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Proprietary Mutations and the Mutiny in Rohilkhand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

E. I. Brodkin
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Extract

Rohilkhand, at the time of the Mutiny of 1857, was a division of the North-Western Provinces comprising the districts of Bijnor, Moradabad, Budaun, Bareilly, and Shahjahanpur. It was here and in neighboring Oudh that the uprising achieved its greatest intensity. Hitherto, it has been assumed that the proprietary mutations which occurred in Rohilkhand after its cession in 1801 by the Nawab of Oudh to the East India Company are highly significant as a cause of the uprising. G. J. Christian, the Secretary to the Sudder Board of Revenue of the North-Western Provinces, reported in 1854 that “in no other country in the world probably do landed tenures so certainly, constantly, and extensively change hands. These mutations are effecting a rapid and complete revolution in the position of the ancient proprietors of the soil.” William Edwards, the Collector of Budaun at the time of the Mutiny, wrote:

To the large number of these sales during the past twelve or fifteen years, and the operation of our revenue system, which has had the result of destroying the gentry of the country … I attribute solely the disorganization of this and the neighbouring districts in these provinces. By fraud or chicanery, a vast number of the estates of families of rank and influence have been alienated, either wholly or in part, and have been purchased by new men … without character or influence over their tenantry. … I am fully satisfied that the rural classes would never have joined in rebelling with die sepoys … had not these causes of discontent already existed.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , August 1969 , pp. 667 - 683
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1969

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References

1 Report by the Sudder Board of Revenue on the Revenue Administration of the North Western Provinces: 1852–53, (Agra: 1854), p. 5.Google Scholar

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5 Ibid., p. 60. Also pp. 63–64, 65, 68.

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18 Extracts from the “usurer's book” covering the period 1857–1868 appear in a letter from the Commissioner of Allahabad to the Secretary to the Government of the North Western Provinces, September 28, 1872. Commissioner's Office Rohilkhand, Dept. IVA, File 97A, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

19 Ibid.

20 Bareilly Settlement Report, p. 81.

21 Ibid., p. 55.

22 Moradabad Settlement Report, p. 67.

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28 Board of Commissioners to General Sir G. Nugent, September 20, 1814, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, September 20, 1814.

29 Ibid.

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33 This example of the early excesses was related to the Commissioner of Rohilkhand by an official involved in the settlements of Bareilly and Moradabad under Regulation IX of 1833. See Reports on the Revenue Settlements of the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency under Regulation IX, 1833 (Banaras: 1862), I, 466.Google Scholar

34 Thomason's Despatches (Calcutta: 1856), I, 407.Google Scholar

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38 Ibid.

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42 See Statement of demands, collections and balances for the year 1853–54. Report by the Sudder Board of Revenue on the Revenue Administration of the North Western Provinces: 1853–54, p. 6.

43 This is actually the total of the years 1851–52 to 1855–56. The records for the year 1856–57 were destroyed during the Mutiny. Ibid., 1851–52, p. 16. Ibid., 1852–53, p. 12. Ibid., 1853–54, p. 6. Ibid., 1854–55, p. 8. Ibid., 1855–56, p. 8.

44 Ibid.

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51 H. W. Hammond to W. Muir, Agra, September 7, 1855, Report by the Sudder Board of Revenue on the Revenue Administration of the North Western Provinces: 1853–54, p. 4.

52 Bareilly Settlement Report, p. 81.

53 F. Williams to R. Alexander, March 21, 1855, “Frequency of Transfer of Proprietary Title,” p. 215.

54 Selection of Papers on Agricultural Indebtedness and the Restriction of the Power to Alienate Interests in Land, (Simla: 1898), I, 450.

55 H. W. Hammond to W. Muir, September 7, 1855, “Frequency of Transfer of Proprietry Title,” p. 185.

56 Quoted in Moradabad Settlement Report, p. 76.

57 Ibid.

58 Quoted by Colvin in Selections from the Records of Government: North-Western Provinces, (Allahabad: 1871), IV, 296.Google Scholar

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64 Bareilly Settlement Report, p. 138.

65 See, for example, A. Seton to G. Mercer, February 28, 1803, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, April 12, 1803. Also Seton to Mercer, March 3, 1803, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, April 12, 1803.

66 C. Lloyd to Board of Commissioners, May 23, 1808, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, July 5, 1808.

67 Report of April 13, 1808. Cited by Holt Mackenzie, July 1, 1819, Bengal Revenue Consultations, September 16, 1820.

68 J. Thornton to W. Muir, February 17, 1848, Thomason's Despatches, p. 373.

69 See A. Seton to G. Mercer, February 28, 1803, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, April 12, 1803, and Seton to Mercer, March 3, 1803, ibid.

70 See Board of Commissioners to Lord Minto, December 3, 1807, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, December 17, 1807. W. I. Sands to Board of Commissioners, February 1, 1808, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, February 3, 1808. C. Dumbleton to Board of Commissioners, April 11, 1808, Selections from Revenue Records: “North-West Provinces (Allahabad: 1873), p. 393Google Scholar. F. Law to W. H. Trant, April 30, 1818, Board of Commissioners Proceedings, August 10, 1818, and Trant to Lowther, May 9, 1818, ibid.

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72 Supra, n. 1.

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87 W. Muir to R. Alexander, July 7, 1858, Commissioner's Office Rohilkhand, Dept. XXIV, File 1/46, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

88 R. Alexander to the Nawab of Rampur, May 9, 1858, Rampur Mutiny Records, Bundle No. 2, File No. 114, Serial No. 2.

89 R. Alexander to J. Inglis, November 8, 1858, Board of Revenue, Bareilly, File 14, Accession No. 528, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

90 Alexander, Rohilkhand Narrative, p. 12.

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97 Copies of Daily Bulletins issued by E. A. Reade, March-July, 1858, April 18, 1858, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

98 W. Muir to J. W. Sherer, October 22, 1857, Intelligence Records, I, 215.

99 Bijnor Settlement Report, p. 95, and Shahjahanpur Settlement Report, p. xxxv.

100 Shahjahanpur Settlement Report, p. xxxix.

101 Bijnor Settlement Report, p. 95. Brahmins were also important gainers.

102 Shahjahanpur Settlement Report, p. xx.

103 Memorandum on the Restriction of the Power to Alienate Interests in Land, p. 15.

104 Inglis, Bareilly Narrative, pp. 369, 371.

105 See Commissioner's Office Rohilkhand, Dept. I, File 48, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

106 Board of Revenue, Bareilly, File 14, Accession No. 528, November 8, 1860, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

107 Pensions of the Family of Hafiz Rehmut Khan, Commissioner's Office Rohilkhand, Dept. V, File 3/133, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

108 ibid.

109 Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay: 1824–1825 (London: John Murray, 1828. 2nd ed.), II, 119–20Google Scholar. Heber's most important source of information was Boulderson, probably the ablest of the pre-Mutiny Collectors of Bareilly.

110 J. C. Wilson, Commissioner on Special Duty, to G. F. Edmonstone, July 27, 1858, Board of Revenue, Moradabad, File 22, Accession No. 548, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

111 Shore, Notes, II, 433.

112 The proposal was reported in a letter from the Magistrate of Bareilly to the Commissioner of Rohilkhand. February 18, 1869. Commissioner's Office Rohilkhand, Dept. XX, File 5, State Archives of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad.

113 Quoted in University Education in England for Natives of India (London: James Ridgway, 1860), Appendix.Google Scholar