Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official Part 62

In the evening a trooper pa.s.sed our tents on his way in great haste from Meerut to Delhi, to announce the death of the poor old Begam Samru, which had taken place the day before at her little capital of Sardhana. For five-and-twenty years had I been looking forward to the opportunity of seeing this very extraordinary woman, whose history had interested me more than that of any other character in India during my time; and I was sadly disappointed to hear of her death when within two or three stages of her capital.[13]

Notes:

1. January, 1836.

2. Mr. Fox Strangways gives specimens of songs sung at wells in his learned and original book, _The Music of Hindostan_ (Oxford, 1914, pp. 20, 21).

3. Brij Bowla in the original edition. The name is correctly written Birju Baula or Baura. A legend of the rivalry between him and Tansen is given in _Linguistic Survey of India_, vi, 47. His name is not included in Abul Fazl's list of eminent musicians, or in Blochmann's notes to it (ain trans. i, 612), and I have not succeeded in obtaining any trustworthy information about him. Marvellous legends of the rival singers will be found in _N.I.N. & Qu._ vol. v, para.

207.

4. Abul Fazl describes Tansen as being of Gwalior, adding that 'a singer like him has not been in India for the last thousand years'.

Nos. 2-5 and several others in Abul Fazl's list of eminent musicians in Akbar's reign are all noted as belonging to Gwalior, which evidently was the most musical of cities (Blochmann, transl. ain, i, 612). Sleeman appears to have been mistaken in connecting Tansen with Patna. But the musician must really have become a Musalman, because his tomb stands close to the south-western corner of the sepulchre at Gwalior of Muhammad Ghaus, an eminent Muslim saint. No Hindu could have been buried in such a spot (_A.S.R._, vol. ii, p. 370).

According to one account Tansen died in Lah.o.r.e, his body being removed to Gwalior by order of Akbar (Forbes, _Oriental Memoirs_, London, 1813, vol. iii, p. 32). The leaves of the tamarind-tree overshadowing the tomb are believed to improve the voice marvellously when chewed.

Mr. Fox Strangways notes that Hindu critics hold Tansen 'princ.i.p.ally responsible for the deterioration of Hindu music. He is said to have falsified the rags, and two, Hindol and Megh, of the original six have disappeared since his time' (op. cit., p. 84).

Akbar, in the seventh year of his reign (1562-3), compelled the Raja of Riwa (Bhath) to give up Tansen, who was in the Raja's service. The emperor gave the musician Rs. 200,000. 'Most of his compositions are written in Akbar's name, and his melodies are even nowadays everywhere repeated by the people of Hindustan' (Blochmann, op. cit., p. 406). Tansen died in A.D. 1588 (Beale).

5. Shah Alam is the sovereign alluded to. Mahadaji (Madhoji or Madhava Rao) Sindhia died in February, 1794. His successor, Daulat Rao, was then a boy of fourteen or fifteen (Grant Duff, _History of the Mahrattas_, ed. 1826, vol. iii, p. 86). The formal adoption of Daulat Rao had not been completed (ibid., p. 91).

6. This observation is a good ill.u.s.tration of the tendency of administrators in a country so poor as India to take note of the infinitely little. In Europe no one would take the trouble to notice the difference between 60 and 62 rental.

7. Lord Auckland, in March, 1836, relieved Sir Charles Metcalfe, who, as temporary Governor-General, had succeeded Lord William Bentinck.

8. The resumption, that is to say, a.s.sessment, of revenue-free lands was a burning question in the anthor's day. It has long since got settled. The author was quite right in his opinion. All native Governments freely exercised the right of resumption, and did not care in the least what phrases were used in the deed of grant. The old Hindoo deeds commonly directed that the grant should last 'as long as the sun and moon shall endure', and invoked awful curses on the head of the resumer. But this was only formal legal phraseology, meaning nothing. No ruler was bound by his predecessor's acts.

9. This is not now the case.

10. 'It is difficult to realize that the dignified, sober, and orderly men who now fill our regiments are of the same stock as the savage freebooters whose name, a hundred years ago, was the terror of Northern India. But the change has been wrought by strong and kindly government and by strict military discipline under sympathetic officers whom the troops love and respect.' (Sir Lepel Griffin, _Ranjit Singh_, p. 37.)

11. Gerard Lake was born on the 27th July, 1744, and entered the army before he was fourteen. He served in the Seven Years' War in Germany, in the American War, in the French campaign of 1793, and against the Irish rebels in 1798. In the year 1801 he became Commander-in-Chief in India, and proceeded to Cawnpore, then our frontier station. Two years later the second Maratha War began, and gave General Lake the opportunity of winning a series of brilliant victories. In rapid succession he defeated the enemy at Koil, Aligarh, Delhi (the battle alluded to in the text), Agra, and Laswari. Next year, 1804, the glorious record was marred by the disaster to Colonel Monson's force, but this was quickly avenged by the decisive victories of Dig and Farrukhabad, which shattered Holkar's power. The year 1805 saw General Lake's one personal failure, the unsuccessful siege of Bharatpur. The Commander-in-Chief then resumed the pursuit of Holkar, and forced him to surrender. He sailed for England in February, 1807, and on his arrival at home was created a Viscount. On the 21st February, 1808, he died. (Pea.r.s.e, _Memoir of the Life and Military Services of Viscount Lake_. London, Blackwood, 1908.) The village of Patparganj, nearly due east from Humayun's Tomb, marks the site of the battle. Fanshawe (p. 70) gives a plan.

12. The banyan is the _Ficus indica_, or _Urostigma bengalense_; the 'pipal' is _Ficus religiosa_, or _Urostigma religiosum_; and the tamarind is the _Tamarindus indica_, or _occidentalis_, or _officinalis_.

13. The history of the Begam is given in Chapter 76, _post_.

CHAPTER 71

The Station of Meerut--'Atalis' who Dance and Sing gratuitously for the Benefit of the Poor.

On the 30th,[1] we went on twelve miles to Meerut, and encamped close to the Suraj Kund, so called after Suraj-mal, the Jat chief of Dig, whose tomb I have described at Govardhan.[2] He built here a very large tank, at the recommendation of the spirit of a Hindoo saint, Manohar Nath, whose remains had been burned here more than two hundred years before, and whose spirit appeared to the Jat chief in a dream, as he was encamped here with his army during one of his _kingdom-taking_ expeditions. This is a n.o.ble work, with a fine sheet of water, and flights of steps of 'pakka' masonry from the top to its edge all round. The whole is kept in repair by our Government.[3]

About half a mile to the north-west of the tank stands the tomb of Shah Pir, a Muhammadan saint, who is said to have descended from the mountains with the Hindoo, and to have been his bosom friend up to the day of his death. Both are said to have worked many wonderful miracles among the people of the surrounding country, who used to see them, according to popular belief, quietly taking their morning ride together upon the backs of two enormous tigers who came every morning at the appointed hour from the distant jungle. The Hindoo is said to have been very fond of music; and though he has been now dead some three centuries, a crowd of amateurs (atalis) a.s.semble every Sunday afternoon at his shrine, on the bank of the tank, and sing gratis, and in a very pleasing style, to an immense concourse of people, who a.s.semble to hear them, and to solicit the spirit of the old saint, softened by their melodies. At the tomb of the Muhammadan saint a number of professional dancers and singers a.s.semble every Thursday afternoon, and dance, sing, and play gratis to a large concourse of people, who make offerings of food to the poor, and implore the intercession of the old man with the Deity in return.

The Muhammadan's tomb is large and handsome, and built of red sandstone, inlaid with marble, but without any cupola, that there may be no _curtain_ between him and heaven when he gets out of his 'last long sleep' at the resurrection.[4] Not far from his tomb is another, over the bones of a pilgrim they call Ganj-i-fann, or the granary of science. Professional singers and dancers attend it every Friday afternoon, and display their talents gratis to a large concourse, who bestow what they can in charity to the poor, who a.s.semble on all these occasions to take what they can get. Another much frequented tomb lies over a Muhammadan saint, who has not been dead more than three years, named Gohar Sah. He owes his canonization to a few circ.u.mstances of recent occurrence, which are, however, universally believed. Mr. Smith, an enterprising merchant of Meerut, who had raised a large windmill for grinding corn in the Sadr Bazar, is said to have abused the old man as he was one day pa.s.sing by, and looked with some contempt on his method of grinding, which was to take the bread from the mouths of so many old widows. 'My child,' said the old saint, 'amuse thyself with this toy of thine, for it has but a few days to run.' In four days from that time the machine stopped. Poor Mr. Smith could not afford to set it going again, and it went to ruin. The whole native population of Meerut considered this a miracle of Gohar Sah. Just before his death the country round Meerut was under water, and a great many houses fell from incessant rain. The old man took up his residence during this time in a large sarai in the town, but finding his end approach, he desired those who had taken shelter with him to have him taken to the jungle where he now reposes. They did so, and the instant they left the building it fell to the ground. Many who saw it told me they had no doubt that the virtues of the old man had sustained it while he was there, and prevented its crushing all who were in it. The tomb was built over his remains by a Hindoo officer of the court, who had been long out of employment and in great affliction. He had no sooner completed the tomb, and implored the aid of the old man, than he got into excellent service, and has been ever since a happy man. He makes regular offerings to his shrine, as a grateful return for the saint's kindness to him in his hour of need. Professional singers and dancers display their talents here gratis, as at the other tombs, every Wednesday afternoon.

The ground all round these tombs is becoming crowded with the graves of people, who in their last moments request to be buried (zer-saya) under the shadow of these saints, who in their lifetime are all said to have despised the pomps and vanities of this life, and to have taken nothing from their disciples and worshippers but what was indispensably necessary to support existence--food being the only thing offered and accepted, and that taken only when they happened to be very hungry. Happy indeed was the man whose dish was put forward when the saint's appet.i.te happened to be sharp. The death of the poor old Begam has, it is said, just canonized another saint, Shakir Shah, who lies buried at Sardhana, but is claimed by the people of Meerut, among whom he lived till about five years ago, when he desired to be taken to Sardhana, where he found the old lady very dangerously ill and not expected to live. He was himself very old and ill when he set out from Meerut; and the journey is said to have shaken him so much that he found his end approaching, and sent a messenger to the princess in these words: 'Aya tore, chale ham'; that is, 'Death came for thee, but I go in thy place'; and he told those around him that she had precisely five years more to live. She is said to have caused a tomb to be built over him, and is believed by the people to have died that day five years.

All these things I learned as I wandered among the tombs of the old saints the first few evenings after my arrival at Meerut. I was interested in their history from the circ.u.mstance that amateur singers and professional dancers and musicians should display their talents at their shrines gratis, for the sake of getting alms for the poor of the place, given in their name--a thing I had never before heard of--though the custom prevails no doubt in other places; and that Musalmans and Hindoos should join promiscuously in their devotions and charities at all these shrines. Manohar Nath's shrine, though he was a Hindoo, is attended by as many Musalman as Hindoo pilgrims. He is said to have 'taken the _samadh_', that is, to have buried himself alive in this place as an offering to the Deity. Men who are afflicted with leprosy or any other incurable disease in India often take the samadh, that is, bury or drown themselves with due ceremonies, by which they are considered as acceptable sacrifices to the Deity. I once knew a Hindoo gentleman of great wealth and respectability, and of high rank under the Government of Nagpur, who came to the river Nerbudda, two hundred miles, attended by a large retinue, to _take the samadh_ in due form, from a painful disease which the doctors p.r.o.nounced incurable. After taking an affectionate leave of all his family and friends, he embarked on board the boat, which took him into the deepest part of the river. He then loaded himself with sand, as a sportsman who is required to carry weights in a race loads himself with shot, and stepping into the water disappeared. The funeral ceremonies were then performed, and his family, friends, and followers returned to Nagpur, conscious that they had all done what they had been taught to consider their duty.

Many poor men do the same every year when afflicted by any painful disease that they consider incurable.[5] The only way to prevent this is to carry out the plan now in progress of giving to India in an accessible shape the medical science of Europe--a plan first adopted under Lord W. Bentinck, prosecuted by Lord Auckland, and superintended by two able and excellent men, Doctors Goodeve and O'Shaughnessy. It will be one of the greatest blessings that India has ever received from England.[6]

Notes:

1. January, 1836. The date is misprinted 20th in the original edition.

2. _Ante_, chapter 56 [13].

3. 'Amongst the remains of former times in and around Meerut may be noticed the Suraj kund, commonly called by Europeans 'the monkey tank'. It was constructed by Jawahir Mal, a wealthy merchant of Lawar, in 1714. It was intended to keep it full of water from the Abu Nala but at present the tank is nearly dry in May and June. There are numerous small temples, 'dharmsalas' [i.e. rest-houses], and 'sati'

pillars on its banks, but none of any note. The largest of the temples is dedicated to Manohar Nath, and is said to have been built in the reign of Shah Jahan. Lawar, a large village . . . is distant twelve miles north of the civil station. . . . There is a fine house here called Mahal Sarai, built about A.D. 1700 by Jawahir Singh, Mahajan, who constructed the Suraj kund near Meerut' (_N.W.P.

Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. iii, pp. 406,400). This information, supplied by the local officials, is more to be depended on than the author's statement.

4. 'The "dargah" [i.e. shrine] of Shah Pir is a fine structure of red sandstone, erected about A.D. 1620 by Nur Jahan, the wife of the Emperor Jahangir, in memory of a pious fakir named Shah Pir. An "urs", or religions a.s.sembly, is held here every year in the month of Ramazan. The "dargah" is supported from the proceeds of the revenue- free village of Bhagwanpur' (ibid., vol. iii, p. 406). The text of the original edition gives the pilgrim's name as 'Gungishun', which has no meaning.

5. An interesting collection of modern cases of a similar kind is given in Balfour, _Cyclopaedia_, 3rd ed., s.v. 'Samadhi'.

6. See _ante_, chapter 15, note l4. Dr. W. B. O'Shaughnessy contributed many scientific papers to the _J.A.S.B._ (vols. viii, ix, x, xii, and xvi).

CHAPTER 72

Subdivisions of Lands--Want of Gradations of Rank--Taxes.

The country between Delhi and Meerut is well cultivated and rich in the latent power of its soil; but there is here, as everywhere else in the Upper Provinces, a lamentable want of gradations in society, from the eternal subdivision of property in land, and the want of that concentration of capital in commerce and manufactures which characterizes European--or I may take a wider range, and say Christian societies.[1] Where, as in India, the landlords' share of the annual returns from the soil has been always taken by the Government as the most legitimate fund for the payment of its public establishments; and the estates of the farmers, and the holdings of the immediate cultivators of the soil, are liable to be subdivided in equal shares among the sons in every succeeding generation, the land can never aid much in giving to society that without which no society can possibly be well organized--a gradation of rank. Were the Government to alter the System, to give up all the rent of the lands, and thereby convert all the farmers into proprietors of their estates, the case would not be much altered, while the Hindoo and Muhammadan law of inheritance remained the same; for the eternal subdivision would still go on, and reduce all connected with the soil to one common level; and the people would be hara.s.sed with a multiplicity of taxes, from which they are now free, that would have to be imposed to supply the place of the rent given up. The agricultural capitalists who derived their incomes from the interest of money advanced to the farmers and cultivators for subsistence and the purchase of stock were commonly men of rank and influence in society; but they were never a numerous cla.s.s.[2] The ma.s.s of the people in India are really not at present sensible that they pay any taxes at all. The only necessary of life, whose price is at all increased by taxes, is salt, and the consumer is hardly aware of this increase. The natives never eat salted meat; and though they require a great deal of salt, living, as they do, so much on vegetable food, still they purchase it in such small quant.i.ties from day to day as they require it, that they really never think of the tax that may have been paid upon it in its progress.[3]

To understand the nature of taxation in India, an Englishman should suppose that all the non-farming landholders of his native country had, a century or two ago, consented to resign their property into the hands of their sovereign, for the maintenance of his civil functionaries, army, navy, church, and public creditors, and then suddenly disappeared from the community, leaving to till the lands merely the farmers and cultivators; and that their forty millions of rent were just the sum that the Government now required to pay all these four great establishments.[4]

To understand the nature of the public debt of England a man has only to suppose one great national establishment, twice as large as those of the civil functionaries, the Army, Navy, and the Church together, and composed of members with fixed salaries, who purchased their commissions from _the wisdom of our ancestors_, with liberty to sell them to whom they please--who have no duty to perform for the public,[5] and have, like Adam and Eve, the privilege of going to 'seek their place of rest' in what part of the world they please--a privilege of which they will, of course, be found more and more anxious to avail themselves as taxation presses on the one side, and prohibition to the import of the necessaries of life diminishes the means of paying them on the other.

The repeal of the Corn Laws may give a new lift to England; it may greatly increase the foreign demand for the produce of its manufacturing industry; it may invite back a large portion of those who now spend their incomes in foreign countries, and prevent from going abroad to reside a vast number who would otherwise go. These laws must soon be repealed, or England must reduce one or other of its great establishments--the National Debt, the Church, the Army, or the Navy. The Corn Laws press upon England just in the same manner as the discovery of the pa.s.sage to India by the Cape of Good Hope pressed upon Venice and the other states whose welfare depended upon the transit of the produce of India by land. But the navigation of the Cape benefited all other European nations at the same time that it pressed upon these particular states, by giving them all the produce of India at cheaper rates than they would otherwise have got it, and by opening the markets of India to the produce of all other European nations. The Corn Laws benefit only one small section of the people of England, while they weigh, like an incubus, upon the vital energies of all the rest; and at the same time injure all other nations by preventing their getting the produce of manufacturing industry so cheap as they would otherwise get it. They have not, therefore, the merit of benefiting other nations, at the same time that they crush their own.[6]

For some twenty or thirty years of our rule, too many of the collectors of our land revenue in what we call the Western Provinces,[7] sought the 'bubble reputation' in an increase of a.s.sessment upon the lands of their district every five years when the settlement was renewed. The more the a.s.sessment was increased, the greater was the praise bestowed upon the collector by the revenue boards, or the revenue secretary to Government, in the name of the Governor-General of India.[8] These collectors found an easy mode of acquiring this reputation--they left the settlements to their native officers, and shut their ears to all complaints of grievances, till they had reduced all the landholders of their districts to one common level of beggary, without stock, character, or credit; and transferred a great portion of their estates to the native officers of their own courts through the medium of the auction sales that took place for the arrears, or pretended arrears, of revenue. A better feeling has for some years past prevailed, and collectors have sought their reputation in a real knowledge of their duties, and real good feeling towards the farmers and cultivators of their districts. For this better tone of feeling the Western Provinces are, I believe, chiefly indebted to Mr. R. M. Bird, of the Revenue Board, one of the most able public officers now in India. A settlement for twenty years is now in progress that will leave the farmers at least 35 per cent.

upon the gross collections from the immediate cultivators of the soil; that is, the amount of the revenue demandable by Government from the estate will be that less than what the farmer will, and would, under any circ.u.mstances, levy from the cultivators in his detailed settlement.[9]

The farmer lets all the land of his estate out to cultivators, and takes in money this rate of profit for his expense, trouble, and risk; or he lets out to the cultivators enough to pay the Government demand, and tills the rest with his own stock, rent-free. When a division takes place between his sons, they either divide the estate, and become each responsible for his particular share, or they divide the profits, and remain collectively responsible to Government for the whole, leaving one member of the family registered as the lessee and responsible head.[10]

In the Ryotwar System of Southern India, Government officers, removable at the pleasure of the Government collector, are subst.i.tuted for these farmers, or more properly proprietors, of estates; and a System more prejudicial to the best interests of society could not well be devised by the ingenuity of man.[11] It has been supposed by some theorists, who are practically unacquainted with agriculture in this or any other country, that all who have any interest in land above the rank of cultivator or ploughman are mere _drones_, or useless consumers of that rent which, under judicious management, might be added to the revenues of Government--that all which they get might, and ought to be, either left with the cultivators or taken by the Government. At the head of these is the justly celebrated historian, Mr. Mill. But men who understand the subject practically know that the intermediate agency of a farmer, who has a permanent interest in the estate, or an interest for a long period, is a thousand times better both for the Government and the people than that of a Government officer of any description, much less that of one removable at the pleasure of the collector.

Government can always get more revenue from a village under the management of the farmer; the character of the cultivators and village community generally is much better; the tillage is much better; and the produce, from more careful weeding and attention of all kinds, sells much better in the market. The better character of the cultivators enables them to get the loans they require to purchase stock, and to pay the Government demand on more moderate terms from the capitalists, who rely upon the farmer to aid in the recovery of their outlays, without reference to civil courts, which are ruinous media, as well in India as in other places. The farmer or landlord finds in the same manner that he can get much more from lands let out on lease to the cultivators or yeomen, who depend upon their own character, credit, and stock, than he can from similar lands cultivated with his own stock; and hired labourers can never be got to labour either so long or so well. The labour of the Indian cultivating lessee is always applied in the proper quant.i.ty, and at the proper time and place--that of the hired field-labourer hardly ever is. The skilful coachmaker always puts on the precise quant.i.ty of iron required to make his coach strong, because he knows where it is required; his coach is, at the same time, as light as it can be with safety. The unskilful workman either puts on too much, and makes his coach heavy; or he puts it in the wrong place, and leaves it weak.

If government extends the twenty years' settlement now in progress to fifty years or more, they will confer a great blessing upon the people[12] and they might, perhaps, do it on the condition that the inc.u.mbent consented to allow the lease to descend undivided to his heirs by the laws of primogeniture. To this condition all cla.s.ses would readily agree, for I have heard Hindoo and Muhammadan landholders all equally lament the evil effects of the laws by which families are so quickly and inevitably broken up; and say that 'it is the duty of government to take advantage of their power as the great proprietor and leaser of all the lands to prevent the evil by declaring leases indivisible. 'There would then', they say, 'be always one head to a.s.sist in maintaining the widows and orphans of deceased members, in educating his brothers and nephews; and by his influence and respectability procuring employment for them.' In such men, with feelings of permanent interest in their estates, and in the stability of the government that secured them possession on such favourable terms, and with the means of educating their children, we should by and by find our best support, and society its best element.

The law of primogeniture at present prevails only where it is most mischievous under our rule, among the feudal chiefs, whose ancestors rose to distinction and acquired their possessions by rapine in times of invasion and civil wars. This law among them tends to perpetuate the desire to maintain those military establishments by which the founders of their families arose, in the hope that the times of invasion and civil wars may return and open for them a similar field for exertion. It fosters a cla.s.s of powerful men, essentially and irredeemably opposed in feeling, not only to our rule, but to settled government under any rule; and the sooner the Hindoo law of inheritance is allowed by the paramount power to take its course among these feudal chiefs, the better for society. There is always a strong tendency to it in the desire of the younger brothers to share in the loaves and fishes; and this tendency is checked only by the injudicious interposition of our authority.[13]