Enclosures of letter to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No.17, dated 22 January 1875: Nos. 3 to 26 of Abstract of Contents, from the Officiating Under-Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, Fort William [‎110v] (20/90)

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oins -it nleasure It cannot be sliown that when they were disposed to resume
the act o^ iesuinj)li()n ever was or could be prevented. It may be said that
they were despots and acted nnjnstly. Had they seized private property they
would have been regarded as unjust by the country; but no injustice was
attached to the seizure of an altumgha** the people ^ nevv ,
of public revenue. The Princes were, it is true, despotic : but tlu y «e e hberal
and oven profuse in their grants, and the grants themselves grew out ol their very
despotism; for it was because tbey found no dilhculty in resuming t i.i icy
made none in granting." , n • i
And in his first quoted minute be brought in a letter from AVal aja, the
Nawab An honorific title; an official acting as a provincial deputy ruler in South Asia; or a significant Muslim landowner in nineteenth century India. of the Carnatic, to the Government oi Madras,dated 18th Jctobci .(JO,
on the subject of jaghire grants :
«I am Prince of the Carnatic, and for these forty years I have granted,
resumed, and altered jaghires in such manner as I have thought proper.
9. Captain Cowper in his Report on Adoptions under the Teishwas
savs:—
"It appears equally certain that the Peishwa's Government not only pos-
p n* Q.wion X S. No. sessed the power of resuming mams, but that the
xxvin!'? 6 31. ' power was freely exercised, and it is further show 7 n
that Inamdars were not exempted from the payment of cesses, but they contri
buted largely in this respect. In short it is placed, I think, beyond a doubt that
an inam, though granted as a free gift in perpetuity, was resumed or continued,
and was taxed at pleasure.
" The power of resumption seems to have been arbitrarily exercised, but
this is not surprising, for it could scarcely have been otherwise when the will of
the sovereign had the force of law, and indeed teas the law. Whatever may have
been the theory, in practice inams seem to have been interfered with in every
possible way, and it will be seen that on an Inamdar's death even his son could not
consider his holding secure without obtaining the special sanction ot Govern
ment to the succession. It w T ill be observed also that political offences ^eie
punished by resuming the inam of the offender, and that the punishment due to
the actual delinquent was sometimes even inflicted on his relatives"
10. Captain Cowper bases these remarks on four statements containing a
number of selected cases illustrative of the system which was in force during
the last seventy years of the Peishwa's Government.
11. In his reports on the Deccan Surinjams the same authority says :
" Shortly after the conquest of the Deccan, several districts which had
Bombay Selection, n . s.. No. xxxi., belonged to the Peishwa were ceded by the British
Deccan Surinjams, page 30. Government to the Nizam With wIlOUl it tllCn
rested to continue or not, at his pleasure, surunjams to a large amount which
had been held in those districts prior to the cession. Generally speaking they
were not continued."
12. I w T ill now give a few quotations from Captain Cow 7 per's report as to
the right of adoption, the more particularly as they contain the principles
recognized and acted upon by the British Government.
" It has always been and still is a standing rule that an adoption not sanc
tioned by Government gives the person adopting no
Report on Adoption, page i. to perpetuate any alienation ot Government
revenue."
" It may I think be concluded from the above letters that as a general
rule among the existing Governments oi India no
idem, page 3. adoption is looked upon as valid unless previously
sanctioned by the Sirkar."
13. The Company's Government proclaimed in 1820 that:—
" Should any one make an adoption without permission the Sirkar will not
recognize it, and the adopted son shall not be allowed to hold any bucks, &c.,
under Government."