Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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The communities in which the cultivators are considered merely as
leaseholders are far more numerous; indeed, the greater part of the
village communities in this part of India are of this description;
and, where the communities are of a mixed character, the cultivating
proprietors are considered to have merely a right of occupancy, and
are liable to have their lands assessed at the same rate as those
held on a mere lease tenure. In all parts of India the cultivating
proprietors in such mixed communities are similarly situated; they
are liable to be assessed at the same rate as others holding the same
sort of lands, and often pay a higher rate, with which others are not
encumbered. But this is not general; it is as much the interest of
the proprietor to have good cultivating tenants as it is that of the
tenants to have good proprietors; and it is felt to be the interest
of both to adjust their terms amicably among themselves, without a
reference to a third and superior party, which is always costly and
commonly ruinous.[6]

It is a question of very great importance, no less morally and
politically than fiscally, which of these systems deserves most
encouragement--that in which the Government considers the immediate
cultivators to be the hereditary proprietors, and, through its own
public officers, parcels out the lands among them, and adjusts the
rates of rent demandable from every minute partition, as the lands
become more and more subdivided by the Hindoo and Muhammadan law of
inheritance; or that in which the Government considers him who holds
the area of a whole village or estate collectively as the hereditary
proprietor, and the immediate cultivators as his lease-tenants--
leaving the rates of rent to be adjusted among the parties without
the aid of public officers, or interposing only to enforce the
fulfilment of their mutual contracts. In the latter of these two
systems the land will supply more and better members to the middle
and higher classes of the society, and create and preserve a better
feeling between them and the peasantry, or immediate cultivators of
the soil; and it will occasion the re-investment upon the soil, in
works of ornament and utility, of a greater portion of the annual
returns of rent and profit, and a less expenditure in the costs of
litigation in our civil courts, and bribery to our public officers.

Those who advocate the other system, which makes the immediate
cultivators the proprietors, will, for the most part, be found to
reason upon false premisses--upon the assumption that the rates of
rent demandable from the immediate cultivators of the soil _were
everywhere limited and established by immemorial usage, in a certain
sum of money per acre, or a certain share of the crop produced from
it_; and that 'these rates were not only so limited and fixed, but
everywhere _well known to the people_', and might, consequently, have
become well known to the Government, and recorded in public
registers. Now every practical man in India, who has had
opportunities of becoming well acquainted with the matter, knows that
_the reverse is the case_; that the rate of rent demandable from
these cultivators _never was the same upon any two estates at the
same time: nor even the same upon any one estate at different limes,
or for any consecutive number of years_.[7] The rates vary every year
on every estate, according to the varying circumstances that
influence them--such as greater or less exhaustion of the soil,
greater or less facilities of irrigation, manure, transit to market,
drainage--or from fortuitous advantages on one hand, or calamities of
season on the other; or many other circumstances which affect the
value of the land, and the abilities of the cultivators to pay. It is
not so much the proprietors of the estate or the Government as the
cultivators themselves who demand every year a readjustment of the
rate demandable upon their different holdings. This readjustment must
take place; and, if there is no landlord to effect it, Government
must effect it through its own officers. Every holding becomes
subdivided when the cultivating proprietor dies and leaves more than
one child; and, as the whole face of the country is open and without
hedges, the division is easily and speedily made. Thus the field-map
which represents an estate one year will never represent it fairly
five years after; in fact, we might almost as well attempt to map the
waves of the ocean as field-map the face of any considerable area in
any part of India.[8]

If there be any truth in my conclusions, our Government has acted
unwisely in going, as it has generally done, into [one or other of]
the two extremes, in its settlement of the land revenue.

In the Zamindari settlement of Bengal, it conferred the hereditary
right of property over areas larger than English counties on
individuals, and left the immediate cultivators mere tenants-at-
will.[9] These individuals felt no interest in promoting the comfort
and welfare of the village communities, or conciliating the
affections of the cultivators, whom they never saw or wished to see;
and they let out the village, or other subdivision of their estates,
to second parties quite as little interested, who again let them out
to others, so that the system of rack-renting went on over the whole
area of the immense possession. This was a system 'more honoured in
the breach than in the observance'; for, as the great landholders
became involved in the ruin of their cultivators, their estates were
sold for arrears of revenue due to Government, and thus the
proprietary right of one individual has become divided among many,
who will have the feelings which the larger holders wanted, and so
remedy the evil. In the other extreme, Government has constituted the
immediate cultivators the proprietors; thereby preventing any one who
is supported upon the rent of land, or the profits of agricultural
stock, from rising above the grade of a peasant, and so depriving
society of one of its best and most essential elements. The remedy of
both is in village settlements, in which the estate shall be of
moderate size, and the hereditary property of the holder, descending
on the principle of a principality, by the right of primogeniture,
unaffected by the common law. This is the system which has been
adopted in the Nerbudda territory, and which, I trust, will be always
adhered to.

When we enter upon the government of any new territorial acquisition
in India, we do not require or pretend to change the civil laws of
the people; because their civil laws and their religion are in
reality one and the same, and are contained in one and the same code,
as certainly among the Hindoos, the Muhammadans, and the Parsees, as
they were among the Israelites. By these codes, and the established
usages everywhere well understood by the people, are their rights and
duties in marriage, inheritance, succession, caste, contract, and all
the other civil relations of life, ascertained; and when we displace
another Government we do not pretend to alter such rights and duties
in relation to each other, we merely change the machinery and mode of
procedure by which these rights are secured and these duties
enforced.[10]

Of criminal law no system was ever either regularly established or
administered in any state in India, by any Government to which we
have succeeded; and the people always consider the existing
Government free to adopt that which may seem best calculated to
effect the one great object, which criminal law has everywhere in
view--_the security of life, property, and character, and the
enjoyment of all their advantages_. The actions by which these are
affected and endangered, the evidence by which such actions require
to be proved, and the penalties with which they require to be
visited, in order to prevent their recurrence, are, or ought to be,
so much the same in every society, that the people never think us
bound to search for what Muhammad and his companions thought in the
wilds of Arabia, or the Sanskrit poets sang about them in courts and
cloisters. They would be just as well pleased everywhere to find us
searching for these things in the writings of Confucius and
Zoroaster, as in those of Muhammad and Manu: and much more so, to see
us consulting our own common-sense, and forming a penal code of our
own, suitable to the wants of such a mixed community.[11]

The fiscal laws which define the rights and duties of the landed
interests and the agricultural classes in relation to each other and
to the ruling powers were also everywhere exceedingly simple and well
understood by the people. What in England is now a mere fiction of
law is still in India an essential principle. All lands are held
directly or indirectly of the sovereign: to this rule there is no
exception.[12] The reigning sovereign is essentially the proprietor
of the whole of the lands in every part of India, where he has not
voluntarily alienated them; and he holds these lands for the payment
of those public establishments which are maintained for the public
good, and are supported by the rents of the lands either directly
under assignment, or indirectly through the sovereign proprietor.
When a Muhammadan or Hindoo sovereign assigned lands rent-free in
_perpetuity_, it was always understood, both by the donor and
receiver, to be with the _small reservation_ of a right in his
successor to resume them for the public good, if he should think
fit.[13] Hindoo sovereigns, or their priests for them, often tried to
bar this right by _invoking curses_ on the head of that successor who
should exercise it.[14] It is a proverb among the people of these
territories, and, I believe, among the people of India generally,
that the lands which pay no rent to Government have no 'barkat',
blessing from above--that the man who holds them is not blessed in
their returns like the man who pays rent to Government and thereby
contributes his aid to the protection of the community. The fact is
that every family that holds rent-free lands must, in a few
generations, become miserable from the minute subdivision of the
property, and the litigation in our civil courts which it entails
upon the holders.[15] It is certainly the general opinion of the
people of India that no land should be held without paying rent to
Government, or providing for people employed in the service of
Government, for the benefit of the people in its defensive,
religious, judicial, educational, and other establishments. Nine-
tenths of the land in these Nerbudda territories are held in lease
immediately under Government by the heads of villages, whose leases
have been renewable every five years; but they are now to have a
settlement for twenty.[l6] The other tenth is held by these heads of
villages intermediately under some chief, who holds several portions
of land immediately under Government at a quit-rent, or for service
performed, or to be performed, for Government, and lets them out to
farmers. These are, for the most part, situated in the more hilly and
less cultivated parts.

Notes:

1. November, 1835.

2. This observation does not hold good in densely populated tracts,
which are now numerous.

3. These 'estates of villages' are known by the Persian name of
'mauza'. The topographical division of the country into 'mauzas',
which may be also translated by the terms 'townlands' or 'townships',
has developed spontaneously. Some 'mauzas' are uninhabited, and are
cultivated by the residents of neighbouring villages.

4. In some parts of Central and Southern India, the 'Garpagri', who
charms away hail-storms from the crops, and 'Bhumka', who charms away
tigers from the people and their cattle, are added to the number of
village servants, [W. H .S.] 'In many parts of Berar and Malwa every
village has its "bhumka", whose office it is to charm the tigers; and
its "garpagri", whose duty it is to keep off the hail-storms. They
are part of the village servants, and paid by the village community,
After a severe hail-storm took place in the district of Narsinghpur,
of which I had the civil charge in 1823, the office of "garpagri" was
restored to several villages in which it had ceased for several
generations. They are all Brahmans, and take advantage of such
calamities to impress the people with an opinion of their usefulness.
The "bhumkas" are all Gonds, or people of the woods, who worship
their own Lares and Penates' (_Ramaseeana_, Introduction, p. 13.
note).

5. Very often the Government of the country know nothing of these
tenures; the local authorities allowed them to continue as a
perquisite of their own. The holders were willing to pay them a good
share of the rent, assured that they would be resumed if reported by
the local authorities to the Government. These authorities consented
to take a moderate share of the rent, assured that they should get
little or nothing if the lands were resumed. [W. H. S.] 'Rent' here
means 'land-revenue'. Of course, under modern British administration
the particulars of all tenures are known and recorded in great
detail,

6. Since the author wrote these remarks the legal position of
cultivating proprietors and tenants has been largely modified by the
pressure of population and a long course of legislation. The Rent
Acts, which began with Act x of 1859, are now numerous, and have been
accompanied by a series of Land Revenue Acts, and many collateral
enactments. All the problems of the Irish land question are familiar
topics to the Anglo-Indian courts and legislatures.

7. This proposition no doubt was true for the 'Sagar and Nerbudda
Territories' in 1835, but it cannot be predicated of the thickly
populated and settled districts in the Gangetic valley without
considerable qualification. Examples of long-established, unchanged,
well-known rent-rates are not uncommon.

8. In recent years this task of 'mapping the waves of the ocean' has
been attempted. Every periodical settlement of the land revenue in
Northern India since 1833 has been accompanied by the preparation of
detailed village maps, showing each field, even the tiniest, a few
yards square, with a separate number. In many cases these maps were
roughly constructed under non-professional supervision, but in many
districts they have been prepared by the cadastral branch of the
Survey Department. The difficulty mentioned by the author has been
severely felt, and it constantly happens that beautiful maps become
useless in four or five years. Efforts are made to insert annual
corrections in copies of the maps through the agency of the village
accountants, and the 'kanungos', or officers who supervise them, but
the task is an enormous one, and only partial success is attained. In
addition to the maps, records of great bulk are annually prepared
which give the most minute details about every holding and each
field.

9. The Permanent Settlement of Bengal, effected under the orders of
Lord Cornwallis in 1793, was soon afterwards extended to the province
of Benares, now included in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
Illusory provisions were made to protect the rights of tenants, but
nothing at all effectual was done till the passing of Act x of 1859,
which has been largely modified by later legislation.

10. The general principle here stated of respect for personal
substantive law in civil matters is still the guide of the Indian
Legislature, but the accumulation of Privy Council and High Court
rulings, combined with the action of codes, has effected considerable
gradual change. Direct legislation has anglicized the law of
contract, and has modified, though not so largely, the law of
marriage, inheritance, and succession.

11. In the author's time the courts of the East India Company still
followed the Muhammadan criminal law, as modified by the Regulations.
The Indian Penal Code of 1869 placed the substantive criminal law on
a thoroughly scientific basis. This code was framed with such
masterly skill that to this day it has needed little material
amendment. The first Criminal Procedure Code, passed in 1861, has
been twice recast. The law of evidence was codified by Sir James
FitzJames Stephen in the Indian Evidence Act of 1870.

12. This proposition, in the editor's opinion, truly states the
theory of land tenures in India, and it was a generally accurate
statement of actual fact in the author's time. Since then the long
continuance of settled government, by fostering the growth of private
rights, has tended to obscure the idea of state ownership. The modern
revenue codes, instead of postulating the ownership of the state,
enact that the claims of the state--that is to say, the land-revenue-
-are the first charge on the land and its produce. The Malabar coast
offers an exception to the general Hindu role of state ownership of
land. The Nairs, Coorgs, and Tulus enjoyed full proprietary rights
(Dubois, _Hindu Manners, &c_., 3rd edition (1906), p. 57).

13. Amir Khan, the Nawab of Tonk, assigned to his physician, who had
cured him of an intermittent fever, lands yielding one thousand
rupees a year, in rent-free tenure, and gave him a deed signed by
himself and his heir-apparent, declaring expressly that it should
descend to him and his heir for ever. He died lately, and his son and
successor, who had signed the deed, resumed the estate without
ceremony. On being remonstrated with, he said that 'his father, while
living, was, of course, master, and could make him sign what he
pleased, and give land rent-free to whom he pleased; but his
successor must now be considered the best judge whether they could be
spared or not; that if lands were to be alienated in perpetuity by
every reigning Nawab for every dose of medicine or dose of prayers
that he or the members of his family required, none would soon be
left for the payment of the soldiers, or other necessary public
servants of any description'. This was told me by the son of the old
physician, who was the person to whom the speech was made, his father
having died before Amir Khan. [W. H. S.] Amir Khan was the famous
Pindhari leader. H. T. Prinsep translated his Memoirs from the
Persian of Busawun Lal (Calcutta, 1832).

14. The ancient deeds of grant, engraved on copper, of which so many
have been published within the last hundred years, almost invariably
conclude with fearful curses on the head of any rash mortal who may
dare to revoke the grant. Usually the pious hope is expressed that,
if he should be guilty of such wickedness, he may rot in filth, and
be reborn a worm.

15. Revenue officers commonly observe that revenue-free grants, which
the author calls rent-free, are often ill cultivated. The simple
reason is that the stimulus of the collector's demand is wanting to
make the owner exert himself.

16. These leases now carry with them a right of ownership, involving
the power of alienation, subject to the lien of the land revenue as a
first charge. Conversely, the modern codes lay down the principle
that the revenue settlement must be made with the proprietor. The
author's rule of agricultural succession by primogeniture in the
Nerbudda territories has survived only in certain districts (see
_post_, Chapter 47). The land-revenue law and the law concerning the
relations between landlords and tenants have now been more or less
successfully codified in each province. Mr. B. H. Baden-Powell's
encyclopaedic work _The Land Systems of British India_ (3 volumes:
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1892) gives very full information concerning
Indian tenures as now existing, and the law applicable to them at the
date of publication.

CHAPTER 11

Witchcraft.

On leaving Jabera,[1] I saw an old acquaintance from the eastern part
of the Jubbulpore district, Kehri Singh.

'I understand, Kehri Singh', said I, 'that certain men among the
Gonds of the jungle, towards the source of the Nerbudda, eat human
flesh. Is it so?'

'No, sir; the men never eat people, but the Gond women do.'

'Where?'

'Everywhere, sir; there is not a parish, nay, a village, among the
Gonds, in which you will not find one or more such women.'

'And how do they eat people?'

'They eat their livers, sir.'

'Oh, I understand; you mean witches?'

'Of course! Who ever heard of other people eating human beings?'

'And you really still think, in spite of all that we have done and
said, that there are such things as witches?'

'Of course we do--do not we find instances of it every day? European
gentlemen are too apt to believe that things like this are not to be
found here, because they are not to be found in their own country.
Major Wardlow, when in charge of the Seoni district, denied the
existence of witchcraft for a long time, but he was at last
convinced.'

'How?'

'One of his troopers, one morning after a long march, took some milk
for his master's breakfast from an old woman without paying for it.
Before the major had got over his breakfast the poor trooper was down
upon his back, screaming from the agony of internal pains. We all
knew immediately that he had been bewitched, and recommended the
major to send for some one learned in these matters to find out the
witch. He did so, and, after hearing from the trooper the story about
the milk, this person at once declared that the woman from whom he
got it was the criminal. She was searched for, found, and brought to
the trooper, and commanded to cure him. She flatly denied that she
had herself conjured him; but admitted that her household gods might,
unknown to her, have punished him for his wickedness. This, however,
would not do. She was commanded to cure the man, and she set about
collecting materials for the "puja" (worship); and before she could
get quite through the ceremonies, all his pains had left him. Had we
not been resolute with her, the man must have died before evening, so
violent were his torments.'

'Did not a similar case occur to Mr. Fraser at Jubbulpore?'

'A "chaprasi"[2] of his, while he had charge of the Jubbulpore
district, was sent out to Mandla[3] with a message of some kind or
other. He took a cock from an old Gond woman without paying for it,
and, being hungry after a long journey, ate the whole of it in a
curry. He heard the woman mutter something, but being a raw,
unsuspecting young man, he thought nothing of it, ate his cock, and
went to sleep. He had not been asleep three hours before he was
seized with internal pains, and the old cock was actually heard
crowing in his belly. He made the best of his way back to Jubbulpore,
several stages, and all the most skilful men were employed to charm
away the effect of the old woman's spell, but in vain. He died, and
the cock never ceased crowing at intervals up to the hour of his
death.'

'And was Mr. Fraser convinced?'

'I never heard, but suppose he must have been.'

'Who ate the livers of the victims? The witches themselves, or the
evil spirits with whom they had dealings?'

'The evil spirits ate the livers; but they are set on to do so by the
witches, who get them into their power by such accursed sacrifices
and offerings. They will often dig up young children from their
graves, bring them to life, and allow these devils to feed upon their
livers, as falconers allow their hawks to feed on the breasts of
pigeons. You "sahib log" (European gentlemen) will not believe all
this, but it is, nevertheless, all very true.'[4]

The belief in sorcery among these people owes its origin, in a great
measure, to the diseases of the liver and spleen to which the
natives, and particularly the children, are much subject in the
jungly parts of Central India. From these affections children pine
away and die, without showing any external marks of disease. Their
death is attributed to witchcraft, and any querulous old woman, who
has been in the habit of murmuring at slights and ill treatment in
the neighbourhood, is immediately set down as the cause. Men who
practise medicine among them are very commonly supposed to be at the
same time wizards. Seeking to inspire confidence in their
prescriptions by repeating prayers and incantations over the patient,
or over the medicine they give him, they make him believe that they
derive aid from supernatural power; and the patient concludes that
those who can command these powers to cure can, if they will, command
them to destroy. He and his friends believe that the man who can
command these powers to cure one individual can command them to cure
any other; and, if he does not do so, they believe that it arises
from a desire to destroy the patient. I have, in these territories,
known a great many instances of medical practitioners having been put
to death for not curing young people for whom they were required to
prescribe. Several cases have come before me as a magistrate in which
the father has stood over the doctor with a drawn sword by the side
of the bed of his child, and cut him down and killed him the moment
the child died, as he had sworn to do when he found the patient
sinking under his prescriptions.[5]