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‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎440v] (84/274)

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The record is made up of 1 item (136 folios). It was created in 1925. 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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46
BOMBAY, 1923-24
excitement or of industrial trouble. There were various events of political
importance such as Council elections, hartal and procession in connection
with the Kenya question, the Turkish Peace celebrations, the arrival of the
Ali brothers after release from prison, some of which attracted large crowds.
Nevertheless the orderliness and good temper of the crowds greatly
lightened the police labours on these occasions. ”
There were a few strikes of short duration. The only one in which
violence was exhibited was the lightning strike at the Matunga Workshops
on December 11. Some policemen were injured but after the initial
outbreak, which did not last long, there was no further disorder.
The patrol system was substituted in 1923 for the fixed post system
as means of protection at night. Theoretically it is undoubtedly a better
system although the figures of crime for the year showed that it did
not effect any improvement in the volume of crime during the year. “One
reason for this,” said the Commissioner, “ may be that we were several
hundred men below strength throughout the year and were not able to
put the number of men on patrol duty who should have been.”
There was a further increase in the total number of cognisable and non-
cognisable cases from 112,163 in 1922 to 122,086 in 1923. This was
largely due to the increase in petty miscellaneous offences from 97,716,
in 1922 to 107,770 in 1923. Prosecutions against hawkers and squatters
for causing obstruction in public thoroughfares and prosecutions under
the Bombay Public Conveyances Act were mainly responsible for the
increase.
There was an increase of 69 in serious offences against the person and
property. The number of murders rose from 30 to 38, while attempts at
murder and culpable homicide rose from 13 to 25.
1,334 professional beggars were dealt with under the Bombay City
Police Act of whom 81 were deported. The beggar nuisance showed
no signs of abatement in spite of the number of mendicants prosecuted
and deported.
The total value of property alleged to have been stolen in police cognis
able cases amounted to Rs. 22,85,000 as compared with Rs. 22,79,000 the
previous year. The total value of property recovered was Rs. 4,76,000,
a recovery percentage of 20'85 as compared with 25'27 in 1922. “The
recovery’ percentage is however not the only criterion by which the efficiency
of the police should be judged ” observes the Commissioner of Police,
“ because the non-recovery of property is due to a variety of causes.
With regard to preventive action taken by the police, 28 persons as
against 50 in the previous year were placed before the magistracy under
Chapter VIII of the Criminal Procedure Code. The number of cases put
up was small but the results were good as out of 28 cases 24 convictions
were obtained. " The hearing is however very protracted and it is
doubtful whether the results attained are commensurate with the labour
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Annual administration report of the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , providing a summary record of the main events and developments in each department of the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. during the financial year 1923-24. The report was printed at the Government Central Press, Bombay [Mumbai], in 1925.

The report is divided into two parts. Part I (ff 405-416) comprises a report ‘GENERAL SUMMARY’, consisting of: [Political]; Finance; Trade and Commerce; Agriculture; Department of Agriculture; Education; Law and Justice; Police and Crime; Bombay City Police; Public Health; Salt; Excise; Forests; the Co-operative Movement; Public Works; Development Department.

PART II (ff 417-527) comprises the following headings, which are further divided into sub-headings:

  • CHAPTER I ‘INDIAN STATES.’ (ff 417-424), consisting of: I. North Gujarat; II. South Gujarat; III. North Konkan; IV. South Konkan; V. The Deccan; VI. Kolhapur and Southern Maratha Country States; VII. Sind [Sindh]; VIII. Aden; Condition of the people
  • CHAPTER II ‘ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAND.’ (ff 424-429), consisting of: Land Records; Revenue Surveys; the Record of Rights; Remissions of Revenue; System of Land Tenure; Gujarat Talukdars’ Act; Sind Incumbered Estates Act; the Court of Wards Act; Department of Land Records; Routine Measurement Work; Revenue Surveys; City Surveys; Revision Settlements
  • CHAPTER III ‘LAW AND JUSTICE.’ (ff 430-436), consisting of: the Budget; Resolutions and Questions; Course of Legislation; Administration of Justice; Civil Justice; Criminal Justice; Registration; Conditions of Trade; Joint Stock Companies
  • CHAPTER IV ‘POLICE AND CRIME’ (ff 437-447), consisting of: Mofussil and Sind Police; Bombay City Police; Village Police; Aden Police; Government Male and Female Workhouses; Bombay Jails; Criminal Tribes
  • CHAPTER V ‘AGRICULTURE, WEATHER AND CROPS’ (ff 448-466), consisting of: Nature of the Crops; Outturn of the Crops; Condition of the Agricultural Population; Agricultural Research and its Application; Checking of Pests and Blights; Note on the Weather; Prices; Labour and Wages; Famine; Forests; Co-operative Movement; Horticulture
  • CHAPTER VI ‘TRADE AND COMMERCE’ (ff 466-483), consisting of: [Industries]; Department of Industries; the Factories Act; Sea-borne Trade; Foreign Trade; Foreign Merchandise; Indian Produce and Manufactures; Trade According to Countries; Shipping; Coasting Trade; Subordinate Ports of the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. ; the Trade of Sind; Shipping Offices; Labour Office
  • CHAPTER VII ‘PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT’ (ff 484-492), consisting of: Irrigation; Sind; Deccan and Gujarat; Railways
  • CHAPTER VIII ‘VITAL STATISTICS AND MEDICAL RELIEF’ (ff 493-499), consisting of: [Births and Deaths]; Epidemic Diseases; Hospitals and Dispensaries; Sanitation; Vaccination; Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory; Veterinary; Chemical Analysers; Wild Animals and Venomous Snakes; Mental [psychiatric] Hospitals; Acworth Leper Asylum [hospital for people affected by leprosy or Hansen’s Disease], Matunga; Emigration and Immigration
  • CHAPTER IX ‘LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT’ (ff 500-504), consisting of: District Municipalities; Bombay Municipality; Local Board Administration; Bombay Improvement Trust; Bombay Port Trust; Karachi Port Trust; Aden Port Trust; Working of the Rent Acts
  • CHAPTER X ‘COLLECTION OF REVENUE AND FINANCIAL REVIEW’ (ff 505-517), consisting of: the Budget for 1923-24; Loan Accounts; Land Revenue; Public Works Revenue; Customs Administration; Salt Department; Excise; Cotton Duties Act; Stamps; Taxes on Income
  • CHAPTER XI ‘INSTRUCTION’ (ff 517-521), consisting of: Education; Yeravda [Yerwada or Yerawada] Reformatory; Books and Publications; Newspapers; Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay; Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay; Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay; Natural History Section; Victoria Museum, Karachi
  • CHAPTER XII ‘ARCHAEOLOGY’ (f 522), consisting of: [Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle]
  • CHAPTER XIII ‘MISCELLANEOUS’ (ff 523-527), consisting of: Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; the Established Church of England; the Established Church of Scotland; Stationary; Printing; Bombay Development Department; Back Bay Reclamation Scheme; Town Planning Schemes; Industrial Housing; Suburban Schemes; Salsette-Trombay and Kurla-Trombay Railways; Water Supply; Organisation of the Directorate; Sanitary Committee; Military (Indian Auxiliary and Territorial Forces); Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The report includes the following photographs:

  • ‘Excavations at Mohinja-daro [Mohenjo-daro] (Sind) where important archæological discoveries have been made.’ (f 404v)
  • ‘Kaira [Kheda] District Police. Officers and men who participated in raids against outlaws Namdar Garbad and Kalya Abha.’ (f 439)
  • ‘Panch Mahals [or Panchmahal] District– Recovering stolen property buried by dacoits. The men on the left of the picture armed with bows and arrows are the village Police Patil and his two Rhakwaldars.’ (f 439)
  • ‘Chair making at Thana [Thane] Special Prison.’ (f 443)
  • ‘Karachi Prison: Muhammadan [Muslim] convicts at Id Prayers.’(f 445)
  • ‘Karachi Prison: Carpet weaving.’ (f 445)
  • ‘A Panchayat amongst the Settlers.’ (f 447)
  • ‘Bamboo basket making: Women of Hubli Settlement.’ (f 447)
  • ‘The Deccan can grow first class Crops. Crops of oats obtained at Manjri (Poona [Pune] District) by the Agricultural Department.’ (f 449)
  • ‘Cotton Crop from N. R. Cotton at Jalgaon.’ (f 451)
  • ‘Effect of Dry Farming methods on Jowar [or sorghum]. Left: methods recommended by Agricultural Department. Right: ordinary methods.’ (f 453)
  • ‘Loni Agricultural School (Poona District). Lesson in sugar-cane crushing and gul boiling.’ (f 455)
  • ‘Exhibit of Bombay Agricultural Department as prepared for Wembley Exhibition.’ (f 457)
  • ‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Left Guide Bank. Pitching in progress. Narrow gauge railway distributing stone. Barrage launch lying off bank.’ (f 485)
  • ‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Machinery Dump outside store shed. Part of 1[and a half]-ton and 10-ton steel derricks in foreground. 10-ton hand crane unloading. 5-ton steam crane and boilers for pile drivers in background.’ (f 487)
  • ‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Quarry 17 Rohri, South face. Removing overburden for use as pitching stone, to clear beds for large cut stone. 2’ 0” gauge railway removing stone.’ (f 489)
  • ‘Lake Whiting District. The Lloyd Dam. 4 ft. diam[eter] outlet sluices, Down Stream face.’ (f 491)
  • ‘Lloyd Dam showing outlet pipes.’ (f 492)
  • ‘Pandharpur Fair: Water supply arrangements at Wakhari showing distribution of water through taps.’ (f 496)
  • ‘Pandharpur Fair: Outflow from the Waiting Shed. Women waiting their turn to enter the temple via Women’s Shed.’ (f 498)
  • ‘Government Central Distillery, Nasik [or Nashik] Road.’ (f 515)
  • ‘Khanapur Distillery: The Fermentation room.’ (f 515).

There are also diagrams showing the following: ‘DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL HEADS OF REVENUE FOR THE YEAR 1923-24.’ (f 506); ‘DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL HEADS OF EXPENDITURE MET FROM REVENUE FOR THE YEAR 1923-24.’ (f 508); ‘TOTAL EXPENDITURE CHARGED TO REVENUE FOR THE YEARS 1912-13 TO 1923-24.’ (f 510).

There are appendices on folios 527-530, and an index on folios 531-533. There is a map of the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. on folio 534.

A table of contents listing the headings and sub-headings of the report is on folios 402-403. In a small number of instances, there are discrepancies in the phrasing or inclusion of sub-headings between the table of contents and the body of the report. In these cases, the sub-heading as it appears in the body of the report is included above.

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‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎440v] (84/274), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/10/317/3, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100152998489.0x00005a> [accessed 18 July 2026]

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