1849.] 



Circar of WarunguL 



273 



of India are doomed, and in a short period of time we may see Man- 

 chester sarees as we now see British long cloth in every bazar. The 

 imports and exports are given in the Appendix. Transit and com- 

 munication are kept ap chiefly by bullocks and carts — the first esti- 

 mated to carry a pullah — the second from two and a half to three 

 pullahs. The Circar having no running streams there is little inter- 

 ruption to communication throughout the year. There is not a made 

 road or a bridge throughout the Circar. 



There is no regular post. The government despatches are forward- 

 ed by peons every third or fourth day. There is a singular want of 

 choultries in the Circar, and the only place of resort approaching to 

 an inn is the shop of the hullal, who distributes highly spiced food 

 to Mahometans and the low castes who can afford it. In expresses 

 the usual method of employing the village dher is had recourse to. 



The mode of assessment in this part of the Hy- 

 ^ ' derabad territory consists in the government let- 

 ting to the principal zemindars a certain number of villages for a li- 

 mited period, to be renewed if the parties perform their contract sa- 

 tisfactorily, which is termed the surhastu cowle, or tenure. The sum 

 to be paid annually is fixed without any reference to favorable or un- 

 favorable seasons; remission of revenue under native government 

 not being practised. 



In case of the Zemindar failing in his contract the villages be- 

 come amanee, and the Putwarees settle direct with the talookdar 

 or his assistants. 



It is understood that the Government officers on all occasions me- 

 diate between the Zemindar and ryot, protecting the latter from ex- 

 tortion and oppression, and seeing that the former meets with his 

 dues. 



The vices of this system are less inherent in its nature than in its 

 general working. A good talookdar who faithfully performs his du- 

 ty, and sees justice executed between the farmers-general and his 

 tenants, may make his districts flourishing, and render the people 

 prosperous and happy ; but under a needy, indolent, and unprinci- 

 pled talookdar, the defects of the system stand glaringly out ; nor is 

 it necessary to show how his wilful negligence and remissness press 

 more heavily on the helpless ryot, than on the more powerful and 

 wealthy Zemindar, who has always means at hand to coerce and si- 

 lence the cultivators, and not unfrequently the power and disposi- 



