The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-23 00:00:00

LEGAL INDIAN OPPRESSIONS.

(Extract from a Letter by an Indian Missionary.)
Apropos to this subject is a case of fearful oppres-
sion which has recently come under my own cogni-
sance. A certain zemindar, holding very extensive
estates in the district south of Calcutta, has deter-
mined for some time past to raise the rent of lands
held by people of three village,, who number about
150 families. To do this he has no legal right-
whatever—nay, the law expressly, in the case of
these ryots, forbids his so doing, their lands hav-
ing come down to them from their ancestors. But
the zemindar cares nothing for that part of the law,
and sets to work systematically and steadily to
effect his purposes. He, therefore, goes back ten
years, and from that date charges the whole of
these tenants rent on his own scale. Ho then
carries to account the sums which he has received
from each during that period, and then debits them
with the balance and the interest accruing upon it
according to his own scale. This, in most cases,
will be a large sum. The people, of course, refuse
to pay this alleged balance. Now his action begins.
He goes with these balances to the Collector's
Court, and obtains writs, first against the persons
of his tenants, and then additional ones against
their property. All this ho can do from the
practice of the Collector's Courts without the
knowledge of the person sued. Thus armed,
ho comes and demands a new agreement, by
which the amount of rent he wishes is to be
secured in perpetuo. The people again refuse,
when he produces his writs fertile sale of their pro-
perty, and notifies an early day for it to take effect.
The only help that now remains to the poor victim
of this injustice is for him to come up to the col-
lector and pray an injunction of the.s-ale—but the
zemindar is before him. He has placed his police
upon all the roads leading to Alipore, with direc-
tions to seize, any of the villagers whom they may
meet with travelling in that direction, and, should
he catch the complainant, he gives him such a
chastisement as will make him he itate era he sets
out again ; but if the poor man be fortunate enough
to evade the police and reach the Collector's Court,
then the writ which the zemindar has obtained
against his person is served upon him, and he is at
once taken off to -orison, where he must lie till he
compounds wish the zemindar, or pay the amount
for which he is sued into court. More than this,
, in order the more effectually to strike terror among
his ryots, he gets up a false charge against a num-
ber of them—say from sixteen to twenty—of hav-
ing plundered his treasury in the village, and as,
through fear of arrest fordebt, none of the villagers
will venture up to give evidence in favour of the aci
cured, the case goes by default against all who
are caught ; and at this moment there are,
in the Alipore jail, six of these poor
villagers on sentences of imprisonment and fine,
varying from three to twelve months, and from 59
to 200 rupees. In the meanwhile the property of
the prisoners is being sold ad libitum, by the
zetniudar. Such then is the state of things between
ryo's and zemindars in wretched Bengal. I vouch
for the substantial truth of the above. This case
may be that of any o her people at any time ; and
as the high price of rice, &c., at the present time,
induces the landlord to wish for higher rents, the
same process of oppression is going on doubtless in
many other places throughout this province. Now
all this may occur, and does in mot cases, without
the knowledge of? the English officials, who are
entirely in the hands of the native cfficers of the
courts, and if, as in the above case, some one like
myself should pity the poor people and bring their
circumstances to the kno licks° of the collector,
&e., yet his efforts will be in vain. Tito English
officials, however willing, have little or no power to
help, and the zemindars laugh at us altogether,
while the oppressed riot wonders at the neglect of
Gevernment to his woes, and is ready to welcome
any change that may occur iu the hope of deliver-
ance. The Mussulman Ferazees of the ervtArn par's
of Bengal, to whom I previously aliudtl, are chiefly
ryots, and one object of their combination is de'i-
verance from the tyranny of their landholders. In
these excitable times, therefore, there is but too
much reason to fear a rebellion in Bengal. With
such a state of things in tho Lower Provinces, and
the fearful rebellion that has been ragtag in the
North-West for the lest twelve inontl6ls, the fruit
of the East India's C nnpany's misrule, one cannot
hear with patience the lauding of all parties of poli-
ticians at home for the good it has done in this
country. Her Majesty the Queen, who is to succeed
it, and her officers, will find the rectification of the
evils it leaves behind, and the reconstruction of
order throughout the land, a legacy not worth
the thanking fie-. The work that is to t;e dune
in putting this vast empire upon a substantial
basis, will require all Alla wisdom and resources
of Britain's best sons. As the state of the country
becomes known, and the causes of the rebellion
understood, it will he .seen that the Director.; of
the honourable Company have little deserved the
commiseration shown them.
Nor are things more bright in respect to legisla-
tion en-I admirist.ation. Either the rebellion has
shed no light neon our rulers, or they are deterred
by the change 'end uncertain condition of the Go-
vernment at home, for there are nosigns of improve-
ment in the way of reform—no new laws tending
that way, nor administrative riots. I have it ou
indisputable authority tirat our rulers in Calcutta
Loll exactly to the same principles as guided them
before the outbreak. Take one litle instance in
proof : the governor of the Andaman islands has
recently posted a notification, forbidding dogs to
be brought on shore lest the caste of the mu'ineers,
banished there f'r life, should be inj 'trod. The
governor' is under the direction of the Bengal
officials.