Part 20 (2/2)
11. The numerous clans, more or less devoted to war, grouped together under the name of Rajputs (literally 'king's sons'), are in reality of multifarious origin, and include representatives of many races.
They are the Kshatriyas of the law-books, and are still often called Chhattri (_E.H.I._, 3rd ed., pp. 407-15). In some parts of the country the word Thakur is more familiar as their general t.i.tle.
Thirty-six clans are considered as specially pure-blooded and are called, at any rate in books, the 'royal races'. All the clans follow the custom of exogamy. The Chandels (Chandella) ruled Bundelkhand from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. Their capital was Mahoba, now a station on the Midland Railway. The Bundelas became prominent at a later date, and attained their greatest power under Chhatarsal (_circa_ A.D. 1671-1731). Their territory is now known as Bundelkhand. The country so designated is not an administrative division. It is partly in the United Provinces, partly in the Central Provinces, and partly in Native States. It is bounded on the north by the Jumna; on the north and west by the Chambal river; on the south by the Central Provinces, and on the south and east by Riwa and the Kaimur hills. The traditions of both the Bundelas and Chandellas show that there is a strain of the blood of the earlier, so--called aboriginal, races in both clans. The Pawar (Pramara) clan ranks high, but is now of little political importance (See _N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 68).
12. The paramount power often a.s.signed a portion of its reserved lands in 'Jagir' to public officers for the establishments they required for the performance of the duties, military or civil, which were expected from them. Other portions were a.s.signed in rent-free tenure for services already performed, or to favourites; but, in both cases, the rights of the village or land owner, or allodial proprietors, were supposed to be unaffected, as the Government was presumed to a.s.sign only its own claim to a certain portion as revenue. [W. H. S.] The term 'ryotwar' (raiyatwar) is commonly used to designate the system under which the cultivators hold their lands direct from the State. The subject of tenures is further discussed by the author in Chapters 70, 71.
13. For elaborate comparisons between the Rajput policy and the feudal system of Europe, Tod's _Rajasthan_ may be consulted. The parallel is not really so close as it appears to be at first sight.
In some respects the organization of the Highland clans is more similar to that of the Rajputs than the feudal system is. The Chambal river rises in Malwa, and, after a course of some five hundred and seventy miles, falls into the Jumna forty miles below Etawa. The statement in the text concerning the succession of clans is confused.
The ruling family of Riwa still belongs to the Baghel clan. The Maharaja of Jaipur (Jeypore) is a Kachhwaha.
14. The barbarous habit of alliance and connivance with robber gangs is by no means confined to Rajput n.o.bles and landholders. Men of all creeds and castes yield to the temptation and magistrates are sometimes startled to find that Honorary Magistrates, Members of District Boards, and others of apparently the highest respectability, are the abettors and secret organizers of robber bands. A modern example of this fact was discovered in the Meerut and Muzaffarnagar Districts of the United Provinces in 1890 and 1891. In this case the wealthy supporters of the banditti were Jats and Muhammadans.
The unfortunate condition of Oudh previous to the annexation in 1856 is vividly described in the author's _Journey through the Kingdom of Oude_, published in 1858. The tour took place in 1849-50. Some districts of the kingdom, especially Hardoi, are still tainted by the old lawlessness.
The remarks on the fine feelings of devotion shown by the sepoys must now be read in the light of the events of the Mutiny. Since that time the army has been reorganized, and depends on Oudh for its recruits much less than it did in the author's day.
15. Ujain (Ujjain, Oojeyn) is a very ancient city, on the river Sipra, in Malwa, in the dominions of Sindhia, the chief of Gwalior.
16. Bhajpore in the author's text. The town referred to is Bhojpur in the Shahabad district of South Bihar.
CHAPTER 24
Corn Dealers--Scarcities--Famines in India.
Near Tehri we saw the people irrigating a field of wheat from a tank by means of a canoe, in a mode quite new to me. The surface of the water was about three feet below that of the field to be watered. The inner end of the canoe was open, and placed to the mouth of a gutter leading into the wheat-field. The outer end was closed, and suspended by a rope to the outer end of a pole, which was again suspended to cross-bars. On the inner end of this pole was fixed a weight of stones sufficient to raise the canoe when filled with water; and at the outer end stood five men, who pulled down and sank the canoe into the water as often as it was raised by the stones, and emptied into the gutter. The canoe was more curved at the outer end than ordinary canoes are, and seemed to have been made for the purpose. The lands round the town generally were watered by the Persian wheel; but, where it [_scil._ the water] is near the surface, this [_scil._ the canoe arrangement] I should think a better method.[1]
On the 10th[2] we came on to the village of Bilgai, twelve miles over a bad soil, badly cultivated; the hard syenitic rock rising either above or near to the surface all the way--in some places abruptly, in small hills, decomposing into large rounded boulders--in others slightly and gently, like the backs of whales in the ocean-in others, the whole surface of the country resembled very much the face of the sea, not after, but really in, a storm, full of waves of all sizes, contending with each other 'in most admired disorder'. After the dust of Tehri, and the fatiguing ceremonies of its court, the quiet morning I spent in this secluded spot under the shade of some beautiful trees, with the surviving canary singing, my boy playing, and my wife sleeping off the fatigues of her journey, was to me most delightful. Henry was extremely ill when we left Jubbulpore; but the change of air, and all the other changes incident to a march, have restored him to health.
During the scarcity of 1833 two hundred people died of starvation in this village alone;[3] and were all thrown into one large well, which has, of course, ever since remained closed. Autumn crops chiefly are cultivated; and they depend entirely on the sky for water, while the poor people of the village depend upon the returns of a single season for subsistence during the whole year. They lingered on in the hope of aid from above till the greater part had become too weak from want of food to emigrate. The Raja gave half a crown to every family;[4]
but this served merely to kindle their hopes of more, and to prolong their misery. Till the people have a better government they can never be secure from frequent returns of similar calamities. Such security must depend upon a greater variety of crops, and better means of irrigation; better roads to bring supplies over from distant parts which have not suffered from the same calamities; and greater means in reserve of paying for such supplies when brought--things that can never be hoped for under a government like this, which allows no man the free enjoyment of property.
Close to the village a large wall has been made to unite two small hills, and form a small lake; but the wall is formed of the rounded boulders of the syenitic rock without cement, and does not retain the water. The land which was to have formed the bed of the lake is all in tillage; and I had some conversation with the man who cultivated it. He told me that the wall had been built with the money of _sin_, and not the money of _piety_ (_pap ke paisa se, na pun ke paisa se bana_), that the man who built it must have laid out his money with a _worldly_, and not a _religious_ mind (_niyat_); that on such occasions men generally a.s.sembled Brahmans and other deserving people, and fed and clothed them, and thereby _consecrated_ a great work, and made it acceptable to G.o.d, and he had heard from his ancestors that the man who had built this wall had failed to do this; that the construction could never, of course, answer the purpose for which it was intended--and that the builder's name had actually been forgotten, and the work did him no good either in this world or the next. This village, which a year or two ago was large and populous, is now reduced to two wretched huts inhabited by two very miserable families.
Bundelkhand suffers more often and more severely from the want of seasonable showers of rain than any other part of India; while the province of Malwa, which adjoins it on the west and south, hardly ever suffers at all.[5] There is a couplet, which, like all other good couplets on rural subjects, is attributed to Sahdeo [Sahadeva], one of the five demiG.o.d brothers of the Mahabharata, to this effect: 'If you hear not the thunder on such a night, you, father, go to Malwa, I to Gujarat;'--that is, there will be no rain, and we must seek subsistence where rains never fail, and the harvests are secure.
The province of Malwa is well studded with hills and groves of fine trees, which intercept the clouds as they are wafted by the prevailing westerly winds, from the Gulf of Cambay to the valley of the Ganges, and make them drop their contents upon a soil of great natural powers, formed chiefly from the detritus of the decomposing basaltic rocks, which cap and intersect these hills.[6]
During the famine of 1833, as on all similar occasions, grain of every kind, attracted by high prices, flowed up in large streams from this favoured province towards Bundelkhand; and the population of Bundelkhand, as usual in such times of dearth and scarcity, flowed off towards Malwa against the stream of supply, under the a.s.surance that the nearer they got to the source, the greater would be their chance of employment and subsistence. Every village had its numbers of the dead and the dying; and the roads were all strewed with them; but they were mostly concentrated upon the great towns and civil and military stations, where subscriptions were open[ed] for their support, by both the European and native communities. The funds arising from these subscriptions lasted till the rains had set fairly in, when all able-bodied persons could easily find employment in tillage among the agricultural communities of villages around. After the rains have fairly set in, the _sick_ and _helpless_ only should be kept concentrated upon large towns and stations, where little or no employment is to be found; for the oldest and youngest of those who are able to work can then easily find employment in weeding the cotton, rice, sugar-cane, and other fields under autumn crops, and in preparing the lands for the reception of the wheat, gram,[7] and other spring seeds; and get advances from the farmers, agricultural capitalists[8] and other members of the village communities, who are all glad to share their superfluities with the distressed, and to pay liberally for the little service they are able to give in return.
It is very unwise to give from such funds what may be considered a full rate of subsistence to able-bodied persons, as it tends to keep concentrated upon such points vast numbers who would otherwise be scattered over the surface of the country among the village communities, who would be glad to advance them stock and the means of subsistence upon the pledge of their future services when the season of tillage commences. The rate of subsistence should always be something less than what the able-bodied person usually consumes, and can get for his labour in the field. For the sick and feeble this rate will be enough, and the healthy and able-bodied, with unimpaired appet.i.tes, will seek a greater rate by the offer of their services among the farmers and cultivators of the surrounding country. By this precaution, the ma.s.s of suffering will be gradually diffused over the country, so as best to receive what the country can afford to give for its relief. As soon as the rains set in, all the able-bodied men, women, and children should be sent off with each a good blanket, and a rupee or two, as the funds can afford, to last them till they can engage themselves with the farmers. Not a farthing after that day should be given out, except to the feeble and sick, who may be considered as hospital patients.[9]
At large places, where the greater numbers are concentrated, the scene becomes exceedingly distressing, for, in spite of the best dispositions and greatest efforts on the part of Government and its officers, and the European and native communities, thousands commonly die of starvation. At Sagar, mothers, as they lay in the streets unable to walk, were seen holding up their infants, and imploring the pa.s.sing stranger to take them in slavery, that they might at least live--hundreds were seen creeping into gardens, courtyards, and old ruins, concealing themselves under shrubs, gra.s.s, mats, or straw, where they might die quietly, without having their bodies torn by birds and beasts before the breath had left them. Respectable families, who left home in search of the favoured land of Malwa, while yet a little property remained, finding all exhausted, took opium rather than beg, and husband, wife, and children died in each other's arms. Still more of such families lingered on in hope till all had been expended; then shut their doors, took poison and died all together, rather than expose their misery, and submit to the degradation of begging. All these things I have myself known and seen; and, in the midst of these and a hundred other harrowing scenes which present themselves on such occasions, the European cannot fail to remark the patient resignation with which the poor people submit to their fate; and the absence of almost all those revolting acts which have characterized the famines of which he has read in other countries--such as the living feeding on the dead, and mothers devouring their own children. No such things are witnessed in Indian famines;[10] here all who suffer attribute the disaster to its real cause, the want of rain in due season; and indulge in no feelings of hatred against their rulers, superiors, or more fortunate equals in society who happen to live beyond the range of such calamities. They gratefully receive the superfluities which the more favoured are always found ready to share with the afflicted in India; and, though their sufferings often subdue the strongest of all pride, the pride of caste, they rarely ever drive the people to acts of violence. The stream of emigration, guided as it always is by that of the agricultural produce flowing in from the more favoured countries, must necessarily concentrate upon the communities along the line it takes a greater number of people than they have the means of relieving, however benevolent their dispositions; and I must say that I have never either seen or read of a n.o.bler spirit than seems to animate all cla.s.ses of these communities in India on such distressing occasions.
In such seasons of distress, we often, in India, hear of very injudicious interference with grain dealers on the part of civil and military authorities, who contrive to persuade themselves that the interest of these corn-dealers, instead of being in accordance with the interests of the people, are entirely opposed to them; and conclude that, whenever grain becomes dear, they have a right to make them open their granaries, and sell their grain at such price as they, in their wisdom, may deem reasonable. If they cannot make them do this by persuasion, fine, or imprisonment, they cause their pits to be opened by their own soldiers or native officers, and the grain to be sold at an arbitrary price. If, in a hundred pits thus opened, they find one in which the corn happens to be damaged by damp, they come to the sage conclusion that the proprietors must be what they have all along supposed them to be, and treated as such--_the common enemies of mankind_--who, blind alike to their own interests and those of the people, purchase up the superabundance of seasons of plenty, not to sell it again in seasons of scarcity, but _to destroy it_; and that the whole of the grain in the other ninety-nine pits, but for their _timely interference_, must have inevitably shared the same fate.[11]
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