Art. III.—Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the Natives of Bengal1

J. Long

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00161040

Art. III.—Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the Natives of Bengal1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

J. Long

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J. Long: Affiliation:
Calcutta

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Desiderata and Inquiries connected with the Presidency of Madras and Bombay were issued by the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1827, on points relating to the language, literature, ancient history of families, antiquities, coins, people, architecture, landed tenures, arts and manufactures, of India.

The British Admiralty has published a Manual of Scientific Enquiry, so have the Statistical and other Societies.

Haxthausen, in his work on the Caucasus, remarks: “My travels and observations during more than twenty years, have convinced me that an acquaintance with the manners of a people, their moral and material interests, domestic relations, corporate associations, and specially the commercial relations of the lower classes, is indispensable to a real knowledge of the history and constitution of peoples and states.”

Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , January 1866 , pp. 44 - 84

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00161040 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1866

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^{page 48 note 1} In the North West Provinces of India in 1852, 10,000 Rupees were spent by-Government in the establishment of public gardens. The author of Seir Mutakherim remarked last century “ a garden, an orchard—being time out of mind as free to all the world all over India as is a well or a tank, nothing amazes and disgusts the Hindustanees more when they come to Calcutta than to find so many seats and gardens all shut up.”

^{page 48 note 2} I have met with cases of evening schools attended solely by ryots. In England one per cent, of the rural population attend such schools. In France 12 per cent. In Bussia they are rapidly on the increase.

^{page 49 note 1} See the Asiatic Annual Register, 1801;Google Scholar the Asiatic Journal 1823,Google Scholar on trials for witchcraft among Hindus.

^{page 51 note 1} Half the adult population of London is born in the Provinces.

^{page 51 note 2} 636 Armenians in Calcutta in 1837.Google Scholar

^{page 51 note 3} There were 362 in 1837.

^{page 51 note 4} 4,746 in 1837.

^{page 51 note 5} There were in Calcutta 307 Jews in 1837.

^{page 51 note 6} The Alexandrian Jews were hellenised.

^{page 52 note 1} 3,181 in 1837.

^{page 53 note 1} Rama Murda Farish died at Calcutta about 1835,Google Scholar worth five or six lacs, which he gained by burning the dead at Nimtollah.

^{page 54 note 1} That is, placing the first fruits of grain in harvest time at the door.

^{page 56 note 1} In the Pancha Tantra, a work twelve centuries old at least, we have an account of a jackal who tumbled into an indigo vat.

^{page 57 note 1} In Liverpool it was ascertained lately that out of 19,336 persons apprehended in nine months, only 3 per cent, could read or write well enough for any available purpose.

^{page 57 note 2} It is so in the manufacturing districts of England, and among the Rajputs.

^{page 60 note 1} A suitable dress for females, decent, yet national, is a desideratum. Some Hindu females have adopted the English dress, but they look exactly like Portuguese Ayahs, or the black dolls that hang in London over pawn-brokers' shops. “Why should this be? The sári, it is true, is not sufficient, but in Bahar we find the petticoat (lohanga) and boddice (kurta) have been introduced from the west of India, and more than one-fourth of the Bahar women have adopted it. Some of the Rajput women in Bahar use long-drawers like the Musulman ladies. The males are better off as to dress, but in their disuse of the turban, substituting for it a cap, they benefit only the eye doctors and spectacle makers, furnishing them with more patients,—as the eyes having no shade like what the turban gives, become weak;—such has been the case in Egypt, since the Turkish Fez has been introduced.

^{page 60 note 2} Sui properly means passing the shuttle in the act of weaving.

^{page 62 note 1} Dr. Mouat, Inspector of Jails in Bengal, shows in his Returns for 1860, that out of 75,000 criminals in the Bengal and Behar jails that year, 93 per cent. were utterly ignorant of reading and writing.

^{page 63 note 1} In Kabul the custom is for boys and girls from 5 to 12 years of age to attend the same school.

^{page 63 note 2} In Kabul many of the females are better acquainted with religious books than the males.

^{page 67 note 1} I allude here to an evil felt in England and Russia as highly demoralising, viz., a single sleeping-room for parties of different sexes. The Santals, semi-civilized though they he, are in this respect ahead of Bengalis; hoys and girls arrived at the age of puberty, have to sleep separately away from their parents in a particular part of the village.

^{page 67 note 2} Hamilton Buchanan's Bengal and Baher, vol. ii. p. 697,Google Scholar states, “ Its name is moslem and that a place of receiving company was introduced, when the example or command of these haughty conquerors rendered it necessary to secrete the women, this practice is not common in the South of India, where the manners of the Hindus are less altered; the sofa made of wood, the carpets, and quilts seem to have been introduced by the Muhammadans.”—See Kirát Arjunya.

^{page 68 note 1} Caldwell's Dravidian grammar affords many valuable hints on this subject.

^{page 69 note 1} Research in other quarters ought to encourage it here: thus we find that the Pushtu, until lately considered a colloquial dialect, had, as Captain Raverty shows, MS. as early as 1417 A.D.

^{page 69 note 2} Language has well been called a map of the manners and science of the people who speak it. Thus the term for a widow, Vídhava, showed that all widows were not burnt; so pati, a lord, the term for husband, indicated that he ruled.

^{page 69 note 3} Colonel Sleeman in his Ramasceana gives the language of Thugs. We have in Bengal the language of boatmen.

^{page 71 note 1} In Birmingham in 1856, 84,000 accounts were opened for one penny and upwards; £4,500 being paid in. Through Dr. Chalmers' influence penny banks were established, fifty years ago in Scotland. Dr. Duncan established in Scotland Savings Banks for deposits of a shilling and upwards, and thirty-two-millions sterling have been deposited by 1,340,000 contributors.

^{page 72 note 1} When I was in England 18 years ago, the late Professor Wilson directed my attention to this subject as one of great interest; only a native can write on it.

^{page 73 note 1} The trial by ordeal has been handed down in India from ancient times; it was prevalent in Europe in the middle ages.—See Asiatic Researches, Vol. I.Google Scholar

^{page 73 note 2} In Purnea, Hindus contribute to the expense of the Mohurrum; while caste has throughout Bengal obtained a complete ascendancy over the Moslems.

^{page 76 note 1} Ballad literature is not to be despised as an index of a popular mind, as Sir W. Scott has shown with regard to the Scotch, and Bp. Percy with respect to the English ballads. A queen of Denmark, ten centuries ago, had the Danish ballads published: they have lately been translated into English; they are chiefly written by women, and treat of history, and legends. The Guzerat Vernacular Society in its report for 1849 states that one of its great objects was the collecting and copying ancient MS. ballads and tales.

^{page 76 note 2} It is calculated there may be two hundred shops for the sale of these; now Brahmanas and Khaistas come into the field as book agents.

^{page 79 note 1} In Behar zillah those Bhats rank next to the military tribes, amount to 380 families, most of which have endowments in land. “They are very impudent fellows, and when any one offends them, they make an image of cloth, and call it by their enemy's prototype.”

^{page 79 note 2} I mention this as the Bengalis sit up late.

^{page 80 note 1} Slavery was once very prevalent in Bengal, and especially in Behar; the Musulmans in the latter place, forbidden by their religion to purchase a freeman, in order to give a sop to their conscience, call it taking a lease of a man for ninety years.

^{page 81 note 1} From Katamandu to Indore, the Bengali Babu is the copying machine in offices; in Benares alone there are about 7000 Bengalis settled.

^{page 82 note 1} Last century they were arched.

^{page 82 note 2} In Berlin, the cab drivers, while waiting for a fare, are to be often seen reading.

^{page 82 note 3} The author of Seri Mutakherim writes that they make nothing of following and preceding Englishmen on a full gallop, and that common servants hare been seen who would run down a hare.

^{page 84 note 1} It is so among certain stonemasons in Behar zillah.

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Art. III.—Five Hundred Questions on the Social Condition of the Natives of Bengal1

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