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 [‎42v] (84/102)

present position at Baroda, but merely to show the difficulty of a position in
which any representative, at the Court of the present Gaekwar, must neces
sarily be placed, who impartially and fearlessly does his duty.
7. In the present case, however, apart from the serious question of reform
which it has been my duty to urge on His Highness' notice, 1 have been
placed in an exceptionally difficult position owing to the disagreeable obligation
I have been under of opposing certain schemes on which His Highness the
Gaekwar has set his heart, as set forth in paragraph 2 above, and also owing
to the fact that this system of false accusations has only been commenced under
the present so -called improved administration, and appears to have a special
significance as closely following the public, and I trust not unmerited, expression
of confidence in myself contained in His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-
General's khureeta An important letter usually sent in an elaborate textile pouch, dispatched as part of the royal or diplomatic correspondence of rulers and elites. of 25th July last.
8. I now proceed to show that in the two illustrations of my alleged
personal hostility which have been adduced. His Highness the Gaekwar is
hopelessly in the wrong, as I have from the first most carefully abstained from
every word or action to which exception could be taken as having a tendency to
lower the authority, or increase the difficulties of the present administration.
So far therefore from lending a ready ear to complainants, as has - been wilfully
and falsely stated, my confidential Progress Report, No. 361-1225, dated 2nd
instant, will show th^ I have acted with extreme forbearance, and that if there
be any complaint against me at all, it is that I have systematically forced all
petitioners to appeal to 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). and submit to its authority, even after they
had repeatedly done so, and that until I was satisfied that this had been done
I persistently refused them even access.
9. It was in pursuance of this policy that from the close of the Commis
sion Proceedings in December 1873 up to about a month ago, I turned a deaf
ear to all petitioners and refused to see them at all, though hundreds of peti
tions, many of them of the most serious nature, were constantly reaching me
by post from all parts of the Baroda State. The immediate effect, however,
of the receipt of His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General's instructions
of 25th July last was that hundreds of petitioners from all parts flocked to
Baroda in the expectation that their grievances would at length receive a hearing
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). . It is true that many of the petitioners who had been waiting
on Mr. Dadabhai for the previous eight months represented to me that it was
hopeless to expect that they could get justice from one who had persistently
closed his ears to all their complaints. I did my best, however, to assure
them that the new administration were anxious to do justice, and that they
should again represent their cases to them in accordance with the
ordinary custom. My efforts, however, were of no avail : towards the end
of September hundreds of petitioners returned—importuned me from day
to-day saying that they had gone to Mr. Dadabhai, had fully represented
their cases, but had obtained no redress for immediate pressing grievances.
They represented that their crops were ripe, but that they were forbidden to cut
them without signing ruinous agreements, and that they were, if anything,
worse off than before, owing to an excessive system of mohsulling and demands
for sowers' security both for arrears and the present crops.
10. Finding that I could no longer without positive dereliction of duty
refuse to take some action on the important and voluminous complaints made to
me, I first had recourse to oral communications with Mr. Dadabhai, then to
confronting certain of the complainants with him, and finally on finding that no
results whatever ensured, and that the advice of His Excellency the Viceroy
and Governor-Geneial, which had been tendered about six weeks or two
months previously, was a dead-letter, I at last reduced to writing the state
ments of the chief complainants, and forwarded them to 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). for
information and such action as they might see Jit. This action alone of mine
elicited any notice whatever. The Minister was at length induced to allow
74