otes on the North-Western Provinces of India PDF
Preview otes on the North-Western Provinces of India
. NOTES ON INDIA. LONDON : PrintedbyG.BABCLAT,CastleSt.LeicesterSq. NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES OF INDIA. BY CHARLES RAIKES, If MAGISTRATEAND COLLECTOROFMYNPOORIE. % Pmbm % dM Sto m 10 0f LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. MDCCCLII. MORSE STEPHENS INTRODUCTION. THE Notes on the North-Western Provinces of India, which are now offered to the English " reader, were written originally for the Benares Magazine," and have, with the exception of the last paper, appeared in late numbers of that periodical. The humhle attempt of the writer is to describe, in a popular manner, the working of our civil administration in that part of India to which he is attached by the ties of duty and long service. He is induced to offer his observations " to a larger circle than is embraced by the Be- nares Magazine"* by the following considerations. At the present moment, when the affairs of India engage the public attention, it is believed that a * This periodical, able and deserving though it be, cir- culates as yet only amongst a small phase of English readers in India, and is scarcely known in England. 512857 VI INTRODUCTION. few simple details of the working of our Police and Revenue systems, though given by one who has better means of observing- than talents for recording his observations, may be not unaccept- able to the general reader. And if that increas- ing and important class of our public men in England, who take an intelligent interest in British India, should find here little that is new to them, there are still hundreds, nay, thousands, who would gladly see a popular description of the every-day duties which occupy their sons or brothers in the Indian Civil Service. To that service the writer belongs. No one knows better than he does how dry are the sub- jects of Indian police practice or revenue science (for a science it is) ; but it is this very reason which has induced him to attempt, in some poor degree, to attract attention to questions so im- portant to millions of our fellow-subjects. If, by his imperfect endeavour to sketch the condition of the people as affected by the policy of their English masters, he has added but one stone to the monument of Christian civilisation, which so many abler hands are striving to rear in India, his labour will not have been in vain. INTRODUCTION. Vll Such being the scope of the writer, a few words more may be excused as to the detail of his book. The first place has been given to the note on " Female Infanticide," because that paper has been honoured by the approbation of the Lieu- tenant-governor of Agra, to whom it was originally inscribed, and has been distributed by that dis- tinguished statesman to the magistrates and other public servants in the Upper Provinces. The next four numbers of the Notes, from two to five inclusive, belong to the subject of Landed Tenures in the North-Western Provinces. No. II. sketches the Rise and Progress of our Revenue System. No. III. sketches the Character of the Rajpoot Agriculturist, and the Condition of the Landed Proprietors under British rule. No. IV. continues the subject of No. III., and proceeds to consider the case of the Non- proprietary Cultivating Classes. No. V. contains the Domestic History of a Rajpoot Family, as affected by the proceedings of a Magistrate and Collector. Nos. VI. to VIII. present a sketch of the duties of a Magistrate in the North-Western Vlll INTRODUCTION. " " Provinces. These Notes on the Police were " written to form a pendant to the Notes on Landed Tenures," given in Nos. II. to V. The last of the Police Notes has not yet appeared in print in India. The extracts given in Nos. V., VI., and VII., as from the Note-book of a Magistrate and Col- lector, describe scenes through which the writer has himself passed in short, facts, not fancies ; as, indeed, the reader may conclude from the ordinary nature of many of the circumstances related. I. FEMALE INFANTICIDE IN THE DOAB.* IT was our national enemy who dubbed the English "a nation of shopkeepers." There was more of wit than of truth in the sentence. For in if, matters of mere traffic and commerce, the English mind be guarded and cautious, it is in other moral or social relations remarkable for frank unsuspect- ing confidence. The hearts of our countrymen are prone to belief ; we speak, not only of their deep natural faith in the realities of the unseen world, but we say, also, that Englishmen in general walk this every-day life with believing hearts. One special faith there is, deep in the mind of which our has England, present subject suggested to us, and that is, the faith in female virtue. The Englishman, and, thank Heaven, with good reason, is a believer in the purity of the female sex : to his mind (we speak of all except the professed liber- * Land between two rivers. In Hindostan the vast and fertile tract situated between the Ganges and Jumna is known as "The Doab." B 2 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN tine) the innocence of girlhood is a reality, whilst he regards with equal respect the vow of the matron or the veil of the widow. And what in- dividuals believe, the common voice of the nation ratifies. As a people, we venerate the quiet cha- rities of domestic life. In late years, when almost every European dynasty seemed to shake, the throne of England has needed no surer bulwark than that which the love of a nation could supply. To a monarch who, to the dignity of a queen, added the graces of a wife and a mother, who had shown herself in all these relations so faithful, what honest English heart could be faithless ? How immense the effect upon our national cha- racter of this one article of our fireside religion, can best be told by those who, in less favoured societies, have tried to lead or raise the human mind. In India we are reminded, at every turn, how hard it is to affect the domestic morals of a nation which believes not in female honour and virtue. No man is more impatient of female disgrace than your Rajpoot or Brahmin, but no man is more in- credulous of female Girlhood he watches fidelity. with doubt, married life with jealousy, widowhood the very word is a reproach.* Men who pro- phesy thus of their women need not be surprised if their prophecies come true. The woman of India is what the man has made her. But so is woman everywhere : educate her, trust her, woman * The word rand, or widow, is a common term ofabuse.
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