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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎35v] (77/798)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (395 folios). It was created in Dec 1869-Dec 1870. 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. .

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66
vernment of India. You are aware that we contemplate considerable
reductions, especially in the matter of higher education; and that, for
financial reasons, it is more than ever imperative that the cost of
primary vernacular education should be defrayed from local resources.
If this principle is to be thoroughly adopted, it is essential that no
exception should be made in favour of any single province.
We feel compelled, moreover, to differ largely from the views
expressed in the letter of the Government of Bengal From c. 1758-1858, the East India Company's administration in Bengal. From 1773-1833, the most senior of the three subdivisions of India, also known as the Supreme Government of India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. as to the pro
priety and possibility of levying a tax for local purposes in that
Province. The Lieutenant Governor’s arguments as regards the un
fairness of taxing the land for the education of that small per-centage
of the non-agricultural community which is included in the rural
population need not be discussed here. This point has not been
found to involve any practical difficulties in provinces in which the
cess is already imposed; and even if it were otherwise in Bengal,
means might easily be devised of levying a small additional payment
from the non-agricultural community who will benefit by the village
schools. In any case, the children of forty millions of the people of
a great province, nine-tenths of whom are supposed to belong to the
agricultural classes, require to be educated, roads have to be made,
and, by sanitary measures, life has to be saved. The real question
therefore is, are we justified in levying a cess, and making it mainly
chargeable on the landed property of the province ?
The Lieutenant Governor argues that, although the cess has
been imposed voluntarily on the landowners of the permanently
settled districts of Benares, yet it would be quite futile to attempt to
levy the same tax as a voluntary measure in Bengal. We do not
wish to deduce any argument from the cess levied in Benares. We
are quite of opinion, however, that voluntary taxation cannot be relied
on to support a sound system of popular education. This conclusion
was arrived at in 1859, and has been confirmed by all subsequent
expei ience, and notably in Madras, where the experiment of relying
on voluntary efforts has had a full trial.
But while holding the opinion above mentioned, and while calling
special attention to the ill effects of “ compromising the dignity of
“ Government by placing Government servants in the light of unfor-
“ tunate and often unsuccessful applicants for pecuniary contributions
<( fol ob f<;ts which the Government is confessedly very anxious to
promote, the Lieutenant Governor nevertheless states that, if the
compulsory cess be abandoned, “ he is fully prepared on his part to
do all m his power to reduce the Imperial contributions by calling
upon private munificence to bear a continually increasing share of
these ITT ° bl ® her education ” We are unable to reconcile
these apparently opposite conclusions.
i , 1 Th f 0 , 'j cctlons u rged are not to the principle of a cess on the
landholders for the education nf tlm • u i
me education ot the agricultural population, but are
pm-

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Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the 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. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1870. The letters are dated December 1869-December 1870. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

  • Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Muscat
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Muscat
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire [Bushehr]
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden and Zanzibar
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Aden.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:

  • Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
  • Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; roads; canals; irrigation; docks; and river embankments
  • Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
  • Land issues, including: the cultivation of cotton, cinchona, and silk; forestry; and coal mining
  • Education
  • Banking
  • Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links to India
  • Affairs concerning Princely States, including internal administration, debts, allowances, issues of succession, investment in railways, and territorial claims
  • Issues around emigration from India to British and French colonies
  • Legislative and judicial affairs, including the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units and a proposed naval force for the Indian seas and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Frontier affairs: relations with tribes on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers and frontier raids
  • Affairs in Persia [Iran], including: Persian claims to sovereignty over Bahrein [Bahrain] and objection to British actions in Bahrein; frontier disputes around Khelat [Kalat], Mekran [Makran], and Seistan [Sistan] and proposed arbitration of the Persian-Afghan border; anticipated food shortages and subsequent disturbances involving British subjects exporting grain from Bushire
  • Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including: the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of Syud Azan [Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; debates around British policy towards Syud Azan; confrontation between Muscat and the Wahabees [Waḥabī movement]; the issue of the Zanzibar subsidy; and Syud Azan’s claims to Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], Gwadur [Gwadar], Charbar [Chabahar] and other territories on the Mekran Coast
  • Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including: the campaign of Colonel Lewis Pelly in Bahrein and the installation of Esau bin Ali [‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] as Ruler; trade and shipping in the Gulf; the desire of the Shah of Persia for a naval presence in the Gulf; Dutch and Turkish [Ottoman] activity in the region; and tensions between Bahrein and the Wahabees, including Wahabee inroads in the Guttur peninsula [Qatar]
  • Affairs in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], including relations with Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and Russia
  • Central Asian affairs, including the Russian advance in the region, trade and communication from India to Central Asia via Cashmere [Kashmir] and Ladak [Ladakh], and affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang]
  • Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, relations with Muscat, the death of Syud Majid [Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], and the accession to the throne of Syud Burgash [Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
  • Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including: relations with neighbouring polities, including Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate], Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate], Fodtheli [Faḍlī Sultanate], and Kathiree [Kathīrī Sultanate]; the purchase of Little Aden; the defences of Aden; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] from Aseer [‘Asir] and the threat to Lahej from the Zaidees [Zaidīs]
  • Affairs in the Red Sea, including attempted French, Austrian, Turkish, and Egyptian inroads in the region
  • Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Bhootan [Bhutan], and Nipal [Nepal].

The primary correspondents are:

Extent and format
1 volume (395 folios)
Arrangement

The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 384-393.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 395; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.

Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎35v] (77/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113391.0x00004e> [accessed 10 August 2026]

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