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Leader (1850-1860), 31st December 1853, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1252, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      so completely under a parcel of London clerks as tobe compelled to send home particulars of everything they say or do , to be commented on , checked , or controlled by parties in-Capable from position of forming * , correct opinion on "what they decide , and finally , in India , we have had public education neglected , improvement thrown aside , irrigation and the means of communication overlooked ; though to neglect such as this we have , since the Charter Act of 1833 , been indebted for famines , which have Swept away nearly two millions of human beings , and sacrificed to Government above eight millions sterling , a sum which , if properly expended , would have been sufficient to have averted for ever the calamities by which in a few years its loss was occasioned . Against things so monstrous as deal

      these , in reference to which the Ministry seemed , or unheeding , were the petitions directed as well as against local grievances . Appeals to the people of England , through the Press , were also made by the India Reform Society , and the result has been that the Ministers were obliged to grant more reforms than they at first intended . The double government still remains , however , slightly modified ; but its days are numbered . The report just read has given the prominent innovations in the last Charter Act , and we ought no doubt to acknowledge with thankfulness , the few improvements which have been introduced by the Ministry , in which we cannot help lamenting to notice , incommon with our Calcutta brethren , the absence of any provision for the extension of imblic works , for the admission of

      even a single native into the Legislative Council , and the virtual exclusion of the educated natives from the Civil Serxice by the continuance of the Htaileybury College , as the exclusive medium of admission into that service . The British Government professes to educate the Natives to an equality with Europeans , an object worthy of the age and of Britain ; but if Englishmen , after educating the Natives to be their equals , continue to treat them as their inferiors ; if they deny the stimulus to honourable ambition , and show the Natives that there is a barrier over which superior Native merit and ambition can never hope to pass , and that these are considered traits , to which a Native cannot hope to exhibit—are they not in effect undoing all that thev have done , unteachine the Native all that he has been

      . taught , and pursuing a suicidal policy , which will inevitably array all the talent , honour , and intelligence of the country . ultimately in irreconcileable hostility to the ruling power?—will not the British nation be breaking its pledged faith ? The time has come when these things should be considered . As to the ' argument that the Natives cannot be trusted in places o great responsibility , it is admirably met by Mirabeau , in a work dedicated to the Emperor of Prussia . He says ( something to this effect ) , 'If the Jews are so degraded a race that you cannot trust them with the rights o citizens ; if you desire a reformed generation , it is only by teaching them what those rights are , and how they can be exercised , that you can hope to improve them . ' Begin this immediately : until they are accustomed to the exercise of their rights , there can be no reformed generation ; the only thing you cannot regain is lost time .

      " One fact is proved beyond doubt . Engliahmon aro most anxious to listen to us everywhere , to befriend us , and to 'g ive everything we desire in reason if we would be only true to ourselves . They are ready to do much more for the Natives than the Natives are doing for themselves . Nothing shows better the interest evinced by some of the ablest men than the visit to this country of Mr . Danby Seymour , president of the India Reform Society , who , at his own charges , has come out to seek information and gain experience , to be turned to the good of India . I doubt not , my countrymen in this presidency will give this philanthropic gentleman a hearty welcomo when he comes over here , and our very best thanks are due to the liberal-minded gentlemen whose names are stated in the report as having , with energy , zeal , and good sense , greatly forwarded , while in England , the good of England and India .

      " It is , no doubt , our duty now to seek for further reform ; to bo awake , and united with the reformers in the sister presidencies and . in England ; and wo may again win successes corresponding in nature to , and exceeding in magnitude , those which , have been attained by the united agency of the petitions , the agitation in India , and the reform c ombination in London . " To native gentlemen , of whatever colour or creed , who can worthily respond to these sentiments , we havo only to say that their resolution to continue their organisation , and to come before Parliament every year , with candid admissions of real benefits , and suggestions of further needed and practical reforms , is the only course which comports with their dignity , their capabilities , and their duty .

      Untitled Article

      THE STATE OF INDIA . The Overland Mail arrived on Monday , with the usual despatches from our Eastern Empire . The intelligence is scanty and unimportant . A force had been sent forward from Peshawur to occupy the outlet of the Kohal Pass , and to build a fort there , to keep the Apredccs in order . A Persian messenger had been sent to Dost Mohammed ,, at Cabool , for the purpose , it was surmised , of inducing the Aflghans to join the Persians against Turkey . Russian forces are reported to have arrived at Khiva . The Hombay Times tells an anecdote , showing that Khutput survives . " Lord Falkland i , s expected to roturn to Bombay during the commencement ; of noxfc month , nnd leaves Indiu , it in understood , early in January , lie will return from tho IhIIk by way of 1 ' oonnh , to witnon . s tho spoctsiclo of tho military camp which is now being formed ufc that station . Tho intelligence of tho restoration of Colonol Outnun to tho nppointmont of resident nt Barodn , which in confirmed by Culeutta papers just received , has given , wo may nny univorefil natittfiietion ; but ho has yotto war nf » iiii ) Bt corrupt intrigue . An investigation has been going on m tho Bombay

      Secretariat during the last week , which proves that Khutputism is as rife as ever among us , and that the Guicowar of Baroda still makes use of its influence successfully . A summary of Baroda affairs was recently prepared in the Secret Department of the Secretariat from numerous documents . For what person it was intended , or for whose edification drawn up , we know not , but it extended over nearly a ream of foolscap , and no doubt contained much valuable information . Lord F alkland being at Mahabu leshwar , it became necessary to send the document by post to that station , and accordmely it was put into the Bombay Post-office for transit , and 5 ut the

      eventually made over to the mail contractor . I agents of the Guicowar , who had made Khutput in the Secretariat , not only knew that the document was in course of preparation , but became cognisant of the very hour—nay , minute , that it was posted , and determined to possess it ; for this purpose they bribed some of the subordinate servants of the mail contractor , and the document , while on the way between the Post-office and the steamer , disappeared , and has not since been heard of . The inquiry has only as yet elicited a confession from one of the servants , who acknowledges that he was offered a bribe of 200 rupees to abstract the packets intransitit . "

      Untitled Article

      INFANTICIDE IN THE PUNJAB . ( From the Friend of India . " ) Another chapter in the black history of Indian crime . It is not the least among the many obstacles in the path of the Indian Government that it is called upon to contend with crimes which have become almost national customs . Founded , like Suttee , upon superstition , like infanticide , upon a social prejudice , or'like Thuggee , upon the mere love of plunder , they have spread in the course of years over whole races , and have become part of the daily life of organised communities . It is not that the strength of the Government is unable to cope with

      them on account of their magnitude , for Government could ^ have exterminated the Thugs in a twelvemonth . Tho difficulty is the utter impotence of the ordinary aids to authority . It receives no information , for the entire people is guilty . It can gain nothing- by treachery among the criminals , for , in the people ' s idea , there is nothing to betray . Its European experience is of no value , for the European theory supposes that natural affections are stronger than social prejudices . Its European agents are at fault , for the proofs of good character and of heinous crime are often united in the same person . The

      respectable , well-born , intelligent Rajpoot who governs his estates with an ability which extorts the admiration the collector has murdered his female children , and would have assisted to burn his mother alive but [ for ; the law . The wife who would kill herself rather than allow a European to see her face , and towards whom her sons express the deepest respect and affection , has consented to the slaughter of her own children . The manner in which a native retains occasionally , amid great virtues , a criminal side to his character might form one of the most curious chapters in psychology .

      We make these observations , which many of our Indian readers will consider somewhat trite , because it is tho dogged adherence to English ideas which renders our system so unintelligible in England . To proceed to facts : —Late in tho year 1851 Major Lake , Commissioner o Goordaspore , in the Punjab , became aware of the existence of infanticide among a class in his own district . He reported tho facts to tho Board of Administration , and inquiries were immediately commenced . All tho commissioners received orders to report upon the prevalence of the crimo within their respective jurisdictions , and to suggest measures for its removal . Considerable delay appears to have occurred in collecting tho informati on required , but at last it was obtained in a form which enabled the Judicial Commissioner to

      report upon it . It was found to prevail moro or less in tho Umbnlla , Ferozeporo , Jullundur , Ilooshearporo , Lahore , Mooltan , Jhclutn , and Lcia districts — -m fuct , over a tract of country ns largo as an European kingdom . It was not , however , practised by all the inhabitants It is confined chiotty to the JSedcos or descendants of Nanuk Gooroo , men generally ol great wealth and influence , and to the Jhi ) - poots , generally poor , but among whom tho custom ia one ol immemorial nntiqui ty . The Khotrccs , however , some BramlmiiH , nnd oven several of the Mussulman tribes , maintain tho practice , and the higher tho rank tho more certain are tho female branched of destruction . It i » believed , also , by tho most experienced officer * ,, to have infected all cIosbcs in a greater or less ¦ degree , and wo may readily imagine

      that even where the motives which influence the highest class were absent , the lower orders would acquire from their example a degree of carelessness for their children ' s lives . The motive for the crime differs among the different classes . With the Rajpoots of the Punjab , as among the Rajpoots every where el 3 e , it is . simply pride . They must marry their female children , and they must marry them to their equals . This is occasionally difficult , and thev slay them to avoid the inconvenience . Then , even if they find bridegrooms , they must give a dower more than proportioned to their means . Their extravagance sometimes reaches a point which is almost incredible among a parsimonious people . One chief gave his daughter seventeen lacs of rupees , another

      expended ten lacs , and a third gave a lac to his niece married to a poor Bramhun of the plains . Their insane pride , to which that of the Highland chief is almost humility , forbids them to diminish its amount . It is a question , as Major Edwardes has observed , between the father's wealth and the daughter ' s life , and the life is taken , and the wealth retained . Then , again , in some instances it is regarded simply as a means of proving the purity of their race , a mere habit of imitating the upper classes . The Munha Rajpoots , for instance when in the hills , are the lowest of their tribe , and their children are consequently safe . But in the plains they become the highest , and , in order to prove that they are such , they slay their children . Yet the Rajpoots are the noblest of the Indian races *

      The same causes are m operation among the Mussulmans . The highest tribes , jealous of the purity of their lineage , arejealou 9 also of their wealth , and the female children are sacrificed to save them from an unequal marriage and their fathers from too liberal donations . Added to all this , the" principle of consanguinity is pushed to the wildest extreme . Almost every Rajpoot is the relative of every other ; all who are descended from one common ancestor consider themselves blood relations after the lapse of centuries , and , down to the last degree , marriage is

      forbidden . Every Rajpoot Campbell considers himself not only the kinsman of the Duke-of Argyll , but within the forbidden degrees . It is among the Bectees only that a different set of mbtives appears to come into operation . They are tile descendants of Dhurm Chund , the grandson of thfe great Nanuk Gooroo , and considered themselves <> f the priestly caste—the Levites of the Punjab . They murder on the strength of tradition , and add occasionally a mocking ceremony to the crime . " The child is buried ; a piece of eoarse sugar is put between its lips , and a hank of cotton in its hand , and the father

      — " Eat your goor and spin your thread , But go and send a boy instead . " Be the motives what they may , it is certain that in hundreds of families in the Punjab there has been no daughter born for generations . It is certain that in thousands inf anticide is a custom , to which no member them probably would hesitate to allude ; that , all over the Punjab , there is a disproport ion in the number of female births not to be accounted for by ordinary causes , and that in certain districts this disproportion rises to a height which implies the extinction of the female sex . The evil must be

      remedied , and the authorities have resolved upon the means . They are utterly opposed to English ideas . A London magistrate would redouble the vigilance o tho police , and , if possible , increase tho cer tainty of punishment . Such measures by themselves would be useless in India . It is the social polico which m England prevents crime , and we have no social police . The authorities , guided , wo imagine , by Mr . Koikes , whose success at Mynpoorie has given him an I ^ " pean reputation , have attempted to strike the evil at ; its root . They have taken advantage of the dawning abhorrence of the crime among tho people themselves , and have endeavoured to induce them to remove tno

      temptations to it . The people aro to bo distinctly informed that the practice is regarded by their new rulers as a crime ; a census is to be drawn up , """ guishing the malo and female children ; and » a 3 W ' groat meeting has been called of the chiefs ot aw * tricts , aided by tho Commissioners of the Jullundur , Lahore , and Cis-Sutlej divisions , and presided over by tho Chief Commissioner , All tho native clue ™ who can bo expected to attend win v invited , and now rules for marriago »»« other ceremonies will , it is hoped , be * ormJ "Y adopted . Tho meeting is to take place on tno ^ Jl 1 and a 1 st of October , in the holy city of the biK '» < result mtenut

      and can scarcely fail to produce tho ^ '¦—viz ., an unanimous declaration of opinion agai tho practice . That every effort has been niauo w >» cure a favourable result wo need scarcely atllrm , » . the interest taken in tho matter by the Govern i General is sufficiently manifested in tho iollovvi ^ fa sentences-from a minute dated tho 7 th Soptcmuer . " 2 . Tho Governor-General in Council Jiafl » these papers with deep interest and much £ of Won . He can conceive no purer or higher 00111 ^ pride for tho public officers of a State than » J hoir record us thin of the wide and rapid auccesd <> 1 ^ exertions on behalf of the honour of our ruio rescue of Buffering humanity .

      Untitled Article

      The news from China still leaves matters where they were ; with the exception of Amoy , which it is said is in the hands of the Imperialists . A letter from Hongkong says : — , ¦ « ' ,. ¦ " We hear there has been a mutiny on board the flag-ship . It seems that on the 8 th of November the men , who ^ have not had liberty for eighteen months , sent in a petition on the subject to Admiral Pellew , who immediately ordered the ship to be got ready for sea . In the evening there was a noise below , when the drum was beat to quarters , and some of the men refused to come on deck , upon which the officers were ordered to compel them at the point of the sword , and in doing so several of the men were severely wounded . "

      Untitled Article

      1252 THE LEADER [ Saturday ;

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 31, 1853, page 1252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2019/page/4/