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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



SKETCHES OF BRITISH INDIA. 



Under the rule of the Hindoo and Mahomedan princes, 

 the political government of India rested on a basis 

 known as the Village System. A certain number of as- 

 sociated villages formed a territorial division called a 

 pergunnah. A tract of country equal to a moderate- 

 sized English county was known by the name of a 

 chnclda ! the union of several chucklas formed a ctr- 

 car ; the incorporation of a certain number of circars 

 constituted the grand division known as a sonbah. All 

 these formed connected parts of one whole, but the en- 

 tire superstructure reposed on the primitive foundation 

 of the Village, which was the parent institution. When 

 India was thinly populated, families pitched their tents, 

 or erected their dwellings, in close contiguit)% They 

 must have done this instinctively, not only for the sake 

 of social intercourse, but the better to protect them- 

 selves against the attacks of wild beasts; and they ap- 

 propriated to their use as much of the surrounding 

 country as their industry could cultivate, and held it 

 not by a parchment deed, but by the right of occupancy. 

 A community of this character, tilling the soil by asso- 

 ciated labour, formed a village, and its area was propor- 

 tioned to the number of families it had to maintain. 

 But it was not simply geographical and agricultural, it 

 was also a municipal corporation— one and indivisible, 

 descending in perpetuity, with all its attributes and 

 qualities unbroken, from generation to generation ; and 

 the system hsd existed from time immemorial, till de- 

 stroyed in 1793 by the East India Company, though it 

 has since been revived in the north-west provinces, with 

 some slight variations. Its tenacity of political life 

 is remarkable, and in that sense history can point 

 to no other similar institution. Sir Thomas Munro 

 Siid, " Every village is a little republic, with the 

 potail at the head of it, and India is a mass of such 

 republics. The inhabitants during war look to their 

 own potail. They give themselves no trouble about the 

 breaking up, or the division of kingdoms. While the 

 village remains entire, they care not to what power it is 

 transferred. Wherever it goes, the internal manage- 

 ment remains unaltered. The potail is still the collector, 

 magistrate, and head farmer." Lord Metcalf bears 

 similar testimony to its durability, in language equally 

 forcible : " The village communities are little republics, 

 having everything they want among themselves, and are 

 almost independent of any foreign relations. They seem 

 to last when nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty 

 tumbles down, revolution succeeds revolution, Hindoo, 

 Patan, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, English,— all are mas- 

 ters in turn, but the village communities remain the 

 same. This union of village communities, each one 

 forming a separate State in itself, has, as I conceive, con- 

 tributed more than any other circumstance to the preser- 

 vation of the people of India throughout all the revolu- 

 tions and changes which they have suffered, and it is in 

 a high degree conducive to their happiness and to the 



enjoyment of a great portion of freedom and independ- 

 ence." 



We proceed to describe the details of the village mu- 

 nicipal organization. The chief of the community was 

 generally known by the title oi potail, but in some parts 

 of India he was named mocuddin. In the earliest periods 

 to which history or tradition reaches, the office was elec- 

 tive, e.Tch cultivator giving his vote ; but in the course 

 of time it became hereditary. The potail superintended 

 the affairs and the interest of the village, settled disputes by 

 arbitration, regulated the police, and collected the revenue 

 gf his district, out of which he paid the land-tax, which was 

 discharged not by individuals, but by the community, 

 the members of which were responsible to the public 

 treasury, jointly and severally. In the several territorial 

 divisions already enumerated, a financial agent or re- 

 ceiver of the Imperial Government resided, styled a 

 canongoc. Take the case of a pergunnah : all the po- 

 tails of the villages which formed the pergunnah paid 

 their assessment to the canongoe, who was assisted in 

 his duties by a staff of gomastahs, or clerks; and the 

 several district canongoes at stated periods paid the tax 

 they had collected to the canongoe-in-chief, who resided 

 in the capital city where the public treasury was es- 

 tablished. The cultivators thus avoided many of the 

 vexatious processes common in this country, as they had 

 to settle directly with their potail, who was personally 

 and intimately known to every member of his village, 

 and the aggregate assessment on the village never fluc- 

 tuated. The second officer in the village municipality 

 was called the cunium. He was the ace untant, keeping 

 the Dufter or Registration-office, in which he recorded 

 the size and boundaries of the fields, and the names 

 of the families to whom each section belonged. 

 These can be traced back to a very remote period, and 

 the Princes of Rajpootana can show their title-deeds 

 bearing date some fifteen huudred years before the 

 Christian era. Then followed the police of the village 

 whose duties were to guard the growing, and measure the 

 ripened crops, to attend to tanks and irrigation, to de- 

 tect offendrrs, and escort travellers from one village to 

 another. This part of the system resembled the hundreds 

 and wapentakes of our King Alfred, for the municipality 

 were responsible for any crime or misdemeanour com- 

 mitted within theirjurisdiction; and if they didnotdiscover 

 and surrender up to justice the offender, they were com- 

 pelled to compensate the party injured. Criminals rarely 

 escaped, as the police followed them from village to village 

 through the whole of a pergunnah, and further if neces- 

 sary. Instances of their tact in detecting fugitive 

 wrong-doers are related, of a character almost marvellous, 

 after this order became hereditary, as from boyhood 

 they were trained to Ihief-catching. If they failed, they 

 were fined ; and if proved to have been negligent or 

 guilty of complicity, they lost their heads. In sandy 

 districts there are still a class of police called /;«^^ee5> 



