Letter from the undersigned Sirdars, etc. of the Baroda Sate to Philip Sandys Melvill, Agent to the Governor-General of India, Baroda [‎17v] (2/18)

" In conferring the sovereignty of the Baroda State, no alteration will be
made in the treaty engagements which exist between the British Government
and the Gaekwars of Baroda, and the new Gaekwar will enjoy all the privileges
and advantages which were conveyed to the Gaekwars of Baroda in the sunnnd
of Earl Canning, dated the 11th of March 1862."
4. Since, according to the above provisions. His Excellency Sir Mahadev-
rao has been appointed to conduct the administration of the Baroda State under
instructions which your Honour, as the Governor-General's Agent, may give,
we look upon your Honour as the proper authority to whom we may address
our grievances regarding the said administration.
5. In the first place, we desire distinctly to state that, in presenting this
Memorandum to your Honour, we do not mean to comment in any carping
spirit either upon the personal character of His Excellency, or upon his qualifi
cations as an administrator. Without any such motive on our part, we beg to
submit that when we found that the administrative views and measures of His
Excellency were not only opposed to our own interests, but were inconsistent
with the original constitution of the State, we often intimated, through our
vakils Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator. , our desire to visit His Excellency with a view to submit the nature of our
grievances for His Excellency's consideration. But whether the fact was, as we
suppose, that His Excellency could not find leisure from his ministerial business,
or whether it was otherwise, His Excellency did not favour us with an interview.
Such being the case, we have now no alternative but to represent our case to
your Honour. As we are afraid lest we should make this Memorandum incon
veniently long by entering into the details of our individual grievances, we beg
to submit a collective statement of the principal grounds upon which our common
grievances have been founded.
6. It would be presumptuous on our part to dwell at length upon the
importance attached to our position; we, however, consider it necessary, for
the purposes of this Memorandum, to allude to the fact that our ancestors were
brought hither by the first Gaekwar himself, in order to assist him in establish
ing this State, and that when the object was achieved through their united
exertions, the Maharaja conferred upon them, according to their respective
merits, Inam villages, horse and foot establishments, allowances, and honours
{vide para. 35 of His Excellency the Dewan's Administration Report of the
Baroda State for the year 1875-76). In this manner we have become,
from the time of our ancestors, hereditary wattan vihhagidars of the State,
and our connexion with it has become so intimate that our welfare lies in
its prosperity. For these reasons, we always consider it our duty as well as
our interest to bring to the notice of the proper authority whatever measures of
the State may, in our opinion, be improper or dangerous; and accordingly we
submit thi^j Memorandum with a view to show in what respects our views differ
from those of the present Ministry.