A similar course was
followed
in the large forest areas in the hills.
Cambridge History of India - v4 - Indian Empire
287 599.
• Imp. Gaz. IV, 307.
## p. 86 (#122) #############################################
86 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
The indigenous system of liquor excise, termed abkari, was one of
farm pure and simple, the unrestricted and exclusive right to manu-
facture and sell spirituous liquor within a more or less defined area
being usually leased to the local Moghul tax farmer, whether an
official or a zamindar. Under the Company's government a similar
system of leases of defined areas in favour of licensees was continued,
but between 1790 and 1800 restrictions on the number and locality
of shops and stills were introduced. " This modified system was
extended to the Upper Provinces, but as early as 1813, in order to
secure greater control, central distilleries were established at con-
venient places, generally the headquarters of districts, or of their sub-
divisions, termed tahsils. Within these buildings the licensed distillers
were required to carry on their operations, the right to sell at specified
shops being separately licensed; though in order to cope with illicit
distillation, an ever-besetting difficulty in Indian excise administra-
tion, single stills were permitted in distant outlying areas, their
licences covering both manufacture and sale. To such single detached
stills the term "outstill”, so common in Indian excise discussions, is
properly applicable. In the Upper Provinces as well as in Bengal the
new system was found unable to cope with illicit traffic, and after
1824 there was a general return to the system of farms or leases of
specified shops in defined areas, with outstills where necessary. This
arrangement, with minor modifications, continued in force in the
Upper Provinces until after 1858. The attainment of the ideal, then
only dimly perceived, of controlled consumption combined with high
or even adequate taxation was incompatible with a volume of illicit
traffic with which the administration of the time was quite unable to
contend.
As in the case of spirituous liquor, the excise of opium, regarded by
the Moghuls as a subject for state monopoly, took the form of a farm
of the exclusive right to manufacture and sell. The manifold defects
of this system, which the East India Company took over in 1773,
caused its abandonment in 1797, the government then assuming the
monopoly of manufacture through its own agencies; an organisation
which was extended to the Upper Provinces and has been described
elsewhere. 2
Municipal self-government did not exist at the introduction of
British rule. 3 A pure exotic, it was planted very gradually and tenta-
tively by the new-comers. Their first efforts were confined to the
presidency towns, and it was not until 1850 that legislative provision
was made for the constitution of municipal bodies in provincial towns.
These consisted of the district magistrate, in whom all executive
Papers relating to Excise Administration in India printed in Government of India
Gazette of 1 March, 1890; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, p. 170; Imp. Gaz. IV, 254;
H. of C. Papers, 1831-2, vol. xi.
: Imp. Gaz. IV, 242; H. of C. Papers, 1890-1, LIX, 384.
• Imp. Gaz. IV, 281, 284 99. ; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882–3, p. 48.
1
## p. 87 (#123) #############################################
NON-REGULATION AREAS
87
authority was vested, and a body of nominated councillors, whose
function was to assess rates in accordance with certain prescribed
principles, and to assist the district magistrate with advice. Taxation
might be a personal assessment on householders, or by rates on houses,
and the proceeds were expended in the entertainment of town watch-
men, simple sanitation, lighting and other local objects. The act of
1850 was fairly widely applied, and apparently with a considerable
degree of success, in the North-Western Provinces. 1
Passing now from the regulation districts of that région, the re-
mainder of this chapter will be concerned with non-regulation areas.
To the explanation of the origin and general significance of that dis-
tinction as already given, it may be added that the type of adminis-
tration adopted in non-regulation areas was characterised by simple
and more direct modes of procedure and by the greater accessibility
of officials to the people; but chiefly by the union of all powers,
executive, magisterial, and judicial, in the hands of the district officer,
here termed deputy-commissioner in place of magistrate and collector,
subject however to the appellate and supervisional jurisdiction of the
commissioner of the division in all branches of work. ? The system
was paternal rather than formally legal, though legal principles were
by no means set aside; and it largely depended for its success on the
personal character, initiative, vigour and discretion of the local
officers. Passing over the non-regulation Sagar and Narbada terri-
torics, of which the early administration was not conspicuously suc-
cessful, though law and order and a judicial system were established,
we may proceed at once to an account of administrative development
in thc Panjab, the whole of which was always non-regulation.
That province, as it exists at present, including the recently
separated Delhienclave, comprises cis-Satlej and trans-Satlej portions.
The first consists of the Delhi territory, annexed in 1803, and of a
tract, lying between it and the Satlej, which was gradually absorbed
as a result of the protectorate assumed in 1809 and of the first Sikh
War. The second comprises the annexations of 1846 and 1849, the
Jalandhar Doab and the Panjab proper. In accordance with the
policy approved on the retirement of the Marquis of Wellesley, the
Delhi territory after its formal annexation was for long outside the
sphere of direct British control, which it was sought to restrict to the
eastern side of the Jumna, leaving the territory, which, as the result
of recent war, was largely a deserted waste, in the hands of a ring of
semi-independent chiefs, with whose administration the Resident at
Delhi interfered as little as possible while endeavouring to maintain
peace. The aggressions attempted by Ranjit Singh on the country
cast of the Sailcj, foiled in 1809 by the Treaty of Amritsar, resulted
* Moral and Mar. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, P. 54.
· Campbell, op. cit. p. 250; Kaye, op. cit. pp. 447 sqq. ; Sir C. Aitchison, Lawrence, Oxford,
1892, pp. 59 599. ; Imp. Gaz. IV, 54.
; Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs, 1882-3, p. 16.
## p. 88 (#124) #############################################
88 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
in the protectorate already mentioned, but even then administrative
control over the Delhi territory was very slowly asserted. It was only
in 1819–20 that the tract was divided into four districts under locally
resident officers, a fifth being added in 1824. In 1832 they were
definitely included in the North-Western Provinces for purposes of
administration, which it was directed should be carried on in the
spirit of the Bengai Regulations, though these were never, it appears,
formally extended to them. The early revenue administration up to
1828 was of the same highly unsatisfactory character as in other parts
of the North-Western Provinces, but the tract was greatly benefited
by the restoration of the Western Jumna Canal, especially during the
famine of 1837–8, of which it felt the full force. Up to its union with
the Panjab in 1858 its administration proceeded on the lines already
described, a regular settlement being made between 1837 and 1842. 2
The growth of the supremacy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh over the
trans-Satlej Panjab has been described elsewhere. Here we deal only
with his administrative system. 3 Immersed in war and diplomacy, he
had no leisure for the creation of a stable polity. Beyond military
organisation and conquest, the collection of revenue was his chief
interest. To this all other branches of his administration were sub-
ordinated, and to it the attention of all his officials was unremittingly
directed. He appears to have utilised all known sources of taxation:
imposts direct and indirect, on land, on houses, on persons, on manu-
factures, on commerce, on imports and exports; all had a place in
his fiscal system. The revenue of remote provinces was farmed to men
of wealth and influence, or of vigour and capacity, and they were
invested with powers of government in the exercise of which they
experienced little interference, provided that revenue was regularly
remitted. Military chiefs, who enjoyed the revenue of jagirs, or
assigned tracts of land, on condition of furnishing armed contingents,
also exercised practically unlimited authority in their jurisdictions.
These farmers and jagirdars had under them local agents, or kardars,
who exercised such administrative functions as were recognised, and
of these the only one of importance was the collection of revenue. In
tracts, neither farmed nor held in jagir, and known as khalsa, the
kardars were under the nazim, or local governor of a group of dis-
tricts, who was directly responsible to the maharaja and his informal
council, or cabinet; but their positions depended largely on the
influence which they could command at court, and on their success
in collecting revenue. In Ranjit Singh's later years central control
was much relaxed and the system of farming became more prevalent.
Land-revenue was collected as a rule direct from the cultivator in the
shape of a fixed share of the produce, 4 except in the case of crops, such
Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, p. 23; Ibbetson, op. cit. pp. 34, 35; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12,
pp. 16–17.
2 Ibbetson, op. cit. chaps. iv and v; Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 17.
's Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. 1, pt 11; 1882-3, p. 25; H. of C. Papers, 1849, vol. XLI.
• Panjab Sett. Manual, chap. iv.
## p. 89 (#125) #############################################
THE RULE OF RANJIT SINGH
89
as sugar-cane and cotton, which could not readily be divided. In
lieu of the actual share of the crop its estimated money value was
sometimes taken, common shares being one-third and two-fifths, with
one-half on the more fertile lands. Numerous additional dues in cash
or kind were also collected, and cultivators of all grades were treated
on the same footing without reference to any distinctions of superior
or inferior rights on land, though occasionally the leaders of the village
community received a measure of indulgence. Joint responsibility of
its members for the payment of land-revenue was not enforced, except
rarely when a few of its leaders were allowed to engage for a lump
sum, and then they tended to assume the privileges of landlords
towards the rest of the cultivators, who fell back into the position of
tenants.
There were no definite and regular courts of justice, though ere
was a judicial officer, termed the adalati, in Lahore. Private property
in land of a kind was recognised and in principle upheld, and the
general corporate existence and obligations of village communities
were maintained, while disputes were settled to a minor extent by the
local authorities, but mainly by private arbitration, resort to which
by means of a comparatively organised system of committees, or
panchayats, was widely practised. There were local police officers, but
their functions were more often political and military than civil, their
duty being to check local disturbances and to arrange for the move-
ments of troops. There was no excise system, the production and sale
of liquor being quite uncontrolled. All officials enjoyed much licence,
but cultivators were not as a rule needlessly oppressed if they paid
their revenue. The criminal law was unwritten and contained mainly
two penalties, fine and mutilation. The first usually secured immunity
from further punishment for almost any crime; the second when
inflicted being reserved for offences such as adultery, seduction and
robbery. Imprisonment was unknown and capital punishment rare.
Ranjit Singh allowed his favourites great power, at first no doubt as
a counterpoise to the influence of the leaders of the old Sikh con-
federacies, but later from the compulsion of physical weakness.
Excessive oppression, however, was restrained, and from the Satlej to
the Indus general peace prevailed. His comparatively mild rule,
though a military despotism, was not unsuited to the martial genius of
his people, and not unpopular, except with tribes whose aristocratic
traditions invited levelling repression from the Sikhs. But based on
the goodwill of his army, it contained no element of permanence, and
after his death in 1839 chaos rapidly ensued.
The results of the Sikh wars--the temporary arrangements made
in 1846 for the administration of the trans-Satlej Panjab, followed by
its complete annexation in 1849—have been narrated elsewhere. Here
we are only concerned with administrative development. The
* Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, pp. 12-13; H. of C. Papers, 1849, vol. xli.
## p. 90 (#126) #############################################
90 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
Council of Regency, during its existence in 1846–9, sought to repair
and improve previous indigenous institutions rather than to introduce
novelty; to preserve what order remained, while governing on the
lines of a benevolent Indian ruler. Remedies were applied to crying
evils--an idle and irregularly paid army; general official dishonesty;
the absence of machinery for administering justice. Economy was
enforced; provisional summary settlements of land-revenue were made
by British officers;regular salaries were paid to Indian officials in
place of undefined perquisites; taxation was lightened and simplified
and a budget framed. The administration of justice was entrusted to
respectable persons; while the penal code, reduced to writing, was
rendered more efficient and more humane. Heinous offences were
tried by the council itself and appeals from subordinate authorities
were entertained. European officers were deputed to visit outlying
districts, while in the framing of rules and regulations influential and
intelligent persons were consulted. The development of resources
received attention, and plans for the repair of old and the construc-
tion of new public works were prepared. But the process of restoration
and improvement was rudely interrupted by the second Sikh War.
Annexation afforded a clearer and a wider field for administrative
effort, of which full advantage was taken by the selected body of
exceptionally able officers, civil and military, whom Lord Dalhousie
deputed to the new province, and of whom many had been trained
in the best tradition of the North-Western Provinces. They included
Henry and John Lawrence, John Nicholson, Robert Montgomery,
Herbert Edwardes, Robert Napier, Richard Temple, Donald Macleod,
and many others subsequently famous. It should never be forgotten
that the Panjab was from the first organised as a British province on
a basis of long administrative experience gained in Bengal and the
North-Western Provinces during the previous half-century; an ex-
perience which included serious errors to be avoided as well as notable
successes to be repeated.
Immediately after annexation a Board of Administration consisting
of three members was constituted. Under the governor-general it
exercised plenary authority in all departments of government. The
province was divided into seven, increased in 1850 to eight divisions,
each under a commissioner, and into twenty-four districts, cach under
a deputy-commissioner; the districts themselves being further sub-
divided into smaller arcas, termed tahsils, cach in charge of an Indian
civil officer, designated tahsildar. The non-regulation type of adminis-
tration, at once simple, vigorous, and efficient, was adopted. Land-
revenue organisation was one of the first objects of attention. A regular
settlement was begun immediately after annexation, and was gradually
completed district by district, though many years clapsed before this
1 Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 22; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 541.
2 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. In; 1882-3, pp. 30-3; 1911-12, pp. 18-20.
## p. 91 (#127) #############################################
THE PANJAB AFTER ANNEXATION
91
could be accomplished in the western frontier districts. In the mean-
time revenue was assessed and collected under short-term and pro-
visional summary settlements. A similar course was followed in the
cis-Satlej districts recently attached to the province. The demands
imposed in these summary settlements, especially in the last-
mentioned tract, based as they were on the revenue accounts of
the previous régime, were comparatively
heavy, but, thanks to the
experience gained in other provinces, the Panjab escaped those harsh
methods of revenue farming and collection which had been so mis-
chievous elsewhere. The subsequent regular settlement was carried
out on the principles which had been previously adopted in the
North-Western Provinces, but subject to certain modifications due to
local conditions. In the Panjab the village communities, often tribal
in their constitution and usually of the so-called zamindari type, were
generally more vigorous and better preserved than in the North-
Western Provinces. It was therefore possible as a rule to accord to
their members the status and rights of peasant proprietors, and to
make a joint settlement with them in place of former revenue farmers,
or usurping officials, or semi-feudal grantees, as in other provinces. 2
Communities analogous to the ryotwari type, where they existed,
were treated by the same method. Previous political and social con-
ditions had discouraged the growth of great landlords with a seignorial
status over village communities. Where it happened to exist, it was
converted, not into proprietary right, but into a right to receive
merely a fixed quit-rent. The policy thus adopted has resulted in the
Panjab being a country mainly of peasant proprietors. In the regular
settlement the right of the state was asserted over the immense areas
of waste land which then lay unoccupied in the trans-Satlej Panjab
and which have since become the scene of extensive colonisation.
A similar course was followed in the large forest areas in the hills. 3
Tenant-right received attention, though it was not until some years
later that definite principles were laid down after lengthy controversy.
In the Panjab this right was not so much a relic of a previous quasi-
proprietary position as the result of two facts; first, that Sikh rulers
made little practical distinction between different grades of status, so
that members as well as non-members of the village community had
often to bear jointly the same burdens; secondly, that established
custom recognised some permanence of tenure in favour of cultivators
who, or whose ancestors, though not included in the circle of the
community, had assisted in founding the village and in clearing waste
land. In the first regular settlement officers were given judicial
powers for the determination of rights, and in such work they exercised
1 Panjab Sell. Manual, p. 24; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 543.
* Panjab Sett. Manual, pp. 58 599. ; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 609 sqq. ; Adm. Rep. Panjab,
1849-51, sect. vn, pt 1.
• Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 93; Baden Powell, op. cit. II, 545 599.
• Panjab Sell. Manual, p. 100; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 703-5.
## p. 92 (#128) #############################################
92
ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
a fairly wide equitable discretion, especially in questions of tenant-
right, to which, following the practice of the North-Western Provinces,
they commonly applied the twelve-years' rule. The assessments of
land-revenue were based on general considerations similar to those
previously recognised in the North-Western Provinces, but supple-
mented by close local investigation. The task was rendered more
difficult by the entire absence of economic money rents, then quite
unknown in the Panjab. Moderation in assessment was impressed on
all officials from the first, and it has been a salient feature of Panjab
administration ever since. Except in the western districts of the
province, the regular settlements were completed either before or
shortly after the Mutiny.
Strong measures were taken for the maintenance of law and order
and for the suppression of such crimes as thagi, which prevailed to
a limited extent, dacoity and robbery. 2 Civil police, seven thousand
strong, were distributed over the province, on the general lines of the
system of the North-Western Provinces, for the detection and prosecu-
tion of criminals and for watch-and-ward in villages. In his control of
them the deputy-commissioner was assisted by the tahsildars. The civil
police were aided by a strong force of military police, some eight
thousand strong including mounted men, under four European officers
with Indian subordinates. The force furnished guards, patrolled the
country, and helped in the prevention of crime and in the appre-
hension of offenders. Local watchmen were also entertained and paid
by the village communities. Jails were erected in every district. The
province from the Satlej to the Indus was disarmed, some 120,000
weapons of all kinds being surrendered; and possession or sale of arms
was prohibited except in the trans-Indus area. 3 A similar measure
was applied later to the cis-Satlej districts and to the Delhi territory.
The criminal code was based on that in force in the Bengal Pre-
sidency, with needful local modifications. In 1855 a civil code was
issued which, while not a legal enactment, included much of the
custom and usage current in the province, thus serving as a useful
guide to judicial officers ;5 and though the Bengal Regulations were
never in force, it was understood that their spirit should be followed
wherever it was applicable. The administration of the districts now
included in the North-West Frontier Province is dealt with elsewhere;
it largely increased the responsibilities of the new government.
One of its principal duties was to develop the resources and
especially the communications of the province. A Public Works
i Panjab Sett. Manual, pp. 25-8; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 568-72.
2 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. v; 1851-3, pp. 41-8; 1882–3, P. 32; H. of C. Papers,
1857-8, XLIII, 75.
* Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849–51, p. 56; 1882–3, P. 32; H. of C. Papers, 1849, XLI, 75.
• Whitley Stokes, op. cit. 1, 2; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, p. 63.
5 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1851-3, pp. 88, 89.
• Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. VIII.
## p. 93 (#129) #############################################
PANJAB ADMINISTRATION
93
Department, including a branch devoted to irrigation, was formed;
the staff consisting mainly of military officers. A similar step was soon
taken in the North-Western Provinces. At annexation roads of any
kind were practically non-existent: but their construction in all
directions was now systematically undertaken with reference to the
routes of external and internal trade. Few of them were metalled,
though most of them were lined with fine avenues of trees. Of
metalled roads the most important was thc main artery between
Lahore and Peshawar, known as the Grand Trunk Road, the last
link in a long chain of similar communications between Calcutta and
Northern India. The development of canal irrigation was an object
of special solicitude. 1 From early times water from the numerous
rivers of the Panjab had been utilised for agriculture by means of
simple channels, partly natural, partly artificial, which, starting at a
level higher than the low-water level of the stream, could flow only
in the flood season. Without head-weirs of the modern type to ensure
a perennial supply, and liable to be blocked by deposits of silt, these
crude means had nevertheless served to irrigate considerable areas. 2
Efforts were made soon after annexation to extend and improve these
"inundation" canals, and a good deal was thus accomplished. But
the most important achievement of the early years was the construc-
tion of a perennial canal from the Ravi to irrigate the Bari Doab, the
tract of country lying between that river and the rivers Satlej and
Beas. Now known as the Upper Bari Doab Canal, it was begun in
1851 and opened in 1859. In later years it was greatly improved and
extended, forming the first member of that unique system of irrigation
for which the province is now famous.
Such were some of the activities of the young administration. Other
objects of its attention can only be mentioned—the erection of public
buildings, schools and hospitals, the reform of the local currency, the
suppression of female infanticide, the institution of a rudimentary
municipal system. In 1853, on the abolition of the board, John (later
rd) Lawrence was appointed chief commissioner as head of the
local administration. Under him were a judicial commissioner and
a financial commissioner, heads respectively of the judicial and revenue
departments; the former being also head of the police, supervising
education, and controlling local and municipal funds; an odd assort-
ment of duties, but characteristic of that strenuous period. The cata-
strophe of the Mutiny for a time arrested further progress. In that
great crisis the province, except for a few limited arcas, did not waver
in its loyalty to its new rulers; while the recruitment of some 70,0004
Panjabi and frontier tribesmen under the British standards bore
1 Imp. Gaz. I, 327.
2 Triennial Review, pp. 33, 43; Kaye, op. cit. p. 300.
• Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, p. 33.
• Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1856-8, p. 43; Sir C. Aitchison, Lawrence, Oxford, 1892, p. 99.
## p. 94 (#130) #############################################
94 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
W
eloquent testimony to the high quality of the administrative results
which had been achieved.
Development in the areas latest acquired, the Nagpur state and
Oudh, will be dealt with more conveniently in another chapter. Here
it is sufficient to notice that as a result of the third Maratha War the
former was virtually ruled from 1818 to 1830 by the Resident at
Nagpur, Sir R. Jenkins, during the minority of the raja. His adminis-
tration was broadly on the lines followed later in the Panjab by the
Lahore regency from 1846 to 1849—the utilisation of native institu-
tions and agency under British supervision, which was mainly directed
to the removal of abuses. 1 Little change was made in the revenue
system except that triennial were substituted for the previous annual
settlements and that tenants received protection. At the end of the
minority the raja maintained Sir R. Jenkins's methods until his death
in 1853. Oudh immediately after its annexation in 1856 was placed
under a chief commissioner as a non-regulation province, and a sum-
mary settlement of land-revenue was made. 2 Under the previous rule
revenue farmers or managers, who were often also influential local
chiefs, had commonly acquired, under the designation of talukdars,
a seignorial or landlord status over village communities, and were
therefore in a position to set up a plausible claim to proprietary right.
In many cases it thus became a question whether a settlement should
be made with them or with the subordinate communities. Lord
Dalhousie, following the practice of the North-Western Provinces and
of the Panjab, decided in favour of the latter, with the result that the
talukdars were practically ousted from many of their estates, and their
consequent resentment ranged many of them against the British
Government in the great struggle of the Mutiny.
a
· R. Jenkins, Report on the Territories of the Raja of Nagpur, Calcutta, 1827, p. 299; Adm.
Rep. Cent. Provs. 1882-3, p. 14; 1911-12, p. 11.
Adm. Rep. N. -W. Prous. 1882-3, p. 34.
3 Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 198 399. ; dm. Rep. Unit. Prous. 1911-12, p.
11
## p. 95 (#131) #############################################
CHAPTER VI
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
WHEN
HEN Pitt's act of 1784 extended the control of the Bengal
Government over the minor presidencies of Madras and Bombay to
all points relating to peace as well as to war, it committed the general
direction of domestic policy in British India to men who were liable
to be impressed particularly by conditions in Bengal. 1 Yet the middle
and upper classes of that province have always differed considerably
from the same classes in Upper and Western India. They contain no
martial element, and only a small minority of Muhammadans de-
scended from Central Asian stocks. While the rural masses differ little
intellectually from those in neighbouring provinces, the leading Hindu
castes, Brahmans, Kaycsthas (writers), and Vaidyas (physicians),
have always been remarkable for exceptional literary and clerical
ability. They have been quick to grasp opportunities and to assimilate
new ideas. But when Warren Hastings took charge of Bengal in 1772,
these and all other classes of society had been long depressed by con-
stant wars and tyrannical or chaotic administration. Learning of all
kinds had slunk away into the background. Hastings, however, had
entered the service of the East India Company
with the advantages of a regular classical education, and, with a mind strongly
impressed with the pleasures of literature. The common dialects of Bengal, after
his arrival in that country, soon became familiar to him; and at a period when the
use and importance of the Persian language were scarcely suspected, and when the
want of that grammatical and philological assistance which has facilitated the
labours of succeeding students rendered the attainment of it a task of peculiar
difficulty, he acquired a proficiency in it. 3
When appointed governor of Bengal, he lost no time in causing a
manual of Hindu law to be prepared in Sanskrit by Brahman pundits
and translated both into English and into Persian, the language of
the law courts established by the Moghul rulers of the province.
Approached in 1781 by some Calcutta Muhammadans with a request
for the permanent establishment of a “Madrasa” (college) where
young Muslims might acquire knowledge which would fit them for
“the numerous offices of the British Government”,3 then largely
monopolised by Hindus, he responded favourably, purchasing a site
out of his own pocket, laying the foundation stone and advising the
directors to assign "the rents of one or more villages” in the neigh-
1 It was not, for instance, until 1859 that a Bombay civil servant (Sir Bartle Frere) was
appointed to the governor-general's council (Martineau, Life of Frere, I, 295-6).
* Shore, quoted ap. Jones, Collected Works, 11, 19.
• Sharp, Selections, 1, 8.
## p. 96 (#132) #############################################
96
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
bourhood as an endowment for the new institution. The subjects of
instruction were to be the Muhammadan law and such other sciences
as were taught in Muhammadan schools. The directors accepted
Hastings's recommendations, and reimbursed him for the expense
which he had incurred. The college became known as “the Muham-
madan Madrasa" and was the first state-aided educational institution
in Bengal. Hardly had it been founded when the bench of the Calcutta
Supreme Court received a notable recruit in the person of Sir William
Jones, jurist and scholar, the first of the great Orientalists, of those
ardent enthusiasts who have done so much to spread abroad in
Europe appreciation of Asiatic culture and learning. Jones has placed
on record the "inexpressible pleasure” which he felt on approaching
the shores of India;2 and although his time was short, for he died at
Calcutta in 1794, he not only translated the laws of Manu and other
famous Sanskrit works into English, but left so deep an impression on
his Brahman friends that some could not restrain their tears when
they spoke of “the wonderful progress which he had made in the
sciences which they professed”. 3 With the strong support of Hastings,
he founded the Bengal Asiatic Society which has since numbered
among its members the great Sanskrit scholar Colebrooke, a civil
servant who rose to be a member of the governor-general's council,
and Horace Hayman Wilson, another famous Orientalist, who lived
to complete Mill's history of British India and to be librarian at the
East India House for more than twenty years. In 1792 Jonathan
Duncan, Resident at Benares, asked and obtained permission to
establish a college in the holy city for the preservation and cultivation
of the laws, literature and religion of the Hindus, stating that
although learning had always been cultivated at Benares “in numerous
private seminaries”, no public institution of the kind proposed had
ever existed. The “permanency of a college” would tend to recover
and collect gradually books still to be met (though in a very dispersed
and imperfect state) of the most ancient and valuable general learning
and tradition now existing perhaps on any part of the globe”. It
would preserve and disseminate a knowledge of the Hindu law and
become "a nursery of the future doctors and expounders thereof to
assist European judges” in administering “its genuine letter and
spirit to the body of the people”.
The British Government was sympathetic towards attempts to
revive Indian learning, but entertained no idea of introducing any
system of education. No state system then existed in England; and
even Burke, the Company's most formidable critic, did not consider
1 Hickey, Memoirs, III, 154-5.
2 Duff, Indian Missions, p. 196.
3 See the article on Jones in the Dictionary of National Biography, x, 1064-5, and Jones,
op. cit. II, 307.
* Jones, op. cit. 11, 19-28.
5 Foster, The East India House, p. 149. Cf.
• Imp. Gaz. IV, 307.
## p. 86 (#122) #############################################
86 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
The indigenous system of liquor excise, termed abkari, was one of
farm pure and simple, the unrestricted and exclusive right to manu-
facture and sell spirituous liquor within a more or less defined area
being usually leased to the local Moghul tax farmer, whether an
official or a zamindar. Under the Company's government a similar
system of leases of defined areas in favour of licensees was continued,
but between 1790 and 1800 restrictions on the number and locality
of shops and stills were introduced. " This modified system was
extended to the Upper Provinces, but as early as 1813, in order to
secure greater control, central distilleries were established at con-
venient places, generally the headquarters of districts, or of their sub-
divisions, termed tahsils. Within these buildings the licensed distillers
were required to carry on their operations, the right to sell at specified
shops being separately licensed; though in order to cope with illicit
distillation, an ever-besetting difficulty in Indian excise administra-
tion, single stills were permitted in distant outlying areas, their
licences covering both manufacture and sale. To such single detached
stills the term "outstill”, so common in Indian excise discussions, is
properly applicable. In the Upper Provinces as well as in Bengal the
new system was found unable to cope with illicit traffic, and after
1824 there was a general return to the system of farms or leases of
specified shops in defined areas, with outstills where necessary. This
arrangement, with minor modifications, continued in force in the
Upper Provinces until after 1858. The attainment of the ideal, then
only dimly perceived, of controlled consumption combined with high
or even adequate taxation was incompatible with a volume of illicit
traffic with which the administration of the time was quite unable to
contend.
As in the case of spirituous liquor, the excise of opium, regarded by
the Moghuls as a subject for state monopoly, took the form of a farm
of the exclusive right to manufacture and sell. The manifold defects
of this system, which the East India Company took over in 1773,
caused its abandonment in 1797, the government then assuming the
monopoly of manufacture through its own agencies; an organisation
which was extended to the Upper Provinces and has been described
elsewhere. 2
Municipal self-government did not exist at the introduction of
British rule. 3 A pure exotic, it was planted very gradually and tenta-
tively by the new-comers. Their first efforts were confined to the
presidency towns, and it was not until 1850 that legislative provision
was made for the constitution of municipal bodies in provincial towns.
These consisted of the district magistrate, in whom all executive
Papers relating to Excise Administration in India printed in Government of India
Gazette of 1 March, 1890; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, p. 170; Imp. Gaz. IV, 254;
H. of C. Papers, 1831-2, vol. xi.
: Imp. Gaz. IV, 242; H. of C. Papers, 1890-1, LIX, 384.
• Imp. Gaz. IV, 281, 284 99. ; Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882–3, p. 48.
1
## p. 87 (#123) #############################################
NON-REGULATION AREAS
87
authority was vested, and a body of nominated councillors, whose
function was to assess rates in accordance with certain prescribed
principles, and to assist the district magistrate with advice. Taxation
might be a personal assessment on householders, or by rates on houses,
and the proceeds were expended in the entertainment of town watch-
men, simple sanitation, lighting and other local objects. The act of
1850 was fairly widely applied, and apparently with a considerable
degree of success, in the North-Western Provinces. 1
Passing now from the regulation districts of that région, the re-
mainder of this chapter will be concerned with non-regulation areas.
To the explanation of the origin and general significance of that dis-
tinction as already given, it may be added that the type of adminis-
tration adopted in non-regulation areas was characterised by simple
and more direct modes of procedure and by the greater accessibility
of officials to the people; but chiefly by the union of all powers,
executive, magisterial, and judicial, in the hands of the district officer,
here termed deputy-commissioner in place of magistrate and collector,
subject however to the appellate and supervisional jurisdiction of the
commissioner of the division in all branches of work. ? The system
was paternal rather than formally legal, though legal principles were
by no means set aside; and it largely depended for its success on the
personal character, initiative, vigour and discretion of the local
officers. Passing over the non-regulation Sagar and Narbada terri-
torics, of which the early administration was not conspicuously suc-
cessful, though law and order and a judicial system were established,
we may proceed at once to an account of administrative development
in thc Panjab, the whole of which was always non-regulation.
That province, as it exists at present, including the recently
separated Delhienclave, comprises cis-Satlej and trans-Satlej portions.
The first consists of the Delhi territory, annexed in 1803, and of a
tract, lying between it and the Satlej, which was gradually absorbed
as a result of the protectorate assumed in 1809 and of the first Sikh
War. The second comprises the annexations of 1846 and 1849, the
Jalandhar Doab and the Panjab proper. In accordance with the
policy approved on the retirement of the Marquis of Wellesley, the
Delhi territory after its formal annexation was for long outside the
sphere of direct British control, which it was sought to restrict to the
eastern side of the Jumna, leaving the territory, which, as the result
of recent war, was largely a deserted waste, in the hands of a ring of
semi-independent chiefs, with whose administration the Resident at
Delhi interfered as little as possible while endeavouring to maintain
peace. The aggressions attempted by Ranjit Singh on the country
cast of the Sailcj, foiled in 1809 by the Treaty of Amritsar, resulted
* Moral and Mar. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, P. 54.
· Campbell, op. cit. p. 250; Kaye, op. cit. pp. 447 sqq. ; Sir C. Aitchison, Lawrence, Oxford,
1892, pp. 59 599. ; Imp. Gaz. IV, 54.
; Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs, 1882-3, p. 16.
## p. 88 (#124) #############################################
88 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
in the protectorate already mentioned, but even then administrative
control over the Delhi territory was very slowly asserted. It was only
in 1819–20 that the tract was divided into four districts under locally
resident officers, a fifth being added in 1824. In 1832 they were
definitely included in the North-Western Provinces for purposes of
administration, which it was directed should be carried on in the
spirit of the Bengai Regulations, though these were never, it appears,
formally extended to them. The early revenue administration up to
1828 was of the same highly unsatisfactory character as in other parts
of the North-Western Provinces, but the tract was greatly benefited
by the restoration of the Western Jumna Canal, especially during the
famine of 1837–8, of which it felt the full force. Up to its union with
the Panjab in 1858 its administration proceeded on the lines already
described, a regular settlement being made between 1837 and 1842. 2
The growth of the supremacy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh over the
trans-Satlej Panjab has been described elsewhere. Here we deal only
with his administrative system. 3 Immersed in war and diplomacy, he
had no leisure for the creation of a stable polity. Beyond military
organisation and conquest, the collection of revenue was his chief
interest. To this all other branches of his administration were sub-
ordinated, and to it the attention of all his officials was unremittingly
directed. He appears to have utilised all known sources of taxation:
imposts direct and indirect, on land, on houses, on persons, on manu-
factures, on commerce, on imports and exports; all had a place in
his fiscal system. The revenue of remote provinces was farmed to men
of wealth and influence, or of vigour and capacity, and they were
invested with powers of government in the exercise of which they
experienced little interference, provided that revenue was regularly
remitted. Military chiefs, who enjoyed the revenue of jagirs, or
assigned tracts of land, on condition of furnishing armed contingents,
also exercised practically unlimited authority in their jurisdictions.
These farmers and jagirdars had under them local agents, or kardars,
who exercised such administrative functions as were recognised, and
of these the only one of importance was the collection of revenue. In
tracts, neither farmed nor held in jagir, and known as khalsa, the
kardars were under the nazim, or local governor of a group of dis-
tricts, who was directly responsible to the maharaja and his informal
council, or cabinet; but their positions depended largely on the
influence which they could command at court, and on their success
in collecting revenue. In Ranjit Singh's later years central control
was much relaxed and the system of farming became more prevalent.
Land-revenue was collected as a rule direct from the cultivator in the
shape of a fixed share of the produce, 4 except in the case of crops, such
Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, p. 23; Ibbetson, op. cit. pp. 34, 35; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1911-12,
pp. 16–17.
2 Ibbetson, op. cit. chaps. iv and v; Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 17.
's Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. 1, pt 11; 1882-3, p. 25; H. of C. Papers, 1849, vol. XLI.
• Panjab Sett. Manual, chap. iv.
## p. 89 (#125) #############################################
THE RULE OF RANJIT SINGH
89
as sugar-cane and cotton, which could not readily be divided. In
lieu of the actual share of the crop its estimated money value was
sometimes taken, common shares being one-third and two-fifths, with
one-half on the more fertile lands. Numerous additional dues in cash
or kind were also collected, and cultivators of all grades were treated
on the same footing without reference to any distinctions of superior
or inferior rights on land, though occasionally the leaders of the village
community received a measure of indulgence. Joint responsibility of
its members for the payment of land-revenue was not enforced, except
rarely when a few of its leaders were allowed to engage for a lump
sum, and then they tended to assume the privileges of landlords
towards the rest of the cultivators, who fell back into the position of
tenants.
There were no definite and regular courts of justice, though ere
was a judicial officer, termed the adalati, in Lahore. Private property
in land of a kind was recognised and in principle upheld, and the
general corporate existence and obligations of village communities
were maintained, while disputes were settled to a minor extent by the
local authorities, but mainly by private arbitration, resort to which
by means of a comparatively organised system of committees, or
panchayats, was widely practised. There were local police officers, but
their functions were more often political and military than civil, their
duty being to check local disturbances and to arrange for the move-
ments of troops. There was no excise system, the production and sale
of liquor being quite uncontrolled. All officials enjoyed much licence,
but cultivators were not as a rule needlessly oppressed if they paid
their revenue. The criminal law was unwritten and contained mainly
two penalties, fine and mutilation. The first usually secured immunity
from further punishment for almost any crime; the second when
inflicted being reserved for offences such as adultery, seduction and
robbery. Imprisonment was unknown and capital punishment rare.
Ranjit Singh allowed his favourites great power, at first no doubt as
a counterpoise to the influence of the leaders of the old Sikh con-
federacies, but later from the compulsion of physical weakness.
Excessive oppression, however, was restrained, and from the Satlej to
the Indus general peace prevailed. His comparatively mild rule,
though a military despotism, was not unsuited to the martial genius of
his people, and not unpopular, except with tribes whose aristocratic
traditions invited levelling repression from the Sikhs. But based on
the goodwill of his army, it contained no element of permanence, and
after his death in 1839 chaos rapidly ensued.
The results of the Sikh wars--the temporary arrangements made
in 1846 for the administration of the trans-Satlej Panjab, followed by
its complete annexation in 1849—have been narrated elsewhere. Here
we are only concerned with administrative development. The
* Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, pp. 12-13; H. of C. Papers, 1849, vol. xli.
## p. 90 (#126) #############################################
90 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
Council of Regency, during its existence in 1846–9, sought to repair
and improve previous indigenous institutions rather than to introduce
novelty; to preserve what order remained, while governing on the
lines of a benevolent Indian ruler. Remedies were applied to crying
evils--an idle and irregularly paid army; general official dishonesty;
the absence of machinery for administering justice. Economy was
enforced; provisional summary settlements of land-revenue were made
by British officers;regular salaries were paid to Indian officials in
place of undefined perquisites; taxation was lightened and simplified
and a budget framed. The administration of justice was entrusted to
respectable persons; while the penal code, reduced to writing, was
rendered more efficient and more humane. Heinous offences were
tried by the council itself and appeals from subordinate authorities
were entertained. European officers were deputed to visit outlying
districts, while in the framing of rules and regulations influential and
intelligent persons were consulted. The development of resources
received attention, and plans for the repair of old and the construc-
tion of new public works were prepared. But the process of restoration
and improvement was rudely interrupted by the second Sikh War.
Annexation afforded a clearer and a wider field for administrative
effort, of which full advantage was taken by the selected body of
exceptionally able officers, civil and military, whom Lord Dalhousie
deputed to the new province, and of whom many had been trained
in the best tradition of the North-Western Provinces. They included
Henry and John Lawrence, John Nicholson, Robert Montgomery,
Herbert Edwardes, Robert Napier, Richard Temple, Donald Macleod,
and many others subsequently famous. It should never be forgotten
that the Panjab was from the first organised as a British province on
a basis of long administrative experience gained in Bengal and the
North-Western Provinces during the previous half-century; an ex-
perience which included serious errors to be avoided as well as notable
successes to be repeated.
Immediately after annexation a Board of Administration consisting
of three members was constituted. Under the governor-general it
exercised plenary authority in all departments of government. The
province was divided into seven, increased in 1850 to eight divisions,
each under a commissioner, and into twenty-four districts, cach under
a deputy-commissioner; the districts themselves being further sub-
divided into smaller arcas, termed tahsils, cach in charge of an Indian
civil officer, designated tahsildar. The non-regulation type of adminis-
tration, at once simple, vigorous, and efficient, was adopted. Land-
revenue organisation was one of the first objects of attention. A regular
settlement was begun immediately after annexation, and was gradually
completed district by district, though many years clapsed before this
1 Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 22; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 541.
2 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. In; 1882-3, pp. 30-3; 1911-12, pp. 18-20.
## p. 91 (#127) #############################################
THE PANJAB AFTER ANNEXATION
91
could be accomplished in the western frontier districts. In the mean-
time revenue was assessed and collected under short-term and pro-
visional summary settlements. A similar course was followed in the
cis-Satlej districts recently attached to the province. The demands
imposed in these summary settlements, especially in the last-
mentioned tract, based as they were on the revenue accounts of
the previous régime, were comparatively
heavy, but, thanks to the
experience gained in other provinces, the Panjab escaped those harsh
methods of revenue farming and collection which had been so mis-
chievous elsewhere. The subsequent regular settlement was carried
out on the principles which had been previously adopted in the
North-Western Provinces, but subject to certain modifications due to
local conditions. In the Panjab the village communities, often tribal
in their constitution and usually of the so-called zamindari type, were
generally more vigorous and better preserved than in the North-
Western Provinces. It was therefore possible as a rule to accord to
their members the status and rights of peasant proprietors, and to
make a joint settlement with them in place of former revenue farmers,
or usurping officials, or semi-feudal grantees, as in other provinces. 2
Communities analogous to the ryotwari type, where they existed,
were treated by the same method. Previous political and social con-
ditions had discouraged the growth of great landlords with a seignorial
status over village communities. Where it happened to exist, it was
converted, not into proprietary right, but into a right to receive
merely a fixed quit-rent. The policy thus adopted has resulted in the
Panjab being a country mainly of peasant proprietors. In the regular
settlement the right of the state was asserted over the immense areas
of waste land which then lay unoccupied in the trans-Satlej Panjab
and which have since become the scene of extensive colonisation.
A similar course was followed in the large forest areas in the hills. 3
Tenant-right received attention, though it was not until some years
later that definite principles were laid down after lengthy controversy.
In the Panjab this right was not so much a relic of a previous quasi-
proprietary position as the result of two facts; first, that Sikh rulers
made little practical distinction between different grades of status, so
that members as well as non-members of the village community had
often to bear jointly the same burdens; secondly, that established
custom recognised some permanence of tenure in favour of cultivators
who, or whose ancestors, though not included in the circle of the
community, had assisted in founding the village and in clearing waste
land. In the first regular settlement officers were given judicial
powers for the determination of rights, and in such work they exercised
1 Panjab Sell. Manual, p. 24; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 543.
* Panjab Sett. Manual, pp. 58 599. ; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 609 sqq. ; Adm. Rep. Panjab,
1849-51, sect. vn, pt 1.
• Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 93; Baden Powell, op. cit. II, 545 599.
• Panjab Sell. Manual, p. 100; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 703-5.
## p. 92 (#128) #############################################
92
ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
a fairly wide equitable discretion, especially in questions of tenant-
right, to which, following the practice of the North-Western Provinces,
they commonly applied the twelve-years' rule. The assessments of
land-revenue were based on general considerations similar to those
previously recognised in the North-Western Provinces, but supple-
mented by close local investigation. The task was rendered more
difficult by the entire absence of economic money rents, then quite
unknown in the Panjab. Moderation in assessment was impressed on
all officials from the first, and it has been a salient feature of Panjab
administration ever since. Except in the western districts of the
province, the regular settlements were completed either before or
shortly after the Mutiny.
Strong measures were taken for the maintenance of law and order
and for the suppression of such crimes as thagi, which prevailed to
a limited extent, dacoity and robbery. 2 Civil police, seven thousand
strong, were distributed over the province, on the general lines of the
system of the North-Western Provinces, for the detection and prosecu-
tion of criminals and for watch-and-ward in villages. In his control of
them the deputy-commissioner was assisted by the tahsildars. The civil
police were aided by a strong force of military police, some eight
thousand strong including mounted men, under four European officers
with Indian subordinates. The force furnished guards, patrolled the
country, and helped in the prevention of crime and in the appre-
hension of offenders. Local watchmen were also entertained and paid
by the village communities. Jails were erected in every district. The
province from the Satlej to the Indus was disarmed, some 120,000
weapons of all kinds being surrendered; and possession or sale of arms
was prohibited except in the trans-Indus area. 3 A similar measure
was applied later to the cis-Satlej districts and to the Delhi territory.
The criminal code was based on that in force in the Bengal Pre-
sidency, with needful local modifications. In 1855 a civil code was
issued which, while not a legal enactment, included much of the
custom and usage current in the province, thus serving as a useful
guide to judicial officers ;5 and though the Bengal Regulations were
never in force, it was understood that their spirit should be followed
wherever it was applicable. The administration of the districts now
included in the North-West Frontier Province is dealt with elsewhere;
it largely increased the responsibilities of the new government.
One of its principal duties was to develop the resources and
especially the communications of the province. A Public Works
i Panjab Sett. Manual, pp. 25-8; Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 568-72.
2 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. v; 1851-3, pp. 41-8; 1882–3, P. 32; H. of C. Papers,
1857-8, XLIII, 75.
* Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849–51, p. 56; 1882–3, P. 32; H. of C. Papers, 1849, XLI, 75.
• Whitley Stokes, op. cit. 1, 2; Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, p. 63.
5 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1851-3, pp. 88, 89.
• Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1849-51, sect. VIII.
## p. 93 (#129) #############################################
PANJAB ADMINISTRATION
93
Department, including a branch devoted to irrigation, was formed;
the staff consisting mainly of military officers. A similar step was soon
taken in the North-Western Provinces. At annexation roads of any
kind were practically non-existent: but their construction in all
directions was now systematically undertaken with reference to the
routes of external and internal trade. Few of them were metalled,
though most of them were lined with fine avenues of trees. Of
metalled roads the most important was thc main artery between
Lahore and Peshawar, known as the Grand Trunk Road, the last
link in a long chain of similar communications between Calcutta and
Northern India. The development of canal irrigation was an object
of special solicitude. 1 From early times water from the numerous
rivers of the Panjab had been utilised for agriculture by means of
simple channels, partly natural, partly artificial, which, starting at a
level higher than the low-water level of the stream, could flow only
in the flood season. Without head-weirs of the modern type to ensure
a perennial supply, and liable to be blocked by deposits of silt, these
crude means had nevertheless served to irrigate considerable areas. 2
Efforts were made soon after annexation to extend and improve these
"inundation" canals, and a good deal was thus accomplished. But
the most important achievement of the early years was the construc-
tion of a perennial canal from the Ravi to irrigate the Bari Doab, the
tract of country lying between that river and the rivers Satlej and
Beas. Now known as the Upper Bari Doab Canal, it was begun in
1851 and opened in 1859. In later years it was greatly improved and
extended, forming the first member of that unique system of irrigation
for which the province is now famous.
Such were some of the activities of the young administration. Other
objects of its attention can only be mentioned—the erection of public
buildings, schools and hospitals, the reform of the local currency, the
suppression of female infanticide, the institution of a rudimentary
municipal system. In 1853, on the abolition of the board, John (later
rd) Lawrence was appointed chief commissioner as head of the
local administration. Under him were a judicial commissioner and
a financial commissioner, heads respectively of the judicial and revenue
departments; the former being also head of the police, supervising
education, and controlling local and municipal funds; an odd assort-
ment of duties, but characteristic of that strenuous period. The cata-
strophe of the Mutiny for a time arrested further progress. In that
great crisis the province, except for a few limited arcas, did not waver
in its loyalty to its new rulers; while the recruitment of some 70,0004
Panjabi and frontier tribesmen under the British standards bore
1 Imp. Gaz. I, 327.
2 Triennial Review, pp. 33, 43; Kaye, op. cit. p. 300.
• Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, p. 33.
• Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1856-8, p. 43; Sir C. Aitchison, Lawrence, Oxford, 1892, p. 99.
## p. 94 (#130) #############################################
94 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
W
eloquent testimony to the high quality of the administrative results
which had been achieved.
Development in the areas latest acquired, the Nagpur state and
Oudh, will be dealt with more conveniently in another chapter. Here
it is sufficient to notice that as a result of the third Maratha War the
former was virtually ruled from 1818 to 1830 by the Resident at
Nagpur, Sir R. Jenkins, during the minority of the raja. His adminis-
tration was broadly on the lines followed later in the Panjab by the
Lahore regency from 1846 to 1849—the utilisation of native institu-
tions and agency under British supervision, which was mainly directed
to the removal of abuses. 1 Little change was made in the revenue
system except that triennial were substituted for the previous annual
settlements and that tenants received protection. At the end of the
minority the raja maintained Sir R. Jenkins's methods until his death
in 1853. Oudh immediately after its annexation in 1856 was placed
under a chief commissioner as a non-regulation province, and a sum-
mary settlement of land-revenue was made. 2 Under the previous rule
revenue farmers or managers, who were often also influential local
chiefs, had commonly acquired, under the designation of talukdars,
a seignorial or landlord status over village communities, and were
therefore in a position to set up a plausible claim to proprietary right.
In many cases it thus became a question whether a settlement should
be made with them or with the subordinate communities. Lord
Dalhousie, following the practice of the North-Western Provinces and
of the Panjab, decided in favour of the latter, with the result that the
talukdars were practically ousted from many of their estates, and their
consequent resentment ranged many of them against the British
Government in the great struggle of the Mutiny.
a
· R. Jenkins, Report on the Territories of the Raja of Nagpur, Calcutta, 1827, p. 299; Adm.
Rep. Cent. Provs. 1882-3, p. 14; 1911-12, p. 11.
Adm. Rep. N. -W. Prous. 1882-3, p. 34.
3 Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 198 399. ; dm. Rep. Unit. Prous. 1911-12, p.
11
## p. 95 (#131) #############################################
CHAPTER VI
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
WHEN
HEN Pitt's act of 1784 extended the control of the Bengal
Government over the minor presidencies of Madras and Bombay to
all points relating to peace as well as to war, it committed the general
direction of domestic policy in British India to men who were liable
to be impressed particularly by conditions in Bengal. 1 Yet the middle
and upper classes of that province have always differed considerably
from the same classes in Upper and Western India. They contain no
martial element, and only a small minority of Muhammadans de-
scended from Central Asian stocks. While the rural masses differ little
intellectually from those in neighbouring provinces, the leading Hindu
castes, Brahmans, Kaycsthas (writers), and Vaidyas (physicians),
have always been remarkable for exceptional literary and clerical
ability. They have been quick to grasp opportunities and to assimilate
new ideas. But when Warren Hastings took charge of Bengal in 1772,
these and all other classes of society had been long depressed by con-
stant wars and tyrannical or chaotic administration. Learning of all
kinds had slunk away into the background. Hastings, however, had
entered the service of the East India Company
with the advantages of a regular classical education, and, with a mind strongly
impressed with the pleasures of literature. The common dialects of Bengal, after
his arrival in that country, soon became familiar to him; and at a period when the
use and importance of the Persian language were scarcely suspected, and when the
want of that grammatical and philological assistance which has facilitated the
labours of succeeding students rendered the attainment of it a task of peculiar
difficulty, he acquired a proficiency in it. 3
When appointed governor of Bengal, he lost no time in causing a
manual of Hindu law to be prepared in Sanskrit by Brahman pundits
and translated both into English and into Persian, the language of
the law courts established by the Moghul rulers of the province.
Approached in 1781 by some Calcutta Muhammadans with a request
for the permanent establishment of a “Madrasa” (college) where
young Muslims might acquire knowledge which would fit them for
“the numerous offices of the British Government”,3 then largely
monopolised by Hindus, he responded favourably, purchasing a site
out of his own pocket, laying the foundation stone and advising the
directors to assign "the rents of one or more villages” in the neigh-
1 It was not, for instance, until 1859 that a Bombay civil servant (Sir Bartle Frere) was
appointed to the governor-general's council (Martineau, Life of Frere, I, 295-6).
* Shore, quoted ap. Jones, Collected Works, 11, 19.
• Sharp, Selections, 1, 8.
## p. 96 (#132) #############################################
96
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS TO 1858
bourhood as an endowment for the new institution. The subjects of
instruction were to be the Muhammadan law and such other sciences
as were taught in Muhammadan schools. The directors accepted
Hastings's recommendations, and reimbursed him for the expense
which he had incurred. The college became known as “the Muham-
madan Madrasa" and was the first state-aided educational institution
in Bengal. Hardly had it been founded when the bench of the Calcutta
Supreme Court received a notable recruit in the person of Sir William
Jones, jurist and scholar, the first of the great Orientalists, of those
ardent enthusiasts who have done so much to spread abroad in
Europe appreciation of Asiatic culture and learning. Jones has placed
on record the "inexpressible pleasure” which he felt on approaching
the shores of India;2 and although his time was short, for he died at
Calcutta in 1794, he not only translated the laws of Manu and other
famous Sanskrit works into English, but left so deep an impression on
his Brahman friends that some could not restrain their tears when
they spoke of “the wonderful progress which he had made in the
sciences which they professed”. 3 With the strong support of Hastings,
he founded the Bengal Asiatic Society which has since numbered
among its members the great Sanskrit scholar Colebrooke, a civil
servant who rose to be a member of the governor-general's council,
and Horace Hayman Wilson, another famous Orientalist, who lived
to complete Mill's history of British India and to be librarian at the
East India House for more than twenty years. In 1792 Jonathan
Duncan, Resident at Benares, asked and obtained permission to
establish a college in the holy city for the preservation and cultivation
of the laws, literature and religion of the Hindus, stating that
although learning had always been cultivated at Benares “in numerous
private seminaries”, no public institution of the kind proposed had
ever existed. The “permanency of a college” would tend to recover
and collect gradually books still to be met (though in a very dispersed
and imperfect state) of the most ancient and valuable general learning
and tradition now existing perhaps on any part of the globe”. It
would preserve and disseminate a knowledge of the Hindu law and
become "a nursery of the future doctors and expounders thereof to
assist European judges” in administering “its genuine letter and
spirit to the body of the people”.
The British Government was sympathetic towards attempts to
revive Indian learning, but entertained no idea of introducing any
system of education. No state system then existed in England; and
even Burke, the Company's most formidable critic, did not consider
1 Hickey, Memoirs, III, 154-5.
2 Duff, Indian Missions, p. 196.
3 See the article on Jones in the Dictionary of National Biography, x, 1064-5, and Jones,
op. cit. II, 307.
* Jones, op. cit. 11, 19-28.
5 Foster, The East India House, p. 149. Cf.
