, with his accustomed liberality, met the initial difficulty of finding an appro- priate place, in which to house the infant institution. He presented a suitable building for the Government 1 7 2 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. Central Press, and the newly-erected buildings for that Press thus became available for the Elphinstone College, near the University. This left the old college in the heart of the manufacturing district vacant for the Technical Institute. An English technologist, Mr. Phythian, C.E., was appointed the first principal, and so many students offered themselves that advertisements had to be in- serted in the newspapers, stating that no more could be admitted. Work began in September, 1888, but the Institute was not formally opened until April, 1889. Lord Reay, in his ina- gural speech, defined the scope of the teaching to be given. * What we are doing here,' he said, ' is to supply to the artificer and the artisan of this Presidency that education which he M^ants, that education which will train his hand and eye, and through his hand and eye, also his mind, by the combination of mental and of manual training.' The Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute consists of three separate departments. The main building, formerly the Elphinstone College, contains lecture- rooms, and the drawing-room, in which 120 students can study the drawing of machinery. The Sir Jam- setjee Jejeebhoy Technical Mechanical Engineering School contains the pattern-room, the foundry, the smithy supplied with eight anvils, the lathes, the machine-tool room, and the fitting-room. The Ripon Textile School is fitted up with a complete cotton-mill, containing the latest improvements in machinery, by means of which all the various processes connected with cotton, from the separation of the fibre from the EDUCATION. 173 pods to the weaving of ornamental fabrics of mixed cotton and silk, can be thoroughly learned. These are the two practical schools ; but as the essence of sound technical education is to impart a knowledge of the principles involved in the use of machinery, the student has to spend two hours every day, throughout his three- years' course of the Textile or Engineering Schools, in the Physical Laboratory. The Laboratory is divided into two sections, in one of which the laws of sound, light, and heat are taught ; in the other electricity and magnetism. Students must be over fourteen years old at the date of admission, and must have passed the Fifth Standard. The latter regulation is necessary because the instruction is given in English and not in the Vernacular. As a matter of fact these regulations have caused no incon- venience, for of the 233 students who attended the first year's instruction in the new building, no fewer than 139 had passed the Seventh Standard, while their average age was twenty years. With the name of Lord Reay, in the foundation of this most useful institution, should also be recorded those of Sir Frank Forbes Adam, the Chairman of the first Board of Manage- ment, and of Mr. Nauroji N. Wadia, the first Honorary Secretary. While the establishment of the Victoria Jubilee Institute at Bombay was the most important step taken towards a scheme of thorough technical education, other parts of the Presidency were not neglected. The workshops at the Poona College of Science afforded further scope for the boundless energy 174 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. of Dr. Cooke. These workshops not only serve for the practical training of matriculated students reading for the Bombay University degree of L.C.E., but also as a junior department for technical training. * The school there,' says Mr. Lee- Warner \ ' is on the half-time system, the morning being devoted to mental education, the afternoon to practical training in the workshop, and the course extends from the age of thirteen to sixteen. The pupils learn drawing, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the elements of various trades, the best practical workmen being en- gaged to teach these trades. It appears to me that any enterprising municipality, which is the centre of various trades, would do well to institute a school of this sort in place of the uniform Lower Anglo-Verna- cular School, which is copied everywhere. But, in the first place, teachers are wanted, and I would gladly see the workshops of the Poona College largely increased, and the institution recognised as in part a sort of Technical Training^ Colleg-e for teachers of a new class of Technical Secondary Schools, of which every District should have one.' The people of Poona are quite aware, indeed, of the value of technical training. A large and interesting Industrial Exhibition was held there in 1888, which resulted in the formation of the Reay Industrial Museum. A group of native gentlemen have formed the Industrial Association of Western India to take over the management of the Museum, and generally to forward the cause of technical education. Technical ^ Quoted in the Note ott Technical Education in India, p. 23. EDUCATION. ''IS classes were also established in one of the Poona primary schools. The Industrial School at Ratndgiri, under the man- agement of a Local Committee, works on a smaller scale, as do various lesser industrial schools chiefly belonging to the Missionary Societies. It must, how- ever, suffice to describe the schools founded by Khan Bahddur Kadirddd Khan in the backward province of Sind, in which the Governor took an especial interest. ' Mr. Kddirdad Khan's plan,' says Mr. H. P. Jacob, the Inspector of Schools in Sind \ ' is an eminently sound one. Taking the staple industries of the district, for which there is a constant demand for young apprentices, he provides in each of his schools a thoroughly good training in the practice of these crafts. The workshops proceed on strictly business principles, every boy's work being assessed and paid for, and touch kept with the local market by the sale of the work turned out. At Moro the craft taught is turnery ; at Naushahro the embroidery and needle-work for which Sind is famous ; at Kandiaro, where more elaborate arrano-e- ments have been made, joinery and cabinet-work, smithery in iron, silver-work and electro-plate, pottery, embroidery and needle-work. ' The local Zamindars have everywhere volunteered their support, and have associated themselves with the Deputy-Collector on the committees of these schools ; while the people at large have responded, simply because they have been shrewd enough to see ' Report of the Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency for 1887-88, p. 41. 1 76 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885- 1 890. that it is to the worldly advantage of themselves and their offspring- that their boys should become intelligent and skilful craftsmen, able to earn better washes than the average workman now gets. Every boy spends three hours daily in the workshop, one hour in the drawing class, and three hours in the primary or AnMo-Vernacular school/ As regards the geographical distribution of institu- tions, and putting on one side Bombay town as the capital, Poona is the best-endowed city in the Presi- dency from an educational point of view. It possesses not only the Government Deccan College and the independent Fergusson College, but also the industrial and scientific teaching given in the Poona College of Science. With such educational advantages, it is not to be wondered at that the Maratha Brihmans are the best-educated class in the Presidency, along with the Parsis, and that they fill a large proportion of the government offices. The Gujaratis felt this to be a grievance, and Lord Reay did what he could to remedy the supposed neglect of Gujarat by frequent personal visits, and by appointing a Gujarati member to the Legislative Council of Bombay, The only Govern- ment College in British Gujarat, the Arts College at Ahmadabad, became an aided institution during his administration. It must be remembered, however, that Gujardt has the advantage of the College at Baroda, which is supported by the Gaekwar, and is in a very prosperous condition. An excellent division of labour would be for the Baroda College to take the scientific and the Ahmadabdd College the classical EDUCATION. 177 side, but the difficulty is that science is not yet suffi- ciently recognised in India as a regular academic faculty. Education in Sind made a vast stride forward during the five years. At the commencement of the period Sind had no college for higher education, notwith- standing its distance from Bombay, and both in primary and secondary education it was far behind the rest of the Presidency. Lord Reay endeavoured to remedy this. He gave the largest grants in his power to the Sind Arts College and to the Muham- madan Madrasa at Kardchi, and showed his sympathy towards both institutions by personal visits and words of encouragement. Both of these institutions are in- creasing in usefulness, and will open a new era in the educational history of Sind. Not less noteworthy than the beginning of higher education in Sind, was the rapid development of primary and secondary education in the province. This was largely due to the sympathetic energy of the first English ' full-time ' inspector of schools for Sind, Mr. H. P. Jacob, selected by Lord Reay. This gentleman was a valued member of the Indian Edu- cation Commission of 1882, and drew up the tables attached to its Report. He may be said to have breathed new life into education throughout the pro- vince of Sind. His principal coadjutor in arousing an interest in the cause was the Muhammadan Deputy- Collector, Khan Bahadur Kddirdad Khan, whose technical schools have already been noticed. Closely connected with the state of education in M 1 7 8 B 0MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. Sincl is the more general question of the educational backwardness of the Muhammadans. From the days of Warren Hastings, who founded the Calcutta Madrasa in 1782, it has frequently been placed on record that the Muhammadan population of India do not take that share in the administration of the country, to which they a're entitled by their numbers and previous history. This has been mainly caused by their un- willingness or inability to avail themselves of the advantages of the British-Indian system of education, which has made the Hindus able and useful servants of the Government. Muhammadan boys have to spend so much of their time in learning the Arabic Kuran and the precepts of their religion that they are not able to keep pace with the Hindu youth in the secular schools. The Education Commission of 1882 paid special attention to this problem, and a statement made by the Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency is printed in its Report. ' The Muhammadans,' he says, ' avail themselves of our lower schools, but do not rise to the higher schools and colleges. In the list of University graduates there are one Musalman M.A. and two B.A.'s. I think that the reason is to be found, not in the poverty of the Muhammadan community (for beggar Brdhmans abound in the high schools), but in their poverty and depressed social status combined. In this matter the Brahman and Musalman are at opposite poles. Thus we have in Gujardt ten Brdhmans in the colleges and twenty in the high schools for every Musalman, but only three Brdhmans for every Musal- EDUCATION. 179 man in the middle-class, and not two for every Musalman in the lower-class schools ^' In the Bombay Presidency, Mr., now Sir, J. B. Peile took measures to deal with this state of things. He obtained the appointment of a Professor of Persian and Arabic in the Elphinstone College ; he drew up a course of instruction in Persian for the upper standards in vernacular schools, and for Enolish and hieh schools ; and he appointed Musalman Deputy In- spectors to inspect special Musalman primary schools. Yet the difficulty of getting Muhammadans to continue their education beyond the elementary stage still to some extent continues. That difficulty does not arise from any innate dislike for higher education. As far back as 1809 the Muhammadans of the Borah (merchant) class founded the Arabic College at Surat, which was for some years very successful, but ' secular studies never forming more than a nominal part of the college curriculum, the institution was never considered to be entitled to any aid from Government, and recently, for various reasons, it has fallen into complete decay-.' In 1876, a Society, called the Anjuman-i-Islam, was started in Bombay with the object of developing Musalman education. It has done a good work in calling the attention of the Muhammadan com- munity in the capital to the importance of the question, and has established a successful school. Similar societies are in existence at Poona and Ahmaddbdd, and the Honourable Kazi Shdhbudin, ^ Report of tJic Indian Education Coinviissioft, p. 487. ^ Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 262. M 2 i8o BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. the late Premier of Baroda, has founded scholar- ships for the reward and encouragement of his co- religionists. The question of Muhammadan education in the Bombay Presidency is mainly concerned with Sind, for more than one-half of the believers in Islam throuQ-h- out the Presidency are inhabitants of that province. When, therefore, I said that Mr. H. P. Jacob did a great work in Sind during Lord Reay's administration, it was tantamount to saying that he exercised a power- ful influence on the education of the Muhammadans. This he did by his careful inspection of their primary schools throughout the province, and by the encourage- ment he (jave to the Madrasa or Muhammadan Colleee at Karachi. The Madrasa, which I, had the pleasure of visiting in November, 1885, when I examined the boys and recorded a favourable opinion on the manage- ment, was hampered by the want of a suitable build- ing. Mr. Jacob urged its cause upon the Govern- ment, and he met with cordial support from Lord Reay. A Resolution of ^o September, 1889, sanction- ing the building grant, stated that ' the Director of Public Instruction should be informed that Govern- ment wish to crive to the Sind Arts Colleee and the Sind Madrasa precedence pari passu over grants to other institutions.' The only other religious body which deserve special notice besides the Muhammadans, are the Lingayats, who chiefly dwell in the Kanarese-speaking districts. They, too, have formed a special educational associa- tion at Dharwar, which raises funds to advance the EDUCATION. i8i education of their own sect. The association orives scholarsliips to Lingayat boys to enable them to com- plete their education at the colleges at Poona and Bombay; and in 1888 it collected over Rs. 15,000 for the purpose of sending a Lingayat student to England to compete for the Covenanted Civil Service or to read for the bar. As an instance alike of the loyalty and of the educational zeal of this sect, it may be noted that in 1887 fourteen Lingayat gentlemen of Belgaum raised a sum of money in commemoration of the Queen's Jubilee, which is to be paid to the first Lingayat M.A. and to the two first Lingayat LL.B.'s, who may obtain those degrees from the University of Bombay. The Lingayats, like the Muhammadans, feel aggrieved at the monopoly of administrative posts by the Maratha Brahmans, and presented a petition to the Governor on the subject. Lord Reay, in his reply, denied the existence of any monopoly, and advised the peti- tioners to study self-reliance, and to attain the same high standard of education which the Brahmans had achieved. The question of the education of what are known as the ' depressed castes,' arises from different causes. The unfortunate people belonging to this class in the Bombay Presidency were reckoned at about 1,100,000 in number by the Education Commission. They are probably descendants of aboriginal races, and have for ages been kept in a state of servitude and degradation. The villagers resent the idea of their former serfs receiving any education, and it w^as given in evidence before the Education Commission^ that when some ' Report of ihe Indian Education Connnission, p. 514. i82 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. promising low-caste boys were sent to the Government High School at Dharwar a number of Brahmans at once took their children away. In the face of this deep-rooted popular feeling the time has perhaps not come when it is possible to force the companionship of the despised Mhars and Dhers upon the boys of the higher castes. Accordingly, the Report of the Educa- tion Commission recommended the establishment of special schools for the low-castes. It expressly con- demned, however, the notion that they had no right to go to the public schools, and only made its recom- mendation on the ground of expediency. In 1882, when the Commission commenced its labours, there were but 16 special schools in the Bombay Presidency, attended by 564 low-caste pupils. The annual Reports of the Director of Public Instruction do not contain quite complete information on this subject. In that for 1887-88 it is stated that there were 21 special schools or classes in the Southern Division attended by 554 children ; besides eight special schools in the Northern Division (the number of pupils not being specified) ; and that there were 4,546 low-caste children under instruction in the Central Division ' distributed among the common and special schools.' A favourable dis- tribution of Government scholarships was granted on behalf of these castes during the period under reviev/. The so-called aboriginal tribes are too shy to come to school at all. The two most numerous of these races in the Bombay Presidency are the Kolis and the Bhils. A Resolution of the Bombay Government in November, 1887, directed the establishment of special EDUCATION. 183 schools for them, six being in the Poona District near the Bhimashankar Hills. The Bhils chiefly inhabit the Native States in the Rewa Kantha and Mahi Kantha Agencies, and it is gratifying to observe that something has been done for their education by the State of Rajpipla, where two schools for Bhils have recently been opened. Mr. Thompson of the Khedwara Mission has also opened a school for Bhils at Luseria in the Mahl Kantha Agency, and is trying the experiment of sending two Bhil boys to study at the Vernacular School at Sadra with a view to their becoming school- masters among their own race. The Government takes no fee from any member of an aboriginal race attending a public school. From the education of depressed castes and aboriginal tribes to that of princes and nobles may seem a long step, but the problem with regard to the latter is equally difficult to solve. The well-known Rajkumar College at Rajkot for the education of the native princes of Kathiawar was established to meet this demand. It has been instrumental in training many princes who have done good service to their States, and have been wise and able rulers. But it does not appear to retain its hold on the feudatory chiefs. The number of pupils sank from 44 in 1886-87 to 28 in 1889-90, and Lord Reay found chiefs like Morvi and Gondal, who were themselves ahimni of the Rajkumar College, refusing to send their sons, and preferring England for their place of education. This decline is certainly not the fault of the Principal of the Rdjkumar College, and Lord Reay attributed it to the desire of i84 BOMBA Y ADMINISTRATION, 18S5-1890. the most progressive Native Chiefs to give their sons a thoroughly EngUsh education, with EngHsh boys as their associates, if possible in England. Another difficulty was how to dispose of the younger sons of these princes, when they were educated. As already stated, the Duke of Connaught is said to have been in favour of an Indian Sandhurst, and the admis- sion of its cadets into the commissioned ranks of the native army. Sir Frederick Roberts, the Commander- in-Chief in India, and Sir George Greaves, the Duke of Connauo^ht's successor as Commander-in-Chief in Bombay, were opposed to this idea. They felt the difficulty of having English officers under the orders of natives, however excellent in themselves, and feared the demoralisation which a wealthy prince might pro- duce in a small regimental mess. In the social grade below the Chiefs, Lord Reay encouraged the Girasia School at Wadhwan for the education of the sons of the talukdars of Gujarat, and took special interest in the Mirs' School established for the descendants of the former rulers of Sind. Public opinion in India is not yet unanimously in favour of female education. A eood education is becoming generally recognised as a provision for a boy. But a daughter's education does not present itself to an Indian parent in the same light. Early marriages, moreover, cut short the course of female education, and what school-teaching a Hindu or Muhammadan girl is to obtain in India, she must practically get before she is eleven or twelve years old. Another difficulty is to provide female teachers to give even this amount of EDUCATION. 185 elementary instruction. The prejudice against widows (as persons stricken by the chastisement of the gods) makes them unacceptable. The ordinary Indian wife has no inducement to continue her education ; and the most promising source of female teachers consists of the wives or future wives of schoolmasters. Miss Hurford, the Principal of the Poona High School for Girls and of the Poona Female Training College, and Mrs. McAfee, the Principal of two similar institutions at Ahmadabad, both give their particular attention to this class, and with excellent results. Indian youths who are training themselves as schoolmasters, quite understand the advantages of having an educated wife and a partner in the labours and the emoluments of teaching. These institutions are directed by able ladies, but very great caution is required in ascertaining the characters of the girls who are admitted. Lord Reay met the difficulty at Poona by placing the responsi- bility for admission on a committee of native gentlemen, who would be more likely to know about the personal characters of the girls than any European. Mention should also be made of the Roman Catholic Convent School at Bandra, which Lord Reay visited with Archbishop Porter. His Excellency considered it a model institution. He also held a high opinion of the Alexandra Native Girls English Institution at Bombay, which is mainly under the management of Parsis and used for the education of their daughters. Even more important for the true prosperity of a country than the scholastic results of its system of educa- 1 86 B 0MB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. tion is the tone of morality which it inspires. I f its highly- educated men lead good lives and are actuated by lofty aims, the influence of their careers reflects back on their education. If on the other hand, education is perceived to make men more cunning but not better, an equally evil effect is produced. This was felt to be the touch- stone of the educational system in India, and on 31 December, 1887, the Supreme Government addressed a letter to the Local Governments and Administrations drawino- their attention ' to the orrowth of tendencies unfavourable to discipline, and favourable to irrev- erence, in the rising generation in India,' and for- mulating certain suggestions, including the 'prepara- tion of a moral text-book based on the fundamental principles of natural religion.' On 2 October, 1888, the reply of the Bombay Government to this circular letter, founded on an elaborate minute by Lord Reay, was forwarded to the Supreme Government. It was observed that the problem was more complex and serious than a mere question of school discipline in Indian schools, and involved the influence of Western thought on Ori- ental minds. The moral defects attributed to the Indian schoolboy were not unknown among the rising genera- tion in other countries. Irreverence, superficial scep- ticism and even immorality are not wholly absent from the public schools and Universities of Europe. The Government institutions of Bombay never aimed at more than the production of good conduct and intellec- tual discipline. Never having attempted a moral regeneration they could not be charged with failure EDUCATION. 187 because they had not effected it. Such a regeneration would be of very slow growth, and must lie in the hands of the people of India rather than in the hands of the Government. Internal reforms could alone cure the evil, and the first step was to raise the moral standard of those whom the people regarded as their natural leaders. Nevertheless, what Government could do would be done. The importance of training-schools and colleges in- creased as Government retired from the direct manage- ment of schools, and measures were indicated by which the supply of better qualified teachers, especially in secondary schools, could be assured. It was proposed to introduce practical training-classes into specified high schools for graduates ; to direct teachers to call the attention of their pupils to a consideration of their duties in life by illustrations of a patriotic, moral, and parental character derived from history. The exten- sion of the boarding-house system involved serious financial difficulties, but much might be done by in- creased and more sympathetic intercourse between the professors or masters and their students — such as had been maintained successively by Sir Alexander Grant and Dr. Wordsworth. The monitorial system sug- gested by Mr. Jacob should be extended, increased attention given to the provision of playgrounds and manly games, and the experiment of conduct registers and rewards for good behaviour attempted. I cannot more fitly conclude this chapter than in the words of a gentleman who took an active part 1 88 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. on the Education Commission of 1882, and who has closely watched the efforts to give effect to its recom- mendations throughout the Bombay Presidency. ' The history of education in Bombay since 1885,' writes Mr. Lee- Warner, ' will hereafter be mainly known by the systematic efforts made to encourage private enterprise, and to give education a practical turn. Higher institu- tions of general education have been relieved of an undue strain and enabled to become real institutions for higher education. The University arts-examina- tions are no longer sought as mere passports to the public service, and the idea that education may assist the rising generation to become good mechanics, good agriculturists, and good men of business has been fostered. The establishment of the Victoria Jubilee Institute was regarded as an educational revolution, but its extraordinary initial success has disarmed oppo- sition. The Government standards of education no longer dominate the whole course of aided schools. Variety and freedom have been generally introduced. Self-help has been evoked by the transfer of the management of schools to local bodies, and the Depart- ment has learned to look upon itself as responsible rather for the direction and encouragement of educa- tional activity, than as a State Department for giving education and managing schools.' CHAPTER VII. Forests. ANOTHER branch of the administration which brings the Government to very close quarters with the people is the Forest Department. As edu- cation exhibits the Government chiefly in contact with the progressive and well-to-do classes, so the Forest system discloses its dealings with the poorer culti- vators and the hill and woodland communities. Cir- cumstances gave special prominence to the Forest Department in the Bombay Presidency during the five years under review, and it is convenient that its measures should be explained at an early stage of this volume. India was in ancient days a land of forests. The Mahabharata contains direct and indirect evidence that forests covered the country, including many tracts now bare of woodland, such as the banks of the lower Jumna. The Ramaydna, which treats of a time when an Aryan Empire had been estab- lished in Oudh, speaks of forests dark as a cloud in the wilderness of Taraka. In the north of the Punjab, the Salt Range in the PabiM was clothed with forest sufficiently dense to conceal the movements of 1 90 B 0MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. the army of Alexander the Great. In the forests dwelt wild primitive races, who lived by hunting and on the produce of the woods. The Aryan settlers, as they slowly made their advance and introduced agri- culture and civilisation, destroyed the forests before them ; and the burning of the Khandava forest, pro- bably situated between the Ganges and the Jumna, is a very early example of such a clearing on a great scale. The necessity of the nomadic tribes for wide stretches of grazing ground was perhaps even more destructive than the advance of an agricultural popu- lation, and hills and plains covered wth forest were fired to make new pastures for their flocks and herds. The longr-continued destruction of the forests is believed to have diminished the rainfall, and certainly to have rendered it less effective, in many parts of India. The numerous deserted villages which attest the former existence of a dense population, sites in now barren deserts, are pointed to as evidence of the change — a change also supported by the analogy of other countries, which have been deforested within historical times. The once well-wooded Dalmatia is in modern times a stony desert. Persia, formerly one of the granaries of the East, is barren and desolate over a large extent of the country. North Africa, the richest corn-producing colony of the Roman Empire and the chief granary of ancient Rome, is subject to the severest droughts. Parts of Spain, Italy, Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor are also cited as examples of agricultural deterioration due to the denudation of the forests. FORESTS. 191 It is through their influence in absorbing, storing, and re-evaporating moisture, and so husbanding the rainfall, that forests affect the climate and productive- ness of countries. Where rain falls upon a well-wooded forest area, it percolates slowly into the soil, whence a large quantity is gradually pumped up again through the roots of the trees, exhaled by their leaves, and aofain assists in forminQf rain-clouds. On the other hand, where it falls upon barren hills or open plains, it either rushes away in torrents or sinks into the sand with diminished facilities for re-evaporation. As long as the freshets, the streams, and rivers, carry fertile soil, the plains are benefited by the inundations caused by the rapid rush of water from mountains and high grounds. But when the good surface-soil has been scoured away, the cultivated fields are covered by the floods with unproductive sand and stones, and are ruined instead of benefited. The influence which forests exercise in controlling and regulating the water-supply is, however, now generally recognised. Specialists have analysed the causes of that influence, and have laid the bases for the study and practice of scientific forestry. Scientific forestry is a creation of the present cen- tury, and first developed in France and Germany. Great results were hoped from it ; the waste places of the world were to be made rejoice. Its natural limita- tions were forgotten. The fact that forests would as a rule only grow again where forests once had flourished, was not realised, and attempts were made to plant trees in unsuitable localities ; attempts which, as in 192 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. the case of the steppes of Russia, were foredoomed to failure. India was not behindhand in welcoming the new science. It was known that extensive areas had been denuded of their forests within historical times, and it was expected that careful conservation would do much to insure the country against periodical famines by regulating the rainfall. Efforts were m.ade in dif- ferent provinces, and in 1864 Mr., now Sir Dietrich Brandis, was appointed Inspector-General of Forests to the Government of India, and a Forest Department was regularly organised. In 1865 the first Indian Forest Act was passed, and in 1878 the second. These measures strengthened the idea that it was the duty of Government to preserve forests and to subject them to a separate jurisdiction. The working of a Forest Department demanded a special Forest ser- vice. It was at first recruited from members of the other services, possessing a special aptitude for forest work. But the need of a thorough scientific and professional training soon made itself felt. Young Englishmen educated at the Forest School at Nancy were then sent to India, and in 1884 a regular Forest School was established at Cooper's Hill. In the Bombay Presidency the importance of pre- serving timber-trees had impressed itself on the Government before the idea of systematic and scien- tific forest conservation was introduced into the country. The right of the British Government, as the successor of the Mardthd power, to the possession of teak trees was already recognised in 1839 and acted upon. In 1847 Dr. Gibson was appointed the first Conservator FORESTS. 193 of Forests in Bombay, and the scope of his authority steadily enlarged. The lopping of teak trees was pro- hibited in 1852 ; the prohibition was authoritatively extended to blackwood trees in 1859; and when the first general Forest Act for India was passed in 1865 considerable advance had already been made towards a system of conservation in Bombay. During the period between the two Acts of 1865 and 1878 the Bomibay Forest Department increased in efficiency and energy. Its staff contained many able men full of enthusiasm for their work, convinced of the im- portance of forest conservancy as a factor in the pros- perity of the Presidency, and ardent advocates for the extension of their powers. They were supported in their views by successive Governors, and especially by Sir Richard Temple (1877-80). The Bombay Forest Department is divided into three divisions, the controlling, the executive, and the protective staff. The controlling staff consists of three Conservators of Forests, and of a certain number of Deputy and Assistant Conservators, each entrusted with the superintendence of a division. The executive staff includes Sub -Assistant Conservators, Forest Rangers, and Foresters. The protective staff con- sists of forest guards. The territorial unit of manage- ment is the ' range,' which is sub-divided into beats or protective charges ; while a collection of ranges forms a division, or controlling charge. The upper places in the forest service are reserved for the trained Europeans from Nancy and Cooper's Hill; the ranger- ships and foresterships are destined for natives, spe- N 194 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. cially educated for the service in the Forest Branch of the Poona College of Science. It is hoped that, as time goes on, selected men from among these trained rangers may be fitted by their experience and educa- tion for the superior charges. The most important forests which the Bombay Department has under its charge, are those that clothe the Western Ghats and spread down their slopes into the Konkan, between the mountains and the sea. These forests abound in teak and in all the most valuable timber trees which grow in India. Of only less importance are the forests in the thinly popu- lated parts of the districts of Khandesh and Nasik and the Panch Mahals, and upon the eastern or inland side of the Ghats. In Sind, what forest exists is of a totally different character. The nature of the soil there pre- vents the growth of the fine timber of the Ghats ; but the babul {acacia arabicd) flourishes within the range of the inundation of the Indus, and babul reserves have been formed for the protection of these useful trees. Their extent, however, is comparatively small, and on March 31, 1889, there were only 624,026 acres of reserved or protected forest declared to exist in Sind out of the 9,407,549 acres of forest in the whole Presidency. In speaking of the administration of the forests in Bombay, therefore, it will be understood that Sind is practically excepted, by reason of its limited forest area, and the difference of the local conditions which prevail. The first step towards the introduction of a sound forest administration, which should not only preserve FORESTS. 195 existing forests, but also regulate their growth so as to make them yield the maximum of advantage with the minimum of expense, is to ascertain and record the situation and extent of the existing forests before placing them under special jurisdiction. This work of demarcation was provided for in both the Indian Forest Acts, and was carried out with special vigour in the Bombay Presidency during the government of Sir Richard Temple, when as many as six or seven Civil Servants were employed as special Forest Settle- ment Officers at the same time, besides those engaged in the work in addition to their ordinary duties. During the vigorous period of forest development which followed, it was complained that a tendency appeared to make popular or customary rights subser- vient to the improvement of forest conservancy. The result was ascribed in part to the absence of sufficiently exact rules as to the manner in which the demarcation of forests ought to be carried out. The attention of Lord Reay's Government was drawn to the deficiency, and by a Government Circular dated September 22, 1885, precise instructions were laid down for the guid- ance of officers employed in this important prelim- inary work. Detailed orders were issued as to what facts and proposals each scheme of demarcation should comprise. Directions were given as to what share the Forest Settlement Officer, the Divisional Forest Officer, the Conservator of Forests and the Revenue Officers, should respectively take in furnishing them. Distinct information was to be given under three separate heads: (i) the disposition and (2) the capacity of the proposed N 2 1 96 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. forest area ; with (3) the popular requirements for its use. The principle was at the same time enunciated that the only satisfactory forest settlement scheme is one whicli, after full consideration of all interests concerned, is unanimously recommended by both the Revenue and the Forest Departments with clear evidence that it adequately provides for the wants of atrriculture as well as for beneficial forest con- servancy. Two classes of the population are affected by the demarcation of forests in India, those living in the forests, whose means of subsistence would be taken from them under a strict system of conservancy ; and those who need the products of the woods and have been accustomed to use them, but are not so dependent upon them for existence. Both these classes have to be considered in any scheme for the demarcation of forests, and any forest policy which ignores their cus- tomary usages, even although short of legal rights, runs the risk of strenuous and well-founded opposition. The first class of forest denizens consists of the aboriginal and semi-aboriginal tribes, who have from an almost prehistoric period dwelt in the woods, and who still lead the same life of savage freedom as their fathers before them. The Government of India has always wished to be considerate to these wild children of the forests. While trying to induce them to settle clown and become civilised, it has recognised the im- possibility of making a sudden change in their habits and mode of life. The Forest Department is, therefore, obliged to make allowance for the primitive tribes, and FORESTS. 197 is not allowed to deprive them of their customary means of subsistence. The use which they make of the forests is twofold. They earn what money they need by collecting forest produce, such as the nuts of the hirda-trees, the * myrobalams ' of commerce, gum, honey and beeswax, resins, and firewood. They also grow a small quantity of grain by a peculiarly destructive process of nomadic cultivation, known in different parts of India as dahya or dalhi, jiim, or kumri, and in Burma as taungya. The system consists in setting fire to a tract of forest, and raising a crop from the ground thus cleared, with the ashes as manure. When they have exhausted the clear- ing by a rapid succession of crops, they move on to another tract and renew the wasteful process. Such a system, if unrestricted, is incompatible with any system of conservancy. At the same time the complete and sudden stoppage of all nomadic cultivation would inflict grave hardship on the wild tribes, who live by it ; and it has to be allowed for in any scheme of forest demarca- tion. On the other hand, the collection of forest produce only needs careful regulation. There is no reason why the Bhils and Katkaris, the Thakurs and Kolis, should not continue to collect and sell the articles which they best know how to find ; and the Forest Department may perhaps make use of their knowledge of their native woods by employing them in subordinate positions. The second class which has to be considered in the demarcation of forests consists of the inhabitants of villages in the neighbourhood of forests, who have been accustomed to graze their cattle beneath the trees, to 1 98 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. take the timber they require for house-building or im- plement-making, to gather firewood, and to lop branches for burning into ash-manure. The unrestricted exercise of these customs for generations gives them the effect of popular rights, so that a sudden or total closure of the forest areas must cause great suffering and discon- tent. The Forest department in Bombay Presidency failed, at one period, to adequately realise this. In their zeal for forest conservancy, some of the Forest Settle- ment Officers closed woodland districts to the neigh- bouring hamlets, and curtailed the free use of the materials which the villagers had been accustomed to enjoy. The Revenue Officers urged the consideration of such customary rights, and came to open issue with the Forest Department. Indeed, it was the opinion of some of the most experienced of the District Officers that the continuance of a policy of wholesale demarca- tion of forests without sufficiently providing for existing customs would lead to outbreaks. The grievances of this class of forest borderers in the two districts of the Konkan nearest Bombay, Thana and Kolaba, were brought to Lord Reay's notice immediately after he assumed office, and the measures taken to satisfy them form an important feature of the five years under review. The district of Thana and the northern part of the district of Koldba, comprising the Northern Konkan, is a region particularly well suited to the growth of timber trees. Mountstuart Elphinstone speaks of it as formerly ' a thinly inhabited forest, from which character it has even now but partially emerged The FORESTS. 199 descriptions of Captain Dickenson in his reports on the inland parts of this Collectorate show that at the end of the Peshwa's rule the whole country was lying waste and unpopulated. That up to about 1850 waste land was everywhere so abundant as to create a feeling of despair as to the future of the district ; that the increase of cultivation was so much desired that the poorest people were allowed to cut down as many trees as they liked merely for the purpose of clearing the land, and that wood itself was so abundant that every one cut where and as he liked \' The rapid growth of the city of Bombay made in- roads upon these forests, for firewood and building timber. A lucrative trade sprang up, which absolutely denuded the hills nearest to' the city and threatened to denude the whole district of Thana. The first Conservator of Forests in the Bombay Presidency, Dr. Gibson, confined his measures of conservation to the preservation of teak trees during several years after his appointment. But in 1850 he found it necessary to take further action, and replaced the transit duties on timber which had been abolished in 1836, by a system of fees on all jungle wood. This met with violent opposition, and in view of the agita- tion which Lord Reay found existing in Thana, it is curious to notice the existence of a similar popular ferment more than thirty years before. ' Of such clamour we had an example in 185 1,' writes Dr. Gibson ^, ' when the Gujardt merchants and others in ' Report 0/ the Bombay Forest Commission, vol. i. p. 21. ^ Ibid., p. 26. 200 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. the Sanjdn tdlnkd shipped about 300 of tlieVarh tribe for Bombay, and marshalled them on the steps of the Council-room in order to concuss (coerce ?) the Govern- ment into a repeal of the jungle fee scheme, which had just then come into operation ; and when I proceeded to Sanjan in 1852, in order to make a final settlement, I was surrounded by some thousands of persons, all of them with the same object, and little disposed to stop short even of personal violence.' If this was the attitude of the people of Thana in 1 85 1, on the imposition of a slight restriction on the timber trade, it can be easily imagined that the proce- dure of the Forest Settlement Officers after the passing of the Indian Forest Act of 1878 led to a much more serious agitation. It was no longer a question of merely checking the export of timber to Bombay. Large areas were demarcated into forests, in which the inhabitants of the neiCThbourino- villao^es were prohibited from getting wood for their own use, and were no longer allowed to graze their cattle. The agitation was, however, conducted in a lawful manner. So far as I have discovered, no acts of violence against forest officials were reported. They do not even seem to have been mobbed like their prede- cessor, Dr. Gibson. But a ' Thana Forest and Abkari Association ' was formed ; the native vernacular press was incited to take up the case against the Forest Department ; and the powerful assistance of the Sarva- janik Sabha of Poona was granted to the agitators. Even more vigrorous than the diatribes of the ver- nacular press was the language used in a pamphlet FORESTS. 20 1 entitled ' A Few Words about Forest Conservancy in the Thdna District of the Bombay Presidency,' pub- lished at the beginning of 1885. * The citizens of Bombay, " who sit at home at ease," ' begins this vigorous philippic, ' will possibly be surprised to learn that within from twenty to seventy miles of their palatial residences lies a vast tract of country, in which nearly a million of inhabitants have been goaded, by the best-intentioned mismanage- ment, into a state of aggravation which might, at any time, culminate in a serious outbreak. It is fortunate for us, here, that the natives are, as a rule, patient and law-abiding ; had any European population been sub- jected to the treatment that has fallen to the lot of the people of Thana, they would, despite the purely philan- thropic motives of their rulers, have long since broken out into open rebellion, and, as it is, the local civil officers have more than once expressed the apprehen- sion that the restrictions imposed upon the people would lead to " scenes of violence and possibly wide- spread disturbance." ' The gist of the writer's argument is contained in the following paragraph. ' Far worse than such illegalities,' he says (p. 10), 'to me is the crying injustice on which the entire scheme of forestry in this unhappy district appears to have been based, rendering it to my view indefensible from first to last, and thoroughly rotten to the core. It is one thing for Government to appro- priate almost virgin forests, in which at most a few hundreds of people, often mere savages, have enjoyed the privilege of taking such produce as they needed. 202 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. and enclose these, leaving still to the excluded persons an ample open area, from which to supply unquestioned all their possible wants. Another for them to appro- priate a vast wood-bearing area, over which the entire population of a densely populated district has from time immemorial exercised unchallenged all forest rights; to close this arbitrarily without any pretence of compensating any one for the losses thus entailed, and to commence charging a price for all those articles that the people have hitherto supplied themselves with without any payment to any one.' The publication of this pamphlet, which attracted great attention in India and some in England, co- operated wath other considerations to render it ex- pedient for the Government of Bombay to vindicate, or to amend, its forest policy. Lord Reay had not been many days in office, before — on April 9, 1885 — • an influential deputation of native gentlemen from the disturbed districts waited upon him. They laid their views before the Governor in a somewhat lengthy, but on the whole temperately worded memorial, and con- cluded their petition by saying : ' Our prayer is that, being satisfied of the substantial accuracy of our state- ments, your Excellency will (i) direct a temporary suspension of the present Forest Rules, which are harsh and illegal, and (2) appoint a Commission of Enquiry, composed partly of experienced European officials and partly of independent Native gentlemen.' Lord Reay decided to accede to the second request of the petitioners, and on July 24, 1885, a strong Com- mission was appointed, whose Report is of the utmost FORESTS. 203 value and marks an epoch in the history of Forest Conservation in Bombay. The words of the Govern- ment Resolution appointing the Commission defined its aim with brevity and precision. ' The Governor in Council — wishing to secure an efficient management of forests, and believing that the conservancy of forests and the maintenance of the rights of the Crown is beneficial to the interests of the people in providing for a continuous supply of timber ; wishing to secure the agricultural wants of the people and the privileges they have hitherto enjoyed for the legitimate fulfilment of these wants ; convinced that where friction has arisen in the management of forests, especially in Thana, such friction is due to a misunderstanding which can be re- moved ; desirous to give to all parties concerned the means of bringing their views before Government — • institutes a Commission, &c.' The Commission consisted of four English and three Native members, and represented every type of opinion. The English members were Mr. G. W. Vidal, the Chairman, Acting Collector of the District of Thdna, and one of the ablest members of the Bombay Civil Service ; Lieutenant-Colonel Peyton, Conservator of Forests, Southern Circle, a forest officer of the old school, famous as a sportsman, who had killed more tigers than almost any other man in the Presidency ; Mr. R. C. Wroughton, Deputy-Conservator of Forests, a representative of the scientific school of forest officers ; and Mr. E. C. Ozanne, C. S., Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Bombay. The native members were Rdo Saheb Ramchandra Trimbak /Vcharya, District 204 BO MB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890 Government Pleader, T liana, and member of the Thana Local Board and Municipality, representing local discontent, who succeeded Rao Bahddur Daji Govind Gupte (originally nominated) before any evi- dence was taken ; Rao Bahadur Krishnaji Lakshman Nulkar, formerly president of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, and now a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council ; and Rdo Bahadur Yeshvant Moreshvar Kelkar, Assistant to the Commissioner S.D, who acted as Secretary to the Commission, now Oriental Trans- lator to the Government of Bombay. The Bombay Forest Commission was formally opened in the Council Hall at Poona on August 27, 1885, on which occasion Lord Reay delivered a speech, which attracted great attention at the time, and which it is necessary, for the proper appreciation of the subse- quent measures, to quote at some length. ' Mr. Chair- man and gentlemen,' said the Governor, ' I have asked permission to attend here to-day to thank you in the first place for the way in which you have placed your services at the disposal of the Government. You have a very delicate and difficult task to perform. You will, I am sure, acquit yourselves of the trust reposed in you with complete independence. The value of your labours will be enhanced, if you lay down in your report the conclusions to which you may have been led by the inquiry, however varied they may be. It is perhaps not superfluous for me to add that the mem- bers of the Commission who represent the Civil Service, are not acting in any way on the Commission as delegates or representatives of Government, but FORESTS. 205 have been appointed to give their own views, the resuhs of their own experience. You will, on the other hand, have to deal not with individual actions or tlie opinions of individual Government officers, but with the effect of Resolutions for which Government is alone responsible. As long as the actions of a Government officer are sanctioned by the open or tacit approval of Government, Government is responsible. ' I need not here enter elaborately on the various causes which have led to the appointment of this Com- mission, but it is a remarkable fact that both the late and present Secretary of State have approved of the institution of this inquiry, and the sanction of His Excel- lency the Viceroy has also been obtained. The importance of the subject has been recognised, there- fore, on all sides. Since I have had the honour of being charged with my present duties, the matter has been a constant source of anxiety to me. Agricultural problems have always struck me as peculiarly interest- ing, and the more one looks into the various agricul- tural systems of various countries, the more one becomes convinced that over-lesfislation in aoricultural matters is a mistake, and that in the present condition of agricultural science, which is not by any means as far advanced as it ought to be, we must be careful to interfere as little as possible. Agricultural centralisa- tion would certainly lead to disastrous consequences. ' In his speech on the Indian Budget, the Secretary of State asked the question, how are you on the one hand to obtain the most desirable objects of preserving and renewing the forests, without on the other hand 2o6 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. entailing hardships on the people by depriving them of valuable and long-established rights ? That is the question which has constantly presented itself to me. I believe, however, that if Forest Conservancy tends to increase the supply of fodder and fuel for the people of this country, the enterprise will meet with their sup- port, and has a right to their sympathy. I also believe that the hardships can be mitigated, and that we have recently done a great deal to reduce them to a minimum. My chief object is to substitute co-operation for antago- nism, confidence for mistrust, contentment for disturb- ance. The worst result of centralisation is that measures, which must inevitably benefit the people ultimately, take a longer time for their acceptance than if they had been settled locally. ' In every forest settlement which I have dealt with, I have always carefully considered the peculiar circum- stances of the locality, the existing resources for the feed- ing of cattle and for the extension of cultivation, and the advantages which would accrue to the inhabitants from Forest Conservancy. And here, gentlemen, let me say that I believe that if your district boards had to deal with these questions, they would not in their deci- sions come to conclusions differing very materially from those to which we have come. We are at great disad- vantage, because we have very often to decide at a distance intricate questions, and I for one have very keenly felt the responsibility of deciding between the conflicting opinions of local officers, who perform their difficult duties with great care. ' One thing, however, is quite clear. If you wish to FORESTS. 207 have improved fodder and more fuel, you must allow your plantations to grow ; you must protect the young growth by closing such areas ; you must close those areas in such a way that you cause a minimum of incon- venience to those who used to find on such areas pasture for their cattle. On the grazing question your report will no doubt throw light, but* meanwhile you may take for granted that it is the determination of Government that, wherever free grazing has been law- fully enjoyed, it will be continued by giving a full equivalent in all those cases where the area hitherto used has been absorbed. I do not think that the people will have anything to complain of, as the equiva- lent will be an improvement on what formerly provided them with an insufficient supply. How, when, and where areas are to be closed ; how, when, and in what numbers cattle are to be admitted to open areas, and on what conditions, seem to me to be essentially ques- tions which must be settled on the spot by the com- bined action of the revenue officers and the forest officers, and on which Government can only lay down general principles. ' Your Commission will fulfil the mandate contained in the Government Resolution of July 24, unhampered by any extraneous influence. A speedy, full, and local investigation of the Forest Conservancy of the district of Thana will, however, be most welcome to the Government, as it wishes to obtain your advice in detail on the situation of that district, which affords scope for the examination of nearly all the questions with which Government have to deal. You will, I 2o8 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. doubt not, assist the Government in its endeavours to remove legitimate grievances. You will also assist Government in preventing wanton destruction of timber — a proceeding utterly unwarrantable, and most demoralizing and injurious to the local and national interests. ' A strong Government does not stand in need of exceptional measures to put a stop to such vandalism. This Commission will strengthen, not weaken, the ultimate action of Government. It will uphold law and order ; promote one of the chief elements of agri- culture, namely, good pasture ; promote harmony between the administration on the one side and the people on the other, whose interests will be ably repre- sented on this Commission, not only by those whom they will perhaps more especially consider as their representatives, but also by officials, whose desire I know, from personal experience, it is to preserve to the people privileges, to which naturally they attach great value.' The Bombay Forest Commission held 123 meetings for the examination of witnesses and the preparation of its Report between August 27, 1885, and Decem- ber 18, 1886. The completed Report was submitted to Government in April, 1887. The printed record of the labours of the Commission fills four volumes, and it is not too much to say that a careful study of these volumes is indispensable for every one who wishes to form a correct estimate of the difficulties which beset the demarcation of forest areas in the Bombay Presi- dency. Fortunately for the members of the Commis- FORESTS. 209 sion, they were saved the waste of time and trouble that would have ensued if they had had to deal with the complaints against the Forest Department indi- vidually. The local population entrusted its case in Thana District to the Thana Forest Association, which had by its vigorous agitation secured the appointment of the Commission ; and in Kolaba District to the Kolaba Forest Sabha, a similar body. This procedure simplified matters. An experienced pleader, Mr. S. H. Chiplonkar, arranged the grievances complained of in an intelligible order, and brought the evidence to bear with some regularity upon each point. From the Report issued by the Forest Commission it appears that the customs or rights of the inhabitants of villaofes borderinof on forests or included in demar- cated forest areas, which must be recognised and either allowed or compensated in future forest settlements, may be divided into two general heads, namely, grazing and wood-cutting. These are common to the whole Presidency of Bombay, but special consideration must be eiven in the Thana and Kolaba Districts to their peculiar system of cultivation. The question of grazing is almost certain to arise wherever a line of forest demarcation runs near a village boundary. The inhabitants of such villages generally pasture their cattle in the nearest suitable locality, whether it is covered with trees or not. The gdiran or communal grazing ground, in the case of a village on the plains usually a plot of waste of uncul- tivable land, might in a wooded district form portion of a valuable forest. But the grazing of cattle, and o 2 1 o BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. still more of sheep and goats, does incalculable damage to the growth of young trees. There is therefore a natural inclination on the part of energetic forest officers to wish to exclude cattle from the forests under their charge ; it is equally natural for the villagers to re- sent being deprived of a valuable prescriptive privilege ; and the land-revenue officers, whose interest it is to promote cultivation, are the natural allies of the villagers against encroachments by the Forest Department. The Government of Lord Reay had therefore to mediate between the Forest Department and the vil- lagers. In this matter it did not wait for the Report of the Commission, but on September 15, 1885, issued a code of rules for the regulation of grrazino^ rio;hts in forest areas. It directed that, wherever gairan or vil- lage pasture-lands had been taken into forest, free grazing must be granted, either in those parts of the forest lands not actually occupied by the forest officers for the purpose of forest conservancy, or in those parts which had been closed for the preservation of young trees, as soon as they can safely be opened. This privilege is reserved for cattle kept for agricultural pur- poses, and is not permitted for cattle kept for profit or trade. The code was followed by a Resolution, on October 9, 1885, which, in passing orders for the Forest Settlement of Sholapur taluka, instructed the land- revenue, not the forest, officers to prepare an esti- mate of the amount of grazing available outside the forest area, especially in waste lands ; and of the legiti- mate grazing requirements of each village. It pro- vided that where the outside grazing was insufficient, FORESTS. 211 the deficiency must be supplied* by permitting grazing over part of the forest land. On February 25, 1886, the term ' cattle kept for agricultural purposes ' was ruled to mean the cattle required for the proper culti- vation of the afjriculturist's holdinsf, and a cow or she- buffalo kept to supply the agriculturist's family with milk for their home consumption. While discouraging professional graziers in the border forest villages by the imposition of grazing fees, the Government was not unmindful of the necessity of encouraoring- cattle-breedino- where the local conditions were more favourable for that industry than for agri- culture. The Panch Mahals District, for instance, is specially adapted for the rearing of cattle, and by a Resolution dated April 29, 1887, the Governor in Council directed that this natural advantage should be carefully fostered, and every reasonable encourage- ment given to the industry in that particular locahty. On August 27, 1889, the Bombay Government re- viewed the recommendations of the Forest Commis- sion with regard to grazing in the Thana and Kolaba Districts. These recommendations, arranged in thir- teen articles, had laid down elaborate rules and pre- cautions on the subject. They were approved and sanctioned by the Government for the two districts, but the approval was accompanied by various observa- tions and modifications, of which the most important concerned free grazing. Thus, that the exercise of this privilege be limited by the closure which the Forest Department, after approval by the land- revenue officers, might impose in areas for necessary purposes o 2 2 1 2 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of forestry ; and that the number of cattle admitted to graze free of charge sliould not be in excess of the number for which the area open could be expected to furnish a sufficient supply of grazing. Further, that the cattle should not be allowed access at the season when it is deemed requisite to close the forest to per- mit the growth of the young grass. The Government issued definite orders on Sep- tember 14, 1889, that where land originally gairan had been included in forest, free crrazino- must either be allowed over it, or, if its closure for afforestment is deemed absolutely necessary, over an equivalent area of other forest or waste land, possessing equal grazing capabilities. It is important to clearly apprehend the scope of these provisions with regard to grazing. They illustrate the even balance maintained by Lord Reay's Government between justice to the villagers and the needs of forest conservancy. They also explain the standpoint from which that Government dealt with the pre-existing forest agitation, and quieted it. The other general question which almost neces- sarily arises during the demarcation of forests bordered by or including villages, has reference to the right of wood-cutting or timber-felling. If forest officers dislike cattle-grazing on their domains, they more strenuously oppose unlicensed cutting and felling. There are two distinct sides to this latter question. Just as villagers in forest villages had been always accustomed to pasture their cattle in the wooded dis- tricts, so they had been wont to fetch what wood they wanted, whether for fuel, or for making implements or FOJ^ESTS. 213 mending their ploughs, &c. This unhmited Hberty had to be checked. For the first requisite of forest conservancy is the power to preserve the trees. But the Forest Commission, and in accordance with its recommendations the Government, resolved to deal liberally with fair prescriptive rights. The people were, indeed, forbidden to cut at their pleasure, but the wild tribes and the poor were permitted to pick up dead wood for fuel, and to take away, free of charge, the small branches and twigs lopped off at the periodical Government fellings. Free grants of timber for build- ing purposes and for agricultural implements were also allowed as some compensation for former privileges. The trade in timber or firewood, a brisk one in the neighbourhood of a capital, further complicates matters in the Thdna District, which is the nearest timber-pro- ducing region to the city of Bombay. It was the Gujarati timber merchants who fomented the agitation against Dr. Gibson's jungle-fee in 1851 — the agitation which led to the first Conservator of Forests in Bom- bay being mobbed at Sanjan in the following year. Ever since the Department was established, the diffi- culties caused by the extensive timber trade from Thana, and by the temptation given by its large profits to evade the regulations issued for its control, had been the source of numerous schemes and expedients. The Bombay Forest Commission made a bold effort to grapple with the situation. The difficulty of identify- ing timber had always afforded the chief opening for fraud. It was quite impossible to assert that any par- ticular log of wood came from a Government Forest 214 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. when once it was on the road. The invariable allega- tion was that it came from a private owner. Govern- ment trees were therefore frequently felled and passed off as the products of occupied holdings. The practical method of dealing with this difficulty seemed to the Forest Commission to obtain legislation for the control in transit of all tree produce, whether obtained from forests or private holdings. In return for this interference with a private owner's rights in the timber growing on his own soil, it was proposed that all Government trees, such as teak and blackwood, in occupied lands, should be guaranteed to the occupants for domestic and agricultural purposes : subject to the restrictions that (i) the tree produce of occupied lands should be utilised exclusively to meet local as distin- guished from trade demands, and that (2) if the land on which the trees grew had been uncultivated for ten years or more, it should not be cleared for cultivation. The Bombay Government laid the request for special leQ^islation before the Government of India. The Supreme Government complied, and on February 28, 1890, the Forest Act Amendment Bill became law. The legislation required by the Forest Commission for the success of the experiment being thus fulfilled, the Bombay Government issued a Resolution, dated April 8, 1890, dealing with the scheme proposed by the Commission on somewhat modified lines. The right of grazing and the right of cutting wood have to be reckoned with in every scheme of forest demarcation, where the boundary approaches or encloses parts of inhabited villages. But in Thana and Kolaba FORESTS. 215 Districts there was another prescriptive right pecuHar to the local method of rice cultivation, which also brought the inhabitants into collision with the Forest Officers. According to this method, known as rdb cultivation, the beds for the rice seed are prepared by burning layers of cow-dung, tree-lopplngs, leaves and grass. The Forest Conservators naturally object to the collection of the tree-loppings, which form an important part of the rab or ash manure. It was argued that this system was wasteful and barbarous, and little, if any, superior to the nomadic cultivation by burning down temporary clearings and then deserting them for new ones. Rice was grown in other parts of India without destroying the branches of the trees, and it was asserted that the innate obstinacy and backwardness of the local cultivators alone maintained the rab system. Whether this system was to be permitted or prohibited was one of the points to be investigated by the Forest Commission ; and Mr. E. C. Ozanne, the Director of Agriculture in the Bombay Presi- dency, and a member of the Commission, made a series of experiments with regard to It. They proved that at least twice as good a harvest of rice could be raised from seedlings transplanted from a nursery or seed bed prepared with rdd, as from one treated with ordinary manure \ The words in the opening address of the Governor to the Commission thus received an unexpected confirmation. * In many instances,' he had said, ' a scientific justification for local agricultural ^ Mr. Ozannc's experiments are detailed in an Appendix to vol. i. of iYiQ Report of the Boiiibay Forest Comniissio7i, pp. 221-241. 2 1 6 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. practices unconsciously observed by the population will be forthcoming.' In consequence of these experiments, the Forest Commission recommended that the cultivators in villaees of the Thana and Kolaba Districts which had contributed lands to the Forest Department, might, as a temporary privilege and until further orders, make up the deficiency of their rab supply by taking loppings from certain specified kinds of trees from the unclosed portions of forests, in addition to removing grass, leaves, reeds, and brushwood from these areas, and that they might also remove grass from the closed portions of the forests. In reviewing this recommenda- tion the Bombay Government observed on August 27, 1889, that to prohibit absolutely the lopping of all trees and the cutting of all shrubs and brushwood in the State forests would doubtless facilitate Forest Conservancy, and increase the timber-producing capacity of the forests. But the prohibition would, in some tracts, be disastrous to agriculture, and check superior cultivation. The Forest Department would have to superintend, not to check, the rab supply in order to avoid waste, as it was undesirable and impossible to withdraw all the privileges in respect of rab supply hitherto enjoyed. At the same time it was to be remembered that the available supply, whether from the forests or from trees in occupied lands, is limited, and it is necessary in the interests not only of the present but also of future generations, that the cultivators should practise economy in the consumption of their own rdb resources, as well as of those of the State. FORESTS. 217 The chief points to be considered in the demarcation of forests from cuhivated land in the Bombay Presi- dency have now been noticed, together with the principles laid down by Lord Reay's Government for the ofuidance of forest settlement officers. It remains to examine the treatment of the wild aboriginal tribes, who are absolutely dependent on the woods for their living. Their nomadic system of dalhi or kumri culti- vation, which is much more primitive and wasteful than rdb cultivation, notwithstanding the analogy drawn between the two by enthusiastic forest officers, has been over and over again condemned by the Bombay Government, as it has been by the other Provincial Governments in India. The ordinary custom of these tribes to wander from place to place in the forest tracts, and to burn down patches for temporary clearings, has done more to check the progress of Forest Conserva- tion than rab cutting in its extreme and most abused forms. Lord Reay's Government recognised the evil, and made several attempts to check it. A Govern- ment Resolution, dated August 3, 1885, ordered that all possible inducements should be offered to the dalhi cultivators in the Peint Taluka of the Ndsik District to abandon the practice and to resort to less destructive methods of agriculture, and it was distinctly laid down that no expansion of the custom would be permitted in the future. A more stringent Resolution was published on April 13, 1888, with regard to the same District, declaring that the custom must be extinct after the next generation. But it is one thing to proscribe their wasteful method 2i8 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. of cultivation, another to deprive the wild tribes of the means of earning their livelihood in the woods. In this regard the Bombay Government cordially endorsed the views of the Bombay Forest Commission. ' There is every reason to hope,' say the Commissioners in the Report \ 'that much additional work will be found for the wild tribes, when the completion of working plans will enable the Forest Department to carry out felling operations up to the maximum legitimate yield of the forests. All the labour in connection with the annual fellings should, in future, be entrusted to the wild tribes as far as possible.' With reference to the subsistence to be derived from the collection of forest produce, such as gums and resins, myrobalams, and the flowers of the mahua tree, the Commissioners also speak hope- fully. ' The wild tribes,' they say ", ' owing to their local knowledge of the jungles and the localities where the different products are to be obtained, now have, and probably always will have, a practical monopoly of the right of collection. Without their co-operation, collection of forest produce on a large scale would be difficult, if not impossible. This fact will, we believe, always ensure fair rates being paid to them, whether they sell to private customers or to the Forest Department.' In spite of the favour shown to the wild tribes, it was believed that certain criminal proceedings on the part of the Kolis, an aboriginal tribe, in the Junnar Taluka of the Poona District, which were brought to ' Report of the Bo7nbay Forest Commission., vol. i. p. 122. ^ Ibid., vol. i. p. 106. FORESTS. 219 the attention of the Bombay Government in 1887, were caused by the strictness of Forest Conservancy. A sjDecial inquiry was ordered into the condition of the Koh's, not only in the Junnar Tdluka, but also in the Khed and Mawal Talukas of the Poona District and in the Akola Taluka of the Ahmadnagfar District. The officer who conducted the inquiry reported that the Kolis were moderately well off, deriving a con- siderable income from the sale of myrobalams, and that they were in no way hampered or aggrieved by Forest Conservancy. He attributed their tendency to form dacoit bands to their hereditary customs and instincts. Among the remedies he suggested was the provision of more land for the extension of cultivation ; and accordingly in July, 1888, one hundred and thirty- three acres of reserved forest were disforested, and nearly twenty thousand acres, which had been included in the demarcation scheme for the Junnar Taluka, were abandoned. The difficulties and popular agitation which Lord Reay found on his arrival in Bombay were largely due to the circumstance that the forests were not properly defined and demarcated. It took some further time for the rural population to become generally acquainted with the privileges which were restored to them. Before Lord Reay left India the important work of settlement had greatly advanced. It is work which can be done once for all, and the real aims of Forest Conservancy cannot be pursued until it is done. When the Forest Department knows the exact limits of the forests under its charge. 220 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. and what local or tribal rights exist over them, it can turn undisturbed to its proper functions, the preparation and carrying out of regular working plans. Lord Reay's activity was mainly concerned with the principles of demarcation, but he also took a keen interest in the development of the working plans. The object of these plans is to ensure the w^orking of the forests in such a way as to carefully husband their resources. They take account of the forest capital and growing stock ; they arrange for regular fellings at periodical dates ; they re-stock the cleared areas and preserve the young trees until they are strong enough to be left to themselves. As the work of forest settle- ment approaches completion this becomes the essential duty of the Department. Another measure undertaken by Lord Reay's Go- vernment was the reorganisation of the subordinate Forest Establishment. For this purpose the Bombay Government appointed a Special Committee in July, 1889, to settle the details of reforms. It consisted of the chief officers of the Forest Department, the Com- missioners of Divisions, Dr. Cooke (Principal of the Poona College of Science), and Mr. G. W. Vidal, who had been the Chairman of the Forest Commission. The Committee presented its report on February 14, 1890. It deals chiefly wath the reorganisation of the executive and protective staffs, and proposes that the number of Sub- Assistant Conservators of Forests and Rangers, who form the executive staff, should be increased from thirteen and forty respectively to twenty- four and one hundred and sixty-three, and that the FORESTS. 221 protective staff and the office establishments shall also be strengthened. It recognises the importance of employing trained natives, who have passed through the course of instruction in the Forest Branch of the Poona College of Science, and proposes a liberal scale of pay and travelling allowances for them. The requi- site additional expenditure to carry out this scheme of reorganisation is estimated at slightly over two lakhs of rupees. The necessity for defining the relative position of the forest officers to the general administration of the Presidency was not less needful than the reorganisation of the Forest Establishment. A Bombay Govern- ment Resolution, dated April 8, 1890, on the eve of Lord Reay's departure from India, pointed out that responsibility for a wise and efficient management of forest matters rests upon Collectors and their assistants as well as on officers of the Forest Department. Forest administration was stated to be as much a branch of the general administration requiring the direct supervision of the Collector and Magistrate as any other branch of Revenue or Police Adminis- tration. It was clearly inexpedient that the forest officers should exercise independent authority when the Col- lector is made responsible for the welfare of the people of the district. The Forest Department, like all other special departments, supplies the general administra- tion with technical knowledge. But In providing a special establishment for forest purposes, Government did not Intend, and it could not allow, the ordlnar)- 222 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. executive to be relieved of any responsibility which before attached to it. It remained a part of the duty of village and revenue and police officers to protect Government property in trees, as it was a part of their duty before trees were transferred to the Forest De- partment. This being the case, it is obvious that the members of the lower grades of the Forest Service, such as the forest guards, who form the protective staff, and must depend largely for the efficient dis- charge of their duties on the co-operation of the village officers and the police, ought to be placed to some extent under the supervision of the Revenue and Police officers. This question was referred to the Forest Establish- ment Reorganisation Committee, who in an Appendix to their Report have drawn up seven simple rules on the subject. The most important of them provide that, ' when a Mahalkari or Chief Constable, or any ■ Revenue or Police Officer of higher rank, camps in the limits of a forest village, or in the limits of a beat or round, the forest guard shall report himself to such officer, and bring his diary with him for inspection'; yet that ' No Revenue or Police Officer shall punish or censure a forest guard, but, if he deems it necessary, shall report the result of his enquiries and observations to the Divisional Forest Officer.' P^rom one point of view, the forest administration of the Bombay Presidency may be dealt with as a system instituted for the good of the country, for the pre- servation of an important source of its natural wealth, and for the advantages believed to be obtained from it FORESTS. 223 in regulating the rainfall and preventing erosion. This was the point of view from which Lord Reay himself mainly regarded it. But it has another side, as a source of revenue, and this -was not neglected during the period under review. The result of the vigorous forest policy inaugurated in 1879, after the passing of the Indian Forest Act of 1878, and consistently carried out under successive Governors of Bombay, may thus be briefly stated. Excluding Sind, where forest revenue and expendi- ture have hardly altered, the gross revenue from forests in the Bombay Presidency proper has risen from Rs. 11,14,254 in 1879-80 to Rs. 24,34,322 in 1888-89, or rather more than doubled. The nett revenue has grown from Rs. 3,40,888 in 1878-79 to Rs. 10,31,309 in 1888-89, or more than trebled during the ten years. The totals for the whole Presidency, including Sind, were in 1878-79, gross forest revenue Rs. 15,24,712, nett forest revenue Rs. 4,64,095; and in 1888-89, gross forest revenue Rs. 28,50,189, nett revenue Rs. 1 1,61,065. The forest administration of Lord Reay will re- pay careful study. He found the Forest Depart- ment at issue with the Revenue officials and disliked by the people, and he set himself to remove the causes of the official dissension and of the popular dislike. He found discontent and agitation in Thdna and Kolaba Districts ; he put an end to the disturbances by the issue of special orders, by the appointment of an impartial Commission, and by promptly giving effect to the equitable changes which it proposed. He 224 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. found that the vigorous impulse given to forest pohcy in previous years had gone so far as to exceed the Hmits of justice to the people ; he gently but firmly restrained the ardour of the Forest Department with- out diminishing its efficiency. In his speech at the opening of the Forest Commission, during the first year of his government, Lord Reay used these words : ' My chief object is to substitute co-operation for antagonism, confidence for distrust, contentment for disturbance.' He succeeded in attaining his object. CHAPTER VIII. Land Administration. ONE distinction between the administration of India and the administration of a modern European State is, that in India the British Power not only governs the country but owns the land. It is, theoretically, the universal landlord as well as the administrative autho- rity, and its servants in the executive department are not only rulers but estate agents. This conception, that the dominium of the soil vests in the ruling power, formed the basis of the mediaeval theory of sovereignty in the West, but has now little more than an historical interest in Europe. It is still, as it has always been, practically recognised in the East. As the East India Company conquered and annexed province after province in India, it placed itself in the position of the former rulers, and assumed their rights and duties. It also continued their administrative and financial policy, modified by the introduction of modern ideas. This was a main cause of its success. It attempted no violent revolution or subversive change, but was content to adopt the attitude of its predeces- sors to the people and to the land. The East India Company found that all former p 2 26 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. governments, whether of Hindu rajas, or Muhammadan kings and emperors, or Maratha conquerors, had derived nearly the whole of their revenue from their position as the supreme landlords. Their subjects paid them a large aggregate rental, besides less pro- ductive although sometimes vexatious and numerous taxes. This rental was collected by different methods and under various s}'stems, but it formed and still forms the most important portion of the revenue of India. Sometimes the sovereign took one-half, some- times two-thirds of the produce of the soil. Sometimes an estimated money equivalent was received in place of a share of the produce ; sometimes the rent was remitted as an allowance for certain services. Some- times it was exacted by officers of the government, sometimes let out to farmers, who paid a lump sum for the privilege and made what profits they could. Local circumstances had much to do with these differences. It might be more convenient to take the State rental in money, where there was a recog- nised revenue unit, such as an organised village system ; but in backward districts and among primi- tive communities, it was only possible to take it in kind. It might be more economical to collect the State rental directly from the cultivator ; but in distant provinces with imperfect means of communication, or in times when the government was weak and unable to enforce its demands, it was necessary to have recourse to revenue farmers, with all their attendant evils. When the government was at once strong and en- lightened, as under the Emperor Akbar, it recognised LAND ADMINISTRATION. 227 its duties as chief landlord. It understood that if the cultivators were to pay a high rent, and the State to collect a large land-revenue, something must be done to encourage agriculture, by irrigation and other public works. The British Government, on becoming the supreme landlord, acknowledged these obligations to the land, and has spent large sums on irrigation, on means of communication, and on measures to improve the knowledge of agriculture among the people. The wide differences in the systems of collecting the land-revenue adopted by the East India Company for its various territories were mainly due to historical reasons and local conditions. The point common to them all was the recognition of the Company as the supreme landlord. In Bengal the employment of farmers of the revenues was found at work. The first English administrators, therefore, adopted this agency; and eventually in 1 793 the amount of rent was fixed in perpetuity. This converted the mixed body of Bengal Zamindars and revenue-farmers into proprietors, subject to their regular payment of the stipulated rent. The Company believed that it thus secured the advantages of a body of responsible landlords, of rendering the revenue- collection more secure, and of encouraging agriculture by granting fixity of tenure. In the North-Western Provinces it found, inter aim, a system of co-parcenary village communities, and arranged to levy the rent from them as units, but on a settlement for a term of years, and not fixed for ever as in Bengal. In Madras an attempt to create a homogeneous body of proprietory r 2 228 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 18S5-1890. Zamlndars failed ; the village communities were also found to have there lost much of their cohesion (if they had ever possessed it in a high degree), and it was arranged to collect the rent directly from the cultiva- tors or rayats. There Is no need to censure any of these systems. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. The Bombay system, which I am about to describe, differs from all three, and if its advocates claim for it the maximum of the advantages of the other methods with the minimum of their disadvantages, it must be remem- bered that it was initiated at a later date and after much experience gained in older Provinces. There were, moreover, historical causes which led the Bomba)^ land-settlement to assume its present form, and it is by an examination of these causes that it can best be explained and understood. It may be premised that the same ideas lay at the root of the Bombay, as of the Bengal, North-Western Provinces and Madras systems. The importance of fixity of tenure- for a long term of years, in order that the cultivator might not be disheartened by fears of '&. sudden and arbitrary re-assessment of his rent ; the duty of equitably demanding only such a share of the produce in the shape of rent, as would allow the tenant a fair margin of profit ; and the necessity for providing a machinery which could collect the revenue economically and without its being fraudulently di- verted ; all these points were in the minds of the Bombay administrators, as well as In those of their colleagues in Bengal and Madras. The large propor- LAND ADMINISTRATION. 229 tion which the revenue derived from the land bore to the total revenue made its fair incidence and collec- tion a task of vital importance. More than one-third of the gross revenue of the Bombay Presidency is still derived from the land-revenue or rent, and the propor- tion was much greater in the early days of the British power in India. For practical purposes the land-settlements of the Bombay Presidency proper (for in the following sketch I omit at present the consideration of Sind) start from that of Malik Ambar, the Abyssinian finance minister of the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar, at the end of the sixteenth century. This great administra- tor, who resembles in his bold policy Raja Todar Mall and Abul Fazl, the famous ministers of Akbar in the north, took the villages as his revenue units, and ex- acted from each of them a lump sum or quit-rent. His assessment, known as the ' Tankha ' land-settlement, was not very heavy, and the inefficient administration of the Muhammadan kings of Ahmadnagar, and after- wards of their distant Mughal conquerors, caused it to be collected intermittently during frequent periods of war, and with laxity at all times. On the decline of the Mughal power in the Deccan, the Marathas, who took the administration into their hands, made a fresh and more severe assessment, popu- larly known as the ' Kamal ' land-settlement. The Brahman ministers of the central Maratha authority at Poona were keener men of business than their Muhammadan predecessors, and their tax-gatherers were more skilled in extracting the largest possible 230 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. amount of money. Theoretically, each individual cul- tivator in the home districts of the Marathas was rigidly assessed ; in more distant provinces ' chauth ' or tribute was exacted wholesale. But in spite of their heavy individual assessment, the Maratha cultivators of the Deccan managed to pay and to thrive. For these peasants were also the soldiers of the Maratha armies, and not only cultivated their fields, but also plundered the rest of India from Tanjore to Delhi. They could afford to pay a heavy rent, as they supple- mented the income derived from their own land by the booty which they brought home from their forays in distant provinces. The gradual establishment of the British dominion o in India put an end to this state of things. A limit was placed on freebooting expeditions and exactions of ' chauth,' and the Marathas were forced to rely on their own districts. This acted in a double way to the detriment of the Maratha peasant. On the one hand, as I have mentioned in a previous chapter, the Maratha Court, deprived of its income from foreign tribute, became more severe in exacting the assessments in the Maratha districts ; on the other hand, the Mara- tha cultivator, deprived of his former plunder, was less able to pay. Under the strain the financial system of the Maratha Government broke down ; land went out of cultivation ; the people took to the hills and became robbers. This was the state of things when the domains of the Peshwa were annexed to the British Presidency of Bombay, at the close of the third Maratha war in LAND ADMINISTRATION 23 r 1 8 18. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who became Gover- nor of Bombay in the following year, made it his first aim to restore prosperity by giving a sense of security and fixity of tenure to the cultivators. This could only be done by limiting the demand of the State for rent for a period of years, in other words, by a new land-settlement. Elphinstone had before him the systems adopted in other parts of British India. The Maratha administrators had been too keen to allow any powerful body of intermediaries to grow up between them and the cultivators, like the revenue- farmers and Zamindars of Bengal. The Madras ' rayatwari ' settlement, by which the Government dealt directly with each cultivator, seemed to involve an amount of detail too great to be thoroughly super- intended by the English civil servants, while it could not be safely entrusted to natives. There remained the system of treating the villages as revenue units, which had been adopted inter alia in the North- Western Provinces, and leaving the villagers to ap- portion the general village assessment among them- selves. This was the system of land-settlement which Elphinstone would have liked to adopt. But he found that co-parcenary village communities were the ex- ception, not the rule, in the Bombay Presidency. They had either not been so generally developed and so completely organised as in North-Western India, or they had been broken up by the Maratha system of exactinijf the uttermost from each individual culti- vator. Elphinstone therefore resolved to take the 232 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. hereditary village head-nian as the representative of the village community and to arrange with him for the village land-tax. He felt that this would not be quite the same as the North-Western system, for the hus- bandmen would not be co-parceners, accustomed to joint responsibility and to the joint management of the village affairs. He therefore determined to protect the actual cultivators by recording their Individual tenures and holdings. ' The settlement,' he said, ' would still be with the head-man, but the right of every cultivator would be known and fixed.' A first settlement was accordingly made on these principles under the direction of Mn Pringle, and by Native agency. The assessment was based on a measurement of fields, and on estimates of the yield of various soils, as well as of the cost of cultivation, and the revenue or rent was fixed at 55 per cent of the estimated nett produce ^ In theory this sounded well ; but, as a matter of fact, Mr. Pringle's settlement effected little Improvement. The Native agents (the relics of the late anarchy) proved incapable or dis- honest. The measurements were faulty, and the estimates on which the assessment was fixed often proved erroneous. The former assessments of the Muhammadan and Maratha -rulers were somewhat reduced, but the rate was still too high, and the cul- tivators. In spite of Elphlnstone's precautions, often remained at the mercy of the village head-men. The native officials levied contributions for themselves and Intercepted remissions allowed by the Government to ' Bombay Administration Report, 1882-83; Bombay, 1884, p. 28. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 233 the husbandmen. For a time, however, it was be- heved that the peasants would not, rather than that they could not, pay. Every effort, including torture and other cruel measures of the old Maratha revenue gatherers, was resorted to by the native officers in spite of the benevolent intentions of the Government. Numbers of the cultivators deserted their homes for the hills, or fled into the neighbouring Native States. Large tracts of land were thrown out of cultivation, and in some districts no more than one-third of the cultivable land remained in occupation \ Such severities were felt to be disgraceful to a British administration. The necessity for a better system brought forth the right man, and in 1832 Mr. Thomas Williamson, of the Bombay Civil Service, was appointed Revenue Commissioner for the Presi- dency. He brought two fixed convictions to his new duties. First, that if the land-settlement was to be effected without oppression to the people, it must be conducted by a better-paid and honester class of native officers. Second, if it was to be effected without frauds on the Government, it must be carried out by a more minute and searching process. Local inquiry and European supervision— these were the two ideas which dominated Mr. Williamson's policy. He pressed their adoption upon the Bombay Government ; his views were accepted ; and in 1835 Mr. H. E. Goldsmid and Mr. Bartle Frere, two young Assistant Col- lectors, were despatched at his request to ' settle ' the sub-division or ' taluka ' of Indapur in the Poona ^ Bombay Ad/ninis/ra/ion lufior/, Bombay, 1SS4, p. 23. 234 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. District, 84 miles from the old Maratha capital of the Deccan. The revenue history of the Indapur sub-division, which was the first tract completely settled under the improved method during the years 1835-37, illustrates the revenue history of the Bombay Presidency at large. It was one of the home-districts of the Marathas, and there is no reason to believe that it was more harshly treated than others. Under the ' Tankha ' assessment of Malik Ambar, Indapur had been directed to pay Rs. 1,02,000 to the treasury of the Muhammadan kings of Ahmadnagar ; a sum roughly estimated to be a third share of the produce. Under the later ' Kamal' assessment of the Marathas, the revenue or rent was raised to Rs. 2,22,800 by 1785, levied from the individual cultivators. When it was no longer possible for them to add the old profits of pillage to those of tillage, the peasants fled to the hills, and in 1807 special measures had to be taken to repeople the depopulated districts. The first assessment after the British occupation in 18 1 8 was far more moderate, and under Mr. Pringle's settlement the revenue to be paid by Indapur was fixed at Rs. 64,000. But even this reduction, sweeping though it may appear, was insufficient, and in 1830 only Rs. 12,880 were collected. To try to make up the deficiency, unauthorised pressure amounting to torture was resorted to, wnth the result of still further ruining the people. ' It was at this crisis, with the district half-depopulated,' wrote the Commissioner thirty-three years afterwards, ' that the late Mr. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 235 Goldsmid proceeded to inaugurate that system of survey-settlement, which has since formed the ground- work of the revenue administration of the entire Presidency.' Mr. H. E. Goldsmid, assisted during 1835 by Mr. [Sir] Bartle Frere, and afterwards by Lieutenant [Sir] George Wingate and Lieutenant Nash, carried out the settlement on a new basis. He measured out the country into fields, classified the soils, and fixed the revenue to be paid according to the ascertained quality of the soil, allowing for contingent circumstances, such as facilities of communication. He adopted the field as the revenue-unit and not the cultivator. But an equitable settlement would have afforded little en- couragement to the peasant, if his rent could be raised as his land improved. Mr, Goldsmid clearly realised this, and persuaded the Government to sanction the rent for ten years, a period eventually extended to thirty. Boundary marks were authoritatively set up and permanently protected by law. Moderate assessments and fixity of tenure for a term of years began to work wonders in Indapur. In the second year of its settlement, the Revenue Commissioner reported ' that the sum actually col- lected has never been so great except during the first four years of our occupation, when it is generally ac- knowledged our demands were much too high'; and ' the outstanding balances have never yet been so low at the end of the official year as they were last year.' Cultivation rapidly extended, and by the end of the second year nearly 68,000 acres of waste land had 236 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. been brought under the plough. The average annual collections during the thirty years' settlement, at reduced but fixed rates, exceeded by 86 per cent the average annual collections under excessive assess- ments and yearly rents during the ten years before Goldsmid and Bartle Frere were sent to the district. These excellent results opened the eyes of the Government. It resolved to extend the system to other parts of the Presidency, and within ten years of the completion of the Indapur Settlement, the important districts of Nasik, Ahmadnagar, the rest of Poona, Sholapur, Dharwar, and Kaladgi (now Bijapur) were settled in a similar manner. As experience was gained, various modifications were introduced and improvements made, but much was still left to the discretion of the officers employed. It was therefore decided to lay down uniform rules for the future, and the three Superintendents of Survey in the Bombay Presidency were summoned to Poona in 1847 ^^^ that purpose. The three Superin- tendents were Mr. Goldsmid, Captain Wingate, and Captain Davison. They embodied their conclusions in the famous Joint Report of August 2, 1847, which forms the charter or title-deed of the Bombay Land Revenue system, and a manual for all who desire to study it or who have to put it in force. The three Superin- tendents, after explaining the objects of a revenue survey and the general principles on which the assess- ment of land should be conducted, laid down rules for the definition and^ demarcation of fields, the LAND ADMINISTRATION. 237 settlement of boundary disputes, the classification of soils, the interior regulation of surveys, and the administration of settlements. The Bombay Survey and Settlement Department has followed the recom- mendations made by them with certain improvements and modifications until the present time\ For purposes of survey and settlement Bombay is divided into territorial areas each under a separate Superintendent of Survey. Four Revenue Surveys were at work from 1885 to 1887, the Gujarat, the Poona and Nasik, the Southern Maratha, and the Ratnagiri ; and three, the Gujarat, the Deccan, and the Konkan from 1887 to 1890 — on the revision of ex- piring settlements. Each Survey consists of a number of Surve}^ Parties, under the management of Assistant Superintendents. There were thirty-one such parties employed in 1886-87 and thirty-four in 1889-90. Some of these parties are employed in measuring, or actual surveying, others in classing the soil. Their maps and reports are forwarded to the Superintendent, who examines and controls the whole and fixes the assessment. The Superintendent submits his pro- posed assessment of a taluka, or group of villages in a talukd or sub-division, to the Collector of the district, who in turn forwards it with any remarks he ma}' desire to make through the Survey and Settlement Commissioner to the Commissioner of the division. The scheme is then laid before the Government, ^ This account is mainly based on A Manual of tJic Land Revenue Systems and Land Tenures of British Itidia, by B. H. Baden-Powell : Calcutta, 1882, pp. 551-572, and on the Bombay Adininisiraiion Report for 1882-83 : Bombay, 1^84, pp. 29-31. 238 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. which reserves to itself the power of sanctioning it or sending it back for further revision. When sanc- tioned, the assessment is introduced into the taluka or group of villages by the Superintendent of Survey, and fixed from that date for a term of thirty years. The process consists of three distinct series of operations, the survey of the land, the classification of the soil, and the assessment of the revenue, each of which requires separate notice. The first stage is to obtain an accurate survey of of each village about to be assessed. This work was originally done very roughly. The early settle- ment officers, such as Goldsmid and Bartle Frere, were not trained surveyors. They desired to do their work quickly, and remembered that they were making a revenue settlement, not a geographical survey. At the present time conditions have altered. Expert native surveyors are employed, and the village maps which they draw up now exhibit not only boundaries, but roads, village sites, tanks, and local or physical features with considerable fidelity. So accurate indeed is their work that the Great Trigono- metrical Survey of India finds the revenue village maps an aid in its more scientific field of labour. But, as in former days, absolute precision calculated on large geographical areas is of comparatively little practical importance to the revenue survey. The crucial work of a measuring party in a Bombay Revenue Survey is the delimitation of ' fields.' The revenue unit of the Bombay Settlement System is, as has been said, the field, and tire determination of LAND ADMINISTRATION. 239 the areas and boundaries of fields is the first requisite for adjusting the assessment. These fields are techni- cally termed * numbers,' and one of the most important conclusions of the Joint Report of 1847 was its defini- tion of a field or ' number.' It took as the standard, the area which a rayat could cultivate with a pair of bullocks, This naturally varied according as the soil was light or heavy, or as the cultivation practised was wet or dry, and generally with the climate and circumstances of the locality. It was assumed in the Joint Report that twenty acres would be the extent of such an area for light, dry soil ; fifteen acres for a medium soil ; twelve acres for heavy soil ; and four acres for irrigated rice land. It was then laid down that those areas should be the minimum, and double them the maximum of a field or ' number \' But of course these were arbitrary standards, and existing plots of cultivated land would not always fit them. It was therefore determined that where a man's holding approached the standard it was reckoned as a separate number ; where it much exceeded the standard, it was divided into two or more numbers ; and where it greatly fell short, different holdings were counted together as forming one number. This last class gave rise to little difficulty, for in the case of several holdings being included In one ' number,' each share was separately recorded and distinguished into ' pot numbers,' if the sharers so desired. The measuring party sets up ' Mr. Baden-Powell's Land Rcvc7iuc and Land Tenures of Lndla, p. 553, ed. i8£2. 240 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1S90. permanent boundary marks for the ' numbers,' a precaution necessary in tracts devoid of hedges ; commonly by placing stones or making earthen ridges at each corner. Usually in the next season after the measuring party has done its work, the ' classing ' party enters the field. Its duty is to classify the soil in each ' number ' and to record the ' accidents ' affecting its value. This double work was reduced to a definite system by Lieutenant Wingate, afterwards Major Sir George Wingate, a successor of Bartle Frere as assistant to Mr. Goldsmid in settling the Indapur taluka. The ' classer ' first takes into consideration the nature of the different species of holdings, which are, whenever practicable, kept in separate numbers. The main divisions under this head are unirrigated land, rice land, and garden land watered by wells or small watercourses \ Then he classifies the soils. The varieties in the unirrigated land, taking the Deccan as an example, are found to be uniform black soil, which is very productive ; coarser red soil ; and light soil. But, further, the actual fertility of these soils depends upon their depth. Three feet is considered the maximum depth of practical importance to the agriculturist. The classer divides the ' number ' into ten classes, according not only to the nature, but the positive or relative depth of the soil. He next considers the ' accidents' which affect the ^ Artificial irrigation from canals or reservoirs formed by the Public Works Department is, I believe, dealt with separately. LAND ADMINISTRATION, 241 soil of the ' number ' and depreciate its productiveness. These ' accidents ' are seven in number, and they may- be worth enumerating to show the thoroughness with which the classification is carried out. They are (i) admixture of nodules of limestone, (2) admixture of sand, (3) sloping surface, (4) want of cohesion, (5) im- permeability to water, (6) exposure to scouring from flow of water in the rains, and (7) excessive moisture from surface springs. Each of these * accidents ' is held to lower any soil by one class, and if it occurs in excess by two or more classes. Having done this work, the classer makes a sketch of the number and divides it into compartments, each of which he marks separately on a regular system according to the nature and depth of the soil and its ' accidents.' He then takes the averagfe of the value of the compartments, and shows the proportion of the rate of assessment it should pay. Finally, the classer has to note the value of irri- gation on the ' number.' He has hitherto considered all land, whether irrigable or not, and classified it. He now calculates the advantage of irrigation, where it exists, according to the supply, depth and quality of the water, and even the distance of a garden-ground from the village as affecting the cost of manuring. He next fixes an extra irrigation value to be applied either to the whole or part of the acreage of the field \ This work is (together with a percentage of the measure- ments) tested by the Assistant-Superintendent, as is ' Baden- Powell's Land Revenue and Land Tenures of India, pp. 557-562, ed. 1882. Q 242 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. also that of the measuring parties, and the maps and sketches are sent in to the Superintendent. The Superintendent of Survey has now to fix the assessment. He considers the circumstances of each village and examines various points with which the measuring and classing-parties had nothing to do, such as climate, facilities for market, communications, average prices, and the effect of previous settlements, British or Native, He then fixes the maximum dry- crop rate for the village, or group of villages, the conditions of which are homogeneous. His proposals are forwarded through the Collector of the District, the Survey and Settlement Commissioner, and the Commissioner of the Division, to the Secretary to Government. The maximum dry-crop rate and the accompanying rates for irrigated land and rice land are carefully considered by Government, and if accepted the Superintendent proceeds to work out the revenue demand for each Survey ' number.' The classer has, as already mentioned, fixed the proportion of the standard rate which each ' number ' ought to be able to pay ; and, the maximum rate once declared, it is a mere mechanical and arithmetical process to assign the equitable amount of rent to each number for the ensuing thirty years. I have described in some detail the history and pro- cedure of the Bombay Land Revenue System. For while the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, the co- parcenary village system in the North-Western Pro- vinces, and the Madras rdyatwdri system, are all more or less understood in England, the Bombay system has LAND ADMINISTRATION 243 seldom been presented in a popular form. It may be asserted with truth that in no country in the world has greater care been taken than in Bombay that the culti- vator of the soil should pay no more rent than he is fairly able to pay. In its simplicity of principle and in its minute conscientiousness of detail, the Bombay Settlement system ranks among the triumphs of British administration in India. It not only secured to the rayat a full measure of justice from his landlord, the Government ; it also gave him a property. As long as the occupant paid his rent or revenue, he owned his holding. He could sell it, bequeath it, or mortgage it, and the limits of his land were clearly laid down in the village revenue map, and preserved by boundary marks. A 'survey' tenure was in fact created, a firm right of occupancy subject only to the payment of the fixed assessment and to the liability of its being revised after thirty years. This right was definitively established by the Bom- bay Survey and Settlement Act of 1865, a measure now absorbed into the Land Revenue Code Act of 1879. By these Acts the occupant was still further secured, for it was enacted that all revised settlements ' shall be fixed, not with reference to any special im- provements made by owners or occupants from private capital or resources, but with reference to general con- siderations of the value of land, whether as to soil or situation, prices of produce or facilities of communi- cation ^' The right of occupancy was declared to be conditional solely on the payment of the Government ' Bombay Adinhnstraiion Report fo?- 18S2-83, p. 31. Q 2 244 BOMB A V ADMINISl^RA TION, 1 885-1 890. demand, and to be 'a transferable and heritable pro- perty, continuable without question at the expiration of a settlement lease, on the occupant's consenting to the revised rate ^' Unfortunately the Deccan cultivator did not make the wisest use of his newly acquired property. He freely mortgaged it to astute money lenders, who held him in thrall and who made use of the British laws to reduce him to the condition of a tenant at will, or at a rack-rent. This led to agrarian disturbances. In 1879 the Government found it necessary to step in, and to protect the cultivators against the results of their own unwisdom by the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act, which was a sort of Encumbered Estates Act and Peasants' Insolvency Act at the same time. The Act has now {1891) been referred afresh for inquiry by the Government of India to a Commission. Notwithstanding this need for relief the legal status of the peasant has greatly improved under British rule. The old Muhammadan kings had levied a lump sum from every village, and left the villagers to distribute its burden amongf themselves. The Marathas had come to closer quarters, and levied a heavy assessment from each cultivator, sometimes with very little regard to the actual yield of his holding. The English Government in Bombay took the final step, and based its more moderate demands upon the carefully ascer- tained capacity of each field. In Bengal, the British authorities had, in 1793, rid themselves of the toil and perplexities of a detailed ^ Bombay Administration Report for 1882-83, p. 31. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 245 land-settlement by leasing out the country in wide tracts to so-called landholders, thus practically leaving the cultivators at their mercy until the tardy legislation of 1859 came to the relief of the tillers of the soil. In Madras, the British Government had not shrunk from the difficulty of dealing with the individual husband- men. But its arrangements involved what amounted to almost a yearly resettlement with each cultivator, according to the land which he took up for the in- dividual season, and the amount of crop which he secured for the year. The Madras system of annual revision, with its former 'opportunities of extortion, peculation, chicanery, and intrigue of all kinds \' has been slowly organised into an orderly procedure by seventy years of hard English work. All this is now clear enough to Indian administrators. The merit of Williamson, Frere, Goldsmid, Wingate, and their brother-officers in Bombay, is that they, in their various separate departments, clearly perceived it fifty years ago, and devised a new and better alternative for the Western Presidency. By taking the field as their unit of revenue, and laying on it an assessment so moderate as to leave a liberal profit to the cultivator, they secured a regular revenue from the lands then under tillage, and they supplied inducements for bringing large areas of waste under cultivation. The margin between their assess- ment and the actual produce of the soil gave a saleable value to each field. But, unhappily, the rights which These are the perhaps too unfavourable terms in which Sir George Campbell speaks of the Madras system. {Modern India, p. 362, ed. 1853.) 246 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. they conferred on the cuhivators to sell, or sublet, or mortgage, enabled improvident husbandmen to turn their little holdings into cash or to raise loans upon them. It is now clear that the peasantry of the Deccan, with their extravagant marriage expenditure and other occasions for throwing away money upon domestic display, had not at that time been sufficiently prepared for the wise use of those rights. The evils of agrarian indebtedness, with forced sales of their holdings, resulted. These evils were intensified by the usurers' frauds on the ignorant rayats, and to some extent by the rigid regularity with which the English Government enforced its assessments in a country peculiarly at the mercy of the rainfall. But, while acknowledging that the Bombay system has indirectly led to evils, it has been productive of far outweighing benefits. It is now recognised, even by Bengal officers like myself, as the best solution of the complicated land problem of India, in a province where the co-parcenary system of joint village responsibility did not exist or had become inoperative. I have mentioned that while the Bombay system still rests on the basis of the Joint Report of 1847, modifi- cations have been introduced. The surveys and classi- fications made before that year were necessarily imper- fect. A staff of surveyors and classers cannot be trained in a day, and even after that date the import- ance of getting the work done quickly somewhat impaired its thoroughness. As the thirty-years' leases fell in, it was found necessary, therefore, to re-survey and re-class as well as to re-settle. But the work of revision, LAND ADMINISTRATION. 247 whether total or partial, is now being done once for all as far as the Survey Department is concerned, and the survey and classification record can in future be kept in order by the local officers of each district. Before noticing the points which were brought before the Bombay Government between 1885 and 1890, in connection with the revised settlements, it is necessary to draw attention to a change in the law, emphasising the doctrine that the Government, as chief landlord, should not make any increase in the revised settlement for improvements effected by a tenant. This had been affirmed in the Bombay Survey and Settlement Act of 1865, as has been already said, when the 'survey tenure' was legally defined. It was re-affirmed in the Bombay Land Revenue Code of 1879, but a clause was added reserving to Government the power to consider, in fixing a revised assessment, the increased value aris- ing from certain classes of improvement. This clause had never been put into effect, but complaints were made that its mere existence affected the tenant's property in his holding. Act IV of 1886 was therefore passed, which amended the clause objected to, and enacted that ' when a general classification of the soil of any area has been made a second time, or when any original classification of any area has been approved by the Governor in Council as final, no such classification shall be again made with a view to the revision of the assess- ment of such area.' Further, ' if any improvement has been effected in any land during the currency of an)' previous settlement made under Act V of 1879, or under Act I of 1865, by or at the cost of the holder 248 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. thereof, the increase in the value of such land or in the profit of cultivating the same, due to the said improve- ment, shall not be taken into account in fixing the revised assessment thereof.' Nothing can be more clear or precise than this declara- tion of the principle, all important for the encourage- ment of good tenants, that the value of the tenant's improvement shall not accrue to the landlord. The discussion which took place in the Bombay Legislative Council on the second reading of the Bill which became Act IV of 1886 was of a very important character, not only as containing a complete vindication of the practice of the Survey and Settlement Department in the matter of re-classification, but as establishing the moderation of its assessments. In Lord Reay's speech on this occasion proofs are adduced that the doubts stated by certain non-official members to be entertained by the general public regarding the action of the Department, were opposed to facts and figures derived from the records. The discussion led to an important result bearing on the practice of settlements. It had been the custom for the Superintendent, after the proposed maximum rates were sanctioned by the Government, to work out the individual assessments which resulted, and then to assemble the cultivators and announce the revenue demand on each field. It was objected that by this course no opportunity was given to the rayat to be heard as to enhancements before the enhancement be- came an accomplished fact. After minute inquiry into the numerous administra- LAND ADMINISTRATION. 249 tive objections to any alteration of practice, it was de- cided by a Government Resolution dated October 16, 1886, that not only should increased facilities be given to cultivators to make known their objections to the Survey officers while the survey was in progress, but that the Superintendent of Survey should announce to the villagers by public notification the maximum rates he proposed to use, as soon as such rates were deter- mined on, and that the cultivators should be allowed a period of two months within which to forward their objections to the Collector. It was decided, moreover, that the Collector should submit all such petitions, with his criticism, to Government, through the ordinary channels, and that in this way Government should have the objections of the rayats before them when the pro- posals came under their consideration. This decision, the fairness and justice of which cannot be doubted, is in full force, and although many difficulties tend to impair its usefulness, the large number of petitions and objections advanced show that the cultivators ap- preciate the opportunity, and are not slow to avail themselves of it. Turning to administrative questions which arose in the work of re-settlement during the five years now under review, the most important was as to the rate to be imposed on dry-crop land which had been converted into rice land during the past thirty years. It will be remembered that rice lands and dry-crop lands are dif- ferently assessed, and it was pointed out that it would be a hardship if a cultivator spent much labour in turning his dry-crop land into rice land, and was 250 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. then assessed at the higher rate. It would be, in fact, a tax on improvements, and a violation of the great principle just affirmed. The question came before the Bombay Government in May, 1885, soon after Lord Reay's assumption of office, with respect to the Igat- puri talukd in the Deccan. After careful consideration it was decided that such converted rice land should be assessed not as rice land, but at the maximum rate for dry-crop land. The question was again raised in 1889 with regard to the re-settlement of the Khalapur Peta taluka in the Konkan, and after a long discussion was settled on the same basis. This controversy led to an innovation in the rules for classification. It was argued that some 'warkas' or dry-crop lands in the Konkan could be very easily converted into rice land owing to their natural position, and that the Government should take this circumstance into consideration. It was therefore resolved that the classer should include in his classification a new gra- dation or ' position class.' This was not to affect the immediate assessment, but was to be entered on the record, so that at the next settlement it might be known what tracts had been converted into rice lands, not so much by the labour of the tenant as because of their natural advantages. A change was also made in the instructions to survey parties, arising out of the excessive subdivision which had been taking place in the unit of survey. It will be remembered that subdivisions of numbers, called ' pot numbers,' might be marked off in the numbers. Since the settlement, many numbers had been divided by par- LAND ADMINISTRATION. 251 tition among relatives or otherwise. The practice de- veloped until it had been laid down by the Land Revenue Code that ' every separate occupancy recog- nised in the village accounts is required to be made into a Survey number, or subordinate Survey number, and to be measured, demarcated, classified, and assessed on its own individual merits.' This record of minute subdivisions was laborious and expensive. It was there- fore ordered in 1889 that, in future, subdivisions of numbers should only be made at the request and at the cost of the occupant. Among other reforms during the five years under review the following may be particularised. When any large addition was made to the original assessment at the revised settlement, it was only to be introduced gradually. A system of sub-soil classification of water advantages was substituted for the former well assess- ment in Gujarat, and various other new regulations were made, which need not be detailed here. Of all common agricultural improvements in the Bombay Presidency the most important is the sinking of wells not only for securing the ordinary crops in seasons of drought, but also for the raising of the finer descriptions of produce. The treatment of wells with reference to assessment gave rise to frequent discussion, and the question attracted much attention during the five years (1885-1890). After the passing of Act I of 1865, by sec. 30 whereof improvements made by the occupant with his labour and capital were exempted from consideration in fixing the assessment, the prin- ciple acted upon by the settlement officers was to treat 252 BOMBA y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. all lands irrigated from wells sunk after the preceding settlement as purely dry-crop only, while lands watered from wells existing at the time of the former settle- ment were not to be rated in excess of the hig^hest dry-crop rate prevailing in the village. A slight difference therefore existed in the treatment of wells recorded at the former settlement and wells found to have been newly built, but even lands watered by the older class of wells were considerately dealt with according to a fixed scale, and such lands were not placed uniformly on the highest existing dry-crop rate. The difference, however, attracted notice in the press and elsewhere, and it was pointed out that the pioneers of the well-sinking industry, who had taken early steps to irrigate their fields, were burdened by heavier taxation than those who had delayed. About 1885-86 the question was much discussed, with special regard to the circumstances of the province of Gujarat, which was just coming under revision, and where well assessment formed a considerable portion of the land revenue and the opportunities for digging wells were abundant. In this province, the soil is chiefly alluvial, and the water-bearing strata are generally found at an easily ascertainable level, and can be utilised under circumstances calculable with accuracy. For many years previously, suggestions had been made by experienced officers that the true solution of the ques- tion of assessment of wells lay in doing away entirely with taxation of water when brouo^ht to the surface and utilised, and in imposing a slight additional rate LAND ADMINISTRATION. 253 on lands which were known or beheved to possess the advantage of sub-soil water within easy reach and free from difficulty of utilisation. Government now affirmed this principle, and decided that it should be the basis of settlement * whenever the Superintendent can safely and conveniently apply it.' The system was introduced into the first taluka of Gujarat, which fell in for revision in I886^ under rules carefully framed by the Survey Commissioner, by which the advantages of sub-soil water were graduated according to depth and character of soil to be pierced, distant or questionable advantages being left out of consideration altogether. The result is that in Gujarat there is no well assessment in revision, the facility for obtaining sub-soil water and not the use of it being the point to be decided. In 1889 the attention of the Government was drawn to the method by which this small additional revenue on account of sub-soil water was worked out and im- posed. Under the rules applied to the Ahmadabad Collectorate in the first instance, the addition was made to the soil classification and the result ascertained in the ordinary way, but Lord Reay, who gave this sub- ject very close attention, disapproved of the maximum addition for sub-soil water being fixed with a view to recouping the amount of well assessment which had been hitherto collected in the taluka — a limit which had been observed from the first. Differences were created in the several talukas for which no real reason could be adduced, except that they had by their former well » The Dholka Tdlukd in AhmadaMd. 254 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. assessments subscribed more or less to the revenue. Lord Reay considered that the method should be changed and a moderate cash addition should be made to the rate per acre which resulted from the soil classi- fication, in this way avoiding unnecessary and unrea- sonable anomalies. The alteration was duly made in calculating the assessments for the Daskroi and succeeding talukas of Ahmadabad, and its working is being carefully watched. The following paragraph shows the actual work done by the Survey and Settlement Department during the period from 1885-6 to 1889-90 inclusive; the addition which it yielded to the revenue ; and its cost. During the five years in question from 31 to 34 sur- veying parties were employed, who measured 8,460,669 acres, or nearly 13,220 square miles, and classed 8,079,956 acres, or nearly 12,625 square miles. Re- vised, and in a few parts of the Konkan original, settlements were introduced into 3,8914- villages, or excluding Native States and indm villages belonging to individuals, into 3,621-^ villages. The revenue from these villages was assessed at Rs. 42,99,320 instead of Rs. 34,40,703 as it had formerly been, a gain of Rs. 8,58,617 to the revenue; or, excluding again Native States and indm villages, at Rs. 39,58,604 instead of Rs. 31,40,177, a gain of Rs. 8,18,427 a year. To obtain this increase of yearly revenue there was expended on the Survey and Settlement during the five years Rs. 28,04,526, being an average of Rs. 5,60,905 ; or excluding payments by Native States Rs. 27,26,130, being an average of Rs. 5,45,226 a year. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 255 The expense is undoubtedly great but the gain is great also. The foregoing description of the Bombay Land- Revenue System, and the statistics of work done, deal only with the Bombay Presidency proper. The land- revenue system of Sind stands apart, with a separate Survey Department of its own. Sind cultivators de- pend entirely for their harvest upon irrigation ; without it the province would be a desert. Attempts from time to time made to introduce the elaborate Bombay land-settlement have proved futile. The Sind peasant does not stick to one place ; he moves about and is difficult to assess. When measurers and classers were imported, the former did useful work ; the latter were quite out of their element. It is almost useless to classify soil, or to estimate ' accidents ' in a country which depends entirely upon one resource, irrigation, and where 90 per cent of the assessment is derived from it. Temporary settlements and other expedients had been tried in Sind, but without success. In 1887 it was decided to introduce irrigation settlements — a laborious and delicate task which was carried out with great ability by the Commissioner in Sind, and his officers. By this plan, the one distinctive feature of Sind is fully recognised, and tracts and groups of villages are assessed solely by their irrigation facilities. There are no village communities in Sind to arrange with ; the cultivators move so rapidly that in extensive tracts there are not even * fields,' i. e. continuously inhabited and cultivated ' numbers,' to assess. The 256 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. estimate of irrigation-facilities takes the place of the classification of soils in the Presidency, and on this basis irrigation settlements for a period of ten years have been rapidly introduced into Sind, with the best results both to the Government and the cultivator. A difficulty constantly arose in the Sind assessment from the fluctuations in occupation and the frequency of fal- lows. The irrigational settlements, based on the irriga- tional facilities of the land, form a most important series of measures in the land-administration of the Province. To return to the Presidency proper, it is interesting to notice some of the land-tenures which survive in spite of the advantages offered by the simple survey tenure. Only two have any political importance, the talukdari tenure in Gujarat and the khoti tenure in the southern Konkan, but one or two of the others, such as the bhagdari and narvadari tenures in Gujarat, and the shilotri tenure in the Konkan, have an historical interest of their own. There are many curious local varieties \ such as the maleki and sarakati, but they only exist in a few villages, and all tend to be absorbed in the universal survey tenure. The talukdari tenure in the Bombay Presidency is only to be found in Gujarat, principally in the western part of Ahmaddbad District, bordering on Kathiawar, wdiere it used to cover, until recently, 1931 square miles ; and in Broach District and the Panch Mahals, where it is the prevailing system over 266 square miles. The talukdars are usually of pure Rajput descent : gentlemen who consider manual labour de- ' Bombay Administration Report for \Z%2-~2>y. Bombay, 1884, pp. 32-40. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 257 grading and who live on the hereditary share of the produce of their lands, which are cultivated by tenants at will. The talukdari estates are of all sizes, but seldom exceed one, two, or three villages, owing to the custom of subdivision amonof the kinsmen. Widi regard to the Government the talukdars are absolute owners of their estates, but are bound to pay a certain jama, which is a tribute rather than a rent. On the other hand the talukdars are answerable for the pay of the village police and for the village expenses sanctioned by cnstom. The relations between the talukdar and his tenants are reo^ulated in the followinof manner. The village crops are stored in the village grain-yard. A fixed proportion is deducted for seed and certain perquisites, and the remainder is divided between the talukdar and the rayats according to the village custom. The average demand has been assumed to be 50 per cent of the common grains, 40 per cent of wheat, and 48 per cent of cotton. The talukdars are interesting as a survival, but as a rule they are heavily in debt. A special Act was passed for their relief in 1862, and a special officer has been appointed to look after them. During the period under review the decline in the status of the talukdars and their privileges formed the subject of a further Bill \ which was discussed in the Legislative Council in 1886. The Bill provided for the better revenue administration of the estates of the talukdars, and more clearly fixed their position with regard to the British Government. As one of the ^ 'Act No. \\ of 1886.' R 258 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. results of this Act, a survey Is now in progress with a view to revise the data upon which the jama of the several talukdars is fixed. Special attention is paid to • the cultivation of waste lands which has taken place, and the former classification is tested and, where neces- sary, corrected. The khoti tenure differs in its nature in the northern and southern Konkan. In the north the khots are practically leaseholders of a certain number of villages and exercise no proprietary rights. In most of these villages the survey tenure has been introduced, and the cultivator is little affected by the fact that his village is held from a leaseholder, instead of directly from the Government. But in the southern Konkan, in the whole of the district of Ratnagiri and in the greater part of Kolaba, the khots are recognised as proprietors of their villages. It is believed that they were originally farmers holding on leases for the improvement of the country, and they have been com- pared to the Bengal zamindars. The chief features of the khoti tenure in the southern Konkan country are that they hold their villages on payment of a lump sum to Government ; that they may rack-rent all lands in which there are not rights of permanent occupancy ; that they may resume all lands which may lapse by the absence or failure of the permanent occupant ; and that they have to collect the assessment from per- manent occupants without remuneration. The rights of the permanent occupants as against the holders of khoti tenures are very various, and the tendency of the Government is to maintain these rights. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 259 Shilotri lands, which are also found in the Konkan, are lands which have been reclaimed from the sea and embanked. These reclamations are known as khars. The tenure is of two sorts. Shilotri proper, under which the khar belongs to the reclaimer or his repre- sentatives. These shilotridars have a proprietary right ; they let their khars, and they are entitled by old custom to levy a maund of rice per bigha in addition to the assessment for the repair of the embankments. Where however the Government has made the reclamation or become possessed of the khar, the cultivators hold the shilotri lands like any other survey tenants, but they pay an additional assessment, which represents the shilotri maund of rice for the repair of the em- bankment. Finally, mention must be made of the bhagdari and narvadari tenures. It was said in the historical sketch of the Bombay Revenue system that Mount- stuart Elphinstone found hardly any traces of the coparcenary village in the Bombay Presidency. These two tenures represent the few that did and do still exist. The bhagdari tenure is only found in the Broach District, while the narvadari chiefly centres in the District of Kaira, but is also represented in a few villages in Ahmadabad. The main point of interest in them is that they are genuine survivals of an old system, for the whole village inhabited under their arrangements is jointly responsible for the Go- vernment revenue. The distinction between the two tenures is that under bhagdari there was a fixed assessment on each field, while under narvaddri the R 2 26o BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. revenue was paid in a lump. While interesting as remains of the ancient village community, these tenures are not found by their holders to work satis- factorily at the present day, and the survey tenure is felt by them to be superior. In 1887 the narvadars or shareholders of the village of Kanjari in Nadiad taluka applied to have their special tenure abolished and replaced by the ordinary system \ The superiority of the survey-tenure is a note- worthy fact. It might naturally have been expected that the Survey and Settlement Department, which was engaged in enhancing assessments, would have been hated, and in recent times it was unpopular. But in the early years of the Department the Survey was designed to remedy the effects of long periods of faulty revenue administration, and was applied to dis- tricts which were reduced to poverty and wretched- ness. The system, therefore, was liberal from the outset, large reductions being made in the Govern- ment demand to encouraofe fixed cultivation and the re-occupation and fresh cultivation of waste lands. The introduction of the Survey came to be regarded as the signal for moderation and reduction of rents. In the opinion of some the sacrifices made were almost too great. Sir George Campbell relates that when the Madras officials were twitted with the success of the Bombay system, they used to say that it would be very easy to give as much satisfaction if the revenue were as completely sacrificed as in Bombay ^. ' Bovibay Adininisiraiion Report for 1887-88, p. 53. ^ Systems 0/ Lafid Tenure in various Countries: Cobden Club, p. 172. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 261 The renewal of revision operations, i860- 1866, marked a new era in settlement procedure. When the Department came to deal with the subdivisions settled at an early date, it found that the exceedingly mode- rate assessment of the first leaders of the Survey had borne their full fruit, and that owing to the develop- ment of the country by roads and railways, and the establishment of convenient markets, the cultivators were enjoying large increments of profit which ought justly to be considered in fixing the Government de- mand. Consequently a considerable enhancement of assessments resulted from the first batch of revisions. The cultivators were unprepared for this new phase of the Survey operations, and in parts of the Poona District there was much dissatisfaction. The revised rates were freely attacked in the public press, and, notwithstanding that considerable reductions were made in the case of some revised settlements, agita- tion continued with more or less force until the year of the famine (1876-77). In 1881, in consideration of the great losses the cul- tivators had sustained from famine and destruction of crops, temporary remissions of revenue were granted in all cases which had come under revision, and it was ordered that before the full revised rates were again levied there should be a further enquiry, and the sanction of Government should be obtained. Not- withstanding these precautions, doubt and suspicion continued to be entertained against the Survey up to 1886; and in the discussion which preceded Aci IV of that year to amend certain sections of the Land 262 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. Revenue Code, the Survey Department was attacked by several non-official members of the Council speaking on behalf of the cultivators. Since 1886, however, there has been a marked difference of attitude towards the Survey on the part of the leaders of the people and the press. This is due, in part, to the explanation of the system and refutation of the complaints against the Survey during the debate on the Bill, and to Lord Reay's re- solve that the cultivators should be allowed as many opportunities as were possible to bring forward ob- jections to the treatment of their holdings at the Survey and the resulting assessments. Those who were agitating against the Survey found themselves compelled to acknowledge the tenacity with which the Bombay Government kept to its pledges of modera- tion of rates, notwithstanding conflicting opinions, and could not fail to see that adequate precautions were being taken to prevent the operations of the Survey Department from becoming arbitrary or oppressive. While the number of revenue-paying occupancies only varied from 1,300,643 in 1885-86 for the Presidency, excluding Sind, to 1,292,927 in 1889-90, the number of distraints for rent fell from 3186 in 1885-86 to nil in 1889-90. The vigorous and sagacious administration of the Survey and Settlement Department has made it possible to bring it to an end ere long, and its successor has already been appointed. When the thorough survey and classification, now in progress, are completed, this branch of the work will, it is LAND^ ADMINISTRA TION. 2 6 3 hoped, be finished once for all, subject to such rectifi- cations as are inevitable ; and it will then only be necessary to preserve the records and keep them up to date. The work of future settlement officers, when the settlements again come up for revision, will be comparatively simple. In the words of the Govern- ment of Bombay: 'When these operations are finished, the record will remain as an authoritative and suf- ficient standard of relative values by which assessment may be adjusted to each field through calculations made in the Collector's office \' The work has been ex- pensive while it lasted, because it has been thorough ; and because it had to be done by a special agency instead of by the ordinary executive officers as in most other provinces of India. The succession to the Survey and Settlement De- partment is destined to be inherited by the officers of the Land Revenue Department with the aid and advice of the Director of Land Records and Agriculture. The latter Department was founded in accordance with the recommendations of the Famine Commission, and it was at one time under consideration to make it sole heir of the Survey and Settlement Department and the custodian of the traditions thereof. Subsequently, however, it was decided that the Circle Inspectors, who were to keep the Survey maps and records up to date, and the officers appointed to supenntend their work, should form part of the district revenue estab- lishment of the Collector, actinof with the advice and assistance of the Director of Agriculture. It was not ' Bombay Govcniiiioit Letter, No. 6340, dated Aug. 27, 18S3. 264 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1S85-1890. thought expedient that, in direct control, the Director should be substituted for the Collector, although in passing rules and selecting subordinates the utmost advantage should be taken of the Director's knowledge and experience. The Circle Inspectors will be chosen principally from the Survey Department when its operations are ended, and the supervising officers will be Survey men. It is hoped that in this way the traditions and practice of the Survey Department will be efficiently maintained. The additional w^ords ' and land records ' were added to the title of Director of Agriculture, when the records of the Dharwar and Bijapur revised settlements were completed and made over to the chariie of the Collectors. The regfular treatment of the land records at the various Head-quarter Stations, and the compiling of comprehensive land revenue statements for the Presidency, will form important duties of the Director. It is appropriate that the Department of Agri- culture should thus be interested in maintaining the records of the Revenue Survey. For there can be no question that the Survey has done much for agri- culture by securing fixity of tenure and a fair rent. During the five years under review, the cultivated land in the Presidency proper, exclusive of Sind, rose from 24,035,256 acres in 1884-85 to 24,481,639 acres in 1889 90, an increase of 446,383 acres. What is now urgently needed, is to improve the quality as well as to extend the area of Indian agriculture, and one of the most hopeful methods of effecting this LAND ADMINISTRATION. 265 is a system of agricultural education. The subject received the earnest attention of Mr. Ozanne, the Director of Land Records and Agriculture, during the five years under review. Besides promoting a graduated scheme of agricultural education, and an 'agricultural diploma' in the University of Bombay, he rendered important services to the actual ad- ministration. His valuable rab experiments largely influenced the report of the Bombay Forest Com- mission. He also carried on a series of investigations for the improvement of Bombay agriculture at the Government experimental farms and in other likely localities. Lord Reay took a special interest in these efforts. Alienation Settlements are somewhat similar in character to the regular settlements made by the Survey and Settlement Department, in that they regulate and define the rights of certain holders of land. But they differ in that they are, as a rule, permanent, and not for a term of years only. They fix, as their designation signifies, the grants of land alienated from the Government, and the tenures on which they w^ere granted and by which they are held. The tenures of alienated holdings may be divided for general purposes into four classes, political, service, religious, and personal ^ Lands held under the first of these heads include political pensions and the grants known as 'jaghirs' and ' saranjams,' the former being of Muhammadan, the latter of Maratha origin. These grants were made by the State for the perform- ^ Bombay Adi>iinistratio)i Report for 1882-83 • Bombay, 18S4, p. 41. 266 BOMB A V ADMINIST.RA TION, 1 885 - 1 890. ance of civil or military duties, or for the maintenance of the personal dignity of nobles and high officials. Under the British Government the duties attached have either been abolished or commuted for a money payment, but many grants are continued on political considerations. Far more numerous are the assign- ments held on ' service tenure.' Such grants were originally made to ensure the performance of certain specified services in each village or district. But owing to the introduction of the revenue survey and the organisation of a regular police, the duties attached to many service assignments have come to an end, and the holders of them now pay a portion of their estimated value and are freed from liability to serve. Holdings granted by native governments for the support of religious or charitable institutions, and continued by the British Government, are classi- fied as held on ' religious ' tenure. Lastly are included under the head of ' personal ' tenure a vast number of estates and holdings, alienated by former rulers under various denominations and for different services, and continued to the present day as personal inams. A more systematic enquiry into the titles to alienated holdings in the Bombay Presidency was suggested in 1 85 1 by the large number of unauthorized and fraudulent alienations, gradually brought to light by the Revenue Survey in the Southern Maratha country and elsewhere. The enquiry then commenced in that portion of the Presidency developed into an organised investigation, which, under the title of the I nam Commission or the Alienation Department, was extended to the whole LAND ADMINISTRATION. 267 of the Presidency. The work was, however, done with inconvenient slowness, owing to the minute detail with which the scrutiny was conducted. It was accord- ingly resolved in 1863 to give such persons as claimed an exemption from the payment of Government land- revenue the option of avoiding a scrutiny of their title by the payment of a quit-rent, and in that year Acts II and VII of 1863, known as the Summary Settlement Acts, were passed. The results of the operations of the Alienation Department and of the summary settlements which followed were most advantageous to the revenue \ The annual revenue alienated at the commencement of the enquiry was Rs. 132,51,008. The amount was reduced to Rs. 80,38,361 by 1876-77, causing an addition to the revenue of Rs. 51,86,398. This great additional revenue was secured at a compara- tively small expense, the cost of the Alienation Department up to 1876-77 having only amounted to Rs. 26,10,179. It is curious to observe how these alienations are distributed under the four classes already mentioned. Rs. 33,67,892 are included under 'personal' tenure and Rs. 33,65,482 under 'service' tenure, while only Rs. 6,72,604 appear under ' political ' tenure, and Rs. 6,32,383 under 'religious' tenure. The enquiries respecting alienated lands have now been completed in the majority of the districts of the Bombay Presidency, and in 1889-90 the only districts in which any considerable amount of work ' I derive these figures from the Standing Information prefixed to the Bombay Adi>ii?iisiraiion Report fin- 1882-83. 268 BO MB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. remained to be done were Satara, Ratnagiri, and Kolaba \ The settlement of alienations formed an essential complement to the labour of the regular Survey and Settlement Department, and it has this advantage, that it will not have to be revised, as the titles are granted in perpetuity and not for a term of years only. The collection of the land-revenue is one of the main duties of the district officer, and the nature of the Bombay system demands a most exact super- vision. The Assistant or Deputy Collector in the Bombay Presidency travels about the talukas or sub- divisions placed under his charge for about seven months in the year, and the Collector of a district for four months-. Under them are the Mamlatdars, each of whom is responsible for the general business of one taluka. It is the Mamlatdar's business to oret in the revenue for the villacjes from the Revenue Patel or head-man, and to see that the village accounts are properly kept by the village accountant, who is called a Talati in Gujarat and a Kulkarni in the Deccan. The Survey register is the record of title. Every occupant is given a separate receipt-book, in which the head-men and accountants of the village are obliged, under heavy penalties, to record each instal- ment of rent as soon as it is paid. A general scrutiny and record, termed the jamabandi, of the village is annually made, at which time the amount of revenue due from the village is worked out, the village ' Bombay Adiiiinistnxtion Report for 1889-90, p. ■},■]. '^ Ibid., 1S82-83, p. 25. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 269 accounts are examined, and transfers of numbers are verified and recorded. During this scrutiny the Assistant or Deputy Collector is brought into direct contact with the villaoes under his charge, and is enabled to judge of their wants and requirements. For the district officers are not merely rent- collectors. The British Government endeavours ac- cording to its lights to play the part of a wise and tolerant landlord, and is ready not only to remit rent or revenue when such remissions are rendered neces- sary, but to advance sums of money to its tenants for agricultural improvements. This work is conducted by the district officers on their tours. Floods, droughts, and plagues of locusts are taken into consideration, and remissions of revenue made on account of them. Equally important are the advances made by Govern- ment to the cultivators. By Act XIX of 1883 such advances were allowed to be granted for permanent improvements, and by Act XII of 1884 for the pur- chase of cattle and seed. An aggregate sum of Rs. 4,36,619 was advanced for these purposes during the years 1885-86 to 1889-90. Such loans bear interest of one ana in the rupee, or 6;^ per cent per annum. But this is not always exacted, and during the five years under review Rs. 37,039 were advanced to the Bhils in Khandesh free of interest. Govern- ment advances are largely taken advantage of by the cultivators in Sind and in the district of Belgaum. The latter district, indeed, received the large pro- portion of Rs. 1,80,000 out of the total Rs. 4,36,619. Among the purposes for which such advances were 270 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, \^^^ 1S90. granted may be noted the construction and repair of wells, the clearing of waste land, the conversion of dry-crop land into wet-crop land, and the removal of prickly pear and rank grass. A sum of Rs. 5,250 was o-ranted in the Panch Mahals in 1888-89 for the rebuilding of houses destroyed by fire. Another duty of the revenue administration is to take care of the estates of holders who are unable to take care of themselves. These may be ranked in two classes : (i) wards or minors, (2) improvident land- holders. The absence of large estates in the Bombay Presidency, arising from the nature of the settlement field by field, renders the management of wards' estates a smaller and less interesting branch of the work of the local officers in Bombay than in Bengal. In the districts of Ahmadabad, Broach, and Kaira, wards' estates are placed under the care of the Talukdari officer ; in the other districts they are directly managed by the ordinary district officials for the advantage of the wards. The number and extent of these estates vary from year to year. In 1885-86, at the com- mencement of the five years under review, they were 91 in number, amounting to 110,051 acres, including one in the Haidarabad district of Sind of 64,765 acres. In 1889-90 they were 79 in number, extending over 111,523 acres, including three in the Panch Mahals, aggregating over 60,000 acres. In addition to the care of wards' estates, the Govern- ment had in 1884-85 two officers specially engaged in administering the estates of improvident landlords. These were the Manager of Encumbered Estates in LAND ADMINISTRATION. 271 Sind, and the Talukdari Settlement Officer in Gujarat. The former official had 143 estates under his super- intendence in 1885-86, but the number steadily diminished. In 1887 the special establishment in Sind was abolished, and the encumbered estates were placed under the charge of the district officers. It was not found possible, however, to dispense with the services of the Talukdari officer in Gujarat. I have already described the Talukdari tenure on pp. 256-258. The Talukdars personally are distinguished for loyalty. They celebrated the Jubilee of the Queen- Empress with the utmost enthusiasm at Ahmadabad in 1887. Her portrait was hung with garlands of flowers, a congratulatory address in a silver casket was for- warded to Her Majesty, and Rs. 20,000 were subscribed by them for a memorial of her jubilee year. Yet with all their good qualities, it is difficult to save them from the consequences of their hereditary habits of improvi- dence, and it is stated that many of them are hopelessly involved. In spite of the efforts made for their rescue, they are reported to have ' succumbed anew to the wiles of the money-lenders, with a readiness and ignor- ance which showed that they had not benefited by past experienced' In the year after this statement was made, an in- teresting account was given of the causes of their embarrassments. ' The result of lemslation in reirard to the Talukdars of Gujarat has not been altogether successful. It is a matter of notoriety that already very many of the estates freed from debt in the manner ' Bombay Administration Report f 07- 18S6-87, p. xv. 272 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. provided by the legislature are again seriously encum- bered. In some cases, the second state of the Taluk- dars is even worse than the first. The causes ordinarily assiened for this state of thino-s are the reckless im- providence of the Talukdars, the exaggerated view they entertain of their own position, their wasteful expen- diture on marriages and other domestic ceremonies, their open-handed extravagance at all times, and the enlargement of credit which followed the recognition of absolute proprietorship in the soil accorded by section 20 of Act VI of 1862. But experience has shown that there are other causes, perhaps not so well known. ' Amongst those causes may be mentioned the fol- lowing : (1) Litigation — most of which is wholly unne- cessary — with co-sharers. (2) Intrigues of karbharis (managers). {3) Malpractices of creditors of the saukar (money-lending) class. And (4) Extravagance of sons. In most cases the karbhari is a creditor of the Taluk- dar : he encourages quarrels and litigation among the bhayats (co-sharers), lends pecuniary assistance, and thus obtains a control over his master. Still more helpless are the Talukdars in their relations with their Wania creditors. Debts equivalent to from four to twelve years' revenue have already been contracted by Talukdars, whose estates have been recently released ^' The disturbances caused by the indebtedness of the Deccan peasantry, who had used the credit given them and created for them by their possession of the 'survey tenure ' to borrow freely, and thus to make them- selves practically the tenants of money-lenders instead ' Bombay Ad)iiiiiisli aiion Report for 1887-S8, pp. 59, 60. LAND ADMINISTRATION. 273 of the Government, occurred before the period under review. The passing of the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act in 1879 therefore lies beyond the scope of this work. The indebtedness of the peasantry still continues a source of anxiety in the Deccan ; and the working of the Deccan Relief Act is, as already stated, again under enquiry (1891). It remains to see the effect upon the land, as apart from the cultivators, of the establishment of the 'survey tenure' and of the land-rights which it has conferred on the peasantry of Bombay. In 1885-86 it was estimated that in the Bombay Presidency excluding Sind there were 27,1 1 1,272 acres of cultivable land ; of which 24,035,256 acres were cultivated, and 3,076,016 were cultivable waste. During the five years from 1885-86 to 1889-90, no less than 1,004,104 acres of the waste were reported to have been taken into cultivation. The nett actual increase of cultivated land after all deductions was, as already stated, 446,383 acres. The proportion of the cultivated to the cultivable area is very large in all the inland districts except the Panch Mahals and Khandesh, and it is a note- worthy feature that immigrants are beginning to move freely into the latter districts. Of the coast districts, only Ratn?giri, perhaps the most closely cultivated district in the Presidency, is as yet completely occupied. There is much cultivable waste both in Thana and Kolaba ; and in each of these districts it is found more profitable to reclaim the salt marshes than to break up new land towards the interior. North Kanara is s 274 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1893. Still capable of a considerable extension of cultivation, and there is a large demand for labour in the spice gardens of this wealthy district. It is difficult, owing to the want of data, to speak with precision regarding Sind, but it may be asserted that the improvement, which is there due to increased facilities for irrigation and to the Irrigation Settlements, is as great as, if not greater than, in the rest of the Presidency. CHAPTER IX. Public Works. THE Department of Public Works in India conducts many undertakings which in England are left to private enterprise. The position of the British Govern- ment as chief landlord, and the absence of an adequate organisation of capital in India, render this inevitable. If the Government did not construct largfe and neces- sary works of public utility, they would not be under- taken at all. The English administrators have tried to efficiently discharge the duties thus laid upon them, and have organised a special department in each Pro- vince to deal with the multifarious subjects which come under the head of Public Works. The labours of the Public Works Departments, central and provincial, have transformed the face of the country, and have done much to consolidate India from a collection of territories into an empire. The Public Works administration of any province, like Bombay, is complicated by the circumstance that the Supreme Government keeps the financial direction, though not the executive management, of certain important divisions of the Public Works Department, such as the main lines of railway and irrigation, in its S 2 2 76 BOMB A \ ' ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. own hands. In regard to many important questions a provincial Governor may suggest improvements or reforms, yet he cannot carry them into execution without the previous assent of the Government of India. This dual control is inevitable ; but it makes the connected study of the progress of public works in a particular province a task of no small difficulty. The work performed by the Public Works Depart- ment in the Bombay Presidency arranges itself into five main branches, (i) The development of means of com- munication, such as railways, roads, bridges and ferries. (2) The superintendence of irrigation, one of the most important duties of the Indian Government, as the great State-owner of the land. (3) The facilitation of commercial enterprise by the construction of harbours, docks, &c. (4) The maintenance of the material fabric of government, such as court houses, police lines, schools, and public or quasi-public buildings of many sorts. (5) The construction of sanitary works and appliances, such as schemes for drainage and water- supply. The really important functions of the Public Works Department, from the civil point of view, may be brought under one or other of these heads. The 1, ranch of military works, including the construction or maintenance of barracks, fortifications and schemes for general defence, stands on a different footing, and is therefore treated in another chapter. Dealing first with Means of Communication, a brief notice must suffice for the railways and the growth of the different railway systems in Bombay. For there are, strictly speaking, no provincial railways in the PUBLIC WORKS. 277 Presidenc}', that is to say, no lines constructed out of provincial revenues. The great arterial systems are all under the Government of India, and the Pro- vincial Governments have no pecuniary interest in them. But they are decentralised to a certain extent for the sake of convenience in administration, and the Bombay Government exercises immediate control over the three great lines running out of Bombay City, with a total mileage of 5001 miles, of which, however, only 1988 miles are within the actual limits of the Presi- dency. It also supervises the railways in the Native States of Kathiawar and those constructed by the Gaekwar of Baroda. The three trunk lines referred to are the ' G. I. P.' or Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company, the ' B. B. and C. I.' or Bombay, Baroda and Central India Company, and the Southern Maratha Railway Com- pany. The two first are guaranteed lines, which the Imperial Government has, at certain dates and under certain conditions, the option of purchasing. The North-Western State Railway, originally constructed mainly for military purposes, runs along the right bank of the Indus from Sukkur to Karachi, and is throughout that section in the province of Sind, but it is not managed by the Bombay Government. The most conspicuous engineering work accom- plished by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, during the five years under review, was the doubling of the line from Bhusawal in the Bombay Presidency to Khandwa in the Central Provinces, where it joins the Malwa line. This was completed in January, 1889. 278 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. Perhaps even more important for the future prosperity of Bombay City was the development of the Indian Midland Railway Company's system by the opening of the lines to Jhdnsi, and from Jhdnsi to Gwalior, on February i, 1888, and March i, 1889, respectively, A shorter route has thus been provided from Bombay to Cawnpur, via Bhusawal, Khandwa and Itarsi on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and thence via Bhopal and Jhansi on the Indian Midland Railway ; and also from Bombay to Agra via. Jhansi and Gwalior, where a junction is formed with the old Sindhia Railway. These lines have not been in use long enough to determine how far the trade from Cawnpur and the North- western Provinces will be diverted from Calcutta, and adopt Bombay for purposes of export. The recent completion of the Nagpur-Bengal Railway will also exercise an important influence on the fortunes of the Great Indian Peninsula line, as a continuation of its Ndgpur branch, and the most direct route from Bombay to Calcutta. In regard to the working of the Great Indian Pen- insula Railway, an improvement was effected by per- mitting mail and passenger trains to traverse the Bhor Ghat at night all through the year. This had been for- bidden during the monsoon months, but time has shown that the Bhor Ghat is now safe from serious slips, and the prohibition was provisionally removed by the Agent during the five years under review. His action was confirmed by the Board of Directors on June 5, 1891, to the great convenience of the public and the Post Office. In the construction of permanent buildings, PUBLIC WORKS. 279 considerable energy was shown by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway during the period from 1885 to 1890. A new and handsome station was completed at the terminus in Bombay ; large additions were made at Nagpur to meet the requirements of the increased traffic expected on the opening of the Nagpur-Bengal line ; and extensive alterations were taken in hand at Poona, where the Southern Maratha line forms its junction with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. In the Southern Maratha Railway system, important extensions were completed during Lord Reay's adminis- tration. Originally projected and undertaken as a famine relief work, it has developed into one of the most useful railways in India. The section from Dharwar to Bellary in the Madras Presidency was opened in September, 1885 ; the extension from Hubli to Harihar in October, 1886 ; the section of the West Deccan line from Poona to Korecraon in November. 1886 ; the whole of the West Deccan line in December, 1887; and the connection with the West of India Portuguese Railway in February, 1888. Further works are in progress to connect the s)'stem with the Madras Presidency. The Mysore Railways were transferred to the Southern Maratha Railway Com- pany in July, 1886. The Southern Maratha Railway thus developed during Lord Reay's tenure of office from a local line of 457 miles into a railway system of 1339 miles. It is premature to forecast the prospects of the Southern Mardthd system. Originally started as a famine line and extended for the same reason, it traverses a some- 28o BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, i S85-1 890. what poor and sparsely populated country. But along its route lie several highly productive tracts and valu- able forests, and the traffic has exceeded the amount anticipated. If it further develops, it may fairly be expected to earn 4 per cent on the capital expended on its construction. If this amount be reached, the Bombay Government will have spread a net-work of raihvays over a great area, at times terribly stricken with famine, without imposing a further burden on the o^eneral revenue. ^ The most interestino- addition to the Southern Maratha s}stem w^as the connecting line with the West of India Portuguese Railway. This line runs through the Portuguese territory eastward from the port of Marmagao, and was projected under the treaty made with Portugal in 1878. It has been constructed by a British Company, the interest being met by the hypothecation of the four lakhs of rupees, which the Por- tuguese Government yearly receives under that treaty froni the Government of India, in return inter alia for the concession of the excise and salt monopoly. It proved a costly line to build, and the completion of its junction with the Southern Maratha line near the frontier at Castle Rock was celebrated in January, 1888, by an imposing official ceremony, at which Lord Reay and the Governor-General of Portuguese India w^ere present. It seems likely to command a large traffic, as Marmagao will now be the most accessible seaport for the cotton grown in Bellary and the adjacent districts, which formerly had to seek an outlet by Madras. The railway is maintained by the company PUBLIC WORKS. 281 which constructed it, but the locomotive arrangements remain entirely under the management of the Southern Maratha Railway Company. These developments of the Great Indian Peninsula and the Southern Maratha Railways, although com- pleted during the administration of Lord Reay, were projected and commenced before his arrival. Lord Reay himself obtained sanction from the Supreme Government for the construction of a line from Godhrd to Ratlam in connection with the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway system. The main line of this system runs from Bombay to Ahmadabad, but it also works the Rajputana-Malwa and Cawnpur-Achnera railways, by which it controls the direct communication from Bombay to Delhi and the Punjab. The growth of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India traffic, and of the Rajputana Railwa}' system, in bringing down produce (especially wheat) to Bombay, made it im- perative that some relief should be given. ' This recurring pressure has again brought before the Company,' wrote Major Bisset, the Agent of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway on June 4, 1889, ' the question of what is to be done to enable it to fulfil its duty to Government and to the public, for we see, and I think Government will see, that we cannot (JO on much Ioniser without breaking; clown. . . . We can no longer dally with the question of increasing the carrying power of the line between Ajmere and Ahmadabdd. At the present moment, a week's bad weather in Enirland, or an unfavourable teleo^ram of the prospects of the American crop, may pour upon us 282 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TIOA\ 1 885-1 890. an overwhelmino- traffic. Even now, although our officers and staff are doing very well, and are running every train that can be run, I believe we do not get all traffic that would be offered, if we could clear our export grain platforms more rapidly, and I am in daily expectation of a block.' Lord Reay took measures to meet the views of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Company. Two schemes were proposed, the one to double the line from Ahmadabad to Ajmere, the other to continue the existing branch from Anand to Godhra to the e:istward and form a junction with the Malwa line at Ratldm. The latter plan presented great advantages. It would provide two distinct routes from Bombay and Baroda to Ajmere, the one via Anand, Ahmadabad and Abii Road, and the other via Anand, Godhra, Ratlam and Nimach, and would open up direct railway communica- tion between the rich province of Gujarat and Central India. Throughout the period of his administration. Lord Reay persistently pressed the importance of this scheme on the Supreme Government, and just before he left India, he obtained its sanction to the construc- tion of the Godhra-Ratlam link railway. The line will be about 1 1 5 miles in length and is estimated to cost 100 lakhs of rupees. The question of railway development in Sind also occupied Lord Reay's attention. At present the only railway communication possessed by Karachi, one of the most important and most promising ports in India, is by means of the North-Western State Railway. This line was primarily constructed for military pur- PUBLIC WORKS. 283 poses. It runs along the rioht or west bank of the Indus to a point opposite Sukkur, where it crosses the river. It proceeds thence via Bahdwalpur to Miiltdn, where it branches out on the right to Lahore, and on the left to Mianwali, whence an extension is in progress to Rawal Pindi. This circuitous route to Delhi is un- satisfactory to the merchants of Karachi, who have for many years been pressing for the construction of a more direct line to Delhi and Aora, and for direct railway communication with Bombay. They urge the excellence of their harbour, and point out that it lies some hours nearer England than Bombay. If, there- fore, they had a more direct inland line than the circuitous route by Lahore, they argue that much of the produce of North-Western India would come to Karachi for shipment. In the second place, they complain that their only postal communication with Bombay, with which most of their correspondence is carried on, is by a bi-weekly steamer service, and that there exists an imperative necessity for a daily post by rail. On the other hand a railway across the arid deserts of Bikaner and Jaisalmer, through which any line from Kardchi via Haidarabdd to Delhi would have to run, holds out but little prospect of becoming a profitable undertaking. It would pass through a country with few resources in itself and apparently not susceptible of much improvement. However, the Gov- ernment of India, in response to the representations of the Karachi merchants, consented to make a recon- naissance of the proposed route in the cold season of 284 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 8S5- 1 S90. 1888-89, "^^^ '^^'^ 3. more detailed scale in 1889-90. Whatever direction the line ^ may ultimately take, it must first run to Umarkot, — an historic town and im- portant mart, the birthplace of the Emperor Akbar, about ninety miles east of Haidarabad. From Umarkot the line could be continued either across the desert for 550 miles to Delhi or for about 150 miles to Pachpadra on the Jodhpur Railway. Direct railway communication between Haidarabad in Sind and Bombay might be secured by the prolon- gation of this Umarkot line via Disa to Palanpur on the Rajputana State Railway. But it would be more convenient for Karachi if a direct line were made along the southern coast of Sind and then through the Native State of Cutch to a junction with the Kathiawar system. Such a railway would do much to open up the State of Cutch, through which it would run for more than 100 miles. But that State is not a rich one, and does not seem able to bear the expenses of constructing its section unaided. There are no serious eno^ineerino- difficulties in regard to the Rann of Cutch. Karachi has good ground to complain of its isolation alike from Bombay and from direct communication with Central and North- Western India, and an effort will doubtless be made to improve its railway facilities. Apart from the general question of uniting Karachi with the main railway systems of India, stands the project of opening up the province of Sind by a local railway from Gidhu Bandar (which is connected by a ferry across the Indus with Kotri on the North-Western ' Since sanctioned as far as the Nara valley, and commenced. PUBLIC WORKS. 2 85 State Railway), through Haidarabad to Umarkot. The importance of such a Hue as the first link in a scheme for directly connecting- Sind with the rest of India has been already noticed. But local reasons are also urged for the line being undertaken at once and as a provin- cial project. The district of Thar and Parkar has been provided with a splendid system of irrigation works by the Eastern Nara Canals, and is now extremely pros- perous, but it has no means of obtaining a market for its produce. It would be most costly to make metalled roads for want of proper material on the spot, and every year the difficulty increases in obtaining camels, which alone can provide efficient transport. ' It appears,' wrote Mr. A. F. Baillie, Secretary of the East India Tramways Compan}^, on November 23, 1885, 'that formerly the trade between Haidarabad and Alahyar-jo-Tando [the first stage on the w^ay to Umarkot] was chiefly conducted by means of camels, and that up to some seven or eight years ago, the returns arising from the octrois amounted to say Rs. 9000 per annum, but that they have now fallen to Rs. 5000. This arises from the fact that of late years the demand for camels for military transport and other purposes has greatly increased, and that the supply for trading purposes has in consequence decreased. Camel transport on an adequate scale having failed, it has to some extent been replaced by the ordinary country bullock carts, but as the roads are totally unadapted for this description of traffic, the cart owners dislike the route, and charge high rates ; and in consequence trade has languished, and, as already stated, the returns 286 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. for octrois have been reduced by nearly 50 per cent. Some allowance must be made for the feelingfs of the cart owners, for, without exception, the road connecting this city [Haidarabad] with Alahyar-jo-Tando is the worst that I have ever had the misfortune to travel. Throughout the march of twenty-two miles I have never found one hundred consecutive yards of sound way ; and although mounted on an extremely capable Mahri I was never able to proceed except at the slowest walking pace. In other countries that I have visited, where the soil is equally loose, and where a similar description of cart is in use, huge ruts are created, but ultimately a solid foundation is reached, and the ruts themselves serve to form the permanent way : but in the district of Sind that I have just visited, there would appear to be no bottom, for the carts sink deeper and deeper, until the loose soil between the wheels reaches to the axle, and farther progress is impeded. I am far from imputing mismanagement to any one, and can bear witness that attempts have been made to improve the way ; but with the class of material on which to work, it seems to me impossible, except at an enormous expense, to form a permanent road for the carts, and a recurrence to the old system of camel transport, for the reasons already stated, is equally impossible.' Under these circumstances two successive Commis- sioners in Sind, Mr. Erskine and Mr. Pritchard, urged the construction of this railway upon the Bombay Government. They showed that owing to the nature of the country it would cost but little more to build a light railway than to make a road, and it was suggested PUBLIC WORKS. 287 that second-hand rails and roHincr-stock could be ob- tained from the North-Western State Railway. It was estimated that such a railway from Gidhu Bandar to the banks of the Eastern Nara, a distance of 75 miles, could be constructed with babiil sleepers from the local forests, for 16 lakhs of rupees. According to this project, the line would stop 15 miles short of Umarkot, because of the expense involved in bridging the Eastern Nara. Towards the 16 lakhs, the Local Boards of Haidarabad and Thar and Parkar offered to contribute a lakh and three-quarters, and the Bombay Government expressed its willingness to finance the remainder. The Secretary of State for India sanctioned the construction of this railway, and the Government of India sent an officer to enquire into the matter. Regarding it from the imperial point of view, he esti- mated the construction of a line, up to the standard of the great trunk railways, with steel sleepers and an expensive ferry across the Indus from Gidhu Bandar to Kotri, which should transport the loaded railway waggons, at 31 J lakhs of rupees. The Government of India forwarded this estimate to the Bombay Government with expressions of approval, and evi- dently hoped that the construction of the line would be the first step towards a through railway to Pach- padra or Delhi. This point of view did not commend itself to the Bombay Government, On December 5, 1889, it re- plied : ' The scheme, as now foreshadowed, is de- signed more for the future than for the present, and 288 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 8S5-1 890. requires a very much larger outlay from provincial resources than is considered necessary by this Govern- ment for probably many years to come. In fact, this Government is asked to construct the line up to a standard which would only be required should it be- come an imperial highway, and thus to incur expendi- ture the interest on which may never be recouped so long as the section remains as a local provincial rail- way.' In the last letter upon this subject during Lord Reay's administration, written upon February 6, 1890, the position is still more clearly defined : ' However desirable it may be to make the line more substantial in character from the outset, the Governor in Council regrets that the finances of this Presidency cannot bear the extra expense that is sought to be entailed. Under ordinary circumstances that part of the country would have been opened out by roads, but as the first cost of a road and its maintenance would not be much less than a cheap railway, the Governor in Council is prepared to make the railway instead. But the great object sought is to get railway communication at the least possible expense, and then to improve the line hereafter as the traffic improves.' I have explained this divergence of opinion between the Government of India and the Bombay Govern- ment, for it illustrates their relations to each other. It is natural and right that the Supreme Government should look to the ultimate advantages to the Empire of any proposed scheme ; it is also right that the Provincial Government, as was done in this case by Lord Reay, should primarily pay attention to local PUBLIC WORKS. 289 requirements, and should jealously safeguard the interests of the provincial finances. Only second in importance to the development of railways running through British territory is the ex- pansion of railways in Native States. The more enlightened native princes are fully alive to the ad- vantages of railways in opening up their territories and increasing their prosperity. They have proved themselves ready to spend large sums on railway con- struction not so much as a commercial speculation, but as a duty which they owe to their people. Lord Reay steadily endeavoured to encourage this feeling. The Gdekwar of Baroda took the lead as a railway pro- jector. But his desire to retain jurisdiction over local lines running through his territory causes a difficulty in the case of railways which pass partly through his dominions and partly through the British districts. The principal railways constructed up to the present time by the Gdekwar have therefore lain entirely in the State of Baroda. They consist of two groups. The one to the south of Baroda comprises lines from Miyagaon and Vish- vamitri on the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, to Dabhoi, constructed in 1873 and 1881 ; and from Dabhoi to Bahadarpur and Chandod, con- structed in 1879. The other, in the north of the State, which was completed in 1888, runs from Mehsana to Kheralu, and contemplates branches from Visnagar on this line to Vijapur and from Mehsana to Patdn : the latter opened on the 20lh July, 1891. On all these lines the Gdekwar exercises full jurisdiction, T 290 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. but as he has adopted the Indian Raihvay Acts, the law in this particular is uniform, although adminis- tered by Baroda courts. The jurisdiction question stands in the way of other schemes. The Baroda State is so intermixed with British territory that it is often impossible to get from one part of it to another without passing through our districts. There can be no doubt that divided responsibility is a great mistake. But where the lines are merely short branches serving isolated districts, there seems to be no vital reason for demanding the same absolute jurisdiction which must be exercised by the paramount power over the great trunk lines. It is hoped that a compromise may be arrived at, giving the Baroda State jurisdiction over branch lines passing mainly through its territories, while the British Government retains its authority over the trunk lines. The two projects hindered by the jurisdiction ques- tion were, (i) a line from Anand, on the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, westwards to Petlad and Sojitra, thence to Piploi and Nadiad, and so eventually to Cambay ; and (2) a line from Surat eastwards to Songarh, and thence to Nandurbar in Khdndesh. The latter project well illustrates the jurisdiction difficulty. On leaving Surat it would traverse 5^ miles of British territory, then 13 miles of Baroda, then 13^ miles of British, then 18^ miles of Baroda, after which it would pass into British territory and into minor tributary States which have no juris- diction of their own. A compromise was however, arrived at with regard to the first of these schemes, PUBLIC WORKS. 291 and the line from Anand to Petlad was opened on May 5, 1890. The Gaekwdr ordered the construction of a hne from Mehsana to Viramgam \ a direct result of the friendly relations between Lord Reay and His Highness. It will be of great benefit to the Kathiawar system, as it connects it by a metre gauge line with the metre gauge main line, the Rajputana-Malwa. It only remains to add that, as in Sind, the cost of making and maintaining roads in many parts of Gujarat is extremely great, owing to the absence of metal, and that it is therefore eminently a province for the con- struction of railways. The improvement of railway communications in Kathiawdr during Lord Reay's administration made more rapid progress than in Baroda. The division of the Kathiawdr peninsula into numerous Native States might have been expected to raise many difficulties but for the public spirit of the princes and chiefs. The Kdthiawar railway system was commenced under the rule of Sir Richard Temple by the opening of a line, in 1880, from Wadhwan to Bhaunagar, built at the expense of the Thakur Sahib of the latter State, and of a second line, running through the State of Gondal from Dhordji to Dhassa, and joining the Bhaunagar line at Dhola, in 1881. The. advantages of these lines became so evident that it was resolved to expand them. Two railways were constructed, one from Jetalsar traversing the State of Junagarh to the port of Verawal, the other from Dhordji through the State of Porbandar to the port of Porbandar. Lord Reay cut ' Opened on the 1st February, 1891. T 2 292 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. the first sod of the latter Hne at Dhoraji on December 29, 1887, and took occasion to praise the public spirit of the Thakur Sahib of Gondal, who had given up his first idea of making a railway to his capital, Gondal, in order to co-operate with the Administration of Por- bandar in building a line to open up that port. At the same time his Excellency announced that Gondal was raised to a first-class State, and that the Thdkur's salute was increased from nine to eleven guns. Lord Reay opened the line before he left India, the con- struction having been remarkably rapid. An even more enthusiastic railway constructor is the Thakur Sahib of Morvi. Not satisfied with build- ing a line from Wadhwan to Morvi, he has gone outside the limits of his own State and extended it to Rajkot, whence it may possibly be prolonged through Nawa- nagar to the fine trading harbour of Salaya on the coast of Kathidwar. This remarkable development of railways in the Peninsula of Kathiawar reflects the greatest credit on everyone concerned ; on the en- lightened rulers of Bhaunagar, Gondal, Morvi, and Junagarh, and on the successive Governors of Bom- bay, Sir Richard Temple, Sir James Fergusson, and Lord Reay. The only other railway in a Native State requiring" notice is the Kolhapur State Railway. This line was commenced in February, 1888 (opened 1891). It was constructed by the Kolhapur Darbar, which provided all the money ; but it is intended that, when complete, it shall be worked by the South Marathd Railway Company as a branch of their system. The PUBLIC WORKS. 293 line runs from Kolhapur City to Miraj on the Southern Mardtha line, a distance of 2 8f miles, and was estim- ated to cost Rs. 22,72,520. This is a very large sum for construction alone, but the works were difficult and involve an expensive bridge over the Krishna River. It is difficult in the case of the great trunk systems to show the local development during the five years under review. For long sections of those systems lie beyond the limits of the Bombay Presidency ; and their extension or improvement is for the most part made quite independently of the Bombay Government. It must therefore be clearly understood that the follow- ing table is not, in regard to the three main systems, intended to claim for the Bombay Government the credit due for developments in which they had not a leading part. Its sole purpose is to present a bird's-eye view of the extension of railway communica- tion in the Bombay Presidency, or directly connected with that presidency — of the lines, in short, which are popularly associated with Bombay ; on which the prosperity of its British districts and Native States largely depends ; and of which the direct control has been made over by the Supreme Government of India to the Bombay Government for the purposes of railway administration. In each system the working expenses have been deducted from the gross earnings. The Bhopal line is excluded, as it passed to the Indian Midland system before the close of the period under review. 294 B 0MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. Railway Systems of, or connected with, the Bombay Presidency, 1885 to 1890. Miles Open. Nett Earnings. ^" Jan. I 1885. Dec. 31 18S9. In- crease. 1885. 1889. In- crease. Bombay, Baro- da and Central India (including Rdjputdna- Mdlwd, and Cawnpur-Ach- nera Railways) 1,8521 2,io6i 254* Rs. 1,53,37,863 Rs. 1,84,14,472 Rs. 30,76,609 Great Indian Peninsula (including Dhond-Man- mdd Railway, Khangaon and Amrdoti Branches) 1,448 1,448 1,83,13,310 1,83,23,102 9,792 Southern Mard- thd Railway (including Mysore State Railways) 354 1,275 921 1,40,338 11,83,649 10,43,311 Kdthidwdr Rail- ways 193 420I 227i 3,91,247 6,56,558 2,65,311 Baroda Railways 58I 86^ 271 55,623 3,42,38,381 73,530 17,907 Total . . . 3>9o6| 5,336i 3,86,51,311 Total Increase ■' 1,430^ 44,12,930 Next in importance to railways as a means of communication come tramways. These convenient adjuncts to a comprehensive railway system have long received attention from the Bombay Govern- ment. During the period under review, the Indian Feeder Lines Company was started, in 1887, with the object of constructing tramways to the principal ' By lease of the Cawnpur-Achnera Railway from the Government of the N^ W. Provinces. PUBLIC WORKS. 295 places at short distances from the main lines of the railway systems. Lord Reay encouraged this usefid project, and the Indian Tramways Act was extended to the whole of the Bombay Presidency except the cities of Bombay and Karachi, where special Acts are in force and where tramway systems have for some years been in operation. The first undertaking of the new Company was to lay a horse-tramway from Nasik City to the Nasik Road Station on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway; the next project contemplated was a steam-tramway from the Barsi Road Station to Barsi. Of more importance is the scheme for constructing a tramway from Ahmadabdd to the once famous but now decayed port of Dholera, a distance of seventy-seven miles. This is a large project, and the cost is estimated at not much under nineteen lakhs of rupees. But the wealth of Ahmadabad and the vitality of Dholera as a trading- centre seem to hold out promise of its success. While the construction of railways and tramways, the modern means of communication which are trans- forming the face of India, forms an important part of the duties of the Bombay Railway Branch of Public Works Department and demands the careful attention of each successive Governor, roads, the primary means of communication, are not neglected. The policy of the British as the paramount power has been to cover India with a network of sound roads, which remain as a witness to the thoroughness of our engineers, as the Roman roads of Europe testify to the greatness of the conquering race of two thousand 296 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. years ago. To enumerate the new roads commenced or completed, or the old roads improved or metalled during the five years under review, would tire out the most patient reader. But to indicate the scale of the works undertaken, in spite of the general policy of retrenchment, it may be noted that in 1888-89 no less than Rs. 20,92,153 was spent upon communications, namely, roads, bridges, and ferries, in addition to Rs. 5,47,522 on establishment and tools. In that year, also, two important roads from Ghoda to Ambegaon and from Jamgaon to Kotul were commenced as 'parts of a scheme for opening up the hilly tracts of country in the north-west of the Poona, and the west of the Ahmadnagar Districts, inhabited by Kolis and Rdmosis, whose condition will, it is hoped, be thereby improved ^' Bridges and ferries also come under the purview of the Public Works Department, as facilitating means of communication. It fell to Lord Reay's lot to open the great bridge across the Indus at Sukkur, over which the North-Western State Railway passes to the riofht bank of the river. This brido-e, the finest example of the cantilever principle before the com- pletion of the Forth Bridge, was, however, not built by the Bombay Railway Department, and was only inaugurated by Lord Reay in his capacity as Governor of the Presidency. Perhaps the most important under- taking of the kind by the Bombay Public Works Department during the five years was the reconstruc- ^ Administration Report of Civil Works of the Public Works Depart' inenf, Getteral Brattch, Bombay Preside?icy, for the year 1888-89, p. il. PUBLIC WORKS. 297 tion of the Ellis Bridge at Ahmadabad, — a work greatly needed both for the sake of the town itself and of the district across the river. With regard to ferries, mention has already been made of the great ferry across the Indus from Kotri on the North-Western State Railway to Gidhu Bandar in connection with the proposed railway to Umarkot, of which it would form an important link. Many lesser ferries are maintained by the Bombay Govern- ment, and take the place of bridges where it is inexpedient to spend large sums on building. In a province, like Bombay, with a long coast-line and numerous ports and harbours, it is hardly necessary to say that communication by sea is often cheaper and more convenient than by land. Many steamers ply between Bombay and other places on the coast. The mails from Bombay to Karachi, the second city in the presidency, are, as I have men- tioned, carried by steamers. The immigrants from Ratnagiri, who work in the Bombay mills, come to the great manufacturing city in steamers. An interesting point with regard to such steamship com- munication is that it rests in the hands of independent companies. Private enterprise supplies the need wathout the interference of Government, and to all appearance supplies it adequately. Though steamship communication can be safely left to private enterprise, it is otherwise with regard to irrigation. The British Government in India is not only the great capitalist who has to provide for or guarantee undertakings requiring expenditure. It 298 BOMB A V ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. is also the great landlord, and in that capacity owes many duties to its tenants. Among such duties the construction and maintenance of irrigation works hold a leading place. The importance of artificial irrigation in India, where the whole prosperity of the country depends upon the rainfall or other supply of water for agricul- tural purposes, is obvious, and the British Govern- ment has spent vast sums upon it. The general direction, as well as the financial control, of irriga- tion is retained by the Supreme Government of India, in the same way as it controls railway communication. But the Bombay Public Works Department has the administrative and executive management of irriga- tion works within the boundaries of the Presidency. It has also the power of sanctioning new works up to a limit of two lakhs of rupees, although the Government of India retains ultimate control by restricting the amount of the budget allotment to Bombay. In the exercise of these powers the Supreme Government has practically stopped all extension of the irrigation works in Gujarat and the Deccan, because they do not yield a direct return even approaching the interest on the capital expended upon them. The Bombay Govern- ment has not availed itself of the provision for under- taking such works provincially, that is to say, by making its provincial finances responsible for the interest on the outlay. Owing to the short term of five years for which the Provincial Contract runs, it would not have time to realise a substantial share in the profits of such works, while it would incur the risks of future con- PUBLIC WORKS. 299 tracts being so framed as to exclude the consideration of eventual revenue resultinof from them. The Bom- bay Government therefore prefers to invest any por- tion of its balance or surplus revenue in the permanent improvement of the accommodation for public offices and of the means of communication. This expenditure involves no future obligations, and is, at the same time, of distinct advantage to the local administration. An idea of the proportionate importance of irriga- tion among the works undertaken by the Bomba}^ Government may be formed from the following figures ^ Out of Rs. 72,57,620 actually expended by the Bombay Public Works Department, in 1889-90, on works and repairs, excluding the charges for estab- lishment, Rs. 40,26,549 were spent on civil works, im- perial, provincial, and local, including roads, buildings, &c.; Rs. 1 1,03,924 on military works; and Rs.21, 27,147 on irrigation. In dealing with irrigation in the Bombay Presidency a wide distinction must be drawn between irrigation in the Province of Sind, where it is an absolute necessity, and irrigation in Gujardt and the Deccan, where it is of the nature of famine-insurance, and a convenience for improving agriculture. Both systems are administered and reported upon to the Government of India by the Government of Bombay ; but they are kept distinct, and the figures regarding them are shown separately. ' Admijiistration Report of Civil Works of the Public Works Depart- tnent (^Getieral Branch), Bombay Presidency, for the year 1889-90 ; Bom- bay, 1890, p. 3. 300 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. ' The irrigation system of Sincl,' says a Resolution of the Government of India, dated June 28, 1889, 'con- sists of a great network of canals, led off from the Indus, watering a country which is almost rainless and devoid of wells, and which but for these canals would produce hardly any crops except in basins flooded by the spill of the river. It also includes a system of embankments, whose object it is to shut in the flood- waters of the river and prevent its spill. But though these canals and embankments practically constitute one combined system, managed indiscriminately by the same engineering and collecting staff, they are distin- guished for account purposes into four classes accord- ing to the nature of the funds employed in their con- struction. In the first class, major works, are four canals constructed from Loan Funds ; in the second, minor works, for which Capital and Revenue Accounts are kept, are seven canals constructed from Revenue. The rest of the canals fall into the third class, minor works, for which only Revenue Accounts are kept, having for the most part been constructed from Revenue in earlier years, before a careful system of Capital Accounts was started. The fourth class, agri- cultural works, consists chiefly of the embankments in Upper Sind, which are less closely connected with irrigation than with the protection of the country and the retention of the river in its proper course. Few of these canals are entirely new, though all have been greatly improved under British rule.' This paragraph gives some idea of the compli- cated system of accounts kept with regard to irrigation PUBLIC WORKS. 301 in Sind, and of the importance of such works to that province. The nature of the country and its pecuHar cHmatic conditions render it entirely dependent upon the Indus for its agricultural prosperity. This has been recognised from the earliest times, and several of the Native dynasties laboured to maintain and improve a system of irrigation. But no previous Government ever attempted so much as the British have accom- plished, and the methodical and persistent labours of a succession of great engineers are rendering no longer appropriate the sobriquet given to the province by Sir Richard Burton in one of his early books, entitled ' Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley.' Down to the end of the year 1888-89 Rs. 84,28,392 had been expended in Sind on the four major irrigation works. Of this sum Rs. 51,61,311 had been spent on the Eastern Nara Works, Rs. 16,73,079 on the Begari Canal, Rs. 12,54,874 on the Desert Canal, and Rs.3,39,128 on the Unharwah. On the seven minor works, for which Capital and Revenue Accounts are kept, there had been expended up to the same date Rs. 32,73,637; of which the largest items were Rs. 13,88,713 on the Sukkur Canal, and Rs. 10,25,928 on the Fuleli Canals. The irriofation works in Sind are divided into seven executive charges ; the area of cultivation irrigated in each being shown in the following table. Much of this large area must, but for irrigation, remain absolutely barren ; and even the localities which would obtain an overflow of the Indus greatly benefit from the regu- lation and storage of the supply. The figures are 302 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. taken from the Sincl Irrigation Revenue Report for 1888-89. Irrigation Area in Sind, 1888-89. Government Land. Jaghir Land. Total. Begdri Canals . . Shik^rpur Canals . Ghdr Canals . . . Eastern Ndra . . Haidardbiid Canals Fuleli Canals . . . Karachi Canals . . Acres. 279,236 137,133 428,552 213,700 334,370 252,494 242,071 Acres. 82,434 6,289 16,822 4,000 48,427 54,921 18,186 Acres. 361,670 143,422 445,374 217,700 382,797 307,415 260,257 Total . . 1,887,556 231,079 2,118,635 To irrigate this area of 3310 square miles, 5916 miles of canals and 613 miles oi builds, or protective em- bankments, had to be maintained in the yean 888-89 \ and their totals steadily increase as fresh develop- ments are initiated in the different districts. The annual outlay on this vast system of irrigation and protective works in Sind may be summarised thus: — ■ Improvements, Rs. 1,69,009; maintenance and re- pairs, Rs. 1 1,81,720 ; cost of collecting the revenue, Rs. 3,91,630; total in 1888-89, Rs. 17,42,359^. Large as this amount is, it brought in a full return, not only in the increased prosperity of the province, but in actual revenue. It is extremely difficult to esti- mate the exact amount of this revenue, as it takes the shape of increased rent for irrigated land, rather than of a direct charge for the supply of water. It has been * Sind Irrigation Revenue Report, 1888-89, P- 23. Jdid., p. 2>7- PUBLIC WORKS. 303 customary in the Sind Irrigation Reports to calculate the estimated water-share of the consolidated revenue. Mention has already been made of the complicated system of capital accounts, and of the existence of numerous minor works for which no capital account is kept, and it is therefore considered better to give the nett revenue of Sind irrigation works without attempt- ing to introduce the question of how far this revenue ought to be reduced by a deduction of the interest on the capital sum expended on them. Subject to this proviso the following were the figures for 1888-89: — Canal Revenue, Rs. 44,69,436^; less expenses as shown in the last paragraph, Rs. 17,42,359; net revenue from Sind irrigation works, Rs. 27,27,077. These figures are instructive. They show that the British Government is not only doing its duty to the people of Sind by constructing and main- taining irrigation works, but Is doing so at a profit to the general revenue. ' It cannot be too con- stantly borne in mind,' says Mr. Arthur C. Trevor, the Acting Commissioner in Sind, on February 14, 1890, in reviewing the Report from which these sta- tistics are taken, ' that practically the whole revenue in Sind depends upon its canal system, and on the facilities afforded for controllinof distributing, and utilizing the waters of the Indus, without which the province would be a desert. The marked develop- ment which has taken place of late years is due in a ^ Sind Irrigation Revenue Report, 1888-89, p. 36 ; on p. 60 of the same Report, however, the figures of the actual receipts on account of canal revenue are given as Rs. 44,58,953, or Rs. 10,483 less than in the above table. 304 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. great measure to the influx of capital in connection with the Afghan war expenditure, to the outlet for surplus agricultural produce, afforded by the opening of the railway and the state of the European markets, and to the growth of intelligence and enterprise among the people. With these aids, the water poured into the country year by year has been much more com- pletely utilized than previously^' While irrigation is thus the life-blood of Sind, in the other provinces of Bombay, Gujarat and the Deccan, it is not so much a necessity in ordinary seasons as a means of famine insurance against years when the rainfall is abnormally low. In 1888-89 only 77,318 acres were irrigated (apart from the ordinary wells) in Gujardt and the Deccan — the same year in which 2,118,635 acres were irrigated in Sind. The following statement is instructive as showingf the function of canal irrigation in Gujarat and the Deccan as a famine insurance, the irrigated area rising or diminishing according to the rainfall : — Irrigation and Rainfall in GujarAt and the Deccan, 1883-89-. Rainfall in Inches. Acres Irrigated. 1883-84 31-42 32,864 1884-85 24-35 37,701 1885-86 22-8o 57,567 1886-87 28-81 40,903 1887-88 26-35 44,303 1888-89 I9"6S 77,318 The value of irrigation works in the Presidency proper ' Sind Irrigation Report, 1888-89, P- 62. ^ Administratiott Report of the Public Works Department {Irrigation), 1888-89, P- I- PUBLIC WORKS. 305 is therefore not to be under-rated. For the cultivators readily take advantage of them, when the rainfall is deficient. From an engineering point of view, the works in the Deccan present features of interest unknown in Sind, as it is a more difficult task to retain and distribute water in a hilly country than on a flat plain watered by a great river. Especially is this true of the Ni'ra Canal, originally conceived by Lieutenant-General J, G. Fife, R.E., and now being constructed. Lord Reay issued a special Minute in regard to the work on March 22, 1890. His Excellency pointed out that it was unfair to compare the financial results of irrigation works in Sind with those in the Deccan and Gujarat, and argued that irrigation schemes in the Presidency proper should be undertaken not only to afford relief in time of scarcity or famine, but with a view to the storage of the rainfall and its better distribution. In a speech delivered before the Bombay Chamber of Com- merce on April 11, 1889, Lord Reay had already defined the position of the Government towards irrigation-w^orks in Gujarat and the Deccan. ' In the meantime,' he said, after speaking of the amount of money expendecP, ' the anticipations, as regards the utility of works affording a supply during the monsoon months, had been fully tested, with the result that such works were of use in ordinary years only to a very limited extent, the people being very averse to the extended use of the means of artificial irrigation ' Administration Rcpoi't of Civil Works of the Public Works Dcpart- vie7ii, Bombay Presidency {Ccneral Branch), 1 888- 89, pp. i, 2. U 3 o6 B 0MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 8 8 5 - 1 8 90. for the ordinary crops grown at that season. This resLilt is accounted for partly by the expense of manur- ing and preparing the fields for irrigation, and by the character and distribution of the rainfall, which, in ordinary seasons in most districts, renders artificial irrigation unnecessary, and, the people think, even injurious as respects the staple crop — jowari. In fact, the experience of the past twenty-five years may be said to be that a permanent supply of water, affording the means of irrigation all the year round, so as to admit of the more valuable rabi and perennial crops, such as wheat, (jram, orfound-nut, sucrar-cane, and garden crops of all kinds, is essential to the success of the works. If the supply is not of this class, the works will not pay even their working expenses, and in ordinary seasons the supply, during the short period it is available, will in most cases run to waste, unutilised. ' It is further to be observed that the works them- selves, though many of them anything but a financial success, are of great importance in seasons of drought, when the area of irrigation expands. The direct and indirect return may in such years be said to cover a large proportion of the loss in other years, when irrigation is not resorted to, though the same, or nearly the same, expenditure has to be incurred in keeping the works in order. Thus, in the past year, one of deficient rainfall, the works together irrigated 77,318^ acres, as compared with 44,303 in 1887-88, and 40,903 in 1886-87, both years of good rainfall. These areas are small, as compared with those irrigated by canals in ' These are the corrected figures ; the speech only gave the estimate. PUBLIC WORKS. 307 Northern India ; but there is a great difference in the configuration of the country and the sources of supply, and in the Deccan, with its steep confined valleys and rocky ground, with no large rivers affording a per- manent supply of water, it is no small matter to have secured over iio square miles of irrigated cultivation in a year, in which cultivation would, in the particular tracts concerned, have been impossible without the means of artificial irrigation. , ' It has been sutraested that some of the works. giving the worst financial results, should be abandoned ; but as these are often of greatest assistance in years of drought, it is considered that this would be a mistake, as the benefit they confer directly on the rayat and indirectly on the Government in increasing the food and fodder supply, is of almost incalculable local ad- vantage. Experience goes to show that the future policy should be, when funds are available, to provide storage works to supplement the supply to those canals, which now only afford water for irrigation during the monsoon, and are only utilized to any considerable extent in seasons of dron Seventeen of the latter sentences were can- celled by the High Court, but the more serious penalty was confirmed, and the three ringleaders were hanged \ The second case deserves notice because out of it arose important questions of judicial procedure which gave rise to much controversy. Mr. Arthur Travers Crawford, C.M.G., of the Bombay Civil Service, Com- missioner of the Central Division, havinsf been charged with corruption, and with borrowing money from natives and from his official subordinates, was tried by a special Commission, consisting of Mr. Justice Arthur Wilson, of the Calcutta High Court, Mr. J. W. Quinton, at that time a Member of the Board of Revenue of the North-Western Provinces and since murdered at Mani- pur, and Mr. R. J. Crosthwaite, then Judicial Com- missioner of the Central Provinces. This Commission opened the inquiry at Poona in October, 1888, and held sixty-seven public sittings. In its report it found Mr. Crawford not guilty of the graver charges of ^ Bombay Administration Report for 1885-86, p. 51. PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 415, corruption or of borrowing from official subordinates. He had himself pleaded guilty to borrowing money from natives within the Division of which he had administrative charge. The Bombay Government was bound by the Act ^ under which Mr. Crawford was tried, not merely to review the Report of the Commission, but to pass its own decision on the facts brought to light by that Report. Its unfavourable decision together with the Report of the Commission were submitted to the Secretary of State. Finally, the Secretary of State in his Despatch of March 29, 1889, declared 'that the character and consequences of the pecuniary em- barrassment to which Mr. Crawford had brought him- self disclose a condition of things altogether lamentable and inconsistent with the possibility of the proper administration of the Division, at the head of which he was placed, or indeed of the due performance of his public duties anywhere.' He therefore ordered the removal of Mr. Crawford's name from the list of the Bombay Civil Servants. Such cases are fortunately very rare in India, so ^ Act XXXVII of 1850. Sir Raymond West's Minute on the case begins thus : 'The Commissioners appointed to investigate the charges preferred against Mr. A. T. Crawford, having now presented their Report, the duty devolves on Government under Act XXXVII of 1850, of pro- nouncing on the proof or failure of proof of malversation. In discharging this duty, Government must obtain all the assistance from the report and the proceedings of the Commissioners which those records can afford, but it is bound, using these valuable aids, to form its own judgment on the innocence or culpability, and the degree of culpability of the accused officer.' The view taken by the Government of Bombay, upon a con- sideration of the whole statements before it, was more unfavourable to Mr. Crawford than the conclusions arrived at by the Commission in their Report to Government. 4i6 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. rare that the Crawford case stirred public opinion to the depths. In accordance with Indian precedents, and with a view to preventing evidence being kept back through fear, the Bombay Government authorised the offer of a complete indemnity to witnesses who might have given gratifications or money to Mr. Craw- ford or his supposed agents. Under this indemnity many persons came forward to give evidence. The Bombay Government prepared to fulfil its pledge, while marking its displeasure on those who had offered bribes. But the Secretary of State issued instructions to the Bombay Government that ' the general rule must be that those who have Qriven bribes must be deprived of magisterial and other functions.' The statute of George III under which this decision was arrived at had not previously been applied, as regards this provision, in India. When Her Majesty's Govern- ment determined to apply it in this case, a serious dilemma arose. On the one hand, it was impossible that the solemn pledge of indemnity given by the Bombay Government should be disregarded. On the other hand, it was impossible that officers who had obtained their places by corruption should continue to hold their appointments unless they had yielded to undue pressure, which, as shown in Sir Raymond West's minute, had concussed them to make these payments. Apart from the new statutory question thus imported into the case, it was generally recognised that unless a complete guarantee had been given to the witnesses, the enquiry would have been a mere farce. It is absurd to suppose that the victims of an PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 417 alleged system of extortion in India would come forward to give evidence, unless they were assured that the fact of their having been coerced into sub- mission to the alleged system of extortion would not be used to their further detriment. It was also re- cognised that, unless the British Government were to be regarded as wilHng to wink at an alleged sys- tem of corruption on a large scale by a highly placed British officer, an enquiry was absolutely de- manded. Under these circumstances, w^ith the English statute on the one side and the actual and acknow- ledged facts and necessities of such a trial in India on the other, the Governor- General in Council deter- mined to intervene, and to pass a modified Act of Indemnity. When the Bill was introduced into the Supreme Legislative Council of India on September 19, 1889, Mr. Hutchins, now Sir P. P. Hutchins, K.C.S.I., said: ' This Bill indemnifies all of them [i.e. the incriminated native officials or " Mamlatdars "] against suits and prosecutions, but will not relieve any who have made corrupt payments without any extreme pressure from the other penalties, which have been incurred under Statute 49 of George III. It was not considered right that the guarantee against official departmental punish- ment or loss should be maintained. In all cases the rights and liberties of Her Majesty's subjects must not be left at the mercy of judges and magistrates, who have corruptly purchased their offices and powers. The dismissed men, however, should be given a pecuniary compensation for this partial non-fulfilment Dd 4i8 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of the oruarantee. Eioht officials have been dismissed and others will shortly be disposed of, who clearly do not fall under the category of persons who have paid money under great pressure. It cannot be imputed to the Bombay Government in removing these men that they are breaking their own guarantee, for their promise has to this extent been over-ruled by the Secretary of State and the Government of India. The whole question has been reduced to a single issue of facts, whether payment can or cannot be regarded as having been extorted. When this issue has been decided, the dismissal follows necessarily in conse- quence, not by the act of the Government of Bombay, but of th*e appellate authorities, which enjoined that such a course of action should be pursued.' The Viceroy on the same occasion spoke with equal clearness : ' Nothing could be more unfortunate than to allow an impression to prevail that such engage- ments were liable to be lightly set aside, but the desire to support the presidential Government did not constitute a ground for legislating with the express purpose of retaining in office, and in the discharge of judicial and administrative functions requiring the highest integrity, persons who had not only become legally incapable of serving the State, but who had shown themselves guilty of deliberate and voluntary corruption. Government believed that having to choose between a partial cancellation of guarantee and the retention in office of men self-convicted as unworthy of public confidence, the partial cancellation of guarantee was the lesser evil. The indemnity given PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 419 by the Bombay Government had promised : first, exemption from punishment for an indictable offence ; secondly, protection from private suits or prosecutions; thirdly, retention of office in spite of statutory in- capacity in cases even of the most serious offenders. The guarantee would hold good except in regard to the retention of office, and compensation will be given for the loss of this.' The difference of opinion between the Supreme and the Local Government was of a somewhat technical character turning on the definition of undue pressure and 'extreme pressure.' The Bombay Government did not consider that the oruilt of deli- o berate and voluntary corruption had been legally established against the Mamlatdars. In the House of Lords, the Secretary of State for India, Lord Cross, explained at some length that the non-confirmation of the complete guarantee did not imply a censure on the Bombay Government. ' I wish to take this opportunity,' he said, ' of publicly stating that Lord Reay deserves much credit for the manner in w^iich he has endeavoured, I hope successfully, to put a stop to bribery and corruption in his province.' And again : 'In conclusion, I must take this oppor- tunity of stating that Lord Reay has certainly done his utmost to give full effect to the pledges which he gave, and has acted all through with the highest sense of honour, and although he was, in my judgment, ill- advised in the particular course which he took, and which I have not been able to sanction, I have every confidence in his administration, and can bear testimony to his continuous and successful efforts to promote the D d 2 420 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. moral, social, and material prosperity of the people committed to his charge.' After a consideration of the whole case, however. Lord Reay deemed It his duty to place his resignation in the Viceroy's hands. The Viceroy urged that not only was there no sufficient ground for this step, but that the resignation of the Governor of Bombay v/ould be detrimental, under the circumstances, to the public interests and liable to be misunderstood. The Secretary of State took the same view, and Lord Reay refrained from pressing the matter further. During the five years under review, no serious change was made in the judicial administration. It was otherwise with the police. The Police Bill, passed by the Bombay Legislative Council In April, 1890, was one of the important measures of the five years. Equally important questions arose as to the housing, drilling, and organising of the district police. There are two distinct bodies of police In the Bombay Presidency, the stipendiary police and the village police. The former comprise three separate branches : the District Police, the Bombay City Police, and the Railway Police. Of these the District Police, number- ing over 18,000 officers and men, form a semi-military corps, partly armed and drilled, who are enlisted not merely for the preservation of the peace, but also as an orofanised force In case of disturbances. The villas^e police, on the other hand, are the hereditary servants of the village communities and guardians of the local peace, and are paid by perquisites or by rent-free lands. PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 421 The District Police are managed or commanded by a Superintendent of Police in each district, who has complete executive control over his force, under the general direction of the Magistrate of the District. Each Superintendent has one or more Assistant- Superintendents, and probationers under him. Both Superintendents and Assistant -Superintendents are invested with magisterial powers to conduct proceed- ings preliminary to trial. The police sub-division of a district is identical with the taluka, but the Faujdar, or chief constable of a sub-division, holds a position inferior to that of the Mamlatdar, who is in revenue charge o* the taluka. The Faujdar is, however, independent of the Mamlatdar in his executive control of the police under him, and is only answerable to the Super- intendent or Assistant-Superintendent. The regular police in each sub-division are divided into outposts under the charge of head constables, for the patrol of the sub-division \ The system of District Police has its merits, and in past days was the only one possible. But with the improvement of communications it became necessary to make some attempt to secure uniformity of control and supervision, without infringing on the executive authority of the district officers. For this purpose a Commissioner of Police had been appointed as early as 1855; but the office did not answer expectations and was abolished in i860. The need for a central con- trolling authority, however, made itself more and more ' Bombay Administration Report for 18S2-83, pp. 23, 24.— Standing information. 422 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. apparent. In the districts there was a general want of uniformity in drill and in procedure ; at headquarters the Government felt the need of a trained adviser in police questions. Sir James Fergusson, the predecessor of Lord Reay, pressed this point, but his views met with a steady opposition from the district officers and the Commissioners of Divisions, who were entrusted with the general supervision of the Police, and who argued that such a measure of centralisation would diminish the authority of the district officers. Sir James Fergusson thus stated the question in a Minute dated February 11, 1884: 'Why should not the police require special supervision as well as jails, schools, and hospitals ? We rightly require the district officers to visit these and to report upon them through the Commissioners ; but we do not dispense with special and skilled visitors. Yet there is quite as much need for skilled supervision of the police in point of discipline, conduct, and practice as of jail officials and prisoners The plan I would propose is this : not to revive the Police Commissioner, but to create an Inspector-General, who shall visit every district annually and report to Government once a year, but in special cases as often as may be necessary, upon the efficiency, discipline, composition, and management of the police. I would in no way alter the present powers and relations to the police of the District Magistrate. The lelative functions of the Magistrate and the Inspector- General are as distinct here as they are in England or in Bengal.' Sir James Fergusson's views pre- vailed, and Colonel Wise was appointed Inspector- PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 423 General of Police in the Bombay Presidency on January 6, 1885, a few weeks before Lord Reay's arrival in India. The appointment proved a complete success. There was a general levelling-up of the district police force. Uniformity of drill, clothing, and arms was secured ; police lines were constructed by the Public Works Department on a regular system ; and the force became at the same time better disciplined and better organised. Equally satisfactory was the effect on the performance of the true duties of a police force, the prevention of crime. A police manual was compiled, codifying the orders and instructions on which the police were to act. Crime was more carefully registered, and a consolidated report on the whole work of the force took the place of the four separate reports of the four Commissioners. Fuller statistics were secured, especially with regard to the supervision of released convicts and suspected characters, and a special branch was formed under the Personal Assistant to the Inspector-General of Police for the purpose of collecting intelligence on the social and political condition of the people. This branch also undertakes the compilation of a weekly Police Gazette, giving the names and descriptions of those ' wanted.' The advantages experienced from the creation of a central controlling authority over the District Police led the Bombay Government to pass a Police Bill, in order ' to give legislative definition to the Inspector-Generals authority and functions, and, in settling these, to review and re-define the relations to the Police system of the Commissioners and District Magistrates.' By this 424 BOMB A Y A DMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. Bill, which was introduced by Sir Raymond West into the Bombay Legislative Council on December 12, 1889, and read a third time and passed on April 9, 1890, full control over the mechanism and discipline of the police force was given to the Inspector-General of Police, while the authority of the Magistrate of the District, as the officer in whom centre both magisterial and executive powers, is maintained and emphasised. At the same time advantage was taken to re-arrange the provisions of the police law, to revise them, and to introduce some new enactments suggested by the deficiencies of the previous law. Whenever extended authority has been given to the magistracy or to the police for the purpose of preserving order and main- taining the general welfare of the public, precautions have been taken to prevent abuse of the powers thus conferred. Sections have also been introciuced with the intent of securing gentleness and humanity on the part of the police in the discharge of their duties. But the main aim of the Bill is to define the respective authority of the Inspector-General and the local and district authorities. This has been done by reserving questions of internal economy to the former, and of discipline and direction to the latter. In addition to the District Police there are two other special bodies of stipendiary police employed in the Presidency. Of these the most important is the Bombay City Police. As is the case in other capitals and great seaports, the work of this force is more arduous than that of the force in country districts, and the Bombay City Police is a picked body PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 425 of men. During Lord Reay's administration it had the misfortune of losing its chief, Sir Frank Souter, C.S.I., C.I.E., who died on June 5, 1888. He had been Commissioner of PoHce in Bombay for twenty- four years, and was knighted on the occasion of the Prince of Wales's journey through India, in recognition of his long and valuable services. The other special force is the Railway Police — divided into three branches employed on the (i) Bombay, Baroda and Central India, (2) the Great India Peninsula, and (3) the Southern Maratha Rail- ways. Its special duty is to protect these lines, and most of its work is directed towards preventing thefts. It also registers the amount and value of property stolen while in transit, and endeavours to recover it. The numbers of the stipendiary police, in all the three forces, increased slightly during the five years under review. The lar^fest increase was in the Rail- way Police — from 105 1 to 1338 officers and men, mainly due to the formation of the Southern Maratha Railway Police. The total increase in the three forces was from 21,384 officers and men in 1884 to 21,890 in 1889. The Bombay Police thus form an important reserve force of armed men, if any crisis should denude the Presidency of its regular military troops. The larger portion of the police are Muhammadans and Marathas. In 1889-90 it is stated that 66 per cent of the subordinate officers and 30 per cent of the men in the District Police had sufficient education to write an intelligent crime report \ ^ Bombay Administi-aiioii Report for 1S89 90, p. 44. 426 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. With regard to distribution wide divergencies ap- pear. Thus there is one poHceman to every 1286 of the population in Ratnagiri, one to every 12 18 in Bel- gaum, and one to every 1 1 J^) ii'i Kaira. At the other end of the scale one policeman is kept for every 326 of the population in the Panch Mahals, one for every 336 in Karachi, and one for every 367 in Thar and Parkar. On the other hand, calculated on the area, there is only one policeman for every twenty-three square miles in Thar and Parkar as against one for every five square miles in Ratnagiri. The total cost of the police administration in every branch rose from Rs. 47,88,353 in 1884-85 to Rs. 50,45,441 in 1889-90. Of this expenditure about 38 lakhs of rupees were spent in the salaries and pay of the various police forces. Very different in character to this regular semi- military police, which in some respects resembles the Royal Irish Constabulary, is the Bombay Village Police. The villaore watchmen are the servants of the village communit)^ and are under the charge of the Police Patel, — who generally but not always con- ducts also the duties of Revenue Patel. The special duties of the village policemen are to prevent crime and public nuisances, and to detect and arrest offen- ders, within village limits. The Police Patel has to furnish the Magistrate of the District with any infor- mation demanded, to keep him informed as to the state of crime, and as to the health and oreneral con- dition of the community in his village. ' The actual importance of the village police,' it is recorded in PROTECTION OF PERSON AND PROPERTY. 427 1882 \ ' cannot for one moment be overlooked. With- out the aid of the village police not a single offence could be traced out. They are the real backbone of the detective police. They know all that is going on, and know every one in the villages.' Having described the various police forces, whose duty it is to prevent crime and arrest offenders, and the judicial system which tries arrested prisoners, it remains to briefly advert to the jails in which convicted prisoners are confined. There are twenty-six district jails, and fifty-six sub-jails in the Presidency, with one great central jail at Yerrowda, near Poona, all under the supervision of the Inspector-General of Prisons. Land was purchased during the period under review for a new jail in Bombay City. Some of the convicts are employed in extra-mural gangs, and have been engaged in fitting Bijapur to become the headquarters of the former district of Kaladofi, and on canal works at Mhaswad, Gokak, and the Nara, The average daily convict population for all jails was 6,959 in 1889-90, and in that year the total number of convicts admitted into the jails of the Presidency was 1 7,1 1 1. The gross cost of the maintenance of prisoners in 1889-90 was Rs. 5,42,423, or 70 rupees, 7 anas, and 4 pies per prisoner. But the actual cost of rations per prisoner was only 29 rupees, 8 anas, and 10 pies; or £2 each per aniunn, at the exchange rate of \s. \d. per rupee. I have now very briefly explained the principal arrangements for the protection of person and pro- ' Bombay Adviinisiratiou Report for 1882-83, p, 23, — Standing Infor- mation. 428 BOMBA V ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. perty in the Bombay Presidency. Such protection constitutes the first duty of government, and the expenditure on law and justice, including jails and police, is by far the largest item of provincial expen- diture. Taken together, they cost in 1889-90 nearly 100 lakhs of rupees : as, against, for example, 15 lakhs allotted by the Provincial Contract of 1887 to education. CHAPTER XIII. Local Government: Municipalities and District Boards. THE extension of local self-government to India is a question that can be looked at from many points of view. The educated natives and their European friends advocate the establishment of municipalities and local boards both as affording^ trainino- g-rounds for learning the duties and responsibilities of ad- ministration, and as the necessary sequel of the English political axiom ' no taxation without repre- sentation.' The taxpayer looks upon such schemes as a fresh method for raising money from him. The trained English administrator is apt to disparage the practical results — results which he could have accom- plished more speedily and more thoroughly on his own authority. The Government of India bears all these considerations in mind. It has insisted on the creation of municipalities and local boards, but it protects the taxpayer by limiting the amount of local taxation, and it checks extravagant or perverse ad- ministration by close supervision, and when needful by interference. The question of local administration is bound up 430 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. with that of local taxation. In India there are three sorts of taxation and expenditure — imperial, provincial, and local. Of the relation between imperial and provincial finance I have already spoken, relations which have rapidly developed under Lord Mayo's decentralising policy. Local financial administration by local bodies of local income for local purposes is a yet further development of the same principle of decentralisation. The comparison between local taxation in India and rates in England cannot be carried far, for many matters which are locally administered in England are in India directly managed by the provincial go- vernments. Thus in India, police, hospitals, the greater parts of public works, and until recently educa- tion, were paid for out of the provincial revenue. Primary education, sanitation, and purely local roads and improvements are now left to local administra- tion in the Bombay Presidency. But very little more can be handed over in the rural districts, because the Government of India feels that when a cultivator has paid his land-tax, great caution should be exercised in laying further burdens upon him. The success of any thoroughgoing scheme of local self-government depends upon the possibility of finding ^ocal men able and willing to conduct it. Has India got a sufficient supply of such men ? And how are they to be found ? At the first hopeful start of the experiment, it was asserted that the most intelli- gent natives would strive for a share in the local go- vernment, and that the vast majority of the people LOCAL GOVERNMENT: MUNLCLPALLTLES. 431 would hail its concession as a boon. But it was soon discovered that local self-government meant local taxa- tion, and that the promotion of education, sanitation, and public works intended for the general good of the community, might seem to the average tax- payer dearly purchased, if increased burdens were laid upon his individual shoulders. To the Government, he argued, local self-govern- ment miofht be a convenient method for raising funds without increasing the incidence of general taxation ; but to the urban taxpayer it was practically a new device for getting more money out of him under a different name. In rural districts the one-ana cess calculated on the land-revenue is a fixed quantity. When, therefore, it was found that local self-govern- ment in towns implied increased taxation for local purposes, and not the administration of a part of the general funds, its popularity waned. Lord Reay met with a curious instance of this. He received a depu- tation of the inhabitants of a small town, which was to be turned into a municipality. They represented to his Excellency that they were too poor and inex- perienced to receive such a boon, and begged to be excused from the honour and expense of a system of local self-government. Lord Reay discussed the question with them, and finally remarked that he had heard that the policy was approved by the people. To this the deputation demurred, declaring that local self- government was not intended for such poor people as those of their town. In the larger cities, where competent men can be 432 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. found to fill local offices and perform local duties, the question arises as to what is the best method to select them. The natural bias of the English administrators of India (as of any other highly capable bureaucracy) was in favour of nomination. On the other hand, the principle of representation has a special charm to the educated natives of India, who naturally hope that the time will come when a proportion of seats in the Pro- vincial Legislative Councils, if not in the Legislative Council of the Government of India, may be filled by election. The result has been to work out the experi- ment of municipal government on a joint system of nominated and elected candidates. In some munici- palities and local boards, sufficient interest is taken to bring forward good and suitable candidates, but it can- not be denied that in others the principle of nomination has proved so far the most suitable. In 1884 a new impulse had been given to local self- government in Bombay by the Local Boards Act (Act I of 1884) and the Bombay District Municipal Act Amendment Act (Act II of 1884). The task of the Government during the next five years, the period dealt with in this volume, was mainly to watch the working of the new system. An interesting experi- ment was introduced by the establishment of an edu- cational franchise at Poona. This important munici- pality was reconstituted by a Government Resolution, dated June 26, 1885. The governing body was formed of 20 elected and 10 nominated Commissioners. Of the 20 elected members, 16 were to be elected by- persons paying municipal taxes to the amount of not LOCAL GOVERNMENT: MUNICLPALLTLES. 433 less than Rs. 3 per annum, and the remaining four by a special body of electors. ' Having regard,' says the Resolution of the Bombay Government, ' to the exist- ence in Poona of a very large and intelligent class of educated native gentlemen, who have already shown great interest in municipal administration and in the promotion of education, the Governor in Council is willing to give a greater extension to the elective ele- ment in Poona than has been thought desirable in other municipalities.' The special body of electors then formed consisted of Fellows and Graduates of any University, Barristers-at-Law and Advocates of the High Court, Pleaders holding a sanad from the High Court, Jurors, Honorary Magistrates, Licentiates of Medicine, Surgery, or Civil Engineering, and masters of departmental and registered schools, together with Sardars, persons on whom the British Government has conferred the titles of Rao Bahadur, Khan Bahadur, Rao Saheb, or Khan Saheb, servants of Government, or of any public body, corporation, or company, registered under the Indian Companies Act, whose salary is not less than Rs. 30 a month, or former servants, whose pensions are not less than Rs. 15. Together with the new franchise, the Poona Municipality received the rIMit to elect its President. More wide-reaching were the new provisions for Bombay city. Bombay is at once a great capital, a great port, and a great manufacturing centre. It has a population of over three-quarters of a million within municipal limits, and Is therefore larger than Man- chester or Liverpool, Birmingham or Glasgow. In E e 434 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. such a city the question of self-government is of the utmost importance. Every advance of sanitary science makes large demands upon its resources, and the pro- blems suggested by its rapid growth in wealth and population are extremely complicated. It has a powerful body of wealthy and philanthropic citizens ; but of citi- zens belonging to various races, and imbued with very different conceptions as to what municipal administration should attempt, and as to the methods by which it should work. The administration of Bombay City was one of the difficult questions to be solved by Lord Reay's Government, and among his most far-reaching pieces of legislative work was the passing of the Bombay City Municipal Act '. Municipal government had been established on its modern basis in Bombay, as in the other Presidency towns, in 1856. Many subsequent measures had modi- fied or developed it, notably in 1865, 1872, and 1878, and when Lord Reay's Government undertook to legis- late, the constitutional law of Bombay City was em- bodied in eleven separate enactments. The first purpose of the new Bill was to consolidate the law, but in doing so important alterations were introduced. Its provisions, drafted by Mr. J. R. Naylor, aided by Mr. Ollivant, the Municipal Commissioner, were divided into twenty -one chapters. At first received with strenuous opposition, it was carefully revised by a Select Committee of the Legislative Council, with whose members Lord Reay discussed the alterations. It ' Act IV of 1888 ; received the assent of the Viceroy on 8th Sept., 1888. This Act is analysed in the Bombay Ad)ninistratioii Report f 07- 1887-88, pp. 61-65, ^"^d has attracted notice on the Continent of Europe. LOCAL GOVERNMENT : MUNLCLPALLTLES. 435 eventually passed with general approval. One of the chief modifications introduced during its passage was the regulation for handing over the primary schools to the Municipal Corporation. By this Act of 1888 the government of Bombay was vested in a Municipal Corporation and a Town Council. The Municipal Corporation consists of 72 members, of whom 56 are elected and 16 nominated by Government. Of the 56 elected members, 36 are elected by municipal taxpayers, or as we should call them the ratepayers, and resident graduates of any University In the United Kingdom or India, in ward elections; 16 are chosen by Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace; two by the Senate of the University of Bombay ; and two by the Bombay Chamber of Com- merce. The Town Council consists of twelve mem- bers of the Corporation, four nominated by Govern- ment and the remainder elected by the Corporation. The Municipal Commissioner appointed by Govern- ment is present, with a right to speak, at meetings of the Corporation and of the Town Council. The Town Council is Intended to be the Standing^ Committee of the Corporation to work out the details of such schemes as the Corporation determine to adopt. It is also to exercise control over the municipal finances. Both the Corporation and the Town Council elect their President and Chairman. The Municipal Commis- sioner is the executive officer of the Corporation. The powers of the Corporation of Bombay under the new Act include the following, among others too numerous to specify In detail : sanitation in all its E e 2 436 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. branches, street cleansing, drainage and water-supply, the registration of vital statistics, the regulation of building, primary education, the maintenance of the fire-brigade, and the care of hospitals for contagious diseases. The most important matters of which it has no control are the charges arising in connection with the administration of justice, police, stipendiary magistrates, and jails. It exercises full control over the city finance, except that it can raise no new loan without the consent of the Governor in Council. The Government also reserves the right of nominating auditors for the municipal accounts. The municipal revenue of Bombay City rose from Rs. 43:83>973 in 1885-86 to Rs. 53,42,170 in 1889-90. The chief items are the Consolidated Rate at 8 per cent, which rose from Rs. 14,61,304 to Rs. 16,61,697; water rates from Rs. 6,65,370 to Rs. 11,23,006 ; liquor and tobacco licenses from Rs. 3,22,927 to Rs. 3,34,672 ; and the Halalkor or sweeper cess from Rs. 3,16,786 to Rs. 4,73,919 ; while town duties fell from Rs. 6,79,292 to Rs. 6,67,065 ; and wheel tax, cabs, and tolls fell from Rs. 3,37,010 to Rs. 3,25,616. During the same period, from 1885-86 to 1889-90, the expenditure of Bombay City increased from Rs. 40,76,940 to Rs. 50,42,405. The principal items were interest on the Municipal Debt, which rose from Rs. 7,87,527 to Rs. 14,85,711 ; Public Works from Rs. 9,64,842 to Rs. 13,03,528 ; and Public Health from Rs. 9,99,322 to Rs 11,96,577. As might be expected from these last figures the Municipal Debt largely increased during the period under review^ from Rs. 1,10,43,843 to Rs. 2,68.52,640. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: MUNICIPALITIES. 437 Apart from the passing of the Bonibay City Muni- cipal Act, the most important events in the adminis- tration of Bombay City during the five years under review were the increase of hospital accommodation ; the initiation of technical education ; the Tansa Water Supply Scheme for bringing a practically unlimited supply from the Tansa Lake ; the report of the Bombay Extension Committee ; and the completion of the defences of Bombay Harbour. These have, however, been described in other chapters. But special mention should be made of the hearty expressions of loyalty evoked in the City by the Jubilee of the Queen-Empress in 1887. The Corpor- ation spent Rs. 24,052 on illuminations, and presented an address to Her Majesty by the hands of the late Captain Morland, the Chairman of the Town Council, who received the honour of knighthood upon the occasion. Among the grants for public purposes made by the Corporation the most liberal was one of Rs. 80,000 to the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute. A curious episode was the strike of the scavengers in the Health Department in July, 1889, which caused very serious inconvenience. The importance of Bombay City and the large interests with which it deals tend to dwarf the other municipalities in the Bombay Presidency. The latter considerably increased during the period under review, and numbered 161 in 1889-90 of varying size and popu- lation. Some of these municipalities are flourishing. Ahmadabad, for instance, is particularly well adminis- 438 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. tered, and has undertaken two expensive schemes for drainage and water-supply. But good local adminis- tration is not universal. Broach was a conspicuous instance of bad administration, and one or two of the smaller municipalities, such as Parantij and Mehmeda- bad, had to be superseded. The smaller municipalities derive the greater part of their income from octroi duties. The Bombay Government fully realises the objections to this mode of levying taxation, and takes special care that the octroi duties shall not become transit duties on through trade. But the municipalities have a rooted objection to direct taxation, and cannot see the reason of the Government's dislike of octroi duties. It was because Parantij repeatedly refused to abolish octroi taxation that it was superseded'. Mr. G. F. M. Grant, the Acting Commissioner for the Southern Division, writes in his report for 1888-89'^: 'Neither the people nor their representatives (as a rule) approve of direct taxation, which cannot, if properly levied, be evaded, and which openly attacks their pockets. The dislike on the part of Municipal Commissioners is perhaps based partly on the fear of incurring unpopularity, but I believe that all but the most intelligent are averse to the system.' The octroi is, therefore, in Bombay the important feature of District municipal finance. Out of Rs. 23,51,272 raised by the District municipalities in ' Bombay Administratioti Report f 07' 1S89-90, p. 67. ^ Report on Municipal Taxation and Expenditicre in the Bombay Presidency for 1888-89, p. 71. LOCAL GOVERNMENT : MUNLCLPALLTLES. 439 1889-90, no less than Rs. 13,32,464 was collected by the octroi. The income thus collected is, however, supplemented to a greater or less degree by various means of direct taxation according to the circum- stances of particular localities. In Sind, for instance, Rs. 4,34,691 out of a total municipal revenue of Rs. 5,17,610 are raised by the octroi, and in certain muni- cipalities it forms the sole source of local income. On the other hand, the three municipalities* in the Panch Mahals, with certain others, such as Kurla and Bandra which are practically suburbs of Bombay, levy no octroi duties whatever. The following statistics are of course exclusive of the great municipality of Bombay City. The direct taxation levied for local purposes in the district municipalities amounted in 1889-90 to Rs. 10,18,808. It is divided into many different heads. The most lucrative is the tax on houses and land which brought in Rs. 3,68,908, of which only Rs. 37,998 were raised in Sind. Next come the Conservancy cess, Rs. 1,96,764; and tolls, Rs. 1,67,776. The other direct taxes for local purposes produce not more than a lakh of rupees. Some of these other local taxes are ] retty general, such as the tax on vehicles, which is raised nearly everywhere. Others are purely local, such as the pilgrim tax in Kaira ; a tax on fishing-boats and shops in Kolaba ; on mills, kilns, &c. in Thana ; on trade registration and musicians in Poona ; on looms in Ahmadnagar ; on snuff and stones in Satara ; booth fees in Dharwar ; camping fees on carts in Kanara ; 440 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. and a trifling clog tax in Ahmadnagar, Nasik, Sho- lapiir, Belgaiim, and Kanara\ In addition to the local revenue raised by taxation, direct or indirect, the district municipalities derived Rs. 9,96,322 in 1889-90 from other sources. The largest items in this amount were Rs. 2,13,322 from grants-in-aid from provincial or local funds; Rs. 3,09, 160 from the rent of municipal lands, receipts from public gardens, &c.,»of which the largest share, Rs. 1,38,044, was received in Karachi; and Rs. 1,42,825 from markets. It is noteworthy, considering that the transfer of schools to the municipalities took place during the period under review, that only Rs. 78,771 was derived from school fees in 1889 90. The local revenues of Bombay municipalities, ex- cluding Bombay City, amounted from taxation and miscellaneous receipts to Rs. 33,47.594 in 1889-90. But to complete the amount at their disposal during the ) ear in question must be added the further sum of Rs. 6,78,530 derived from loans, deposits, and ad- vances. Of this total the two largest items were two loans, each of over two lakhs of rupees, raised for public works by the municipalities of Surat and Ahmadabad ^. The heads of the expenditure of this large muni- cipal revenue, which in 1889-90, excluding interest on local loans, amounted to Rs. 35,31,809, may be classed ^ Bombay Adinmistration Report for 1889-90, Appendix V. G. (l). - The account stands thus : Municipal taxation, Rs. 23,51,272 ; miscel- laneous receipts, Rs. 9,96,322 ; loans, deposits, advances, Rs. 6,78,530. Tctal at disposal of Bombay Municipalities, excluding Bombay City, 1889 90, Rs. 40;26,I24. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: MUNLCLPALITIES. 441 under the items of office establishment, collection of municipal rates and taxes, public safety, public health, public instruction, public convenience, and miscel- laneous. On the first, second, and last of these heads, which absorbed Rs. 1,84,699, Rs. 1,88,636, and Rs. 1,25,183 respectively, nothing need be said, but the other four merit a more detailed examination. They represent the true work of municipalities, work which is, as in Europe, often regarded with dislike by the townspeople, but which is nevertheless necessary for the welfare of every urban community. Public health, including sanitation in its widest sense, forms the largest branch of district municipal expen- diture, and accounted in 1889-90 for Rs. 15,12,863. Mention has already been made of some of the most extensive engineering works undertaken by the Bom- bay Public Works Department at the expense of the municipalities. Thus the ancient city of Ahmadabad, the second most populous city in the Presidency, with a population of 124,767 according to the census of 1 881, raised large loans and expended large sums on sanitary works. The town is honeycombed with cesspools which have been used for generations ; the walls of the houses to the height of several feet bear traces of being impregnated with sewage ; and the water-supply from wells is foul. Two extensive schemes have been undertaken for drainage and water- works, and Lord Reay did all in his power to en- courage the Ahmadabad municipality in well-doing on his visits to Gujarat. Surat, the third most populous municipality in the 442 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. Presidency, ^vith a population of 107,154 inhabitants in 1 88 1, has to encounter the same difficulties as Ahmadabad in adapting the methods of modern sanitary engineering to an ancient and crowded com- munity. It was also during the period under review ravaged by fire and threatened by flood, and had to undertake extensive works against the latter danger. Poona, the fourth largest municipahty, discussed new schemes for drainage and completed its water-supply ; but its task is complicated by the neighbourhood of two adjoining local authorities, the Poona Suburban Municipality and the Poona Cantonment. Medical relief, including the maintenance of dis- pensaries, absorbed Rs. 1,42,334 of the Bombay municipal expenditure (exclusive of Bombay City) in 1889-90, and vaccination Rs. 17,162 ; while Rs. 85,888 were spent in that year on watering the streets. Next to public health, the public convenience makes the largest demands on the municipal revenues, and in 1889-90 no less than Rs. 7,75,758 was expended on different undertakino^s comine under this head. Much of the work is done by the Bombay Public Works Department, and it includes markets, streets, and bridges. Among such work taken in hand during the period under review may be noted the Empress Market at Karachi ; the widening of the streets at Surat in the rebuilding of the portion of that city devastated by the great fire in 1888^; and the opening of the Reay market in Poona. In the chapter on Education, I have mentioned the ' Bombay Admiiiistratio7i Repin-t for 1889-90, p. 67. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: MUNLCLPALLTLES. 443 transference of the primary schools to the local authori- ties (which in the provincial towns are the munici- palities) under the system of grants-in-aid and Govern- ment inspection. This measure is important in its influence on the progress of education, by stirring up a more lively interest on the part of the citizens, and also marks an advance in the application of the system of local self-ofovernment. Public instruction has be- come a serious item of municipal expenditure, amount- ing in 1889-90 (not including Bombay), to Rs. 5,19,682. Against this must be set the receipt of Rs. 78,771 in school fees. Lastly comes the head of public safet)-, under which the sum of Rs. 2,25,058 was expended in 1889-90. Of this the greater proportion, Rs, 1,74,677, was spent on lighting the streets ; and Rs. 46,932 (a very inadequate sum) on protection from fire. In certain districts, Dharwar, Bijapur, and Thar and Parkar, the munici- palities spend nothing whatever on fire-protection : in others containing important towns, namely, Kanara, Haidarabad, Belgium, and Nasik, the yearly expendi- ture does not exceed Rs. 200. But it may be expected that such disasters as the crreat fire at Surat will arouse other municipalities to a sense of the absolute necessity of establishing efficient means for the extinction and prevention of fires. The 161 District municipal bodies in the Presidency were composed in 1889-90 of 2272 members, of whom 1380 were nominated and 892 elected. But this does not fairly represent the progress of the elective prin- ciple, for the backward province of Sind possesses an 444 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. excessive proportion of nominated to elected members. Deducting the 26 municipalities in Sind, the 135 muni- cipalities of the Bombay Presidency proper were com- posed of 191 2 members, of whom 1091 were nominated and 821 elected. Taking individual districts, the pro- portion was highest in Poona, where in 12 municipalities there were 90 nominated and 90 elected members ; and in Ratnagiri, where in 5 municipalities there were 40 nominated and 40 elected members. The ratio was lowest in the Panch Mahals, where all the members of the 3 municipalities were nominated ; and in Kaira, where in 1 1 municipalities there were 103 nominated to 23 elected members. From another point of view the 191 2 members of the municipalities in the Presidency proper consisted of 516 official and 1396 non-ofihcial members, and of 1765 natives to 147 Europeans ^ The nominated non-ofhcial members are carefully selected to secure due representation for classes, trades, professions, or castes, which do not obtain their fair share of municipal honours and responsibilities at the polls. Turning from municipal to rural self-government. District Local Boards or Local Funds Committees were constituted by the Bombay Act IV of 1869. Under that Act they were to be presided over by the Collector of the District, and to consist of certain district officials and of one inamdar and six local land- holders nominated by Government. They had to ad- minister the local cess of one ana in the rupee of land tax for local purposes. The Taluka (or sub-divisional) ' Bombay Admifiisiratwfi Repoit for 1889-90, Appendix III, H. LOCAL GOVERNMENT : LOCAL BOARDS. 445 Local Funds Committee was to be presided over by the Deputy or Assistant Collector, and to bring the wants of the Taluka or sub-division before the District Committee. Act I of 1884 made many changes in this arrangement, and introduced the elective principle. It enacted that the president of any local board might be nominated or elected, but if nominated, a vice- president was to be elected by the board. It gave executive authority to the Taluka Boards, who receive an assignment of money, calculated in the proportion of the one-ana cess to be spent for purely local pur- poses. During the five years under review (1885-90) this Act was being practically worked out. Additions were made to the responsibilities of the Local Boards, and an increased share in local administration, especi- ally with regard to primary education. It was also during this period that the elective scheme for rural self-government came into force. For many reasons, not the least of which is the practical difficulty of distance, it is hardly to be expected that rural local boards should be as well attended as urban municipalities by the elected members, and it will take a longer time to awaken the rustic mind to the im- portance of local self-government than among the quicker-witted townspeople. It has not been found possible to introduce the elective principle into the more backward Talukas. In the Panch Mahals no members are yet elected to the Local Boards, in Thar and Parkar only two out of 2>^, in the Upper Sind P'rontier only four out of 34, and in North Kanara only 24 out of 105. 446 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. There are in the Bombay Presidency, including- Sind, 23 District Local Boards and 198 Taluka Local Boards. These are composed of 3430 members, of whom 40 are ex-officio, 1847 are nominated, and 1543 elected. The only district in which the elected outnumber the nominated members is Shikarpur in Sind. In 1889-90, allowing for two vacancies, there were 791 officials and 2637 non-officials serving on these boards, or looking at it from another point of view, 217 Europeans to 321 1 natives '. The income received by these 221 Local Boards, District and Taluka, in 1889-90, amounted to Rs. 46,38,320. Towards this Rs. 3,05,558 came from the Sind Village Officers Cess Fund, Rs. 1,43,633 from the Government Central Book Depot, and Rs. 36,079 from the Steam Boilers Inspection Fund, which sources have been added to the Local Funds since the passing of Act I of 1884. The Local Funds under that Act brought in Rs. 41,53,048 during the year 1889-90. By far the largest part of this sum came from the local rate or cess of one ana in the rupee of land-revenue, namely, Rs. 24,27,994. The other main heads were Rs. 2,31,588 from tolls on ferries, Rs. 1,38,014 collected under the Cattle Trespass Act, Rs. 1,29,474 from school fees, Rs. 1,21,499 tolls on roads and bridges only collected in the Central Division, Rs. 1,00,007 from fishery fees in Sind, Rs. 82,773 from sand and quarry fees, and Rs. 49,843 from tolls on roads alone, collected in the Southern Division-. ' Bombay Administration Report for 18S9-90, Appendix III, G. (l). - Jbid., Appendix V, F. (4J. LOCAL GOVERNMENT : LOCAL BOARDS. 447 The distribution of this local revenue shows the comparative rural wealth of the different districts, and varies from Rs. 42,006 in Thar and Parkar, Rs. 58,484 in the Upper Sind Frontier, Rs. 64,020 in the Panch Mahals, and Rs. 1,11,404 in Kolaba, to Rs. 2,53,317 in Shikarpur, Rs. 2,59,198 in Thana, Rs. 2,74,099 in Dharwar, and Rs. 3,71,748 in Khandesh. It is still more interesting to note the incidence per head of population of the local taxation in the different districts, which varied in 1889-90 from 11 pies in Ratnagiri, i ana I pie in Nasik, and i ana 3 pies in Sholapur, to 4 anas 3 pies in Surat, 5 anas 5 pies in Shikarpur, and 8 anas 4 pies in Broach. The expenditure of these Local Boards in 1889-90 for local purposes amounted to Rs. 40,02,036 \ More than one-half, namely, Rs. 20,40,796, was spent on public works, including original works and repairs, executed either by civil officers or the Bombay Public Works Department. The greater part of the sum was spent on communications, chiefly district and purely local roads, which absorbed no less than Rs. 12,90,618. The only other notable item under this head is Rs. 2,88,310 for water-supply and waterworks ; and it is interesting to observe that Rs. 12,531 w^ere spent in the Southern Division on the planting of roadside trees. Next to public works in the rural budget comes education or public instruction. The primary schools were transferred to the Local Boards during the term of Lord Reay's administration under the grant-in-aid system, and in 1889-90 Rs. 12,90,679 ^ Bomlay Adini7ibtratio7i Report for iSSg-go, Appendix V, F. (i). 448 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. were spent upon them, or nearly one-third of the total rural expenditure. Other items worthy of record are Rs. 77,792 on hospitals and dispensaries, and Rs. 89,589 on vaccination. The foregoing summary of the work undertaken by the district municipalities and district and Taluka local boards gives a fair idea of what is being clone by local self-government in the Bombay Presidency. It will be observed that, with the important exception of the management of the police, it corresponds with the work undertaken by the local authorities in England. But the problems of local taxation and expenditure are only one side of the great issues raised in Bombay by the establishment of local self-government. The creation of municipalities, and the extension of the elective principle for urban communities, were the characteristic features in this respect of Lord Reay's administration. The Bombay Municipal Act, perhaps the greatest legislative achievement of his government, must be recognised as a sagacious and timely effort to deal with the most complicated question of local govern- ment in the Presidency — namely, the government of its capital. CHAPTER XIV. Military and Marine. THE Bombay army is commanded by a Lieutenant- General, with the title of Commander-in-Chief in Bombay. He has a seat in the Bombay Council, and is assisted by a complete staff, headed by an Adjutant-General and a Quartermaster-General, but is himself subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief in India. Most military questions affecting the Bombay army pass through the hands of the Military Secre- tary to the Bombay Government, who also acts as secretary in the Marine and Ecclesiastical Depart- ments. The successive Commanders-in-Chief of the Bombay army during the five years under review were, as I have already mentioned, Lieutenant-General the Honourable Sir Arthur Hardinge, K.C.B., younger son of the first Viscount Hardinge Governor-General of India from 1844 to 1848; Lieutenant-General Sir Charles George Arbuthnot, K.C.B. ; and Lieutenant- General H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught. The Bombay army has a brilliant record of its own. But it is beyond the scope of this book to even enume- rate the series of wars by which South-western India was won from the Muhammadan and Maratha princes, F f 450 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. who had divided between them the heritage of the ' Great Mogul.' One or two regimental episodes must suffice. The ist Bombay Native Infantry (Grenadiers) co-operated with the 42nd Highlanders in the famous defence of Mangalore by Lieutenant-Colonel John Campbell in the third Mysore War. The siege lasted from May, 1783, to January, 1784, and when the city surrendered, Tipii Sultan allowed the remnant of the garrison to retire with the honours of war to Bombay. The 3rd, 5th, and 7th Bombay Native Infantry took a conspicuous part in the pitched battle of Seedaseer, when Tipii Sultan endeavoured to check the column from the Malabar Coast, on its march to join in the siege of Seringapatam. The 2nd and 13th Bombay Native Infantry formed part of the force under Sir David Baird, which sailed froni India in 1801 across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea to Cosseir, whence it marched across the desert to the Nile. It descended the Nile in boats, and joined the English army sent to Egypt to expel the French. Its perilous journey has been most fully described by a French writer, the Comte de Noe. It was the 2nd Bombay Native Infantry also, under the command of Captain Staunton, which, unsupported by any British soldiers, fought the Maratha army at Korygaon in 18 18. Bom- bay regiments served in the first Afghan war, and in the conquest of Sind by Sir Charles Napier. During the Mutiny, only two regiments, the 21st and 27th Bombay Native Infantry, followed the ex- ample of the Bengal Sepoys, and rose in open revolt. Unfortunately the honours of the Bombay army suf- MILITARY AND MARINE. 451 fered eclipse for a moment during the second Afghan War by the disaster at Maiwand : due not to want of bravery in the troops, but to unskilful tactics. Only for a moment, however. The 28th Bombay Native In- fantry served with marked distinction in the Soudan campaign of 1885; and the Bombay contingent des- patched to take part in the conquest and occupation of Upper Burma in 1885-86 did its duty right well. During the five years from 1885 to 1890 important questions arose as to the abolition of the Commander- ship-in-Chief in Bombay, and as to bringing the Pre- sidency army into more direct relations with the Supreme Government under the Commander-in-Chief in India. The Army Commission, whose report was laid before Parliament in 1884, had recommended the abolition of the three Presidential armies, and the sub- stitution of four army corps. On these questions I, as a civilian, do not here offer an opinion of my own, but confine myself to indicating the main line of argument on both sides. One of the principal issues raised was whether the change proposed would produce over-centralisation. The Army Commission gave expression to the view that there is something anomalous in the existence of three separate Presidency armies with three distinct systems of administration, in the same country, all serving the same Central Government. ' The ma- jority of the Commission,' says the Report, ' are much impressed by the evils of the present Presidential system, the defects of a war administration worked by separate and dispersed agencies, and by the three F f 2 452 BOMBA Y ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. sets of separate Staff and Army Departments. We cannot close our eyes to the grave embarrassments to military affairs caused by the numerous" and circuitous channels through which the smallest detail has to filter. The anomaly is not merely useless, but hurtful to the efficiency of the army.' To remedy these evils the Commission recom- mended the formation of four army corps, two of which would be identical with the present Madras and Bombay armies, while the other two would be con- stituted from the eastern and western portions of the Bengal army. There would be one Headquarters Staff at Simla, instead of the thres independent Presi- dential staffs. The lieutenant-generals commanding the army corps would be more distinctly subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief in India than are the Commanders-in-Chief of Bombay and Madras at present. The military secretariats of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies, and the connection of these Presidency Governments with military affairs, would be curtailed or abolished. On the other hand, it was represented that the finan- cial saving from such reconstruction would not be very great. The Headquarters Staff at Simla would have to be strengthened to make up for the reduction of the Presidential staffs. There would be four lieutenant- generals commanding army corps and one full general commanding the army in India in chief, in place of two lieutenant-generals commanding the Madras and Bombay armies and one full general commanding in chief as at present. An advantage would be that MILITARY AND MARINE. 453 the Commander-in-Chief in India would be freed from his special duties as Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal army. He would, with his Headquarters Staff, be thus enabled to devote himself to the supervision of the army in India, considered as an organic whole, in the same way as the Government of India in its civil administration controls the provincial govern- ments. The danger was the possibility of over- centralisation, and the consequent impairing of local responsibility and local energy. Lord Reay looked at the question without being biassed by his position as a provincial governor. He pointed out that the establishment of an independent Commander-in-Chief with a Central Staff need not lead to over-centralisation. He argued that the four army corps of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, and the Punjab might retain all their local characteristics and be treated as four units or ' four watertight compart- ments,' each with its own Medical Staff, Commissariat, Transport, and Accounts department. In these de- partments he considered too much centralisation had already been introduced, although fully recognising the need for uniformity. He recognised that the lieutenants- general commanding them might be made as immedi- ately responsible for their efficiency and economy as are the Presidential Commanders-in-Chief at present. If this principle was strictly observed he held that the change from presidential armies to army corps might be worked so as really to lead to decentralisation, and that the Headquarters Staff might more effectively devote itself to the interests of the Indian army as a 454 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1 885-1 890. whole ; its connection with the executive details of the Bengal army being severed. The Commander-in- Chief in India would naturally retain his seat on the Viceroy's Council, and there could be no objection to the lieutenants-general commanding the army corps in Madras and Bombay being members of the Councils of the governors of those provinces, as the Com- manders-in-Chief of the Madras and Bombay armies have heretofore been. Turning from this general question to the actual history of the Bombay army during the five years under review (i 885-1 890), the first important event was the transfer of the Belgaum District command from the Bombay to the Madras army in November, 1885. In return the Nagpur District was transferred from the Madras to the Bombay army, on October i, 1888. This exchange, which the Bombay Government regretted, shows that the distribution of troops is not necessarily affected by the limits of the different Presi- dencies. Belgaum is a Bombay District ; Nagpur is in the Central Provinces ; while, as a further example, the Ouetta District command, which is upon the Sind fron- tier, was transferred from the Bombay to the Bengal army. On the same day as the transfer of the Nagpur command was effected, October i, 1888, a general reorganisation of the commands and staff was in- troduced. The terms Divisions and Brioacles were abolished, and the senior commands, previously styled Divisions, and First and Second Class Briorades, were divided into two classes only, and called First and MILITARY AND MARINE. 455 Second Class Districts. One Major-General's com- mand, the old Northern District, was suppressed. Some of the stations within its limits were transferred to the Bombay District, and the rest were formed into Second Class Districts. The Second Class Brigade at Nasirabad was also reduced to a station, com- manded by a Colonel on the staff. The Divisional and Brigade Staffs in the Adjutant- General's and Quarter- master-General's Departments were amalgamated ; and the officers holding appointments in these depart- ments were designated District Staff Officers, First Class, and District Staff Officers, Second Class, in lieu of their former cumbrous titles of Assistant and Deputy- Assistant-Adjutant-General, and Assistant and Deputy - Assistant - Quartermaster - General. Three Brigade-Majors were abolished, and Station Staff Officers were allowed at certain stations instead. The Station Staff Officers were divided into four classes instead of three, and the staff salaries of the first, second, and third classes were increased. This important reform in the Adjutant-General's and Quartermaster-General's Departments consequent on the reorganisation of the district commands, was accompanied by not less important changes in other branches of the departmental organisation. On Feb- ruary I, 1887, the Commissariat Supply and Transport Departments of the Bombay army were amalgamated. In July. 1887, their staff was reorganised; and on September 21, 1889, orders were issued that from October i in that year their presidential staffs should be formed into one central department for all India 456 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. under the orders of the Commissary-General-in-Chief and under the administrative control of the Govern- ment of India. The Commissary-General in Bombay selected by Lord Reay was Colonel Wilhelm Luckhardt, C.B. and Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, an extremely able officer. He reorganised the important spending departments under his control, introduced drastic reforms and put down many abuses. The result was a saving of three lakhs of rupees. He paid special attention to the vital question of transport, and largely substituted mules for the comparatively useless elephants and camels. Even more interesting was Colonel Luckhardt's attempt to make the transport followers of military value, instead of incumbrances to the progress of an army. He obtained leave in July, 1887, to teach these followers the work of carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, &c. in the transport workshops, and to pay them half the rates allowed to departmental workmen, while they were employed as artificers. The scheme was tried as an experiment for one year. It proved a success and resulted in a financial saving, and the Government of India in July, 1889, sanctioned its continuance. Another point of Colonel Luckhardt's administration was his advocacy of the substitution of the draught for the pack system, and his endeavours to find a style of cart suitable for rough ground and strong enough not to break down when heavily laden. While speaking of reforms in the army departments, mention should also be made of the abolition of the MILITARY AND MARINE. 457 Bombay Clothing Agency on October i, 1889, in con- sequence of the recommendation of the Finance Committee. The separate presidential Judge- Advocate- General's departments were amalgamated on April i, 1888 into one, under a Judge-Advocate-General for India. A considerable saving was effected by the sub- stitution of one Deputy-Judge-Advocate-General and one Assistant-Judge-Advocate-General for the Bombay army in the place of the former establishment of a Judge -Advocate -General and two Deputy- Judge- Advocates-General. These important measures of reform and consolida- tion in the higher grades and in the staff of the Bombay army were introduced partly as a result of the recom- mendations of the Finance Committee, and partly as steps towards the scheme of reconstruction propounded by the Army Commission. Whether or not that scheme be ever adopted in its entirety, the measures just described have tended alike to efficiency and economy. With reference to the British remments stationed in Bombay during the five years from 1885 to 1890, it may be briefly noted that in 1885 the strength of each battalion of infantry was augmented by the addition of one hundred privates. Measures were also taken, under a scheme formulated by the Government of India in 1887, to replace the old canteens by regimental insti- tutes containing both refreshment and recreation departments. In the Bombay Native Regiments more important changes were made. A distinguishing characteristic 458 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. of the Bombay, as of the Madras, army has been the maintenance of the ' dihition ' system. By this system regiments composed of members of a single caste or a single race are avoided, in contradistinction to the practice which formerly prevailed in the Bengal army. The argument in favour of ' dilution ' was strengthened by the experience of the Mutiny in 1857. The only two Bombay regiments which mutinied were the 2 1 St Native Infantry, which was composed solely of Purbiahs, and the 27th Native Infantry, composed solely of Marathas \ Generally speaking, Marathas and Rajputs, Sikhs and Pathans, may be seen serving together in the ranks of the regular Bombay regiments. The Marathas are alike the most numerous and the most warlike inhabitants of the Bombay Presidency proper. Of their military aptitude in the past there can be no doubt : for it was the Marathas who broke the power of the Mughal Empire. But the develop- ment of the mill industry and the improvement in the condition of agriculture tends yearly to diminish the number of Maratha recruits. The hardy inhabitants of the District of Ratnagiri who formerly enlisted in large numbers, now prefer to earn the livelihood which their barren soil denies, in the factories of Bombay rather than in the ranks of the army. ' At the present day,' it is said 2, ' the Bombay army is greatly dependent for its supply of recruits on the Native States of Central India.' To this general statement the three Baliich regiments form a marked exception. These regiments ' Memorafidian on Army Corps versus Presidential Armies (Bombay, 1888), p. 7. * The Calcutta Review for October, 1889, p. 244. MILITARY AND MARINE. 459 are not ' diluted,' nor is the supply of recruits for them likely to be diminished for many years to come. In- deed, in 1887 the Government of India, recognising the high military qualities of the Baluchis, proposed that three more regiments of the Bombay Native Infantry should be localised in Sind and Baluchistan, and recruited from the frontier tribes. This scheme was not carried out, owing to representations by the Bombay Government. I now turn for a moment to the different sections of the Bombay Native Army. In the artillery, the two Bombay Mountain Batteries (Native) were increased from four to six guns each in 1885, and the field of recruitment for them was extended to the Punjab in 1889. The Bomba}' Native Cavalry was increased by one regiment and by the addition of a fresh squadron to each regiment, in 1885. In the same year the ist and 2nd Bombay Lancers were equipped throughout with lance, sword, and carbine. In 1887 the Aden troop also was armed with the lance instead of the sabre. In the Bombay Native Infantry far-reaching changes were made. Under the system introduced into the whole native army of India in 1886, the Bombay Native Infantry regiments of the old organisation were linked together into regiments consisting of three bat- talions each ; the new battalions being identical with the old regiments. Of these new regiments, one, consisting of the 4th Rifles, the 23rd Light Infantry, and the 25th Light Infantry was on the proposal of H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught formed into a Rifle Corps in 1888. The 4th Rifles were armed with long Snidcrs 46o BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. in 1887, and in 1888 the Government of India sanctioned the issue of Martini- Henri rifles to certain Native Infantry regiments. Another point worthy of notice was the assimilation of the system of enlistment for the Bombay Native Army to that prevailing in the Bengal Native Army, in 1887. Under it, a soldier can claim his discharge after three years' service if his regiment is within 10 per cent of its establishment in time of peace. The formation of a Reserve for the Native Infantry, sanc- tioned by the Secretary of State in 1885, and established in connection with the Bombay army in 1887, is of the nature of an experimental measure. The British troops in the Bombay Presidency, in 1889-90, numbered 12,604 officers and men, and the Native army 26,902 officers and men; total, 39,506. The English force comprised 21 batteries and troops of artillery with 84 guns (excluding the heavy ordnance at Bombay, Aden, and Karachi), one regiment of cavalry, nine regiments of infantry, and 34 engineers. The Native army consisted of two Mountain Batteries of artillery with 12 guns, one regiment of engineers, nine regiments of cavalry, numbering 4516 officers and men, and 28 regiments of infantry numbering 21,353 officers and men. The English army contained 391 commissioned officers, 1262 non-commissioned officers, and 10,951 men. The Native army was composed of 326 English commissioned officers, 548 Native commissioned officers, 2811 non-commissioned officers and 23,217 men \ ^ Bombay Administration Report for 1889-90, Appendix III, I (i). MILITARY AND MARINE. 461 The total cost of the Bombay army under the various Budget grants for 1889-90 amounted to Rs. 265,33,687. Of this sum Rs. 62,23,872 was allotted to the English army, and Rs. 74,64,636 to the Native army \ What are termed Effective Services, inclu- ding the staff, the commissariat, ordnance, medical, barrack, clothing, and remount establishments, and the administration of martial law, absorbed no less than Rs. 113,06,028. Some of the items under this head deserve further details. The commissariat, for instance, including establishments, supplies, and services, cost Rs. 54,35,212 ; a sum which gives an idea of the mag- nitude of the department with which Colonel Luck- hardt had to deal; ordnance, Rs. 14,08,219; medical establishments, services, and supplies, Rs. 11,43,982, Non-effective Services, namely pensions and rewards, came to Rs. 15,39,151. Among the items under Effective Services is a sum of Rs. 3,15,654 for Volunteer Corps. The number of volunteers in the Bombay Presidency amounted to 4394 officers and men. Of these, 2735 belonged to the three Railway Volunteer Corps, composed of the men employed on the three great trunk lines running from Bombay — the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India ; the Great India Peninsula ; and the Southern Maratha. The Bombay Volunteers include artillery, rifles, and light horse ; and the Sind Volunteers comprise the Karachi Naval Volunteer Corps formed in June, 1889, The formation of a similar corps of Naval Volunteers ' Bombay A(h)ii7ustration Rcpoit for 1889-90, Appendix III, I (2). 462 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. at Aden was sanctioned by the Bombay Government in January, 1890. In addition to the cost of the Bombay Army must be reckoned the expenditure on miHtary works, which may be divided into Defence and Ordinary Works. I have already referred to the separation of the MiHtary Works from the Bombay Pubhc Works Department, in the last year of Lord Reay's administration. The Government of Bombay recognised the distinction be- tween original defence works, needing supervision by Royal Engineers and ordinary military works, such as barracks and store-houses. Lord Reay fully acknow- ledged the expediency of a special supervision, and indeed of a special department, for the former. Indeed, shortly after his arrival he successfully urged acceleration of harbour defence works. But he pro- tested against the concentration of ordinary military works under a central department of military works at the distant headquarters of the Government of India. The Bombay Public Works Department had shown itself thoroughly competent to carry out the building and repair of barracks and stores. Lord Reay maintained that, by its knowledge of local prices and requirements, it could do such work more econo- mically and quite as efficiently as the new branch of Military Works directly dependent on the Simla Department. Defence works stand on a different footing. It was part of the policy of Lord Dufferin to fortify the great seaports of the Indian Empire against attack by sea. Recent naval manoeuvres show with what ease a MILITAR V AND MARINE. 463 modern ship of war can capture or destroy even the largest city, unless protected by effective heavy ord- nance. Foremost among the seaports of the Indian Empire are Bombay, Aden, and Karachi. Elaborate defence works (of which it would be improper for me to enter into the details) were undertaken during the five years under review for the protection of these cities. The preparation of the designs and the execu- tion of the works have been carried out by a special staff of Royal Engineer officers at each station under the direction, since 1887, of the Inspector-General of Mili- tary Works. Coast batteries have been erected, heavy modern ordnance has been supplied, and a network of submarine mines has been arranged in connection with each of these three harbours. Three torpedo boats of the latest pattern arrived for Bombay and two for Karachi in 1889. Schemes for defence in case of an attack have been drawn up, and rehearsals of them were carried out in the presence of H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught at Aden in November, 1889 ; at Karachi in January, 1890; and at Bombay in March, 1890 ^ During the five years from 1885 to 1890, Rs. 64,54,284 were spent on the special coast defences of Bombay, Aden, and Karachi, of which Rs. 6,51,099 have been refunded by the Home Government as a moiety of the expenditure at Aden. The Secretary in the Military Department is also the Secretary in the Marine Department to the Go- vernment of Bombay, and the headquarters of the Indian Marine are at Bombay. The old Indian Navy, ^ Bombay Administration Report for 1889-90, p. 68. 464 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. maintained by the East India Company, and with a elorious record of service on the coasts of India and in the Persian Gulf, was aboHshed on April 30, 1863. It was believed that the work which it per- formed could be more economically done in another fashion, and six ships of the Royal Navy were sub- sidised for the purpose at a yearly cost of ^70,000. This expectation was not altogether realised. The transport of troops to Aden and from one Indian port to another, the inspection of lighthouses and the euardinsf of the convict settlement on the Andaman Islands, were scarcely duties for the Royal Navy. In 1877 a separate Indian Marine was accordingly or- ganised. It constructed a regular service out of the local establishment which had gradually grown up for these special duties, and took over the dockyards at Bombay and at Kidderpur near Calcutta. In 1882 Captain H. W. Brent, R.N., was appointed the first Director of the Indian Marine, and had the arduous task of despatching the Indian contingent to Egypt. He was succeeded in 1883 by Captain John Hext, R.N., who filled the office of Director of the Indian Marine throughout the five years under review. The Indian Marine mans five troopships, the 'Can- ning,' ' Clive,' ' Dalhousie,' ' Mayo,' and ' Tenasserim,' besides the two turret-ships 'Abyssinia ' and 'Magdala,' six torpedo boats, and several smaller vessels. The Government of India also owns the five great troop- ships which carry the reliefs between England and India, the ' Serapis,' 'Euphrates,' 'Crocodile,' 'Jumna,' and ' Malabar,' but which are officered and manned by MILITARY AND MARINE. 465 the Royal Navy. The ordinary work of the Indian Marine is the transport of the reHefs between one Indian port and another. But in case of a military expedition, a much greater strain is placed on its resources. Thus in 1885, just before Lord Reay's arrival, it carried to the Soudan in its own vessels and in hired transports, between February 22 and April 16, 3366 officers and men of the Indian Army, with 11,521 followers, 835 horses, 2279 mules and ponies, 4155 camels and other animals. On a still larger scale was the work of the Indian Marine in transporting troops for the conquest of Burma in 1885-86. It embarked in its own and in hired ships 14,629 officers and men, with 6565 followers, 494 horses and other animals; and in 1886 18,389 officers and men, with 7371 followers, 3054 horses and other animals. Its officers did good service on the Irrawadi in the Burma campaign ; two of them earned the Distinguished Service Order and several have been mentioned in despatches. During the five years under review the Indian Marine received steady encouragement from the Government of India. Its officers have been graded in the Indian precedence list, but just complaints are made that it has not yet received a fair share of recognition from the Lords of the Admiralty. ^'Z CHAPTER XV. SIND, ADEN, AND THE PORTUGUESE POSSESSIONS. HITHERTO I have treated the Bombay Presi- dency as a whole. But before ending this volume, I must explain at some length an important question which arose afresh during the five years under review in regard to the outlying province of Sind. I shall then very briefly refer to certain trans- actions in the more distant settlement of Aden, and in the Portuguese Settlements on the Bombay coast. The province of Sind, as already stated, is cut off from the Presidency Proper by Native States, and presents administrative problems distinctively its own. Its Muhammadan population, its entire dependence on irrigation for agricultural prosperity, its compara- tively recent conquest, and its sparsely inhabited tracts, contrast with the conditions prevailing in Gujarat and the Deccan. It accordingly forms, to a certain extent, a separate administrative unit. The Commissioner in Sind exercises larger powers than the Commissioners of the Northern, Central, and Southern Divisions of the Presidency. The Judicial Commissioner of Sind possesses nearly all the powers SINB, ADEN, GO A. 467 of the Bombay High Court. The Districts of Sind are still Non-Regulation, and many enactments of the Bombay Legislative Council are not extended to them. The administrative system on the whole re- sembles that of the Central Provinces, except that the Commissioner in Sind is subordinate to the Govern- ment of Bombay, while the Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces is directly under the Government of India. The connection of Sind with the Bombay Govern- ment has not, however, been always regarded as essential, and in 1888 the Government of India decided to recommend the transference of Sind to the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjab. Lord Reay, on being consulted by the Governor-General in Council, objected, and after a full consideration of his arguments, the transfer was not carried into effect. The question seriously affected the Bombay Govern- ment, and the decision to maintain the status guo was not arrived at without much discussion. The pro- posal is, however, of old standing and has an instructive history. The following summary shows the long-pro- tracted deliberation which is given to such a question of territorial jurisdiction by the Indian Government, and briefly indicates the arguments from time to time put forward on both sides. They may be divided into historical, geographical, administrative, military, and commercial. Sir Charles Napier conquered the Amirs of Sind in 1843, and was appointed Governor of the province on its annexation by Lord Ellenborough. He held Gg 2 468 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. the office until 1847, doing arduous work in settling a country disturbed by long licence and misgovern- ment. On Napier's resignation, the administration of Sind was placed under the control of the Bombay Government. In February 1856 the Government of India proposed to establish a Lieutenant-Governorship on the north-west frontier of the empire, to include both the Punjab and Sind. The project was, however, negatived by the Court of Directors on financial and other grounds. In November, 1858, after the abolition of the East India Company, the Secretary of State for India ordered the formation of the Lieutenant- Governorship of the Punjab, The composition of the new province was left to the Government of India. It decided, in a large measure owing to the admirable administration of Sind by Sir Bartle Frere, then Com- missioner, and to the difficulty of communications with the North, that Sind should remain attached to the Bombay Presidency. Twelve years later, Lord Mayo had again to consider the question of re-arranging the jurisdictions of the Local Governments, and among them the transfer of Sind. No step was immediately taken, but in 1876 the Secretary of State sanctioned the transfer of Sind to the Punjab, and on August 15, 1879, the Government of India applied for sanction to bring the new arrangements into force from January I, 1880. The events at Kabul, however, and the con- tinuance of the Afghan war, caused the proposal to be postpohed. From this narrative it will be seen that one school could fairly argue that the subordina- tion of Sind to the Bombay Government was accidental, SIA^n, ADEN, GOA. 469 and that there had long been a consensus of opinion in favour of eventually separating it. On the other side, the history of actual facts may be opposed to the history of opinion. It may be true, urge the advocates for retaining the status qico, that the subordination of Sind to Bombay had been re- garded as a temporary measure. Nevertheless the arrangement has now lasted for nearly fifty years ; and when a temporary arrangement lasts for nearly half a century in India, it must be treated as prac- tically permanent. They argue that the very facts which weighed with the Government of India against actual separation in 1858 and 1879, namely the ad- mirable administration of Sir Bartle Frere and the Afghan war, show that the unanimity of opinion was, upon the two occasions w^hen the matter was most maturely considered, overpowered by practical con- siderations in favour of the existing system. To this answer it is rejoined that these considerations against the transfer were of a temporary character. The geographical arguments for and against the transfer of Sind are apparent from a glance at the map. On the one hand, Sind is separated from the boundaries of the Bombay Presidency by the Native States of Rajputana and Cutch, while it marches on its northern frontier with the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjab, and on its western frontier with the recently ceded districts of Baluchistan. Its most important physical feature, and the one on which its agricultural prosperity depends, the Indus river, is formed by the five streams which give the Punjab its 470 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885- 1 890. name. It would seem natural, therefore, that the whole course of the mighty river and its affluents should be under one government. The difficulty of communication with the Punjab, which formed an ob- jection to the inclusion of Sind within that Lieutenant- Governorship in 1858, has been removed by the com- pletion of the North-Western State Railway. Lahore can now be more easily reached by train than Bombay by steamer. To these geographical arguments may also be added ethnological and religious considerations. The people of Sind are less alien in habits and religion to those of the Punjab and Baluchistan than to those of Bombay. The prevailing religion of Sind is that of Islam, which has comparatively few followers in the Bombay Presidency. On the other hand it is urged that the geographical argument of Sind being watered by the great river of the Punjab is not conclusive, for it might be alleged on behalf of the amalgamation of part of Madras with Bombay, and against the separation of Assam from Bengal. The close connection between Sind and the Punjab resulting from the completion of the North- Western State Railway may some day be balanced by the construction of a Bombay line across the Rann of Cutch from Karachi to Kathiawar. It is true that the Sind population is chiefly of the Muhammadan religion, but these Muhammadans are the descendants of the original Hindu inhabitants, who were converted to the faith of Islam during the reign of the Ummayide dynasty of Khalifas, and are ethnically related to the people of Gujarat. This is proved by the Sindi SIND, ADEN, GO A. 471 language, which differs more from Punjabi than it does from Gujarati, and has much in common with the latter vernacular. The class from which Native officials in Sind are chiefly drawn is that of the Hindu Amils. The Bombay Presidency proper contains Marathi-speaking, Gujarati -speaking, and Kanarese- speaking races, and has to deal with the Hindu, Parsi, and Lingayat religions. The addition of another language and another dominant religion in Sind does not complicate its government. The administrative arguments are more weighty. The Province of Sind is and, under British rule, always has been an administrative entity. It is ad- ministered by a Commissioner, whose powers resemble those of the Chief Commissioners of Assam and the Central Provinces. Its districts are Non-Regulation like those in the latter governments. Its judicial machinery is complete in itself It can therefore be separated with a minimum of friction or inconvenience. It has its own interests, which are independent of those existing in the Bombay Presidency. Its agricultural system, dependent on irrigation works and canals, differs from that of the Deccan, the Konkan or Gujarat. Its physical configuration, with its one great river, its sandy soil and frequent deserts, its absence of mountains and of forests, presents peculiar con- ditions. Its commercial prosperity depends on the trade of the north-west of India, mainly upon wheat, while that of the Bombay Presidency proper depends on the trade of the western and central districts of the Peninsula, mainly on cotton. 4 7 2 BOMB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1885-1 890. In reply to these considerations, the opposing school justly urges the success which has been attained by the existing system. For nearly half a century, Sind has been administered, as a separate organisation it is true, but by Bombay officers and upon Bombay principles. Bombay administrators, like Sir Bartle Frere and Colonel Sir W. L. Merewether, have built up a most efficient government. A special revenue system, based on the condition of the province, under the name of irrigational settlements, has been intro- duced by the instrumentality of Mr. H. N. B. Erskine, C.S.I., who was Commissioner in Sind during the early part of Lord Reay's administration. Education has been put on a sound footing by a special Inspector of Schools, Mr. H. P. Jacob. The Bombay Public Works Department has paid particular attention to the requirements of Sind, and has successfully laboured, with the aid of its slowly acquired special knowledge, to maintain and extend the network of irrigation canals. Sind has certainly not suffered by its con- nection with Bombay in the past. Nor would the separation be unattended with diffi- culties. The Sind public records are inextricably mixed up with those of the rest of the Bombay Go- vernment, and it would be a very expensive and pro- longed task to separate them. Bombay, moreover, is the principal maritime province of India. The Bom- bay Government is peculiarly suited to deal with the special questions connected with the management of ports and harbours. Sind has a considerable sea- board, and its wealthiest and most progressive city is SIND, ADEN, GOA. 473 the important port of Karachi. The Punjab has no ports and no maritime administration. It would have to create a fresh machinery for the single harbour of Karachi, and there would be a danger of disagreement between the neighbouring maritime jurisdictions of Sind (if a part of the Punjab) and Bombay. The fourth series of considerations are military. It was owing to the Inconvenience of a division of political responsibility upon the North-Western frontier that the Government of India resuscitated the idea of the separation of Sind from Bombay In 1876. The unity of frontier policy was impaired by a portion of the frontier being subject to the Government of the Punjab and a portion to that of Bombay. It was felt that since the completion of the North-Western State Railway the whole frontier ought to be treated strate- gically as a whole. In the event of a war the exist- ence of two military authorities on the frontier might prove a source of weakness. To these considerations the opposed school of administrators rejoin that, since 1876, circumstances have undergone a change. That Sind Is no longer strategically a frontier province. That by the Treaty of Gandamak the former Afghan districts of PIshin and Sibi were assigned to the British Government, and Quetta is held on a perpetual lease from the Khan of Khelat. These accessions have been formed into a separate government of British Baluchistan, under the rule of the Agent to the Governor-General at Khelat as Chief Commissioner. The military district command at Ouetta now 474 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. pertains to the Bengal Army, like the other military commands on the Punjab frontier. It is true that the ultimate base of operations, the North- Western State Raihvay, runs through both the Punjab and Sind, But the southern line of primary operations has been pushed out from Sind into Baluchistan by the con- struction of the railway from Sukkur to Sibi, with a loop line through the Bolan to Ouetta, and from Sibi up the Nari gorge and the Harnai valley to Pishin, and onwards towards the Khojak pass. A military road has been made through the Bori valley connect- ing Pishin with the Punjab, and a cantonment has been established at Loralai. On more general military grounds, it is argued that if the Bombay Army were deprived of its three Baluch battalions and the Sind Horse, its prestige and usefulness would be impaired ; that it is neces- sary for its efficiency that it should have to garrison an ojtlying province like Sind, sufficiently close to the frontier to maintain the spirit of alertness for actual warfare. From the commercial point of view, the most im- portant city in Sind is Karachi, and Karachi is the port of export for the produce not only of Sind but of the Punjab. It would be for the advantage of the trade of the Punjab that its outlet should be under the control of its own administration. This argument would certainly be conclusive if Bombay and the Punjab were independent states, for it is natural that every state should strive for a maritime outlet of its own for its commerce. But the Bombay Presidency SIND, ADEN, GO A. 475 and the Punjab are not rival states. They form part of one empire. The Government of India would, in case of a conflict of interests, take care that the Bombay Government should not prejudice the interests of the Punjab. Meanwhile the experience gained by the Bombay Government in the management of Bom- bay itself, the greatest port of India and one of the greatest in the world, has proved of inestimable ad- vantage to the interests of Karachi. The develop- ment of that harbour during Lord Reay's administra- tion, the extensive works undertaken for its improve- ment by the Bombay Public Works Department, and the formation of the Karachi Port Trust on the model of the Port Trust which has done so much for the prosperity of Bombay, have been already mentioned. The consideration that the Bombay Presidency is the maritime province of India has weight both from the commercial and the administrative point of view. It is an advantage to have the, two most important centres of coast defence (the ports of Karachi and Bombay) under the same Local Government, As a matter of fact, the great commercial houses, which control the export wheat trade of Karachi, are more closely connected with Bombay than with Lahore or Delhi, and have generally their headquarters at Bombay. If Sind is separated from Bombay, what is to be done with it ? Two projects have been brought for- ward. According to one of them, Sind, with the recently ceded districts in Baluchistan, would be formed into a Chief Commissionership similar to those 476 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. of Assam and the Central Provinces. But in these days of easy communication by railway and telegraph, the tendency is to diminish rather than to increase the number of administrative units. Economy can thus be secured without prejudice to efficiency, and it is likely that in any rearrangement of Provinces a reduction in the number of local governments will be made. The other project is to unite Sind with the Lieu- tenant-Governorship of the Punjab. This was the scheme favoured by Lord Lytton's Government in 1876, and adopted by Lord Dufferin's Government in 1888. Of the people of Sind, those who pay attention to the manner in which their province is governed dis- liked the idea of separation. On May 18, 1888, the Sind Sabha of Karachi, describing itself as ' a body established for the representation and advancement of the public interests of the people of Sind,' drew up a ' humble memorial ' on the subject to the Viceroy in Council. The Memorial ably set forth the leading argu- ments mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs in favour of retaining Sind under the Government of Bombay. Although this document may seem rather to furnish evidence of contentment wdth the existinof state of things than to appreciate the reasons — political, com- mercial, and military — which now point to a change, it deservedly carried some weight. Upon a full con- sideration of the objections urged by the Bombay Government, and of the expression of opinion in Sind, the Government of India refrained from further action in the matter for the time being. SINB, ADEN, GO A. 477 During the discussions as to separating Sind from Bombay arose a question of amalgamating the Central Provinces with that Presidency. This proposal was regarded with approval by Lord Salisbury in 1876, when the transfer of Sind was under consideration, as affording compensation for the loss which the Bombay Presidency would experience. It was again carefully discussed during the five years under review, 1885- 1890; and it will probably be revived when the question of territorial redistribution comes up for final decision. The Central Provinces were acquired by the British from the Marathas, and many experienced administrators have thought that the time is at hand for reuniting those Provinces with the main portion of the Maratha country under the Government of Bombay. If the double project is ever carried out, Sind would be amalgamated with the Punjab into a strong frontier Province stretching down the whole valley of the Indus from the Himalayas to the sea ; while the Bombay Presidency would embrace all the British provinces of Western and Central India commanded by the railway system which has its sea- outlet at the port of Bombay. Meanwhile the general question of transfer of territory to or from Bombay remains in abeyance. But as this question funda- mentally affects the future of the Bombay Presidency, I have thought it well to present it in a clear light. With regard to Aden, I propose merely to sum- marise the more important administrative events during the five years under review, 1 885-1 890. Aden may 478 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION, 1885-1890. be considered as a fortress, a settlement, and a port. As a fortress, commandino[ the entrance to the Red Sea, and as a coaHng station, the defence of Aden is a matter of supreme importance to the whole British Empire. The English Government recognise this fact, and the English War Office furnished designs for a series of defensive works to render Aden impreg- nable. The Home and the Indian Governments divide the expense, but the works have been carried out partly by the Bombay Government, partly by the Western India Imperial Defences Branch, and the garrison is supplied by the Bombay Army. The de- fensive works were completed during the period under review, and both the Governor and the Commander- in-Chief of Bombay had reason to believe that all that was then possible has been done to secure the safety of the great stronghold which commands the road to India. As a settlement, Aden is administered by a Resident, who is also the Brigradier-General commandino^ the troops stationed in the fortress. The Resident has full magisterial authority, together with jurisdiction as a judge of the Vice- Admiralty Court and in matters connected with the suppression of the slave trade. The Resident has six assistants under him, one of whom is the Cantonment Magistrate. It being found inexpedient to keep a large population within the limits of the fortress, the village of Shaikh Othman was purchased in 1880 in order to lay out a suitable settlement for the civil part of the inhabitants. It is situated about five miles from Aden, and has been so SIND, ADEN, GOA. 479 rapidly taken into favour that it now contains about 10,000 inhabitants. An Aden Municipality has been formed, including Aden proper and Little Aden on the two peninsulas, which form the limits of the fortress, and Shaikh Othman. Like all the other Bombay Municipalities, it pays its chief attention to sanitation. This Municipality raised a local revenue of Rs. 1,52,178 in 1889-90, and one of Lord Reay's last acts was to make arrangements for the establishment of a good civil hospital in connection with it. As a port and coaling station, Aden is the centre of a large and increasing trade. In 1889-90 no fewer than 161 5 vessels visited Aden, of which 1461 were merchant steamers with an aggregate tonnage of 2,427,760 tons\ Of these only 970 were British steamers, and their number showed a decrease, owing to the fact that passing ships prefer to take in their coal at Perim, where there are no port dues. The value of the seaborne and inland trade, exclusive of Government stores and treasure and cargo manifested for transhipment on importation, amounted in 1889-90 to Rs. 671,79,699, a large increase over the average for the five years under review ^. Considering the mag- nitude of this trade, Lord Reay's Government deter- mined to extend to Aden the system which had proved so beneficial at Bombay, and by Act V of 1888 created an Aden Port Trust. This new body, of which the First Assistant Resident is chairman and all the mem- bers are nominated by Government, at once obtained ^ Bombay Administrafion Report for 1889-90, pp. 71 and 116. 2 Ibid., p. 113. 48o BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. a dredger of 1000 tons capacity and prepared to deepen the harbour at an expense of Rs. 9,30,967, to be spread over five years. The receipts of the Port Trust during the year 1889-90 amounted to Rs. 1,97,723, of which Rs. 1,17,298 were derived from port dues. The expenditure on dredging alone amounted to Rs. 1,40,433 \ The functions of the Resident at Aden are not however confined to the settlement. For Aden has many dependencies. The most important of these is the little island of Perim, situated in an important strategic position at the entrance of the Red Sea. It is defended by a small garrison, and largely used as a coaling station. During 1889-90 588 steamers, of which 528 were British, called at the island, four-fifths of them to take in or discharge coal '-. Besides Perim, the Resident at Aden has control over the Massah Islands and Eibat Island, purchased by the British Government in 1840, and the Kooriah Mooriah Islands ceded by the Imam of Mascat in 1854; islands which are however chiefly valuable for their guano deposits. The coast tribes from Perim to Ras Sair are also under British protec- tion, and in 1886 the Bombay Government established a protectorate over the large island of Socotra, 150 miles E.N.E. of Cape Guardafui. By this arrange- ment the native ruler engaged to protect shipwrecked vessels of whatever nationality, and to enter into no agreement with any nation but the English. ^ Bombay Adintinstratio7t Report for 1 889-90, p. 74. 2 Ibid., p. 71. SIND, ADEN, GO A. 481 A British protectorate is also maintained from Aden over the SomaH coast, along the African seaboard of the Gulf of Aden. It is important for the prosperity and safety of Aden that this district should not be controlled by any foreign power ; for its safety, be- cause it enables England to effectually close the Gulf of Aden ; for its prosperity, because it supplies Aden with live stock, and Somalis are the labourers of the settlement. The Somali Coast protectorate extends from Ras Jibuti to Bandar Ziyada, that is from 48° 15' to 49° E. long., and is divided for political purposes into the two sub-residencies of Bulhar-Berbera and Zaila. It contains three ports, Bulbar, Berbera, and Zaila, and there is every prospect that under British protection a flourishing trade will spring up in connec- tion wath them. One function of the Resident at Aden is, under the orders of the Bombay Government, to maintain the Somali coast line. That line is held, not as a base for expansion inland, but to increase the security of Aden. Towards the close of Lord Reay's administration, however, it became necessary to pene- trate the interior. In August, 1889, the Mamasan Esa tribe treacherously attacked Bulbar and killed 67 of the inhabitants. A punitive expedition was therefore despatched in January, 1890, under the command of Captain Domvile, consisting of 60 cavalry, 30 sappers 170 native infantry, and 10 men of the Royal Navy, with two Gardner guns, which defeated the Esa tribe, who came in voluntarily and made their submission after the return of the forced ^ Bombay Admmistratioii Report for 1889-90, pp. 29 and 70. H h 482 BOMB A Y ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. It seems a long stride from so recent an acqui- sition as Somali-land to the relations of the oldest European power in Asia with the Government of Bombay. Yet it is with the Government of Bombay, which has grown out of an item in the dowry of a Por- tuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, when she wedded the Enolish kino- Charles II, that the succes- sors of Vasco da Gama and Affonso de Albuquerque, Francisco de Almeida, and Joao de Castro have to deal. All the Portuguese possessions now remaining in India, Goa, Daman, and Diu, lie within the limits of the Bombay Presidency, and involve frequent commu- nications between the Governor of Bombay and the Governor-General of Portuguese India. The fact that the Portuguese settlements are im- bedded in British territory rendered a clear under- standing necessary, if they were not to become nests for smucjolers and caves of Adullam for broken men of various sorts. During the five years under re- view, the Portuguese Treaty of 1878 remained in force ; by which Portugal surrendered her right to manufacture salt and other rights, in return for cer- tain allowances and a subsidy of Rs. 4,00,000 a year. I have mentioned that this subsidy was hypothe- cated for the construction of a railway from the Portuguese port of Marmagao to join the Southern Maratha Railway. That line will make Marmagao the outlet for the cotton of Bellary, and greatly pro- mote the prosperity of the Portuguese territory of Goa. It was completed during the period under review (i 885-1 890), and its opening was celebrated by an SIND, ADEN, GO A. 483- international ceremonial, at which the Governor- General of Portuguese India and Lord Reay were both present. Great as may be the importance of this event on the prosperity of Portuguese India, it did not excite so much interest as the closing of the ancient schism in the Roman Catholic Church in India by the Con- cordat between the Pope and the King of Portugal, signed on June 23, 1886. In the days when Portugal was the Christian nation which kept the road to Asia round the Cape of Good Hope, Roman Catholic hier- archies were established in India, China, and Japan, and the King of Portugal, though not yet ' Fide- lissimus,' received the right to nominate to those bishoprics. But the power of Portugal in the East dwindled as rapidly as it had grown. Four centuries rolled by, and when Roman Catholic missionaries built up new congregations of converts in districts within the limits of the tolerant sway of England, the new Roman Catholic Churches felt it unjust that they should be subject to bishops appointed by the Portuguese sovereign of an insignificant portion of India, or by his nominee, the Archbishop of Goa. The result of this feeling was a strife between the Vicars-Apostolic of the Pope, at the head of various missions in British or Feu- datory India, and the bishops of the Portuguese Church in India. I have explained the character of this ScJiisma Lusitammi in my ' Indian Empire.' It suffices here to remark that the Pope naturally desired to preserve his direct supremacy over such of his flock in India as were not resident v.ithin Portuguese limits ; that it u h 2 484 BO MB A V ADMINISTRA TION, 1 885-1 890. was also natural for the Portuguese nation to resent any subtraction from the shadow of their former greatness in the East, even though the substance of it had long departed. The agreement arrived at was to the effect that from September i, 1886, the Roman Catholic Church in India should be divided into the eight ecclesiastical provinces of Agra, Bombay, Cal- cutta, Colombo, Goa, Madras, Pondicherry, and Vera- poli, each presided over by its own archbishop. Seven of these provinces were to be directly ruled by the Pope, but the eighth, the province of Goa, was left to the King of Portugal. The Archbishopric of Bom- bay holds in certain respects an intermediate position. The province of Goa was to consist of the dioceses of Goa, Daman, Cochin, and Mailapur, and to these sees the Kinor of Portucjal retains the rigfht to nominate. The Archbishop of Goa keeps his title of Primate of the East and Patriarch of the East Indies, and has the right to preside at all the Plenary Councils of the Indies which are to be held at Goa. Incidentally it may be noted that this arrangement will somev/hat complicate matters with regard to the Roman Catholic Church in the Bombay Presidency. The province of Bombay consists of the archdiocese of Bombay and the diocese of Poona. The former of these sees extends over Bombay, Gujarat north of the Narbada, Cutch, Rajputana, Sind, and Baluchistan ; and the latter over the Southern Konkan, Khandesh, and the Deccan up to the limits of Haidarabad, Mysore, and North Kanara. But on the other hand, the Bishop of Daman, one of the suffragans of the SIA'^D AND ADEN. 485 Archbishop of Goa, will have jurisdiction over Daman, Dill, Gujarat south of the Narbada, the Northern Konkan, Bassein, and the islands of Salsette and Trombay. At the same time nine churches in the archdiocese of Bombay with their schools fall under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Daman, and ten churches and institutions in the diocese of Daman under that of the Archbishop of Bombay. It is a compromise which, to be successful, must be worked in a conciliatory spirit. INDEX. Abkari : see Excise. Aboriginal tribes, efforts for their edu- cation, 182, 183 ; tlieir forest life, 196, 197 ; their wasteful cultivation in forests stopped, 217; right to collect forest produce, 218 ; drinking habits, 364. Abyssinians in the Konkan, 30. Accidents, considered in 'classing,' 241. Achar3'a, Rao Saheb Ramchandra Trimbak, member Forest Commis- sion, 203. Adam, Sir F. F. , President Bombaj' Chamber of Commerce, 73 ; Chair- man Jubilee Technical Institute, 173; Bombay Extension Committee, 327 ; additional member Finance Committee, 350. Aden, Port Trust formed, 315, 479 ; incidence of income-tax, 397 ; Volunteers raised, 461, 462 ; de- fence works, 463 ; history, 1885- 1890, as a fortress, 478 ; as a settle- ment, 478-479 ; municipality, 479 ; as port, 479-480 ; trade, 479 ; depen- dencies, 480. Administration of Bombay, affected by the land system, 10, ii ; its excellence, 77. Adoption in Native States, 88. Advances to cultivators, 269, 270. Agriculture; question of agricultural education, 158, 159, 166-168; chair of, founded at Baroda, 168 ; services of the Survey to, 264 ; appointment of Director of, 265. Ahmadabad, district in Gujarat, 27 ; subsoil-water assessment in, 253 ; talukdari tenure, 256 ; incidence of income-tax, 397. Ahmadabad city, the Gujarat College, 152) 153; medical school at, 155; Jubilee Celebration at, 271 ; railway communication with Bombay, 281 ; proposed tramway to Dholera, 295 ; the Ellis Bridge rebuilt, 297 ; water- v^^orks and drainage, 319, 320, 441 ; has a Small Cause Court, 409; ex- cellence of its municipality, 438. Ahmadnagar, district in the Deccan, 31 ; its first settlement, 236 ; very little drinking in, 367 ; local taxes, 439, 440. Ahmadnagar city. High School trans- ferred to local authorities, 140 ; Ripon Hospital at, 317, 339. Ajra, Jubilee Bridge at, 125. Akalkot, Native .State in the Deccan, 31- Akbar, Emperor, incorporated Sind in Mughal Empire, 23. Ale, beer, and porter, import duty on, 374- Alexandra Native Girls' School, Bom- bay, 185. Alienation Settlements, 265 268. Allbless family, their charitable gifts to Bombay, 326, 338. American Missionary Society opened school at Bombay > 1814), 129. Anand, railway to Godhra from, con- tinued to Ratlam, 282; railway to Petlad, 291. Animal hospital at Surat. 15. Anjumafi-i-Islam, the, at Bombay, 179. Appeals, course of, 406. Aptc, Mr., Principal of Fergusson Col- lege. Poona, 150. Arbuthnot, Lt.Gen. Sir C. G., Com- mander-in-Chief, Bombay, 60, 6r, 449. Army, the Bombay; history, 449-451 ; question of its abolition, 451-454 ; reorganisation of commands, 454, 455 : departmcMital reforms. 455 457 ; British troops, 457 ; Native troops, 488 jisrpEx. 457-460; numbers, 460; cost, 461; the Volunteers, 461, 462. Arm J' Commission (1884), its recom- mendations, 451, 452. Art. schools of. at Bhuj. 153 ; the Jamsetjee Jejeebho^'at Bombay, 169, 170. Asoka, eighth edict in Thana, 30 ; efforts to convert the Deccan, 31 ; the Karnatik, 45. Assessed taxes, 396. Assessment, method of, under Bombay Survey system, 242; subsoil- water assessment, 251-254. Auckland, Lord, settled education con- troversy (1839), 130. Aundh, Native State in the Deccan, 31 ; left to the Collector of Satara on breaking up of Satara Jaghirs, 119, 120. Aurungzeb, his attempts to conquer the Deccan, 33-36. Bahadurji. Dr., appointed professor at Grant College, 156. Bahmani dynasty in the Konkan, 30 ; the Deccan, 32. Baillie, A. F., quoted, on roads in Sind, 285, 286. Baird, Sir D., expedition to Egypt (1801), Bombaj- troops in, 450. Balasinor, Jubilee Municipal Hall, 125. Baliichis, numerous in Sind, 25 ; the Baliich regiments, 458, 459. Bandra, Convent School at, 185 ; no octroi levied at, 439. Bansda, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; Jubilee Dharmsala, 125. Baria, Native State in Rewa Kantha, refused to abolish transit duties, 123. Baroda, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; under Supreme, not Bombay Go- vernment, 80 ; railway extensions in, 289-291. Baroda, Gaekwar of, character, 94 ; political attitude, 95, 96; founded chair at Grant College, Bombay, 156 ; and chair of Agriculture at Baroda, 168 ; his College at Baroda, 176; attitude on railway jurisdiction question, 290, 291 ; excise conven- tion with Bombay Government, 373. Barsi, tramway to, 295. Bassein, Dispensary founded at, by Sir D. Petit, 337. Belgaum, district in the Karnatik, 44 ; large advances to cultivators in, 269 ; freedom from crime, 411 ; proportion of police to population, 426; dog- tax in, 440 ; militarj' command of, transferred to Madras ! 1885 , 454. Bengali, Sorabjee, member Bombay City Abkari Commission, 389. Berbera, Port in Somali Coast Protec- torate, 481. Bhagdari tenure, 259. Bhandaris cr toddy drawers strike of, in Bombay Island, 387 ; petition in 1735. 387, 388; settlement of their grievances, 388. 389. Bhang, decoction of hemp, drunk in Sind, 371, 372; excise on, 392, 393 Bhaunagar, Native State in Kathiawar, change in framework of government, 98; administrative history (1870- 1890^1, 105 115 ; Jubilee Water- works, 124; railway to Wadhwan, 291. Bhaunagar, Maharaja of, education, 507, 108 ; marriage, 108 ; popularity in his State, 115; endowed the Lady Reay Nurse Fund, 156. Bhils aboriginal race, riots in Mewar and Pol. 120; supported dacoits in Mahi Kantha, 122; religious move- ment among, 124 ; efforts to educate, 183 ; a forest tribe, 197 ; advances to, in Khandesh, 269 ; heavy drink- ers, 364. Bhor, Native State in the Deccan, 31 ; placed under charge of Collector of Poona, 119; refused to abolish transit duties. 123. Bhor Ghat, trains allowed over at night in monsoon, 278. Bhownaggree, M. M., founded Nurses' Home at Bombay, 156, 326, 338. Bhuj, School of Art at, 123 ; Jubilee Waterworks, 124. Bijapur, district in the Karnatik, 44 ; first survey settlement of, 236 ; free- dom from crime, 411. Bijapur city converted into head- quarters' station of a British district, 316 ; by a convict gang, 427. Bisset, Major W. S. .quoted on pressure on B. B. and C. L Railway, 281, 282. Blanford, W. T., quoted on geology of Gujarat and Sind, 18. Bliss, H. W., member ot the Finance Commission (1886), 349, 350. Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, 281, 282. Bombay Chamber of Commerce fre- quently consulted by Lord Reay, INDEX. 489 73 ; elects deputies to the Port Trust 310; to the Municipalitj^ 435. Bomhay City, a great port, 13 ; govern- ment transferred to (16871, 49; railway routes from 278-281 ; new terminus, 279; the docks, 308, 309; the Port Trust, 309 311 ; the dock- yard, 311-312 ; new buildings, 316 ; the Tansa Waterworks scheme, 323-325 ; drainage, 325 ; hospitals, 325-327; the Extension Committee, 327, 328 ; excessive drinking in, 366 ; protests against the excise policy, 383, 384 ; the Bombay Abkari Com- mission, 389 ; heavy incidence of income tax, 396 ; its Small Cause Court, 409 ; the Bombay City Police, 424. 425 ; Municipality. 433-437 ; the Municipal Act of 1888, 434-436 ; its budget, 436, 437 ; Jubilee celebra- tion, 437 ; Volunteers, 461 ; defen- sive -works, 463. Bombay City Abkari Commission, its appointment, 389; its recommenda- tions on licenses, 377 ; on raw toddy, 389. Bombay City Municipal Act (1888), 434-436. Bombay City Extension Committee, 327, 328. Bombay Education Societj', 129, 130. Bombay Island ceded to Charles II (1661), 31. Bombay Presidency, its geology, 17, 18 ; geographical divisions, 19 ; mountains, 19; rivers, 19-21; see Excise, Land-sj'stem, &c. Bombay Roman Catholic diocese, 484, 485- Brab, strength of toddy from, 385. Braddyl, John, member of Bombay Government (1735), 387. Brahmans, Maratha, chief administra- tive caste in the Bombay Presidency, 12 ; their share in the Maratha Con- federacy, 39; founded the Fergusson College at Poona, 150 ; their keen- ness for education, 176. Brahmans. Nagar, their old monopoly of government in Bhaunagar, super- seded, 98; their able rule in Bhaun- agar, 107. Brandis, Sir D., first Inspector-General of Forests in India, 192. Brandy, importation of. 374. 375. Brent, Capt. H. W., R.N., first Director of the Indian Marine, 464. Bridges, maintenance of, 296. 297 ; Jubilee at Ajra, 125; railway at Sukkur. 296 ; Ellis at Ahmadabad, 297. Broach, district in Gujarat, 27 ; taluk- dari tenure in, 256 ; bhagdari tenure in, 259; heavy incidence of excise taxation, 366 ; of income-tax per head, 397 ; of rural local taxation. 447. Broach City, gymnasium founded at, by Mr. Dalai. 339 ; has a Small Cause Court, 409; riot of Talaviasat ( 1885), 413, 414; bad municipality, 438. Buck, Sir E. C, sanctioned agricul- tural chemist and Pasteur Labora- tory, 159. Buddhist remains in the Konkan, 30 ; in the Deccan, 3a ; at Uparkot in Junagarh, 117. Bulbar, port in the Somali Coast Pro- tectorate, attacked by the Esa tribe, 481. Burma, expedition to (1885), Bombay troops in, 451 ; their despatch from Bombay, 465. Caldwell, Bishop, quoted on Maratha language, 43. Cama Hospital for Women and Chil- dren at Bombay, 325, 326. Cama, Pestonji Hormusji, benefactions to Bombay City, 338. Campbell, Sir George, quoted on Mad- ras land system, 245 ; on Bombay system, 260. Campbell, James, his Bombay Gazet- teers, 15. Campbell, Lt.-Col. John, his defence of Mangalore (1783), 450. Cantonment Magistrates, 409. Capital sentences have to be confirmed by the High Court, 404 ; number of (1885 1890), 411. Carter, Dr. Vandyke, founded Reay Lectureship at Grant College, 156. Castle Rock, ceremony of opening Portuguese Railway at, 280. Cattle - breeding encouraged in the Panch Mahals, 211. Central Provinces, question of uniting with Bombay, 477. Chahikya dynasty in the Deccan, 32. Chiplonkar, S. H., represented com- plainants before the Forest Commis- sion, 209. Church Missionary .Society established schools in the Konkan, Deccan, and Sind, 129. Clarence, Duke of, his lion hunt in Junagarh, n8. 490 INDEX. Classing in Bombay Survey S^'Stem, 240 242. Clock-tovvcr, Jubilee, at Sadra, 124. Colleges in the Bombay Presidency, Commandership-in-Chief in Bombay, question of abolishing, 451-454. Commanders-in-Chief in Bombay ; see Arbuthnot, Connaught, Hardinge. Commercial activity in the Bombay Presidency, 14 ; evidenced by the revenue from stamps, 398. Companies, Joint Stock, increase in number of, 400. Competition, evils of, in excise adminis- tration, 312. Concordat of 1886, ending the Portu- guese schism, 482-484. Connaught, Duke of, Commander-in- Chief in Bombay, 61, 449; favoured an Indian Sandhurst for Indian nobles, 92, 93, 184 ; quoted on Mili- tary Works Department, 334, 335 ; formed a Rifle Corps, 459 ; present at defence rehearsals, 463. Contracts, Provincial, History of, 341 ; the first, 342 ; the second, 342-344 ; the third, 344 ; the fourth, 348-356. Cooke, Dr. T., Principal of the -Poona College of Science, 158 ; advocated a degree and course in agriculture, 159 ; efforts tor practical agricultural education, 167; member of the Forest Reorganisation Committee, 220. Council, the Bombay, 50 ; its share in the Government, 70-73. Crawford, A. T., trial of, by a Special Commission, 414, 415. Crawford Commission, question of indemnity arising from, 415-417; debate on the Indemnity Act, 417- 419- Crime, statistics ^nd distribution of, 411, 412. Cross, Lord, Secretary of State for India, dismisses Mr. A. T. Crawford, 415 ; speech in the House of Lords on Lord Reay's policy, 419, 420. Crosthwaite, R. J., member of the Crawford Commission, 415. Cultivated area, increase in, 264, 273. Cunningham, Sir H. S., member of the Finance Committee (i886j, 349, 350. Customs, Internal, between Native States, endeavours to abolish, 85 ; maintained by Rao of Cutch, loi. Customs, sea-borne, on potable liquors, 373-375 ; affected by the TarifT Act. 375; revenue from, 395, 396. Custom-houses, new, 316. Cutch, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; Political Agent only gives advice, 82 ; question of a railway through, 284. Cutch, Rao of, character of, 104 ; ■fosters the School of Art. 123; gives money for the relief of his subjects in Bombay, 124. Cutch, Rann of, no difficulty in making railway over, 284 ; the salt-works on, 394- Dabhol, new pier at, 315; custom- house, 316. Dacoity put down in Junagarh, 118; prevalence and suppression in Kathi- awar, 120-122; among the Kolis in Poona District, 219. Dakshina, grant by the Peshwas for education, 129, 146. Dalai, Dinshaw Pestonji, founded g3'mnasium at Broach, 339. Daman, Catholic diocese of, 484, 485. Dangs, The, Native States in the Deccan, 31 ; thinly populated, 81. Daphlapur, Native State, political charge removed to the Collector of Bijapur, 119. Datubhai, Ibrahim, founded a hospital at Mandvi, 124. Davison, Captain, signed Joint Report of 1847, 236. Deccan, area and population, 31 ; history, 31-38; problems of admini- stration, 41. Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act (,1879), 244, 273. Deccan College, name given to Poona College (1864), 149 ; would not merge with Fergusson College, 151, 152 ; its Law Class, 157. Deccan Education Society founded Fergusson College, 150. Decentralisation, Provincial, favoured by Lord Reay, 69 ; progress of financial, 340. Deers Leap, waterfall on the Tapti, 20. Defence Works at Bombay, Karachi, and Aden, 462, 463. Departments of the Bombay Govern- ment, 50, 70. Dharampur, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; Jubilee Dispensary at, 125. Dharmsala, Jubilee, founded at Bansda, 125. Dharwar. district in the Karnatik, 44 ; survey settlement of, 236 ; freedom INDEX. 491 from crime, 411; local taxes, 439; its rural taxation, 447. Dharwar, town, Raja of Kolhapur educated at, 90 ; Lingayat Associa- tion, 181 ; railway centre, so paid much income-tax, 397. Dholera, proposed tramway to Ah- madabad, 225; new wharf, 315. Dhoraji, railway centre in Kathiawar, 291. Dhrangadra, Native State in Kathiawar, reduced transit duties, 123. Dhulia, sanitary works at, 320. Dispensaries : Jubilee, at Dharampur, 125; founded by Mr. Powalla at Bombay, 327, 338 ; at Bassein and Murbad by Sir D. M. Petit, 337 ; at ' Wada by Mr. N. M. Petit, 339. Distillation, Illicit, difficulty of check- ing! 37^) 377; 3S0 > o"^ 'ts increase from toddy, 391. Distilleries, Central and Public, differ- ent systems, 380. Diu, Portuguese port, dispute with Junagarh settled, 118. Dnyanoba, Maratha poet, 43. Docks, the Bombay, 308-311. Dockyard at Bombay, question of re- moval to Hog Island, 312. Dogs, local taxes on, 440. Domvile, Capt., R.N., his expedition against the Esas, 481. ' Downward filtration ' theory of edu- cation, 131, 134. Draper, William, member of Bombay Government (1735), 387. Drawing, increase of classes in, 170, 171- Drinking intoxicants, increase of, in India and Bombay, 370, 392. Drugs, narcotic, excise on, 392, 393. Dufferin, Lord, opposes needless inter- ference with Provincial Governments, 69; laid foundation stone of Sind College at Karachi, 153 ; efforts to fortify Indian ports, 462. Dufferin Fund, Lady, for trained nurses, supported by Bombay Native Princes, 124. East, Mr., designed water-supply for Bhaunagar, no. Eau-de-Cologne, importation for drink- ing purposes stopped, 375. Edar, Native State, jail outbreak in, 122. Education; of Native Princes, 89-94, 183, 184; encouraged in Baroda, 95; Gondal, 100; Bhaunagar, 114; Na- tive States generally, 123 ; its history in Bombay, 128-134; primary, 134- 138; secondary, 138-143; bifurcation of studies, 143-145; higher educa- tion: — general, 145-153; the col- leges, 145 ; Deccan College, 147- 150; Fergusson, 151; Gujarat, 152; Sind, 153; professional, 154-159; Grant Medical College, 154.-156; Law School, 156, 157 ; Poona Col- lege of Science, 157-159 ; Bombay University, 159-161 ; aided for di- rectly managed schools, 161-163; payment by results abandoned, 163, 164; technical education, 164-176; in agriculture, 166 168 ; Veterinary College, Bombay, 168, 169 ; Bombay School of Art, 169, 170; the teach- ing of drawing, 170, 171; Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, 171-173; technical education at Poona, 173, 174 ; in Sind, 175, 176 ; education in the Deccan and Gujarat, 176, 177 ; in Sind, 177 ; education of Muham- madans, 177-180; Lingayats, 180, 181 ; depressed castes, 181, 182 ; aboriginal races, 182, 183 ; female education, 184, 185 ; general effect of, 186, 187 ; summary of advance in (1885-1890), i88. Education, Bombay Board of (1840- 55), 130, 131, Education Commission, Indian (1882), I33> 134 > recommendations on pri- mary education, 137 ; quoted, on Bombay secondary education, 139, 140, 141 ; on aided education, 161, 162 ; condemned payment by results, 163 ; quoted, on education of Mu- hammadans, 178 ; of low castes, 182. Education Despatch of East India Directors (1854), 131, 132. Educational Franchise, established at Poona, 433. Egypt, Baird's expedition to (1801), Bombay troops in, 450. Eibat Island, dependency of Aden, 480. Election of representatives, question of, 432 ; proportion of elected mem- bers in district municipalities, 443, 444 ; Local Boards, 445, 446. Elliott, Sir C. A., approved changes in Public Works Department, 331 ; Chairman Finance Committee (1886), 349. 350. Elphinstone, Mountstuart, services to education in Bombay, 129 : views on 492 INDEX. Hindu education, 146, 147; founds Poona Sanskrit College, 147 ; Minute on Education. 148; quoted on forests of the Konkan, 197 ; attempts at a land settlement, 231, 232. Elphinstone College, founded at Bom- bay (1827), 130; moved to a suitable site, 152, 317; Professor of Persian appointed at, 179. Engineering education, provision for, 157. 158. Erskine, C, first Director of Public Instruction, his policy, 132, 135. Erskine, H. N. B., Commissioner in Sind, advocated railway to Umarkot ; 2B6 ; w^harf at Karachi called after, 314 ; author of irrigational settle- ments, 472. Esa tribe, expedition against (iBgo), 481. Excise or Abkari administration, at- tacks on, 363, 364 ; its aims, 372 ; purchased in Native States, 372,373 ; revenue produced by, 378 ; mono- poly system, 378, 379 ; central and public distillery systems, 380 ; duty on minimum or guaranteed consump- tion, 381 ; out-still system, 382, 383; raw toddy question, 384, 391 ; gene- ral results, 392 ; excise on drugs, 393- Exhibition, Industrial, at Poona, 174. Fagel, Baron, maternal grandfather of Lord Reay, 57. Fazandars, opposition of, to taxation of toddy, 316. Fergusson, Sir James, Governor of Bombay, encouraged railways in Kathiawar, 292 ; quoted on appoint- ment of Inspector-General of Police, 426. Fergusson College, Poona, founded without consulting Supreme Govern- ment, 68 ; its history and growth, 1^5°) 151 ! refused to merge with Deccan College, 151, 152. Fernandez, T. R., surveyed Bhaunagar State (1872-79), 113. Ferries, 297. Ferry across the Indus at Kotri, 284, .297- Field, definition of a, under Survey Settlement, 238-240. Fife, Lt.-Gen. J. G., designed Nira Canal, 305. Filgate, Lt.-Col. A. J., member Finance Committee (1886), 349, 350, Finance Committee (1886), 349-351. Financial Conferenceat Calcutta (1888) , 357-358. Financial relations of Supreme and Provincial Governments ; see Con- tracts, Provincial. Fire, Protection from, in Bombay City, 436; in District Municipalities, 443- Fire at Surat, 398, 443. Forest Act Amendment Law (1890), 214. Forest Commission (1885), 202-209. Forest Establishment Reorganisation Committee (1889), 220-222. Forestry, class in, at Poona College of Science, 158, 159, 221. Forests, their extent in India, 189, 190 ; influence on climate, 191 ; scientific forestry in India, 191, 192; early conservancy in Bombay, 192, 193 ; the Forest Department, 193 ; locality of Bombay forests, 194 ; Forest Settlements, 195, 196 ; ab- original tribes, 196, 197 ; forest villages, 197, 198 ; forests in Thana and Kolaba, 198, 199 ; rapid destruc- tion, 199 ; agitation in Thana, 199- 202 ; appointment of Forest Com- mission, 202 204 ; Lord Reay's speech, 204-208; report, 208-209; grazing in forests, 209 212 ; wood- cutting. 212-214 ; rdb cultivation, 214, 216; dalhi cultivation, 217 ; care of wild tribes, 218, 219 ; importance of demarcation, 219, 220; w^orking plans, 220 ; Forest Establishment Reorganisation Committee, 220-222 ; Forest Officers made subordinate to Collectors, 221, 222 ; revenue from forests, 223. Eraser, Mr., appointed tutor to Raja of Kolhapur, 90. Fremantle, Rear Adm., Hon. E. R., consulted on removal of Bombay dockj'ard, 312. Frere, Sir Bartle, perceived the merit of Sir M. Melvill, 65 ; laid foundation stone of Deccan College (1864), 149 ; employed in the settlement of Inda- pur, 233-235 ; efforts to improve Karachi harbour, 313 ; recurrence to his Public Works Departmental arrangement, 331 ; his government of Sind, 468, 472. Gaekwar, the ; see Baroda. Ganja (hemp), excise on, 392. Gaurishankar Udeshankar, Diwan of Bhaunagar, 105, 106. INDEX. 493 Geology of the Bombay Presidency, 17, 18. Ghats, Western, 19-21 ; forests of, 194. Gibson, Dr., first Conservator of Bom- bay forests, 192 ; quoted on the agitation in Thana (1851 , 199, 200. Gidhu Bandar to the Eastern Nara, railway proposed from, 284-288. Goa, Roman Catholic Archbishop of, position under Concordat (1886J, 484. Goculdass Tejpal Hospital at Bombay, 325- Godhra-Ratlam railway, 284, 287. Goldsmid, H. K., settled Indapur taluka, 233 235 ; signed Joint Re- port (1847), 236. Gondal, Native State in Kathiawar, excellent administration, 100, loi ; dacoity, 121 ; jail outbreak, 122 ; railways through, 291, 292. Gondal, Thakur of, character, 99, 100. Goudsmit, Prof, Lord Reay's tutor at Leiden, 57. Government of Bombay, form of, 50- 53 ; Lord Reay's attitude towards, 74-77- Government of India, its relations with the Provincial Governments, 67,68; did not approve of an Indian Sand- hurst, 92 ; passed Forest Act Amend- ment Law (1890) at request of Bom- bay Government, 214; controls rail- ways and irrigation, 275, 276, 298; difference as to proposed railway in Sind, 287-289 ; granted money for Karachi harbour works, 314 ; finan- cial relations with the provinces, 341-345; with Bombay, 345-354. 357-360 ; passed Act of Indemnity for witnesses at Crawford Commis- sion, 417-419 ; difference of opinion, 419 ; recommended severance of Sind, 467. Grant, Sir Alex., Director of Public Instruction, introduced grants in aid to schools, i6r, 163 ; friendship with pupils, 187. Grant, G. F. M., quoted on dislike of municipalities to direct taxation, 438. Grant, J. H., member Bombay City Abkari Commission, 389. Grant, Sir Robert, Governor of Bom- bay (1835 38), interest in medical education, 154. Grant Medical College, Bombay, history, 154, 155; the Petit Labo- ratory, 155 ; new professorship added, 156. Gray, Brig.- Surgeon W., quoted on Grant College, 155. Grazing in forests, question of, 209- 212. Great India Peninsula Railway, 277- 279. Greaves, Lt.-Gen. Sir G. R., opposed idea of Indian Sandhurst, 184. Greeks, the, their dealings with the Konkan, 30. Griffiths, Mr., Principal School of Art, Bombay, 169. Gujarat, Province of, boundaries and population, 27 ; history, 28, 29; pro- blems of government, 29 ; Lord Reay's visits to, 176, 441 ; difficulty of making roads, 291. Gujarat College, Ahmadabad, trans- ferred to a Local Board, 152, 153. Haidarabad, District in Sind, 23 ; bad roads, 285, 286; excessive crimin- ality, 412. Haidarabad Cit}', 26 ; medical school at, 155 ; railway designed from, 284. Harbours in the Bombay Presidency, 13; improvements in Karachi har- bour, 313, 314 ; smaller harbours, 315- Hardie, Robert, member Finance Com- mittee :'i886 , 349. Hardinge, Lt.-Gen. Hon. Sir Arthur, Commander-in-Chief in Bombay, 60, 449 ; used selection not seniority in filling commands. 75. Haug, Martin, head of Sanskrit Depart- ment, Poona College, 148, 149. Hemp (ganjaj, excise on, 392. Hext, Capt. John, Director of the Indian Marine, consulted on removal of Bombay Dockyard, 312 ; at head of the Indian Marine (1885-90), 464. Hog Island, question of removing the Dockyard to, 311, 312. Hope, Sir T. C, recommendations on Karachi harbour, 313, 314. Home, John, Governor of Bombay (1735 on Biiandari's petition, 387. Horsc-brceding encouraged in Bliauna- gar, 109, 1 10. Hospitals: in Gondal State, 100; in Native States, 124 ; services to medical education in Bombay, 154, 155 ; new in Bombay, 325-327. 494 INDEX. Howard, Mr., Director of Public In- struction, i6r. Humfrey, Major, reorganised Junagarh police, ri8; put down dacoity in Kathiawar, 121. Hurford, Miss, Principal of the Poona High School for Girls and Female Training College, 185. Hutchins, Sir P. P., speech on Mam- latdars Indemnity Act, quoted, 417, 418. Immigration into sparsely populated districts, 273. Improvements, tenant's right to profit by his, 243, 247, 248. Inam Commission, 266. Income-tax re-imposed (1886), 396 ; proceeds and incidence, 397, 398. Indapur taluka, result of first survey settlement of, 234-236. Indian Feeder Lines Company, 294. Indian Midland Railway, 278. Indus River, 19, 20; bridge over, at Sukkur, 296 ; ferry over, Gidhu Bandar to Kotri, 284, 297 ; impor- tance as irrigating Sind, 300. Industrial Association of Western India, 174. Industrial Museum, the Reay, at Poona, 174. Institutes, Jubilee, at Palanpur and Radhanpur, 124 ; regimental, 457. Irish Presbyterian Missionary Society, established schools in Kathiawar, 129. Irrigation, a duty of the Indian Government, 297, 298 ; under Su- preme Government, 298, 299; amount spent on, 299 ; in Sind, 300-304 ; in the Deccan, 304, 305 ; Lord Reay's remarks on irrigation works in the Deccan, 305-307. Irrigation Settlements in Sind, 255, 256. Jacob, H. P., quoted on technical schools in Sind, 175, 176; services to education in Sind, 177, 472 ; to Muhammadan education, 180 ; re- commends monitor system, 187. Jagri, spirit from, drunk in the Kar- natik, 371. Jails in the Bombaj' Presidency, 427. Jail outbreaks at Bhaunagar, iii ; at Edar and Gondal, 122. Jains, numerous in the Karnatik, never drink intoxicants, 365. Jaipur, Maharaja of. Lord Reay's opinion of, 97, 98. Jamabandi of a village, 268. Jamkhandi, Native State in the Kar- natik, 44. Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Sir, gave lakh of rupees for the Deccan College (1863), 149; founded hospital at Bombay (1843', 154. Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital at Bom- bay, works in harmony with Grant Medical School, 154; extended by foundation of Petit and Motlibai Hospitals, 155, 325. Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Mechanical En- gineering School, part of the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, 172. Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art at Bombay, 169, 170. Janjira, Native State in the Konkan, 30. Jasdan, Chief of, character and admin- istration, 102, 103. Jath, Native State in the Deccan, 31 ; political charge removed to Collector of Bijapur, 119. Jawhar, Native State in the Konkan, 30- Jodhpur, proposed railway through, 284 ; salt works purchased, 394. Jodhpur, Maharaja of, Lord Reay's opinion of, 97. ' Joint Report (1847),' defined Bombay Survey Settlement, 236. Jubilee, the Queen's (1887), memorials of in Native States, 124, 125; the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute at Bombay, 171-173; fund raised by Lingayats to commemorate, 181 ; celebration by Talukdars at Ahmada- bad, 271 ; general rejoicings at Bom- bay, 437. Judges, Local, powers in civil matters, 405, 406 ; criminal matters, 406, 407 ; number of, in Bombay proper, 409 ; in Sind, 410 ; proportion of natives, 410. Judicature, Bombay, High Court of, constitution, 402, 403 ; powers, 403, 404. Judicial Department, 70, 71. Judicial sj'stem in Gondal State, 100 ; in Bhaunagar, 114. Junagarh, Native State in Kathiawar, description, 117, 118; suppression of dacoity, 118 ; settlement with the Portuguese, 118; railways in, 119, 291 ; transit duties abolished, 123. Justice, Administration of, in Bombay INDEX. 495 Presidency ; the High Court, 403- 405 ; civil courts, 405, 406 ; appeals, 406 ; criminal courts, 406, 407 ; magistrates, 407, 408 ; Small Cause Courts, 408, 409; expense of, 412, 413- Kadarbux, Kathiawar dacoit, executed (1886"), 122. Kadirdad Khan, Khan Bahadur, his technical schools, 175, 176; services to education in Sind, 177. Kaira, District in Gujarat, 27 ; narva- dari tenure in, 259; small amount of drinking in, 367 ; proportion of police to population, 426 ; pilgrim tax levied, 439. Kamal, Maratha land settlement, 229, 230. Kanara, North, District, 44; need of labour in, 273, 274 ; average consump- tion of intoxicants in, 366 ; free from serious crime, 411 ; local taxes on carts, 439 ; dogs, 440. Kanarese-speaking districts ; see Kar- natik. Karachi, District in Sind, 23 ; excessive criminality in, 412; proportion of police to population, 426. Karachi City, great port of the future, 13 ; growth and trade, 25, 26, 474, 475 ; the Sind College at, 153 ; Ma- drasa, 180 ; need of railway facilities, 282, 283 ; history of port and harbour, 313, 314 ; Port Trust, 314 ; incidence of income-tax, 397 ; has Small Cause Court, 409 ; the Empress Market, 442 ; volunteer corps, 461 ; defence works, 463 ; protests against sever- ance from Bombay, 476. Karnatik, the Bombay, 44 ; its popula- tion, 44 ; history, 44, 45 ; not given to drinking intoxicants, 365 ; chiefly jagri, 371 ; freedom from crime, 411. Karwar, important port, 13 Kathiawar, Peninsula in Gujarat, 27 ; the number of Native Chiefs, 96 ; their diversity, 98 ; Bhaunagar, 98, 99, 105-115; Gondal, 99-102 ; Jas- dan, 102, 103 ; Lakhtar, 103 ; not all good, 104; Junagarh, 117 119; Agency Police formed, 120 ; which suppressed dacoity, 121 ; railways in, 29T, 292. Katkaris, forest aboriginal tribe, 197 ; heavy drinkers, 364. Kelkar, Rao Bahadur Yeshvant Morc- shwar, Secretary to Forest Commis- sion (1885), 204. Khairpur, Native State in Sind, 23; sparsely populated, 81 ; administra- tion of, 1 1 5- 1 1 7. Khandesh, District in the Deccan, 31 ; immigration into, 273 ; introduction of central distillery system, 382 ; in- cidence of income-tax in, 397 ; amount of rural local taxation, 447. Kharaghoda salt-works, 394. Khoti tenure in the Konkan, 258. Kolaba, District in the Konkan, 30; amount of forest in, 197, 198 ; shared Thana's complaints against Forest laws, 198 ; represented before Forest Commission (1885), 209; rdb culti- vation, 214, 215 ; spare land in, 273 ; large amount of drinking, 366 ; tem- perance movement in, 383 ; increase of drinking, on lowering tax on toddy, 390, 391 ; sea-salt works in, 394 ; local taxes on fishing boats, 439 ; amount of rural taxation, 447. Kolaba Cantonment, question of re- moving native garrison of Bombay to, 327, 328. Kolaba Forest Sabha represented com- plainants before Forest Commission (1885), 209. Kolhapur, Native State in the Karna- tik, 44 ; thickly populated, 81 ; recent dynastic history, 89 ; abolition of import and export duties, 122 ; con- struction of railways in, 292, 293. Kolhapur City, foundation of Technical School, 123. Kolhapur, Raja of, education of, 89, 90. Kolis, forest aboriginal tribe, 197 ; enquiry into their condition, 219 ; excessive drunkenness, 364. Konkan, its population, 30 ; history, 30, 31 ; forests, 194, 198, 199 ; khoti tenure in, 258; climate causes in- habitants to drink, 364, 365. Kooriah Mooriah Islands, dependency of Aden, 481. Korygaum, Battle of (1818), 450. Kurla, municipality levies no octroi, 439- Kurundwad, Native State in the Kar- natik, 44. Kwajas, Muhammadan commercial class, numerous in Sind, 25. Laboratories ; the Petit in connection with Grant College, Bombay, 155, 328 ; Pasteur at Poona College of Science, 159, 337 ; Bacteriological at Veterinary College, Bombay, 168, 496 INDEX. 337 ; Phj'sical at the Jubilee Tech- nical Institute, 173. 'Ladder theory' in education, 137, 140. Lakha Bhagat, leader in Talavia riot at Broach (1885) ; hanged, 414. Lakhtar, Thakur of, character, 103. Lallubhai, Dvvarkadas, founded dispen- sary- at Bombay, 338. Lambton, John, present at resolution on Bhandaris (1735), 387. Land administration, interest of, in Bombay, 9, 10 ; British system intro- duced into Bhaunagar, 113 ; its basis in India, 224-226 ; different in each province, 227, 228 ; early land settle- ments in Bombay, 229 ; the Maratha, 229, 230; Elphinstone's views, 231, 232 ; Pringlc's settlement, 232, 233 ; Williamson's settlement, 233, 234 ; settlement of Indapur, 234-236; the Joint Report (1847), 236; the survey system, 237, 238 ; definition of a field or number, 238 240 ; classing, 240 ; accidents, 240,241 ; irrigation value, 241; assessment, 242; thesurveyten- ure, 243, 244 ; its advantages, 245, 246; revision of settlements, 246, 247; tenant's right to improvements, 247, 248 ; position class, 249, 250 ; sub- division of ' numbers,' 250, 251 ; sub- soil water assessment, 251- 254; work of Survey and Settlement Depart- ment, 254, 255 ; irrigation settlements in Sind, 255, 256; unpopularity of revised settlements, 261 ; alienation settlements, 265 268. Land Records and Agriculture, De- partment of, 263, 264. Land Revenue, collection of, in Bom- bay, 268, 269 ; its amount and divi- sion between Supreme and Bombay Governments, 345, 346, 353 ; cost of collecting, 354, 355. Language, the Sindi, 24, 471 ; the Ma- rathi, 42, 43. Lansdowne, Lord, Viceroy of India, opposed unnecessary interference with Provincial Governments, 6g ; speech on Mamlatdars Indemnity Bill, 418, 429. Latham, Baldwin, revised the drainage scheme at Ahmadabad, 320 ; con- sulted on drainage of Bombay, 325. Law School at Bombay, 156, 157. Le Breton, Maj., Examiner Public Works Accounts, his reforms, 332. Lee-Warner, W., quoted on the work- shops, Poona College of Science, 174; on Bombay education (1885- go), 188; additional member of Finance Committee (1886), 350. Legislative Council, the Bombay, 50 ; debate on the land system in, 261, 262 ; on Bomba3^ City Municipal Act, 434, 435. Licenses, separation of foreign and country liquor, in Bombay, 376, 377. Lighthouses under Bombay Public Works Department, 315. Lingayats, zeal for education, 180; their Jubilee fund, 181 ; petition on Brahman monopoly of office, 181 ; total abstainers, 365. Lions still found in Junagarh, 117. Literature, Sindi, 25 ; Marathi, 43, 44. Local Boards in rural districts, 444- 448 ; introduction of election, 445, 446 ; their number, 446 ; income, 446; expenditure, 447. Local Government, approved by Lord Reay, 78, 79 ; expediency of, in India, 429-432; elected t/(?r5//5 nomi- nated members, 432 ; municipalities, 432-444 ; local boards, 444-448. London Missionary Society founded schools in Gujarat. 129. Luckhardt, Col. W., Commissary- General in Bombay, reorganised his departments, 456. Lunatic Asylum built at Ratnagiri, 317- Luseria, School for Bhils established at, 183. Lyon, Surgeon-Maj., Analysis of and report on toddy, 384, 385. McAfee, Mrs., Principal Ahmadabad High School for Girls, 185. Macaulay, Lord, won victory for Anglicists against Orientalists in Indian education, 130. Mackay, Donald James, Lord Reay ; see Reay. Mackay family, history of, 54-57. Mackenzie, T. D., quoted, on village sanitation, 321. Mackichan, Dr., appointed Vice-Chan- cellor, Bombay University, 160, 161. Macnaghten, Principal of Rajkot Col- lege of Native Princes, 107. Magistrates, powers of, 407, 408 ; numbers, 409, 410 ; honorary, 410. Mahi Kantha, group of Native States in Gujarat, 27 ; Bhil riots in, 120 ; INDEX. 497 Agency Police formed, 120; transit duties abolished, 123. Mahi river, 20. Mahim, new custom-house built at, 316. Mahua spirit, 371. Maiwand, Battle of, 451. Malik Ambar, land settlement of, 229. Mamlatdars, revenue duties of, 268 ; the Mamlatdars Indemnit3' Bill, 416- 420. Mandvi, hospital founded at, 124. Mangalore, Bombay troops in the de- fence of (1783), 450. Maratha country divided into Konkan and Deccan, 30. Marathas, a conquering race, 11; India conquered by the British from, ■■^2, 37, 38 ; conquest of Gujarat, 28 ; struggle with Aurungzeb, 35, 36 ; extension of their power, 36, 37 ; system of organised pillage, 37 ; character ofthe Maratha Confederacy, 39, 40; collapse of their financial system, 42, 230 ; character of the people, 42 ; language, 42, 43 ; litera- ture, 43, 44 ; land settlement, 229, 230 ; join the army less, 458. Marine, Indian, headquarters at Bom- bay, 463; organised '1877), 464; size, 464, 465 ; services in transport- ing troops, 465. Marmagao, port in Portuguese terri- tory, 13 ; railway completed from, 280, 482 ; harbour improvements needed, 315. Massah Islands, dependency of Aden, 480. Matrimonial cases, jurisdiction in, 403, 404. Maurypur-Moach, salt-works at, for Sind, 394. Mayo, Lord, Vicero3' of India, his decentralisation policy, 67, 68; views on education of Native Princes, 91 ; decentralised finance, 340; con- sidered separation of Sind from Bombay, 468. Mayur Pandit, Maratha poet, 43, 44. Medical education in Bombay', 154- 156. Mehmadabad, municipality superseded, 438. Mekranis, their dacoities in Kathiawar, 121, 122. Melvill, Sir Maxwell, his career, 64, 65; character, 65-67. Mercwether, Col. Sir W. L., his ad- ministration of Sind, 472. Merewether Pier, Karachi, 313, 314. Military Commissions for younger sons of Native Princes, 92, 93, 184. Military officers, question of appointing to civil posts, 75, 76. Military Works Department formed, 334- 462. Mill, John Stuart, drafted Educational Despatch (1854), 131. ' Minimum theory' of relation of Impe- rial and Provincial finance, 359. Miraj, Native State in the Karnatik, 44; Missionaries, services to education in Bombay, 128, 129 ; their Colleges in Bombay, 145. Mitra, Rajendra Lala. quoted, on use of intoxicants in ancient India, 368, 369- Monsoon, course of the, in the Bombay Presidency, 17. Morland, Sir H., Chairman of Bombay Town Council, knighted on occasion ofthe Jubilee, 437. Morvi, Native State in Kathiawar, 102 ; railways in, 292. Morvi, Chief of, character, loi, 102; a railway builder, 292. Motlibai, Bai, founded hospital in Bombay, 155. 325. 337. Movar Sadhani. dacoit leader in Kathi- awar, 121, 122. Mudhol, Native State in the Karnatik, 44 ; abolished transit duties, 123. Mughal Empire incorporated Sind, 23 ; conquered Gujarat, 28 ; endeavoured to subdue the Deccan, 33-36. Muhammadans, the majority in Sind, 23 ; their educational backwardness, 178, 179 ; efforts to improve, 178, 179; their land settlement in the Deccan, 229 ; do not drink liquor, 371. 392. Municipal Hall, Jubilee, at Balasinor, 125. Municipalities; in Gondal State, loi ; Poona, 432, 433, 442 : Bombay, 433- 437 ; the Bombay City Municipal Act, 434 436; the district munici- palities, 437-444; number, 438; local taxation : octroi, 438, 439; di- rect, 439, 440; expenditure: on public health, 441, 442; convenience, 442; instruction, 442, 443; safetj', 443 ■) proportion of elected members, 443, 444; Ahmadabad, 441, 442; Surat, 442 ; Aden, 479. Munro, Sir Thomas, settled the Kar- natik, 45. I 1 498 INDEX. Murbad, dispensary founded at, by Sir D. M. Petit, 337. Mutiny of 1857, Bombay army only sliglitly aflccted, 450, 458. Mysore Railways, worked by Southern Maratha Company, 279. Nadiad, Agricultural Society's experi- mental farm, 168; has Small Cause Court, 409. Nagpur, District command transferred to Bombay army ('1888), 454. Nagpur-Bengal Railway, 278, 279. Nam Deva, Maratha poet, 43. Napier, Gen. Sir C. J., conquered Sind, 23; first Governor of Sind, 467, 468. Nara Canal, Eastern, railway proposed to, 284, 287. Narbada river, 20. Narottamdas, Harkisondas, munificent offer of a Hospital, 338. Narukot, Native State, its small popu- lation, 81. Narvadari tenure, 259, 260. Nash, Lieut., helped to settle Indapur taluka, 235. Nasik, District in the Deccan, 31 ; first survey settlement. 236; local dog- tax, 440; incidence of rural local taxa- tion, 447. Nasik town, tramway to Nasik Road Station, 295. Native Chiefs in Bombay, theirvarying character, 83; instances of bad chiefs, 86-88 ; right of adoption, 88 ; edu- cation of minors and younger sons, 89-93; characters of rulers of Baro- da, 94-96 ; Bhaunagar, 98, 99 ; Gondal, 99-101; Morvi, loi, 102; Jasdan, 102, 103 ; Lakhtar, 103 ; Cutch, 104; Khairpur, 1 15-117; advantages of the maintenance of a Native Chief, 115. Native States, numerous in Bombay, 12, 13; area and population, 80; variety, 81, 82 ; duties of British Political Agents, 82, 83; policy pur- sued towards, 84, 85 ; question of railway jurisdiction, 85, 86 : inter- ference occasionally justified, 86 88; Baroda, 94-96 ; Kathiawar, 96-115; Gondal, 100, loi ; Bhaunagar, 105- 115; Khairpur 115-117; Junagarh, 1 17- 1 19; break up of the Satara Jaghirs, 119; Bhil riots, 120; da- coity, 120-122 ; abolition of transit duties, 122, 123; education, public works and hospitals, 123, 124; cele- bration and memorials of the Jubilee, 124, 125; railways in, 289 293; right of excise purchased by the British Government, 372, 373 ; of opium growing, 393 ; of salt making, 394. Nawanagar, Native State in Kathiawar, Dacoity in, 121 ; transit duties abo- lished, 123. Naylor, J. R., Acting Member of the Bombay Council, 64 ; drafted the Bombay City Municipal Act, 434. Nira Canal in the Deccan, 305. Nizam, Excise Convention with, 373. North-Western State Railway, 282, 283. Nulkar, Rao Bahadur Krishnaji Lak- shman, member of Forest Commis- sion (1885"), 204. 'Number' or field, definition of, 238- 240. Nurse Fund, Lady Dufferin's, supported by Native Princes, 124. Nurse Fund, Lady Reay s, endowed by Maharaja of Bhaunagar, 156. Nurses, Home for, founded by M. M. Bhownaggree, 156, 328, 3.38. Nutt, Capt. H. L., tutor to Maharaja of of Bhaunagar, 108. Octroi duties, levied by municipalities, 438, 439. OUivant, J. E., Municipal Commis- sioner, helped to draw up Bombay City Municipal Act, 434, Opium revenue in Bombay, 393. Osborn, Capt. Sherard, recommended removal of Bombay Dockyard, 312. Out-still system, abolished in Bombay, 382, 383. Ozanne, E. C, Director of Land Re- cords and Agriculture, member of the Forest Commission ;i885), 203; his experiments on rdb, 215 ; services to agriculture, 265. Palanpur, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; Agency Police formed, 120 ; transit duties abolished, 123 ; Jubilee Insti- stute built, 124. Panch Mahals, District in Gujarat, 27 ; encouragement of cattle breeding 211 ; advances made for rebuilding houses, 270 ; immigration into, 273 ; central distillery system introduced, 382 ; light amount of income-tax, 397 ; made a Regulation District (1885), 402 ; proportion of police, 426 ; small receipts of local rural taxation, 447. INDEX. 499 Parantij, Miinicipalitv superseded 438. Parsi school for girls at Bombay, 185 ; gift by Panchayat Fund for a mortu- ary, 338. Pasteur Laboratory founded at Poona College of Science, 159 ; on site given by Sir D. M. Petit, 337. Pechey-Phipson, Mrs. Edith, head of Cama Hospital, Bombaj-, 326. Peile, Sir J. B., member of Council, career and character, 61, 62; efforts for Muhammadan education. 279. Percival, E. H., Joint Administrator of Bhaunagar, his administration, 105- 115 ; quoted on ad\antage of main- taining Native Princes, 115. Percival, G., present at Resolution about Bhandaris (17351, S^?- Perim, Island near Aden, growing im- portance as a coaling station, 479, 480. Perry, Sir T. Erskine, President Bom- bay Board of Education, his policy, 131, 139 ; professorship of jurispru- dence founded to commemorate, 156, 157- Petit, Sir D. M., arranged removal of Elphinstone College to another site to make room for Jubilee Technical Institute, 152, 171,172, 337; founded hospital for Women and Children at Bomba\% 155,325,337; and Bacterio- logical Laboratorj' at Bombay Veteri- nary College, 169, 337 ; created a baronet (1890), 336; other benefac- tions, 337. Petit, F. D., founded Laboratory at Grant Medical College, 155, 338. Petit, N. M., founded dispensary at Wada, 339. Petroleum, duty on, imposed (1888), 396- Peyton, Lt.-CoL, member of Forest Commission (1885), 203. Phaltan, Native State in the Deccan, 31 ; left under political charge of the Collector of Satara, 119, 120. Phythian, Mr., First Principal of the Jubilee Technical Institute, 172. Police Administration, in Gondal State, 100, loi ; in Bhaunagar, in; Agency Police formed to suppress dacoity, 120; the appointment of an Inspector- General of Bombay Police, 421-423 ; his reforms, 423, 424. Police Bill (i8qoi, 423, 424. Police, the Bombay ; the District Police, 421, 422 : Bombay City Police, 424, 425 ; Railway Police, 425 ; numbers and constitution. 425 ; distribution and cost, 426; Village Police, 426, 427. Police lines built, 317, 318. Political agents, their duties in Native States, 82. Political Department, 80, 82. Poona, District in the Deccan, 31 ; schools for aboriginal tribes opened in, 183 ; Koli discontent, 219 : settle- ment of Indapur and rest of district, 234-236; discontent at revised settle- ments, 261 ; roads made to open up hilly tracts, 296 ; average incidence of excise, 366 ; heavy income-tax paid, 397 ; excessive criminality, 412. Poona Cit3% its colleges, 146-152 ; medical school, 155; industrial ex- hibition, 1 74; educational advantages, 176; terminus of South Maratha Railway, 279 ; sanitary works, 320 ; drinking increasing, 366; has a Small Cause Court, 409 ; new Municipal Act, 432, 433 ; local taxes, 439 ; municipal works, 442 ; the Reay Market, 442. Poona College, its history (1852-64); 148, 149; created Deccan College, 149. Poona College of Science, its history, 157 ; engineering, agriculture and forestry taught, 158, 159 ; Pasteur laboratory added, 159 ; its work- shops, 173, 174 ; new buildings, 317. Poona Sanskrit College, founded by Elphinstone, 147 ; defended by him, 148; English Department founded (1842), and became Poona College (1852), 148. Porbandar, railways in, 291, 292. Port Trusts: Bombay, 309-311; Ka- rachi, 314 ; Aden, 315, 479, 480. Portuguese, the, a conquering power in the Konkan,3o: dispute between Diu and Junagarh settled, 118; always accompanied by friars and priests, 129; completion of West of India Portuguese Railway, 280, 281, 482 ; ceded excise rights by treaty ( [878), 394. 395. 482 ; relations with Bombay Presidency (1885-90^ 482, 483 ; end of the schism, 483 485. Position class, introduced into survey settlement, 249. Pot numbers, or subdivisions of fields, 239. 250.251. Powalla, S. C., founded Dispensary at Bombay, 327, 338. I 1 2 500 INDEX. Prescott, Bruce, murdered by Talavias at Broach, 413. Pringle, R. K., his land settlement, 232, 233. Pritchard, Sir C. B., Acting Member of Council, 63 ; as Commissioner advocated railways in Sind, 286; his excise administration, 378 ; oppo- sition to his reforms, 383 ; quoted, on the manufacture of toddy spirit, 385, 386 ; his Salt Policy, 394. Public Instruction, Department of, founded (1855), 132; see Education. Public Works, in Baroda, 95, 96 ; Bhaunagar, no, in; in Native States, 124 ; importance and variety in India, 274, 275 ; railways, 275- 294 ; tramways, 294, 295 ; roads, 295, 296 ; bridges, 296 ; ferries and steamships, 297; irrigation, 297-307; the Bombay Docks, 308-312; Ka- rachi harbour works, 312-314 ; lighthouses, 315 ; material fabric of government. 315 318; buildings, 316, 317 ; police lines, 317, 318. Public Works Department, only ad- ministers railways, 277 ; and irriga- tion, 298 ; intricacy of accounts, 328 ; reforms in the staff", 330-332 ; in Public Works Accounts Branch, 332 ; saving effected, 333, 334 ; for- mation of Military Works Depart- ment, 334. Quetta District command transferred to Bengal, 454. Quinton, J. W., member of Crawford Commission, 414. Rab Cultivation. 215, 216. Radhanpur, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; joint Hindu and Muhammadan ministers, 120; Jubilee Institute, Railway Jurisdiction in Native States, question of, 85, 86, 96. Railway Police, 425. Railvvaj's, strategic value of, 47, 48 ; encouraged by Native Chiefs ; Gondal, 100: Morvi, 102; Bhauna- gar, in; Junagarh, 119; Great India Peninsula Railway, 277-279 ; Southern Maratha, 279 281 ; West of India Portuguese, 280, 281 ; Bombay, Baroda and Central India, 281, 282; Godhra-Ratlam, 281; North-Wcstern, 282-283; question of in .Sind, 282-288 ; in Baroda, 289 291 ; Kathiawar, 291, 292 ; Kolhapur, 292, 293 ; table of pro- gress (1885-90), 294. Rajkot, railway to, 292. Rajkot, College for Native Princes at, difficulties inherent in, 91, 92 ; religious education advised by Tha- kur of Lakhkar, 103 ; decline in popularity, 183, 184. Rajpipla, Native State in Gujarat, 27 ; school for Bhils at, 183. Rajputana, Lord Reay's opinion of its chief princes, 97, 98. Ramdriig, Native State in the Kar- natik, 44, Ranade, Rao Bahadur Mahadeo Go- vind, member of the Finance Com- mittee (1886), 349. Ratlam, Railway to Godhra, 281, 282. Ratnagiri, District in the Konkan, 30 ; very closely occupied, 273 ; propor- tion of liquor-shops near the coast, 365 ; toddy drunk, 371 ; incidence of income-tax very light, 397 ; singu- larly free from crime, 441 ; propor- tion of police to population, 426 ; rural local taxation very light, 447 ; people prefer working in Bombay mills to enlisting in the army, 458. Ratnagiri Tow^n, Industrial School, 175; customhouse, 316; lunatic asylum, 317. Reay. Lady, Nurse Fund, endowed by Maharaja of Bhaunagar, 156. Reay, Lord, ancestors, 54-57 ; educa- tion and career, 57-59 ; appointed Governor of Bombay (1885), 59; attitude towards the Council, 69-71 ; the Secretariat, 71-73; views on patronage, 74 ; tours, 76 : preferred individual discussion to meetings of Council, 76, 77 ; attitude towards Native Chiefs, 84, 86, 88-94, 97- 98, 103, 104 ; cut first sod and opened railway to Verawal, 119; views on primary education, 137, 138 ; on secondary education, 142- 144; efforts to merge the Poona Colleges, 150- 152 ; on medical and legal education, 156, 157 ; agricultural education, 159, 168 ; expectations from 'aided' schools, 163, 164; definition of tech- nical education, 165, 166 ; opened Jubilee Technical Institute, 172; encouragement of Gujarat, 176; and of Sind education, 177: reply to the Lingayats, 181 ; on female educa- tion, 185 ; speech to the Forest Com- INDEX. 501 mission. 204-208 ; defended Survey and Settlement Department, 248 ; views on sub-soil water assess- ment, 253 ; opened West of India Portuguese Railwaj', 280, 483 ; obtained the Godhra-Ratlam rail- way, 282 ; and Mehsana-Viramgam railway, 291 ; cut first sod Dhoraji- Porbandar railway, 292 ; opened Sukkur Bridge, 296; speech on irrigation works in the Deccan, 305-307 ; inaugurated Ahmadabad drainage works. 320 ; interest in Bombay hospitals, 325-327 ; speech on Public Works policj', 330 ; re- forms in Public Works Department, 331-334; quoted, on raw toddy question, 390, 391 ; aims of his excise policy, 401 ; praised by Lord Cross, 419; resignation refused, 420; intei-view with a deputation declining municipal government, 431 ; opinion on army corps versus presidential armies, 453,454 ; against the severance of Sind, 467. Reay Industrial Museum at Poona, 174. Reay Lectureship at Grant College, 156. Reay Market at Poona, 442. Reay Workshops at Bombay School of Art, 170. Regimental Institutes, 457. Registration Department, 398-400 ; rev-enue from, 400. Rewa Kantha, Native States in Guja- rat, 27 ; transit duties abolished in all but Baria, 123. Rice, export dut}^ on, 396. Richards, Rear-Adm., Sir F. W., con- sulted on transference of Bombay Dockyard, 312. Richey, Sir J. B., member of Council, 62, 63 ; representative of Bombay at the Financial Conference 1^1888;, 357, 358. Ripon Hospital at Ahmadnagar, 3x7, 339- Ripon Textile School in Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, 172. Roads, made in Bhaunagar, 11 1; badness in Sind, 285, 286 ; difficul- ties of making in Gujarat, 291 ; in the Bombay Presidency, 295, 296. Roberts, (Jen. Sir F., opposed idea of an Indian Sandhurst, 184. Roman Catholics, early educational efforts of, 128, 129; college at Bombay, 145; convent school at Bandra, 185; ending of Portuguese schism, and new arrangement of dioceses, 483-485. Rum, import of, 374, 375. Sabarmati River, 20. .Sachin, Native State in Gujarat, 27. Sadra, Jubilee Clock Tower at, 124; Bhils educated at, 183. Saint George's Hospital at Bombay, 327- Salisbury, Lord, Secretary of State of India, approved cession of Central Provinces to Bombay, 477. Salmon, Captain, captured dacoit leader (1885), 121. Salt Act (1890), 395. Salt ; history of salt-tax in Bombay, 393, 394; saltworks in, 394 ; cession ol salt rights in Native States, 394 ; in Khairpur, 117 ; in Portuguese terri- tories, 394, 395 ; the tax increased (1888), 395. ' Sandhurst, an Indian,' favoured by Lord Reay and the Duke of Con- naught, 92, 93 ; opposed by Sir F. Roberts and Sir G. Greaves, 184. Sangli, Native State in the Karnatik, 44- . Sanitation, 318, 319; sanitary works at Ahmadabad, 319, 320; at Poona, 320 ; sanitation in villages, 320, 321 ; Bombay Village Sanitation Bill, 321- 323- Sargent, Sir Charles, Chief Justice of Bombay, 403. Satara, District in the Deccan, 31 ; slight use of intoxicants, 367 ; free- dom from crime, 411 ; local taxes, 439- Satara Jaghirs, historical group of Native States, broken up (1887), 1 19 ; transit duties abolished, except in Bhor, 123. Savaniir, Native State in the Karnatik, 44 ; its small size, 8r. Sawantwadi, Native State in the Kon- kan, 30. School, description of indigenous, in Bombay, 136, 137 ; see Education, •Schools of Art, Technical Schools. Scots Brigade in Holland, 54-56. Scottish Missionary Societ3', its edu- cational work in Bombay and the Konkan, 129; the Wilson College, Bombay, 145. Secretariat, the Bombay, 52 ; Lord Reay's attitude towards, 71-73; and opinion of, 77, 78. 502 INDEX. Seedaseer, Battle of, Bombay troops in, 450. Sethna, Mr., appointed a Law Pro- fessor by Lord Rea3', 157. Settlements, Land ; see Land Admini- stration. Shahbudin, Kazi, founded scholarships for Muhammadans, 179, 180. Shikarpur, District in Sind, 23 ; amount and incidence of local rural taxation, 447- Shikarpur Town, 26. Shilotri tenure in the Konkan, 259. Sholapur, District in the Deccan, 31 ; first survey settlement, 236 ; heavy incidence of income-tax, 397 ; free- dom from crime, 411 ; local taxes, 440 ; incidence of local rural taxa- tion, 447. Sims, Proctor, carried out public works at Bhaunagar, no, in. Sind, history, 23 ; population and re- ligions, 24, 25 ; trade and commerce, 25, 26; towns, 26; problems of British rule, 26, 27 ; technical schools, 175, 176; education, 177; babiil reserves, 194 ; irrigation set- tlements, 255, 256; advances to cultivators, 269 ; Managership Sind Encumbered Estates abolished, 270, 271 ; question of railways, 282, 288 ; badness of roads, 285, 286 ; irriga- tion, 300-304; bhang drunk, 371, 372 ; excise on bhang, 392, 393 ; central distillery system introduced, 382 ; salt-works, 394 ; non-regula- tion, 402 ; Judicial Commissioners Court, 401, 405 ; number of judges and magistrates, 410; municipalities depend on octroi duties, 439 ; ques- tion of severance from Bombay, 467- 477; — historical arguments, 467- 469; geographical, 469-471; ad- ministrative, 471-473; military, 473, 474; commercial, 474, 475; what would be the result, 478; local me- morial against, 476. Sind College at Karachi, 153. Sindi language, 25, 471. Sivaji, pillaged Surat, 28 ; crowned at Raigarh, 31 ; his reign, 35 ; dynasty, 39- Small Cause Courts, 408, 409. Socotra Island, protectorate estab- lished over (1886 , 480. Somali Coast Protectorate, 481. Soudan, expedition to the, Bombay troops engaged in, 451 ; the trans- port of, from Bombay, 465, Souter, SirF. H., Commissioner of the Bombay Citj^ Police, member Bom- bay City Abkari Commission, 389 ; death, 425. South Maratha Railvvaj', its extension, 279, 280. Sridhar, Maratha poet, 43. Stamps, revenue from, 398. Staunton, Major, won battle of Kory- gaum (1818), 450. Steamship companies serving Bombay, local traffic, 297. Steel, Vet.-Surg., first Principal of Bombay Veterinar3' College, 168. Stokes, H. E., Madras member of Cal- cutta Financial Conference (1888), 358. Strachey, Sir John, quoted on Provin- cial Contracts, 343, 344. Sukkur, gaining importance from the railwa}^ 26 ; bridge over the Indus at, opened by Lord Rea}', 296. Summary Settlement Act, 267. Surat, District in Gujarat, 27 ; heavy incidence of excise on drink, 366; incidence of rural local taxation, 447- Surat City, animal hospital at, 14 ; pillaged by Sivaji. 28 ; headquarters of the Bombay Government to 1687, 49: the Arabic College, 179; the Tapidas Laboratory, 339 ; income- tax from, affected by the great fire, 398 ; has a Small Cause Court, 409 ; its municipal undertakings, 441, 442. Surgana, Native State in the Deccan, 31- Survey and Settlement Department ; for its work, see Land Administra- tion ; its work almost at an end, 262, 263. Survey Tenure, 243, 244, 247. Talavias, riot of, at Broach (Nov. 1885), 413, 414. Talikot, Battle of 1565), 32, 40. Talpur Mirs, dynasty in Sind, 23. Taluka Boards, 445. Talukdari tenure in Gujarat, 256, 257. Talukdars of Gujarat, schools for, 184 ; their indebtedness and special legis- lation to relieve them, 257,258, 271, 272 ; celebration of the Jubilee, 271. Tankha settlement, 229. Tansa Water-works, scheme to supply Bombay, 323-325. Tapidas, Dayabhai and Domodardas, founded Laboratory at Surat, 339. INDEX. 503 Tapti River, 20. Tariff Act (1887), 375. Taxation, see Assessed Taxes, Excise, Stamps, &c. Taylor, George, present at resolution on Bhandaris (1735), 387. Teak trees, Government rights to, re- served in Bombay, 192, 193 ; granted to, occupants, 214. Technical education, Lord Reay's en- couragement of, 164, 165 ; definition of, 165, 166 ; in agriculture, 166-169; art, 169-171; mechanics, 171-176. Technical Institute, Victoria Jubilee, at Bombay, 171-173. Technical Schools, at Kolhapur, 123 ; Poona, 173. 174 ; in Sind, 175, 176. Telang, Kashinath Trimbak, appointed a Law Professor, 157 ; a Judge of the High Court, 403. Temperance movement in Thana and Kolaba, 383. 384. Temple, Sir Richard, Governor of Bombay, encouraged forestry, 193, 195 ; promoted railways in Kathia- war, 291, 292; quoted, on the first Provincial Contract, 342 ; on con- sumption of intoxicants in ancient India, 368, 369; on abolition of the out-still system, 382, 383. Tenures in Bombay : the survey, 243 ; talukdari, 256, 257 ; khoti, 258 ; shilotri, 259 ; bhagdari and narva- dari, 259, 260; of alienated holdings, 265, 266, Thakurs, a forest tribe, 197. Thana, District in the Konkan, 30; forests in, 197, 198; agitation against forest laws, 199 202 ; orders issued on grazing in forests, 211 ; on rdb, 216 ; much cultivable waste, 273 ; heavy incidence of excise per head in, 366 ; temperance movement, 383 ; toddy licenses, 390 ; led to illicit distillation, 391 , sea salt -works, 394; excessive criminality, 412; local municipal taxes, 439 ; large amoumt of local rural revenue, 447. Thana Forest Association, presented case for agitators against forest laws, 209. Thar and Parkar, District in Sind, 23; prosperity and need of a railway, 285 ; incidence of income-tax light, 397 ; proportion of police to popula- tion, 426 ; small amount of local rural revenue, 447. Thompson, Mr., of Khcdwara Mission, attempts to educate Bhils, 183. Todd}', 371 ; its strength, 384, 385 ; easy to make spirit from, 385, 386 ; taxation of, 388, 389 ; reduced (1886), 389, 390 ; Lord Reay's minute on, 390, 391- Torpedo boats supplied for defence of Bombay, and Karachi harbour, 463. Tramwa\'s, 294, 295. Transit duties in Native States, pro- gress of the abolition of, 122, 123. Transport, military, efforts to improve, 456. Trees planted in Bhaunagar, 114; forest trees of Bombay, 194 ; planted on road-sides by Local Boards, 447. Trevor, Mr. A. C, quoted on the importance of irrigation to the revenue of Sind, 303, 304. ' Tribute theory ' of relations of Im- perial and Provincial finance, 359, 360. Tulsi Lake supplies Bombay with water, 323. Turkaram, Maratha poet, 43. Udaipur, Maharana of. Lord Reay's opinion of, 97. Udu, salt-works at, 394. Umarkot, railway designed from Gi- dhu Bandar to, 284. University of Bombay, founded (1857), 133 ; refused to grant degree in agriculture, 158, 159 ; its importance to Bombay education, 159, 160 ; bill for its reorganisation suspended, 160 ; Dr. Mackichan appointed Vice- Chancellor, 160, i6r. University Schools Final Examination, 143- Uparkot in Junagarh, Buddhist caves at, 117. Upper Sind Frontier, District in Sind, 23 ; small amount of local rural taxa- tion, 447. Vaccination, progress in Gondal State, 100. Vagris, aboriginal tribe, heavy drinkers, 364- Varlis, forest tribe, protected against forest rules (1851), 200. Vehar Lake supplies Bombay with water, 323. Vengurla, new lighthouse constructed at, 315- Vcrawal, port in Junagarh State, rail- way made to, 119, 291. Veterinary College, Bombaj', founded 504 INDEX. (1886), 168 ; given a laboratory by Sir D. M. Petit. 169. Vidal, G. W., Chairman Forest Com- mission (1885), 203 ; member Forest Establishment Reorganisation Com mittee, 220. Village communities, coparcenary, traces of, in Gujarat, 259, 260. Village Conservancy Bill, 321, 323. Village Police, 426, 427. Volunteer Corps, 461, 462. Wada, dispensary founded at, by N. M. Petit, 339. Waddington, Mr., Principal of Gujarat College, 153. Wadhwan, Girasia School at, 184 ; rail- way to, from Bhaunagar, 291 ; Morvi, 292. Wadia, Nauroji N.. first honorary secretary Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, 173. Wards Estates, 270. Water supply. Bhuj and Bhaunagar, 124; Ahmadabad, 319, 320; Poona, 320 ; Bombay, the Tansa scheme, 323 325- West, Sir Raymond, member of Council, his character, 63, 64 ; evi- dence on secondary schools, 141, 142 ; his University Reorganisation Bill, 160 ; quoted, on the finding of the Crawford Commission, 415, 416; introduced Police Bill, 424. West of India Portuguese Railwaj', completed, 280, 281, 482. Westland, J., member Finance Com- mittee (i886\ 349, 350; Chairman Financial Conference (i888\ 357- 359- Whisky, increase in importation of, 374- Williamson, Thomas, his views on land settlement, 233. Wilson, Mr. Justice Arthur, Chairman Crawford Commission, 414. Wilson College, Bombay, 145, 317. Wines, import duties on, 374. Wingate, Sir George, helped to settle Indapur taluka, 235 ; signed Joint Report 1847), 236 ; reduced ' class- ing ' to a system, 240 Wise, Col., appointed first Inspector- General of Police, 426 ; his reforms and administration, 427. Wodehouse, Sir Philip, Governor of Bombay, appointed the Joint Ad- ministrators of Bhaunagar, 105. Women, allowed to study at Grant Medical College (1884;, 155 ; female education in Bombay. 184, 185. Wordsworth, Dr., Principal of Deccan College, 149 ; influence on his pupils, 187. Wroughton, R. C, member of Forest Commission (1885), 203. Yadava dynasty in the Deccan, 32. Yerrowda, Juvenile Reformatory at, 316; Central Jail, 427. Zaila, port in Somali Coast Protecto- rate, 481. THE END. SSlovI^s liij $ir railliam 3^fflilson il)untri\ K.C.S.I., CLE. M.A. (Balliol College), LL.D. (Cambridge). THE ANNALS OP RURAL BENGAL. Fifth Edition, i6s. ' One of the most important as well as most interesting works which the records of Indian Hterature can show. . . . Yellow-stained volumes from each District Treasury in Bengal, family archives from the stores of Rajas, local information collected by Pandits specially emploj'ed for the purpose, folk-lore supplied by the laborious inquisition of native gentlemen, manuscripts in London, Calcutta, and Bengal, — have all been laid under contribution ; and, as the initial result, we have the first volume of what promises to be a delightful and valuable history.' — Westmiiister Review. 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Both Englishmen and native Indians will be thankful for a work, the accuracy, fulness of detail, completeness of information, and masterly arrange- ment of which constitute it a real and invaluable help to all who do honest work in India, and to all who honestlj^ judge of Indian work at home. ... It is one of the grandest works of administrative statistics which have ever been issued by any nation, and should earn for its author and designer the gratitude of every one who has the welfare and good government of our Indian Empire at heart.' — The Times (second notice). ' The Statistical Survey of India marks an epoch in the appioximation of Indian rule to our English ideas of good government, and forms the necessary comple- ment to the transfer of India from a Commercial Company to the direct admini- stration of the Crown. That transfer placed the authority over the Indian Government in the hands of the Imperial Parliament, but it supplied no data by which the people of England, through their constitutional representatives, could safely wield their newlyacquired authority. . . . Of the obstructions and difficulties which such a work was sure to encounter, Dr. Hunter sa\'s not a word. . . . This masterful silence as to difficulties thrust on one side, obstacles beaten down, unjust jealousies and just susceptibilities conciliated, and individual wills con- trolled, is the finest characteristic of the body of Englishmen who administer India ; and is a distinctive trait of our countrymen, wherever they are called upon to rule in the colonies and outlying dependencies which form the mighty aggregate of the wide-scattered British Empire. . . . No nation has ever attempted so comprehensive, so detailed, and so stupendous a statistical enterprise, and the whole has been planned and executed with a smoothness and a certainty which are truly marvellous.' — The Athciicrnni. ' The Imperial Gazetteer is the crowning work which brings the results of the great Statistical Survey within reach of the general public. It represents twelve years of incessant labour, demanding many high qualities for its efficient execu- tion, and natural gifts such as are rarely combined in one man. Learning, experience, and scholarly research were no less essential than habits of accurate thought, administrative talent, and orderly, methodical arrangement. Above all, imagination was needed - that quality without which work cannot be endued with life and movement, but remains dead, a mere receptacle of lifeless facts. It is to the rare combination of literary skill and the imaginative faculty, with the qualifications of an able and energetic administrator, that we owe the completion of this great and difficult task. It is no ordinary service that Dr. Hunter has done to India and to England ; and, for his hard and admirably performed achievement, he has earned the gratitude of his countrymen.' — Clements R. Markhatn in the 'Academy.' 'A model of combined lucidity, conciseness, and comprehensiveness. . . . Emphatically a great work -great in its magnitude, and still greater in the* beneficial results it is calculated to produce.' — /"/;(' Economist. 'The Imperial Gazetteer of India, which, without exaggeration, may be called a magnificent work, alike in its conception and execution, will go far to supply 6 WORKS BY SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER. Opinions of the Press on The Imperial Gazetteer of I'ndia, continued. the present and future guardians of our great dependency with the accurate and systematized knowledge of the countries and peoples under their rule, without which the highest political abilit\^ and the verj' best intentions are condemned to work in the dark. If Dr. Hunter had no other claim — and he has many — to the gratitude of all interested in the welfare of the inhabitants of India, and the efficiency of the machine of government on which much of their happiness and prosperity depends, this splendid memorial of his ability, industry, and perse- verance would have been sufficient to give him a place among those who have worthily performed great and useful tasks.' — The Statist. ' Lord Mayo, as Viceroy, appointed Dr. Hunter to the head of the Indian Statistical Department, and entrusted to him the descriptive survey of this great country inhabited by 240 millions of men. ... In nine volumes he presents an exposition of the Indian Empire. The Imperial Gazetteer of India is an example of clearness and comprehensiveness with the concise treatment of all the essential features of a country. Although alphabetically arranged, the Gazetteer is no bare survey of the matters dealt with. It sets forth the fruits of the author's personal and long-protracted researches, and forms a monu- ment of Dr. Hunter's knowledge of the topography, agriculture, administration, and health-aspects of the whole Empire of India.' — Kolnische Zeitung. SMITH, ELDER & CO. A BRIEF HISTORY OP THE INDIAN PEOPLE. Tlircc shillings and sixpence. Standard Edition, revised to 1892. Seventy sixth Thousand. This Edition incorporates the suggestions received by the author from Directors of Public Instruction and other Educational authorities in India: its statistics are brought down to the Census of 1S91 ; and its narrative, to 1892. The work has received the emphatic approval of the organ of the English School Boards. It is largely employed for educational purposes in Europe and America, and as a text-book prescribed by the University of Calcutta for its Entrance Examination from 18S6 to 1891. ''Within the compass of some 250 pages we know of no history of the people of India so concise, so interesting, and so useful for educational purposes as this.' — The School Board Chronicle (London). ' "A Brief History of the Indian People," by "W. 'W. Hunter, presents a sort of bird's-eye view both of India and of its people from the earliest dawn of historical records. Although designed as a popular handbook, the little volume is a work of authority and of original value.' — Tlie Daily Neivs (London!. ' Dr. Hunter may be said to have presented a compact epitome of the results of his researches into the early history of India; a subject upon which his knowledge is at once exceptionally wide and exceedingly thorough. . . . The book is excellently adapted, either as an introduction to more extended studies on the subject, or to give a respectable measure of general knowledge to people who have not the time or opportunity to acquire more.' — The Scotsman (Edinburgh'). ' Dr. Hunter's history, if brief, is comprehensive. It is a storehouse of facts marshalled in a masterly style; and presented, as history should be, without the slightest suspicion of prejudice or suggestion of partisanship. Dr. Hunter observes a style of severe simplicity, which is the secret of an impressive presentation of details.' — The Daily Review , Edinburgh"). ' 'We part from Mr. Hunter with much respect for the care he has taken in writing this small manual. We consider it to be by far the best manual of Indian History that has hitherto been published, and quite equal to any of the Historical Series for Schools, edited by Dr. Freeman. "We trust that it will soon be read in all the schools in this Presidency.' — The Times of India. WORKS B V SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER. 7 Opinions of the Press on A Brief History of the Indian People, continued. Extract from a criticism by Edward Giles, Esq., Inspector of Schools, Northern Division, Bombay Presidency : — ' My knowledge of Schools in this country' has led me to the conclusion, that the experience of the students of history is confined to the acquisition of masses of statistics, names and dates, leaint without intelligence. What we require is a book which shall be accurate as to facts, but not overloaded with them ; written in a style which shall interest, attract, and guide uncultivated readers; and short, because it must be sold at a reasonable price. These conditions have never, in my opinion, been realized previous to the introduction of this book.' 'The publication of the Hon. W. W. Hunter's School History of India is an event in literary history.' — Reis &^ Rayyct Calcutta . 'We have not come across a single work on Indian History which we have read with greater pleasure and greater pride. As a historian. Dr. Hunter has done full justice to the people of India. He has succeeded in writing a history of India, not onl}' in such a way that it will be read, but also in a way which we hope will lead young Englishmen and young natives of India to "think more kindly of each other. The Calcutta University has done wisely in prescribing this brief history as a text-book for the Entrance Examination. — The Hindoo Patriot (Calcutta '. THE CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD. ENGLAND'S WORK IN INDIA. Tenth Thousand. 0)ie shilling. 'The fruit and condensation of Mr. Hunter's labours.' A LIFE OF THE MARQUESS OF DALHOUSIE. Two Shillings and Sixpence. ' To no one is the credit for the improved condition of public intelligence [regarding India] more due than to Sir William Hunter. From the beginning of his career as an Indian Civilian he has devoted a rare literary faculty to the task of enlightening his countrymen on the subject of England's greatest de- pendency. . . . By inspiring a small army of fellow-labourers with his own spirit, b\' inducing them to conform to his own method, and shaping a huge agglomeration of facts into a lucid and intelligible S3rstem, Sir W. Hunter has brought India and its innumerable interests within the pale of achievable know- ledge, and has given definite shape to the truths which its history establishes and the problems which it suggests. . . . Such contributions to literature are apt to be taken as a matter of course, because their highest merit is to conceal the labour, and skill, and knowledge involved in their production ; but they raise the whole level of public intelligence, and generate an atmosphere in which the bale- ful influences of foll3^, ignorance, prejudice, and presumption dwindle and dis- appear. . . . No one we think, who fairly studies Sir W. Hunter's exact and lucid narrative of these transactions, can question the result which he seeks to establish — namelj% that Lord Dalhousie merely carried out with moderation and skill a policy deliberatelj' adopted by the Government before his arrixal in the country — a policy the strict legality of which cannot be disputed, and which was inspired by the growing sense that sovereigns exist, not for their own enjo3ancnt, but for the happiness of their subjects.' — Saturday Review. 'A skilful and most attractive picture. ... A valuable contribution to modern history.' — The Academy. ' A writer whose thorough mastery of all Indian subjects has been acquired by years of practical experience and patient research." — Tlie Athenaitni. 8 WORKS B V SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUXTER. Opinions of the Press on A Life of the Marquess of Dalhousie, continued. ' Never have we been so much impressed bj^ the great literary abilities of Sir William Hunter as we have been bj' the perusal of " The Marquess of Dalhousie." . . . The knowledge displayed by the writer of the motives of Lord Dalhousie's action, of the inner working of his mind, is so complete, that Lord Dalhousie himself, were he living, could not state them more clearl}' In the next place the argument throughout the book is so lucid, based so entirely upon facts, rest- ing upon official documents and other evidences not to be controverted, that the opponents of Lord Dalhousie's policy will be sorely put to it to make a case against him. . . . Sir William Hunter's style is so clear, his language so vivid, and yet so simple, conve3'ing the impressions he wishes so perspicuously that they cannot but be understood, that the work must have a place in every library, in every home, we might sa}', indeed, every cottage.' — Evening A'czvs. ' It can be read at a sitting, yet its references — expressed or implied — suggest the study and observ'ation of half a life-time.' — The Daily Neivs. THE CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD. A SHORTER LIFE OP LORD MAYO. One Vol., 2s. 6d. ' Sir William W. Hunter has contributed a brief but admirable biography of the Earl of Mayo to the series entitled " Rulers of India," edited by himself (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press). The volume is in every way worthy to rank with the same writer's well-known " Marquess of Dalhousie," contributed to the same series.' — The Times. 'In telling this story in the monograph before us, Sir William Hunter has combined his well-known literary skill with an earnest sympathy and fulness of knowledge which are worthy of all commendation. . . . The world is indebted to the author for a fit and attractive record of what was eminently a noble life.' — The Academy. ' The sketch of The Man is full of interest, drawn as it is with complete sym- pathy, understanding, and appreciation. 'The story of his life Sir W. W. Hunter tells in well-chosen language — clear, succinct, and manly. Without exaggeration and in a direct, unaffected style, as befits his theme, he brings the man and his work vividly before us.' — The Glasgozv Herald. ' All the knowledge acquired by personal association, familiarity with adminis- trative details of the Indian Government, and a strong grasp of the vast problems to be dealt with, is utilised in this presentation of Lord Mayo's personality and career. Sir W. Hunter, however, never overloads his pages, and the outlines of the sketch are clear and firm. — The Manchester E.vpress. ' The final chapter must either be copied verbally and literally — which the space at our disposal will not permit — or be left to the sorroyvful perusal of the reader. The man is not to be envied who can read it with dry eyes.' — Allen s Indian Mail. ' The little volume which has just been brought out is a study of Lord Mayo's career by one who knew all about it and was in full sympathy with it. . . . Some of these chapters are full of spirit and fire. The closing passages, the picture of the Viceroy's assassination, cannot fail to make any reader hold his breath. We know what is going to happen, but we are thrilled as if we did not know it, and were still held in suspense. The event itself was so terribly tragic that any ordinary description might seem feeble and laggard. But in this v'olume we are made to feel as we must have felt if we had been on the spot and seen the murderer " fastened like a tiger" on the back of the Viceroy.' — Daily News, Leading Article. THE CLARENDON PRtSS, OXFORD. Ta 00 135 677 1 rv of California library **" ^ Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. r REC'D LD-LRL n^i OCT 13 1971 OpJ f> IQTI ;dec 7 1Q78 OlSCHARGE-UMf OCT 19 198^ RECD LP-Uiy. OCT 3 1 1983 p. DS B61H9 3 1158 00394 7073 .a".•S■•■l!i^^.■^M^•-l;!!;^^»';l.I»'•; ■ M < 'mM' j'=r .!',]', i!. I* ,.i^,l^,l;i-^'.!'.n ! ./I 5 I