VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS' India pages

Kashmiri Pandit officials may have been 'individually gentle and intelligent, as a body they were cruel and oppressive.'

Vassal, Lord, Knight, Castle
Manor, Serf, Peasant, Tenant
Rent, Fief, Homage, Fealty
Surrender, Ransom, Crusade
Tournament, Joust, Heraldry

Feudal language is a fascinating glimpse into the past. It can help us to understand the way people lived and thought during the feudal period.

Tippu had, unfortunately for himself, by his insolent letters to the Nizam in 1784 after the conclusion of peace with the English at Mangalore, shown that he contemplated the early subjugation of the Nizam himself.

but from an official neglect to send the order to a picquet of 150 men stationed at, the extraordinary distance of three miles, five hours were lost

Writing concerning the prevalence of insanity in different classes, the Census Commissioner, 1891, states that “it appears from the statistics that insanity is far more prevalent among the Eurasians than among any other class..........’.

The subject seems to be one worthy of further study by those competent to deal with it.

The influence of names is considerable, and the discontinuance of the title of karigars will be attended with advantage.

Posts with a small salary are gladly accepted because the holders are sure of bettering themselves by bribes; how otherwise could these men live?

Next to the general corruption of morals in a heathen land, these public servants of the subordinate grades are driven to such misconduct by the miserable pay which they receive.

They are notoriously ill-paid, and common justice to them, as well as to those who are at their mercy, demands a great and speedy reform in the scale of salaries.

Until they are fairly paid it is impossible to expect fair service of them; though, of course, proper pay will not of itself make men honest or attentive.

Courtesy to the poor is almost unknown among the lower officials. In nothing will they oblige, except duly paid for it. The Cutcherries cannot yet be freely approached.

The Sudras in these parts, being connected with the police clerks, can get anything they like done against these poor people, who are easily cheated and oppressed.”

One witness says, ‘ I deposed none of those things — what further they might have written at the Police Cutcherry I am not able to say, since my statement was not read over to me. I simply affix my mark in the paper presented to me, as I was desired to do.’ —

probably of the word narikelam or nalikeram

It is noteworthy that in the Keralolpatti or origin of Keralam, the pseudohistory of Malabar current among natives, the Brahmans are said to have displaced the Nagas or snakes

It sets forth that the first Brahmans who arrived from various places did not remain in Keralam owing to their dread of the myriads of serpents infesting the country

This fact has an important bearing on the question as to when the Brahmans really did settle in Malabar, for Kerala is now by scholars recognised to be a dialectic (Canarese) form of the ancient name of the whole country, viz., Chera or Cheram or Keram , a name which probably still survives in Cheranad, the western portion of the Ernad taluk,

and possibly also in Cheruman (plural — Cherumakkal1) the agresticslave caste

ആശയം: പോരാത്തതിന്, ചെറുമൻ എന്ന അടിമത്തത്തിൽ അമർത്തി വയ്ക്കപ്പെട്ടിരുന്ന വംശീയരുടെ പേരും ഈ ചേര രാജ്യവുമായി ബന്ധം കാണാം. END.

പറഞ്ഞുവന്നത്, ചേര എന്ന വാക്ക് കാനറാ പ്രദേശത്ത് കേര എന്നാണ് പറയുക പോലും. ആ വാക്കിന്‍റെ അവിടുള്ള അർത്ഥം തേങ്ങ എന്നാണ് പോലും.

ഞാൻ വെറുതേയൊന്ന് കേര എന്ന വാക്കിന്‍റെ കന്നഡയിലുള്ള അർത്ഥം ഒന്ന് അന്വേഷിച്ചു നോക്കി.

ഈ വാക്കിനെ വളരെ വിധഗ്ദായി Google Translate ഒളിപ്പിച്ചു വച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട് എന്നു കാണുന്നു.

ಕೇರೆ എന്ന കന്നഡ വാക്കിന്‍റെ ഉച്ചാരണം, കേരേ എന്നാണ്. അർത്ഥം ചേരപ്പാമ്പ്.



ഈ വാക്കിൽ നിന്നുമാണ് കേരള എന്ന പദം ഉദിച്ചത് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാണ് പണ്ട് മുതൽ മലബാറിനെ തിരുവിതാംകൂറിന്‍റെ ഭാഗമാക്കിക്കാണിക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചത്.

എന്നാൽ, മലബാറി ഭാഷയിൽ ചേര എന്ന വാക്ക് ചേരപ്പാമ്പിനെയാണ് സൂചിപ്പിക്കുക. അല്ലാതെ തേങ്ങയെ അല്ല. ഈ വാക്ക്, കന്നഡയിലെ കേര എന്ന തേങ്ങയുടെ പേരിൽ നിന്നുമാണ് വന്നത് പോലും.

എന്നാൽ കേരേ എന്ന കന്നഡ വാക്കിന്‍റെ അർത്ഥം ചേരപ്പമ്പാണ് എന്ന കാര്യം ആരും പറയാൻ സന്ധദ്ധതകാണിക്കുന്നില്ല.

ನಾರಿಕೇಳ അഥവാ നാരീകേല എന്ന വാക്ക് തേങ്ങയാണ്. നാരീകേലയിൽ നിന്നുമാണ് ചേര എന്ന വാക്ക് വന്നത് എന്നു പറയാനാണ് കൂടുതൽ സുഖം. അല്ലാതെ ചേര എന്നത് പാമ്പാണ് എന്നു പറഞ്ഞാൽ, കാര്യങ്ങൾ ആകെ അബദ്ധമാകും.

രണ്ട് ആനകൾ ആണ് ഇന്ന് Emblem of Kerala. പദ്മനാബസ്വാമീ ക്ഷേത്രത്തിലെ ശംഖിന് കാവൽ നിൽക്കുകയാണ് ഈ ആനകൾ.

ഈ ചിന്നത്തിലും മലബാറിന് പ്രസക്തിയില്ലതന്നെ.

ആനക്ക് യഥാർത്ഥത്തിൽ കേരളത്തിൽ കാര്യമായ സംരക്ഷണം ഇല്ലതന്നെ.

മയക്ക് വെടിവച്ച്, നാടുവിടീക്കപ്പെടുകയോ അമ്പലപ്പറമ്പുകളിൽ തളക്കപ്പെടുകയോ, അതുമല്ലെങ്കിൽ മലയോരങ്ങളിൽ കുങ്കി ആനകൾ ആക്കപ്പെട്ട് അടിമപ്പണിചെയ്യുകയോ ആണ് കേരളത്തിന്‍റെ ദേശീയ ചിന്നത്തിലെ ഈ ജീവനുള്ള അടയാളങ്ങൾ.

ആനകളെ ഇനി Emblem of Keralaത്തിൽ നിന്നും മാറ്റേണ്ടിവരുമോ എന്ന് അറിയില്ല.

എന്നാൽ ബൃട്ടിഷ്-മലബാറുകാരെ കേരളിയർ ആക്കിയത് കുറച്ച് കടന്ന കൈ ആയി പോയി എന്നു തോന്നുന്നു.

എഴുത്ത് കാര്യമായി വഴിതെറ്റിപ്പോയി. പറയാൻ വന്നത്, മലബാറിനെ തിരുവിതാംകൂറിനോട് കൂട്ടിച്ചേർത്തതിലെ പാകപ്പിഴയെക്കുറിച്ചാണ്. അത് അടുത്ത എഴുത്തിൽ ആവാം എന്നു കരുതുന്നു.

Note: All quotes in today's post are from Malabar Manual.

For general administrative purposes the State is divided into 31 taluks, grouped into four divisions or districts -----------

For purposes of revenue collection, the taluks are further subdivided into smaller areas called provertis, each under a paid officer styled the provertikaran.

Each division is provided over by a Dlwan Peshkar and District magistrate, equivalent to the Collector-magistrate of a British District. (correction inserted)

A tahsildar, who is usually a second-class magistrate, is in charge of each taluk.
The Peshkars form a superintending and checking agency, and are responsible for the proper and regular administration of the taluks comprising their charge.
In addition to the four Peshkar magistrates, there are two other District magistrates, one being the Commercial Agent at Alleppey and the other the Superintendent of the Cardamom Hills.

An ill-disposed Provertikaran is the very personification of oppression, injustice, bribery, and illegality; and no official in the ranks of the public service combines in a single person so many evils as are daily found in the doings of such a man.”

Some Tahsildars we have known abuse all of the poorer classes who apply to them, and keep them at a distance.

These men hate to see a decent dress on any man of humble origin, or the chest covered with a cloth; and such are openly reviled, their letters declined on various pretexts, and their business left undone.

They terrify ignorant complainants by a loud and threatening manner, catching at every verbal error, and threatening them with punishment as false witnesses. Witnesses are forced to sign whatever has been written by the clerks, notwithstanding protests against its accuracy, or ignorance of what has been written, on threats of worse punishment if they do not consent

and the time of the people is wasted in attending day after day at the Cutcherries

Insatiable greed and extraordinary cunning are displayed in the taking of bribes by the underlings; and indeed there have been times when it was said that there was scarcely an official of any grade free from this vice. Bribes are even extorted by threats of implicating the parties in charges of murder and other serious crimes, if not paid.

To allow criminal complaint to be withdrawn, cloths and money are presented to the official. In criminal cases the police naick, similarly influenced, reports the charge a factitious one. An official invites people to a feast and some domestic ceremony, and gets large presents of money, ornaments, &c.

Sometimes a judicial servant quietly takes bribes from both sides, but honestly returns that which he received from the losing party !

The village guards extort money and property on the slightest pretexts. Their demand for cloths, money and other goods have sometimes differed but little from highway robbery.

In collecting provisions for travellers and officers on circuit, they often robbed the people of fowls, sheep, eggs, fruit, &c., or gave the merest nominal payment for the provisions.

Bribes are taken in the evening to the house of the tax assessor, begging him kindly to charge only what is right and fair and really due to the Government.

The Pilleymar (writers and clerks) thus reap a harvest of bribes.

Some gumasthas and others regularly earn three or four times their fixed pay.

To complain of all this unfairness, bribery, and corruption, only exposes poor and illiterate men to the getting up of false charges of the most serious character.

“The subordinate officials take advantage of any exigencies to enlist forced labour for State purposes, with an indifference to the hardships they entail on the poor, approaching to utter recklessness.

The press-gang system is employed by the Granary Superintendent of Valiatory and the Nemum Police, to secure boats, and men to man them whenever required for Sirkar purposes. Every boat and every man in this parish is seized, and black mail levied from such as wish to escape this oppression.

It not unfrequently happens that the boatmen decamp; and the head villager buys off the myrmidons of the press-gang by a bribe assessed on the whole village, to escape the grudge that would otherwise inevitably follow in the shape of fines and imprisonments

The rowers often complain of suffering from impressment for travellers, the Beach Superintendent, one of their own class appointed by the Sirkar, taking bribes from those who are better off and strong in body, and often seizing the poor, the aged, or boys, beating those who attempt to flee to avoid the inconvenience.

Gratuitous service is demanded of work people and bandymen; if refused, charges are got up against them; or they are over punished on some real charge.

The heads of the respective castes also paid an annual sum for their dignity.

Bribes and pecuniary gratifications were everywhere expected, and nowhere forbidden.

The ruling power and subordinate officials were ever ready to snatch from the people as much as possible. When a cruel ruler was on the throne, the country suffered much; when a benevolent one, it gained little

“These demands,” wrote Sir Madava Row, “were of the most uncertain character, involved a good deal of oppression and vexation, and interfered with the freedom which industry of all kinds is entitled to.”

The small nominal sums that were in some cases allowed for work did not reach the labourer’s hands, the underlings keeping what they could for themselves, or to bribe their superiors to continue them in employment, while the people dared not complain, lest countercharges be brought against the complainant, and himself condemned as a malefactor, imprisoned, or perhaps, tortured to death.

but the public benefit is the farthest thing from the thoughts of the peons, gumasthas, and other assistants, and even some of the Tahsildars. General corruption, incapacity, and dense ignorance of their duty, cruelty and bribery, as far as they dare to indulge in these, still prevail. Only personal interests and private profit are considered by many.

Unconscionable delays occur in attending to business, so that suitors are tired out and it becomes not worth their while to continue.
One great resort of some officials is to leave letters unanswered, so that people get tired out on smaller matters.
In attendance on the public offices and courts, witnesses have been compelled frequently to trudge over roads and kept waiting for days, sometimes hungry, faint and sick, while their private affairs go to ruin.

Tax receipts are written in a most indefinite manner, without specifying the particular property for which the tax is paid : the people believe this is done to keep the payer in the power of the Sirkar clerks.

Common sense would surely require some definition, name, or number of the particular property referred to in such receipts.

Receipts are also given to persons who cannot read, for sums less than those actually paid.

But the Provertikaran, tax collector, and clerks ask four or six times the proper rate, or profess to measure the land, and say it is much greater in extent than it really is. The Pillai will say, “give me a rupee, and I will make the tax light for you.”

The village Provertikaran and others come and take nearly all the produce, and thus dishearten these poor people from rice cultivation.
They say they would give a tenth or two tenths willingly; but at present they cannot tell what the rules are, or how to calculate the government dues, and whether what they pay goes to the government or to the servants.

“The Government,”said an official who understands the matter, “do not get an eighth of what is collected by the tax-gatherers for Malavaram.”

When looking with admiration at the noble examples of Indian architecture and engineering — temples, forts, public buildings — the first thought that sometimes occurs to us is of the vast amount of misery and expenditure of human life imposed on the multitudes, as in Egypt, who did the unskilled labour.

“No description can produce an adequate impression of the tyranny, corruption and abuses of the system, full of activity and energy in everything mischievous, oppressive and infamous, but slow and dilatory to effect any purpose of humanity, mercy and justice.

This body of public officers, united with each other on fixed principles of combination and mutual support, resented a complaint against one of their number, as an attack upon the whole. ...

The district officials shall not apply fetters, chains, and manacles to those ryots who are found entangled in any criminal charge.

When petitioners appear before the district cutcherry, with their complaints, their cases shall be decided reasonably so as to be concurred in by public opinion but no petitioner shall be detained to his inconvenience and put to expense for feeding himself, pending the settlement of his case;

that such cases as could be decided soon shall be settled then and there, and the parties dismissed.

But such cases as would require time to settle shall be decided within eight days,

and if any petitioner is detained before the district cutcherry beyond eight days, he shall be fed at the expense of the district officer.

When a female petitioner comes before the district cutcherry, her complaint shall be heard and settled at once and on no account shall a female be detained for a night

That not one of the subjects (ryots) should be oppressed, by placing him in restraint, without allowing him even to attend the calls of nature, or

making him stand within a given line in a stooping posture,

putting a stone on his back or keeping him in water or under the burning sun or confining him under starvation,

neither shall he be subjected to any sort of disgrace.

The Rajah, therefore, imposed no restraint on their rapacity

the jealous eye with which any attempt to raise the slaves would be viewed by the officials.

There was sufficient in the affair to excite the strong caste prejudice of the scribe who took down the evidence;

and the opportunity for spicing it with extravagant statements, in order, perhaps, to supply at least some grounds that might seem prima facie to justify the prisoner’s commitment, was not to be lost when impunity was secure and they could be subjected to imprisonment pending their trial and acquittal if not found guilty.

August 1858ൽ തിരുവിതാംകൂർ ഭരണം ഉദ്യോഗസ്ഥർക്ക് അയച്ച ഒരു പൊതു ഉത്തരവിൽ (Circularൽ) ഈ വിധം എഴുതിക്കാണുന്നുണ്ട്

The Tahsildars also shall give the matter special attention; and for the future, inquiries shall be made without unnecessary delay into the truth of charges brought against the low-castes, such as Pulayans, Pariahs, and Coravans, &c.;

inquiries shall also be made to ascertain in whose employ they are; and should it be found that the charge is true and should be accepted,

or on the other hand that it is false, they shall file, investigate, and decide according to law and in obedience to this Circular Order

Peons receive petitions or papers from Pulayars with unconcealed abhorrence, ordering them to lay them on the ground.

One kindly official whom I saw there took great credit to himself for having ventured to propose that witnesses or suitors of low caste should be allowed to come up quite close to the window on the outside, and that a verandah should even be erected for their protection from sun and rain.

An utter want of humanity in the treatment of low-caste prisoners is not uncommon amongst the peons and local officers, embezzling the allowance for the prisoners’ food, by which some have been actually starved to death.

Various other evils prevailed, in the use of long and heavy iron fetters and chains, wooden stocks and instruments of torture, the confinement of debtors and other defaulters or persons on trial, along with convicted criminals, and of men with women, and the detention of accused persons in other than the legal and suitable places of confinement.

While public attention was thus directed to Travancore and the abuses in its administration by Newspaper articles, the London Missionaries in the State joined together and presented in July 1855 several memorials to the Madras Government on behalf of the Native Christian converts who, they said, had of late suffered heavily having entirely failed to get any redress to their grievances.

They also set forth in bold terms that corruption, oppression and extortion were openly practised by the Government officials with the connivance of the Resident General Cullen, and that inefficiency and maladministration were the order of the day. The police were said to be a tremendous engine for iniquity and oppression. Prisoners were confined for indefinite terms without investigation, and regulations were systematically set aside.

The most barbarous treatment in prison prevailed; torture was practised and robbery was rampant. The character of high officials was disgraceful. Convicted criminals and notoriously incompetent men were appointed to high offices.

Matters could not be presented in a worse light, and the Madras Government immediately called upon General Cullen to fully investigate and report on the various allegations set forth in the memorials.

He thereupon submitted an elaborate report disproving all of them and supporting the Dewan and his administration.

The Government of Madras were not satisfied, and on the Missionaries again pressing their case upon them desired further explanations from the Resident.

While matters stood thus, the Madras Government received numerous petitions from the native inhabitants also, corroborating the grave charges already brought against the administration.

They therefore wished to investigate the charges by means of a Commission and accordingly wrote to the Government of India recommending the same.

But the Governor-General Lord Dalhousie disapproved of the proposal for an enquiry as being opposed to the tenor of the Treaty of 1805

and instructed the Government of Madras under the ninth article of the Treaty to give to the Rajah “a formal and forcible expression of the sentiments of the British Government on the abuses which appeared to prevail with suitable advice and warning”.

They are as fair as the high-caste Hindus, the women frequently beautiful,

The services required furnished occasion for continual annoyance and exactions, men being seized by the officials to carry cardamoms from the hills to the boats without pay; and if they hid themselves, as was natural, the women were caught, beaten, locked up, kept exposed to the sun and the pouring rain, and all sorts of indignities were inflicted.

They also had to complain of some of their cows being killed, others stolen by the tax gatherers, so far from the central authority; and worse than all, some had been beaten and expelled from lands which their forefathers’ sweat had bedewed for years untold.

The Chogans, however, consider themselves superior to the Arayans.

A letter of warning was accordingly issued by Lord Harris on the 21st November 1855, calling the serious attention of His Highness to the manifold abuses then prevalent in Travancore and advising him to avert the impending calamity by an enlightened policy and timely and judicious reforms.

Cases are known in which slaves have been blinded by lime cast into their eyes. The teeth of one were extracted by his master as a punishment for eating his sugar cane.

We soon discovered that the agent of our Christian land, although a Scotchman attached as he said to the Church of England and her services, was much opposed to missionary effort, and more fearful than were the Brahmins respecting the effects of evangelical religion...............

General Cullen had completely identified himself with the interests of the people and the State

but cases of complaint rarely succeeded in those days, as the subordinate magistracy were so deeply prejudiced and naturally partial to their own intimates and caste connections.

Even the Syrian Christians were sometimes most cruel in their treatment of their slaves.

By far the most important and fertile reform recently effected is the withdrawal from the Magistracy and Revenue Officials of their police functions, and the organization of a regular Police force after the British Indian Pattern, and in accordance with more enlightened and modern views of political economy than had previously prevailed.

The Police force lately organized are as yet quite new to their duties, and can scarcely be expected to work satisfactorily till better trained and brought under thorough discipline.

Indeed, it will require a firm hand, strict supervision, careful inquiry into complaints, and complete and equitable representation in the force of all classes of the population to see that they do not establish a system of general vexation and oppression, and become a terror to the poor people in out of-the-way places.

The power of the Indian police has too often been used to gratify petty spite, and for motives of revenge and cupidity

An oppressive police, which has hitherto been the rule in Travancore, is a thousand times more baneful than an inefficient one; and the new body will be tempted to incessant interference with the liberty of the subject through ignorance of the public rights, and to display their diligence and authority.

Dacoits and marauders of the worst stamp scoured the country by hundreds; but these were less feared by the people than the so-called Police. In short, Travancore was the veriest den of misrule, lawlessness, and callous tyranny of the worst description.

Some seriously doubt whether any recent ‘reforms ‘ have as yet touched the seat of the disease, the magistracy and revenue officials being, with certain praiseworthy exceptions, incapable, uneducated, and lazy; the police untrained; the subordinate judicial officers conducting business loosely and negligently, and requiring incessant supervision and frequent warning from the Sadr Court, as seen by their “Select Decisions and Reports”; and the Bar still to a great extent incompetent and promotive of unnecessary or unjust litigation.

The Supreme Government directed that the Raja should be put upon his trial for murder, but it was not easy to bring this about, for the Raja was well guarded by five hundred well armed Nayars from Wynad.

Person arrested not to be detained more than twenty four hours :- No police officer shall detain in custody a person arrested without warrant for a longer period than under all the circumstances of the case is reasonable, and such period shall not, in the absence of a special order ....

The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990

Army officers have legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law. Nor is the government's judgment on why an area is found to be disturbed subject to judicial review.