Part 14 (1/2)

This system, injurious alike to the sovereign, the troops, and the people, is becoming every season more and more common in Oude; and must, in a few years, embrace nearly the whole of the land-revenue of the country. It is denominated _kubz_, or contract, and is of two kinds, the ”_lakulame kubz_,” or pledge to collect and pay a certain sum, for which the estate is held to be liable; and ”_wuslee kubz_,”

or pledge to pay to the collector or troops the precise sum which the commandant may be able to collect from the estate put under him. In the first, the commandant who takes the _kubz_ must pay to the Government collector or the troops the full sum for which the estate is held to be liable, whether he be able to collect it or not, and his _kubz_ is valid at the Treasury, as so much money paid to the troops. In the second, it is valid only as a pledge, to collect as much as he can, and to pay what he collects to the Government collector, or the troops he commands. The collector, however, commonly understands that he has s.h.i.+fted off the burthen of payment to the troops--to the extent of the sum named--from his own shoulders to those of the commandant of the troops; and the troops understand, that unless they collect this sum they will never get it, or be obliged to screw it out of their commandant; and they go to the work _con amore_. If they can't collect it from the sale of all the crops of the season, they seize and sell all the stock and property of all kinds to be found on the estate; and if this will not suffice, they will not scruple to seize and sell the women and children. The collector, whose tenure of office seldom extends beyond the season, cares little as to the mode as long as he gets the money, and feels quite sure that the sovereign and his Court will care just as little, and ask no questions, should the troops sell every living thing to be found on the estate.

The history, for the last few years, of the estate of Muneearpoor, involves that of the estate of Kupragow and Seheepoor, held by the family of the late Hurpaul Sing, and may be interesting as ill.u.s.trative of the state of society in Oude. Hurpaul Sing's family is shown in the accompanying note.*

[* Purotee Sing had two sons, Gunga Persaud and Nihal Sing. Gunga Persaud had one son, Seosewak, who had three sons, Seoumber Sing, Hobdar Sing, and Hurpaul Sing. Seoumber Sing had one son, Ramsurroop Sing, the present head of the family, who holds the fort and estate of Kupradehee. Hobdar Sing had one son, who died young. Hurpaul Sing died young, Nihal Sing had no son, but left a widow, who holds his share of one-half of the estate, and resides at Seheepoor.]

In the year A.D. 1821, after the death of Purotee Sing, his second son, Nihal Sing, held one-half of the estate, and resided in Seheepoor, and the family of his eldest son, Gunga Persaud, held the other half, and resided in Kupragow. The whole paid a revenue to Government of between six and seven hundred rupees a-year, and yielded a rent-roll of something more than double that sum. The neighbouring estate of Muneearpoor, yielding a rent-roll of about three hundred and fifty thousand rupees a-year, was held by Roshun Zuman Khan, in whose family it had been for many generations. He had an only brother, Busawan Khan, who died, leaving a widow, Bussoo, and a daughter, the Beebee, or Lady, Sogura. Roshun Zuman Khan also died, leaving a widow Rahamanee, who succeeded to the estate, but soon died, and left it to the Lady Sogura and her mother. They made Nihal Sing, Gurgbunsee, of Seheepoor, manager of their affairs. From the time that he entered upon the management, Nihil Sing began to increase the number of his followers from his own clan, the Gurgbunsies; and, having now become powerful enough, he turned out his mistress, and took possession of her estate, in collusion with the local authorities.

Rajah Dursun Sing, who then, 1836, held the contract for the district, wished to take advantage of the occasion, to seize upon the estate for himself, and a quarrel, in consequence, took place between him and Nihal Sing. Unable, as a public servant of the State, to lead his own troops against him, Dursun Sing instigated Baboo Bureear Sing, of Bhetee, a powerful tallookdar, to attack Nihal Sing at night, with all the armed followers he could muster, and, in the fight, Nihal Sing was killed. Hurpaul Sing, his nephew, applied for aid to the Durbar, and Seodeen Sing was sent, with a considerable force, to aid him against Bureear Sing. When they were ready for the attack, Dursun Sing sent a reinforcement of troops, secretly, to Bureear Sing, which so frightened Seodeen Sing, that he retired from the conflict.

The Gurgbunsee family had, however, by this time added a great part of the Muneearpoor estate to their own, and many other estates belonging to their weaker neighbours; and, by the plunder of villages, and robbery on the highways, become very powerful. Dursun Sing was superseded in the contract, in 1837, by the widow of Hadee Allee Khan; and Hurpaul recovered possession of the Muneearpoor estate, which he still held in the name of the _Lady Sogura_. In 1843, she managed to get the estate transferred from the jurisdiction of the contractor for Sultanpoor, to that of the Hozoor Tehseel, and held it till 1845, when Maun Sing, who had succeeded to the contract for the district, on the death of his father, Dursun Sing, in 1844, managed through his uncle, Bukhtawar Sing, to get the estate restored to his jurisdiction. Knowing that his object was to absorb her estate, as he and his father had done so many others, she went off to Lucknow to seek protection; but Maun Sing seized upon all her nankar and seer lands, and put the estate under the management of his own officers. The Lady Sogura, unable to get any one to plead her cause at Court, in opposition to the powerful influence, of Bukhtawur Sing, returned to Muneearpoor. Maun Sing, after he had collected the greater part of the revenue for 1846, made over the estate to Hurpaul and Seoumber Sing, who put the lady into confinement, and plundered her of all she had left.

Feeling now secure in the possession of the Muneearpoor estate, Hurpaul and Seoumber Sing left a small guard to secure the lady, and went off, with the rest of their forces, to seize upon the estate of Birsingpoor, in the purgunnah of Dehra, belonging to the widow of Mahdoo Sing, the tallookdar. She summoned to her aid Roostum Sa and other Rajkomar landholders, friends of her late husband. A fight ensued, in which Seoumber Sing and his brother, Hobdar Sing were killed. Hurpaul Sing fled and returned to his fort of Kupragow. The Lady Sogura escaped, and presented herself again to the Court of Lucknow, under better auspices; and orders were sent to Maun Sing, and all the military authorities, to restore her to the possession of her estate, and seize or destroy Hurpaul Sing. In alarm Hurpaul Sing then released the mother of the Lady Sogura, and prepared to fly.

Maun Sing sent confidential persons to him to say, that he had been ordered by the Court of Lucknow to confer upon him a dress of honour or condolence, on the death of his two lamented brothers, and should do so in person the next day. Hurpaul Sing was considered one of the bravest men in Oude, but he was then sick on his bed, and unable to move. He received the message without suspicion, being anxious for some small interval of repose; and willing to believe that common interests and pursuits had united him and Maun Sing in something like bonds of friends.h.i.+p.

Maun Sing came in the afternoon, and rested under a banyan-tree, which stood opposite the gateway of the fort. He apologized for not entering the fort, on the ground, that it might lead to some collision between their followers, or that his friend might not wish any of the King's servants, who attended with the dress of honour, to enter his fortress. Hurpaul Sing left all his followers inside the gate, and was brought out to Maun Sing in a litter, unable to sit up without support. The two friends embraced and conversed together with seeming cordiality till long after sunset, when Maun Sing, after investing his friend with the dress of honour, took leave and mounted his horse. This was the concerted signal for his followers to despatch his sick friend, Hurpaul. As he cantered off, at the sound of his kettle-drum and the other instruments of music, used by the n.a.z.ims of districts, his armed followers, who had by degrees gathered round the tree, without awakening any suspicion, seized the sick man, dragged him on the ground, a distance of about thirty paces, and then put him to death. He was first shot through the chest, and then stabbed with spears, cut to pieces with swords, and left on the ground. They were fired upon from the fort, while engaged in this foul murder, but all escaped unhurt. Maun Sing had sworn by the holy Ganges, and still more holy head of Mahadeo, that his friend should suffer no personal hurt in this interview; and the credulous and no less cruel and rapacious Gurgbunsies were lulled into security. The three persons who murdered Hurpaul, were Nujeeb Khan, who has left Mann Sing's service, Benee Sing, who still serves him, and Jeskurun Sing, who has since died. Sadik Hoseyn and many others aided them in dragging their victim to the place where he was murdered, but the wounds which killed him were inflicted by the above-named persons.

The family fled, the fort was seized and plundered of all that could be found, and the estate seized and put under the management of Government officers. Maun Sing had collected half the revenues of 1847, when he was superseded in the contract by Wajid Allee Khan, who re-established the Lady Sogura in the possession of all that remained of her estate. He, at the same time, reinstated the family of Hurpaul Sing, in the possession of their now large estate--that is, the widow of Nihal Sing, to Seheepoor, comprising one-half; and Ramsurroop Sing, the son of Seoumber Sing, to Kupragow, comprising the other half.* The rent-roll of the whole is now estimated at 1,29,000 a- year; and the _nankar_, or recognized allowance for the holders, is 73,000, leaving the Government demand at 56,000, of which they hardly ever pay one-half, or one-quarter, being inveterate robbers and rebels. Wajid Allee Khan had been commissioned, by the Durbar, to restore the Lady Sogura to her patrimonial estate, and he brought her with him from Lucknow for the purpose; but he soon after made over a part of the estate to his friend, Bakir Allee, of Esoulee, and another part to Ramsurroop, the son of Seoumber Sing, for a suitable consideration, and left only one-half to the Lady Sogura. This she at first refused to take, but he promised to restore the whole the next year, when he saw she was resolved to return again to her friends at Lucknow, and she consented to take the offered half on condition of a large remission of the Government demand upon it. When the season of collections came, however, he would make no remission for the half he had permitted her to retain, or give her any share in the perquisites of the half he had made over to others; nor would he give her credit for any portion of the collections, which had been antic.i.p.ated by Maun Sing. He made her pledge the whole rents of her estate to Hoseyn Allee Khan, the commandant of a squadron of cavalry, on detached duty, under him. Unable to conduct the management under all these outrages and exactions, she begged to have the estate put under Government officers. Her friends at Court got an order issued for her being restored to the possession of the whole estate, having credit for the whole amount collected by Maun Sing, and a remission in the revenue equal to all that Government allowed to the proprietors of such estates.

[* In May 1851, the n.a.z.im besieged Ramsurroop, in Kupragow, with a very large force, including Bunbury's and Magness's Regiments and Artillery. After the loss of many lives from fighting, and more from cholera, on both sides, Ramsurroop marched out with all his garrison and guns at night, and pa.s.sed, unmolested, through that part of the line where the non-fighting corps were posted.]

Wajid Allee Khan disregarded the order, and made over or sold Naraenpoor and other villages belonging to the estate, to Rughbur Sing, the atrocious brother of Maun Sing, who sent his myrmidons to take possession. They killed the Lady Sogura's two agents in the management, plundered her of all she had of property, and all the rents which she had up to that time collected, for payment to Government; and took possession of Naraenpoor and the other villages, sold to their master by Wajid Allee. Wajid Allee soon after came with a large force, seized the lady and carried her off to his camp, put all her officers and attendants into confinement, and refused all access to her. When she became ill, and appeared likely to sink under the treatment she received, he made her enter into written engagements to pay to the troops, in liquidation of their arrears of pay, all that he pretended that she owed to the State. He prevailed upon Ghuffoor Beg, who commanded the artillery, to take these her pledges, and give him, Wajid Allee, corresponding receipts for the amount, for transmission to the Treasury; and then made her over a prisoner to him. Ghuffoor Beg took possession of the lady and the estate, kept her in close confinement, and employed his artillery-men in making the collections in their own way, by appropriating all the harvests to themselves.

Wajid Allee was superseded in October 1849, by Aga Allee, who, on entering on his charge, directed that martial-law should cease in Muneearpoor; but Ghuffoor Beg and his artillery-men were too strong for the governor, and refused to give up the possession of so nice an estate. When I approached the estate in my tour, Ghuffoor Beg took the lady off to Chundoly, where she was treated with all manner of indignity and cruelty by the artillery. The estate was going to utter ruin under their ignorant and reckless management, and the n.a.z.im, Aga Allee, prayed me to interpose and save it, and protect the poor Lady Sogura. I represented the hards.h.i.+p of the case to the Durbar, but with little hope of any success, under the present government, who say, that if the troops are not allowed to pay themselves in this way, they shall have to pay them all the arrears for which the estate is pledged, not one rupee of which is reduced by the collections they make. If they were to hold the estate for twenty years, they would not allow it to appear that any portion of the arrears had been paid off. The estate is a n.o.ble one, and, in spite of all the usurpations and disorders from which it has lately suffered, was capable last year of yielding to Government a revenue of fifty thousand rupees a- year, after providing liberally for all the requirements of the poor Lady Sogura and her family, or a rent-roll of one hundred thousand rupees a-year.

_December_ 19, 1849.--Shahgunge, distance twelve miles. This town is surrounded by a mud wall, forty feet thick, and a ditch three miles round, built thirty years ago, and now much out of repair. It belongs to the family of Rajah Bukhtawar Sing. The wall, thirty feet high, was built of the mud taken from the ditch, in which there is now some six or seven feet of water. The wall has twenty-four bastions for guns, but there is no platform, or road for guns, round it on the inside. A number of respectable merchants and tradesmen reside in this town, where they are better protected than in any other town in Oude. It contains a population of between twenty and thirty thousand persons. They put thatch over the mud walls during the rains to preserve them. The fortifications and dwelling-houses together are said to have cost the family above ten lacs of rupees. There are some fourteen old guns in the fort. Though it would be difficult to sh.e.l.l a garrison out of a fort of this extent, it would not be difficult to take it. No garrison, sufficient to defend all parts of so extended a wall, could be maintained by the holder; and it would be easy to fill the ditch and scale the walls. Besides, the family is so very unpopular among the military cla.s.ses around, whose lands they have seized upon, that thousands would come to the aid of any government force brought to crush them, and overwhelm the garrison. They keep their position only by the purchase of Court favour, and have the respect and attachment of only the better sort of cultivators, who are not of the military cla.s.ses, and could be of little use to them in a collision with their sovereign. The family by which it is held has long been very influential at Court, where it has been represented by Bukhtawar Sing, whose brother, Dursun Sing, was the most powerful subject that Oude has had since the time of Almas Allee Khan. They live, however, in the midst of hundreds of st.u.r.dy Rajpoots, whom they have deprived of their lands, and who would, as I have said, rise against them were they to be at any time opposed to the Government The country over which we have pa.s.sed this morning is well studded with groves, and well cultivated; and the peasantry seemed contented and prosperous. The greater part of the road lay through the lands acquired, as already described, by this family.

Though they have acquired the property in the land by abuse of authority, collusion and violence, from its rightful owners, they keep their faith with the cultivators, effectually protect them from thieves, robbers, the violence of their neighbours, and, above all, from the ravages of the King's troops; and they encourage the settlement of the better or more skilful and industrious cla.s.ses of cultivators in their villages, such as Kachies, Koormies, and Lodhies. They came out from numerous villages, and in considerable bodies, to salute me, and expressed themselves well satisfied with their condition, and the security they enjoyed under their present landholders. We came through the village of Puleea, and Rajah Bukhtawar Sing seemed to have great pleasure in showing me the house in which he was born, seventy-five years ago, under a fine tamarind- tree that is still in vigour. The history of this family is that of many others in the Oude territory.

The father of Bukhtawar Sing, Porunder, was the son of Mungul, a Brahmin, who resided in Bhojpoor, on the right bank of the Ganges, a little below Buxar. The son, Porunder, was united in marriage to the daughter of Sudhae Misser, a respectable Brahmin, who resided in Puleea, and held a share of the lands. He persuaded his son-in-law to take up his residence in the same village. Prouder had five sons born to him in this village:-- 1. Rajah Bukhtawar Sing, my Quartermaster- General. 2. Pursun Sing, died without issue. 3. Rajah Dursun Sing, died 1844, leaving three sons. 4. Incha Sing lives, and has two sons.

5. Davey Sing died, leaving two sons.

The eldest son was a trooper in the Honourable Company's 8th Regiment of Light Cavalry; and while still a very young man, and home on furlough, he attracted the attention of Saadnt Allee Khan, the sovereign of Oude, whom he attended on a sporting excursion. He was very tall, and exceedingly handsome; and, on one occasion, saved his sovereign's life from the sword of an a.s.sa.s.sin. He became one of Saadut Alee's favourite orderlies, and rose to the command of a squadron. In a fine picture of Saadut Allee and his Court on the occasion of a Durbar, at which the Resident, Colonel Scott, and his suite were present, Bukhtawar Sing is represented in the dress he wore as an orderly cavalry officer. This picture is still preserved at Lucknow. His brothers, Dursun, Incha, and Davey Sing became, one after the other, orderlies in the same manner, under the influence of Bukhtawar Sing, during the reign of Saadnt Allee, and his son, Ghazee-od Deen. Dursan Sing got the command of a regiment of Nujeebs in 1814, and Incha Sing and Davey Sing rose in favour and rank, both civil and military.

Bhudursa and five other villages were held in proprietary right by the members of a family of Syuds. They enjoyed Bhudursa rent free, and still hold it; but the other five villages (Kyl, Mahdono, Tindooa, Teroo, and Pursun) were bestowed, in jagheer, upon another Syud, a Court favourite, Khoda Buksh, in 1814. He fell into disfavour in 1816, and all these and other villages were let, in 1817, to Dursun Sing, in farm, at 60,000 rupees a-year. The bestowal of an estate in jagheer, or farm, ought not to interfere with the rights of the proprietors of the lands comprised in it, as the sovereign transfers merely his own territorial rights, not theirs; but Dursun Sing, before the year 1820, had, by rack-renting, lending on mortgage, and other fraudulent or violent means, deprived all the Syud proprietors of their lands in the other five villages. They were, however, still left in possession of Bhudursa. He pursued the same system, as far as possible, in the other districts, which were, from time to time, placed under him, as contractor for the revenue.

He held the contract for Sultanpoor and other districts, altogether yielding fifty-nine lacs of rupees a-year, in 1827; and it was then that he first bethought himself of securing his family permanently in the possession of the lands he had seized, or might seize upon, by _bynamahs_, or deeds of sale, from the old proprietors.

He imposed upon the lands he coveted, rates which he knew they could never pay; took all the property of the proprietors for rent, or for the wages of the mounted and foot soldiers, whom he placed over them, or quartered upon their villages, to enforce his demands; seized any neighbouring banker or capitalist whom he could lay hold of, and by confinement and harsh treatment, made him stand security for the suffering proprietors, for sums they never owed; and when these proprietors were made to appear to be irretrievably involved in debt to the State and to individuals, and had no hope of release from prison by any other means, they consented to sign the _bynamahs_, or sale deeds for lands, which their families had possessed for centuries. Those of the capitalists who had no friends at Court were made to pay the money, for which they had been forced to pledge themselves; and those who had such friends, got the sums which they had engaged to pay, represented as irrecoverable balances due by proprietors, and struck off. The proprietors themselves, plundered of all they had in the world, and without any hope of redress, left the country, or took service under our Government, or that of Oude, or descended to the rank of day-labourers or cultivators in other estates.*

[* Estates held by the family under _bynamahs_ or sale deeds:

1. Puchumrath . . . . . . . . . 1,13,000 2. Howelee . . . . . . . . . . 45,000 3. Mogulsee, including Hindoo Sing's estate of Shapoor, obtained by fraud and violence . . . . . . 28,000 4. Bhurteepoor and Laltapoor . . . . 30,000 5. Rudowlee . . . . . . . . . 12,000 Turolee in Huldeemow. . . . . . 17,000 6. Bahraetch in Sagonputtee . . . . 4,000 7. Gosaengunge . . . . . . . . 3,000 ________

Total Company's Rupees . . . 2,52,000 ________

Dursun Sing's contracts, for the land revenue, of districts, amounted from 1827 to 1830, to 59,00,000 rupees a year. From 1830 to 1836, to 58,00,000. In 1836 to 46,100,000. In 1837 to 47,00,000. He continued to hold the whole or greater part of these districts up to September 1843.]

There were four brothers, the sons of a Canoongo, of Fyzabad; first, Birj Lal; second, Lala; third, Humeer Sing, a corporal in one of our Regiments of Native Infantry; fourth, Hunooman Persaud; fifth, Gunga Persaud. The family held-eight villages, in hereditary right, with a rent-roll of 6,000, of which they paid 3,000 to Government, and took 3,000 for themselves. While Dursun Sing was dying, in 1844, his eldest son, Ramadeen, tried to get possession of this estate. He seized and confined, in the usual way, Gunga Persaud, the Canoongo, and kept him with harsh treatment, for 1844; and when his brother the corporal complained, in the usual way, through the Resident, Gunga Persaud was released, and he attended the Residents Court, as his brother's attorney, till 1847, when the family recovered possession of the estate. But in 1846, when Dursun Sing's son saw that the case was going against him, he made their local agent, Davey Persaud, plunder all the eight villages of all the stock in cattle, grain, &c., that they contained, and all the people, of whatever property they possessed.

Dursun Sing's family now pay to the Oude Government, a revenue of 1,88,000 rupees a-year, for their _bynamah_ estates, which were acquired by them in the manner described. The rent-roll, recognized in the Exchequer, is 2,56,000; and the _nankar_ 68,000; but the real rent-roll is much greater-perhaps double. The village of Tendooa, in Mehdona, belonged, in hereditary right, to Soorujbulee Sing and Rugonauth Sing, Rajpoots, whom the family of Dursun Sing wished to coerce, in the usual mode, into signing a _bynamah_, or deed of sale.

They refused, and some of the family are said to have been in confinement in consequence, since the year A.D. 1844. When Gunga Persaud, the Canoongo, was confined by Dursun Sing's family, on account of his own estate, they extorted from him, on the pretence of his being security for the punctual payment of what might be demanded from these two men, Soorujbulee' and Rugonauth, the sum of 4,000 rupees. One of the eight villages, held by the Canoongoes, named Aboo Surae, Ghalib Jung, alias Dursun Sing, another Court favourite, is now trying to take by violence, for himself, following the practice of his namesake. He has possessed himself of many by the same means, keeping the troops he commands upon them at exercise and target- practice, till he drives both cultivators and proprietors out, or shoots them.