BOOKS.
BRAHMINS AND PARLAHS.* EARLY in 1858, it began to be apparent in Bengal that a social revolution was at hand. Prices and wages, which for thirty years had remained nearly stationary, rose with a celerity and steadiness at which exporters and employers of labour stood aghast. The enormous wealth created by the development of the export trade, after enriching every kind of landowner, and landowner's dependant, after raising rents till the poverty- stricken zemindars of 1825 became the wealthy noblesse of 1857, began to affect the bulk of the population. Sixty millions ster- ling had been added to the coinage by the Mint alone, and the cup of the currency was full. The prise of rice doubled. That of seeds, hemp, and most of the great permanent staples, increased fifty per cent. Wages rose a third in all grades, while the minimum rate for unskilled workmen increased from five shillings a month to eight, a rise almost without a parallel. All manner of employers, millowners, contractors, printers, carriers, horsedealers, builders, and tradesmen, found their calculations utterly upset by a phenomenon of which they could perceive no reasonable explanation. Most of them succumbed, the contractors giving way first, and the tradesmen, protected by a law of contract, holding to the last. A complete change of tone followed among the people. Relieved from the incessant danger of want, the artisan began to review his employer's proposals, to dictate terms, to organize combinations. The printers, for example, previously free, combined, carried out rules as stringent as those obeyed in England, and coerced even Government into submis- sion. Of all classes, however, none felt the effect of the re- volution so severely as the indigo planters. The profit on all produce had risen ; and they felt that the price of indigo in the raw must rise also. But each of them had paid for the plant in advance ; and to raise the price per bundle for the future, yet avoid a retrospective increase, seemed impossible. They tried to shirk the danger. They lowered rents, increased wages—tried by every device to avoid a direct addition to the price promised for the plant. As prices still advanced, the ryots, always keenly awake to their own interest, became clamorous. Land growing rice yielded more than land growing indigo, and the temptation to use lands mortgaged to indigo for rice became irre- sistible. Things looked serious, when an unlucky official suddenly precipitated the crisis. The Honourable Ashley Eden, Prefect of Baraset,—for the word magistrate in no degree expresses his authority—" on the 17th of August, 1859, wrote a letter to his Native deputy magistrate, for his information and guidance.' He called to his attention that the ryot is at liberty to sow any crop he likes,' and that, where contracts or promises may be ad- mitted, there may still be many irresistible pleas to avoid the con- sequences the planters insist upon." To the planters, of course, this act appeared dictated by the long-standing hatred of the Civil Service to independent Europeans, but it is unnecessary to discuss motives in the narrative. Mr. Eden may have been actuated only by pure philanthropy ; but all classes held him to mean that the ryot was "at liberty" to break his agreements, and that the magistrate would support their " irresistible pleas " against paying their debts. They knew that only the magistrate could enforce the obligation to grow indi and, sure of his protection, refused to sow. The new impulse spread fast, and an article of produce worth 2,000,0001. a year was threatened with partial or total extinction. The ma- gistrate passive or hostile, the planter's only redress was through civil process, and civil process means in Bengal—a suit of fifteen months, followed by three appeals, and at last a decree against a man of straw for damages, which it is impossible to collect. Nor did the difficulty end here. Asiatics, accustomed always to obedience, have no idea of a resistance which is not vio- lent. They threatened the planters lives, and burnt their out- houses. The houses themselves it was dangerous to attack, as the planters would have stood on their defence, and, universally skilled in the use of arms, were dangerous foes to provoke to ex- tremity. Moreover, the ryot finding one contract could be violated with impunity, thought another might as well be broken through, and began refusing to pay rent. As a failure to pay rent im- plies a failure to pay revenue, the higher civilians became a little doubtful of the expediency of Mr. Eden's decree. The Commis- sioner, Mr. Grote, censured the official letter, which, however, was upheld by Mr. Grant, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. Lord Canning, fortunately, had an idea that for statesmen to en- courage a jacquerie, was at least an inexpedient proceeding. Mr. Wilson had an idea that voluntarily to destroy a great trade, was an act requiring other justification than civilians theories ; and as Lord Canning, backed by Mr. Wilson, possessed practically absolute power, a remedy was speedily devised. A short Act com- pelled the peasantry, under menace of imprisonment, to carry out their engagements for six months. This measure saved the sowings of March, 1860, but was in its very nature temporary and exceptional. The ryots, of course, yielded, as they invariably yield to a distinct order. They had'refused to sow, believing that Government was opposed to sowing, and when that view proved incorrect, grumbled at their betrayal, but set to work. The Lieutenant-Governor. of Bengal, however, had accepted the Act with no friendly feeling. Like all the older civilians, he regarded European enterprise as mischievous: The presence of numbers of Europeans renders im- • Brahmins and Pariahs; an Appeal by the Indigo Manufacturers of Bengal to the British Government, Parliament, and People. Published by Ridgway. possible that system of "short and simple justice" which prevails in Dahomey or the Fejee Islands, and which civilians believe the only one applicable to Natives. He consequently ordered the Act to be interpreted "on the principles of equity," and added, "These powers and the opportunity of acting upon them, must not be re- tained for a day in the hands of any officer who may show him- self not competent to exercise them in such a manner as to give full and ample justice to all parties." As, even in Bengal, the public interference of the Executive with an Act of the Legislature is unusual, the magistrates interpreted this order by the Governor's notorious predilections. Most did so ; and were, the planters assert, promoted. One magistrate was certainly removed for a different interpretation of the Act, and all punishments inflicted under it were remitted. The dispensing power upset the action of the Legislature. Mr. Grant himself, in an answer to a petition presented against him by the planters, admitted the removals, the first ever made in Bengal for political reasons.
The Government of India was still apparently very distrustful of the prudence of the Government of Bengal. Responsible for, the revenue, that Government could not look with favour on movements which imperilled a whole trade, disturbed six counties, and rendered necessary the employment of cavalry in districts where a horse-soldier had not been seen since the Mahratta in- roads. They ordered a commission of inquiry to be organized by Mr. Grant. That officer nominated five gentlemen—Mr. Seton- Karr, a civilian, and Secretary-elect for Bengal; Mr. Sale, a very excellent missionary, of no intellectual power; Mr. Temple, a civilian of high mark ; Mr. Fergusson, a planter ; and a Native. Their decision was too recently reviewed in our columns for us to analyze the cutting analysis drawn up by the planters' pam- phleteer. Suffice it to say, that Mr. Seton-Karr and. Mr. Sale thought the planters needed no legal assistance, and condemned the indigo system in part ; Mr. Temple thought the suggestions of the other two, imbecile ; and Mr. Fergusson protested against the whole report. The Native we need not count. His genuine opinion would be worth that of the other four ; but the genuine opinion of a Native sitting at a Board with a Secretary of State, is to be sought only in that Secretary. The decision being in favour of doing nothing, was, of course, followed. The ryots were left to believe that the Government desired the extirpation of in- digo, and the planters to protect themselves as they best could. Accordingly, on the expiration of the Act, the peasantry an- nounced their determination not to work out their advances, began to traverse the country in bands, beat all who declined to join the combination, attacked and burnt down two factories, and showed signs of a disposition to pay no more rent. On the latter point, they will be beaten summarily, the revenue laws being stern to excess, but in the former object they will, unless Parliament interfere, succeed. In anticipation of the struggle, the harvest of 1860 has realized 71. per maund in excess of the average value, and Mr. Grant has, therefore, already inflicted a fine of 700,0001. on the industry of Great Britain. We have preferred condensing the facts of this pamphlet to re- viewing it in the ordinary style, and are sensible, in so doing, that we have done injustice to a pen, such as no planter ever wielded. The story is, however, more important than the mode in which it is told, and none but lovers of graceful writing for its own sake will read contentedly 200 pages on a subject so foreign to their sympathies. We need only add that, bitter as the tone of the pamphlet occasionally is, every charge except one, the removal of the magistrates, is supported by documentary evidence, and that one the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, while commenting on the remainder, leaves unrefined.
Previous page
