No More Learning

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252
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BENGAL
of industry were few; the villages remained the chief units of economic
life and village lands were parcelled out in small holdings. Various
parts of the Lower Provinces have been visited by drought from time
to time. The most notable of these visitations was the terrible Orissa
famine. 1
Toward the close of the viceroyalty of Lord Curzon it became
increasingly apparent that the Lower Provinces generally, and the
eastern half of Bengal particularly, were administratively starved.
Service for Europeans in these eastern districts was generally solitary
and unhealthy. Its unpopularity encouraged a tacit assumption that
this rich and fertile area with its teeming populations required no
more than a meagre official establishment. Its communications were
bad; its government buildings were mean and inadequate; its police
stations were few. It contained no troops and no mounted police.
Several of its districts were too large for administration by a single
magistrate-and-collector. Its agricultural population was becoming
richer and more litigious; its law courts and district establishments
were over-burdened with work; its scattered schools and colleges were
multiplying and producing a growing throng of young men who
turned their faces persistently towards government service or the
overstocked bar. Disappointment bred discontent which was ag-
gravated by political and newspaper teachings that foreign rule was
the source of the mischief. Meantime civil servants, and especially
those whose lot lay in Eastern Bengal, were generally tied to their
desks and found little time for informal contact with the people of
their districts. In the extensive Dacca and Chittagong divisions with
their population of 17 millions, there were toward the close of the
year 1907 only twenty-one British covenanted civil servants and only
twelve British police officers. And while Eastern Bengal was so
scantily manned, the whole of the Lower Provinces needed a larger
administrative staff, more liberal financing and the attention of more
than one provincial administration. Thus the first partition of the old
Lower Provinces came about. For reasons with which this chapter is
not concerned, it was intensely unpopular with congress politicians
and the leaders of the Hindu bhadralok. A boycott of European goods
was proclaimed; schoolboys and students were enlisted in picketing
operations. Within the years 1906-9 no less than 557 resultant dis-
turbances came before the criminal courts of the new province of
Eastern Bengal and Assam, and in most of these disturbances school-
boys and students were concerned. But the worst was yet to come.
Young men belonging to the English-educated classes had for some
time been engaged in revolutionary conspiracy, and armed with
bombs and pistols commenced subterranean intermittent warfare
against the government and society, organising gangs for the per-
petration of "political” dacoities, the proceeds of which went to
1 Cf. chap. xvii, infra.


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TERRORISM
253
finance their campaign. The terrorism which they were soon able to
exercise showed that the character of the village people had altered
little since the far-away days of the first Lord Minto. The principal
theatre of their operations was Eastern Bengal; and the government
of that province was long unable to obtain sympathetic recognition
of its needs from higher authority. " As late even as 18 May, 1908,
the chief secretary of Eastern Bengal and Assam addressed the
Government of India in the following terms:
Every branch of education, every department of administration, makes urgent
demands upon the revenues of this ill-equipped province; and the normal income
barely suffices to meet the necessary items of expenditure.
The situation grew worse and at last forced recognition from Simla
and Whitehall. Adequate legislation was undertaken; the police
were strengthened materially in Eastern Bengal; the number of
British officers was increased, and schemes for administrative and
educational reforms were under discussion when the sudden alteration
of the partition in December, 1911, remanded all such plans for
further consideration in altered circumstances. Bengal became one
province again but was still plagued by revolutionary crime. At last
on 23 October, 1913, the central government appointed a committee
consisting of five experienced executive officers (one from Bihar and
Orissa, one from the United Provinces, one from the Central Pro-
vinces, and two from Bengal) to examine the conditions prevailing
in the districts of Bengal; to compare them with those existing in other
provinces; and to report in what respect the administrative machinery
could be improved,
whether by the reduction of inordinately large districts, by the creation of new
subordinate agencies or otherwise, with the object of bringing the executive officers
of government into closer touch with the people.
After extensive touring in Bengal and neighbouring provinces, the
committee submitted their conclusions in a detailed report. They
found that for some years a succession of revolutionary outrages had
obstructed and unsteadied the administration of certain districts; that
terrorism had been rampant; that Bengal district officers were, from
causes beyond their control, somewhat out of touch with the people.
“A district officer”, they wrote, “or a police superintendent who is over-worked
and borne down by a load of office and inspection duties, cannot be reasonably
expected either to become well acquainted with the people of his district or to
exercise over his subordinates that watchful and sympathetic control that is essential
to good administration. Still less can he be expected to devise or ascertain how
progress is attainable. Such matters require careful and deliberate reflection and
for this there is no time. The subordinate staff suffer with him, and it is idle to
expect officers overburdened by routine work to spare time for tours or interviews
with people whom they are not obliged to see. Their days are entirely occupied
with endeavouring to keep pace with those duties which they must perform.
1 Report of the Bengal District Administration Committee, 1913-14, chap. ii.
>
3 Idem, p. 18.
• Idem, p. 17.


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254
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BENGAL
The committee proposed the following remedies :
(a) partitions or rearrangements of certain districts or subdivisions;
(6) development of a village watch-and-ward and self-government
organisation by means of “union panchayats” under the control of
circle officers who would be subordinate to the subdivisional magis-
trates and would in some degree fill the place of the subordinate
tahsil agencies in neighbouring provinces;
(c) reforms in connection with the management of Anglo-
vernacular schools;
(d) measures calculated to promote industrial development;
(c) the
appointment of more European deputy directors of agricul-
ture for demonstration work.
The report was published by the Bengal Government in 1915. The
war was then in progress and money was needed in new directions.
Effective measures were taken under the Defence of India Act to
suppress revolutionary conspiracy; but in all other respects reform
was tarrying in Bengal in November, 1918.
In no province had the difficulties of district officers been so
harassing. The causes lay partly in the careless neglect with which,
as we have seen, the province was treated in the far-away past under
the vague impression that because its population contained no martial
element its problems could wait. In later times Bengal district officers
were also called on to suffer for short-sighted economy in high quarters
and for an obstinate reluctance there to face facts which they never
failed faithfully to represent. 1
· Chirol, Indian Unrest, pp. 96, 315; Morley, Recollections, I1, 212, 312; Bengal District
Administration Committee Report (1914), p. 17.


## p. 255 (#291) ############################################

CHAPTER XIV
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
1858–1918
In Bombay, as in other provinces, the main features of the adminis-
N
trative machinery had stood the test of time, and its practical working
had become stereotyped. The history of the second half of the nine-
teenth century is, therefore, in the main concerned with the improve-
ment of the administrative organisation bequeathed by the Company
and its adaptation to the rapid intellectual and material advancement
of the people of Western India. Until very recent times the Bombay
Government maintained and conducted relations with a host of petty
a
Bhil, Rajput and other chiefs too insignificant to be dealt with directly
by the Government of India. The officials charged with the duty of
arranging terms with the Indian princes and land-holders in the earlier
years of the nineteenth century had been persuaded to treat the de
facto exercise of civil and criminal jurisdiction by a land-holder as an
indication of quasi-sovereign status. The political agents, who were
ultimately enrolled in a separate political cadre, were from the begin-
ning chosen generally from among the officers of the Company's
military forces, except in the case of small isolated states contiguous
to British districts, when the collector of the district was appointed
ex officio political agent of the state concerned. By the opening of the
period under review the system had become firmly established, the
functions of the agent varying from the mere giving of advice and
exercise of general surveillance to an actual share in the administra-
tion of the state.
In the case of the peninsula of Kathiawar, which comprised no less
than 193 separate states, the Bombay Government in 183 i established
a criminal court, presided over by the political agent, to assist the
durbars of the several states in the trial of serious crimes; but subject
to this innovation, their interference with the judicial administration
of the peninsula was restricted up to 1863 merely to diplomatic
representation. By the latter date, however, the criminal jurisdiction
of all the chiefs had been defined and classified, and each of the four
divisions (prant), into which the peninsula was formed for adminis-
trative purposes, was placed in charge of an assistant to the political
agent, empowered to exercise residuary jurisdiction with wide civil
and criminal powers. Later years witnessed further developments,
such as the appointment of a deputy to each of the four assistant
political agents, stationed at the headquarters of each prant and
exercising subordinate civil and criminal jurisdiction; the alteration
in 1903 of the designation of the political agent and his four assistants


## p. 256 (#292) ############################################

256 DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
to those of agent to the governor and political agents of the prants
respectively; the appointment of a member of the covenanted civil
service as judicial assistant to the agent to the governor, in order to
assist him in the disposal of grave criminal cases, remitted to his court
from the prants, and of civil and criminal appeals; and the appoint-
ment as ex officio assistant political agent of a superintendent
managed estates. The agent to the governor was also placed in control
of a small police force for watch-and-ward duty in the various thanas
and civil stations of the agency; but outside that area it has always
been customary to hold the chiefs and land-holders responsible for the
preservation of order and for indemnifying losses due to crime within
the limits of their respective territories.
The task of administering the border states of Gujarat and Raj-
putana, which contain large numbers of wild tribes, was for many
years one of great difficulty--so much so, indeed, that in 1838 the
Bombay Government established a system of border panchayats, with
the object of exercising a check upon continual border raids and of
providing a tribunal of speedy justice for these primitive tribesmen.
The experiment proved so successful that in 1876 these panchayats
were converted into regular courts under two British officers, one of
whom represents the Rajputana state and the other the Bombay state
concerned. These courts still exist and meet as occasion demands. 1
Another department of the administration which was established
during the Company's régime and continued to function for several
years after its demise was that of the survey settlement. The settlement
of the revenue demand from each occupant of land under the ryotwari
system was a necessary consequence of the political pacification of the
country and of the increase of cultivation and internal trade thereby
engendered. The ryotwari system had existed in Bombay and Madras
from ancient times, but the accounts relating to it had either been lost
or fallen into confusion during the later years of Indian rule. After
the first few years' administration, therefore, the Bombay Govern-
ment organised a Survey Department, which, after measuring and
mapping every holding, proceeded to classify the fields according to
depth and quality of soil, situation, and natural defects, placing each
field in a class corresponding to a certain "anna valuation” or
fractional share of the maximum rate calculated in sixteenths. Sub-
sequently villages were grouped into blocks on the basis of their
propinquity to markets and high roads and other economic condi-
tions, the maximum rates for each block being fixed in relation to
these conditions and to average prices. The survey department, which
was established in 1835, imposed at the outset assessments which were
too high and caused much distress. They were therefore reduced, and
a further enquiry was set on foot, which resulted in the formulation
by the department in 1847 of the principles which still form the basis
Imperial Gazetteer, Provincial volume 1, Bombay, pp. 86–8.
1


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LAND-REVENUE
257
of the Bombay land-revenue system. Incidentally the operations of
the department brought to light many cases of land held rent free
without authority, which were subsequently investigated and adjusted
by an Inam Commission appointed in 1852. The settlement of the
presidency was completed in 1882, except in the districts of North
Kanara and Ratnagiri, which were completed in 1891 and 1893
respectively, and the special survey department was then abolished,
the future revisions of the settlement, which take place every thirty
years, being entrusted to the assistant or deputy-collector in charge
of the subdivision of a district.
The arrangements in Sind were different, owing to the fact that
the ryotwari tenure in that region was less common than the zamin-
dari, under which the land-holder (zamindar) supplied seed, plough,
cattle and labour, divided the crop with the actual cultivator, and
paid the assessment in kind out of his share of the crop, after deducting
,
the value of the seed advanced. For several years after the annexation
of the province, the revenue was collected in kind, as previously
remarked; but during the governorship of Sir Bartle Frere (1862–7)
cash payments were everywhere introduced, and a regular survey was
commenced in 1863. The operations of the survey department and
the progress of irrigation resulted in 1882–3 in the province containing
three types of settlement—the original, the revised, and the irriga-
tional, and of these the last-named, which bases the assessment of land
on the method of irrigation adopted, was eventually (1902–3) applied
to the whole province.
In order to avoid the huge volume of detail involved in a survey of
the growth of the departmental administration of Bombay since 1858,
it seems advisable to give a succinct account of the main features of
the Bombay administration, as it existed in the year 1914. The out-
break of war in that year involved a variety of new burdens in the
sphere of daily administration, which were successfully shouldered
until the close of military operations; and the general results of the
armistice had hardly had time to make themselves felt, before the
whole problem of administration was subjected to revision in con-
nection with the publication and adoption by parliament of the con-
stitutional reforms associated with the names of Mr E. S. Montagu
and Lord Chelmsford.
In 1914, then, the Bombay government consisted of a governor,
appointed under the Government of India Act of 1833, and three
ordinary members of the council appointed under the Indian Councils
Act of 1909. Of the ordinary members two had to be persons who at
the date of their appointment had been in the service of the crown in
India for at least twelve years. In accordance with the spirit and
letter of the Morley-Mintó reforms, which underlay the act of 1909
(9 Edw. VII), the appointment of third ordinary member was given
to an Indian.
17
CHI VI


## p. 258 (#294) ############################################

258 DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
)
In order to diminish the pressure of business, advantage was taken,
in the discharge of the executive and judicial functions, of the special
requirements of the different members of the government. The
governor himself, for example, might dispose of the business of the
political department (except civil, criminal and political cases), of the
public works department (except railways), of the general department,
relating to volunteers, cantonment and miscellaneous military matters,
and of the legal department, regarding matters pertaining to the
legislative council. The responsibility for the efficient administration
of revenue, financial and railway affairs was usually accepted by the
revenue member; while the work of the judicial department, in which
were included all questions concerning the urban and district police,
the work of the educational, marine and ecclesiastical departments,
and the remaining business of the political department and of the
general department—the latter including the important subjects of
local self-government and public health-would be usually divided
between the other two ordinary members of council. Questions which
presented no special difficulty were disposed of by the members in
charge of the department in which they occurred; on more important
questions and in cases involving heavy expenditure, the opinion of a
second member was sought; and if there were any difference of
opinion, or if any case of peculiar difficulty or general public interest
arose, the matter was settled according to the balance of opinion either
as recorded by the different members or after discussion at the meeting
of the executive council. Ordinarily the opinion of the majority was
decisive at such meetings of the council. But in the case of an equality
of votes on any question the governor or other person presiding had
two votes or the casting vote. In any grave political emergency,
however, affecting the safety or tranquillity of British rule, the governor
was empowered under section 47 of the East India Company Act of
1793, which had never been repealed, to set aside even the unanimous
opinion of his councillors, his orders in such cases having the validity
of orders passed by the whole council.
All papers connected with public business reached government
through the secretariat, where they were properly arranged and sub-
mitted to the members in charge of the departments to which they
belonged, together with all available material for forming a decision
in the shape of former correspondence, acts, or resolutions relating to
the subject, and also with the recorded opinions of the secretary or
under-secretary of the departments concerned, or of both. The
secretariat was composed as follows: for the revenue and financial
departments a secretary and an under-secretary who were covenanted
civilians, and two assistant secretaries belonging to the uncovenanted
service; for the political, judicial and special departments a covenanted
secretary and an under-secretary and two uncovenanted assistant
secretaries; for the general, educational, marine and ecclesiastical


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JUDICIAL ORGANISATION
259
departments a secretary who was a covenanted civilian, and an un-
covenanted assistant secretary; for the legal department a covenanted
secretary who was also remembrancer of legal affairs, a covenanted
assistant remembrancer of legal affairs who was also ex officio secretary
to the legislative council, and an assistant secretary who was chosen
from the subordinate judges of the province; and for the public works
department (which included a railway branch) a secretary, a joint
secretary, and two under-secretaries, who were either royal or civil
engineers, and two uncovenanted assistant secretaries. The senior of
the three covenanted civilian secretaries to government was styled the
chief secretary. There was also a separate department in charge of the
chief secretary, assisted by the senior of the civilian under-secretaries.
Reference has already been made to the relations between the
Bombay government and the Indian states of the province. Up to
the date of the constitutional changes involved in the passing of the
Government of India Act of 1919 all the Indian states in the Bombay
Presidency were under the supervision of the Bombay government,
with the exception of Baroda, where the resident political officer was,
and is still, an agent to the governor-general.
Under letters patent of 1865, the administration of justice through-
out the regulation districts of the presidency was, and still remains,
entrusted to the high court, consisting of a chief justice and seven
puisne judges. This court possesses both ordinary and extraordinary
civil and criminal jurisdiction, and exercises original and appellate
functions. The appellate judges of the high court also supervise the
administration of justice by the different civil and criminal courts of
the regulation districts. Ordinary original jurisdiction is exercised in
both civil and criminal matters arising within the limits of the city
and island of Bombay. By virtue of its extraordinary jurisdiction the
high court may remove and itself try any civil suit brought in any
court under its superintendence, and may in criminal cases exercise
jurisdiction over all persons residing in places within the jurisdiction
of any court subject to the superintendence of the high court. Besides
acting as an appeal court in civil and criminal matters, the high court
also functions as an insolvency court and possesses the civil and
criminal jurisdiction of an admiralty and vice-admiralty court in
prize cases and other maritime questions arising in India. It has also
been invested with testamentary jurisdiction, and has matrimonial
jurisdiction over Christians. One of the judges of the high court
officiates as judge of the Parsi matrimonial court; while matrimonial
decrees by district courts require confirmation by the high court.
The high court has no jurisdiction over the province of Sind except
in respect of its powers under the Administrator-General's Act of
1874, of probates and administrations, of decrees in matrimonial
cases, and in respect of European British subjects. All the functions
of a high court are performed by the court of the judicial commissioner,
17-2


## p. 260 (#296) ############################################

260
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
which replaced the former sadr court in 1906. A separate judicial
commissioner for Sind was first appointed in 1866. By the commence-
ment of the twentieth century the judicial work of the province had
so greatly increased that the court was enlarged to consist of the
judicial commissioner and two assistant judicial commissioners, one
of whom must be a barrister of at least five years' standing and be
qualified to deal with mercantile cases. The court serves also as a
district and sessions court for the Karachi district and as a colonial
court of admiralty.
In addition to the high court of Bombay and the court of the
judicial commissioner in Sind, four grades of courts administer civil
justice throughout the presidency, namely, those of district and
assistant judges and of first and second class subordinate judges. These
subordinate judges date from the year 1868–9, when the old titles of
sadr amin and munsif were abolished, and when at the same time the
number and limits of the judicial zillahs or districts were altered, the
appointment of judgeships and assistant judgeships were divided into
grades, and a thorough redistribution of the subordinate courts took
place, in order that the boundaries of their jurisdiction might corre-
spond as far as possible with the talukas or revenue subdivisions of the
presidency. In 1914 the cadre of the district judicial department
included seventeen judges, three joint judges, and seven assistant
judges, all these officers being members of the Indian civil service
except three district and three assistant judges, who belonged to the
Bombay provincial service. The first and second class subordinate
judges numbered respectively seventeen and eighty-nine. The regular
judicial staff was also entrusted with the work performed originally by
a separate staff of three judges (a special judge and two subordinate
judges) under the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1879, which
was passed after the severe famine of 1876–8. Of the total staff of
subordinate judges four were employed exclusively in assisting the
district judges in the inspection of the subordinate courts in their
respective districts and in reporting on the working of the act above-
mentioned. As regards the district judges, it may be remarked that
those at Surat and Poona served also as judges of the Parsi matri-
monial courts in those towns; while the judge of Poona, as “Agent for
the Sardars in the Deccan”, decided under Regulation xxix of 1827
cases in which certain gentlemen of high rank are interested. For the
easy recovery of small debts and demands, small cause courts, invested
with sumynary powers, existed in Bombay and in six smaller towns,
Ahmadabad, Nadiad, Poona, Surat, Broach and Karachi. The Deccan
Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1879 was also responsible for the creation
of appointments of village munsiffs and “conciliators", of whom the
former are empowered within the area of one or more villages to
dispose of petty suits up to Rs. 10 in value, and the latter endeavour
to induce parties to agree to a compromise of matters in dispute or to


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DISTRICT OFFICIALS
261
a reference to arbitration. Other civil courts are those of the canton-
ment magistrates, who in 1910 were empowered, as occasion might
demand, to dispose of suits within a limit of Rs. 500, while in 1906
mamlatdars were given jurisdiction in suits regarding the immediate
possession of immovable property.
The judicial arrangements outlined above did not apply to the
scheduled districts, which may be defined as “those which have never
been brought within, or have from time to time been removed from,
the operation of the general acts and regulations and the jurisdiction
of the ordinary courts of judicature”. Excluding the Panch Mahals
district, which was not included in the regulation districts until 1885,
the scheduled districts included Sind, where the judicial system is
almost identical with that of the rest of the presidency; Aden and its
dependencies, in which the resident had rather more extensive powers
than a district and sessions judge, and his assistants were usually vested
with inferior civil and criminal jurisdiction; and lastly the villages of
the Mewasi chiefs, over which the collector of the West Khandesh
district, as ex officio political agent, exercised both civil and criminal
jurisdiction, subject to appeal to and revision by the high court.
The revenue administration of the Bombay Presidency was carried
out by the following superior staff in 1914: four revenue commis-
sioners, including the commissioner of customs, opium, salt and abkari;
eleven senior and ten junior collectors, including the colleetor alt
revenue and the collector of Bombay; seventeen first and eighteen
second assistant collectors, some of whom were serving in the judicial
branch and some were on special duty in Sind; sixty-one deputy-
collectors, including the personal assistant to the director of agricul-
ture, who were divided into six grades and were in charge of district
treasuries or divisions of districts. In Sind, under the commissioner,
the revenue administration was carried on by four collectors, two
deputy-commissioners, six assistant collectors, and twenty-two deputy-
collectors.
The ordinary collectorate (or district), which has not altered
appreciably since the beginning of the present century, is composed
of twelve talukas or subdivisions, cach of which contains about a
hundred government villages, i. e. villages which have not been
alienated and the total revenues of which belong to the state. Each
village has its regular complement of officers, who are usually hcrc-
ditary, namely thc patel, the kulkarni or talati, the mhar and the watch-
man. The position and duties of these village officials, as well as of the
other hereditary village servants, have already been explained in an
carlier chapter. The revenue accounts of a village, which are simple
and complete, are based upon the survey register. Every occupant is
provided with a separate receipt book in which the total amount of
his holding is entered, and the patel and kulkarni are bound, under
heavy penalties, to record in it the sums he has paid. Every year what


## p. 262 (#298) ############################################

262
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
is termed the jamabandi of the village is made, which determines the
total amount of revenue due from the village. This process brings the
assistant or deputy-collector into annual contact with each village in
his charge and enables him to acquaint himself with its wants and
requirements; it enables the returns of cultivation and other registers,
useful for statistical purposes, to be checked; and it affords an oppor-
tunity of examining the village accounts, verifying transfers of land,
and generally of making such
a scrutiny as will protect the individual
cultivator from fraud.
Each taluka or subdivision of a collectorate is in charge of a mam-
latdar, whose duties have considerably increased since the first quarter
of the nineteenth century. He is responsible for the treasury business
of his taluka, and for seeing that instalments of revenue are punctually
paid by the villages, that the village accounts are accurately kept, that
the cultivators' payments are duly receipted, that the boundary-
marks of the fields are in repair, and generally that the village officers
are performing their duties properly. He functions as a subordinate
magistrate and has also to supervise the administration of the local
funds. With a view to giving him some assistance, a certain number of
villages are placed under the supervision of circle inspectors and other
members of the mamlatdar's official establishment; but he is expected to
assure himself by personal examination that they are doing their work.
Above the mamlatdar is the assistant or deputy-collector who is in
charge of, on an average, three talukas, and is expected to travel about
his charge throughout the seven fair-weather months of the year. He
has to satisfy himself by direct personal inspection that the revenue
work is regularly carried out; he sees that the revenue of each village
is brought to account at the time of the annual jamabandi; he
nominates the village officers; enquires into the needs of his talukas in
respect of local roads, wells, planting of trees and so forth; he hears
appeals from the orders of the mamlatdars; corresponds with them on
matters concerned with the administration of their respective talukas,
and generally supervises their proceedings.
Above the assistant and deputy-collectors is the collector and magis-
trate, who is in charge of the whole district. He has to travel through
his charge during four months of the year, and besides superintending
the revenues and magisterial work of his district he has to administer
the excise and other special taxes and to supervise the stamp revenue.
He is also ex officio district registrar and visitor of the district jail, and
has important duties to perform in connection with municipalities and
local funds, with the Land Acquisition Act (I of 1894), and with forests.
On all questions of executive administration his opinion is invariably
required.
Finally general superintendence and control over the revenue ad-
ministration are exercised by the three revenue commissioners (for
the northern, central and southern divisions of the presidency) and
the commissioner in Sind. During the fair season these officers are


## p. 263 (#299) ############################################

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
263
constantly moving about their divisions; judging for themselves of the
requirements of the various parts of the country, of the manner in
which the revenue administration and that of policeare being carriedon,
and of the qualifications of the district officials. They entertain appeals
from the collector's decisions and are the channel of communication
between them and the government. Speaking broadly, it may be
said that, except for a general increase of business resulting from the
progress of the presidency, for a few changes such as the introduction
of local self-government in the form of partly elective local boards,
and for administrative readjustments such as the creation of a third
revenue division, the general system of revenue administration in
force in 1914, and also at the present date, is practically the same as at
the date of the assumption of the government of India by the crown.
The main features of the system can be traced back directly to the
arrangements initiated by Elphinstone for the settlement of the
Deccan and other territories taken from the Peshwa, and indirectly
and with certain marked differences, mainly due to the differences in
land tenures, to the arrangements in Bengal.
During the periou succeeding the year 1858 the administration and
expansion of the chief ports of the territories controlled by the Bombay
government were provided for by the establishment of the Bombay
Port Trust in 1873, of the Karachi Port Trust in 1880, and of the Aden
Port Trust in 1889. The plague which broke out in 1896 was directly
responsible for the creation of the City Improvement Trust in 1898–
a body composed of members partly elected and partly nominated,
which was charged with the duty of preparing a comprehensive
scheme of improvement for Bombay, with particular reference to the
better ventilation of densely crowded areas, the removal of insanitary
dwellings, and the prevention of overcrowding. The act legalising the
establishment of this trust provided for the nomination by the Bombay
Government of three of the trustees, including the chairman, and for
the appointment, as trustees ex officio, of the collector of Bombay, the
municipal commissioner, and the general officer commanding the
Bombay district.
The public works department was gradually organised after the
transfer of control to the crown, on the foundations laid by Lord
Dalhousie for the whole of India in 1854. A considerable addition
was made to the department in 1868-9, and by the year 1914 the
establishment, including the railway branch, consisted of two chief
engineers, the senior of whom was the secretary to government and
the junior the joint secretary to government, six superintending en-
gineers, including a sanitary engineer, thirty-eight executive engineers,
and fifty-nine assistant engineers. The growth of official buildings and
the introduction of electric power had also necessitated the appoint-
ments of a consulting architect, an architectural draughtsman,
and an electrical engineer, all of whom were employed on five years'
1 Report on Administration of Bombay Presidency, 1911-12.


## p. 264 (#300) ############################################

264
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
agreements, as well as an electrical inspector and ten temporary
engineers.
Like the public works department, the administration of the forests
of the presidency originated in the definite and prudent policy
enunciated by Lord Dalhousie in 1855, and was gradually evolved
subsequent to the year 1860. The great famine of 1876–8 led to a
revision of the provincial arrangements for forest conservancy, and
to the introduction of legislative measures which placed the whole
system of forest administration in Bombay on a secure and well-
defined basis. For administrative purposes the presidency was divided
into four forest circles, corresponding to the four revenue divisions,
three of which were in charge of conservators and the fourth (Sind)
in charge of a deputy-conservator. The controlling staff was divided
into an imperial service and a provincial service, of which the former
had been reorganised in 1907 and the latter in 1915. The imperial
service, in accordance with that revision, was composed of three con-
servators and twenty-four deputy and assistant conservators, and the
provincial service of five extra deputy-conservators and twenty-three
extra assistant conservators. Below these was the protective establish-
ment of rangers, foresters and forest guards. As forest control and
conservancy are regarded as a branch of the general administration,
the central authority in forest matters has always been the com-
missioner of the revenue division, subject to the grneral orders of the
Bombay Government. In all professional and technical matters the
professional forest officer has full control and responsibility; but in
regard to such matters as the rights and privileges of the people in
forests, the local supply of grass, grazing and fodder, and the gencral
relations of the department with the people, control is vested in the
collectors of the districts, to whom for these purposes the forest officers
are subordinate. A comprehensive survey of the forests was com-
menced in 1888, and the work of forest settlement was completed
before the close of the period dealt with in this review. The classifica-
tion of the forests also into forest proper, fuel and fodder reserves, and
pastures was completed throughout the presidency before the year
1914, though a working plans division is still maintained in each forest
circle for the purpose of ascertaining the productive capacity of the
forests and of preparing scientific proposals for the profitable ex-
ploitation of the sylvan resources of the presidency.
The salient features of the educational administration subsequent
to 1858 were the introduction of the grants-in-aid code in 1865,
designed for the benefit of any private primary or secondary school,
which was controlled by a board of management and was not main-
tained solely for private profit; the reorganisaticn in 1868 of the
supply of trained schoolmasters; the foundation in 1890 of the joint
schools committee to supervise and control primary education in
Bombay city; and the amendment of the constitution of the university,
founded in 1857, which synchronised with a declaration of the educa-


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AGRICULTURE
265
tional policy of the Indian Government in 1903-4. Broadly speaking,
education in the Bombay Presidency is imparted partly through direct
official agency, partly through the medium of grants-in-aid. The
Bombay Government in 1918 maintained arts colleges in Bombay,
Poona and Gujarat, a medical college, a college of science, an agri-
cultural college, a veterinary college, a school of art, a law school and
a college of commerce, as well as a model secondary school in Bombay
and at the headquarters of each revenue district or collectorate. While
the Bombay municipality is now responsible for primary education in
the city, the majority of the primary schools throughout the presidency
are maintained by the district and taluka local boards, who receive
grants-in-aid from the government. The official staff responsible for
the educational administration consisted in 1918 of a director, an
inspector in each of the four divisions of the presidency, and in each
district or collectorate a deputy-inspector with assistants.
The importance of agriculture as one of the chief factors in the
progress of the presidency was recognised about 1884 by the organisa-
tion of a separate department of land records and agriculture, pre-
sided over by a director chosen from the ranks of the covenanted civil
service. The activities of the department were for several years con-
fined mainly to the simplification of revenue-settlement procedure
and the improvement of the land-record system; and in connection
with the latter branch of its duties a class of circle inspectors, who were
subordinate to the mamlatdars of the talukas, was tentatively introduced
about 1887. The agricultural work of the various provinces was
eventually co-ordinated by the appointment in 1901 of an inspector-
general of agriculture with the Government of India, and the increased
attention paid to agriculture after that date led in 1905 to the separa-
tion of the appointments of director of agriculture and director of land
records, and to the appointments of a deputy-director, an agricultural
chemist and an economic botanist for the Bombay Presidency. The
director of land records had ample work to perform in supervising the
preparation of the “record of rights” in land, which followed on the
passing in 1901–2 of a special Record of Rights Act as a complement
to existing legislation governing the Bombay land-revenue system.
A further attempt to advance the welfare of the agricultural worker
and improve rural credit was made in 1904 by the passing of the
Co-operative Credit Societies Act by the legislative council of the
Government of India. In Bombay the task of organising and super-
vising such societies under the terms of the act was entrusted to a
registrar, aided by a staff of assistant registrars, auditors, and other
officers. Shortly after the close of the period with which this chapter
deals the Bombay Presidency contained 1648 agricultural credit
societies, 211 non-agricultural credit societies, twelve banks, and fifty
unions, while the capital of the agricultural and non-agricultural
societies amounted respectively to 83) and 62 lakhs of rupees.
As regards miscellaneous departments of the administration it may
a


## p. 266 (#302) ############################################

266
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
be mentioned that the control of excise was vested at the close of 1918
in the collectors of the districts, subject to the general control of the
commissioner of customs, salt, opium and abkari (excise). They were
assisted in this branch of their duties by a special staff of assistants,
inspectors, sub-inspectors, gaugers, clerks, petty officers and menials.
The salt department of the presidency proper was separately adminis-
tered by the commissioner of customs and a special staff
, while there
were separate establishments for Sind and Aden, which were con-
trolled respectively by the commissioner in Sind and the political
resident.
The customs administration of the port of Bombay was
managed by a collector of customs and six assistants, and of the port of
Karachi by a collector and two assistants, subject respectively to the
general control of the commissioner of customs, Bombay, and the
commissioner in Sind. The collector of land-revenue in Bombay,
assisted by four inspectors of factories, was responsible for the adminis-
tration of the Cotton Duties Act II of 1896.
Excluding the military administration, railways, public works, etc. ,
and special trusts created for developing ports and urban areas, it may
be broadly stated that the various administrative appointments and
establishments created between 1858 and 1918, in response to the
progress and requirements of the people of the presidency, were grafted
upon, added to, or linked more or less closely for administrative pur-
poses with the framework of the revenue organisation, which had been
constructed, tested and improved during the first half of the nine-
teenth century. The most important part of that framework was the
district officer, who as collector was responsible for the revenue ad-
ministration, and as magistrate supervised the inferior courts and
directed the work of the police. The revenue organisation, while it has
always served, and still serves "its peculiar purpose of collecting the
revenue and keeping the peace”, is, in the words of the Montagu-
Chelmsford Report,
so close-knit, so well established, and so thoroughly understood by the people, that
it simultaneously discharges easily and efficiently an immense number of other
duties. It deals with the registration, alteration, and partition of holdings; the
settlement of disputes; the management of indebted estates; loans to agriculturists;
and above all, famine relief. Because controls revenue, which depends on agri-
culture, the supreme interest of the people, it naturally serves as the general adminis-
tration staff.
Specialised services, such as the establishments for irrigation, roads
and buildings, agriculture, industries, factories, and co-operative
credit, may possess separate staffs which are under the control of their
own departmental heads. But, “in varying degrees, the district
.
officer influences the policy in all these matters, and he is always there
in the background to lend his support, or, if need be, to mediate
between a specialised service and the people”. 1
1 Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms, 1918, pp. 102, 103.
>


## p. 267 (#303) ############################################

CHAPTER XV
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN MADRAS
1858–1918
THE storm of the Mutiny raised only a couple of ripples in Madras.
A hill-chief of Godavari, marching upon a private quarrel
, proclaimed
himself a forerunner of Nana Sahib, and strove to raise the country,
but paid for the boast with his life. Between a dismissed tahsildar of
Bellary and malcontents in Dharwar a plot was hatched to bring
about a general rising. The rebels got possession of the fort of Kopal,
but the place was stormed with heavy loss to the defenders and of the
survivors seventy-seven were executed.
The transfer of the government of India to the crown caused no stir
whatever. The local annals are silent on the subject because methods
and principles remained unchanged.
Only a few events disturbed a period of general serenity. On
1 November, 1864, at Masulipatam, torrential rain preceded early
darkness and a devastating wind. Towards midnight, at a cry “The
sea is coming”, Captain Hasted looked from his half-wrecked house
on a "wild waste of luridly phosphorescent water, not in waves, but
swirling, boiling, pouring round the house and lifted against it and
over it in sheets by the raging wind”. In a mass 13 feet above high-
water mark, the Bay of Bengal had poured itself on the land. At
midnight, with indescribable din and immeasurable fury, the waters
rushed back. They had penetrated 17 miles inland, overwhelmed
800 square miles and destroyed 30,000 people and countless cattle.
The next event was much graver. There are seventeenth-century
records of awful famines; the Guntur famine of 1833 “covered the
country with human bones from Ongole to Masulipatam”; the Orissa
famine of 1865-6 afflicted a quarter of the presidency; but it may
be
doubted whether the tragedy of 1876–8 did not surpass all previous
calamities of the sort. Of the 200,000 square miles affected more
than a third fell within Madras, where the famine is charged with
causing the death of nearly four million people and cost the state over
800 lakhs. The material loss to the community at large was incal-
culable and was made good only to a trifling extent from the huge
Mansion House Fund, though most of that fund was laid out in the
Madras Presidency. The calamity left its trace on the agricultural
statistics for twenty-five years, and the population which had been
advancing up to 1871 at the rate of about half a million a year showed
no increase for the decennium ending with 1881. The government has
never ignored its duty towards the starving, though the succour given
has not always been adequate or timely. Public relief, which dates back


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268
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN MADRAS
1
to the eighteenth century, has taken various forms: importation
of grain through official agency; bounties, advances and guarantees
of price to private traders; opening of public works; gratuitous dis-
tribution of food, cooked or uncooked. The great famine led to the
preparation of a famine code which centres all famine operations in
the collector and requires the maintenance for each district of a pro-
gramme of the public works ready to be put into immediate operation.
As a further preparation for sudden emergencies a scheme was intro-
duced in 1907 for forming provincial famine funds by an annual
credit of 2 lakhs up to a maximum of 25 lakhs, and mention should
be made here of the protective irrigation works on the Rushikulya
river, which, completed about 1898, serves to afford some security to
Ganjam, a region of frequent dearth.
The Moplah sore was still festering in Malabar where outbreaks
occurred in 1873 and 1880. A second special enquiry was made into
the cause of these troubles and, as they were now ascribed in the main
to the eviction of tenants, a lawl was passed to ensure compensation
for improvements to dispossessed tenants. Five outrages in the years
1883 to 1885 emphasised the urgent need for action and four taluks
were disarmed as completely as possible. A serious rising in 1894 was
the starting point for remedial measures in the form of roads to open
up the fanatical zone, and of special, but not very successful, arrange-
ments for the education of Moplah children. Before these could come
into operation the outbreak of 1896 occurred. After the usual pillaging,
maltreatment and murdering of Hindus, the rebels took stand in a
temple sanctified to them by the slaughter of 1849, and there met the
death they courted and merited. The temple was heaped with corpses
and streaming with blood, the survivors slitting the throats of the
wounded as they fell to prevent their capture alive. In all out of
ninety-nine men, ninety-six were killed. The three left alive could not
find any material grievance to plead.
Off the coast of Malabar lies the southern group of the Laccadive
Islands. Ever since the annexation of Malabar the misgovernment of
the islands by the family of the Bibi of Cannanore to which they
belonged had been a cause of trouble, and they had been taken over
once but restored on promise of amendment. In 1875 it was found
necessary to sequestrate them in perpetuity to protect the islanders
from oppression. There was still no settled peace in the Northern
Circars. In 1865 the Khonds of thc Ganjam hills rose, this time
against the Uriya and Pano inhabitants, of whom they murdered
many. It was thought necessary after this to arrange for the more or
less permanent residence in the hills of European officers to prevent
the exploitation and oppression of the Khonds by other classes.
A more serious affair was the Rampa rebellion in the hills of
Godavari. The trouble there began in 1835 on the death of the
1 Act 1 of 1887; replaced by Act I of 1900.
1


## p. 269 (#305) ############################################

THE AGENCY TRACTS
269
mansabdar charged with the maintenance of order, the muttahdars, or
sub-chiefs, objecting to the arrangements for the succession. The
quarrel was patched up in 1848, but the mansabdar then appointed
entered upon a long course of oppressive acts for which he pleaded
the authority of government. The police, too, were making themselves
offensive to the muttahdars and the cup overflowed when the govern-
ment forbade the free drawing of toddy and leased the toddy-revenue
to renters who demanded fees for tapping. After an initiatory sacrifice
of several police constables and other obnoxious persons had been made
to the gods, insurrection blazed out in 1879 over 5000 square miles. A
guerrilla war followed; isolated stations were attacked, villages looted
and burnt, detachments of policeand even troops forced to retreat, many
money-lenders murdered. A large military force was assembled and
in the following year the affair was over; the mansabdar was deposed
and arrangements were come to with the muttahdars as to their tenure
and duties. This outbreak lcd to a change in the administration of the
hills of Godavari. They were withdrawn from the operation of the
ordinary laws and placed entirely under the collector of Godavari, as
government agent, in whom was vested both civil and criminal juris-
diction. In short, these hills were put in practically the same position
as those of Ganjam and Vizagapatam, though by means of a different
enactment. " Much later on steps were taken to protect the hillmen
of these three tracts from the money-lenders by a lawa checking the
transfer of land in execution of decrees to persons not belonging to
the hill tribes.
In the centre things went quietly except at Salem, where the resent-
ment of Hindus over the building of a mosque resulted in 1882 in two
riots, the demolition of the building and a rather long tale of killed
and wounded.
In the south also religious prejudices were responsible for trouble.
For a long time there had been growing hostility to the Shanars (or
toddy-drawer caste) on account of their claims to novel religious
privileges. The courts were resorted to, and an injunction obtained
forbidding the Shanars of Kalugumalai from going in procession. This
led in 1895 to a riot in which nine or ten were killed, followed by the
imposition of punitive police on the locality. Four years later a
Marava zamindar sued to restrain Shanars from entering the temple
at Sivakasi. The Shanars retorted by burning many Marava dwellings.
The Maravars thereon mustered in great force and attacked the
enemy. Twenty-five persons were killed and there was much destruc-
tion of Shanars' property. The Marava gangs were rounded up by se-
poys and police and a punitive police was quartered on that locality too.
The disturbances of the nineteenth century were due to religious
quarrels or to local or personal causes, not involving, except in 1857,
any direct challenge to the state. With the exception of sporadic
1 The India Scheduled Districts Act, 1874.
2 Act I of 1917.
a
1


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270
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN MADRAS
disorder due to efforts to prevent the spreading of plague and of an
outbreak against the police at Guntur, the troubles of the twentieth
century were the outcome of an organised movement against foreign
domination, propagated by the more educated classes and so, in the
main, by Brahmans, and finding its principal source in Bengal. The
unrest had its first overt expression in 1906 among the students at
Rajahmundry; its next, soon afterwards, at Cocanada in a raid on
the English club provoked by a trivial incident. Then, in 1908, a
commercial failure at Tuticorin was worked up as an instance of the
malignity of the rulers; there were strikes, and Europeans were boy-
cotted. Proceedings were taken against the instigators in the criminal
courts with the result that there were simultaneous outbreaks at
Tinnevelly and Tuticorin. A good deal of damage was done and the
police had to resort to fire-arms. Three years later a seditious con-
spiracy found vent in the murder of the collector of Tinnevelly. The
war did not improve the situation, although the rural areas remained
generally unaffected. Of the war itself the country saw nothing
except in the form of some shells from the Emden which caused three
deaths and some injury to property in Madras, and suffered therefrom
mainly through the check on sea-borne trade. The attitude of the
Indian press towards the war called for little criticism, but political
agitation grew in extent and bitterness. By 1918 three distinct
political movements had become manifest; the earlier agitation of the
Home Rule party, their later action culminating in the formation of
the Madras Presidency Association, and a Labour campaign with, on
the other side, a growing opposition to Brahman influence on the part
of educated members of other castes.
The legislation of 1861 created a high court which absorbed the
supreme court and courts of sadr and faujdari adalat, thus becoming
a court of appeal, reference and revision for the whole presidency.
The passing of the Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes 2 also led
to important changes: the Muhammadan criminal law disappeared,
criminal jurisdiction became a subject of general legislation and the
ordinary minor civil courts ceased to operate as criminal courts.
A host of laws were repealed after the enactment of these two codes
and the position determined in 18734 was this: the zillah civil and
sessions judges became district and sessions judges with unlimited
ordinary civil jurisdiction and power to pass any authorised sentence;
the principal sadr amins became subordinate judges with civil juris-
diction similar to that of the district judge; the jurisdiction of the
district munsiffs was extended to Rs. 2500. The only subsequent change
which need be noticed is the enlargement of the powers of the village
civil courts and the establishment of village benches. 5
3
1
24
& 25 Vic, c. 104:
2 India Acts XLV of 1860 and XXV of 1861.
s Act II of 1869 and India Act XVII of 1862.
• India Act III of 1873.
s Act I of 1889.


## p. 271 (#307) ############################################

THE SETTLEMENT DEPARTMENT
271
>
The new settlement department began to operate in 1857 under
a director who, in 1882, took charge of the new department of agri-
culture also. In 1887 the control of these two departments and of the
inchoate land record department was assigned to a member of the
Board of Revenue. The nature and development of “late ryotwari”
have been sufficiently indicated already; the stage had now been
reached in which “subject to the payment of a stated proportion of
the produce,. . . the proprietary right of the ryot in the soil of his
holding is absolute and complete”. It remains only to explain how
that "stated proportion” is determined. After a preliminary investi-
gation of the general conditions of a district, the settlement officers
classify the soil under “series”, “classes” and “sorts”, small differences
being ignored in order to form practically identical “blocks”. The
output per acre of the particular soil is then estimated in rice or a
standard “dry” crop and this is priced on the average of a series of
years; the price is next reduced by about 15 per cent. to cover carriage
to market and merchants' profits. The "commutation rate” so found
is again reduced to allow for seasonal vicissitudes and uncultivable
areas included in the fields. From the gross money value of the crop
thus determined, the cost of cultivation is subtracted and not more
than half the balance is taken as the assessment due to the state. The
rates ascertained for the various kinds of soil are graded to avoid
petty differences and, in applying them, consideration is paid to the
position of the village and the quality of the irrigation. In the end a
village settlement register is prepared. This contains particulars of
every separate holding and one of the main duties of the land record
department (which was properly constituted only in 1903) is to keep
the register corrected up to date in order to facilitate subsequent
settlements. Although the state nominally demands a sum not in
excess of half the net value of the crop, the proportion actually taken
depends, of course, in any year on the ruling price of grain. It was
roughly estimated in 1855 that the assessment then amounted to half
the gross produce on wet land and one-third on dry, but in 1912 it
was reckoned that the government was getting less than one-tenth of
the gross produce. It is safe to say that for many years the government
has not received the authorised half rate. It may be added that, in
1912, an average district contained 157,000 government ryots and
107,500 survey fields.
We may now pass under review sundry departments which attained
importance during our second period only, leading off with agriculture.
At the outset the Company was not wholly neglectful of this subject,
but its efforts were principally directed to the introduction of exotics.
With an eye to cochineal it encouraged the growth of prickly pear
(the blacker sin of introducing it is Portugal's). Bourbon cotton was
introduced in the eighteenth century and before 1850 there were other
G. O. 1008, Rev. 21 September, 1882.


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272
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN MADRAS
a
earnest but unavailing attempts to improve the quality of the cotton
grown. In 1865 an experimental farm was started at Saidapett, and
there was some training of apprentices. Then a school of agriculture
was started at the same place, and about 1886 this was developed into
a college but the institution languished, and it was not until 1909 that
instruction in agriculture was put on a firm footing by the opening
at Coimbatore of a large agricultural college and research institute.
On the administrative side development was even more discreditably
tardy. The first step was taken in 1882 by the appointment of an
agricultural expert to advise the director of settlement, but there was
no real attempt to atone for a century's neglect until 1906, when a
trained department was instituted and at once developed into an
energetic and most important branch of the administration. It was
enlarged in 1914, and two years later the control over it was trans-
ferred from the Board of Revenue to government.
Forestry is another subject which for long received inadequate
attention. Naval demand for teak led to the appointment of a com-
missioner on the west coast in 1806, and this was followed by the
establishment of a sort of government monopoly of the timber trade;
but this gave rise to so much discontent that the system and the
commissioner were abolished in 1822. 1 Malabar again received a
special officer in 1847, and some control was established over the
Anaimalai forest. Elsewhere collectors realised some revenue from
permits and leases for cutting wood and grazing. In 1856 a conserva-
tor was appointed and, three years later, a "Jungle Conservancy
Department” was organised. The forests were then divided into
"imperial” under the conservator and “jungle conservancy" under
the collectors. The jungle conservancy had a separate establishment,
derived funds from seignorage and grazing fees, and did some useful
work, mainly in the way of making plantations and avenues. At first
the conservator's establishment was not sufficient to do more than
raise a little revenue; but from 1871 trained officers began to come out
from England and were placed under the collectors to whom the
conservator acted as adviser. Not until Act V of 1882 had declared
certain acts to be offences could conservancy and not exploitation be
treated as the end principally in view, and meanwhile much harm
had been done to the forests. The forest department then became a
branch of the revenue department, the jungle conservancy depart-
ment was abolished, the trained European staff was organised into
advisory conservators and district forest officers, who ranked as
assistants to the collectors.
The formal notification of "reserved forests", which began after
the passing of Act V of 1882, was practically finished by 1911, when
nearly 20,000 square miles had been brought under more or less strict
control. The mode of working these forests now adopted where feasible
1 Munro's Minute, 26 November, 1822.
1
1
1


## p. 273 (#309) ############################################

MUNICIPALITIES
273
is to lease them out by coupes, in rotation, to contractors who make their
own arrangements for removal and sale. Inevitably the department
has been very unpopular, and, in an effort to improve relations, it
was decided in 1910-11 to disafforest many small areas and to make
over certain other minor reserves to village committees for manage-
ment. Up to the end of our period this experiment was reported to
have had a measure of success.
The next subject for consideration is the local administrative bodies,
the connection of which with education is dealt with elsewhere.
In Madras town Streynsham Master's Civilian Scavenger, the
Mayor and Corporation in silken robes, and George the Third's
Justices of the Peace pass in succession across the stage, but it was
when, in 1856,1 these last handed over charge to a body of com-
missioners that the Madras Corporation started on its course. We
need not follow its progress along the lines of extension of the elective
principle, diminution of governmental control, enhancement of taxa-
tion. Outside the city the first municipal institutions were of a
voluntary character, the townspeople being left to ask for the applica-
tion to their towns of an actº which enabled the magistrate and persons
appointed by government to raise taxes and see to the management
of the streets and the prevention of nuisances. There was no active
response to this invitation and, as townsfolk were not contributing
fairly to the general expenses, it was resolved to compel them to pay
something towards the cost of the police. A Town Improvement Act 3
was therefore passed and extended to numerous towns. This vested
control of the streets, drains and so on in the district magistrate as
president, the local public works officer and five or more persons
appointed by government, rendered compulsory the levy of specified
taxes to the point requisite to provide for certain purposes (including
75 per cent. of the cost of the town police) and authorised discretionary
taxation beyond that point for other purposes. The reluctance of the
municipal commissioners to impose taxation beyond the compulsory
limit led to a revised Towns Improvement Act. There were now the
collector as president, the revenue divisional officer and three or more
commissioners; provision was made for a system of election and a
limit was put on the number of officials; education and medical relief
entered into the list of purposes; liability for the police per contra
disappeared;5 the government got power to enforce taxation through
supervision of the annual budget. The present law severs the con-
nection of the collector with the district municipalities, while leaving
him a measure of control in emergencies; the only ex officio councillor
is the revenue divisional officer; the minimum strength of the council
is twelve; the maximum proportion of officials is one-fourth; the
1 India Act XLV.
· India Act XXVI of 1850.
• Act X of 1865.
4 Act III of 1871.
This liability was reimposed by Act VII of 1878, but was enforced for a few years only.
• Act IV of 1884.
18
CHIVI


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274
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN MADRAS
9
chairman may
be appointed by government or by election; a propor-
tion (usually three-fourths) of the council must be appointed by
election;1 taxation has been increased to meet the cost of water and
drainage works.
When British rule was established, there was not a single road of
any length fit for wheeled traffic; even the main streets of many of the
largest towns were unusable by vehicles. Wheeled traffic was limited
to rough farm carts on solid wheels. At first there was a good deal of
military road-making, but the money spent on it was mostly wasted.
Commercial roads were first considered in 1813; and then there was
not a road which was not either ill-made or decayed. Bridges were
almost unknown. The inland commerce being then small, the Board
of Revenue did not ask for more than a grant to enable collectors to
keep up their district roads, and the government sanctioned 30,000
rupees a year, with a promise (never fulfilled) of more. In 1825
communications were put under the "maramat department” of the
board, the management remaining with the district officers. Such
improvement followed as was possible with a total annual allotment
of little more than one lakh, and it was reckoned in 1848 that about
90,000 travelling carts with “the European form of wheel” had come
into being. In 1845 a trunk road department under a superintendent
was formed to take over the main highways from the maramat
department. The new official was provided with funds but no proper
staff, and the main roads slipped again from his paralysed hands into
those of the collectors, who on their part were so starved that their whole
road-grants totalled less than 10,000 rupees. In 1852 there was "prob-
ably not a single mile throughout the presidency equal to an ordinary
English turnpike road”, and there were certainly not a thousand miles
on which one could comfortably drive at six miles an hour. When a
proper public works department was created in 1858, the roads
generally were entrusted toit, but imperial funds proved inadequate and
it was resolved to find money for the minor roads from other sources.
This was at first done by an addition to the assessment on ryotwariland,
but the unfairness of such an arrangement led to Act III of 1866,
which enabled government to levy a road-cess on all occupied land,
whether ryotwari or zemindari. Then the question of providing for
education came up and it was decided to have a general measure
dealing with rural roads, education and medical and sanitary im-
provements. The Local Fund Act (IV of 1871) was the result. This
divided the country into circles (usually two to a district) which were
placed under the collector as president of a board with a non-official
a
element of half or more. The principal tax leviable under this act was
a cess of one anna in the rupee on the annual rent value of all occupied
land. With the help of contributions from this source the public works
department continued to manage the roads until 1879, when the local
1 Under the amending Act III of 1897.
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FINANCE
275
fund boards started their own engineering establishments and took
complete charge. The general system of administration was revised
by the Local Boards Act (V of 1884), which has since been amended
on several occasions. The district now came under a district board
with the collector as president (though in recent years there have been
cases of non-official presidents), the revenue divisional officers as ex
officio members, and other members either appointed by government
or (from 1887) in part elected. The revenue division was placed under
a taluk board with the revenue divisional officer as president or (from
1912) with an elected president. In 1909 the partial election of mem-
bers of taluk boards was introduced. In the case of both boards a
majority of non-official members is provided for and full executive
authority is vested in the presidents. The law further enables the
government to constitute villages and groups of villages into unions
under the control of panchayats or committees. A house-tax may be
raised in such unions, but the principal source of revenue is still the
tax on the rent value of land. The main objects of expenditure have
been roads, bridges, elementary schools and hospitals, in respect of
all of which, since 1871, great development has taken place, attri-
butable largely to the zeal and knowledge of the official presideats.
The current century has produced its own minor departments and
one of these promises to do much to relieve the farming class from the
burden of debts incurred at extortionate interest from the money-
lenders. The purpose of this department is to foster the growth of a
system of co-operative credit societies, and so rapid has been the
progress that in 1917 there were in existence 2644 societies with a
working capital of 235 lakhs. .
Such was the position at the end of our period: the mass peaceful
and as contented as men ever are; on the surface some commotion
crying for appeasement. The development of the administration since
1818 may seem to have been disappointingly slow in some directions;
but it must be borne in mind that at the outset the presidency could
not pay its way, and that for many years the resources available were
very scanty. In 1825 Munro referred to the recurrent need of help from
Bengal, and the Madras Public Works Commission in 1852 observed
that Madras was invariably unable to provide its prescribed con-
tribution towards “home charges" and was under constant pressure
to economise. Only quite recently has the need for rigid economy
ceased to hamper the government.