No More Learning

To assist him in these
duties, he was furnished with a staff consisting of a sheristadar or
record-keeper on Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 a month, an accountant and sub-
· Letter from M. Elphinstone, 16 August, 1832 (Minutes of Evidence before Select
Committee on Affairs of East India Company, Rev. 111, 1832); Minute, 6 April, 1821, by
governor of Bombay on Ahmadabad and Kaira (Appendix, Report of Select Committee
(Parliamentary), 1832).


## p. 62 (#92) ##############################################

62 DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
ordinate clerks. At first the Bombay Government found some diffi-
culty in sccuring mamlatdars of the right type. In Poona and Satara
they were chiefly respectable servants of the former government; in
Khandesh, which had been wasted and depopulated, men had to be
introduced from the Nizam's dominions or from Hindustan; while a
few men were borrowed from Madras to act as a check upon the
Deccan officials. Below the mamlatdar was the patel, who was re-
sponsible, together with the kulkarni, for the revenue and police
administration of the village. His powers were pro tanto reduced by
the closer supervision exercised by the mamlatdar under the British
system, while his emoluments were lessened by the reduction or
abolition of the Maratha tax known as sadar warid patti.
The sheet-anchor of the district finances was the land-revenue,
other sources of income being customs (jakat), excise (abkari), fines
paid on succession to property (nazar), fecs paid for pasturage by
nomad shepherds, and fees paid for permits to cut wood in govern-
ment forests. The foundation of the agricultural assessment was the
amount paid by each village in times when the people considered
themselves to have been well governed. From this amount deductions
were made for diminution of cultivation or for special reasons, and
the final amount payable was apportioned among the ryots or agri-
cultural population by the village officers. The chauth and babti of
Maratha days were abolished, as also were arbitrary imposts like the
jasti patti. Speaking generally, the assessments were made lighter,
more definite, and more uniform; more liberal advances were made
to the cultivator for land improvement or to assist him in seasons of
scarcity; the practice of bringing false charges against him as a pretext
for extorting larger contributions was sternly and actively prohibited.
Owing to the difficulty of framing a tariff and to the collectors'
absorption in revenue and magisterial duties, the customs were
farmed for the first few years. The excise revenue, which yielded less
than £1000 annually, was maintained at a low figure, as in the
Peshwa's days, by express prohibition in Poona and the active dis-
couragement of drinking elsсwhere. Similarly, until the currency
system was stabiliscd, the mint was farmed to a contractor. The salt-
tax was unknown at the commencement of the nineteenth century,
though the manufacture of salt was carried on in the collectorate of
Bombay by both government and private persons, and in other dis-
tricts by various methods, the revenue so derived being recovered in
the shape of rent, customs-duty, or duty on sales. In 1837 an act was
passed establishing a salt excise-duty, whereupon all salt-works outside
the island of Bombay were placed in charge of a Collector of Conti-
nental Customs and Excise, and those in Bombay were supervised by
the Collector of Land Revenue at the presidency. These two officials
were responsible for the management and collection of the tax; but
whereas the collector of Bombay had no separate staff for the pur-


## p. 63 (#93) ##############################################

TAXATION AND JUSTICE
63
poses of the salt revenue the Collector of Continental Customs was
assisted by a deputy-collector and five assistant collectors. These
arrangements continued until 1854, when the charge of all sea and
land customs and of the salt cxcisc of the whole presidency was trans-
ferred to a commissioner, assisted by a European staff of three deputy-
commissioners and ten uncovenanted assistants, and by an Indian
staff at each of the chief salt-works.
In regard to the administration of civil and criminal justice, the
position in the ycar 1812-13 may be briefly described, before pro-
ceeding to later developments. At that date the possessions of the
Bombay Government in Gujarat included the towns of Broach,
Kaira and Surat. In each of those towns was an officer combining
the functions of criminal judge and magistrate, with an assistant for
magisterial duties. Above them was a sadr adalat, consisting of three
judges, which served as a court of circuit and appeal, not only for the
three above-mentioned places in Gujarat, but also for Salsette, ad-
joining Bombay Island, which was administered by a single judge.
For the hearing and disposal of civil causes, a native official, styled
sadr amin, was appointed to each of the three Gujarat towns and
Salsettc, and an appeal from the decisions of these functionaries also
lay to the sadr adalat in Surat. In Bombay, as previously mentioned,
the superior court at this date was that of the recorder, which exercised
both civil and criminal jurisdiction, while the lower courts were, for
civil suits, the Small Causes Court for the recovery of debts not
exceeding Rs. 175, which was established in 1799, and, for criminal
cases, the courts of the senior, second and third magistrates of police,
which were established by Rule, Ordinance and Regulation 1 of 1812,
and the Court of Petty Sessions, which was opened in the same year. 2
The development which took place in consequence of the acquisi-
tions and annexations of 1818 and following years will be apparent
from a survey of the provincial judicial arrangements of the year
1828-9. By that date the system of combining judicial and magis-
terial powers in one individual had been abolished, and magisterial
jurisdiction, coupled with control of the police, had been vested in
the collector of the district. As remarked by Sir John Malcolm, sound
reasons existed for combining magisterial with revenue or territorial
jurisdiction; for under the actual form of administration introduced
after 1818, the collector alone was in the position to possess full in-
formation of the state of the district subject to his authority and of the
character and condition of its inhabitants. 3 On the other hand the
presidency was handicapped by two conflicting systems of judicature,
represented by the existence in Bombay of the Supreme or King's
Court, which superseded the Recorder's Court in 1823, and the
1 The third magistrate was not actually appointed till 1830,
: S. M. Edwardes, The Bombay City Police, pp. 25 399. ; Bombay City Gazetteer, 11, 220 599.
• Minute by Sir J. Malcolm, 16 November, 1830 (Appendix, Report of Select Committee
(Judicial), 1832).


## p. 64 (#94) ##############################################

64
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
Company's courts, known as the sadr diwani adalat and the sadr
faujdari adalat, which had been transferred from Surat to the capital
of the presidency in 1827, towards the close of the governorship of
Mountstuart Elphinstone. The Supreme Court had authority by
letters patent to exercise civil, criminal, equity, admiralty and éccle-
siastical jurisdiction within the island of Bombay and the factories
subordinate thereto, and was invested with jurisdiction similar to that
of the King's Bench in England. The adalats, on the other hand,
which were wholly independent of the Supreme Court, superintended
the administration of justice in all places outside the limits of Bombay
Island. The sadr diwani adalat, consisting of four judges, a “register"
and an assistant register, had no original jurisdiction, but its de-
cisions were final except in suits relating to property worth more than
Rs. 10,000, when an appeal lay to the King in Council, while the
sadr faujdari adalat, consisting of the junior member of council as
chief judge and three puisne judges, superintended all criminal and
police matters in the districts and had power to revise all trials held
by lower courts outside the limits of Bombay Island. The jury-system
was confined to the jurisdictional limits of the Supreme Court.
In Gujarat, under the jurisdiction of the sadr adalat, was a pro-
vincial court of appeal and circuit, stationed at Surat and composed
of three judges. This court served as a civil court of appeal, while one
of the judges attached to it held a sessions every six months at Surat
and other centres. Sentences of death, transportation, or imprison-
ment for life passed by this court were subject to confirmation by the
sadr faujdari adalat. The court was finally abolished in 1830. In each
of the districts of Broach, Surat and Ahmadabad-Kairal was stationed
a judge for both civil and criminal work, aided by an assistant judge
or register, who decided such cases as the judge made over to him.
Subordinate to the judge for the purposes of civil justice, there
were in each district several munsiffs and in each headquarters town
one or more sadr amins, who were remunerated by fees. In 1828-9
the Bombay Presidency contained four sadr amins and seventy-nine
munsiffs or native commissioners, from whose decisions an appeal lay
successively to the district judge, to the court of appeal and circuit,
and finally to the sadr diwani adalat. In criminal cases the district
judge could award sentences of solitary imprisonment for six months,
imprisonment with hard labour for seven years, flogging, public dis-
grace, fine and personal restraint, subject to the proviso that in all
cases where a sentence of more than two years' imprisonment was
imposed, a reference had to be made to the court of circuit. Magis-
terial powers were vested in the collectors of the four districts,
Ahmadabad, Kaira, Broach and Surat, and extended to sentences of
fine, simple imprisonment for not more than two months, flogging
1 For judicial purposes this area was treated as a single district, but as two districts for
revenue and magisterial work.


## p. 65 (#95) ##############################################

JUDICIAL ORGANISATION
65
not in excess of thirty stripes, and personal restraint. The native
district police officers and the village police officers, subordinate to
the collectors, also possessed limited powers of punishment in trivial
cases. The former could impose fines not exceeding Rs. 5, or sentence
delinquents to confinement for not mure than eight days or to a period
of not more than twelve hours in the stocks; while the latter could
punish petty cases of assault and abuse by confinement in the village
chauki for not more than twenty-four hours. 1
The Konkan, divided for administrative purposes into North and
South, was judicially administered on the same lines as Gujarat,
except that in both portions the criminal sessions were held by one
of the judges of the sadr faujdari adalat, while in civil matters there
was no intermediate court of appeal, as in Gujarat, between the
district (zillah) judge and the sadr diwani adalat in Bombay. Both
the judges of the North and South Konkan had assistants, to whom
they delegated such cases as they thought fit. ?
The Deccan at this date (1828–9) was composed of three col-
lectorates—Poona including Sholapur, Ahmadnagar and Khandesh.
The policy of Mountstuart Elphinstone, who was appointed com-
missioner for the settlement of the Deccan in 1817 and became
governor of Bombay two years later, was to interfere as little as possible
with the system which he found existing in the conquered territory,
and at the outset, except for modifications of procedure, the Maratha
arrangements for civil justice were maintained more or less unaltered.
All complaints that could not be amicably settled were referred in the
first instance to the collector, who usually directed the mamlatdar to
enquire into the facts and grant a panchayat. Occasionally the collector
or his assistant would hear and decide a case; but his function was
generally limited to granting a new panchayat in cases where a decision
appeared to be marked by injustice or to be due to corruption. In
the course of his tours through his charge, the collector was bound to
give audience to all classes for two hours daily, receive oral complaints,
and revise the decisions of the mamlatdar, if this appeared necessary.
In the large towns like Poona, civil justice was in the hands of amins,
who were empowered to grant panchayats and try cases referred to them
by the collector, whenever both parties consented to this mode of
adjustment.
In the sphere of criminal justice Elphinstone abolished the patel's
punitive powers, and the mamlatdar's powers were limited to sentences
of fine not exceeding Rs. 2, and of confinement for twenty-four hours.
All other criminal powers were vested in the collector, who corre-
sponded in this respect to the sarsubehdar under the Maratha govern-
ment. In practice a prisoner was formally and publicly brought to
1 Minute of John Bax on Judicial and Revenue system of Bombay, 16 June, 1829
(General Appendix, Report of Select Committee (Parliainentary), 1832).
Idem, pp. 123 599.
CHIVI
5


## p. 66 (#96) ##############################################

-66
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
trial before the collector. If found guilty, a sastri was called upon to
declare the penalty according to Hindu law, which, if considered
excessive according to European standards, was modified, and if light,
was accepted by the collector. In Khandesh a kind of jury was
assembled, which questioned witnesses and pronounced on the guilt
of the accused; while in Satara the political agent summoned re-
spectable residents to serve as assessors at the trial. In all cases native
exponents of the Hindu law were present in court, and where capital
sentences or heavy punishment were involved, the collector had to
report his decision for confirmation to the commissioner. 1
This system was shortly afterwards superseded by arrangements
resembling, though not absolutely identical with, those followed in
Gujarat. Thus in 1828–9 the Deccan districts werė administered for
judicial purposes by two district judges, one for Poona and Sholapur,
and the other for Ahmadnagar and Khandesh. Each judge had an
assistant, one being stationed in Sholapur and the other in Dhulia,
who were vested with limited penal powers and were bound to refer
all matters of importance to their superiors. Subject to the general
authority of the sadr faujdari adalat in Bombay, the two judges held
regular criminal sessions at Poona and Ahmadnagar, while their
decisions in civil suits were subject to appeal to the sadr diwani adalat.
The magisterial powers of the collector and his subordinates were the
same as in Gujarat, the assistant collector being empowered to try
such cases as the collector delegated to him, subject to the overriding
powers of the latter in appeal. 2
The Carnatic or Southern Maratha country, consisting of Dharwar
and Belgaum, was administered on rather different lines, as the
Bombay Regulations, which were published in 1827 and applied to
the rest of the presidency, were not formally applied to this area till
1830. The collector for the time being, aided by assistants and a regis-
trar, exercised all the civil and criminal functions which elsewhere
were performed by the separate departments of district judge, criminal
judge and magistrate. Even after the application of the regulations
in 1830, the offices of political agent, collector, judge and sessions judge
were still united in one individual, while the assistant judge at
Dharwar was vested with the powers of an assistant at detached
stations (e. g. Dhulia) in other parts of the presidency. The civil and
criminal work of the district was, however, placed under the general
supervision of the sadr adalat, the criminal side of which served, as
in the case of the Konkan, as a court of circuit. This difference of
treatment probably was due to the fact that the management of the
Southern Maratha country after 1813 was conducted mainly by
officers of the Madras Presidency, notwithstanding that the area con-
cerned was nominally under the authority of Bombay. The district of
1 M. Elphinstone, Report on the Territories conquered from the Peshwa, Calcutta, 1821.
· Report, Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company, 1832.
?


## p. 67 (#97) ##############################################

REFORMS OF 1830
67
Dharwar, including Belgaum, was permanently assigned to Bombay
in 1830, when the Bombay regulations were formally applied to it.
The judicial system in 1828–9, outlined above, had certain pro-
minent defects, which may be summarised as absence of superin-
tendence and supervision in the Deccan, and lack of homogeneity in
the arrangements followed in the four main divisions of the presidency,
viz. Gujarat, the Deccan, the Konkan and the Carnatic. A revision
of the system, however, occurred in 1830, which resulted in the wider
employment of Indians in the administration of civil law and in the
duties of the English civil servant being limited to a greater extent
than previously to the control and supervision of the inferior agents
of government. By the end of that year almost all original civil suits
had been made over for trial to natives of India, and special judicial
commissioners were appointed for Gujarat and the Deccan, who
toured throughout those areas and heard all complaints in regard
to the administration of justice. Simultaneously the magisterial
powers of the collector, assistant collector, and mamlatdar were ex-
tended, and the collector, as chief revenue official of the district, was
also empowered to take civil cognisance of suits relating to land and
to decide claims and disputes regarding ownership, etc. ,
subject to an
appeal to the district judge.
For the purposes of the ordinary revenue and judicial administra-
tion of the districts outside the town and island of Bombay, the civil
service cadre in 1828-9 was composed of six district judges, ten
assistant district judges, ten collectors with magisterial powers, one
sub-collector and magistrate, ten assistant collectors, seventy-nine
"koomashdars” (i. e. kamavisdars or mamlatdars), four sadr amins, and
seventy-nine munsiffs. At headquarters in Bombay were the chief
judge and three puisne judges of the sadr adalat, a registrar, two
secretaries and one deputy-secretary to government, an accountant-
general, a sub-treasurer, a mint master and civil auditor, and a post-
master-general. The Bombay Government consisted of the governor
and three members of council, of whom one was usually the com-
mander-in-chief of the Bombay army and the other two were civil
servants of more than ten years' standing. "
By an act of 1807 the governor and council had been given the same
power of making regulations, subject to approval by the Supreme and
the Recorder's Courts, as had previously been vested in the Bengal
Government, and the same power of appointing justices of the peace.
By 1833 Bombay possessed a large code of regulations, commencing
with Mountstuart Elphinstone's revised code of 1827, which embodie
the results of twenty-eight years' previous legislation. This code had
force and validity throughout the whole presidency, beyond the
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
As regards other departments of the Bombay administration at this
1 Report, Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company, 1832.
5-2


## p. 68 (#98) ##############################################

68
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
date (1830) mention has already been made of the salt-revenue
arrangements. The sea-customs administration was in charge of the
Collector of Land Revenue in Bombay and of a custom-master and
his deputy in Gujarat. A custom-master stationed in Salsette super-
vised the customs of the two divisions of the Konkan, and in order to
save the expense of establishments both the Gujarat and the Konkan
customs were farmed out at this date. The post-office was still in its
infancy and was little used by the Indian public. The mail was carried
by runners; and government dispatches, which were conveyed free,
were said in 1832 to exceed in bulk all private communications sent
by post. This is hardly surprising, when one remembers that it cost
a rupee to send a letter from Bombay to Calcutta. It was not until
the governor-generalship of Lord Dalhousie that the old inefficient
postal arrangements were swept away and a uniform half-anna postal
rate was introduced.
The educational administration of the Bombay Government at the
opening of the nineteenth century was restricted to the grant of
financial and moral support to the Bombay Education Society. In
1822 this society decided to confine its activities to the education of
European and Eurasian children, and thus indirectly gave birth to
the Bombay Native Education Society, which became merged in 1840
in a Board of Education. From that year till 1855 this society shared
with various English and American missionary bodies the whole
burden of the educational administration. It opened primary schools
in the Konkan, Deccan, and Gujarat and trained masters to staff them.
The experiment of placing these schools under the control of the
collectors of the districts was tried in 1832, but proved unsatisfactory;
and as it appeared likely that the management of the schools would
suffer in the absence of a special supervising agency, a Board of
Education was established in 1840, composed of a president and three
European members nominated by the Bombay Government and three
Indian members appointed by the Native Education Society. From
1840 to 1855 this board directed the educational administration of
the presidency, which was divided for this purpose into three divisions,
each under a European inspector and an Indian assistant. In 1852 the
Bombay Government increased its subsidy to the board from it to
2} lakhs of rupees, whereupon the latter undertook to open a school
in any village of the presidency, provided that the inhabitants were
prepared to pay half the salary of the master and to provide a school-
room and books. The opening and maintenance of girls' schools was
still left to private enterprise; but with that exception the system
founded by the board anticipated in many respects the principles laid
down in the famous dispatch of the court of directors in 1854. It had
prepared the way for a university by establishing institutions for the
teaching of literature, law, medicine, and engineering, and had
Appendix to Report, Select Committee on Affairs of East India Company, 1832.
1


## p. 69 (#99) ##############################################

EDUCATION AND POLICE
69
introduced a system of primary schools, administered by the govern-
ment, but mainly supported by the people themselves. These schools,
indeed, formed the germ of the later Local Fund school system.
Finally, in 1855, after receipt of orders from the governor-general
in council on the directors' dispatch of 1854, the department of
Public Instruction was formed with a full staff of educational and
deputy educational inspectors. The further progress of the educational
administration belongs to the period following the Mutiny and the
assumption by the crown of full responsibility for the government of
India.
Before dealing with the administrative changes which marked the
second half of the nineteenth century, the police system of the pre-
sidency prior to 1858 deserves brief notice. As regards the town and
island of Bombay, where the police arrangements differed ab initio
from those prevailing in the rest of the presidency, it has already been
stated that the earliest force for watch-and-ward was a militia, re-
cruited about 1673 as a supplement to the regular garrison and
composed chiefly of Bhandaris and other Hindus of lower caste. This
force was commanded by native officers (subehdars), who were posted
at the more important points in the island. In 1771 this militia was
relieved of military duties and formed into night patrols; but it
proved so ineffective in preventing crime that it was reorganised in
1779 and placed under the control of a European officer, styled first
“lieutenant”, then “Deputy of Police”, and finally, in 1793, “Super-
intendent of Police”. The force at this date was composed of twenty-
eight European constables and 130 native peons. The continuance of
serious crime and the gross inefficiency of this force led to the publi-
cation in 1812 of a regulation, vesting the control of police matters
in three Magistrates of Police, assisted by a “Deputy of Police and
Head Constable” as executive head of the force. This arrangement
likewise produced little or no amelioration of conditions, despite a
gradual increase in the numerical strength of the police force, which
was controlled from 1835 to 1855 by a succession of junior officers
chosen from the Company's military establishment. These officers,
who were styled “Superintendents”, possessed little or no aptitude
for police work, were poorly paid for their services, and had no real
encouragement to make their mark in civil employ. By 1855 the
public outcry against police inefficiency and corruption had become
so insistent, that Lord Elphinstone's government was obliged to hold
an enquiry; and, after drastic punishment of the offenders, a new act
(XIII of 1856) was passed for the future constitution and regulation
of the urban force. A district police officer, of unusual capability, was
appointed superintendent of the force; and he managed by 1865,
when the title of the appointment was changed to that of Commis-
sioner of Police, to bring crime under control and to lay the founda-
Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, m, 103 599.
>
1


## p. 70 (#100) #############################################

70
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
tions of the efficient organisation now known as the Bombay City
Police. 1
The modern Bombay district police includes, as an essential part
of its organisation, the ancient institution of the village watch, which
consists of the patel, who is responsible for the police of his village, and
the village watchman, whose duty it is to keep watch at night, find
out arrivals and departures, watch all strangers, and report all sus-
picious persons to the patel. Under native rule the patel was in the
position of a police magistrate, and the watchman, who worked under
his orders, was bound to know the character of every man in the
village. When a theft occurred within village bounds, it was the
watchman's business to find the thief.
>
He was enabled to do this by his early habits of inquisitiveness and observation,
as well as by the nature of his allowance, which, being partly a small share of the
grain and similar property belonging to each house, required him to be always on
the watch to ascertain his fees, and always in motion to gather them. On the
occurrence of a theft or robbery, he would often track the thief by his footsteps,
and if he did this to another village, so as to satisfy the watchman there, or if he
otherwise traced the property to an adjoining village, his responsibility ended. It
then became the duty of the watchman of the new village to take up the pursuit.
The last village to which the thief had been clearly traced became answerable for
the property stolen, which would otherwise have had to be accounted for by the
village in which the robbery was committed. The watchman was expected to con-
tribute as much as his means allowed to the value of the goods stolen, and the
balance was levied on the whole village. Only in particular cases was restoration
of the full value of the property insisted upon. A fine was usually levied; and neglect
or connivance was punished by transferring the grant or inam of the patel or the
watchman to his nearest relative, by fine, by imprisonment in irons, or by severe
corporal punishment.
This responsibility was necessary, as, after the decline of the Moghul
power, the old police system fell into great disorder. Petty chiefs and
zamindars, no longer fearing reprisals from above, took to ravaging
and plundering their neighbours' lands, and their example was
followed by the village police. Most of the latter became thieves
themselves, and many of the patels harboured criminals and connived
at crime. Under the rule of the first six Peshwas, the village police
were under the control of the mamlatdar or kamavisdar of the division
or district; but after the accession of the last Peshwa, Baji Rao II,
a new class of police inspector, styled tapasnavis, was created for the
purpose of criminal investigation. These officials, who were inde-
pendent of the mamlatdar, proved for the most part inefficient and
almost invariably corrupt.
When the East India Company first addressed itself to the task of
administering the presidency, it retained the old village police system,
but reformed it to the extent of transferring all police authority to the
collector and magistrate and dividing each district into small police-
circles, each of which was in charge of a daroga or head constable. The
1 S. M. Edwardes, The Bombay City Police, pp. 1-53.
· Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Bombay Presidency, 1, 119.


## p. 71 (#101) #############################################

RURAL POLICE
71
daroga was in command of about thirty armed men and also exercised
authority over the village police. This system, which disregarded the
patel and converted the watchman from a village servant into an ill-
paid and disreputable subordinate of the daroga, proved an expensive
failure and was abolished in 1814 on the representations of Mount-
stuart Elphinstone and Munro. When, therefore, he commenced the
task of settling the Deccan in 1818, Elphinstone insisted upon keeping
the police powers of the mamlatdar and the patel as far as possible
unimpaired, though all superior powers and authority were vested in
the collector. The mamlatdar, whose duty it was to see that the villages
acted in concert and with activity, was permitted, as previously, the
use of silahdars (auxiliary horse) and sihbandis (militia), with the double
object of strengthening his position in keeping the peace and of pro-
viding employment for the idle and needy. The practice of levying
the value of property stolen was also retained for a time in a modified
form calculated to obviate undue hardship. ' But the power of the
mamlatdar and the patel to confine suspects for an unlimited period was
abolished; and, in general, the whole district and village system was
improved by the closer and more constant supervision exercised by
the European collector. 1
The indigenous village agency controlled by the collector and
magistrate, which lasted until 1848, was soon found inadequate for
the miscellaneous duties imposed upon the district police agency,
such, for example, as guard duty and escort duty. Moreover, it was
incapable of dealing effectively with popular outbreaks and dis-
turbances. Consequently the Bombay Government was obliged to
augment the force in charge of the collector by additional corps
commanded by military officers; and it was from these corps, raised
from time to time in emergencies, that the semi-military district
police of modern times originated. Among the most noteworthy of
these auxiliary police forces were the Khandesh Bhil corps, raised and
trained by Outram between 1825 and 1830; the Ahmadnagar police
corps, established by Sir John Malcolm's order in 1828, which did
good service in the Ramosi rising of 1826–32; the Ratnagiri Rangers,
formed in 1830 to oppose raids of Ramosis; the Thana Rangers and
Ghat light infantry, established in 1833; the Surat Sihbandis, formed
in 1834 on the model of the Thana corps; and the Gujarat Cooly
(Koti) corps, which was raised by Lieutenant Leckie in 1838. Down
to the year 1852, these corps took no part in ordinary police work,
being confined in times of peace to the supply of escorts and treasury-
guards, and in times of disturbance to the restoration and main-
tenance of peace by force of arms.
In 1848 the governor of Bombay, Sir G. Clerk, paid a visit to the
recently conquered province of Sind, and there found that Sir Charles
Napier had organised, on the model of the Irish constabulary, a new
1 Imperial Gazetteer (1907), vol. iv; Mountstuart Elphinstone, Report on the Territories
conquered from the Peshwa; J. Ś. Cotton, Mountstuart Elphinstone.


## p. 71 (#102) #############################################

70
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
tions of the efficient organisation now known as the Bombay City
Police. 1
The modern Bombay district police includes, as an essential part
of its organisation, the ancient institution of the village watch, which
consists of the patel, who is responsible for the police of his village, and
the village watchman, whose duty it is to keep watch at night, find
out arrivals and departures, watch all strangers, and report all sus-
picious persons to the patel. Under native rule the patel was in the
position of a police magistrate, and the watchman, who worked under
his orders, was bound to know the character of every man in the
village. When a theft occurred within village bounds, it was the
watchman's business to find the thief.
He was enabled to do this by his early habits of inquisitiveness and observation,
as well as by the nature of his allowance, which, being partly a small share of the
grain and similar property belonging to each house, required him to be always on
the watch to ascertain his fees, and always in motion to gather them. On the
occurrence of a theft or robbery, he would often track the thief by his footsteps,
and if he did this to another village, so as to satisfy the watchman there, or if he
otherwise traced the property to an adjoining village, his responsibility ended. It
then became the duty of the watchman of the new village to take up the pursuit.
The last village to which the thief had been clearly traced became answerable for
the property stolen, which would otherwise have had to be accounted for by the
village in which the robbery was committed. The watchman was expected to con-
tribute as much as his means allowed to the value of the goods stolen, and the
balance was levied on the whole village. Only in particular cases was restoration
of the full value of the property insisted upon. A fine was usually levied; and neglect
or connivance was punished by transferring the grant or inam of the patel or the
watchman to his nearest relative, by fine, by imprisonment in irons, or by severe
corporal punishment. *
This responsibility was necessary, as, after the decline of the Moghul
power, the old police system fell into great disorder.
Petty chiefs and
zamindars, no longer fearing reprisals from above, took to ravaging
and plundering their neighbours' lands, and their example was
followed by the village police. Most of the latter became thieves
themselves, and many of the patels harboured criminals and connived
at crime. Under the rule of the first six Peshwas, the village police
were under the control of the mamlatdar or kamavisdar of the division
or district; but after the accession of the last Peshwa, Baji Rao II,
a new class of police inspector, styled tapasnavis, was created for the
purpose of criminal investigation. These officials, who were inde-
pendent of the mamlatdar, proved for the most part inefficient and
almost invariably corrupt.
When the East India Company first addressed itself to the task of
administering the presidency, it retained the old village police system,
but reformed it to the extent of transferring all police authority to the
collector and magistrate and dividing each district into small police-
circles, each of which was in charge of a daroga or head constable. The
1 S. M. Edwardes, The Bombay City Police, pp. 1-53.
* Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Bombay Presidency, 1, 119.


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RURAL POLICE
71
a
a
daroga was in command of about thirty armed men and also exercised
authority over the village police. This system, which disregarded the
patel and converted the watchman from a village servant into an ill-
paid and disreputable subordinate of the daroga, proved an expensive
failure and was abolished in 1814 on the representations of Mount-
stuart Elphinstone and Munro. When, therefore, he commenced the
task of settling the Deccan in 1818, Elphinstone insisted upon keeping
the police powers of the mamlatdar and the patel as far as possible
unimpaired, though all superior powers and authority were vested in
the collector. The mamlatdar, whose duty it was to see that the villages
acted in concert and with activity, was permitted, as previously, the
use of silahdars (auxiliary horse) and sihbandis (militia), with the double
object of strengthening his position in keeping the peace and of pro-
viding employment for the idle and needy. The practice of levying
the value of property stolen was also retained for a time in a modified
form calculated to obviate undue hardship. ' But the power of the
mamlatdar and the patel to confine suspects for an unlimited period was
abolished; and, in general, the whole district and village system was
improved by the closer and more constant supervision exercised by
the European collector. 1
The indigenous village agency controlled by the collector and
magistrate, which lasted until 1848, was soon found inadequate for
the miscellaneous duties imposed upon the district police agency,
such, for example, as guard duty and escort duty. Moreover, it was
incapable of dealing effectively with popular outbreaks and dis-
turbances. Consequently the Bombay Government was obliged to
augment the force in charge of the collector by additional corps
commanded by military officers; and it was from these corps, raised
from time to time in emergencies, that the semi-military district
police of modern times originated. Among the most noteworthy of
these auxiliary police-forces were the Khandesh Bhil corps, raised and
trained by Outram between 1825 and 1830; the Ahmadnagar police
corps, established by Sir John Malcolm's order in 1828, which did
good service in the Ramosi rising of 1826–32; the Ratnagiri Rangers,
formed in 1830 to oppose raids of Ramosis; the Thana Rangers and
Ghat light infantry, established in 1833; the Surat Sihbandis, formed
in 1834 on the model of the Thana corps; and the Gujarat Cooly
(Koti) corps, which was raised by Lieutenant Leckie in 1838. Down
to the year 1852, these corps took no part in ordinary police work,
being confined in times of peace to the supply of escorts and treasury-
guards, and in times of disturbance to the restoration and main-
tenance of peace by force, of arms.
In 1848 the governor of Bombay, Sir G. Clerk, paid a visit to the
recently conquered province of Sind, and there found that Sir Charles
Napier had organised, on the model of the Irish constabulary, a new
· Imperial Gazetteer (1907), vol. rv; Mountstuart Elphinstone, Report on the Territories
conquered from the Peshwa; J. S. Cotton, Mountstuart Elphinstone.
>


## p. 72 (#104) #############################################

72
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
police system, the salient features of which were its separation from
the revenue administration, the severance of police and magisterial
functions, and a considerable standard of discipline. It appeared to
the governor decidedly superior in its working to the system pre-
vailing in the rest of the presidency, which was frequently denounced
between 1825 and 1832, and in later years, as productive of corruption
and inefficiency. Accordingly, in 1852 the arrangements prevailing
in Sind were extended to the rest of the presidency; the commandants
of the various police corps were appointed " district superintendents of
police”; and, subject to the general control of the collector as district
magistrate, they took over all executive police work from the revenue
authorities. This was followed in 1855 by the appointment of a com-
missioner of police for the whole presidency; but in response to
representations from the collectors, this post was permitted to lapse
on the retirement of the incumbent in 1860, and the general super-
intendence of the district police was then entrusted to the two revenue
commissioners of the presidency. In the same year a commission was
appointed to enquire into police administration and recommended the
establishment of a well-organised and purely civil constabulary, super-
vised by European officers and charged with all civil police duties,
including the supply of guards and escorts. The village police were to
be retained on the existing footing and brou it into direct relation-
ship with the civil constabulary. These recommendations were
eventually embodied in the District Police Act of 1867, which re-
mained in force until 1890, when it was superseded by a new act. The
latter act was extended to Sind in 1902. It only remains to remark
that the experiment of placing the general superintendence of the
police administration in the hands of the revenue commissioners
proved unsuccessful, as these officials, even when their number was
increased to three after 1860, were far too busy to supervise effectively
the work of the police; and ultimately in the year 1885 the adminis-
trative control of the district police of the presidency, excluding Sind,
was vested in a single official styled “the Inspector-General of Police”.
In the year 1855–6, just prior to the Mutiny, the Bombay Presidency
was divided for judicial purposes into eight districts (zillahs), and for
revenue purposes into thirteen collectorates, exclusive of the island of
Bombay. The total number of judicial officers was: three judges of
the sadr adalat, exercising both civil (diwani) and criminal (faujdari)
jurisdiction; eight district and sessions judges; three senior assistant
judges at detached stations, who were usually invested with the same
powers in routine matters as a district and sessions judge; six assistant
district and sessions judges; seven principal sadr amins, whose juris-
diction was limited to civil suits of Rs. 10,000; thirteen sadr amins,
who could try original suits involving sums of Rs. 5000 or less; and
seventy-three munsiffs. A reform of the official establishments of these
native judges was carried out during the year mentioned above, and
as a result the subordinates of the native courts, who previously had


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ADMINISTRATION IN SIND
73
been mere dependents of the native judges, paid by them and liable
to dismissal at their pleasure, became servants of the state, paid by
the Bombay Government and looking to the latter for employment
and promotion. Magisterial work was performed by the collector and
his assistants, in their respective capacities of district and assistant
magistrates, both being empowered to award sentences of imprison-
ment, with hard labour, not exceeding one year. All sentences,
however, of more than three months' imprisonment by an assistant
magistrate required the confirmation of the district authority.
The administrative arrangements established in Sind, in 1847,
differed in several respects from those of the rest of the Bombay
Presidency. The head of the local executive administration in all its
branches was the Commissioner in Sind, and the province was divided
into three collectorates—Karachi, Hyderabad and Shikarpur, and
two small independent revenue charges-the North-Western Frontier
and the Nagar Parkar district. Like the collectors in other parts of
the presidency, the collectors in Sind possessed magisterial powers;
but they differed from the former in presiding also over the adminis-
tration of justice in the civil and criminal courts. They were assisted
by deputy-collectors in charge of the subdivisions of the several
collectorates, while the North-Western Frontier districts were under
a Political Superintendent, who was also military commandant, aided
by an assistant superintendent, whose powers and duties corresponded
to those of the deputy-collector in the other districts. The Thar and
Parkar district was managed until 1856 by the assistant political agent
in Cutch, and afterwards by an officer corresponding to the collector.
For a few years after the conquest the revenue in Sind was collected
in grain by actual division of the crop, the grain being then sold by
the government at auction for artificially high prices. The natural
tone of the market was seriously upset by this practice and was further
disorganised by the habit of drawing grain for the troops at nominal
prices from the government grain stores. By 1855–6, however, this
objectionable system had been superseded in several districts by cash
assessments, which were gradually adopted throughout the whole of
Sind. The rules under which the revenues of that province were at
this date collected were not defined by law, as in other parts of the
presidency, and were determined by the commissioner in Sind with
the approval and sanction of the Bombay Government. 1
The jail system of the presidency had formed the subject of a
special enquiry as early as 1834, when regulations were issued for the
improvement of prison discipline. The early Indian jail system was
justly described as insanitary, demoralising, and non-deterrent, and
was responsible for the appointment in 1838 of a commission which
recommended radical reforms. Financial stringency, however, pre-
vented these being carried out, and no appreciable change for the
better took place until the appointment in 1855 of an Inspector-
1 Report on the Administration of Public Affairs in the Bombay Presidency for 1855-6.


## p. 74 (#106) #############################################

74
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN BOMBAY
General of Prisons in each presidency and the passing of Act VIII of
1856, which relieved the judges of the sadr faujdari adalat from the
charge of jails. These measures led directly to improvements in jail
buildings and in the discipline and health of prisoners. Subsequent
progress in this department belongs to the period succeeding the
appointment of a second Prisons Commission in 1864.
The history of the pre-Mutiny period of the administration involves
a brief reference to the Public Works, and the Ecclesiastical and
Medical Departments. For several years the administration of the
former was carried on under great disadvantages, owing to the want
of experienced civil engineers. The court of directors endeavoured to
relieve the difficulty by occasionally sending to Bombay a batch of
men “with more or less experience in civil engineering”, and at times,
e. g. in 1855, the Bombay Government was able to secure in the
country the services of a few professionally educated civil engineers.
But the whole agency at their disposal was “lamentably small”, and
the department was not organised on a satisfactory basis until after
the assumption of direct authority by the crown. The Ecclesiastical
Department owed its origin to the determination of the directors in
early factory days to provide for the spiritual needs of their servants
in India, and as the number of these and of the European troops
increased, the ecclesiastical establishment likewise expanded, until in
1855–6 the number of clergy appointed for the Bombay diocese
amounted to thirty-two. Subject to the general control of the govern.
ment, the chaplains were directly subordinate to the bishop of the see,
the first bishop of Bombay, Dr Carr, having been installed in 1838. 2
The medical administration was likewise evolved from the system
adopted in early days by the East India Company of sending
chirurgeons” from England for the care of their servants and troops
in the "factories” and on the vessels trading with the East. The
surgeons serving on the Company's Indiamen were often utilised
in emergencies in India, as for example during the Maratha War
of 1780, and to fill vacancies among their professional brethren
attached to the factories and out-stations. The formation of these
scattered medical officers in India into a single body, the Indian
Medical Service, dates roughly from 1764, the service being divided
two years later (1766) into two branches, military and civil. Those
in the latter branch were regarded as primarily army medical officers,
lent temporarily for civil duties—an arrangement which was con-
firmed in 1788 during the governor-generalship of Lord Cornwallis.
The most important administrative change prior to the Mutiny con-
sisted in throwing open the service to Indians in 1853 through the
medium of competitive examinations, of which the first was held in
1855
Report on the Administration of Public Affairs in the Bombay Presidency for 1855-6.
2 Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, 111, 245.


## p. 75 (#107) #############################################

CHAPTER V
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION IN THE UNITED
PROVINCES, CENTRAL PROVINCES, AND PANJAB
1818-1857
A VERY brief chronological résumé of the successive territorial
acquisitions which in less than a century extended the political
responsibilities of the East India Company from the boundaries of
Bengal to Peshawar is a necessary introduction to a study of adminis-
trative development in the three areas, each approximately 100,000
square miles, which are now officially known as the United Provinces,
the Central Provinces, and the Panjab; and which will hereafter be
collectively referred to as “the three provinces". (1) The districts
around Benares were ceded in 1775 by the ruler of Oudh, and (2) the
“Ceded territories”, comprising most of the present United Provinces
exclusive of Oudh, by his successor in 1801. 1 (3) In 1803 Sindhia,
the defeated Maratha chief, yielded the “Conquered territories",
lying to the north of the last-mentioned tract and extending west of
the Jumna; and in the same year a portion of Bundelkhand was
obtained from the Peshwa. 2 (4) The successful Gurkha War of 1816
added the northern hill districts of the United Provinces, and (5) in
1818, after the third Maratha War, the Bhonsla raja of Nagpur
surrendered the Sagar and Narbada territories, except a small area
in the north already ceded by the Peshwa in 1817. 3 They are now
included in the Central Provinces. (6) In 1809 the Sikh states to the
east of the Satlej placed themselves under British protection. This
arrangement was in practice coupled with a claim to escheat in
favour of the suzerain on failure of heirs, and it led to gradual minor
annexations up to 1846, the year which saw the conclusion of the
first Sikh War. The remaining states, mostly very petty in status and
area, were subsequently absorbed, except six of importance, which
still survive as feudatories. (7) The same year saw the acquisition of
the Jalandhar Doab, the plain country between the rivers Satlej and
Beas, together with an adjacent hilly tract. (8) The second Sikh War
resulted in 1849 in the annexation of the Panjab up to the present
· Baden Powell, Land Systems of British India, 1, 63; Field, Regulations of the Bengal Code,
1875, pp. 9, 10; Administration Report of North-West Provinces, 1882-3, pp. 29, 30; Adm. Rep.
of United Provinces, 1911-12, p. 14:
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 64, Field, op. cit, p. 15; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Prous. pp: 30, 31.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 68, 69; Imperial Gazetteer, x, 17; Adm. Rep. Central Provinces,
1882–3, p. 11; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Provs. p. 32; House of Commons Papers, XVIII, 533.
• Baden Powell
, op. cit. 1, 43; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Prous. 1882-3, pp. 31-3; Adm. Rep. Panjab,
1882-3, pp. 16–17; Panjab Settlement Manual, pp. 5, 6; Ibbetson, Settlement Report of Karnal,
p. 35.


## p. 76 (#108) #############################################

76 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
2
8
north-western frontier. (9) In 1853 the Nagpur and Jhansi states
lapsed to the British Government, while (10) Berar was assigned to
it by the Nizam of Hyderabad and has been in its possession ever
since. 3 () The process of expansion was completed in 1856 by the
11)
annexation of Oudh. 4
In 1836 the tracts (1) to (4) in the above résumé were formed into
the North-Western Provinces with an administration under a lieu-
tenant-governor separate from that of Bengal, and to it tract (5) was
attached until 1861, when it was included in the present Central
Provinces, then newly formed under a chief commissioner. The
cis-Satlej states and the Jalandhar Doab, nos. (6) and (7), were after
1846 each placed under a commissioner directly subordinate to the
Government of India, and subsequently to the Resident at Lahore;
but in 1849 they were absorbed in the new province of the Panjab.
The lapsed state of Nagpur was included in the Central Provinces in
1861, while Jhansi passed to the North-Western Provinces. Berar was
administered by a commissioner until 1903, when it was attached to
the Central Provinces. ? In 1858 the districts west of the Jumna,
ceded in 1803 and known as the Delhi territory, were transferred
from the North-Western Provinces to the Panjab, 8 and from the latter
in 1901 the present North-West-Frontier Province was separated.
Oudh on annexation was placed under a chief commissioner, the
charge being amalgamated with the lieutenant-governorship of the
North-Western Provinces in 1877. 9. The combined areas are now
officially known as the United Provinces (of Agra and Oudh).
The distinction between regulation and non-regulation areas, once
of importance, has long since been practically obsolete. In 179310
Lord Cornwallis, in pursuance of statutory legislative powers then
existing, issued a revised code of forty-eight regulations for the presi-
dency of Bengal, and it is this body of legislation which, with sub-
sequent additions, was specifically known as the Bengal Regulations.
In 1795 they were extended, together with the permanent settlement,
to the Benares districts. 11 To subsequent acquisitions, if formally
included in the Bengal Presidency, the regulations applied auto-
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 70, 71; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, pp. 28, 31.
* Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 65-9; Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs. 1882-3, p. 11.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 49 and 111, 345; Adm. Rep. Cent. Prous. 1911-12, p. 17; Lord
Dalhousie's Minute of 28 February, 1856, para. 18.
• H. of C. Papers, 1856, vol. xlv; Field, op. cit. p. 10; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Provs. p. 34.
I
6 Field, op. cit. p. 15; Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 36; Government of India Resolution of
2 November, 1861; Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs. 1911-12, p. II.
6 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12, pp. 17-18.
7 Baden Powell, op. cil.