Bulandshahr: or Sketches of an Indian District; Social, Historical and Architectural/Preface
PREFACE.
With the exception of a few paragraphs, the whole of this little volume of district sketches has already appeared in print, Chapters I and III in the Calcutta Review and Chapter II in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. It was intended all along that the three articles should ultimately be combined so as to form a single series, whenever the Plates that now illustrate them were ready for publication; but, as each section was separately written and made to some extent complete in itself, the result is that they seem to hang together a little loosely. The want of cohesion, however, is only in the joints of the structure and does not arise from any inherent incongruity of material. The two introductory chapters, being devoted to a general description of the district and to a history of its chief town, are a natural prelude to the third, in which all the special interest of the book is concentrated. This gives a circumstantial account of the extensive local improvements that have been carried out during the last six years, explains and defends the principles upon which the work has been conducted and urges an appeal for their wider recognition.
It was quite unnecessary for me to compile a complete and consecutive history of the district, for that has been already supplied in a highly satisfactory manner by the "Historical and statistical Memoir of Bulandshahr," written by Rájá Lachhman Siṅh and published at the Allahabad Government Press in 1874. The fragmentary character of the present monograph may be more readily condoned, if it is considered as a sequel, in which the record of administration has been continued through another decade, and only such facts have been restated as it was desired to group in a special light.
In the opinion of many competent observers, the military revolt of 1857 was largely brought about by the injudicious diminution of the personal influence and authority of commanding officers and by the transfer of their power and patronage to impersonal boards and departments. If the present system of centralization in civil affairs continues to develope, any future movement of the people at large against their rulers will be similarly assisted to a most alarming extent by the growing want of touch between the district officer and the district for which he is responsible. To use the words of Sir Frederick Weld, one of the most able and successful of our Colonial Governors: "Personal government, so far as I am competent to offer an opinion, is a necessity for Asiatics; it is the outcome of their religious systems, of their habits of thought, and of long centuries of custom." But the typical Collector is now expected to forego all personal predilections and local attachments, and to live in the roughest camp-fashion, so that he may be moved at a moment's notice from one environment to another, without occasioning any perceptible break in the continuity of office routine. Every year he becomes less and less of an independent agent and more of a registered machine, which is warranted to work with equal regularity wherever it is placed,[1] in absolute dependence on the winding of the departmental key. It seems to be forgotten that people are always most keenly interested in comparatively petty local affairs: if these are sympathetically administered by the local authorities, the Government can treat larger questions as it likes in the dry light of the most advanced political science, with very little risk of ever exciting popular opposition.
This system of minimizing the personal influence of the district officer not only contains the seeds of possible political danger in the future, but it is also fatal to the growth of social enterprize in the actual present. No oriental will exert himself except under the immediate influence of an individual leader. He likes to have his work seen and appreciated at once and has not sufficient perseverance or confidence in himself to bear up against the disappointment of a long-deferred reward. A Magistrate and Collector, who is not afraid of provoking official jealousy, and who refuses to entertain the prevalent delusion that Indian ideas, whenever they differ from European, are necessarily barbarous, will find in any district, whatever the particular bent of his own tastes may be, an ample field for beneficent action; and he may depend upon the most generous support, provided only that it is not demanded as by a master but solicited as from a fellow-worker, and that the object is such as is calculated to conciliate native sentiment.
Neither Hindus nor Muhammadans often hoard their superfluous wealth. Either it is lavished in utter frivolities, such as fire-works and dancing girls, or it is given to so-called religious institutions, which—if Muhammadan schools—are for the most part foci of sedition, or—if Hindu temples—are hot-beds of profligacy and licentiousness. Or it may be, it is employed with less injury to morals, but with greater prejudice to æsthetic taste by the erection of such costly and hideous buildings as the Dánpur Gate, which forms the subject of one of my illustrations. If the rich native gentry can be put in a better way of spending their money, the influence exerted for this result seems to me to be well exerted.
It is objected that whatever is done under such influence is done for the sake of Government reward in the shape of a title or similar social distinction. But I believe that this is seldom the first motive. A reasonable pride in beautifying one's own town is a feeling which exists almost every where; though it is totally ignored by the official Philistine, who has himself the true bourgeois fear of spending a Rupee on anything that is not undeniably useful. In any case, it must be more to the public advantage that a wealthy citizen should be open handed, even from an imperfect motive, than that he should stifle a generous impulse and keep his money to himself from an over righteous repugnance to ostentation. The desire of being honoured for honourable deeds is not one of the most despicable springs of human action. To perform meritorious public services and to disclaim all reward for them would be a note of higher perfection; but such altruism is superhuman; with the purest and most virtuous of men motives are always more or less mixed.
Again, it is said that the native gentry are mostly in debt and that it is wrong to encourage them to further extravagance, even if it be in well doing. But such criticism does not apply to Bulandshahr, where the landed gentry are a very wealthy class, and I doubt if it has much force anywhere. It is not public benevolence, but long-protracted litigation in the civil Courts which involves them in financial difficulties. Thus, for example, the owner of one of the largest estates in the district, Ráo Umrás Siṅh of Kachesar, has given Rs. 4,500 for the erection of the handsome gate to the new public garden at Bulandshahr. This is an outlay which he will never feel and yet his name will be honourably commemorated by it on the spot, it may be for centuries. On the other hand, he has been forced into spending as much as Rs. 40,000 on barristers and pleaders, to the benefit of no other person whatever, in defending himself against a preposterous claim to a large portion of his property, which was brought against him by a low Muhammadan attorney, himself a worthy product of our highly civilized judicial system.
The suit was instituted on the 5th of August 1880, and was dismissed by the subordinate Judge as "false and fictitious and based on documents that were wholly or in part forged or fabricated." An appeal was laid in the High Court, and there, after full consideration, final judgment was pronounced containing the following and many other similar expressions of opinion: "It is impossible not to feel that the Plaintiff comes into Court under circumstances calculated to arouse suspicion, not only by reason of his extraordinary delay in preferring his claim—a delay which his counsel entirely failed to explain to our satisfaction—but because of the highly improbable and in certain respects incredible nature of many of the incidents of his story." "To express ourselves in the mildest way, we cannot but view this letter as an exceedingly suspicious document." "In short, there are in the case no original documents, because the originals were either—it is alleged—destroyed in the mutiny, or are withheld; and there is no oral proof, because all the persons, who could have deposed to any of the facts, are dead." "To ask us to believe this astounding piece of folly is no small demand upon our credulity." "The appearance of the document itself is most suspicious." "There is the gravest reason to doubt the authenticity of the signatures." "It was obvious that both these persons were telling a carefully prepared story." "We must dismiss it as wholly undeserving credence." "It is absolutely impossible to credit the plaintiff's assertion on this head." "This is a severe tax on our credulity." "The plaintiff's statements on all these matters and his explanation of his delay in coming into Court are incredible in the highest degree." This judgment was not pronounced till July, 1883, though—as clearly appears from the above extracts—the plaintiff's case was so utterly bad that the finding of the Lower Court might have been confirmed at once, without subjecting the unfortunate victim of the conspiracy to a long-protracted three years agony.
It is a most lamentable illustration of the total unfitness of any Indian district for independent self-government, that even in such a scandalous case as this, the plaintiff, who was an absolute pauper, was amply provided with funds by wealthy Muhammadans, simply because he was himself a Muhammadan and his attack was directed against a Hindu.
The indiscriminate abuse of English rule, in which Bengali patriots are too apt to indulge, makes it difficult to read their effusions with any degree of patience; yet it cannot be denied that there is a solid foundation in fact for the substance of their complaints, both as regards unnecessary cost in administration, ad also as to the sacrifice of local to imperial interests, whenever the two come into collision. If India were governed by any other European power, there would be no pretence of disguising the fact that the dependency was held for the advantage of its rulers, and the subordinate position would probably be accepted without a murmur. It is the affectation of superior morality, which makes its occasional relapses into selfishness such an argument throughout the civilized world of the traditional perfidy of British statesmanship. It is much to be regretted that a Government which is mainly beneficent in its purpose, should wantonly damage its reputation by the obstinate maintenance of a few comparatively petty abuses, which are obvious to every one, and which from an Indian point of view it is absolutely impossible to defend. For example, an interesting indigenous art like that of the silversmith is utterly paralyzed by the retention of the customs duty and the barbarous system of hall-marking. The removal of these restrictions upon freedom of exportation would be an immense benefit to India, and in England would lead to no inconvenience beyond a slight and temporary disarrangement of a few items in the financial statement, coupled with an artistic gain to the country in the almost immediate future. Still the concession, though its justice is admitted, is indefinitely postponed. It is only India that clamours for the reform; and as India has no vote and therefore no weight in party politics, its wishes may be disregarded with impunity.
Again, there is absolutely no raison d'être for the Governors of Bombay and Madras, except that they supply the ministry with two pieces of valuable preferment; yet no Cabinet, whether Radical or Conservative, will consent to forego the patronage and so relieve India of an utterly un profitable burden. No one will have the hardihood to assert that Bombay and Madras, though costing so much more, are either better administered than Bengal and the North-west Provinces, or are heavier and more responsible charges. A still more amazing scandal is the refusal of the Secretary of State to sanction the recommendations of the Army Commission of 1879, which would ensure increased efficiency together with an annual saving of not less than a million sterling.
Similarly, in matters of internal economy, where the Government of India, if it wished to reform, would be less hampered by parliamentary and ministerial obstructiveness. Among the greater evils of our exotic civilization are the unlimited license of appeal and the ruinous delays of the Civil Courts. But the writers for the native press mainly belong to the class that most benefits by these abuses, and therefore they are not often brought forward very prominently. More frequent topics of complaint are the constant growth of departmentalism and the multiplication of highly paid appointments for the benefit of individual Europeans, combined with a retention of all the old posts with the old salaries but with reduced responsibilities. Thus it comes about that the Magistrate and Collector of a district, ordinarily a man not less than 40 years of age and who has seen some 18 years of service, still draws the salary of a local administrator, but is treated like a head-clerk, all his responsible functions being transferred either to the Commissioner, a still more senior and more highly paid official, or to some Secretary or Department at head quarters. Most certainly I do not advocate the further effacement of the district officer, but I think that many of his new masters might be abolished and a very large saving thereby effected. Frequent ground for complaint is also found in the annual migration to the Hills, by which high officials shirk the condition of the service which they have accepted. The bracing climate of the Himalayas is no doubt more favourable than the sultry discomfort of the plains to the concoction of fussy departmental Circulars and sublimely censorious Annual Reports. But there is far too much of such literature, and it would be an incalculable blessing to the country if a little of the langour of the East—which can only be duly appreciated after a summer's sojourn in the Doáb—were occasionally allowed to temper the present fureur de gouverner.
Another intolerable drain on the finances of the country, combined with a great discouragement of native progress, it is the special object of this little work to expose, by showing the folly of maintaining an immense staff of highly paid European engineers for the execution of district works, which might be carried out in far better style and at much less cost by the exclusive employment of native agency.
The illustrations in the present volume are merely a sample of a much larger number that are under preparation. These I propose to publish either in a separate folio, or with a reissue of the text, at the end of the year 1885, when I shall be on the point of leaving the country. By that time I hope that all the works now in progress will have been satisfactorily completed.
BULANDSHAHR,
July 12, 1884.
- ↑ My own career, now almost at an end, has been the exact reverse of the above picture. I have only known three districts; Mainpuri as an Assistant, Mathurá as Joint Magistrate, and Bulandshahr as Collector. Each for the time being was my home, in which all my interests were centred, and in each I have left a permanent record of my connection with the place. In Mainpuri my special contribution to local progress was the development of the art of tárkashi, or brass inlaying, which I first introduced to public notice at the Agra Exhibition of 1867. Then it was treated with the greatest contempt; but in the Calcutta Exhibition of 1884 when æsthetic ideas had become more popular, my workmen were awarded a first class certificate and gold medal.