The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-09 00:00:00

JULY 9, 1853. yittraturt. 1788 Administration of the East India Company a History of _Wittig Progress. By John Wil limn Kaye. London : Bentley. [Third and Concluding Notice.] Two interesting chapters of Mr. Kaye's work are devoted to Thuggee and llakoitee, topics which the peculiar interest attaching to crime has rendered tolerably familiar. That Colonel Sleeman and his assistants deserve all credit for their success in putting down the former a these nuisances we readily acknowledge. But that it has been utterly extirpated, never to revive, though Mr. Kaye strenuously asserts the fact, we beg leave to doubt. Thuggee is less rife than formerly, but it exists, and in certain localities even continues to flourish. Nor, in justice to our predecessors in the Government, should we forget the advantages possessed by us in dealing with this crime. The vast extent of country over which we operate secures a certain unity of organisation wholly wanting in native states. The escaped felon can no longer find within easy distance a frontier which he may cross and be safe. And Mr. Kaye wholly omits to mention a fact well known to Anglo-Indians—namely, that the police established for the express purpose of acting against Thugs has in some districts it self become a powerful though unintended engine of oppression. Armed with inquisitorial power, striking terror into the people whom it protects, it has not rarely levied black-mail under threats of false accusation ; and this abuse, though notorious, is hard to detect, and still harder effectually to suppress. As a sketch interesting in itself, and as a good specimen of Mr. Kaye's manner, the following description of a Dakoit gang is worth quoting : The ordinary practice of these gangs was to set out, after the usual ritual preliminaries, in parties of thirty or forty, disguised as travellers, or pilgrims, or bird catchers, or anything else that might promise good chance of concealment. The principal implement of their profession was the spear. The spear-head they carried about with them, concealed on their persons ; the handles they either converted into walking-sticks, or buried in a convenient place. One of the party sent on in advance, or sonic confederate at a distance—a corre sponding member of the society—either brought or sent in tidings to the effect that he " had bis eye on a rich house," A full description of the locality—of the build ing itself, of its inhabitants, of the probable means of defence, as far as they could be ascertained, was com municated to the leaders of the gang ; and then, the night and hour of the attack being determined upon, the gang was duly mustered, and an estimate formed of its adequacy to the intended enterprise. If the party were not considered strong enough to secure success, some " auxiliaries " were called in. These were members of robber-tribes, or local Dakoits, resident in the neigh bouring villages. With their party thus augmented they took counsel together, and determined on their plan of operations. It was their policy then to separate for a day or two before the meditated attack, and then to meet at a given hour—an hour after nightfall—and to advance at once to the enterprise. They then collected the handles of their implements, fixed them into the spear heads and axes, prepared their torches, divested them selves of all their superfluous clothes, and advanced to the attack. It VMS always a nocturnal surprise. With flaming torches, and spea►s glittering in the broad light, they came suddenly on the sleeping inhabitants of the doomed house, and either roused them with their noise, or pricked them up with the points of their weapons. Thus suddenly startled from their sleep, finding themselves surrounded by armed men, whose numbers their fear greatly exaggerated, the unhappy merchants, or bankers, Ho surprised, could seldom muster either their senses or their courage suff►- ciently to conduct an effective defense. If by any chance the resista►►ce was obstinate, the Itakoits, who had not always the stoutest hearts to sustain them, were in a fair way t► be beaten back. But the chances were greatly in their favour. A pa►ty suddenly surprised is always at a disadvantage. So it often happened that the luckless in habitants, confused, bewildered, panic-struck, like people under tl►e influence of a fearful dream, ►lid all that they were directed to do—pointed out the places where their wealth was hidden, and went like sheep to the slaughter. It is only fair to remark that a great part of the difficulty experienced by Government in its proceeding against Dakoitees arises from the disgraceful connivance of the people— partly produced by fear, but quite as much also by the love of plunder. Men of wealth and character do not scruple to g 4) shares with the burglar, and rob him in turn of his ill-got gains. A bargain is driven by which impunity is guaranteed on the one hand, and participation in the spoil on the other, and THE PRESS. not only the ill-paid and venal police, but zemindars of respectability, think no shame of conniving at these nefarious practices. The head man of the village harbours the thieves who infest it, advances them money, supplies them with food and clothing, and puts their pursuers on a wrong scent : feeling no more shame in the transaction than a merchant of any European country would feel in being part owner of a privateer in war time. This— the real root of the evil—is still left Un touched : The hare outside fact of this criminal participation of the landlords was no discovery• of modern times. It had attracted the attention of Warren Hastings, who saw at a glance that it was wholly impo►ssibl• to suppress I takonee without proclaiming the responsibility of the zemitelani as accesaaries to the crime, and in all cages of conviction punishing them with as witch severity as the ilethe offenders. He would have made short work of these nursing mothers of crime, and hung up the fattest ze ttt i l ober with as little compunction as the leanest Delimit. As have said bs•fore, the most vigorous uu•asmea are often the most humane ; and 1 have little doubt that if these meow mendations had been carried out and persevered in, and heavy blow thus struck at conniving landlords, we sl Id not now be hearing, after the lapse of tbreeluarters of a century, that ar►und the immediate twat of the supreme' Government—almost under the shadow of the vice-regal palace itself—" gang r►bberies have increased to such an extent that a feeling of general insecurity has arisen in the minds of the people of these districts." These are the words, not of Warren Haatings, but of 'sent Dalhousie. The governor of 1842 only repeats the eomplaint of the governor of 1774. The immunity which the landlords have enjoyed in the interval ham been the main cause of the perpetuation ut• the evil. We have been much too slow in our interference with their vested interests in rob bery mid murder. Lord Cornwallis, when he reorganieseel the police department in 1792, proclaimed that landlords convicted of being accesaaries to the commission of a rob bery should be . compelled to make good the value of the property stolen or plundered." So that, even if the regu lations had been put into effect against the zemindars, it would have been merely a matter of calculation with them —a mere question of profit and loss—the balance being pretty certain in favour of the former. It is not strange., therefore, that under such regulations the landlords con tinued to carry on the old trade, and to participate largely in the professional emoluments of the Dakoits. Nor are the police blameless in this matter. Their corruption is general, avowed, and fla grant. It was so in the time of Warren Hast ings, and it is so now. No sufficient remedy has been found. Again hear Mr Kayc : Associated with them, in the protection of the more active criminals, are the equally com►pt members of the police. This was no new discovery. Warren Hastings had as clear a perception of the fact as any superintendent of police in the present day. Hut although the Indian constabulary force has been modelled and remodelled— though first one system has been tried and then another, every description of organisation that has yet been at. tempted has been found to be equally inefficacious for the protection of life and property, and the detection and punishment of crime. Instead of protecting life and pro. perty, these men, under whatever name they draw a certain amount of salary, whether they belong to the regular police, or are the village watch, only protect rapine and disorder. To such at least point their own unaided instincts ; but European superintendence, though power. less hitherto to convert the Indian police into► an effective body, has done something to control its excesses. There is still much more to be done. It is the weakest 'mint of our Indian administration. And the following passage bears pleasing testimony to the acuteness of the native mind —to the ingenuity of that people which we re gard, not indeed as too corrupt, but as too ig norant and barbarous, to be entrusted with a share in domestic administration : It is a distinguishing feature of the practice of these professional depredators that they adapt their ways, with wonderful precision, to the legal machinery which is brought to hear upon them—that they even turn the very engine which is designed for their destruction into au in• strument of defence. They adapt their organisation to our own, and the more intricate it is the greater are their rheum's of evasion and escape. " The English," writes an officer of great intelligence and experience in the intriea• cies of these crimimilleagnes, "having divided the country into districts and dmes, the robbers have made it a fundamental maxim and Ain, voi aim to attach themselves by divis* to thannas, iu order to bribe every man of real and iwtual influence over the villagers to enter into a league with their paymasters—their principle being to sae entice di in order to retain a little in certainty and safety. Now, the two classes which have supreme actual influence among the village population are the thannailms (with their myrmidons) and the revenue•farmels (with theirs). These then are the persons held in the pay of the Daknits. To ensure regularity in this necessary par ticular, a robber•division is attached to a thanna, nod a subdivision to a particular form. This robberslivision is under a sirdar chief) of rubbers; and it is among the first of his duties to pay monthly, with his own hiuid, the shares respecti►ely of the thannadar and the revenue• farmer." Nor does the corruption, as 1 have already intimated, stop here. " The sirdars," says another writer, an intern gait and zeaknia niagiatratk," are men who travel in their 231 Palki 4 (14bulletins), and arrange all these little stairs first with the !oval polive, next with the magistrate's andab, and eventually with the M 16240116 andah and the law otheer." " In short, - to use the comprehensive words of another civil °nicer, the highest authority on such a subject in Bengal, "the whole plan has been got up to meet our rules of mi• deuce, awl it is carried on with the help of our ministerial and police amlah." Whatever se have 1611 P, indeed, the Bakoita have turned our doings to their own uses—our re venue system, our ivolice system, our judicial system hays all been impressed into their serviee. Whatever may have been our aihninistrative organisation, they have adapted to it, with consummate skill, the erganisation of their crimi nal leagues, and out-miuneuvred us at all prints. " Set a thief to tidal a thief" is an old saw. We etlllllot entell our own thieves, that is clear enough. Will Indians do worse than we have done ? Probably not. lint how, then, shall the relations and friends of directors be pro vided for? Mr. Alacaulay was right—lndia• house polities do overshadow Indian polities, even in Asia itself. Mr. Koye dilates with something approach-- lug to enthusiasm on the "vigorous" measures adopted to break up these plundering gangs. As in the ease of Thuggee, extraordinary powers were given—able Mill selected for the special duty—money wAs not spared—the re sources of despotism were called into play. Not, however, with any real result. Dakoitee still abounds in Bengal ; and, if it does not prevail to an equal extent either in the Punjab or throughout - Upper India generally, that is chiefly owing to the more warlike character of the people, who turn out in their own defence, while the timid Bengalee sits still and sees his house plundered, if he does not, under fear of torture, with his own hands point out the spot where his little hoards are deposited. In the Lower Provinces, comparing the lost live years with an equal period innnediately preceding, the crime has rather increased than diminished. It is said by Mr. Kayo that some sa•mptoms of recent improvement have been shown ; but his own words still bear witness against him :—" Dakoitee has not been sup pressed : we found it in India, and if we were to quit. the country to-morrow we should leave it there." We cannot follow Mr. Kaye into his graphic portraiture of the "non-regulation provinces;" i.e., in which the regular written law of the Company is not held binding on the adminis trators, but these are left to the exercise of their unfettered discretion, and invested with a simply despotic authority. It is almost a satire on the boasted " regulations " to say, what, nevertheless, is not only true but. noto rious, that where they are not in force govern ment is cheaper, better, and more popular; this Mr. Kaye himself admits, and justly instances the Punjab as an example. That country has been divided into districts, each of which is placed under the control of a com missioner with deputies, who unite in them selves civil, military, and judicial power. Only in cases of life and death must they appeal to the Central Board at Lahore. In other respects, their rule exactly fulfils the Duke of Welling ton's definition of martial law—" government by the will of the governor." No native Asiatic despotism is so organised, so uncontrolled, or so certain of obedience. Yet under this Go vernment, presided over by the most active and able of all living Indian officers—Sir Ilemy Lawrence—the people of the Pugjab have, since '49, evinced no inclination to dis turbance or even to discontent. Some proof of the influence of individual character, and some proof also of the Oriental preference for government by men rather than government by codes. But what becomes of the " regula tions" us models of legislative wisdom, if it be proved that newly-conquered provinces do better without than with them ? We I►ass over, though reluctantly, our au• thor's sketch of the civilising labours of Outrun, Ovans, Dixon, and Cleveland among the wild predatory tribes of the hills. These men worked well, and their labours were re warded by success ; nor is there any brighter page in the annals of the Company than that which tells of the reclaiming of the Bheels and the civilisation of Mailw•arla. But what they did was done mainly by individual agency, Government only looking on. Still the per formances of the servant bring credit to the n►aster, and thus fur Mr. Kayo's eulogy is jus tified.