View source for Sukkur District,1908

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This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
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[[Category:India|S]]
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''Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value. ''


=Sukkur District,1908=
==Physical aspects==
District in Sind, Bombay, lying between 27° 5' 
and 28° 26' N. and 68° 15' and 70° 14' E., with an area of 5,403 
square miles. It is bounded on the north by the Upper Sind Frontier 
District and the Bahawalpur State of the Punjab ; on the east by the 
States of Bahawalpur and Jaisalmer ; on the south by Khairpur State 
and Larkana District ; and on the west by the Larkana and Upper 
Sind Frontier Districts. Until August, 1901, Sukkur formed part of 
Shikarpur District, which consisted of 14 tdlitkas. Seven idlukas were 
then detached to form the District of Larkana, and the name of the 
remaining District was changed from Shikarpur to Sukkur. The 
general aspect is that of a vast alluvial plain, broken 
only at Sukkur and Rohri by low limestone hills, Physical 
which tend to preserve a permanent bank for the 
Indus at those places. The Indus once flowed past these hills near 
the ancient town of Aror, and was diverted into its present channel 
through the Bukkur hills by some natural convulsion. Large patches 
of salt land, known as kalar, occur frequently, especially in the upper 
part of the District ; and towards the Jacobabad frontier barren tracts 
of clay and ridges of sandhills, covered with caper and thorn jungle, 
constitute a distinctive feature in the landscape. The desert portion 
of the Rohri subdivision, known as the Registan, possesses extensive 
sandhills, bold in outline and often fairly wooded. 

The Indus alluvium occupies most of the District. The town of 
Sukkur is built on a low hill of Kirthar limestone, identical with the 
Splntangi limestone of Baluchistan. The same rock forms a range 
of hills east of the Indus. A boring made at Sukkur in the hope 
of discovering oil penetrated through a thickness of shales and lime- 
stones greatly exceeding 1,000 feet, beneath the Splntangi ; these lower 
rocks are lithologically similar to the Ghazij of Baluchistan, which 
occupies the same relative position. 

Besides the common vegetation of Sind, the mango, mulberry, apple, 
pomegranate, and date grow freely ; among timber trees are the pipal, 
nim, ber, siras, tali, bahan, babul, and kandi. The bush of Rohri jungle 
consists principally of tamarisks, and reed grasses are abundant ; while, 
as in all parts of Upper Sind, the kirar, ak, and pan are ubiquitous. 

The wild animals found are the hyena, hog, wolf, fox, jackal, gazelle, 
and hog deer. Lynx are occasionally met with in the Rohri sub- 
division. The birds and water-fowl are those common to Sind. 
Crocodiles are common in the Eastern Nara. 

The climate is hot and dry, with a remarkable absence of air 
currents during the inundation season ; and it is, in consequence, very 
trying to a European constitution. The hot season commences in 
April and ends in October ; it is generally ushered in by violent 
dust-storms ; the cold season begins in November and lasts till March. 
The maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures in the shade are on 
an average 120°, 61°, 81°. The transition period from the hot to the 
cold season is very sudden at Rohri. The annual rainfldl at Sukkur 
town averages only 4.4 inches, occurring irregularly in the cold season 
and during the south-west monsoon. 
==History==
The history of the Upper Sind Districts has been given in the 
historical survey of the province of Sind. Ruled until the Muham- 
madan invasion of 712 by a Brahman dynasty of 
Aror (or Alor) 5 miles from the modern town of 
Rohri, this portion of Sind was for some time a dependency of the 
Ummayid Khalifs and the Abbasids. Conquered by Mahmud of 
Ghazni in 1025, the District passed a few years later to the Sumra 
dynasty, and then to the Samma and Arghun rulers of Sind. Under 
the emperors of Delhi, a Sindl tribe, the Mahars, asserted themselves 
by driving out the Jatoi tribe of Baloch who were settled on the 
western bank of the Indus, but were themselves displaced some years 
later by the powerful Daudputras, another Sindl tribe, who, led on by 
their Pir, Sultan Ibrahim Shah, inflicted a severe defeat on the 
Mahars, sacked their town of Lakhi, and founded a new capital for 
Upper Sind at Shikarpur. In the eighteenth century, the Kalhora 
chiefs held sway over the Upper Sind Districts till the Afghan invasion 
in 1781. Between 1809 and 1824, their successors, the Talpur Mirs, 
recovered Burdika, Rupar, and Sukkur from the Durrani kingdom, 
and finally captured Shikarpur, in time to prevent that town falling 
into the hands of the Sikhs under General Ventura. In 1833, during 
the Talpur rule. Shah Shuja, the dethroned Afghan monarch, made 
an expedition into Upper Sind to recover his lost territory. He 
marched with a force via Bahawalpur towards Shikarpur, and gained 
a victory which resulted in the payment to him by the Mirs of 4 lakhs, 
and Rs. 50,000 for his officers of state, while 500 camels were made 
over for the king's use. The Shah subsequently marched on his 
expedition against Kandahar; but, being defeated by Dost Muhammad, 
he retreated to Sind and proceeded to Hyderabad, where he obtained 
sufficient money from the Mirs to enable him to return to Ludhiana 
in the Punjab. 

In 1843, on the conquest of the province by the British, all northern 
Sind, with the exception of that portion held by the Khairpur Mir, All 
Murad Talpur, was formed into the Shikarpur Collectorate and the 
Frontier District. In the previous year (1842), the towns of Sukkur, 
Bukkur, and Rohri had by treaty been ceded to the British in per- 
petuity. In 1 85 1, Mir All Murad Talpur, of Khairpur, was after a full 
and public inquiry convicted of acts of forgery and fraud, in unlawfully 
retaining certain lands and territories which belonged of right to the 
British Government. The forgery consisted in his having destroyed 
a leaf of the Koran in which the Naunahar treaty, concluded in 1842 
between himself and his brothers, Mirs Nasir and Mubarak Khan, was 
written, and having substituted for it another leaf, in which the word 
' village ' was altered to ' district,' by which he fraudulently obtained 
possession of several large districts instead of villages of the same 
name. On January 1, 1852, the Governor-General of India (the Marquis 
of Dalhousie) issued a proclamation depriving the Mir of the tracts 
wrongfully retained, and degrading him from the rank of Rais (or lord 
paramount). Of the area so confiscated, Ubauro, Buldika, Mirpur, 
Saidabad, and other parts of Upper Sind on the left bank of the Indus, 
now forming the greater part of the Rohri subdivision, were added 
to Shikarpur District, which in 1901 was divided into Sukkur and the 
new District of Larkana. 

The principal antiquities are the ruined town and fort of Aror and 
the old stronghold of Mathelo. The latter, situated on rising ground 
7 miles south-east of Ghotki railway station, is said to have been 
founded by a Rajput 1,400 years ago. In the old Hindu city of Vijnot, 
4 miles south of Reti railway station, are found carved slabs, brick 
foundations, &c. In the vicinity are the old sites of Ther Sarwahi and 
Pattan Minar. The principal Musalman remains worthy of note are 
the Jama Masjid and War Mubarak of Rohri and Pir Musan Shah's 
Masjid at Ghotki. An ancient mosque at Ubauro is ascribed to the 
middle of the sixteenth century. Hakrah, about 2\ miles from Rohri, 
contains the ruins of an ancient town. 
==Population==
The area now constituting the District had in 1891 
of 474,477. In 1901 the number had increased to 
523,345, or by 10 per cent., dwelling in 5 towns and 
606 villages. The taluka distribution is shown 
table : — 
[[File: talu.png||frame|500px]] 
Hindus form 27 per cent, of the total, and Musalmans 72 per cent. 
The density is 97 persons per square mile, the Mirpur Mathelo taluka 
being the least thickly populated, owing to its containing wide tracts of 
uncultivable desert. The towns are Shikarpur, Sukkur, Rohri, and 
Ghotki. The ordinary language is Sindi, spoken by 93 per cent, 
of the population. Baluchi and Siraikl are also spoken. 

The Hindus of the District are, with few exceptions, Lohano traders, 
a few Bhils being found in Mirpur Mathelo. Among Musalmans, 
Baloch number 75,000, the principal tribes being the Burdis, Chan- 
dias, Jatois, Lasharis, and Harris. The Mahars, who once owned 
a great portion of the District, number 11,388, while the Suniras 
(23,000), Sammas (106,000), and the fishing caste of Muhanas (14,000), 
are the only other divisions of numerical importance. Arabs, including 
Kalhoras, are represented by 29,000. The Dahars of Khairpur 
Daharki in the Ubauro taluka, formerly Hindus, who came from Tonk 
Jodah near Delhi in the eleventh century and became converts to 
Islam, are an interesting section of the Musalman population. Details 
of the proportion of the population supported by different occupations 
are not available for Sukkur District. In the old Shikarpur District 
agriculture supported 58 per cent., industries 31 per cent., and com- 
merce 2 per cent. 

Of 450 Christians in 1901, 51 were natives, mostly Roman Catholics. 
Two missions are at work in the District : namely, the Punjab-Sind 
branch of the Church Missionary Society, which commenced work 
in Sukkur in 1885 ; and a branch of the Church of England Zenana 
Mission, established in 1889, which maintains two Hindu girls' schools, 
a Muhammadan girls' school, an English school for boys and girls, 
a female dispensary, and an orphanage for boys. 
==Agriculture==
The soils in the Rohri subdivision are in some places very rich. 
The stiff heavy soil saturated with moisture, known as sailabi, is found 
chiefly in the Shikarpur subdivision. It requires no 
water from seedtime to harvest. 

The total cultivable land is estimated at 2,726 square miles, of which 
1,106 are occupied. The chief statistics of cultivation in 1903 are 
shown below, in square miles : — 
[[File: tu1.png||frame|500px]] 
* This differs from the area sliown in the Census of iQoi, being based upon more recent 
information. 

The principal crops, with the area under each, are rice (87 square 
miles), wheat (249), jowar (262), bdjra (37), pulses, chiefly lang and 
gram (67), and oilseeds (47 square miles). About half of the total 
area under rice is in Naushahro Abro. Wheat is grown mainly in 
Rohri and Ghotki. Cotton, fruits, and vegetables are also extensively 
grown. Large advances have been made under the Land Improve- 
ment and Agriculturists' Loans Acts, amounting during the decade 
ending 1903-4 to more than 15/2 lakhs, of which 1.3 lakhs was advanced 
in 1899-1900, 3/2 lakhs in 1902-3, and 1-4 lakhs in 1903-4. 

Owing to the extension of irrigation, a large amount of land has been 
brought under cultivation during the last twenty-five years. Rice is 
more largely cultivated, and ground-nuts are being introduced as an 
alternative crop to jowdr with considerable success. 

The domestic animals comprise camels, horses, buffaloes, bullocks, 
sheep, goats, mules, and donkeys. The camels are mostly imported 
from Jaisalmer and Thar and Parkar, while good ponies of medium 
height are procurable in all parts of the District. Most of the animals 
which change hands at the annual Shikarpur horse show come from 
Jacobabad or from across the frontier. Mule-breeding is becoming 
popular, most of the animals being bred from Government donkey 
stallions. 

Of the total area cultivated, 605 square miles, or 39 per cent., were 
irrigated in 1903-4. The various classes of irrigation sources are 
Government canals (141 square miles), private canals (408 square 
miles), wells (8 square miles), and other sources (47 square miles). 
Irrigation is also effected in some parts by lets or inundations of the 
Indus, which are a source of fertility in the Rohri subdivision. In 
other parts they are apt to be excessive, and protective embankments 
have been erected in many villages to prevent the wholesale destruc- 
tion of crops. The chief canals, all of which are fed by the Indus, 
are the Sind Canal, irrigating 166 square miles, Begari (78), Sukkur 
Canal (53), Nara Supply Channel (13), and Mahi wah (74). The total 
cultivable area commanded by the irrigation works is 1,096 square 
miles. 

The forests of Sukkur cover an area of about 400 square miles, 
and are valuable only as fuel and timber reserves. They fringe the 
banks of the Indus and are in charge of a divisional Forest officer. 
The important trees are the pipal, nim, ber, siras, tali, bahan, babul, 
and kandi. The bush jungle consists for the most part of tamarisk. 
The forest receipts in 1903-4 amounted to Rs. 94,000. 
==Trade and communications==
The manufactures include earthenware, metal vessels, coarse cotton 
cloth, and leathern articles. The towns of Ghotki and Khairpur 
Daharki are noted for their manufactures of pipe- 
bowls, snuff-boxes, scissors, and cooking pots. Tasar
silk is manufactured at Rohri. The former trade 
through the Bolan Pass has almost entirely ceased, goods from Afghan- 
istan and Central Asia taking the railway route. Sukkur and Shikar- 
pur are the only two important trade centres. The former has a large 
trade by rail and boat with the Punjab in wheat, timber, iron, and 
piece-goods. The traders of Shikarpur have direct dealings with 
Afghanistan, Bahrein, Cutch, Constantinople, China, and Japan in 
carpets, pearls, silks, silver-work, and fancy work. Both towns carry on 
a large import trade in wool from Afghanistan. 

Besides the trunk roads which connect Sukkur with the adjoining 
Districts of Upper Sind, Larkana, Hyderabad, and Karachi, and with 
the Native States of Khairpur and Bahawalpur, the North-Western 
Railway runs through the District on both banks of the Indus, with 
a branch from Sukkur towards Quetta. The new line, styled the 
Kotri-Rohri Railway, on the left bank of the Indus, is an addition 
made in the last decade. The Indus is also a convenient and cheap 
means of water communication, and bears large numbers of country 
boats. The total length of metalled roads outside the municipal limits 
of Sukkur and Shikarpur is 8 miles, and of unmetalled roads 1,370 
miles. They are all maintained by the local authorities. The chief 
roads are the Hyderabad-Multan road, running north for 73 miles, the 
Sukkur-Jacobabad road (38 miles), and the road from Rohri to Khair- 
pur (16 miles). Avenues of trees are maintained on these three roads. 
==Administration==
The talukas are for administrative purposes grouped into three sub- 
divisions— Rohri, Mirpur, and Shikarpur — in charge 
of two Assistant Collectors and a Deputy-Collector. 
The Collector is ex-officio Political Agent of the Khairpur State. 

A District and Sessions Judge and a Joint Judge sit at Sukkur ; and 
the civil judicial staff includes 5 Subordinate Judges. The District 
and Sessions Judge exercises jurisdiction also over Larkana District. 
Rohri possesses a resident magistrate ; and both Shikarpur and Sukkur 
have city magistrates. The Subordinate Judges exercise jurisdiction 
in suits of Rs. 5,000 in value or less within local limits. The first-class 
Subordinate Judge at Sukkur can hear suits of any value within the 
limits of Sukkur, Larkana, and Jacobabad Districts, excepting suits 
against Government. The District and Joint Judges hear suits and 
appeals of any value arising within the three Districts. Theft and 
cattle-stealing are the commonest forms of crime. 

In the Rohri subdivision the maurusi tenure is found, under which 
the tenants possess an hereditary right of occupancy. This tenure 
resembles the aforament prevailing in parts of Portugal and the beklem- 
reght in the province of Groningen described by M. de Lavaleye in the 
first volume of the Cobden Club Essays. The tenant pays a quit-rent 
to the proprietor, which differs in different villages, but seldom exceeds 
6 or 8 annas per acre, and cannot be enhanced. The settlement of 
the Government demand is made direct with the tenant, who is entered 
in the register as an occupant, the amount of quit-rent payable to the 
proprietor being also recorded. Other tenures are the zamindari and 
pattaddri. The former is equivalent to a charge on cultivation, payable 
in cash or in kind to the zamindar. The latter has arisen out of grants 
under leases of reduced assessment, made by the Afghan government 
to Pathan settlers, and is now equivalent to the assignment of a fixed 
proportion of the revenue to the alienees. Jagir lands are found in 
every taluka of the Rohri subdivision, and in a small portion of the 
Shikarpur subdivision, amounting altogether to 479 square miles. 
The first survey settlement was introduced into the District between 
1862 and 1873, and has been revised every ten years. The survey 
rates at present in force are : garden land, Rs. 4-2 (maximum Rs. 6-8 
and minimum Rs. 3) ; rice land, Rs. 4-2 (maximum Rs. 5 and mini- 
mum Rs. 3) ; 'dry' land, Rs. 2-11 (maximum Rs. 3-8 and minimum 
Rs. 1-12). 

Collections on account of land revenue and revenue from all sources 
have been, in thousands of rupees : — 
[[File: lnd.png||frame|500px]] 
There are five municipalities in the District : Sukkur, Shikarpur, 
Ghari Yasin, Rohri, and Ghotki. The local affairs of the rest of 
the District are managed by the District board at Sukkur and seven 
tdluka boards, with receipts of more than 1.2 lakhs in 1903-4. The 
expenditure in the same year was likewise 1.2 lakhs, of which about 
Rs. 50,000 was spent on roads and buildings. The principal source of 
income is the land cess. 

The District Superintendent of police has an Assistant Superinten- 
dent and four inspectors. There are 13 police stations in the District. 
The total number of police is 712, of whom 11 are chief constables, 
115 head constables, and 586 constables. 

The District jail at Shikarpur has accommodation for 433 prisoners. 
A new District jail is now being built at Sukkur town. There are six 
subsidiary jails, with accommodation for 108 prisoners. The total 
daily average number of prisoners in 1904 was 439, of whom 5 were 
females. 

The District stands last but one among the twenty-four Districts ot 
the Presidency in respect of the literacy of its population, of whom 
1.7 per cent. (5.7 males and 0.9 females) are able to read and write. 
In 1880-1 there were 104 schools with an attendance of 7,087 pupils. 
The number of passes rose to 19,738 in 1891 and to 26,388 in 1901 
before the formation of Larkana District. In 1903-4 there were 466 
schools with 17,485 pupils. Of these institutions, one is a high school, 
six are middle schools, and two are technical and other special schools. 

The high school and a Saturday afternoon drawing-class for masters 
are supported by Government, iii schools are managed by the local 
and municipal boards, 170 are aided, and one is unaided. The 
expenditure incurred on education is about 3/2 lakhs, of which 
Rs. 21,000 is derived from fees. Of the total amount, 67 per cent, is 
devoted to primary schools. 

Besides several private medical institutions, there are three hospitals 
and six dispensaries in the District, with accommodation for 132 
in-patients. In these institutions, 96,980 cases were treated in 1904, 
of whom 1,441 were in-patients, and 4,536 operations were performed. 
The total expenditure was Rs. 23,800, of which Rs. 12,900 was 
contributed by the local boards and municipalities. 

The number of persons successfully vaccinated in 1903-4 was 
15,751, representing a proportion of 30 per 1,000, which exceeds the 
average for the Presidency. 

[A. W. Hughes, Gazetteer of the Provifice of Sin d (1876).]