The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-11 00:00:00

THE CONQUEST AND ADMINIS-
TRATION OF SINDE.

TO THE EDITOR or THE TIMES.
Sir,—Your insertion some time ago of a letter that I ad-
dressed to you about the Sinde Government now induces me
to send some additional, and I hope interesting remarks, on
that subject, especially as there seems to be an incipient desire
for, as well as a great lack of, information, on everything con-
nected with that province. The little knowledge acquired by
those who for factions purposes have sought information has
been so worked up into party weapons, that any simple state-
ment of facts by a calm observer may be satisfactory, because
all wish to know the truth, although so many distort or sup-
press it. Some weeks since we received the Indian Govern-
ment's publication of Sir Charles Napier's dispatch, and
Sir Henry Hardinge's complimentary remarks on that
officer's difficult operations in mountain and desert against
the powerful border tribes ; but for this we should still
be ignorant of the result, evcept from public rumour.
Why the Board of Control have su long neglected this im-
portant duty is hard to say, but it will surely be mortifying
to both the General and his army when they know of
the omission, and very naturally so; for when troops have
made a campaign of such hardship and danger, and, without
the excitement of battle, have displayed in a conspicuous de-
gree the hardest of military virtues ; when uncommon skill and
sagacity in the General, with a corresponding devotion in the
army, have brought a deep-laid and perilous plan of operations
to a happy and nearly bloodless issue, with the accomplishment
of a great political object (farigreater than the generality of
people here are aware of), they surely deserve at least some
alight recognition of their services by her Majesty's Govern-
ment. Sir Henry Hardinge, himself a soldier, seems to have
felt this, and has done his part; but the Board of Control's
continued silence shows that whoever directs its movements
is either incapable of appreciating such exploits, political or
military, or has sadly neglected his duty. Such negligence
does not make good and faithful soldiers ; yet India depends
on her army : and it is moreover gratifying to the spirits and
feelings of the officers, notwithstanding that their sense of
duty is founded on higher principles than can be shaken by the
neglect, or incapacity, of an effete Minister.
That the Government of Sinde has been judiciously ad-
ministered is, I think, proved by this campaign, in which we
see (and only two years after a bloody conquest) the British
reeneral supported, and most usefully and zealously supported,
by two great Belooch cheftains (one of them a sovereign
prince), at their own expense, and with a numerous following,
against their friends and countrymen. But it has been asked,
" How is Sinde governed? By any form of native or general
Mahometan law, or by the simple fiat of the Governor?" Let
us examine the as yet infant system of its administratinn, and
always bearing in mind that " Rome was not built in a day,"
nor the "little village " we live in in a week, endeavour tp
answer these questions.
Sinde being a great military conquest, the Government
exists only in the will of the Governor, as it did previously in
that of the Ameers; but all their forms that are practically
consistent with common humanity have been preserved.
The chief alterations made by Sir C. Napier are—first, a pro-
hibition against fathers, brothers, husbands, and nephews,
in short, against all males related to the female, cutting the
throats of their women, as they were in the common habit of
doing, not only when the latter were detected in the act of
adultery, but on the general suspicion of it. For instance,
under the Ameers' government, if any man chose to declare
that his kinswoman was an adulteress, or otherwise unchaste,
it was deemed a sufficient excuse for his murdering both the
woman and her supposed paramour, and protected him from
all further inquiry. If the accusation were notoriously false,
then the murdered man's relations took an opportunity of slay-
ing the murderer, and a blood-feud was commenced between
the two tribes; but the Government took no notice of these
affairs. Secondly, Sir C. Napier abolished torture, which was
not only practised by the Ameers themselves, but by the
kardars," or Government agents in each village, as well as
by the " hakims," or governors of towns. Thirdly, the
j " agirdars," or feudal lords, had also the power of life, death,
and torturing ; this also has been abolished. Fourthly, sla-
very has been extinguished altogether; and let no man ima-
gine, as some ignorantly do, that slavery was a light load in
Sinde—the exultation of the slaves, their openly expressed de-
testation of their masters, their eager and noisy appeal to the
Governor against some chiefs who had disregarded the law
and still retained them in thraldom, and their joy at the
latter's punishment and their etwn final emancipation, is
enough, if anything were regigited, to confute those writers
and readers who assert and foolishly believe the contrary.
Lord Ellenborough deserves great praise for this. Fifthly, in
the collection of revenue, the Governor very early endeavoured
to abolish all fees and reduce the ruinous amount of taxation
imposed by the Ameers, who, amongst other things, seized
four-fifths of the agricultural rroduce, leaving the rest, along
with the cost of tillage, to the cultivator.
The torture above alluded to was commonly used in the exa-
mination of witnesses, for which there were no regular rules,
any more than for the administration of justice. The usual mode
at Kurachee was to ask the witness without any oath what he
kne Non the subject? If he pleaded ignorance, and thus ex-
cited the judge's suspicions, torture was directly applied to
make him confess what the judge considered he ought
to know. This was done by either hanging the suf-
ferer up by the thumbs and applying a red hot ram-
rod to different ports of his body, or pricking him with a
dagger, or applying its naked blade to the throat with a
threat of cutting it. Such were the usual modes of
the Kurachee " hakims," but chiefly used when the
wiliness was considered as an accomplice. Oaths were ten-
dered according to the forms of their religion to persons of in-
ferior rank, if unsuspected of any motive for concealment, and
the examination then proceeded ; but a man of high rank was
simply required to state what he knew, it being considered a
disgrace both by Hindoo and Mehometan gentlemen to be put
on their oath. At present a form of solemn affirmation is con-
sidered sufficient, as in the rest of India. At Hyderabad the
practice was somewhat different ; oaths were administered in
civil suits, but no regular criminal trials ever took place kind&
the Ameers. In cases of murder, the usual practice was to let
the tribes settle it amongst themselves ; and, as regarded rob-
bery, the " kardar" ascertained to the best of his ability who
the delinquent was, and then put him in the stocks, and beat
and tortured him until he confessed, while any one refused to
give evidence, if he were believed to know something, was simi-
larly treated until his reluctance ceased. There were also the
fiery and watery or•leals. If the accused were burnt in the
former, or unable to remain under water the prescribed time
in the latter without suffocation, or if he refused the proof,
he was at once condemned. This, however, only applied to
Hindoos and Sindians or Beloochees of a weak and helpless
tribe; for. if string and powerful, no concealment was be-
emery ; the property was kept in defiance of " kardar" or
plaintiff, and the first man who came to apprehend the culprit.
was unceremoniously dispatched ; but if the person robbed
happened to enj •y the protection of a powerful chief, then the
property or its equivalent was commonly restored. This was
the general character of Sindian justice under the Ameers,
and the change is now sensibly felt and fully appreciated by all
former sufferers, especially the women, who feel that they have
peace and safety.
There are no civil judges as yet appointed by the supreme
Government, the Governor is all in all, nor is the country
sufficiently prepared for them. Sir Charles Napier's plan is
to have, both in civil and criminal cases, a preliminary ex.
arnination by British officers acting as magistrates, and as-
sisted by a " eazi," or Mahometan attorney, who expounds
the Nliessulmen law and Sinde customs. The magistrate's
court is one of equity, and after a full examination, assisted by
the " cazi's" expositions, he decides according to the best of
his judgment upon a certain class of cases, but only those of
minor importance, on which he is authorised to impose a fine,
imprisonment, and corporal punishment; the first to the
amount of one hundred rupees, the second for three months
with hard labour, the third to the number of two dozen lashes.
In civil eases he is much guided by the opinion of the
" cazi," for the Mahametan law is generally very just in
this respect. In all criminal cases of a grave character
the magistrate only takes the evidence, which is forwarded
through the Judge-Advocate-General, accompanied by the
latter's opinion, to the Governor ; after due study the
Governor orders a military commission to try the prisoner.
The proceedings of this commission are then submitted to
the Governor, through and by the Judge-Advocate-General,
who cernmonly acts as prosecutor, unless other duties inter-
fere, when soma officer is substituted. In forwarding
these acts to the Governor, the Judge- Advocate. General
again accomoanies them with a written statement of his own
sentiments on tto• proceedings and sentence, the whole of which
is caret's' ly read and considered by Sir Charles Napier, who
either confirms or orders a revision of the sentence, as in
courts-martial, with this difference, however, that the military
-commission is not a legal court, but only a council to assist
him in the distribution of justice, he possessing full power to
'abrogate or commute thelr sentence by his individual autho-
rity, from which alone the Court derives any. Sir Charles
Napier, as it would appear, considers the opinion of the mili-
tary commission as that of one court ; the opinion of the Judge.
Advocate-General as that of another (which may be called a
court of appeal) ; and the final decision by himself as the opinion
of a third court. Wherefore, if all three courts concur in the
" finding " and sentence, it is presumed that the prisoner has
had a fair trial and is justly judged, whether condemned or ac-
quitted. If the opinions of two of these courts disagree—
for example, the commission and Judge • Advocate- General,
the Governor gives his casting vote, and the prisoner has the
advantage of knowingthat his case has been carefully in-
vestig teed by three distinct courts, quite independent of
each other. The Governor's enormous power, extending as it
does to life and death, renders this form of proceeding com-
pletely dependent on his will, which is, of course, the great
evil of all absolute governments; but despotic rule is as yet
indispensah'e for the protection of the Sindian people ; the
chiefs w• uld obey no other, and any attempt to introduce a
system of civil government would in all likelihood produce a
gueri;la war.
These, Sir, are the checks that the present Governor see ns
to have designedly placed on himself against the possible, but, if
we may judge from his acts, net probable abuse of his own tre-
meneous authority ; but they entail on him the vast labour (in
addition to his mlitary duties and examination of courts-
martial, which are quite separate) of reading and cautiously
pondering over every trial that takes place throughout all
Sinde; and this is a fair proof, at least, of his anxiety to
do justice; but, when coupled with a civil, military, and
diplomatic correspondence with two presidencies, it accumu-
lates a fearful weight of business on one pair of
shoulders, and people are astonished at his endurance. In
this desire for just government Sir C. Napier is zealously
aided by all the British officers, both civil and military ; so
that, in point of fact, I believe it may be safely asserted that
the most prompt and substantial justice is administered every-
where Brat s, and not only in cities and towns, but in the most
obscure vi'lages of the country. That both the Governor and
his assistants may occasionally err in their judgment is only to
call them men; but such errors are not likely to be frequent or
important, because the crimes they pronounce upon are gene-
rally of a very gross character, and just decisions are easily
arrived at. Now, with reference to these improvements,
though little can be as yet fairly expected, still we become
auxious to know if any effects have been produced on the cha-
racter, habits, or affections of the three classes of inhabitants,
namely, the Belooch, Sindian, and Hindoo populations ; and
it is curious to contemplate the reaction amongst the latter
people. The Hindoo, now finding himself equally protected
with the Mahometan, shows a desire to exercise over the Be-
looch the same tyranny that he formerly suffered from him, and
this is especially apparent in money matters. The. Hindoos are
the merchants and bankers of Sinde. Under the Ameers
they were treated like the Jews of the middle ages in Europe!
and Sindo altogether is a very striking picture, or rather
remnant, of those unscrupulous days. Loans of money
were forced from them by the Mahometan feudal chiefs, the
capital of which was repaid either by instalments or Coe-
pensated by protection, or, more frequently, not paid at all.
Now the tables are turned, and the Hindoo not only demands
the capital debt, but long arrears of compound interest upon
a simple interest of twenty, thirty, forty, and even higher
percentage, forming cases so difficult and complicated that the
Governor was at once compelled to cut the Gordian knot, and
reject any contracts of an earlier date than that of the battle
• of Meeanee. He, however, allowed the Hindoos a broad
margin even in this, by giving the military magistrates a right
tense their own discretion in minor cases, and of submitting
J• t of more importance to the Government. The largest
-eost puzzling of these claims was that made by Hindoo
cradttors against the Ameers, on which they made strong
appeals to his justice, and his answer was the only
one he t have given, consistent with the
taillastAllo ces:—" I slid not fight the battle of
errs' debts." In fact, the demands
.(ruptic eeL. _l4 6 orbitant ; the claimants most atro-
void of principle, and to whom no
. coterie a moment have listened, besides
their debts. The Amt,‘ers, equally
•
L.,7"