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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎146r] (298/798)

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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
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Ref: IOR/L/PS/20/CA10

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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287
ethata DintelL
,tate - It is otiljj
^ofthe ni|
linerent provi^
' ne Province t«|
'> system |
'tration, and wit,
careful supenij
be efficient.
knowledge anii
Department.
inistration oft
nt has beennt
erference hast
the local Gon
a good illusta
: these branch
re of salt inf
stem of excise,
i has also concli
is, under whicl
ort of salt fro»
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fhe operations i!
,d to any wbicH
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,f salt, and toaf
epend entirely«
fhe duties to h
ter, and it is h®
mcial Departo*
‘ Agriculture ani'
rtment, a n( i f
j Officer, tot";
mlture andC"® 1
been indicated. The functions of the Director General of the new
Department would embrace all matters connected with the admini
stration of the Land Revenue, Salt, and Opium, with the development
of all branches of the material resources of the country, and with
statistics of every description.
The formation of a new branch of the Home Department in the
manner that has been proposed would enable us to carry out other
administrative reforms. The work of the Home Department has for
many years gone on constantly and steadily increasing. In 1867, it
was more than double what it had been ten years before, and its
amount was then found to be so excessive that it became necessary to
transfer a considerable portion of the business to the Financial, Foreign,
and Military Departments. The relief thus given to the Home Office
was, however, only temporary. Although during the past year it has
been relieved of the business connected with the Legislative Depart
ment, the work has again risen to the level of 1867, and there can be
little or no doubt that, in the current year, it will be greater than
ever.
The creation of anew branch of the Department under a separate
Officer in the manner that has been proposed would give to the Home
Office the relief which has already become very necessary, and which
cannot possibly be much longer postponed. The Director General of
the Department of Agriculture and Commerce would virtually be a
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, and he would relieve
the Secretary in the Home Department of a large amount of work.
We should also be thus enabled to carry out another measure,
the necessity for which has long been felt. A considerable part of the
business connected with the internal administration of the Punjab, of
Oudh, and of the Central and other Non-Regulation Provinces, is still
conducted in the Foreign Department. This arrangement was ori
ginally one of evident propriety and necessity, but the circumstances
of the more important of the so-called Non-Regulation Provinces are
now entirely different from what they were some years ago. Both the
substantive law and the laws of procedure which are there in force are
now, for the most part, identical with those of the older provinces, and
it is inconvenient and anomalous that the Foreign Department should
have to deal with matters of a precisely similar character to those
which come before the Home Department from other parts of India.
This portion of the business of the Foreign Department which has no
connexion with any foreign or political affairs, would have been long
ago transferred to the Home Department, had not the work of the
latter Department been so extremely onerous that it seemed un
desirable to throw a fresh burden on its already too heavily taxed
establishments. The relief given to the Home Office by the formation
of the proposed new Office would enable us to transfer this portion of
11737. 4 s ^

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Content

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' [‎146r] (298/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113392.0x000063> [accessed 13 August 2026]

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Reference
IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
Title
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
Pages
front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:116v, 119r:395v, back-i
Author
East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
Usage terms
Open Government Licence