m 



the removal of abuses which have grown up around religious 

 institutions and to afford education to the people in directions 

 which Government arrangements cannot reach. The annual 

 income of the religious endowments has been estimated to 

 amount to 75 lakhs of rupees, a sum higher than the income ol 

 the Local Fund Boards and Municipalities in the Presidency, 

 and a considerable portion of the income is contributed by the 

 State. That this income should be misappropriated to private 

 uses is a melancholy waste of resources ; and it is futile to 

 ezpect that the worshippers at the shrines, scattered as they 

 are throughout the Presidency, would come forward and em- 

 bark in expensive litigation with trustees of endowments who 

 have command of trust money. The enactment of a law which 

 will provide an efficient control of these public trusts will be 

 welcomed as a great ^^^ boon by the general public. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



120. I have endeavoured in the foregoing pages to point 

 out the directions in which the country has progressed during 

 the last forty years, the special evils which the transition 

 from the old to the new state of things has given rise to, and 

 some of the measures which might be taken by Government 

 to remedy or mitigate the effects of these evils and secure 

 unfettered economic development. I will now close my long 

 review with a few general remarks in regard to the con- 

 siderations to be borne in mind in estimating the value of the 

 results achieved. 



The first point to be noted is the disordered state of the 

 country which had to be reduced to order and fitted with 

 the apphances of civilization and regular administration, and 

 the low economic condition from which the great mass of the 

 population had to be elevated. We saw how, in the beginning 

 of the century. Southern India had been devastated by wars, 

 famines and bands of plunderers; the cultivating classes were 



'^■' The question of the duty of the State to make adequate provision for the supervision 

 of the management of public endowments whether devoted to secular or religious uses is too 

 intricate to be usefully discussed here, and I have therefore made a few brief remarks 

 as to the public feehng on the subject. 1 have given in the appendix VI.-F. extracts 

 from the remarks of Sir Alfred Lyall in regard to the political inexpediency of Govern- 

 ment relinquishing its right to provide for the election of the heads and managers of 

 religious endowments, and to declare in case of dispute who shall be regarded as properly 

 elected as such heads and managers, referring, if need be, persons who contest the decision 

 to establish their contention in the courts. In the same way, the Government should 

 have the right to license new places of public worship and regiilate religious processions 

 to prevent the rival religious communities coming into collision with each other. The 

 state of the law on this subject is vague and uncertain and leads to collisions which might be 

 prevented. The exercise by Government of powers vested in it with a view to ensure 

 rival religious cc*nm unities living in peace without coming into dangerous collisions with 

 one another is no breach of the principle of religious neutrality. 



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