342 MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XIII, from which Badagas were exempt, prevailed). The rules also 

 PART I. required the observance of the Court's orders regarding the non- 

 Eevenue proximity of land grants to mands and other Toda sites, and as 

 History, regards " goodoo " enacted that, '' If it shall appear to the satis- 

 faction of the Revenue authorities, upon inquiry made previous to 

 the lease, or at any time during its currency, that the land leased 

 is liable to the payment of goodoo or compensation fees to the 

 Todas, the goodoo payable to these latter will be collected from 

 the grantee in addition to the assessment, for the purpose of being 

 paid to the Todas from the public treasury. The amount of 

 goodoo in each case shall be determined by the Collector, 

 subject to an appeal to the Board of Revenue. '^ After reiterating 

 the judgment of the Court of Directors as regards the pasture 

 lands of the Todas, that they could sell no " other right than 

 that of pasturage," the rules declared, '' if the land be required 

 for cultivation, it must still be disposed of, under the rules in 

 force, by public auction, for that purpose ; the goodoo on the land, 

 when such may clearly appear to be payable, being, in that case, 

 paid to the party who has purchased the right of grazing from 

 the Toda in the place of the Toda himself," which practically, 

 though not overtly, deprived the Toda of his ill- defined but 

 admitted rights of pasture in the Nilagiri uplands, 

 —rescinded These rules remained in force, subject to certain modifications in 

 Land R^lef ^ 1858, until the 6th March 1863, when they were superseded by the 

 present Waste Land Rules, which swept away for ever not only the 

 fiction of the Todas' grazing rights, but also the communal claims 

 of a village to the lands within its ancient limits, by the decree that 

 all lands were ivaste " in which no rights of private proprietorship 

 or exclusive occupancy exist," and were liable to be disposed of 

 by public auction. Were it not for the words in Rule XVII " a 



claim of any other right incompatible with the sale of land 



under these rules," the conclusion might be drawn that little 

 consideration for the rights and privileges of this ancient and 

 simple race of herdsmen would be shown in future. In the 

 period, scarce fifteen years, which has elapsed since then, we have 

 done little to protect this race from the ultimate deprivation of 

 the choicest spots they hold except by the measure of declaring 

 the puttas for such grazing lands as they still hold non-transfer- 

 f able. But the intention of Government has been easily defeated 

 by a system of sub-letting, which has converted the home-lands 

 of several mands into potato fields and market gardens. Quite 

 recently the Government have sanctioned the assessment at full 

 rates of lands granted on favourable tenure if alienated by lease. 

 This ruling will doubtless check the practice. 

 Present It remains simply to state that under the survey now procced- 



revenue • ^^^^^ g£^ j^^^.^g ^|- ^^^^ ordinarily to a considerable extent 



ByBtem. t> ^ 



