Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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It is a common practice with Thanadars all over the country to
connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of gangs of
robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within those
limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back from
their distant expeditions.

They [_scil._ the gangs] go out ostensibly in search of service, on
the termination of the rains of one season in October, and return
before the commencement of the next in June; but their vocation is
always well known to the police, and to all the people of their
neighbourhood, and very often to the magistrates themselves, who
could, if they would, secure them on their return with their booty;
but this would not secure their conviction unless the proprietors
could be discovered, which they scarcely ever could. Were the police
officers to seize them, they would be all finally acquitted and
released by the judges--the magistrate would get into disrepute with
his superiors, by the number of acquittals compared with convictions
exhibited in his monthly tables; and he would vent his spleen upon
the poor Thanadar, who would at the same time have incurred the
resentment of the robbers; and between both, he would have no
possible chance of escape. He therefore consults his own interest and
his own case by leaving them to carry on their trade of robbery or
murder unmolested; and his master, the magistrate, is well pleased
not to be pestered with charges against men whom he has no chance of
getting ultimately convicted. It was in this way that so many hundred
families of assassins by profession were able for so many generations
to reside in the most cultivated and populous parts of our
territories, and extend their depredations into the remotest parts of
India, before our System of operations was brought to bear upon them
in 1830. Their profession was perfectly well known to the people of
the districts in which they resided, and to the greater part of the
police; they murdered not within their own district, and the police
of that district cared nothing about what they might do beyond
it.[22]

The most respectable native gentleman in the city and district told
me one day an amusing instance of the proceedings of a native officer
of that district, which occurred about five years ago. 'In a village
which he had purchased and let in farms, a shopkeeper was one day
superintending the cutting of some sugar-cane which he had purchased
from a cultivator as it stood. His name was Girdhari, I think, and
the boy who was cutting it for him was the son of a poor man called
Madari. Girdhari wanted to have the cane cut down as near as he could
to the ground, while the boy, to save himself the trouble of
stooping, would persist in cutting it a good deal too high up. After
admonishing him several times, the shopkeeper gave him a smart clout
on the head. The boy, to prevent a repetition, called out, "Murder!
Girdhari has killed me--Girdhari has killed me!" His old father, who
was at work carrying away the cane at a little distance out of sight,
ran off to the village watchman, and, in his anger, told him that
Girdhari had murdered his son. The watchman went as fast as he could
to the Thanadar, or head police officer of the division, who resided
some miles distant. The Thanadar ordered off his subordinate officer,
the Jemadar, with half a dozen policemen, to arrange everything for
an inquest on the body, by the time he should reach the place, with
all due pomp. The Jemadar went to the house of the murderer, and
dismounting, ordered all the shopkeepers of the village, who were
many and respectable, to be forthwith seized, and bound hand and
feet. "So", said the Jemadar, "you have all been aiding and abetting
your friend in the murder of poor Madari's only son." "May it please
your excellency, we have never heard of any murder." "Impudent
scoundrels," roared the Jemadar, "does not the poor boy lie dead in
the sugar-cane field, and is not his highness the Thanadar coming to
hold an inquest upon it? and do you take us for fools enough to
believe that any scoundrel among you would venture to commit a
deliberate murder without being aided and abetted by all the rest?"
The village watchman began to feel some apprehension that he had been
too precipitate; and entreated the Jemadar to go first and see the
body of the boy. "What do you take us for," said the Jemadar, "a
thing without a stomach? Do you suppose that government servants can
live and labour on air? Are we to go and examine bodies upon empty
stomachs? Let his father take care of the body, and let these
murdering shopkeepers provide us something to eat." Nine rupees'
worth of sweetmeats, and materials for a feast were forthwith
collected at the expense of the shopkeepers, who stood bound, and
waiting the arrival of his highness the Thanadar, who was soon after
seen approaching majestically upon a richly caparisoned horse.
"What," said the Jemadar, "is there nobody to go and receive his
highness in due form?" One of the shopkeepers was untied, and
presented with fifteen rupees by his family, and those of the other
shopkeepers. These he took up and presented to his highness, who
deigned to receive them through one of his train, and then dismounted
and partook of the feast that had been provided. "Now", said his
highness, "we will go and hold an inquest on the body of the poor
boy"; and off moved all the great functionaries of government to the
sugar-cane field, with the village watchman leading the way. The
father of the boy met them as they entered, and was pointed out by
the village watchman. "Where", said the Thanadar, "is your poor boy?"
"There," said Madari, "cutting the canes." "How, cutting the canes?
Was he not murdered by the shopkeepers?" "No," said Madari, "he was
beaten by Girdhari, and richly deserved it! I find." Girdhari and the
boy were called up, and the little urchin said that he called out
murder merely to prevent Girdhari from giving him another clout on
the side of the head. His father was then fined nine rupees for
giving a false alarm, and Girdhari fifteen for so unmercifully
beating the boy; and they were made to pay on the instant, under the
penalty of all being sent off forty miles to the magistrate. Having
thus settled this very important affair, his highness the Thanadar
walked back to the shop, ordered all the shopkeepers to be set at
liberty, smoked his pipe, mounted his horse, and rode home, followed
by all his police officers, and well pleased with his day's work.'

The farmer of the village soon after made his way to the city, and
communicated the circumstances to my old friend, who happened to be
on intimate terms with the magistrate.[23] He wrote a polite note to
the Thanadar to say that he should never get any rents from his
estate if the occupants were liable to such fines as these, and that
he should take the earliest opportunity of mentioning them to his
friend the magistrate. The Thanadar ascertained that he was really in
the habit of visiting the magistrate, and communicating with him
freely; and hushed up the matter by causing all, save the expenses of
the feast, to be paid back. These are things of daily occurrence in
all parts of our dominions, and the Thanadars are not afraid to play
such 'fantastic tricks' because all those under and all those above
them share more or less in the spoil, and are bound in honour to
conceal them from the European magistrate, whom it is the interest of
all to keep in the dark. They know that the people will hardly ever
complain, from the great dislike they all have to appear in our
courts, particularly when it is against any of the officers of those
courts, or their friends and creatures in the district police.[24]

When our operations commenced, in 1830, these assassins [_scil._ the
Thugs] revelled over every road in India in gangs of hundreds,
without the fear of punishment from divine or human laws; but there
is not now, I believe, a road in India infested by them. That our
government has still defects, and great ones, must be obvious to
every one who has travelled much over India with the requisite
qualifications and disposition to observe; but I believe that in
spite of all the defects I have noticed above in our police System,
the life, property, and character of the innocent are now more
secure, and all their advantages more freely enjoyed, than they ever
were under any former government with whose history we are
acquainted, or than they now are under any native government in
India.[25]

Those who think they are not so almost always refer to the reign of
Shah Jahan, when men like Tavernier travelled so securely all over
India with their bags of diamonds; but I would ask them whether they
think that the life, property, and character of the innocent could be
anywhere very secure, or their advantages very freely enjoyed, in a
country where a man could do openly with impunity what the traveller
describes to have been done by the Persian physician of the Governor
of Allahabad? This governor, being sickly, had in attendance upon him
_eleven physicians_, one of whom was a European gentleman of
education, Claudius Maille, of Bourges.[26] The chief favourite of
the eleven was, however, a Persian, 'who one day threw his wife from
the top of a battlement to the ground in a fit of jealousy. He
thought the fall would kill her, but she had only a few ribs broken;
whereupon the kindred of the woman came and demanded justice at the
feet of the governor. The governor, sending for the physician,
commanded him to be gone, resolving to retain him no longer in his
service. The physician obeyed; and putting his poor maimed wife in a
palankeen, he set forward upon the road with all his family. But he
had not gone above three or four days' journey from the city, when
the governor, finding himself worse than he was wont to be, sent to
recall him; which the physician perceiving, stabbed his wife, his
four children, and thirteen female slaves, and returned again to the
Governor, who said not a word to him, but entertained him again in
his service.' This occurred within Tavernier's own knowledge and
about the time he visited Allahabad; and is related as by no means a
very extraordinary circumstance.[27]

Notes:

1. January, 1836.

2. The tomb of Safdar Jang, or Mansur Ali Khan, described _ante_,
chapter 68 [4]. The bridges over the Jumna are now, of course,
maintained by Government and the railway companies.

3. The main highways approaching Delhi are now excellent metalled
roads.

4. By the term 'the largest military station in the empire', the
author means Meerut. At present the largest military station in
Northern India is, I believe, Rawal Pindi, and the combined
cantonments of Secunderabad and Bolarum in the Nizam's dominions
constitute the largest military station in the empire.

5. Comprising parts of the Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of the
North-Western Provinces, now the Agra Province in the United
Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The Begam's history will be discussed in
chapter 75, _post_.

6. The members of the reformed police force, constituted under Act V
of 1861, generally on the model of the Royal Irish Constabulary, have
no reason to complain of insecurity of tenure. It is now very
difficult to obtain sanction to the dismissal of a corrupt or
inefficient officer, unless he has been judicially convicted of a
statutory offence.

7. Ordinarily there is for each district, or administrative unit, a
separate Sessions and District Judge, who tries both civil and
criminal cases of the more serious kind. Occasionally two or three
districts have only one judge between them, who is then usually in
arrear with his work. Sessions for the trial of grave criminal cases
are held monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, according to
circumstances. In some districts, and for some classes of cases, the
jury system has been introduced, but, as a rule, in Northern India
the responsibility rests with the judge alone, who receives some
slight aid from assessors. Capital sentences passed by a Sessions
Judge must be confirmed by two Judges of a High Court, or equivalent
tribunal.

8. The historian Thornton (chapter 27) went so far as to declare that
Lord William Bentinck has 'done less for the interest of India, and
for his own reputation, than any who had occupied his place since the
commencement of the nineteenth century, with the single exception of
Sir George Barlow'. The abolition of widow-burning is the only act of
the Bentinck administration which this writer could praise. Such a
criticism is manifestly unjust, the outcome of contemporary anger and
prejudice. The inscription written by Macaulay, the friend and
coadjutor of Lord William, and placed on the statue of the reforming
Governor-General in Calcutta, does not give undeserved praise to the
much abused statesman. Sir William Sleeman so much admired Lord
William Bentinck, and formed such a favourable estimate of the merits
of his government, that it may be well to support his opinion by that
of Macaulay. The text of the inscription is:

TO

WILLIAM CAVENDISH BENTINCK,

who during seven years ruled India with eminent prudence,
integrity, and benevolence;
who, placed at the head of a great Empire, never laid aside
the simplicity and moderation of a private citizen;
who infused into Oriental despotism the spirit
of British freedom;
who never forgot that the end of Government is the happiness
of the governed;
who abolished cruel rites;
who effaced humiliating distinctions;
who gave liberty to the expression of public opinion;
whose constant study it was to elevate the intellectual and
moral character of the nation committed to his charge,

THIS MONUMENT

was erected by men
who, differing in race, in manners, in language and in religion,
cherish with equal veneration and gratitude
the memory of his wise, reforming, and paternal administration.

(_Lord William Bentinck_, by D. Boulger, p. 203; 'Rulers of India'
series.)

9. A European District Superintendent of Police, under the general
supervision of the Magistrate of the District, now commands the
police of each district, and sometimes has one or two European
Assistants. He is also aided by well-paid Inspectors, who are for the
most part natives of India. Measures have recently been taken,
especially in the United Provinces, to improve the pay, training, and
position of the police force, European and Indian.

10. Police officers and men now obtain pensions, like public servants
in other departments.

11. In some provinces the highest salaries of magistrates are much
lower than the rates stated by the author, which are the highest paid
to the most senior officers in certain provinces; and, in all
provinces, officiating incumbents, who form a large proportion of the
officers employed, draw only a part of the full salary. The fall in
exchange has enormously reduced the real value of all Indian
salaries.

12. Another popular view of this subject, and, I think, the one more
commonly taken, is expressed in the anecdote told _ante_, chapter 58
following [10]. Well-paid Inspectors of Police, drawing salaries of
150 to 200 rupees a month, are often extremely corrupt, and retire
with large fortunes, I knew many cases, but could never obtain
judicial proof of one.

13. When 'sons, servants, or favourites of men in authority', in
India, no longer oppress their fellows, the millennium will have
arrived.

14. It is some slight satisfaction to a zealous magistrate of the
present day, when he sees a great and influential criminal escape his
just doom, to think that even the best magistrates many years ago had
to submit to similar painful experiences. India cannot truly be
described as an uncivilized or barbarous country, but, side by side
with elements of the highest civilization, it contains many elements
of primitive and savage barbarism. The savagery of India cannot be
dealt with by barristers or moral text-books.

15. The number of subordinate magistrates, paid and unpaid, has of
late years been enormously increased, and courts are, consequently,
much more numerous than they used to be. The vast increase in
facility of communication has also diminished the inconveniences
which the author deplores. In Oudh, and certain other provinces,
which used to be called Non-Regulation, the chief Magistrate of the
District has power to try and adequately punish all offences, except
capital ones. The power is useful, when the district officer has time
to exercise it, which is not always the case.

16. There is a Superintendent of Police for the Province of Bengal;
but in the North-Western Provinces his duties are divided among the
Commissioners of Revenue. [W. H. S.] By 'Superintendent of Police'
the author means the high officer now called the Inspector-General of
Police, under the present System each Local Government or
Administration has one of these officers, who is aided by one or more
staff officers as Assistant-Inspectors-General. The Commissioners in
the United Provinces have been relieved of police duties. The
organization of police stations has been much modified since the
author's time. 'Our Bengal territories', as understood by the author,
included, in addition to Bengal, the 'North-Western Provinces', now
the Province, of Agra, the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, now in
the Central Provinces, and the Delhi Territories. Oudh, of course,
was then independent; and the Panjab was under the rule of Ranjit
Singh.

17. All these practices are still carried on; and experienced
magistrates are well aware of their existence, though powerless to
stop them. People will often give private information of
malpractices, but will hardly ever come into court, and speak out
openly. A magistrate cannot take action on statements which the
makers will not submit to cross-examination.

18. This is still a favourite trick. Every year Inspectors-General of
Police and Secretaries to Government make the same sarcastic remarks
about the wonderful number of 'attempts at burglary', and the
apparent contentment of the criminal classes with the small results
of their labours. But the Thanadar is too much for even Inspectors-
General and Secretaries to Government. No amount of reorganization
changes him.

19. Mr. R., when appointed magistrate of the district of Fathpur on
the Ganges, had a wish to translate the 'Henriade', and, in order to
secure leisure, he issued a proclamation to all the Thanadars of his
district to put down crime, declaring that he would hold them
responsible for what might be committed, and dismiss from his
situation every one who should suffer any to be committed within his
charge. This district, lying on the borders of Oudh, had been noted
for the number and atrocious character of its crimes. From that day
all the periodical returns went up to the superior court blank--not a
crime was reported. Astonished at this sudden result of the change of
magistrates, the superior court of Calcutta (the Sadr Nizamat Adalat)
requested one of the judges, who was about to pass through the
district on his way down, to inquire into the nature of the System
which seemed to work so well, with a view to its adoption in other
districts. He found crimes were more abundant than ever; and the
Thanadars showed him the proclamation, which had been understood, as
all such proclamations are, not as enjoining vigilance in the
prosecution of crime, but as prohibiting all report of them, so as to
_save the magistrate trouble_, and get him a good name with his
superiors. [W. H. S.]

Great caution should always be used by local officers in making
comments on statistics. The subordinate cares nothing for the facts.
When a superior objects that the birth-rate is too low and the death-
rate too high in any police circle, the practical conclusion drawn by
the police is that the figures of the next return must be made more
palatable, and they are cooked accordingly. So, if burglaries are too
numerous, they cease to be reported, and so forth.

The old Superior Court was known as the Sadr Nizamat Adalat, on the
criminal, and as the Sadr Diwani Adalat, on the civil side. These
courts have now been replaced by the High Courts, and equivalent
tribunals. In the author's time the High Court for the Agra Province
had not yet been established. Its seat is now at Allahabad, but was
formerly at Agra.

20. The gap has been filled up by numbers of Deputy Magistrates,
Tahsildar, &c., invested with magisterial powers, Honorary
Magistrates, District Superintendents, and Inspectors, and yet all
the old games still go on merrily. The reason is that the character
of the people has not changed. The police must have the power to
arrest, and that power, when wielded by unscrupulous hands, must
always be formidable.

21. A magistrate who can find in his district even one man, official
or unofficial, who will tell him 'the real state of things', and not
merely repeat scandal and malignant gossip, is unusually fortunate.

22. The Thugs were suppressed because a special organization was
devised and directed for the purpose, the English rules as to the
admissibility of evidence being judiciously relaxed. The ordinary law
and methods of procedure are of little effect against the secret
societies known as 'criminal tribes'. These criminal tribes number
hundreds of thousands of persona, and present a problem almost
unknown to European experience. The gipsies, who are largely of
Indian origin, are, perhaps, the only European example of an
hereditary criminal tribe. But they are not sheltered and abetted by
the landowners as their brethren in India are.

23. The magistrate, of course, was the author.

24. These motives all retain their full force, and are unaffected by
Police Commissions and reorganization schemes. Some people think that
the character of the police will be raised by the employment as
officers of young Indians of good family. I am sorry to say that I
found these young men to be the worst offenders. They are more daring
in their misdeeds than the ordinary policeman, and no better in their
morals.

25. This is quite true; and it is also true that our police
administration is the weakest part of our System. But the fault is
not entirely that of the police. In some provinces, especially in
Bengal, the action of the High Courts has almost paralysed the arm of
the Executive.

26. 'M. Claude Maille, of Bourges. As we shall see in Book I, chapter
18, a man of this name, who had escaped from the Dutch service, was,
in the year 1652, a not very successful amateur gun-founder for Mir
Jumla; he had, after his escape, set up as a surgeon to the Nawab,
with an equipment consisting of a case of instruments and a box of
ointments which he had stolen from M. Cheteur, the Dutch Ambassador
to Golconda. Tavernier throws no light upon his identity with this
physician.' (Tavernier, _Travels_, ed. Ball, vol. i, p. 116, note).
M. Maille befriended Manucci, who mentions him several times (Irvine,
_Storia do Mogor_, i, 92, &c.)

27. Ball's version of this horrible story (vol. i, p. 117) does not
differ materially from that quoted in the text. Tavernier does not
mention the name of the governor, though he observes that he was 'one
of the greatest nobles in India'. Tavernier visited Allahabad in
December, 1665, and then heard the story, the governor concerned
being at the time in the fort. I have no doubt that in the reign of
Shah Jahan ordinary offences committed by ordinary criminals were
ruthlessly punished, and to some extent suppressed. But, under the
best Asiatic Governments, great men and their dependants have usually
been able to do pretty much what they pleased. The English Government
has the merit of refusing to give formal recognition to difference of
rank in criminals, and of often trying to punish influential
offenders, though seldom succeeding in the attempt. From time to time
a conspicuous example, like that of the Nawab Shams-ud-din, is made,
and a few such examples, combined with the greater vigilance and more
complete organization of the English executive, prevent the
occurrence of atrocities so great as that described, without a word
of comment, by the French traveller. I have not the slightest doubt,
nor has any magistrate of long experience any doubt, that women are
frequently made away with quietly in the recesses of the 'zanana'. I
have known several such cases, which were notorious, though incapable
of judicial proof. The amount of serious secret crime which occurs in
India, and never comes to light, is very considerable.

CHAPTER 70

Rent-free Tenures--Right of Government to Resume such Grants.

ON the 27th[1] we went on fifteen miles to Begamabad, over a sandy
and level country. All the peasantry along the roads were busy
watering their fields; and the singing of the man who stood at the
well to tell the other who guides the bullocks when to pull, after
the leather bucket had been filled at the bottom, and when to stop as
it reached the top, was extremely pleasing.[2] It is said that Tansen
of Delhi, the most celebrated singer they have ever had in India,
used to spend a great part of his time in these fields, listening to
the simple melodies of these water-drawers, which he learned to
imitate and apply to his more finished vocal music. Popular belief
ascribes to Tansen the power of stopping the river Jumna in its
course. His contemporary and rival, Birju Baula, who, according to
popular belief, could split a rock with a single note, is said to
have learned his bass from the noise of the stone mills which the
women use in grinding the corn for their families.[3] Tansen was a
Brahman from Patna, who entered the service of the Emperor Akbar,
became a Musalman, and after the service of twenty-seven years,
during which he was much beloved by the Emperor and all his court, he
died at Gwalior in the thirty-fourth year of the Emperor's reign. His
tomb is still to be seen at Gwalior. All his descendants are said to
have a talent for music, and they have all Sen added to their
names.[4]