Enclosures of Letter to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No.213, dated 27 November 1874: Nos. 3 to 31 of Abstract of Contents, from Foreign Department, Fort William [‎21r] (41/102)

31
hearing of what they have to state will be accorded to them on some early date
that may be named, and as absolute want arising from excessive arrears of pay
appears to be their most pressing grievance, as communicated by me personally
to Your Highness yesterday, I would suggest for your consideration that pend
ing the final settlement of each man's case, which will take time, advances on
account of their arrears varying from four to six months, according to circum
stances, may be granted to them. Thus their immediate wants will be relieved
and the enquiry into, and settlement of, their just claims will proceed without
fear of further demonstration of the dangerous kind that has been going on for
the last four or five days.
A.
Rough notes by Colonel Phayre, C.B., Resident, Baroda, embodying- the general principles
upon which he considers the settlement of the cases of the Sirdars Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. and military classes
of the Baroda State, whose grievances were represented to the Baroda Enquiry Commission
in November 1873, should be based.
T he Sirdars Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. , Silledars, and Mankurees, &c., who appeared before the Baroda
Enquiry Commission are, generally speaking, men of old and highly respectable
Deccan families, whose ancestors supported by their dependents accepted
service under the Gaekwar Government, achieved its conquests in Guzerat, and
durin 0, a long course of years exercised a most beneficial influence in tranqui-
lizin" 1 the country and consolidating the Gaekwar's power over his possessions,
many of them are moreover nearly related to the Gaekwar family by birth or
intermarriage on both sides.
Their services were, according to the custom of Mahratta Governments,
remunerated by military and personal grants of various kinds, such as jaghires,
enams, wuttuns, pagas, silledaree service, &c., most of which, independently of
Sunnuds and other documents in possession of the holders, would appear to
have become hereditary by uninterrupted enjoyment and possession for periods
varying from GO years to upwards of a century.
Durin 0, the settlement of the Sattara and other Deccan Sirdars Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. and Jaghire-
Vide Bombay Selection, N„. si, 1856,, dare, &c., many were maintained in their possessions
page 25, Deccan Surinjains. for the purpose of avoiding popular discontent and
the fall of families of antiquity and respectability. " Where a jaghire was, by
the original grant, made hereditary in the family of the grantee there could be
no doubt of the right of the descendant; but where there was no such grant
mi . . „ (as was the case with almost all the iaghires) the
This is generally the case m Baroda. V 410 , , ,. „ , . . . J 0 „ ' ..
(sd.) R f. right rested on difierent grounds arising trom the
tenure of jaghires, not by express grant, but by length of possession."
" First class jaghires were thus held hereditary in the fullest sense. Second
class jaghires were ordered to be resumed after the second generation, with a
pensionary provision equal to half the proceeds of the jaghire lands for the
generation next succeeding. In the third class pensions equal to half the
net proceeds of jaghires were given."
The antiquity of a portion of a jaghire is not to be looked upon as the anti
quity of the whole of it.
Grants on marriage and palanquin allowances were held to be hereditary
in some instances.
With regard to the grants made by the Gaekwars immediately under con
sideration it "was generally understood by the recipients that so long as they
continued' to fulfil the terms of their service with good faith, integrity, and
fidelity, their holdings would be continued to them without any interruption
from the Gaekwar Government.