Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎516r] (156/238)

3 6 9
PROCEEDINGS OF THE EAST INDIA
ASSOCIATION.
At a meeting of the East India Association held at 3, Victoria Street,
Westminster, on Tuesday, January 28, 1902, a paper was read by Alex
ander Rogers, Esq. (late Member of Council, Bombay), on “ The Spread
of the Municipal Idea in India.” Sir Charles Stevens, k.c.s.i., in the chair.
The following among others were present : Sir William Wedderburn, Bart,
Dewan Bahadur V. M. Samnath, Mr. David Duncan, ll.d., Mr. F.
Loraine Petre, Mr. J. Sturrock, c.i.e., Mr. W. Coldstream, Mr. J. B.
Pennington, Mrs. and Miss Arathoon, Mr. H. R. Cook, Miss Gawthrop,
Mr. Vishvanath P. Vaidyar, Mr. Reginald Nevill, Mr. Wagle, Mr. F. D.
White, Mr. A. Kinlock, Mr. M. D. Sheikh, Mr. G. R. Misra, Mr. C. W.
Arathoon, Hon. Sec.
The paper was read. :|;
The Chairman : Ladies and Gentlemen,—We are all very much obliged
to Mr. Rogers for this interesting paper. It is of particular interest to
me because throughout my service in Bengal, almost from first to last, I
was more or less concerned with municipalities as chairman or vice-
chairman, or as simple member, or as being charged with the duty of
supervising the municipalities of the district or of a Commissioner’s
division. I am prepared to agree generally with the remarks which Mr.
Rogers has made, and with those which he has quoted from Sir Mack-
worth Young. I agree with Mr. Rogers in thinking that the matter of
the village communities has been worked a little too hard. I do not
think that our Government has really done very much to suppress them,
and I do not think that these village communities are the real origin of
the municipalities as they now are. In Bengal, at any rate, municipal
institutions have spread rather from the top downwards. It is natural
that wants beyond those of mere watch and ward by policemen should be
most felt in the biggest places. I think, taking the municipalities as a
whole, their real origin lies in the association of the inhabitants for police,
and watch, and ward. In the country municipalities it was found that a
surplus could be collected which could be usefully spent in town or
village works, and by degrees, instead of such works being the utilization
of a mere surplus, they became a main object, if not the main object of
the municipality, and eventually other public services were added. But
even in the great city of Calcutta it is only within the last few years that
the office of Chief Commissioner of Police has been separated from that
of Chairman of the Municpality. I do not myself altogether agree with
the opinion that one of the principal reasons for pressing municipal
institutions on India was that in them would be found scope for useful
employment of superfluous local energy. I am, of course, aware that
when Lord Ripon was Viceroy stress was laid on the extension of local
self-government as a means of political education. I think, however, that
* See the paper elsewhere in this Review.
THIRD SERIES. VOL. XIII.
AA