SINCLAIR 



SINDIA 



471 



Sinclair, or ST CLAIR. See ROSLIN, ORKNEY. 



Sinclair, SIR JOHN, born at Thurso Castle, 

 10th May 1754, from Logan's tutorship passed to 

 the High School of Edinburgh, and thence to the 

 universities of that city, Glasgow, and Oxford. 

 He was admitted a member of both the Scottish 

 and English bars (1775-82), but, having in 177 

 succeeded to the family estate, he devoted himsel 

 to his duties as a northern landlord, and to th 

 more engrossing pursuits of public life. In 1780 h 

 was returned to parliament for Caithness, in 17* 

 for Lostwithiel, and in 1796 for Petersfield, hi 

 parliamentary career extending till 1811. In 17& 

 lie published a History of the Revenue of the British, 

 Empire; and in 1786 be was created a baronet 

 He travelled over Europe, gathering information on 

 economical and commercial questions, and on hii 

 return set about establishing a society in Scotlanc 

 for improving the breeds of sheep and the quality o 

 wool. His exertions also led to the formation o 

 the Board of Agriculture in 1793, of which he was 

 president for thirteen years. This institution was 

 the precursor of numerous agricultural associations, 

 by which the country was greatly benefited. Sir 

 John's most important undertaking was originating 

 and carrying through the Statisticfd Account of 

 Scotland (21 volt. 1791-99), comprising a descrip- 

 tion of every parish in Scotland. The parochial 

 clergy were the chief contributors, but the in- 

 defatigable baronet also employed statistical mis- 

 sionaries, and was for seven years actively engaged 

 in prosecuting the work. Sir John wrote on all 

 manner of topics, including even a tragedy and 

 treatises on health and longevity ; and his publica- 

 tions during fifty years of ceaseless exertion are 

 said to amount in number to 39 volumes and 367 

 pamphlets. Not one of the whole seems destined 

 to live ; their value perished in the using ; but the 

 long and active life of their author was highly 

 beneficial to his country. He died at Edinburgh, 

 21st December 1835, aged eighty-one. See his Cor- 

 respondence (2 vols. 1831 ) and Life (2 vols. 1837). 



Sir John Sinclair left a numerous family, of 

 whom the third son, JOHN (1797-1875), was arch- 

 deacon of Middlesex from 1842, and author of 

 Sketches of Old Times (1875), &c. ; whilst the 

 fourth daughter, CATHERINE (1800-64), wrote a 

 number of tales and descriptive works Modern 

 Accomplishments, Modern Society, Scotland and 

 the Scotch, Shetland and the Shetlanders, &c. all 

 evincing literary taste and fine moral feeling. 



Kind, or SlNDH (also spelt Sinde and Scinde), 

 a province in the north-west of British India, 

 belongs to the presidency of Bombay, and is 

 bounded on the N. by Beluchistan ami the Pun- 

 jab, E. by Rajpntana, W. by Beluchistan, and 

 o. by the Indian Ocean and the Kunn of Cutch. 

 It contains an area of 56,632 sq. in., with a pop 

 (1891) of 2,900,000. The seacoast (150 miles) is 

 very low and flat, with the exception of the small 

 portion beyond Karachi ( Kurrachee ), and is studded 

 with low mud-banks formed by the Indus or with 

 aandhills, the accumulated drift from the beach. 

 The province is traversed from north to south by 

 the Indus (whence the name; see INDIA, Vol. 

 VI. p. 98), and includes the whole of its delta. 

 Along each bank of the river is an alluvial tract 

 of great fertility-, from 2 to 12 miles wide, and 

 mostly irrigated by artificial canals and water- 

 courses, which, overflowing during the inundations, 

 cover the soil with a silt so rich as to yield two, 

 and sometimes three, crops in a year. The soil, 

 nevertheless, contains in the north so much salt- 

 petre, and in the south so much salt, that after the 

 year's crops have been obtained these substances 

 &re extracted for home consumption and export. 

 Between the Indus and its most easterly branch, 



the Nara, is an alluvial 'doab,' which, from want 

 of irrigation, has become almost a desert. East of 

 this is the Tlmr, a desert of shifting sand. West 

 of the Indus the country is occupied by the desert 

 of Shikarpur on the north, a desert not of sand, 

 but of alluvial clay, the same as that of the delta, 

 which only requires irrigation to render it fertile ; 

 and in the south it is traversed by the Hala Moun- 

 tains. The climate is remarkably sultry and dry, 

 the province being beyond the action of the south- 

 west monsoon ; during the long summer the ther- 

 mometer averages 95 F., and ranges up to 120 ; 

 "L wi " t * r it; fa ' ls below freezing-point and rises to 

 yJr. There are generally two harvests per annum ; 

 the first, or rabi ('spring') harvest, consists of 

 wheat, barley, indigo, oil-seeds, gram, hemp, and 

 tobacco ; the second, or kharif( ' autumn ') harvest, 

 of rice, millet, oil-seeds, pulses, and cotton. The 

 population consists of the native Sindis, with a 

 large sprinkling of Beluchis and Afghans; the 

 greater portion of them are Mohammedans of the 

 Sunnite faith. The population are almost wholly 

 engaged in agriculture. The trade of the province 

 is concentrated at Kurrachee (q.v.), the capital. 

 Raw cotton, wool, and various grains are the prin- 

 cipal exports. Besides Kurracliee (pop. in 1891, 

 104,250), there are the large towns of Hyderabad 

 (57,790), Shikarpur, Larkhana, and Sukkur. 



About 712 A.D. Sind was conquered by Moham- 

 med Kasim, the general of the calif, and since that 

 time has been almost entirely ruled by Moham- 

 medan princes. About 871 the califs lost their 

 hold upon this province, which became divided 

 between the two native kingdoms of Multan and 

 Mansura, In 1026 Sind was' conquered by an 

 otlicer of Mahmml of Ghazni, but the conquest was 

 not at all a permanent one. A new native dynasty 

 was founded in 1051, and was followed by others 

 in 1351 and 1521. In 1592 the country was con- 

 quered by Akbar, the Mogul emperor of Delhi ; 

 and in 1739 it was incorporated in the dominions of 

 Nadir Shah of Persia. Under Persian suzerainty 

 Sind was governed by various native dynasties. 

 The rulers of Sind always regarded the British 

 with suspicion, and not without reason, for on the 

 outbreak of the Afghan war in 1838 the British 

 tpvernment forced the chiefs of Hyderabad and 

 vhoirpur to agree to a treaty which virtually 

 lestroyed their independence. And when their 

 Jeluchi subjects, resenting this arrangement, took 

 ip arms, Sir Charles Napier marched against 

 hem, totally routed them at Meeanee ( 17th Feb- 

 ruary 1843), and at Dabp, near Hyderabad (March 

 24th ), and annexed their territories. The British 

 administrators have directed their chief efforts to 

 he development of the commerce of the country, 

 irincipally by the construction of the Indus Valley 

 tail way and the harbour-works at Kurrachee (q.v.). 

 See five volumes by Sir E. Barton ( 1851-77 ), and A. 

 W. Hughe's Oazetleer of the Province of Sind ( 1876 ). 

 S i nil ia, the title of the Mahratta princes or rulers 

 f Gwalior in India. The founder of the family was 

 tANOJi SINDIA, who from a menial station in the 

 lousehold of the Peshwa rose to a high rank in the 

 jodyguard, and after 1743 received in hereditary 

 icf one-half of the extensive province of Malwa. 

 its son, MADHAVA RAO (MADHOJI) SINDIA 

 1750-94), joined the Mahratta confederation, 

 nd was present at the battle of P.-mipat (1761), 

 vliere he was so desperately injured as to be 

 eft for dead ; but he recovered. In 1770, along 

 nth the Peshwa and Holkar, he aided the 

 mperor of Delhi to expel the Sikhs from his 

 erntories, the administration of which was handed 

 ver to Sindia, thus making him the most power- 

 ul of the Mahratta chiefs. He first :ame into 

 olhsion with the British in 1779; br.t in the 

 .-ar which followed fortune distributed tier favours 



