CHAPTER 8

=The Farming Monopoly.=—Let us proceed with the most prominent feature of the regent’s internal administration—his farming monopoly—to which he is mainly indebted for the reputation he [539] enjoys throughout Rajputana. The superficial observer, who can with difficulty find a path through the corn-fields which cover the face of Haraoti, will dwell with rapture upon the effects of a system in which he discovers nothing but energy and efficiency: he cannot trace the remote causes of this deceptive prosperity, which originated in moral and political injustice. It was because his own tyranny had produced unploughed fields and deserted villages, starving husbandmen and a diminishing population; it was with the distrained implements and cattle of his subjects, and in order to prevent the injurious effects of so much waste land upon the revenue, that Zalim commenced a system which has made him farmer-general of Haraoti; and he has carried it to an astonishing extent. There is not a nook or a patch in Haraoti where grain can be produced which his ploughs do not visit. Forests have disappeared; even the barren rocks have been covered with exotic soil, and the mountain’s side, inaccessible to the plough, is turned up with a spud, and compelled to yield a crop.

In S. 1840 (A.D. 1784), Zalim possessed only two or three hundred ploughs, which in a few years increased to eight hundred. At the commencement of what they term the new era (_naya samvat_) in the history of landed property of Kotah, the introduction of the pateli system, the number was doubled; and at the present time[10.8.1] no less than four thousand ploughs, of double yoke, employing sixteen thousand oxen, are used in the farming system of this extraordinary man; to which may be added one thousand more ploughs and four thousand oxen employed on the estates of the prince and the different members of his family.

This is the secret of the Raj Rana’s power and reputation; and to the wealth extracted from her soil, Kotah owes her preservation from the ruin which befell the States around her during the convulsions of the last half-century, when one after another sank into decay. But although sagacity marks the plan, and unexampled energy superintends its details, we must, on examining the foundations of the system either morally or politically, pronounce its effects a mere paroxysm of prosperity, arising from stimulating causes which present no guarantee of permanence. Despotism has wrought this magic effect: there is not one, from the noble to the peasant, who has not felt, and who does not still feel, its presence. When the arm of the octogenarian Protector shall be withdrawn, and the authority transferred to his son, who possesses none of the father’s energies, then will the impolicy of the system become apparent. It [540] was from the sequestrated estates of the valiant Hara chieftain, and that grinding oppression which thinned Haraoti of its agricultural population, and left the lands waste, that the regent found scope for his genius. The fields, which had descended from father to son through the lapse of ages, the unalienable right of the peasant, were seized, in spite of law, custom, or tradition, on every defalcation; and it is even affirmed that he sought pretexts to obtain such lands as from their contiguity or fertility he coveted, and that hundreds were thus deprived of their inheritance. In vain we look for the peaceful hamlets which once studded Haraoti: we discern instead the _ori_, or farmhouse of the regent, which would be beautiful were it not erected on the property of the subject; but when we inquire the ratio which the cultivators bear to the cultivation, and the means of enjoyment this artificial system has left them, and find that the once independent proprietor, who claimed a sacred right of inheritance,[10.8.2] now ploughs like a serf the fields formerly his own, all our perceptions of moral justice are shocked.

The love of country and the passion for possessing land are strong throughout Rajputana: while there is a hope of existence the cultivator clings to the _bapota_, and in Haraoti this _amor patriae_ is so invincible, that, to use their homely phrase, “he would rather fill his _pet_ in slavery there, than live in luxury abroad.” But where could they fly to escape oppression? All around was desolation; armies perambulated the country, with rapid strides, in each other’s train, “one to another still succeeding.” To this evil Kotah was comparatively a stranger; the Protector was the only plunderer within his domains. Indeed, the inhabitants of the surrounding States, from the year 1865, when rapine was at its height, flocked into Kotah, and filled up the chasm which oppression had produced in the population. But with the banishment of predatory war, and the return of industry to its own field of exertion, this panacea for the wounds which the ruler has inflicted will disappear; and although the vast resources of the regent’s mind may check the appearance of decay, while his faculties survive to superintend this vast and complicated system, it must ultimately, from the want of a principle of permanence, fall into rapid disorganization. We proceed to the details [541] of the system, which will afford fresh proofs of the talent, industry, and vigilance of this singular character.

=Agriculture in Kotah.=—The soil of Kotah is a rich tenacious mould, resembling the best parts of lower Malwa. The single plough is unequal to breaking it up, and the regent has introduced the plough of double yoke from the Konkan. His cattle are of the first quality, and equally fit for the park or the plough. He purchases at all the adjacent fairs, chiefly in his own dominions, and at the annual _mela_ (fair) of his favourite city Jhalrapatan.[10.8.3] He has tried those of Marwar and of the desert, famed for a superior race of cattle; but he found that the transition from their sandy regions to the deep loam of Haraoti soon disabled them.

Each plough or team is equal to the culture of one hundred bighas; consequently 4000 ploughs will cultivate 400,000 during each harvest, and for both 800,000, nearly 300,000 English acres. The soil is deemed poor which does not yield seven to ten maunds[10.8.4] of wheat per bigha, and five to seven of millet and Indian corn. But to take a very low estimate, and allowing for bad seasons, we may assume four maunds per bigha as the average produce (though double would not be deemed an exaggerated average): this will give 3,200,000 maunds of both products, wheat and millet, and the proportion of the former to the latter is as three to two. Let us estimate the value of this. In seasons of abundance, twelve rupees per _mauni_,[10.8.5] in equal quantities of both grains, is the average; at this time (July 1820), notwithstanding the preceding season has been a failure throughout Rajwara (though there was a prospect of an excellent one), and grain a dead weight, eighteen rupees per _mauni_ is the current price, and may be quoted as the average standard of Haraoti: above is approximating to dearness, and below to the reverse. But if we take the average of the year of actual plenty, or twelve rupees[10.8.6] per _mauni_ of equal quantities of wheat and juar, or one rupee per maund, the result is thirty-two lakhs of rupees annual income.

Let us endeavour to calculate how much of this becomes net produce towards the expenses of the government, and it will be seen that the charges are about one-third gross amount [542].

_Expenses._

Establishments—namely, feeding cattle 400,000 and servants, tear and wear of gear, and clearing the fields—one-eighth of the gross amount,[10.8.7] or Seed 600,000 Replacing 4000 oxen annually, at 80,000 20s.[10.8.8] Extras 20,000 ————— 1,100,000

We do not presume to give this, or even the gross amount, as more than an approximation to the truth; but the regent himself has mentioned that in one year the casualties in oxen amounted to five thousand! We have allowed one-fourth, for an ox will work well seven years, if taken care of. Thus, on the lowest scale, supposing the necessities of the government required the grain to be sold in the year it was raised, twenty lakhs will be the net profit of the regent’s farms. But he has abundant resources without being forced into the market before the favourable moment; until when, the produce is hoarded up in subterranean granaries. Everything in these regions is simple, yet efficient: we will describe the grain-pits.

=Storage of Grain.=—These pits or trenches are fixed on elevated dry spots; their size being according to the nature of the soil. All the preparation they undergo is the incineration of certain vegetable substances, and lining the sides and bottom with wheat or barley stubble. The grain is then deposited in the pit, covered over with straw, and a terrace of earth, about eighteen inches in height, and projecting in front beyond the orifice of the pit, is raised over it. This is secured with a coating of clay and cow-dung, which resists even the monsoon, and is renewed as the torrents injure it. Thus the grain may remain for years without injury, while the heat which is extricated checks germination, and deters rats and white ants. Thus the regent has seldom less than fifty lakhs of maunds in various parts of the country, and it is on emergencies, or in bad seasons, that these stores see the light; when, instead of twelve rupees, the _mauni_ runs as high as forty, or the famine price of sixty. Then these pits are mines of gold; the regent having frequently sold in one year sixty lakhs of maunds. In S. 1860 (or A.D. 1804), during the Mahratta war, when Holkar was in the Bharatpur State, and predatory armies were moving in every direction, and when famine and war [543] conjoined to desolate the country, Kotah fed the whole population of Rajwara, and supplied all these roving hordes. In that season, grain being fifty-five rupees per _mauni_, he sold to the enormous amount of one crore of rupees, or a million sterling!

Reputable merchants of the Mahajan tribe refrain from speculating in grain, from the most liberal feelings, esteeming it _dharm nahin hai_, ‘a want of charity.’ The humane Jain merchant says, “to hoard up grain, for the purpose of taking advantage of human misery, may bring riches, but never profit.”

According to the only accessible documents, the whole crown-revenue of Kotah from the tax in kind, amounted, under bad management, to twenty-five lakhs of rupees. This is all the regent admits he collects from (to use his own phrase) his handful (_pachiwara_) of soil: of course he does not include his own farming system, but only the amount raised from the cultivator. He confesses that two-thirds of the superficial area of Kotah were waste; but that this is now reversed, there being two-thirds cultivated, and only one-third waste, and this comprises mountain, forest, common, etc.

=Extortionate Taxes.=—In S. 1865 (A.D. 1809), as if industry were not already sufficiently shackled, the regent established a new tax on all corn exported from his dominions. It was termed _lattha_, and amounted to a rupee and a half per _mauni_. This tax—not less unjust in origin than vexatious in operation—worse than even the infamous _gabelle_, or the _droit d’aubaine_ of France—was another fruit of monopoly. It was at first confined to the grower, though of course it fell indirectly on the consumer; but the Jagatya,[10.8.9] or chief collector of the customs, a man after the regent’s own heart, was so pleased with its efficiency on the very first trial, that he advised his master to push it farther, and it was accordingly levied as well on the farmer as the purchaser. An item of ten lakhs was at once added to the budget; and as if this were insufficient to stop all competition between the regent-farmer-general and his subjects, three, four, nay even five _latthas_, have been levied from the same grain before it was retailed for consumption. Kotah exhibited the picture of a people, if not absolutely starving, yet living in penury in the midst of plenty. Neither the lands of his chiefs nor those of his ministers were exempt from the operation of this tax, and all were at the mercy of the Jagatya, from whose arbitrary will there was no appeal. It had reached the very height of oppression about the period of the alliance with the British Government. This collector had become a part of his system; and if the regent required a few lakhs of ready money, _Jo hukm_, ‘your commands,’ was the reply. A list was made out of 'arrears of _lattha_,' and friend and foe, minister, banker, trader, and farmer, had a circular. Remonstrance was not only vain but [544] dangerous: even his ancient friend, the Pandit Balal, had twenty-five thousand rupees to pay in one of these schedules; the _homme d’affaires_ of one of his confidential chiefs, five thousand; his own foreign minister a share, and many bankers of the town, four thousand, five thousand, and ten thousand each. The term _lattha_ was an abuse of language for a forced contribution; in fact the obnoxious and well-known _dand_ of Rajwara. It alienated the minds of all men, and nearly occasioned the regent’s ruin; for scarcely was their individual sympathy expressed, when the Hara princes conspired to emancipate themselves from his interminable and galling protection.

When the English Government came in contact with Rajwara, it was a primary principle of the universal protective alliance to proclaim that it was for the benefit of the governed as well as the governors, since it availed little to destroy the wolves without if they were consigned to the lion within. But there are and must be absurd inconsistencies, even in the policy of western legislators, where one set of principles is applied to all. Zalim soon discovered that the fashion of the day was to _parwarish_, ‘foster the ryot.’ The odious character of the tax was diminished, and an edict limited its operation to the farmer, the seller, and the purchaser; and so anxious was he to conceal this weapon of oppression, that the very name of _lattha_ was abolished, and _sawai hasil_, or ‘extraordinaries,’ substituted. This item is said still to amount to five lakhs of rupees.

Thus did the skill and rigid system of the regent exact from his _pachiwara_ of soil, full fifty lakhs of rupees. We must also recollect that nearly five more are to be added on account of the household lands of the members of his own and the prince’s family, which is almost sufficient to cover their expenses.

What will the European practical farmer, of enlarged means and experience, think of the man who arranged this complicated system, and who, during forty years, has superintended its details? What opinion will he form of his vigour of mind, who, at the age of fourscore years, although blind and palsied, still superintends and maintains this system? What will he think of the tenacity of memory, which bears graven thereon, as on a tablet, an account of all these vast depositories of grain, with their varied contents, many of them the store of years past; and the power to check the slightest errors of the intendant of this vast accumulation; while, at the same time, he regulates the succession of crops throughout this extensive range? Such is the minute topographical knowledge which the regent possesses of his country, that every field in every farm is familiar [545] to him; and woe to the superintendent Havaldar[10.8.10] if he discovers a fallow nook that ought to bear a crop.

Yet vast as this system is, overwhelming as it would seem to most minds, it formed but a part of the political engine conducted and kept in action by his single powers. The details of his administration, internal as well as external, demanded unremitted vigilance. The formation, the maintenance, and discipline of an army of twenty thousand men, his fortresses, arsenals, and their complicated minutiae, were amply sufficient for one mind. The daily account from his police, consisting of several hundred emissaries, besides the equally numerous reports from the head of each district, would have distracted an ordinary head, “for the winds could not enter and leave Haraoti without being reported.” But when, in addition to all this, it is known that the regent was a practical merchant, a speculator in exchanges, that he encouraged the mechanical arts, fostered foreign industry, pursued even horticulture, and, to use his own words, “considered no trouble thrown away which made the rupee return sixteen and a half annas, with whom can he be compared?”[10.8.11] Literature, philosophy, and _excerptae_ from the grand historical epics, were the amusements of his hours of relaxation; but here we anticipate, for we have not yet finished the review of his economical character. His monopolies, especially that of grain, not only influenced his own market, but affected all the adjacent countries; and when speculation in opium ran to such a demoralizing excess in consequence of the British Government monopolizing the entire produce of the poppy cultivated throughout Malwa, he took advantage of the mania, and by his sales or purchases raised or depressed the market at pleasure. His gardens, scattered throughout the country, still supply the markets of the towns and capital with vegetables, and his forests furnish them with fuel.

So rigid was his system of taxation that nothing escaped it. There was a heavy tax on widows who remarried. Even the gourd of the mendicant paid a tithe, and the ascetic in his cell had a domiciliary visit to ascertain the gains of mendicity, in order that a portion should go to the exigencies of the State. The _tumba barar_, or ‘gourd-tax,’ was abolished after forming for a twelvemonth part of the fiscal code of Haraoti, and then not through any scruples of the regent, but to satisfy his friends. Akin to this, and even of a lower grade, was the _jharu barar_, or ‘broom-tax,’ which continued for ten years; but the many lampoons it provoked from the satirical Bhat operated on the more sensitive feelings of his son, Madho Singh, who obtained its repeal [546].

=Zālim Singh and the Bards.=—Zalim was no favourite with the bards; and that he had little claim to their consideration may be inferred from the following anecdote. A celebrated rhymer was reciting some laudatory stanzas, which the regent received rather coldly, observing with a sneer that “they told nothing but lies, though he should be happy to listen to their effusions when truth was the foundation.” The poet replied that “he found truth a most unmarketable commodity; nevertheless, he had some of that at his service”; and stipulating for forgiveness if they offended, he gave the protector his picture in a string of improvised stanzas, so full of _vish_ (poison), that the lands of the whole fraternity were resumed, and none of the order have ever since been admitted to his presence.

Though rigid in his observance of the ceremonies of religion, and sharing in the prevailing superstitions of his country, he never allows the accidental circumstance of birth or caste to affect his policy. Offences against the State admit of no indemnity, be the offender a Brahman or a bard; and if these classes engage in trade, they experience no exemption from imposts.

Such is an outline of the territorial arrangements of the regent Zalim Singh. When power was assigned to him, he found the State limited to Kelwara on the east; he has extended it to the verge of the Plateau, and the fortress which guards its ascent, at first rented from the Mahrattas, is now by treaty his own. He took possession of the reins of power with an empty treasury and thirty-two lakhs of accumulating debt. He found the means of defence a few dilapidated fortresses, and a brave but unmanageable feudal army. He has, at an immense cost, put the fortresses into the most complete state of defence, and covered their ramparts with many hundred pieces of cannon; and he has raised and maintains, in lieu of about four thousand Hara cavaliers, an army—regular we may term it—of twenty thousand men, distributed into battalions, a park of one hundred pieces of cannon, with about one thousand good horse, besides the feudal contingents.

But is this prosperity? Is this the greatness which the Raja Guman intended should be entailed upon his successors, his chiefs, and his subjects? Was it to entertain twenty thousand mercenary soldiers from the sequestrated fields of the illustrious Hara, the indigenous proprietor? Is this government, is it good government according to the ideas of more civilized nations, to extend taxation to its limit, in order to maintain this cumbrous machinery. We may admit that, for a time, such a system may have been requisite, not only for the maintenance of his delegated [547] power, but to preserve the State from predatory spoliation; and now, could we see the noble restored to his forfeited estates, and the ryot to his hereditary rood of land, we should say that Zalim Singh had been an instrument in the hand of Providence for the preservation of the rights of the Haras. But, as it is, whilst the corn which waves upon the fertile surface of Kotah presents not the symbol of prosperity, neither is his well-paid and well-disciplined army a sure means of defence; moral propriety has been violated; rights are in abeyance, and until they be restored, even the apparent consistency of the social fabric is obtained by means which endanger its security.

Footnote 10.8.1:

This was drawn up in 1820-21.

Footnote 10.8.2:

Throughout the Bundi territory, where no regent has innovated on the established laws of inheritance, by far the greater part of the land is the absolute property of the cultivating ryot, who can sell or mortgage it. There is a curious tradition that this right was obtained by one of the ancient princes making a general sale of the crown land, reserving only the tax. In Bundi, if a ryot becomes unable, from pecuniary wants or otherwise, to cultivate his lands, he lets them; and custom has established four annas per bīgha of irrigated land, and two annas for _gorma_, that dependent on the heavens, or a share of the produce in a similar proportion, as his right. If in exile, from whatever cause, he can assign this share to trustees; and, the more strongly to mark his inalienable right in such a case, the trustees reserve on his account two sers on every maund of produce, which is emphatically termed '_hakk bapota ka bhum_,' the ‘dues of the patrimonial soil.’

Footnote 10.8.3:

[Now the commercial capital of Jhālawār State, on the Kotah border.]

Footnote 10.8.4:

A maund is seventy-five pounds.

Footnote 10.8.5:

_Grain Measure of Rajputana._ —75 pounds = 1 ser [? 1·7 lbs. The standard ser is a little over 2 lbs.] 43 sers = 1 maund. 12 maunds = 1 mauni. 100 maunis = 1 manasa.

Footnote 10.8.6:

It does descend as low as eight rupees per mauni for wheat and barley, and four for the millets, in seasons of excessive abundance.

Footnote 10.8.7:

It is not uncommon in Rajwara, when the means of individuals prevent them from cultivating their own lands, to hire out the whole with men and implements; for the use of which one-eighth of the produce is the established consideration. We have applied this in the rough estimate of the expenses of the regent’s farming system.

Footnote 10.8.8:

[To illustrate the rise in prices, the average value of a plough bullock is now Rs. 40, or about £2:13s.]

Footnote 10.8.9:

[Jagātya, a Marāthi word derived from _jakāt_, Arabic _zakāt_, the religious alms which a Musalmān is bound to pay.]

Footnote 10.8.10:

[_Havāldār_, _havāladār_, the officer in charge of the collection of grain.]

Footnote 10.8.11:

There are sixteen annas to a rupee.