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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎260r] (526/798)

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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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whatsoever will here ” (z.e., in England) “ be entered on by Her
cc Majesty’s Government into any political or pecuniary affairs in
“ which he or his family may be interested,” we request that 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. Nazim may be urged to return to India with as little delay as
possible.
With reference to your Despatch of 18th August 1869, we would
propose to allow each of the two sons of 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. Nazim a sum
of 1,200/. a year from the Nizamut Deposit Fund for two years,
to commence from the date on which 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. Nazim may leave
England, and that a private tutor, with a salary of 500/. a year payable
from the Deposit Fund, should be entertained for them, under whose
control they should be placed.
Home Department.
July QQth, Nos. (Public).
Preservation of Architectural Remains.
With reference to your Despatch, dated 11th January 1870,
on the general progress of the Archaeological Survey of India, we
entirely concur in the views expressed by you, and feel the duty
which devolves upon the Government of India of preserving the
rich monuments of antiquity, many of which require immediate care,
at least from wilful injury or destruction, and of collecting and
recording in a systematic manner the various memorials of former
times and of the ancient civilization of India. But after mature
consideration, we are convinced that it is impossible to do this
without a small central establishment to collect the results of former
researches, and to direct, assist and systematize the various efforts
and inquiries made by local bodies and private persons, as well as by
Government itself.
This assistance we believe to be the more necessary, as there
are at present in India very few persons really qualified to undertake
such researches, or recognize the full value of any discoveries that
may be made. One valuable result, of the establishment of this
central agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. would be, it may be hoped, to train up a school of
archaeologists capable of conducting local researches in various parts
of India.
We are aware that the various local bodies, and notably the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, have done not a little in the direction
desired, but such efforts are naturally dependent on the labours of
individuals, usually much occupied in other pursuits, who can afford
but little leisure for the subject, and whose exertions are intermittent
and irregular.
To such efforts, and to the individual labours of local inquirers,
many of whom will, we have no doubt, be found willing to assist, such

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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' [‎260r] (526/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113393.0x00007f> [accessed 21 July 2026]

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