INDIA. 



415 



ters carried by the mails in 1880 was 128,567,- 

 058; of newspapers, 11,251,021. The postal 

 traffic nearly doubled in the course of the dec- 

 ade. The number of messages sent by tele- 

 graph was 1,569,907. The number of miles 

 of telegraph line was 20,468; of wire, 51,834, 

 against 22,834 in 1871. The total receipts in 

 1880 amounted to 422,463, the working ex- 

 penses to 292,291. 



ARMY. The strength of the European army 

 in India in 1880 was 64,520 officers and men. 

 In the estimates laid before Parliament for 

 1881-'82, 62,575 were provided for. The na- 

 tive army in 1880 mustered 124,978 officers 

 and men, making a total force of 189,498. In- 

 dians impugn the truthfulness of the official 

 statements regarding the native army, con- 

 tending that it has been enormously reduced 

 since 1856, and that a reduction of 9,000 men 

 has taken place since 1878. The armies of the 

 native princes of India in 1879 aggregated 305,- 

 235 men, with an artillery of 5,252 guns. The 

 maintenance of the armed force necessary to 

 uphold British rule in India is the heaviest 

 branch of the Government expenditure, con- 

 suming more than the combined revenues from 

 opium and salt. The cost of the army in 1877- 

 '78 was 16,639,761 ; in 1879-'80, 21,712,862. 

 The cost of the Indian contingent which fought 

 in the Egyptian war under General McPherson 

 is, like the expenses of the Afghan war, to be 

 defrayed out of the Indian revenues. Several 

 of the native princes made offers of men and 

 money to assist in the Egyptian expedition. 

 Among these were the chiefs of Nepaul and 

 Cashmere, the Begum of Bhopal, the Nawab 

 of Bhawulpur, and the Rajahs of Patiala, Ka- 

 purthala, and Malerkotla. Similar assistance 

 had been offered, and in some cases accepted, 

 in the Afghan war. The motives were princi- 

 pally to escape the reduction of their military 

 forces which the British authorities are press- 

 ing. The native rulers are exceedingly sensitive 

 on this point, while the British live in constant 

 fear of these large armaments. 



NATIVE DISTURBANCES. A sanguinary con- 

 flict broke out in the spring in the chiefship of 

 Kalahandi, or Karond, on the western slope 

 of the East Ghauts, between the Khonds, who 

 are the aboriginal inhabitants, and the Kultas, 

 a class of Hindoo cultivators who perform most 

 of the agricultural work of the country. The 

 two races have long entertained hostile feel- 

 ings for each other. In January the Khonds 

 commenced depredating the Kulta villages. In 

 May the troubles took the serious form of 

 wholesale massacres. As many as 100 Kultas 

 were put to death with shocking barbarity. 

 The energy of the civil magistrate in charge of 

 the district prevented the outrages from being 

 much worse. A regiment of Madras infantry 

 arrived soon and put an end to the violence. 

 The Khonds attempted to face the troops only 

 on one occasion, when they were speedily dis- 

 persed with a loss of about twenty. 



In Nepaul, a border state which is nominally 



independent, a serious conspiracy was discov- 

 ered at the beginning of the year. The new 

 King is a mere puppet in the hands of Sir 

 Rundip Singh, the Prime Minister, and Shum- 

 shere Jung, commander-in-chief, both of which 

 posts were filled by the late Sir Jung Bahadur, 

 a distinguished Indian statesman. The com- 

 mander-in-chief was unpopular in the army, 

 which desired to be commanded by General 

 Juggut Jung, the son of Sir Jung Bahadur. A 

 conspiracy was concocted, which was betrayed 

 by one of the conspirators, to throw a bomb 

 into a room where the council of the com- 

 mander-in-chief and other sirdars were assem- 

 bled, and cut down all who attempted to escape. 

 There were eighty- five persons arrested, of 

 whom twenty-one boldly avowed their com- 

 plicity, and were immediately put to the sword. 



Salem, in Madras, was in July and August 

 the scene of riot and violence, arising out of 

 the antipathies between the Mohammedans and 

 the Hindoos. The Mohammedans constitute 

 only about one twelfth of the population. They 

 have often been annoyed in their religious ob- 

 servances. Toward the end of July a Hindoo 

 funeral procession, with music, was stopped 

 while passing the mosques. A riot ensued, in 

 which a couple of lives were lost. The fray 

 was quickly stopped by troops from Bungalore. 

 About the middle of August an organized at- 

 tack was made by the Hindoos upon the Mo- 

 hammedan community. Acts of hideous atro- 

 city were committed. The streets were filled 

 with corpses. The principal mosque was razed 

 to the ground, and its splendid furniture de- 

 stroyed. Dead pigs were thrown into wells 

 with corpses of Mohammedan children. Mili- 

 tary precautions were taken against another 

 outbreak, and one hundred and sixty-three 

 rioters were arrested and brought to trial. The 

 original cause of the troubles was due to the 

 action of the Municipal Council of the city, 

 which purposely incited the funeral procession 

 to take a route specially obnoxious to the Mo- 

 hammedans. The councilors are chosen on the 

 elective system. No Mohammedan had been 

 elected a member. 



FOREIGN RELATIONS. Russia continues to 

 strengthen her position and extend her influence 

 in Central Asia. From her late enemies, the 

 Tekke Turkomans, a military contingent, 5,000 

 strong, has been recruited. A railroad has been 

 constructed f rom Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian, 

 to Bami, and is to be continued to Sarakhsand 

 Gorian. A treaty changing the boundary be- 

 tween the Russian Empire and Persia not only 

 gives Russia ingress into the Persian plains, 

 within the otherwise impregnable mountain 

 barriers on the north and east, but brings her 

 within striking distance of Herat, and would 

 enable her forces to overrun Afghanistan and 

 advance upon India without breaking the prom- 

 ise that Merv should not be occupied. The 

 British endeavor to keep alive the loyalty of 

 Abdurrahman, whom they placed on the Af- 

 ghan throne, by liberal supplies of treasure out 



