THIRD SINDH PROVINCIAL
CONFERENCE
HELD AT LARKANA
ON THE 21 APRIL 1916
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
OF THE HONOURABLE
Mr. G.M. BHURGRI
Standard printing works, Hyderabad, Sindh
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Brother Delegates and Gentlemen
It is with no small difference that I have accepted
the chair on this august occasion. It is, indeed, a
proud privilege to preside over the deliberations of
this important assembly, which represents the
highest thought and aspiration in this Province. I
cannot sufficiently esteem the great honour you have
done me and can not help feeling that worthier
shoulders than mine would have better sustained the
burden of this great trust. While thanking you,
therefore, for your kindness, I would at the same
time crave your indulgence and forbearance for y
many deficiencies and shortcomings. Of which I am
only too painfully conscious. I do not for a moment
take my election to the chair as a compliment to any
personal merits of mine, which I am humbly aware,
are at the best very slender indeed. I would fain
have shrunk from this responsible and difficult. If
honourable position, but the call of duty was
insistent and I have humbly obeyed.
Our first and foremost duty is to give expression to
our deep sense of loyalty and allegiance to the
Crown. The British Crown is the embodiment of all
that is good and great in human rule and is worthy
of our deepest fealty and homage. However, I think
it entirely superfluous for me a command to your
attachment a rule for which no thinking person in
India has anything but the profoundest love and
devotion. At the present moment when England is
engaged in a deadly conflict with the powers of
human darkness, she is especially entitled to our
loyal support and assistance, which she is happy to
know and we are proud to feel, she possesses in
boundless measures.
Our next duty is of a melancholy character. It is to
express our deep sense of the incalculable loss
sustained by India in the death of two of her
noblest and greatest sons, Mr. Gokhale and Sir
Pherozshah Mehta. Yielding to none in their
consuming love for India. They devoted the untiring
labours of their valuable lives to the service of
their motherland. Their rare capacities their
unequalled knowledge, their fearless independence of
character, and their inflexible spirit compelled the
respect even of those with whom they were brought
into conflict. Men of broad minds and large hearts,
patriots in the truest and highest sense, they will
ever be an example and an inspiration to India’s
coming generations.
Theirs was the proud if responsible, role of guide,
philosopher and friend to aspiring India a role
which they so abundantly fulfilled. Let us earnestly
trust that the inspiring influence of their precept
and example will ever abide with us, and fortify and
sustain us in all our labours and trials in the
cause of our country.
Another painful matter before us is to chronicle the
profound sorrow of thaw whole people of India at the
departure form office of the late Viceroy. Lord
Hardinge Gentlemen, the inestimable qualities of
Lord Hardinge are too well known and revered
throughout the length and breadth of this country to
make it necessary for me, much as I might wish it,
to add any feeble words of mine in respectful and
loving commendation. Lord Hardinge was statesman of
the first rank, a statesman of the widest outlook
and of the deepest insight, a stamen who won the
unbounded esteem and the undying love and gratitude
of the people of India by his evalted sense of
justice, by his most wise and kind sympathy with the
legitimate ideals and aspirations of the Indian
people, and by his devoted labours in the cause of
India. The bark of the state was committed to his
care during high winds and troubled seas such as the
world had not known before. But he guided it wisely
and well despite the extreme difficulty and gravity
of the situation. He handled the situation
delicately, gently, yet with the most signal and
conspicuous success. Now that he has been taken away
from us, let us earnestly trust that his interest in
the cause of the country for which be laboured so
lovingly will continue, and that India will never
cease to enlist his powerful and kindly exertions in
her behalf.
This brings us to our next duty which is to extend
to his successor, His Excellency the Viceroy Lord
Chemlsford a most respectful and cordial welcome to
our country. The mantle of Lord Hardinge has fallen
on his shoulders, and we are humbly expectant that
his governance of India will be characterized by the
same qualities that made the frule of his revered
predecessor, Lord Hardinge so loved and respected
throughout the country.
The one grand theme of universal interest at the
present moment is the Great War that is convulsing
the entire civilized world. It is a Titanic conflict
such as the world has never before seen in all her
history dwindline all previous wars by the
incomparable magnitude of its scale by the vital
importance of the issues raised and by the momentous
character of the effects and consequences it with
…….. It is a fight of principles of right on the one
side and of might on the other. And it is a matter
for supreme and just pride to all of us that Britain
stands in this conflict as she has ever stood, and
we trust, will ever stand, for the cause of right as
against the empire of might, for justice as against
oppression, for freedom as against tyranny, for
exalted principle as against sordid policy for the
sanctity of moral obligation as against disregard
for the demands of morality, for the inviolability
of national integrity as against the destruction of
national independence. Our profoundest gratitude is
due to all those who have offered their lives or the
lives of those they love as a holocaust with such
generous abandonment on the altar of their nation’s
cause; to all those boble sons who have shed their
blood so unstintingly in this national sacrifice,
and to all those boble mothers and wives who have
borne the pangs of bereavement with so brave a
heart. Our faith in the ultimate triumph of our
cause is unfaltering, for we know and feel that he
is thrice armed that hath his quarrel just. That
Province grant success to our arms is the wish and
prayer that lie deep in the hearts of every one of
us.
The great part India has been called upon and has
been able to play in the war is also a matter for
honest pride to all her sons. Our soldiers and
citizens alike have rallied round the imperial
standard and have spontaneously and enthusiastically
responded to the call of the Empire in her hour of
supreme trial. India has given her blood, her
treasure, her resources with ungrudging heart and in
unstinted measure. Her grand spirit of heroism and
sacrifice has evoked the admiration of even her
enemies. She has established her reputation for
loyalty and fidelity before the whole world and for
all time. I speak in no high spirit of vain glory or
proud vein of self complacency. I do not for a
moment mean to imply that India has done anything
more than her clear duty towards her rulers. I would
emphasize the fact that India has only fulfilled the
clear demands of allegiance and gratitude to the
Crown in doing all she has does for the Empire a
crisis. At the same time it must be recognized that
she has discharged these difficult if high,
obligations not with any bad will or with any bad
grace, not in any selfish or calculating spirit, but
voluntarily, cheerfully and is interestedly. Let us
earnestly trust therefore that if ever there were
any doubts of the loyalty of India to the British
Crown, those doubts have been completely and for
ever laid at rest by the present war.
Our goal
Gentlemen, let us come now to our goal, for this
cannot be placed before our minds and those of our
rulers too often or too insistently. Our clear and
definite objective is the attainment by India, by
constitutional means, under the aegis of the British
Crown a system of self-government which should
fulfill the legitimate aspirations of the people.
Gentlemen, this is the ideal to which we are
immutably committed. And it is an ideal which needs
no apology or justification. For self government is
on e of the fundamental facts of the physical and
moral world. In the words of that great son of
India, the Honorable Mr. Surendernath banerji,
Self-Government is the order of nature the
dispensation of divine Province. India must be
master of its own destinies. That is the divine law,
and the immutable order of the universe written in
every line of universal history written in character
by the inserutable hand of divine province. If there
is to be a deviation or departure, it must be
transitional and transient like the needle of a
compass. But always pointing northward, steadily
towards the goal which is self-government which
ought to be the normal condition of things” and
India’s grand old man, Mr. Dadabhai Nowroji also
pressed this demand on the attention of our rules
when he said than the peasants of Russia are fit for
end obtained the Duma from the greatest autocrat in
the world, and the leading statesman the Prime
Minister of the free British Empire, proclaimed to
the world, “The Duma is dead, long live the Duma.
“Sarely the fellow citizens of that statesman, and
the free citizens of that Empire by birthright and
pledged righ5ts, are far more entitled to
self-Government, a constitutional representative
system, than the peasants of Russia. I do not
despair. It is futile to tell me that we must wait
till all the people are ready. The British people
did not so wait for their parliament. We are not
allowed to be fit for 150 years. We can never be fit
till we actually undertake the work and the
responsibility. While China in the east, and Persia
in the West, of Asia are awakening, and Japan has
already awakened and Russia is struggling for
emancipation- and all of them despotisms- can the
free citizens of the British Indian Empire continue
to remain subject to despotism- the people who are
among the first civilizers of the human race? Are
the deseendants of the carliest civilizers to
remain, in the present times of spreading
emancipation, under the barbarous system of
despotism, unworthy of British instinets, principles
and civilizations”?
This ideal, gentlemen, has had the sanction of the
British Government from the earliest days of her
rule and the approval of the most eminent state men
all ties. No less a statesman that the late viceroy,
Lord Hardinge, impressed this ideal on the attention
of his countrymen in India in words of sagest
counsel to the present and future generations of
English rules in India, and of stimulating
encouragement to the people of this country. The
words have echoes and re-echoed times without number
but they are words which can still bear repetition.
The words have been enclosed and re-echoed times
without number but they are words which can still
bear repetition. These are the words he spoke and I
would comment them to your earnest attention.
“England has instilled to this country the culture
and civilization of the west with all its ideals of
liberty and self-respect. It is not enough for her
now to consider only the material outlook of India.
It is necessary for her to cherish the asprations,
of which she has herself sown the seed, and English
official s are gradually awakening to the fact that,
high as were the aims and remarkable the
achievements of their predecessors, a still nobler
task lies before them in the present and the future
in guiding the uncertain and faltering steps of
Indian development along sure and safe paths. The
new role of guide, philosopher and friend is opening
before you and it is worthy of your greatest
efforts. It requires in you gifts of imagination and
sympathy, and imposes upon you self-sacrifice, for
it means that slowly but surely you must diverts
yourselves of some of the power you have hitherto
wielded. Let it be realized that great as has been
England’s mission in the past, she has a far more
glorious task to fulfill in the future. In
encouraging and guiding the political
self-development of the people.” And, again in his
convocation Speech, his Lordship observed that it
must be recognized that India cannot and will be not
remain stationary, and that it is the task of the
imperial Government to guide her development and to
help her to at tain her just and legitimate
aspirations.” Let us therefore, earnestly trust that
British statesmanship will rise to the full height
of its high responsibilities, and grant India what
she has every right to expect at her hands.
It must not be supposed that, in making this demand,
India is for a moment unmindful of her incalculable
debt to England. No India is profoundly sensible of,
and deeply grateful for, all that British rule has
done for her, and has definitely and cheerfully
accepted British Supremacy as the basis of her
political evolution. But, at the same time, India
feels that she is entitled to remind England that
her greases good is still to come a good that is
hers as much by right as by promise.
As much as to England’s duty by India. That India is
fast realizing her duty to herself is clear from the
growing spirit of inter-communal amity which she is
doing her best to foster. And this brings me to the
question of Hindu and Mahomedan relations.
HINDU AND MAHOMEDAN RELATIONS
One of the encouraging signs of the times is the
increasing rapprochement between the two great
communities in India, the Hindu and the Mahomedan.
This is full of promise endures. That union is
strength is indeed a truism, but it is a truism of
such infinite value that it can never be
sufficiently emphasized espeicallywhen counsels of
separation threaten to prevail. It is in the cordial
and whole-hearted co-operation between the various
communities in India, in the subordination of
communal interest to the national cause. And in the
sinking of sectarian differences in a common
Endeavour to promote the general good, that India’s
salvation clearly lies. In this connection, it may
not be out-of-place to refer to the open entente
between the Indian national congress and the
All-India Muslim League, which was long the pious
wish of all true lovers of India, but which is now
an accomplished fact. This is a very significant
indication of the change for the better in the
mutual relations of the two leading communities in
India. Which was long foreshadowed by the advance of
education and the increasing opportunities of mutual
knowledge and contact. This union implies a common
recognition of the fact that the time has come when
the people of India must no longer be divided into
hostile camps but must join hands and devote their
concerted efforts to a common cause. Even in Sind,
where racial differences were so pronounced in the
past, there are observable pleasing indications of
an increasing mutual understanding and good will
between the various communities. This various
communities. This very conference, in which Hindus
and Mahomedans have met as members of one household
for the promotion of its common interest, is a
convincing proof of that inters communal good
feeling that is the happiest augury for the future
of this Province. And that a still closer union be
yet affected is a consummation devoutly to be
wished, and towards which it behaves every one who
has the interests of this Province at heart to help
to the full extent of his power.
While I am upon this subject, it may not be amiss to
advert to the regrettable episode connected with the
last session of the All-India Muslim League held in
Bombay last year. I refer to the incident that led
to the break-up of that meeting, and to the part
alleged to have been played by the Police,
particularly the Police Commissioner of Bombay, in
the affair. The importance of the incident can
scarely be exaggerated. It has exercised the minds
of the whole thinking public of India, and has
stirred the feelings of the people, particularly of
the Mussalmans, to their very depths. Opinion, and
feeling on the subject have found expression in
almost every quarter. The press, representative of
Indian opinion, has, voiced the people’s feelings in
the matter in no uncertain accents, and seldom have
the people at large been so affected by a single
incidenet as by the incident in question.
Here was a meeting being held that was lawful in
every sense of the word. A lawful assembly had met
in a lawful manner for a lawful purpose. Clearly it
was entitled to hold that meeting without any
unlawful disturbance. The Police were in attendance
in pursuance of their duty to maintain peace and
order. The head of the Bombay Police and the head of
the Presidency Magistracy were also on the scene.
Yet the elements of disorder deliberately break
loose, interrupt the proceedings and finally compel
the assembly to dissolve its meeting. Clearly this
was an occasion that called for the immediate action
of the Police. That action was actually invoked, but
was flatly denied.
This incident, you will see, clearly raises an
important question of constitution. Indeed, the
question transcends the bounds of purely communal
politics, and is one of national moment. Hence the
imperative necessity for a thorough and impartial
enquiry into the matter by Government. That enquiry
has been demanded by the general voice of public
opinion in India, but I extremely regret that it has
not yet been granted. The regret is all the greater
as it is the reputation of Government that is
undeservedly suffering. Let us, therefore, earnestly
trust that enquiry will no long be withheld.
REFORM OF COUNCILS
I come now to the much-needed reform of the
Legislative Councils. The Reform Scheme inaugurated
by Lord Minto and Morley has worked very
satisfactorily since its introduction. The time, I
think, has come when the umber of Indians in the
Executive Council should be increased. At present,
we have only a nominal, and entirely ineffectual,
representation in that important council, and I
think it is time that a more real and substantial
participation in the work of Government were granted
to Indians. Again, I think we should press for an
elected majority in Council instead of the present
nominated majority. For a nominated Indian is
virtually an official, an official in effect if not
in name. At least, he is so to the people, whether
be so in actual fact or not. To the public mind, he
is generally identified with the official camp, and
can never command the confidence of the people in
anything like the same degree as an elected member.
Hence it is idle to pretend that nominated members
are, or can ever be, to the people what its own
chosen representatives are, who are men of its own
express selection, as against nominated members, who
may not be, and often are not, men quite after its
heart.
Another suggestion I should like to make is with
regard to Resolutions. The most important right
created by the Minto-Morley Reform Scheme was that
which enabled the non-official members of the
Legislative Councils to move resolutions on matters
of public interest. Unfortunately, however, this
right is able to be rendered quite nugatory by the
absolute and unqualified powers of veto vested in
His Excellency the President. Hence what is given by
one hand is withdraw able by the other without any
restriction whatever, such has actually been the
case whenever resolutions that, for some reason or
other, did not find favour with Government were
sought to be moved by non-official members. Such
dictatorial power practically renders the right in
fructuous. I, therefore, think that if the right
granted is to be of any use, the power to control
its exercise must be subject to some condition or
qualification.
Again, the resolutions themselves, when passed by
the council are at present only allowed the force of
recommendations, and stop short indecisions. This
leaves Government free to give effect totem or not,
just as it may choose to decide, and robs
resolutions of their main value. I would therefore,
submit that. If resolutions are to be of any
practical worth, decisive effect should attach to
them.
SEPARATION OF EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS.
One of the most important matters for reform is the
time-honoured combination of judicial and executive
functions in one officer of Government. The subject
is as old as the time of Lord Cornwallis,
Governor-General of India, when attention was first
called to the importance and urgency of this much
needed reform. The system which allows the same
officer of Government to collect the revenue, to
control the police to institute prosecutions and ,
at the same time, to exercise large judicial powers
has been condemned not only by the general voice of
public opinion in India but also by some of the
highest officers of Government and some of the
greatest judicial authorities in this country, it
has been perhaps, the most insistent subject of
complaint and representation to Government by the
Indian Press and by representative public bodies
and individuals throughout a long series of year. It
formed part of the subject matter of the famous
memorial addressed to the secretary of State for
India. The very names of the signatories to this
memorial are such as spell unquestionable. They
are:- The Right Honourable Lord Hothouse )late Legal
member of the Viceroy’s Council, Member of the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council), the Right
Honorable Sir Richard Garth (late Chief Justice of
Bengal), the Right Honorable Sir Richard Couch (late
Chief Justice of Bengal, Member of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council), sir Charles
Sergeant (late judge of the high court, Calcutta),
Sir John Phear (late judge of the high court,
Calcutta, and chief justice of Ceylon), Sir John
Scott (late judge of the high court Bombay), Sir
William Wedderburn (late Reader in Indian law at the
University of Cambridge) and Mr. Herbert Reynolds
(late member of the Bengal legislative council),
surely, gentlemen these are names to conjure with
and they impress a hall-mark, so to speak, on this
scheme of reform. The memorial itself is most
instructive reading. It shows that from the earliest
them the Government of India have clearly recognized
the evil of combination of functions, and have
frankly approved the principle of separation. It
would take me too long to place before youth
opinions of all the high officers of government who
have form time to time expressed themselves on this
subject. But one passage may be quoted with
advantage. Thus Sir Frederic Halliday (sometime
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal and member of the
Council of the Secretary of State) said: - “The evil
which this system produces is twofold; it affects
the fair distribution of justice, and it impairs, at
the same time, the efficiency of the Police. The
union o f Magistrate with Collector has been
stigmatized as incompatible, but the junction of
thief-catcher with Judge Issue relies more anomalous
in theory, and more mischievous in practice. So long
as it lasts, the public confidence in our criminal
tribunals must always be liable to injury, and the
authority itself must often be a used and
misapplied.
The memorial then summaries the arguments for the
proposed reform. I could not do better than to quote
its very language. The objectifies to the present
system, the Memorial recites, are (1) that the
combination of judicial with executive duties in the
same officer violates the first principles of
equity, (2) that while a judicial officer ought to
be thoroughly impartial, and approach the
consideration of any case without previous knowledge
of the facts, an executive officer does not
adequately discharge his duties unless his cars are
open to all reports and information which he can in
any degree employee for the benefit of his District,
(3) that executive officers in India, being
responsible for a large amount of miscellaneous
business, have not time satisfactorily to dispose of
judicial work in addition. (4) that, being keenly
interested in carrying out particular measures they
are apt to be brought more or less into conflict
with individuals, and therefore, it is inexpedient
that they should also be invested with judicial
powers, (5) that under the existing system,
Collector- Magistrates do in fact neglect judicial
for executive work, (6) that appeals from revenue
assessments are apt to be futile when they are heard
be revenue officers, (7) that great inconvenience,
expense and suffering are imposed upon suitors
required to follow the camp of a judicial officer
who, in the discharge of his executive duties, is
making a tour of his District, and (8) that the
existing system not only involves all whom it
concerns in hardship and inconvenience but also, buy
associating the judicial tribunal with the work of
the police and of detectives, ad by diminishing the
safeguards afforded by the rules of evidence,
produces actual miscarriages of justice and creates
although justice be done, opportunities of
suspicion, distrust and discontent which are equally
to be deplored.” The memorial appends summaries of
various cases which illustrate in a striking way
some of the damagers that arise form the present
system, and then makes the following instructive
observations. “These cases of themselves might well
remove the necessity of argument a priori against
the combinations theory. But the present system is
not merely objectionable on the ground that, so long
as it exists, the general administration of justice
is subjected to suspicion and the strength and
authority of the Government are seriously impaired.
For this reason it is submitted that nothing short
of complete separation of judicial form executive
functions by legislation will remove the danger.
Something, perhaps. Might e accomplished by purely
executive measures. But such palliatives fall short
of the only complete an satisfactory remedy, which
is, by means of legislation, to make a clear line of
division between the judicial and the executive
duties now often combined in one an the same
officer.”
This reform has received repeated endorsement from
the highest quarters. Thus Lord Cross, secretary of
State for India in council, refereed to the proposed
separation of functions as “an excellent plan which
would result in vast good to the Government of
India, Lord Kimberley, a later Secretary of State,
also approved the proposed reform. Finally, Lord
Duffer in, Viceroy of India. Characterized the
proposal for separation put forward by Indian
opinion.
I trust I have sufficiently shown that the present
system is vicious both in theory and in practice. In
theory it offends against the most fundamental
principle of justice, the principle which demands
that the judge of any matter shall not be one who
has any previous knowledge regarding it, or any
interest in its adjudication in any particular way.
In practice, the system has proved itself to be
absolutely incompatible with the proper
administration of justice. The mind of man being
constituted as it is, it is almost impossible for an
official to prevent knowledge or interest acquired
by him when acting in one capacity from influencing
him, when he is acting in an other. And even if this
were possible, the public conviction of its
impossibility would still be there to reckon with.
And herein has the inherent and inevitable vice of
the system. Hence I mean no reflection on the
officers of Government who conscientiously Endeavour
to discharge the conflicting duties developing upon
them in the best way possible. The fault, I
re-iterate, lies in the system, not in the men.
The traditional objections that have been urged
against any departure from the present system are
mainly two. It is either contended that the
Removal aft judicial powers farm an executive
officer would impair his authority and prestige,
thus detracting farms his executive efficiency,
Is that the proposed separation of the two?
Functions would entail an increased expenditure,
which is prohibitive in the present condition of
Indian finances. The first contention is
sufficiently met by the fact that the authority of
executive officer is adequately protected by the
powers he otherwise possesses. There is the Revenue
Cadre which vests him with powers by which he can
make his authority respected and feared throughout
his District. Hence his authority does not need any
support in the shape of judicial power. It is not as
if the prestige of an officer necessarily depends a
possession of judicial power. For, if this were so,
we should expect the prestige of His Excellency the
Viceroy Nat only to suffer by comparison with that
of a District are Sessions Judges, but even to be in
serious jeopardy. Besides, the reform in question
does not propose to do away with judicial, power's
altogether, but only to sever the judicial function
from the executive, and to vest them in separate
officers. The present judicial powers, therefore,
will be maintained in toot, but only their
devolution will change.
This objection is, therefore, clearly untenable. It
has 'never even been seriously, or at least openly,
urged by any responsible officer of Government,
however much it any underlie, as it is, rightly lor
wrongly, believed to underlie, the attitude of
Government towards this question.
The other objection urged is equally unsustainable.
It has been repeatedly demonstrated that this reform
need notaccasion any increase of expenditure; that,
even if it did, the additional expenditure could be
met by a judicious diversion of the State revenues
farm other purposes; and that, even if this were
'not acceptable, the caddied expense would be
cheerfully barne by the people. But, even if the
above
Objections had any force or substance inihem, which
they have not; it still behaves a Government that
stands for justice to. Subardinate what "¬are after
all comparatively petty considerations to the clear
and force or substance in them, which they have nat,
it still behaves a
Government that stands far justice to subordinate
what are after all comparatively petty
considerations to. The clear' an admitted demands of
right and fairness. If the present system is an
evil, and a great evil, as it’s admitted to. Be an
all hands, then it must be remedied, whatever be the
cost or consequences entailed. For it is a question
that is obviously momentous both in its scope and
its effects, for it affects, and very gravely
affects millions of men in their very liberties.
It is some satisfaction to. Knaw that the reform in
question has already reached the stage ofpramise.
For, a few years ago, Sir Harvey Adamsan, speaking
in the Vuceregal Council, salemnly promised that, an
experiment would be made. That premise, I regret ha
snot yet fructified, and we owe it to ourselves to.
Press with might and main far its performance.
Government has charged itself with a clear duty in
'this matter and ours is bathed the right and thy
duty to. See to the fulfillment of this obligation
by Government.
COMMISSIONS IN THE ARMY &c., &C.
Yet another direction in which, I think, reform has
been long delayed, is that of the grant to. Indians
of Commissians in the army, the grant of
Arms and the admission of Indians to volunteering.
These have been long the hope and prayer after
people of India, and I earnestly trust that England
will no. Langer demurs to granting them. The present
disabilities in these directions are bath
inequitable and invidious. For has not India
deserved well enough of England to receive better
treatment than this at her hands? Has India nat
earned England's trust abundantly? Besides trust
begets trust, and it is therefore, to be fervently
happed that England will realize both the unfairness
and the Unisom of her
Policy in this direction.
COMMISSIONER=IN-SINDH'S ACT
I now came nearer home, and propose to. Survey our
Provincial situation. Here we have a
Commissioner-in-Sindh who, by virtue of the
Commissioner-in-Sand's Act (Act V of 1868),
practically constitutes the Local Government of the
province. That Act enacts that¬
"1. It shall be lawful for the Governor a f Bombay
in Council, by a notification published in the
Bombay Government Gazette, to delegate to the
Commissioner-in-Sindh all or any of theaters
conferred on the said governor in Council, as the
Local Government of the province of Sindh, by any of
the Bombay Regulations, or by any Act of the
Governor-General of India in Council solely
applicable to the presidency of Bombay or by any Act
passed heretofore or hereafter by the Governor of
Bombay in Council, or by any of the Acts of the
Governor¬
General in Council in the schedule to this act.
'
2. It shall be lawful far the Governor of Bombay in
Council, with the consent of the Govern~-General in
Council, to. Delegate to the Commissioner-in-Sindh
all or any of the pawers heretofore are hereafter
conferred by any Act of the Governor-General in
Council are the
Governor of Bombay in Councilor the local government
of the province of Sindh.
\
3. All Acts dane by the C6mmissioner~in-Sindh under
the authority of any power so, delegated shall be as
valid as if they had been done by the Governor of
Bombay in council."
This wide delegation of power makes the
Commissioner-in-Sindh, without a council, supreme
and sole arbiter in many matters that in anther
parts of the presidency are decided by the Governor
of Bombay in council, and often places the decision
of questions of the first magnitude and importance
in his sale hands. It entails all the evils of
absolute authority, and freedom farm control witch
are inherent in every farm of autocracy. It is one
man's rule, instead after rule by council, which the
other parts after presidency enjoy. This is the root
defect of
The administration of the province, and
our interests '
Demand that Sindh be placed in the same position in
this respect as the other part of the presidency.
The Act was passed as long ago an s 1868, and, no.
doubt awed its argon to. The primitive and
undeveloped state of the province at ate time, which
necessarily called for the
Existence of large and absolute powers within the
province itself. By with the passage of time and the
great progress and development of Sindh since them,
these powers have entirely last their justification,
and Cali far repeal.
Hence it is clear that we can no. longer remain, in
this position. There are, it appears to. Me, two
obvious courses open to us, either to demand a
. Repeal of this Act, are to demand that Send, go
with the Punjab and be under a Governor in council.
I need scarcely say that, in making this
Suggestion, I mean not the slightest
reflection and the eminent officers who. Have filled
this office with such credit to themselves and to
I
Government. I have nothing but the deepest respect
and regard for their high qualities and character,
and my suggestion is nat the least
Detraction farms their acknowledged merits. It is
the system that is objectionable.
THE POLICE
I now come to the Police question in Sindh, while
constitutes a sore grievance of the people of this
Province. This subject is inseparably connected with
that of the separation of the judicial and executive
functions and its very solution ultimately depends
on the solution of that question. For, if a complete
severance is once affected between the executive and
the judicial functions, the Police are a power in
the land. It is to be regretted, however, that their
do not always use their authority wisely or well.
The influence they are able to wield in the
department of justice is formidable to a degree, but
it is to be deplored that influence is not always of
beneficent character. But what is to be most
regretted is that even the Magistracy of the
Province is not beyond their potent is way use their
authority wisely or well. The influence they are
able to wield in the department of justice is
formidable to a degree, but it is to be deplored
that influence is not always of beneficent
character. This is due to the fact an officer who
controls the Police also controls the Magistracy.
The Magistracy aim cases sent up by the Police is a
matter of common knowledge, and constitutes the
greatest hardship and grievance connected with the
administration of justice in this Province. As
justice is or ought to be, the paramount
consideration for a state the judiciary oath to be
placed above, and altogether beyond, the Executive.
For, only by the executive by the being kept in its
proper place can that freedom of hand be secured to
the judiciary which is an essential condition of its
proper working. The present situation in Sindh is
almost tantamount to a rule of the Police, and it
does not need much knowledge or experience of this
Province to know that that rule is mighty, and
sometimes a terrible, rule. The Police have it
practically in their power to make or mar a man. And
the pity is that the man they make is not always, or
even generally, a good man, and that the man they
mar is not always, or even generally, a bad man. The
man that is willing to play into their hands,
without the reservation that conscience might be
impose, is the object f their powerful favor and
patronage. On the other hand, the man whose
principle prevents him form lending him to their
designs exposes himself to their dangerous hatred
and oppression. They are charged with the important
duties of preventing and detecting crime. Those
duties can be conscientiously fulfilled only by the
due exercise of vigilance and industry. But this
course is too arduous for the. Case" loving
subordinates of the Police Department. A much
simpler and easier method is a t hand in the
provisions of the preventive law, embodies\d in
Chapter VIII of the Criminal Procedure Code. With
the wanton abuse of this branch of the law by the
Sindh Police I shall deal later. Then there is the
domain of confession in which they generally playa
sinister part. Every conceivable form of pressure
that human.
Ingenuity or cruelty can suggest is brought to bear
on supposed offenders for the purpose of ~extorting
confessions. No doubt, confessions made to the
police under any circumstances are inadmissible in
evidence. But confessions made to private persons or
to Magistrates are so admissible. And here is a
field for Police oppression which that body never
neglects. Resort to pressure soon impresses their
victims with the advantages of confessing. Pain, or
the fear of it, compels such confessions. And these
are what are afterwards made to masquerade as
voluntary confessions. Similar methods are also
resorted to in the plausible restorations of
property by supposed offenders that the Police
Sometimes fake. The cases that ~occasionally come to
light vividly bring home to one the withering sway
wielded by the all powerful Police in Sindh. Even
Seminar of position and respectability are the
victims of their oppression. And these instances are
certainly too isolated occurrences by any means.
They are only a few out of a very large number of
similar cases, which are never brought or come to
the notice of the authorities. Verily, their name is
go ion, but it is seldom that the aggrieved parties
have the hardihood of jeopardizing their interests
by complaint to the authorities; a course which they
know only too well will earn them the odium of the
Police’ which is a terrible thing to them. But sheer
desperation now and again drive s these Zemindar to
throw all prudence to the winds and to bring their
grievances to the notice of responsible officers of
Governments. And the very fact that Zemindar of
Sindh who are remarkable, if for nothing else, at
least for their docility, patience and
submissiveness- qualities they possess even to a
fault should be goaded on to a course which they
well know is full of peril is proof abundant and
eloquent 0 the extent of the oppression practiced by
the Police in Sindh. The reign of terror instituted
by the Police in this province has no clearer index
and no more powerful commentary that such
occasionally desperate action on the part of their
victims.
It will thus be seen that the present activities of
the Sindh Police area regrettable diversion of their
attention and energy from their legitimate and'
necessary duties, which are the real prevention and
detection of crime, to a plausible make-believe of
such activity, such as has been referred to above.
The deplorable result of this misdirection of effort
on their apart has been that crime, especially
serious crime, has not received the attention it
deserves at their hands.
AMENDMENT OF THE CRIMNAL PROCEDURE CODE
As the Bill to amend the Criminal Procedure Code is
on the legislative anvil, I might venture to offer a
few suggestions in regard to the more important
provisions dfthe Bill. Much the most important
matter for amendment is Chapter VIII of the Code,
particularly Section 110. It is a matter of
notoriety that the provisions of this, section are
being abused in Sindh, and that there is a general
outer against the oppressive working of this branch
of the law in this Province. It is, unfortunately, a
handy and powerful weapon of oppression in the hands
of the Police and of all unscrupulous persons
generally. As matters stand at present, there is
nothing to prevent any ill-disposed person from
ruining the object of his aversion by putting into
operation the terrible and easily' worked provisions
of this section. The police, through a mistaken
sense of duty and misdirected zeal, are only too
ready to play into the hands of every unprincipled
person who has a bone to pick with his fellow or a
grudge to repay. The result is that innocent persons
are being damned every day by the machinations of
their private enemies, who make common cause with
Police, or y the activities of the 'Police
themselves, who press into service every private
means, whether fair or foul, to comtfa.ss the ruin
of those who. Have had the misfortune to incur their
disfavor. Things have gone so far that pressure is
brought to bear even on respectable persons to damn
men not only to whose discredit they know nothing,
but of whose unimpeachable character they are fully
persuaded. Instances of such oppression are
innumerable, and are mutinying daily.
Now, unless earth blanche is to be given to the
gratification of private malice or to Police
oppression than which nothing could have been
further form the intention or desire of the
Legislature- something needs to be done very
urgently in the mater. If the whole section is not
to be abolished altogether- which, in my humble
opinion, is much the best things that could be done,
as it does on the whole more harm Than good to the
people-let it at lest be so fended in by proper
safeguards and restrictions as to ensure its working
for the well-being of the people, and not to’ their
harassment, as is unfortunately the case-at present.
The state of things is painful and even alarming to
a degree and. the need of reform 'is
imperative. . .
Some time ago, an official enquiry had been
institute by Government into the working of this
branch of the law in send. On that occasion, the
public at large were not consulted in any way. I had
therefore taken the opportunity of placing some
material of facts, opinions and suggestions on the
subject before the public and representative bodies
and persons, with a view to a final representation
on the matter to Government. That representation was
postponed till the completion of the Government
enquiry. But as we are yet, and will probably
continue to be, in the dark as to the results of
that enquire, the public representation in this
important matte should no 'longer be delayed.
It will be convenient to refer here to the Law of
Confession, though strictly, it does not form a
substantive part of the Procedure Code. This branch
of the law too works, in actual proactive, under the
best conditions, more harm than good, and I would
therefore make bold to advocate its repeal in toto.
There can never be, I will n to say absolute, but
even marl, certainty of the voluntary character
foamy confession owing to the fact that the accused
are generally in the custody, and under the
influence, of the Police prior to the confessions.
And every reasonable inference, that inherent
probability and practical experience suggest is
against the voluntaries of confessions in general.
For this reason, confessions do not deserve any
evidentiary value being attached to them, and might
well be excluded 'form the law altogether.
Then there are several provisions of the Bill which
propose to extend the already wide powers of the
police in matters of procedure. My emphatic, if
respectful, opinion is that these powers are wide
enough in all conscience, in fact much too wide to
be safe, and it behoves us to resist tooth and nail
any proposal to still further enlarge those powers.
For, human nature began what it is, large and all
but irresponsible power is peculiarly liable to be
abused, and power is only likely to be well used
when duly restricted a controlled. And bitter
experience has taught us how long a powerful the arm
of the Police can be even today.
I am quite aware that some of the measures I have
above ventured to suggest are somewhat heroic in
character. But I feel, and strongly, that nothing
short of such drastic remedies will cure evils for
which palliatives can do but little.
PUBLIC SERVICE
The public service is another department in which I
feel Sindh has a grievance. The Report of the Royal
Public Service Commission is not yet out, and we
therefore do not yet know what recommendations have
been or will be made, and how their will affect
Sindh. Let us, however, earnestly trust that when
the Report does come out, it does not prove
disappointing to the legitimate claims and
aspirations of the people in this direction.
Meanwhile, however, I may venture to suggest, with
regard to tis province, that certain high
appointments, such as those of collector, district
judge, district superintendent of Police, etc. which
are at present open to Indians in the Presidency, be
thrown to Indians in this Province as well. For, in
point of competency, Sindh does not, I think,
compare unfavorably with the Presidency, and place
that can be satisfactorily filled by the people of
the Presidency can, I feel, be done justice to by
the people of this Province as well. I would also
urge that at lest one seat on the Court of the
Judicial Commissioner in Sindh be allotted to the
Provincial Bar, which. I am sure contains many men
who could fill such a place with credit.
DECENNIAL SYSTEM OF SETTLEMENT
Perhaps the most important department of State
activity is 'the Land Revenue administration. On the
one hand, it constitutes Government's principal
source of income, and, on the other, it affects the
vast majority of the population. The most important
matter for consideration in this branch of
administration in Sindh is the term of settlement
obtaining hirer. In this matter as in so many
others, Sindh is dealt with in a measure different
from that of the rest of India. For, whereas the
rest of India enjoys either a permanent settlement
or a settlement of 60 or 30 or 20 years- the last
being the least period obtaining elsewhere- this
Province is asked to be content with accordingly
elsewhere- this Province is asked to be content a
niggardly period of 10 years. Now the history of the
decennial system of settlement in Sindh clearly
shows that, originally, it was a provisional and
experimental measure, adapted to the then primitive
conditions: though it is remarkable that, even in
those really days, the then highest opinion-that of
the Commissioner-in-Sindh, the Governor of Bombay,
and the Secretary of State for India - was in favor
of an extended period. However, whatever
justification there may have been for a short period
at that early tie, there is no warrant whatever for
the maintenance oath period in the present
conditions. It has been repeatedly and conclusively
shown that there is every reason, whether a priori
or a posteriori, whether of experience, economy,
justice or policy, against the short period, and
every possible reason for a longer period. The
resins advanced in support of the present term of
settlement by the Government of India and by
responsible officers of Government have been so
often shown to be quite void of substance or force.
On the other hands, the reasons against the present
period have been proved to the hit both in theory
and in practice. The stability of present
conditions, warranting long settlement, the adverse
effect of a short settlement on the value and on the
improvement of the land. The speedier enhancements-
for revisions are almost synonymous with
enhancements-it brings in its train, and the
countless other hardships and discouragements it
entails on the Zemindar have been demonstrated by
actual experience. It Was for Government to make out
their case for an admitted exception. This type has
failed to do; while, on the other hand, the people
have succeeded in proving the applicability of the
rule. Though the attitude of Government, therefore,
in regard to this question has not been very
encouraging in the past, it was some satisfaction to
the people to know that the matter was finally to
come before a Commission. That Commission has now
completed its enquiry, and we are anxiously awaiting
its Report, which 1 think, is overdue. And let us
earnestly trust that that Report will not prove a
disappointment to the people of Sindh, who has every
reason to expect a recommendation for a longer
period-30 years at the very least-in view of the
vast mass of competent a responsible opinion in
favor of an extended settlement.
REMISSIONS
Next in importance to the question of the term of
settlement 'in Sindh are the subject permissions.
Remissions are a necessity born of the seasonal
vagaries. The demands of Government are fixed and
rigid, while agricultural conditions are as variable
and indeterminate. Hence the call for remissions,
which are abatements of the claims of Government,
intended to afford relief Zemindar in seasons of
agricultural depression. Remissions are, therefore,
unquestionably a most equitable and benevolent idea.
It is, however, a matter for deep regret that in
practice they almost entirely fail of their just and
kind purpose. The rules regarding remissions are
open to the gravest exception, both in respect of
their design and their manner of working. On the
merits of the rules it is not possible for me to
comment at any length, as by far The larger number
of the are objectionable, and often on more than one
ground. I shall therefore leave their fuller
discussion to the mover of the resolution on the
subject. One rul3e, however, I think, calls for
special criticism. It is the rule that bass the
claim for remissions on a certain proportion-less
than-2: 1- between the value of the produce and the
amount of assessment. But this value must in all
fairness be the net value of the Seminar produce,
and not its gross value, which is subject to
considerable reduction by reason of the haris share,
the expenses of cultivation, clearance, etc, and the
other multitudinous drains on the Seminar's finances
in the shape of illicit exactions on the part of
subordinates of the Revenue and irrigational
Departments. These various charges are in much case
known to reduce the net value of the Seminar's share
almost to zero. But in any case the net value falls
considerably short of the gross. I would therefore
suggest that the net value of the produce. Which is
the real value, and not the gross value, which is a
fictitious value, be the baris's ofca\culation for
remissions. Further, one ratio cannot properly be at
once applicable to both flow and lift land, owing to
the difference in the basis share of the produce in
the two species of land the haris. Share being more
in lift that in flow. All these considerations lead
me to my final suggestion in this connection, which
is, that the proportion between the net value of the
produce and the amount of assessment, entitling the
Seminar to remi9ssion be fixed at less than3: I in
the case of flow and at less than 4:4 in the case of
lift. Only then will something be left in bad
seasons to the Zemindar, who at present gets next to
nothing in most cases, and nothing at all in some.
Coming now to the modus operand of the Rules, I find
that certain obvious comments suggest themselves. To
begin with, the work of remissions is so heavy that
it knees the entire energies of at least one officer
for it proper execution. At present this work is
generally tacked on to the other multifarious duties
of an already overburdened officer, the Mukhtyarkar.
The other and more important calls on the time and
attention of this officer leave him very little
opportunity to attend to this important work.
Besides, the work, if it is to be done at ai, must
be done within a certain time- the harvesting
season. The crops are not going to wait on the
convenience of the Mukhtyarkar. They must either be
reaped at once- and reaping means the forfeiture of
remission- the or the Zemindar must submit to the
results of delay, which are nothing short of ruin.
For this reason, it is absolutely necessary that
certain times should be fixed for the imprecation of
the crops inn various places, and, if the inspection
is not done within those times, permission t reap
should be allowed to be presumed by the Zemindar. It
is idle for Government to contend that, owing to the
wide variation of the times at which crops come to
maturity in differ places or the same crops in
different seasons, it is not possible to fix any
time for the inspections. For, different times could
easily be fixed in different places after due
enquiry, and a sufficient margin could be left for
variations of maturity in one place in different
seasons. This would, of course, entail the enter e
labor of a Full-time officer. And my suggestion is
that either the Mukhtyarkar should be relieved of
his other duties during the important time of
remissions, or that a separate officer of sufficient
competence and strength of mind should be appointed
for this work. In the same connection, I would
suggest that ascertain times hold be' fixed for the
disposal of applications for remission, and it
should be provided that, if applications are not
disposed of within that item, they should be
presumed, to have been granted, on the analogy of
certain provisions to the smile effect in the land
revenue code and the Municipal Act. An other
suggestion I would make is that, in a general
failure of crops, inspection, should be dispensed
with~ For such general failure entails a very large
number of applications for remissions, and detailed
and careful enquiry into such multitude of cases are
not at all practicable or satisfactory. Again, the
existing system of danabandi, or assessment of the
crop, needs overhauling. At present. It is the
merest travesty of appraisement. The 2 " Amins" who
are taken by the Mukhtyarkar to assist in the
assessment assist that offll:er only with their
silence. They are either too invertebrate, or,
perhaps, too wise in their generation to dissent.
The result 15th an utmost crops are improperly
assessed and the error, we any be sure, is rarely on
the side of the Zemindar.
I think it is also necessary for me to refer to the
regrettable attitude occccasionaly taken by the
higher officials in regard to remission work.
Liberal recommendations have been know to rise
suspicious regarding the integrity of the officer's
liberality. The deplorable result is vernal
demoralization. For, if honest work by subordinates
is to beget, the distrust of their superiors merely
by reason of this result being unfavorable to
Government there must soon be an end of all such
hazardous integrity. This lamentable tendency, which
has in the past resulted the breaking of a few
Mukhtyarkars, has had its natural effect on all
officers who have been subsequently entrusted with
this responsible work.
Finally, in view of the fact that the assessment inn
Sindh is demonstrably a high one, I think that
people have every right to expect a more liberal
grant of remissions that has hitherto been the case.
So far, remissions have only been keeping the word
of promise to the err and breaking it to the hope.
It is some satisfaction for the people to know that
these rules are at present under the consideration
of Government. However, they cannot but regret that
they have not at all been consulted in the matter so
far, and I therefore hope that Government will not
any longer abstain from taking full and free counsel
with the people to eb affected by the rules.
FALLOW RULES
Fallow Rules are yet another matter connected with
the land revenue administration that urgently calls
for reform. In an addition to being indefensible in
principle. They are mischievous in practice. They
are a clear violation of the proprietary rights of
the Zemindar in his land of witch he cannot properly
be divested under any circumstances. Hence the
resumption of this right by the State is absolutely
unwarranted. This proprietary right of the landowner
in the soul was clearly re cognized by the old
officers of government, and was even acknowledged by
the Government of India. In their Resolution No.
2280, dated the 30th March 1874, the Supreme
Government, in Sindh distinctly stated that they
left the nature of the settlement to the decision of
the Bombay Government, provided due regard was paid
to the proprietary rights of the people in the soul.
His Excellency the governor-General then observed
that "he had little doubt but that proprietary
rights of the people in ihe soul do crist throughout
that province and that it only requires the
application of knowledge and experience of the
subject to develop and record the,." But
unfortunately that Bombay Government overlooked or
overrode the orders of the Supreme Government in
this connection, and disregarded the proprietary
rights of the Zemindar. This matter was represented
to Government at the time, but the whole question
was closed by Bombay Government Resolution No. 1836,
dated the e25th August 1884 which in intruding the
temporary Settlement, held out the assurance that
(1) Zemindar would always have at their dispersal
all their waste, land without being charged
anything, and (2) that Fallow Rules which charged
assessment on time-expired fallow numbers ad resumed
land in default would be done away with.
A year or two after the question of the Seminar's
proprietary rights in the soil was settled in this
manner, the temporary settlement was converted into
an irrigational one, and the Fallow Rules were
introduced in clear breach of the above assurance on
the strength on which the question of proprietary
rights had been dropped. It is, perhaps, futile to
revive that question now, but I think we are in
justice entitled to hold Government to the solemn
pledge given tat that time with regard to the
abolition of the Fallow Rules, particularly Rule 4,
and this irrespective of the merits or demerits of
the Rules.
To come now to the merits of Rules 4 of the Fallow
Rules which is the principal rule, I shall first
take the case for the Rule. The reasons advanced in
its support are (I) that the assessment is fixed on
the assumption that a holding will be cultivated
entire once in every 5 years and that, if the whole
land is not brought under cultivation during that
period, Government loses in assessment, and must
make up the loss be charging assessment on that
time-expected fallow numbers: (2) that it acts as a
stimulus to the Zemindar, who is compelled to bring
his whole land under cultivation at least once in 5
years on pain of its being forfeited or being
charged fallow assessment, and (3) that is a cheek
on the tendency of Zemindar to take up more land
that they are able or willing t cultivate.
Now a little examination will show that these
reasons are untenable. In the first place,
Government receives not only the deficit of the full
assessment, but unduly obtains a great de a] more as
fallow assessment through there. Be no deficit at
a]l. For Government charges assessment on
time-expired fallow number even when the total area
cultivated in the 5 years is equal to, or more than;
the entire holding. For example, a Zemindar holding
1000 acres will in 5 years have paid the full
assessment of his entire holding by cultivating 200
acres a year. But the effect of the present rule is
that, even if the Zemindar in this case were to
cultivate as much as 400 or 600 acres a year and
thus pay Government in 5 years double or treble the
full assessment, but were to fail to cultivate
during the period any particular portion of is land,
say about 100 acres. He would still be charge fallow
assessment on those 100 acres. Surely, this is a
most unfair exaction on uncultivated land, and I do
not think that it was ever the intention of
Government that the rule should have this effect.
But that it does have this effect in the vast
majority of cases is a demonstrable fact. Secondly
the stimulus to energy, which, it appears. This rule
is intended to be is, I think a stimulus with a
vengeance a stimulus so strong that it paralyzes
rather, that stimulates. Besides, why is any
artificial stimulus necessary? Is not self interest
by itself much the most powerful stimulus known to
human nature?' It is altogether fatuous to suppose
that any Zemindar would fail to cultivate as much of
his land as he possibly could if he could do so with
advantage. If he leaves any survey numbers
uncultivated for some time, we may be sure that he
has the best reasons in the world for doing so, all
at government should I think desire is that the
Zemindar should cultivate a particular portion, say
of his holding, every year. This most Zemindar can
do, and actually do in point of fact. But I entirely
fail to see why they should be compelled, on pain of
fine or forfeiture, to cultivate even those portions
of their land which they have good reasons to leave
fallow for some time. These good 'reasons may be (1)
exhaustion of the soul which calls for longer rest
(2) the land being overgrown with weed owing to
excessive rain, a condition which necessitates a
longer fallow to enable the land to become fit for
cultivation (3) scarcity of water due to the
unfavorable set of the river at the mouths of the
canals, and a variety of other causes. These reasons
clearly indicate a long fallow, which the Zemindar
would, but for the rule, have allowed. But the fear
of being charged full fallow assessment or having
his land forfeited, compels the poor Zemindar to
incur heavy expensive on excavation or clearance or
reclamation of the soul, and to give it for
cultivation to haris on nominal rent, which is often
less that the government assessment. In such a case,
the cultivator, on the one had, gets less for his
time and trouble, and the Zemindar on the other, not
withstanding his expense, gets nothing. So much for
the effect of the stimulus in question. Were it not
for this stimulus, other land in the same holding
would have been cultivated, with advantage both to
the Zemindar and to the cultivator, and without any
loss to Government. Further if the expense of
bringing any land under cultivation be excessive,
the Zamindar prefers to let it lie fallow and pays
the fallow assessment, rather than suffer the loss
of his land.
Third]y, the tendency of the Zemindar to take up
more land that hi Is able or willing to cultivate
could, think, be easily checked by Government ruling
that no land should be given to' a seminar who ha s
for 5 years failed to cultivate an area equal to his
holding. To secure full assessment in 5 years, the
fairest course, if any were needed at all, would, I
think, be to make final settlement of assessment
every 5 years. The number Shumari being kept for 5
years, the total area of cultivation of every
khatedar during 5 years could be made out, and if
that were less than the area of his hold, the
deficit of the assessment could be charged him, and,
in default, a proportionate area could be
confiscated. However, as I have said before, such
cases are quite exceptional.
Thus it is clear that the rule works
most injuriously in practice on the poor seminars.
The loss incurred in bringing under cultivation land
under temporary unfavorable conditions, or
otherwise, by the payment often unfair exaction,
plunges the Zemindar into debt. This steadily
accumulating year by year eventually compels the
Zemindar to part with a portion of what is so dear
to a Sindhi and what, to a Zemindar, is the only
means of livelihood,- his land.
The futility of these. Rules were even admitted by
the Commissioner-in-Sindh in his Circular letter,
inviting the options of the various officers in
Sindh on the subject. The Commissioner, Mr. .Muir
Mackenzie, therein observes that "it has occurred to
the Commissioner that the rule might be abolished
altogether. In a bad year its operation is always
suspended and in a good year. When all land is
pretty certain to be cultivated for which water is
available, there should ordinarily be little
occasion to enforce it. The forfeiture of time
expired fallow lands is, moreover, merely nominal
since forfeited lands are almost always given back
to the original proprietors. The amount of revenue
realized in the shape of fallow assessment and the
arrears of fallow assessment recovered when
forfeited lands are restored to original occupants
is not large compared with the total revenue of the
province. The abolition of the rule too is likely to
result in an appreciable saving of work all round.
In this connection, I may point out that the
restoration of fallow-forfeited number to the
original holders in the first instance is all very
well in theory. But, in practice, great delay,
inconvenience and expense are occasioned to these
holders in getting back their forfeited land owing
to the change of that a, and the consequents
necessity for applying for restoration of name, etc.
and the countless other practical difficulties in
the way. Besides there is observable of late a
tendency to disregard the preferential claims of the
original holders to their forfeited land, which is
occasionally given away to strangers.
Against, there is a clear difference between lift
and Flow land in respect of fallows. Hence even if
the rule is to be retained with regard to Flow land
there is no case for its retention in respect of
lift land. In this I am supported by the opinion of
such an eminent and distinguished revenue officer as
the late Sirdar Mahomed Yakub, who observes in this
connection, as follows: - "Whereat Charkhi" number
is fanged with "kallar" or in rather sandy or of any
reason is of poor soil the Zemindar gets into
serious difficulty. Cultivators do not agree to
devote their labor and expense on land which will
pay in sufficient; their whole year's subsistence in
"charki" tracts depends on "khrif' cultivation only,
and there is always more land than there are
cultivators the "haris" refuse to cultivate inferior
land. If the Zemindar gives u the Survey Number, he
finds undesirable neighbors in the midst of his
holding. He pays the follow assessment, or, in some
cases, attempts to have it cultivated. The stimulus
to energy in those cases compass the Zemindar to
give the land for nominal rent; the cultivator gets
less for his time an trouble and the Zemindar nearly
nothing while remembering that the number of
cultivator is shall had the stimulus not been at
work, the cultivator would have cultivated a better
piece of land in the same holding with advantage to
all concerned. In other cases, when the set of the
river is against the canal, and there is deep silt
in certain bad "karias" and water ceases to flow in
the midst of the season the expenses required are
too excessive. But the stimulus to energy plunges
the Zemindar into debt, the crops fail, his "haris"
run away with large advances, and he is left
involved 'in the meshes of the money-lender. For
these reasons, I am of opinion that the rule in
question should not apply to "charkha" Survey
Number.
It is, therefore to be hoped that these important
considerations, and the decided opinions of its own
most responsible and competent officers will weigh
with Government, and induce Government to abolish
the rule in toto, or at least with regard to lift
land.
REDUCTION OF WATER SUPPLY
The reduction of water supply throughout Sindh by
reduction of the size of the sluices which have
existed from time immemorial has created great
discontent among the Seminars of Sindh. The public
works department would appear to have entered upon a
veritable crusade. In 1908, they began with the
Bagari canal, and within 20 miles of it, went on
promiscuously pulling down the old sluices and
building their own new ones. This created serious
dissatisfaction, and various complaints were made to
the Engineering authorities and to the
Commissioner-in-Sindh. In some instances, it was
found that the complaints were reasonable, and some
of the new sluices were demolished.
The Public Works Department, and with it Government,
would appear to have overlooked or ignored the whole
history of the present. irrigational settlement in
Sindh. Before its introduction, a diffused
settlement obtained in this Province, under which
the land was divided into large nos., and the
Zemindar had to pay assessment for the whole land,
whether cultivated or not. As the assessment was
levied on the entire holding Government was, on its
part, bound to supply water for the whole, and it
was on that calculation that sluices at the heads of
Karias and Canals were built by the P.W.D. at the
expense of the Zemindar. The rate of assessment was
very light.
The irrigational settlement was intended to curtail
the extent of cultivation and to improve its
quality. The large S. Nos: were split up into small
ones and the amount of assessment livable on the
whole and was’ imposed on a portion of it, with an
option to the Zemindar to cultivate as many small
Nos: as he chose, leaving the rest to lay fallow for
which he was exempted form payment of the
assessment. The Zemindar cold, if he chose,
cultivates all the land contained in his old. No.s
against the rate of assessment depends on the
species of crops he wants to raise on the land. Thus
there is no limitation either on the quality or the
quantity of cultivation to be raised by the
Zemindar. But the P.W.D has been trying to impose
their own conditions on this power of the Zemindar.
They base their calculation of water supply on the
assumption that the Zemihdar should be provided
water for only 1/3 of his holding, and that he has
no right to cultivate more, and that, if possible,
he should not be allowed to cultivate rise. This is
a clear encroachment on the rights of the Zemindar.
Law does not impose any limitation the kind proposed
by the P.W.D. the law on the subject is contained in
the Bombay Irrigation Act VII of 1879, and no power
is given then to the P.W.D. to c7urtainl the usual
water supply or to cut or confme the cultivation in
any way.
Again, the P.W.D. pleads for the lower Zemindar.
They believe that all riparian holders have equal
rights. This can to be. YOl cannot deprive the
higher holders of their rights in under to make
provision for the lower holders; possibly nay
probably, the lands on the lower reaches were not
originally under cultivation. Their holders took up
those lands with full knowledge of the disadvantages
under whist they were laboring. They paid less for
the, they cannot now turn round and call upon the
higher holders to make provision fro them. This I~
any thing but equitable. The P.W.D. is encroaching
upon the rights of the Zemindar arbitrarily and
illegally, and this encroachment should be checked.
The infection has spread from the Begary to the
fully, the Methrao and other canals in Sindh; and
unless steps are taken. It is feared (that this
policy of reducing the water supply will produce
serious and deep-rooted discontent among the
Zemindar.
Mr. Younghusband, one of the most sagacious and
farseeing Commissioners that Sindh has had, has
struck a note ofwrining on this subject in his
letter No. 555 of 5th July 1916, attached to the
Government Resolution No. W.I.254/1907.
In Para 3 of that note he observes as follows :
“The irrigation question in Sindh presets marked
peculiarities differentiating it probably from every
thing else of the kind in Sindh. Secondly,
irrigation in Sindh is not in any sense a creation
of the British administration. The works carried out
by the Engineers have consisted mainly, until the
last few years solely, in the development and
improvement of previously existing indigenous
systems of irrigation, and we are confronted on
every side with an ancient usages and vested
rights, which have to be carefully guarded against
the well meaning encroachments of the zealous
advocates of scientific irrigation. Where ancient
rights and usages are distributed compensation
should be proposed.”
Again in Para 3 of Government Resolution
No. 1050 of 9th April 1906, we find the
following remarks:-
“Some lands have probably prior rights of
irrigation, and arrangements for their supply, in
preference to others, must be made.”
In view of these considerations, I think
it behooves Governments to respect the rights of the
zemindar instead of completely ignoring them by
demolishing their existing sluices without their
knowledge and behind their back and creating new
ounces of much smaller dimensions to their great
prejudice.
This attitude of the P.W.D has compelled
the quiet and pece-l9 oving Zemindar of Sindh to go
to Courts of law against their will. Using
Governemnt is not an easy or pleasant task. The
person who does so incurs the deep resentment of the
whole official class. But the Zemindar has the right
to expect Government to afford them the protection
against unrighteous encroachment which is their due.
THE SUKKUR BARAGE
The Sukkur Barrage is a projected scheme
of improvement on the present water supply which has
long been under the consideration
Of Government. It is vital importance to the
Province. Let us, therefore, earnestly trust h that
circumstances permit.
CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT SOCIEITIES
Co-operative Credit Societies are excellent
institutions for mutual assistance. They have done
good work in Sindh and this in spite 01 the
drawbacks which have attended their working in this
Province, to which I shall presently refer,
indirectly, in the suggestion I intend the offer. An
examination of their records will show that regular,
if not very appreciable, progress has been made by
them. These institutions were first introduced in
1906-07 when there was one society. In 1910-11,
there were 4; in 1911-12.7: in 1912-13, II; in
1913-14, 17; ill
1914-15, 19; in 1915-16 there were 29, and by the
1st of April 1916 there were 30. 1 Mahratta, and I
Telegraph office, societies- the last 2 being
non-agricultural. This, no doubt, shows progress,
but it is still very slow progress.
Perhaps the greatest drawback to their spread is the
general ignorance of the people due to their wants
of education; The vast mass of the people are not
yet in a position to understand or appreciate the
purpose or the advantages of these institutions, and
are hence unconcerned about them. For this
indifference the extension of education will I think
do the most. But meanwhile something can still be
done to popularize these societies by the
appointment of a special Indian officer in charge,
who should have no other work, and who should also
go about instructing the masses regarding the
benefits of such institutions. If that is not
possible, an assistant should be given to the
present officer, who has done so much of the cause
of these societies.
Another suggestion which I would venture to offer is
that these institutions should receive not only
official countenance, but official encouragement and
support. Officials should Endeavour to help the
spread of these societies by inculcating their
benefits on the people at large. There is very wide
scope for the helpful activities of such~ bodies,
and no means should be spared which can assist their
growth. Finally the work of honorary workers in the
cause of these societies should be generously
recognized and commended.
THE Disintegration OFEST A TES.
The designation of estates by the operation of law
is another matter for anxious consideration by the
Zemindar of Sindh. At present the devolution of
property prescribed by the Hindu and Mahomedan Law
on the death of an owner has the effect of dividing
and subdividing an estate continually, till the
sub-division reaches a stage at which the estate
almost becomes a negligible quantity. For, a very
small holding is just as good as no holding at all.
By its very smallness it ceases to be an economic
holding. This process of disruption is ever at work,
and the time will come when holders will be reduced
to the condition of peasant proprietors. This is a
grave political evil which I think must be averted.
I am aware that I stand here on delicate ground, for
it is no light matter to think of interfering with
the operation of law and the clear rights of
parties. I am fully sensible of these and other
difficulties in the way, but I think these
difficulties must be boldly faced in view of the
paramount importance of the preservation of estates
RASAL
Perhaps one of the greatest evils under which the
people of Sindh have been groaning is the system of
Rasai. This institution is too well known to need
description. It is peculiar to this Province, and is
unknown in the rest of the Presidency. It had its
origin the spirit of hospitality that is at once the
pride and the curse of the people of Sindh. The
prevalence of the evil is not a point that I need at
all labor. It ahs been the subject of almost
infinite complaint and representation from every
quarter. It has been discussed, almost threadbare,
it its every aspect and feature, by responsible
officers of Government, by the Press, by public
bodies, by public men and by private individuals.
And, finally, it has arrested the attention of
Government itself. But, beyond the issue OT
Resolutions and Circulars, nothing effectual has yet
been done by Government towards its suppression.
These official orders, as everyone knows, fast
become dead letters. At the outset they have some
effect, but that effect is very fugitive. Soon they
are honored more in the bre4ch than in the
observance. They are finally allowed to crystallize
and beyond, perhaps, some historic interest and
value are void of any listing effect. Hence the evil
has only grown and gained strength with the passing
of the years and the evident impunity that would
seem to accompany it, and has, I might almost say,
been sanctioned and hallowed by a long and
undisturbed existence. The evil has, indeed,
attained the proportions of an open scandal and a
public calamity.
As this abuse, therefore, urgently calls for reform,
I may venture to officer a few suggestions. The
first is the substantial curtailment of official
tours to the extent that is absolutely necessary.
For Rasai is an evil directly begotten of the
touring system? That official touring is a necessity
to a certain extent must be admitted. But touring on
the scale that obtains at present goes, I think,
beyond the actual necessity. The existing tours,
therefore, should I am of opinion, be materially
abridged. Their present extent is a source of much
unnecessary trouble both to the officials and to the
people. An official sometimes tours not because it
is absolutely necessary to do so but because he is
required to travel for a certain fixed number of
days in the year, a period which, I think, exceeds
the actual requirements of the situation. The people
themselves would much prefer to come’ to head
quarters for most of their business for the
transaction of which hear-quarters afford them
greater convenience.
My second suggestion is that the present system of
supplies be supplanted by a system analogous to the
Military Commissariat. The contracts of supplies
could be farmed out to private individuals and
neither Zemindars, on the one hand, not Tapadars nor
other officials, on the other, should be allowed any
hand in these contracts.
In conclusion I should like to acknowledge, with
deep thankfulness on behalf of the people of Sindh,
the earnest and whole-hearted endeavors of several
officers of Government, more particularly our
commissioner, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Beyts, Collector of
Hyderabad and Mr. Monie, late Collector Onawa shah,
to combat an evil which has been wreaking such have
in this'Province.
EDUCATION
Last, but not least, is the important question of
education in Sindh. Education is, as you well know,
the basis of all progress, whether material or
moral. It is the key to most of the problems that
life presents whether in the social, economic or
moral world, and it is almost a sovereign panacca
for the ills that afflict mankind. Knowledge is
power, indeed; while, on the other hand, there is no
greater disability than ignorance. But ignorance is
even worse than a mere negative defect. It is a
danger and evil, and is the root of almost all
evils. Thus most of the evils we have just discussed
have their origin in the ignorance of the people. In
point of education, our unfortunate country is in
the rear of almost the whole of the civilized world.
And our benighted Province is in the rear of the
rest of India. No doubt, great strides have been
made in this direction by the people of Sindh, but
by far the greater portion of the ground still
remains to be covered. It is therefore the
I bounden duty of all those whose rare good fortune
it has been to receive the benefits of education to
lose no opportunity, of inculcating the supreme
value of education on all those with whom they may
be brought into contact and on whom they may have
some influence. For in the spread of education alone
lies the hope of this Province. However, it is
comforting to see that Sindh is fast waking from its
long slumber. The wave of progress has passed over
the Province, and at least the thinking portion of
the people is now athrob with aspiration and astir
with effect. But it is for us to see that this
enthusiasm does not languish or die, but that it is
kept vigorously alive, and is even still further
Stimulated. For, after all, we must remember that
our system of education is still a purely voluntary
one, in which there is much room for the operation
of prejudice or apathy. These are the obstacles in
the path of education which we must expect to
encounter, and which we must set ourselves
strenuously to overcome, as long as the present
voluntary methods obtain with the introduction of
compulsion, however, a principle which was warmly
advocated by the Late Honourable Mr. Gokhale, in the
Bill designed to give effect to it which he brought
before. The Imperial Council, the educational
question will have automatically solved itself. That
time must inevitably come, and that it come as
possible must be the hope and wish of every one who
desires the regeneration of India. For the voluntary
system, however successful, cannot secure that wide
extension of education which is necessary if a whole
people are to be enlightened. The history of other
countries has proved this fact beyond controversy,
and India must follow in their wake if the general
emancipation of her people from ignorance and error
is to be secured. In this connection, I would beg
leave to refer to a matter, which though sectional
in scope and purpose, is found upon a principle of
universal application. I refer to the Sindh
Mahomedan Education Cess Bill, which I introduced
some time ago in the Legislative Council. The
principle underlying the Bill was that of voluntary
self-taxation by the community for the purpose of
communal education. Government, however, while
accepting the principle, demurred to give it the
force of, law until they were fully, persuaded that
the measure had the support of the entire community.
There has long been a vast body of opinion in its
favour, and the community are in hopes that the time
will soon come when this measure of self-help will
receive legislative sanction, and their progress be
finally assured.
It may also not be inappropriate here to
refer to the representation of Sindh on the Bombay
University syndicate. It appears that, during the
last 20 years, only one gentlemen form Sindh has
been appointed on the Senate. I do not think this is
sufficient justice to the claims of this Province in
this direction. For Sindh has made substantial
advance in education, and is still progressing
apace. I have, therefore, placed this matter
before the consideration of the University, and am
in hopes that the claims of Sindh to adequate
representation on the Senate will receive the
recognition they deserve.
Before concluding this subject, I may
say a few words regarding the condition of prifuary
and secondary education in this Province. It is
gratifying to observe the fair progress made by
Sindh in the direction of primary education;
However, I think there is still considerable room
for improvement, for a thorough dissemination of
education among the masses is the consummation that
is to be attained. Our grateful acknowledgments are
due to Government for what it has already achieved
in this direction. But Government will, I trust,
itself realize that its duty is by no means done and
will push on with the responsible work of universal
enlightenment to the end.
Secondary education, I am sorry to think, has not al
all received the encouragement it deserves, and is
still in a very unsatisfactory condition. This fact
has been repeatedly commented upon by the
Educational Inspector in Sindh, though his remarks
have especial reference to the needs of the
Mahomedan Community in the Province. But, gentlemen,
I am sure you will agree that the educational
advancement of this community is tantamount to the
educational advancement of Sindh of which the
Mahomedans form the vast majority and are still very
largely in the darkness of ignorance. The progress
of secondary education can I think, be secured by
the increase of muddle and high schools' in
convenient places, by the further grant of
endowments and scholarships, and. Above all, by the
maintenance of a low scale of fees. The raising of
the fees by Government is clearly a measure which
must retard the progress of secondary education and
I trust Government will realize this and reduce
these fees. For, while primary education is, no
doubt, the first step in mass emancipation, no great
progress is possible without secondary and higher
education. Secondary and higher education means the
diffusion of the English language among the people,
which has been perhaps one of the greatest benefits
that British rule has brought to this country. It s
influence has been to illumine, to elevate, to
inspire, and, above all, to consolidate the people
of India, and I feel that yet greater possibilities
of good wait n its further diffusion.
CONCLUSION
Gentlemen, in conclusion, I must thank you very much
for the great patience with which you have, heard
me. But before I take my seat, you will permit me to
say that we cannot do better that place before our
minds some considerations, which, I feel" cannot
fail to fortify and sustain us all who labor in the
vineyard of our common cause Brother-delegates, it
behoves us all to ever bear in mind that our mission
is an exalted one, our responsibilities solemn, and
our duties to ourselves, to our fellowmen, to our
rulers and to the land of our birth, high and noble.
But, at the same time, let us not nurse ay pleasing
illusions. Let us not forget that much labor, great
sacrifice, probably some disappointment, lie before
us. But let us not be faint of heart. Let us pursue
the even tenor of our way with a courage that should
never flinch, with an equanimity that nothing should
ruffle, and above all, with a confidence in the
ultimate success of our cause that should never
falter. Gentlemen, India wants stout hearts and
willing hands. Our advancement is largely dependent
on our own endeavors. Our fortunes are largely for
ourselves to make or mar. Our fortunes are largely
for ourselves to make or mar.' let us cultivate
character, let us foster self-respect, let us
cherish a spirit of self-sacrifice, above all let us
fully awake to 'the consciousness of our common
brotherhood, and then, and they only, will India
have achieved lasting good. It has pleased an
inscrutable' Province to link our destinies with
those of Britain, than which no dispensation could
have been more propitious to our country. And it is
under the' begin auspices of British rule that we
must work our salvation. Let us therefore toil
unceasingly, toil cheerfully, and toil hopefully:
the harvest must come in the fullness of time.
5th Sindh Provincial Conference, Karachi.
Presidential speech
5th
Sindh Provincial Conference Karachi
I fail to find to express the gratitude I feel for
the great and the signal honour which you have been
pleased to do me for electing me to preside over
deliberations on this memorable occasion in our
capital city of Province. I realize that this honour
is the highest distinction which is the power of my
country-men, next to the Congress Presidentship, to
bestow. But when I realize the responsibility
attached to this honour, I sincerely feel that
worthier shoulders than mine would leave better
sustained the burden.
When however, I received your mandate in the midst
of my humble work at first hesitated, but then I
felt my duty to obey and here I am, for better or
for worse.
At a time like this, I feel that what is required is
a bold, emphatic and respectful declaration of our
grievances, desires and aspirations. I shall
endeavour to fulfill this task to the best of my
ability and will rely on your indulgence for my
short-comings.
THE KING EMPEROR
Gentlemen - Our first duty today is to lie at the
feet of our august and beloved Sovereign George V
king an emperor, our unswerving fealty, our unshaken
allegiance and our enthusiastic homage. The throne
in England is above all parties beyond all
controversies.
It is the permanent seat of the majesty, the
justice, the honour and the beneficence of the
British Empire.
And in offering our homage and our fealty to its
illustrations occupant, we not only perform a loyal
duty but also express the gratitude of our hearts
for all that is noble and high-minded in England’s
connection with India. The late Queen Empress
Victoria the Good and her worthy son, King Edward
the peace maker are known to have exercised within
the limits of their constitutional position vast
influences for good in favor of a policy of justice
and sympathy towards India. Our present king emperor
had announced his resolve to walk in the foot-step
of his father and grand mother. We have therefore
our fullest trust in him and the British Parliament
that a policy of righteousness wills the pursued
towards India in the decision of India’s claim to
self-government within the Empire, after Mr. Montagn
goes lack and submits his report on the subject. “We
only claim that we should be in India what
Englishmen feel to be in England and in the
Colonies.”
Tribute to the
Dead
Ladies and Gentlemen- We have every year to mourn
the loss of some of our brilliant and enthusiastic
workers, who pass away leaving us poorer in the
ranks of our public men.
Since we met last at Shikarpur, the cruel hand of
death has snatched away from us Mr. Achalsing
Advani, a leading pleader of Karachi, a men of great
intellectual abilities, undaunted courage brilliant
powers of expressions and un bounded enthusiasm. He
was the rising star in the political horizon and a
man of great personality who took keen interest in
unifying political forces in Sindh. It was only last
year at Shikarpur, that while addressing you from
the conference platform, this young man gave you a
promise that he will thoroughly master the Sindhi
language at today’s Conference. But it was not to
be. It was he who pressingly invited the conference
to Karachi this time. He has passed away. How
greatly do we miss today his familiar and sweet face
from this plat-form!
Next, gentlemen, we have to mourn the loss of that
great and towering personality-the Pioneer of modern
nationalism, who was our pilot under storm and
stress-Our India’s grand old man, Mr. Dadabhai
Noureji. He was India’s greatest leader and friend.
No language suffice to describe his deeds, and
service to his country, his splendid courage and his
unfaltering devotion in the cause of Home Rule. His
name is a bye-word in every family in India. To him
is due the word “Swaraj”.
Another great patriot and friend of India, -Sir
William Wedderburn has been removed by death. He was
the last of that noble trio who for long years and
under the most trying circumstances toiled hard and
incessantly and unselfishly for the uplifting of
India. Most of us knew Sir. William personally as
the judge of our Sadar court and then of Bombay high
court. Twice was he president of Indian National
congress at Bombay and Allahbad. Any one like
myself, who had the good fortune to know him
personally, will testify how he inspired, elevated
and educated those who came under his influence by
the nobleness of his nature, his world-wide
sympathies, his profound earnestness, his ceaseless
devotion to the cause and by his indomitable faith
in the British sense of justice and in the principle
that right and justice will eventually triumph. He
was not daunted in his inestimable exertions even by
the clammy end obloquy which is own countrymen
heaped on hi head. He was deeply touched and greatly
distressed by the sad plight of the poor Indian
raiyat and like Mr. Dadabhai his whole heart was
taxed upon devising, advising and insisting on
measures calculated to alleviate their unfortunate
condition. Sir. William at the age of 72 came all
the way from England in 1910 to preside at Allahbad
session of the Congress in order to cement the
bonds of unity between Hindus and Mahamadans.
We have suffered another great loss in the cause of
Indian nationalism in the depth of Hon: Mr. A. Rasul
of Calcutta. He in his intense passion for his
motherland recognized that the cause of Mahomedans
was indissolubly bound up with that of the Hindus
and took a leading part in effecting that
rapprochement between the two communities which has
been so valuable in a political unification. And yet
another eminent and distinguished Indian, an
enthusiastic worker in the cause of our motherland
the great promoter of the Hindu University, Sir
Sunder Lal has just passed away. His death is indeed
a great loss to the country.
Gentlemen our gratitude to those dear and noble
souls will be best paid, in the words of our noble
leader Mrs. Annie Besant:- “By following in their
foot-steps, so that we may win the Home rule which
they longed to see with us and shall see ere long
from the other world of life in which they dwell
today.”
WAR AND HOME RULE
Brother delegates;- The great war still continues.
Our leader Mrs. Annie Besant said early in the
course of the war. “That the war could not end until
England recognized that autocracy and bureaucracy
perished in India as well as in Europe”. Did not
bishop of Calcutta declared the other day that, it
would be hypocritical to pray for victory over
autocracy in Europe and to maintain it in India? The
one prominent feeling, that arises in the minds of
all of us, is one of the deep admiration for the
self imposed burden which Britain is bearing in the
world’s struggle for liberty and freedom and a
feeling of profound pride that India had not fallen
behind other parts of the British Empire, but has
stood shoulder to shoulder with them by the side of
the Emperor mother in the hour of her sorest trial.
In the great galaxy of heroes there are now and
there will never cause to be beloved Indian names
testifying to the fact that our people would rather
die unsullied then outlive the disgrace of surrender
to a bastard civilization. Our conviction is firm
that by the guidance of that divine spirit which
shapes the destinies of nations, the cause of right
will ultimately triumph and the close of struggle
will usher a new era in the history of human race,
Gentlemen. When England took my arms in the cause of
Liberty and freedom, we in India believed
whole-heartedly that England was fighting for the
course of freedom of all nationalities including
India. However, as war went on, India slowly release
what it was loath to believe that antipathy towards
autocracy were meant only for the west and liberty
and freedom were being preached and promised for the
white races. India was markedly left out of
calculation in the speeches of statesman dealing
with the future of Empire. When ministers of Empire
and leaders of men in England were waxing eloquent
over the new consciousness that had arisen and which
would eventually lead to a reconstruction of Empire
on an enlarged bases, and when ever part of the
colonial Empire was preparing to assert its
existence and its opportunity, our leaders in India
realized that it was that it was time for them to
awaken and lay the claims of their land before the
exponents of British sense of fair play. The
Congress and the Muslim League then placed their
modest schemes before the Government. Naturally this
action of our leaders was at first ridiculed , the
resented and finally oppose by Anglo Indians. It was
said that the step was premature, we were told that
we were embarrassing the Government in war times,
even our loyalty was doubted. We were told that we
were not yet fit for even agitating for liberty,
that we were not yet sufficiently educated, that the
agitation was only confined to a few and inspired,
that we were in fact harming the cause of India.
We were then paternally advised to keep quiet and
sleep, till the war was over. In India and specially
in Sindh, people know the attempt that was made in
mislead the Mahomedan mind by telling them that
Home Rule would mean Hindu Rule. But our brethren
stood firm in the realization that has dawned, that
the interest of Hindus and Muslims must rise or fall
together. India saw through various obstacles raised
and risen in the realization of this scheme but
since the united claim of India’s greatest national
bodies was expounded. India had already better
experience of breach of promises and pledges. But
thanks to our great patriots that agitation was
nobly continued and sustained and just as India’s
trust in England’s goods faith was being strained
nearly to breaking point. came happy news for the
declaration of policy by the Secretary of state that
self Government will be granted to India. The
further welcome news gladdened the heart of India
was that Mr. Montagu was appointed Secretary of
state for India. This was followed by another
announcement that at the invitation of Viceroy, Mr.
Montagu was coming to India to hear for himself what
India wanted and to confer with the Indian leaders.
The Anglo-Indians were put in a rage at this. Most
mischievous anti-agitation and vituperative language
was restored to by the Anglo-Indians in the Press
and on the Platform and in Parliament in order to
frighten Mr.Montagu. But there tactics failed and
the Secretary of state is in India .He and the
Viceroy have received numerous memorials and schemes
of reforms. But gentlemen our faith is firmed in the
righteousness of the true English-men, all this
oppositions, all this vituperation conflicting
schemes and suggestions cannot obscure the main
issue. India’s claim for a free and unfettered
development of national existence and its
justification at the present stage.
This attitude of the Anglo-Indian element need
cause no surprise. It is a war vested and cherished
interest. When the Anglo-Indian element both in
state service and in commerce have monopolized the
Incrative and the paying situation it is not easy
for them to be now willing even for the sack of
fairy-play and justice to a abandon the situation
without an effort of unprecedented magnitude. The
effort is being made. We Indians are claming what
true English man term a birthright of citizenship.
Right Hon. Mr.Montagu is fresh from the seat of
liberty and nationalism and of him we expect to see
through the Anglo Indian narrow –mindedness and our
needs in the Governance of our country. I am
confident Mr.Montagu sufficiently realizes by now
whether or not Indians do want Home Rule and what
they mean by the home rule. The strength that the
labour party is gaining in England is reflecting
itself on the world’s political situation. India is
not free from the movement and at no distant date
that movement will be of incalculable gain to the
country. This is a result of the war which has
created an atmosphere of love, freedom and liberty
and given an impetus to the labour movement without
whose co-operation successful prosecution of the war
is not possible. With them are co-operating the
women organizations which now possess six million
votes. Our representatives Mr. Baptista and Mr.
Polak and other friends have been doing immense
service by creating public opinion in England in
favor of India by appealing to the powerful masses
of that country.
Mr. Henderson has emphatically declared “Further the
labour party accepts the principle of self
determinations for all people and believes that this
can be secured for England and India by a rapid
extension of self governing institutions on dominion
lines. Again “We all recognize that all
dishonourable and unjust ambitions of world
domination, whether they be military, political or
commercial must be renounced by every nation.
When we recognize that a popular movement gains
strength by the volume of its educational
propaganda we at once recognize the good that
Mr.Tilak’s campaign of educating the masses does
.It is being pursued in Sind by men of sturdy
independence, Mr. Durgdas, Mr.Jethmal, Mr.Jeramdas,
but what should be every body’s endeavour now is
that the movement should spread and he popularized ,
the volunteers may increase and we must therefore
set our faces and be right earnest in that
direction by suitable organization . We can and
shall succeed as the labour party is succeeding. All
that is a concentration of all energies to the
winning of our ideal – Home Rule in India and a
wide organization of all the elements of the
population with a definite propaganda of work . I
shall therefore particularly deal with industries
and Sawadeshism . National Education and local
Self-Government as a part of our propaganda .
It is a matter of vital importance and urgency that
we should not abate the volume and force of our
efforts but continue with additional vigor and we
should send a fully representative and competent
deputation to England. They should address the great
centres of shipping and manufactures and stir the
country there to support India’s claims in
Parliament. Let our deputation speak out India’s
case plainly and definitely. To an Englishman, no
begging of boons ever appeals. He values the man who
asserts that “Freedom is our Birth-Right.” “India is
no longer on her knees for boons but on her legs for
rights” so said Mrs.Besaut. When India gets her
rights, the tie between India and England becomes a
golden link of mutual love, respect and service.
Swadeshi Movement
and our Industries
Brother Delegates:- I will now to a movement which
had once spread so rapidly and was hailed with so
much enthusiasm all over the country in the year
1905-1966- the Swadeshi Movement.
Next in importance to Swaraj I would give place to
this question, interwoven as it always is, with our
industrial problem. The industrial domination of our
people by another, attracks much less attention that
the political domination but is nevertheless a great
factor. The political domination is visible on the
surface as we see a foreign race openly monopolizing
all power and authority and keeping the people in
state of subjection. These are facts which we see
and feel acutely everyday of our lives and in every
act and in every restrictions over our liberty, and
in the deprivation of our natural rights as sons of
the soil.
As it is true that human feelings often matter more
then interest we have been constantly thinking and
feeling that we are living under a foreign
domination. In fact we had been for a long time
engrossed in our struggle for political aspirations
and status and never gave thought to our industrial
and economic question.
Moreover this industrial foreign domination invaded
us in an attractive garb. Articles of greater finish
and attractiveness tempted us, so that in the supply
of our daily wants, we welcomed the foreign
domination though quite unconsciously at first, in
preference to articles made by our men, from
materials produced by our motherland and by our
labor. In fact we were so much` tempted by the
attractive exterior that we did not look at the
quality of the things etc, and welcomed the shadow
for the substance. This evil grew a pace and we owe
it to another evil that we were disillusioned. Had
it not been for Lord Curzon’s ill-planned and
ill-advised measure the crowning act o reactionary
Viceroy, the partition of Bengal- the Swadeshi
movement would still have remained in his embryo.
But from evil cometh good, so it was in the case .
the amount of indignation and resentment raised up
by Lord Curzon put the whole o Bengal in blaze. The
nation rose with one voice and when our Bengalee
brothers found that nothing would turn the Viceroy
from his set purpose of partitioning Bengal. That
all their petitions, all their protests in the press
and on the platform, all their memorials to him, to
the Secretary of State and to Parliament went
unheeded, that Government exercised despotic
authority regardless of their cherished feelings and
interests and that no protection was forthcoming
from any quarter, they resolved to have recourse of
swadeshism. Under the then circumstances the
movement took the form of boycott in afflicted to
Bengal but it spreads to other parts of India in the
legitimate form of swadeshism.
There could be my no denying the fact that our
Bengali brothers rightly used it as a weapon which
after all struck the vital interests of the British
cotton industries and achieved the object in view.
Not only did the movement, in spite of strong
opposition from Angle Indian element, draw anxious
attention of the people in England to the grievances
of our Benagli brothers but it demonstrated the deep
resentment of our brothers at the treatment they
were receiving. The result was that even though,
Lord Morely the then Secretary of State had declined
interference and had declared partition to be a
settled fact, our wise Emperor was graciously
pleased to unsettle the condemned measure in this
memorable speech at the Delhi Durbar.
Thus gentlemen, the movement in Bengal was purely a
peoples’ Movement and took the form of boycott of
foreign made goods as a political weapon for a
definite political purpose under an overpowering
sense of necessity. In other parts of India though
the movement of pure Swadeshism remained, it
received no encouragement at the hands of our
government. Thou the government has by now realized
that encouragement of Indian resources is its only
salvation. Can it ever be disputed that swadeshi
movement is both a ….. and an economic movement ?
Swadeshi means “one’s own country” it implies that
we must support our indigenous arts and industries.
It is … only an industrial movement but it affects
the very existence of a nation. At its highest it is
deep, passionate, fervent and all embracing love of
the Motherland and this love manifests itself not
only in one’s sphere of activity but it invades the
whale man. Its very though thrills him and its
actual touch lifts one out of oneself. Love of
Swadeshism is like the love one possesses and
manifests for his chichi just as the pad has truly
asked:-
“Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my untire land”?
Gentlemen we need today that gospel of devotion
which is conveyed by the above. This soul striving
devotion should be manifested by the high and the
low, by the prince and the peasant, by every Indian
in the town and the village, on the hills and on the
plains, towards Swadeshim. How soul stirring and
sweet is our Swswdeshi- Bande matram- it is
Swadeshism which presents itself to the mass of our
people in a form which they easily comprehend. It is
Swadeshims which turns the thoughts of the masses
towards their political status and enables them to
take interest in the economic development of their
Mother-land. It is Swadeshims which teaches the
lesson of unity and co-operation with one another
for an national end. It is Swadeshism which inspires
all India with thoughts and acts of sacrifice for
the sake of the Mother-land. Believe me gentlemen it
is my conviction that our political success will in
a great measure be accelerated by swadesghism. In
fact we shall ultimately find the true salvation of
India in this movement.
Let us take the economic aspect of the question.
There can be no gainsaying the fact that foreign
industrial domination of India under British rule
has been the cause of industrial down-fall and
consequent poverty of India.
The political and administrative results
of British Rule have to their debit the shutting out
of a whole race from positions of real trust and
responsibility and thus denying to them
opportunities for developing their powers of
initiative and training. Similarly the forcible
disarming of the whole people has a disastrous
effect upon their manhood and material spirit and
denying to them free education at state expense and
distrust of the educated have had the effect of
keeping the masses in perpetual ignorance. But in
this respect there are some redeeming features and
compensating advantages such as the liberalizing
effects of western education and institutions,
advantages of Railways, Telegraphs, Post Offices and
other modern appliances of modern material
civilization. There are also the blessings of peace
and of order firmly established; so that in the
midst of this terrible world war we in India are
living quite peacefully.
But I am sorry this cannot be said of
the industrial domination, there is not a single
redeeming feature in the industrial field. Just
glance at history to see what India was before, the
statements of visitors from foreign parts of
historians, of invaders, and of poets contain ample
testimony of the tempting prosperity of India and
high standard of it s arts, crafts and industries.
Silk goods, cotton goods and woolen goods used to be
freely exported form India. The superiority of
India’s silk and fine cotton manufactures had at
one time attracted the marked attention of foreign
countries. In the year 1813 Calcutta reported to
London cotton goods alone to the value of 20,00,000/
history shows that only some 300 years back ships
built in India sailed up the Thames to London and
were regarded with envy and admiration because of
their admirable workmanship. We had plenty of good
sailors, and enterprising merchants and artisans who
enriched the country at the same tiem that they
enriched themselves. This same industrial India
whose initiative has been the glory of the world at
one time has been so crippled that it has become
dependent for its daily supplies upon foreign
countries.
The East India Company came to India
under a Royal Charter to trade. Its first effort was
to supplant the industries of the country and make
room for those of Western manufacturer and to adopt
measures to crush the local industries. This has
been acknowledged by eminent English writers. The
Campaign began as early as 1769. the directors in
their letter dated 17th March of that
year sent orders that silk winders should be made to
work in the company’s factories only, on pain of
severe punishment. In 1828 heavy duties on piece
goods from India were in force:-
-
on
Colicoes, 3/6/8d on importation and a further
duty of 68/6/8d if consumed at home.
-
Muslin 10 on importation and 27 for home
consumption.
-
Coloured goods 3/6/8d for importation and so on.
Wilson the historian says that till these
prohibitive duties had been imposed by England,
Indian piece good, could be sold for a profit in the
British markets at prices from 50 to 60 percent.
Lower than those manufactured in England. He says
further “Had not prohibitive duties existed , the
mills of Paisley and Manchester would have been
stopped in their outset and could scarcely have been
set in motion again even by power of steam. They
were created by this forced sacrifice of India.
India could not retaliate. This act of Sefl-defence
was not permitted her. She was at the mercy of a
stranger. British goods were forced upon her without
paying any duty and the foreign manufacture
employed the arm of political injustice to keep
down and ultimately strangle a competitor with whom
he could not have contended on equal terms.”
Things had become much worse in 1833 and
severe measures were introduced against weavers.
Montgomery Marfin writing in 1837 complained in
strong language of the cruel selfishness of English
commerce. He wrote under the pretence of free trade.
“England has compelled the Hindus to o receive the
products of the steam looms of Lancashire,
Yorkshire, Glasgow etc, at mere normal rates; while
the hand wrought manufactures of Bengal and Bihar
beautiful in fabric and durable in near have had
heavy and almost prohibitive duties imposed in
importation to England “ by these means the
industrial capacity of India was so ore poured that
while Calcutta had exported to London cotton goods
of value of 20,00,090/- in the year 1813, the same
Calcutta imported British cotton goods of the value
20,00,000/- in the year 1830 i.e. only within a
short period of seventeen years. In that year 1930
Sir John Malcome Governor f Bombay pointedly called
attention to the ruin of Indian industries and
growing poverty of our people, but those in power
did not hesitate to pursue successfully the policy
of converting India into a land of raw produce for
the benefit of England.
Let us quote from list:- “England
forbade the cotton wears of our own seat Indian
traders, she prohibited them absolutely. She would
have no thread of them. She would have none of those
cheap and beautiful wares. She preferred to consume
her own dear and inferior stuffs……..Enland gained
power, immeasurable power--- India the very reverse,
dependence.” Macaulay himself wrote “The marvelous
expansion of English industries was contemporaneous
with the impoverishment of India.” Thus there was
the Indian manufacturer sacrifieced from time to
time.
Even after the Government was taken
away from the hands of the East India Company the
policy of free trade from England, not free trade
between India and England, was persistently pursued.
Another disturbing cause was the
alienation, by Government of our country of rich
lands and minerals to foreigners. The khopra and
coir industries on the west coast were let into the
German hands. Similarly several other industries
were allowed to be absorbed by Germany. The door of
Indian markets was left wide open to the
competition of the whole world to the ruin of India,
though England’s own policy had been one of
protection of its own industries against the whole
world, till England had completed building up its
vast industrial system.
Gentlemen, the duties of the Government in an
industrial country like India are:-
-
Te
have a thorough industrial and Geological survey
of the whole country and to publish the results.
-
To
afford financial and technical aid.
-
To
protect against foreign competition
-
To
encourage opening of industrial banks.
-
To
start model pioneer factories on the report of
government experts and hand them over to
privates capitalists if successful and to close
them it they prove otherwise.
-
To
purchase all government requiremen5ts in India,
preference being given to locally made articles
even if they are little dearer in price or
inferior in quality.
-
Establishment of Museums and traveling
libraries and holding of periodical exhibitions
in different parts of the country.
I leave it to you gentlemen to consider how far our
government has performed any of the above duties
during its reign of one hundred and fifty years.
Though it is aware that our country is rich in it
natural resources, its export figures show that
abundant raw material is yearly sent out of India.
Is it not therefore surprising that
India should be ale to produce all raw materials and
supply the European world but should unable to
manufacture goods for its own consumption ? while
the total imports before the war were over 100
crores, total exports were over 150 crores.
Deducting from this precious metals that come to
this country to redress a part of the balance and
payments for the salaries and pensions of officers
in England it will be found that a loss of 2o to 30
crores has thus to be borne by India every year. As
the late lamented Hon. Mr. Gokhale had pertinently
put the case, supposing 150 crores go from your
financial house every year and 120 crores come in,
will you be growing richer or poorer? The result is
that there is no doubt that India is daily growing
poorer. Do not be led away by the fact that a few
individual s appear to possess money to invest or a
few mills have been built. Consider the case of the
majority of 315 millions of the people of India. We
are poorest in the world and England (now we may say
America) the richest. Production per head in India
is Rs. 30/- according to government calculation
and Rs. 20/- according to Indian calculation while
in England it is Rs. 900/- her head (i.e) 20 times
more.
Look at our agriculturist who form
nine-tenths of the population in Sindh. Who can ever
deny that they are living in extreme poverty ? The
men, who till the soul from morn t night, who can
hardly afford to have one change of clothes in a
year; what are their belongings ? A straw hut,
which can give them little protection against the
sun and storm, a pair of bullocks often under
mortgage, a few earthen pots, a few cattle to give
milk, and growing debts, are all they have. They
begin the year by borrowing for seed, Takavi and
bare necessaries of life and end it by paying either
the interest alone or a part of the debt. This goes
on year after year. Of course the crushing load of
Rasai also lies on their shoulders.
Plague is ravaging all our towns and
villages in Sind and who can deny that mostly the
people in poverty succumb to the epidemic. Only
recently when plague visited Shikarpur, the weavers,
the blacksmiths the washermen, the petty hawkers,
the day labourers reached a state of starvation
within a few days of their being out employment, and
relief works had to be opened for them. This then
gentlemen is the condition to which people are
reduced.
The war stopped the door to German goods
getting into the Indian markets and here was the
golden opportunity for India. India is poor;
therefore without state aid what could be done? Our
leaders cried themselves hoarse on the platform and
in the press but bas any thing tangible been done
by the government to enable India to supply the
place of German goods even for its own consumption
? and it was Japan that stepped in and captured
Indian markets. The government knows it, and it
cannot be denied that it has flooded the Indian
markets with Japan made goods.
The Government of Bombay finding that on
account of war, the hand—loom industry, match,
copper, brass pot, silk and gold and silver thread
industries had severely suffered, appointed an
advisory committee as for back as 1615-1916 to
enquire into the conditions of indigenous
industries and to suggest means for improving the
existing industries establishing new ones. This
committee enquired into the oil- pressing, match,
sugar-cane, butter, glass, bamboo, paper pulp and
other industries and made in each case certain
recommendations to Government. Three years have
passed but the Bombay government instead of taking
full or partial action immediately, have remanded
the report as received for further consideration,
and there it rests.
The war has no doubt turned the
attention of Government to the wisdom of utilizing
India’s immense natural resources. The viceroy has
spoken of organizing these resources with a view to
making India more self-contained and less
dependent. It is a hope; we heartily welcome this
but we have grown septic and can get little
consolation until we see something tangible being
does actually for previous experience and long
suffering have made us rather difficult.
The action of the Government of India
has been confirmed to the appointment of a
commission to investigate the possibilities f Indian
Industries. We want to see the good it does; but
when this commission declined to investigate the
deliberate charges of Sir Pirbhoy Karimbhoy and Lala
Herkishenlal concerning the positive discouragement
and opposition dealt out to Indian concerns and
unfair preference to the European ones, it shook
Indian’s credit in its good intentions. It would
have been better, if their charges had been
investigated; confidence would have been restored
and a cloud removed.
The Indian Railway companies do no provide proper
transport facilities for indigenous goods and their
rates of freight are very prejudicial. Even the
sea-port rates are favourable to foreign imports. In
the matter of carrying goods, the impression appears
to have gone deep in the Indian mind that Indian
producers are refused the same facilities by the
Railway and shipping authorities all over the
country which are easily extended to industries
under European management.
Is it any wonder then that can have the power to
impose duties on foreign goods to protect itself
and permit Indian industries to develop and prosper.
Gentlemen, in this deplorable state of affairs, I
appeal to you to help yourselves and come to the
country’s help. Let us give whole-hearted
encouragement to our Swadeshi movement. The present
is the juncture: for even free traders and the
Government will have nothing to urge against this
ours will be a voluntary preference on the part of
consumers to promote our own industries. We have
cotton at our own doors and can easily employ any
amount of labour of our own. We have about 200
cotton mills at a cost of 20 crores (though
Lancashire alone has invested over 200 crores) with
five million spindles and fifty thousands
power-looms. These are mostly worked by Indian
employees and in addition we have about a quarter of
a million persons engaged in hand-looms in the
country.
Of the industrial population of India very much
larger portion is engaged in the indigenous
industries carried on in village houses and bazaars.
In our efforts to improve the condition of our
people, we should help the works in the mills and
the dwellers in the cottage; and this we can do only
by preaching and practicing Swadeshism. The humble
weavers in towns and villages and the braziers, the
copper-smiths, the ironsmiths, the potters and the
carpenters in Sind who carry on their ancestral
vocations in their ancestral homes, all deserve our
help and encouragement. Let us make a vow to help
these men by giving them that help an protection
which has been hitherto refused by Government , by
wearing their manufactured goods, by creating a
demand for their manufactures and by preaching to
all to wear and use in all domestic needs India –
made articles. Indigenous industries and Indian
mills are already turning out articles of good
make and finish and they are bound to improve as the
demand increases and they get decent prices. What
is needed is only the opportunity. But true
Twadeshism lies in consuming indigenous articles in
their early stage when their quality is inferior or
price higher. In Sind it is a pity there is not a
single cotton mill worth the name. We have a small
one at Shikarpur owned by Seth Mulechand but there
is not much of encouragement to it. We had once
swadeshi stores in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur,
Shikarpur and Larkana but one by one they closed
down for want of encouragement. Let us restart
these and have traveling vendors of Swadeshi Goods.
It is a matter of gratification that our patriotic
men from Sind like Messra Mehta, Lokamal Chellaram,
Sri Krishen Lula, Chainrai Virbhandas and others
have already opened a Swadeshi stores at Karachi on
sound basis and I would appeal to all of you to
help this cause whole-heartedly. Let us open a
museum of Swadeshi Stores at Karachi where all
information on the subject could be had. When
England did all I have described above in the name
of its Swadeshism, why can not we?
EDUCATION
We now turn to our educational system
under the present form of Government.
Education is the foremost factor in the
evolution of a nation. The educational policy of
our Government has the same disadvantages as I
have outlined with regard to the Government of this
country. In the words of one of the greatest
educationists of o0ur own times Mr. G.S, Arundale, I
say most emphatically and without any fear of
contradiction, that “Good education is no substitute
for national education”. To quote the same
distinguished educationalist once more, “India
refuses any longer to be an educational dependency
of Great Britain.”
Judging by the results that present
educational system has produced in India demands the
slow and tardy progress that this system has made
inspite of our insistant demands for a substantial
advance along the lines that have been approved of
by Western Nations and our neighbouring Indian
states – judging by these facts the impression
grows stronger and stronger on our minds that
nothing great can possibly be achieved in the domain
of education without National system of education.
Home Rule and National education must march hand in
hand. Both are component part of one whole and
India can not be ranked as a Nation unless India
possesses both in their entirely. Indiathat had the
broad and well-deserved title of Jagat Guru is now
on her knees receiving driblets of reforms in
education and India to whose shores came several
distinguished scholars for the sake of knowledge,
has now to send her sonsto foreign countries for
education. This deplorable condition has to be
remedies or overcome and I venture to suggest that
National Education is the only remedy for all these
evils. The system of education in India is too much
a Government affairs. Sir Michail Hicks Beach, one
of the leading English statesmen said the other day
at Aligarh that the universities should be entirely
free from the Government control an that the
Government ought to have nothing to do with
universities. What is the system in England and it
works well. The Universities of Oxford, Cambridge,
Durham, Dubliu, Glasgow and Edinburgh have all grown
out of private endowments given by kings, nobles and
other gentlemen and they all rest on donations
from philanthropic men. What is therefore wanted
here is that the country itself should build up
universities and schools so that the curriculum
should be on national lines, for the nation and the
institutions should be linked together. That like
England, such universities are possible in India and
response ample is evidenced by the institution of
the Hindu and Mahomedan Universities. The aim of
education under the present system seems to be to
enter Government service or the learned profession
and to this end to pass examinations. This has led
to cramming the boys, heads with a lot of disjoined
facts poured as if into a basket to be emptied out
again in the examination hall and the empty basket
to be taken away again into the outside world. Mrs.
Besant said in one of her speeches “To exhault the
strength, to destroy the energy, to turn out a
sickly worn-out man when the youth should be
bringing over the life, has been the result of the
system of education prevalent here.”
To be truly useful, education must be
founded on a knowledge of the past of the country as
well as its present and should adapt itself to meet
at every point the growing needs of an ever
increasing Nation. Education should therefore be
physical, moral, mental and spiritual. The
colour-bar in Educational service, begotten of
distrust, has been a profile source of discontent
and has on account of forces inferiority made our
Indian Professors and teachers less enthusiastic for
work and research. The recent instance of Professor
Shahani’s suprecession inspite of his recognized
experience and ability – inspite of his educational
attainments, in favour of a young man is a standing
monument of this colour bar. The Government of
Bombay paused for a while over the opposition that
the dinner canvassing against Professor Shahani
evoked – but after all threw aside Professor
Shahani’s claims.
In addition to these defects, the so
called “serene atmosphere of eduction” produced by
Lord Gurzon’s retrograde policy and by subsequent
Government orders and circulars, this atmosphere has
turned teachers into spies or cowards and
superintendents are suspected of having assumed the
role of C.I.D. officers. The Hon. Bobu, Ambiea
Charan Muzumdar, as President of 31st
Indian National Congress said, “the sanctity of the
temples of learning has been violated and our boys
and young men are brought up in the unhealthy
atmosphere of what may be called insecure jails.
This the people sorely resent and here the first
conflict has taken place between a sensitive subject
race and autocratic Government, each believing the
other to be in the wrong and several other wrongs
were embosomed for a considerably long time and
several attempts were made for healing them up but a
united and determined effort was necessary for the
purpose and this was supplied by our revered leader
Mrs. Annie Besant with the co-operation and
consultation of almost all the leading elite of
India too numerous to mention and yet some of them
are too illustrious to be omitted. She drew out the
Poer Laureate of India, Dr. Sir Rabindra Nath Tagore
from his secluded corner into the noble field of
action and made him the Chancellor of National
University and she picked out Dr. Sir Subramama lyer
the ex_chief Justice of Madras and forced him to
accept the post of Pro-Chancellor; Lokamanya Tilak’;
C.P. Ramswaim Tyer, G.S. Arundale and our worthy
patriot Hon. Mr. Bhurgri also answered the call of
Bharat Mata, and have lent their support to this
movement whose living illustration is granted to the
educationally advanced city in Sind viz. Hyderabad
where now exists a National College affiliated to
the National University. Our official year 1917-18
whereof I have as President of this Conference to
chronicle the principal events, has thus been the
most memorable and historical one in the domain of
education in Sind, Another notable event o the year
under review is the passing of Hon, Mr. Patels Free
and Compulsory Education bill for Municipalities.
This measures will if carried out by all the
Municipalities concerned touch one-length of our
population only, for nine-tenths live in villages
where this Act will yet have no operation. Inspite
of this and other disappointing features of the Act,
this step forward ought to be counted as a victory.
I am afraid very few Municipalities in Sind will
take advantage of this Act in the near future on
account of their financial difficulties. Gentlemen,
after 150 years of British Rule, you find 50 percent
of the people are uneducated. On 31st
December 1915 out of total population of 310
millions we had only 5.5 million of scholars in
primary schools and 1.1 in secondary schools.
While other countries spend 30 percent
and more on the education of the people our
Government which professors to be so anxious for
the welfare of the feeming millions of this ancient
land are unable to spare more 5 than P.e. of the
State revenue, that is to say, hardly 1/40th
part of what is spent in England.
On primary education the expenditure per
head of the population is only a few annas.
America, with a population has only 5 universities.
To get an idea of the proverbial
illiteracy of India, one has only to remember that
one of 1,000 males only 110 can read and write :
while out of 10,000 females, only 10 can do so.
Comparison of figures has proved that
even American negroes are better off than ourselves
in this respect.
In the midst of this terrible war,
entailing tremendous pecuniary burden on England,
Government have sanctioned the new educational
scheme of Mr. Fisher involving an additional cost of
crores of rupees. Now, I should like to offer a few
suggestions for consideration.
1. Sind depends mostly on agriculture
and the great bulk of its population is devoted to
agricultural pursuits. No satisfactory arrangements
appear to have been made hitherto for the
amelioration or education of the agricultural
masses: In addition to the provision for free and
compulsory education, there ought to be
agricultural schools, colleges, farms and shows
where scientific system of education should be
imparted and the ultimate object ought to be to fit
the peasants concerned for practical agricultural
work on improved lines. Agricultural colleges
should be open to all classes and not “restricted to
zamindars or any particular class. One of the main
problems that agitates the world today is
food-power. This problem depends mere upon
intensive agriculture than upon extensive. It is by
means of this intensive agriculture based on
scientific knowledge, that Germany was able to
supply food to 75 people out of a hundred acres,
whereas England can supply to 45 persons only. In
India where agriculture is carried on in a primitive
style the yield is negligibly small. Every town and
big village ought to be able to teach agriculture
on modern lines.
2. Next in importance comes
technical education and neglected here is mutual.
The two technical schools at Sukkur and Jacobabad
are not attractive to students and prospects of
advancement in after-life are considerably
limited. These schools should impart information
and instructions and give training that would help
the students in opening small village industries
wherewith they may be able to earn their livelihood.
3. Commercial education on sound
lines is also a very great necessity at the present
juncture when large number of India’s youth must
turn their energies in the direction of development
the material resources of the land. A chemist or an
engineer with mere technical knowledge of industries
can never run a successful industry because it
should not only be a technical success but the
production should be on a commercial basis and for
this latter part a sound commercial knowledge is
essential. In India, where industries have to be
build up, if at all, against powerful rivalry of
foreign countries, the case is much stronger for
systematic business training. In fact the American
principle of vocational institutions should be
adopted without any delay.
4. Education in all primary and
secondary schools ought to be imparted through the
medium of vernacular of the Province for it will
smoothen the way to knowledge which the child will
tread, leave his intelligence free and enable his
observation and reasoning faculties to work on the
subjects presented to him without fetters of a
foreign tongue.
5. Religious education is
imperatively necessary-where religion is not apart
of the education given to the youth of a nation,
there the nation has no literature worthy to be
called great i.e., original. Everywhere history
testified to the close relationship between religion
and literary genius and the inspiration that the
former gives to the latter. Religion is necessary
also as the basis for morality and as the
inspiration of art. What kind of nation can ever be
without literature, without morality and without
art? When India was mightiest in peace and war, when
here industries were most productive and here
commerce most enriching, she was above all a
religious nation.
LOCAL
SELF-GOVERNMENT
(All Figures quoted under are pre-war)
In India, Local Self-Government
may be divided under two heads – urban and rural.
Under the first come the municipalities and notified
areas and under the second the District and Taluka
Local Boards. The Bombay Government started Local
Self-Government in its present form in the
Presidency in 1860 by starting Municipalities in
urban areas and in 1863 in the rural areas by
starting rural Boards. Unfortunately District
Collectors and other officials in their
over-activity and over-zeal subordinated the views
and wishes of non-official members to their own
notions of what is best for the people and this
state of affairs necessitated the passing of the
famous resolution on 18th May 1882 by
Lord Ripon.
The important functions of these bodies
within their respective areas are to take care of
people’s (1) Health (2) Education (3) Communication
i.e. roads, streets etc.
These local bodies are constituted by
nominating or partly by elections and partly by
nomination. In our consideration of these
representative bodies we must direct attention to
(a) the constitution of these local bodies (b) their
powers and functions (c) the resources at their
disposal.
There are in the whole of India 717
Municipalities, 897 District Local Boards and 517
Taluka or Sub-District Local Boards. In the Bombay
Presidency we hae 457 Municipalities and 25 notified
areas with 2166 members of whom only 963 entrusted
to their care and they had an income of
Rs.1,24,73,669. The population in the Municipal
areas is about 16 million i.e. about 7 percent of
the total population. This is the urban population
and the remaining has the highest urban population
i.e. 18 per cent while Bengal the lowest i.e. 2
percent .
These bodies are thus of greatest
importance as they have charge of the people’s
health and education i.e. the two things essential
for the uplift of any country.
These institutions of great importance
also because they form a stepping stone to
Self-Government in India.
In the speech from the Congress platform
at Bombay Mrs. Besant said:-
“The training for Self-Government is of
vital importance to the nation today. For the
Government of States is at once a science and an
art: and in order that it may be worthily exercised,
the lesson must be learnt in Local Self-Government,
than in Provincial autonomy and finally in the
Self-Government of the nation, for the work of
Government is the most highly skilled profession
upon earth………..what then should you do? You should
take part in the Self-Government wherever it is
possible. As it is, take it and practise it, for you
will gain experience and you will gain knowledge;
and only that experience and knowledge will guide
you when you come to speak in large Councils and
make your voice heard in larger areas, So I will
plead to you – face this drudgery – it is drudgery,
make no mistake, understand the details of local
administration and understand how to manage your own
drains particularly your water-drudgery, no amount
of enthusiasm and love for the country will make
your administration a success.
Lord Morley in his Reform Dispatch dated
27th November 1908 said:-
“The village in India has been the
fundamental and indestructible unit of the social
system surviving the downfall of dynasty after
dynasty. I desire your Excellency to consider the
best way of carrying out a policy that would make
the village a starting point of public life.”
Here then is a vast field in which we
can in co-operation with the Government work heart
and soul for the amelioration of the conditions of
the masses of the people. Let us start with the
village Panchayat. The Decentralization Commission
in their report recommended the constitution and
development of the village Panchayat, possessed with
certain administrative powers, with jurisdiction in
petty Civil and Criminal cases and financed by a
certain portion of the land cess, special grants,
receipts from derate recommendation has not been
given effect to, in any shape in our province,
though several years have since passed.
Another recommendation of the Commission
was that the District and Sub-District Boards should
contain a large preponderance of elected members.
There are 26 District Local Boards and 216 Taluka
Local Boards in Bombay Presidency with a member-ship
of 3690 of whom only 1644 are elected by the people.
These bodies administered to the wants of
1,80,12,044 souls and had an income of
Rs.83,39,701. All these Boards without a single
exception had official majority and ex-officio
Presidents. Only recently about 16 or 17 of them
have been given non-official majority and 3 have
been given non-official presidents, not elected but
nominated. Thus the machinery of Government
proverbially slow, moves still more slowly in this
direction.
As regards the constitution of elected
Municipalities, I consider that time has come for
these bodies to consist entirely of elected
members. The introduction of the new system of
communal representation in the Sind Municipalities
does away with the necessity of nomination powers.
The Decentralization Commission
recommended (para 6 of Government Resolution) that
Municipal Boards should be ordinarily constituted on
the basis of a substantial elective majority and
that nominated members should be limited to a number
sufficient to provide for the one representation
of minorities and of official experience. The new
rules have already made provision for the “due
representation of minorities.” Then here remains the
question of official experience.
I think there are good many retired
officials of experience in every Municipal area and
they manage to get elected on the Board. Moreover
experts are good for advice and not for
deliberation or decision. Nor are they necessary
for every day working of Lord Hinches. See 31 of
the Bombay District Municipality Act provides for
calling in the aid of express whenever necessity
arises. If however the Commissioner in-Sind cannot
see his way to give on the whole power of nomination
all at once, he may be least, in principles preserve
me in the than two seas for experts to be nominated
by him on each Municipality . From gratefully
acknowledge the progressive steps ………in this
direction by our present Commissioner. The
Franchise of an elective member and un-official
president have been conferred on Rohri and Larkana
Municipalities and the other important
Municipalities in Sind have been given the right to
elect un-official president by ordinary majority .
The number of voters has also been ……………………………………in
each Municipal area for election purposes.
The present tendency of the Sind Local
Government is to foist Government servants in the
Revenue Department as Chief Officers on
Municipalities. Thus Shikarpur Municipality must
have a Deputy Collector as its Chief Officer and
Larkana and Rohri are to men from the Revenue
Department for employment as their Chief Officers.
While recognizing that it is really difficult, for
various reasons, for a Municipality to secure a
really suitable man by advertisement, the proper
remedy lies in establishing Local-Self-Government
service on the lines suggested by the Local
Self-Government Conference held at Poona, on 27th
July last under the Presidency of Hon. Mr. Patel.
In Sind the sanitary condition of our
towns and villages is disgraceful. Plague, malaria
and other diseases have taken root and mortality has
risen to a tremendous figure. While in England
mortality is 14 per mile, in Sind it is 40 per mile
and in some parts of India it is seventy per mile.
The infantile death rate in England is 130 but in
India it is 213 for males and 196 for females.
Large schemes of sanitary reforms and town planning
should be taken in hand in every town and village.
Fullest and immediate advantage should also be taken
of the compulsory education Act. Our friends Hon.
Mr. Bhurgri and Hon. Seth Herchandrai have already
taken the matter of compulsory education for Sind
seriously in hand.
You will agree me, gentlemen, that
considering that these local bodies have to provide
for primary and partly for secondary education of
the population entrusted to their care, that they
have to provide for sanitary requirements and
drainage and water supply of the areas in their
charge, that they have to provide for adequate means
of communication by constructing widening roads and
streets and maintaining them, that they have to
provide for the medical relief of human beings and
animals in their areas and generally speaking that
they are responsible to a considerable extent for
the well-being and orderly progress of the
population within their areas – considering all
these duties, the sources of income at their
disposal are most inadequate. Unless Government
comes to their aid by largest recurring grants, it
is not possible for those bodies discharge their
lies efficiently- nothing could be done with an
empty exchange. We are told we should take
ourselves more and increase our income; but is there
any margin life? ………………….. say in Sind is that we
should impose the House tax in pleasant …………….has
not been introduced. I shall take my town for the
sake of this ………………………………………….Shikarpur a population
of 54,000 souls. Our present Municipal
………………………………………3,20,000 i.e over Rs.4 per head of
population. The figures of population
……………………………….for the whole of British India work out
an supposing we introduce ………………………………….will it
bring? Not more than Rs. Ten of fifteen thousands,
deducting ………………………recoveries and other incidental
expenses. Will this amount enable as to come………………
a system of drainage and water supply costing over
ten lacs or will it provide sufficient funds to
carry out costly town planning schemes, or to
undertake primary and compulsory education of the
masses or to build a central and upto-date hospital?
The bonafide of this form of taxation is
considerably detracted from , when, gentlemen, we
consider the instance of Larkana where House-tax
was imposed by the so-called Municipality
(consisting of officials and outsiders) by resorting
to objectionable methods in the teeth of united
opposition of the people, it was done under the
cloak of raising of Municipal income so as to
provide for sanitary reforms, and run a High School
etc. But the scheme was unmasked, when however
simultaneously the Halalkhore cess was cancelled, a
cess which light in its burden brought nearly as
much income as the proposed House tax was expected
to bring and there never had been any complaint
against this cess. The purpose it now serves is to
molest the people than to benefit them.
The House tax is opposed by the people
not because the rich don’t want to tax themselves,
not because they don’t take to increase the
resources of Local Bodies , not because they have no
mind to introduce sanitary reforms etc., but because
it is a tax most unsuitable to local conditions.
Our officers unfortunately cannot see eye to eye
with us – they cannot enter into our feelings - may
they even decline to see it or be convinced. In the
consciousness of their power “their over –activity
and over-zeal they want to subordinate our views and
wishes to their to their western notions of what is
best for us”.
Gentlemen, you all know that except in
some parts of Karachi, in all cities and villages in
Sind, house building is taken up by the people for
their personal and family requirements and not as a
financial enterprise. In 95 percent cease, houses
(hardly sufficient for their own needs) are occupied
by the owners themselves. Not even 5 per cent of
the houses are let out on rent. The rents are
extremely low, and bring hardly one per cent on the
outlay. This system has its own advantages. While
we on our side are enjoying the beneficial result
of this ancient system of each family living in
their own dwelling houses, residents in Karachi,
Bombay and such other places have to face enormous
difficulties in the way of extortionate rents,
scarcity of houses etc.
The Government of India in their
resolution on the Report of the Decentralization
Commission pare 14 say:-
“This tax (House and Land tax however is
difficult of assessment in many places where it is
the custom to men rather than to rent dwelling
houses because in such cases the house affords no
indication of the financial status of the owner.
Many aristocratic but impoverished families live in
large buildings which are merely relies of vanished
prosperity, while the rich trader often remains
content with the humble dwelling in which he was
born.”
Again in para 17 it is said:-
“The Commission were of opinion that
Municipalities should have full liberty to impose or
alter taxation within the limits laid down by the
Municipal laws”.
In the face of these opinions of highest
authorities I cannot understand how such ill-advised
pressure was put upon Larkana and Rohri
Municipalities to introduce House-tax in the teeth
of united opposition from the people. In his famous
Durbar speech at Sukkur on 18th February
the Hon. Mr. Lawrence the Commissioner in Sind
remarked. “There has been a great deal of talk in
some of your towns in Upper Sind about the levying
of some small taxation of some Rs. 5,000 or
Rs.10,000 by one method in place of another.” No
doubt the taxation (house tax) proposed by the
authorities was petty in as much as after all it
could not bring to any Municipality more than the
figures laid down but how can it be said that the
good deal of talk of the people was unnecessary.
Beyond condemning the talk as it diametrically
opposes his own hobby the House-tax, the
Commissioner-in-Sind laid not materials before his
audience to convince them of its usefulness.
It is the first principale of Local
Self-Government that local bodies should have full
liberty of selecting their methods of taxation
according to local conditions. This has been
recognized by the Government of India and the
Decentralisation Commission – but discarded by the
local Government in Sind.
When this sound principle was
deliberately departed from , when the cherished
rights and wishes of the people were trampled upon,
when very questionable methods were employed to
secure majorities to gain a hobby, when the measures
was being hastily rushed through just when the
elected representatives were about to come in when
the protests and petitions of the people were
un-headed, the question became one not of House-tax
only but of the general rights of liberty of action
of what in name was termed Local Self-Government.
How can it be said in fairness that under these
circumstances the great deal of talk of people was
unnecessary.
I am sorry I am unable to agree in the
proposition that the House-tax falls upon the rich
and not upon the poor. The above cited opinion of
the Government of India and the Commission fully
bear me out in this. Gentlemen, the keynote of the
learned Commissioner’s speech was that in order to
secure for our towns the advantages of good
sanitation, water supply, electric light and other
public amenities we should raise Municipal revenue
very considerably.
While I do agree that there is a great
necessity of raising the Municipal revenues or the
purposes indicated, I am of opinion that the
additional revenue must come, in the shape of
recurring grants, from the Imperial Government,
which takes away all the Income tax, Excise
revenues, Stamp duties etc., etc., and land
assessment from citizens residing in Municipal
areas.
Those who advocate that local bodies
must tax themselves more to provide the necessary
funds, do so on the ground that the incidence of
local taxation is much less in this country than in
the west. But they forget that taking the local and
imperial burdens together, the people of this
country relatively to their resources, contribute
no less to the taxation that the people in the
western countries. The real truth is that the
Imperial Government retains in its own hands very
much larger portion of the total taxation than the
Imperial or central Governments in the west and
there lies all the difference and the inability and
poverty of the local bodies to meet their
expenditure for improvements.
In the Western countries there are three
systems of Local Self-Government; (1) American (2)
English and (3) Continental. In America the local
authorities have absolutely independent revenues and
they also enjoy complete immunity from the control
of the state in this respect. In England the local
bodies derive a large part of their revenue from
their own rates and in addition to that, certain
revenues have been made over to them by the Central
Government as Assigned Revenue. They also receive
certain grants from the Exchequer.
In France the local bodies derive a
large part of their revenue by the very simple
process of being permitted to add extra centuries
to the taxes levied by the Central Government like
our village cess of an anna per rupee. Our system
of local Government is more on the lines of the
French system.
In England it is one of the Local
Governments to maintain their poor while in India it
is the private people who have to bear this burden
in addition to other taxation.
The average income per head in England
is $40 and population 45 millions. The total
taxation raised by the local bodies and Central
Governments was 200 million I.e, 11 percent of the
whole national income was raised as taxes for use
for all purposes- local and Imperial.
In British India our population is 230
millions. Income per head may be taken at £2 as
fixed by Local Curzon though the late Mr. Dadabhai
Noaroji calculated it to be £ 1 only. This gives us
a total national income of 460 millions.
Total taxation is 50 million i.e. 9.15
percent. Add to this the duty of maintaining our
poor private which will come to about 1 percent i.e.
10.1/5 per cent.
That while in England taxation people’s
income is 11 percent, in India it is nearly as
much. But which we consider the proportion of
distribution of the taxes for expenditure between
local bodies and Imperial requirements, we realize
the magnitude of disproportion and the injustice
done to local bodies.
In England out of 200 millions raised by
total taxation, the local bodies get in all 70+28=98
million that is to say about half of the total
revenue is spent by local bodies and the other half
by Government.
In France two fifths of the total
revenue is left to be spent by local bodies and
three fifths by the Government : but in India out of
the total revenue of 50 millions, 40 millions are at
once taken by Government for their own purposes.
Out of the remaining 10million nearly two thirds was
administered by the State itself and only about a
third was left to be spent by the local bodies i.e.
one sixteenth of the total revenue, Here then is the
root of all evils. This is the tune reason why our
town cannot have sanitary reforms, free education
and good communication.
Gentlemen this injustice in the
distribution of revenue has gone on too long and it
is high time that we should now be given a definite
share of what are called the imperial revenues for
our municipalities and local boards, or we should be
given a great share of the imperial taxes of all
sorts levied within municipal areas or be permitted
to add extra centimes as is done in France. I
should not be understood to mean that we should not
exert ourselves to tap the remaining sources of
income at our disposal but what I do mean is that it
is absolutely necessary for Government to recognize
our immense needs and let the local bodies spend at
least a third, if not one half of the total revenue
derived from India.
You might give the best constitution in
the world to local bodies and yet Local
Self-Government will never be a success unless their
financial resources are improved. On this point the
official and the non-official opinions as well as
the opinion of the Decentralization Commission are
all agreed that the resources of these local bodies
are pitifully unequal to a proper performance of
functions which have been entrusted to them. The
suspension of the Hyderabad Municipality was
therefore a great blunder.
Any one who has read the charges laid by
Government against that municipality and the replies
on each charge, will be struck with the fact that
the blame laid by Government at the doors of the
municipality should have in fairness been laid at
their own doors. The charges, hollow in themselves
, simply amount to this, that the Government
sanctioned elaborate and costly schemes of town
improvement and of removal of congestion without
providing the necessary funds as they ought to have
done. In carrying out these schemes, the
municipality with the approval of the Collector and
in some cases for the Commissioner-in-Sind spent a
part of the sale proceeds derived from the sales of
municipal plots. Instead of appreciating this
laudable work done by the municipality without
touching the pocket of Government, they have been
condemned for an inability not their own. Then all
the sins of commission and omission of whomsoever,
whether of the Chief Officer or his assistant or
the District Court or the Collector have been
foisted on the municipality. If the doings of the
official presidents or of the present municipal
Commissioner of Hyderabad were to be construed and
judged of in the same way, they will all have to be
summarily dismissed.
Government should never forget that
“Self-Government implies the right to go wrong, for
it is nobler for a nation as for a man to struggle
towards excellence with its own natural force and
vitality, however blindly or vainly, than to live in
irreproachable decency under expert guidance from
without.
FUEL AND SALT
The prices of fuel and salt had gone
very high and continued complaints were heard from
all parts of the Province. But I am glad the
Commissioner-in-Sind has kindly interested himself
in the matter and arrangements are made through
municipalities to sell salt at the rate of one anna
per see and fuel Kaudi at a little over 8 annas md,
and lai a little over 6 annas a maund throughout the
year. If the municipalities can take up coupes
according to their requirements direct from the
forest department, they will be able to sell fuel
still cheaper to the people, I am sure Government
will make reasonable concession in railway charges
in such a case.
INCOME TAX
The new Income tax Bill No.21 of 1917
has been passed by the Imperial Legislative
Council. Instead of lessening the burden of the tax
upon the people, it has augmented it. In India both
among the Hindus and Musalmans there is the family
system. The head of the family earns and feeds not
only his own children but also his father’s,
brother’s and sister’s children if they have no
other means of support. In these hard times when
famine prices of necessaries of life prevail in the
market, or oven in ordinary times an income of a
thousand rupees per year or Rs.84 million, leave
aside their clothing, education and other expenses.
To tax such a case amounts to depriving the family
of a part of their daily bread.
In England there is not much of family
system like India, yet the Income tax law of England
exempts incomes under £ 700 as under:
Income not exceeding
Amount of
abatement
£
400
£ 160
“
500
“ 150
“
600
“ 120
“
700
“ 70
It also grants an abatement of £ 10 per
child under 15 years of age if the total income does
not exceed £ 500 i.e. Rs. 7500. It is but fair that
in section 12 of the present bill therefore, a scale
of graded abatement should be similarly provided and
an abatement of at least Rs. 60 per minor child or
widowed female should be made if they are dependent
for their maintenance on the assessee.
In the new bill an attempt was made to
indirectly tax agricultural income but the united
action of the elected members saved the situation.
Gentlemen, you will be surprised at the
present procedure of assessment. A special Deputy
Collector of income tax has been appointed – an
officer who has no acquaintance with the local
condition of sale and purchase in Sind or of the
people. He has to justify his existence. In the
method of assessment, a fictitious rate of profit is
supposed to accrue to the assessee – and on this
rate, the figure is assessed. The intention of the
act is that the actual profits should be assessed.
May I ask, where is the provision to enable an
assessing officer to assume that on a particular
commodity the rate of profit should be a fixed
quantity. We are told that on provisions 2 to 3
annas profit is assessed and so on various fancy
figures on different commodities. We are told
that the rates of profit in the Presidency are
supposed to exist in Sind. On such fanciful
conjectures and figures of sale and profit are
calculations made. And again it is a travesty of
justice to convert an assessing officer into an
appellate authority to stultify itself by reducing
income tax if the actual rate of profit shown is
lower. The legality of this power of appeal too is
doubtful.
In Sind the poor and middle class people
are groaning under the weight of this tax. Take the
figures of Income tax in shikarpur. The total
Income tax was Rs.32,018 in 1916, Rs.43,530 in 1917
and Rs.1,53,711 in the present year!
Before the present year the assessment
used to be made by Mukhtiarkars who were thoroughly
acquainted with the people and their means and were
well-versed in the mercantile system of accounts in
Sind. This year at Shikarpur though the people were
already crushed by one calamity after another –
heavy rains followed by cholera, malignant type of
fever and plague, though for over six months all
their business had been dislocated and ruined,
though they were still morning the loss of some dear
relatives, who had been a support of the family,
though many had not much left to restart their
business, though famine prices are raging, the new
income tax officer, specially imported from the
Presidency has raised the income tax to a fabulous
figure of a lac and seventy three thousand rupees
i.e. more than four times the previous year’s
figure. I assure you gentlemen, several men of the
lower and middle class who were actually driven by
calamities to the painful necessity of begging for
relief to feed their families, and are not able even
to pay off their debts, have been assessed. In
1903 Lord Curzon in his durbar speech at Delhi
announced that he was granting a loan to the people
by raising assessable income from Rs.500 to 1,000.
But what was done in actual practice? The same men
who formerly paid Rs.10 as income tax had many of
them to pay Rs.20. What has been done in Shikarpur
this year, was done in Hyderabad the year before.
Sukkur has shared the same fate.
Inability to produce any regularly kept
account books is visited with penal assessment. The
general public in India and the small dealers are
not in the habit of keeping any regular accounts and
those who keep them are not in a position, for very
good reasons in some cases, to make up a profit and
loss balance sheet at a time when wanted to do so,
by the assessing officer; and this is visited with
heavy assessment.
Unjustified pecuniary burdens are far
more bitter than temporary aberrations of justice;
and when people just groaning under various diseases
and calamities are brought face to face with these
conditions, the situation becomes harder, and
therefore it is our function as a united body to
raise our voice and tell the rulers the facts as
they are. In the new act there ought to have been:-
(a)
Abatement clauses on the
lines of the English Act as shown above; allowing
deduction of Rs.10 per child and widowed female
relation besides graded abatement.
(b)
The assessing work should be
done by a board consisting of one Government
assessing officer and at least two mashirs like what
government does in the case of grant of remissions
of land revenue.
(c)
The appeal should lie to the
District Court or to a board, or at least the
Judicial Commissioner’s court should have ample
powers of revision.
(d)
The assessing officer should
be required to state in writing in each case
detailed figures, and brief but intelligent reasons,
for fixing each assessment so that the assessee
should be able to know and meet the same. In
England there is a right of appeal to the Court of
Appeal and the Parliament.
(e)
The assessee should have the
right to get copies, on payment, of the assessing
officer’s order containing facts and figures of
assessment.
(f)
The right of appeal or
revision should not be made conditional on the
assessee’s having made a return or having complied
with all the terms of notice as section 22 purports
to do.
(g)
Section 35 empowers the
Collector to charge double the amount of income tax
in case of default. This should be done away with
altogether. At the most a notice fee of annas 8 or
utmost interest for the period of default may be
charged. In many cases default is unintentional.
When people run away from their houses owing to the
outbreak of any epidemic or other cause, or fall
ill, or do not know that they have seen many such
cases of poor people who are made to pay the penal
amount of the tax for no fault of theirs and they
are condemned unheard for having made default.
In this speech in the Imperial Legislative Council
on 27th February 1912 the Hon. Mr.
Gokhale pressed the same pints, and said- “ The
principle of abatement should be introduced in this
country. It is a just principle and is found in
operation in many civilized countries …………………….The
chief grievance with income tax is the manner in
which it is collected. The assessments are
notoriously haphazard and there is no real relief in
the shape of appeals as they are now hard. Some
better machinery has got to be devised in order to
give relief to those – and their number is very
large – who suffer from the vagaries of the
assessing officers.”
RASAL-LAPO-CHER
Gentlemen, you all know very well what
these abuses are and what great hardships and misery
they work upon our peasantry, upon the zamindars and
the village banias.
Can it be denied that during the cold
season every year, contribution in the shape of
kids, lambs, goats, grass, fuel, grains and cash are
levied from the peasantry and the zamindars
according to a fixed scale for the officers
touring? Who has not seen stores and depots where
all the collections are kept for being used for the
year. These of us who are zamindars know well
weather these contributions are cheerfully given as
presents for the use of the officers, for their
private revenue, for their often establishment
including the peons, for their horses, riding and
loading camels and for the host of attendants; or
whether they are submitted to through fear of
consequences. So about cher and lapo. Tapedars
and the supervising tapedars have not given up
levying the lapo or anangi. But why to blame them?
They can’t be expected to make heavy rasai from
their meager slaries. Do they not say so plainty?
Any one who has been in the country just before any
high official is expected to encamp there, will have
observed how hundreds of the poor peasantry are
dragged from their homes and cultivations and made
to toil not only the whole day but over night to
finish the work of preparing roads, landhies, and
camping grounds in a given time which of course is
short. It is awful to imagine the misery entailed
on these unfortunate beings by an officer suddenly
changing his campus from those previously notified.
I had once an occasion to witness such a sight.
The cher had to work the whole day and night by
torch light to prepare the new command the new
road. Little do the officials know or realize the
attendant misery: of course when I informed the
official concerned, he was really sorry for it.
There have been efforts made by individual officers
in the past to cheek the almost, by issue of
circulars and by themselves setting the example;
and in this respect I must give credit to the Hon.
Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Martin, Mr. Monie and Mr.
Rothfield. But no united and sustained efforts have
been made by the Government of Sind to eradicate the
evils.
A soon as any officer who has interested
in checking the abuses, leaves his charge and is
succeeded by another whose tendencies are not
known, the subordinates again resort to rasai in
order to please the new officer who happens to look
upon it indifferently, with the result that the
practices begin again and are in full swing.
Thus the evil has never been crushed or
abolished but it has only occasionally diminished
by individual officers. It is also to say that
touring officer can’t purchase food, stuffs except
through the tapedars or the zamindars. Even in
towns and big villages where every requirement could
be purchased in the bazaars, it is the tapedar who
is made the supplier. It is equally idle to say
that the provisions etc taken at any camp are
adequately paid for. This under-charging is
resorted to by the supplier not because he does not
want full payment but because he fears the frowns of
the officers and thinks that it will otherwise cost
him either his service or his promotion. Their
fears on occasion are not unjustified.
Inspite of circulars’ of the
Commissioner in Sind, the rasai continues and the
tapedar or ther supervising tapedar does levy rasai
contributions and lapo from the zamindar, who in his
turn, collects from his haris. I am very glad that
our indefatigable and energetic representative the
Honourable Mr. Bhurgri has already moved this matter
in the Bombay Council and succeeded in having got a
committee appointed to investigate the matter and it
is indeed a matter of gratification that we have
officers amongst us who are prepared to co-operate
in the eradication of this evil in Sind. The
members to be appointed on this committee should be
men of independence and education from Sind. Some
independent men in touch with raiyat and the
zamindars should be on it. With the co-operation of
such officers and the committee I am sure the Hon.
Mr. Bhurgri will find his task made easy and some
effective remedy will soon be found to root out the
abuses. Only the other day some police servants
staioned in a small village in Garhi Yasin taluka
had exacted so much of rasai from the villagers that
after 3 days the shopkeepers had to shut up their
shops and run away from the village. On their
approaching the D.S.P. Mr. Kirkpatrick, a genuinely
sympathetic officer, the police were ordered to
clear out from the village. The culprits ought to
be severely punished in order to warn others that it
is not legitimate even for police to exact such
rasai.
FALLOW RULES
Follow rules are peculiar to Sind
only. Ordinarily such numbers as are brought
under cultivation are liable for assessment : but
rule 4 empower the Government to levy assessment
even without cultivation the 5th year, if
the land has remained fallow for 4 preceding years;
the unjustness of such a rule is apparent and works
great hardship in practice. Though in their
resolution No. 1836 of 25th August 1884,
the Government of Bombay, clearly held out a
definite assurance that follow rules which charged
assessment on time expired fallow numbers would be
done away with, yet the pledge remains still
unredeemed of course.
Mr. Muir Mackenzie, the late
Commissioner is Sind while inviting opinions on
this from various officers observed : “It is
occurred to the Commissioner that the rule might be
abolished altogether. In a bad year its operation
is always suspended and in a good year when all hand
is pretty certain to be cultivated for which water
is available ordinarily there will be little
occasion to enforces it. The forfeiture of fallow
lands is moreover merely nominal since forfeited
lands almost always given back to the original
proprietors. The amount of revenue realized in the
shape of fallow assessment recovered when forfeited
lands are restored to original occupants, is not
large compared with the total revenue of the
province. The abolition of the rule too is likely
to result in an appreciable saving of work all
round.” There could be no better denunciation of
this rule than this opinion of the head of the
provinces.
The maintenance of this rule involves
untold hardship on the zamindars. When through
circumstances over which a zamindar has no control
such as the exhaustion of land or over-growing of
weeds, land which has remained fallow for four
years could not be cultivated in the fifth, how
could the zamindar be asked in fairness to make a
gift of one assessment to Government. In
consequence of this rule in the fifth year the
zamindars try to induce haris by extra payments in
addition to seed etc. to cultivate the unfit land
with the result that very often there is total
failure of crop entailing tremendous loss to the
zamindar in addition to payment of Government
assessment.
The grounds upon which Government
claims the maintenance of the rule have been
discussed thread-bare by the Hon. Mr. Bhurgri and
the Hon. Seth Harchandrai in their presidential
addresses in 1916 and 1908 respectively and it is
not necessary for me to cover the same ground over
again. By cogent arguments and by citing chapter
and verse they have made out a strong case for
Government to abolish the rule and I fully endorse
their views.
If Government can not see its way to
abolish the rule altogether they should atleast make
the payment of one penal assessment co-extensive
with the period of settlement instead of five
years. It is also worth while for our honourable
representatives in the Council to bring up a motion
on the subject every time till the rule is
abolished.
BANK SIDE TREES
Among the chief grievances of the
Sind zamindars the orders of the Commissioner in
Sind about the bankside tress on private water
courses, in one. The karias are excavated and
cleared by the zamindars themselves at their own
cost and the trees are planted, nurtured, and
maintained by the zamindars similarly. The produce
of these tress is also enjoyed by the zamindars.
The incidents of ownership lie with the zamindars.
There is thus no hand in their creation or growth.
I am aware that the portion of the land no hand in
their creation or growth. I am aware that the
portion of the land covered the karia is deducted
from the area of the land for the purpose of
assessment but the land revenue charged includes the
water-rate of the zamindar to the trees grown and
maintained by him and not by Government though the
usufruct is admittedly the zamindars. Government
claims ownership of the land under the water courses
but Government similarly claims to be the power
paramount of all the survey numbers and yet the
tress grown in the survey numbers are recognized to
be the legitimate property of the zamindar. For
many years there was no interference by Government
with the rights of zamindars over these trees and
no permission was required for cutting them.
Latterly however a circular (No.29) went forth and
warned the royat that such trees no longer were
their property. This circular seems presumably to
be based on the view that the Land Revenue Code had
vested the proprietorship of all the soil in the
power paramount. But this inspite of Sind Sadar
Court deciding in 1883 as against Government
assertion of such a claim “that though there may
have been originally nothing proprietary in he
character of some zamindars the position was one
wwhich readily developed in a proprietary form.”
I think in fairness to the zamindars Government
should now uphold their rights to these trees and
issue clear orders to that effect so as to save the
zamindars from unnecessary presentations in Criminal
Courts and harassment at the hands of revenue
officials.
Form of Government in Sind as it is and as it ought
to be
Sind in comparision to her
eister-provinces stands on a lower rung of the
ladder leading to the destined goal of Swaraj. Her
position in the presidency is peculiar : she has
therefore, to work harder and more strenuously than
other provinces for the purpose reaching he desired
goal.
Even India’s political rishi late Mr.
Gokhale in his political testament teated Sind with
scant attention and for this treatment Sind is
mainly responsible on account of the inactivity and
inertia displayed by her. But now the same state of
things can not be permitted to continue and Sin
refuses to be called a “Benighted province”
or a “sleepy hollow.” She is an integral and
non-negligible part of India and is prepared
tocontribute rateably to the Indian culture.
This subject had very recently been a
matter for discussion at the last Special Sind
Conference held at Hyderabad a few months ago. As
it was the legitimate and special province of that
Conference to deal with it, my task is considerably
simplified so far as this subject is concerned and I
have thus to make a very few observations only.
It is an anomaly that Sind is still on
the list of “Scheduled Districts” although with
Karachi rivaling Bombay, it has been advancing
commercially and though in consequence of
Mesopotamian consequent, its geographical
importance is an assured and unprecedented one.
Whether be the view adopted with respect
to the political status that Sind may occupy in the
proposed reforms, we all are unanimously agreed
that Sind Commissioners Act of 1868 that has
remained with us for half a century ought to be
abolished and one man’s rule out to end. This Act
confers powers of the Governor-in-Council on the
Commissioner-usually of the Indian Civil Service and
trained to be an autocrat, and his acts remain
uncontrolled and unquestioned by the Bombay
Government. That Government has voluntarily parted
with its power to cheek the actions of each occupant
that comes and goes. His will is supreme for good
or for evil and absolute. Sind feels sequestered.
It has a poor representation on the University – her
educational advancement is slow-her development of
Local Self-Government stunted and her agricultural,
irrigational and industrial condition
unsatisfactory. I cannot refrain myself from
observing that this system is repugnant to the
democratic principles that have now surcharged the
political atmosphere all over the world and that at
present the autocratic system cannot inspire that
confidence in the minds of the governed that would
otherwise be done in the case of a representative
Government wherein “Self-determination” has a
part. What is done in the province, be it in the
dispensation of state service, be it in the
nominations of municipalities and local boards, be
it in the forests or in the judiciary, never reaches
the ears of the Bombay Government.
With the repeal of this Act where-with a
pre-anti-diluvium form of Government is carried on,
arises the question of demand for a suitable and
satisfactory form of Government.
The only possible suggestions for
consideration are:-
(1)
Should Sind be autonomous
with a Governor and Council?
(2)
Should Sind be linked to the
Punjab?
(3)
Should Sind be made a part of
Baluchistan?
(4)
Should Sind remain annexed
and Sind be given a Commissioner with the same
powers that other Commissioners in the Presidency
have.
Brother delegates, these are all momentous
questions-on the right determination of which the
future of Sind depends. All the above suggestions
have been fully considered at the last Sind Special
Provincial Conference. Mine will be but a feeble
voice in endorsement of those views. But the
importance of the question is such that the ablest
and the most thoughtful men of Sind should meet in
committee to consider the various aspects of the
questions. Difficulties there are in every
course-but they have to be met. Under the present
system Sind has not gained any thing from the
introduction of Morley-Minto reforms. Sind unless
it rises to suggest its fate will I am sure remain
untouched by any changes that the Parliament may
introduce at the bureaucratic rule with “wooden,
in-elastic and iron” machinery cannot go on any
longer. Before these changes are introduced let
this Conference or its specially authorized
committee prepare a scheme of reforms for the
administration of Sind Government.
Internees, Detenues and Political Suspects.
That the British power so well
established in this country with its High Courts,
its Penal, its Criminal Procedure Codes, and let us
not forget the Press Act, should have resorted to
the arbitrary step of internments must be proof of
its utter lack of statesmanship. The application of
the Defence of India Act, a measure designed “for
the purpose of securing the public safety and the
defence of British India” and “powers primarily
required in the military interests of the country”,
in the case of constitutional and law-abiding
citizens of India is entirely a misuse of authority.
In winding up his speech on the Defence
of India Bill, in the Imperial Legislative Council,
on the 18th March 1915, the Hon. Mr.
Surendranath Bannerjee made the prophetic
observation, “I hope and trust that it will not be a
weapon in the hands of the enemies of Indian
advancement for the purpose of blasting those
prospects and frustrating those hopes which have
been roused in our hearts by the loyal devotion of
our countrymen consecrated by their blood on the
battlefields of France.” The non-official members
who were induced to give their sanction to this “
dangerous addition” to the repressive laws that
have been enacted during the last few years, may
well complain of breach of faith on the Part of the
authorities who have made such un-authorized use of
it. It will not be far from truth to say that what
was styled as a purely war measure had been used as
a weapon by the authorities for gagging and
oppressing the political workers and in a majority
of cases the persons who are rightly or wrongly
suspected by the police or by the C.I.D. To deprive
any person of liberty without even a semblance of
public trial and proof of guilt is a grievous wrong
and a grave offence against the spirits of fairness,
freedom and democracy, for which the allies are
professedly fighting at present.
The year that has just closed has
witnessed several instances in which on the word of
a spy many young men, several of them being
brilliant products of university, or self-developed
workers in the service of humanity, have been
interned without trial in prisons or far-off
inhospitable places and left to brood in loneliness
without the freedom to communicate with their
kindred. Some of them are reported to have gone mad
or committed suicide.
Some few have been liberated but they
are still shadowed and persecuted with the result
that they find themselves unable to do any business.
By this method the careers of several
blossoming youths have been blasted. This
atmosphere of suspicious and distrust has penetrated
the schools and colleges where a move serene
atmosphere of love, trust and reverence ought to
have away. Heart-rending tales are wafted to us
from Bengal about the miserable existence that these
detunes are passing through and the cruel
indifference that is shown to their health and
comfort and the treatment that is meted out to them
in the jail of their detention. The relatives of
the internees are not allowed to see them nor is
timely information sent to the relatives about the
health or place of residence of the detunes. The
latest information is about hunger-strikes and this
is the highest point which misery can reach. How
long is the government going to play with the lives
of our peoples?
Any further indifference on our part
would mean that we attach no value to human life.
Even if these detenues are revolutionists; as the
Government would have us believe, the treatment that
is given to them, in the name of peace and security
of the country, is more in keeping with the middle
ages than with a civilized Government of the
twentieth century. Even hardened criminals and
murderers receive better treatment than these
detenues. To them at least a fair and impartial
trial wherein their guilt is tested by cross
examination is given. This shows that Government
wanted not the co-operation of the public or their
inquisitive gaze.
Gentlemen, I fail to see why Government
should refuse to disclose the charge and evidence on
which a man is deprived of his liberty indefinitely
and why should the friends and relatives not be
allowed to visit periodically?
In the name of justice, in the name of
humanity and in the name of civilization all this
must end and every effort of ours should be directed
to the betterment of this state of things. I am
glad to learn that a Central Bureau for the help of
the Muslim interness has been formed very recently
at Delhi and from Sind Hon. Mr. Bhurgri and Mr.
Ghulam Ali Chagla, our worthy patriots have enlisted
themselves as its members. Time has far advanced
when to this movement an All-India character
irrespective of caste, colour or creed should be
imparted.
In this respect Sind has also paid its
contribution in a direct form. All appeals for
mercy and justice have failed to secure the release
of the interness.
Our worthy patriot Diwan Wadhumal
Oadharam has sent, as president of the public
meeting, telegrams and petitions but without any
success.
Things have instead of improving gone
from bad o worse. Brother delegates, language is
but too poor to convey to youths sorrowful accounts
about the life that our brothers are made to live in
purgatories and prisons. With all her efforts and
provisions Mrs. Annie Besant has failed to secure
the release of two Mahammadan
interns-brothers-Mahmed Ali and Shaukatali. Te
spectacle of a vacant provincial chair at the last
meeting of the Moslem League was a lving and burning
emblem of the injustice done to them and yet a very
powerful index of the reverence that Mahmed Ali’s
co-religionists have for him. The Hindus also
possessing equal reverence for these two immortal
brothers. Some thing must be done to secure
liberty of person and in indefatigable exertions for
their release, Hindus and Mahammadans must unite.
ARMS ACT
This act of 1878 is another great
grievance of the people. Its existence on the pages
of the Indian Statute Book ever reminds us of the
gloomy fact that Indians are not citizens of the
British Empire. This impression gathers support
from the one dismal fact that non-Indians, so says
the Arms Act, are tree to carry and use arms without
a license. This obnoxious distinction based on
race, caste and creed none counter to the spirit of
Magna Charta of Indian liberties which has been
ratified in several sovereign and distinguished
statesmen. This act virtually proclaims aloud to
the world that Indians from the highest to the
lowest are not to be trusted in their own country
and creates doubts against their loyalty. But the
part India has played and the blood her sons have
shed on all the battle –fronts prove the response it
has given and remove all doubts of her loyalty.
Loyalty to the sovereign and his representatives is
inbred in Indian nature. The absence of the arms
from Indian homes has left the Indian manhood
untrained and emasculated. Little did the powers
think that in 1914 will be launched on the
European world a gigantic struggle for liberty that
will tax England and Allies, resource to the full
and that will necessitate England to call on India
for help and yet if they had been trained in arms,
have easy it would have been to send millions in
the field and turn the tide of war. In its times,
Indian’s sons and heroes have fought for the land –
but an age of emasculation has killed the Kabtrya
–hood and the material spirit within us. One of the
main reasons for insufficient response to the
Indian Defence Force Act is the operation of the
Arms Act – and the feeling that we are not trusted.
Raja Rampalsing in the Congress of 1885
prophetically raised a voice of protest against the
policy of distrust pursued by the Government. He
said:-
“Nor is it only we who shall have to
regret and suffer for the mistaken policy that our
Government is unhappily pursuing in this matter.
Look where you will remind you in the world and you
will see gigantic armies and armaments. There is
trouble in steps for the whole civilized world and
sooner or later a tremendous military strength will
commence in which assuredly before it terminates,
Great Britain will be involved.” There prophetic
words have come out to be true.
India’s position necessitates that she
should be made strong as well as free otherwise not
only does she become a vulnerable point in the
Umpire but also procession to be battled for.
Let these responsible for the safety of
British Empire including Indian Report given
realize the grave situation and repeal the Arms Act.
Apart from the political aspect of the
question, can any deny that possessing alarms is
right of self defence and is the birth-right of
every individual citizen. Nowhere in the world, is
the possession of arms fettered.
The most comic feature of the Act is the
granting and renewal of licenses. This unhappy
function is no doubt entrusted to the District
Officer viz, the Collector, but world know that he
relies for the purpose of selection on the reports
of the C.I.D. and police officers.
The worst effect of the Arms Act is that
it stunts the growth of a people and citizens them
of their sense of national self respect. The Arms
Act has failed to achieve its object in as much as
the lawless few are never in want of fire arms, but
it is the law-abiding many that have been deprived
of the use of them. Illustrative of this era the
numerous decoities and robberies that visit Sind at
the time of non-abkalani season. Dacoits and
robbers somehow manage to get fire-arms and swords
and attack the unarmed people to the disgrace of the
Arms Act.
The recent disturbance among some
frontier tribes created so much of alarm and
unsafety that Government had to requisition police
from all departments in order to protest the people
and property. The people themselves are helpless in
their homes and have to rely for their ordinary
protection on a handful of policeman.
LIBERTY OF PRESS
BROTHER DELEGATES,
Indian Press in India labours under several
difficulties and impediments and the heaviest of
those is the Press Act of 1910 that hangs like
Damocles Sword over the heads of editors,
journalists and keepers of the press. This Act,
conceived in a spirit of repression, and ostensibly
intended at first to be sparingly used, carries
within its bosom the deadliest weapon that cuts at
the very root of independence of any paper that
comes within its range. The press, instead of being
an independent critic of Government as it ought to
be and is in all other countries where British flag
flies has been reduced to a state of meek submission
and terror and is permitted to exist on itself. The
vesting of such altimited power on the Executive
Government is undoubtedly a serious encroachment on
the freedom which the press in India enjoyed before
the passing of the Act.” There cannot be severer
condemnation of the measure and its existence than
the above words.
The Press Act, I dare say has been in
the hands of the Executive a convenience weapon for
repressing inconvenient criticisms which they could
not bring under the operation of the sections of the
Penal Code. The fate of the editors of journals
circulating in a small area is veritable as they
with very small income and capital and mostly
depending for their existence on official patronage
and advertisements have more often than not to live
under the perpetual tutelage and arbitrary
censorship of local or district official in the
interests of the public or incurs the displeasure of
local police authority, he is called upon to show
cause why security should not be demanded from him.
The taking of security is a foregone conclusion. It
often happens that the magistrate demanding the
security and sitting on judgment is the very person
whose views had been severely criticized by the
editor concerned or an immediate subordinate of
him. Thus the complaint, the witness and the judge
merges in one – a principle abhorrent to every
judicial measure.
It is well-known maxim of law that
every one is to be presumed incept until guilt is
proved. But in the operation of the Press Act the
two important words “innocence” and “guilty” have
changed places and the maxim has been reversed. As
the Defence of India Act trenches on the liberty of
person without trial, so does the Press Act snatch
its freedom from the press. Under the Press Act,
the pressman is often called upon to prove his
innocence without a affording him even an
opportunity of knowing contradicting either the
contents, or the source of confidential reports that
may have been made against him by the C.I.C. or the
police nor is he allowed in certain cases, where
security is demanded, to know the objectionable
passages or articles. The use rather the misuse of
the Act and solemn promises given by Government at
the time of the passage of the act as to the use or
intention there have proved illusory.
The non-official members were told by
Sir Herbart Risley “the Pill does not prepare to
confer any power on the police, they will be
absolutely outside it and will have nothing whatever
to do with its administration” – what a poor
realization of fact. Mr. Merniman in supporting
the resolution on the repeal of the Press Act at the
……………………….of the Congress said “ I say – I am
prepared to justify it-I say from this platform
that the police come in at every step in the
administration of the act. The whole question of
the respectability if I may so put, it, of the
proprietors of a newspapers or the proprietor of a
press rests in the hands of the Criminal
Intelligence Department. This stands
un-contradicted till this date. This with respect
to the first safeguard Another safeguard held out to
us is the appeal to the High Court against any
order for forfeiture and the late Sir Herbert Risely
described it as ‘a very complete cheek upon any
hasty or improper action by a local Government.” On
the basis of such an assurance the framers of the
act had ‘barred all other remedies.” But an order
demanding a deposit of security does not carry with
itself this safeguard, so the highest judges in the
land tell us. Even in the case of forfeiture the
Madras High Court in the “New India” case while
holding that the Magistrate’s order was
administrative and not judicial. Thus the appeal
against forfeiture is meaningless and our High Court
are powerless.
Experience has shown us that this
safe-guard is illusory and a sham. Press is thus
left at the mercy of the executive assisted by the
police and C.I.D. and as long as human nature exists
adverse criticism will always place the press under
the head of a single executive officer.
Another disappointing feature of the Act
is the unfair manner in which it is being
administered as, between certain classes of
journals. While Anglo-Insane journals that vilify
the people of this country and create class-hatred
are immune we hear but too often that the Indian
papers advocating national views are ordered to
deposit heavy securities with the result of
forfeiture in several cases.
I have brother-delegates, laboured over
this problem at great length for two reasons. One
is that I regard free press to be the strongest
bulwark of the Empire and a tower of strength to the
reformer. Milton the great seer of England
proclaimed the truth that the one essential of good
Government is to keep in touch with the governed,
that its ear should be placed near the ground so as
to hear the rumblings of the populace. This
essential truth can be realized only with a press
free and not muzzled as in India.
The second reason for me is that Sind
has during this year been greatly victimized by the
Press Act in as much as “New Times” “Home Ruler”,
Trade Advertisement” and Hindvasi” have been asked
to deposit securities within the space of a few
months. “Sindhi” was already under this has at the
very start of the Act for the curious person of
having changed its editors.
The “Trade Advertiser” was not allowed
even the benefit of seeing the objectionable
articles or passages and action against it was
admittedly taken on police information which was not
disclosed. In the case of “Hindvai” the
Magistrate refused to follow the ruling of the
Madras High Court and sought to get support from a
Magisterial judgment in preference to the Madras
High Court. “Home Ruler” was made to deposits a
pre-natal security. The Press Association of India
and the public must try all legitimate and
constitutional methods in their power to resist
the operation of this arbitrary and oppressive
measure. The Press Act must be repealed and be
amended. The safety of the Press in Sind will until
the repeal of the Act depend upon the public support
and more upon an organization, of which all the
Press aware should be members, and in the event of a
particular Press being harassed by the Executive all
support must proceed from this organization.
Conclusion
And now brother delegates, I have placed
before you to the best of my light what we wish
Government should do for us and what we should do
for ourselves so that we may have an India of the
future answering our ideal, satisfying our
aspirations and rising to the height of our noblest
emotions. And towards this end the war and other
forces of great moment are fast helping us onward.
The war has created a new spirit of self sacrifice
the highest imaginable-shedding of blood-and this
being abroad throughout the British Empire there
appears to prevail an atmosphere of good will and
mutual service. It seems to me that under the
benign dispensation of an inscrutable Providence
our beloved Motherland will occupy an honoured place
in the Empire with which her fortunes are
indissolubly linked and we shall be the free and
equal citizens of that great empire bearing its
burden, sharing its responsibilities and
participating in its heritage of freedom and glory
as comrades and brothers. With a liberated manhood,
with buoyant hope, with a love that over-leaps all
bounds, renovated and free India will take her
proper rank among the nations of the world and be
the master of the situation and of her own destiny.
This is the goal to be reached – This is
the promised land.
Happy are they who see it in distant
vision; happier those who are permitted to work and
clear the way on to it; happiest they who live to
see it with their eyes and trend upon the holy soil
of Bharat Mata and Sindhu Desh.
WELCOME ADDRESS
OF
THE HONOURABLE
Mr. Harchandrai Vishindas, C.I.E.
Chairman of the Reception Committee
Brother-Delegates, Ladies & Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Reception Committee and
the citizens of Karachi, I tender a hearty welcome
to you all for having done us the honour of gracing
this, the Fifth Sind Provincial Conference, with
your presence. Although, Karachi being the capital
of Sind, in the normal order of events she would be
expected to take the lead by holding the First Sind
Provincial Conference, as Fates would have it, in
fact the exact opposite has been the case. Of all
the principal cities she has been the last in this
respect. All credit to Sukkur for not only taking
the place of honour but also for conceiving and
initiating the idea of Sind Provincial Conferences.
That city, conscious not only for its picturesque
hills and magnificently shaded river bank, its
river girt islands with palatial shrines but also
for its parks, its broad avenues and thorough fares
and sanitary lanes and its go-ahead civic
administration, threw the rest of the Province into
the shade by calling the First Sind Provincial
Conference in the year 1903, the second, third and
fourth being held at Hyderabad, Larkana and
Shikarpur respectively with a break of six years
between the second and third conferences. These
breaks, however, are not an uncommon feature of
Provincial Conference, the first of three years from
1897 to 1899, the second of three years from 1904 to
1905, and the third of seven years from 1908 to
1899, the second of three years from 1904 to 1905,
and the third of seven years from 1908 to 1914.
The explanation that Karachi has to furnish for
this apparent remissness is that the invitation for
the first two conferences were rushed, she being
given od chance and afterwards she was in the midst
of preparations for the far more exacting and
ambitions assemblage of the National Congress which
happily did materialize in 1913 and whereby was
redeemed the honour of the province which was being
twitted with unconscionable neglected in its primary
national duty. Whether this apologia is valid or
only an argumentum she solicits forgiveness and
offers this Conference as her quota for what it may
be worth. If you find any shortcomings in the
actual performance of our hospitality (which will be
many) you will kindly over-look them and accept the
will for the deed.
Sir William Wedderburn
We deeply mourn the death of Sir William
Wedderburn one of the fathers and founders of our
great National Organization, who dedicated his noble
life to the relift of this country, whose services
this country specially towards her political and
economic amelioration were too numerous to mention,
who spent lavishly a considerable portion of his
wealth for this country and worked wholeheartedly
for it up to his death. It is impossible to give an
adequate expression to what he has done for our
motherland. “The picture of this great venerable
rishi of modern times,” said Mr. Gokhale, “who has
done this work for us is a picture too venerable.
Too beautiful, too inspiring for words: it is a
picture to dwell upon lovingly and reverentially, a
picture to contemplate in silence.” It is a matter
for bitter sorrow that he, who so patiently
suffered with us in the days of adversity and did no
much to help us to the onward march of progress,
should pass away at this critical juncture when
India stands at the threshold of momentous charges.
He was specially connected with this
city in the early seventies of the last century as
the Judicial Commissioner of Sind from which post he
was transferred to Presidency proper in 1875.
Loyalty to the Sovereign
We vow our profound loyalty and devotion
to the King Emperor and answering questions to the
British connection. We sincerely pray for an early
and victories …………of Great Britain and her Allies
from this stupendous and insane war busted on green
fields and smiling pastures of the Earth by the
criminal avarice, the said bombed and blood-thirst
of wicked man whereby the innocent bleed of
……………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………….
Self-Government
What has been proved by History and held
true for all times that Government of the people by
themselves makes by far more for the welfare and
happiness of nations than the rule of one or of few,
has never been more clearly demonstrated this than
during war. Some of the belligerents who have had
no axes of their own to grind have been dragged
into the vertex by the inexorable exigencies of the
situation. These Nations entered the war to remove
the deadly menace to those righteous methods of
governing people which make life worth living and
ensure the safety of the weak living side by side
with the strong. The statesmen of these countries
have made “Self-Determination” as their watch word.
Peoples must be left free to choose their own
machinery of Government. Not only has this doctrine
an a priori application to India but she has been
specifically declared to be a country whose goal
should be the attainment of Self-Government; and
Self-Government within the British Empire has been
our cry for a long time.
Mr. Montagu’s Visit
The most absorbing event of the year
which will vitally affect our political status and
be a land mark in the history of our country was the
coming of Mr. Mongagu in pursuance of an
announcement in Parliament that the Secretary of
State should visit India for the purpose of
consulting official and non-official opinion on the
changes to be effected for establishing Responsible
Government, as enunciated on the 20th
August last. Mr. Montague has come and gone. He
has had innumerable deputations, addresses and
interviews. After his return to England it is
expected that he will publish his scheme about the
end of May next, and after it has seen the light of
criticism, it will be submitted to Parliament. The
immence of Mr. Montagu’s visit necessitated that we
should focuss our attention upon the problems
connected with the peculiar administration of Sind
and place our mature views before him. To that end
we assembled in Special Session of the Sind
Provincial Conference in Hyderabad in November last
and embodied the decisions reached there in a
Memorial which was duly presented to the Secretary
of State by the deputation appointed for the
purpose. In addition to backing up the
Congress-League scheme relating to the whole
country, proposals suggesting the lines for the
government of this Province in particular, were
made; the key-note of which was that of the various
conflicting schemes of re-adjustment, preference
was given to the present connection with Bombay with
the important qualification that the
super-Commissioner of Sind be brought to the level
of the ordinary Commissioner and in every respect
this province be placed on a par with the other
divisions of the Bombay Presidency.
Sind Mahomedan Association
You must be aware that following close
on our movement some members of the Sind Mahomedan
Association set to work counterblast to our
representation. The deputation of the Mahomedan
Association took ticket after us to Bombay and
presented their address which you must have seen.
The aim and object of that deputation and address
were to whittle down our demand for Home Rule. This
is not the place to refute the reasoning of that
address. But the exotic forces that were at work to
organize resistance to our movement, the protests
and defections of the advanced section, the
establishment of the Sind branch of the Muslim
League to counteract the reactionary policy of the
Sind Mahomedan Association, that however they may
act, we have no quarrel with them and harbour no
ill-will towards them. We realize that they are our
countrymen and have interests identical with ours.
Their progress is our progress and their down fall
our down fall. We are at all times prepared to
extend the hand of fellowship to them. We realize,
as some of the most enlightened among them realize
now and others will realize hereafter, that their
present circumstances render them an easy prey to
those whose interest lies in diverting and wheedling
them away from the path of true advancement.
Whaever share of Home Rule is acquired by the
country, in Sind the Mahomedans, consisting as they
do the majority of the population, will receive a
substantial portion of the same. When the present
walls of illiteracy are broken and the doors of
education opened wide, the members of the Mahomedan
Association wore misguided in their present
attitude and thereby missed a mighty opportunity for
serving their community and country. But in this
history repeats itself. The same was the case with
the Mahomedans of the U.P. and the North. So long
as they were under the spell of false guides they
kept aloof from National Movements, which attitude
however vanished like mist before the sun as soon as
they received Higher Education and found out how
misled they had been in the past.
We are confident that the Secretary of
State and those who will have the final shaping of
the Reforms to be introduced will not fail to
comprehend the genesis and the true inwardness of
the Sind Mahomedan Association’s attitude.
Because, when I demand a benefit not only for myself
but also for my brother and that that brother not
only fails to support me but vigorously shouts his
protest against the grant of the benefit, it would
naturally arouse the suspicion of the deciding party
that there must be something behind the protest.
But the humour of the situation consists
in this that the Mahomedan Association in their
Memorial, while condemning the grant of
Self-Government as forcing the pace, still claim the
bulk of it in the event of its being conceded. Now
if there were any consistency in the Association’s
case they would have said that the Mohomedans of
Sind would have nothing to do with Self-Government
even if it were granted. However, this playing fast
and loose, leads to the inference that the
Association at heart are in favour of
Self-Government, but have been reluctantly impelled
into their repudiation by some extraneous force.
We are extremely grateful at the grant
of one lac by Government for the Education of Sind
Mahomedans. And I am glade of my support of Mr.
Bhurgri’s Bill for the levy of Educational cess on
Mahommedans of Sind which unhappily, owing to
technical difficulties and the opposition of
elements of Sind Mahomadens did not come to
fruition. In the education of this community, which
constitutes the for-fifths of the entire population
of Sind, lies the political salvation of the
Province and albeit that in every acquisition of
political or administrative right the Mahomedans
would naturally get a lion’s share, we of this
Conference are of opinion that the Hindus of Sind
would none the less enthusiastically hail and accept
the same catholic spirit in which they have
accepted preferential distribution of Government
posts to Mahomedans.
Sind Branch of the Moslim League
We welcome the Sind Branch of the Moslim
League recently started as a healthy sign of the
progress of the Province as we trust that this body
like its parent institution will appreciate the
benefit of making common cause with the Congress
party and co-operate in their political activities.
Our Opponents
On what reformed lines the Government of
India should be carried on in the future must
naturally take the front rank in all important
deliberations of the country until the question is
finally settled by the passing of a Parliamentary
Statue, Likewise, the future Government of Sind in
particular should occupy the thoughts of us all
Sindhis until final solution. Meanwhile, it should
be the duty of the country to support the deputation
which will proceed to England to plead our cause
before the bar of the British electorate and
parliament after Mr. Montagu’s scheme is published,
so that judgment may not go against us by default.
We should exercise the utmost vigilance
to meet the mischievous campaign conducted against
us by our opponents in England under the leadership
of that Goliath of the Philistines, Lord Sydnenham,
who will leave no stone natured to thwart us. As a
sample you may look at the manner in which the
Resolution of the Labour Conference with regard to
India was distorted. Lord Sydenham has rushed on to
the stage with the brief of the bureaucracy in his
hands. One is agape with astonishment at the
spectacle that, whilst British minister as well as
other great statesmen of the world have in the most
unmistakable terms declared in favour of Self-Rule
for India, and these declaration have been given
effect to and sealed up by the authoritative and
final announcement of the 20th August
last, the bureaucracy under the advocacy of Lord
Sydenham and Madras Mail should keep on beating the
big drum and denouncing Self-Government for India
making use of the well-worn shibboleths and
stock-in-trade pleadings. They say Congress-League
scheme would result in government by Oligarchy? And
supposing the insinuation well-founded, which really
it is not, would not a change from an alien to an
indigenous oligarchy be for the better? They harp
upon efficiency. Lord Curzon was an apostle of
efficiency. And still what was the legacy, he left
behind? The most crushing reply to this plea of
efficiency was the remark of the President of the
last Congress when she said “would German Government
be considered best because it was most efficient “.
The emphatic answer would be “Certainly not”.
Another can’t trotted forth is the smallness of the
number of Educated Indians and those who are
demanding Reform. Mr. P.C. Lyon, a late number of
the Bengal Copuncil and once a lieutenant of Sir
Bamphylde Fuller, in the course of a debate on a
paper read to the East Indian Association in London
effectively disposed of this objection. He said
that from his experience he had gathered that the
Nationalist movement had spread out in all
directions and had influence in schools and colleges
of the country. When he had a conversation on this
point with Lord Morley, that statesman reminded him
that it was not the people of England as a whole
who wanted to cut off the head of King Charles I.
Real revolution in any country in the world had been
brought about by strong vigorous men, energetic men,
before they had persuaded the people as a whole to
rally to them.
The long and short of the story is that
we have to reckon with a citadel of vested
interests. Men do not willingly surrender great
power and privileges. The following words of Mr.
Gokhale are very apposite:
“ The main difficulty arises from the
fact that the Government of this country is really
in the hands of the civil service which is
practically a caste, with all the exclusiveness and
love of monopoly that characterize castes……………… And
as they (the members of the service ) happen to be
practically the sole advisers of both the Viceroy
chance of being adopted ………………..In a general way
they seem to recognize that some advance is now
necessary, but when you come to a discussion of
different measures of reform, a majority, thought
not necessarily composed each time of the same
individuals, is to be found arrayed against every
reform that may be proposed …………….And thus we move
round and round the fortress of official
conservatism and bureaucratic reluctance to part
with power without being able to effect a breach at
any point. This kind of thing has going on for many
years, with the result that the attitude of the
public mind towards the Government has undergone a
steady and, of late years, even a rapid change”.
Another grave danger which looms
largely in front of us, and which we should spare no
skill or pains to guard against, is what is known by
the name of the Curtis Scheme. You may be aware
that this scheme against a solving the problem of
achieving Responsible government by successive
stages. It has a very plausible exterior. But it is
like Dead Sea apples goodly to behold but dust and
ashes within. You know that the outstanding
features of this scheme are that Government is
divided into two sections. The Executive power with
regard to one section is to vest in people’s
representatives. This section will consist of the
portfolios of Education, Sanitation, Local Bodies &
e. It will receive allotments of funds for
expenditure. The experiment will be tried for a
certain number of years, at the end of which, if
successful, it may be extended to other portfolios.
The scheme, whilst on the surface appearing as if it
answers to the two criteria of Responsible
Government and successive stages, betrays
fundamental drawback and has therefore been
condemned by the leaders of the country as
unacceptable. The scheme does not confer a
substantial power on the elected of the people, nor
does it give them financial autonomy. The
department as assigned to them will be fed doles
from the Revenues of other departments. They being
spending departments, if their conductors are
invested with the power of taxation, their they will
be serving their apprenticeship with the brand of
odium upon them.
Nothing can satisfy our legitimate and
reasonable aspirations short of the following
essentials i.e., elected majorities on the Councils,
half of the executive members elected by our
representatives on the Council, and the power of the
purse.
Propagandist Work
Whilst having our eyes constantly fixed
upon the movements of the hands of the Clock in
England we should pursue with redoubled zeal and
energy the work lying at hand at home. Educating
the masses is a most important work which should
never be slackened. The Indian proletariat should
be enlightened as to their needs, their claims and
rights. We are eminently grateful to that great
lady who has done so much for us within a
comparatively short space of time, for inter alia,
not only vigorously preaching but untiringly
practicing propagandist work. Mrs. Aunie Besant,
after her advent on the Congress, laid stress on the
colossal potentialities of this item of the
programme and by incessant example and precept
succeeded in making the whole nation throb with the
pulsation of the new ideal of Home Rule, a word
with which the peasant no less than the prince has
become familiar. We in Sind must not forget this
but must carry this but must carry on propagandist
work with greater regularity and energy than we have
hitherto been able to do.
Local Questions
After having treated in its
different aspects the all engrossing topic of the
moment, the Reforms in the Government for the whole
of India in general and Sind in particular, I
proceed with the limitations, necessary to be
observed in an address of this kind, to pass in
review some subjects of local interest.
Mr. Bhurgri & Congress
I consider this an opportune
place for referring to an event which is of no
little significance to Sind in its relation to the
Indian National Congress. That event is the
election of the Honourable Mr. Bhurgri to the Joint
General Secretaryship of the Congress, for the
current year. I opine that this conference with
one voice, will congratulate the Congress on the
excellence of their choice and thank them for the
recognition they have vouchsafed to this province.
Mr. Bhurgri is a shining example of patriotism of
the purest ray serene. He has translated into
practice the maxim that the country is above self,
above family, and above everything. He has not only
spurned away all allurements to self-aggrandizement,
which every Mahomedan of position and education in
Sind has had dangling before his eyes, but has, at
great obloquy, sacrifice and personal risks, stood
staunch by Congress and country while others have
exulted in the intoxicating pastime of launching
thunderbolts against their own country’s demand for
Self-Rule. All honour to him, and may God grant him
life and health to continue in the service of his
Motherland.
Agricultural Problems
Sind being an agricultural
province, there are several problems affecting the
prosperity of the Agricultural population, which we
have to deliberate upon at every session of our
conference. These problems may be exhaustively dealt
with in the Presidential speech and will be
submitted for your consideration in detail in the
form of Resolutions, and I will only briefly glance
at some of them.
Extension of Settlement Period
Conference after Conference it
was resolved after discussion that the present
Decennial period of Settlement should be extended to
thirty years r more, as a short term Settlement was
detrimental to the development of land retarded
agricultural progress, and that in this respect Sind
was being treated unfavourably as compared to the
rest of the whole country.
The agitation in this behalf culminated
in the appointment of a Commissioner on the motion
of the Honourable Mr. Bhurgri in the Bombay
Legislative Council, who took evidence and made
their report recommending extension to 29 years,
which was adopted by Government in their Resolution
8118 of the 4th July 1917. Wheather
things for the present should be left at that and
acquiescence there in pending further experiment or
agitation should be still further prosecuted is
left to this Conference to decide.
Fallow Rules
The hardship which the present
Fallow Rules impose upon the agriculturist has been
variously pointed out. The sum and substance of the
Rules, which have invoked universal criticism from
the landed proprietors is that, when a survey number
is left out of cultivation for five years
successively, it must pay assessment for the fifth
year, in default of which it would be forfeited,
that is, removed from the proprietor’s name to
that of government in the occupancy Register; with
the proviso that it may be later be on
re-transferred to the proprietor’s name on his
paying assessment for the year of default and the
year of resumption. Now, this system is wrong in
principle, and inequitable. It involves waste of
labour and unnecessary redtape and harassment to the
zemindar. Prominent and highly placed Government
Revenue officers have in no uncertain voice
pronounced against it. This system being avowedly a
commutation of the one, whereby assessment was
distributed over the whole area on the assumption
that one-fifth would be cultivable every year, there
would be no justice in levying fallow assessment in
cases where on making quinquiennial computations,
it can be shown (as it can be in most cases) that
the one-fifth ratio per year or even more of the
holding has been brought under cultivation.
Further, there is no occasion or
justification for taking the number of the name of
the registered occupant when it is admitted in the
first place that it is his by birthright, and in
the second that he is entitled to its resumption as
a matter of right whenever he chooses : forfeiture
being merely nominal. That it causes needless
expenditure of energy and red-tape, is evident from
the inconvenience, delay and expense people have to
endure in the process of mutation of names in
Revenue Registers. The hollowness of the ground,
that the dread of forfeiture operates as a stimulus
to activity, is apparent when we consider that
self-interest would act as a much greater incentive
to the zemindar to make the most of his holding than
the dread aforesaid. This dread would rather tend
to misplaced activity in driving the zemindar to
cultivate for the mere purpose of averting
forfeiture, without getting a due return for self or
Hari. This is not merely hypothetical argumentation
but the mature opinion of high big officials based
on personal experience.
Remission Rules
Is another allied subject which
has engaged the attention of Conferences. While
admitting the spirit of justice in which these rules
have been conceived viz., relieving the cultivator
of the burden of Government assessment on failure of
crops due to calamities, experience has revealed
their defects in actual working. Antecedent to the
grant of remission, there must be inspection by the
Revenue Officer, whose multifarious occupations
prevent timely inspection of all lands claiming
remission. Belated inspections create the dilemma
of no harvest or no remission. Then again, the
ratio in which remissions are calculated calls for
revision. As it is, the ration of remission is
struck between the gross value of the produce and
the assessment, whereas equity demands that it
should be between the net value and assessment; it
being reasonable to make allowances for hari’s
share, cultivation expenses, clearance & c.
Rasai Chher and Lapo
No enumeration of the agriculturist’s
woes will be complete without mention of the
hydra-headed monster of Rasai with its off-shoots
and companions Chher and Lapo. The latest and most
exhaustive contribution to the discussion of this
subject is contained in the debate in the Bombay
Legislative Concil at its meeting of December last
raised by the motion of the Honourable Mr. Bhurgri
for the appointment of a Committee to suggest means
for the suppression of the evil – a debate which
has been immortalized by a comical and at the same
time striking episode of a non-official Sindhi
nominated member of the Council delivering himself
of the dictum that Rasai had disappeared from
Sind. As this dictum received an unequivocal
contradiction from the Commissioner-in-Sind, who
confessed to the existence of the evil, it provoked
the mirthful outburst of another Honourable member
to the effect that the Honourable Sindhi seemed to
be more loyalist than the King himself.
Notwithstanding that, the terms used may bear other
constructions, the sense in which they are attacked
as evils can not be misunderstood by any one. This
is the distinctions shown by the Honourable Mr.
Lawrence in the Council between the different
significations of the words. It is also
superfluous, after so much has been said in the
press, conferences and Council, to describe the
practices or to point out and prove the oppression
and the grievance they constitute. Suffice it to
say that with will and determination it will not be
impossible to exterminate Rasai and its branches.
The farming out of supplies to independent men like
banias, removing completely the hand of the zemindar
and the Revenue Officer from the business, and
effective supervision of the touring officer will
scotch the evil in a short time if not kill it. If
every Collector and Assistant Collector sees at
every tour that neither the tapedar not the zemindar
has anything to do with the supplies, and impresses
on them the penalties attending on breach, besides
the grave displeasure of Government, I think the
system can be brought to an end in a year or two.
If on the other hand, as was disclosed in the
Council debate, one Officer issues a Circular
condemning and prohibiting the practice, another
officer thinks it pious to honour the Circular in
the breach, a third shows a pathy, and a fourth
despairingly yields to a long established usage,
things will merrily drift on as usual and redress
will recede further and further from
accomplishment. Now the matter will be in the hands
of a well constituted committee; let us trust that
public attention will be concentrated on the subject
and some measures devised for successfully
eradicating this abuse. It is hoped that in making
appointments to the Committee care is taken to
select only such officers as have made themselves
conspicuous by putting down the evil.
Compulsory Education
The passing of Mr. Patel’s Bill in the
Bombay Legislative Council authorizing
Municipalities to introduce primary Compulsory
Education within their areas is an epoch making
event. It will mark the era of continuous progress
and Reform-Everybody observes in his every day
life that most of our drawbacks in political,
social, economic, industrial and domestic spheres
are due to ignorance and illiteracy-Education will
open the eyes of the people to the many ills they
have been suffering, darkness and superstition will
vanish and give place to light and knowledge.
People have come to realize that there was no
greater blunder and disservice to the country than
opposition to Mr. Ghokhle’s measures seven years
ago. Some of the bureaucracy, who were loud and
insistent in opposing Gokhle’s Bill are now
declaiming against our acquisition of responsible
Government and a larger share in the
administration of our country, because of our
illiteracy which it was the object of that bill to
remove. The country is very much beholden to Mr.
Patel for the remarkable zeal, industry and
for-thought displayed in successfully launching this
legislative. His example has been followed in other
Presidencies by similar measures being introduced
there. It is hoped that education in urban areas
will be the forerunner of eduction in rural areas,
and by degrees there will be a net work of
educational institutions all over the country, and a
time will come when almost every Indian male and
female will be educated, as is the case in all the
foremost countries of the world. It is true that
it will be tedious and wearisome journey towards the
promised land. We shall have to contend with
difficulties, meet with opposition and make
sacrifices at every successive stage. But we should
not be daunted by these. We should not flinch from
the financial burdens we shall have to carry, always
bearing in mind that in education lies the germ of
every form of advancement and uplift of India.
Every body will rejoice at the manifold
of blessings which Compulsory Education will confer
upon the Mahomedans of Sind with their
preponderating numbers. The Moslim zemindar will
learn to practise economy and shake off his present
aloth and extravagance. He will understand how to
make his present impoverished soil rich by the use
of chemical manures and more scientific means of
ploughing and tilling. We expect to see pauperism
turned into affluence, waste and improvidence into
prudence and thrift. The services will also receive
their share of benefit. In order to raise the
number of Mahomedan employees in the services
commensurate with their enormous proportion of
population, Government are obliged to put up with
raw material at the expense of efficiency and risk
of public discontent. But when Education spreads,
the supply of solid material for services among
Mahomedans will exceed the demand.
We should not rest content with the
spread of elementary education but lose no time in
tackling the problems of Higher and Scientific,
Economic and Industrial Education.
Conclusion
In conclusion, earnestly appeal to all
the people of Sind to constantly bear in mind and
heartily exert towards the fulfillment of what was
announced as one of the most cherished objects, for
which the Sind Provincial Conference was
instituted. That object is I may repeat the oft
quoted aphorisms “Unity is Strength.” “United we
stand and Divided we fall.” There was time when
Sind was torn by divisions. That time happily is no
more. But still thing remains to be desired. We
should sink all differences; differences between
Hindus and Mahomedans, between Hindus and Hindus
and so on. We shall not be true to ourselves or to
our country if we do not banish rivalries, fling
away ideas of self and work together for the service
of the Motherland and for amelioration of our
countrymen. There can be no higher conception of
duty than that.
With these remarks, Brother Delegates, I
once more tender you a hearty welcome to this
Conference. May God crown its deliberations with
success.
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