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'Baroda Enquiry Commission Report, 1874' [18v] (41/502)
The record is made up of 1 volume (249 folios). It was created in 1 Nov 1873-14 Feb 1874. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
.28..
on the oidinary duties that would devolve on Local Horse, or Mounted Police in
the British Service. It should be kept together as much as possible, in order to
ensure proper supervision and a reasonable amount of discipline. Due care of the
Horses, Arms, Uniforms, and Equipments should be systematically enforced.
The locality of permanent posts should be fixed on, as much as possible, with
reference to their central position—in respect of the work such posts may have to
(jo g0 as to avoid unnecessarily harassing the men and horses. Careful arrange
ments on this point, with a good system of patrolling, would probably render the
employment of some, at least, of the present numerous detachments unnecessary.
The practice of using the Contingent Sowars for carrying the
Dak
System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company.
and com
munications all over the country, for escort duties of every description—some
of which greatly try both men and horses—and of allowing them to be employed
by minor Native Officials, should, we are of opinion, be forbidden. Such duties
are unsuited and ruinous to mounted men, and looking at the cost of maintenance
of the latter, it is a waste of money and material to employ them thereon.
Colonel Walker supplies a statement of posts furnished by the Contingent, under
r Native Officials who are paid by the Talukdars concerned, which he urges should
be reduced, the employment of the Contingent on such duties being in future
exceptional, instead of as at present a matter of course. It is no doubt very
desirable that the practice of establishing such posts should be restricted as much
as may be possible, but the Commission is not in a position to judge how far this
may be practicable.
With a properly organised system of foot police in the several States con
cerned, the demands on the Contingent should be greatly reduced; and where
the States maintain Sowars themselves, we see no reason why they should not
undertake with them some of the sort of work referred to above as unfitting for
the Contingent, but which may yet, from local circumstances, require mounted
men for their performance.
Efficiency of a soldierly or even police character is not looked for from esta
blishments of the ordinary class maintained by the States, but the Contingent is
expected to be at all times ready for any hard work or active service that may be
required of it, and it appears to the Commission, to be necessary to protect it as
much as possible from any employment which is clearly inconsistent with such
an expectation. The British Officers in Kattywar, who are at times required to
take the field against outlaws of the Waghirs and other desperate classes in that
peninsula, are stated to be chiefly dependent on the Contingent in their pursuit and
suppression of these local pests, and it is clearly necessary that the men with
whom they undertake this important duty shall be fairly efficient and trustworthy,
and that, so far as may be practicable, the body generally shall be relieved from
all duties which are admitted to be inconsistent with these essentials.
Lastly, with reference to the proposals that have been made for reforming a
portion of the Contingent, and allowing the rest to remain as at present, for the
performance of the miscellaneous class of duties to which we have taken objection,
we beg to record our opinion that it will be far better to deal with the whole
Contingent as a body in this matter, and to fix definitely for the future the stan
dard of efficiency up to which the British Government decides that
must be brought.
That standard, if the measures proposed by us be approved and fairly carried
0 ' Jt ' ?? ^ a high one, when regarded from a military point of view, but it
snould suffice for the purpose required.
53. With reference to para. 15 of your Despatch No. 2209- p . of the 19th
ep ember, we beg to state that we have no doubt that the adoption of our
proposals wiH render the employment in the Tributary Mahals of so large a Force
f S , • 6 xi strength of the Contingent unnecessary, and that we have reason to
e leve a 2,000 men, if so reformed, would probably be equal to, or somewhat
excess of, the actual requirements of these districts: under this head. Should
About this item
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Report of the Baroda Enquiry Commission on the administration of the government of Malharrao, Gaekwar of Baroda. The Commission comprised Richard John Meade (President), Edward William Ravenscroft, Mumtazul Dowlah Nawab An honorific title; an official acting as a provincial deputy ruler in South Asia; or a significant Muslim landowner in nineteenth century India. Faiz Ali Khan, Colonel Alfred Thomas Etheridge and Thomas Duncan Mackenzie (Secretary).
The report comprises a letter from the members of the Baroda Enquiry Commission to the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department presenting their report on the results of the proceedings and submitting copies of correspondence, reports and statements relative to the enquiry (ff 5-19):
Appendix A, Part I
- Schedules I-III: Complaints and grievances against the Gaekwar's Government from individuals and groups (ff 21-78).
- Appendix B, Schedules I-III: Cases of complaint and grievance which the commission did not look into during the enquiry (ff 79-81).
- Appendix C: Letter from Colonel Richard John Meade, President, Special Commission of Enquiry on Baroda Affairs, to Colonel Robert Phayre, Resident at Baroda, 1 November 1873 (ff 82-83).
- Appendix D: Translation of an amended notice issued by the Resident to complainants desirous of appearing before the Baroda Enquiry Commission (ff 84-85).
- Appendix E: Schedules presented to the Commission along with Colonel Phayre's introductory statement regarding them. (ff 86-131).
- Appendix F: Letter No. 1128 of 1873 from Colonel Phayre to the President, Baroda Commission regarding the cases already submitted to the Commission, the List of undisposed petitions to be attended to by the Resident which could be used as additional cases if required and the statements that he had yet to make on cases under enquiry by the Commission (ff 132-133).
- Appendix G, Schedule I: Statements from witnesses with cross examination statements from the Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). on behalf of the Gaekwar and statements from the Resident as to the accuracy of the information provided (ff 134-229).
Appendix Part II (ff 231-245)
- Letter from James Braithwaite Peile, Acting Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Kattywar [Kathiawar] to T D Mackenzie, Secretary, Baroda Commission, 13 December 1873 regarding papers requested by the Commission and informing them that the outstanding paper will be forwarded as soon as they are received. Enclosed with the letter are a memorandum from Peile for reconstitution of His Highness the Gaekwar's Contingent in Kattywar, 13 December 1873 and Rule for the guidance of the Officers and Kamdars appointed to the Contingent of Horse of His Highness the Gaekwar, serving in the various Tributary Mahals according to treaty.
- Letter from Peile to Mackenzie, 6 January 1874, forwarding a report and returns received from Colonel Walker, Superintendent to the Gaekwar's Contingent in Kattywar and stating that he does not concur with the Colonel's opinion. Enclosed with this letter is a letter from Colonel Chamberlen William Walker, 30 December 1873, providing the information on the Contingent requested by the Commission and enclosing an extract of the Contingents annual report for 1871 and a statement of the men within the Contingent on duty under officials paid by Talukdars etc, 06 March 1872.
- Letters from John Whaley Watson, Acting Political Superintendent Pahlanpur [Palanpur], Captain Henry Nicholas Reeves, Acting Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. Rewa Kanta [Rewa Kantha] and Major Philip Harrison Le Geyt, Acting Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Mahi Kanta [Mahi Kantha] to the secretary of the Baroda Commission 19 December 1873 to 9 January 1874 reporting on the Gaekwar's contingents serving within their districts and commenting on numbers of men, pay and conditions. The letters all refer to enclosed returns, but only the return for Mahi Kanta is included in the report.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (249 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main sequence of foliation consists of a small pencil number in the top front right hand corner of each folio enclosed in a circle.
There is also an original sequence of foliation which consists of larger pencil numbers also in the top front right hand corner of folios, however the sequence is not consistent and some of the numbers may be filing references rather than foliation numbers.
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- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Baroda Enquiry Commission Report, 1874' [18v] (41/502), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F126/78, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023442806.0x00002a> [accessed 3 August 2026]
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F126/78
- Title
- 'Baroda Enquiry Commission Report, 1874'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:248v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence