Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎468r] (60/238)

The Progress of the Municipal Idea in India. 273
might be found to exist in a manner beneficial to itself as well
as to others. Those who were not immediately required
for agricultural operations in the villages, or who through
the education provided for them by the State had assimilated
the idea that there were other methods for employing
their minds, were thus to be afforded their opportunity in the
conduct of municipal institutions, which were accordingly
organized by various Acts of the Legislature. This it was, of
course, impossible to carry out at once in such a vast country
as British India, nor was it possible to hit off without expe
rience of their working the subsidiary provisions that were
necessary to suit the peculiarities of different localities
inhabited by races having various customs ; but the system
has at all events been established, and is working, however
imperfectly. It will now be our task to ascertain to what
extent these institutions, to use a common phrase, have
caught on and are being utilized by those for whom they
are intended, and we are bound to express a considerable
feeling of disappointment at the general result of the experi
ment. It would run an ordinary paper to an inordinate
length were we to attempt to do this for the whole of the
country, and we therefore propose to confine our attention to
the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, the reports for
which for the year 1899-1900, as well as the resolutions of
the two Governments on those reports, are now before us.
The verdict of the former is that out of sixty municipalities
the administration in two was unsatisfactory, in nine it was
not efficient, in thirty-three it was fairly satisfactory, and in
sixteen good. In Bombay the general conclusion is that
there was nothing new in the reports as to the efficiency of
the municipalities ; there could be no doubt that on the
whole they were doing useful work. Two municipalities,
viz., those of Bassein and Alibagh, had been superseded
for maladministration and incompetency. The number of
meetings held was generally satisfactory except in the case
of a few Boards in the Central and Southern Divisions,
where also the average attendance was smaller than it should
THIRD SERIES. VOL. XIII.
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