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The Myth of the Deccan Riots of 1875

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Neil Charlesworth
Neil Charlesworth
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University of Cambridge
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Extract

In the early summer of 1875 agrarian rioting occurred in the Bombay Deccan. The disturbances began at Supa, a market village in Bhimthari taluka of Poona District, where on 12 May an unruly peasant mob attacked the houses and shops of the local Gujarati moneylenders. ‘The combustible elements were everywhere ready’1 and the riots spread through the poor, eastern regions of Poona and Ahmednagar Districts. The riots were directed entirely at the village sowkars (moneylenders), to whom most of the peasant agriculturists of the area were indebted.

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Articles
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Modern Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , July 1972 , pp. 401 - 421
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 Parliamentary Papers [hereafter P.P.], 1878, LVIII. Report of the Deccan Riots Commission [Hereafter Deccan Riots Report], para. 4.Google Scholar

2 Deccan Riots Report, para. 12.Google Scholar

3 These were in Poona District, 5 villages of Bhimthari taluka and 6 villages of Sirur taluka, and in Ahmednagar District 6 villages of Parner taluka, 11 of Shrigonda, in Nagar and one in Karjat taluka. Deccan Riots Report, paras 8–9.Google Scholar

4 Deccan Riots Report, para. 9.Google Scholar

5 392 in Ahmednagar and in Poona. Deccan Riots Report, para. 10.Google Scholar

6 Bombay Presidency Annual Police Report, 1875, Southern Division, p. 25.Google Scholar

7 Kumar argues that the riots were ‘a reflection of the tensions generated within rural society through the legal and administrative reforms carried out by the British Government’. Maharashtrian society had been ‘transformed under the influence of Utilitarian policies which tried to mould rural life along individualistic and acquisitive lines’. Kumar, Ravinder, ‘The Deccan Riots of 1875’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 4, 08 1965, p. 634CrossRefGoogle Scholar. He also argues that by 1875 ‘it was the vanis (money-lenders) who now dominated the rural world’. Ibid., p. 618. Many ryots had lost their lands and without ‘an outlet to the urban world, the dispossessed peasant was forced to live as a landless labourer, often on those very fields, which he had formerly cultivated as an independent proprietor’. Ibid., p. 619.

8 His conclusion is: ‘it seems that we must accept, on the combined evidence of the statistics and the official reports, the notion that land transfer from agriculturist to non-agriculturist classes was occurring, and probably occurring increasingly, in the twenty or thirty years preceding the Deccan Riots. We must accept the notion, too, that this situation was regarded seriously by the Deccan peasantry. But this is not to say that the Deccan Riots were necessarily a result mainly of increasing land transfer.’ Catanach, I. J., Rural Credit in Western India, 1875–1930 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1970), pp. 19–20.Google Scholar

9 Maharashtra State Archives, Bombay. Revenue Department Papers [Hereafter M.A.R.D.], Vol. 7 of 1875, No. 960. C. G. W. Macpherson, 2nd Assistant Collector, to G. Norman, Collector of Poona. No. 72, 17 July 1875, para. 11.Google Scholar

10 Jacquemont, Victor, Voyage dans l'Inde pendant les années 1828 à 1832 (Paris, 1841), Vol. 3, p. 558.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., p. 559.

12 Report of the Bombay Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee, 1929–30, para. 45.Google Scholar

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14 The Indian Central Cotton Committee, General Report on eight enquiries into the finance and marketing of cultivators' cotton, 1925–1928, Table VII.Google Scholar

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17 Ibid.

18 B.G. XVIII, Poona, Part 1, p.97.Google Scholar

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21 B.G.S. New Series, 151. Settlement Report on Bhimthari taluka, Poona District, by Waddington, W.. No. 440A, 12 July 1871, para. 41.Google Scholar

22 The areas reassessed by summer 1875 were Indapur, Bhimthari (including the Supa Petha), Haveli and Pabal talukas of Poona and the four Sholapur talukas. The Deccan riots took place in four different talukas of Ahmednagar District and in Bhimthari and Sirur talukas of Poona.

23 B.G.S. New Series, 151. Settlement Report on Supa Petha, Poona District, by Waddington, W.. No. 846, 5 September 1873, para. 25.Google Scholar

24 B.G.S. New Series, 151. Settlement Report on Haveli taluka, Poona District, by Waddington, W.. No. 840, 30 November 1872, para. 29.Google Scholar

25 In Poona District, for example, the enhancements were lowered from 55 per cent to 39 per cent in Indapur taluka, from 63 per cent to 37 per cent in Bhimthari, from 65 per cent to 41 per cent in Haveli and from 51 per cent to 38 per cent in Pabal. Minute on the Connection of the Recent Enhancement of Land Revenue with the Riots by Mr Carpenter, Deccan Riots Report.

26 P.P. 1852–53, LXXV. Official Correspondence on the System of Revenue Survey and Assessment in the Bombay Presidency. Goldsmid, H. E. and Wingate, G. to Vibart, John, Revenue Commissioner, Poona, 17 October 1840, para. 28.Google Scholar

27 Mackay, Alexander. Western India. Reports addressed to the Chambers of Commerce of Manchester, Liverpool, Blackburn and Glasgow (London, 1853), p. 134.Google Scholar

28 P.P. 1852–53, LXXV. Official Correspondence on the System of Revenue Survey and Assessment in the Bombay Presidency. Memorandum by Goldsmid, H. E. and Wingate, G., dated 21 December 1850, para. 32.Google Scholar

29 Deccan Riots Report, Appendix C, Return on pp. 317–23.Google Scholar

30 B.G.S. New Series, 151. Settlement Report on Bhimthari taluka, Poona District, by Waddington, W.. No. 440A, 12 July 1871, para. 12.Google Scholar

31 Deccan Riots Report, para. 71.Google Scholar

32 Deccan Riots Report, para. 91.Google Scholar

33 Bombay Presidency Annual Administration Report. 1861–62, Appendix A, No. 13, p. 120.Google Scholar

34 In 1873 57 per cent of Bombay's civil cases were decreed ex-parte, compared with only 25 per cent in Madras, the second highest proportion in British India. Bombay Presidency Annual Administration Report. 1874–75, p. 89.Google Scholar

35 Ibid.

36 M.A.R.D. Vol. 29 of 1883, No. 1934. A. B. Fforde, Assistant Superintendent, Revenue Survey, to T. H. Stewart, Survey and Settlement Commissioner. No. 40, 13 November 1883, para. 2.Google Scholar

37 Deccan Riots Report para. 76.Google Scholar The case of Tularam is also quoted by Ravinder Kumar. See ‘The Deccan Riots of 1875’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 4, 08 1965, p. 619.Google Scholar

38 See Deccan Riots Report, Appendix C, Mr Sinclair's notes on the sowkars of Parner. Kumar makes much of the considerable landholding changes in Parner. But, as Sinclair indicates, Parner, with its large number of notorious money-lenders, was untypical.

39 Deccan Riots Report, Appendix C, Statement on pp. 200–1.Google Scholar

40 M.A.R.D. Vol. 3 of 1875, No. 971. Woodburn, A. F., Assistant Collector, to H. B. Boswell, Collector of Ahmednagar. No. 271, 5 July 1875, para. 11.Google Scholar The following statistics for Akola and Sangamner talukas are also from this source.

41 B.G.S. New Series, 177. Settlement Report on Parner taluka, Ahmednagar District, by Laughton, G. A.. No. 352, 12 March 1884, para. 4.Google Scholar

42 See B.G.S. New Series, 440. Settlement Report on Sangamner taluka, Ahmednagar District, by Ghosal, J.. No. 1293, 15 September 1903, para. 6.Google Scholar

43 The evidence of years after the Deccan riots appears to confirm this. Bombay's reply to Elgin's great land transfer enquiry of the late 1890s provided information for 289 villages in Poona District. Here, out of a total occupied area of over 720,000 acres, non-agriculturist money-lenders owned 108,437 acres and other non-agriculturists 68,085 acres. But these figures must have included some traditional holdings by non-agriculturists and the classification of ‘non-agriculturist’ may have included village servant castes like Mahrs and Mangs as well as aliens like Marwaris. Clearly a monority of Poona's land had changed hands by 1899. See I.O.L. Bombay Confidential Revenue Proceedings, Vol. 5777, October 1899. Settlement reports of the Great War era give a more detailed picture. When Parner taluka, at the very centre of the 1875 troubles, was revised in 1914–15, all non-agriculturists owned only 47,538 acres of land compared with 314,238 acres held by agriculturists. Only 13.1 per cent of Parner was thus the property of interlopers, a ‘quite satisfactory’ situation. B.G.S. New Series, 567. Settlement Report on Parner taluka, Ahmednagar District, by J. H. Garrett. No. S.393, 22 May 1916, para. 57. In Sirur taluka, which had also seen disturbances in 1875, in 1915 non-agriculturist money-lenders owned 15½ per cent of the total occupied land as against 78 per cent held by traditional agriculturists. B.G.S. New Series, 558. Settlement Report on Sirur taluka, Poona District, by R. D. Bell. No. S.1, 25 september 1915, para. 20.

44 Deccan Riots Report, Memorandum by MrColvin, Auckland, para. 22.Google Scholar

45 Mackay, Alexander, Western India. Reports addressed to the Chambers of Commerce of Manchester, Liverpool, Blackburn and Glasgow, p.134.Google Scholar

46 M.A.R.D. Vol. 7 of 1875, No. 960. C. G. W. Macpherson, 2nd Assistant Collector, to G. Norman, Collector of Poona. No. 72, 17 July 1875, para. 11.Google Scholar

47 Notes by Mr Sinclair, Assistant Collector of Ahmednagar. Quoted in Deccan Riots Report, para. 39.Google Scholar

48 Ibid.

49 Deccan Riots Report, para. 12.Google Scholar

50 See Jhirad, J. F. M., ‘The Khandesh Survey Riots of 1852’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1968, Parts 3 and 4, pp. 151–65.Google Scholar

51 B.G.S. No. 2. Report by Captain Wingate on introducing a survey and settlement in the Ratnagiri Collectorate. No. 44, 30 January 1851, para. 35.Google Scholar

52 B.G.S. New Series, 446. Papers regarding the proprietary rights of khots in the Ratnagiri District, 1907.

53 Baden-Powell, B. H., The Land Systems of British India (Oxford, 1892), Vol. 3, p. 251.Google Scholar

54 Kulkarni, A. R., ‘Village life in the Deccan in the seventeenth century’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 03 1967, p. 50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 ‘Huks’ were the emoluments village officers received from their villagers as rewards for carrying out their duties.

56 B.G.S. No. 4. Report on the village communities of the Deccan by Gooddine, R. N. [Hereafter Gooddine's Report], para. 15.Google Scholar

57 Sykes, W. H., ‘Special Report on the statistics of the four Collectorates of Deccan under the British Government’, Report of the Seventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (London, 1838), p. 288.Google Scholar

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid., p. 289.

60 Sykes wrote in the 1830s: ‘originally the Patels were Mahrattas only; but sale, gift, or other causes, have extended the right to many other castes. A very great majority of Patels, however, are still Mahrattas.’ P.P. 1866, LII. Sykes, W. H., Report on the land tenures of the Dekkan, p. 11.Google Scholar

61 Gooddine's Report, para. 36.Google Scholar

62 Gooddine's Report, para. 21.Google Scholar

63 P.P. 1866, LII. Sykes, W. H., Report on the land tenures of the Dekkan, p. 29.Google Scholar

64 Gooddine's Report, para. 36.Google Scholar

65 B.G. X, Ratnagiri, p. 138.Google Scholar

66 Deccan Riots Report, para. 63.Google Scholar

67 Imperial Census of 1881. Operations in the Bombay Presidency. Vol. 2, Appendix A, Tables 1 and 8.

68 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 125.

69 M.A.R.D. Vol. 3 of 1878, No. 140. Note on the Deccan Riots Commission Report by SirPerry, Erskine, 1 December 1877.Google Scholar

70 In Poona District in 1882–83 there were 86, 193 holdings of 1 to 5 acres in size, 43,898 of 6–10 acres, 45,359 of 11–20 acres, 30,677 of 21–30 acres and 21,744 over 30 acres in size. B.G. XVIII, Poona, Part 2, p. 6.Google Scholar

71 Deccan Riots Report, para. 66.Google Scholar

72 Average prices of cotton per candy of 784 lbs in Bombay: 1860: Rs 128. 1861: Rs 157. 1862: Rs 215. 1863: Rs 314. 1864: Rs 539. M.A.R.D. Vol. 25 of 1875, No. 1855. Table of cotton prices.

73 Average prices of cotton per candy of 784 lbs in Bombay: 1865: Rs 627. 1866:Rs 382. 1867: Rs 343. 1868: Rs 274. 1869: Rs 235. 1870: Rs 294. 1871: Rs 284. 1872: Rs 225. 1873: Rs 195. 1874: Rs 184. Ibid.

74 B.G.S. New Series, 577. Settlement Report on Haveli taluka, Poona District, by Bell, R. D.. No. S.3, 7 March 1916, Appendix N.Google Scholar

75 M.A.R.D. Vol. 7 of 1875, No. 960. G. Norman, Collector of Poona, to J. E. Oliphant, Acting Revenue Commissioner, Southern Division. No. 1625, 9 August 1875, para. 9.Google Scholar

76 B.G.S. New Series, 151. Settlement Report on Bhimthari taluka, Poona District, by W. Waddington. No. 440A, 12 July 1871, para. 6.Google Scholar

77 Deccan Riots Report, Memorandum by MrColvin, Auckland, para. 31.Google Scholar

78 M.A.R.D. Vol. 3 of 1875, No. 971. Boswell, H. B., Collector of Ahmednagar, to the Revenue Commissioner, Southern Division. No. 2132, 20 July 1875, para. 14.Google Scholar

79 I.O.L. Home Miscellaneous Series, No. 796. Letters and Papers of Sir James Caird, relating to India. Sir James Caird to Lord Northbrook, 19 September 1879.

80 Catanach, I. J., ‘Agrarian Disturbances in Nineteenth Century India’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, 03 1966, p. 69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The cholera outbreak, which Catanach also mentions, may have been another contributory factor in the outbreak of these disturbances.

81 M.A.R.D. Vol. 7 of 1875, No. 960. Macpherson, C. G. W., 2nd Assistant Collector, to G. Norman, Collector of Poona. No. 72, 17 July 1875, para. 11.Google Scholar

82 Deccan Riots Report, para.6.Google Scholar

83 B.G.S. New Series, 481. Settlement Report on Jhalod taluka, Panch Mahals District, by Vernon, C. V.. No. S.80, 3 March 1904, para. 10.Google Scholar

84 Also, as Catanach has well said, the riots took a fortnight to spread over a relatively small area. Catanach, I. J., ‘Agrarian Disturbances in Nineteenth Century India’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, 03 1966, p. 72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar This hardly suggests they were a spontaneous and determined outbreak against universally-felt, deep-seated grievances. Rather, the Deccan riots were a falteringly connected series of individual small riots.

85 Papers of Sir George Wingate, Sudan Archive, School of Oriental Studies, Durham University [Hereafter ‘Wingate Papers’], Box 293/8. Wingate, G. to Green, H., 27 August 1852. (I am grateful to the Librarian of the School for permission to consult these papers.)Google Scholar

86 Ibid.

87 Wingate Papers, Box 118. G. Wingate to the Registrar of the Court of Suddur Dewanee Adawlut, Bombay. No. 319, 24 September 1852.

88 West, Raymond, The Law and the Land in India (Bombay, 1872), para. 24.Google Scholar (A copy is No. 1 of Selections from Papers on Indebtedness and Land Transfer, I.O.L. Government of India Revenue Proceedings, October 1895.)

89 Wedderburn, W., A Permanent Settlement for the Deccan (Bombay, 1880), p. 9.Google Scholar (A copy is in the Indian papers of Sir James Caird.)

90 Deccan Riots Report, Appendix B, W. Wedderburn, Report on the Indebtedness of the Ryot, 7 December 1876. para. 5.Google Scholar

91 Ibid.

92 Wingate Papers, Box 118. G. Wingate to the Registrar of the Court of Suddur Dewanee Adawlut, Bombay. No. 319, 24 September1852. para. 12.Google Scholar

93 I.O.L. Papers of Sir Philip Wodehouse, Vol. 13. Sir Philip Wodehouse to the Marquis of Salisbury, 20 October 1874.

94 Ibid., Vol. 12. Sir Philip Wodehouse to the Duke of Argyll, 27 November 187

95 Ibid., Vol. 11. Duke of Argyll to Sir Philip Wodehouse, 29 December 1873.

96 M.A.R.D. Vol. 118 of 1875, No. 1867. Report by J. B. Richey, 30 August 1875, para. 2. Of course, it was also in the interests of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Press to stress the importance of the 1875 riots. They had, for some years, been claiming that the harshness of Bombay's land revenue system was hitting the Deccan ryot hard.

97 M.A.R.D. Vol. 118 of 1875, No. 1867. Note by W. G. Pedder, 31 August 1875.

98 Ever since Wingate and Thornton's lengthy argument over the relative merits of each of their revenue systems, Bombay and the United Provinces had waged a guerilla war of intrigue and counter-intrigue against one another's revenue and administrative ideas. Any U.P. man might therefore be expected to support reforms which acknowledged the shortcomings of the principles by which Western India had been governed.

99 In the Nineteenth Century for September 1877 Pedder published an article, largely about the Deccan riots situation, entitled ‘Famine and Debt in India’. Readers of this journal were certainly given their fill of Bombay matters. In 1878 Florence Nightingale got in on the act, describing the situation in Western India as ‘the utter demoralization of two races–the race that borrows and the race that lends’. Nightingale, Florence, ‘The People of India’, Nineteenth Century, Vol. 4, 1878, p. 211.Google Scholar

100 Comments by DrPollen, A. D. on Sir Raymond West's paper ‘Agrarian Legislation for the Deccan and its results’, Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. 41, 1892–1893, p. 729.Google Scholar