New-York tribune., 1886-04-25
ENGLISH RULE IN INDIA.
,r,,u SOME NOTES ON WIVES.

,s,,' q, the caste Of writer's or cleeks formerly
roor beaten creature, the unressting slave OF
,orv rude tyrant who chose 10 lord it over MN,
afoban Mughal Maratha. Persian or Rohllla, mas
r,wadays renewed his youth like the eagle Under
.bo shadow of the British flag he has waxed la',
rd now he begins to kick He has concluoeu thaV
o. aoo is n poor rag of bunting, and its owners
little better thsn OPT ressors nasnucn as 'i,os SUI
have more confidence in Biton than behgah
u" .,ao 3, cive moro than three-fourths of the
.cos Of the country to the conceltcd young grauu-
80. 10 the colleges they have built for the natives
- o,r Rabu feels himself born 10 rule ms ielIow
~ NJ their expense. But he mas IL sohe"h'.
1eplt TO impress this the minds OF the ulstIIoU
mciaIs These unfortunate gentlemen nc "ta'h
"a oco,r petitions for Office, both in person ana oy
liter Int there is no reply. ms grieNeS 'H0
pahn he ioins the Opposition, anu nhIs SUMO oonSo
lotion in writing peppery articles against ,,0
English in the scurrilous native newspapers inu''
smore than half a Babucracy already, anu 'he ehu
Is not yet Probably the baous eiory wiz n
cease still more and from time to time ss success
V;.ro,.a ora more and more mbued with Ideas
90 universal equality and the rule OF country oy
"a. o,, naonle he will rise higher and hlgher-''"
49, s comes when the British cannon that now
Lasn down the myriad elements OF disoiuei anu
orme that underlie society everywhere III ihui",
shall be withdrawn. Then with wniri"ino VI
eth and wrong desoatIng the land. the strong
strivins against the strong. Rajput and Mnsaiman.
Gurkha and Sikh. Afghan and Baluch. what VIII
become of the weakest of the many weak ones the
man without a single manly virtue our iriehu 'no
noisy versatile Bengaii Babui
was driven to this TRADE by reading the
s,eecbes of the Indian delegates recently IN Eng
land After hearing their account of India sroaning
pnder the tyranny Of few ignorant English boys
Let ma see how this tyranny has affected kumaon
bearing in mind that every change proposed mas
been vigorously and often successfully opposed by
the gifted but conservative Babu. The English
found the district as the Rohllas and Gurkhas had
left it-a wilderness. After seventy years of Par
britannica 1t 10 to-day orderly, we-cultlvated,
well-settled province. Schools have sprung up
everywhere supported by Government subsidies,
good bride paths in all directions. and on them
are dharamsalds or shelters for native travellers
spsnenson bridges have taken the place OF the
dangerous ihulas the od-fashiOned rope-bridges
brieandage has been put down. so have the burning
of widows and straugling of travellers; every year
more and more OF the hillslopes are terraced into
cultivated fields, and villages are settled IN
the iungles Slavery and nfanticde. the two great
est curses of India have been suppressed as far as
n government of half a dozen Europeans, .unaided
in the least by public opinion, has been able 10
effect it, Infanticde. though probably still COM
as recognized privilege sanctioned by law and
usage If husband sells his wife it is not done in
the open market as it was down to 1886. Widows
are no longer put up at auction by the heirs and
relatives of their deceased husbands An elder
brother has longer such power in his family
that he sell his sisters or younger brothers
into slavery to pay his debts, at least he cannot
do 50 openly. whole race. the Dums. were till
this century held as slaves and could be bought
like so many cattle. THAI Is no longer the case
What Kumaon used to be like we can in some faint
degree Judge by the present barbarous condition
of Nepal a condition to which believe kumaon
would return after ten years Of native rule
The English have done what they could. but
custom has been too strong for them in many direc
tons; the marriage of children is just as common
as formerly, the rule of the Brabman just as hard
the condition of women just as low. Certain
usaces Of the peasantry still remain but little shorn
of their original barbarity. The Ksatari game
was introduced from Nepal but the same custom
prevails IN many cities of Western ASIA at Shiraz,
for instance On an annual festival the crowd
divided into two parties and mimic battle was
fought with sllugs. Many were injured by the
stones and all the prisoners sacrificed to Dew
(Kaln Mr. Colvin Resident at Kathmandu, was
injured while watching this sport" remonstrances
were made with the Gurkha government, and ac-
cordingly the people now pelt boulder instead OF
each other. Bat in Jumla. Doti and the Rail
Valley, believe the Kalatar is still practised, and
at Jhua met Il man who had lost an eye on such
all occasion.
singular custom is the Basti or Rope Festival.
Every little group of kunaoni villages has its own
family of badis or professional acr DbatS and rope
dancers. They low, despised caste. they own
no land and have agricultural duties 1T IS
beey ell that grain sown by Badi Will not germi-
nate and that if he drives the plough the oxen
will fail down in the furrow and die. Badl is
-Io eht al urto m VI
crops are endangered by a loue drouth when tne
and- mouth disease breaks out among the cattle,
when an unavenged murder brings curse on tne
fields where 1t was committed, wu9h man-eatlnR
tiger infests the jungle the wrath OF the gOds IS
aver,ed IN the following manner: rope OF great
length and strength is stretched slantlngy from
The top of rid 90 or precipice to the bottom of the
valley below. ON tins is placed wooden saddle
prooved underneath, aud tue Badi bestrldes II at
tie top of tue cliff. balanced by two heavy bags OF
sand tied to his feet and speeds whizzlng down
the long descent Formerly il he lost his equlb-
rium and fell, the peasants made rush at him and
chopped him into small pieces with their KNIVES /;
nowadays he merely fo'feits his pay his Is e very
considerable for Kumaon--he gets "a rupee lforty
cents for every fifty yards OF rope and the rope IS
sometimes three thousand feet long 1t is then
united and cut INTO small lengths which are scat
tered over tue fields. The Bast is now performed
chiefly III Carnival, but the village Badis are still
ma n(aned at the public expense throughout
Kumaon and near Khatl was shown preciplce
where the rope had formerly been stretched ~
could not have been less than tive or SIX hundred
feet high.
farhwal IS the suppression of suicide at kdarnath
where crow DIS used I, gather festa occasions to
see men Jump over a elm and die in honor of silva.
In these days they devote themselves there less
publicly they wander around III the snow above
the lofty shrine at the source Of the Ganges, TN
they sink exhausted by cold and fatigue and the
sleep they think will bring them TO the
blessed abodes Of Kailasa falls upon them.
Suicide by leaping over precipces is still common
in India. and one inountain-Girnar IN hathiawHf
is particularly celebrated for the frequency OF
these acts Their suppression at Kidarnath was
triumph of English sagacity The temple Brahmans
were told that if such things occurred IN future
they would be held responsible 1t was in fact,
the exhOrtations of the priests, the music the
Qarlands. the rapt admiration of The assembled