Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore
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Title: Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore
Author: Robert H. Elliot
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOLD, SPORT, AND COFFEE PLANTING IN MYSORE ***
GOLD, SPORT, AND COFFEE PLANTING IN MYSORE
WITH CHAPTERS ON
COFFEE PLANTING IN COORG, THE MYSORE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY, THE INDIAN
CONGRESS, CASTE, AND THE INDIAN SILVER QUESTION
BEING THE 38 YEARS' EXPERIENCES OF A MYSORE PLANTER
BY
ROBERT H. ELLIOT
AUTHOR OF "EXPERIENCES OF A PLANTER," "WRITTEN ON THEIR FOREHEADS," ETC.
_WITH A MAP IN COLOURS_
WESTMINSTER
1898.
DEDICATION.
I have much pleasure in dedicating this book to my friend SIR K.
SHESHADRI IYER, K.C.S.I., Dewan of Mysore, and trust that it may
be useful in making more fully known the resources of the State
whose affairs he has for many years so wisely and ably
administered.
PREFACE.
In the year 1871 I published "The Experiences of a Planter in the Jungles
of Mysore," and had intended to bring out a new edition of it, but, from
various causes, the project was delayed, and when I at last took the
matter in hand, I found that so many things had happened since 1871 that
it was necessary to write a new book. In this, hardly anything of the
"Experiences" has been reproduced, except a very few natural history notes
and the chapter on Caste, a subject to which I would particularly call the
attention of those interested in Indian missions.
I have been much assisted by informants too numerous for mention here, and
can only allude to those who have most conspicuously aided me. Amongst
these I am much indebted to my friend Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer, K.C.S.I.,
Dewan of Mysore, for access given me to information in the possession of
the Government, and for returns specially prepared for the book. From my
friends Mr. Graham Anderson and Mr. Brooke Mockett, two of the most able
and experienced planters in Mysore, I have derived much information and
assistance. I am particularly obliged to my friend Dr. Voelcker[1] for
many valuable hints, and the chapter on manures has had the advantage of
being read by him. For information as regards the history of coffee in
Coorg I am much indebted to Mr. Meynell, who represents the large
interests of Messrs. Matheson and Co. in that province, and indeed,
without his aid, I could not at all have done full justice to the subject.
To Mr. Grey, manager of the Nundydroog mine, I am indebted for information
as regards the gold mines, and for the kind assistance he in many ways
afforded me when I visited them last January. I am also obliged to Colonel
Grant, Superintendent of the Mysore Revenue, Survey and Settlement
Department, for information as regards game, and the proposed Game Act for
Mysore.
I had intended to add a chapter on the cultivation of cardamoms and
pepper, but have not done so, because, for the want of recent information
from those specially engaged in these cultivations, I could not feel
confident of doing full justice to the subject. I may, however, say that
as regards cardamoms, I have good reason for supposing that there is not
much to be added to the chapter on them which appeared in the
"Experiences."
Though I have collected many experiences, I am of course aware that many
more remain to be collected, and I should feel particularly obliged if
planters and those who have any experiences to give me (natural history
and sporting information would be very welcome) would be kind enough to do
so. These I would propose to incorporate in an improved edition, which I
look forward to bringing out when a sufficient amount of additional
information has been collected. If those who have any information to give,
suggestions to make, or criticisms to offer, would be kind enough to
communicate with me, an improved edition might be brought out which would
be highly valuable to all tropical agriculturists, and all those
interested in the various subjects on which I have written.
My Indian address is Bartchinhulla, Saklaspur, Mysore State, and home
address, Clifton Park, Kelso, Roxburghshire.
ROBERT H. ELLIOT.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dr. Voelcker, Consulting Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, was, by the permission of the Society, employed for upwards of a
year by the Government in India; and his "Report on the Improvement of
Indian Agriculture" is an elaborate, work, of upwards of 400 pages, and
contains a large body of carefully digested information, remarks, and
opinions which will be of great value to the Government, and of much
practical value to planters, and all tropical agriculturists.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTORY.
Myself and the route to Mysore in 1855.
The pioneer planters of Southern Mysore.
The life of a planter by no means a dull one.
Effects of English capital on the progress of the people and the
finances of the State.
The value, in times of famine, of European settlers.
A deferred native message of thanks to the English public.
The causes that have led to an increase of famine and scarcities.
Measures to promote the digging of wells by the people.
A line of railway from Mysore to the western coast sanctioned.
Wanted, land tenures which will promote well digging and other
irrigation works.
The late Dewan's opinions in favour of a fixed land tax.
Evidences of irrigation works made by occupiers being promoted by
a fixed land tax.
Famine question of great importance to settlers in India.
The number of European and native coffee plantations in Mysore.
Probable annual value of coffee produced in Mysore. Manufactures
in India.
Manufactures in Mysore.
Endeavours by the Dewan to develop the iron wealth of the
province.
"The Mysore and Coorg Directory." Value of the Dewan's annual
addresses in the Representative Assembly.
The Dewan's efforts to promote improvements of all kinds.
European settlers favourably received by officials of all
classes.
Hints as to representing any matter to a Government official.
Native officials are polite and obliging.
CHAPTER II.--THE SCENERY AND WATERFALLS OF MYSORE.
General description of the Mysore country.
The climate. A healthy one for Europeans.
The beautiful scenery of the western borderlands.
The falls of Gairsoppa.
Height of the falls; difficulty of getting at them; the
Lushington, Lalgali, and Majod Falls might be visited-when on the
way to Gairsoppa Falls.
The best time for visiting the falls.
Description of the falls.
Startling sounds to be heard at the falls.
To the bottom of the gorge below the falls.
Wonderful combinations of sights and sounds.
The scene on the pool above the falls.
The beautiful moonlight effects.
A flying squirrel; a tiger bounding across the road.
The Cauvery Falls and the route to them.
General description of the falls.
The Gangana Chuckee Falls.
The Bar Chuckee Falls.
The Gairsoppa and Cauvery Falls contrasted.
Interesting bridges built by native engineers.
Leisure, solitude, and repose necessary to enjoy scenery.
CHAPTER III.--MYSORE--ITS GOVERNMENT AND REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY.
The early history of Mysore.
The Hindoo and Mahometan lines.
The Hindoo line restored by us in 1799.
The insurrection of 1830.
The Maharajah deposed and the country in 1831 administered by the
British.
The State restored to native administration in 1881.
The people at first generally disliked the change; causes of
this.
Value of an admixture of Europeans in the Mysore service.
The alleged breach of good faith as regards conferring
appointments on natives in British territory.
The constitution of Mysore; terms on which it was transferred not
to native rule but to native administration.
Mysore as practically under British rule as any part of British
India.
After deducting sum allotted for Maharajah's personal
expenditure, the remaining revenues to be spent on public
purposes only.
The advantages possessed by settlers in Mysore.
The Mysore Representative Assembly.
The notification by which the Assembly was established, and the
system of nominating members.
Contrast between it and the Egyptian General Assembly of the
Legislative Council.
First meeting of the Assembly, Oct. 7th, 1881.
Rules of 1890 announcing a system of electing members in future.
My election in 1891 as a member of the Assembly.
Am appointed chairman of preliminary meetings.
Measures agreed to at the preliminary meetings.
Rules to regulate discussions in preliminary meetings.
Organization desired to be established; funds for working the
proposed organization.
The lady students of the Maharanee's College.
The Assembly formally opened; the Dewan's address.
Gold mines, railways, roads; interference of Madras Government
with proposed Mysore Irrigation Works.
Measure to promote digging of wells.
Value of the Assembly as a means of communicating intelligence
amongst the people.
Forests. Elephants. Female education.
The Archæological Survey. The Census. The municipal elections.
Reform of religious and charitable institutions. An irregular
meeting of members.
A marriage law proposed. Great excitement caused thereby.
Proposal adjourned.
Proposal to store grain against times of famine.
Revenue should be remitted in full when there is no crop.
My speech in the Assembly as chairman of preliminary meetings.
Members called up in order to represent grievances and wants. The
marriage question again.
Influence of public opinion as regards age for consummation of
marriages.
Opinion of two native gentlemen as regards my speech.
An important concession gained by the representatives.
The admirable working of the Mysore Government. General
appreciation of the Dewan's administration.
Representatives have no power and do not want any. Causes of the
absence of any demand for parliamentary institutions such as
those in England.
Absence of general interest in the Assembly. Causes of this.
Great value of Assembly in bringing rulers and ruled together.
Such Assembly more necessary now than formerly. Causes of this.
The Indian Congress. Causes of the creation of.
Started in 1885 by a small number of the educated classes.
Seditious pamphlets circulated by the Congress.
Copies bought for the Athenæum Club.
Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, M.P. one of the sellers of the pamphlets.
Proceedings of the Congress legitimate till it fell under
guidance of Mr. Hume. Excuses for Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji.
The composition of the first and second Congresses.
The third Congress. The members desire to make the laws and
control the finances of India.
The Congress declares that as Indians in rural districts are not
qualified to elect members, these should be elected by an
electoral college composed of the flower of the educated classes.
As the desired powers are not likely to be obtained in India, the
people of England must be made to believe that India is being
misgoverned.
The Congress' schemes for bringing about a revolution in India.
Native volunteers to be enrolled to bring pressure to bear on the
Government. The Repeal of the Arms Act demanded.
The seditious pamphlets issued by the Congress.
The sums of money collected with the aid of the pamphlets.
Opinions of Congress that natives are wanting in the qualities
necessary for governing India.
CHAPTER IV.--NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.
The advantages and pleasures of big game shooting.
Comparative risks from tigers, bears, and panthers.
Boars and other wild animals more dangerous now than formerly.
Advantages of this for sportsmen.
The natural history of Mysore.
Elephants. Tigers much more numerous in former times in Mysore.
In a short time 118 caught in traps. Remarkable cessation of such
captures. The balance of nature destroyed.
The spread of intelligence amongst wild animals. Tiger passes.
Difference of opinion as to how tigers seize their prey.
The use of the paw in killing animals and people.
The carrying powers of tigers and panthers.
Reasons for not sitting on the ground when tiger shooting.
Illustration of risk of sitting on the ground.
Caution should be exercised when approaching a tiger supposed to
be dead.
Another illustration of the risk of sitting on the ground.
Illustration of the importance of sitting motionless when obliged
to sit on the ground.
An exciting rush after a wounded tiger.
Coolness and courage exhibited by a native.
Estimate of danger of tiger shooting on foot. Should not be
pursued by those whoso lives are of cash value to their families.
People killed by wounded tigers. Difficulty of seeing a tiger in
the jungle.
Distinguishing sight of natives superior to that of Europeans.
Tigers easily recover from wounds.
Effects on the nerves and heart from the roar of a wounded tiger.
Precautions that should be exercised by sportsmen with damaged
hearts.
The lame tiger. Met in the road at night.
Tying out live baits for tigers.
Interesting instance of tiger stalking up to a live bait.
Another illustration of risk of approaching a tiger apparently
dead.
Importance of using a chain when tying out a bait. Sport spoiled
from a chain not being used.
Tigers eat tigers sometimes. Illustration of this.
The tiger's power of ascending trees.
Interesting instance of a jackal warning tigers of danger.
Tiger put to flight by the rearing of a horse.
Effect on a tiger of the human voice. Tigers often undecided how
to act.
Tigers form plans and act in concert. Illustration of this.
Tigers of Western Ghaut forests, if unmolested, rarely dangerous
to man.
Very dangerous man-eating tigers have existed in the interior of
Mysore. Man-eaters enter villages. A tiger tearing off the thatch
of a hut.
Great courage and determination shown by natives in connection
with tigers. Illustrations of this.
The life of a planter saved by a dog attacking the tiger.
Interesting behaviour of the dog after Mr. A. was wounded.
Treatment of wounds from tigers. A native recovers from thirteen
lacerated wounds and two on the head.
A mad tiger. Position of body that should be adopted when waiting
for a tiger. Importance of this.
Tiger purring with evident satisfaction after having killed a
man.
CHAPTER V.--BEARS, PANTHERS, JUNGLE DOGS, SNAKES, JUNGLE PETS.
Bear has two cubs at a time. Bears rapidly decreasing. Said by
natives to be killed and eaten by tigers. Instances of tigers
killing bears.
Bears dreaded by natives more than any animal in the jungle.
Probable cause of their often attacking people. Illustration of
this.
Attacked by an unwounded and unprovoked bear.
If suddenly attacked by an animal at close quarters rush towards
it.
Wanton attacks made by bears on people. Approaching caves and
getting bears out of them.
Great value of stink balls.
How not to attempt to get a bear out of a cave. Am caught by a
hill fire.
Amusing incident at a bear's cave. A man wounded.
Value of having a good dog when out bear shooting. Am knocked
down by a bear.
Panthers. Should be hunted with dogs.
Panther probably feigning death. A man killed.
The wild boar the most daring animal in the jungles. Illustration
in point.
The great power of the wild boar. My manager charged by one.
Boars make shelters for themselves in the rains. The flesh of the
boar not a safe food.
Jungle dogs. Said by natives to kill tigers.
The use, said by the natives to be made by the dogs, of their
acrid urine.
A cross between the jungle and the domestic dog.
Curious incident connected with jungle dogs.
Great increase of jungle dogs. A reward should be offered for
their destruction.
Many reported deaths from snake bites probably poisoning cases.
Reasons in support of this view. From 1855 to 1893 only one death
from snake bite in my neighbourhood.
The cobra not an aggressive snake. Unless hurt or provoked will
probably never bite. Illustrations in support of this view.
Snakes keep a good look out. Tigers and snakes run away.
Many snakes are harmless, and some useful.
Wild animals probably require to be taught by their parents to
dread man.
A tame stag. A tame flying squirrel.
A tame hornbill.
Probable cause of pets not caring to rejoin their wild congeners.
Some remarks on guns. The Paradox.
CHAPTER VI.--BISON SHOOTING.
Unless molested the bison never attacks man.
An attempt to photograph a solitary bull.
Description of the bison.
Height of bull bison. Account of an interesting friendship
between a tame sambur deer and a bull bison.
Bison are often attacked by tigers.
Interesting instance of a tiger stalking up to a solitary bull.
The tiger and bull knocked over right and left.
Precautions that should be taken when following up a wounded
bull.
A tracker killed by a bull. Following a wounded bull.
Stalking up to a herd. The value of peppermint lozenges.
How a wounded bull may be lost.
The value of a dog when following up a wounded bull.
Wonderful bounding power of the bison. A narrow escape from a
charging bull.
Special Act required for preservation of cow bison.
CHAPTER VII.--GOLD.
The earliest tradition as regards gold in Mysore.
Explanation of gold being found on the ears of corn. Lieutenant
Warren's investigations in 1800.
Native methods of procuring gold by washing and mining.
Depths to which old native pits were sunk.
Probable cause of the cessation of mining at considerable depths.
In 1873 leave first given to a European to mine for gold.
Remarkable absence in Mysore of old records or inscriptions
relating to gold mining.
Mr. Lavelle in 1873 applied for right to mine in Kolar.
Of the mines subsequently started all practically closed in 1882,
except the Mysore mine, which began to get gold in end of 1884.
Had the Mysore Company not persevered the Kolar field would
probably have been closed. Depths to which mines have been sunk.
The Champion Lode.
General description of the Kolar field. Notes by a lady resident.
Life on the field. Gardening. Visitors from England.
The volunteers at the mines. Sport near the field.
Servants and supplies. Elevation and the climate. A healthy one.
Mining and the extraction of gold.
The rates of wages. No advances given to labourers.
Expenditure by the companies in Mysore in wages. Consequential
results therefrom on the prosperity of the people.
Measures which the State should take to encourage the opening of
new mines.
Royalty on mines that are not paying should be reduced or
abolished. Act required to check gold stealing.
Some summary process should be adopted to check gold thefts.
Want of water on the field. Measures proposed for conserving it.
The want of tree planting. Other auriferous tracts in Mysore. Mr.
R. Bruce Foote's report.
Brief analysis of Mr. Bruce Foote's report on the various
auriferous tracts. The central group of auriferous rocks.
The west-central group.
The western group. Expects that many other old abandoned workings
will be discovered in the jungly tracts.
An inexhaustible supply of beautiful porphyry near Seringapatam
and close to a railway.
CHAPTER VIII.--CASTE.
Valuable to rural populations.
My inquiry limited to its rural and practical effects on life.
Its moral effects as regards the connection of the sexes.
Its value in limiting the use of alcohol.
Morality in Manjarabad superior to that of England.
Widows may contract a kind of marriage. The value of caste in
socially segregating inferior from superior races.
The mental value of the separation caused by caste.
The separation caused by caste has not hindered advancement
amongst the rural population. The Coorgs an instance of this.
Disadvantages of caste as regards town populations.
Instances of the evils of caste amongst the higher classes in the
towns.
Inquiry as to how far caste has acted beneficially in opposing
the existing interpretation of Christianity.
Worthlessness of pure dogmas when adopted by a degraded people.
Native Christians readily revert to devil worship in cases of
danger or sickness.
Native Christians neither better nor worse than the low-classes
from which they are usually drawn. Experience of the Abbé Dubois.
The upper class peasantry having to give up caste would be
injured by being converted.
The town population would not be injured by conversion.
Causes of the outcry against caste.
Its alleged tendencies.
The way to retain the good and lessen the evil of caste.
To become a Christian our missionaries compel the entire
abandonment of caste. Their version of Christianity wisely
rejected.
Mischievous action of our missionaries as regards caste. Their
erroneous views a bar to the progress of Christianity.
Bishop Heber's "Letter on Caste."
Bishop Wilson's fatal "Circular" requiring absolute abandonment
of caste by Christians.
Secession of native Christians in consequence of the "Circular."
Erroneous views contained in the Report of the Madras
Commissioners.
Views of the Tanjore missionaries as regards caste.
Mr. Schwartz's opinions.
The Tanjore missionaries not unfavourable to the retention of
caste by their converts.
Inquiry into the origin of caste.
No connection between caste and idolatry. They may and do exist
apart.
Caste as it exists in Ceylon.
The way in which caste probably did originate.
The Jews a strictly guarded caste.
Caste difficulties as regards taking the Sacrament.
Its sanitary advantages.
Caste no bar to the exercise of hospitality and charity.
Advantages of caste in increasing hospitality and charity.
Caste has a levelling as well as a keeping down tendency.
Instances of people rising into a superior caste.
Rigidity of caste laws much exaggerated. They vary in different
places. Occasional violations of caste law condoned. Remarkable
instance of this.
Infringement of caste when out tiger shooting.
Instance of variation in caste law. Caste apt to be made the
scapegoat of every Indian difficulty.
Mr. Pope's remarks on the effects of caste.
Mr. Raikes's remarks on the evil effects of caste. Thinks that it
is the cause of infanticide.
Instance to show that infanticide can exist amongst people free
from caste. Polyandrous habits not necessarily a cause of
infanticide.
Summary of principal conclusions arrived at.
Curious customs of the Marasa Wokul tribe in Mysore.
The effect of caste on the transmission of acquired aptitudes.
CHAPTER IX.--COFFEE PLANTING IN COORG.
Description and the history of Coorg.
Conquered and annexed by us in 1834. My first visit to Coorg in
1857. The pioneer planters.
Planting without shade caused the failure of many of the
plantations.
After shade was introduced coffee flourished.
European and native plantations. Their number and the probable
yield from them. Expenditure per acre.
The kinds of manure used. Experiments by an analytical chemist.
Proportions of manure varied according to the condition of the
coffee. The time in which manure should be applied. Applications
of burnt earth.
Widespread results arising from the expenditure on plantations in
Coorg.
Rates of wages, and system of procuring labourers. Leaf disease
and Borer.
Remedies experimented on as regards leaf disease and Borer.
Primary cause of the existence of so much Borer. The terms on
which Government lands are sold for planting.
Reasons why certain of the reserved State forests should be given
out for planting.
Cinchona and Ceara rubber planting tried and abandoned. Coffee
seed introduced from Brazil, and other countries, without any
apparent advantage. Liberian coffee tried experimentally.
The capital spent on labour and the consequential results of this
on agriculture. My visit to Coorg in 1891.
The route from Mysore. The coffee works at Hunsur. Interesting
adventure with a panther.
To Mr. Rose's estate near Polibetta. Description of Bamboo
district.
Life in the Bamboo district. The club, church, and co-operative
store.
Visits to plantations. Left for Mercara.
The Retreat. Mr. Meynell's house. Its kitchen arrangements, etc.
Mr. Mann's coffee garden at Mercara. The large profits from it.
To the Hallery estate six miles from Mercara.
Visits to several estates. To the Coovercolley estate. Mr.
Mangles's.
Left Coovercolley for Manjarabad in Mysore.
General observations on coffee planting in Coorg. Its flourishing
condition. More attention should be paid to shade.
Defects as regards shade. More attention to it would lessen
Borer.
Manures used on the best kept up estates.
The profits that may be expected from good, well-managed estates.
The great want of a Game Preservation Act.
CHAPTER X.--COFFEE PLANTING IN MYSORE.
An agreeable life for an active intelligent man who must work
somewhere.
Qualities necessary to make a successful planter.
The work not hard. The climate agreeable and healthy. The
elevation of the coffee districts above sea level.
The changes that may be taken in the slack season by planters.
The durability of well-shaded plantations.
Shaded plantations a very permanent property. The profits of
coffee. Case of an estate bought with borrowed money.
Analysis of yield, expenses, and profits on a Manjarabad estate.
Probable profits on estates in the northern part of Mysore.
From want of information coffee plantations in Mysore not
saleable at good prices. Failure of coffee in Ceylon. This gave
coffee generally an undeservedly bad name.
Early notices of coffee in India. Its early history in Mysore.
Failure of the variety of coffee first introduced.
The successful introduction of the Coorg variety of coffee.
Mysore coffee fetches the highest price in the London market.
Original Mysore coffee land tenures.
The new Coffee Land Rules introduced in 1885.
In the south of Mysore all coffee land probably taken up. In
north, land reported to be still available. Planters well
satisfied with the Government.
Advances to labourers. Legislation as regards them much needed.
Proposed measure to meet the advances to labourers difficulty.
Legislation required to amend the extraditions laws.
The New Cattle Trespass Act. The want of a Wild Birds' Protection
Act. The neglect of game preservation.
In consequence of game destruction tigers forced to prey heavily
on village cattle. Great losses in consequence.
Cruelty of native hunters. Evidences of extermination of game
birds.
The want of a Government Agricultural Chemist. The discovery of a
new hybrid coffee plant.
Enormous yield from it.
CHAPTER XI.--SHADE.
General remarks on the importance of shade.
The governing principle as regards shade for coffee.
The most desirable kinds of shade trees. Those of less desirable
kinds.
The Jack. Its merits and defects.
The Attí. Good when young, less desirable when old.
The Noga. The objections to relying on this tree.
Other kinds of less desirable shade trees.
_Albizzia Moluccana._ Said to be a valuable tree for shade.
Methods adopted when forming a shaded plantation.
Great advantages of clearing without burning the forest.
The order in which shade trees should be planted.
The young shade trees require shade. The charcoal tree a good
nurse.
The management of young shade trees.
The evils arising from excessive trimming of side branches of
shade trees. Planting under the shade of the original forest
trees.
The value of leaving marginal belts of forest. The danger of a
running fire.
The quantity of shade required for varying aspects and gradients.
The great differences between northern and southern aspects as
regards heat.
Western and eastern aspects.
Importance of attending to the gradients, the quality of the
soil, and its exposure to drying winds.
Elevation and rainfall govern quantity of shade that should be
kept. The thinning, and lopping lower boughs of shade trees.
Much knowledge and experience required in judicious thinning.
More shade will be required as trees become lofty.
Importance of at once planting up spots where shade is deficient,
in order to keep out the Borer insect.
Planting out young shade trees. The removal of parasites from
shade trees.
Preparation of shade tree cuttings before planting out. How to
grow young charcoal-tree plants. Valuable as nurses.
CHAPTER XII.--MANURE.
How shade complicates the economical and effective manuring of
coffee.
Bulk manures as a rule should not be applied to land directly
under shade trees, but to more open spaces.
Less manure should be applied to coffee directly under shade
trees.
Manure should be varied on different aspects. The quantity that
should be annually supplied.
Bones may be seldom used if lime is regularly applied.
A considerable amount of manure required even though the loss
from crops is small.
A test of land being sufficiently supplied with manure. The
quantity of manure probably required.
The quantity of manure that should be put down at a time.
Danger from over-manuring, especially in ease of light soils.
Ridges should be more heavily manured than hollows. The time of
year when manures should be applied.
Advantages of manuring at the end of the monsoon.
Bearing that the time of applying manures has on leaf disease.
Mr. Marshall Ward's remarks as to this.
The various methods of applying manures.
In the case of steep land the manure should be buried in
trenches. Farmyard manure. Its great value for coffee.
Substitutes for farmyard manure.
Value of forest land top soil as a manure, and as a substitute
for farmyard manure.
The comparative cost of farmyard manure and top soil. Remarkable
result from an application of pink-coloured soil.
If top soil costs the same as farmyard manure the former is
better. Reasons for this being so. A compost of pink soil and
manures may be made, which will equal good farmyard manure, and
cost but little more.
The manurial value of pulp, and of dry fallen leaves.
Manurial value of green twigs of trees, ferns and wood ashes.
Night soil. Lime.
Bonedust. Fish manure.
Oil-cakes. Proportion of phosphate of lime in castor cake.
Nitrates of potash and soda.
Potash. A manure of doubtful value in the case of Mysore soils.
Attempt to ascertain value of potash as a manure for coffee.
How to grow young plants in old soils. Coprolites, discovery of,
in Mysore.
An agricultural chemist wanted for the province. A careful record
should be kept of manure applied.
Bringing round a neglected plantation. Steps that should be
taken.
Manurial experiments.
Native manurial practises should be studied. Application of
various soils as top dressing by native cultivators. The best and
most economical way of manuring coffee has yet to be discovered.
Manurial experiments need not be costly.
CHAPTER XIII.--NURSERIES, TOPPING, HANDLING, PRUNING, ETC.
The selection of seed.
Irrigated coffee near Bangalore. Mr. Meenakshia's gardens. The
selection of a site for a nursery.
The best time for putting down the seed.
Plants should be grown in baskets. The pits for vacancy plants.
Topping. The best heights for.
The time when trees should be topped.
Handling and the removal of suckers. Its importance as regards
rot and leaf disease.
Pruning.
Management of pruning, with reference to rot and leaf disease.
The removal of moss and rubbing down the trees. The cultivation
of the soil.
Difficulties connected with the proper cultivation of the soil.
The best tools for digging. Renovation pits.
Renovation pits valuable as water-holes. Their value in
connection with water conservation.
CHAPTER XIV.--THE DISEASES OF COFFEE.
Leaf disease, or attacks of _Hemeleïa Vastatrix_.
Mr. Marshall Ward's report on leaf disease in Ceylon. Leaf
disease probably always existed in Mysore. Said to have caused
much loss on some estates.
Losses of leaves from other causes commonly attributed to leaf
disease. No reason to fear it if land is well cultivated,
manured, and shaded. Evidence that shade can control leaf
disease.
Bad kinds of shade trees cannot control, but increase leaf
disease.
Conditions under which leaf disease is liable to occur in the
cases of good soil under good shade trees.
The importance of manure and cultivation with reference to leaf
disease. Mr. Graham Anderson's, Mr. Marshall Ward's and Mr.
Brooke Mockett's opinions. The Coorg plant not so liable to be
attacked as the Chick plant.
The Borer insect.
Borer is worst under bad kinds of shade trees, but can be
controlled by good caste trees.
Conditions favorable to attacks of the Borer.
Reasons for thinking that the usual practice of destroying all
bored trees is of little use.
The Borer can only be suppressed by adequate shade. Rot, or
_pellicularia koleroga_. Aggravated by want of free circulation
of air.
Measures for lessening rot. Importance of meeting monsoon with
mature leaves on the coffee trees.
Green-bugs. None in Mysore, Receipt for killing them used on
Nilgiri Hills.
CHAPTER XV.--THE SELECTION OF LAND FOR PLANTATIONS, AND THE VALUATION OF
COFFEE PROPERTY.
Much uncleared land available in northern part of Mysore.
The various classes of forest lands.
Much land unsuitable from over heavy rainfall. Mr. Graham
Anderson's return of rainfall. His interesting memorandum.
Elevation of plantations above sea level. With a few exceptions
not much difference in value of the coffee of various estates.
The especial importance of aspect in Mysore.
The most favourable gradients. Various kinds of soil.
Comparative healthiness of the different coffee districts in
Mysore.
Various considerations to be taken into account when valuing
land.
An old established estate may not necessarily be an old
plantation.
The quality of the shade ought largely to affect a valuation of a
property.
Facilities that should be considered when valuing a property.
Impossible to offer opinion as to value of coffee property, till
facts as regard it are widely known, and the line is opened to
western coast.
CHAPTER XVI.--HOW TO MAKE AN ESTATE PAY, AND THE ORDER OF THE WORK.
Inferior parts of estates should be thrown out of cultivation.
The losses caused by giving advances.
Advances not so necessary as formerly, as labour rates are higher
now.
Advances to Maistries to bring labour.
Minor sources of loss. The order in which the various works
should be performed.
CHAPTER XVII.--THE MANAGEMENT OF ABSENTEE ESTATES.
"The fact is, we all require a little looking after."
Advisable to give manager an interest in the estate. Managers for
estates in Mysore require to be very carefully selected.
A clear understanding essential between proprietor and manager.
Powers of attorney should be carefully drawn up. The proprietor
entirely in the power of the manager.
The value of the eye of the owner. Every estate should have an
information book.
Points to be entered in the information book.
Hints to managers.
CHAPTER XVIII.--THE PLANTER'S BUNGALOW AND THE AMENITIES OF AN ESTATE.
The best form of bungalow.
The kitchen arrangements.
The aspect of the bungalow and ground around it.
Cash value of the amenities of an estate. The flower garden.
Building materials.
How to keep out white ants.
Coolie lines.
Tree planting for timber and fuel.
Precautions for the conservation of health.
Hints as regards food, and the table generally.
Suggestions as to books and newspapers.
Importance of having some interesting pursuit.
The minor amenities of an estate.
The conditions of a planter's life now ameliorated by railways.
Mysore out of the reach of House of Commons faddists. Advantages
of this.
CHAPTER XIX.--THE INDIAN SILVER QUESTION.
On June 26th, 1893, gold standard introduced and mints closed to
free coinage of silver.
Movement originated in India by the servants of Government, and
from no other class whatever.
Some merchants afterwards joined in the agitation. Gold to be
received at the mints at a ratio of 1s. 4d. per rupee.
Sovereigns in payment of sums due to Government to be received at
the rate of fifteen rupees a sovereign.
Cash effects of the measure. For benefit of English reader
figures given in pounds sterling, a rupee taken at 2s. Rupee
prices little changed in India, China and Ceylon. Difficulty of
forming exact estimates as to this.
If gold value of silver can be forced up from 1s. 3d. to 1s.
4d., Indian Government will gain about one and a half million
sterling on its home remittances, and the people lose about seven
millions on their exports.
The Indian Finance Minister contemplates a rise to 1s. 6d.
eventually.
A rise to 1s. 6d. would give the Exchequer a gain on home
remittances of £4,500,000 and entail on the people a loss
£21,000,000, equal to a tax of 21 per cent. on the exports of
India. Effects of this on the producers.
The producers of coffee in Mysore alone would lose £56,000 a year
were exchange forced up to 1s. 4d., and £156,000 a year were it
raised to 1s. 6d. All producers in other parts of India of
articles of export would be similarly affected.
If the rupee is artificially forced up by the State, the shock to
confidence will repel capital and injure credit. The first effect
will show itself in a lessened demand for labour.
The effects of increased employment on the finances. The bearing
of the measure on famines and scarcity. It will intensify the
effects of both, and make them more costly to the State.
The measure has arrayed all classes against the Government,
except its own servants and a very few of the merchants.
The effects of the measure on the tea-planters of India and
Ceylon. It must heavily affect both. If Ceylon establishes a
mint, tea-planters there will have advantages over their rivals
in India.
Coffee planters of India and Ceylon will he prejudicially
affected in their competition with silver-using countries. Evil
effects of the measure on the trade, manufactures, and railways
of India.
The measure rotten from financial, political, and economical
points of view.
The Viceroy and the supporters of the measure have admitted that
it must be injurious to the producers of India. Sir William
Hunter's admirable survey of the former and present financial
condition of India.
The Viceroy has publicly declared that cheap silver has acted as
"a stimulus" to the progress of India.
The unfair action of Lord Herschell's Committee. Not a single
representative of the producing classes examined. But the
majority of witnesses were dead against the monetary policy of
the Government. The Currency Committee reported against the
weight of the evidence. The most important points not inquired
into at all by the Committee.
The Indian Government and Currency Committee financially
panic-stricken, and in dread of effects of repeal of Sherman Act.
The financial condition not such as to warrant panic. Taxational
resources not exhausted.
Sir William Hunter's statement proves that the financial
conditions were full of hope. The dread that the repeal of the
Sherman Act might reduce rupee to 1s. Examination of the
subject on that supposition.
By a rate of 1s. a rupee the Government would lose about seven
millions on its home remittances, and the people of India gain
fourteen millions on their exports. Mr. Gladstone's Government
adopted Home Rule Bill, and Currency Measure in one year. Both
forced on by tyrannical action. Gladstonian action as to Opium
Commission equally tyrannical.
The monetary measure a policy of protection for the benefit of
the silver-using countries that compete with India.
Some of the evils the measure, if successful, must cause. The
Indian Finance Minister declared that "it ought not to be
attempted unless under the pressure of necessity." No necessity
arisen. An independent body wanted to efficiently check the
Government. The Duke of Wellington's opinion.
India and Mexico compared. Mr. Carden's Consular Report.
Cheap silver advantageous to Mexico. The losses to the Government
and railways which arise from gold payments are, comparatively
speaking, a fixed quantity, while the gain to the people from
cheap silver, produces consequential benefits far beyond reach of
calculation. These remarks equally applicable to India. Wanted, a
Government that can see this.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.--PROGRESS IN MYSORE.
As I now turn my thoughts back to the year 1855, when, being then in my
eighteenth year, I sailed for India to seek my fortunes in the jungles of
Mysore, it is difficult to believe that the journey is still the same, or
that India is still the same country on the shores of which I landed so
long ago. But after all, as a matter of fact, the journey is, practically
speaking, not the same, and still less is India the same India which I
knew in 1855. For the route across Egypt, which was then partly by rail,
partly by water, and partly across the desert in transits, the bumping of
which I even now distinctly remember, has been exchanged for the Suez
Canal, and the frequent steamers with their accelerated rate of speed have
altered all the relations of distances, and on landing at Bombay the
traveller of 1855 would now find it difficult to recognize the place. For
then there were the old fort walls and ditches, and narrow streets filled
with a straggling throng of carts and people, while now the fort walls and
ditches no longer exist, and the traveller drives into a city with public
buildings, broad roads and beautiful squares and gardens, that would do
credit to any capital in the world, and sees around him all the signs of
advanced and advancing civilization. Then as, perhaps, he views the scene
from the Tower of the Elphinstone College, and looks down on the
beautiful city, on the masts of the shipping lying in the splendid
harbour, and on the moving throngs of people to whom we have given peace
and order, what thoughts must fill his mind! And what thoughts further, as
on turning to view the scene without the city he sees on one side of it
the tall chimneys of the numerous mills which have sprung up in recent
times, and which tell of the conjunction of English skill and capital with
the cheap hand-labour of the East--a combination that is destined, and at
no very distant period ahead, to produce remarkable effects. But I must
not wander here into the consideration of matters to which I shall again
have occasion to refer when I come to remark on the wonderful progress
made in India in recent years owing to the introduction of English skill
and capital, and shall now briefly describe my route to the western
jungles of Mysore.
When I landed in Bombay, in 1855, the journey to the Native State of
Mysore, now so easy and simple, was one requiring much time and no small
degree of trouble, for the railway lines had then advanced but little--the
first twenty miles in all India having been only opened near Bombay in
1853. A land journey then was not to be thought of, and as there were no
coasting-steamers, I was compelled to take a passage in a Patama (native
sailing craft) which was proceeding down the western coast with a cargo of
salt which was stowed away in the after-part of the vessel. Over this was
a low roofed and thatched house, the flooring of which was composed of
strips of split bamboo laid upon the salt. On this I placed my mattress
and bedding. My provisions for the voyage were very simple--a coop with
some fowls, some tea, sugar, cooking utensils, and other small necessaries
of life. A Portuguese servant I had hired in Bombay cooked my dinner and
looked after me generally. We sailed along the sometimes bare, and
occasionally palm-fringed, shores with that indifference to time and
progress which is often the despair and not unfrequently the envy of
Europeans. The hubble-bubble passed from mouth to mouth, and the crew
whiled away the evening hours with their monotonous chants. We always
anchored at night; sometimes we stopped for fishing, and once ran into a
small bay--one of those charming scenic gems which can only be found in
the eastern seas--to land some salt and take in cocoa-nuts and other
items. As for the port of Mangalore, for which I was bound, it seemed to
be, though only about 450 miles from Bombay, an immense distance away, and
practically was nearly as far as Bombay is from Suez. At last, after a
nine days' sail, we lay to off the mouth of the harbour into which, for
reasons best known to himself, the captain of the craft did not choose to
enter, and I was taken ashore in a canoe to be kindly received by the
judge of the collectorate of South Kanara, to whom I had a letter of
introduction.
After spending some pleasant days at Mangalore I set out for Manjarabad,
the talook or county which borders on the South Kanara district--in what
is called a manshiel--a kind of open-sided cot slung to a bamboo pole
which projects far enough in front and rear to be placed with ease on the
shoulders of the bearers. Four of these men are brought into play at once,
while four others run along to relieve their fellows at intervals. I
started in the afternoon, and was carried up the banks of a broad river by
the side of which hero and there the road wound pleasantly along. In the
course of a few hours night fell, and then all nature seemed to come into
active life with the hum of insects, the croaking of frogs, and various
other indications of an abounding animal life. Presently I was lulled to
sleep by the monotonous chant of the bearers--sleep only partially broken
when changes of the whole set of bearers had to be made--and awoke the
following morning to find myself some fifty miles from the coast, and
amidst the gorges of the Ghauts, with vast heights towering upwards, and
almost all around, while the river, which had now sunk to what in English
ideas would still seem to be one of considerable size, appeared as if it
had just emerged from the navel of a mountain-barrier some miles ahead.
After a few miles more we passed the last hamlet of what was then called
the Company's Country, and leaving the inhabited lands--if indeed in a
European sense they may be called so--behind us, began to ascend the
twenty miles of forest-clad gorges which lead up into the tableland of
Mysore. The ascent was necessarily slow, and it was not till late in the
afternoon that I saw, some 500 feet above me, and at a total elevation of
about 3,200 feet above sea-level, the white walls of the only planter's
bungalow in the southern part of Mysore. To this pioneer of our
civilization--Mr. Frederick Green, who had begun work in 1843--I had a
letter of introduction, and was most kindly received, and put in the way
of acquiring land which I started on and still hold. To the south, in the
adjacent little province of Coorg--now, as we shall afterwards see, an
extensive coffee-field--the first European plantation had been started the
year before, i.e., 1854, while to the north some fifty to seventy miles
away the country was, in a European sense, occupied by only three English,
or, to be exact, Scotch planters. In 1856 I started active life as a
planter on my own account, about twelve miles away from the estate of Mr.
Green, while in the same year two other planters--Scotchmen by the
way--made their appearance. The southern part of Mysore was thus occupied
by four planters, and we were all about twelve miles from each other. It
is difficult to conceive the state of isolation in which we lived, and as
we were all Europeanly speaking single handed, and could seldom leave
home, we often had not for weeks together an opportunity of seeing a
single white face, and so rare indeed was a visit from a neighbour that,
when one was coming to see me, I used to sit on a hill watching for the
first glimpse of him, like a shipwrecked mariner on a desert island
watching for the glimpse of a sail on the horizon. As for the Indian
mutinies, which broke out the year after I had started work, they might
have been going on in Norway as far as we were concerned; none of us at
all appreciated the importance and gravity of the events that were
occurring, and one of my neighbours said that it was not worth while
trying to understand the situation, and that we had better wait for the
book that would be sure to come out when things had settled down. And the
native population around us appeared to know as little of the mutinies as
we did. They seemed to be aware that some disturbance was going on
somewhere in the north, and that represented the whole extent of their
knowledge of the subject.
I have described our life as having been one of great isolation so far as
European society was concerned, but I never felt it to be a dull one, nor
did my neighbours ever complain of it, though we only took a holiday of a
few weeks in the year. But we had plenty of work, and big game shooting,
and the occupation was an interesting one, and as I even now return with
pleasure every winter to my planter's life, this proves that my earlier
days must have left behind them many pleasant associations. And the
occupation and sport were really all we had to depend on. We had few
books, nor any means of getting them, for I need hardly say that pioneer
planters, who have to keep themselves and their coffee till the latter
comes into bearing, cannot afford to buy anything that can be dispensed
with. But after all this perhaps was no disadvantage, for, as a great
moral philosopher has pointed out, nothing tends to weaken the resources
of the mind so much as a miscellaneous course of reading unaccompanied (as
it usually is, I may remark) by reflection. The management of people, the
business of an estate, the exercise of the inventive powers, the
cultivation of method, the sharpening of the observing and combining
faculties, which are so well developed by big game shooting, yield real
education, or the leading out and development of the mental resources,
while books provide the individual merely with instruction which has often
a tendency to cramp and even to fossilize the mind.
I have said at the outset, that the journey to India is not the same as it
was in 1855, and that still less is India the same India, and I may
certainly say that still less is Western Mysore the Western Mysore of
1855, except that its beautiful scenery is as beautiful as ever. For our
planting is not like that of Ceylon, where the planter, like the locust,
finds a paradise in front to leave a desert in his rear--a desert of bare
lull sides from which the beautiful forest has been entirely swept away,
while the most valuable constituents of the soil have been washed down to
the river beds. And when standing in 1893 on a lull in my district of
Manjarabad, and looking around, I can see no sign of change in the
landscape from the days of 1855, except that the woodland paths leading
from village to village are much more distinctly marked, owing to the
great increase of labourers employed in the numerous native and European
plantations, which now stretch in an unbroken line along all the western
border of Mysore. And no sign of change is apparent, because all the
coffee is planted either under the shade of the original forest trees, or
under the shade of trees which have been planted to take their place. But
all else is practically and largely changed by the agency of a universal
progress, which has been brought about by British government and the
introduction of British capital, skill, and energy. And this progress, I
am glad to be able to say, has benefited all classes of the community, and
the labouring classes by far the most of all, and the results as regards
those are so striking, so interesting, and so much more widely diffused
than could at first sight be thought possible, and are, as I shall show,
of such vast importance to the finances of the State, that they are well
worthy of special attention. Had the Government been aware of the enormous
financial value to the State of the introduction of English capital, I
feel sure that much greater efforts would have been made to stimulate
European enterprise, and that the progress of India would have been much
accelerated all along the line.
When I started my plantation in 1858, the pay of a labourer was 2 rupees 4
annas (4s. 6d.) a month. It is now, throughout the numerous plantations
in Mysore, from six to seven rupees a month, and a labourer can live on
about two rupees a month. Such a statement made of any country would
indicate a satisfactory degree of progress; but whereas in England it
would simply mean a greater ability in the working classes to live in an
improved condition, and perhaps some improvement in the condition of the
shopkeepers with whom they dealt, in India it means the creation of a
social and ever wide-spreading revolution. For when in India capital is
introduced, and employment on a large scale is afforded to the people, the
poorer of the peasant classes are at once able to free themselves from
debt, and the labourers soon save enough money to enable them to start in
agriculture, coffee culture, or any culture within, their reach. The
result of this, in my experience, has been most remarkable. When I started
in Manjarabad, for instance, the planters relied solely on labour procured
from the adjacent villages. But now the local labourer is almost a thing
of the past, for he has taken to agriculture and coffee culture, and now
only occasionally works for a short time to earn some money to pay his
taxes. When this change began, the planters had of course to go further
afield for labour, but merely to produce over again a similar result by
enabling labourers from distant villages to do what the local labourers in
the coffee districts had done, and thus for labour we have to operate on
ever-widening circles, till at last I have heard it remarked that the
Kanarese language is often of little use, and the native overseers on my
estate have complained that they now often cannot make the labourers
understand them. And this of course is not surprising, as at one moment
the overseer may have to deal with labourers from any one of the villages
between Mysore and the Western Sea, and at another with people from
villages in the Madras Presidency, far away on the route to the Bay of
Bengal. Field after field, and village after village, has thus been
irrigated by that capital for which India thirsts, and which, as we have
seen, produces such wide-spreading social effects on the welfare of the
people, and, consequently, on the resources of the State--enabling land to
be more largely and fully developed, wells to be dug, gardens to be made,
and the people to pay with greater ease the demands of the Government. But
there is yet another point of great importance to notice as regards the
introduction into India of European capital, with its accompanying
effects--effects which largely enhance its value--namely, those arising
from setting the natives practical examples of both method, skill, and
energetic action. I allude to the bearing of these forces upon famine--a
subject well worthy of some passing remarks, more especially because in
Mysore we can furnish proofs of the value in times of famine of having
Europeans settled in the country.
The actual money value of the infuse of English capitalists, and its
bearing on the resources of the State, and in enabling the people the
better to contest with famine and scarcity, is sufficiently apparent, but
it was only when the terrible famine of 1876-77 (which cost Mysore the
loss of about a fifth of its population, an immense sum of money, and
crippled its resources for years) broke out that the value of having a
European agency ready at hand to grapple with famine, and honestly
administer the funds available, was absolutely proved. It would be tedious
to go into this subject at any length, indeed I have not space to do so,
and I can only say that, as far as I could learn, the only satisfactory
treatment of the great famine was that initiated and carried out by the
planters, or, to be at once just and exact, I should rather say that the
system adopted was initiated by one of our leading planters--Mr. Graham
Anderson--who, and entirely at his own cost, was the first to start and
maintain on his estate a nursery for children. He saw that if the parents
could only be relieved of their children the former could work and be able
to maintain themselves, while all their efforts would be insufficient to
maintain at once themselves and their children. The nursery system that
was then initiated by Mr. Anderson, was adopted by other planters who were
subsequently aided by the assistance of money from the Mansion House Fund,
and Mr. Anderson was formally appointed by the Government as President of
the relief operations in the Southern Mysore coffee district, and, owing
to his energy, example, and administrative still, most satisfactory
results were obtained. I have before me, and written by Mr. Anderson, a
full account of all the famine relief operations he had charge of, showing
the assistance afforded by the planters in employing labour from which,
owing to the weakness of the people, very little return could be got; and
moreover by sheltering in their lines the wandering starvelings who were
moving about the country. I can only regret that want of space prevents my
going into the subject more in detail. I must, however, at least find room
for his concluding remarks, in order to deliver for him a message he has
long been desirous of sending to those of the English public who
subscribed to the Mansion House Fund.
"If there is one thing," writes Mr. Anderson, "I am certain of it is this,
that although some people think that natives have no gratitude, there has
never been anything concerning which the natives have been so loud in
their praise as the unbounded generosity of the London public, who in time
of fearful distress came forward with money to feed and clothe hundreds
and thousands of starving poor. Many a poor woman and man have asked me to
express blessings to 'the people of my village' who rescued them in their
dire distress. Perhaps you can give this message, which, as an outsider, I
have never had an opportunity of doing." I only wish I could add that the
gratitude of the Government was equal to that of the natives. Yes, Mr.
Graham Anderson was an outsider, and the Government (Mysore was under
British rule at the time) was evidently determined that he should remain
so in the fullest sense of the word, for he never even received a letter
of thanks for his valuable and gratuitous services, or the smallest notice
of any kind. I have no hesitation in praising most highly the action of
the planters, because, though one of them, I was not in India at the time,
and, though my estate manager took an early and active part in relief
operations, I had nothing personally to do with the famine relief work.
The subject of famines is of such vast importance to the people, the
Government, and all who have any stake in India, that I think it well to
offer here some remarks on them, and also suggest some measures for their
prevention, or perhaps I should rather say for their mitigation.
The causes that would lead to an increase of famines in India were fully
pointed out by me in 1871 in the "Experiences of a Planter," in letters to
the "Times," and in the evidence I gave when examined by the India
Finance Committee of the House of Commons in 1872. There were two
principal causes--the spread of the use of money instead of grain as a
medium of exchange, and such a restricted development of communications
that, while these were sufficient to drain the countries in the interior
of their grain, they were not sufficiently developed to enable the grain
to be brought back again in sufficient quantities when it was necessary to
do so in times of famine. Till, then, communications were developed to an
adequate extent, it was quite clear that India would be much more exposed
to risk from famines than she was in the days when grain was largely used
as a medium of exchange, and when, besides, grain, from the want of
communication, was largely kept in the country. The people, in short, in
the olden days, and even for some time after I landed in India, hoarded
grain, and in times of scarcity they encroached upon their supplies of
buried grain, whereas now they hoard money, which in time of famine can go
but a very short way in buying grain. The statement that an increase of
famines would be sure to ensue from the causes above indicated is amply
corroborated by the facts. There is no evidence to show that droughts have
increased, but there can be no doubt that in comparatively recent times
famines and scarcities have. And in looking over the list of famines from
1769 to 1877, I find that, comparing the first 84 years of the period in
question with the years from then up to 1877, famines have more than
doubled in number, and scarcities, causing great anxiety to the State,
seem certainly to be increasing. That the latter are so we have strong
evidence in Mysore, and in looking over the annual addresses of the Dewan
at the meeting of the Representative Assembly of Mysore, I am struck with
the frequent allusion to scarcities and grave apprehensions of famine. In
his address of 1881, only four years after the great famine of 1876-77,
the Dewan refers to "the period of intense anxiety through which the
Government and the people have passed owing to the recent failure of the
rains. But," he adds, "such occasional failure of rains is almost a normal
condition of the Province, and the Government must always remain in
constant anxiety as to the fearful results which must follow from them."
In his address of 1884 the Dewan says that "the condition of the Province
is again causing grave anxiety." In the address of 1886 the Dewan says
"this is the first year since the rendition of the Province (in 1881) in
which the prospects of the season have caused no anxiety to the
Government." But in the address of 1891 lamentations again occur, and we
find the Dewan congratulating the members on the narrow escape, owing to
rain having fallen just in time, they had had from famine. But our able
Dewan--Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer, K.C.I.E.--has taken measures which must
ultimately place the Province in a safe position, or at least in as safe a
position as it can be placed. He has seen, and it has been amply proved by
our experience in the Madras Presidency during the famine of 1876-77, that
the only irrigation work that can withstand a serious drought is a deep
well, and he has brought out a most admirable measure for encouraging the
making of them by the ryots. The principal features of this are that
money, to be repaid gradually over a long series of years, is to be
advanced by the State on the most easy terms, and that, in the event of a
ryot taking a loan, and water not being found, or found in inadequate
quantity, the Government takes upon itself the entire loss. But the
results from this highly liberal and valuable measure cannot be adequately
arrived at for many years to come, and in the meanwhile the risks from
famine go on, and as the Dewan has seen that these can only be immediately
grappled with by an extension of the railway system, he has always been,
anxious to make a line to the western frontier of Mysore, if the Madras
Government would agree to carry it on to Mangalore on the western coast.
But the Madras Government felt itself unable to find funds to carry out
the project, and hence Mysore, all along its western frontier, was, from a
railway point of view, completely imprisoned, and there seemed to be no
prospect of anything being done to connect the Province with the western
seaboard for many years to come. However, a Mysore planter last year
sought a personal interview with Viscount Cross, the Secretary of State
for India, who has always taken a great interest in railway extensions,
and the result of this was that Lord Cross initiated action which resulted
in prompt steps being taken. Early this year a preliminary survey of the
route from a point on the line in the interior of Mysore, _viâ_ the
Manjarabad Ghaut, to Mangalore was made, and I am in a position to state
that the completion of this much and long-wanted line may be regarded as a
thing of the near future. After this line has been made a line will be
constructed from Hassan to Mysore, _viâ_ Holî Nursipur, and Yedatora, and
from Mysore a line will be run, _viâ_ Nunjengode[2] to Erode, the junction
of the Madras and South Indian Railways. I may mention here that Sir
Andrew Clarke, in his able Minute of 1879 on Indian Harbours, says that
"Mangalore undoubtedly admits of being converted into a useful harbour,"
though he adds that "the project may lie over until the prospects of a
railway connecting it with the interior are better than at present." As
the immediate prospects of a line being made are quite secure, it is of
great importance to call attention to this matter now, as it is to the
manifest interest of both Governments that the harbour of Mangalore should
be improved as soon as possible.
After having done so much to contend against famine-producing causes, it
may seem that the Dewan might rest and be thankful; but it must be
considered that, though railways will undoubtedly enable the State to save
life, it will have to pay a ruinously heavy charge whenever a widespread
and serious drought occurs, and, sooner or later, it seems inevitable that
such a drought must occur. And it is therefore perfectly evident, that
without the extension of deep wells the province cannot be placed in a
thoroughly sound financial position. It is, then, of obvious importance to
remove at once the great obstacle that stands in the way of the rapid
addition to the number of deep wells. That obstacle, and a most formidable
obstacle it is, as I shall fully show, lies in the fact that the present
form of land tenure in Mysore (under which also about four-fifths of the
land of British India are held) does not provide a sufficient security for
investors in landed improvements. By the existing tenure the land is held
by the occupier from the State at a rental which is fixed for thirty
years, and after that it is liable to augmentation. The Government, it is
true, has declared that it will not tax improvements, and that, for
instance, if a man digs a well no augmentation of rent will be demanded
for the productive power thus added to the land, but it has reserved to
itself wide powers of enhancing the rent on general grounds, such as a
rise in prices, improved communication, etc., and to what amount the
enhancement may go the ryot cannot tell. And hence we find that the
representatives in the Mysore Assembly have repeatedly argued that it is
owing to the uncertainty as to what the rise of rent may be at the close
of each thirty years' period that improvements are not more largely made,
and have therefore prayed for a permanently fixed assessment. Now I am not
prepared to say that, for the present at any rate, it would be wise to
grant a fixed assessment on all lands, but I am quite sure that it would
be wise to grant, for the irrigable area watered by a well dug at an
occupier's expense, a permanent assessment at the rent now charged on the
land. The Government, it is true, would sacrifice the rise it might obtain
on the land at the close of each lease, but, as a compensation for
this--and an ample compensation I feel sure it would be--the State would
save in two ways, for it would never have to grant remissions of revenue
on such lands, as it now often has to do in the case of dry lands, and
with every well dug the expenditure in time of famine would be diminished.
Such a measure, then, as I have proposed, would at once benefit the State
and draw out for profitable investment much capital that is now lying
idle. There is nothing new, I may add, in this proposal, for it was
adopted by the old native rulers, who granted fixed tenures on favourable
terms to those making irrigation works at their own expense. An
English-speaking Mysore landholder once said to me, "I will not dig wells
on my lands under my present tenure, but give me an assessment fixed for
ever, and I will dig lots of wells." The present landed policy of the
Indian Government[3] is as shallow as it is hide-bound. It wants, like a
child, to eat its cake and still remain in possession of the article. It
is most anxious to see private capital invested in land, and it still
wants to retain the power of every thirty years indefinitely augmenting
the land revenue on general grounds. Surely it must be apparent to minds
of even the humblest calibre that these two things are utterly
incompatible!
I may mention that there is a strong party in India in favour of granting
at once a permanent assessment at the existing rate of rent for all lands,
and in reference to this point it may be interesting to give the following
passage from a letter I once received from the late Prime Minister of
Mysore, Mr. Rungacharlu, the minister who started the first Representative
Assembly that ever sat in India:
"As you know," he wrote, "I hold decided views on the subject, and the
withholding of the permanent assessment is a serious injury to the
extensive petty landed interests in the country, and is no gain whatever
to the Government. Nearly the whole population of the country are
agriculturists, and live in one way or another upon the cultivation of the
land. The effect of a permanent settlement will therefore create a greater
feeling of security, and to encourage the outlay of capital and labour on
land will be beneficial to the entire population. It will thus be quite a
national measure reaching all, and not in the interests of a few, and is
calculated to develop the capabilities of the land to the utmost. The
prospect of the Government ever being benefited by the reservation of an
increase of assessment on the unearned increment is a mere dream. Such
increase is sure to be resisted or evaded, occasioning meanwhile great
discontent. The Government may confidently look to the development of
other sources of revenue from the increased prosperity of the people."
But whether the best remedy lies in granting, as I have proposed, a fixed
assessment on land brought under well-irrigation at owners' expense, or in
granting a permanent assessment for all lands, or, perhaps, in extending
the period of lease from thirty to sixty years (and the last proposal
would answer fairly well), one thing is certain, and that is, that under
the thirty years' tenure system it is impossible to expect such a
development of the landed resources of India as will secure the Government
from the vast financial losses caused by famine, or at least reduce these
losses to a moderate amount. And we have ample evidence to prove that,
where adequate security exists, private enterprise will be sure to step in
and carry out most extensive and important irrigation works. This has
been particularly shown in the proceedings of the Government of the
North-West Provinces and Oudh, where the condition of things in the
permanently settled districts has been contrasted with that in the
temporarily settled, or thirty year leasehold districts. I have no space
to go into the details. They would only weary the general reader, and it
is sufficient to say that in the permanently settled districts there has
been an immense progress in irrigation carried out by private enterprise;
and that, to quote from the proceedings:--"Throughout the whole tract
there have been occasional periods of agricultural distress, but it has
always been in a mild form, and for a century famines such as have
occurred in other parts of India have been unknown." In short, private
enterprise, backed by a fair assessment fixed for ever, has driven famine
from the tract in question, and this will occur in other parts of India if
the Government will only grant tenures sufficiently safe to induce the
people to invest their money in wells and permanent improvements. And if
further proofs are needed, we have only to turn to Mr. Gribble's valuable
memorandum on well irrigation, which is published in the proceedings of
the Famine Commission.
In concluding my remarks on famines, I may say that the whole question
regarding them is of the greatest practical importance to all employers of
labour in India. Our labour market in Mysore was enormously injured by the
great famine of 1876-77, when the loss of population amounted to about a
million, and when, through the agency of railways, loss of life can be
averted in the future, it will only be averted at such a cost as will
cripple the resources of the State for years to come, and so lessen its
powers for maintaining roads and other works in an efficient state, and
developing the resources of the country. The whole of the evils arising
from famine then can only be averted by a full development of well
irrigation, and this and the development of the landed resources of the
country in general can only be effected through the agency of improved
tenures. This is a point which all individuals having a stake in India
should continuously urge on the attention of the Government.
The reader will remember that when I started in Mysore in 1856, there were
only seven European planters in the province. I have lately endeavoured to
ascertain the number there are at present, and the Dewan, to whose
kindness I have been much indebted for information when writing this book,
has supplied me with a specially drawn up return, showing all the
information available as regards coffee from the year 1831 up to 1890-91,
and by this it seems that there were in 1890-91 662 plantations held by
Europeans in Mysore, but there are no means of ascertaining the number of
planters. I have referred the return to one of the oldest and most
advanced planters, and in his reply he says, "It is impossible to say
exactly how many landowners the 662 plantations represent, as several of
the plantations in many cases go to make up what we call an estate, but I
should not imagine that the number would be more than 300, and in that
calculation I have allowed for there being partners in many of the
properties." The area held by Europeans was 49,862 acres, and some
increase has no doubt since been made to this.
The native plantations amounted to 27,180 in number in 1890-91, with an
area of 96,814 acres, but many of these so-called plantations only consist
of small patches of coffee. The total area of European and native holdings
in 1890-91 was 146,676 acres. There are no means whatever of ascertaining
from the returns at my command even approximately the amount of coffee
produced. A reasonable calculation, however, based on a general knowledge
of the circumstances, makes it probable that the European production of
coffee may be put down at about an average of 120,000 cwts. a-year, and
the native production at about 172,000 cwts., and if we put the average
value of both as low as £3 a cwt. this would make the annual value of the
coffee amount to £876,000. I now proceed to close this chapter with some
remarks on manufactures in Mysore.
Many years ago I heard the late Mr. Hugh Mason (formerly President of the
Manchester Chamber of Commerce) speak at a meeting of the Society of Arts
on the manufacturing prospects of India, and, after reviewing the general
situation, he said that it is difficult to see what other advantages India
could require in order to raise itself into the position of a great
manufacturing country. It is true, he said, that the operative there
cannot do as much as the operative hero, but, he continued, I can remember
the time when the operative here could not do nearly as much as he can do
now, and there is no reason to doubt but that a similar improvement would
take place in the case of the Indian operative. And when this improvement
takes place, and India becomes more known and developed, her great
manufacturing capabilities will become fully apparent. India has two very
great advantages. She has an abundant, docile, and orderly population, and
she obtains from the sun an ample supply of that heat which has to be paid
largely for here. When, then, the Indian operative attains to an advanced
degree of proficiency--and to this he undoubtedly will attain--the
greatest labour competition that the world has ever seen will begin--a
competition between the white labourer who requires to be expensively fed,
warmly clothed, and well shod, and housed, and the black or brown skinned
man who can live cheaply, and work naked, and who is as physically
comfortable in a mere shelter as his rival is in a well built dwelling.
The Indian peasant already, in the case of wheat, undersells the English
farmer, and it seems merely a question of time as to when the Indian
operative will undersell his Lancashire rival, and when perhaps calico
will come to England, as it once did, from Calicut. And no doubt, some
such thoughts were passing through Cobden's mind when he once said, "What
ugly ruins our mills will make." We are, however, a considerable way from
such remains as the reader will see if he consults the interesting paper
on "The Manufactures of India," read by Sir Juland Danvers at a meeting of
the Society of Arts on the 24th of April last, and by this it appears that
the imports of cloths of English manufacture have increased in recent
years. Still India is progressing, and there are now a total of 126 cotton
mills in all India. Of these one is in Bangalore, and was opened in 1885.
The Mysore Government took 250 shares in it, and to enable the Company to
extend the buildings, subsequently lent it on easy terms two lakhs of
rupees. There is also another company at work in Bangalore which started
as a woollen factory, but which has now set up machines for spinning
cotton. The efforts made to push forward industries of all kinds in Mysore
are highly creditable to the administration, and I find numerous
references in the annual addresses made by the Dewan at the meeting of the
Representative Assembly to the desire of the Government to foster any kind
of industry that is likely to afford increased employment to the people. A
long reference is made in the Dewan's address of 1890, to the endeavours
made by the Government to open up the iron wealth of the province, and it
was then in correspondence with a native gentleman who had proposed to
start iron works in the Malvalli Talook of the Mysore district. The
Government, it appears, were prepared to grant most liberal concessions as
regards the supply of fuel. But I regret that I have no information as to
whether these proposed works have or have not been started. For the
information of those who might be inclined to embark in this industry I
may mention that a copy of the Dewan's annual addresses always appears in
the "Mysore and Coorg Directory," which is a most valuable compilation on
all points of importance relating to those provinces. These annual
addresses are admirably drawn up and are most interesting to read. The
attention shown to the many various points treated of is most remarkable.
Nothing seems too great and nothing too small for notice by the Dewan, and
it is this even attention all along the line that shows the fine
administrator. As one instance to the point I may mention that when
attending as a member of the Representative Assembly at Mysore in 1891, I
happened to meet the Dewan and some of his officers in the veranda outside
the great hall where our meetings were held, and his attention was
attracted to a coffee peeler--the invention of a native who thought this a
good opportunity for introducing his machines to the notice of the public,
and had some cherry coffee at hand to show how they worked. The Dewan at
once inspected the machine, saw the coffee put through, and himself turned
the handle, and was so satisfied that he ordered some of the machines to
be bought and sent for exhibition to the head-quarters of the coffee
growing Talooks, or counties, and in his address of 1892 he reports that
the machines had been found to be much in favour with the planters who had
used them. The state of the box is the best evidence of the goodness of
the gardener. But it is time now to draw this chapter to a close. I must,
however, find room for a few remarks which will show those who might be
inclined to settle in India that their interests are sure to be well
attended to by the Government.
During my long Indian experience I have had occasion to represent
grievances and wants to Government officers, from district officers to
high Indian officials, to officials at the India office, and to more than
one Secretary of State for India, and am therefore able to testify
directly to their admirable courtesy, patience, and consideration. In the
ordinary sense of the word, the planters in the various parts of India are
not represented, but as a matter of fact their interests are most
efficiently represented, for the officers of the Government, whether
civilians or soldier-civilians (and when Mysore was under British rule I
had practical experience of both), are distinguished by an amount of
energy, industry, and ability, to which I believe it is impossible to find
a parallel in the world, and combined with these qualities there is
everywhere exhibited a conscientious zeal in promoting in every possible
way the interests of the countries committed to their charge. And these
officers know that they are at once the administrators and rulers of the
land, and, as there is no representative system such as we have in
England, freely admit that to them the people have a right to appeal in
all matters affecting their interests. This right of personal appeal
planters most freely exercise, and in this way are sure, sooner or later,
and often with very little delay, to obtain the supply of wants or the
redress of grievances. And here I may offer in conclusion one useful hint.
The time of officials, and especially of high officials, is very valuable,
and every effort should be made to avoid putting them to trouble that can
be avoided. The subject to be brought forward should be carefully thought
out, and put in the form of a memorandum. This in some cases it is
advisable to forward by letter when asking for an interview, while in
other cases I have thought it more advisable that the memorandum should be
taken with one and read to the official, as this gives a good opportunity
for discussing the points in regular order. In the latter case, at the
close of the interview, the official will probably ask that the memorandum
may be left with him for reference, but it is then better to ask to be
allowed to send a well-written copy by post, as this gives an opportunity
for making clearer any points that may have been discussed at the
interview, and which may require further explanation. It is well always to
bear in mind that all high officials, and the heads of districts, are
representatives of the Crown, and as such are entitled to a due amount of
deference and formality when being personally addressed, or addressed by
letter. These are points which are sometimes not sufficiently taken into
account by inexperienced persons.
I need hardly say that the remarks last made apply equally to native
officials either in Mysore or elsewhere.
In conclusion, I may mention that I have always found the native officials
to be most polite, considerate, and obliging, and such, I feel sure, is
the general experience of those who have been brought in contact with
them.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] When this line is finished the planters of Mysore will have an easy
and very direct route by rail to the Nilgiri Hills, and this will be of
immense advantage to themselves, and especially to their families.
[3] It has imposed this policy on Mysore, and by the terms of the deed of
transfer to the Rajah, no alteration in the tenures can be made without
the consent of the Supreme Government.
CHAPTER II.
THE SCENERY AND WATERFALLS OF MYSORE.
Mysore is a tract of country in Southern India approximating in area to
Scotland, and with a general elevation of from two to three thousand feet
above the level of the sea. It is commonly spoken of as the Mysore
tableland, but this is rather a misleading description if we adopt the
dictionary definition of the word tableland as being "a tract of country
at once elevated and level," for, though there are in the interior of the
province considerable stretches of rolling plains, the so-called tableland
presents to the view a country intersected at intervals, more or less
remote, with mountain chains, while scattered here and there in the
interior of the plateau are isolated rocky hills, or rather hills of rock,
termed droogs (Sanscrit, durga, or difficult of access) which sometimes
rise to a total height of 5,000 feet above sea level. The surface of the
country, too, is often broken by groups, or clusters of rocks, either low
or of moderate elevation, composed of immense boulders, the topmost ones
of which are often so finely poised as to seem ready to topple over at the
slightest touch. The highest point of the plateau is about 3,500 feet, and
is crowned as it were by the fine bold range of the Bababuden mountains,
which have an average elevation of about 6,000 feet. There are three
mountains in Mysore which exceed this elevation, and the highest of them,
Mulaìnagiri, is 6,317 feet above the level of the sea. The province,
which is completely surrounded by British territory, is flanked on the
west and east by the Ghauts, or ranges of hills up the passes through
which the traveller ascends on to the tableland, and on the south it is,
as it were, pointed off by the Nilgiri hills. The greatest breadth of
Mysore from north to south is about 230 miles, and its greatest length
from east to west is 290 miles. On the western side one part of the
province runs to within ten miles of the sea, though the average distance
from it is from thirty to fifty miles. The nearest point to the sea on the
eastern side is about 120 miles, and the most southerly extremity of the
tableland is 250 miles from the most southerly point of India.
As regards climate, cultivation, and the general appearance of the
country, Mysore may be divided into two very distinctly marked tracts--the
forest and woodland region which stretches from the foot of the Western
Ghauts to distances varying from about twenty to as much as forty-five
miles, and the rolling and comparatively speaking treeless plains of the
central and eastern parts of the province, which are only occasionally
broken by tracts which have some of the characteristics of both. In the
western tract are numerous plantations of coffee and cardamoms, and the
cereal cultivation consists mainly of rice fields irrigated from perennial
streams; while in the central and eastern parts of the tableland, which by
far exceed in area the woodland tracts of the west, the cultivation is
mainly of the millets and other crops which do not depend on irrigation,
though these are interspersed at intervals, more or less remote, with rice
fields, the water for which is chiefly derived from tanks, or artificial
reservoirs. The rainfall, temperature, and quality of the atmosphere in
the western tract varies considerably from those of the open country of
the interior. The rainfall of the first varies from sixty to one hundred
inches, and, on the crests of the Ghauts, is probably often about 200
inches,[4] while in the interior of the province the rainfall is probably
about thirty inches on the average. The temperature of the western tract
too is naturally much damper and cooler than that of the rest of the
tableland, and at my house within six miles of the crests of the Ghauts at
an elevation of about 3,200 feet, the shade temperature at the hottest
time of the year and of the day rarely exceeds eighty-five, and such a
thing as a hot night is unknown, as the woodland tracts are within reach
of the westerly sea breezes, while in the interior the climate is much
hotter and drier, and the maximum day temperature of the hot weather is
about ninety, and, in very hot seasons, about ninety-five. In the woodland
tracts the cold weather and the monsoon months have a very pleasant
temperature, and then flannel shirts and light tweeds--in short, English
summer clothing--are used, and a blanket is always welcome at night. The
climate of Mysore is considered to be a healthy one for Europeans of
temperate habits, and who take reasonable care of themselves. As we are
now hearing so much of cholera in Europe, it may not be uninteresting to
mention that, though the province was under British administration from
1831 to 1881, and there have since been a considerable number of European
officials in the employ of the now native government of Mysore, only one
European official has died of cholera during that period, and that, though
there are a considerable number of planters, only one has been reported to
have died of the disease, though his, I am told, was a doubtful case.
I have said that there are marked differences between the western tracts
and the remainder of the province, but the most marked difference of
course between the forest and woodland country of the west, and the
country to the east, lies in the scenery of the two tracts, for, though in
the latter case there are occasional bits of attractive landscape, and
partially wooded hills, there is nothing at all to compare with the grand
forest scenery of the Western Ghauts, or the charming park-like woodlands
which stretch into the tableland at varying distances from the crests of
the frontier mountains. Everyone who has seen the latter has been struck
by their extraordinary and diversified beauty, and last year a friend of
mine, who had for a considerable time been travelling all round the world,
said to me, as he rode up to my house, "After all I have seen I have seen
nothing to equal this." But this, I must add, was the very best of our
Western Ghaut park scenery which is mostly contained in the talook or
county of Manjarabad which stretches for about twenty-five miles along the
western frontier of Mysore, a tract of country so beautiful that the
laconic Colonel Wellesley (afterwards the great Duke of Wellington), who
rarely put a superfluous word into his dispatches, could not refrain from
remarking in one of them on the beautiful appearance of the country.[5]
There are two things especially remarkable about this tract. The one is
that throughout the best of it there is nothing distinctively Indian in
the scenery. Bamboos are rare, and in much of the tract entirely absent,
and as the palm trees are always concealed in the woods there is nothing
to connect the country with the usual feature of Indian woodland scenery.
Another point most worthy of notice is that the scenery which appears to
one seeing it for the first time to be entirely natural, is in reality
very largely the creation of man. And it has been much improved by his
action for, as you leave Manjarabad to go northwards the jungle becomes
too continuous, and it is the same if you go southwards into the adjacent
district of Coorg, and when you compare the last mentioned tracts with
Manjarabad you then begin to realize the fact that nature, if left to
herself, is apt to become a trifle monotonous. But in Manjarabad man has
invaded nature to beautify her and bring her to perfection--cutting down
and turning eventually into stretches of grass much of the original
forest--leaving blocks of from 50 to 200 acres of wood on the margin of
each group of houses, clearing out the jungle in the bottoms for rice
cultivation and thus forming what at some seasons appear to be bright
green rivers winding through the forest-clad or wooded slopes, and here
and there planting on the knolls trees of various wide-spreading kinds.
And yet from the absence of fences, and of cultivation on the uplands, the
whole scene appears to be one of Nature's creations, and all the more so
because no houses nor farm-buildings are visible, as these are hidden
amongst the trees on the margins of the forest lands. Then this long tract
of beautifully wooded and watered country is fringed on its western border
by the varied mountain crests of the Western Ghauts, while on the east it
is traversed by the Hemavati river which is fed by the numerous streams,
and brawling burns which descend from the frontier hills. But though
Manjarabad has combinations of charms unrivalled in their kind, we must
not forget that an examination of of them by no means exhausts the scenery
of the Ghauts, for, on the north-western border of Mysore are the falls of
Gairsoppa. Often had I read descriptions of them which I once thought must
have been too highly coloured, but when I visited the falls some years ago
I found that the accounts I had read were not only far below the reality,
but that the most important parts of the wonderful combinations of the
scenes had either never been noted, or been quite inadequately recorded.
I do not now profess to give anything approaching an adequate account of
them. Nor indeed do I think it would be possible to do so. But what
follows will I think at least be of advantage in directing the attention
of the traveller to the best way of observing the varied scenes, and
noting the wonderful musical combinations, which are to be heard at these
marvellously beautiful falls.
The falls of Gairsoppa are on the Sarawati, or Arrowborn[6] river, which,
rising in the western woodland region of Northern Mysore, flows north-west
for about sixty-two miles, and then, turning abruptly to the west,
precipitates its waters over cliffs about 860 feet in height. When the
river is at the full in the south-west monsoon an immense body of water
rushes over the precipice, and from calculations made by some engineers,
and which are recorded in the book at the Travellers' Bungalow, the volume
and height of fall at that time, if taken together, would give a force of
water about equal to that of Niagara. But, however that may be, a glance
at the high water marks, and a knowledge of the immense rainfall on the
crests of the Ghauts during the monsoon months, makes it certain that, at
that time of year, the amount of water must be very large. At that season,
though, the falls are almost invisible, as they are concealed by vast
masses of mist and spray, and even were they visible, as the water then
stretches from bank to bank, there would only be one vast monotonous fall.
But after the heavy monsoon floods are over, the river above the
falls-shrinks back as it were into a long deep pool which lies at a
distance of several hundred yards from the brink of the precipice, and
from this pool the water of the river then escapes by four distinct rapids
which have cut their way to-the brink of the precipice, and fall over the
cliffs in four distinct falls, each one of widely different character
from the others. The falls at this season are only 834 feet high, but when
the river rises to the full the fall, as I before mentioned, must be about
860 feet, or approximating in height to the loftiest story of the Eiffel
Tower. Across the rapids light bridges of bamboo are thrown, at the end of
each monsoon. There are thus two ways of crossing the river--one by the
pool above the falls where there is a ferry-boat which can take over
horses as well as people--the other by the bridges of the rapids--and it
is necessary to cross the river because the only bungalow is on the north,
or Bombay side of the river, and the best point for seeing the falls is on
the southern side. The only way too of reaching the bottom of the falls is
by the southern side.
The only objection to these falls is the difficulty of getting at them,
owing to their being quite out of the usual travellers' route, and that is
why they have, if I may judge by the travellers' book at the bungalow,[7]
been, comparatively speaking, rarely visited. Then there is no railway
nearer than about ninety miles, and though the falls are only thirty-five
miles from the western coast, steamers do not call at the nearest port to
them. Nor is it at all even probable that any line will ever be brought
nearer to the falls than about sixty miles. It is, too, rather
discouraging to have the prospect of a ninety mile road journey to see the
falls, and then return by the same route. But I would suggest that a
traveller might make a very enjoyable trip by going from Bombay to Hoobli
on the South Maharatta line, and, on the way to Gairsoppa visit the
Lushington Falls which are about 400 feet in height, the Lalgali Fall
which has a series of picturesque rapids and cascades, with a total fall
of from 200 to 300 feet, and the Majod falls where the Bedti-Gangaveli
river forms a picturesque waterfall leaping in a series of cascades over
cliffs varying in height from 100 to 200 feet in height, and together 800
feet high. I have not visited any of these last named falls. An account of
them and other places of interest in the Kanara district is given in the
"Bombay Gazetteer" for Kanara,[8] which gives a complete history of this
interesting district, and is a book which the traveller should buy, as it
is well worthy of a place in any library. I now proceed to give an account
of my visit to the Gairsoppa Falls.
On the 12th of January, 1886 (I should not advise the traveller to visit
the falls earlier than November 1st nor later than the middle of January,
as the water lessens after the latter date), I arrived at the Travellers'
Bungalow at the Falls, after having travelled there by the coast route
from Bombay, which I found so troublesome that I cannot recommend its
adoption. The bungalow, which is about thirty-five miles from the western
coast, and on ground 1,800 feet above sea level, is situated in a truly
romantic spot (in fact rather too romantic if we take the possibility of
an earthquake into consideration), for it is close to the edge of a gorge
900 feet deep, and in full view of the face of the precipice over which
the waters of the Arrowborn river precipitate themselves on their way to
the western sea. To north, south, east, and west stretch hills and vales
for the most part covered with the evergreen forest, and only here and
there showing grassy slopes and summits. On the opposite side of the gorge
as you peer down into it you can see emerging from the edge of the jungle
about half way down from the top of the side of the gorge what looks like
a long ladder of stone, but which really consists of the rough steps by
which alone the bottom of the falls can be reached.
On the following morning I proceeded to cross the river by the bridges
over the rapids. The first rapid is that of the Rajah Fall, the water of
which shoots sheer from the cliff, and, without even touching a rock,
falls 830 feet into a pool 132 feet deep. After crossing the bridge you
sometimes walk through, and sometimes clamber over, the vast assemblage of
rocks and huge boulders which form the bed of the river, and are deeply
submerged when the river is full. The sight here is extremely curious and
interesting as, after leaving the bridge of the Rajah rapid, there are
about 1,000 feet of rock and boulders to pass through or over before you
reach the next rapid, and, when half way, there would be nothing to show
that you were not wandering through a mere wilderness of rocks were it not
for the unceasing thunder, far below, from the bottom of the Rajah Fall.
The next rapid to be crossed is that of the Roarer, which takes, before it
goes over the precipice a most singular course--first flowing into a basin
at the edge of the cliff, and then leaving this in a northerly direction,
after which it rushes down a steep stony trough to fall into the same deep
pool which receives the water of the Rajah Fall. After crossing the bridge
of the Roarer rapid the bed of the river has again to be traversed and at
a distance of about 700 feet you reach the rapid of the Rocket. This is a
fall of wonderful beauty, for the water projects itself sheer from the
cliff to fall about 100 feet on to a vast projecting piece, or rather
buttress of rock, which causes the water to shoot out into a rocket-like
course from which are thrown off wonderfully beautiful jets, and arrowy
shoots of water, and spray, and foam, which seem to resemble falling stars
or shooting meteors. You then pass over another section of the river bed
for about 500 feet till you reach the rapid, or rather stream, of the la
Dame Blanche Fall which glides gently over the precipice in a broad
foaming silvery sheet. From the first rapid to the last the distance is
about 733 yards. I have met with no estimate of the total width of the
fall when the river is in full flood, but it can hardly be less than half
a mile wide, and the depth of the water, as one can see from the high
water mark, must be very great. It is interesting to note on the tops of
the boulders here and there the circular stones that have, during each
monsoon, been whirling round and round, each one in its own pothole.
After crossing the last bridge you then walk over the rocks into the
forest beyond and strike the path which leads down through the forest on
the Mysore side of the river, to a point called Watkin's platform--an
open-sided shed about 100 feet below the top of the falls, and which
commands a view of the gorge below the falls, and a fair, though rather
distant view of the falls. When approaching the platform I was positively
startled by a vast shrieking clang which suddenly burst on the ear and
seemed to fill the air. This I afterwards found had come from the
semi-cavernous gorge of rock about half a mile away, into which fall the
waters of the Rajah and Roarer rapids, and though I afterwards heard
somewhat similar sounds issuing from these falls, I never heard again
anything approaching to this singular and startling burst of sound. These
sounds have often been remarked upon, but no one seems to have attempted
to trace their cause, but they most probably arise from the escape of air
which has been driven by the falling waters into some deep fissures of the
rock.
Having thus taken a general view of the situation, I then returned to the
bungalow for breakfast, and in the afternoon at about two o'clock returned
to Watkin's platform by the route of the ferry across the pool, and, with
my companion, set out for the foot of the falls, first of all by a steep
winding path, and then by a flight of very rough and uneven steps which
had been formed by placing stones in places on and between the rocks. When
descending, we often paused to view the constantly changing scene, for,
as we got lower and lower, the rainbow hues across each fall, which were
at first widely broken by the masses of cliff stretching between the
falls, came closer and closer, till at last, when we reached the region
where the spray of all the falls was mingled, the iris hues stretched
across the gorge in an unbroken band of colour. At length, as we neared
the foot of the fall, we reached a small open-sided shed, which had
recently been erected on the occasion of the Maharajah of Mysore's visit.
From this, which was probably fifty feet from the bottom of the gorge and
about 100 yards from the falls, an admirable view was obtained of the
entire situation, and we began to realize how impossible it is to form any
adequate conception of the falls from the top, or from the higher sides of
the gorge. We next descended to the bottom of the gorge, where the ground
is strewn with vast boulders of rock, which had evidently fallen from the
cliff as it had been eaten back by waters toiling through countless bygone
ages. Many of these masses of rock lie at some distance from the foot of
the falls, and on the partially decayed surfaces of some of them
vegetation had evidently been flourishing for an indefinite period of
time. Huge masses of rocks and boulders, as you look down the river, seem
almost to block up its route towards the western sea, and indeed so
completely seem to fill up the pass, that one seemed to be standing at the
bottom of a rock-bound hollow which had been excavated by the agency of
Nature, after a toil through periods of time far beyond the calculations
of man.
As I found that the rocks at the foot of the falls were covered with a
slimy mud, and as I was suffering slightly from a damaged foot, I
presently returned to the shed, while my companion proceeded to explore
the bed of the gorge further down the river. The floor of the shed had
been strewed with straw, and I lay down at full length, partly to rest
and partly to examine the situation more minutely, for the height is so
great that it is impossible adequately to survey the scene in any other
position. And then, when you have stillness and solitude, and when the
body is in complete repose, there pour in on eye and ear floods of
impressions so quickly varying that the mind feels quite unable to record
them, and there is finally nothing left behind but a vague and
indescribable sensation of all that is grand and beautiful and melodious
in nature. For there are vast heights and gloomy depths and recesses, and
varied forms of falling waters, and in the general surroundings everything
to convey exalted ideas of grandeur to the mind, but grandeur accompanied
by exquisite beauty, in colour, in the graceful movement of animal life,
and in the varying sounds of falling waters--the charm of the iris hues
which ever beautify the falling waters--beauty in the varied colours of
the rocks, and in the plants and ferns growing in the fissures of the
cliff--beauty in exquisite forms of motion--of water varied in countless
ways as it descends from the four separate falls--beauty in the unceasing
movements of countless swallows, mingled here and there with specimens of
the Alpine swift and the pretty blue-hued rock pigeons, which build their
nests on the ledges of the cliffs, and are constantly to be seen flying
across the falls. Then there are the unceasing and ever varying sounds of
falling waters, grand in their totality, grand and melodious in their
separate cadences--the deep bass of the Rajah, sometimes like cannon
thundering in the distance, and sometimes like the regular tolling of some
vast Titanic bell; sounds of most varied and brilliant music from the
Rocket; the jagged note of the Roarer, as its waters rush down their
steep, stony trough; the eerie and mysterious sounds which, sometimes like
a mingling of startling shrieks and clangs, and sometimes, to the active
imagination, like the far-off lamentations of imprisoned spirits,[9]
occasionally rise from the semi-cavernous chasm which has been hollowed
out behind the great pool beneath the cliff; the gentle murmuring note of
the White Lady Fall, tangled threads of sound from which fall in fitful
cadences on the ear as the wind rises and falls athwart the falls; and
lastly, but by no means leastly, the undulating and endless varieties of
sounds which, having broken away from their original source, are ever
wandering and echoing around the rock-bound gorge. Beautiful indeed and
altogether indescribable are the elements of melody which are created by
the falling waters of the Arrowborn river!
And the music, too, seemed to be for ever varying, for the choral odes
which were sweetly chanted to the ear were not perpetually continuous, and
at times, owing to some change in the direction of the wind as it swirled
around the gorge, the choral element was subordinated to the deep thunder
of the Rajah Fall, or the vague tumult of startling discords which arose
at intervals from the semi-cavernous walls of the pool into which plunge
the waters of the Rajah and Roarer Falls. And then these sounds would
gradually lose their predominance, and the more uniform sounds in which
all the four falls joined would once more fill the air and charm the ear.
And thus the attention could never be lulled to sleep, for here monotony
was not, and the mind was always kept in an attitude of expectancy for the
variations in the music which were sure to come, and, so far as they
reached the ear, were never the same combinations of sounds that had been
heard before. All the elements of melody were here, indeed, in profuse
abundance, and it seemed as if they only required to be caught by some
master hand and strung into methodical musical combinations to yield to
the mind and feelings those exquisite sensations which music alone can in
any effective degree convey.
And besides the effects we have noticed, there is the motion of colour
constantly, though gradually, shifting and altering, for, as the sun
declines, the rainbow hues move steadily upwards on the face of the falls,
and the colours of the rocks, which are of varying shades of purple and
yellow, continually alter in character with the sinking day. But the
finest combined effects of beauty and grandeur are, perhaps, most fully
felt when, late in the afternoon, the eye wanders delighted over the vast
combination of lofty cliffs and falling waters to rest finally far above
on the iris tints of the Rajah and Roarer Falls, through the colours of
which myriads of swallows incessantly wheel on lightsome wing, mingled
with the quick, darting movement of the Alpine swifts, and the gentle
flight of the blue rock pigeons, which occasionally wing their way through
the mazy throng. For there the eye is ever delighted with the charm of
colour and of those endless variations of graceful movement which
continuously convey pleasurable sensations to the mind. But how could eye
or ear ever tire of those rare combinations of form, colour, motion and
rhythmic sounds which fill the mind with an exalted sense of feeling and
of pleasure, and the conscious heart with exquisite sensations far beyond
the power of language to describe?
Presently my companion returned and aroused me from my state of dreamy
pleasure, and I turned reluctantly away from the scene as the rainbow
colours were, with the sinking sun, beginning to disappear from the
topmost heights of the falls.
Delightful indeed were the brilliant and varied scenes I have been
attempting to describe, and after them the remainder was by comparison
tame, but still I found that, as I took a canoe the following evening and
rowed up the forest-margined pool from which the rapids emerge, that the
minor scenes at the falls have exquisite charms of their own. And then it
was that I realized that, varying though the scale may be, there is
everywhere about the falls the same beauty of detail and beauty of
combined effect, and that, too, unaccompanied by a single jarring note.
For nowhere can you say, as you can often say in viewing scenes elsewhere,
"leave out this, or alter that, and the scene would be perfect," and in
none of the scenes about the falls does anything poor, or base, or mean,
or uninteresting strike the eye, and as I rowed slowly up the pool I felt
that the mind was both charmed and soothed by the exquisite repose of the
scene, which is only broken, if indeed it can be said to be broken, by the
beautiful birds and gaily painted kingfishers which occasionally wing
their way across the water, or flit along the margin of the forest-clad
shore. As you look towards the West the eye wanders over the wild
assemblage of water-worn rocks and boulders which intervene between the
pool and the head of the falls, to rest finally on the distant hills,
covered mostly to their tips with the evergreen forest, while on looking
up the river you see that it is flanked by woods on either hand, and as
you lose sight of the water as it bends towards the south, the eye glances
upwards to hills of moderate height, wooded in the hollows, and showing on
the ridges grassy vistas dotted with occasional trees.
On returning, I went lower down in the pool than the point I had started
at, and passed a number of rocks worn into all sorts of curious shapes,
and one of these leaned, like some gigantic Saurian, over the flood. As we
neared the rapids, one felt that one would by no means like to run any
risk of being drawn into one of them, and I was by no means anxious to go
nearer to them than the boatmen, wished. One of them told me that the
natives sometimes descended the cliffs between the Roarer and the Rocket
Falls in order to carry off the fledglings from the nests of the blue rock
pigeons, and said that several lives had thus been lost. He said that
there was no way of reaching the bottom of the cliff, and rather quaintly
added, "Those who came up again came up, and those who did not, died." He
said that some European had once put what was evidently dynamite into the
pool. A great explosion followed, which killed a large number of fish,
many of which were washed over the falls.
In the evening I sat for a long time in the bungalow veranda smoking my
cigar, and looking dreamily out at the moonlit falls, and observing from
time to time the scenic changes that were produced by the great masses of
mist which drifted up the gorge below me to be dispersed as they touched
the cliffs, and presenting, as they did so, most charming pictures. In the
morning, too, beautiful effects were to be seen, as masses of mist arose
from the chasm of the Rajah to flit in fleecy fragments across the face of
the falls. But the scenes about this spot are of endless variety, and I
must allow myself to mention only one more, which my companion saw one
morning from Watkin's platform when the iris hues were on the pool below
the falls, which, as the spray fell into it, seemed like a mass of golden
water dotted all over, as if yellow tinted rain were falling into it. On
some occasions visitors have illuminated the falls with fireworks, and by
floating over the falls ignited bundles of straw soaked in paraffin, and I
regret that I had not thought of following their example.
Next morning I set out on a drive of about 150 miles to my plantations in
Manjarabad. As we left the falls, we passed, and close to the river pool
above them, a tree covered with fruit which was being eaten by green
pigeons and other birds, and on looking up into it I was surprised, as it
is an animal of nocturnal habits, to see a large and beautiful flying
squirrel peering at me with a quiet but by no means apprehensive eye. I
was strongly tempted to shoot it for the sake of its skin, but my
companion, who had been much affected by the beauties of the falls, said
that it would be a sacrilege to shoot anything so near them. So I spared
his feelings and the poor squirrel, and am now very glad to think that I
did so. I may here mention that the traveller, though he sets out early in
the morning and late in the afternoon, very rarely sees anything in the
shape of big game, even though the jungles he may be driving through may
abound with it, and the sole exception I can remember, after numerous
journeys through them, occurred on the occasion of my drive home from the
falls, when, early one morning, a tiger bounded across the road at a
distance of about 100 yards ahead. It is also worthy of remark that you
very seldom see a snake, and, though I landed on the Western coast at
Carwar and travelled by easy stages by way of the falls to my estate, I
did not see a single snake during the whole course of the journey.
As it is probable that this account of the Gairsoppa Falls may induce
travellers to visit them, I think it may be useful to give an account of
the Cauvery Falls on the southern frontier of Mysore, which are well
worthy of a visit, and easily accessible. The best time for visiting them
is generally said to be August, or not later than the middle of September,
though when I visited them on the 25th of that month last year, the river,
though not in full flood, had an ample supply of water in it, and, from
Mr. Bowring's description of his visit to them on November 21st,[10] there
must still, up to that date, be a considerable flow in the river. From my
own experience, I feel sure that the best time to see these falls is after
the great floods have subsided, as the water then is clear, or nearly so,
and the effects, as in the case of the Gairsoppa Falls, are far more
varied and brilliant. There is one point I would here particularly impress
on the traveller, and that is, that when visiting falls such as those of
Gairsoppa and the Cauvery, which present a great variety of scenic
effects, and are not merely monotonous single masses of water, he should
devote at least two clear days to them, i.e., he should arrive on one
day, remain two days, and leave on the fourth day. He should also select a
time when there is a sufficiency of moonlight. I was particularly
impressed with the first point, because I most thoroughly enjoyed my visit
to Gairsoppa as I had two clear days there, whereas my visit to the
Cauvery Falls was attended with that sense of hurry which, if not
destructive of all enjoyment, leaves behind on the mind a feeling that
many points in the scenes must have been either missed or quite
inadequately observed. The account of my visit to these falls, however,
may at least be useful in showing a traveller short of time how to visit
them with the least possible expenditure of it.
I left Bangalore, then, on the morning of Thursday, September 24th, 1891,
by the 8.20 a.m. train, for the Mudoor Railway Station, on the lino to
Mysore city, and arrived there shortly after midday. I then had luncheon
at the station, and left for the Malvalli Travellers' Bungalow at a little
before three, in a carriage I had sent on from Bangalore with two pairs of
horses (it is advisable to have an extra pair posted), and arrived at my
destination shortly after five. To this bungalow, which is about fourteen
miles from the falls, I had previously sent on with my native servants
bedding and mosquito curtains, and the means necessary to prepare meals
for the party. Reports had reached us of creeping things being abroad in
this bungalow, and my servant had been particularly enjoined to look out
for, and, as far as possible, guard against them. This he had done by
putting the bedsteads in the sun and doing what further he could. But
notwithstanding his assurances of safety, one of the ladies of the party
insisted that, from all she had heard, there must be creeping things
somewhere about. The servant listened with an air of respectful attention
to all she had to say, and, when she had quite done, said with quiet
persistence, and much to our amusement, "What Missus says is true, but
there are no bugs," and I am glad to say that he was justified in making
the assertion. We rose very early the following morning, started at 4.20,
at 6.20 arrived at the bungalow near the falls, and, after a little delay
to get a cup of tea, drove at once to the nearest fall. But I must here
pause for a few moments to describe the general situation of the river,
the islands formed by its splitting into two distinct branches, and the
position of the fall--a total situation which is not easily comprehended
without the aid of a map.
The Cauvery Falls are on the river of that name, which rises in Coorg,
and, after a run of 646 miles to the south-east, falls into the Bay of
Bengal about midway between Madras and Cape Comorin. Before reaching
Seringapatam (which is on an island in the river) it is joined by the
Hemavati which rises to the north of Manjarabad and, as we have seen,
skirts the eastern border of that talook, or county. As the Hemavati sends
down a large body of water the source of which is more distant from the
sea than the spot in Coorg which is called the head of the Cauvery, I may
remark in passing that it is singular that the latter should have been
regarded as the source of this fine river, which really rises in Mysore.
But, rise where it may, it at last arrives at a point on the southern
frontier of Mysore where the bed of the Cauvery splits into two channels
and forms the island of Hegora, which is about three miles long, and from
a quarter of a mile to a mile wide, and, by a rather curious, coincidence,
almost exactly the size of the island on which the fortress of
Seringapatam has been built. The northern branch of the river washes the
Mysore frontier and this, after about two miles, again divides, or rather
a small branch diverges to the north and, forming a loop, cuts away from
the mainland the island of Ettikoor, and there falls into the northern
branch of the river by various cascades, and just below the point where
the falls on the main northern branch occur. This group of falls is called
Gangana Chuckee.
The southern branch of the river on the Madras side flows as a single
stream for about half a mile, and then splits off some of its water into
various channels, but forming nothing worthy of the name of an island till
it severs from the mainland the island of Hegora, a strip of land about
two furlongs at the widest, and less than a mile in length. To the south
of this the main body of the water goes to form lower down the fine series
of cascades and falls called the Bar Chuckee, while a comparatively small
body of water goes to the left to form the pretty series of cascades and
steep runnels of water which fall, though at a different point of the
compass from the main falls, into the wide pool at the foot of the Bar
Chuckee Falls. After this necessary digression I now proceed to narrate
what I saw and did.
I drove, then, after a short delay at the bungalow, to the Gangana Chuckee
Falls, passing on the way the temple of Sivasamudrum, and various
buildings connected with it, and leaving the carriage, walked down towards
the falls, passing on the right Pir's Tomb, the grave of a Mahometan
priest of that name, and went to a point just below it, from which a fine
general view of these falls and the river can be obtained. Glancing
upwards, the view of the river, as the waters race down their steep stony
bed towards the falls amidst numerous projecting rocks, is extremely grand
and picturesque. Then at a point just below the spot I was standing on,
the water plunged down a nearly precipitous descent, from which it
apparently (for the spray prevented one seeing exactly) fell
perpendicularly into the pool below, sending up as it did so gossamer
veils of spray full of fleeting, faint, and ever varying iris hues. This
pool is flanked, and probably about 100 yards below the foot of the
previously mentioned fall, on the northern side by a precipice about 250
feet high, down which, in four separate cascades, falls the water of the
branch of the river which cuts off the small island of Ettikoor. On the
side of the precipice next to the great fall of the main river stands a
piece of tree-clad rocky ground, apparently about 50 feet higher than the
precipice, and this is flanked by a rapid at the top, passing into a
cascade lower down, which then held but little water, but which in floods
must add much to the beauty of the scene. After viewing the scene for
sometime, I returned to the carriage, and drove across the island to visit
the Bar Chuckee Falls, and left the carriage at a point where the road
begins to descend into the valley into which the southern branch of the
river precipitates itself. I then advanced to a point on the right of the
road from which a fine general view can be obtained, though it is rather
too distant as regards the main body of the falls, and, as I reached the
point in question, came suddenly into view of such a number of separate
falls and cascades that a description of them is extremely difficult. For,
on the opposite side of the valley, I counted no less than thirteen, which
leap partly over one side of a horseshoe shaped precipice which had
evidently, from the huge boulders in the channel below, been eaten back
into the side of the precipice, and partly shoot out through various
hidden channels which the waters have deeply cut through a huge
semicircular platform of rock which overhangs the valley below. As they
thus shoot out the effect is extremely striking and picturesque, and their
resemblance to the spokes of light from a star no doubt caused the natives
to give the very appropriate name of Chuckee (pronounced
Chickee--Kanarese for star) to these beautiful falls. This semicircular
platform of rock stands on one side of the river-bed, next to this we have
the horseshoe-shaped precipice I have mentioned, and next to that again,
as it were by way of quietly beautiful contrast, there is a vast sheet of
steeply sloping rock, which is completely covered by a thin coating of
white, and everywhere foaming water. When the river is at the full this
fine series of falls and cascades vanishes, and is replaced, as in the
case of the falls at Gairsoppa, by one great fall about half a mile wide.
After looking at this beautiful scene, the eye wanders next over some
jungle-clad slopes on the western side of the main falls, to dwell on a
series of cascades and racing waters which descend through channels
flanked on either side by scrubby plants and trees--a series which arises
from a branch which diverges about a mile higher up the river, and the
cascades and runnels of water of which are scattered round precipitous
slopes right up to, and immediately below, the point on which I was
standing. All the falls and cascades unite in a pool below of great width,
from which the water escapes through a narrow gorge, to join, further
down, the river branch on which are the Gangana Chuckee Falls. The general
effect here appears to be that you are looking at falls and cascades
proceeding from two different rivers, the one flowing from the south and
the other from the west, and the effect is the same at the first described
falls. The general height of all the falls is said to be from 200 to 250
feet, and in Mr. Bowring's "Eastern Experiences" 300 feet, but I can find
no account, and could hear of no particulars, as to when or how
measurements were taken, as in the case of the falls at Gairsoppa, which
were carefully surveyed by officers of the Indian Navy. I was particularly
struck with the absence of bird life at these falls, and only saw two
small birds, and one hawk, and a small flight of what in the distance
appeared to be pigeons, which alit on a rock at the foot of one of the
falls.
It is impossible to refrain from contrasting these falls with those at
Gairsoppa. The Cauvery Falls have indeed much beauty and grandeur in
river, and varied waterfall scenery, and had I not seen the Gairsoppa
Falls I should have thought that it would have been difficult to find
anywhere in the world scenes more varied and beautiful. But the beauties
of the falls of Cauvery are set in comparatively speaking sterile
surroundings of rock and scrubby jungle, trees and shrubs scattered over
ground partly undulating, and partly over hills of moderate height and
uninteresting form. Then the grandeur arising from their great height, and
the charms of the varied sounds of the falls of Gairsoppa, and the
marvellously beautiful effects of graceful bird life wheeling and darting
amidst the iris hues of the falls, and the setting of the whole scene
amidst the tropical wealth of the evergreen forest of the Western Ghauts,
afford combinations which far exceed those of the Cauvery Falls. I have no
hesitation in saying, as a traveller to the falls of Gairsoppa has said
before, that they alone would repay one for all the trouble of the voyage
to India. But, beautiful and grand as they undoubtedly are, I cannot quite
say the same of the Cauvery falls, though I can with confidence say that
if the traveller leaves India without seeing them he will certainly have
missed one of the scenes best worth seeing in it.
After spending some time at the Bar Chuckee Falls I then drove back to the
bungalow and, leaving the carriage there, walked rather more than half a
mile to the bridge which connects the island with the Madras side of the
river, and which I closely examined, as it is a most curious and
interesting specimen of the work of native engineers, and as it has
withstood the floods of about seventy years, one of which passed over the
roadway of the bridge to a depth of three feet, is most highly creditable
to native workmanship. A similar bridge connects the island with the
Mysore side of the river, and both bridges were repaired at his own cost
by a native in the employ of the Mysore Government, who in recognition of
this important work, received from the British Government, for himself and
his heirs (who are bound to keep up the bridges) land yielding an annual
revenue of £800, and of £900 from the Mysore Government.
The bridge I now proceeded to examine. It is built entirely of stone
without any mortar or cement, and is supported on two rows of single block
stone pillars standing on slabs of stone placed on the river bed. Those
pillars are about nine feet high and eight feet apart. On the top of each
pillar is first of all a thick block of stone projecting about eighteen
inches from the pillar on its upper and lower sides. Then on this was a
rather thicker block of stone, and on the top of all cross beams of solid
single stones had been laid, and from one cross beam to another were solid
and closely put together slabs of stones, some of which were eighteen
inches wide, and some rather wider, thus making a roadway above so narrow
that two carriages cannot pass each other. In order to strengthen the
pillars and keep them in position, a flat slab of stone had been laid on
the bed of the river, from the base of the lower pillar to within about
two feet of the upper one, and between the end of this slab and the pillar
a thick, high block of stone had been wedged. In this bridge there were
109 pairs of pillars, giving a total length of about 1,000 feet. I was
struck with the difference in the age of the pillars, and with the fact
that, whereas some were plain, roughly hewn pillars, others, which had
been dressed and chiselled into various forms, were evidently of great
antiquity, and I was subsequently informed by the clerk of the proprietor
of the island that the latter had been procured from ruined temples in
the neighbourhood. These bridges at first sight seem to be curved in a
slight loop up the stream, but a closer examination shows that they have
been built in several lines, first slightly up the stream and then
advancing by several straight lines to a blunt arrow-like point in the
centre of the river, and this was evidently to enable the bridges the
better to resist the heavy floods, one of which, as I have previously
mentioned, went no less than three feet over the roadway. As you stand on
the edge of the river and look along the centre of the rows of pillars the
effect is very curious, as they then present the appearance of a long
colonnade of pillars of various shapes, with a flat roof of solid slabs of
stone overhead.
After thoroughly inspecting the bridge, I lay for some time in the shade
of a tree which stood on the bank of the river about fifty yards below the
bridge, and awaited the arrival of the carriage, which I had sent for as
the day was getting hot, and as I thus lay languidly observing the long
colonnade, and the water which rapidly flowed between the pillars, and
looked up the river as it stretched away to the north-west, and enjoyed
the cool air which gently moved along the water, I felt a quiet sense of
enjoyment which gave me a greater, and certainly a more lasting, sense of
pleasure than I had experienced when visiting the beautiful falls I have
just endeavoured to describe. I mention this for the moral, which is, that
to enjoy scenery the body must be comfortable and in complete repose. I
would also add that you must be alone, or practically alone, by being out
of sight or hearing of your companions. Presently I was aroused by the
rumble of the carriage, and, collecting my party, returned to the bungalow
for luncheon. At about half past four the carriage was brought round, and
we drove to our temporary home to dinner, and on the following day reached
Bangalore at two o'clock, the whole trip having thus occupied about sixty
hours.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] No less than 291.53 inches fell this year, between April and the last
day of September, at a Cardamom plantation on the crests of the Ghauts.
[5] After the fall of Seringapatam some further military operations were
necessary in Manjarabad, and some of Colonel Wellesley's letters were
written within a few miles of my bungalow.
[6] So called from its flowing from a source which was supposed to have
been formed by a stroke of Rama's arrow.
[7] All travellers are obliged to record their names in these books, and
state the time they have stayed, and the sums they have paid for the use
of the bungalow.
[8] "Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency," vol. xv. Kanara, Bombay. Printed
at the Government Central Press, 1883.
[9] The native idea.
[10] "Eastern Experiences," by L. Bowring, C.S.I.; Henry S. King and Co.,
London, 1871. Before visiting Mysore the traveller should certainly buy or
consult this book.
CHAPTER III.
MYSORE--ITS HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY.
In my last chapter I gave a description of Mysore and its waterfalls. In
the present chapter I purpose very briefly remarking on its history,
government, and representative assembly, and shall conclude by contrasting
the last with the so-called National Indian Congress.
In his Report of December, 1804, the Acting Resident of Mysore, Colonel
Mark Wilks, observed that "the territories composing the present dominion
of His Highness the Rajah of Mysore had, from the remotest periods of
tradition, been held by a number of polygars and petty Rajahs, whose
possessions were incessantly enlarged, diminished, or alienated, by a
series of revolutions which it would perhaps be impossible to trace, and
unprofitable to describe," and it is interesting to note how little, at
that time, seems to have been known about the history of the kingdoms we
conquered. But all doubts as to the early history of Mysore have now been
removed, and the reader will find in Mr. Rice's admirable gazetteer of
Mysore a minute history of the country accompanied by coloured maps which
show at a glance the numerous transitions which the territories now
comprised under the head of Mysore have undergone in former times, but as
I think that it would certainly be unprofitable to describe these
transitions here I shall content myself with a bare enumeration of those
leading facts which are necessary for a general comprehension of the
situation. All, then, that the reader requires to know is, that a line of
Hindoo Rajahs which once reigned over a very limited portion of Mysore
gradually acquired about half of it; that a descendant of their line was
set aside by the Mahometan usurper Hyder Ali (an able soldier of fortune,
who had risen to the chief command of the army); that he conquered the
remainder of the present territory and ruled it from 1761 to 1782; and
that after his death he was succeeded by his son Sultan Tippoo, who on May
4th, 1799, lost his life at Seringapatam, and with it all the territories
acquired by his father, thereby fulfilling what Hyder Ali said when he
observed to his son one day, "I was born to win and you were born to lose
an empire." The subsequent history of the province is soon told. After the
fall of Seringapatam it was resolved to place a descendant of the old
Hindoo line on the throne, and Krishna Rajah Wodeyar--then about five
years old, became Maharajah of Mysore, with Purnaiya (formerly prime
minister of Tippoo) as Dewan and Regent, and Colonel (afterwards Sir
Barry) Close as Resident, while Colonel Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Duke
of Wellington) commanded the division. Under the new Government all at
first went well, and in 1804 the Governor-General declared that during the
past five years "the affairs of the Government of Mysore had been
conducted with a degree of regularity, wisdom, discretion and justice
unparalleled in any native state in India." But, unfortunately for himself
and his subjects, the Maharajah, in 1811, began to rule, and Purnaiya, the
able prime minister, retired, and soon afterwards died. Then followed a
long period of misgovernment, which culminated in the insurrection of
1830, to put down which the aid of British troops had to be called in. A
formal inquiry was then made by the British Government, and the result of
this was that it was determined to transfer the entire administration to
British officers, and put the Maharajah on an allowance for his personal
expenditure. At first two commissioners were appointed to administer the
government, but this was found to be inconvenient, and in April, 1834,
Colonel (afterwards Sir Mark) Cubbon was appointed as sole commissioner
for the province. He occupied the post till February, 1861, when he
retired, and when on his way home died at Suez at about seventy-seven
years of age, having spent the whole of the previous years of the century
in India. He was succeeded by other able commissioners, and nothing of any
political importance happened in the province till June, 1865, when the
Maharajah adopted as his heir a scion of one of the leading families of
his house. It was for some time doubtful whether the Government would
recognize the adoption, as, after the death of the Maharajah, it had been
generally assumed that the province would be annexed, but in April, 1867,
the Home Government decided that it should be recognized, and on September
23rd, 1868, six months after the death of Krishna Rajah, his adopted son,
Chama Rajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, at that time between five and six years
old, was duly installed at Mysore, and it was then decided that the
country should remain under British administration till the Maharajah came
of age. His Highness attained his majority at the age of eighteen, on the
5th of March, 1881, and was formally installed on the throne on the 25th
of that month, and thus the province, after having been directly
administered by the British for almost exactly fifty years, was handed
over, not as we shall afterwards see, to native rule, but to native
administration.
And here a rather interesting question naturally arises. How was such a
change--one quite unique in the history of India--received by the
inhabitants of the country? So far as the planters (of whom I am one of
the oldest, having settled in the province in 1855) are concerned, I do
not think they have been in the slightest degree affected. They were all
well satisfied with the English administration, and I think they are
equally well satisfied with the present native administration. In fact,
there is no change perceptible, except that the criminal administration,
has somewhat fallen off, and it certainly has been occasionally found that
an answer from a native official sometimes resembles death--you think it
is never coming and then it comes when least expected. But I must confess
that, as regards answers to communications, I have heard of similar
complaints made by the former Mysore Government against the Supreme
Government, and of a like complaint made by the latter against the Home
Government. But, though the change was regarded with indifference by the
settlers in the province, and was indeed of obvious advantage to them, as
there is no income-tax, and the finances are flourishing, it was not at
all acceptable to the native population in general, and the native
officials were quite aware that the new administration was not popular. I
made frequent inquiries as to the cause of this, not only from natives in
my own neighbourhood, but from those I met when travelling by easy stages
from the Gairsoppa Falls in the north-western corner of the province to my
estates in Southern Mysore, and found that the universal complaint was
that there was a want of Daryápti, or active inquiry into grievances, and
one of my old native neighbours was loud in his praises of the palmy days
of Sir Mark Cubbon. I confess, however, that though there may have been
some grounds for complaint as regards "inquiry," owing to the greater zeal
and personal activity of Englishmen, I do not think that there were any
real grounds for dissatisfaction, and feel sure that the unpopularity of
the new administration was owing partly to the fact of the country, at the
time of the rendition, not being in a very prosperous condition, partly to
the strong conservative instincts of the natives, and partly, perhaps, to
their being under some apprehension that the abuses of the old native
government might possibly be revived. But, however that may be, from
inquiries made when last in India, and especially from the absence of any
reference to the subject in the many conversations I had with natives of
all classes, I believe that the unpopularity of the new administration,
which at first undoubtedly existed, has now quite passed away.
It may be as well to mention here that, though the administration is now a
native one, there are still, in the Mysore service, about thirty-five
Englishmen in the various departments of the State, and that the most
friendly relations exist between them and the native officials. I feel
sure, too, that the value of an admixture of Englishmen in the
administration is fully recognized by the native officials. As regards
brain power they equal Englishmen, and indeed are often superior to them,
but the classes from which the native officials are mainly drawn are, as a
rule, deficient in that physical vigour which is required for executive
work, as one of the native officials, who himself was an exception to the
rule, once told me, "and therefore," he added, "we must have an admixture
of natives and Europeans in the service." I must, however, observe that,
though his remark is true as regards the Brahminical classes from which
the officials are mainly taken, I think it probable that, when education
spreads, there will ultimately be found amongst the hardy peasantry of
Mysore a fair proportion of individuals who will have a sufficient degree
of physical vigour for executive work. In confirmation of the remark I
have made as to the want of executive vigour on the part of native
officials, a defect which would be equally apparent in us were our energy
not kept up by fresh importations from home, I may mention that, under the
new regime, there has been a distinct falling off in the up-keep of
roads, and in the detection of crime.
In connection with this subject I may make a passing remark on a point
which has not hitherto been noticed, so far as I am aware, by previous
writers. It has constantly been asserted by natives that we have not kept
faith with them as regards opening to them many appointments in the public
service which are at present reserved for Englishmen. I would call
attention to the fact that one of the passages so often quoted contains
really no general promise of employment. This passage--taken from a clause
in the East India Act, passed in Parliament, 1833--merely says "That no
native of the said territories, nor any natural born subject of his
majesty resident therein, shall by reason _only_ of his religion, place of
birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disabled from holding any
place, office, or employment under the said company." "By reason _only_."
Yes, but this does not bar disqualification for other reasons, as for
instance the want of physical vigour to which I have alluded. Then mark
the careful limitation contained in the often quoted passage from the
Queen's proclamation of 1858, which sets forth that "It is our further
will, that, _as far as may be_, our subjects, of whatever race or creed,
be freely and impartially admitted to office in our service, the duties of
which they may be qualified, by their education, _ability_ and integrity,
duly to discharge." But natives have not, generally speaking, the ability
to discharge executive duties requiring much physical vigour, and no one
is more ready to admit that than the best among the natives. But besides
executive efficiency there is the fact that the mere sight of the zeal,
energy, and general interest in progress exhibited by the English is to
the natives around them an education worth all the book instruction we
have imported into India. We cannot have too much of this leavening
element, and the effects of it are everywhere apparent. It is extremely
striking in the coffee districts, where many native planters have been,
much improved as regards go, and a desire to adopt improvements, since
Europeans have settled more freely amongst them.
But it is time now to turn to the subject of the constitution of Mysore--a
subject which, I need hardly say, is of the greatest practical importance
to those who hold, or may think of acquiring, property in the province.
The Instrument of Transfer, then, as it is officially called, by which
Mysore was made over to native administration on the 25th of March, 1881,
begins by declaring the installation of the Maharajah and his power to
rule under certain general conditions, which are--(1) That the Maharajah
and those who are to succeed him in the manner hereinafter provided, are
to hold possession of and administer the province as long as they fulfil
the conditions laid down in the Instrument of Transfer; that (2) the
succession should devolve on the Maharajah's lineal descendant, whether by
blood or adoption, except in the case of disqualification through manifest
unfitness to rule; and that (3) the Maharajah and his successors shall at
all times remain faithful in allegiance and subordination to the British
Crown, and perform all the duties which, in virtue of such allegiance and
subordination, may be demanded of them. Then follow clauses with reference
to the subsidy to be paid to the British Government for protecting and
defending the province, military stipulations, foreign relations, coinage,
railways and telegraphs, and extradition, and as regards the last, it is
declared that plenary jurisdiction over European British subjects in
Mysore shall continue to be invested in the Governor-General in Council,
and that the Maharajah of Mysore shall only exercise such jurisdiction in
respect to European British subjects as may from time to time be delegated
to him by the Viceroy. Then with reference to "Laws and Settlements," it
is declared that those in existence at the time of the transfer must be
maintained, and that the Maharajah of Mysore "shall not repeal or modify
such laws, or pass any laws or rules inconsistent therewith," and that no
material change in the system of administration as established previous to
the date of the transfer shall be made without the consent of the Viceroy.
And finally, under this head, it is declared that all title-deeds granted,
and all settlements of land revenues in force on March 25th, 1881 (the
date of the transfer), shall be maintained, excepting so far as they may
be rescinded or modified either by a competent court of law or with the
consent of the Governor-General in Council. Lastly, under the heading of
"British Relations," it is declared that "the Maharajah of Mysore shall at
all times conform to such advice as the Governor-General in Council may
offer him with a view to the management of the finances, the settlement
and collection of the revenues, the imposition of taxes, the
administration of justice, the extension of commerce, the encouragement of
trade, agriculture, and industry, and any other objects connected with His
Highness's interests, the happiness of his subjects, and his relations to
the British Government." And, "In the event of the breach or
non-observance of any of the foregoing conditions," the Governor-General
may resume possession of Mysore and administer it as he thinks fit. Such,
then, is a brief summary of the Constitution of Mysore; and it is most
necessary to dwell on it with some degree of minuteness in order to show
those Englishmen who are interested in Mysore, or who may be desirous of
settling there, that they and their possessions in that country are as
practically under British rule as they would be in any part of British
India.
I have previously pointed out that there is no income-tax in Mysore. I
have also alluded to the fact that, as the finances are in a flourishing
condition, and, beyond the subsidy annually levied, are free from any
obligation to contribute to the general expenditure of British India,
there are ample and certain means available for developing the resources
of the country. And that these means shall be devoted to that end
exclusively, I would call particular attention to the fact that it has
been laid down by the British Government that, after deducting the amount
set apart annually for the personal expenses of the Maharajah, the
remaining revenues of the province are to be spent on public purposes
only, under a regular system of an annual budget appropriation, and the
proper accounting for such expenditure. So that, taking all the
circumstances into consideration, it is clear that the settlers in Mysore
have advantages over any other settlers in India. The taxes they pay on
their lands are fixed and most moderate in amount, they have every
security that capital can enjoy, and they are living in a country which,
after an ample expenditure on public works of all kinds, has an ample
annual surplus. But, besides those circumstances, the settlers in the
province, and the inhabitants as well, have another advantage which must
by no means be lost sight of, for Mysore has a Representative Assembly,
which sits once a year, and which affords a ready means for publicly
ventilating any grievance, or making known any want which may be felt by
the community; and as there is no institution exactly like it in the
world, I propose to describe the constitution of the Assembly and its
proceedings with some degree of minuteness.
The Mysore Representative Assembly, then, which was originated by Mr.
Rungacharlu, the first Prime Minister of Mysore, was inaugurated on the
25th of August, 1881, or about five months after the accession of the
Maharajah, by the following notification:
"His Highness the Maharajah is desirous that the views and objects which
his Government has in view in the measures adopted for the administration
of the Province should be better known and appreciated by the people for
whose benefit they are intended, and he is of opinion that a beginning
towards the attainment of that object may he made by an annual meeting of
the representative landholders and merchants from all parts of the
Province, before whom the Dewan will place the results of the past year's
administration, and a programme of what is intended to be carried out in
the coming year. Such an arrangement, by bringing the people into
immediate connection with the Government, would serve to remove from their
minds any misapprehension as regards the views and action of the
Government, and would convince them that the interests of the Government
are identical with those of the people.
"The annual meeting will be conveniently held at Mysore immediately after
the close of the Dassara festival, which occasion will offer an additional
inducement to those invited to attend the meeting. For the present the
Local Fund Boards of the several districts will be asked to select from
amongst themselves and others of the district the persons who are to be
deputed to represent their respective districts at the meeting. In order
to represent the landed interests of all the Talooks (counties), as well
as the interests of trade, there should be sent one or two cultivating
landholders from each Talook, possessed of general influence and
information amongst the people, and three or four leading merchants for
the district generally. A list of them should be sent beforehand to this
office, in order to arrange for their accommodation in Mysore. They may be
allowed a small sum from the local funds to meet the actual expenses of
their travelling."
The Assembly thus constituted was, as will have been perceived at a
glance, a purely consultative body, and had no power whatever except (and
a highly important exception it is) that of publicly stating to the rulers
of the country all the grievances and wants of the people. The only
institution that I can hear of that at all resembles it is the Egyptian
General Assembly of the Legislative Council, but that, though a
consultative, and not at all a law-making body, has the power of putting a
veto on any new tax proposed by the Government. In constitution, too, it
differs widely from the Mysore Assembly, as the ministers have seats in
it, while in Mysore no Government official can be a member of the
Assembly. I may mention here that the Egyptian Assembly was initiated by
Lord Dufferin in May, 1883, and I would refer those interested in the
creation of representative institutions to his Report, No. 6 (1883), and
to the Report on Egypt, No. 3 (1892), by Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord
Cromer), both being Blue Books presented to the Houses of Parliament. It
is interesting to note here that whereas Lord Dufferin took the first step
in the direction of representative institutions by uniting, in the same
assembly, Government officials, and members elected on the broad basis of
manhood suffrage, the native statesman began by carefully excluding the
officials, and allowing only the middle and upper classes to have anything
to do with the Assembly.
The first meeting of the Mysore Representative Assembly took place on
October 7th, 1881, when 144 members attended. The Dewan first of all read
the annual report on the administration of the province, and after that
the members were called up in succession and asked to state their
grievances and wants. At the end of the session the Dewan's annual
statement, or report, and an account of the proceedings of the Assembly,
are printed in English and in Kanarese.
The Assembly, as we have seen, consisted of members partly appointed by
the Local Fund Boards, and partly of members nominated through the agency
of Government officials, but at the conclusion of the Dewan's address of
October 28th, 1890, an important change in the constitution of the
Assembly was announced, and a new body of rules was issued. By these all
members were in future to be elected, and the qualifications entitling a
man to vote for, or be elected a member for a county (talook), were (1)
the payment of land revenues, a house and shop tax to the amount specified
in the schedule[11] for each county; (2) the ownership of land to the
value of 500 rupees a year, accompanied with residence in the county; and
(3) any resident in a county who is a graduate of any Indian university is
declared to be a duly qualified person. Those so qualified were to meet on
a certain day, of which a month's notice was to be given, and elect
members from amongst themselves. 212 members from the counties were to be
thus elected. The cities of Bangalore and Mysore return four members each,
and these must either pay a house or shop tax of twenty-four rupees, or be
a graduate of any Indian university; the nine Local Fund Boards return two
members each; the eighty-nine municipalities one for each municipality,
and associations representing approved public interests, and of not less
than 100 members, and also associations of smaller numbers, but recognized
by Government--as for instance the Planters' Associations--may depute one
member each, and the total of all the members is estimated at 351. By Rule
6 it is declared that "As the object of the Assembly is to elicit
non-official public opinion, no person holding a salaried appointment
under Government shall vote for, or be returned as, a member of the
Assembly." By Rule 7, each member is to prepare and forward to the deputy
commissioner a memo describing seriatim the representations and
suggestions he may desire to make at the meeting of the Assembly; and by
Rule 9 the memoranda are to be forwarded, with the deputy-commissioner's
remarks, to the Chief Secretary to Government. By Rule 10 all the members
are to hold a formal meeting at Mysore not less than three days before the
meeting of the Assembly, and should they decide at this preliminary
meeting to bring forward at the Assembly any subjects not mentioned in the
memoranda previously sent in by members, a supplemental list of such
subjects must be sent in to the Chief Secretary.
When announcing the adoption of these new rules, the Dewan alluded to the
fact that the constitution now given did not insure a full popular
representation, and stated that numerous practical difficulties stood in
the way of widening the representation. Finally he concluded by observing
that, "It is His Highness' sincere hope that the privilege he has now been
pleased to grant will be exercised to the fullest extent, and in the most
beneficial manner possible, and that it will be so appreciated by all as
to enable His Highness gradually to enlarge the circle of electors, so as
to give wider effect to the principle of representation in the
constitution of this Assembly."
To this, the first elected Assembly that ever sat in India, I was returned
as representative of the South Mysore Planters' Association. On the 11th I
proceeded to the city of Mysore, and on the 12th of October, 1891,
attended the preliminary meeting of members, which was held in the
Rungacharlu Memorial Hall--a fine building with a large hall, which has a
wide daïs at one end, and a, very wide gallery running along three sides
of the hall. The meeting was held at 8 a.m. in the body of the hall,
where I found that a considerable body of people, who I presume were
mostly representatives, were present. The hall was arranged with benches,
very much as most modern churches are, and just below the daïs was a long
table with chairs on one side of it. It was proposed that I, the only
European present, should take the chair, and I accordingly did so, being
supported on either hand by two members who had a fluent command of
English, and what was of more importance to me, of Kanarese, for, though I
had a colloquial knowledge of that language, I had not such a command of
it as was necessary for satisfactory public speaking. I accordingly read
out in English (which a certain number of the audience knew) each, measure
I proposed, and then informed the audience in Kanarese that one of the
members would explain the subject in that language, and I found that this
arrangement answered all practical purposes. The following measures had
been drawn up by me previously in Bangalore after consultation with some
leading members of the Assembly, and were printed and circulated amongst
the members present, and it may not be uninteresting to give some of them
here.
The first point taken up related to measures for the prevention of famine,
and, after some discussion, four proposals were unanimously agreed to, all
of them for the promotion of the digging of wells either by private
enterprise or through the agency of the State. The next point related to
fuel and fodder reserves, which it was agreed should be established on the
lands of all villages, or near all villages, wherever land suitable for
the purpose could be found. We then turned to a bill I had laid on the
table with reference to advances to labourers--an important and difficult
subject--when it was agreed that it should be referred to the Planters'
Association for consideration. An amendment on the waste land rules for
planting trees for timber and fuel was then considered and agreed to.
After this it was resolved that a Government agricultural chemist Ought to
be appointed, who would be competent to advise on agricultural practice,
cattle disease, etc., and give lectures on such subjects. We then took up
the subject of British interference with proposed irrigation works in
Mysore, and resolved that the Mysoreans should be allowed to have the full
use of the water of Mysore for irrigation purposes, and be free from any
interference as long as the water, or what is left of it, is returned to
its original channel. The subject of extradition was next considered, when
the representatives resolved that (1) complete reciprocity should be
granted between British and Mysore territory as regards warrants, and (2)
that British jurisdiction over railways in Mysore should be given up, or
at least as regards all matters of theft. It was next decided that at the
close of the session the representatives should continue in office till
new members were elected. After this it was agreed that Government
agricultural banks should be introduced. Then the representatives, having
sat for about four hours, adjourned till the following day.
On the 13th we met again accordingly at 8 a.m., and on this occasion sat
in the gallery, which was quite wide enough to accommodate the members. It
was proposed that I should take the chair, and I did so, and opened the
proceedings by introducing rules to regulate the discussion. These were
that the introducer of a proposed measure should be allowed ten, and a
discusser five minutes; that no one should interrupt or rise to speak
before the previous speaker had sat down, and that a discusser could only
be heard once. These rules were agreed to, and I found the last two of
great advantage in managing the proceedings. The first two, I was glad to
find, were hardly necessary, as anything in the shape of the British, or,
worse still, the Irish wind-bag, did not appear to exist amongst the
members.
The next subject taken up was that of organization, and on the assumption
that the Government would grant our prayer that the present members should
not be dismissed at the end of the session, but should continue to be
representatives till their successors were elected, it was resolved that
there should be a standing central committee of the Assembly, and also
district and county committees, and it was agreed that the first should
consist of twenty-two members--for Bangalore and Mysore city six members
each, one from each district, and one from each coffee planters'
association. Seven members to constitute a quorum. The district committees
were to consist of one from each county, and two from the head-quarters of
the district, five being a quorum, and the county committees of three
members. We then agreed to the members who were to form the central
committee and district committees, and, after that, that the Maharajah
should be formally thanked for his action on his part as regards the
Assembly, and that it should be prayed that the measures now asked for
might be granted. And finally, it was arranged that the standing central
committee should draw up an address to the Maharajah, embodying the views
and wishes of the representatives.
The meeting terminated at about 11 a.m., and immediately afterwards the
central committee sat upstairs in a room at an angle of the building, when
I was appointed chairman. We first took up the question of funds, and I
suggested that each member of the Assembly should subscribe one rupee.
This was agreed to, and I at once put a rupee on the table, and presently
there were about fifteen added, and a list was made out of those who had
paid. We then agreed that an address should be presented to the Maharajah
after the termination of the meetings of the Assembly, and afterwards it
was arranged that Mr. C. Rangiengar, B.A., Advocate, Mysore, should be
secretary to the central committee, spend the funds at his discretion for
printing and advertising, and render an account once a year.
The next day was a _dies non_ as regards the Representative Assembly, but
by no means so as regards the Rungacharlu Hall, which at eight in the
morning presented a most interesting appearance, being filled with a large
assemblage of native ladies who had met together to witness the giving of
the prizes to the lady students of the Maharanee's College. The Maharajah
presided on the occasion. Besides prizes for educational proficiency,
there were others for music and singing, and the winners of these played
and sang on a platform below, on one side of the daïs. One of the
musicians, a tastefully-dressed young lady of thirteen, was a
granddaughter of Mr. Rungacharlu, the first Prime Minister of Mysore. One
of the prize-takers was a widow--plainly dressed as widows should be--and
as she came forward there was a loud clapping of hands from the women
spectators in the gallery. I found, on inquiry, that the reason of this
demonstration was that she had lately given a lecture which had been much
appreciated by the students. I have no space to give an account of the
proceedings, though I hope to do so on some future occasion, and can only
say that a more interesting and picturesque assemblage it would be
difficult to imagine.
On the day following, October 15th, the Assembly was formally opened at
twelve, when the Dewan presided at a table on the raised platform. He was
backed and flanked by the principal European and native officers of State,
while on his right sat Sir Harry Prendergast, V.C., the Resident at the
Court of Mysore. The English representatives, five in all, one of them
representing the gold mining interests of the province, had seats on the
platform, and so had as many representatives as there was room for. The
remainder occupied the body of the hall. The Dewan then opened the tenth
annual meeting of the Representative Assembly of Mysore, by reading the
already printed annual administration Report of the Province, and it may
not be uninteresting to quote the opening sentences of it:
"Gentlemen,
"By command of His Highness the Maharajah, I have much pleasure
in welcoming you to this Assembly, which meets here to-day for
the first time under the election system sanctioned last year.
You come here as the duly elected representatives of the
agricultural, the industrial, and the commercial interests of the
State. Last year, when His Highness was pleased to grant the
valued privilege of election, he was not without some misgivings
as to how the experiment would succeed, but it is most gratifying
to His Highness that, though unused to the system, the electoral
body has been able, in the very first year of its existence, to
exercise the privilege with so much judgment and sense of
responsibility as to send to this Assembly men in every way
qualified to speak on their behalf. That men representing the
industry and the intellect of the country should have already
taken so much interest in the scheme augurs well for the future
of the institution. His Highness asks me to take this opportunity
publicly to acknowledge the expressions of warm gratitude which
have reached him from all sides for the privilege of election
granted last year."
The Dewan then proceeded to make his statement of the Revenue and
Expenditure of 1890-91, by which it appeared that the Revenue for that
period--the largest ever realized by the State--was 145 lakhs of rupees,
or, at par,[12] £1,450,000, and the account showed a surplus of 23 lakhs,
or £230,000; but from this had to be deducted a sum for expenditure on
new railways, which reduced the surplus, or rather, disposed of it to such
an amount as to leave a balance of 12-1/2 lakhs, or £125,000. The budget
was then taken up in detail, and the Dewan showed in the most lucid manner
the financial position as regards the various heads of receipts and
expenditure, all of which I shall pass over except that relating to gold,
which the reader will probably find interesting, for, as the Kanarese
proverb says, "If gold is to be seen, even a corpse will open its mouth."
There was, then, an increase in State receipts from gold mining dues to
the extent of 37,000 rupees in the amount of royalty, while "Premia and
deposits on leases" brought in 71,000 rupees. The mines in the Kolar gold
field during 1890 extracted 106,903 ounces of gold. Three of them--the
Mysore, Ooregum, and Nundydroog--showed a considerable increase in
production over the previous year. The first increased from 49,238 oz. to
58,183 oz.; the second from 16,437 oz. to 27,351 oz., and the third from
6,129 oz. to 15,637 oz.
The Dewan then called the attention of the Assembly to the working of some
of the principal departments of the State, beginning with the railways,
and, after giving a very satisfactory account of the progress made,
concluded this branch of his subject by observing that "As regards our
main railway policy there will be no pause in the course of development,
and should our financial condition continue to improve, the next decade
will see the Province intersected with lines which, in the decade
preceding the rendition, were only thought of as remote possibilities." He
next remarked on other public works, and showed that in the last ten years
no less than 471 miles of entirely new roads had been opened up, while 218
miles of incomplete roads, which had been inherited at the time of the
rendition, had been brought up to standard. Then he turned to irrigation,
and stated that the large irrigation works commenced in former years were
advancing towards completion. And here the Dewan alluded to a matter of
the greatest importance, and to which I shall again return further on. It
appears that the Supreme Government had actually put a stop to certain
irrigation works begun by the Mysore Government on the ground that these
would lessen the supply of water from Mysore to British territory. As to
this the Dewan now observed on "The difference which had arisen with the
Madras authorities as to the rights of Mysore to the full use of its
drainage areas." The case had been laid before the Government of India,
and the Dewan said that "the basis for a solution of the difficulty has
been arranged with the Madras Government in a way that is likely to remove
to a considerable extent the check that the progress of our irrigation
works had received in tracts bordering upon the Madras Presidency."
The subject of well irrigation too had not been neglected, and the Dewan
pointed out that its protective value in times of drought is far superior
to tank irrigation, and observed that, "During the last famine the only
oases in the midst of the general desolate appearance of the country were,
besides the tracts watered by our river channels, those special regions
favoured with well irrigation." So important was well irrigation, that the
Government had resolved to make advances to ryots willing to construct
them, at a low rate of interest, and repayable by easy instalments in a
long series of years. In the event of water not being found, or found in
insufficient quantity, the Government had undertaken the risk of failure,
so that the farmer was placed beyond all risk of loss. And, in order to
facilitate the progress of such works, a special officer had been
appointed to give the advances on the spot, so as to avoid the delay
caused by the usual circuitous official correspondence.
I may here pause for one moment to remark on the great value of the
Assembly as regards any new measure like the one just alluded to, for it
often happens that from the scarcity of newspapers, and the inability of
the poorer ryots to purchase them, measures of great value are not taken
advantage of, or only are so after a long delay. Now an assembly like that
of Mysore provides an excellent means for distributing information on all
Government matters, and in one part of his address the Dewan particularly
requested the representatives from two important districts to explain
fully to the people certain matters, the particulars of which I cannot,
for want of space, give here.
The Dewan then went into the interesting subject of Forests, and it was
satisfactory to notice the progress that had been made in planting, and
that sandal wood had year after year been yielding an increased revenue.
The transition from forests to elephants was natural, and during the year
70 had been caught. Some died after capture and others were liberated. Of
the 44 retained, 41, of which 14 were tuskers, were sold for 50,705
rupees. Having fully discussed the elephants, the Dewan turned next to
education, and here he was able to record marked progress in every
direction, and especially in female instruction. There were now 97 girls'
schools in the province, and an important change had been made as regards
their immediate supervision, which was now exercised by local committees.
"The committees," said the Dewan, "have been given large powers of
management, and the initiative rests, in almost all cases, with them,
subject to the approval of Government." The object of this of course was
to interest the people in the subject, and the Dewan observed that "Female
education cannot become firmly established in the country until the people
begin to look upon the education of their girls, whether children or
adults, as necessary, and as obligatory as that of their boys. The
Government have thought that the best way of securing this result in the
infancy of female education is to leave as much as possible to the
intelligent and sympathetic guidance of local committees." After alluding
to the results of the archæological survey, and dwelling on the fact that
during the past year 1,500 inscriptions were secured, some of which were
of great value and interest, the Dewan then took up the subject of excise,
and went into the reforms he proposed to institute as regards that
department. The census of Feb. 26th, 1891, was next alluded to, and by
this it appeared that, including the civil and military' station of
Bangalore, the population returned was 4,943,079 as compared with
4,183,188 in 1881, and 5,055,412 in 1871. The increase during the last
decade was thus very considerable, but Mysore has still some progress to
make before it can bring up its numbers to the census return of 1871,
nearly a million of persons having been swept away in the disastrous
famine of 1876-77. The municipal elections were next alluded to, and it
was announced that the cities of Bangalore and Mysore were to have an
extension of the electoral system. The important subject of the reform of
religious and charitable institutions (there had been several
representations made as regards these in previous years by members of the
Assembly) was next taken up, and it was announced that a specially
qualified officer had been appointed to "inquire into the subject on the
spot, and to carry out the needed reform in the case of each institution
under the general and special orders of Government, and, when once all
institutions are thoroughly reformed and placed upon a sound and efficient
footing, the future management of them on the lines laid down will, as
heretofore, have to be carried on by the local executive authorities."
After alluding to some contemplated reforms in the Civil Service of the
province, the Dewan concluded his able address by alluding to the
apprehensions of famine which had been consequent on the failure of the
rains, and congratulating the members on the fact that owing to good rain
having fallen only a fortnight ago, the threatened danger had now passed
away.
After the conclusion of the Dewan's address I then rose, and, as chairman
of the preliminary meetings of representatives, alluded to the subject of
the organization of committees which we desired to carry into effect, and
urged that, as far as possible, members should avoid going into petty
local grievances, and devote their attention to those large general
questions which affect the whole province. After I had sat down a
translation of the Dewan's address was then delivered in Kanarese, for the
benefit of the representatives who did not understand English, and the
Assembly afterwards adjourned till the following morning.
After the Assembly had adjourned the members of the central committee met
in a private room, and we agreed on the terms of the address to the
Maharajah. Then we returned to the Hall, as it had been thought advisable
to take up several matters which had not been discussed at our first
preliminary meeting, and it was again proposed that I should take the
chair. The first proposal made was that members, instead of being annually
elected to the Assembly, should be elected for three years, and this was
unanimously carried. A leading native member next rose and proposed that
no girl under ten years of age should be given in marriage. Then ensued a
scene of excitement that baffles description. The representatives who, the
moment before, had been quite calm and collected, and who looked so
passive that it seemed that nothing could have aroused them from a
condition of profound composure, became suddenly electrified. A burst of
tongues arose simultaneously all over the Assembly. Several members got up
and tried to speak at once, and one of these (I think I see him now), a
tall, stout, elderly man with a voice of thunder, and his appearance much
accentuated by an enormous bamboo pen which he had thrust behind his ear,
entered into an altercation with the proposer of the motion. I had no
president's bell, and if I had had one I am sure I might have rung it in
vain, and I thought it best to sit still for a little time, and let the
representatives liberate their minds. Presently, and the moment I saw the
first signs of an abatement of the excitement, I rose, and, with a slight
signal of my hand quieted the audience, and observed that, as this was a
subject as to which there was evidently much difference of opinion, and as
it was very desirable that, as regards the measures proposed at our
preliminary meetings,[13] there should be a complete unanimity of opinion,
I begged leave to suggest to the meeting that the subject might be
adjourned, and, if desired, brought up at the next day's meeting of the
full Assembly. This was agreed to, and a member then proposed that two
seers of grain (about equal to four lbs.) should be contributed yearly by
each ryot, and stored up in a public granary against times of famine.
This, I confess, I thought, and still think, a sensible proposal, as, in
the first burst of a famine it is very desirable, till trade operations
from a distance get under weigh, that local supplies should exist, but,
after some discussion, I found that the proposal met with such small
approval, that I did not think of putting it to the meeting. It was next
proposed, and as can easily be imagined, carried unanimously, that where,
from the failure of the rains, there was absolutely no crop whatever, a
remission of the assessment should be granted. Finally it was agreed that,
at the opening of the Assembly on the following morning, I should bring up
and speak on all the points that had been agreed to at the meetings over
which I had presided, and the meeting broke up at three o'clock. After it
was over several of the representatives expressed to me their gratitude
for the interest I had shown in the affairs of Mysore, and from the
numerous evidences I subsequently had of the appreciation of the natives,
I felt most amply repaid for the trouble I had taken.
On the following morning, Friday, Oct. 16th, the Assembly met at eight
o'clock, and I was called on to proceed with my address as chairman of the
preliminary meetings, and though I spoke as briefly as possible on each of
the points which had been agreed to, my speech lasted for one hour and
twenty minutes. After it was over the Dewan asked if any member desired to
speak on any of the points I had brought forward, but no one rose to do
so, which was satisfactory evidence that complete unanimity had existed as
regards the various points, and that I had correctly conveyed the opinions
of the representatives. The Dewan then called upon each representative in
turn to state any grievances, or make known any wants which his
constituents had desired him to represent, and a great many local wants as
regards roads, hospitals, telegraphs, etc., were brought forward. The
subject that excited most interest, and afforded some amusement, was that
of the age at which girls should be given in marriage, which had been
brought forward at the meeting of the day previous. Some discussion ensued
regarding it, when it appeared that the point as to which the
representatives were really most concerned, was that of elderly men who
had no children marrying again and again with the hope of getting them,
regarding which one of the representatives said to me in conversation, "We
object to old fogies marrying young girls." The point was especially urged
by one member, who argued in the most serious manner that, if a man when
in the prime of life had no family there was little likelihood of success
when he was between sixty and seventy years of age. This remark was
received with general laughter, and shortly afterwards the Dewan made a
judicious reply on the whole question, and said that, in his opinion, the
interference of the Government was inadvisable, and that the question was
one that ought to be settled by the people consulting privately on the
subject. Then the Assembly turned to other matters, and finally adjourned
at midday.
I may here mention that I subsequently had some conversation with natives
regarding the marriage question, especially as to the age for
consummation, when I found that the pressure of public opinion, and the
various discussions on the subject, which had appeared in the newspapers,
had already produced a considerable effect in delaying the time for
married girls leaving the paternal roof to join their husbands.
It may perhaps be not uninteresting to mention too that, on the afternoon
of the day on which I made my speech I fell in with two native gentlemen
who spoke to me about it. What I found had been particularly appreciated
(and very naturally so as water is of such vital importance in India), was
the firm protest I had made against the Supreme Government restricting the
Mysoreans as to the use, for irrigation, of the waters of Mysore on the
ground that a more extended use of them would lessen the supply to the
adjacent British territory. In the course of my speech, I made a very
telling point by supposing, for the sake of argument, that Mysore had, as
had been originally proposed, been annexed, and made an integral part of
the Madras Presidency. In that case, I asked, would the Government have
limited the supply of the water to the Mysore part of the presidency in
order to improve the more distant irrigated tracts in other parts of
British territory? I then argued that the British Government would
certainly not have done so, seeing that, to have so acted would have
diminished the means available for contending with famine, for, as I
fully urged, it is perfectly well known that the further the water travels
the greater is the waste from percolation and evaporation, and the smaller
the amount of land it can irrigate. If, then, the British Government would
not have so acted had Mysore been annexed, what right, I asked, had it to
interfere with Mysore regarding the use of its waters, and thereby to
increase the risks of famine in that country? It was no wonder, I
continued, that an English officer in the Mysore service had been heard to
say that he supposed Mysore would not be allowed to plant a tree, in case
it might precipitate some moisture that might otherwise pass over into
British territory.
I may here mention another remark which the above mentioned native
gentleman made as regards my speech. "It was not so much the speech as the
sense of fairness, and frankness, and sincerity which you showed that
impressed us." This remark showed, as I have often found, that the common
idea of natives always having recourse to flattery is a mistaken one, and
it was rather interesting to find the ideas of ancient times repeated by
one who could have heard hardly anything in the way of public speaking.
The reader may remember how Quinctilian in effect said that there is no
instrument of persuasion more powerful than an opinion of probity and
honour in the person who undertakes to persuade, and how it has been
pointed out that the powerful effect caused by the speaking of Pericles
really lay in the confidence which the people reposed in his integrity.
But it is time now to turn to the proceedings of the Assembly, which had
been adjourned to Saturday, October 17th.
On that day, then, we met at 8 a.m., and it was proposed by one of the
representatives that the collection of the land revenues should in future
be postponed till after the harvest, as the present times of collection
were inconvenient to the cultivators and often compelled them to borrow
money, or mortgage their crops in order to find money to meet the
Government demands. The change asked for was warmly urged by the speaker,
who gave very convincing reasons, which I have no space to repeat here, in
favour of the proposed alteration. After this speech was over the Dewan
turned to the head revenue officer and consulted him, and also two English
officials of great experience. I did not look at my watch, but I am sure
the consultation did not last five minutes. The Dewan then turned to the
Assembly and said, "This proposal is granted," and the decision was
received with loud applause. The chief revenue and settlement officer
afterwards told me that this was the most important point ever gained by
the Assembly.
I may pause here to remark that what I saw and heard at the Assembly,
combined with what I previously knew of the Mysore Government, satisfied
me that a more perfect form of government does not exist in the world.
Here, as we have just seen, was a most important measure gained for the
country after what was really a very short consultative meeting between
the ruler and the ruled. The ruler--in other words the Dewan--was sitting
like a judge on the bench, patiently listening to and taking notes of the
various wants of the people as the representatives came
forward--occasionally consulting with his officials--granting some things,
absolutely refusing others, and announcing sometimes that the subject
brought forward would be taken into consideration, while the
representatives seemed to be perfectly satisfied that the ruler would
willingly do, and was willingly doing, the best he could for the common
interest. I may mention that I was particularly struck with the dignified,
gentlemanly and friendly manner of the Dewan when consulting his English
officials, and there was evidently a mutual appreciation existing, which I
had afterwards distinct knowledge of when I subsequently heard some of
these officials alluding, in private conversation, to the Dewan. I have a
great dislike to the idea of being thought guilty of flattery, but I
cannot refrain from recording the remarkable fact that (and how rarely can
this be said of any public man), while I have heard much in favour of the
Dewan, I have never heard a single deprecatory remark made concerning his
administration of the province, either by natives or Europeans. Mysore is
indeed extremely fortunate in having such a man as Mr. Sheshadri Iyer,
since made Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer, K.C.I.E., at the head of affairs. He has
already been granted an extension of the usual period of office (five
years), and it is to be hoped that the very doubtful practice of selecting
a new man for this important office, even though there may be a valuable
one at the helm, may be put aside for at least some years more.
The Assembly sat on the two following days, and was concluded by the
presentation of an address to the Maharajah, thanking His Highness for
having instituted an elected Assembly, and praying that the various wants
brought forward might meet with favourable consideration. In all, the
Assembly, inclusive of the preliminary meetings of the representatives,
sat for eight days, and though there was much earnestness in discussion,
and much difference of opinion, not a single case of an exhibition of ill
feeling occurred, with the exception, as we have seen, of the occasion
when the marriage question was brought forward, though that may be called
an exhibition of warm and excited feeling rather than ill feeling.
As the reader will remember, the representatives have no power whatever,
except, and a very important exception it of course is, of ventilating in
public, and in the presence of the Dewan and the leading officers of
State, whatever grievances and wants they may desire to call attention to,
and the machinery for this ventilation is now so complete that the
requirements even of those inhabiting the most inaccessible corners of
the province can be readily made known to the Government. And now this
question naturally arises. When, if ever, is it probable that this
Assembly will demand for itself some direct power of controlling, or
directing the Government? As far as I could see at the time, or can see
now, the Assembly is never likely to ask for any power whatever, and I
confess that I was much struck with the fact that, though I had many
private conversations relating to the Assembly, both with natives and
Europeans, I never expressed myself, nor did I ever hear anyone express, a
desire that the Assembly should have any power. But after a little
reflection, the explanation of the absence of any such demand seems to be
extremely obvious, for if we look into the history of all parliamentary
institutions such as we have, we shall find that they have arisen
primarily from misgovernment, and I say primarily because such
institutions in the United States and in our colonies are merely
inheritances from the forefathers of the English founders of these
countries. The insuperable difficulty, then, in the way of those who
desire to create parliamentary institutions in India is, that there is no
misgovernment on which to start them, and that is why the Indian National
(so called, for there is nothing really national about it) Congress have
found it advisable, as a preliminary step, to try and persuade the people,
with the aid of lying and seditious pamphlets, that they are misgoverned.
If indeed I were the absolute monarch of Mysore I could certainly, I feel
sure, create Parliamentary Institutions, but only in one way that I can
think of. I should misgovern the country and worry and oppress the people,
and at the same time keep the Assembly going, and after a time I should
thus create a desire on the part of the representatives to have some means
of keeping me in check. But at present there is no one to keep in check.
The Government is really too good for the creation of any desire for
change. For the ruler of Mysore is not only desirous of meeting the people
half way, but even of anticipating their wants, and the people have a
ready means of making their wants known. And, when making known these
wants, their representatives are not only free from the expense and
annoyances to which Members of Parliament are exposed, but have a most
enjoyable time of it as well, for the Assembly is held at the time of the
great annual festival of the Dassara, when there are wonderfully
picturesque processions, illuminations, and displays of fireworks. In
fact, were it not for these attractions, I feel sure that it would be a
difficult matter to get the representatives together, because, though they
are of course easily able to find many wants, there are no grievances so
real as to make the people generally take much, or indeed any, interest in
the proceedings of the Assembly, and in this connection I may mention the
following confirmatory facts.
On the morning following the breaking up of the Assembly I left Mysore to
make a tour in Coorg to visit the plantations in that district, and drove
first of all sixteen miles to breakfast at a Travellers' Bungalow on the
main road. While breakfast was being prepared I went for a stroll, and
fell into conversation with the first native I met, who, I found, was,
with the aid of a number of labourers, working a plantation of palms and
fruit-trees at a short distance from the bungalow. I expressed a wish to
see the plantation, and, when on our way there, told him that I had just
been attending the Representative Assembly at Mysore. Just imagine my
feelings, when he told me that he had never heard of it, nor indeed when
he did hear of it did he ask me a single question about it. And yet we
were only sixteen miles from the capital, and on one of the main roads of
the province. He was, too, a man of fair intelligence and, though we
conversed in Kanarese, he told me that he knew some English, which proved
that he was a man of a certain degree of education. On my return to my
estates I found that, though the natives had heard of the Assembly
(probably because the native representative lived within a few miles of my
house), no one seemed to take any interest in its proceedings, and I do
not remember having been asked a single question with reference to it. The
explanation, of course, of this state of things is that the people are
perfectly contented, and satisfied with the steady progress they see going
on around them. There is therefore no demand[14] for representative
institutions, or the acquisition of power by the people, for while they
see abundant signs of progress, there is no oppression, and therefore
there are no real grievances. But, though there is no such demand, I must
caution the reader against supposing that I do not attach much importance
to the Assembly as a highly valuable means of bringing the people and
their rulers into friendly touch with each other, and as a most useful
means of inter-communication regarding every fact that it is important for
the ruler and the ruled to know. Such an assembly is indeed of the highest
value, and I have no doubt that a similar kind of assembly would be
valuable in many parts of India. And such assemblies will in the future be
far more necessary and valuable than such institutions would have been in
the past, because, in former times, the rulers, not being nearly so much
burdened with office and desk-work as they now are, had far more leisure
time to mix with the people, and hear from them the expression of their
wants or grievances.
I have alluded previously to the lying and seditious pamphlets which have
been circulated by the so-called Indian National Congress (and I say
so-called because, as we shall see, there is really nothing national about
it), and allude to them again partly in order to point out that they are a
most cheering evidence of the universal good government in India, because,
had it been really ill governed, there would have been no occasion to
issue the pamphlets in question. The fact is, that the agitators of the
Congress found it necessary to create a case as a ground-work for
demanding representative institutions for India, and began by imitating
the action of the Irish agitators. And here, for the benefit of those who
have not had time to study Indian affairs, it may be as well to give a
brief description of the Indian Congress, more especially as those who
know but very little of India may confound it with the kind of assembly we
have in Mysore, and which I have suggested for adoption in other parts of
India.
When I was passing through Poona in the year 1879, I was called upon by
seven leading members of the native community who knew of the interest I
had taken in Indian affairs, and in the course of our conversation they
made some remarks on the desire of the educated natives for some share of
political power. I then explained to them that, as it was clear that India
was entirely unfit for representative institutions, the only result would
be that power would be transferred from a limited class of Englishmen to a
very limited class of natives, which would be of no advantage to the
country whatever. My remarks were followed by a dead silence which was
broken by one of them saying, in a desponding tone, "you have educated us,
and you have made us discontented accordingly," thus illustrating very
forcibly what I suppose Solomon meant when he said, "He that increaseth
knowledge increaseth sorrow." But, however that may be, the utterance of
the native in question explains the origin of the Indian Congress which
was started in 1885 by a small number of the educated classes who began to
climb the political tree with considerable vigour, illustrating as they
did so the native proverb which tells us that "The higher the monkey
climbs the more he shows his tail." And, in fact, the members of the
Congress showed theirs so completely when they climbed to the top of their
political tree at Madras in 1887, that their proceedings would be hardly
worth noticing were it not that they might be the means of prejudicing the
proper claims of the natives to consultative assemblies like the one we
have in Mysore. With people less advanced as regards common sense than the
natives of India, and also less suspicious of the educated classes, the
Congress wallahs, as they are sometimes called, might have done some
mischief, but the only harm they have really done, and I consider it no
small harm, is to lower the educated natives in general in the ideas of
those who have not had an opportunity of knowing the best of them, and so
appreciating their admirable abilities and calm common sense. For when the
public knows, as all those who have paid any attention to the subject do
know, that the members of the Congress are now selling pamphlets which are
intended to bring the Queen's Government into hatred and contempt, its
opinion of the educated natives of India is not likely to be a high one.
And in order to make quite sure that the Congress is still selling the
pamphlets in question, I suggested to the secretary of the Athenæum in
June, 1892, to purchase for the library of that club (and he accordingly
did so), from the Indian Congress office in London, a copy of the Congress
proceedings with which the pamphlets in question are bound up. And it may
not be uninteresting to note here that Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, M.P., as a
leading member of the Congress, is therefore one of the sellers of the
pamphlets. It is, however, only fair to add, as an excuse for Mr.
Dadabhai Naoroji and his misguided associates, that they have, after all,
only followed on the track of the Irish agitators, and no doubt consider
that the preaching of sedition against the Government to who
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