course of inquiry. The facts may convey some idea of the desperation into which the poor people have been driven:—Parsi shopkeepers of Gandevi deposed that the Desái has been, for years, exacting from each Rs. 51 a year. Parsi boat-builders of the same place have been paying the Desái Rs. 5 on every craft prepared, besides fuel, timber, &c. Those who pleaded inability were deprived of their tools, and thus left without the means of earning a livelihood. Some Hindus, whose business it is to weigh loads of fuel or other things, were taxed Rs. 40 a year, and are now taxed Rs. 260 a year! On one bale of tobacco the Desái exacts Rs. 21. From the Mussalman weavers he takes fifty yards of the cloth they weave. Some years ago the Desái had a nautch [1] party, and he wanted cloth for a pavilion. That grant of cloth has been made perpetual! Besides, the poor fellows have to pay something in cash too. Hindu weavers have to supply sixty yards of cloth. The butcher, too, has to contribute Rs. 25 a year towards the Desai's maintenance, as also the dyer in a similar sum. The Vánjarás[2] have to pay a certain sum
Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/112
96
GUJARÁT AND THE GUJARÁTIS.
