Mysore State: Administration. 1909
This article was written between 1907- 1909 when conditions were Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles |
From Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1907 – 1909
Mysore State (Maisūr): 1909
Contents |
Administration
His Highness the Mahārājā is the head of the State, having been invested with full powers on attaining his majority in 1902. In his name, and subject to his sanction, the administration is carried on by the Dīwān or prime minister, who is assisted by two Councillors.
The Chief Court is the highest tribunal [S. 228] of justice, and is composed of a bench of three Judges, headed by the Chief Judge. There is a secretariat staff for the transaction of official business, and Commissioners and other departmental officers at the head of the various branches of the administration, with a Comptroller for finance and treasury affairs.
The dynastic capital is at Mysore city, but the administrative head-quarters are at Bangalore. The Mahārājā resides for part of the year at each of these places, but the higher offices of the State are located at Bangalore. The Representative Assembly meets once a year at Mysore at the time of the Dasara festival, when the Dīwān delivers his annual statement of the condition of the finances and the measures of the State, after which suggestions by the members are considered.
The administrative divisions of the State are eight in number, called Districts, with an average area of 3,679 square miles, and an average population of 692,425. They are Bangalore, Kolār, Tumkūr, Mysore, Hassan, Kadūr, Shimoga, and Chitaldroog. Each of these is named after its head-quarters, except Kadūr District, the head-quarters of which are at Chikmugalūr. Mysore is the largest District and Hassan the smallest.
The chief officer in charge of a District is the Deputy-Commissioner, who is assisted by a staff of Assistant Commissioners. The subdivisions of a District are tāluks, altogether 69 in number, averaging eight or nine to each District1, with an average area of 427 square miles. These are formed into convenient groups of two, three, or four, which are distributed, under the authority of the Deputy-Commissioner, among the various Assistants and himself in such a way as to facilitate the dispatch of business and train the junior officers for administrative duties.
1 Kadūr has only five, while Mysore has fourteen, and Kolār ten.
The officer in charge of a tāluk is the amaldār, assisted by a sheristadār, who has charge of the treasury and acts as his deputy in case of need. Large tāluks have a portion divided off into a sub-tāluk under the charge of a deputy-amaldār, but with no separate treasury. A tāluk is composed of hobalis or hoblis, the average number being six to ten. In each of these is a shekdār, or revenue inspector.
The headman of a village is the pātel, a gauda or principal farmer, who is assisted in revenue collections by the shānbhog, a Brāhman accountant. These offices are hereditary, and form part of the village corporation of twelve, called ayagār in Kanarese and bāra balūti in Marāthī. The other members of this ancient institution are the Kammar or blacksmith, the Badagi or carpenter, the Agasa or washerman, the Panchāngi or Joyisa, an astrologer and calendar maker, the Nāyinda or barber, the Mādiga or cobbler and leather-dresser, the Kumbar or potter, the Talāri or watchman, and the Nirganti or distributor [S. 229] of water for irrigation.
The dozen is made up in some parts by including the Akkasāle or goldsmith ; in other parts his place is taken by the poet, who is also the schoolmaster. The respective duties of these village officials are definitely fixed ; and their services are remunerated either by the grant of rent-free lands, or by contributions, on a certain scale, of grain, straw, &c., at harvest time.
The Excise Commissioner is also Inspector-General of Registration. The number of sub-registry offices in 1904 was So, of which 59 were special, or with paid establishments, the remainder being in charge of tāluk revenue officers. The number of documents registered from 1881 to 1890 averaged 21,747; from 1891 to 1900, 46,251; and in 1904 the number was 57,637.XDEW
In addition to the local audits, the State accounts have been examined at various times by auditors deputed by the Government Finance The revenue under all heads has risen.
The increase under land is due to extension of cultivation. Since 1885 mining leases and the royalty on gold-production have added a new item to the revenue. The increase under excise is due mainly to an improved system of control, but also to a larger consumption arising from higher wages and the influx to the Gold Fields, and from the employment on railways, public works, and coffee plantations of classes with drinking habits. The decrease under land customs and assessed taxes is due to these duties having been transferred to municipalities wherever they exist.
The only customs retained by the State are on areca-nuts, the bulk of which are the produce of Kadūr and Shimoga Districts. An increase under forests took place owing to a revival of the market for sandal-wood, and to a greater supply of sleepers for railways.
Subsequently the war between China and Japan temporarily crippled one of the principal sandal-wood [S. 231] markets, and not only did the demand for railway sleepers cease with the completion of the lines, but coal began to be substituted for wood as fuel for the engines. Since 1902 a substantial return has been received from the Cauvery Power installation for supplying electricity to the gold-mines.
Irrigation
To put an end to complaints of unequal distribution, the management of the river channels in the irrigation season was in 1888 put under the amaldārs of the tāluks through which they run, and the hot-season supply to sugar-cane and garden tracts was arranged to be given at fixed periods, in consultation with the Deputy-Commissioners concerned.
There is no separate water rate, but the fixed assessment includes the full value imparted by soil and water combined. The value of the channel water-supply is determined on the basis of quantity, duration, and facility, according to the established capacity of each channel. The supply of water from tanks is similarly regulated. The receipts from river-fed channels in 1903-4 [S. 214] amounted to 6½ lakhs, and the net profits to 5 lakhs. The best wells are those throughout the north-east, fed by talpargis or spring-heads.
The water is raised by either the yāta or the kapile. The former, also known as picottah, is a lever with an iron bucket attached at the water end by a bamboo rod. The lever is weighted at one end with stones, or else raised and depressed by a man standing on it near the fulcrum post. The kapile has an inclined plane or ramp, down which bullocks draw a stout rope attached to a large leathern bucket.
A very large irrigation work is under construction at Māri Kanave on the Vedāvati. Other prominent recent works for the same purpose are Bora Kanave, Māvatūr tank, Srīnivāsa Sāgara, &c. Various projects in different tracts have been examined.
Military
The total strength of the British and Native army stationed within Mysore on June 1, 1903, was as follows : British, 2,093 ; Native, 2,996 ; total, 5,089. The Mysore State forms for military purposes part of the Ninth (Secunderābād) Division, which is for the present directly under the Commander-in-Chief. It has a cavalry and an infantry brigade, as well as artillery.
The only military station is Bangalore, which is also the head-quarters of a volunteer rifle corps. The total volunteer strength within Mysore, including detachments of railway volunteers, was 1,512 in 1903. The Coorg and Mysore Rifles also have detachments at Chikmugalūr and Sakleshpur, in the planting districts to the west.
The Mysore State force had a sanctioned strength of 2,722 in 1904, of whom nearly a half were Muhammadans and a fifth Marāthās, the rest being Hindus and Christians in about equal numbers. The force is composed of two regiments of Silladār cavalry, and three [S. 240] battalions of Barr infantry. In 1903 the former were 1,072 strong, and the latter 1,814. the Imperial Service Lancers, raised in April, 1892, form one cavalry regiment, stationed in Bangalore, and with them is kept up a transport corps of 300 ponies.
The Local Service Cavalry regiment is stationed at Mysore. The Barr battalions have their head-quarters at Mysore city, Shimoga, and Bangalore, with detachments in out-stations. The State military expenditure was 7.9 lakhs in 1880-1, 6.1 lakhs in 1890-1, and 9.4 lakhs in 1903-4.
Police
The police are under an Inspector-General. The sanctioned strength of the regular force in 1904 was 882 officers and 5,045 men, or one policeman to every 5-83 square miles and 1.073 inhabitants. The village police were for the first time provided with uniform and arms in 1901-2.
They help the regular police in the prevention and detection of crime, and in reporting the arrival and departure of criminal gangs and suspicious-looking strangers. The system of night watch is regularly maintained in all the villages of the Maidān tracts.
The watching by totis and talāris in ookkads and outposts on important roads and jungle tracts has worked well. There is a Police Training School, where recruits and officers and men are taught drill, codes, and surveying and drawing. But the police service is not as a rule popular with the educated classes of natives. Finger-prints and anthropometry have been used to trace criminals in recent years.
The special reserve is a body selected for good physique, and is better paid, equipped, and drilled than the other police. The members go through a course of musketry, and are held ready for emergencies in any part of the country, and are employed in putting down organized dacoities and serious disturbances of the public peace. There are three detachments, stationed respectively at Bangalore, Mysore city, and Shimoga.
The Kolār Gold Fields Police is a special body, with 50 officers and 279 men, under a separate European Superintendent, and is largely composed of Sikhs and Punjābis recruited from the north of India. It was formed in April, 1900, and has jurisdiction over the Bowringpet, Mālūr, and Mulbāgal tāluks.
The troops aid the police in various ways ; detachments of the Local Service Cavalry patrol certain roads, while the infantry act as treasury guards and escorts. The Railway police, reckoned as in British service, are under the Superintendent of Police of the Civil and Military Station of Bangalore, subject to the orders of the Resident.
The following are statistics of cognizable crime, the figures being the average for the five years ending 1901 : number of cases reported, 3,221 ; number decided in criminal courts, 1,828; number ending in acquittal or discharge, 584 ; number ending in conviction, 1,244. [S. 241]
Convicts are employed on cleaning and grinding rāgi; on prison duties, as prison warders, servants, and gardeners; on the preparation of articles for use or consumption in the jails; on jail buildings, manufactures, and public works.
The chief industries are printing, carpet, tent, and blanket-making, cloth-weaving, gunny and coir work, carpenter's and blacksmith's work in the Central jail at Bangalore; and weaving and spinning, basket and mat-making, and pottery in the Mysore District jail. The most numerous admissions into hospital on account of sickness are for malarial fevers. The high mortality in t8Si shown below was due to dysentery or diarrhoea, and anaemia; in 1901 there were four deaths from cholera.
[S. 242] Highly as learning was always esteemed, education seems never under former native rulers to have been regarded as a duty of the State. It was left to the voluntary principle, and was mostly in the hands of the priests. At the same time we find that, in the primitive corporation of the 'village twelve,' a poet, who was also a schoolmaster, was sometimes provided instead of a goldsmith. Endowments were often given for promoting learning as a religious duty.
Postal system, banks. Insurance
The old postal system of Mysore, called the Anche, dates from the time of Chikka Deva Rājā in the seventeenth century. In 1889 it was amalgamated with the British postal service and the entire management transferred to that department, on condition of all the official correspondence of the State being carried within the limits of the State free of cost to the Darbār.
There is no doubt that the change has been on the whole for the benefit of the public. For postal services Mysore is now a part of the Madras circle. In 1904 there were 428 post offices, and the mails were carried over 2,645 miles. The number of letters delivered was 7 millions, of post-cards 5 millions, of newspapers 650,000, of packets 660,000, and parcels 150,000. The value of money orders issued was 53 lakhs. In the Post Office savings banks 38,586 persons deposited 10.12 lakhs, and 9.18 lakhs was drawn out.
In the Mysore State savings banks there were 20,214 depositors in 1903-4. The opening balance of 73¾; lakhs was raised by deposits (34 lakhs) and interest to no lakhs, of which 31 lakhs was paid out in the year, leaving a balance of 79 lakhs at credit of the depositors.
The Mysore State Life Insurance scheme was instituted in 1892, and made obligatory on officials. Up to 1904 there had been issued 7,423 policies, assuring 44½ lakhs. Of this number 6,762 remained effective, [S. 226] assuring 40 lakhs. The second quinquennial valuation of the assets and liabilities of the Fund, made by an actuary in Edinburgh in 1902, confirmed its sound condition and the favourable nature of its terms.
Sanitation
Sanitation has received special attention in the towns ; but in villages only the improvement and conservancy of the water-supply have been looked to, and the removal of manure pits from the immediate proximity of the dwellings insisted upon. The peremptory evacuation of villages on the occurrence of plague has inclined the people in some parts to build and permanently remain on the spots in their fields where they have been camped.
The topographical survey of the State was completed in 1886, The revenue survey was commenced in 1863 and the settlement brought to an end in 1901. The system followed is that of Bombay, as already explained (pp. 214, 234). The area surveyed includes the whole of the State, or 29,433 square miles. The maintenance of the survey records is also the duty of the Survey department.
[B. Lewis Rice : Mysore (revised edition, 1897).
Lewin B. Bowring : Haidar All and Tipū Sultān (Rulers of India series, 1893);
Eastern Experiences (1871).
Dr. Francis Buchanan : A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar (1807 ; Madras reprint, 1870).
Major Mark Wilks : Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to trace the History of Mysoor (3 vols., 1810-17 ; Madras reprint, 1869).]
