36 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY REPORT 



a backward population and leading it, much against its will, upon the path of 

 progress in civilisation. 



3. The details of the history of the Taluka during the past century are 

 sufficiently well-known. From piracy to settled civilised Government is a change 

 any community may be thankful for. One is not certain that this is the feeling 

 of the Waghers on whom peace has been imposed by the strong hand ; but that 

 it ought to be and will be their sentiment, to my mind, is beyond doubt. But for 

 the unreliable disposition of the Waghers towards the new order of things, the 

 administration of the Taluka even from distant Baroda would not be difficult. 

 Out of a population of about 21,000 souls, about 4,000 are Waghers, a little over 

 1,200 of whom are adult males. This apparently insignificant proportion of the 

 population is at the root of most of the evil and mainly, if not solely, to keep them 

 in order entails an annual expenditure of over a lac of rupees necessitated by the 

 maintenance of a battalion of disciplined sepoys and the establishment of a British 

 Assistant Resident. The last Wagher outbreak took place 40 years ago. Since 

 then these tribesmen are gradually settling down, nolens volens, to quiet ways 

 and are taking to agricultural life. At the present day they have all turned 

 cultivators but they have not yet acquired the skill and the virtues of thrift 

 and industry which are so essential to make successful agriculturists. The dignity 

 of labour has not yet become ingrained, and other forms of manual labour than 

 agricultural they affect to despise. They should not be blamed ; rather do they 

 stand in need of sympathy and pity for their present failings. Considering 

 their past, one ought to be satisfied with their present achievements. They are 

 less troublesome now than they were and will be less and less so, as the rate 

 of their progress in civilisation becomes accelerated. What is needed now is 

 to make them acquainted with skilled modes of agriculture and to teach them 

 some handicrafts. That is to say, they must be given opportunities to improve 

 their status in the world materially and mentally. 



4. The other classes of the population of the Taluka are also more or less 

 backward in intelligence and enterprise, but the Waghers are very far behind 

 even them. With the Waghers I include the cognate tribes of Wadhel Eajputs. 

 Of the other classes, the Bhattyas are the most forward ; they are good traders. 

 Next to them are the Memons, who as cultivators, as oil pressers, or as petty 

 traders, though poor, are well able to take care of themselves, except in regard 

 to elementary education. The Lavans too are thriving. It is the Waghers who 

 need direction and encouragement more than the others. 



5. Okha is not totally devoid of mineral resources ; gypsum, manganese, and 

 building stone are all available. But in what quantities these exist and whether 

 it is possible to establish industries in these products having a fair probability of 







