This school teacher in India greeting her students.
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Slavery in India
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/4/22
The early history of slavery in India is contested because it depends on the translations of terms such as dasa and dasyu.[1][2] Greek writer Megasthenes in his work Indika, while describing Mauryan empire states that slavery was banned in Indian society.[3] However, some sources suggest that slavery was likely to have been a widespread institution in ancient India by the lifetime of the Buddha (sixth century BCE), and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period.[1]
Slavery in India escalated during the Muslim domination of northern India after the 11th-century, after Muslim rulers re-introduced slavery to the Indian subcontinent.[1] It became a predominant social institution with the enslavement of Hindus, along with the use of slaves in armies for conquest, a long-standing practice within Muslim kingdoms at the time.[4][5][6] According to Muslim historians of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire era, after the invasions of Hindu kingdoms, Indians were taken as slaves, with many exported to Central Asia and West Asia.[1][7] Many slaves from the Horn of Africa were also imported into the Indian subcontinent to serve in the households of the powerful or the Muslim armies of the Deccan Sultanates and the Mughal Empire.[8][9][10]
Slavery in India continued through the 18th and 19th centuries. During the colonial era, Indians were taken into different parts of the world as slaves by various European merchant companies as part of the Indian Ocean slave trade.[10][11] Over a million indentured labourers (referred to as girmitiyas) from the Indian subcontinent were transported to various European colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas to labour on plantations and mines.[12][13] The Portuguese imported Africans into their Indian colonies on the Konkan coast between about 1530 and 1740.[14][15] Slavery was abolished in the possessions of the East India Company by the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.[1][16][17][18]
Slavery in Ancient India
The term dāsa and dāsyu in Vedic and other ancient Indian literature has been interpreted by as "servant" or "slave", but others have contested such meaning.[1][19] The term dāsa in the Rigveda, has been also been translated as an enemy, but overall the identity of this term remains unclear and disputed among scholars.[20]
According to Scott Levi, it was likely an established institution in ancient India by the start of the common era based on texts such as the Arthashastra, the Manusmriti[21] and the Mahabharata. Slavery was "likely widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period", however he elaborates that the association of the Vedic Dasa with 'slaves' is "problematic and likely to have been a later development".[1]
Upinder Singh states that the Rig Veda is familiar with slavery, referring to enslavement in course of war or as a result of debt. She states that the use of dasa (Sanskrit: दास) and dasi in later times were used as terms for male and female slaves.[22] In contrast, Suvira Jaiswal states that dasa tribes were integrated in the lineage system of Vedic traditions, wherein dasi putras could rise to the status of priests, warriors and chiefs as shown by the examples of Kaksivant Ausija, Balbutha, Taruksa, Divodasa and others.[23] Some scholars contest the earlier interpretations of the term dasa as "slave", with or without "racial distinctions". According to Indologists Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, known for their recent translation of the Rigveda, the dasa and dasyu are human and non-human beings who are enemies of Arya.[24] These according to the Rigveda, state Jamison and Brereton, are destroyed by the Vedic deity Indra.[24] The interpretation of "dasas as slaves" in the Vedic era is contradicted by hymns such as 2.12 and 8.46 that describe "wealthy dasas" who charitably give away their wealth. Similarly, state Jamison and Brereton, the "racial distinctions" are not justified by the evidence.[24] According to the Indologist Thomas Trautmann, the relationship between the Arya and Dasa appears only in two verses of the Rigveda, is vague and unexpected since the Dasa were "in some ways more economically advanced" than the Arya according to the textual evidence.[25]
According to Asko Parpola, the term dasa in ancient Indian texts has proto-Saka roots, where dasa or daha simply means "man".[26] Both "dasa" and "dasyu" are uncommon in Indo-Iranian languages (including Sanskrit and Pali), and these words may be a legacy of the PIE root "*dens-", and the word "saka" may have evolved from "dasa", states Parpola.[26] According to Micheline Ishay – a professor of human rights studies and sociology, the term "dasa" can be "translated as slave". The institution represented unfree labor with fewer rights, but "the supposed slavery in [ancient] India was of mild character and limited extent" like Babylonian and Hebrew slavery, in contrast to the Hellenic world.[27] The "unfree labor" could be of two types in ancient India: the underadsatva and the ahitaka, states Ishay.[27] A person in distress could pledge themselves for work leading to underadsatava, while under ahitaka a person's "unfree labor" was pledged or mortgaged against a debt or ransom when captured during a war.[27] These forms of slavery limited the duration of "unfree labor" and such a slave had rights to their property and could pass their property to their kin, states Ishay.[27]
The term dasa appears in early Buddhist texts, a term scholars variously interpret as servant or slave.[28] Buddhist manuscripts also mention kapyari, which scholars have translated as a legally bonded servant (slave).[29] According to Gregory Schopen, in the Mahaviharin Vinaya, the Buddha says that a community of monks may accept dasa for repairs and other routine chores. Later, the same Buddhist text states that the Buddha approved the use of kalpikara and the kapyari for labor in the monasteries and approved building separate quarters for them.[30] Schopen interprets the term dasa as servants, while he interprets the kalpikara and kapyari as bondmen and slave respectively because they can be owned and given by laity to the Buddhist monastic community.[30] According to Schopen, since these passages are not found in Indian versions of the manuscripts, but found in a Sri Lankan version, these sections may have been later interpolations that reflect a Sri Lankan tradition, rather than early Indian.[30] The discussion of servants and bonded labor is also found in manuscripts found in Tibet, though the details vary.[30][31]
The discussion of servant, bonded labor and slaves, states Scopen, differs significantly in different manuscripts discovered for the same Buddhist text in India, Nepal and Tibet, whether they are in Sanskrit or Pali language.[31] These Buddhist manuscripts present a set of questions to ask a person who wants to become a monk or nun. These questions inquire if the person is a dasa and dasi, but also ask additional questions such as "are you ahrtaka" and "are you vikritaka". The later questions have been interpreted in two ways. As "are you one who has been seized" (ahrtaka) and "are you one who has been sold" (vikritaka) respectively, these terms are interpreted as slaves.[31] Alternatively, they have also been interpreted as "are you doubtless" and "are you blameworthy" respectively, which does not mean slave.[31] Further, according to these texts, Buddhist monasteries refused all servants, bonded labor and slaves an opportunity to become a monk or nun, but accepted them as workers to serve the monastery.[31][30]
The Indian texts discuss dasa and bonded labor along with their rights, as well as a monastic community's obligations to feed, clothe and provide medical aid to them in exchange for their work. This description of rights and duties in Buddhist Vinaya texts, says Schopen, parallel those found in Hindu Dharmasutra and Dharmasastra texts.[32] The Buddhist attitude to servitude or slavery as reflected in Buddhist texts, states Schopen, may reflect a "passive acceptance" of cultural norms of the Brahmanical society midst them, or more "justifiably an active support" of these institutions.[33] The Buddhist texts offer "no hint of protest or reform" to such institutions, according to Schopen.[33]
Kautilya's Arthashastra dedicates the thirteenth chapter on dasas, in his third book on law. This Sanskrit document from the Maurya Empire period (4th century BCE) has been translated by several authors, each in a different manner. Shamasastry's translation of 1915 maps dasa as slave, while Kangle leaves the words as dasa and karmakara. According to Kangle's interpretation, the verse 13.65.3–4 of Arthasastra forbids any slavery of "an Arya in any circumstances whatsoever", but allows the Mlecchas to "sell an offspring or keep it as pledge".[34] Patrick Olivelle agrees with this interpretation. He adds that an Arya or Arya family could pledge itself during times of distress into bondage, and these bonded individuals could be converted to slave if they committed a crime thereby differing with Kangle's interpretation.[35] According to Kangle, the Arthasastra forbids enslavement of minors and Arya from all four varnas and this inclusion of Shudras stands different from the Vedic literature.[36] Kangle suggests that the context and rights granted to dasa by Kautilya implies that the word had a different meaning than the modern word slave, as well as the meaning of the word slave in Greek or other ancient and medieval civilizations.[37][verification needed] According to Arthashastra, anyone who had been found guilty of nishpatitah (Sanskrit: निष्पातित, ruined, bankrupt, a minor crime)[38] may mortgage oneself to become dasa for someone willing to pay his or her bail and employ the dasa for money and privileges.[37][39]
The term dasa in Indic literature when used as a suffix to a bhagavan (deity) name, refers to a pious devotee.[40][41]
Slavery in Medieval India
Slavery was brought during the medieval era with the Muslim conquests of the Indian subcontinent.[5][6] Wink summarizes the period as follows,
Unlike other parts of the medieval Muslim world, slavery was not widespread in Kashmir. Except for the Sultans, there is no evidence the elite kept slaves. The Kashmiris despised slavery. Concubinage was also not practised.[43]
Islamic invasions (8th to 12th century AD)
Andre Wink summarizes the slavery in 8th and 9th century India as follows,
In the early 11th century Tarikh al-Yamini, the Arab historian Al-Utbi recorded that in 1001 the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Peshawar and Waihand (capital of Gandhara) after Battle of Peshawar (1001), "in the midst of the land of Hindustan", and enslaved thousands.[45][46] Later, following his twelfth expedition into India in 1018–19, Mahmud is reported to have returned to with such a large number of slaves that their value was reduced to only two to ten dirhams each. This unusually low price made, according to Al-Utbi, "merchants came from distant cities to purchase them, so that the countries of Central Asia, Iraq and Khurasan were swelled with them, and the fair and the dark, the rich and the poor, mingled in one common slavery".
Delhi Sultanate (12th to 16th century AD)
See also: Turkish slaves in the Delhi Sultanate
During the Delhi Sultanate period (1206–1555), references to the abundant availability of low-priced Indian slaves abound.[1] Many of these Indian slaves were used by Muslim nobility in the subcontinent, but others were exported to satisfy the demand in international markets. Some slaves converted to Islam to receive protection. Children fathered by Muslim masters on non-Muslim slaves would be raised Muslim. Non-Muslim women, who Muslim soldiers and elites had slept with, would convert to Islam to avoid rejection by their own communities.[47] Scott Levi states that "Movement of considerable numbers of Hindus to the Central Asian slave markets was largely a product of the state building efforts of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire in South Asia".[1]
The revenue system of the Delhi Sultanate produced a considerable proportion of the Indian slave population as these rulers, and their subordinate shiqadars, ordered their armies to abduct large numbers of locals as a means of extracting revenue.[6][48] While those communities that were loyal to the Sultan and regularly paid their taxes were often excused from this practice, taxes were commonly extracted from other, less loyal groups in the form of slaves. Thus, according to Barani, the Shamsi "slave-king" Balban (r. 1266–87) ordered his shiqadars in Awadh to enslave those peoples resistant to his authority, implying those who refused to supply him with tax revenue.[49] Sultan Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296–1316) is similarly reported to have legalised the enslavement of those who defaulted on their revenue payments.[49] This policy continued during the Mughal era.[6][50][51][52][53]
An even greater number of people were enslaved as a part of the efforts of the Delhi Sultans to finance their expansion into new territories.[54] For example, while he himself was still a military slave of the Ghurid Sultan Muizz u-Din, Qutb-ud-din Aybak (r. 1206–10 as the first of the Shamsi slave-kings) invaded Gujarat in 1197 and placed some 20,000 people in bondage. Roughly six years later, he enslaved an additional 50,000 people during his conquest of Kalinjar. Later in the 13th century, Balban's campaign in Ranthambore, reportedly defeated the Indian army and yielded "captives beyond computation".[53][55]
Levi states that the forcible enslavement of non-Muslims during Delhi Sultanate was motivated by the desire for war booty and military expansion. This gained momentum under the Khalji and Tughluq dynasties, as being supported by available figures.[1][53] Zia uddin Barani suggested that Sultan Alauddin Khalji owned 50,000 slave-boys, in addition to 70,000 construction slaves. Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq is said to have owned 180,000 slaves, roughly 12,000 of whom were skilled artisans.[6][48][53][56][57][58] A significant proportion of slaves owned by the Sultans were likely to have been military slaves and not labourers or domestics. However earlier traditions of maintaining a mixed army comprising both Indian soldiers and Turkic slave-soldiers (ghilman, mamluks) from Central Asia, were disrupted by the rise of the Mongol Empire reducing the inflow of mamluks. This intensified demands by the Delhi Sultans on local Indian populations to satisfy their need for both military and domestic slaves. The Khaljis even sold thousands of captured Mongol soldiers within India.[6][56][59] China, Turkistan, Persia, and Khurusan were sources of male and female slaves sold to Tughluq India.[60][61][62][63] The Yuan Dynasty Emperor in China sent 100 slaves of both sexes to the Tughluq Sultan, and he replied by also sending the same number of slaves of both sexes.[64]
Mughal Empire (16th to 19th century)
The slave trade continued to exist in the Mughal Empire, however it was greatly reduced in scope, primarily limited to domestic servitude and debt bondage, and deemed "mild" and incomparable to the Arab slave trade or transatlantic slave trade.[65][66]
One Dutch merchant in the 17th century writes about Abd Allah Khan Firuz Jang, an Uzbek noble at the Mughal court during the 1620s and 1630s, who was appointed to the position of governor of the regions of Kalpi and Kher and, in the process of subjugating the local rebels, beheaded the leaders and enslaved their women, daughters and children, who were more than 200,000 in number.[67]
When Shah Shuja was appointed as governor of Kabul, he carried out a war in Indian territory beyond the Indus. Most of the women burnt themselves to death to save their honour. Those captured were "distributed" among Muslim mansabdars.[50][failed verification][68][failed verification][69][70] The Augustinian missionary Fray Sebastian Manrique, who was in Bengal in 1629–30 and again in 1640, remarked on the ability of the shiqdār—a Mughal officer responsible for executive matters in the pargana, the smallest territorial unit of imperial administration to collect the revenue demand, by force if necessary, and even to enslave peasants should they default in their payments.[68]
A survey of a relatively small, restricted sample of seventy-seven letters regarding the manumission or sale of slaves in the Majmua-i-wathaiq reveals that slaves of Indian origin (Hindi al-asal) accounted for over fifty-eight percent of those slaves whose region of origin is mentioned. The Khutut-i-mamhura bemahr-i qadat-i Bukhara, a smaller collection of judicial documents from early-eighteenth-century Bukhara, includes several letters of manumission, with over half of these letters referring to slaves "of Indian origin". In the model of a legal letter of manumission written by the chief qazi for his assistant to follow, the example used is of a slave "of Indian origin".[71] Indian slaves continued to be sold in the markets of Bukhara well into the nineteenth century.[citation needed]
The export of slaves from India was limited to debt defaulters and rebels against the Mughal Empire. The Ghakkars of Punjab acted as intermediaries for such slave for trade to Central Asian buyers.[66]
Fatawa-i Alamgiri
Main article: Fatawa-e-Alamgiri
The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (also known as the Fatawa-i-Hindiya and Fatawa-i Hindiyya) was sponsored by Aurangzeb in the late 17th century.[72] It compiled the law for the Mughal Empire, and involved years of effort by 500 Muslim scholars from South Asia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The thirty volumes on Hanafi-based sharia law for the Empire was influential during and after Auruangzeb's rule, and it included many chapters and laws on slavery and slaves in India.[73][74][75]
Some of the slavery-related law included in Fatawa-i Alamgiri were,
• the right of Muslims to purchase and own slaves,[74]
• a Muslim man's right to have sex with a captive slave girl he owns or a slave girl owned by another Muslim (with master's consent) without marrying her,[76]
• no inheritance rights for slaves,[77]
• the testimony of all slaves was inadmissible in a court of law[78]
• slaves require permission of the master before they can marry,[79]
• an unmarried Muslim may marry a slave girl he owns but a Muslim married to a Muslim woman may not marry a slave girl,[80]
• conditions under which the slaves may be emancipated partially or fully.[75]
Export of Indian slaves to international markets
Alongside Buddhist Oirats, Christian Russians, Afghans, and the predominantly Shia Iranians, Indian slaves were an important component of the highly active slave markets of medieval and early modern Central Asia. The all pervasive nature of slavery in this period in Central Asia is shown by the 17th century records of one Juybari Sheikh, a Naqshbandi Sufi leader, owning over 500 slaves, forty of whom were specialists in pottery production while the others were engaged in agricultural work.[81] High demand for skilled slaves, and India's larger and more advanced textile industry, agricultural production and tradition of architecture demonstrated to its neighbours that skilled-labour was abundant in the subcontinent leading to enslavement and export of large numbers of skilled labour as slaves, following their successful invasions.[59][82]
After sacking Delhi, Timur enslaved several thousand skilled artisans, presenting many of these slaves to his subordinate elite, although reserving the masons for use in the construction of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand.[83] Young female slaves fetched higher market price than skilled construction slaves, sometimes by 150%,[84] as they could be kept as sex slaves.[6]
Under early European colonial powers
According to one author, in spite of the best efforts of the slave-holding elite to conceal the continuation of the institution from the historical record, slavery was practised throughout colonial India in various manifestations.[85]
17th century
Slavery existed in Portuguese India after the 16th century. "Most of the Portuguese," says Albert. D. Mandelslo, a German itinerant writer, "have many slaves of both sexes, whom they employ not only on and about their persons, but also upon the business they are capable of, for what they get comes with the master."
The Dutch, too, largely dealt in slaves. They were mainly Abyssian, known in India as Habshis or Sheedes. The curious mixed race in Kanara on the West coast has traces of these slaves.[86]
The Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade was primarily mediated by the Dutch East India Company, drawing captive labour from three commercially closely linked regions: the western, or Southeast Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Reunion); the middle, or Indian subcontinent (Malabar, Coromandel, and the Bengal/Arakan coast); and the eastern, or Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea (Irian Jaya), and the southern Philippines.
The Dutch traded slaves from fragmented or weak small states and stateless societies in the East beyond the sphere of Islamic influence, to the company's Asian headquarters, the "Chinese colonial city" of Batavia (Jakarta), and its regional centre in coastal Sri Lanka. Other destinations included the important markets of Malacca (Melaka) and Makassar (Ujungpandang), along with the plantation economies of eastern Indonesia (Maluku, Ambon, and Banda Islands), and the agricultural estates of the southwestern Cape Colony (South Africa).
On the Indian subcontinent, Arakan/Bengal, Malabar, and Coromandel remained the most important source of forced labour until the 1660s. Between 1626 and 1662, the Dutch exported on an average 150–400 slaves annually from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the first thirty years of Batavia's existence, Indian and Arakanese slaves provided the main labour force of the company's Asian headquarters. Of the 211 manumitted slaves in Batavia between 1646 and 1649, 126 (59.71%) came from South Asia, including 86 (40.76%) from Bengal. Slave raids into the Bengal estuaries were conducted by joint forces of Magh pirates, and Portuguese traders (chatins) operating from Chittagong outside the jurisdiction and patronage of the Estado da India, using armed vessels (galias). These raids occurred with the active connivance of the Taung-ngu (Toungoo) rulers of Arakan. The eastward expansion of the Mughal Empire, however, completed with the conquest of Chittagong in 1666, cut off the traditional supplies from Arakan and Bengal. Until the Dutch seizure of the Portuguese settlements on the Malabar coast (1658–63), large numbers of slaves were also captured and sent from India's west coast to Batavia, Ceylon, and elsewhere. After 1663, however, the stream of forced labour from Cochin dried up to a trickle of about 50–100 and 80–120 slaves per year to Batavia and Ceylon, respectively.
In contrast with other areas of the Indian subcontinent, Coromandel remained the centre of a sporadic slave trade throughout the seventeenth century. In various short-lived expansions accompanying natural and human-induced calamities, the Dutch exported thousands of slaves from the east coast of India. A prolonged period of drought followed by famine conditions in 1618–20 saw the first large-scale export of slaves from the Coromandel coast in the seventeenth century. Between 1622 and 1623, 1,900 slaves were shipped from central Coromandel ports, like Pulicat and Devanampattinam. Company officials on the coast declared that 2,000 more could have been bought if only they had the funds.
The second expansion in the export of Coromandel slaves occurred during a famine following the revolt of the Nayaka Indian rulers of South India (Tanjavur, Senji, and Madurai) against Bijapur overlordship (1645) and the subsequent devastation of the Tanjavur countryside by the Bijapur army. Reportedly, more than 150,000 people were taken by the invading Deccani Muslim armies to Bijapur and Golconda. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were exported to Batavia, the overwhelming majority from southern Coromandel. Some slaves were also acquired further south at Tondi, Adirampatnam, and Kayalpatnam.
A third phase in slaving took place between 1659 and 1661 from Tanjavur as a result of a series of successive Bijapuri raids. At Nagapatnam, Pulicat, and elsewhere, the company purchased 8,000–10,000 slaves, the bulk of whom were sent to Ceylon while a small portion were exported to Batavia and Malacca. A fourth phase (1673–77) started from a long drought in Madurai and southern Coromandel starting in 1673, and intensified by the prolonged Madurai-Maratha struggle over Tanjavur and punitive fiscal practices. Between 1673 and 1677, 1,839 slaves were exported from the Madurai coast alone. A fifth phase occurred in 1688, caused by poor harvests and the Mughal advance into the Karnatak. Thousands of people from Tanjavur, mostly girls and little boys, were sold into slavery and exported by Asian traders from Nagapattinam to Aceh, Johor, and other slave markets. In September 1687, 665 slaves were exported by the East India Company from Fort St. George, Madras. Finally, in 1694–96, when warfare once more ravaged South India, a total of 3,859 slaves were imported from Coromandel by private individuals into Ceylon.[87] [88] [89][90]
The volume of the total Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade has been estimated to be about 15–30% of the Atlantic slave trade, slightly smaller than the trans-Saharan slave trade, and one-and-a-half to three times the size of the Swahili and Red Sea coast and the Dutch West India Company slave trades.[91]
Slavery in India
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/4/22
When Ziegenbalg baptized the five slaves on May 12, 1707, the first Protestant church in Tranquebar, purely meant for the South Indian Christians, began to take shape.29 [Germann, 1883, 529 f.: The three male slaves received their baptismal names as "Friedrich, Christian and Conrad." They were the servants of Johann Sigismund Hassius (1704-1716), the Danish Governor in Tranquebar. One woman was Sophia. She was a slave belonging to the tax collector Diedrich in Tranquebar. The fifth baptized person was Hetwiga, a slave girl belonging to Eidzil Abigael Bergs, the widow of the Danish pastor living in Tranquebar. Thus the first members of the Protestant church were slaves of Europeans... Most of the converts received German baptismal names... Ziegenbalg's servant Cepperumal was baptized with the German name Andreas... By August 1708, there were about 102 church members in the Jerusalem church. Most of them were slaves of Europeans in Tranquebar; a few however were free Tamil people who became Christians along with the members of their families... In 1713, there were 126 Tamil Christians in Tranquebar, who formed the nucleus of an alternate socio-religious community [???] ... they followed the prescribed Danish liturgy... they adopted as part of their Christian life certain Tamil habits connected with marriages and funerals [???]... Ziegenbalg... informed them that the Tamil Christians had freedom to wear any dress, eat any food and observe any good social behavior. However, they would not apply holy ash on their foreheads, wear the beads around their neck, have extravagant marriage processions and use the Tali... without the symbol of Tali no Tamil marriage would be complete... the church music was followed a certain system of South Indian tunes that the Tamil children used in their schools to learn new lessons...
He did not want complete social and cultural dislocation of the converts... This conversion does not mean either changing one's name or exchanging the place of worship (e.g., church instead of temple) or total break with the social dignity, code of honor, cultural identity, way of dressing and eating [???]... No Tamil person was required to become a German in order to express his/her Christian faith. [???]...
A German church should not be transplanted in the South Indian context, rather the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ should be planted in Tranquebar so that an Indian Christian church could emerge [!!!]...
Within the church community the women enjoyed a special status of equality and freedom to make their own decisions. [???]...
[ B]oth women and men to sit together in worship services, and participate together in the Eucharist....both women and men had an equal opportunity to learn reading and writing, claim their rights and exercise their responsibility in a divided community ... The church as an alternate socio-religious institution helped its members to regain their human dignity, re-interpret the meaning of being created in the image of God, find ways to alleviating poverty and illiteracy, live a good human life and seek to achieve a higher quality of social wellbeing. [???]
-- Genealogy of the South Indian Deities: An English translation of Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg's original German manuscript with a textual analysis and glossary [Christian Propaganda], by Daniel Jeyaraj
Before describing the work of Ringeltaube, who can fairly claim the title of pioneer for Travancore — the scene of by far the greatest successes in the way of converts hitherto achieved by the Society in India— we will sketch the country and people in the words of Travancore's literary missionary, the Rev. Samuel Mateer2 [The Land of Charity, pp. 2, 3, et seq.].'The distinct castes and subdivisions found in various parts of Travancore are reckoned to be no less than eighty-two in number. All these vary in rank, in the nicely graduated scale, from the highest of the Brahmans to the lowest of the slaves. Occasional diversities, arising from local circumstances, are observable in the relative position of some of these castes. But speaking generally, all, from the Brahman priests down to the guilds of carpenters and goldsmiths, are regarded as of high or good caste; and from the Shanar tree-climbers and washermen down to the various classes of slaves, as of inferior or low caste....
'The Sudras were originally the lowest of the four true castes, and are still a degraded caste in North India. But in the South there are so many divisions below the Sudras, and they are so numerous, active, and influential, that they are regarded as quite high-caste people. The Sudras are the middle classes of Travancore. The greater portion of the land is in their hands, and until recently they were also the principal owners of slaves. They are the dominant and ruling class. They form the magistracy and holders of most of the Government offices — the military and police — the wealthy farmers, the merchants, and skilled artisans of the country. The Royal Family are members of this caste....
'The Ilavars, Shanars, and others form a third great subdivision of the population. These constitute the highest division of the low castes. . . . The Ilavars and Shanars differ but little from one another in employments and character, and are, no doubt, identical in origin. The Shanars are found only in the southern districts of Travancore, between the Cape and Trevandrum; from which northwards the Ilavars occupy their place. These are the palm-tree cultivators, the toddy drawers, sugar manufacturers, and distillers of Travancore. Their social position somewhat corresponds to that of small farmers and agricultural labourers amongst ourselves....
'The Shanars of South Travancore are of the same class as those of Tinnevelly, and in both provinces they have in large numbers embraced the profession of Christianity. Their employment is the cultivation of the Palmyra palm, which they climb daily in order to extract the sap from the flower-stem at the top. This is manufactured into a coarse dark sugar, which they sell or use for food and other purposes. The general circumstances of the Shanar and Ilavar population in Travancore, especially of the former, have long been most humiliating and degrading. Their social condition is by no means so deplorable as that of the slave castes, and has materially improved under the benign influence of Christianity, concurrently with the general advancement of the country.
'The slave castes — the lowest of the low — comprehend the Pallars, the Pariahs, and the Pulayars. Of these the Pariahs, a Tamil caste, are found, like the Shanars, only in the southern districts and in Shencotta, east of the Ghauts; but they appear to be in many respects inferior to those of the eastern coast. Their habits generally are most filthy and disgusting. The Pulayars, the lowest of the slave castes, reside in miserable huts on mounds in the centre of the rice swamps, or on the raised embankments in their vicinity. They are engaged in agriculture as the servants of the Sudra and other landowners. Wages are usually paid to them in kind, and at the lowest possible rates. These poor people are steeped in the densest ignorance and stupidity. Drunkenness, lying, and evil passions prevail amongst them, except where of late years the Gospel has been the means of their reclamation from vice, and of their social elevation.'
... It was to this earthly Paradise, but rendered loathsome by the ignorance, cruelty, superstition, and pride of man, that the steps of Ringeltaube were providentially directed. His journal for 1806-7 describes how at Tuticorin the call to enter it came to him: —'When in the evening, sitting in the verandah of the old fort (formerly the abode of power and luxury, now the refuge of a houseless traveller, and thousands of bats suspended from the ceiling), enjoying the extensive prospect, and communing with my own heart, and the God to whom mercies and forgivenesses belong, something frightened me by falling suddenly at my feet, and croaking, Paraubren Istotiram, i.e. God be praised; the usual words our Christians pronounce when greeting: I rejoiced to see an individual of that tribe among whom I had been so anxious to labour. Entered into conversation with him, as well as I could, to ascertain his ideas about religion, but was soon nonplussed by his stupidity. I could not force a word from him in answer to my plain questions, which he contented himself literally to give back to me. With a sigh, I was forced to dismiss him.'
This interview, unsatisfactory as it was, with a degraded and ignorant Shanar, strengthened the desire which already possessed Ringeltaube to reach Travancore...
Prior to Ringeltaube's departure a successor, Mr. Charles Mead, had been appointed....'During the two years after Mead and Knill's arrival, about 3,000 persons, chiefly of the Shanar caste, placed themselves under Christian instruction, casting away their images and emblems of idolatry, and each presenting a written promise declarative of his renunciation of idolatry and determination to serve the living and true God. Some of these doubtless returned to heathenism when they understood the spiritual character and comprehensive claims of the Christian religion, but most remained faithful and increasingly attached to their new faith....
The missionaries were the friends of the Resident, and connected with the great and just British nation. Hopes were perhaps indulged that they might be willing to render aid to their converts in times of distress and oppression, or advice in circumstances of difficulty. Moreover, the temporal blessings which Christianity everywhere of necessity confers, in the spread of education and enlightenment, liberty, civilization, and social improvement, were exemplified to all in the case of the converts already made. The kindness of the missionaries, too, attracted multitudes who were accustomed to little but contempt and violence from the higher classes, and who could not but feel that the Christian teachers were their best and real friends. What were these to do with those who thus flocked to the profession of Christianity? Receive them to baptism and membership with the Christian Church, or recognize them as true believers, they could not and did not; but gladly did they welcome them as hearers and learners of God's word. The missionaries rejoiced to think that the influence for good which they were permitted to exert, and the prestige attached to the British nation in India, were providentially given them to be used for the highest and holiest purposes. They did not hesitate, therefore, to receive to Christian instruction even those who came from mixed motives, unless they were evidently hypocrites or impostors.
... The broad features of the work are alike in both Northern and Southern India; but during the century Christianity found more fertile soil in the south among the low-caste section of the Tamil, Telugu, and Canarese countries, than along the valley of the Ganges; it received a much more cordial welcome among the devil-worshippers of Travancore than among the haughty Muhammadans of the north....
A somewhat detailed description of this district may serve for many others in central Southern India.
The majority of cultivators are comparatively poor, but seem quite contented with their lot. So long as the wants of the day are supplied, they think little of the future. Their greatest trouble is (like small farmers in England) the payment of taxes! They rise before dawn and go out to their fields, where they labour more or less all day. The morning meal is generally the cold remains of the previous night's supper, the latter being as a rule the only meal cooked. A piece of white cloth round his loins and another round his head form the only attire of an ordinary cultivator. His wife is equally simple in her mode of life. One or two cloths, ear-rings, and nose-rings, more or less costly, as the husband's circumstances admit, together with the Thali (sign of marriage, answering to our ring), form all her possessions. The children up to ten years or more go in a state of nudity, relieved perhaps by a piece of string round the waist. The ravika or jacket is worn generally by Musulmanis and by women of high castes, but rarely by the lower orders, except above the ghats, where the colder climate makes it necessary. The wealthier classes dress more richly in public, but in their houses their attire is very scanty. The people as a rule are well-made and often handsome.
The great bulk of the people, including cultivators, artisans, and pariahs, though nominally ranging themselves among the followers of Vishnu and Siva, worship certain village gods and goddesses, remnants of aboriginal pre-Aryan cult, the most popular of which is Mari-amman, the goddess of small-pox and other ills that flesh is heir to; and hence she is propitiated on the coming of every calamity by the sacrifice of fowls, sheep, and goats. A rude temple to this goddess is found in every village and hamlet of any importance; and there are hereditary priests to officiate before her. If a village be too small to support a priest, his services are divided between two or three villages. All classes and religionists believe more or less in the doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration of souls....
The Malas have frequently to encounter opposition from caste people when it is known they wish to become Christians. Mr. Johnston says: 'This spirit of antagonism on the part of the Sudras and others does not, I am inclined to think, arise so much from their feeling any concern whether the Malas become Christians or not, as from their dislike to seeing them raised to a better position than they had before, their children educated and capacitated for other employment than what fell to their lot heretofore.'...
It must be borne in mind that Christianity has, throughout the century, exercised comparatively feeble influence on the one hand in modifying the heathenism and caste tyranny of the Government, and on the other in winning the adherence and self-denial of members of the higher castes. That is, until quite towards the close of the century the adherence of large numbers of Shanars and Pariahs to Christianity has left practically untouched the currents of life in Travancore, which most directly and powerfully affect public opinion and Government action....
A letter from the pen of Mrs. Mault illustrates in the first place the skill with which the early missionaries endeavoured to make their missions self-supporting, and in the second, gives a dark picture of the grievous hardships with which those whom they tried to benefit had to contend. The lace-making described in this letter has continued to the present day, and is noted all over India. The slavery, happily, came to an end in 1854. The letter is dated June 2, 1830.'In the year 1821, to assist in defraying the expenses of the school, lace-making was introduced on a small scale, and from that time to the present, greater facilities for disposing of the lace being afforded, it has been gradually enlarging; the profits of which, together with subscriptions from England for the support of twenty-two girls, and occasional donations realized in this country, enable us at the present time to provide board and education for sixty children.
'To be able to read well is conceived to be of great importance; no girl is therefore allowed to turn her attention to other pursuits till she can read the New Testament, when she is permitted to enter one of the working classes, if her time is not too nearly expired to admit of it. These classes consist of those who make lace, and those that learn plain needlework; the number employed at the former is twelve, and that of the latter is seven, which are kindly superintended by Mrs. Addis. As the people of this country have not yet arrived at such a state of civilized improvement as to require needlework, and as we are too remote from European stations to obtain work thence, but little can at present be done in this department beyond the wants of the school and our own families. In reference to lace-making, it may be remarked that to the proceeds of this branch the school is indebted for more than half its support; and, could a more regular supply of materials from the liberality of British Christians be calculated on, the number of workers would be immediately increased, and the school augmented in proportion.
'Many of these poor children are orphans without a friend to care for them, who, but for this asylum, would be left to perish in ignorance, vice, and wretchedness: a friendless child in this unfeeling land is an object pitiable beyond expression. Moreover, not a few of these girls are slaves; and it is our wish that they should, if possible, obtain their freedom while they are in the school, that, when they leave it, they may go free. No arguments are necessary to prove the importance of this measure, when it is stated that slavery as it exists in this kingdom is in some respects worse than that of the West Indies, inasmuch as the owner feels himself under no obligation to provide for his slaves any longer than it is convenient to employ them, hence he calls them to work during seed-time and harvest, and then dismisses them to gain for themselves and children a scanty and uncertain pittance in the best way they can, till the returning season. As the owner takes no notice whatever of the children of his slaves, till they are old enough to work, it is easy to account for some of this unfortunate class being in the school; and some faint idea may be formed of the sensations of a poor girl, when her master appears to take her away, from the following instance. An interesting girl, apparently about eleven years of age, was discovered near our premises in a state of exhaustion through hunger. She was brought in and supplied with food, and as soon as she recovered strength, she told us she was a slave, but, owing to her master denying her sufficient for sustenance and severely flogging her, she had run away; her emaciated frame and the marks on her body abundantly confirmed her statement. It was with the greatest reluctance she informed us where her owner resided; even the mention of his name seemed to make her tremble.
'In eight or ten days a stern-looking man made his appearance, and demanded his slave. The girl, who had heard of his approach, had hid herself; but when she found she could conceal herself no longer, she came and begged in the most feeling manner, that he might not be allowed to take her away. Every effort possible was used to induce him to give her up, and a sum more than her estimated value was offered him, but in vain; he was unmoved, his iron heart had no relentings. "I want not your money, but my slave," said he, as he walked away with her. No sooner was the poor girl seen following her master to his home, than the school-girls rushed out, and with tears entreated for her release, but all was unavailable. This, my dear friends, this is the slavery from which we wish to see all delivered, that are trained up in our school.
'The plan adopted to secure the freedom of the slave scholars is to teach them in preference to others to make lace, and as soon as their earnings amount to more than their support, to allow them a small portion of their work, to reserve for the purchase of their liberty. Eight girls have gained their freedom by industry, since they have been here, and others are labouring in prospect of soon doing so.
'The instruction that has been received here has been the means of raising two female schools in the villages near, besides the attendance of many girls in our other schools; and we hope that in time many of our scholars will find openings in their native places to impart instruction to their own sex. Experience and observation teach us not to overrate the advantages of instruction. Education may be given, and religious principles inculcated, but these alone will not change the heart, for that is the work of the Spirit of God; nevertheless we are encouraged to use the means, and to exercise faith in the divine promises.'
... Mr. Whitehouse, after eight years' experience in Nagercoil, sent home under date of March 5, 1851, a statement of the condition of the Travancore Mission after nearly half a century's work, so clear and so important as to deserve permanent record. So far as we know it has never been printed before: —'The origin, continuance, and increase of many of our congregations are to be traced to oppression. People have been driven to Christianity by fear, and not drawn to it by conviction. They came, not because they think that the religion taught is true, but because they think those who teach it have influence with the ruling powers in the country, and are therefore able to protect them. Thus any body of religionists, whether Papists or Mohammedans, or any thing else, provided they be thought to have power and willingness to protect and aid those who embrace the faith they teach, would meet with considerable success in gathering professed converts; and the more liberty of conduct the teachers will give their converts, the more will flock to them. A proportion is often to be noticed between the degree of oppression and the number of converts newly presenting themselves. And in certain months in the year, when the demand of the Government upon the people in making preparation for heathen festivals is very burdensome, the number of those who seek exemption by embracing Christianity is the greater....
'Such are the materials on which we have to work, and they for the most part belong either to the Shanar or Pariah caste. If we were more lax in discipline, if Christians were left to learn or not, and to act just as they please, and if caste distinctions were recognized, more of the higher caste natives would join us; but as we make the Scriptures the rule for practice, and the acquirement of Christian knowledge absolutely necessary, and disregard and discountenance caste distinctions, only a few of those who are considered of higher caste have embraced Christianity. No missionary but one who has been brought up in the country, and has been constantly used to caste distinctions, or who has looked very superficially at the subject, can fail to see the chilling and contracting influence of caste, and how counteractive it must prove to the warming and expanding power of Christianity. Those churches in India where caste is recognized are very graveyards of Christian hopes....
I cannot say that the time is surely near when India will be the Lord's. I cannot understand how some can say so. It is true we have numbers, but numbers of what class of people, — the lowest, the poorest, and the most degraded, people who have little or no influence in the country, people who have everything to gain and nothing to lose by becoming Christians. We have numbers, but even among them only a small minority feel the power of the truth. How then can it be said that India will soon be the Lord's, when the mass of the people, the intelligent, the wealthy, and the influential, though they may in many cases assent to the truth of Christianity, feel nothing of its power?
... Mr. Whitehouse, who by his skill, energy, and perseverance did much to revolutionize for good the system of training in the seminary over which he presided, and in the schools throughout Travancore, further emphasizes the unsatisfactory character of the mission in a letter dated August 30, 1852. In this letter he expresses views which the experience of the last fifty years goes far to confirm: —... [T]he scope for persecution has been greatly narrowed lately by the "Lex Loci" Act. While a large number of the young men educated in these institutions will reject idolatry as absurd, it is to be feared that many will find rest in a frigid deism, yet we may expect that the number of those who will go on to know and trust in the Lord will increase, and thus they will by degrees form a body who after a time will be tolerated and then received as a part of general native society.
'But I see no such prospect for Travancore, as things are now going on. There is no spirit of inquiry on any subject among the natives, whether high or low. Though all the Shanars and Pariahs in the country were to become Christians, there would be no sensation among the influential classes. The case is just this: a Christian mission was commenced in Travancore by persons supposed to have power and influence; hundreds of oppressed outcasts, accounted to be the dregs of society, fled to it as a great charity and asylum, and not as an institution designed to improve the spiritual condition of the people. A field for effort was at once presented to the missionary, and his time and strength were expended in giving instruction to persons who did not care about the instruction and only wanted the protection of the missionary. Agents from the same classes were employed to teach the people, who themselves needed to be taught, who because of their position in society hardly dared to speak to those of high caste, and who were unable to meet any but the most feeble of the arguments, or answer any but the simplest inquiries of heathens and others about Christianity. Even now very little is done among the higher classes. A few schools have been established among them, which must always be conducted by high-caste masters, and which would be instantly deserted if low-caste men were appointed to the office. The almost undivided attention of the missionaries is given to the protection and oversight of the Christian congregations, and the result is a large circle of professing Christians, four-fifths of whom would be heathens or anything else to-morrow if they thought they would better their condition by it; and, connected with this, a great expense for the support of readers whose capabilities are very small, and whose instructions are sought for by only a small minority.
... In 1851 Mr. Mead, who had been associated with the mission for thirty-five years, for the most part at Neyoor, married a young Pariah, and thus destroyed at a stroke his influence and usefulness. He retired from the Society's service the same year. Somewhat similar circumstances led to the retirement of Mr. Cox from Trevandrum in 1861....
About 1855 persecution by the Sudras again broke out, and in 1856 matters were so serious that pressure was brought to bear upon the Madras Government to intervene. This Lord Harris did, and the rajah promised to do what he could to improve matters. But unhappily the British Resident, General Cullen, was a man with no sympathy towards Christian work; and having resided in India for nearly fifty years, had practically ceased to be an Englishman and had become nearly a Hindu. Only with great difficulty could he be induced to exert any useful influence. The origin of the troubles was the same as that which had caused an outbreak at an earlier date, in 1827 — the indignation and anger of the high-caste people at the education and beneficial influences brought to bear upon the low-caste and the out-caste population. The old indecent heathen law required women of low caste to go about naked down to the waist. Naturally the Christian native women were taught to disregard this custom, and about 1856 many had begun to wear the 'upper cloth' which distinguished women of the higher castes from those of the lower. The proclamation of the Queen's supremacy, either through ignorance or design, was twisted for a time into a declaration against the continuance of Christian work. The police and lower officials were very bitter and oppressive against all Christians. Men were beaten, imprisoned, and often falsely condemned; chapels and schools were destroyed; the clothing of women was torn from them in the markets and in the streets. After a long controversy between the rajah's officials and the missionaries, who were very reluctantly compelled to invoke the aid of the Madras Government, Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was then governor, promptly and effectively interposed. On July 26, 1859, a proclamation appeared stating that there was no objection to Shanar women dressing in coarse cloth and tying it round their shoulders. In 1864 another proclamation extended this right to women of the Ilaver and all lower castes. In this grudging way the native Government yielded to pressure. For a time Christian natives were thus prevented from wearing fine cloths, and from wearing them in a manner not openly conveying an acknowledgement of inferiority. Time has, to a large extent, abolished the grievance. During 1858 and 1859, so great was the excitement aroused by these events, that about 3,000 persons renounced heathenism for Christianity....
In 1890 there were seven missionaries, eighteen ordained native ministers, 174 male and 67 female evangelists and catechists, 279 congregations, 21,706 baptized persons. 6,004 church members, 321 schools (of which 32 were for girls), 10,869 boy scholars and 3,779 girls. The local contributions amounted to 15,441 rupees....
It is true that the individuals for the most part belong to the lowest classes in the social grade, but such is the uplifting and ennobling influence of Christianity and education that the Shanar and Pariah classes are now beginning to possess a determining influence upon public opinion and social life. The Brahman and the Sudra still despise them as inferiors, but they are disagreeably surprised at times to find the Christian Pariah rivalling them in education and in capacity for public service.
-- The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895, by Richard Lovett, 1851-1904
The early history of slavery in India is contested because it depends on the translations of terms such as dasa and dasyu.[1][2] Greek writer Megasthenes in his work Indika, while describing Mauryan empire states that slavery was banned in Indian society.[3] However, some sources suggest that slavery was likely to have been a widespread institution in ancient India by the lifetime of the Buddha (sixth century BCE), and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period.[1]
Slavery in India escalated during the Muslim domination of northern India after the 11th-century, after Muslim rulers re-introduced slavery to the Indian subcontinent.[1] It became a predominant social institution with the enslavement of Hindus, along with the use of slaves in armies for conquest, a long-standing practice within Muslim kingdoms at the time.[4][5][6] According to Muslim historians of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire era, after the invasions of Hindu kingdoms, Indians were taken as slaves, with many exported to Central Asia and West Asia.[1][7] Many slaves from the Horn of Africa were also imported into the Indian subcontinent to serve in the households of the powerful or the Muslim armies of the Deccan Sultanates and the Mughal Empire.[8][9][10]
Slavery in India continued through the 18th and 19th centuries. During the colonial era, Indians were taken into different parts of the world as slaves by various European merchant companies as part of the Indian Ocean slave trade.[10][11] Over a million indentured labourers (referred to as girmitiyas) from the Indian subcontinent were transported to various European colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas to labour on plantations and mines.[12][13] The Portuguese imported Africans into their Indian colonies on the Konkan coast between about 1530 and 1740.[14][15] Slavery was abolished in the possessions of the East India Company by the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.[1][16][17][18]
Slavery in Ancient India
The term dāsa and dāsyu in Vedic and other ancient Indian literature has been interpreted by as "servant" or "slave", but others have contested such meaning.[1][19] The term dāsa in the Rigveda, has been also been translated as an enemy, but overall the identity of this term remains unclear and disputed among scholars.[20]
According to Scott Levi, it was likely an established institution in ancient India by the start of the common era based on texts such as the Arthashastra, the Manusmriti[21] and the Mahabharata. Slavery was "likely widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period", however he elaborates that the association of the Vedic Dasa with 'slaves' is "problematic and likely to have been a later development".[1]
Upinder Singh states that the Rig Veda is familiar with slavery, referring to enslavement in course of war or as a result of debt. She states that the use of dasa (Sanskrit: दास) and dasi in later times were used as terms for male and female slaves.[22] In contrast, Suvira Jaiswal states that dasa tribes were integrated in the lineage system of Vedic traditions, wherein dasi putras could rise to the status of priests, warriors and chiefs as shown by the examples of Kaksivant Ausija, Balbutha, Taruksa, Divodasa and others.[23] Some scholars contest the earlier interpretations of the term dasa as "slave", with or without "racial distinctions". According to Indologists Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, known for their recent translation of the Rigveda, the dasa and dasyu are human and non-human beings who are enemies of Arya.[24] These according to the Rigveda, state Jamison and Brereton, are destroyed by the Vedic deity Indra.[24] The interpretation of "dasas as slaves" in the Vedic era is contradicted by hymns such as 2.12 and 8.46 that describe "wealthy dasas" who charitably give away their wealth. Similarly, state Jamison and Brereton, the "racial distinctions" are not justified by the evidence.[24] According to the Indologist Thomas Trautmann, the relationship between the Arya and Dasa appears only in two verses of the Rigveda, is vague and unexpected since the Dasa were "in some ways more economically advanced" than the Arya according to the textual evidence.[25]
According to Asko Parpola, the term dasa in ancient Indian texts has proto-Saka roots, where dasa or daha simply means "man".[26] Both "dasa" and "dasyu" are uncommon in Indo-Iranian languages (including Sanskrit and Pali), and these words may be a legacy of the PIE root "*dens-", and the word "saka" may have evolved from "dasa", states Parpola.[26] According to Micheline Ishay – a professor of human rights studies and sociology, the term "dasa" can be "translated as slave". The institution represented unfree labor with fewer rights, but "the supposed slavery in [ancient] India was of mild character and limited extent" like Babylonian and Hebrew slavery, in contrast to the Hellenic world.[27] The "unfree labor" could be of two types in ancient India: the underadsatva and the ahitaka, states Ishay.[27] A person in distress could pledge themselves for work leading to underadsatava, while under ahitaka a person's "unfree labor" was pledged or mortgaged against a debt or ransom when captured during a war.[27] These forms of slavery limited the duration of "unfree labor" and such a slave had rights to their property and could pass their property to their kin, states Ishay.[27]
The term dasa appears in early Buddhist texts, a term scholars variously interpret as servant or slave.[28] Buddhist manuscripts also mention kapyari, which scholars have translated as a legally bonded servant (slave).[29] According to Gregory Schopen, in the Mahaviharin Vinaya, the Buddha says that a community of monks may accept dasa for repairs and other routine chores. Later, the same Buddhist text states that the Buddha approved the use of kalpikara and the kapyari for labor in the monasteries and approved building separate quarters for them.[30] Schopen interprets the term dasa as servants, while he interprets the kalpikara and kapyari as bondmen and slave respectively because they can be owned and given by laity to the Buddhist monastic community.[30] According to Schopen, since these passages are not found in Indian versions of the manuscripts, but found in a Sri Lankan version, these sections may have been later interpolations that reflect a Sri Lankan tradition, rather than early Indian.[30] The discussion of servants and bonded labor is also found in manuscripts found in Tibet, though the details vary.[30][31]
The discussion of servant, bonded labor and slaves, states Scopen, differs significantly in different manuscripts discovered for the same Buddhist text in India, Nepal and Tibet, whether they are in Sanskrit or Pali language.[31] These Buddhist manuscripts present a set of questions to ask a person who wants to become a monk or nun. These questions inquire if the person is a dasa and dasi, but also ask additional questions such as "are you ahrtaka" and "are you vikritaka". The later questions have been interpreted in two ways. As "are you one who has been seized" (ahrtaka) and "are you one who has been sold" (vikritaka) respectively, these terms are interpreted as slaves.[31] Alternatively, they have also been interpreted as "are you doubtless" and "are you blameworthy" respectively, which does not mean slave.[31] Further, according to these texts, Buddhist monasteries refused all servants, bonded labor and slaves an opportunity to become a monk or nun, but accepted them as workers to serve the monastery.[31][30]
The Indian texts discuss dasa and bonded labor along with their rights, as well as a monastic community's obligations to feed, clothe and provide medical aid to them in exchange for their work. This description of rights and duties in Buddhist Vinaya texts, says Schopen, parallel those found in Hindu Dharmasutra and Dharmasastra texts.[32] The Buddhist attitude to servitude or slavery as reflected in Buddhist texts, states Schopen, may reflect a "passive acceptance" of cultural norms of the Brahmanical society midst them, or more "justifiably an active support" of these institutions.[33] The Buddhist texts offer "no hint of protest or reform" to such institutions, according to Schopen.[33]
Kautilya's Arthashastra dedicates the thirteenth chapter on dasas, in his third book on law. This Sanskrit document from the Maurya Empire period (4th century BCE) has been translated by several authors, each in a different manner. Shamasastry's translation of 1915 maps dasa as slave, while Kangle leaves the words as dasa and karmakara. According to Kangle's interpretation, the verse 13.65.3–4 of Arthasastra forbids any slavery of "an Arya in any circumstances whatsoever", but allows the Mlecchas to "sell an offspring or keep it as pledge".[34] Patrick Olivelle agrees with this interpretation. He adds that an Arya or Arya family could pledge itself during times of distress into bondage, and these bonded individuals could be converted to slave if they committed a crime thereby differing with Kangle's interpretation.[35] According to Kangle, the Arthasastra forbids enslavement of minors and Arya from all four varnas and this inclusion of Shudras stands different from the Vedic literature.[36] Kangle suggests that the context and rights granted to dasa by Kautilya implies that the word had a different meaning than the modern word slave, as well as the meaning of the word slave in Greek or other ancient and medieval civilizations.[37][verification needed] According to Arthashastra, anyone who had been found guilty of nishpatitah (Sanskrit: निष्पातित, ruined, bankrupt, a minor crime)[38] may mortgage oneself to become dasa for someone willing to pay his or her bail and employ the dasa for money and privileges.[37][39]
The term dasa in Indic literature when used as a suffix to a bhagavan (deity) name, refers to a pious devotee.[40][41]
Slavery in Medieval India
Slavery was brought during the medieval era with the Muslim conquests of the Indian subcontinent.[5][6] Wink summarizes the period as follows,
Slavery and empire-formation tied in particularly well with iqta and it is within this context of Islamic expansion that elite slavery was later commonly found. It became the predominant system in North India in the thirteenth century and retained considerable importance in the fourteenth century. Slavery was still vigorous in fifteenth-century Bengal, while after that date it shifted to the Deccan where it persisted until the seventeenth century. It remained present to a minor extent in the Mughal provinces throughout the seventeenth century and had a notable revival under the Afghans in North India again in the eighteenth century.
— Al Hind, André Wink[42]
Unlike other parts of the medieval Muslim world, slavery was not widespread in Kashmir. Except for the Sultans, there is no evidence the elite kept slaves. The Kashmiris despised slavery. Concubinage was also not practised.[43]
Islamic invasions (8th to 12th century AD)
Andre Wink summarizes the slavery in 8th and 9th century India as follows,
(During the invasion of Muhammad al-Qasim), invariably numerous women and children were enslaved. The sources insist that now, in dutiful conformity to religious law, 'the one-fifth of the slaves and spoils' were set apart for the caliph's treasury and despatched to Iraq and Syria. The remainder was scattered among the army of Islam. At Rūr, a random 60,000 captives reduced to slavery. At Brahamanabad 30,000 slaves were allegedly taken. At Multan 6,000. Slave raids continued to be made throughout the late Umayyad period in Sindh, but also much further into Hind, as far as Ujjain and Malwa. The Abbasid governors raided Punjab, where many prisoners and slaves were taken.
— Al Hind, André Wink[44]
In the early 11th century Tarikh al-Yamini, the Arab historian Al-Utbi recorded that in 1001 the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Peshawar and Waihand (capital of Gandhara) after Battle of Peshawar (1001), "in the midst of the land of Hindustan", and enslaved thousands.[45][46] Later, following his twelfth expedition into India in 1018–19, Mahmud is reported to have returned to with such a large number of slaves that their value was reduced to only two to ten dirhams each. This unusually low price made, according to Al-Utbi, "merchants came from distant cities to purchase them, so that the countries of Central Asia, Iraq and Khurasan were swelled with them, and the fair and the dark, the rich and the poor, mingled in one common slavery".
Delhi Sultanate (12th to 16th century AD)
See also: Turkish slaves in the Delhi Sultanate
During the Delhi Sultanate period (1206–1555), references to the abundant availability of low-priced Indian slaves abound.[1] Many of these Indian slaves were used by Muslim nobility in the subcontinent, but others were exported to satisfy the demand in international markets. Some slaves converted to Islam to receive protection. Children fathered by Muslim masters on non-Muslim slaves would be raised Muslim. Non-Muslim women, who Muslim soldiers and elites had slept with, would convert to Islam to avoid rejection by their own communities.[47] Scott Levi states that "Movement of considerable numbers of Hindus to the Central Asian slave markets was largely a product of the state building efforts of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire in South Asia".[1]
The revenue system of the Delhi Sultanate produced a considerable proportion of the Indian slave population as these rulers, and their subordinate shiqadars, ordered their armies to abduct large numbers of locals as a means of extracting revenue.[6][48] While those communities that were loyal to the Sultan and regularly paid their taxes were often excused from this practice, taxes were commonly extracted from other, less loyal groups in the form of slaves. Thus, according to Barani, the Shamsi "slave-king" Balban (r. 1266–87) ordered his shiqadars in Awadh to enslave those peoples resistant to his authority, implying those who refused to supply him with tax revenue.[49] Sultan Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296–1316) is similarly reported to have legalised the enslavement of those who defaulted on their revenue payments.[49] This policy continued during the Mughal era.[6][50][51][52][53]
An even greater number of people were enslaved as a part of the efforts of the Delhi Sultans to finance their expansion into new territories.[54] For example, while he himself was still a military slave of the Ghurid Sultan Muizz u-Din, Qutb-ud-din Aybak (r. 1206–10 as the first of the Shamsi slave-kings) invaded Gujarat in 1197 and placed some 20,000 people in bondage. Roughly six years later, he enslaved an additional 50,000 people during his conquest of Kalinjar. Later in the 13th century, Balban's campaign in Ranthambore, reportedly defeated the Indian army and yielded "captives beyond computation".[53][55]
Levi states that the forcible enslavement of non-Muslims during Delhi Sultanate was motivated by the desire for war booty and military expansion. This gained momentum under the Khalji and Tughluq dynasties, as being supported by available figures.[1][53] Zia uddin Barani suggested that Sultan Alauddin Khalji owned 50,000 slave-boys, in addition to 70,000 construction slaves. Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq is said to have owned 180,000 slaves, roughly 12,000 of whom were skilled artisans.[6][48][53][56][57][58] A significant proportion of slaves owned by the Sultans were likely to have been military slaves and not labourers or domestics. However earlier traditions of maintaining a mixed army comprising both Indian soldiers and Turkic slave-soldiers (ghilman, mamluks) from Central Asia, were disrupted by the rise of the Mongol Empire reducing the inflow of mamluks. This intensified demands by the Delhi Sultans on local Indian populations to satisfy their need for both military and domestic slaves. The Khaljis even sold thousands of captured Mongol soldiers within India.[6][56][59] China, Turkistan, Persia, and Khurusan were sources of male and female slaves sold to Tughluq India.[60][61][62][63] The Yuan Dynasty Emperor in China sent 100 slaves of both sexes to the Tughluq Sultan, and he replied by also sending the same number of slaves of both sexes.[64]
Mughal Empire (16th to 19th century)
The slave trade continued to exist in the Mughal Empire, however it was greatly reduced in scope, primarily limited to domestic servitude and debt bondage, and deemed "mild" and incomparable to the Arab slave trade or transatlantic slave trade.[65][66]
One Dutch merchant in the 17th century writes about Abd Allah Khan Firuz Jang, an Uzbek noble at the Mughal court during the 1620s and 1630s, who was appointed to the position of governor of the regions of Kalpi and Kher and, in the process of subjugating the local rebels, beheaded the leaders and enslaved their women, daughters and children, who were more than 200,000 in number.[67]
When Shah Shuja was appointed as governor of Kabul, he carried out a war in Indian territory beyond the Indus. Most of the women burnt themselves to death to save their honour. Those captured were "distributed" among Muslim mansabdars.[50][failed verification][68][failed verification][69][70] The Augustinian missionary Fray Sebastian Manrique, who was in Bengal in 1629–30 and again in 1640, remarked on the ability of the shiqdār—a Mughal officer responsible for executive matters in the pargana, the smallest territorial unit of imperial administration to collect the revenue demand, by force if necessary, and even to enslave peasants should they default in their payments.[68]
A survey of a relatively small, restricted sample of seventy-seven letters regarding the manumission or sale of slaves in the Majmua-i-wathaiq reveals that slaves of Indian origin (Hindi al-asal) accounted for over fifty-eight percent of those slaves whose region of origin is mentioned. The Khutut-i-mamhura bemahr-i qadat-i Bukhara, a smaller collection of judicial documents from early-eighteenth-century Bukhara, includes several letters of manumission, with over half of these letters referring to slaves "of Indian origin". In the model of a legal letter of manumission written by the chief qazi for his assistant to follow, the example used is of a slave "of Indian origin".[71] Indian slaves continued to be sold in the markets of Bukhara well into the nineteenth century.[citation needed]
The export of slaves from India was limited to debt defaulters and rebels against the Mughal Empire. The Ghakkars of Punjab acted as intermediaries for such slave for trade to Central Asian buyers.[66]
Fatawa-i Alamgiri
Main article: Fatawa-e-Alamgiri
The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (also known as the Fatawa-i-Hindiya and Fatawa-i Hindiyya) was sponsored by Aurangzeb in the late 17th century.[72] It compiled the law for the Mughal Empire, and involved years of effort by 500 Muslim scholars from South Asia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The thirty volumes on Hanafi-based sharia law for the Empire was influential during and after Auruangzeb's rule, and it included many chapters and laws on slavery and slaves in India.[73][74][75]
Some of the slavery-related law included in Fatawa-i Alamgiri were,
• the right of Muslims to purchase and own slaves,[74]
• a Muslim man's right to have sex with a captive slave girl he owns or a slave girl owned by another Muslim (with master's consent) without marrying her,[76]
• no inheritance rights for slaves,[77]
• the testimony of all slaves was inadmissible in a court of law[78]
• slaves require permission of the master before they can marry,[79]
• an unmarried Muslim may marry a slave girl he owns but a Muslim married to a Muslim woman may not marry a slave girl,[80]
• conditions under which the slaves may be emancipated partially or fully.[75]
Export of Indian slaves to international markets
Alongside Buddhist Oirats, Christian Russians, Afghans, and the predominantly Shia Iranians, Indian slaves were an important component of the highly active slave markets of medieval and early modern Central Asia. The all pervasive nature of slavery in this period in Central Asia is shown by the 17th century records of one Juybari Sheikh, a Naqshbandi Sufi leader, owning over 500 slaves, forty of whom were specialists in pottery production while the others were engaged in agricultural work.[81] High demand for skilled slaves, and India's larger and more advanced textile industry, agricultural production and tradition of architecture demonstrated to its neighbours that skilled-labour was abundant in the subcontinent leading to enslavement and export of large numbers of skilled labour as slaves, following their successful invasions.[59][82]
After sacking Delhi, Timur enslaved several thousand skilled artisans, presenting many of these slaves to his subordinate elite, although reserving the masons for use in the construction of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand.[83] Young female slaves fetched higher market price than skilled construction slaves, sometimes by 150%,[84] as they could be kept as sex slaves.[6]
Under early European colonial powers
According to one author, in spite of the best efforts of the slave-holding elite to conceal the continuation of the institution from the historical record, slavery was practised throughout colonial India in various manifestations.[85]
17th century
Slavery existed in Portuguese India after the 16th century. "Most of the Portuguese," says Albert. D. Mandelslo, a German itinerant writer, "have many slaves of both sexes, whom they employ not only on and about their persons, but also upon the business they are capable of, for what they get comes with the master."
The Dutch, too, largely dealt in slaves. They were mainly Abyssian, known in India as Habshis or Sheedes. The curious mixed race in Kanara on the West coast has traces of these slaves.[86]
The Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade was primarily mediated by the Dutch East India Company, drawing captive labour from three commercially closely linked regions: the western, or Southeast Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Reunion); the middle, or Indian subcontinent (Malabar, Coromandel, and the Bengal/Arakan coast); and the eastern, or Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea (Irian Jaya), and the southern Philippines.
The Dutch traded slaves from fragmented or weak small states and stateless societies in the East beyond the sphere of Islamic influence, to the company's Asian headquarters, the "Chinese colonial city" of Batavia (Jakarta), and its regional centre in coastal Sri Lanka. Other destinations included the important markets of Malacca (Melaka) and Makassar (Ujungpandang), along with the plantation economies of eastern Indonesia (Maluku, Ambon, and Banda Islands), and the agricultural estates of the southwestern Cape Colony (South Africa).
On the Indian subcontinent, Arakan/Bengal, Malabar, and Coromandel remained the most important source of forced labour until the 1660s. Between 1626 and 1662, the Dutch exported on an average 150–400 slaves annually from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the first thirty years of Batavia's existence, Indian and Arakanese slaves provided the main labour force of the company's Asian headquarters. Of the 211 manumitted slaves in Batavia between 1646 and 1649, 126 (59.71%) came from South Asia, including 86 (40.76%) from Bengal. Slave raids into the Bengal estuaries were conducted by joint forces of Magh pirates, and Portuguese traders (chatins) operating from Chittagong outside the jurisdiction and patronage of the Estado da India, using armed vessels (galias). These raids occurred with the active connivance of the Taung-ngu (Toungoo) rulers of Arakan. The eastward expansion of the Mughal Empire, however, completed with the conquest of Chittagong in 1666, cut off the traditional supplies from Arakan and Bengal. Until the Dutch seizure of the Portuguese settlements on the Malabar coast (1658–63), large numbers of slaves were also captured and sent from India's west coast to Batavia, Ceylon, and elsewhere. After 1663, however, the stream of forced labour from Cochin dried up to a trickle of about 50–100 and 80–120 slaves per year to Batavia and Ceylon, respectively.
In contrast with other areas of the Indian subcontinent, Coromandel remained the centre of a sporadic slave trade throughout the seventeenth century. In various short-lived expansions accompanying natural and human-induced calamities, the Dutch exported thousands of slaves from the east coast of India. A prolonged period of drought followed by famine conditions in 1618–20 saw the first large-scale export of slaves from the Coromandel coast in the seventeenth century. Between 1622 and 1623, 1,900 slaves were shipped from central Coromandel ports, like Pulicat and Devanampattinam. Company officials on the coast declared that 2,000 more could have been bought if only they had the funds.
The second expansion in the export of Coromandel slaves occurred during a famine following the revolt of the Nayaka Indian rulers of South India (Tanjavur, Senji, and Madurai) against Bijapur overlordship (1645) and the subsequent devastation of the Tanjavur countryside by the Bijapur army. Reportedly, more than 150,000 people were taken by the invading Deccani Muslim armies to Bijapur and Golconda. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were exported to Batavia, the overwhelming majority from southern Coromandel. Some slaves were also acquired further south at Tondi, Adirampatnam, and Kayalpatnam.
A third phase in slaving took place between 1659 and 1661 from Tanjavur as a result of a series of successive Bijapuri raids. At Nagapatnam, Pulicat, and elsewhere, the company purchased 8,000–10,000 slaves, the bulk of whom were sent to Ceylon while a small portion were exported to Batavia and Malacca. A fourth phase (1673–77) started from a long drought in Madurai and southern Coromandel starting in 1673, and intensified by the prolonged Madurai-Maratha struggle over Tanjavur and punitive fiscal practices. Between 1673 and 1677, 1,839 slaves were exported from the Madurai coast alone. A fifth phase occurred in 1688, caused by poor harvests and the Mughal advance into the Karnatak. Thousands of people from Tanjavur, mostly girls and little boys, were sold into slavery and exported by Asian traders from Nagapattinam to Aceh, Johor, and other slave markets. In September 1687, 665 slaves were exported by the East India Company from Fort St. George, Madras. Finally, in 1694–96, when warfare once more ravaged South India, a total of 3,859 slaves were imported from Coromandel by private individuals into Ceylon.[87] [88] [89][90]
The volume of the total Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade has been estimated to be about 15–30% of the Atlantic slave trade, slightly smaller than the trans-Saharan slave trade, and one-and-a-half to three times the size of the Swahili and Red Sea coast and the Dutch West India Company slave trades.[91]
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Slavery in Malabar
The main agrestic slave castes in Malabar were Pulayars, Parayars, Kuruvars, Cherumas. The principal Collector estimated that the Pulayars and Cherumars constituted about half of the slave population. Buchannan in 1801 stated that almost all cultivators were slaves. He stated that the slaves were primarily used for field labouring and the degree of slavery was the worst among the Parayars, Pulayans and Kuravans who were made to work like beasts. Cheruvans and Pulayans were brought to the towns to be bought and sold. The slave population increased by 65 percent in 36 years from 1806 to 1842. Children born to slaves were also made slaves.[92] According to Dr. Francis Buchanan's estimate in 1801 AD, 41,367 people were slaves in the Malabar's south, central, and northern divisions, out of a total population of 292,366. Travancore had 164,864 slaves in 1836, out of a total population of 1,280,668. During the middle of the nineteenth century, Kerala had an estimated 4.25 lakh (425,000) slaves.[93]
Social oppression was also part of slavery. They were not allowed to wear clean clothes and were to keep away from the roads of their masters who were Brahmin and Nairs. Major Walker stated that they were left out to nature and abandoned when they suffered from diseases and some times made to stand in rice fields for hours which gave them Rheumatism, Cholera and other diseases.[92] The slaves belonged to the lower castes and were employed only for feudal work, and the stigma that they should be kept away from their masters was strictly followed. Samuel Mateer, noted that even in the working fields the slaves were supervised from a distance.[93] The caste system kept them as untouchables and divided into numerous sub-castes. The condition of the Cherumars was no different in 19th century, the Kerala Patrike in 1898 wrote that the Cherumar slaves had high regards for their masters because the higher castes convinced them that they were obliged at birth to serve the Higher castes.[92]
Between 1871 and 1881, an estimated 40,000 slaves converted to Islam, according to the 1881 census. During this time, many slaves in Cochin and Travancore converted to Christianity. It was stated at the 1882 Christian Mission Conference that the population of Muslim Mapillas was rapidly expanding due to conversions from the lower strata of Hindu society, and that the entire west coast could become Muslim in such a phase.[93]
18th to 20th century
Between 1772 and 1833, debates in the British Parliament recorded the volume of slavery in India.[94] A slave market was noted as operating in Calcutta, and the Company Court House permitted slave ownership to be registered, for a fee of Rs. 4.25 or Rs.4 and 4 annas.[95]
A number of abolitionist missionaries, including Rev. James Peggs, Rev. Howard Malcom, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and William Adams offered commentaries on the Parliamentary debates, and added their own estimates of the numbers effected by, and forms of slavery in South Asia, by region and caste, in the 1830s. In a series of publications that included their: "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India", "Slavery and the slave trade in British India; with notices of the existence of these evils in the islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, drawn from official documents", and "The Law and Custom of Slavery in British India: In a Series of Letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq" tables were published detailing the estimates.
Estimates of slaves held in various East India Company territories and Native Kingdoms in the 1830s[96][97][98]
The publications have been frequently cited by modern historians when discussing the history of slavery in India, as it included individual letters and reports discussing the practise in various regions throughout India, frequently mentioning the number of people being enslaved:
Historian Andrea Major noted the extent of European involvement in slave trading in India:
Regulation and prohibition
In Bengal, the East India Company (EIC) in 1773 opted to codify the pre-existing pluralistic judicial system, with Europeans subject to common law, Muslims to the sharia based Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, and Hindus to an adaptation of a Dharmaśāstra named Manusmriti, which became known as the Hindu law,[100] with the applicable legal traditions, and for Hindus an interpretation of verse 8.415 of the Manusmriti,[21] regulating the practice of slavery.[96]
The EIC later passed regulations 9, and 10 of 1774, prohibiting the trade in slaves without written deed, and the sale of anyone not already enslaved,[99] and reissued the legislation in 1789, after a Danish slave trader, Peter Horrebow, was caught, prosecuted, fined, and jailed for attempting to smuggle 150 Bengali slaves to Dutch Ceylon.[99] The EIC subsequently issued regulations 10 of 1811, prohibiting the transport of slaves into Company territories.[99]
When the United Kingdom abolished slavery in its overseas territories, through the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, it excluded the non-Crown territories administered by the East India Company from the scope of the statute.[101]
The Indian Slavery Act of 1843 prohibited Company employees from owning, or dealing, along with granting limited protection under the law, that included the ability for a slave to own, transfer or inherit property, notionally benefitting the millions held in Company territory, that in an 1883 article on slavery in India and Egypt, Sir Henry Bartle Frer (who sat on the Viceroy's Council 1859-67), estimated that within the Companies territory, that did not yet extend to half the sub-continent, at the time of the act:
Growth of East India Company controlled territories (pink) between 1765, 1805, 1837 and 1857
Growth of East India Company controlled territories (pink) between 1765, 1805, 1837 and 1857
Portugal gradually prohibited the importation of slaves into Portuguese India, following the 1818 Anglo-Portuguese anti slavery treaty, a subsequent 1836 Royal Edict, and a second Anglo-Portuguese treaty in 1842 reduced the external trade, but the institution itself was only prohibited in 1876.[15]
France prohibited slavery, in French India, via the Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848.[103]
British Indian Empire
Provisions of the Indian Penal Code of 1861 effectively abolished slavery in British India by making the enslavement of human beings a criminal offense.[1][16][17][104] Criminalisation of the institution was required of the princely states, with the likes of the 1861 Anglo-Sikkimese treaty requiring Sikkim to outlaw the institution.[95]
Officials that inadvertently used the term "slave" would be reprimanded, but the actual practices of servitude continued unchanged. Scholar Indrani Chatterjee has termed this "abolition by denial."[105] In the rare cases when the anti-slavery legislation was enforced, it addressed the relatively smaller practices of export and import of slaves, but it did little to address the agricultural slavery that was pervasive inland. The officials in the Madras Presidency turned a blind eye to agricultural slavery claiming that it was a benign form of bondage that was in fact preferable to free labour.[106]
Indian indenture system
Main article: Indian indenture system
After the British government passed legislation which abolished slavery in 1833, the Indian indenture system arose in response to labor demands in regions which had abolished slavery. The indenture system has been compared to slavery by some historians.[107][108][109] According to Richard Sheridan, quoting Dookhan, "[the planters] continued to apply or sanction the means of coercion common to slavery, and in this regard the Indians fared no better than the ex-slaves".[110]
In the Indian indenture system, indentured Indian laborers were brought to regions in which slavery had been abolished to replace Africans as laborers on plantations and mines.[111] The first ships carrying indentured labourers left India in 1836.[111] Once they arrived at their destination, they would then be sent to work under various planters or mine owners. Their work and living conditions were frequently just as poor as the slaves they replaced, being frequently confined to their estates and being paid low salaries. Any breach of contract by them brought automatic criminal penalties and imprisonment.[111] Many of the indentured laborers became indentured through fraudulent means, with Indians from inland regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports being promised jobs, were not told the work they were being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the Colonial Secretary declaring that with few exceptions, the indentured labourers were treated with "great and unjust severity"; planters enforced their Indian laborers in plantations, mining and domestic work harshly, to the extent that decaying remains of deceased laborers were frequently discovered in fields. If labourers protested and refused to work, the planters would refuse to pay and feed them.[111][112]
Contemporary slavery
According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, 40.3 million people were enslaved worldwide in 2016. India accounts for almost 8 million or 20%, making it the largest absolute contributor to modern slavery.[113] This typically involves types of forced labor such as bonded labour, child labour, forced marriage, human trafficking, forced begging, and sexual slavery.[114][115][116][117][118]
The existence of slavery, especially child slavery, in South Asia and the world has been alleged by various non-governmental organizations (NGO) and media outlets.[119][120] With the Bonded Labour (Prohibition) Act 1976 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (concerning slavery and servitude), a spotlight has been placed on these problems in the country. One of the areas identified as problematic is granite quarries.[121][122]
See also
• Veth (India), a system of forced labour
• History of slavery in Asia
• Child labour in India
• Labour in India
References
1. Scott C. Levi (2002). "Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Cambridge University Press. 12 (3): 277–288. doi:10.1017/S1356186302000329. JSTOR 25188289. S2CID 155047611., Quote: "Sources such as the Arthasastra, the Manusmriti and the Mahabharata demonstrate that institutionalized slavery was well established in India by beginning of the common era. Earlier sources suggest that it was likely to have been equally widespread by the lifetime of the Buddha (sixth century BC), and perhaps even as far back as the Vedic period. [footnote 2: (...) While it is likely that the institution of slavery existed in India during the Vedic period, the association of the Vedic 'Dasa' with 'slaves' is problematic and likely to have been a later development."
2. Ram Sharan Sharma (1990). Śūdras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order Down to Circa A.D. 600. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 25–27. ISBN 978-81-208-0706-8.
3. McCrindle, John (1877). Ancient India As Described By Megasthenes And Arrian. London. p. 40.
4. Andre Wink (1991), Al-Hind: the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, vol. 1, Brill Academic (Leiden), ISBN 978-9004095090, pages 14-32, 172-207
5. Burjor Avari (2013), Islamic Civilization in South Asia, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415580618, pages 41-68;
Abraham Eraly (2014), The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate, Part VIII, Chapter 2, Penguin, ISBN 978-0670087181;
Vincent A. Smith, The early history of India, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, Reprinted in 1999 by Atlantic Publishers, Books IV and V - Muhammadan Period;
K. S. Lal, Muslim Slave System in Medieval India (New Delhi, 1994);
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6. Salim Kidwai, "Sultans, Eunuchs and Domestics: New Forms of Bondage in Medieval India", in Utsa Patnaik and Manjari Dingwaney (eds), Chains of Servitude: bondage and slavery in India (Madras, 1985).
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9. [a]Andrea Major (2012). Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772-1843. Liverpool University Press. pp. 42–43. ISBN 978-1-78138-903-4.;
[ b]David Eltis; Stanley L. Engerman (2011). The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 3, AD 1420–AD 1804. Cambridge University Press. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-1-316-18435-6., Quote: "The war was considered a major reason for the importation of Ethiopian slaves into India during the sixteen century. Africans of slave origins played a major role in the politics of Mughal India [...]"
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11. Andrea Major (2014), Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772-1843, Liverpool University Press, ISBN 9781781381113, p. 43
12. Ghoshal, Devjyot. "The forgotten story of India's colonial slave workers who began leaving home 180 years ago". Quartz India. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
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20. West, Barbara (2008). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase. p. 182. ISBN 978-0816071098.
21. Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi by Ganganatha Jha, 1920, ISBN 8120811550
22. Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education. p. 191. ISBN 9788131711200.
23. Jaiswal, Suvira (1981). "Women in Early India: Problems and Perspectives". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 42: 55. JSTOR 44141112.
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28. Gregory Schopen (2004). Buddhist Monks and Business Matters: Still More Papers on Monastic Buddhism in India. University of Hawaii Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-8248-2547-8.
29. Gregory Schopen (2004), Buddhist Monks and Business Matters, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0824827748, page 202-206
30. Gregory Schopen (1994). "The Monastic Ownership of Servants and Slaves". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 17 (2): 156–162 with footnotes, context: 145–174.
31. Gregory Schopen (2010). "On Some Who Are Not Allowed to Become Buddhist Monks or Nuns: An Old List of Types of Slaves or Unfree Laborers". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 130 (2): 225–234 with footnotes.
32. Gregory Schopen (1994). "The Monastic Ownership of Servants and Slaves". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 17 (2): 169–171 with footnotes, context: 145–174.
33. Gregory Schopen (2010). "On Some Who Are Not Allowed to Become Buddhist Monks or Nuns: An Old List of Types of Slaves or Unfree Laborers". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 130 (2): 231–232 with footnotes.
34. Kauṭalya; R. P. Kangle (1986). The Kautiliya Arthasastra, Part 2. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 235–236. ISBN 978-81-208-0042-7.
35. Kautilya; Patrick Olivelle (Transl) (2013). King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya's Arthasastra. Oxford University Press. pp. 208–209, 614. ISBN 978-0-19-989182-5.
36. Kauṭalya; R. P. Kangle (1972). The Kautiliya Arthasastra, Part 3. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 143–144. ISBN 978-81-208-0042-7.
37. R.P. Kangle (1960), The Kautiliya Arthasastra - a critical edition, Part 3, University of Bombay Studies, ISBN 978-8120800427, page 186
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65. Khwajah Ni‘mat Allah, Tārīkh-i-Khān Jahānī wa makhzan-i-Afghānī, ed. S. M. Imam al-Din (Dacca: Asiatic Society of Pakistan Publication No. 4, 1960), 1: 411.
66. Chatterjee, Indrani (2006). Slavery and South Asian History. pp. 10–13. ISBN 978-0-253-21873-5. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
67. Francisco Pelsaert, A Dutch Chronicle of Mughal India, translated and edited by Brij Narain and Sri Ram Sharma (Lahore, 1978), p. 48.
68. Sebastian Manrique, Travels of Frey Sebastian Manrique, 2 vols, translated by Eckford Luard (London, 1906), II,
69. "Murar - the Departure of Prince Shah-Shuja for Kabul (16 March 1638)". Archived from the original on 27 March 2019.
70. Badshah Nama, Qazinivi & Badshah Nama, Abdul Hamid Lahori
71. Said Ali ibn Said Muhammad Bukhari, Khutut-i mamhura bemahr-i qadaah-i Bukhara, OSIASRU, Ms. No. 8586/II. For bibliographic information, see Sobranie vostochnykh rukopisei Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoi SSR, 11 vols (Tashkent, 1952–85).
72. The Administration of Justice in Medieval India, MB Ahmad, The Aligarh University (1941)
73. M. Reza Pirbhai (2009), Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, Brill Academic, ISBN 978-9004177581, pp. 131-154
74. Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 5, p. 273 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
75. A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 386 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
76. Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 395-397; Fatawa-i Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 86-88, Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
77. Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 6, p. 631 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980); The Muhammadan Law p. 275 annotations
78. A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 371 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
79. Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, page 377 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980); The Muhammadan Law p. 298 annotations
80. Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 394-398 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
81. Muhammad Talib, Malab al-alibn, Oriental Studies Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan , Ms. No. 80, fols 117a-18a.
82. Indian textile industry in Scott Levi, The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and its Trade, 1550–1900 (Leiden, 2002)
83. Beatrice Manz, The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane (Cambridge, 1989); Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib, eds, The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 1, (Hyderabad, 1984); Surendra Gopal, 'Indians in Central Asia, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries', Presidential Address, Medieval India Section of the Indian History Congress, New Delhi, February 1992 (Patna, 1992)
84. E. K. Meyendorff, Puteshestvie iz Orenburga v Bukharu, Russian translation by N. A. Khalin (Moscow, 1975),
85. Chatterjee, Gender, Slavery and Law in Colonial India, p. 223.
86. "The Tribune - Windows - Slice of history".
87. S. Subrahmanyam, "Slaves and Tyrants: Dutch Tribulations in Seventeenth-Century Mrauk-U," Journal of Early Modern History 1, no. 3 (August 1997); O. Prakash, European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India, The New Cambridge History of India II:5 (New York, 1998); O. Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal; J. F. Richards, The Mughal Empire, The New Cambridge History of India I:5 (New York, 1993),; Raychaudhuri and Habib, eds., The Cambridge Economic History of India I,; V. B. Lieberman, Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580–1760 (Princeton, N.J., 1984); G. D. Winius, "The 'Shadow Empire' of Goa in the Bay of Bengal," Itinerario 7, no. 2 (1983):; D.G.E. Hall, "Studies in Dutch relations with Arakan," Journal of the Burma Research Society 26, no. 1 (1936):; D.G.E. Hall, "The Daghregister of Batavia and Dutch Trade with Burma in the Seventeenth Century," Journal of the Burma Research Society 29, no. 2 (1939); Arasaratnam, "Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century,".
88. VOC 1479, OBP 1691, fls. 611r-627v, Specificatie van Allerhande Koopmansz. tot Tuticurin, Manaapar en Alvatt.rij Ingekocht, 1670/71-1689/90; W. Ph. Coolhaas and J.van Goor, eds., Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden van Indiaan Heren Zeventien der Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, 1960–present), passim; T. Raychaudhuri, Jan Company in Coromandel, 1605–1690: A Study on the Interrelations of European Commerce and Traditional Economies (The Hague, 1962); S. Arasaratnam, "Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century," in K. S. Mathew, ed., Mariners, Merchants and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History (New Delhi, 1995).
89. For exports of Malabar slaves to Ceylon, Batavia, see Generale Missiven VI,; H.K. s'Jacob ed., De Nederlanders in Kerala, 1663–1701: De Memories en Instructies Betreffende het Commandement Malabar van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, Rijks Geschiedkundige Publication, Kleine serie 43 (The Hague, 1976),; R. Barendse, "Slaving on the Malagasy Coast, 1640–1700," in S. Evers and M. Spindler, eds., Cultures of Madagascar: Ebb and Flow of Influences (Leiden, 1995). See also M. O. Koshy, The Dutch Power in Kerala (New Delhi, 1989); K. K. Kusuman, Slavery in Travancore (Trivandrum, 1973); M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, De Vestiging der Nederlanders ter Kuste Malabar (The Hague, 1943); H. Terpstra, De Opkomst der Westerkwartieren van de Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, 1918).
90. M.P.M. Vink, "Encounters on the Opposite Coast: Cross-Cultural Contacts between the Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century," unpublished dissertation, University of Minnesota (1998); Arasaratnam, Ceylon and the Dutch, 1600–1800 (Great Yarmouth, 1996); H. D. Love, Vestiges from Old Madras (London, 1913).
91. Of 2,467 slaves traded on 12 slave voyages from Batavia, India, and Madagascar between 1677 and 1701 to the Cape, 1,617 were landed with a loss of 850 slaves, or 34.45%. On 19 voyages between 1677 and 1732, the mortality rate was somewhat lower (22.7%). See Shell, "Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1680–1731," p. 332. Filliot estimated the average mortality rate among slaves shipped from India and West Africa to the Mascarene Islands at 20–25% and 25–30%, respectively. Average mortality rates among slaves arriving from closer catchment areas were lower: 12% from Madagascar and 21% from Southeast Africa. See Filliot, La Traite des Esclaves, p. 228; A. Toussaint, La Route des Îles: Contribution à l'Histoire Maritime des Mascareignes (Paris, 1967),; Allen, "The Madagascar Slave Trade and Labor Migration."
92. Thomas, K.T. (1999). "Slaves an Integral Part of the Production System in Malabar (19Th Century)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 60: 600–610. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44144128.
93. Nair, Adoor K. K. Ramachandran (1 January 1986). Slavery in Kerala. Mittal Publications. pp. 38–43.
94. Hansard Parliamentary Papers 125 (1828), 128 (1834), 697 (1837), 238 (1841), 525 (1843), 14 (1844), London, House of Commons
95. Sen, Jahar (1973). "Slave trade on the Indo-Nepal border, in the 19th century" (PDF). Calcutta: 159 – via Cambridge Apollo.
96. Slavery and the slave trade in British India; with notices of the existence of these evils in the islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, drawn from official documents
97. The Law and Custom of Slavery in British India: In a Series of Letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq
98. The British and Foreign Anti-slavery Reporter, Volumes 1-3
99. Andrea Major (2012). Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772-1843. Liverpool University Press. pp. 43–54. ISBN 978-1-84631-758-3.
100. John Griffith (1986), What is legal pluralism?, The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Volume 18, Issue 24, pages 1-55
101. An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies 3° & 4° Gulielmi IV, cap. LXXIII (August 1833)
102. "Slavery In British India : Banaji, D. R. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. 1 July 2015. p. 202. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
103. Peabody, Sue (2014). "French Emancipation". Atlantic History. Introduction. doi:10.1093/OBO/9780199730414-0253. ISBN 978-0-19-973041-4.
104. Islamic Law and the Colonial Encounter in British India Archived 29 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
105. Campbell, G. (Ed.). (2005). Abolition and Its Aftermath in the Indian Ocean Africa and Asia. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203493021
106. Viswanath, Rupa (29 July 2014), The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India, Columbia University Press, p. 5, ISBN 978-0-231-53750-6
107. Walton Lai (1993). Indentured labor, Caribbean sugar: Chinese and Indian migrants to the British West Indies, 1838–1918. ISBN 978-0-8018-7746-9.
108. Steven Vertovik (Robin Cohen, ed.) (1995). The Cambridge survey of world migration. pp. 57–68. ISBN 978-0-521-44405-7.
109. Tinker, Hugh (1993). New System of Slavery. Hansib Publishing, London. ISBN 978-1-870518-18-5.
110. Sheridan, Richard B. (2002). "The Condition of slaves on the sugar plantations of Sir John Gladstone in the colony of Demerara 1812 to 1849". New West Indian Guide. 76 (3/4): 265–269. doi:10.1163/13822373-90002536.
111. "Forced Labour". The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom. 2010.
112. K Laurence (1994). A Question of Labour: Indentured Immigration Into Trinidad & British Guiana, 1875–1917. St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-12172-3.
113. Walk, Free (2018). "Global Slavery Index" (PDF).
114. Browne, Rachel (31 May 2016). "Andrew Forrest puts world's richest countries on notice: Global Slavery Index". Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. Fairfax. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
115. Gladstone, Rick (31 May 2016). "Modern Slavery Estimated to Trap 45 Million People Worldwide". The New York Times.
116. "India".
117. "Bonded labourers, sex workers, forced beggars: India leads world in slavery". 31 May 2016.
118. Mazumdar, Rakhi (June 2016). "India ranks fourth in global slavery survey". The Economic Times.
119. Vilasetuo Süokhrie, "Human Market for Sex & Slave?!!", The Morung Express (8 April 2008)
120. Choi-Fitzpatrick, Austin (7 March 2017). What Slaveholders Think: How Contemporary Perpetrators Rationalize What They do. ISBN 9780231543828.
121. "Modern slavery and child labour in Indian quarries - Stop Child Labour". Stop Child Labour. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
122. "Modern slavery and child labour in Indian quarries". http://www.indianet.nl. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
Further reading
• Singh, Akanksha (2021), "'Enslaved for Life': Construing Slavery in Nineteenth Century India", HumaNetten 47
• Scott C. Levi (2002), Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
• Lal, K. S. (1994), Muslim slave system in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. [1]
• Salim Kidwai, "Sultans, Eunuchs and Domestics: New Forms of Bondage in Medieval India", in Utsa Patnaik and Manjari Dingwaney (eds), Chains of Servitude: bondage and slavery in India (Madras, 1985).
• Utsa Patnaik and Manjari Dingwaney (eds), Chains of Servitude: bondage and slavery in India (Madras, 1985)
• Andrea Major (2014), Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772–1843, Liverpool University Press.
• R.C. Majumdar, The History and Culture of the Indian People, Bombay.
• Andre Wink (1991), Al-Hind: the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill Academic (Leiden), ISBN 978-9004095090
• KT Rammohan (2009), 'Modern Bondage: Atiyaayma in Post-Abolition Malabar'. in Jan Breman, Isabelle Guerin and Aseem Prakash (eds). India's Unfree Workforce: Of Bondage Old and New. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-569846-6
External links
• The law and custom of slavery in British India in a series of letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, esq., by William Adam., 1840 Open Library
• Modern Slavery, Human bondage in Africa, Asia, and the Dominican Republic
• The Small Hands of Slavery, Bonded Child Labor In India
• India – bonded labour: the gap between illusion and reality
• Child Slaves in Modern India: The Bonded Labor Problem
• Legislative Redress Rather Than Progress? From Slavery to Bondage in Colonial India by Stefan Tetzlaff
Slavery in Malabar
The main agrestic slave castes in Malabar were Pulayars, Parayars, Kuruvars, Cherumas. The principal Collector estimated that the Pulayars and Cherumars constituted about half of the slave population. Buchannan in 1801 stated that almost all cultivators were slaves. He stated that the slaves were primarily used for field labouring and the degree of slavery was the worst among the Parayars, Pulayans and Kuravans who were made to work like beasts. Cheruvans and Pulayans were brought to the towns to be bought and sold. The slave population increased by 65 percent in 36 years from 1806 to 1842. Children born to slaves were also made slaves.[92] According to Dr. Francis Buchanan's estimate in 1801 AD, 41,367 people were slaves in the Malabar's south, central, and northern divisions, out of a total population of 292,366. Travancore had 164,864 slaves in 1836, out of a total population of 1,280,668. During the middle of the nineteenth century, Kerala had an estimated 4.25 lakh (425,000) slaves.[93]
Social oppression was also part of slavery. They were not allowed to wear clean clothes and were to keep away from the roads of their masters who were Brahmin and Nairs. Major Walker stated that they were left out to nature and abandoned when they suffered from diseases and some times made to stand in rice fields for hours which gave them Rheumatism, Cholera and other diseases.[92] The slaves belonged to the lower castes and were employed only for feudal work, and the stigma that they should be kept away from their masters was strictly followed. Samuel Mateer, noted that even in the working fields the slaves were supervised from a distance.[93] The caste system kept them as untouchables and divided into numerous sub-castes. The condition of the Cherumars was no different in 19th century, the Kerala Patrike in 1898 wrote that the Cherumar slaves had high regards for their masters because the higher castes convinced them that they were obliged at birth to serve the Higher castes.[92]
Between 1871 and 1881, an estimated 40,000 slaves converted to Islam, according to the 1881 census. During this time, many slaves in Cochin and Travancore converted to Christianity. It was stated at the 1882 Christian Mission Conference that the population of Muslim Mapillas was rapidly expanding due to conversions from the lower strata of Hindu society, and that the entire west coast could become Muslim in such a phase.[93]
18th to 20th century
Between 1772 and 1833, debates in the British Parliament recorded the volume of slavery in India.[94] A slave market was noted as operating in Calcutta, and the Company Court House permitted slave ownership to be registered, for a fee of Rs. 4.25 or Rs.4 and 4 annas.[95]
A number of abolitionist missionaries, including Rev. James Peggs, Rev. Howard Malcom, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and William Adams offered commentaries on the Parliamentary debates, and added their own estimates of the numbers effected by, and forms of slavery in South Asia, by region and caste, in the 1830s. In a series of publications that included their: "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India", "Slavery and the slave trade in British India; with notices of the existence of these evils in the islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, drawn from official documents", and "The Law and Custom of Slavery in British India: In a Series of Letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq" tables were published detailing the estimates.
Estimates of slaves held in various East India Company territories and Native Kingdoms in the 1830s[96][97][98]
Province or Kingdom / Est. Slaves
Malabar / 147,000
Malabar and Wynad (Wayanad) / 100,000
Canara, Coorg, Wynad, Cochin, and Travancore / 254,000
Tinnevelly (Tirunelveli) / 324,000
Trichinopoly / 10,600
Arcot / 20,000
Canara / 80,000
Assam / 11,300
Surat / 3,000
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) / 27,397
Penang / 3,000
Sylhet and Buckergunge (Bakerganj) / 80,000
Behar / 22,722
Tizhoot / 11,061
Southern Mahratta Country / 7,500
Sub Total / 1,121,585
The publications have been frequently cited by modern historians when discussing the history of slavery in India, as it included individual letters and reports discussing the practise in various regions throughout India, frequently mentioning the number of people being enslaved:
Slavery in Bombay. In Mr. Chaplin's report, made in answer to queries addressed to the collectors of districts, he says, "Slavery in the Deccan is very prevalent and we know that it has been recognized by the Hindu law, and by the custom of the country, from time immemorial'." Mr. Baber gives more definite information of the number of slaves in one of the divisions of the Bombay territory, viz., that " lying between the rivers Kistna and Toongbutra," the slaves in which he estimates at 15,000; and in the southern Mahratta country, he observes, "All the Jagheerdars, Deshwars, Zemindars, principal Brahmins, and Sahookdars, retain slaves in their domestic establishments; in fact, in every Mahratta household of consequence, they are, both male and female, especially the latter, to be found, and indeed are considered to be indispensable."
— Par. Pap. No. 128, 1834, p. 4.
Historian Andrea Major noted the extent of European involvement in slave trading in India:
In fact, eighteenth century Europeans, including some Britons, were involved in buying, selling and exporting Indian slaves, transferring them around the subcontinent or to European slave colonies across the globe. Moreover, many eighteenth century European households in India included domestic slaves, with the owners' right of property over them being upheld in law. Thus, although both colonial observers and subsequent historians usually represent South Asian slavery as an indigenous institution, with which the British were only concerned as colonial reforms, until the end of the eighteenth century Europeans were deeply implicated in both slave-holding and slave-trading in the region.
— Andrea Major[11][99]
Regulation and prohibition
In Bengal, the East India Company (EIC) in 1773 opted to codify the pre-existing pluralistic judicial system, with Europeans subject to common law, Muslims to the sharia based Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, and Hindus to an adaptation of a Dharmaśāstra named Manusmriti, which became known as the Hindu law,[100] with the applicable legal traditions, and for Hindus an interpretation of verse 8.415 of the Manusmriti,[21] regulating the practice of slavery.[96]
412. 'A Brahmen, who, by his power and through avarice, shall cause twice born men, girt with the sacrificial thread, to perform servile acts, such as washing his feet, without their consent, shall be fined by the king six hundred panas;
413. 'But a man of the servile class whether bought or unbought, he may compel to perform servile duty; because such a man was created by the Self-existent for the purpose of serving Brahmens:
414. 'A Sudra, though emancipated by his master, is not released from a state of servitude; for of a state which is natural to him, by whom can he be divested?
415. 'There are servants of seven sorts; one made captive under a standard or in battle, one maintained in consideration of service, one born of a female slave in the house, one sold, or given, or inherited from ancestors, and one enslaved by way of punishment on his inability to pay a large fine.
416. 'Three persons, a wife, a son, and a slave, are declared by law to have in general no wealth exclusively their own: the wealth, which they may earn, is regularly acquired for the man to whom they belong.
417. 'A Brahmen may seize without hesitation, if he be distressed for a subsistence, the goods of his Sudra slave; for as that slave can have no property, his master may take his goods.
-- Institutes of Hindu Law: Or, The Ordinances of Menu, According to the Gloss of Culluca. Comprising the Indian System of Duties, Religious and Civil, Verbally translated from the original Sanscrit, With a Preface, by Sir William Jones, 1796
The EIC later passed regulations 9, and 10 of 1774, prohibiting the trade in slaves without written deed, and the sale of anyone not already enslaved,[99] and reissued the legislation in 1789, after a Danish slave trader, Peter Horrebow, was caught, prosecuted, fined, and jailed for attempting to smuggle 150 Bengali slaves to Dutch Ceylon.[99] The EIC subsequently issued regulations 10 of 1811, prohibiting the transport of slaves into Company territories.[99]
When the United Kingdom abolished slavery in its overseas territories, through the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, it excluded the non-Crown territories administered by the East India Company from the scope of the statute.[101]
The Indian Slavery Act of 1843 prohibited Company employees from owning, or dealing, along with granting limited protection under the law, that included the ability for a slave to own, transfer or inherit property, notionally benefitting the millions held in Company territory, that in an 1883 article on slavery in India and Egypt, Sir Henry Bartle Frer (who sat on the Viceroy's Council 1859-67), estimated that within the Companies territory, that did not yet extend to half the sub-continent, at the time of the act:
Comparing such information, district by district, with the very imperfect estimates of the total population fifty years ago, the lowest estimate I have been able to form of the total slave population of British India, in 1841, is between eight and nine millions [9,000,000] of souls. The slaves set free in the British colonies on the 1st of August, 1834, were estimated at between 800,000 and 1,000,000; and the slaves in North and South America, in 1860, were estimated at 4,000,000. So that the number of human beings whose liberties and fortunes, as slaves and owners of slaves, were at stake when the emancipation of the slaves was contemplated in British India, far exceeded the number of the same classes in all the slaveholding colonies and dominions of Great Britain and America put together.
— Fortnightly Review, 1883, p. 355[102]
Growth of East India Company controlled territories (pink) between 1765, 1805, 1837 and 1857
Growth of East India Company controlled territories (pink) between 1765, 1805, 1837 and 1857
Portugal gradually prohibited the importation of slaves into Portuguese India, following the 1818 Anglo-Portuguese anti slavery treaty, a subsequent 1836 Royal Edict, and a second Anglo-Portuguese treaty in 1842 reduced the external trade, but the institution itself was only prohibited in 1876.[15]
France prohibited slavery, in French India, via the Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848.[103]
British Indian Empire
Provisions of the Indian Penal Code of 1861 effectively abolished slavery in British India by making the enslavement of human beings a criminal offense.[1][16][17][104] Criminalisation of the institution was required of the princely states, with the likes of the 1861 Anglo-Sikkimese treaty requiring Sikkim to outlaw the institution.[95]
Officials that inadvertently used the term "slave" would be reprimanded, but the actual practices of servitude continued unchanged. Scholar Indrani Chatterjee has termed this "abolition by denial."[105] In the rare cases when the anti-slavery legislation was enforced, it addressed the relatively smaller practices of export and import of slaves, but it did little to address the agricultural slavery that was pervasive inland. The officials in the Madras Presidency turned a blind eye to agricultural slavery claiming that it was a benign form of bondage that was in fact preferable to free labour.[106]
Indian indenture system
Main article: Indian indenture system
After the British government passed legislation which abolished slavery in 1833, the Indian indenture system arose in response to labor demands in regions which had abolished slavery. The indenture system has been compared to slavery by some historians.[107][108][109] According to Richard Sheridan, quoting Dookhan, "[the planters] continued to apply or sanction the means of coercion common to slavery, and in this regard the Indians fared no better than the ex-slaves".[110]
In the Indian indenture system, indentured Indian laborers were brought to regions in which slavery had been abolished to replace Africans as laborers on plantations and mines.[111] The first ships carrying indentured labourers left India in 1836.[111] Once they arrived at their destination, they would then be sent to work under various planters or mine owners. Their work and living conditions were frequently just as poor as the slaves they replaced, being frequently confined to their estates and being paid low salaries. Any breach of contract by them brought automatic criminal penalties and imprisonment.[111] Many of the indentured laborers became indentured through fraudulent means, with Indians from inland regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports being promised jobs, were not told the work they were being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the Colonial Secretary declaring that with few exceptions, the indentured labourers were treated with "great and unjust severity"; planters enforced their Indian laborers in plantations, mining and domestic work harshly, to the extent that decaying remains of deceased laborers were frequently discovered in fields. If labourers protested and refused to work, the planters would refuse to pay and feed them.[111][112]
Contemporary slavery
According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, 40.3 million people were enslaved worldwide in 2016. India accounts for almost 8 million or 20%, making it the largest absolute contributor to modern slavery.[113] This typically involves types of forced labor such as bonded labour, child labour, forced marriage, human trafficking, forced begging, and sexual slavery.[114][115][116][117][118]
The existence of slavery, especially child slavery, in South Asia and the world has been alleged by various non-governmental organizations (NGO) and media outlets.[119][120] With the Bonded Labour (Prohibition) Act 1976 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (concerning slavery and servitude), a spotlight has been placed on these problems in the country. One of the areas identified as problematic is granite quarries.[121][122]
See also
• Veth (India), a system of forced labour
• History of slavery in Asia
• Child labour in India
• Labour in India
References
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81. Muhammad Talib, Malab al-alibn, Oriental Studies Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan , Ms. No. 80, fols 117a-18a.
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84. E. K. Meyendorff, Puteshestvie iz Orenburga v Bukharu, Russian translation by N. A. Khalin (Moscow, 1975),
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86. "The Tribune - Windows - Slice of history".
87. S. Subrahmanyam, "Slaves and Tyrants: Dutch Tribulations in Seventeenth-Century Mrauk-U," Journal of Early Modern History 1, no. 3 (August 1997); O. Prakash, European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India, The New Cambridge History of India II:5 (New York, 1998); O. Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal; J. F. Richards, The Mughal Empire, The New Cambridge History of India I:5 (New York, 1993),; Raychaudhuri and Habib, eds., The Cambridge Economic History of India I,; V. B. Lieberman, Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580–1760 (Princeton, N.J., 1984); G. D. Winius, "The 'Shadow Empire' of Goa in the Bay of Bengal," Itinerario 7, no. 2 (1983):; D.G.E. Hall, "Studies in Dutch relations with Arakan," Journal of the Burma Research Society 26, no. 1 (1936):; D.G.E. Hall, "The Daghregister of Batavia and Dutch Trade with Burma in the Seventeenth Century," Journal of the Burma Research Society 29, no. 2 (1939); Arasaratnam, "Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century,".
88. VOC 1479, OBP 1691, fls. 611r-627v, Specificatie van Allerhande Koopmansz. tot Tuticurin, Manaapar en Alvatt.rij Ingekocht, 1670/71-1689/90; W. Ph. Coolhaas and J.van Goor, eds., Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden van Indiaan Heren Zeventien der Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, 1960–present), passim; T. Raychaudhuri, Jan Company in Coromandel, 1605–1690: A Study on the Interrelations of European Commerce and Traditional Economies (The Hague, 1962); S. Arasaratnam, "Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century," in K. S. Mathew, ed., Mariners, Merchants and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History (New Delhi, 1995).
89. For exports of Malabar slaves to Ceylon, Batavia, see Generale Missiven VI,; H.K. s'Jacob ed., De Nederlanders in Kerala, 1663–1701: De Memories en Instructies Betreffende het Commandement Malabar van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, Rijks Geschiedkundige Publication, Kleine serie 43 (The Hague, 1976),; R. Barendse, "Slaving on the Malagasy Coast, 1640–1700," in S. Evers and M. Spindler, eds., Cultures of Madagascar: Ebb and Flow of Influences (Leiden, 1995). See also M. O. Koshy, The Dutch Power in Kerala (New Delhi, 1989); K. K. Kusuman, Slavery in Travancore (Trivandrum, 1973); M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, De Vestiging der Nederlanders ter Kuste Malabar (The Hague, 1943); H. Terpstra, De Opkomst der Westerkwartieren van de Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, 1918).
90. M.P.M. Vink, "Encounters on the Opposite Coast: Cross-Cultural Contacts between the Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century," unpublished dissertation, University of Minnesota (1998); Arasaratnam, Ceylon and the Dutch, 1600–1800 (Great Yarmouth, 1996); H. D. Love, Vestiges from Old Madras (London, 1913).
91. Of 2,467 slaves traded on 12 slave voyages from Batavia, India, and Madagascar between 1677 and 1701 to the Cape, 1,617 were landed with a loss of 850 slaves, or 34.45%. On 19 voyages between 1677 and 1732, the mortality rate was somewhat lower (22.7%). See Shell, "Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1680–1731," p. 332. Filliot estimated the average mortality rate among slaves shipped from India and West Africa to the Mascarene Islands at 20–25% and 25–30%, respectively. Average mortality rates among slaves arriving from closer catchment areas were lower: 12% from Madagascar and 21% from Southeast Africa. See Filliot, La Traite des Esclaves, p. 228; A. Toussaint, La Route des Îles: Contribution à l'Histoire Maritime des Mascareignes (Paris, 1967),; Allen, "The Madagascar Slave Trade and Labor Migration."
92. Thomas, K.T. (1999). "Slaves an Integral Part of the Production System in Malabar (19Th Century)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 60: 600–610. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44144128.
93. Nair, Adoor K. K. Ramachandran (1 January 1986). Slavery in Kerala. Mittal Publications. pp. 38–43.
94. Hansard Parliamentary Papers 125 (1828), 128 (1834), 697 (1837), 238 (1841), 525 (1843), 14 (1844), London, House of Commons
95. Sen, Jahar (1973). "Slave trade on the Indo-Nepal border, in the 19th century" (PDF). Calcutta: 159 – via Cambridge Apollo.
96. Slavery and the slave trade in British India; with notices of the existence of these evils in the islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, drawn from official documents
97. The Law and Custom of Slavery in British India: In a Series of Letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq
98. The British and Foreign Anti-slavery Reporter, Volumes 1-3
99. Andrea Major (2012). Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772-1843. Liverpool University Press. pp. 43–54. ISBN 978-1-84631-758-3.
100. John Griffith (1986), What is legal pluralism?, The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Volume 18, Issue 24, pages 1-55
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106. Viswanath, Rupa (29 July 2014), The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India, Columbia University Press, p. 5, ISBN 978-0-231-53750-6
107. Walton Lai (1993). Indentured labor, Caribbean sugar: Chinese and Indian migrants to the British West Indies, 1838–1918. ISBN 978-0-8018-7746-9.
108. Steven Vertovik (Robin Cohen, ed.) (1995). The Cambridge survey of world migration. pp. 57–68. ISBN 978-0-521-44405-7.
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110. Sheridan, Richard B. (2002). "The Condition of slaves on the sugar plantations of Sir John Gladstone in the colony of Demerara 1812 to 1849". New West Indian Guide. 76 (3/4): 265–269. doi:10.1163/13822373-90002536.
111. "Forced Labour". The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom. 2010.
112. K Laurence (1994). A Question of Labour: Indentured Immigration Into Trinidad & British Guiana, 1875–1917. St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-12172-3.
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114. Browne, Rachel (31 May 2016). "Andrew Forrest puts world's richest countries on notice: Global Slavery Index". Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. Fairfax. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
115. Gladstone, Rick (31 May 2016). "Modern Slavery Estimated to Trap 45 Million People Worldwide". The New York Times.
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118. Mazumdar, Rakhi (June 2016). "India ranks fourth in global slavery survey". The Economic Times.
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120. Choi-Fitzpatrick, Austin (7 March 2017). What Slaveholders Think: How Contemporary Perpetrators Rationalize What They do. ISBN 9780231543828.
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Further reading
• Singh, Akanksha (2021), "'Enslaved for Life': Construing Slavery in Nineteenth Century India", HumaNetten 47
• Scott C. Levi (2002), Hindus Beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
• Lal, K. S. (1994), Muslim slave system in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. [1]
• Salim Kidwai, "Sultans, Eunuchs and Domestics: New Forms of Bondage in Medieval India", in Utsa Patnaik and Manjari Dingwaney (eds), Chains of Servitude: bondage and slavery in India (Madras, 1985).
• Utsa Patnaik and Manjari Dingwaney (eds), Chains of Servitude: bondage and slavery in India (Madras, 1985)
• Andrea Major (2014), Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772–1843, Liverpool University Press.
• R.C. Majumdar, The History and Culture of the Indian People, Bombay.
• Andre Wink (1991), Al-Hind: the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill Academic (Leiden), ISBN 978-9004095090
• KT Rammohan (2009), 'Modern Bondage: Atiyaayma in Post-Abolition Malabar'. in Jan Breman, Isabelle Guerin and Aseem Prakash (eds). India's Unfree Workforce: Of Bondage Old and New. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-569846-6
External links
• The law and custom of slavery in British India in a series of letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, esq., by William Adam., 1840 Open Library
• Modern Slavery, Human bondage in Africa, Asia, and the Dominican Republic
• The Small Hands of Slavery, Bonded Child Labor In India
• India – bonded labour: the gap between illusion and reality
• Child Slaves in Modern India: The Bonded Labor Problem
• Legislative Redress Rather Than Progress? From Slavery to Bondage in Colonial India by Stefan Tetzlaff
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
by admin » Wed Jul 06, 2022 12:25 am
Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 218-219
BURNING A HINDOO WIDOW
BURYING ALIVE A HINDOO WIDOW
Annotation
Toward the end of the 1700s, the evangelical movement in Britain argued that one’s commitment to Christ should be reflected in action, primarily the effort to end slavery in the British empire and to proselytize or seek converts among the “heathen.” Initially, the English East India Company had prohibited Christian missionaries from living within their territories and seeking Indian converts in order to prevent any unrest or opposition to the Company’s trade and political control. In 1813, when the British Parliament was considering the renewal of the charter that authorized the Company’s trade and political control in India, members of Parliament who were committed evangelical Christians, mainly Baptists and Methodists, forced the Company to permit missionaries to settle in their territory. Once in India, Protestant missionaries criticized Hindu religious practices such as the use of images in worship and social customs such as early marriage and sati as superstitious and barbaric.
James Peggs (1793-1850) had been a missionary at Cuttack, Orissa, south of Calcutta, and published this edition of his book in 1832 when Parliament was again reviewing the charter of the Company. Then residing in England, he sought to influence Parliament to give firm instructions to the Company to exert greater control over Hindu social customs and religious practices that he considered evil. Peggs claimed that self-immolation continued among Hindu widows, and that the Company must take more vigorous measures to enforce the prohibition on sati.
In this book, Peggs includes a description of a sati witnessed by Rev. J. England of Bangalore, in the princely state of Mysore (now the state of Karnataka in which the dominant language is Kannada or Carnatic) in south India, in June 1826. Although Company law, which permitted sati if it were voluntary, did not extend to a princely state, England is still concerned to indicate whether or not the widow was coerced to commit self-immolation. Peggs stated that his image of “Burning a Hindoo Widow” was a representation of that sati.
This source is a part of the Sati teaching module.
The account of the Suttee represented in the engraving, is from the pen of the Rev. J. England, of Bangalore, under the Madras Presidency, in June 1826.
I received a note from a gentleman that a Suttee was about to take place near his house. On hastening to the spot, I found the preparations considerably advanced, and a large concourse of spectators assembled. On my left stood the horrid pile; it was an oblong bed of dry cow-dung cakes, about ten feet long, seven wide, and three high. At each corner of it, a rough stake, about eight feet in length, was driven into the ground, and about a foot from the top of these supporters was fastened, by cords, a frame of the same dimensions as the bed, and forming a canopy. This frame must have been of considerable weight; it was covered with very dry small faggots, which the officiating Brahmuns continued to throw upon it, till they rose two feet above the frame-work. On my right, sat the poor deluded widow, who was to be the victim of this heart-rending display of Hindoo purity and gentleness; she was attended by a dozen or more Brahmuns; her mother, sister, and son (an interesting boy of about three years of age), and other relatives were also with her. Her own infant, now twelve months old, was craftily kept from her by the Brahmuns. She had already performed a number of preparatory ceremonies; one of which was washing herself in a strong decoction of saffron, which is supposed to have a purifying effect. It imparted to her a horrid ghastliness; —her eyes indicated a degree of melancholy wildness; an unnatural smile now and then played on her countenance: and everything about her person and her conduct indicated that narcotics had been administered in no small quantities. Close by me stood the Fousdar, a native officer, who, besides regulating the police, is the chief military officer of the station. So heartily did he engage in this murderous work, that he gave the poor widow twenty pagodas (between six and seven pounds sterling), to confirm her resolution to be burned!
The Rev. Mr. Campbell addressed her in the Carnatic language, but the effect of his address was counteracted by the influence of the Brahmuns. The pile being completed, a quantity of straw as spread on the top. An increase of activity was soon visible among the men, whose ‘feet are swift to shed blood.’ Muntrams having been repeated over the pile, and the woman and every thing being in readiness, the hurdle to which the corpse of the husband had been fastened was now raised by six of the officiating Brahmuns; the end of a cord about two yards long, attached at the other end to the head of the bier, was taken by the widow, and the whole moved slowly towards the pile. The corpse was laid on the right side, and four men furnished with sharp swords, one stationed at each corner, now drew them from their scabbards. The trembling, ghastly offering to the Moloch of Hindoism, ...
[Librarian's Comment: rather, the ego of husbands, who don't want their wives to "go" with other men, or "leave their house without their consent", as is also the case with the Mahomedans' slave-concubines, who cannot be emancipated against the Mahomedans' own rules of emancipation of slaves, for the same egotistical reason. Otherwise, why are the children allowed to live, but not the wife/mother?]
... then began her seven circuits round the fatal pile, and finally halted opposite to her husband’s corpse, at the left side of it, where she was evidently greatly agitated. Five or six Brahmuns began to talk to her with much vehemence, till, in a paroxysm of desperation, assisted by the Brahmuns, the hapless widow ascended the bed of destruction. Her mother and her sister stood by, weeping and agonized; but all was in vain—the blood-thirsty men prevailed. The devoted woman then proceeded to disengage the rings from her fingers, wrists, and ears; her murderers stretching out their greedy hands to receive them: afterwards all her trinkets, &c., were distributed among the same relentless and rapacious priests. While in the act of taking a ring from her ear, her mother and sister, unable any longer to sustain the extremity of their anguish, went up to the side of the pile, and entreated that the horrid purpose might be abandoned; but the woman fearing the encounter, without uttering a word, or even casting a parting glance at her supplicating parent and sister, threw herself down on the pile, and clasped the half-putrid corpse in her arms. Straw in abundance was heaped on the dead and the living; gums, resin, and other inflammable substances were thrown upon the straw which covered the bodies, while muntrams were repeated at their head; six or eight pieces of kindled cow-dung were introduced among the straw, at different parts of the pile; ghee and inflammable materials were applied, and the whole blazed in as many places. The men with swords at each corner then hacked the cords, which supported the canopy of faggots—it fell and covered the lifeless corpse and the living woman! A piercing sound caught my ear; I listened a few seconds, and, notwithstanding the noise of the multitude, heard the shrieks of misery which issued from the burning pile. In an agony of feeling, we directed the attention of the Brahmuns to this; and while so doing, again—still louder and more piercing than before—the burning woman rent the air with her shrieks! Several of the Brahmuns called out to the half-consumed, still conscious and imploring widow, TO COMFORT HER! The pile was now enveloped in flames, and so intense was the heat, that, as by one consent, the Brahmuns and spectators retreated several paces; they then sang a Sanscrit hymn; the hymn ended, but not the shrieks and groans of the agonized sufferer; they still pierced our ears, and almost rent our hearts! Scarcely conscious of what I did, I left this fiendish barbarity.
Credits
"India’s Cries to British Humanity," in World History Commons, https://worldhistorycommons.org/indias- ... h-humanity [accessed July 3, 2022]
by James Peggs
1832
p. 218-219
-- India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India, by James Peggs
-- Slavery in India: The Present State of East India Slavery; Chiefly Extracted From the Parliamentary Papers on the Subject, Printed March, 1828, August 1832, August 1838, by James Peggs, Third Edition, 1840
-- Slavery and the Slave Trade in British India; With Notices of the Existence of These Evils in the Islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, Drawn from Official Documents, by Thomas Ward and Col, And to Be Had At the Office of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841
-- Slavery in the Bengal Presidency Under East India Company Rule, 1772-1843, by Amal Kumar Cattopadhyay, Thesis presented at the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1963
BURNING A HINDOO WIDOW
BURYING ALIVE A HINDOO WIDOW
Annotation
Toward the end of the 1700s, the evangelical movement in Britain argued that one’s commitment to Christ should be reflected in action, primarily the effort to end slavery in the British empire and to proselytize or seek converts among the “heathen.” Initially, the English East India Company had prohibited Christian missionaries from living within their territories and seeking Indian converts in order to prevent any unrest or opposition to the Company’s trade and political control. In 1813, when the British Parliament was considering the renewal of the charter that authorized the Company’s trade and political control in India, members of Parliament who were committed evangelical Christians, mainly Baptists and Methodists, forced the Company to permit missionaries to settle in their territory. Once in India, Protestant missionaries criticized Hindu religious practices such as the use of images in worship and social customs such as early marriage and sati as superstitious and barbaric.
James Peggs (1793-1850) had been a missionary at Cuttack, Orissa, south of Calcutta, and published this edition of his book in 1832 when Parliament was again reviewing the charter of the Company. Then residing in England, he sought to influence Parliament to give firm instructions to the Company to exert greater control over Hindu social customs and religious practices that he considered evil. Peggs claimed that self-immolation continued among Hindu widows, and that the Company must take more vigorous measures to enforce the prohibition on sati.
In this book, Peggs includes a description of a sati witnessed by Rev. J. England of Bangalore, in the princely state of Mysore (now the state of Karnataka in which the dominant language is Kannada or Carnatic) in south India, in June 1826. Although Company law, which permitted sati if it were voluntary, did not extend to a princely state, England is still concerned to indicate whether or not the widow was coerced to commit self-immolation. Peggs stated that his image of “Burning a Hindoo Widow” was a representation of that sati.
This source is a part of the Sati teaching module.
The account of the Suttee represented in the engraving, is from the pen of the Rev. J. England, of Bangalore, under the Madras Presidency, in June 1826.
I received a note from a gentleman that a Suttee was about to take place near his house. On hastening to the spot, I found the preparations considerably advanced, and a large concourse of spectators assembled. On my left stood the horrid pile; it was an oblong bed of dry cow-dung cakes, about ten feet long, seven wide, and three high. At each corner of it, a rough stake, about eight feet in length, was driven into the ground, and about a foot from the top of these supporters was fastened, by cords, a frame of the same dimensions as the bed, and forming a canopy. This frame must have been of considerable weight; it was covered with very dry small faggots, which the officiating Brahmuns continued to throw upon it, till they rose two feet above the frame-work. On my right, sat the poor deluded widow, who was to be the victim of this heart-rending display of Hindoo purity and gentleness; she was attended by a dozen or more Brahmuns; her mother, sister, and son (an interesting boy of about three years of age), and other relatives were also with her. Her own infant, now twelve months old, was craftily kept from her by the Brahmuns. She had already performed a number of preparatory ceremonies; one of which was washing herself in a strong decoction of saffron, which is supposed to have a purifying effect. It imparted to her a horrid ghastliness; —her eyes indicated a degree of melancholy wildness; an unnatural smile now and then played on her countenance: and everything about her person and her conduct indicated that narcotics had been administered in no small quantities. Close by me stood the Fousdar, a native officer, who, besides regulating the police, is the chief military officer of the station. So heartily did he engage in this murderous work, that he gave the poor widow twenty pagodas (between six and seven pounds sterling), to confirm her resolution to be burned!
The Rev. Mr. Campbell addressed her in the Carnatic language, but the effect of his address was counteracted by the influence of the Brahmuns. The pile being completed, a quantity of straw as spread on the top. An increase of activity was soon visible among the men, whose ‘feet are swift to shed blood.’ Muntrams having been repeated over the pile, and the woman and every thing being in readiness, the hurdle to which the corpse of the husband had been fastened was now raised by six of the officiating Brahmuns; the end of a cord about two yards long, attached at the other end to the head of the bier, was taken by the widow, and the whole moved slowly towards the pile. The corpse was laid on the right side, and four men furnished with sharp swords, one stationed at each corner, now drew them from their scabbards. The trembling, ghastly offering to the Moloch of Hindoism, ...
[Librarian's Comment: rather, the ego of husbands, who don't want their wives to "go" with other men, or "leave their house without their consent", as is also the case with the Mahomedans' slave-concubines, who cannot be emancipated against the Mahomedans' own rules of emancipation of slaves, for the same egotistical reason. Otherwise, why are the children allowed to live, but not the wife/mother?]
... then began her seven circuits round the fatal pile, and finally halted opposite to her husband’s corpse, at the left side of it, where she was evidently greatly agitated. Five or six Brahmuns began to talk to her with much vehemence, till, in a paroxysm of desperation, assisted by the Brahmuns, the hapless widow ascended the bed of destruction. Her mother and her sister stood by, weeping and agonized; but all was in vain—the blood-thirsty men prevailed. The devoted woman then proceeded to disengage the rings from her fingers, wrists, and ears; her murderers stretching out their greedy hands to receive them: afterwards all her trinkets, &c., were distributed among the same relentless and rapacious priests. While in the act of taking a ring from her ear, her mother and sister, unable any longer to sustain the extremity of their anguish, went up to the side of the pile, and entreated that the horrid purpose might be abandoned; but the woman fearing the encounter, without uttering a word, or even casting a parting glance at her supplicating parent and sister, threw herself down on the pile, and clasped the half-putrid corpse in her arms. Straw in abundance was heaped on the dead and the living; gums, resin, and other inflammable substances were thrown upon the straw which covered the bodies, while muntrams were repeated at their head; six or eight pieces of kindled cow-dung were introduced among the straw, at different parts of the pile; ghee and inflammable materials were applied, and the whole blazed in as many places. The men with swords at each corner then hacked the cords, which supported the canopy of faggots—it fell and covered the lifeless corpse and the living woman! A piercing sound caught my ear; I listened a few seconds, and, notwithstanding the noise of the multitude, heard the shrieks of misery which issued from the burning pile. In an agony of feeling, we directed the attention of the Brahmuns to this; and while so doing, again—still louder and more piercing than before—the burning woman rent the air with her shrieks! Several of the Brahmuns called out to the half-consumed, still conscious and imploring widow, TO COMFORT HER! The pile was now enveloped in flames, and so intense was the heat, that, as by one consent, the Brahmuns and spectators retreated several paces; they then sang a Sanscrit hymn; the hymn ended, but not the shrieks and groans of the agonized sufferer; they still pierced our ears, and almost rent our hearts! Scarcely conscious of what I did, I left this fiendish barbarity.
Credits
"India’s Cries to British Humanity," in World History Commons, https://worldhistorycommons.org/indias- ... h-humanity [accessed July 3, 2022]
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Part 1 of 2
CHAP. I. Introductory remarks — origin, nature, and evils of Slavery in India, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 279-311
CHAP. I. Introductory remarks — origin, nature, and evils of Slavery in India.
A LATE highly respected writer on India, has stated, relative to slavery in the East, — "Though no slavery legally exists in the British territories at this moment, yet the terms and gestures used by servants to their superiors, all imply that such a distinction was at no distant date very common. 'I am thy slave;' 'Thy slave hath no knowledge,' are continually used as expressions of submission and ignorance." From this extract, and others of a similar kind which might be made; from different writers, it is evident that the nature and extent of slavery in India are imperfectly understood.* [ See an article on East Indian Slavery, in the Friend of India, (Quar. Sor.) Dec. 1823.] A voluminous collection of Papers on this subject, containing nearly 1,000 folio pages, was 'ordered by the Hon. House of Commons to be printed, March 12th, 1828;' and it is important that their contents should be generally known. Of these papers it has been remarked, 'An attempt to digest such a mass of documents into a narrative, or to reduce them into any symmetrical shape, is hopeless;' the Author has not been thus discouraged in his investigation of them; but, being convinced that slavery in India is a subject of considerable interest, he has devoted much time to the perusal of these Papers, and hopes his labours may be beneficial to the interests of suffering humanity in India. While so many works are extant on West India Slavery, the Author is acquainted with but one on Slavery in India,†[East India Slavery by Saintsbury, 1829. See also East and West India Sugar, 1823. Hatchard.] and that a small pamphlet recently published. To bring the real state of India before the British public must be beneficial; and, under this conviction, the Author submits his humble labours to the candid attention of his readers.
J. Richardson, Esq., Judge and Magistrate of Zillah Bundlecund, in his valuable communication to the British Government in India, on the subject of slavery, in March 1808, very justly remarks, — "The humane abolition of the slave trade in England has added lustre to the enlightened wisdom of the British senate; and enrolled, to the latest posterity, the name of Wilberforce amongst the benefactors of mankind. That slavery should ever have been authorized, in any civilized community, is as astonishing to the mind, as disgraceful to human nature. The great Author of creation made all men equally free. By what act then can that freedom be forfeited or given up? Surely liberty can be forfeited by no act that does not militate against the general security and well-being of society. Nor has man more right to sell or give up the natural freedom of his person, than he has to lay down his natural life at pleasure; much less can he have any title to dispose of the liberty of another, even of his child. That slavery is an infringement of the law of nature cannot be disputed. The most respectable authority proves that, it is in its own nature invalid. Blackstone, speaking of the law of nature, says, 'this law of nature, coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding all over the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid, derive all their force and authority mediately or immediately from this original.' The most strenuous defenders, of this imposition of the powerful on the weaker part of mankind, pretend not to maintain its propriety but on ideas of political utility. Impartial and minute inquiry into its effects would at once remove this specious veil, by which the principle is sometimes hidden; and the system, decorated in the eye of sensible and virtuous men under mistaken notions of human expediency, proves the uniform tendency of slavery to be depressive of every emanation of the mind, and highly destructive to our species."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, 1828, p. 299. There is much truth in the observation — "He who loses his liberty, loses half his virtue."]
The origin of slavery in India, as it exists among the Hindoos, is involved in considerable obscurity. Its rise among the Mahomedans is evidently to be traced to the triumph of their arms. The following extracts, from the Parliamentary Papers on slavery in India, afford some information upon a subject interesting to every humane mind. These Papers commence with the following Regulation for punishing decoits or robbers, and shew one source of slavery in the East. — "That whereas the peace of this country hath for some years past been greatly disturbed by bands of decoits, who not only infest the high roads, but often plunder whole villages, burning the houses and murdering the inhabitants: And whereas these abandoned outlaws have hitherto found means to elude every attempt which the vigilance of government hath put in force, for detecting and bringing such atrocious criminals to justice, by the secrecy of their haunts, and the wild state of the districts which are most subject to their incursions; it becomes the indispensable duty of government to try the most rigorous means, since experience has proved every lenient and ordinary remedy to be ineffectual: that it be therefore resolved, That every such criminal, on conviction, shall be carried to the village to which he belongs, and be there executed for a terror and example to others; and, for the further prevention of such abominable practices, that the village, of which he is an inhabitant, shall be fined according to the enormity of the crime, and each inhabitant according to his substance; and that, the family of the criminal shall become the slaves of the State, and be disposed of for the general benefit and convenience of the people, according to the discretion of the government. Aug. 1772."* [Par. Papers, p. 2.]
"If we may judge (says the Editor of the Asiatic Journal, in a review of the contents of the Papers on East India Slavery,) from a subsequent minute and regulation of the Bengal Government (1774), this proposal was not listened to; for therein, not only is the stealing of children or selling any Hindoo as a slave (without a regular deed) forbidden, but it is proposed to abolish slavery altogether, after the first generation then living, owing to 'the great increase of late years of this savage commerce, and in order to prevent hasty strides towards depopulation.' Further inquiry however seems to have convinced the Bengal Government, that there were districts where slavery was in general usage, and the abolition of which might impede cultivation. The Government observes, that the opinions, of the most creditable Mussulman and Hindoo inhabitants, condemn the usage of selling slaves, as repugnant to the particular precepts both of the Koran and the Shaster."* [Asi. Journ., Nov. 1828, p. 559.]
The Provincial Council of Patna, in Aug. 1771, address the Governor, Warren Hastings, Esq., on this subject as follows: — "We find that there are two kinds of slaves in this province, Mussulman and Hindoo; the former are properly called Mualazadeh, and the latter Kahaar. Slaves of either denomination are considered in the same light as any other property, and are transferrable by the owner, or descend at his demise to his heirs. They date the rise of the custom of Kahaar slavery from the first incursions of the Mahomedans when the captives were distributed by the general among the officers of his army, to whose posterity they remained. All other slaves have become so by occasional purchase, as in cases of famine, &c. The Kaboleh must be signed by the mother or grandmother, and not by the father. Children also born of slaves are the property of the owner of the woman, though married to a slave of a different family."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 5.]
The Collector at Trichinopoly, in the Madras Presidency, in reply to the inquiries of the Government, addressed to a number of Collectors on the subject of slavery in their respective districts, describes the origin of pullers or agricultural slavery as follows: — "It is, I apprehend, indisputable, that in the earliest ages of Hindoo government, agricultural and domestic slavery existed to an indefinite extent. The practice was sanctioned by prescription, and upheld by law: but it will be found that the terms of bondage, and the nature of the services required from the slaves, differed essentially in almost every district. No distinct information can be obtained at what period agricultural slavery commenced. It is now impossible to trace, whether this establishment took its rise from the voluntary submission of the indigent to the wealthy, or whether the pullers were originally captives taken in war. But, as this species of bondage is generally the concomitant of barbarous governments, it must of necessity have been a very ancient institution of the Hindoos. Under their arbitrary government, the distinctions of cast were scrupulously maintained; and, adverting to the circumstance of the meerassidars in Trichinopoly being Brahmuns, it scarcely excites surprise that agricultural slavery should exist here unchanged and undiminished." ‡ [ Par. Papers, p. 892.]
The late Sir Stamford Raffles, Lieut. Governor of the Island of Java, in 1812, gives the following information, respecting the origin of slavery in the Eastern Isles: —
The rise of slavery in Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island, is thus described in a letter from the Judge and Magistrate in Jan. 1802, to the Marquis of Wellesley, then Governor General of India: —
The nature of slavery in India will appear from the following extracts. The Governor General, in 1775, transmitted to the Hon. Court of Directors, extracts from a translation of the Hindoo Laws, by N. B. Halhed, Esq. From this code it appears that slaves are divided into fifteen classes, viz. —
Sir R. Chambers, on the trial of the commander of a Danish trading vessel, for procuring native children, and exporting them as slaves, in 1789, stated the only cases in which slavery was lawful under the Mahomedan Government. — "Infidels, taken prisoners in war, fighting against Mussulmans, were considered the slaves of the captors; and the slavery extended to their children. In cases of famine, publicly declared, it was lawful for farmers to sell their children; and persons of more than fifteen years of age, might sell themselves to obtain a subsistence. But that in these four cases, (the only existing ones under the Mahomedan Government,) the condition of slavery was put under many legal restrictions, and that it was unlawful for a Mussulman to sell his slave. That the exportation of subjects of a Mussulman government to be sold to a state of slavery was unknown; and, he believed, that it was the first time such an offence had been committed under the British flag, and he trusted it would be the last. He wished it to be understood that, if a similar offence should ever unhappily be again tried before the court, the punishment would be more severe."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 21.]
The nature of slavery, Hindoo and Mussulman, will appear by the following extract, from the valuable communications to the Bengal Government, of the Magistrate of Bundlecund. This gentleman observes, — "Previously to my submission of the draught of the Regulation directed to be submitted to the court of Nizamut Adawlut, I deem it of essential importance to the elucidation of the subject, to offer a few remarks, on the laws of slavery as they now exist in that part of Hindostan, which it has pleased God to allot to the government of the British nation. For the sake of perspicuity, I shall transcribe the questions put to the Mahomedan and Hindoo law officers officially, for the purpose of procuring a declaration of law on the subject of slavery, according to their respective codes, — insert their answers, and, — offer such remarks as present themselves to my judgment, or as seem applicable to the subject.
Questions put to the Muftee by the Nizamut Adawlut.
Similar questions put to the Hindoo Pundit by the Nizamut Adawlut.
CHAP. I. Introductory remarks — origin, nature, and evils of Slavery in India, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 279-311
-- India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India, by James Peggs
-- Slavery in India: The Present State of East India Slavery; Chiefly Extracted From the Parliamentary Papers on the Subject, Printed March, 1828, August 1832, August 1838, by James Peggs, Third Edition, 1840
-- Slavery and the Slave Trade in British India; With Notices of the Existence of These Evils in the Islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, Drawn from Official Documents, by Thomas Ward and Col, And to Be Had At the Office of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841
-- Slavery in the Bengal Presidency Under East India Company Rule, 1772-1843, by Amal Kumar Cattopadhyay, Thesis presented at the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1963
CHAP. I. Introductory remarks — origin, nature, and evils of Slavery in India.
A LATE highly respected writer on India, has stated, relative to slavery in the East, — "Though no slavery legally exists in the British territories at this moment, yet the terms and gestures used by servants to their superiors, all imply that such a distinction was at no distant date very common. 'I am thy slave;' 'Thy slave hath no knowledge,' are continually used as expressions of submission and ignorance." From this extract, and others of a similar kind which might be made; from different writers, it is evident that the nature and extent of slavery in India are imperfectly understood.* [ See an article on East Indian Slavery, in the Friend of India, (Quar. Sor.) Dec. 1823.] A voluminous collection of Papers on this subject, containing nearly 1,000 folio pages, was 'ordered by the Hon. House of Commons to be printed, March 12th, 1828;' and it is important that their contents should be generally known. Of these papers it has been remarked, 'An attempt to digest such a mass of documents into a narrative, or to reduce them into any symmetrical shape, is hopeless;' the Author has not been thus discouraged in his investigation of them; but, being convinced that slavery in India is a subject of considerable interest, he has devoted much time to the perusal of these Papers, and hopes his labours may be beneficial to the interests of suffering humanity in India. While so many works are extant on West India Slavery, the Author is acquainted with but one on Slavery in India,†[East India Slavery by Saintsbury, 1829. See also East and West India Sugar, 1823. Hatchard.] and that a small pamphlet recently published. To bring the real state of India before the British public must be beneficial; and, under this conviction, the Author submits his humble labours to the candid attention of his readers.
J. Richardson, Esq., Judge and Magistrate of Zillah Bundlecund, in his valuable communication to the British Government in India, on the subject of slavery, in March 1808, very justly remarks, — "The humane abolition of the slave trade in England has added lustre to the enlightened wisdom of the British senate; and enrolled, to the latest posterity, the name of Wilberforce amongst the benefactors of mankind. That slavery should ever have been authorized, in any civilized community, is as astonishing to the mind, as disgraceful to human nature. The great Author of creation made all men equally free. By what act then can that freedom be forfeited or given up? Surely liberty can be forfeited by no act that does not militate against the general security and well-being of society. Nor has man more right to sell or give up the natural freedom of his person, than he has to lay down his natural life at pleasure; much less can he have any title to dispose of the liberty of another, even of his child. That slavery is an infringement of the law of nature cannot be disputed. The most respectable authority proves that, it is in its own nature invalid. Blackstone, speaking of the law of nature, says, 'this law of nature, coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding all over the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid, derive all their force and authority mediately or immediately from this original.' The most strenuous defenders, of this imposition of the powerful on the weaker part of mankind, pretend not to maintain its propriety but on ideas of political utility. Impartial and minute inquiry into its effects would at once remove this specious veil, by which the principle is sometimes hidden; and the system, decorated in the eye of sensible and virtuous men under mistaken notions of human expediency, proves the uniform tendency of slavery to be depressive of every emanation of the mind, and highly destructive to our species."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, 1828, p. 299. There is much truth in the observation — "He who loses his liberty, loses half his virtue."]
The origin of slavery in India, as it exists among the Hindoos, is involved in considerable obscurity. Its rise among the Mahomedans is evidently to be traced to the triumph of their arms. The following extracts, from the Parliamentary Papers on slavery in India, afford some information upon a subject interesting to every humane mind. These Papers commence with the following Regulation for punishing decoits or robbers, and shew one source of slavery in the East. — "That whereas the peace of this country hath for some years past been greatly disturbed by bands of decoits, who not only infest the high roads, but often plunder whole villages, burning the houses and murdering the inhabitants: And whereas these abandoned outlaws have hitherto found means to elude every attempt which the vigilance of government hath put in force, for detecting and bringing such atrocious criminals to justice, by the secrecy of their haunts, and the wild state of the districts which are most subject to their incursions; it becomes the indispensable duty of government to try the most rigorous means, since experience has proved every lenient and ordinary remedy to be ineffectual: that it be therefore resolved, That every such criminal, on conviction, shall be carried to the village to which he belongs, and be there executed for a terror and example to others; and, for the further prevention of such abominable practices, that the village, of which he is an inhabitant, shall be fined according to the enormity of the crime, and each inhabitant according to his substance; and that, the family of the criminal shall become the slaves of the State, and be disposed of for the general benefit and convenience of the people, according to the discretion of the government. Aug. 1772."* [Par. Papers, p. 2.]
"If we may judge (says the Editor of the Asiatic Journal, in a review of the contents of the Papers on East India Slavery,) from a subsequent minute and regulation of the Bengal Government (1774), this proposal was not listened to; for therein, not only is the stealing of children or selling any Hindoo as a slave (without a regular deed) forbidden, but it is proposed to abolish slavery altogether, after the first generation then living, owing to 'the great increase of late years of this savage commerce, and in order to prevent hasty strides towards depopulation.' Further inquiry however seems to have convinced the Bengal Government, that there were districts where slavery was in general usage, and the abolition of which might impede cultivation. The Government observes, that the opinions, of the most creditable Mussulman and Hindoo inhabitants, condemn the usage of selling slaves, as repugnant to the particular precepts both of the Koran and the Shaster."* [Asi. Journ., Nov. 1828, p. 559.]
The Provincial Council of Patna, in Aug. 1771, address the Governor, Warren Hastings, Esq., on this subject as follows: — "We find that there are two kinds of slaves in this province, Mussulman and Hindoo; the former are properly called Mualazadeh, and the latter Kahaar. Slaves of either denomination are considered in the same light as any other property, and are transferrable by the owner, or descend at his demise to his heirs. They date the rise of the custom of Kahaar slavery from the first incursions of the Mahomedans when the captives were distributed by the general among the officers of his army, to whose posterity they remained. All other slaves have become so by occasional purchase, as in cases of famine, &c. The Kaboleh must be signed by the mother or grandmother, and not by the father. Children also born of slaves are the property of the owner of the woman, though married to a slave of a different family."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 5.]
The Collector at Trichinopoly, in the Madras Presidency, in reply to the inquiries of the Government, addressed to a number of Collectors on the subject of slavery in their respective districts, describes the origin of pullers or agricultural slavery as follows: — "It is, I apprehend, indisputable, that in the earliest ages of Hindoo government, agricultural and domestic slavery existed to an indefinite extent. The practice was sanctioned by prescription, and upheld by law: but it will be found that the terms of bondage, and the nature of the services required from the slaves, differed essentially in almost every district. No distinct information can be obtained at what period agricultural slavery commenced. It is now impossible to trace, whether this establishment took its rise from the voluntary submission of the indigent to the wealthy, or whether the pullers were originally captives taken in war. But, as this species of bondage is generally the concomitant of barbarous governments, it must of necessity have been a very ancient institution of the Hindoos. Under their arbitrary government, the distinctions of cast were scrupulously maintained; and, adverting to the circumstance of the meerassidars in Trichinopoly being Brahmuns, it scarcely excites surprise that agricultural slavery should exist here unchanged and undiminished." ‡ [ Par. Papers, p. 892.]
The late Sir Stamford Raffles, Lieut. Governor of the Island of Java, in 1812, gives the following information, respecting the origin of slavery in the Eastern Isles: —
" Macassar and its neighbourhood may be considered as a principal source from which slaves have been exported; and without entering into any discussion of the origin and causes of this state of society, which, in a general point of view, must be referred to backwardness of civilization and prevalence of native authority, it must be observed that, in consequence of its being the favourite source of revenue among those chieftains, it will require much caution in attempting any measures to restrain, where argument could be of no avail, and force would be inconvenient. In my instructions to Captain Phillips, on his proceeding to Macassar, I directed his attention in a particular manner to this interesting subject; but I regret to find from his report, that at present there is little prospect of his favourable interference. In short, he seems decidedly of opinion that, 'as men-stealers are very common over the country, if he prohibited their selling their stolen property at Macassar, they would still carry on the trade in the Boui territory;' where, though so immediately under the eye of the Resident, the Rajah would no doubt maintain his right, equally with that which he exercises at pleasure, of life and death.
"The native laws, usages, and habits, regarding slavery, are in many instances so various and contradictory, and it is so difficult to trace them to any authentic source, that is universally admitted, that I am fearful very little light will be obtained from them. Prisoners of war are in many cases considered as the property of the conqueror, and consequently sold as slaves. The families of criminals, who may be executed for particular crimes become likewise a droit of the chief; and in many cases criminals are pardoned on condition of being sold into slavery. Throughout the whole of the Eastern Islands, debtors become responsible in their services to their creditors, and it does not appear, that there is any generally acknowledged law among them, to prevent the chief of a family selling his wife and children into slavery. The desperate manner in which the Bugguese prows are known to defend themselves at sea, is accounted for by the numerous crew, who are all separate adventurers on a borrowed capital, having left their families hypothecated for the debt, who become slaves to the creditor, in the event of the debtor parting with the property under any circumstances without his life.
"The Dutch law being blended with the Roman, and the colonial law founded on both, slavery has been fully recognised as legal by the European government; while the universal prevalence of Mahomedanism renders it legal with every native administration, and as such it appears, without any occasional difference of opinion, to have been always viewed. Slavery on the island of Java, is exclusively confined to domestic purposes, and may be considered rather as a regulated domestic servitude, than that detestable system which the legislature of Great Britain have, to the credit of humanity, so vigorously suppressed in the West Indies. Slavery, however, under any shape, or if it bears only the name, is so repugnant to every principle of enlightened administration, and so inconsistent with your Lordship's* [Lord Minto.] benevolent plans, that I fear I should not stand excused, in my defence of such a system, under any modifications or circumstances whatever."† [Par. Papers, p. 154-156. For an account of the Slave Trade at the Island of Nias, near Sumatra, see an interesting article from the Singapore Chronicle, in the Imp. Mag. Jan. 1830, pp. 18-51.]
The rise of slavery in Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island, is thus described in a letter from the Judge and Magistrate in Jan. 1802, to the Marquis of Wellesley, then Governor General of India: —
"My Lord Marquis: — In a case which lately came judicially before me a question arose, 'Whether civil slavery, that is, a right of one man over the person and fortune of another, was to be considered as established at Prince of Wales' Island.' I was not ignorant that slavery, limited and unlimited, had been tolerated. I know that emigrants, both from the Malay Peninsula and from the Eastern Island, who had become inhabitants of Prince of Wales' Island, have been permitted to retain in slavery, those whom they had brought as slaves to this place. Some of these, indeed, are in utter slavery, while others are only in limited servitude. The latter is the condition of those who are styled slave debtors, and these are people that voluntarily become slaves to their creditors till their debts are paid. But all this passed, sub silentio; for, after a careful search, I have not found any regulation of the local government, or any order from the Governor General in council, authorizing the establishment of slavery, limited or unlimited, at Prince of Wales' Island. This right, if any such in fact exists, rests therefore simply on a usage of fourteen years. Thus circumstanced, having no authority to guide my judgment, my delicacy increased in proportion to the interests on which I was called to determine; and, in this case, subordinate to the question of civil slavery, arose two other questions. The first a question of fact, 'Whether the father of A. ever had been a slave at Quiddah?' The second a question of law, 'What was to be the condition of A. now resident at Prince of Wales' Island, whether born of one parent who was free, and of another, who was enslaved, or born of parents who were both slaves, and now resident at Prince of Wales' Island.
"I was desirous of avoiding the determination of this case, and remitted it to the Lieutenant Governor; but, in deference to his particular request, I gave my opinion, that the evidence did not prove that the father ever had been a slave, but that it inclined to shew that the mother had been a slave at Quiddah, and I thought the son should follow the condition of his father. I was led to this opinion, from a consideration that it is the old law of villanage in England, and, although I know it was contrary to the maxim of the civilians, partes sequitur ventrem, yet the latter authority had no weight with me; first, because slavery had not yet been established by authority; next, because 1 could not see any local circumstance requiring its establishment; and, lastly, because a state of slavery is, in its own nature, bad, neither useful to the master nor to the slave, nor to the state under which they live. The Lieutenant Governor, on the contrary, was of opinion that the evidence proved both parents of A. were slaves, and under the regulations for the administration of justice on this island, ultimately decreed, that A., resident in this island, should be delivered up as a slave to Hakim Sullee, Captain Malay, resident also on this island.
"By this decree slavery is now recognised and established by the local government of this island; and therefore, in addition to the observations which I have had the honour of submitting to the consideration of your Excellency in council, I feel the necessity of representing that regulations are now requisite, in which the right that a master is to possess over the person and fortune of his slave, at Prince of Wales' Island, should be explicitly defined; and I hope that your Excellency in council will take into consideration the case of the offspring of slaves, and particularly of those, who are born of one parent who is free, while the other is a slave. Nothing can be presumed on the moderation or justice of Mahomedans who possess slaves. By their usages the virtue or honour of female slaves is at the mercy of their master! I could hope that the right of the master was by law expressly limited to the bounds of humanity. I have no other apology to offer, than my conviction, that the subject matter of my letter is of the first importance, to the interests and prosperity of this rising colony."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 429, 430.]
The nature of slavery in India will appear from the following extracts. The Governor General, in 1775, transmitted to the Hon. Court of Directors, extracts from a translation of the Hindoo Laws, by N. B. Halhed, Esq. From this code it appears that slaves are divided into fifteen classes, viz. —
"1. Whoever is born of a female slave, and is called Gerhejat.
2. Whoever is purchased for a price, and is called Keereeut.
3. Whoever is found any where by chance and is called Lubdehee.
4. Whoever is a slave by descent from his ancestors, and his called Dayavanpakut.
5. Whoever hath been fed, and hath had his life preserved by another during a famine, and is called Enakal Behrut.
6. Whoever hath been delivered up as a pledge for money borrowed, and is called Abut.
7. Whoever, to free himself from the debt of one creditor, hath borrowed money from another person, and, having discharged the old debt gives himself up as a servant to the person with whom the present debt is contracted; or whoever, by way of terminating the importunities of a creditor, delivers himself up for a servant to that creditor, and is call Mookhud.
8. Whoever hath been enslaved by the fortune of battle, and is called Joodih Peeraput.
9. Whoever becomes a slave by a loss on the chances of dice, or other games, and is called Punjeet; according to the ordinations of Perkashkar and Pareejaut, and according to the ordination of Chendeesur, it is thus, that by whatever chance he is conquered, and becomes a slave, he is called Punjeet — approved.
10. Whoever of his own desire says to another,"I am become your slave," and is called Opookut.
11. When a Chebteree, or Bice, having become Sinassee, apostates from that way of life, the magistrate shall make him a slave, and is called Perberjabesheet.
12. Whoever voluntarily gives himself as a slave to another for a stipulated time, and is called Gheerut.
13. Whoever performs servitude for his subsistence, and is called Bheekut.
14. Whoever, from the desire of possessing a slave girl, becomes a slave, and is called Berbakrut.
15. Whoever of his own accord sells his liberty, and becomes a slave, and is called Bekreet."† [Par. Papers, pp. 7, 306.]
Sir R. Chambers, on the trial of the commander of a Danish trading vessel, for procuring native children, and exporting them as slaves, in 1789, stated the only cases in which slavery was lawful under the Mahomedan Government. — "Infidels, taken prisoners in war, fighting against Mussulmans, were considered the slaves of the captors; and the slavery extended to their children. In cases of famine, publicly declared, it was lawful for farmers to sell their children; and persons of more than fifteen years of age, might sell themselves to obtain a subsistence. But that in these four cases, (the only existing ones under the Mahomedan Government,) the condition of slavery was put under many legal restrictions, and that it was unlawful for a Mussulman to sell his slave. That the exportation of subjects of a Mussulman government to be sold to a state of slavery was unknown; and, he believed, that it was the first time such an offence had been committed under the British flag, and he trusted it would be the last. He wished it to be understood that, if a similar offence should ever unhappily be again tried before the court, the punishment would be more severe."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 21.]
The nature of slavery, Hindoo and Mussulman, will appear by the following extract, from the valuable communications to the Bengal Government, of the Magistrate of Bundlecund. This gentleman observes, — "Previously to my submission of the draught of the Regulation directed to be submitted to the court of Nizamut Adawlut, I deem it of essential importance to the elucidation of the subject, to offer a few remarks, on the laws of slavery as they now exist in that part of Hindostan, which it has pleased God to allot to the government of the British nation. For the sake of perspicuity, I shall transcribe the questions put to the Mahomedan and Hindoo law officers officially, for the purpose of procuring a declaration of law on the subject of slavery, according to their respective codes, — insert their answers, and, — offer such remarks as present themselves to my judgment, or as seem applicable to the subject.
Questions put to the Muftee by the Nizamut Adawlut.
First Ques. "What description of slaves are authorized by the Mahomedan law?"
Ans. "All men are by nature free and independent, and no man can he a subject of property, except an infidel inhabiting a country not under the power and control of the faithful. This right of possession which the Moslems have over Hurbus (infidels fighting against the faith) is acquired by Isteela, which means, the entire subduement of any subject of property by force of arms. The original right of property, which one man may possess over another, is to be acquired solely by Isteela, and cannot be obtained in the first instance by purchase, donation, or heritage. When, therefore, an Imaum subdues, by force of arms, any one of the cities inhabited by infidels, such of them as may be taken prisoners become his rightful property, and he has the power of putting them to death or making them slaves, and distributing them as such among the ghazees (victorious soldiers), particularly when fighting against infidels; or he may set them at liberty in a Mussulman country, and levy the capitation tax; should he make them slaves, they become legal subjects of property, and are transferrable by sale, gift, or inheritance. But if, after captivity, they should become converts to the faith (Islam), the power of death over them is thereby barred, though they would continue slaves; for, slavery being the necessary consequence of original infidelity, the subsequent conversion to Islam does not affect the prior state of bondage to which the individual has been regularly rendered liable by Isteela, provided this be clearly established. From this it is evident that the same rules are applicable to the slaves of both sexes. If slaves are afterwards sold, or given away, by the Imaum, or by the ghazees, who shared at the distribution, or if they should become the property of another by inheritance, they then become slaves under the three different classes of purchase, donation, and inheritance.
"If a female should bear offspring, by any other than by her legal lord and master, whether the father be a freeman or a slave, and whether the slave of the said master, or of any other person, in any one of these cases, such offspring is subject to slavery, and these are called khanazad (born in the family); but, if the children be the acknowledged offspring of the right owner, they are then free, and the mother of them (being the parent of a child by her master) becomes, at his decease, free also; and this rule is applicable to all their descendants to the latest posterity. The practice among free men and women of selling their own offspring, during the time of famine, is exceedingly improper and unjustifiable, being in direct opposition to the principle above stated, viz. that no man can be a subject of property, except an infidel taken in the act of hostilities against the faith. In no case can a person, legally free, become a subject of property; and, children not being the property of their parents, all sales or purchases of them, as any other articles of illegal property, are consequently invalid. It is also illegal for any free man to sell his own person, either in time of famine or though he be oppressed by a debt which he is unable to discharge. For in the first of these cases a famished man may feed upon a dead body! or may rob another; and a distressed debtor is not liable to any fine or punishment.
"We are not acquainted with the principal or detailed circumstances, which led to the custom prevailing in most Mussulman countries of purchasing and selling the inhabitants of Zanguibar, Ethiopia, Nubia, and other Negroes: but the ostensible causes are, either that the Negroes sell their own offspring, or that Mussulman or other tribes of people take them prisoners by fraud, or seize them by stealth from the sea shores. In such cases, they are not legally slaves, and the sale and purchase of them are consequently invalid. But if a Mussulman army, by order of an Imaum, should invade their country, and make them prisoners of war by force of arms, they are then legal slaves; provided that such Negroes are inhabitants of a country under the government of Infidels, and in which a Mussulman is not entitled to receive the full benefit and protection of his own laws. With regard to the custom, prevailing in this country, of hiring children from their parents, for a very considerable period, such as for seventy or eighty years, and under this pretext making them slaves, as well as their produce also, under the denomination of kharazad (domestic slaves), the following laws are applicable; — It is lawful and proper for parents to hire out their children on service, but this contract of hire becomes null and void when the child arrives at the years of discretion, as the right of parentage then ceases. A free man, who has reached the years of discretion, may enter into a contract to serve another, but not for any great length of time, such as for seventy years; as this also is a mere pretext, and has the same object of slavery in view, whereas the said free man has the option of dissolving any contract of hire under either of the following circumstances: — It is the custom, in contracts of this nature, for a person hired on service to receive a compensation in money, clothes, and food, as the price of hire; any day therefore that a servant receives such a compensation, he is in duty bound to serve for that day, but not otherwise. The condition of contract of hire requires that the return of profit be equal to the price of hire, and this cannot be ascertained but by degrees, and in course of time. The contract of hire, therefore, becomes complete, or fulfilled according to the services or benefit actually rendered in return for the price of hire received, and the person hired has consequently the option of dissolving the contract at any moment of the period originally agreed for.
"It is unavoidable and actually necessary in contracts of a different nature, such as in rent of land, &c., that the lessee should not have this power; but reverting to contracts of hire for service for a long period, the nefarious practices of subjecting free men to a state of bondage, under this pretence, it appears expedient to provide against such abuses; and with this view to restrict the period for service in all contracts of hired freemen to a month, one year, or the utmost to three years, as in cases of Ijanawugh, a form of endowment. It is customary also among the Zanane Towaf, (women who keep sets of dancing girls,) to purchase female free children from their parents, or by engagements directly with the children themselves; exclusively of the illegality of such purchases, there is a further evil resulting from this practice, which is, the children are taught dancing and singing for others, and are also made prostitutes, which are extremely improper, and expressly forbidden by the law."
Remarks. — "From the reply it is evident that, by the Mussulman law, no man can have the right of property over another human being except a Mussulman, and even he can acquire that right over an infidel only, inhabiting a country not under the power and control of the faithful; and that this right, which Mussulmans have over infidels fighting against the faith, is acquirable by Isteela, which means the entire subduement of any subject of property by force of arms; the right of property, therefore, which one man may possess over another, is to be acquired, in the first instance, by Isteela. It follows that all persons in a state of bondage, over whom the right of property has not been obtained by Isteela, or the offspring of parents over whom the above right was not acquired, are, by the Mussulman law, free; and that it is the duty of the Hakim, respecting persons claiming their freedom, over whom the right of property derived from Isteela cannot be legally established or traced, to declare such persons of either sex free by a legal recorded decision, which shall secure to them the future enjoyment of that freedom.
"Slaves sold or given away by the Imaum, or the ghazee (conquerors or victorious troops) who shared at the distribution, or if afterwards they become the property of another by inheritance, continue slaves under the different rights of purchase, donation, and heirship. It appears by the Mussulman law that the offspring of a female slave, whether by a free man or slave of any description, except by her master, such offsprings are slaves, and are called khanazad (born in the family). If, however, the offspring shall be acknowledged by the master, they shall be free, and the mother also, at the death of her owner, becomes free; and this also emancipates their descendants to the latest posterity. It may be inferred from the provision here noticed, &c., that, to entitle the child to freedom, and the mother to emancipation, on the death of her lord, his acknowledgement, and that he is the father, the offspring of the slave is necessary to give the law force. Here the principles pursued by European legislation are reversed, and there are many obvious motives that may induce the owner to deny his being the father of the child.
"It is declared by the Mussulman law, as here developed, that a free man cannot sell his own person. The law officer here states his unacquaintance with the circumstances which led to the prevalence of the custom in most Mussulman countries, of purchasing and selling the inhabitants of Zanguibar, Ethiopia, Nubia, and other Negroes: they are evidently not legally slaves by the Mussulman law.
"A free man arrived at the years of discretion, may contract to serve for a reasonable, not a great length of time, such as seventy years; but it is here stated, that the said free man, so contracting, is to receive a compensation, and is compelled to serve for that day for which he has received compensation, but not otherwise; the person hired has consequently the option of dissolving the contract at any moment of the period originally agreed for. It is observable, that this is contrary to the nature of all contracts, which are, or ought to be, specific and mutual; but the Mussulman law assigns reasons, in the subsequent paragraph of the answer on which I am remarking, explanatory of the causes which render this contract different from others, such as rents, &c., where the lessee has not this power, and those reasons are more enlightened, and shew a greater anxiety for the personal liberty of the individual, than is commonly to be found among the laws of Mahomed.
"Here is stated a custom existing amongst the Zanane Towaf, (women who keep sets of dancing girls,) of purchasing female free born children from their parents or others, or making engagements with the children themselves, to be taught the practice of dancing and singing for others, and also for the purpose of being made prostitutes, which are allowed to be extremely improper and expressly forbidden by the law. The extent of the above evil would be best ascertained by a few appropriate queries put to the several magistrates, but more especially to those of the large cities; the result would at once open the eyes of government to an evil which loudly calls for the interference of the Legislature, on every principle of humanity, morals, and policy."
Second Ques. "What legal powers are the owners of slaves allowed to exercise upon the persons of their slaves, and particularly of their female slaves?"
Ans. "The rightful proprietor of male and female slaves has a claim to the services of such slaves to the extent of their ability. He may employ them in baking, cooking, in making, dyeing, and washing clothes; as agents in mercantile transactions; in attending cattle, in tillage, or cultivation; as carpenters, ironmongers, and goldsmiths; in transcribing; as weavers, and in manufacturing woollen cloths; as shoemakers, boatmen, twisters of silk, water drawers; in shaving; in performing surgical operations, such as cupping, &c.; as farriers, bricklayers, and the like; and he may hire them out on service in any of the above capacities; he may also employ them himself, or for the use of his family in other duties of a domestic nature, such as in fetching water for washing on evazoo (religious purification), or anointing his body with oil, rubbing his feet, or attending his person while dressing, and in guarding the door of his house, &c. He may also have connexion with his legal female slave, provided she is arrived at the years of maturity, and the master or proprietor has not previously given her in marriage to another."
"There is nothing objectionable in the duties here stated to be lawfully demandable from slaves of both sexes. The obvious immorality, and the great impolicy and inhumanity of the licentious authority stated in this answer, requires no comment. The law officer, although he has stated in part the truth, has not embraced the whole truth: the Islamite has the power, by the Mussulman law, of exercising, with his female slaves, licentious intercourse, at the mention of which modesty recedes with blushes and humanity shrinks with horror!"
Third Ques. "What offences upon the persons of slaves, and particularly of female slaves, committed by their owners or by others, are legally punishable, and in what manner?"
Ans. "If a master oppress his slave by employing him on any duty beyond his ability, such as insisting upon his carrying a load which he is incapable of bearing, or climbing a tree which he cannot, the Hakim or ruling power may chastise him. It is also improper for a master to order his slave to do that which is forbidden by the law, such as putting an innocent person to death, setting fire to a house, tearing the clothes off another, or prostituting himself by adultery and fornication; to steal or drink spirits, or to slander and abuse the chaste and virtuous; and, if a master be guilty of such like oppressions, the Hakim may inflict exemplary punishment by Fazir and Ucqubut Shukool Allah, literally, the right of God, and meaning on principles of public justice.
"It is further unlawful for a master to punish his male or female slave for disrespectful conduct, and such like offences, further than by sadeeb (slight correction), as the power of passing sentence of tazeer and gizes is solely vested in the Hakim. If, therefore, the master should exceed the limits of his power of chastisement, above stated, he is liable to tazeer. If a master should have connexion with his female slave, before she has arrived at the years of maturity, and, if the female slave should in consequence be seriously injured, or should die, the ruling power may punish him by tazeer and Uqubut Hagool Jillah, as before defined."
"It will be allowed, that the spirit which enumerates and limits the employments which a master is hereby forbidden to extort from his slaves, under the penalty of being liable to exemplary punishment by the Hakim, on principles of public justice, is humane and proper, and might be sufficient for the purpose of good order and government, were it possible that the spirit of the law could be carried into effect. To any man acquainted with the manners and customs of the natives, no argument is necessary to prove that the reverse is the case. It is hardly necessary to remark on the degree of suffering that an illiterate, wretched, and desponding slave will submit to from his lord, whom, from infancy perhaps, be has been accustomed to look upon, with trembling anxiety, as the sole arbiter of his fate, upon whose pleasure all the little happiness, or rather the absence of misery, which he hopes to experience, entirely depends. Is it likely that a slave under such circumstances should dare to apply to the ruling power for redress?
"If a master, excited by lust, unrestrained by shame, or by habit, shall have connexion with a female slave before she has arrived at the years of maturity, if the female slave should in consequence be severely injured or die, what is the consequence? The ruling power may punish him as before defined. Shall a British government sanction so horrid a law?"
Fourth Ques. "Are slaves entitled to emancipation upon any and what maltreatment, and may the courts of justice adjudge their emancipation upon the proof of such maltreatment? In particular, may such judgment be passed upon proof that a female slave has, during her minority, been prostituted by her master or mistress, or that any attempt of violence has been made by her owner?"
Ans. "If the master of male or female slaves should tyrannize over them by treating them unjustly, stinting them in food, or imposing upon them duties of an oppressive nature; or if a master should have connexion with his slave girl before she has arrived at the years of maturity, or should give her in marriage to another, with permission to cohabit with her in this state, such master sins against the divine laws, and the ruling power may punish him; but, the commission of such crimes by the master does not authorize the manumission of the slave, nor has the Hakim any right or authority to grant emancipation. Adverting to the principle upon which the legality of slavery is originally established, viz. that the subject of property must be an infidel, and taken in the act of hostilities against the faith; and also to the several branches of legal slavery arising from this principle, as by purchase, donation, inheritance, and khanazadee; whenever a case of possession of an unlawful male or female slave should be referred to the Hakim for investigation, it is the duty of the Hakim to pass an order, according to the original right of freedom of such individual, to deprive the unjust proprietor of possession, and to grant immediate emancipation to the slave.
(Signed and sealed)
Soorajoddeen Ullee
Mahomed Rashed"
"The purport of this question is, whether on any and what maltreatment a slave is entitled to emancipation on proof, and whether the courts of justice are entitled to pass such judgment, particularly on females prostituted by their master or mistress during their minority, or on any attempt of violence being made. From the reply to this question, it appears that acts of oppression, and even violation of the person of a female slave, before she is at the years of maturity, by the master, or the crime of giving her at that age in marriage, are declared, as they truly are, crimes against the divine laws, and the ruling power may punish by stripes; but it is to be observed that, by the Mussulman law, the commission of these crimes by the owner does not entitle the wretched slave to manumission, nor has the ruling power a right to grant her emancipation!!
"Humanity, which is shocked at the idea of its being a question whether or not British legislation shall sanction so diabolic a law, under the impressions of horror which every humane mind must feel at the depravity of such inhuman laws, is relieved by the perusal of the next sentence. Adverting to the principle upon which the legality of slavery is originally established, viz. the subject of property must be an infidel, taken in the act of hostilities against the faith; and also to the several branches of legal slavery which shoot from this root or principle, — purchase, donation, inheritance, and khanazeed; whenever a case of possession of an unlawful male or female slave, that is to say, who is not himself or herself under the original description of an infidel taken in the act of hostilities against the faithful under an Imaum, or descended from a person of the above description, over whom the right of property has not been obtained by one of the modes described, shall come before the ruling power, to pass an order according to the original right of freedom of such individual, and to deprive the unjust proprietor of possession, and to grant an immediate emancipation."
Similar questions put to the Hindoo Pundit by the Nizamut Adawlut.
First Ques. Ans. "There are fifteen different sorts of male and female slaves." See p. 285, in this Volume.
Remarks. — "Of the injustice and unreasonableness of the whole of the description of slaves sanctioned by the Hindoo law on the acknowledged principles of natural freedom, or on principles of expediency and humanity, few I conceive will doubt; and to enter into argument to prove this self-evident perversion of the laws of nature and of God, written in the hearts of all enlightened men, would be a waste of intellect. I am confident such wide-spread degradation of the human race can never be authorized by an enlightened British Government."
Second Ques. Ans. "The owner of a male or female slave may require of such slave the performance of impure work, such as plastering and sweeping the house, cleaning the door, gateway, and necessary; rubbing his master's naked body, bunudome nehanu, with oil, and clothing him; removing fragments of victuals left at his master's table, and eating them; removing urine and human ordure; rubbing his master's feet and other limbs, &c. In cases of disobedience or fault committed by the slave, the master has power to beat his slave with a thin stick, or to bind him with a rope: and, if he should consider the slave deserving of severe punishment, he may pull his hair or expose him upon an ass; but, if the master should exceed this extent of his authority, and inflict punishment upon his slave of a severer nature than above stated, he is liable to pay a fine to the Hakim or ruling power, of a thousand puns of khar mahozrens, eight thousand cowries. This is declared by Menu, according to Patnakar Behbad, Chinta, Munnie, and other authorities."
"The facility and impunity with which power can tyrannize over a wretch in a state of bondage and absolute dependence is evident; and what is the punishment if, against all chance or hope, the tyrant is brought to trial, and even to conviction? A pecuniary fine!
Third Ques. Ans. "A master has no right to command his male or female slave to perform any other duties besides those specified in the answer to the second question, or authority to punish his slave further than in the manner before stated; and if he should exceed this discretionary power, in either case, he is liable to the same penalty, viz. one thousand puns of cowries. This is declared by Menu and Beshie."
Fourth Ques. Ans. "The commission of offences, of the above nature by the master, does not affect the state of the slave; and the ruling power has not the right of granting his manumission; but if it should be established in evidence, before the Hakim, that any person having stolen or inveigled away, a child or slave, had afterwards sold him to another, or that any person had compelled another into a state of slavery by violence, the ruling power may then order the emancipation of such child or slave; and if a master, or any other person by permission of the master, should cohabit with a slave girl before she has arrived at the years of maturity, and this fact be proved, the ruling power may sentence such offender to pay a fine of fifty puns of cowries, but cannot emancipate the slave girl!
"Whenever a slave girl has borne a child by her master, such slave, together with the child, becomes free, and the ruling power should sanction their emancipation.
"This is the law declared by Jak Bulk Mannoo and Kutoobun, according to Mittuchora and other authorities.
(Signed) Chattoor Bhooj Necarutun
Chiterput Oapadhea"
"It does not appear that the commission of any, or all of the offences supposed in the fourth question, affect the state of bondage in the sufferings of the wretched slave, nor by the Hindoo law has the ruling power the authority of emancipating the injured bondsman, even under all the above maltreatment; but a treacherous inveigling away of a child and selling it as a slave, or subjecting to slavery by violence, are declared illegal, and the ruling power may emancipate such child or slave. Should however a master, or any other by permission of the owner, cohabit with a slave girl before she has arrived at the years of maturity, and the fact be proved, the ruling power may sentence the offender to fifty puns of cowries. Here a crime, most monstrous, by which the laws of nature are outraged, is punishable by a pecuniary fine! I suppose for the benefit of the ruling power."
"The foregoing being the Mussulman law, as expounded by the law officers, and the Mussulman law being that by which we govern in cases of life and limb, surely it ought to be extended to personal freedom; for from personal freedom alone can life or limb, the first gifts of nature, acquire their due value. The foregoing, I think, will be admitted, and investigation will render it evident, that at the present moment, of the many thousands male and female slaves held in bondage in the Company's dominions, and subject to the grossest usage, prostitution, and every other depravity, under the pretence of slavery being sanctioned by the Mussulman law, not a single man or woman exists, to whom the right of property, on the principle laid down by that law, can possibly be established! The mode, therefore, of remedying the gross evils that exist, is as easy as it is obvious. Enforce the spirit and letter of the Mussulman law as it applies to slaves, and as far as that portion of the inhabitants of our Indian possessions are concerned, you remedy the evil, and give the blessing of liberty to thousands, without infringing a particle of the Mahomedan religion; on the contrary, so far as this regulation is connected with the Mussulman religion, you only check a licentious deviation from the principles of law and religion on the point in question."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 309-317.]
The practice of kidnapping children, for the purpose of selling them as slaves, appears to have been very prevalent in various parts of India. Respecting a case of this kind at Midnapore, on the borders of Orissa, in 1794, the Magistrate. R. Bathurst, Esq., thus expressed his indignation of the crime. — "To that part of the futwa which respects Shazaddee, equity and humanity alike prompt me to object in the strongest terms. Her crime is of a nature to break asunder the tenderest ties, and to consign its innocent victims, either rudely torn, or cruelly seduced front their parents' home, to hopeless slavery, to experience in the course of it, too probably, no wages but stripes, no relief but death. Such is the complexion of her guilt. What says the futwa, which, regulated by Mussulman justice, weighs, it would seem, in the same scale of moral turpitude, the stealing of a cur dog and the kidnapping of a child? Thirty-five strokes with a rattan and four months confinement, which if changed to hard labour and imprisonment for life, although still disproportioned to the extent of her offence, might, perhaps, operate to deter others from the practice of similar enormities."* [Par. Papers, p. 52. Sec also pp. 242, 243.]
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Part 2 of 2
The nature of slavery in Canara, under the Madras Presidency, is thus described by J. G. Ravenshaw, Esq., Collector, in 1801: —
The evils of slavery are innumerable. "To remedy the evil," says one of the Judges in India, "it appeared to me highly necessary that it should be ascertained and acknowledged, and its extent fully understood."† [Par. Papers, p. 308.] The propriety of this appears from the want of information respecting slavery in India. The following extracts from the valuable Papers on this subject, it is hoped will rouse the attention of Britain, to the state of slavery in her eastern dominions.
"No progress in arts or science can be expected," says the worthy Judge of Bundlecund, "from unhappy beings whose daily reflections press their forlorn condition upon their thoughts. The rudest cultivation of the earth is performed with reluctancy, by wretches whose miseries know no end, but in the moments of repose. Perhaps exposed to the burning heat of a vertical sun, immerged to the knees in water, stagnate and unwholesome, respiring a vapour inimical to existence; perhaps buried alive in mines replete with noxious minerals and baneful air, which slowly consumes the human frame. Or if (which is the summit of a slave's good fortune) they meet with a more lenient lord, still their comforts are embittered by the dread of a change. The stroke of death, or the pressure of misfortune, may transfer them with their former master's cattle or his lands, to a less tender lord; devoid of any established mode of providing for, or bringing up a family, and fearful of entering into the marriage state, having no protection or security that their dearest and most tender connexions will not be set at nought by the capricious lust of pampered power, population suffers.
"In Hindostan slaves are kept for show, or employed in the meanest and most laborious offices of servitude. In ancient times slaves were bred to trades; to cultivate the sciences and other philosophic studies, and some of this class distinguished themselves by their abilities, and contributed to enlighten mankind. But how much more speedily has general improvement increased, since the establishment of freedom through the principal parts of Europe. The freest nations have ever been the first to dispel the clouds of error, and brighten the dawnings of knowledge into the meridian splendour of truth. If any thing can add to the horror which the idea of slavery raises in every human breast, it is the reflection that, by the Mussulman law respecting female slaves, the master is not only legal lord of their persons for purposes of laborious services, but for sensual gratification; even such as his unnatural passions may impel his brutality to indulge. It is not less shocking to reflect that women, who have spent their youth and worn out their persons in the grossest debauchery, when their faded beauty no longer produces their wonted luxuries, and even their former paramours in guilt turn from them with disgust, purchase female children for the avowed purpose of the most licentious life. These females, were such injurious practices prevented by the abolition of all slavery, would become useful members of the community, and add to the prosperity of the state, by the increase of their species.
"Under systematic slavery the minds of mankind are inevitably debased. Children being educated amongst, and attended by these wretches, imbibe their dispositions, and, having the examples of their parents always before their eyes, learn to consider those under them as a distinct race, unworthy of the rights of humanity. The first efforts of imitative cruelty are viewed by the parents without reprehension, their own minds having undergone the same perversion by the same tuition, and the practice of maturity having deadened their feelings; so that I fear, not unfrequently this early discovery of vicious inclination is considered by the fond, but mistaken parent, as a sure presage of spirit and future greatness. View the manners of those nations who tolerate slavery, and say whether this reasoning is not warranted by reality."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 298-300.]
Sir William Jones, in a charge to the grand jury at Calcutta, in 1785, described the miseries of slavery existing at that period, even in the metropolis of British India. "I am assured, from evidence which, though not all judicially taken, has the strongest hold on my belief, that the condition of slaves within our jurisdiction is, beyond imagination, deplorable; and that cruelties are daily practised on them, chiefly on those of the tenderest age and the weaker sex, which, if it would not give me pain to repeat, and you to hear, yet, for the honour of human nature, I should forbear to particularize. If I except the English from this censure, it is not through partial affection to my own countrymen, but because my information relates chiefly to people of other nations, who likewise call themselves Christians. Hardly a man or a woman exists in a corner of this populous town, who hath not at least one slave child, either purchased at a trifling price, or saved, perhaps, from a death that might have been fortunate, for a life that seldom fails of being miserable. Many of you, I presume, have seen large boats filled with such children, coming down the river for open sale at Calcutta; nor can you be ignorant that most of them were stolen from their parents, or bought, perhaps, for a measure of rice in a time of scarcity; and that the sale itself is a defiance of this government, by violating one of its positive orders, which was made some years ago, after a consultation of the most reputable Hindoos in Calcutta, who condemned such a traffic as repugnant to their shastra. The number of small houses, in which these victims are pent, makes it indeed very difficult for the settlement at large to be apprized of their condition; and, if the sufferers knew where or how to complain, their very complaints may expose them to still harsher treatment — to be tortured, if remanded, or if set at liberty, to starve. Be not discouraged by the difficulty of your inquiries; your vigilance cannot but surmount it; and one great example of a just punishment, not capital, will conduce more to the prevention of similar cruelties, than the strongest admonition or the severest verbal reproof. Should the slave-holders, through hardness of heart, or confidence in their places of concealment, persist in their crimes, you will convince them, that their punishment will certainly follow their offence, and the most hardened of them will, no doubt, discontinue the contest."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 10. For an affecting account of a slave girl seized at Serampore, see pp. 48-50.]
In 1810 a claim was preferred before the court of Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, for the restoration of some slaves who had escaped from Nepaul, and sought an asylum in the British territory. Nine slaves were stated to have been purchased for 226 rupees. This sum was given by the British Government, and the slaves liberated. The depositions of two or three of them shew the cruel nature of slavery in Nepaul.
The misery of arbitrary servitude is depicted in a very affecting manner, in the Par. Papers relative to thirty-five natives of Bengal, who, in 1813, were found in the service of Mr. W. Browne, at Sydney, New South Wales; they were discharged by the colonial magistrates, and restored to their native country, at the expense of the British Government in India.† [See pp. 267-296.] A few of their depositions before the magistrate are given.
Of the state of slavery in Malwa, in 1821, Sir John Malcolm observes, — "Male slaves are few in Malwa, and are generally treated more like adopted children than menials. The case is very different with females, who in almost every instance are sold to prostitution; some, it is true, rise to be favourite mistresses of their master, and enjoy both power and luxury, while others are raised by the success in life of their sons; but these are exceptions. The dancing women, who are all slaves, are condemned to a life of toil and vice, for the profit of others, and some of the first Rajpoot chiefs and zemindars in Malwa, who have from 50 to 200 female slaves in their family; after employing them in all the menial labours of their house during the day, send them at night to their own dwellings, where they are at liberty to form such connexions as they please; but a large share of the profits of that promiscuous intercourse, into which they fall, is annually exacted by their masters, who adds any children they have to his list of slaves. The female slaves in this condition, as well as those of the dancing sets, are not permitted to marry, and are often very harshly treated; so that the latter, from this cause and the connexions they form, are constantly in the habit of running away. If discovered, they are always given up, provided the deed of purchase can be produced; which with them, above all others, must be registered at the cutwall's chabootre at the period the slave is bought.
"It is not the habit of the native governments of Malwa, to take any cognizance of the punishment which masters inflict upon slaves, except such extend to their life, when they are responsible; they are in some cases cruelly treated, but this is not general; it is indeed against the interest of the master to do so, when there are so many opportunities of escaping from his authority. The state of Malwa for the last thirty years has been favourable to the species of slavery described, and that province is filled with the mixed progeny of these unfortunate women. This traffic must however now decrease, as the Gwarriahs and others who carried it on, can no longer steal or conceal children with that confidence of impunity which they had long done. A few years ago, no man dare leave his own district to inquire after his wife and daughter; the whole country can now be traversed in safety. From this cause, and the discoveries of guilt which have recently been made, the stealers of women and children have taken alarm; while the restitution to their relatives of slaves, bought by them at high prices, must deter future purchasers."* [Par. Papers, pp. 415, 416.]
The Committee appointed by the Government of Prince of Wales' Island, in 1808, to report on the propriety of the abolition of slavery, advert to one of the many evils of this state of society in the following terms: — "Allowing that the abolition of slavery might have the effect to retard the increase of the population, by partially preventing the arrival of settlers, it would benefit the island in another respect more essentially — by effectually putting a stop to the infamous practice (still existing, notwithstanding every effort and regulation of Government) of purchasing females for the purpose of hiring them, and compelling them to ply as public prostitutes, and enable many industrious Chinese and others to obtain wives, whom this infamous practice has hitherto prevented (the great gain resulting from it, enabling the bawds to purchase these females at most extravagant prices); and consequently by connecting these Chinese and others more permanently, through the medium of families, with the settlement, will not only much improve the character of the community, but tend ultimately to afford a more certain source of increase of population than from casual residents."* [Par. Papers, p. 441.]
The evils of slavery in the Island of Nias, near Sumatra, are forcibly depicted in an article from the Singapore Chronicle; —
Slavery in Cape Colony, is thus described by a modern writer: — "The timid silent step with which the young slave girl enters the room — the subdued tone in which the message is delivered — her looks of apathy, where all the warm stirring blood of youth seems tamed down; — and when I have gazed upon dark lustreless eyes that were born to flash, and upon the listless form that was born to bound, I could not but feel, that the being before me was bowed down — that all the energies which liberty would have called forth, were crushed beneath the severity of her lot. In travelling, when stopping at a Boor's house, I remember thanking a slave girl for some trifling service, when she turned to her companion, with a look of more than surprise, and they both burst into uncontrollable laughter — laughter, that to my ear, "had no mirth in it;" for it told of a state in which blows might follow the non-performance of any command; but to which thanks were an unknown sound. All this is characteristic of slavery, and strikes an Englishman from its strong contrast with the respectful, yet cheerful manners of the servants of this country."
Many pages of the Par. Documents on East India Slavery are occupied in detailing the state of the slaves in Malabar; especially in the investigation of the conduct of a Mr. Browne, of Anjarakandy, towards his slaves (see pp. 560-790). A few extracts only can be given of the examinations of these slaves, taken by the Magistrate of Zillah North Malabar.
"Nothing can be more abject and wretched (says T.H. Baber, Esq., Magistrate in Malabar, in 1813,) than the condition of that degraded race of mortals, the slaves of Malabar, 'whose huts (to us the words of Mr. Francis Buchanan in his tour through Malabar) are little better than mere baskets, and whose diminutive stature, and squalid appearance, evidently shew a want of adequate nourishment.'"* [Par Papers, pp. 760, 761.]
"The slave alone (says Mr. Graeme in his Report of Malabar, 1822) has his sieve of a hut in the centre of the rice lands; but on the coast at least, he is an industrious, and not an unintelligent being, in good condition, and nothing deficient in bodily frame. In the interior, he is a wretched, half-starved, diminutive creature, stinted in his food, and exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, whose state demands that commiseration and amelioration which may confidently be expected from the humanity of the British Government, provided it can be shewn, that a change for the better can be effected without hazarding an evil of any formidable magnitude; without incurring the risk of general discontent, or exciting a worse feeling towards the objects themselves, by an unsuccessful endeavour to mitigate their ill treatment. The slaves of Malabar, known generally by the name of chermurs, are entirely praedial, or rustic, being engaged only in the cultivation of rice lands and plantations. I except, of course, the Mussulmans, who may be domestic slaves, and live in the houses of their masters, and partake of all the privileges of their religion. This kind of slavery is a social fraternity, and is a step to the best comforts, and the highest honours of life among Mussulmans. It is totally dissimilar, in every essential point, to the servitude of the chermur, which is the most prevalent designation of the slaves of Malabar."† [P. 914.]
"In the Calicut district, there is an anomaly in the general system among the Paliur, the Kulladee, and the Kunnakur, which are the only three casts of slaves residing there. There is a mixture of the two customs of mukkatayum and murroo mukkatayum, that is, the one or the other does not obtain separately in different families in the district, but in all the families throughout the district the inheritance partakes of the two modes; and, half of the children are considered to go with the mother, and consequently to belong to her proprietor, and half to be attached to the father, and therefore to be the property of his master. Where the number may not admit of an equal division, the odd number is reckoned to be the mother's! The wife of a Palium, and of all the casts who observe the murroo mukkatayum, may be sold separately, and may therefore belong to a different master from the master of her husband, but she cannot be separated from her husband; she must be allowed to remain with him; she is purchased separately in consideration of her future offspring, which, by the custom of murroo mukkatayum, would become the property of her purchaser. In the other casts, the females are not separately saleable, neither the wife nor her female children. The daughters become the temporary property of the masters of their husbands; but this right of property ceases upon the death of the husband, and the wife returns to the house of her father. The rules of Malabar prescribe that a slave of the cast of Poleyan, Waloovan, and Brayen, shall remain seventy-two paces from a Bramin and from a Nair, and forty-eight from a Tean! A slave of the Kunakur cast sixty-four paces from a Bramin and Nair, and forty from a Tean; and the other casts generally forty-eight paces from a Bramin and Nair, twenty-four from a Tean! In the northern division these rules are deviated from in practice, in favour of the slaves; whilst in the southern division, they are thought to be exceeded in strictness."* [Par. Papers, p. 920.]
One of the Malabar Magistrates, in 1823, suggested that, on account of "certain instances of cruelty practised on slaves by their masters, the forfeiture of the right of property over slaves should be made the penalty for ill usage." — Slaves appear occasionally to have their noses cut off by their cruel masters. "Adverting (says one of the Judges) to the facts elicited during the foregoing trial, it will no longer be denied that cruelties are practised upon the slaves of Malabar; and that our courts and cutcherries are no restraints upon their owners or employers. Whatever doubts may exist with regard to the exact period of the death of the Cherooman Koorry Noryady, or to the immediate cause of his death, there can be none as to the fact, of his nose having been amputated, as well as those of three other slaves belonging to the same owner; and that, although the case had come before the Magistrate, no steps have been taken to bring the perpetrators of such horrid barbarities to justice. Upon the latter head it maybe argued that the slaves themselves preferred no complaint: but, if it is to depend upon the slaves themselves, to seek for the protection of the laws, their situation must be hopeless indeed; for, having no means of subsistence, independent of their owners or employers, their repairing to and attending upon a public cutcherry is a thing physically impossible; and even though those provisions of the regulations, that require all complaints to be preferred in writing, were dispensed with in favour of slaves, and they were exempted from the payment of tolls at the numerous ferries they would have to pass, and though an allowance were made to them by government during their detention at the cutcherries and courts, unless forfeiture of the right of property over slaves was the penalty for ill usage, their situation would only become more intolerable than it was before they complained."* [Par. Papers on Slavery, p. 928.]
The last page but one of the Par. Papers contain the following remarks respecting the misery of slavery in British India. "The second Judge makes mention of two cases tried in Canara, wherein the accused were charged with causing the death of their slaves by severe chastisement, which, he states, induced him to make inquiry at Mangalore, regarding the prevailing custom in instances where the slave of one master marries the slave of another; and particularly whether their respective owners can prevent them from living together. The second Judge remarks that the frequent absence from his 'master's work, which occasioned the deceased's chastisement in one of the above cases, was owing to visits to his wife, who resided at a distance on her master's estate, who would not allow her to live with her husband.'' He was told that it is usual for the female slave to reside with her husband, and, if his residence be at such a distance as to prevent her from coming to work daily at her master's house, the master of the husband must indemnify her owner by the payment, annually, of half a moorah of rice; but, if the master should employ the female at his own house, he must employ also her husband, whose owner he must indemnify by the payment annually of one moorah of rice. The Judge offers his opinion that the Magistrate should correctly inform himself on this point, and be required under the authority of Government, after due notice given, to enforce the obligation on the part of the owners, to allow their married slaves to live together. The court of Foujdaree Adawlut are of opinion that the interference here proposed to be exercised by the Magistrate, could not be put in practice without the enactment of a Regulation for that purpose; and they are not prepared to suggest provisions with this view which would be free from objection; should, however, the Honourable the Governor in council deem it fit to give effect to the humane recommendation of the Judge, it may be in the power of the provincial court, in communication with the Magistrates in the provinces of Malabar and Canara, to devise a mode to prevent the separation of married slaves, without any violation of rights, which the established usages in this respect confer."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 935, 936.]
This chapter may be closed, by contrasting "the effects of slavery, with those of voluntary servitude, under a system of liberty," as described by the Judge of Bundlecund.
SLAVERY.
"1. It is the constant object of the master, to get the greatest quantity of labour at the cheapest rate; consequently he stints the slave in food and raiment. It may be urged, by clothing and feeding well, the slave would be strong, and better able to endure fatigue, but it is the constant practice of avarice, by short-sighted policy, to counteract its own wishes: a trifling immediate advantage being generally preferred to much more essential objects, if more remote.
2. It is the uniform endeavour of the slave to mitigate the hardship of his lot by evading toil, which brings him no advantage.
3. The slave, finding himself subject to capricious treatment and change of masters, will seldom add the cares of providing for a family of children to his other woes, and consequently avoids marriage.
4. In their old age, it is the master's interest to get rid of the feeble, who eat but cannot labour; consequently the worn down slave is neglected, and perishes for want of care, having no family or children to ease the pains of sickness, or prop the weakness of decline, by the soothing attention of filial duty.
5. In times of scarcity and famine, the master must starve his slaves, send them to plunder, or emancipate them. The latter, his avarice will never permit.
6. When slaves can sell themselves or their children, numbers are induced to flock to great towns and cities, where many die from disappointed expectation, who would otherwise pick up a scanty subsistence in scattered villages.
7. It would appear to be the advantage of masters, to promote the rearing of their slaves. This, like many other theoretic ideas, is found to be fallacious, and contradicted by fact. The expense of rearing, and the loss incurred by the indispensable attendance of the parents on their offspring, has always made proprietors prefer recruiting casual diminutions of their slaves by purchase; even in Rome, where slavery was universal. How much more will masters avoid such trouble and expense in India, where I have seen, in a time of local scarcity only, a stout lad of fourteen or fifteen years old, sold for the trifling consideration of two rupees, scarcely a month's wages for the meanest servant.
8. Women of bad fame purchase females for the most public prostitution, which are thereby lost to the community.
9. Children are sometimes sold into bondage by the villany of others, in the case of death or absence of parents, instances of which are not uncommon.
10. The sanction of slavery, not many years ago, gave birth to an infamous traffic, and as injurious to our government as disgraceful to those concerned, diminishing our resources, by depriving us of subjects."
VOLUNTARY SERVITUDE.
1. The same object actuates the master here also, but the servant being free to stipulate, his interest counteracts that of the other, and the contest reduces and establishes the price of labour to its just rate; that is, it allows the servant to provide for himself and family, and leaves the master a competent profit.
2. It is the general wish of servants to satisfy their masters, that they may not lose their employment; or, if their services are no longer requisite, to entitle them to a recommendation.
3. The servant knowing he can dispose of his earnings as he pleases, and being provided with a fund for the provision of a wife, &c., will marry; thus the slate reaps benefit by the increase of population.
4. Under voluntary servitude, by the time old age approaches, many have saved a little from the rewards of their services, to assist in softening the hardships of sickness and debility, &c.; and almost all, having married and added to the general stock of industry and riches, have some children to soothe the evening of life. Though this may have little weight in the scale of political reasoning, it ought to have some in that of humanity.
5. In scarcity, a servant is not harder to subsist than a slave; he will not eat more, and, having his wages, he is better enabled to evade the effects of famine, by making timely provision for its approach.
6. Were slavery abolished, this evil could not happen: knowing they could not sell themselves or children, they would not be tempted to cities in such numbers; having only a precarious charity to rely on, they would substitute many modes of supplying a mere sustenance, from berries, herbs, &c.
7. Were voluntary servitude substituted for slavery, avarice, real or mistaken, could not affect population.
8. Abolish the unnatural law of slavery, and the evil could not occur.
9. Nor this.
10. Nor this.
"The effects of slavery are as plainly injurious, as the benefits of freedom are obvious and undoubted."* [Par. Papers, pp. 301-303.]
The nature of slavery in Canara, under the Madras Presidency, is thus described by J. G. Ravenshaw, Esq., Collector, in 1801: —
"There are three distinctions of the Daerds or slaves, — the Moondaul, Mogare or Magor, and Mavey Daerd: the former two differ from the latter in the way of food; — neither of them will eat the flesh of a cow or bullock; or go near the place where one has died or been killed, till the carcase is removed; the Mavey Daerd, though he will not kill the animal, will eat its flesh after it is dead. If one dies at the house of a Moondaul or Magor, a Mavey is sent for to remove the carcase. In the Moondaul and Mayer sects, property descends from uncle to nephew; a father gives up his children to their uncle. In the Mogare sects, property descends from father to son. A Mogare and a Moondaul will eat together, though it is not common; if, however, they do, the form of taking away the dishes or pans they eat out of, washing and returning them clean to the party who gives the repast, is invariably observed. They never intermarry by consent; but if a Moondaul runs away with a Mogare, the latter sect assemble, call on the Moondaul, and, after reprimanding him for the crime he has committed, make him pay a fine for the offence, and give a repast to the whole party; when they have eaten, the Mogare is considered as having relinquished her cast, and being made over to the Moondaul. Neither of these sects associate with the Mavey Daerd.
"If a Moondaul goes to a landlord, or other person, and says he wants to marry through his interests; if the person consents, he gives him from three to four pagodas to pay the expense of the ceremony; the Daerd, as soon as married, brings his wife to his landlord's house, and both are bound to serve him and his heirs as long as the husband lives. The landlord is considered as bound to give the man, per annum, two cloths, each five cubits in length; and the woman two, each of eight cubits length, one to cover the lower and one the upper part of their frame, the estimated expense of which is one and a half rupees; the man is to receive one and a half, and the woman one hami of rice per diem, besides one mora of rice per annum between them; this allowance is called 'mogu.' This couple have no claim over any children they may have born: they are the exclusive property of their uncle. If he agrees to their remaining with their father till they are grown up, and their father consents to keep them, this may be done; and if, when grown up, their father's owner gives the males money to marry, they are bound to serve him and his heirs as long as they live. If, however, their uncle does not agree to their remaining with their father when young, he takes them, and his master pays them according to the work they do. As to the daughters, if their uncle agree, they may remain with their father, till some person comes with their uncle's consent to ask them in marriage; they are then given up and bound to serve their husband's owner. In the event of the husband's death, his master has no right whatever over the mother and children, who become the property of, or for whom the children's uncle is bound to provide, and they are bound to serve his master if he has work for them. If a man wants to marry a second time, his master supplies him with money; in consideration of this extra expense, he stops the 'mogu,' or allowance of one mora of rice per annum. A man receives no daily allowance for himself and family during his master's harvest, but, in lieu thereof, he gets an eleventh part of as much grain as is cut, thrashed, and stacked by the whole of them; when this work is done, they receive their daily subsistence as usual. The sect may be called a life property on the male side; they are never sold, though they sometimes mortgage themselves, and their owners may also mortgage them.
"The Mogare are bought and sold, and hence they and their male heirs are bound to serve their master and his heirs for ever. Females remain with their fathers till married, after which their owners have no claim on them; they become the property of their husband's master. The average price of a man and his wife, if purchased together, is from four to five pagodas. These Mogairs receive the same daily allowance of rice and cloth as the Moondauls, but they get no annual allowance, the piece of land and the two trees they get are supposed more than to equal this; and in addition to it, if their master can afford it, he frequently gives them a bullock. The owner pays only as many of the family as work for him. This sect are sometimes mortgaged, as well as sold.
"If a person purchases a man and woman of the Mauray sect, and marries them, they and their male heirs are bound to serve him and his heirs for ever; the purchaser pays the expense of the marriage. If the man dies, and the woman marries again, the children she may have by her new husband are all the property of her owner, by reason of his having purchased the woman; but he has no claim whatever on the new husband. When these people are not purchased, but merely bind themselves to the service, on account of some person having paid the expense of their marriages, as the Moondauls do, the same rules are observed as with them; but there are many of these sects, who belonging, or being, as it were, an appurtenant to an estate, are bought and sold therewith; they enjoy the same privileges and allowances as those of the same sect who are purchased without an estate. The landlord can neither sell nor mortgage them, nor can they, without the landlord's consent, mortgage themselves or children.
"In many of the foregoing cases, an owner is bound to give daily subsistence to as many only of the family of his Daerds as he employs; if he has more than he requires, he may lend them out to other people, who pay him the mogu, or annual allowance of one mora of rice, as a sort of acknowledgment that the Daerd he employs belongs to him. Daerds cannot go to work for another person without their owners' consent, and they are bound to return whenever he may have work for them. This is the result of an inquiry I was induced to make into the customs of the people, in consequence of many complaints having come before me of Daerds being ill-treated by their masters. The little labour has been amply repaid, from a consciousness of my having done justice to many of them, which I should not have considered myself competent of doing without a knowledge of their manners and services."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 548-550.]
"The utmost to which the sale of slaves is tolerated in Malabar," says J. H. Baber, Esq., Judge and Magistrate in the North Zillah in 1812, "is domestic slavery, and this exclusively confined to those born in a state of bondage. Formerly this degraded race of men were the exclusive property of the Hindoos of Malabar, but in course of time, from necessity and other causes, they were transferred and sold to the Mopillas, but it was never bargained that they were to be made proselytes. A Pooliar sold or transferred could not be removed out of the district, his place of nativity; in consequence the social tie amongst them was still preserved; even the women, though sold, are never separated from their husbands, whom they still follow, however often they may change their masters; the owner of the female, however, still maintaining his claim to her and to her offspring, whose right is thus perpetuated from generation to generation. In some districts, the offspring are divided between the owners of the father and the mother, but they are never separated from their parents until adults."* [p. 567. See p. 897. This state of society is prevalent in the Indian Archipelago. See a description of Malay Slavery by the Acting President of Fort Marlborough in 1813. Par. Papers, pp. 203-205.]
The evils of slavery are innumerable. "To remedy the evil," says one of the Judges in India, "it appeared to me highly necessary that it should be ascertained and acknowledged, and its extent fully understood."† [Par. Papers, p. 308.] The propriety of this appears from the want of information respecting slavery in India. The following extracts from the valuable Papers on this subject, it is hoped will rouse the attention of Britain, to the state of slavery in her eastern dominions.
"No progress in arts or science can be expected," says the worthy Judge of Bundlecund, "from unhappy beings whose daily reflections press their forlorn condition upon their thoughts. The rudest cultivation of the earth is performed with reluctancy, by wretches whose miseries know no end, but in the moments of repose. Perhaps exposed to the burning heat of a vertical sun, immerged to the knees in water, stagnate and unwholesome, respiring a vapour inimical to existence; perhaps buried alive in mines replete with noxious minerals and baneful air, which slowly consumes the human frame. Or if (which is the summit of a slave's good fortune) they meet with a more lenient lord, still their comforts are embittered by the dread of a change. The stroke of death, or the pressure of misfortune, may transfer them with their former master's cattle or his lands, to a less tender lord; devoid of any established mode of providing for, or bringing up a family, and fearful of entering into the marriage state, having no protection or security that their dearest and most tender connexions will not be set at nought by the capricious lust of pampered power, population suffers.
"In Hindostan slaves are kept for show, or employed in the meanest and most laborious offices of servitude. In ancient times slaves were bred to trades; to cultivate the sciences and other philosophic studies, and some of this class distinguished themselves by their abilities, and contributed to enlighten mankind. But how much more speedily has general improvement increased, since the establishment of freedom through the principal parts of Europe. The freest nations have ever been the first to dispel the clouds of error, and brighten the dawnings of knowledge into the meridian splendour of truth. If any thing can add to the horror which the idea of slavery raises in every human breast, it is the reflection that, by the Mussulman law respecting female slaves, the master is not only legal lord of their persons for purposes of laborious services, but for sensual gratification; even such as his unnatural passions may impel his brutality to indulge. It is not less shocking to reflect that women, who have spent their youth and worn out their persons in the grossest debauchery, when their faded beauty no longer produces their wonted luxuries, and even their former paramours in guilt turn from them with disgust, purchase female children for the avowed purpose of the most licentious life. These females, were such injurious practices prevented by the abolition of all slavery, would become useful members of the community, and add to the prosperity of the state, by the increase of their species.
"Under systematic slavery the minds of mankind are inevitably debased. Children being educated amongst, and attended by these wretches, imbibe their dispositions, and, having the examples of their parents always before their eyes, learn to consider those under them as a distinct race, unworthy of the rights of humanity. The first efforts of imitative cruelty are viewed by the parents without reprehension, their own minds having undergone the same perversion by the same tuition, and the practice of maturity having deadened their feelings; so that I fear, not unfrequently this early discovery of vicious inclination is considered by the fond, but mistaken parent, as a sure presage of spirit and future greatness. View the manners of those nations who tolerate slavery, and say whether this reasoning is not warranted by reality."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 298-300.]
Sir William Jones, in a charge to the grand jury at Calcutta, in 1785, described the miseries of slavery existing at that period, even in the metropolis of British India. "I am assured, from evidence which, though not all judicially taken, has the strongest hold on my belief, that the condition of slaves within our jurisdiction is, beyond imagination, deplorable; and that cruelties are daily practised on them, chiefly on those of the tenderest age and the weaker sex, which, if it would not give me pain to repeat, and you to hear, yet, for the honour of human nature, I should forbear to particularize. If I except the English from this censure, it is not through partial affection to my own countrymen, but because my information relates chiefly to people of other nations, who likewise call themselves Christians. Hardly a man or a woman exists in a corner of this populous town, who hath not at least one slave child, either purchased at a trifling price, or saved, perhaps, from a death that might have been fortunate, for a life that seldom fails of being miserable. Many of you, I presume, have seen large boats filled with such children, coming down the river for open sale at Calcutta; nor can you be ignorant that most of them were stolen from their parents, or bought, perhaps, for a measure of rice in a time of scarcity; and that the sale itself is a defiance of this government, by violating one of its positive orders, which was made some years ago, after a consultation of the most reputable Hindoos in Calcutta, who condemned such a traffic as repugnant to their shastra. The number of small houses, in which these victims are pent, makes it indeed very difficult for the settlement at large to be apprized of their condition; and, if the sufferers knew where or how to complain, their very complaints may expose them to still harsher treatment — to be tortured, if remanded, or if set at liberty, to starve. Be not discouraged by the difficulty of your inquiries; your vigilance cannot but surmount it; and one great example of a just punishment, not capital, will conduce more to the prevention of similar cruelties, than the strongest admonition or the severest verbal reproof. Should the slave-holders, through hardness of heart, or confidence in their places of concealment, persist in their crimes, you will convince them, that their punishment will certainly follow their offence, and the most hardened of them will, no doubt, discontinue the contest."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 10. For an affecting account of a slave girl seized at Serampore, see pp. 48-50.]
When Ziegenbalg baptized the five slaves on May 12, 1707, the first Protestant church in Tranquebar, purely meant for the South Indian Christians, began to take shape. [Germann, 1883, 529 f.: The three male slaves received their baptismal names as "Friedrich, Christian and Conrad." They were the servants of Johann Sigismund Hassius (1704-1716), the Danish Governor in Tranquebar. One woman was Sophia. She was a slave belonging to the tax collector Diedrich in Tranquebar. The fifth baptized person was Hetwiga, a slave girl belonging to Eidzil Abigael Bergs, the widow of the Danish pastor living in Tranquebar. Thus the first members of the Protestant church were slaves of Europeans [slaves of the Dutch!].
-- Genealogy of the South Indian Deities: An English translation of Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg's original German manuscript with a textual analysis and glossary [Christian Propaganda], by Daniel Jeyaraj
Slavery existed in Portuguese India after the 16th century. "Most of the Portuguese," says Albert. D. Mandelslo, a German itinerant writer, "have many slaves of both sexes, whom they employ not only on and about their persons, but also upon the business they are capable of, for what they get comes with the master."
The Dutch, too, largely dealt in slaves. They were mainly Abyssian, known in India as Habshis or Sheedes. The curious mixed race in Kanara on the West coast has traces of these slaves.
The Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade was primarily mediated by the Dutch East India Company, drawing captive labour from three commercially closely linked regions: the western, or Southeast Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Reunion); the middle, or Indian subcontinent (Malabar, Coromandel, and the Bengal/Arakan coast); and the eastern, or Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea (Irian Jaya), and the southern Philippines.
The Dutch traded slaves from fragmented or weak small states and stateless societies in the East beyond the sphere of Islamic influence, to the company's Asian headquarters, the "Chinese colonial city" of Batavia (Jakarta), and its regional centre in coastal Sri Lanka. Other destinations included the important markets of Malacca (Melaka) and Makassar (Ujungpandang), along with the plantation economies of eastern Indonesia (Maluku, Ambon, and Banda Islands), and the agricultural estates of the southwestern Cape Colony (South Africa).
On the Indian subcontinent, Arakan/Bengal, Malabar, and Coromandel remained the most important source of forced labour until the 1660s. Between 1626 and 1662, the Dutch exported on an average 150–400 slaves annually from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the first thirty years of Batavia's existence, Indian and Arakanese slaves provided the main labour force of the company's Asian headquarters. Of the 211 manumitted slaves in Batavia between 1646 and 1649, 126 (59.71%) came from South Asia, including 86 (40.76%) from Bengal....
In contrast with other areas of the Indian subcontinent, Coromandel remained the centre of a sporadic slave trade throughout the seventeenth century. In various short-lived expansions accompanying natural and human-induced calamities, the Dutch exported thousands of slaves from the east coast of India. A prolonged period of drought followed by famine conditions in 1618–20 saw the first large-scale export of slaves from the Coromandel coast in the seventeenth century. Between 1622 and 1623, 1,900 slaves were shipped from central Coromandel ports, like Pulicat and Devanampattinam. Company officials on the coast declared that 2,000 more could have been bought if only they had the funds....
The volume of the total Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade has been estimated to be about 15–30% of the Atlantic slave trade, slightly smaller than the trans-Saharan slave trade, and one-and-a-half to three times the size of the Swahili and Red Sea coast and the Dutch West India Company slave trades.
-- Slavery in India, by Wikipedia
In 1810 a claim was preferred before the court of Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, for the restoration of some slaves who had escaped from Nepaul, and sought an asylum in the British territory. Nine slaves were stated to have been purchased for 226 rupees. This sum was given by the British Government, and the slaves liberated. The depositions of two or three of them shew the cruel nature of slavery in Nepaul.
"Jeewee acknowledged that he was a slave, but alleged that, being employed in cultivating, and receiving nothing from the prosecutor, he had run away. He represented that if he should now return to the hills, the prosecutor would cut off his ears as a punishment for his offence.
"Dhunsree acknowledged that she was the slave of the prosecutor, saying, that she having killed her own child, was brought by the prosecutor before Meer Singh Tuppa, who gave her to him to keep as his slave, that this was the usual punishment for murder in the hilly country: she added, that, having received nothing from the prosecutor to eat, she had run off.
"Joonhee and Lamee also acknowledged that they were slaves, and alleged the same reason for having run away from the prosecutor.
"Oodhree, witness, deposed that Meer Singh Tuppa had given Nathee and Dhunsree to the prosecutor's son as payment of his monthly allowance; that Nathee had formerly been the slave of Shoobur Suen, and that Dhunsree, having killed her own child, had been given by Meer Singh Tuppa to the prosecutor, whose slave she had now been for three years. With respect to the other four persons, the prosecutor not having given them any present, they had therefore run off. He further stated, that it was the custom of the hilly country that, if any woman put to death her new-born infant, she was reduced to slavery by the ruler; but, if she be able to give her value to her master, he may free her; and, in case of a dispute regarding the amount of the purchase money, it is to be settled on the oath of the master." It is added, "that if the slaves were delivered to the prosecutor, he would certainly put them to death, on getting them to their own country."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 119, 120. See pp. 243, 244.]
The misery of arbitrary servitude is depicted in a very affecting manner, in the Par. Papers relative to thirty-five natives of Bengal, who, in 1813, were found in the service of Mr. W. Browne, at Sydney, New South Wales; they were discharged by the colonial magistrates, and restored to their native country, at the expense of the British Government in India.† [See pp. 267-296.] A few of their depositions before the magistrate are given.
"Chotee Lutchman, servant of Mr. Browne — I complain of want of food; I sometimes got rice, sometimes ottar and wheat, and dhal and corn, the same as the rest; I have been ill-treated while I was employed in the store. Mr. O'Brien tied a rope to me to awake me in case of alarm; I did not like it, and objected to it; Mr. O'Brien persisted in it, and then he gave me a rope's-ending. I used to do all sorts of work for him; I got a thrashing for throwing some straw out, which offended Mr. O'Brien, in consequence of which I went up to the farm; Mr. Browne ordered me back to Sydney, but as it rained he allowed me to remain till next day. I got drunk, for which Mr. P. Browne put me for three days on short allowance. I ran away in the bush; I was not flogged for it. I have worked on Sunday's for myself; if the others go home, I want to go also, but if they stop I will not. I had two bottles of rum charged to me; it was watered. I have lost my cast for eating victuals of Europeans, because I could get nothing else.
"Keereim, a table waiter of Mr. Browne's, sworn on the Koran, saith — I have to complain of bad and insufficient food. Mrs. Browne agreed I should be her table waiter, but, since I have been here, I have been put to the work of a groom and chamber-maid, and cooking the dog's victuals. I have often received a thump on the face, and a box on the ear, on frivolous occasions. I was once sent for by Lieutenant M'Quarie to prepare his hookah for him. I was told by the ladies to go in my cap; Mr. Browne asked me why I did so, and gave me five or six blows with his fist; I ran behind a cask, where I was so severely beaten that two men came and lifted me up, gave me water, took me in the kitchen, and nursed me. I was so beaten that I lay behind the cask for an hour; Mrs. Browne called out of the window, 'Give the rascal two or three more kicks.' Mr. Browne once gave me fifteen strokes with a horse-whip, because I did not get his breakfast ready in time; I still bear the marks. Both Mr. Brownes were up at the farm, and I was ordered by Mrs. B. to remove their chamber-pot; I refused to do so, and she made me do it, by which I have lost my cast. I applied for my provisions to the man who gives them out; he kicked me for asking for them. I came to Sydney to complain to Mr. Browne, and I was sent to the watch-house, brought before Mr. Wentworth, and by him discharged. Mr. Browne said he would investigate it; he came up, and gave the men a club to beat me with. I agreed for twenty seers of food per month; I have never received that quantity while I was in Sydney; I have received rice and ottar, but at the farm I had nothing but damaged corn; Mrs. Browne said, 'Shall I feed these boys upon rice?' Sometimes we had buttermilk, but always three parts of water; Mrs. Browne once said, 'You hog, you give me all the little potatoes, and keep all the large ones yourself.' I once received some good flour, but generally bad; I gave it to the dogs, and complained to Mrs. Browne, when she gave me some rather better. I want to go home, but, if I had been well-treated, I would have remained twenty years.
"The memorial of Chamine Dongrine, and of Charon Munny, respect fully sheweth: —
"That both memorialists engaged with Mrs. Browne of Calcutta, to serve her in New South Wales, and have both been employed on Mrs. Browne's farm; but, by reason of cruelty and ill-usage on their mistress's part, they pray humbly, but earnestly, to be released from such agreement. The former memorialist has to complain, that she was employed at field labour, such as commonly is done by men in this colony; and, having been put to bed of a male infant, she was ordered to return to work by Mrs. Browne, on the fifth day after the child was born! Upon remonstrating that she was not sufficiently strong, Mrs. Browne withheld her victuals; thereby compelling her to go reaping wheat, the infant lying on the ground of the store room locked up, which occasioned its death at twenty-one days old, for want of milk!
"Your memorialist, Charon Munny, has to represent, amongst a continued length of ill-treatment, that, having been forced to carry a large brazen vessel of great weight, she then being heavy with child, miscarried; the next day Mrs. Browne ordered her to work, such as carrying large logs, and other loads. Relying fully on the justice and humanity which distinguish every court under British administration, your petitioners submit their hardships to your consideration, should the same appear to require such redress as they ask."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 274-276, 281.]
Of the state of slavery in Malwa, in 1821, Sir John Malcolm observes, — "Male slaves are few in Malwa, and are generally treated more like adopted children than menials. The case is very different with females, who in almost every instance are sold to prostitution; some, it is true, rise to be favourite mistresses of their master, and enjoy both power and luxury, while others are raised by the success in life of their sons; but these are exceptions. The dancing women, who are all slaves, are condemned to a life of toil and vice, for the profit of others, and some of the first Rajpoot chiefs and zemindars in Malwa, who have from 50 to 200 female slaves in their family; after employing them in all the menial labours of their house during the day, send them at night to their own dwellings, where they are at liberty to form such connexions as they please; but a large share of the profits of that promiscuous intercourse, into which they fall, is annually exacted by their masters, who adds any children they have to his list of slaves. The female slaves in this condition, as well as those of the dancing sets, are not permitted to marry, and are often very harshly treated; so that the latter, from this cause and the connexions they form, are constantly in the habit of running away. If discovered, they are always given up, provided the deed of purchase can be produced; which with them, above all others, must be registered at the cutwall's chabootre at the period the slave is bought.
"It is not the habit of the native governments of Malwa, to take any cognizance of the punishment which masters inflict upon slaves, except such extend to their life, when they are responsible; they are in some cases cruelly treated, but this is not general; it is indeed against the interest of the master to do so, when there are so many opportunities of escaping from his authority. The state of Malwa for the last thirty years has been favourable to the species of slavery described, and that province is filled with the mixed progeny of these unfortunate women. This traffic must however now decrease, as the Gwarriahs and others who carried it on, can no longer steal or conceal children with that confidence of impunity which they had long done. A few years ago, no man dare leave his own district to inquire after his wife and daughter; the whole country can now be traversed in safety. From this cause, and the discoveries of guilt which have recently been made, the stealers of women and children have taken alarm; while the restitution to their relatives of slaves, bought by them at high prices, must deter future purchasers."* [Par. Papers, pp. 415, 416.]
The Committee appointed by the Government of Prince of Wales' Island, in 1808, to report on the propriety of the abolition of slavery, advert to one of the many evils of this state of society in the following terms: — "Allowing that the abolition of slavery might have the effect to retard the increase of the population, by partially preventing the arrival of settlers, it would benefit the island in another respect more essentially — by effectually putting a stop to the infamous practice (still existing, notwithstanding every effort and regulation of Government) of purchasing females for the purpose of hiring them, and compelling them to ply as public prostitutes, and enable many industrious Chinese and others to obtain wives, whom this infamous practice has hitherto prevented (the great gain resulting from it, enabling the bawds to purchase these females at most extravagant prices); and consequently by connecting these Chinese and others more permanently, through the medium of families, with the settlement, will not only much improve the character of the community, but tend ultimately to afford a more certain source of increase of population than from casual residents."* [Par. Papers, p. 441.]
The evils of slavery in the Island of Nias, near Sumatra, are forcibly depicted in an article from the Singapore Chronicle; —
"The circumstances that attend the traffic of slaves are no less revolting to humanity, than those which marked it on the coast of Africa. The unhappy victims torn by violence from their friends and country, and delivered, pinioned hand and foot, to the dealers in human flesh, are kept bound during the whole course of the voyage — a precaution which is found necessary to the safety of the crew. Instances have occurred, where the captives have seized a moment of liberty, to snatch up the first weapon within their reach, stab all whom they encountered, and complete the scene by leaping overboard, and voluntarily seeking a watery death! The sudden change of diet to which they are subjected on board a ship, added to the confinement and dejection of mind, prove fatal to many. Of a cargo of thirty slaves, twenty have been known to perish before the conclusion of the voyage; and on a moderate calculation it may be estimated, that, of the total number purchased, one-fourth never reach their destination.
"On the scenes of violence that take place in the country itself, in the search of victims, it is needless to dwell; they can be better imagined than described. We shall relate one well authenticated instance, given by an eye-witness. A plan had been laid to attack a single insulated house, inhabited by a man, his wife, and children, and to seize the whole family. At the appointed hour the house was surrounded; the man no sooner discovered his situation, and saw that there was no escape, than he locked himself in the inner apartment, drew his kris, killed first his wife and children, and then plunged it into his own breast, preferring death to a life of slavery!
"Independently of the habits of cruelty and rapine, which the slave trade tends to infuse, the exorbitant profits it holds out, create an aversion to the slower advantages of legitimate commerce and agricultural labour. In order to convey their produce to the sea-ports, the inhabitants of the interior are obliged to unite in parties of several hundreds, all completely armed, and, with their loads of rice on their backs, descend in order of battle to the shores to dispose of it; such is the general insecurity and distrust, that the husbandman goes armed to his labour in the fields, they select the most difficult situations for their villages, and construct their houses with every precaution against surprises."† [See Imp. Mag., Jan. 1830.— For an account of the misery of slavery in the Isle of France, see Memoir of Mrs. Judson, p. 81, respecting a Burmese female slave; see also p. 306.]
Slavery in Cape Colony, is thus described by a modern writer: — "The timid silent step with which the young slave girl enters the room — the subdued tone in which the message is delivered — her looks of apathy, where all the warm stirring blood of youth seems tamed down; — and when I have gazed upon dark lustreless eyes that were born to flash, and upon the listless form that was born to bound, I could not but feel, that the being before me was bowed down — that all the energies which liberty would have called forth, were crushed beneath the severity of her lot. In travelling, when stopping at a Boor's house, I remember thanking a slave girl for some trifling service, when she turned to her companion, with a look of more than surprise, and they both burst into uncontrollable laughter — laughter, that to my ear, "had no mirth in it;" for it told of a state in which blows might follow the non-performance of any command; but to which thanks were an unknown sound. All this is characteristic of slavery, and strikes an Englishman from its strong contrast with the respectful, yet cheerful manners of the servants of this country."
Many pages of the Par. Documents on East India Slavery are occupied in detailing the state of the slaves in Malabar; especially in the investigation of the conduct of a Mr. Browne, of Anjarakandy, towards his slaves (see pp. 560-790). A few extracts only can be given of the examinations of these slaves, taken by the Magistrate of Zillah North Malabar.
"I was with five children who were tending cattle, and while at play two mopillas seized me and took me that very night to Aloppi, where they gave me to Assen Ally, who sent me in a moonchoo to Mahe; thence I was sent to Anjarakandy, where they made me eat Pooliars' food; before, if I should be defiled by Pooliars, I must wash myself. I am not willing to return to Anjarakandy, if I can be admitted again to my cast; I wish to go to my country. My house name is Tekkadati.
"My tambooran is Panakada Canden; I was asleep at night when Panaparambil Pamikaree seized and brought me away, and gave me to Ayecagata Shuk Moidun, who gave me to a Sahib at Cochin; thence I was put in a moonchoo and landed at Chetwa; whence Coony Pareay and Bappen brought me by land to the Sahib, at the Bangsaul of Anjarakandy, twelve other poliars who were also brought with me, are now here.
"I was at work, when, without the knowledge of my tambooran and poolian (husband), myself and two of my children, Dampan and Kanda, were seized by Eddacatta Vudeen, mopla and some others, and brought to Cochin, detained there eleven days, and then given to Walladara who brought us in a manchoo and landed us at Chitwa. Besides myself there were eleven others, whence two moplas of Mahe, named Coony Parray and Bappen, brought us to Anjarakandy, and made us stay with a Sahib; those eleven that were brought with me are present here."* [Par. Papers, pp. 605, 609, 613.]
"Nothing can be more abject and wretched (says T.H. Baber, Esq., Magistrate in Malabar, in 1813,) than the condition of that degraded race of mortals, the slaves of Malabar, 'whose huts (to us the words of Mr. Francis Buchanan in his tour through Malabar) are little better than mere baskets, and whose diminutive stature, and squalid appearance, evidently shew a want of adequate nourishment.'"* [Par Papers, pp. 760, 761.]
"The slave alone (says Mr. Graeme in his Report of Malabar, 1822) has his sieve of a hut in the centre of the rice lands; but on the coast at least, he is an industrious, and not an unintelligent being, in good condition, and nothing deficient in bodily frame. In the interior, he is a wretched, half-starved, diminutive creature, stinted in his food, and exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, whose state demands that commiseration and amelioration which may confidently be expected from the humanity of the British Government, provided it can be shewn, that a change for the better can be effected without hazarding an evil of any formidable magnitude; without incurring the risk of general discontent, or exciting a worse feeling towards the objects themselves, by an unsuccessful endeavour to mitigate their ill treatment. The slaves of Malabar, known generally by the name of chermurs, are entirely praedial, or rustic, being engaged only in the cultivation of rice lands and plantations. I except, of course, the Mussulmans, who may be domestic slaves, and live in the houses of their masters, and partake of all the privileges of their religion. This kind of slavery is a social fraternity, and is a step to the best comforts, and the highest honours of life among Mussulmans. It is totally dissimilar, in every essential point, to the servitude of the chermur, which is the most prevalent designation of the slaves of Malabar."† [P. 914.]
"In the Calicut district, there is an anomaly in the general system among the Paliur, the Kulladee, and the Kunnakur, which are the only three casts of slaves residing there. There is a mixture of the two customs of mukkatayum and murroo mukkatayum, that is, the one or the other does not obtain separately in different families in the district, but in all the families throughout the district the inheritance partakes of the two modes; and, half of the children are considered to go with the mother, and consequently to belong to her proprietor, and half to be attached to the father, and therefore to be the property of his master. Where the number may not admit of an equal division, the odd number is reckoned to be the mother's! The wife of a Palium, and of all the casts who observe the murroo mukkatayum, may be sold separately, and may therefore belong to a different master from the master of her husband, but she cannot be separated from her husband; she must be allowed to remain with him; she is purchased separately in consideration of her future offspring, which, by the custom of murroo mukkatayum, would become the property of her purchaser. In the other casts, the females are not separately saleable, neither the wife nor her female children. The daughters become the temporary property of the masters of their husbands; but this right of property ceases upon the death of the husband, and the wife returns to the house of her father. The rules of Malabar prescribe that a slave of the cast of Poleyan, Waloovan, and Brayen, shall remain seventy-two paces from a Bramin and from a Nair, and forty-eight from a Tean! A slave of the Kunakur cast sixty-four paces from a Bramin and Nair, and forty from a Tean; and the other casts generally forty-eight paces from a Bramin and Nair, twenty-four from a Tean! In the northern division these rules are deviated from in practice, in favour of the slaves; whilst in the southern division, they are thought to be exceeded in strictness."* [Par. Papers, p. 920.]
One of the Malabar Magistrates, in 1823, suggested that, on account of "certain instances of cruelty practised on slaves by their masters, the forfeiture of the right of property over slaves should be made the penalty for ill usage." — Slaves appear occasionally to have their noses cut off by their cruel masters. "Adverting (says one of the Judges) to the facts elicited during the foregoing trial, it will no longer be denied that cruelties are practised upon the slaves of Malabar; and that our courts and cutcherries are no restraints upon their owners or employers. Whatever doubts may exist with regard to the exact period of the death of the Cherooman Koorry Noryady, or to the immediate cause of his death, there can be none as to the fact, of his nose having been amputated, as well as those of three other slaves belonging to the same owner; and that, although the case had come before the Magistrate, no steps have been taken to bring the perpetrators of such horrid barbarities to justice. Upon the latter head it maybe argued that the slaves themselves preferred no complaint: but, if it is to depend upon the slaves themselves, to seek for the protection of the laws, their situation must be hopeless indeed; for, having no means of subsistence, independent of their owners or employers, their repairing to and attending upon a public cutcherry is a thing physically impossible; and even though those provisions of the regulations, that require all complaints to be preferred in writing, were dispensed with in favour of slaves, and they were exempted from the payment of tolls at the numerous ferries they would have to pass, and though an allowance were made to them by government during their detention at the cutcherries and courts, unless forfeiture of the right of property over slaves was the penalty for ill usage, their situation would only become more intolerable than it was before they complained."* [Par. Papers on Slavery, p. 928.]
The last page but one of the Par. Papers contain the following remarks respecting the misery of slavery in British India. "The second Judge makes mention of two cases tried in Canara, wherein the accused were charged with causing the death of their slaves by severe chastisement, which, he states, induced him to make inquiry at Mangalore, regarding the prevailing custom in instances where the slave of one master marries the slave of another; and particularly whether their respective owners can prevent them from living together. The second Judge remarks that the frequent absence from his 'master's work, which occasioned the deceased's chastisement in one of the above cases, was owing to visits to his wife, who resided at a distance on her master's estate, who would not allow her to live with her husband.'' He was told that it is usual for the female slave to reside with her husband, and, if his residence be at such a distance as to prevent her from coming to work daily at her master's house, the master of the husband must indemnify her owner by the payment, annually, of half a moorah of rice; but, if the master should employ the female at his own house, he must employ also her husband, whose owner he must indemnify by the payment annually of one moorah of rice. The Judge offers his opinion that the Magistrate should correctly inform himself on this point, and be required under the authority of Government, after due notice given, to enforce the obligation on the part of the owners, to allow their married slaves to live together. The court of Foujdaree Adawlut are of opinion that the interference here proposed to be exercised by the Magistrate, could not be put in practice without the enactment of a Regulation for that purpose; and they are not prepared to suggest provisions with this view which would be free from objection; should, however, the Honourable the Governor in council deem it fit to give effect to the humane recommendation of the Judge, it may be in the power of the provincial court, in communication with the Magistrates in the provinces of Malabar and Canara, to devise a mode to prevent the separation of married slaves, without any violation of rights, which the established usages in this respect confer."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 935, 936.]
This chapter may be closed, by contrasting "the effects of slavery, with those of voluntary servitude, under a system of liberty," as described by the Judge of Bundlecund.
SLAVERY.
"1. It is the constant object of the master, to get the greatest quantity of labour at the cheapest rate; consequently he stints the slave in food and raiment. It may be urged, by clothing and feeding well, the slave would be strong, and better able to endure fatigue, but it is the constant practice of avarice, by short-sighted policy, to counteract its own wishes: a trifling immediate advantage being generally preferred to much more essential objects, if more remote.
2. It is the uniform endeavour of the slave to mitigate the hardship of his lot by evading toil, which brings him no advantage.
3. The slave, finding himself subject to capricious treatment and change of masters, will seldom add the cares of providing for a family of children to his other woes, and consequently avoids marriage.
4. In their old age, it is the master's interest to get rid of the feeble, who eat but cannot labour; consequently the worn down slave is neglected, and perishes for want of care, having no family or children to ease the pains of sickness, or prop the weakness of decline, by the soothing attention of filial duty.
5. In times of scarcity and famine, the master must starve his slaves, send them to plunder, or emancipate them. The latter, his avarice will never permit.
6. When slaves can sell themselves or their children, numbers are induced to flock to great towns and cities, where many die from disappointed expectation, who would otherwise pick up a scanty subsistence in scattered villages.
7. It would appear to be the advantage of masters, to promote the rearing of their slaves. This, like many other theoretic ideas, is found to be fallacious, and contradicted by fact. The expense of rearing, and the loss incurred by the indispensable attendance of the parents on their offspring, has always made proprietors prefer recruiting casual diminutions of their slaves by purchase; even in Rome, where slavery was universal. How much more will masters avoid such trouble and expense in India, where I have seen, in a time of local scarcity only, a stout lad of fourteen or fifteen years old, sold for the trifling consideration of two rupees, scarcely a month's wages for the meanest servant.
8. Women of bad fame purchase females for the most public prostitution, which are thereby lost to the community.
9. Children are sometimes sold into bondage by the villany of others, in the case of death or absence of parents, instances of which are not uncommon.
10. The sanction of slavery, not many years ago, gave birth to an infamous traffic, and as injurious to our government as disgraceful to those concerned, diminishing our resources, by depriving us of subjects."
VOLUNTARY SERVITUDE.
1. The same object actuates the master here also, but the servant being free to stipulate, his interest counteracts that of the other, and the contest reduces and establishes the price of labour to its just rate; that is, it allows the servant to provide for himself and family, and leaves the master a competent profit.
2. It is the general wish of servants to satisfy their masters, that they may not lose their employment; or, if their services are no longer requisite, to entitle them to a recommendation.
3. The servant knowing he can dispose of his earnings as he pleases, and being provided with a fund for the provision of a wife, &c., will marry; thus the slate reaps benefit by the increase of population.
4. Under voluntary servitude, by the time old age approaches, many have saved a little from the rewards of their services, to assist in softening the hardships of sickness and debility, &c.; and almost all, having married and added to the general stock of industry and riches, have some children to soothe the evening of life. Though this may have little weight in the scale of political reasoning, it ought to have some in that of humanity.
5. In scarcity, a servant is not harder to subsist than a slave; he will not eat more, and, having his wages, he is better enabled to evade the effects of famine, by making timely provision for its approach.
6. Were slavery abolished, this evil could not happen: knowing they could not sell themselves or children, they would not be tempted to cities in such numbers; having only a precarious charity to rely on, they would substitute many modes of supplying a mere sustenance, from berries, herbs, &c.
7. Were voluntary servitude substituted for slavery, avarice, real or mistaken, could not affect population.
8. Abolish the unnatural law of slavery, and the evil could not occur.
9. Nor this.
10. Nor this.
"The effects of slavery are as plainly injurious, as the benefits of freedom are obvious and undoubted."* [Par. Papers, pp. 301-303.]
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CHAP. II. Nature and success of efforts for the abolition of the Slave Trade in India — melioration of Slavery by the Hindoos, Mussulmans, French, Dutch, and British, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 312-328
CHAP. II. Nature and success of efforts for the abolition of the Slave Trade in India — melioration of Slavery by the Hindoos, Mussulmans, French, Dutch, and British.
The abolition of the Slave Trade, by the British nation, was attended with very salutary effects in British India. It is pleasing to trace the influence of just and humane principles in the abolition of the Slave Trade in our Eastern dominions; and the nature of the efforts, though partial, to meliorate the existing state of slavery in those extensive territories.
Lord Cornwallis, Governor General of India, in a letter to the Court of Directors in 1789, states his detestation of slavery, and his purpose to suppress it as far as he was able. — "An infamous traffic has, it seems, long been carried on in this country by the low Portuguese, and even by several foreign European seafaring people and traders, in purchasing and collecting native children in a clandestine manner, and exporting them for sale to the French islands, and other parts of India. I have, at different times, taken steps to prevent the continuance of practices which are so shocking to humanity, and so pernicious to your interests. And, in order to deter all persons under the authority of this government, from being concerned in that species of trade, I lately directed that a commander of a country vessel, who carried off some children last winter, should be prosecuted criminally before the Supreme Court; and I have likewise published a proclamation, to give notice that any person living under the Company's protection, or in any shape under the authority of this government, who shall be convicted of carrying on, or aiding, or abetting the barbarous traffic that I have mentioned, will be certain of meeting with the most exemplary punishment.
"There are many obstacles in the way against abolishing slavery entirely in the Company's dominions, as the number of slaves is considerable, and the practice is sanctioned both by the Mahomedan and Hindoo laws. I have, however, a plan* ["No further notice of the plan, here adverted to by his Lordship, has been traced upon the records of the Bengal Government."] under consideration, which I hope to be able to execute without doing much injury to the private interests, or offering great violence to the feelings of the natives, and which has for its object the abolition of the practice under certain limitations, and the establishing some regulations to alleviate, as much as may be possible, the misery of those unfortunate people during the time that they may be retained in that wretched situation."* [Par. Papers, p. 13.]
A Proclamation was made in the same year, and was "published in the English and country languages." Referring to the period at which it was issued, this document must be read with considerable interest. See the Proclamation at the foot of the page.
It is pleasing at this period to see the French authorities in India co-operating with the British, in suppressing this trade in human beings. "We understand," says the Calcutta Gazette in Sep. 1789, "Monsieur Montigny, Governor of Chandernagore, has lately issued a proclamation prohibiting all persons within the jurisdiction of the French Government, from purchasing or transporting any of the Natives of these provinces as slaves; and, in order more effectually to prevent this infamous practice, a reward of forty rupees is offered to any person who shall give information of the offender, besides the sum of ten rupees to be given to each slave who shall be released in consequence. Both sums to be paid by the offender. The master attendant of Chandernagore is also directed to see that no Native be embarked, without an order signed by the Governor; and all captains of vessels trading to the port of Chandernagore are strictly prohibited from receiving any Natives on board. Nothing can reflect greater honour on the humanity of Monsieur Montigny, and the liberal policy of the French Government, than the above order; and we have no doubt this co-operation with the measures already taken by our own government, will put an effectual stop to this odious traffic."* [Par. Papers, pp. 18, 19. See also in 1791, pp. 34, 487, 493, 520.]
Some free Natives of Bengal having been taken to St. Helena, and sold as slaves, the practice was prohibited by authority. The Hon. Court of Directors, in a Letter to the Governor General in 1793, observe — "It having been stated in the letter to you from the Governor and Council of St. Helena, in July, 1791, that they have heard of other complaints of the Natives of Bengal, who were free, having been unjustly sold on that Island, we direct that you cause an advertisement to be issued for the discovery thereof, and that you take the most effectual means for liberating such as may be under this unfortunate predicament; and for putting a stop to a practice so disgraceful to humanity, reporting your proceedings for our information."* [Par. Papers, p. 45. By a recent Regulation all persons born on the Island are free.] To secure the return of Native servants, proceeding from Bengal to Europe, it was determined by the Government that a bond of 1000 rupees should be given for each individual. "The humane purpose of this bond," says the Hon. Court, in 1796, "is sufficient to ensure our approbation of the measure."
The murder of a slave, under the Bengal Government, is made a capital offence. In 1799 was issued "A Regulation for certain Modifications of the Mahomedan Law in cases of Murder." It enjoins — "In every case of wilful murder, wherein the crime may appear to the court of Nizamut Adawlut to have been fully established against the prisoner, but the futwa of the law officers of that court shall declare the prisoner not liable under the Mahomedan law to suffer death by kissans, (or retaliation), solely on the ground of the prisoner's being father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, or other ancestor of the slain; or of the heirs of the slain, or one of the heirs of the slain, being the child, or grandchild, or other descendant of the prisoner; or of the slain having been the slave of the prisoner or of any other person, or a slave appropriated for the service of the public; or on any similar ground of personal distinction and exception from the general rules of equal justice; the court of Nizamut Adawlut, provided they see no circumstances in the case which may render the prisoner a proper object of mercy, shall sentence him to suffer death, as if the futwa of their law officers had declared him liable to kissans, or to suffer death by seazut, as authorized by the Mahomedan law in all cases of wilful murder, under the discretion vested in the Magistrate, with regard to this principle of punishment, for the ends of public justice."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 76.]
In 1796 a communication was addressed to the Governor of Bombay, from the Sultan and Chiefs of the island of Johanna, praying for assistance against the incursions of the French and the Madagascar people, who destroyed and enslaved the inhabitants. They offer to "give these islands to the Company," and that "whatever shall be produced in this country, half shall be for you and the other half for us." In consideration of the friendly treatment which ships invariably received, at Johanna, some assistance was given to these islanders.* [See the letters, which are very interesting documents, pp. 82-84.] In 1813 an application was made to Bombay, by the Sultan of Johanna, respecting some persons who had been carried from the island to the Mauritius by the French, and there reduced to slavery. The Hon. Court of Directors very humanely remark, upon the proceedings of the Indian Government, — "With respect to the circumstance alleged by the King of Johanna, of certain persons, his subjects, having been carried by the French to Mauritius, and there made slaves, we entirely approve of your suggestion to the Governor of the Mauritius, for the purchase of such individuals, if in a state of slavery; and likewise of your further application to the Governor of Mauritius, respecting several natives of our Indian provinces of both sexes, being in a state of slavery on that island, and requesting his assistance in obtaining their release, or in purchasing their freedom, and charging the expense to your Government."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 224.]
In 1811 an important "Regulation for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries, and the sale of slaves in the Territories immediately dependent on the Presidency of Fort William" was passed by the Vice President in Council. Copies of the regulation were ordered to be circulated among the officers of the Bengal Government, and also forwarded to those of Fort St. George, and Bombay. It was also resolved, that this "Regulation be sent to the political department, in order that a communication may be made to any of the Native States, which it may be deemed proper to apprize of the purport of the Regulation.''‡ [See p. 99.]
The Resident at Delhi, in 1812, C. T. Metcalfe, Esq., actively prosecuted the humane measures of the Government. He wrote to the Chief Secretary as follows: — "The slave trade, which has been prohibited for a considerable time in the other provinces in the British dominions in India, continued to exist in the district of Delhi subsequently to its abolition in other places, no local orders having been issued for its discontinuance; and, in consequence, the resort of slave merchants to this quarter was becoming more frequent than ever. Being convinced, that it was not the intention of Government; that this iniquitous traffic should be encouraged in any part of its territories; satisfied rather that it was, and is, its earnest desire to abolish so abominable a commerce; I consider myself to be only fulfilling the manifest intentions of the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council, in putting a stop to the sale of human beings in the town and country of Delhi. I have accordingly proclaimed the orders of Government for the abolition of the slave trade."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 101.]
The officers of the "Nepaul administration, in 1811 requested the co-operation of the British Government, in their measures towards an amelioration of the situation of the inhabitants of the mountains." The co-operation requested was cheerfully granted.† [Par. Papers, p. 115.]
The proceedings in India, are particularly worthy of notice, as it respects the bearing of the Act of Parliament, passed in the fifty-first year of his Majesty George III, commonly called the Slave Felony Act, or "An Act for rendering more effectual an Act made in the forty-seventh year of his Majesty's reign, intituled, 'An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.'" Two hundred copies of this important act were printed in Calcutta, and duly circulated. A Letter to the Chief Secretary at Fort St. George, and a similar one to Bombay, shew the sense taken of this act in India. See this important communication at the foot of the page.
The Bombay Government, in 1813, issued a "Regulation for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries, and the sale of such slaves, in the territories immediately dependent on the Presidency of Bombay."* [Par. Papers, p. 216.] A difference of opinion upon the application of this act to India has been entertained; that of the Advocate General of Bombay, H. G. Macklin, Esq., is expressed in the following terms, in a letter to the Secretary to Government: —
A Proclamation against the slave trade was issued by the Government in Madras, in March 1790, similar to the one issued by the Marquis Cornwallis, in 1789.† [See Par. Papers as above, pp. 469, 470.]
It is grateful to see the Dutch authorities in India, at this period, co-operating with the British, in suppressing the detestable traffic in human beings. The following letter was addressed to the Governor of Madras, in 1793: — "Favoured with your Honour's letter, we cannot indeed emphatically enough express our indignation and aversion, with regard to so horrible an event, as the exportation of 180 natives from Bimlipatam, as slaves, in a French brigantine bound to the French islands; which, however, according to the declaration that came enclosed, was surprised and taken at Pedir by the Malays, who killed all those that were on board of her, and did not escape out of their hands.
"To shew how much the exportation of the unhappy creatures merits our disgrace, we shall renew, in the strongest manner, our orders to our northern factories, to oppose such inhuman practice; not only in our subjects, but also with all possible diligence in strangers, in case they should think our territory a safe place for it; with a charge to deliver the unhappy creatures out of the hands of those who will not desist, but are refractory, either by good or forcible means, and to send them to one of your agents there, for the protection of their liberty, and the benefit of their support. We feel the propriety of your Honour's resolution, that such kidnapping may be prevented, to check it with exemplary punishment; and, in case any of our subjects transgress the orders instituted against it, they shall be seized and delivered over to justice, to be punished according to the exigency of the case."* [Par. Papers, pp. 537, 538.]
These extracts shew the efforts of the European authorities in India, with the occasional co-operation of the Natives, to abolish the Slave trade. The success experienced in these humane efforts should have encouraged them to attempt more than has yet been done; — not merely to meliorate, but to abolish slavery in the East. In consequence of the active measures described, many slaves were liberated, and their importation into India, by sea, in a great degree prohibited.
It is interesting to trace the melioration of slavery in the East. From the following extract of a translation of the Hindoo Laws, transmitted by the Bengal Government to the Hon. Court of Directors in 1774, it appears that the Hindoos admit various modes of enfranchising slaves. —
"I make no scruple," says Sir W. Jones, in his charge to the Grand Jury at Calcutta, in 1785, "to declare my own opinion, that absolute unconditional slavery, by which one human creature becomes the property of another, like a horse or an ox, is happily unknown to the laws of England, and that no human law could give it a just sanction; yet, though I hate the word, the continuance of it, properly explained, can produce little mischief. I consider slaves as servants under a contract, expressed or implied, and made either by themselves or by such persons as are authorized by nature or law to contract for them, until they attain a due age to cancel or confirm any compact that may be disadvantageous to them. I have slaves whom I rescued from death or misery, but consider them as other servants, and shall certainly tell them so, when they are old enough to comprehend the difference of the terms."* [Par. Papers, pp. 9, 10, and 710.]
In the province of Dacca many children were kidnapped, given away, or sold by their parents into slavery; a number of these were recovered, and restored to their parents or relations. The Collector of Dacca, in 1787, addressed the Superintendents of Police at Calcutta — "I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, accompanying twelve boys and twenty-one girls belonging to this district, under charge of Churrecmeulah and three other peons, and which, in obedience to the wish of the Right Honourable the Governor General, shall be restored to their parents or relations, in the same manner as those transmitted to me two years since."† [p. 12.]
It appears to be a received opinion among the Mahomedans, that murder may be atoned for by money, or by giving a slave. In 1790 two persons, named Mungaly Khan, and Assud Khan, were convicted of the murder of Nowaz Khan, and were ordered to make a pecuniary compensation to the plaintiffs, viz. Peranow the widow, and the brothers of the deceased. In conformity with the Nawaub's orders, they were called upon to pay "the price of blood." The widow stated, "Mungaly Khan being unable to pay a pecuniary compensation, has given to me his son, to be my servant for life. Assud Khan has given me, in satisfaction of the murder, his share of the village of Caympoor." The other plaintiffs declaring, "In consequence of the poverty and distress of Mungaly Khan and Assud Khan, they remitted their claim to a compensation." The Governor General, Earl Cornwallis, and his council, disapproved of the proceeding, agreeing that — "The Naib Nazim be recommended not to admit of Mungaly Khan's making over his son as a slave for life to Peranow, and that he be requested to levy the amount of the compensation, which it may be determined to exact from Mungaly Khan, by the customary mode of process." ‡ [p. 27.]
Ceylon has been a market of slaves from Bengal. In 1789, a "Captain Horrebow took on board at Fultah, 150 children, whom, previously to his departure, he purchased in Bengal: he transported them, under English colours, to Columbo, where they were sold as slaves. The Dutch Governor, Mynbeer Van De Grave, in terms most honourable to himself, refused to permit their being landed; but Captain Horrebow found means to elude the vigilance of the Governor, and availed himself of an excellent market for his wares."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 14.] He "was sentenced to be imprisoned for three months, to pay a fine of 500 rupees, and to give security for his future good behaviour for three years; himself in a bond of 10,000 rupees, and two sureties in 5,000 rupees each."† [p. 21.]
The state of slavery in Ceylon, anterior to its subjugation by the British, and the mitigation of it proposed by the conquering power, are ably stated in a communication to the Marquis Wellesley, Governor General of India, in 1800. A short extract only can be given: —
The abolition of slavery in Ceylon is thus described by Sir A. Johnstone, in a letter to W. W. Wynn, Esq. —
The valuable co-operation of the Rajah of Kotah with the Resident at Delhi, in 1808, in the suppression of the sale of children into slavery, shews how much Europeans in India may accomplish for the interests of humanity.† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 99, 100.]
While the Island of Java continued in the possession of the British, the abolition of the slave trade, and the improvement of the condition of the slaves, was considered an object of importance. The importation of slaves into the Island, after the commencement of 1813, was prohibited by Proclamation; and instructions on the subject were sent to "the Islands depending on the Government."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 185. See also pp. 168, 169.] Previously to the transfer of Java to the Dutch, the slaves were emancipated. Upon which the Hon. Court of Directors declared, — "We entirely approve of your proceedings, in emancipating the slaves at Java, previously to the transfer of that place to the Dutch, as we do of the option you gave to all the slaves, of being conveyed at the public charge to their native country."† [p. 265.]
The slave trade appears to have been very effectually suppressed under the Bengal Government, by the humane and vigorous efforts above described. The magistrates of the Bareilly Court, in 1812, state — "We have now the honour to submit attested copies of the answers received from eight out of the nine magistrates under our authority; from which it will be evident to Government that, since the promulgation of the Regulation above specified, the traffic in slaves imported from foreign countries is almost, if not entirely, suppressed in the districts of Bareilly, Moradabad, Cawnpoor, Furruckabad, Etawah, Agra, Alligurh, and Seharunpore South."‡ [p. 140.] "But, it should be understood, the slaveowners still disposed of those who were actually slaves, as part of their real property." § [p. 111.]
The British Government in India has abolished the duty levied on the sale of slaves, by the former Government of Kumaon, and suppressed the traffic in slaves in those countries bordering on Nepaul, which were brought under its authority by treaty in 1815. This duty or tax was for every male and female slave two rupees eight annas. "We cannot touch on this subject," said the late Marquis of Hastings, "without adverting to a consequence of our having wrested the hill country from the Ghorkas, in which your Hon. Court will feel the most lively satisfaction. A slave trade of great extent has been totally extinguished; and the hapless families, from whom the Ghorkas used to tear away the children for sale, have now to look with joyful confidence on the security bestowed towards their offspring by the British Government."|| [p. 266. See Heber's Jour., vol. i. p. 192.]
In this part of India, an extraordinary practice existed, of selling wives and widows, which has been abolished.¶ ["The people of Laos are in great dread of the Burmese, and the cruel system of border warfare and man-catching, to which our occupation of the Tenasserim provinces has put an end to the southward, still continues in force to the north, between Laos and Ara. It would appear that, as in Burmah, women are bought and sold at Laos. The price of one is ten head of cattle, or twenty-five rupees." — Asi. Jour., Nov. 1830, p. 256.] The Governor General, in 1826, wrote to the Court of Directors —
The Magistrates of Calcutta immediately addressed the Government upon the subject, acknowledging, — "Under the provision of Reg. X., 1811, a bond is taken from the commanders of a certain class of ships, previously to their being allowed to land their cargoes; and they are also required to give in a list of their crews and passengers. We must confess, however, that these are very inadequate restrictions to prevent the introduction of slaves into the town; the penalty could only be enforced by the detection of the offence, which is attended with much difficulty."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 377.] Translations in the Persian and Arabic languages were made of an extract of the 51 Geo. III. c. 23,† [Par. Papers, p. 380. By a more recent Act of Parliament, I Geo. IV. c. 27, the traffic in slaves has been declared to be an act of piracy, and all British subjects who may be concerned in it, are liable to be dealt with accordingly.] for circulation among the merchants; which measure was certainly of a decisive character.
Slaves appear still to be clandestinely imported into India. A Calcutta Paper, in June 1830, contains the following extract from a native paper: — '"Jewellery, and other articles, to the value of four lacks of rupees, had been offered by a European jeweller for purchase by the king (of Oude), who took other merchandise in the shape of a batch of newly-imported Abyssinians, which had been offered for sale, and bought by his Majesty.' This demands, and we hope will receive investigation, and if it is properly conducted, and all the obstacles to the prosecution of the offenders are removed, we venture to predict that it will be found that the importation of slaves continues to be earned on, to an extent utterly disgraceful."‡ [India Gaz., June 1830. Asi. Jour., Dec. 1830, p. 191. See Asi. Jour,, March 1831, p. 123.]
In 1821, the opinion of the Recorder of Prince of Wales Island was taken — "as to the legality of apprehending and sending back to Malacca a runaway slave." This important question was answered in a Letter to the Secretary of Government. "I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of yours, with a copy of a dispatch from the Governor of Malacca. I am not acquainted with the Dutch language, and therefore if there should be any circumstance in that part of the dispatch which varies the question submitted to me, from the Governor of Malacca's letter in French, I should wish to have a translation of it; but, as it is not probable, I do not delay my request, that you will communicate to the Honourable the Governor in Council, that in the absence of any treaty, I am of opinion, that the slave in question cannot be legally secured and sent back to Malacca."§ [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 162; see also p. 456.]
A number of slaves, procured in the neighbourhood of Juggernaut's Temple in Orissa, in 1790, were liberated and the captain of the vessel severely reprimanded, and threatened that, "on committing a second offence, he should be punished to the utmost rigour of the law and sent by the first conveyance to England."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 476.] Some slaves from Ganjam were also set at liberty, and the slave trader directed to be "fined, the sum of 200 rupees (to be distributed amongst the natives liberated from the vessel under his command), imprisoned for three months, until he pays the fine, and that he be then publicly expelled the District."† [p. 491.]
The sale of slaves, under the Madras Government, for the arrears of the State was not discontinued till 1819. The Secretary writes to the Collector of Malabar: — "The Board's proceedings on the general subject of slavery have been laid before the Government, whose final orders will hereafter be communicated to you; but, in the mean time, I am directed to desire, that the practice of selling slaves, for arrears of revenue, may be immediately discontinued."‡ [p. 873.]
These extracts display the humane and vigorous efforts of the British functionaries in India to abolish the slave trade, and mitigate the evils of slavery. The state of slavery at the present period next demands attention. The following chapter will shew that much remains to be done, before every British subject in India is free.
by James Peggs
1832
p. 312-328
-- India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India, by James Peggs
-- Slavery in India: The Present State of East India Slavery; Chiefly Extracted From the Parliamentary Papers on the Subject, Printed March, 1828, August 1832, August 1838, by James Peggs, Third Edition, 1840
-- Slavery and the Slave Trade in British India; With Notices of the Existence of These Evils in the Islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, Drawn from Official Documents, by Thomas Ward and Col, And to Be Had At the Office of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841
-- Slavery in the Bengal Presidency Under East India Company Rule, 1772-1843, by Amal Kumar Cattopadhyay, Thesis presented at the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1963
CHAP. II. Nature and success of efforts for the abolition of the Slave Trade in India — melioration of Slavery by the Hindoos, Mussulmans, French, Dutch, and British.
The abolition of the Slave Trade, by the British nation, was attended with very salutary effects in British India. It is pleasing to trace the influence of just and humane principles in the abolition of the Slave Trade in our Eastern dominions; and the nature of the efforts, though partial, to meliorate the existing state of slavery in those extensive territories.
Lord Cornwallis, Governor General of India, in a letter to the Court of Directors in 1789, states his detestation of slavery, and his purpose to suppress it as far as he was able. — "An infamous traffic has, it seems, long been carried on in this country by the low Portuguese, and even by several foreign European seafaring people and traders, in purchasing and collecting native children in a clandestine manner, and exporting them for sale to the French islands, and other parts of India. I have, at different times, taken steps to prevent the continuance of practices which are so shocking to humanity, and so pernicious to your interests. And, in order to deter all persons under the authority of this government, from being concerned in that species of trade, I lately directed that a commander of a country vessel, who carried off some children last winter, should be prosecuted criminally before the Supreme Court; and I have likewise published a proclamation, to give notice that any person living under the Company's protection, or in any shape under the authority of this government, who shall be convicted of carrying on, or aiding, or abetting the barbarous traffic that I have mentioned, will be certain of meeting with the most exemplary punishment.
"There are many obstacles in the way against abolishing slavery entirely in the Company's dominions, as the number of slaves is considerable, and the practice is sanctioned both by the Mahomedan and Hindoo laws. I have, however, a plan* ["No further notice of the plan, here adverted to by his Lordship, has been traced upon the records of the Bengal Government."] under consideration, which I hope to be able to execute without doing much injury to the private interests, or offering great violence to the feelings of the natives, and which has for its object the abolition of the practice under certain limitations, and the establishing some regulations to alleviate, as much as may be possible, the misery of those unfortunate people during the time that they may be retained in that wretched situation."* [Par. Papers, p. 13.]
A Proclamation was made in the same year, and was "published in the English and country languages." Referring to the period at which it was issued, this document must be read with considerable interest. See the Proclamation at the foot of the page.
"PROCLAMATION. — Whereas information, the truth of which cannot be doubted, has been received by the Governor General in Council, that many Natives, and some Europeans, in opposition to the laws and ordinances of this country, and the dictates of humanity, have been for a long time in the practice of purchasing or collecting Natives of both sexes, children as well as adults, for the purpose of exporting them as slaves in different parts of India, or elsewhere: and whereas the Governor General in Council is determined to exert to the utmost extent the power vested in him, in order to prevent such practice in future, and to deter, by the most exemplary punishment, those persons who are not to be otherwise restrained from committing the offence: his Lordship hereby declares, that all and every person or persons, subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, or in any respect to the authority of this government, who shall in future be concerned directly or indirectly in the above mentioned inhuman and detestable traffic, shall be prosecuted with the utmost rigour, in the Supreme Court, at the expense of the Company, and, if British born subjects, shall be forthwith ordered to Europe; or, if such person or persons be not subject to the Court's jurisdiction, he or they, upon information being given to the Magistrate of the place or district in which the offence shall have been committed, shall be apprehended by him and kept in confinement, to be dealt with according to the laws of the country.
"And also, that no one may plead ignorance hereof, the Superintendents of the police for the town of Calcutta, and the magistrates of Adawluts, in the several parts of the country, are hereby required to give immediate notice of this proclamation in such manner as shall render the knowledge of it universal to persons of all description, and to repeat the same on the first day of January in every year; they are further directed to pay the strictest attention to the Regulations contained in it, and to take the most active steps in their power to enforce them.
"And that all persons offending against this proclamation may be brought to punishment for the same, and the unhappy sufferers rescued from misery, a reward of one hundred sicca rupees is hereby offered for the discovery of every offender, to be paid on his conviction before the Supreme Court of Judicature, or before the Magistrate of the District, and of fifty rupees for such person of either sex, who shall be delivered from slavery, or illegal confinement in consequence of such discovery. The money will be paid to the informer or informers on his or their application to the Secretary of government, and presenting to him a certificate of the conviction of the person or persons committing the offence, of which such informer or informers made discovery.
"The Governor General in Council further recommends to British commercial houses, and private merchants, to assist, as far as depends upon them, in carrying these regulations into effect, by taking the most effectual means in their power to prevent the commanders of their ships or vessels, or of ships or vessels consigned to them, or otherwise placed under their directions, from carrying away natives of this country in order to sell them for slaves.
"The master attendant of this port is hereby forbidden to grant in future an English pilot to any ship or vessel, the commander of which shall not have previously declared upon oath, that there are not then on board, and he will not, during his continuance in the river, consent to receive on board, any natives to be exported as slaves, with an intent to dispose of them at some foreign place, or whom he has any reason to imagine will be disposed of as such after they leave this country.
"And the master attendant is hereby directed to give notice to all the native pilots, that if they should pilot out any vessel, having on board natives of this description, knowing or believing them to be such, the privilege of piloting will be taken from them for ever, and their names and offence registered. And, that no one may plead ignorance of this order, it is hereby directed that it be placed constantly in view at the Banksaul, in the English and country languages.
Proclaimed at Fort William, in Bengal, this 22nd day of July, 1789.
By order of the Governor General in Council,
(Signed) E. HAY, Secretary to the Government.† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 22.]
It is pleasing at this period to see the French authorities in India co-operating with the British, in suppressing this trade in human beings. "We understand," says the Calcutta Gazette in Sep. 1789, "Monsieur Montigny, Governor of Chandernagore, has lately issued a proclamation prohibiting all persons within the jurisdiction of the French Government, from purchasing or transporting any of the Natives of these provinces as slaves; and, in order more effectually to prevent this infamous practice, a reward of forty rupees is offered to any person who shall give information of the offender, besides the sum of ten rupees to be given to each slave who shall be released in consequence. Both sums to be paid by the offender. The master attendant of Chandernagore is also directed to see that no Native be embarked, without an order signed by the Governor; and all captains of vessels trading to the port of Chandernagore are strictly prohibited from receiving any Natives on board. Nothing can reflect greater honour on the humanity of Monsieur Montigny, and the liberal policy of the French Government, than the above order; and we have no doubt this co-operation with the measures already taken by our own government, will put an effectual stop to this odious traffic."* [Par. Papers, pp. 18, 19. See also in 1791, pp. 34, 487, 493, 520.]
Some free Natives of Bengal having been taken to St. Helena, and sold as slaves, the practice was prohibited by authority. The Hon. Court of Directors, in a Letter to the Governor General in 1793, observe — "It having been stated in the letter to you from the Governor and Council of St. Helena, in July, 1791, that they have heard of other complaints of the Natives of Bengal, who were free, having been unjustly sold on that Island, we direct that you cause an advertisement to be issued for the discovery thereof, and that you take the most effectual means for liberating such as may be under this unfortunate predicament; and for putting a stop to a practice so disgraceful to humanity, reporting your proceedings for our information."* [Par. Papers, p. 45. By a recent Regulation all persons born on the Island are free.] To secure the return of Native servants, proceeding from Bengal to Europe, it was determined by the Government that a bond of 1000 rupees should be given for each individual. "The humane purpose of this bond," says the Hon. Court, in 1796, "is sufficient to ensure our approbation of the measure."
The murder of a slave, under the Bengal Government, is made a capital offence. In 1799 was issued "A Regulation for certain Modifications of the Mahomedan Law in cases of Murder." It enjoins — "In every case of wilful murder, wherein the crime may appear to the court of Nizamut Adawlut to have been fully established against the prisoner, but the futwa of the law officers of that court shall declare the prisoner not liable under the Mahomedan law to suffer death by kissans, (or retaliation), solely on the ground of the prisoner's being father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, or other ancestor of the slain; or of the heirs of the slain, or one of the heirs of the slain, being the child, or grandchild, or other descendant of the prisoner; or of the slain having been the slave of the prisoner or of any other person, or a slave appropriated for the service of the public; or on any similar ground of personal distinction and exception from the general rules of equal justice; the court of Nizamut Adawlut, provided they see no circumstances in the case which may render the prisoner a proper object of mercy, shall sentence him to suffer death, as if the futwa of their law officers had declared him liable to kissans, or to suffer death by seazut, as authorized by the Mahomedan law in all cases of wilful murder, under the discretion vested in the Magistrate, with regard to this principle of punishment, for the ends of public justice."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 76.]
In 1796 a communication was addressed to the Governor of Bombay, from the Sultan and Chiefs of the island of Johanna, praying for assistance against the incursions of the French and the Madagascar people, who destroyed and enslaved the inhabitants. They offer to "give these islands to the Company," and that "whatever shall be produced in this country, half shall be for you and the other half for us." In consideration of the friendly treatment which ships invariably received, at Johanna, some assistance was given to these islanders.* [See the letters, which are very interesting documents, pp. 82-84.] In 1813 an application was made to Bombay, by the Sultan of Johanna, respecting some persons who had been carried from the island to the Mauritius by the French, and there reduced to slavery. The Hon. Court of Directors very humanely remark, upon the proceedings of the Indian Government, — "With respect to the circumstance alleged by the King of Johanna, of certain persons, his subjects, having been carried by the French to Mauritius, and there made slaves, we entirely approve of your suggestion to the Governor of the Mauritius, for the purchase of such individuals, if in a state of slavery; and likewise of your further application to the Governor of Mauritius, respecting several natives of our Indian provinces of both sexes, being in a state of slavery on that island, and requesting his assistance in obtaining their release, or in purchasing their freedom, and charging the expense to your Government."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 224.]
In 1811 an important "Regulation for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries, and the sale of slaves in the Territories immediately dependent on the Presidency of Fort William" was passed by the Vice President in Council. Copies of the regulation were ordered to be circulated among the officers of the Bengal Government, and also forwarded to those of Fort St. George, and Bombay. It was also resolved, that this "Regulation be sent to the political department, in order that a communication may be made to any of the Native States, which it may be deemed proper to apprize of the purport of the Regulation.''‡ [See p. 99.]
The Resident at Delhi, in 1812, C. T. Metcalfe, Esq., actively prosecuted the humane measures of the Government. He wrote to the Chief Secretary as follows: — "The slave trade, which has been prohibited for a considerable time in the other provinces in the British dominions in India, continued to exist in the district of Delhi subsequently to its abolition in other places, no local orders having been issued for its discontinuance; and, in consequence, the resort of slave merchants to this quarter was becoming more frequent than ever. Being convinced, that it was not the intention of Government; that this iniquitous traffic should be encouraged in any part of its territories; satisfied rather that it was, and is, its earnest desire to abolish so abominable a commerce; I consider myself to be only fulfilling the manifest intentions of the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council, in putting a stop to the sale of human beings in the town and country of Delhi. I have accordingly proclaimed the orders of Government for the abolition of the slave trade."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 101.]
The officers of the "Nepaul administration, in 1811 requested the co-operation of the British Government, in their measures towards an amelioration of the situation of the inhabitants of the mountains." The co-operation requested was cheerfully granted.† [Par. Papers, p. 115.]
The proceedings in India, are particularly worthy of notice, as it respects the bearing of the Act of Parliament, passed in the fifty-first year of his Majesty George III, commonly called the Slave Felony Act, or "An Act for rendering more effectual an Act made in the forty-seventh year of his Majesty's reign, intituled, 'An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.'" Two hundred copies of this important act were printed in Calcutta, and duly circulated. A Letter to the Chief Secretary at Fort St. George, and a similar one to Bombay, shew the sense taken of this act in India. See this important communication at the foot of the page.
"The exact nature of the traffic in slaves, mentioned by you to be carried on from Travancore, not being stated in your letter, the Governor General in Council is of course precluded from forming a judgment, whether that traffic falls within the purview of the Act of the 51 Geo. III. c. 23, intituled, "An Act for rendering more effectual an Act made in the forty-seventh year of his Majesty's reign, intituled, 'An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.'" With respect to that particular point, his Lordship in Council can only observe, that he does not consider the provisions of the Act in question, applicable to the importation or removal of slaves by land. It having been deemed proper, however, to consider maturely the measures which should be pursued by the local governments of this country, with respect to the above mentioned statute, the following is the purport of the resolutions adopted by the Governor General in Council on that subject.
"The provisions of the Act being highly penal in their operation, and its object highly important, the Governor General in Council has considered it proper to order a copy of it to be published in the Calcutta Gazette, for general information. In like manner, his Lordship in Council has directed copies of the Act to be forwarded to the local governments of Bombay, Java, of Prince of Wales' Island, of Mauritius, of Ceylon, and the Residents at the Moluccas, and at Fort Maryborough. On the same principle, copies of the statute will be forwarded to the magistrates of Chittagong and Cuttack (the only sea ports, excepting Calcutta, in Bengal), in order that in their capacity of justices of the peace, under the law of England, they may aid in enforcing the provisions of the statute.
"The Governor in Council, at Fort St. George, is aware that a Regulation was some time ago passed at this Presidency, for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries. Inquiries will be made, with the view of ascertaining whether the provisions of that Regulation have been effectual in preventing that species of traffic; if not, a further Regulation will be passed without loss of time, establishing severer penalties for the infringement of the prohibition now existing under the Regulation above noticed, of the importation of slaves from foreign countries, in conformity to the spirit of the statute, to which the foregoing remarks allude. In like manner, the Governor General in Council begs leave to recommend that a Regulation be passed, at Fort St. George, for preventing the importation of slaves by land into the territories subject to that Presidency, under such penalties as the Governor in Council may deem fully adequate to the prevention of that traffic.
"The foregoing remarks, it is presumed, will inform the Governor in Council sufficiently of the construction annexed by the Governor General in Council to the Act of the 51 Geo. III c. 23, and of the measures which it has been judged necessary to adopt at this Presidency. It is scarcely necessary to add, that his Lordship in Council is of opinion that similar measures should be adopted by the government of Fort St. George, with such modifications as local circumstances may suggest, without of course departing from the principle on which the measures above detailed are founded. I have, &c.
G. Dowdeswell, Sec. to Government Judicial Department.
Fort William, Sept. 26th, 1812.† [p. 137.]
The Bombay Government, in 1813, issued a "Regulation for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries, and the sale of such slaves, in the territories immediately dependent on the Presidency of Bombay."* [Par. Papers, p. 216.] A difference of opinion upon the application of this act to India has been entertained; that of the Advocate General of Bombay, H. G. Macklin, Esq., is expressed in the following terms, in a letter to the Secretary to Government: —
"With great deference to the opinion of the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council, I think the Act extends to importation by land as well as sea. In the preamble it is recited, that it is fit such measures should be extended, to the effectual abolition of the slave trade wheresoever it may be attempted to practise the same; and, in the enacting part immediately following, — 'If any person residing or being in any of the Islands, &c., or Territories under the government of the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, shall, &c., carry away or remove, &c., as a slave or slaves, &c., any person or persons whatsoever from any part of Africa, or from any other country, territory, or place whatsoever; or shall import or bring, &c., into any island, colony, country, territory, or place whatsoever, any such persons as aforesaid, for the purpose aforesaid; then in every such case, &c., the persons so offending, &c., are declared to be felons.'
"This enactment is taken verbatim from the statute, and appears to me, to comprehend every possible case of the importation (that is, the introduction) of slaves into British Territories. The act is highly penal, and I have great satisfaction in observing that his Lordship in Council is resolved to lay before the Hon. Court the difficulties which attend carrying the penal part of the statute into execution in India, where slavery is of a much milder feature than in the western hemisphere. The manumission of the slave will be sufficiently provided for by the regulation, and the King's Courts may act upon the statute in cases of aggravation or enormity."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 216, 217.] It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the importance of this view of the subject. It is evident, that the abolition of the slave trade, both in the West and the East Indies, is not the abolition of slavery. It prevents the increase of slaves, but leaves those already in slavery nearly in the same state that they were.
A Proclamation against the slave trade was issued by the Government in Madras, in March 1790, similar to the one issued by the Marquis Cornwallis, in 1789.† [See Par. Papers as above, pp. 469, 470.]
It is grateful to see the Dutch authorities in India, at this period, co-operating with the British, in suppressing the detestable traffic in human beings. The following letter was addressed to the Governor of Madras, in 1793: — "Favoured with your Honour's letter, we cannot indeed emphatically enough express our indignation and aversion, with regard to so horrible an event, as the exportation of 180 natives from Bimlipatam, as slaves, in a French brigantine bound to the French islands; which, however, according to the declaration that came enclosed, was surprised and taken at Pedir by the Malays, who killed all those that were on board of her, and did not escape out of their hands.
"To shew how much the exportation of the unhappy creatures merits our disgrace, we shall renew, in the strongest manner, our orders to our northern factories, to oppose such inhuman practice; not only in our subjects, but also with all possible diligence in strangers, in case they should think our territory a safe place for it; with a charge to deliver the unhappy creatures out of the hands of those who will not desist, but are refractory, either by good or forcible means, and to send them to one of your agents there, for the protection of their liberty, and the benefit of their support. We feel the propriety of your Honour's resolution, that such kidnapping may be prevented, to check it with exemplary punishment; and, in case any of our subjects transgress the orders instituted against it, they shall be seized and delivered over to justice, to be punished according to the exigency of the case."* [Par. Papers, pp. 537, 538.]
These extracts shew the efforts of the European authorities in India, with the occasional co-operation of the Natives, to abolish the Slave trade. The success experienced in these humane efforts should have encouraged them to attempt more than has yet been done; — not merely to meliorate, but to abolish slavery in the East. In consequence of the active measures described, many slaves were liberated, and their importation into India, by sea, in a great degree prohibited.
It is interesting to trace the melioration of slavery in the East. From the following extract of a translation of the Hindoo Laws, transmitted by the Bengal Government to the Hon. Court of Directors in 1774, it appears that the Hindoos admit various modes of enfranchising slaves. —
"Whoever is born of a female slave; whoever hath been purchased for a price; whoever hath been found by chance any where, and whoever is a slave by descent from his ancestors, these four species of slaves, until they are freed by the voluntary consent of their master, cannot have their liberty; if their master, from a principle of beneficence, gives them liberty, they become free.
"Whoever, having received his victuals from a person during the time of a famine, hath become his slave, upon giving to his provider whatever he received from him during the time of famine, and also two head of cattle, may become free from his servitude; according to the ordinations of Pachesputtee Misr, approved. Chendeesur, upon this head, speaks thus: That he who has received victuals during a famine, and hath, by those means, become a slave, on giving two head of cattle to his provider, may become free.
"Whoever, having been given up as a pledge for money lent, performs service to the creditor, recovers his liberty whenever the debtor discharges the debt; if the debtor neglects to pay the creditor his money, and takes no thought of the person whom he left as a pledge, that person becomes the purchased slave of the creditor.
"Whoever being unable to pay his creditor a debt, hath borrowed a sum of money from another person, and paid his former creditor therewith, and hath thus become a slave to the second creditor; or who, to silence the importunities of his creditor's demands, hath yielded himself a slave to that creditor, such kind of slaves shall not be released from servitude until payment of the debts.
"Whoever, by the loss of chance in any game, and whoever by the fortune of war is enslaved, these two persons, upon giving two others in exchange, are released from their servitude!
"If the slave of one person goes to another, and of his own desire consents to be the slave of that person, in this case he must still be the property of the person to whom he was first a slave. The mode of release for every kind of slave shall take place according to the ordination laid down for each.
"A Chehtree and Bice, who, after having been Sinasses (religious mendicants) apostate from that way of life, and are become the slaves of the magistrate, can never be released.
"If a Brahmin hath committed this crime, the magistrate shall not make him a slave; but, having branded him in the forehead with the print of a dog's foot, shall banish him the kingdom.
"Whoever hath yielded himself a slave for a stipulated time, upon the completion of that term, shall recover his freedom.
"Whoever performs a servitude for his subsistence, shall recover his freedom upon renouncing that subsistence.
"Whoever, for the sake of a slave girl, becomes a slave to any person, he shall recover his freedom upon renouncing the slave girl.
"Whoever hath become a slave, by selling himself to any person, he shall not be free until the master, of his own accord, gives him his freedom.
"If the master, from a principle of beneficence, give him his liberty, he becomes free.
"If a thief, having stolen the child of any person, sells it to another, or a man, by absolute violence, forces another to be a slave, the magistrate shall restore such person to his freedom.
"If the master of a slave should be in imminent danger of his life, and at that time this slave, by his own efforts and presence of mind, is able to save the life of his master, the slave shall be freed from his servitude, and be held as a son. If he choose, he may stay with his former master, or, if he choose, shall quit that place, and go where he will at liberty.
"Whoever is without a legitimate child, and hath a child from the womb of a slave girl, that girl, together with her son, becomes free.
"When any person, from a principle of beneficence, would release his slave, the mode of it is this: the slave shall fill a pitcher with water, and put therein berenge-a-rook (rice that has been cleansed without boiling), and flowers and doub (a kind of small salad), and, taking the pitcher upon his shoulder, shall stand near his master; and the master, putting the pitcher upon the slave's head, shall break the pitcher, so that the water, rice, flowers, and doub, that were in the pitcher, may fall upon the slave's body; after that, the master shall three times pronounce the words, 'I have made you free:' upon this speech, the slave shall take some steps towards the cast, whereupon he shall be free.
"Whoever hath become a slave to any person, the master is proprietor of any property which that slave may acquire, exclusive of the price of his own slavery, and exclusive also of any thingy which may be given to him as a present."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 7, 8. ]
"I make no scruple," says Sir W. Jones, in his charge to the Grand Jury at Calcutta, in 1785, "to declare my own opinion, that absolute unconditional slavery, by which one human creature becomes the property of another, like a horse or an ox, is happily unknown to the laws of England, and that no human law could give it a just sanction; yet, though I hate the word, the continuance of it, properly explained, can produce little mischief. I consider slaves as servants under a contract, expressed or implied, and made either by themselves or by such persons as are authorized by nature or law to contract for them, until they attain a due age to cancel or confirm any compact that may be disadvantageous to them. I have slaves whom I rescued from death or misery, but consider them as other servants, and shall certainly tell them so, when they are old enough to comprehend the difference of the terms."* [Par. Papers, pp. 9, 10, and 710.]
In the province of Dacca many children were kidnapped, given away, or sold by their parents into slavery; a number of these were recovered, and restored to their parents or relations. The Collector of Dacca, in 1787, addressed the Superintendents of Police at Calcutta — "I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, accompanying twelve boys and twenty-one girls belonging to this district, under charge of Churrecmeulah and three other peons, and which, in obedience to the wish of the Right Honourable the Governor General, shall be restored to their parents or relations, in the same manner as those transmitted to me two years since."† [p. 12.]
It appears to be a received opinion among the Mahomedans, that murder may be atoned for by money, or by giving a slave. In 1790 two persons, named Mungaly Khan, and Assud Khan, were convicted of the murder of Nowaz Khan, and were ordered to make a pecuniary compensation to the plaintiffs, viz. Peranow the widow, and the brothers of the deceased. In conformity with the Nawaub's orders, they were called upon to pay "the price of blood." The widow stated, "Mungaly Khan being unable to pay a pecuniary compensation, has given to me his son, to be my servant for life. Assud Khan has given me, in satisfaction of the murder, his share of the village of Caympoor." The other plaintiffs declaring, "In consequence of the poverty and distress of Mungaly Khan and Assud Khan, they remitted their claim to a compensation." The Governor General, Earl Cornwallis, and his council, disapproved of the proceeding, agreeing that — "The Naib Nazim be recommended not to admit of Mungaly Khan's making over his son as a slave for life to Peranow, and that he be requested to levy the amount of the compensation, which it may be determined to exact from Mungaly Khan, by the customary mode of process." ‡ [p. 27.]
Ceylon has been a market of slaves from Bengal. In 1789, a "Captain Horrebow took on board at Fultah, 150 children, whom, previously to his departure, he purchased in Bengal: he transported them, under English colours, to Columbo, where they were sold as slaves. The Dutch Governor, Mynbeer Van De Grave, in terms most honourable to himself, refused to permit their being landed; but Captain Horrebow found means to elude the vigilance of the Governor, and availed himself of an excellent market for his wares."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 14.] He "was sentenced to be imprisoned for three months, to pay a fine of 500 rupees, and to give security for his future good behaviour for three years; himself in a bond of 10,000 rupees, and two sureties in 5,000 rupees each."† [p. 21.]
The state of slavery in Ceylon, anterior to its subjugation by the British, and the mitigation of it proposed by the conquering power, are ably stated in a communication to the Marquis Wellesley, Governor General of India, in 1800. A short extract only can be given: —
"The scandalous manner in which the unhappy persons, whom it is the principal object of the proposed regulations to protect, are treated in general by their masters and mistresses of every nation, cast, and religion, within these settlements, render it a positive duty of Government, to delay, as little as possible, the adoption of strong measures for their relief. Those which I propose are taken chiefly from the statutes of Batavia, particularly from one published in the year 1770, and which was in force at the time of our occupation of this Island (though never observed in practice). I have also recurred, in some instances to the civil law, on which the jurisprudence of Holland is founded; and, as the principal class of the proprietors of slaves are of the Mahometan religion, I have adopted, and made general some of the admirable regulations by which the Khoran, and its commentators have softened the rigours of slavery, at the same time that they established its lawfulness.
"The principal point on which all codes, which have allowed domestic slavery, have universally insisted, the clear and unequivocal definition of the slave, and of the means by which he or she may have been acquired, was neglected in Ceylon, with the most barbarous indifference. Of more than a hundred cases that have been brought before me, the masters or mistresses of the beings claiming liberty, have not, in more than six or seven instances, produced slave bonds properly authenticated, or such as a Dutch tribunal, acting according to the Dutch laws, would have received. In many cases no papers are existing; in others simple testamentary devices, proving the opinion of the defunct as to his power over the slave bequeathed, have been insisted on, not as a collateral, but as a positive proof of the slavery of the person claimed under it; and, in the province of Baticalva, the assertion that a child was sold by his parents in a famine, was urged before me, as the right on which the greater part of the slaves in that province have been held for some time past, as well as their posterity. The practice of kidnapping at Cochin, was, for many years, notorious, but the reception of slaves from that place was subject to scarcely any restrictions on this Island; and those restrictions, I am afraid, were but ill observed. In short, that, institution, reprobated as it is by good policy, morality, and religion, exists here with all the aggravated horrors of uncertainty in its application, and cruelty in its exercise."‡ [pp. 84-92.]
The abolition of slavery in Ceylon is thus described by Sir A. Johnstone, in a letter to W. W. Wynn, Esq. —
"As the right of every proprietor of slaves to continue to hold slaves in Ceylon was guaranteed to him, by the capitulation under which the Dutch possession had been surrendered to the British arms, in 1794, the British Government of Ceylon conceived that, however desirable the measure might be, they had not a right to abolish slavery in Ceylon by any legislative act. A proposition was made on the part of Government by me, to the proprietors of the slaves in 1806, before trial by jury was introduced, urging them to adopt some plan of their own accord for the gradual abolition of slavery; this proposition, at that time, they unanimously rejected. The right of sitting upon juries was granted to the inhabitants of Ceylon in 1811. From that period I availed myself of the opportunities which were afforded to me, when I delivered my charge at the commencement of each session to the jury men — most of whom were considerable proprietors of slaves, — of informing them what was doing in England upon the subject of the abolition of slavery, and of pointing out to them the difficulties, which they themselves must frequently experience, in executing, with impartiality, their duties as jury men, in all cases in which slaves were concerned. A change of opinion upon the subject of slavery was gradually perceptible among them; and, in the year 1816, the proprietors of slaves, of all casts and religious persuasions in Ceylon, sent me their unanimous resolutions, to be publicly recorded in Court, declaring free all children born of their slaves from the 12th of August 1816. This, in the course of a few years, must put an end to the state of slavery, which had existed in Ceylon for more than three centuries."* [Ori. Her., vol. xvi. p. 136. "At a levee of Cingalese Chiefs, held at Kandy, Jan. 1832, the Governor, Sir. W. Horton, declared it to be the intention of Government gradually to abolish slavery throughout the Island, and called upon the Chiefs to afford their assistance in this benevolent work."— E. I. Mag., Sep. 1832, p. 291.]
The valuable co-operation of the Rajah of Kotah with the Resident at Delhi, in 1808, in the suppression of the sale of children into slavery, shews how much Europeans in India may accomplish for the interests of humanity.† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 99, 100.]
While the Island of Java continued in the possession of the British, the abolition of the slave trade, and the improvement of the condition of the slaves, was considered an object of importance. The importation of slaves into the Island, after the commencement of 1813, was prohibited by Proclamation; and instructions on the subject were sent to "the Islands depending on the Government."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 185. See also pp. 168, 169.] Previously to the transfer of Java to the Dutch, the slaves were emancipated. Upon which the Hon. Court of Directors declared, — "We entirely approve of your proceedings, in emancipating the slaves at Java, previously to the transfer of that place to the Dutch, as we do of the option you gave to all the slaves, of being conveyed at the public charge to their native country."† [p. 265.]
The slave trade appears to have been very effectually suppressed under the Bengal Government, by the humane and vigorous efforts above described. The magistrates of the Bareilly Court, in 1812, state — "We have now the honour to submit attested copies of the answers received from eight out of the nine magistrates under our authority; from which it will be evident to Government that, since the promulgation of the Regulation above specified, the traffic in slaves imported from foreign countries is almost, if not entirely, suppressed in the districts of Bareilly, Moradabad, Cawnpoor, Furruckabad, Etawah, Agra, Alligurh, and Seharunpore South."‡ [p. 140.] "But, it should be understood, the slaveowners still disposed of those who were actually slaves, as part of their real property." § [p. 111.]
The British Government in India has abolished the duty levied on the sale of slaves, by the former Government of Kumaon, and suppressed the traffic in slaves in those countries bordering on Nepaul, which were brought under its authority by treaty in 1815. This duty or tax was for every male and female slave two rupees eight annas. "We cannot touch on this subject," said the late Marquis of Hastings, "without adverting to a consequence of our having wrested the hill country from the Ghorkas, in which your Hon. Court will feel the most lively satisfaction. A slave trade of great extent has been totally extinguished; and the hapless families, from whom the Ghorkas used to tear away the children for sale, have now to look with joyful confidence on the security bestowed towards their offspring by the British Government."|| [p. 266. See Heber's Jour., vol. i. p. 192.]
In this part of India, an extraordinary practice existed, of selling wives and widows, which has been abolished.¶ ["The people of Laos are in great dread of the Burmese, and the cruel system of border warfare and man-catching, to which our occupation of the Tenasserim provinces has put an end to the southward, still continues in force to the north, between Laos and Ara. It would appear that, as in Burmah, women are bought and sold at Laos. The price of one is ten head of cattle, or twenty-five rupees." — Asi. Jour., Nov. 1830, p. 256.] The Governor General, in 1826, wrote to the Court of Directors —
"We took measures to furnish the Commissioner, without delay, with the form of proclamation approved by us, prohibiting the sale of wives and widows by their husbands or late husband's family. We need not repeat the expression of our determination to put down so barbarous and hateful a custom."* [Par. Papers, p. 416.]
The Calcutta Journal, in March 1824, contained an article entitled, the "Slave Trade in British India" An extract or two only are given: —"Our readers are of course aware, that the nefarious traffic in human beings is equally forbidden by the letter and the spirit of British law in every portion of the British dominions, be their geographical position what it may, whether in the frozen regions of the north, or the scorching climate of the torrid zone; wherever the British flag waves, the disgraceful commerce is made criminal by British law; what then, will the humane and enlightened community of this magnificent capital of our Eastern possessions say, when they are told, that with all its glittering spires of the temples of a pure religion; all its splendid palaces, bespeaking the taste, the refinement, and the riches of their inhabitants; with all its colleges, and schools, and societies, to promote the propagation of knowledge, civil and religious; what will they say, when they learn that, amidst all these signs of veneration for Christianity[???], the philanthropy, the greatness, and the refinement of Britons and British subjects, in a British capital, it is disgraced by witnessing the lowest degradation of the human species? — that this great capital is, in short, at once the depot of the commerce and riches of the East, and the mart in which the manacled African is sold, like the beast of the field, to the highest bidder. It is known, too, that the Arab ships are in the habit of carrying away many of the natives of this country, principally females, and disposing of them in Arabia, in barter for African slaves for the Calcutta market! Can it be possible that such degrading, such wicked scenes are passing around us, and that the actors are suffered to escape unnoticed and unpunished? We fear the fact is too true; but we hope that the publicity thus given to it will lead to the prevention of such gross violations of law and humanity in future. We can conceive the difficulty of detection in these cases; but let all those who are aware of the illicit practices of these followers of Mahomed, remember that they are imperiously called on as Christians, and as British subjects in particular, to bring to punishment these violators of law and humanity. Nature shudders at the thought of the barbarities practised by these abusers of God's noblest creatures, who are led by an accursed thirst of gold to brutalize the human species."† [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 378.]In 1823, Landford Arnot created a sensation by publishing an article entitled, "Slave Trade in British India" in the Calcutta Journal for 23 November. In his article Arnot alleged that "150 eunuchs have been landed from the Arab ships this session, to be sold as slaves in the Capital of British India. It is known too that these ships are in the habit of carrying away the natives of the Country, principally females, and disposing of them in Arabia in barter for African slaves for the Calcutta market."1 [Magistrates of Calcutta to W. B. Bayley, Judl. Secy, dated 24 Nov. 1823, B.C.J.C., No. 28 of 25th March, 1824.] Arnot further alleged that a large number of young boys of tender age were brought by these dealers, and mutilated so as to grow up as suitable servants for the harems of rich lords. 'Only one fact shall suffice to show the savage and murderous barbarity resorted to by the wretches engaged in a traffic so revolting to humanity. A gentleman has informed us that of 200 African boys, emasculated in India.2 [Ibid.] only ten survived the cruel operation".
Arnot's article raised a furore even in Government circles, and the magistrates of Calcutta were called upon to investigate into the matter.3 [W. Bayley to the Magistrates of Calcutta, dated 27 Nov., 1823, B.C.J.C No. 29, of 25th March, 1824.] They declared that the charges were grossly exaggerated.4 [Ibid.] Nonetheless, they strongly recommended the Government to take some positive actions to check the traffic.1 [W. Bayley to the Magistrates of Calcutta, dated 25th March, 1824. B.C.J.C. No. 32 of 25th March, 1824.]
But the importation of slaves from foreign lands was not completely suppressed even after this incident. Thus for example, the Bengal Harkaru of December 3, 1830, alleged that "A Mughul merchant had supplied his Majesty (the King of Oudh) with three Abyssinian women, seven Abyssinian men and two native girls, for which supply he was paid Rs.20,000.2 [The Bengal Harkaru, December 3, 1830.] The Indian Gazette of December 4, 1830 remarked that the attention of the Government and the public had been repeatedly called to the various circumstances which tended to establish that a trade in slaves was carried on throughout the Company's territories, and that, if they did not establish the fact, circumstances were sufficient to excite strong suspicion for an enquiry.3 [The Indian Gazette, December 4, 1830.] But in spite of this warning given in 1830, a similar transaction took place three years later, when the resident at Lucknow complained that two batches of African slaves numbering in all twenty-two females and twelve males had been imported via Bombay by Mughul merchants. One of these batches had been sold to the King of Oudh and the Padshah-Begum. "The rank of the purchasers", said the Resident, ’"illustrates the difficulty of checking this traffic."1 [Fortnightly Review, New Series, March, 1883, p. 361.]
-- Slavery in the Bengal Presidency Under East India Company Rule, 1772-1843, by Amal Kumar Cattopadhyay, Thesis presented at the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1963
The Magistrates of Calcutta immediately addressed the Government upon the subject, acknowledging, — "Under the provision of Reg. X., 1811, a bond is taken from the commanders of a certain class of ships, previously to their being allowed to land their cargoes; and they are also required to give in a list of their crews and passengers. We must confess, however, that these are very inadequate restrictions to prevent the introduction of slaves into the town; the penalty could only be enforced by the detection of the offence, which is attended with much difficulty."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 377.] Translations in the Persian and Arabic languages were made of an extract of the 51 Geo. III. c. 23,† [Par. Papers, p. 380. By a more recent Act of Parliament, I Geo. IV. c. 27, the traffic in slaves has been declared to be an act of piracy, and all British subjects who may be concerned in it, are liable to be dealt with accordingly.] for circulation among the merchants; which measure was certainly of a decisive character.
Slaves appear still to be clandestinely imported into India. A Calcutta Paper, in June 1830, contains the following extract from a native paper: — '"Jewellery, and other articles, to the value of four lacks of rupees, had been offered by a European jeweller for purchase by the king (of Oude), who took other merchandise in the shape of a batch of newly-imported Abyssinians, which had been offered for sale, and bought by his Majesty.' This demands, and we hope will receive investigation, and if it is properly conducted, and all the obstacles to the prosecution of the offenders are removed, we venture to predict that it will be found that the importation of slaves continues to be earned on, to an extent utterly disgraceful."‡ [India Gaz., June 1830. Asi. Jour., Dec. 1830, p. 191. See Asi. Jour,, March 1831, p. 123.]
In 1821, the opinion of the Recorder of Prince of Wales Island was taken — "as to the legality of apprehending and sending back to Malacca a runaway slave." This important question was answered in a Letter to the Secretary of Government. "I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of yours, with a copy of a dispatch from the Governor of Malacca. I am not acquainted with the Dutch language, and therefore if there should be any circumstance in that part of the dispatch which varies the question submitted to me, from the Governor of Malacca's letter in French, I should wish to have a translation of it; but, as it is not probable, I do not delay my request, that you will communicate to the Honourable the Governor in Council, that in the absence of any treaty, I am of opinion, that the slave in question cannot be legally secured and sent back to Malacca."§ [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 162; see also p. 456.]
A number of slaves, procured in the neighbourhood of Juggernaut's Temple in Orissa, in 1790, were liberated and the captain of the vessel severely reprimanded, and threatened that, "on committing a second offence, he should be punished to the utmost rigour of the law and sent by the first conveyance to England."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 476.] Some slaves from Ganjam were also set at liberty, and the slave trader directed to be "fined, the sum of 200 rupees (to be distributed amongst the natives liberated from the vessel under his command), imprisoned for three months, until he pays the fine, and that he be then publicly expelled the District."† [p. 491.]
The sale of slaves, under the Madras Government, for the arrears of the State was not discontinued till 1819. The Secretary writes to the Collector of Malabar: — "The Board's proceedings on the general subject of slavery have been laid before the Government, whose final orders will hereafter be communicated to you; but, in the mean time, I am directed to desire, that the practice of selling slaves, for arrears of revenue, may be immediately discontinued."‡ [p. 873.]
These extracts display the humane and vigorous efforts of the British functionaries in India to abolish the slave trade, and mitigate the evils of slavery. The state of slavery at the present period next demands attention. The following chapter will shew that much remains to be done, before every British subject in India is free.
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Part 1 of 2
CHAP. III. The present state and extent of Slavery in Hindustan, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 328-360
BOOK V. SLAVERY
CHAP. III. The present state and extent of Slavery in Hindustan.
The nature and extent of slavery in the British territories in India, is a subject that cannot but be deeply interesting to every liberal and humane mind. The following extracts, from the valuable Papers on East India Slavery, will throw some light on a subject, upon which little information is possessed.
The Resident at Delhi, in 1812, C.T. Metcalfe, Esq., issued a proclamation prohibiting the sale of slaves. On this subject, the Governor General addressed the Court of Directors, in 1813:— "We observed, that the proclamation not only prohibited the importation of slaves for sale into the assigned territories, but the sale of slaves actually within those territories previously to its promulgation; a measure which we were not prepared to sanction. Odious and abominable as such a traffic is, although it must be admitted that the system of slavery in this country is infinitely mitigated, when compared with that against which the enactments of the legislature in England have been directed. The laws, which have hitherto been enacted to restrain it, have been confined in their object, to THE TRADE IN SLAVES BY IMPORTATION OR EXPORTATION; but they have not been extended to the emancipation of persons already in a state of slavery, nor to the prohibition of their transfer by sale, to other masters within the country which they inhabit.
"We informed the Resident that for these reasons, and from other considerations of much apparent weight, our views were limited to the prohibition of the further importation of slaves for sale into the territories of the Hon. Company; and we accordingly directed that the terms of the proclamation might be modified, so as to correspond with the enactment contained in Regulation X. of 1811. The consultation of the annexed date contains the Resident's reply to the instructions. He stated that a general opinion prevailed, among the natives, that the total abolition of the Slave Trade had taken effect in the ceded and conquered Provinces; that he had not found the prohibition of the sale of slaves had occasioned any surprise at Delhi; and that the people were not aware, that by the proclamation which he had issued, greater restrictions were in force in the assigned territory than in any other part of the country; and that should it be published, that slaves of a certain description might continue to be sold, it would give a more formal sanction to the sale of slaves, than that traffic was ever believed to possess. The effect of this erroneous belief, on the part of the natives, appeared to the Resident to be attended with salutary consequences; and he submitted, that it was not desirable the delusion should be removed, by the publication of a formal sanction for the sale of any description of slaves. We signified to the Resident, our concurrence in the grounds on which he had suspended the execution of our instructions, and, that the proclamation issued, should continue in full force and effect."* [Par Papers, pp. 101, 102. See also p. 134.]
But, though the sale of slaves was thus prohibited in the Province of Delhi, slavery is still continued. This is evident from the Resident's communication to Government: — "In issuing a proclamation for the abolition of the future importation and sale of slaves, I had no idea of infringing on the rights of the actual proprietors of slaves. The proprietors of slaves in this territory, notwithstanding that proclamation, retain all their rights over their slaves, except that of selling them or making them the property of another. This is perfectly understood, in consequence of the decisions given in the court of judicature in trials between owners and slaves. I have more than once embraced the opportunity afforded by such trials, to explain publicly, that slaves are still the property of their owners, though not disposable property."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p 104.]
The Magistrate of Bareilly in 1812, referring to the efficacy of the provisions of Regulation X. 1811, for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries, remarks; "This traffic, I believe, has suffered a very material check since the promulgation of the Regulation, inasmuch as children are no longer brought down from the hills, and publicly exposed for sale, as formerly, within this district; but, children are still sold within the Company's provinces, by subjects of the British government, nor does the Regulation contain any prohibition of such sale. Parents, prevented by poverty from rearing a large family, will dispose of their children to an advantage, when offered, rather than allow them to starve; the feelings of nature will confine this traffic to cases of necessity only, and will act more forcibly than any legal prohibition in preventing abuses; it may be much doubted, indeed, whether the condition of children imported from the hills was not, in most cases, much ameliorated by such importation."† [p. 141.]
A Mr. Browne, the proprietor of an estate at Anjarakandy, in Malabar, claimed the right of a master over some slaves, as a part of the Mahomedan law, under which he considered the Provinces of the Madras Presidency to be governed. "I cannot (says the Chief Secretary of the Government in 1813) agree to the proposition, that these Provinces are, so far as relates to British subjects, governed by the Mahomedan law. In questions of civil right, they are governed by the laws of the different nations to whom justice is to be dispensed. In criminal prosecutions, the Mahomeden law is, for what reason I do not know, established over all the natives in the Provinces, but not over the British. They retain the rights of their birth, and ought also to retain all the relations connected with the British character, to which it is equally abhorrent to be the master of slaves, as to endure slavery. It is expressly provided, in the several statutes, that our law shall not interfere with the authority exercised by the heads of families amongst the natives; who, from local residence at the Presidencies, are made subject in general to the British laws, but no such provision is made for British subjects as the masters of slaves!" The Advocate General expressed the same opinion; and this important position, that a Briton in India cannot be a slave-holder, was thus definitely determined by a letter from the Chief Secretary to the Government, Fort William, in 1813, to the Secretary of the Madras Government: — "The Advocate General, having stated it as his opinion that it is quite impracticable, as the law at present stands, for any British subject, to support a claim to the person or services of any one residing within the limits of the British territories as a slave; and that opinion corresponding entirely with the sentiments entertained by the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council on the subject, his Lordship in Council thinks that every case of that nature, which may be brought before the Governor in Council of Fort St. George, should be regarded as an illegal and unauthorized assumption of power; and that legal measures should be resorted to, should circumstances appear to require it, against any British subject so acting in violation of the law."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 148.] The difference between the state of public opinion, feeling, and, we may add, law, in the East and in the West Indies, cannot fail to strike the attention of every reader. It is very justly observed, "the habitual exercise of the authority of a master over slaves, is peculiarly destructive to the national honour and character."† [p. 147.] When shall these just sentiments pervade the breast of every British subject!
Of Slavery in Dacca the Magistrate, in 1810, observes: — "I have to state in reply, for the information of the Court of Circuit, that I have found in this court several prosecutions for inveigling away children and other persons with various intents, and they are generally females: such cases, however, in this city and district, are not very numerous. The unfortunate persons who are sold for slaves, are generally little children (females), or grown up girls that are enticed away from their parents or other relations in the Mofussil. Persons already in a state of slavery are seldom, as far as I can discover from the records of the court, or from other information, inveigled away with a view of being sold; but female slaves are often enticed away for other purposes, sometimes by men, and sometimes by women keeping houses of ill-fame. Both descriptions of offence are, I believe, very prevalent, especially the former, though few of them comparatively come officially to the knowledge of the magistrate."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 248.]
The registration of slaves was proposed by the Bengal Government to the Nizamut Adawlut in 1816, which intimates that the prevalence of slavery is considerable. "In preparing the draft of the proposed regulation regarding slavery, the Governor General in Council requests that the court will take into their consideration, the expediency of requiring, that the future purchase or transfer of slaves shall be regularly registered, and that any breach of the rules which may be framed for that purpose shall entitle the slave to demand and obtain his freedom."† [p. 249.]
Inquiry was made from Bombay, of the Supreme Government in Calcutta, in 1817, respecting the application of the 51st Geo. III. c. 23, relative to "the abolition of the slave trade, to domestic slaves, and the property of individuals in them; such slavery being known and legalized under the laws of both the Hindoos and Mussulmans, according to whose codes the courts are bound to administer justice." To which it was replied; —
The permission of the sale of slaves in the Deccan, appears from a letter in 1819, addressed by the Political Agent in Candeish, to M. Elphinstone, Esq., the Commissioner.
To which it was replied by the Commissioner: — "
"The mitigated kind of domestic slavery which prevails in the Deccan," says W. Chaplin, Esq., "and has prevailed from time immemorial in most parts of India, appears to be of a description entirely different from the foreign trade in slaves, which is proscribed by recent Acts of Parliament, passed since the abolition of this traffic; and, although it may perhaps, at a future period, be necessary to introduce some regulations to prevent the stealing or kidnapping of children, I conceive that any restrictive measure, that should at once put a stop to the sale of slaves, would be an innovation, which would trench materially, not only on long established customs, but on the rights of private properly. Whether this species of servitude, or rather of mild bondage, is eventually to be continued under certain modifications, or to be abolished entirely, is a question which is probably now under consideration; but as the importation of slaves from the Nizam's frontier, in consequence of the scarcity which prevails there, has of late greatly increased, the subject of your letter will be referred for the decision of the Honourable the Governor in Council. Whatever evil may result from the continuance of the traffic, it is certainly, I think, the means at the present moment of much actual good, inasmuch as it has the effect of preserving the lives of numbers of parents and children, who would otherwise perish from famine."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 341, 342.] — Poona, Dec. 1819.
The difference of opinion and procedure of some of the Indian Magistrates, manifests the difficulty of legislation where slavery exists. This appears by some slave cases, stated by W. Leycester, Esq., Second Judge of the Bareilly Court of Circuit in 1815. —
It appears, that when slaves have been imported, their owners have endeavoured to evade the law against the Slave Trade, by not immediately disposing of them; on which it is very justly remarked, — "Is not keeping a person imported as a slave, to be a slave, a disposal of him? and what is to be said to the notorious fact of females, so imported as slaves, being let out in retail for the purposes of prostitution, and any offspring they may have being sold, agreeably to the daily practice regarding the indigenous slaves of the country, for the benefit of the slave master? This surely is a disposal of them and of their issue."† [p. 344.] Is not this species of slavery equal in atrocity to the slavery of the West Indies?
"Slavery in Malwa," says Sir John Malcolm, "is chiefly limited to females; but there is perhaps no province in India where there are so many slaves of this sex. The dancing girls are all purchased when young by the nakins, or heads of the different sects, who often lay out large sums in these purchases; female children and grown up young women, are bought by all ranks. Among the Rajpoot chiefs these slaves are very numerous, as also in the houses of the principal Brahmuns; the usage descends to the lowest ranks, and few merchants or cultivators with any property are without mistresses or servants of this description. Male slaves are rare, and never seen but with men of some rank and property, with whom they are usually the confidential servants. There are a variety of ways in which slaves are procured in Malwa; — numbers date their condition from a famine or scarcity, when men sold their children to those who were able to support them. A great number of the slaves of Malwa are from Rajpootana, where the excesses of the Mahrattas drove the inhabitants to exile, and to such distress as to be compelled to part with their children. But, besides these sources of slavery, there are others of a more criminal nature. There are many instances of Rajpoots, and men of other tribes, particularly Soandees, selling the children whom they have by their slaves, and who are deemed to be born in a state of bondage. This takes place when the father is in distress, or when he is tempted by a large price. The sale of the offspring of these women by other fathers than their masters is more common. These slaves are not numerous; but the further demand is supplied by the Binjarries, who import females into and from Guzerat and other countries, whom they usually pretend to have bought; and by the tribe of Gwarriah, professed stealers of female children. When these slaves are bought, an inquiry is made as to their tribe, and the general answer (particularly from the Gwarriahs) is, that they are Rajpoots. The children are taught to make pretensions to high birth, and daily instances occur of whole families losing cast in consequence of their being too hastily credited. Females in Malwa, except in times of scarcity or general distress from any cause, are sold from 40 to 50, to 100 and 150 rupees; the price is accordant with their appearance. They have been, at times, an article of considerable commerce, many being annually sent to the southward, particularly to the Poonah territories, where they sold high. This trade, which has of late years decreased, was principally carried on by the Mahratta Brahmuns, some of whom amassed great sums by this shameless traffic."* [Par. Papers as above, Report on Malwa, 1821, pp. 414, 415.]
The Par. Papers contain more minute information, respecting the state of slavery under the Madras Presidency, than of the other Presidencies in India. — "In Malabar and Canara, where the land is very generally divided, and occupied as separate and distinct properties, the labourer is the personal slave of the proprietor, and is sold and mortgaged by him, independently of his lands. In the Tamil country, where land is of less value, and belongs more frequently to a community than to an individual, the labourer is understood to be the slave rather of the soil than of its owner, and is seldom sold or mortgaged, except along with the land to which he is attached; but in Telingana, where it is difficult now to trace the remains of private property in the land, this class of people is considered free. It has been stated by very competent authority, Mr. F. W. Ellis, the Collector of Madras, that in the Tamil country, the parriyars and pullers, most of whom are slaves attached to the lands of the rallader, as well as the pulli, who are generally serfs on the lands of the Brahmun meerassidars, sometimes claim meras, or hereditary private property, in the 'incidents of their villainage;' and that 'it is generally allowed to them and their descendants, on proving their former residence in the village, however long they may have been absent from it.' On the other hand, the late Magistrate in Malabar, in addressing Government respecting the sale of men, women, and children of the Pollar, Cherumakul, Panian, Kanakan, Kallady, Yocallan, and Nacady tribes, submits that, 'if the general question of slavery, as recognised by the local usages of Malabar, or by the Hindoo and Mahomedan law, is not affected by the laws made to abolish the Slave Trade — adverting to the wretchedness and diminutive appearance of this description of natives — it still appears to be a subject well worthy the humane consideration of the Right Hon. the Governor in Council, to enact such legislative provisions as will tend to ameliorate their condition, and prevent their being sold out of the talook, or, indeed, of the estate, the place of their nativity; and above all, from being exposed to sale; by public auction, in execution of decrees, or in satisfaction of revenue demands."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 817.]
It appears to have been common, to dispose of the slaves on an estate as a part of the real property. — "The Hindoo law (says the Collector of Malabar), on the subject of transfers of property, speaks of 'land and slaves employed in the cultivation of it,' and evidently contemplates those two species of property as one and the same, and as not properly separable from each other; and we find that not only in this, but in other countries, it has been usual to transfer the slaves who were a 'descripti glebae' with the land itself. Indeed the attachment of the Hindoos to the lands which they have always occupied, and to the village where they have always resided, is proverbial; and to separate them from their native soil, might, under such circumstances, be considered an additional act of cruelty. A certain portion of the produce of the soil which they cultivate, is, in the Tamil country, allowed by the master for the maintenance of his slaves, whose duty it is to till the ground; and, unless they were transferred with the land, the new proprietor, when he obtained possession, might experience difficulty in carrying on the cultivation, and the former master might be deprived of the means of enabling him to afford subsistence to his slaves. The probability of being transferred with the land, gives them on this coast a sort of property in their huts and little spots of ground, which they can thus occupy without any great fear of being turned out, or transferred, contrary to their interests, feeling, and comfort. It must, however, be observed, that on the other coast universally, and even generally on this coast, slaves are not necessarily sold with the land, although the convenience of all parts seems to have rendered the practice common."
The apathy manifested by the Collector of Calicut in 1819, respecting the sale of slaves for default of revenue, shews the influence of the slave system upon the most respectable of the European functionaries of Government. "In attempting to ameliorate the condition of these slaves, care must be taken that we do not increase them. The partial measure, of declaring them not liable to be sold for arrears of revenue, will be a drop of water in the ocean; though, why Government should give up a right, which every proprietor enjoys, is a question worthy of consideration."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 846. See p. 435.]
An extract of one of the Rejected Police Regulations, refused Registration by the Supreme Court of Bombay, in 1826, affords some idea of the state of slavery in that part of India, at the period referred to.
The following copious extracts from the reports of eleven Collectors, to whom the Madras Government had addressed queries respecting the state of slavery in their respective districts, appear peculiarly interesting. The whole letter, from the Secretary of Government in the revenue department, contains fourteen folio pages, and bears date, April, 1819.
CHAP. III. The present state and extent of Slavery in Hindustan, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 328-360
-- India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India, by James Peggs
-- Slavery in India: The Present State of East India Slavery; Chiefly Extracted From the Parliamentary Papers on the Subject, Printed March, 1828, August 1832, August 1838, by James Peggs, Third Edition, 1840
-- Slavery and the Slave Trade in British India; With Notices of the Existence of These Evils in the Islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, Drawn from Official Documents, by Thomas Ward and Col, And to Be Had At the Office of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841
-- Slavery in the Bengal Presidency Under East India Company Rule, 1772-1843, by Amal Kumar Cattopadhyay, Thesis presented at the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1963
-- Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindostan, and the Adjacent Countries. In Two Volumes. By Walter Hamilton, Esq., Vol. I, 1820
-- Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindostan, and the Adjacent Countries. In Two Volumes. By Walter Hamilton, Esq., Vol. 2, 1820
-- The Life of Sir Stamford Raffles, by Demetrius Charles Boulger, With Portraits, Maps and Illustrations, 1897
BOOK V. SLAVERY
CHAP. III. The present state and extent of Slavery in Hindustan.
The nature and extent of slavery in the British territories in India, is a subject that cannot but be deeply interesting to every liberal and humane mind. The following extracts, from the valuable Papers on East India Slavery, will throw some light on a subject, upon which little information is possessed.
The Resident at Delhi, in 1812, C.T. Metcalfe, Esq., issued a proclamation prohibiting the sale of slaves. On this subject, the Governor General addressed the Court of Directors, in 1813:— "We observed, that the proclamation not only prohibited the importation of slaves for sale into the assigned territories, but the sale of slaves actually within those territories previously to its promulgation; a measure which we were not prepared to sanction. Odious and abominable as such a traffic is, although it must be admitted that the system of slavery in this country is infinitely mitigated, when compared with that against which the enactments of the legislature in England have been directed. The laws, which have hitherto been enacted to restrain it, have been confined in their object, to THE TRADE IN SLAVES BY IMPORTATION OR EXPORTATION; but they have not been extended to the emancipation of persons already in a state of slavery, nor to the prohibition of their transfer by sale, to other masters within the country which they inhabit.
"We informed the Resident that for these reasons, and from other considerations of much apparent weight, our views were limited to the prohibition of the further importation of slaves for sale into the territories of the Hon. Company; and we accordingly directed that the terms of the proclamation might be modified, so as to correspond with the enactment contained in Regulation X. of 1811. The consultation of the annexed date contains the Resident's reply to the instructions. He stated that a general opinion prevailed, among the natives, that the total abolition of the Slave Trade had taken effect in the ceded and conquered Provinces; that he had not found the prohibition of the sale of slaves had occasioned any surprise at Delhi; and that the people were not aware, that by the proclamation which he had issued, greater restrictions were in force in the assigned territory than in any other part of the country; and that should it be published, that slaves of a certain description might continue to be sold, it would give a more formal sanction to the sale of slaves, than that traffic was ever believed to possess. The effect of this erroneous belief, on the part of the natives, appeared to the Resident to be attended with salutary consequences; and he submitted, that it was not desirable the delusion should be removed, by the publication of a formal sanction for the sale of any description of slaves. We signified to the Resident, our concurrence in the grounds on which he had suspended the execution of our instructions, and, that the proclamation issued, should continue in full force and effect."* [Par Papers, pp. 101, 102. See also p. 134.]
But, though the sale of slaves was thus prohibited in the Province of Delhi, slavery is still continued. This is evident from the Resident's communication to Government: — "In issuing a proclamation for the abolition of the future importation and sale of slaves, I had no idea of infringing on the rights of the actual proprietors of slaves. The proprietors of slaves in this territory, notwithstanding that proclamation, retain all their rights over their slaves, except that of selling them or making them the property of another. This is perfectly understood, in consequence of the decisions given in the court of judicature in trials between owners and slaves. I have more than once embraced the opportunity afforded by such trials, to explain publicly, that slaves are still the property of their owners, though not disposable property."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p 104.]
The Magistrate of Bareilly in 1812, referring to the efficacy of the provisions of Regulation X. 1811, for preventing the importation of slaves from foreign countries, remarks; "This traffic, I believe, has suffered a very material check since the promulgation of the Regulation, inasmuch as children are no longer brought down from the hills, and publicly exposed for sale, as formerly, within this district; but, children are still sold within the Company's provinces, by subjects of the British government, nor does the Regulation contain any prohibition of such sale. Parents, prevented by poverty from rearing a large family, will dispose of their children to an advantage, when offered, rather than allow them to starve; the feelings of nature will confine this traffic to cases of necessity only, and will act more forcibly than any legal prohibition in preventing abuses; it may be much doubted, indeed, whether the condition of children imported from the hills was not, in most cases, much ameliorated by such importation."† [p. 141.]
A Mr. Browne, the proprietor of an estate at Anjarakandy, in Malabar, claimed the right of a master over some slaves, as a part of the Mahomedan law, under which he considered the Provinces of the Madras Presidency to be governed. "I cannot (says the Chief Secretary of the Government in 1813) agree to the proposition, that these Provinces are, so far as relates to British subjects, governed by the Mahomedan law. In questions of civil right, they are governed by the laws of the different nations to whom justice is to be dispensed. In criminal prosecutions, the Mahomeden law is, for what reason I do not know, established over all the natives in the Provinces, but not over the British. They retain the rights of their birth, and ought also to retain all the relations connected with the British character, to which it is equally abhorrent to be the master of slaves, as to endure slavery. It is expressly provided, in the several statutes, that our law shall not interfere with the authority exercised by the heads of families amongst the natives; who, from local residence at the Presidencies, are made subject in general to the British laws, but no such provision is made for British subjects as the masters of slaves!" The Advocate General expressed the same opinion; and this important position, that a Briton in India cannot be a slave-holder, was thus definitely determined by a letter from the Chief Secretary to the Government, Fort William, in 1813, to the Secretary of the Madras Government: — "The Advocate General, having stated it as his opinion that it is quite impracticable, as the law at present stands, for any British subject, to support a claim to the person or services of any one residing within the limits of the British territories as a slave; and that opinion corresponding entirely with the sentiments entertained by the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council on the subject, his Lordship in Council thinks that every case of that nature, which may be brought before the Governor in Council of Fort St. George, should be regarded as an illegal and unauthorized assumption of power; and that legal measures should be resorted to, should circumstances appear to require it, against any British subject so acting in violation of the law."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 148.] The difference between the state of public opinion, feeling, and, we may add, law, in the East and in the West Indies, cannot fail to strike the attention of every reader. It is very justly observed, "the habitual exercise of the authority of a master over slaves, is peculiarly destructive to the national honour and character."† [p. 147.] When shall these just sentiments pervade the breast of every British subject!
Of Slavery in Dacca the Magistrate, in 1810, observes: — "I have to state in reply, for the information of the Court of Circuit, that I have found in this court several prosecutions for inveigling away children and other persons with various intents, and they are generally females: such cases, however, in this city and district, are not very numerous. The unfortunate persons who are sold for slaves, are generally little children (females), or grown up girls that are enticed away from their parents or other relations in the Mofussil. Persons already in a state of slavery are seldom, as far as I can discover from the records of the court, or from other information, inveigled away with a view of being sold; but female slaves are often enticed away for other purposes, sometimes by men, and sometimes by women keeping houses of ill-fame. Both descriptions of offence are, I believe, very prevalent, especially the former, though few of them comparatively come officially to the knowledge of the magistrate."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 248.]
The registration of slaves was proposed by the Bengal Government to the Nizamut Adawlut in 1816, which intimates that the prevalence of slavery is considerable. "In preparing the draft of the proposed regulation regarding slavery, the Governor General in Council requests that the court will take into their consideration, the expediency of requiring, that the future purchase or transfer of slaves shall be regularly registered, and that any breach of the rules which may be framed for that purpose shall entitle the slave to demand and obtain his freedom."† [p. 249.]
Inquiry was made from Bombay, of the Supreme Government in Calcutta, in 1817, respecting the application of the 51st Geo. III. c. 23, relative to "the abolition of the slave trade, to domestic slaves, and the property of individuals in them; such slavery being known and legalized under the laws of both the Hindoos and Mussulmans, according to whose codes the courts are bound to administer justice." To which it was replied; —
"On this point the Vice President in council observes, that none of the provisions of the Acts of Parliament passed for the abolition of the slave trade in any manner affect, or profess to affect, the relation between master and slave, wherever that relation may exist by law. Whatever therefore was the law, according to the Mahometan and Hindoo codes (for those over whom they extend), on the subject of domestic slavery, before the passing of the Act of the 51st Geo. III. c. 23, continues to be the law still; more especially as those codes have been distinctly recognised and ordered to be observed by Parliament. At the same time it is not credible, that any intention existed to abrogate those codes, without reference to the established laws and usages of this country, and without repealing the Acts of Parliament, by which the observance of them is guaranteed to the natives. The native subjects of the British Government, residing in the territories subordinate to the several Presidencies have, in fact, the same authority over their slaves, and the same property in them, that they would have had if the Act in question had never been passed; and the several zillah and provincial courts are bound to receive and determine all cases of that nature, which are respectively cognizable by them, under the existing regulations.
"The other points adverted to, in the documents now under consideration, relate to the conduct which should be observed, on the occasion of applications being made by the subjects or governments of neighbouring states, with whom we are in amity, for the restoration of slaves who have taken refuge within the Company's territories. On this point it may be remarked, that the construction which has been uniformly given by the Supreme Government to the Act of the 51st Geo. III. c. 23, viz. that it was only intended to apply to the importation or removal of slaves by sea, would not involve any alteration in the course of proceedings hitherto adopted in similar cases. A slave, by entering the Company's territories, does not become free; nor can he, who was lawfully a slave, emancipate himself by running away from one country where slavery is lawful, to another where it is equally lawful. The property in the slave still continues in the master; and the master has the same right to have it restored to him that any native subjects of our territories could have, supposing that right to be established in the mode prescribed by the local laws and regulations."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 333, 334.]
The permission of the sale of slaves in the Deccan, appears from a letter in 1819, addressed by the Political Agent in Candeish, to M. Elphinstone, Esq., the Commissioner.
"Application having been lately made to me for permission to purchase some slaves, I took the opportunity of investigating the circumstances, which I have the honour to report for your information. It appears that the slaves were young women and girls, in the possession of some Mahratta Wunjarries, who, upon being questioned, state that they purchased them in Berar, from the Tandas of the Rajpoot Brimjarrias, who said they had got them during a late scarcity, which took place in the Nirmut district. Upon further investigation, I understand that the practice of carrying off children from one part of the country, to sell in another part, is not unusual with these people. The women appear unwilling to be sold, though they complain of their scanty food, and of the treatment they experience from their present masters. Although your letter, in answer to a former application on this subject, informed me that no variation whatever was to be made in the existing laws regarding slaves, yet it appears to me possible, that may be intended to be applied merely to the proprietary right over slaves in actual possession, and of recovering such as may desert; I request to be informed, if the practice of carrying slaves about for sale, of which several instances have lately been brought to my notice, is still to be permitted. In the mean time I have prohibited the sale of the young women in question, till I hear from you."
To which it was replied by the Commissioner: — "
The sale of slaves, as described in the above mentioned letter, is to be permitted; but all attempts to carry off young people by force, will be punished in the severest manner." [!!!]† [p. 339.]
"The mitigated kind of domestic slavery which prevails in the Deccan," says W. Chaplin, Esq., "and has prevailed from time immemorial in most parts of India, appears to be of a description entirely different from the foreign trade in slaves, which is proscribed by recent Acts of Parliament, passed since the abolition of this traffic; and, although it may perhaps, at a future period, be necessary to introduce some regulations to prevent the stealing or kidnapping of children, I conceive that any restrictive measure, that should at once put a stop to the sale of slaves, would be an innovation, which would trench materially, not only on long established customs, but on the rights of private properly. Whether this species of servitude, or rather of mild bondage, is eventually to be continued under certain modifications, or to be abolished entirely, is a question which is probably now under consideration; but as the importation of slaves from the Nizam's frontier, in consequence of the scarcity which prevails there, has of late greatly increased, the subject of your letter will be referred for the decision of the Honourable the Governor in Council. Whatever evil may result from the continuance of the traffic, it is certainly, I think, the means at the present moment of much actual good, inasmuch as it has the effect of preserving the lives of numbers of parents and children, who would otherwise perish from famine."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 341, 342.] — Poona, Dec. 1819.
The difference of opinion and procedure of some of the Indian Magistrates, manifests the difficulty of legislation where slavery exists. This appears by some slave cases, stated by W. Leycester, Esq., Second Judge of the Bareilly Court of Circuit in 1815. —
"In one case, Enayt Khaun is taken up by the police darogah, of Bhudyke, and sent as a prisoner to the magistrate of Cawnpore, for importing two female slaves, and the magistrate discharges him, and gives him the slaves.
"In a second case, Ooda is taken up for importing a woman named Mauncooer, by a police sowar, and delivered over to the police darogah of Bindrabun. Ooda says he bought her for twenty-one rupees in the Ranna's country, and she admits it, and adds, she understands he means to resell her. The acting magistrate liberates the woman.
"In a third case, Sabet Khawn is taken up by a jemmedar, and delivered over to the darogah of Koria Gunje. It would seem he had been sent by Assud Alee Cauzee of Jelaneh, to purchase a slave in the vicinity of Cassepore and Roderpoore (the market for slaves imported from the hills); but on coming to Bareilly he falls in with Besharut Khan, a slave-dealer, who from his stock in hand sells to him a woman named Zuhorun, twenty years of age; but the Cauzee, thinking her too old, leaves her on Sabet Khaun's hands. The assistant magistrate liberates the woman.
"In a fourth case, Nurotum is taken up by the darogah of Nudjeebabad. It would seem that he had purchased a woman named Anundee, for twenty rupees, of an inhabitant of the hills. The assistant magistrate does not liberate the woman, but takes a recognizance from Nurotum to produce her, if any other claimant should appear.
"In a fifth case, Choonee, the head of a set of dancing girls, prosecutes Hyatt Alee Cutwaul of Amrooa, for detaining forcibly Munnuvur Jaun, one of her female slaves. Munnuvur Jaun says, she is not satisfied to remain with Choonee, and the magistrate liberates her. Choonee appeals, and produces a deed of sale for the slave, executed by Shumshere, an inhabitant of the hills. The opinion of the law officer of the Court of Circuit is taken, who declares, 'the sale of a resident of this country illegal;' and the order of the magistrate was confirmed.
"The first case was submitted by me to the Nizamut Adawlut, with a recommendation that the said Enayt Khaun should be punished, and the slaves discharged, or sent back, as required by the 10th Regulation of 1811; and the court in reply adjudge that, under the construction given to the provisions of the 10th Regulation, 1811, the case in question does not fall 1ithin the operation of that Regulation; and, having referred to the court's orders, it would seem, that on a representation from Mr. Blunt, the court had decided that the regulation in question was 'applicable only to the importation of slaves for the purpose of being sold, given away, or otherwise disposed of.'"* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 342, 343.]
It appears, that when slaves have been imported, their owners have endeavoured to evade the law against the Slave Trade, by not immediately disposing of them; on which it is very justly remarked, — "Is not keeping a person imported as a slave, to be a slave, a disposal of him? and what is to be said to the notorious fact of females, so imported as slaves, being let out in retail for the purposes of prostitution, and any offspring they may have being sold, agreeably to the daily practice regarding the indigenous slaves of the country, for the benefit of the slave master? This surely is a disposal of them and of their issue."† [p. 344.] Is not this species of slavery equal in atrocity to the slavery of the West Indies?
"Slavery in Malwa," says Sir John Malcolm, "is chiefly limited to females; but there is perhaps no province in India where there are so many slaves of this sex. The dancing girls are all purchased when young by the nakins, or heads of the different sects, who often lay out large sums in these purchases; female children and grown up young women, are bought by all ranks. Among the Rajpoot chiefs these slaves are very numerous, as also in the houses of the principal Brahmuns; the usage descends to the lowest ranks, and few merchants or cultivators with any property are without mistresses or servants of this description. Male slaves are rare, and never seen but with men of some rank and property, with whom they are usually the confidential servants. There are a variety of ways in which slaves are procured in Malwa; — numbers date their condition from a famine or scarcity, when men sold their children to those who were able to support them. A great number of the slaves of Malwa are from Rajpootana, where the excesses of the Mahrattas drove the inhabitants to exile, and to such distress as to be compelled to part with their children. But, besides these sources of slavery, there are others of a more criminal nature. There are many instances of Rajpoots, and men of other tribes, particularly Soandees, selling the children whom they have by their slaves, and who are deemed to be born in a state of bondage. This takes place when the father is in distress, or when he is tempted by a large price. The sale of the offspring of these women by other fathers than their masters is more common. These slaves are not numerous; but the further demand is supplied by the Binjarries, who import females into and from Guzerat and other countries, whom they usually pretend to have bought; and by the tribe of Gwarriah, professed stealers of female children. When these slaves are bought, an inquiry is made as to their tribe, and the general answer (particularly from the Gwarriahs) is, that they are Rajpoots. The children are taught to make pretensions to high birth, and daily instances occur of whole families losing cast in consequence of their being too hastily credited. Females in Malwa, except in times of scarcity or general distress from any cause, are sold from 40 to 50, to 100 and 150 rupees; the price is accordant with their appearance. They have been, at times, an article of considerable commerce, many being annually sent to the southward, particularly to the Poonah territories, where they sold high. This trade, which has of late years decreased, was principally carried on by the Mahratta Brahmuns, some of whom amassed great sums by this shameless traffic."* [Par. Papers as above, Report on Malwa, 1821, pp. 414, 415.]
The Par. Papers contain more minute information, respecting the state of slavery under the Madras Presidency, than of the other Presidencies in India. — "In Malabar and Canara, where the land is very generally divided, and occupied as separate and distinct properties, the labourer is the personal slave of the proprietor, and is sold and mortgaged by him, independently of his lands. In the Tamil country, where land is of less value, and belongs more frequently to a community than to an individual, the labourer is understood to be the slave rather of the soil than of its owner, and is seldom sold or mortgaged, except along with the land to which he is attached; but in Telingana, where it is difficult now to trace the remains of private property in the land, this class of people is considered free. It has been stated by very competent authority, Mr. F. W. Ellis, the Collector of Madras, that in the Tamil country, the parriyars and pullers, most of whom are slaves attached to the lands of the rallader, as well as the pulli, who are generally serfs on the lands of the Brahmun meerassidars, sometimes claim meras, or hereditary private property, in the 'incidents of their villainage;' and that 'it is generally allowed to them and their descendants, on proving their former residence in the village, however long they may have been absent from it.' On the other hand, the late Magistrate in Malabar, in addressing Government respecting the sale of men, women, and children of the Pollar, Cherumakul, Panian, Kanakan, Kallady, Yocallan, and Nacady tribes, submits that, 'if the general question of slavery, as recognised by the local usages of Malabar, or by the Hindoo and Mahomedan law, is not affected by the laws made to abolish the Slave Trade — adverting to the wretchedness and diminutive appearance of this description of natives — it still appears to be a subject well worthy the humane consideration of the Right Hon. the Governor in Council, to enact such legislative provisions as will tend to ameliorate their condition, and prevent their being sold out of the talook, or, indeed, of the estate, the place of their nativity; and above all, from being exposed to sale; by public auction, in execution of decrees, or in satisfaction of revenue demands."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 817.]
It appears to have been common, to dispose of the slaves on an estate as a part of the real property. — "The Hindoo law (says the Collector of Malabar), on the subject of transfers of property, speaks of 'land and slaves employed in the cultivation of it,' and evidently contemplates those two species of property as one and the same, and as not properly separable from each other; and we find that not only in this, but in other countries, it has been usual to transfer the slaves who were a 'descripti glebae' with the land itself. Indeed the attachment of the Hindoos to the lands which they have always occupied, and to the village where they have always resided, is proverbial; and to separate them from their native soil, might, under such circumstances, be considered an additional act of cruelty. A certain portion of the produce of the soil which they cultivate, is, in the Tamil country, allowed by the master for the maintenance of his slaves, whose duty it is to till the ground; and, unless they were transferred with the land, the new proprietor, when he obtained possession, might experience difficulty in carrying on the cultivation, and the former master might be deprived of the means of enabling him to afford subsistence to his slaves. The probability of being transferred with the land, gives them on this coast a sort of property in their huts and little spots of ground, which they can thus occupy without any great fear of being turned out, or transferred, contrary to their interests, feeling, and comfort. It must, however, be observed, that on the other coast universally, and even generally on this coast, slaves are not necessarily sold with the land, although the convenience of all parts seems to have rendered the practice common."
The apathy manifested by the Collector of Calicut in 1819, respecting the sale of slaves for default of revenue, shews the influence of the slave system upon the most respectable of the European functionaries of Government. "In attempting to ameliorate the condition of these slaves, care must be taken that we do not increase them. The partial measure, of declaring them not liable to be sold for arrears of revenue, will be a drop of water in the ocean; though, why Government should give up a right, which every proprietor enjoys, is a question worthy of consideration."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 846. See p. 435.]
An extract of one of the Rejected Police Regulations, refused Registration by the Supreme Court of Bombay, in 1826, affords some idea of the state of slavery in that part of India, at the period referred to.
Of the Slave Trade and Slavery.
"All importation of slaves into this Island for sale is prohibited.
"The petty sessions shall in such cases emancipate the slave and send him or her back to the family, or to the place to which he or she was brought at the expense of the importer. When the slave is desirous of remaining, the importer shall pay him the money which would otherwise have been employed in defraying the expense of his return. The petty sessions may inflict further punishments in aggravated cases, not exceeding the fine of 500 rupees, and imprisonment for six months in default of payment.
"All children born of parents in a state of slavery in this Island, after the first day of January 1812, shall be free.
"The said court of petty sessions shall have power of summary conviction in all cases of persons enticing or conveying away any married females, or unmarried females under the age of thirteen years, out of the protection and against the will of the husband or father, or other person having the lawful protection and governance of any such female; for the purpose of her prostitution in any way, or for her disposal in marriage against the will of the person having such lawful protection or government as aforesaid; such offenders to be punishable by fine not exceeding 500 rupees; or in lieu thereof, as the case may seem to require, or in default of payment, imprisonment, with or without hard labour, as the case may seem to require, for any time not exceeding six months."† [See Ori. Herald, vol. xiv. pp. 515-533.]
The following copious extracts from the reports of eleven Collectors, to whom the Madras Government had addressed queries respecting the state of slavery in their respective districts, appear peculiarly interesting. The whole letter, from the Secretary of Government in the revenue department, contains fourteen folio pages, and bears date, April, 1819.
"In SALEM slavery does not appear to exist. The Collector observes, 'I can safely state that, in the manner referred to in these communications, there is no vestige whatever of slavery in this collectorate, nor has any such practice obtained from the time the country came into possession of the Honourable Company. During the Mussulman government, there were a few slaves belonging to certain Nunjah lands in the vicinity of the Cauvery, and there are now some descendants of these people; but they are as free as any other inhabitants. I have heard of one or two instances of a child being sold for the purpose of domestic slavery; but this is uncommonly rare, and such a circumstance as a person being sold as a slave has never transpired.'
"In MADURA and DINDIGUL slavery existed during the Mahomedan government. The slaves were sold at the pleasure of their masters, but they were not 'adscripti glebae;' not necessarily sold whenever the land was sold.
The Collector's words are, 'When a puller or parriah was unable to gain a livelihood, he was accustomed to offer himself or his relatives as slaves to the cultivating inhabitants, for a sum of money, varying from one to ten cully chuckrums, when a bond of slavery was drawn out and signed. If they married, their children were considered the property of the owners; they were employed in the cultivation of land, and were maintained by the owners, who frequently, for their services, would grant them a soluntrum, or allowance in grain, in addition to other allowances. If the proprietor of land was obliged to dispose of the whole of his lands, he still retained possession of his slaves, and disposed of them as he pleased, as they were not considered attached to the land thus sold. If an owner was unable to maintain his slave, he could let him out to others, by which means he frequently derived a maintenance both for himself and his slave; but the slave was obliged to return to his master whenever he required him, who could mortgage or sell him at pleasure. Since the assumption of the country, some slaves continued with their masters; others have left them, and have even enlisted as sepoys. I cannot discover that any puller has sold himself as a slave of late years. Indeed, slavery seems gradually disappearing; which may be attributed to the knowledge, that it is not encouraged in the different courts of justice. Some pullers cultivate their own lands, and have their own puttiams. Those who cultivate the lands of others, and who are not slaves, receive a regulated hire.'
"In COIMBATORE slavery is reported to exist, 'but in a very few villages.' The Collector observes, 'From all that I can learn, it appears certain that, the owner has a right to sell his slave without the land; but that it is a right very seldom, if ever, exercised. The highest price for a good slave is fifty rupees; the price, however, is seldom so high. The children of slaves are born slaves. On the birth of a child, the master presents the parents with cloths, and one or two rupees. The master is supposed to be vested with despotic authority over their slaves, and with power to punish them. An apprehension, however, that the exercise of such authority is not permitted by the British government appears generally prevalent, and rather operates to prevent the merchandise of slaves, as they are considered to be less valuable, when free from the fear of punishment. There appears reason for thinking that the slaves are, on the whole, better treated by their masters than the common class of free labourers. The master possesses a power, not only over the person, but over the property of his slave; and he may make use of the cattle reared by the slave for agricultural purposes! The slaves are sold with the land; but, if they should object to serve another master, they are not forced to do so. This I take to be an indulgence of the master, not a right of the slave. The slaves have a share of the produce allotted for their subsistence, about AN EIGHTH. In some instances, land has been made over to the pullers, which they cultivate for their support. In many places, where slavery does not exist, a species of bondage is introduced, by the ryots undertaking to bear the expense of their puller's marriage, upon condition of the latter binding themselves to serve the ryots exclusively for life. Slavery may almost be considered as extinct in Coimbatore.'
"In TANJORE slavery exists; but, as in Madura and Dindigul, it is founded, in the first instance, upon voluntary contract. 'The slaves are never seized or sold for arrears of revenue. The slaves here are of two casts only, the Puller and Pariah; the origin of their bondage arises in a voluntary agreement, on their part, to become the slave of some other man more powerful than themselves, upon whom they thus impose a more strict obligation to protect and maintain them and their families, than if merely serving them as labouring servants. The Brahmuns, in consideration of their cast, do not receive bonds of slavery directly in their own name, but have them generally drawn out in that of some of their soodra dependents. When a bond of slavery has been given, it ceases not with the life of the party, but is binding upon the descendants of the original giver, who continue bound by the conditions of it. In return, the owner is obliged to find subsistence at all times, and under all circumstances, for the family of his bondsman; whom he can employ in any manner he pleases, although it is generally as a labourer in the fields. The bondsman does not reside in his master's house, nor form any part of his family, but has a house provided for him along with the others of his cast, to which a back yard of eighty goontahs rent-free is attached, the same as other labourers. The master has the power of selling the slave, but he cannot sell him to any one who will carry him to a distant part of the country, without his own consent. If the master, through poverty or other cause, fails or becomes unable to subsist his bondsman and his family, he is at liberty to seek employment as a free labourer, but is liable to be reclaimed at any time by his master, when he may be in a condition to fulfil his part of the agreement. When lands are sold, in any way, it is always independent of the bondsmen, if any, upon it. If they are likewise to be sold, separate deeds of transfer are passed. If not, they continue attached to their former masters. No persons of this description have ever yet been considered as seizable property, or sold for an arrear of revenue; nor do I believe ever by a judicial decree in any civil cause; nor have I ever known this species of property recognised by the officers of government, although it is by the natives themselves, in their transactions with each other.
'On the part of the bondsman, his rights are subsistence and protection for himself and family from his master, with liberty to seek it elsewhere, as a free agent, if not found him; and the right of not being removed by sale to a distant country from the place of his birth. With regard to himself, personally, his treatment from his master is the same as that of his other labourers, which is, in general, of a mild nature; but he is not more liable to personal punishment than others, in consequence of his state of bondage; and any cruelty or abuse of authority on the part of the master, towards his bondsman, would be complained against, and punished with equal strictness, as if committed upon a free man. The Board will perceive that the condition of these people differs very little from that of the common labourers. The disadvantage to the bondsman is, the power of being sold or transferred to other masters; and this is not very frequent, as it is the last property, generally, which is disposed of by a person in distressed circumstances. The advantages are, the more effectually securing subsistence and protection to themselves and families, particularly in times of trouble or difficulty, than it is binding on masters in general to bestow upon common labourers; and this without rendering their condition in any degree intolerable, towards the amelioration of which, the equity and mildness of the British Government have greatly operated, in respect to rendering the conduct of masters to their servants indulgent. I do not find that the system of slaves attached to the soil, and transferrable by purchase as appendages to the land, obtains here.'
"TINNEVELLY. 'From all the information I have been able to collect, I understand, it is usual, in this district, for slaves to be sold or mortgaged either with the land or separately, as the proprietor pleases, or his wants require; and that there is no particular rule, or general custom, by which the conduct between the master and slave, and between slave and master, is governed, further than that the master has, at all times, the command of his slave's labour, and that the slave cannot work for any other person without the permission of his master.
'In regard to the treatment of masters towards their slaves, it does not appear to be incumbent on them to afford a subsistence except when employed in their business; and then it is on the lowest scale of allowance, being generally no more than two measures of paddy per day. At other times their slaves are obliged to seek a livelihood at the hands of others, being bound only to return to their masters when the season of cultivation commences. Besides this allowance, which the slaves receive from their masters on working days, they are entitled, when the crops are reaped, to a small deduction from the gross produce, called here, ' Paroo,' which varies in different villages, but amounts generally to about 23-8 percent. It is usual, when deaths occur among them, for their masters to assist them in the necessary funeral expenses; and on marriages, births, and festival days, to grant them presents, according as their circumstances will admit; but these acts are quite voluntary on the part of the masters, and the slave can claim nothing more than a bare subsistence while he works, and his soluntrum, as above described, at the time of harvest.
'All punishment of the slave by the master, if this power ever existed, and was recognised in former times, seems to be at an end; and there is no instance, within my experience in this district, of a slave complaining of ill-treatment from his master. The fact, indeed, appears to be, that the slave is so necessary to the cultivation, and labourers are so scarce, that the proprietors find it their interest to treat them well; and the slaves, in time, become so attached to the village in which they are settled, that they seem not to consider their situation, nor shew any desire to be free. In calling upon the tehsildars for an account of a person's property, to know whether he is a fit security for another, it is usual, if he possess slaves, to include them, a male slave being estimated in value from 3 to 15 C. Chuckrums (R 6-93/256 to 31-209/256), and a female from 3 to 5 C. Chuckrums (6-93/256 to 10-155/256), but I have always rejected them in the account as unavailable property by the Sircar, and none have ever been sold in this district for an arrear of revenue.'* ["The jemn value of a good Perier, as well as a good Addian (slave), is thirty rupees; Otty, twenty-seven and a half rupees; Kanom, fifteen rupees; and the jemn value of a less able one of either tribe, is twenty rupees; Otty, seventeen and a half rupees; Kanom, ten rupees; and Paneyain, eight rupees. The jemn value of children (male) of those sects is twelve rupees. The jemn value of a female slave, of any of the two tribes above mentioned, as well as of their female children, is three rupees and eighty reas. The pattom of a good cherman of any of the two sects above mentioned, is three paddies of paddy; that of a less able one, two paddies; that of a boy, one paddy; and that of a female of those sects is also one paddy. The jemn value of a good slave of the Moopan and Naiken tribe, is sixty-four silver fanams; Otty, fifty-two; Kanom, thirty; and Verroom Pattan, four silver fanams, but the females of those tribes are not given on Pattom or by sale. The jemn value of a good Poolean slave is twelve rupees; Otty, ten rupees; and Kanom, six rupees; and the jemn value of a less able one, eight rupees; Otty, six rupees; Kanom, four rupees; and Verrom Pattom, one paddy of paddy. The value of a good Panian or Addian (slave), might be said to have increased, by five rupees, above the old price, but that of the Naiken, Moorpan, and Poliar, continues still the same." (Par. Papers, pp. 852, 853.)]
"SOUTH ARCOT. The slaves in this collectorate are mostly of the Pully and Pariar casts, and the majority of them are chiefly devoted to the pursuit of agriculture. The number of slaves in this district, of both sexes, including children, amounts to upwards of 17,000; and they appear to have been generally born in a state of servitude, through some contract of their forefathers. The Hindoo code of laws, religious and civil, seems to declare that the Soodra tribes are naturally born in a state of servitude; and, although some of the superiors of the sub-divisions of that tribe in modern days, have emancipated themselves from this degrading thraldom, yet the lower casts are always looked upon as natural slaves, the property of any person, who contributes to defray their marriage expenses, which is the ordinary way, at present, of constituting hereditary slavery. Previously to the assumption of the Carnatic, the owners of slaves were empowered to punish them, either by castigation or confinement, at their discretion; but that power, subsequently to the British administration, has ceased to be exercised. The possessions and acquisitions of slaves, are generally considered the property of their masters, who, however, usually relinquish them to the family of the slave. Slaves cannot enter into any matrimonial connexion without the consent of their owners, who, as they defray the expenses of the marriage, virtually revive the contract of hereditary bondage; for the offspring of slaves are always regarded as the property of their father's owner.
'It is stated that the slaves of this district can be sold by their owners to any person, and to an alien village, and that no slaves are attached to any particular soil or village; but I am induced to believe that such a practice is at variance with the rights annexed to the state of real bondage; for in some Meerassi villages it is known that the Meerassidars have advanced pretensions to possess an equal proportion of the slaves with their share of the villages, and I also believe that such a practice is hardly ever resorted to. The price of a male slave and family, when sold by their owner to another person, varies considerably, and ranges from ten to fifty pagodas. The owners of slaves are required to provide them with food and clothing, to defray their wedding expenses, and to assist them on the births of children, and in their funeral charges. The food differs according to the opulence of the owner, but is always sufficient for subsistence, or the owner permits the slave to serve elsewhere during his poverty. The clothing is very scanty, except when the slaves are chiefly employed for domestic purposes; and I cannot discover that the apparel is designedly calculated to portray the class of the wearers. The duties of slaves are to attend the cattle and agriculture, and to assist in domestic services, connected with the house or person of their owners.
'It does not appear that enfranchisement of slaves ever takes place; yet as some owners have been reduced to indigence, and are unable to employ or subsist their hereditary slaves, those persons are ostensibly free, and labour for any person who will employ them. Cases of emancipation occur in the extinction of the owners' families; and from this description of Soodras, who still sacrifice their liberties, modern slaves are constituted; for they are mostly very needy, and consent to perpetual and hereditary bondage for about twenty or thirty pagodas, which the cultivator advances for the celebration of the marriage ceremony. In no instance, I believe, do engagements exist, where a labourer discharges such a loan by his manual labour.'
"CHINGLEPUT. 'The slaves employed in the cultivation of the lands, and to which this report principally refers, have, for the most part, their allowances regularly rendered; so much grain being granted to each labourer, and a proportionate subsistence to each of his children or others of the family. They are housed and clothed; and, during the principal festivals, certain allowances are made them both in money and articles required for their ceremonies. Their marriages are also performed at the charge of their masters; and, when reduced by infirmity, they are also supported by their proprietors. The condition of this description of people, composing the chief part of the Pariahs of the district, has, of late years, considerably changed. This may, in a great measure, arise from the vicinity of their situation to Madras, where this system is known to be abrogated. Many of them there obtain employment, and their proprietors would find it difficult to reclaim them; and the regulations have so far circumscribed the authority formerly exercised by the proprietors, that they cannot keep them under control, — when the power was vested in them of inflicting on them very severe corporeal punishment, or confining them for the neglect of the duties assigned them: in former times the discipline exercised by the proprietors over their slaves was of a very severe description. The proprietors finding themselves very incapable of employing their services, or rather controlling them as arbitrarily as before, complain less of the loss of this description of property. The slaves are also possessed by many of the Vellairs, &c., who have long since established themselves in the cultivation of particular villages; but their situation, in such cases, is similar to those in the service of other soodras. The sale of adami (slaves) has been, I believe, of late years, discontinued, or of very rare occurrence; and in these parts no attachment of such property has ever been made on account of the dues of government.'
"TRICHINOPOLY. — 'In the wet districts of Trichinopoly, the number of pullers may be stated at 10,000, including those employed for the purpose of watching and feeding the cattle. In the dry districts, there are about 600; but pullers are only to be found in those villages where there is paddy cultivation. The pullers of the dry districts appear to be liable to the same rules, and to possess the same rights, as those of the wet districts. The services they perform are chiefly confined to the irrigation of the land in its several stages of cultivation; but their services are also occasionally required by their masters, in the menial offices of their household establishment. If a wall or pundall is required, the pullers are obliged to erect it, without any further recompense than their established emoluments. The pullers are usually sold with the land; but there are many cases in which they may be purchased independent of it. The price of a puller varies from five to ten pagodas, according to his age and qualifications. Their services are also occasionally mortgaged; a pullee, or female slave, is never sold; while it would appear that, in Malabar, men, women, and children, are sold indiscriminately.
'The pullers are supposed to be entirely supported by their masters, in sickness and in health. Their marriages are made at the expense of the meerassidars, as well as the expense of their funerals. They enjoy some little gratuity at every birth, and receive a certain established sum at the principal Hindoo festivals. I have noted a list of the yearly emoluments a puller is properly entitled to receive; and these emoluments, though small, I have every reason to believe, are scarcely ever withheld.*
[FN: The extent of cultivation to be made by a puller and by a pullee, is 150 cullums of paddy.
Annual Emoluments. / ru. / an.
Warum of a puller culs / 8 / 5-3/8
Do. of a pullee / 6 / 6-3/4
TOTAL / 15 / 0-1/8
Batta at the commencement of each fusly for ploughing / 2 / 4
Soluntrums for sowing / 0 / 6
Reaping share a' 5 per cent / 7 / 6
Thrashing do/ 1 / 0
Pongal feast / 1 / 0
Duparaly do / 0 / 0-1/8
Gramadava do / 0 / 1-1/2
Total annual / 26 / 1-1/8 / 5-5/8 fs.
Proposed addition of warum a' 2 per cent / 3 / 0 / 0
TOTAL / 29 / 1-1/8 / 5-5/8 fs.
Contingencies estimated:
For a marriage / 4 / 0 rs. / 8
For a birth / 0 / 2 fs. / 2
For a death / 0 / 2 fs. / 2
TOTAL / 4 / 4 rs. / 8 / 4
Total / 33 / 5-5/8 rs. / 9 fs. / 1-1/8"]
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
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Part 2 of 2
The latter part of the Par. Papers refers to the practice of stealing children, which appears "very prevalent at Madras." "I beg (says the Magistrate at Tinnevelly in Dec. 1825) to bring officially to notice a custom which is, I believe, more or less prevalent throughout the Madras territories, and, as far as my observation has gone, is very frequent in the district of Tinnevelly. The practice I allude to, is the sale and purchase of female children by dancing women, for the avowed purpose of bringing them up to a life of immorality. The custom is so notorious, and its tendency so evident, that no comment can be necessary; but I am apprehensive that, unless it be specially excepted from those purchases of children which are now (under some circumstances) legal, an opinion may be entertained that such dealings are countenanced by law. A prohibition of such transactions could not be complained of as an infringement of any acknowledged rights; it would serve as a check upon child-stealing, which is occasionally practised under the pretence of purchase, and the public expression of the will of the Government could not but have a beneficial tendency to promote morality."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 934, 935.]
The reply to this communication, by the Secretary of Government at Madras, it is presumed, cannot be read without feelings of strong disapprobation. "It is understood, from your letter, that in the opinion of the judges of the Foujdaree Adawlut, no new enactment is required upon this subject, because the selling or purchasing of children, for the avowed purpose of prostitution, may be punished under the law as it at present stands. The Governor in Council entirely concurs with the judges in deeming any enactment unnecessary; and is further of opinion, adverting to the nature of the institution of dancing women, and to its connexion with the ceremonies and observances, both religious and civil, of the great bulk of the people, that if it is at all expedient for the officers of Government to interfere, for the purpose of preventing parents or guardians from assigning children in the customary modes to be brought up to this profession, the interference requires to be conducted with the greatest caution. The remarks, to which reference is made, relate to the practice of selling children to be made slaves, and generally to the usages of the country with respect to slavery; and, it was observed, that that subject was one of much difficulty and delicacy. The subject now under consideration is of no less delicacy, and it seems to afford less inducement to interfere; for it is to be considered, that loss of personal freedom is not among the consequences of being brought up to be a dancing woman, and that the species of immorality which the interference would propose to redress prevails, is generally tolerated, in the most enlightened and most highly civilized nations of Europe, and is much more closely connected with general depravity and with misery in England than it is in India."† [p. 935. See also pp. 901-903.]
The present state of the melioration of slavery — for the abolition of it is not attempted — appears in an extract of a letter from the Hon. Court of Directors to the Governor of Madras, in April, 1824. "In the districts subject to your Presidency the rights and obligations of master and slave appear to be very indistinctly defined: and this obscurity of the law we apprehend to be favourable to the slaves; for whatever the legal power of masters may be, their actual control over the liberties of those persons who are nominally their slaves appears to be but small. We desire that you will be extremely cautions, in making any regulation for defining the relations of master and slave. It is our wish to improve the condition of the latter to the utmost extent, and we fear that, in defining the power of masters, acts of compulsion might be legalized, which by custom are not now tolerated, and the slaves might be placed in a worse condition than before. We shall defer making any further remarks on the subject, till we receive a further communication from you."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 901.]
To this, nearly two years after, the Governor in Council refers with approbation. "The opinions and views stated in these paragraphs coincide with those entertained by us."† [p. 901.] (Feb. 1826.) Thus the state of slavery in India, which at one time is represented as mild and scarcely needing attention, at another is considered of such a nature, that the Government is afraid to touch the subject — even to "define the relations of master and slave." Is this the way to eradicate one of the greatest evils incident to mortal man? "Surely," says the late Bishop Heber, "we are, in matters of religion, the most lukewarm and cowardly people on the face of the earth;"‡ [Jour., vol. ii. p. 465.] and is it not equally true, as it respects the interests of humanity in India?
The extent of slavery in India, at the present period, it is presumed, cannot be ascertained by the Parliamentary Documents now before the public. No census or general registration of the slaves appears to have been taken; it is only, therefore, from occasional remarks by the Magistrates, or the more regular statements of some of the Collectors under the Madras Presidency, that any probable estimate can be taken of the extent of slavery in the British dominions in the East. By the publication of this first volume of Parliamentary Papers on Slavery in India, sufficient information is given to urge the full development of the nature and extent of this system, and to excite the friends of humanity to increased exertion, till Britain, in all her dominions, regards the divine injunction, "Let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke."
The second Judge of Dacca, in 1812, remarks, respecting that district, — "Inveigling away and selling slaves, has long been a prevailing offence, I believe peculiar to this district, and numerous prosecutions are consequently preferred for recovering them."* [Par. Papers, p. 242.]
The same Gentleman observes respecting Sylhet, — "The odious practice of trafficing in slaves has long subsisted in that zillah, and doubtless many and various abuses have been committed under the cloak of an authorized commerce, or, at least, of such mercantile transactions not specially prohibited. The trade is carried on to a considerable extent, as is universally acknowledged; and, from the best information on the subject, it is computed, that the number of slaves in the district amounts to about ONE-SIXTH of the whole population; and this number progressively increases, as their offspring are also born slaves. It is impossible to form a correct calculation of the number of slaves annually exported from the district, but it is believed to be much less considerable now than formerly."† [p. 244.]
Of Sylhet, and the zillah Backergunge, the Magistrate, J. W. Sage, Esq., in 1816, observes,
"There are (says the philanthropic Judge of Bundlecund, in 1808, J. Richardson, Esq.) districts under the Company's dominions, (particularly Ramghur,) wherein, to my own knowledge, the greatest part of the cultivators and labourers are slaves. I have no scruple to avow, I deem this one great cause of the wild and uncultivated condition of the country, and the barbarous state of its inhabitants; for what human being will labour with good will, or a desire of improvement, when another enjoys the sole produce?"† [p. 300.] This Gentleman further observes, —
"In Nepaul" says Hamilton, "most of the domestic servants are slaves; and there are some Brahmuns who are slaves to Rajpoots, and, in high families, are employed as cooks (an office of great dignity), or in the service of public chapels. All other ranks are sold for common slaves, and persons of the best family have been degraded by the Raja, and given to damais, or tailors; by which they not only lose their liberty, but also their cast, which, to a Hindoo, is of much more importance, as in general among the higher classes, the cast of a slave is respected. It is reckoned very disgraceful to sell their children to any person of impure birth, or to an infidel, yet in cases of exigence it is frequently done, and the parents do not lose cast, which however they inevitably would, if they afterwards received their child into their house, even were he liberated by his master. All the female slaves, or Keties, not excepting those belonging to the Queen, are prostitutes, although the latter are allowed some privileges, and have considerable influence at court. In the day time they attend the Queen, and when she goes out, some of them, armed with swords, follow her on horseback, and form her body guard; on which occasions they are dressed and ride on horseback like men."* [Hamilton's Hind., vol. ii. p. 680.] ‡ ["Domestic Slavery, which is very common in India, however mild, surely demands the reprehension of every individual who has a proper idea of the dignity of human nature. In some parts of India, children are as much an article of sale, as goats or poultry." — Ward's View of the Hindoos, 1820, vol iii. p. 281.]
Hamilton, in his Description of Hindostan, thus speaks of slavery. — "Domestic slavery is very generally prevalent in Bengal, among both Hindoos and Mahomedans. More trusty than hired servants, slaves are almost exclusively employed in the house, for attendance on the members of the family, and in all the most confidential services. Every opulent person, every one raised above the condition of the simplest mediocrity, is provided with household slaves, and from this class chiefly, are taken the concubines of Mahomedans and Hindoos. In the lower provinces, under the Bengal Presidency, the employment of slaves in the labours of husbandry is almost unknown. In the upper provinces, beginning from Western Behar and Benares, the petty landlords, who are themselves cultivators, are aided in their husbandry by slaves, whom they very commonly employ as herds and ploughmen; landlords of a higher class have in a few instances the pretensions of masters over a part of their tenants long settled on their estates, and reputed to be descended from persons who were the acknowledged slaves of their ancestors. Their claims to the services of these hereditary serfs, who are scarcely to be distinguished from the rest of the peasantry, are nearly obsolete and scarcely attended with any practical consequences; but those employed in husbandry by the inferior classes of landlords are decidedly slaves. The employment of slaves in handicraft work is more rare, but not entirely unknown. It would be difficult to form a computation of the number of slaves throughout the country, and any steps towards the preparation of an accurate estimate would involve inquiries which cannot fail of exciting great alarm. Slaves are neither so few as to be of no consideration, nor so numerous, as to constitute a notable proportion of the population. The slave is more usually a favourite and confidential servant than an abject drudge; and he is held superior to the hireling both in his master's estimation and his own."† [vol. i. p. 105-107.]
"A portion of the population of the district of Tiperah are slaves, and the custom of disposing of persons already in a state of slavery is common throughout the district. On these occasions regular deeds of sale are executed, some of which are registered in the court of justice; and when an estate, to which slaves are attached, is sold privately, the slaves are commonly sold at the same time, although a separate deed of sale is always executed."* [Hamilton's Hind., 1821, vol. i. p. 182. Of Sylhet, see p. 196.]
"Among the domestics in Rungpore are both male and female slaves, especially towards Assam, and everywhere along the northern frontier. The people of Assam sell many slaves, and those of Cooch Bahar are not unwilling to carry on the same trade."† [p. 207.]
"Slaves in Dinagepore are very few, and were mostly purchased during the great famine in 1769, and the scarcity of 1787, to keep them from starving; but they turned out so idle and careless, that their labour was found much more expensive than that of hired labourers."‡ [p. 223.]
"In the district of Purneah are various classes of slaves; of which one class costs from £1 15s. to £2 5s.; in another class a youth costs from £1 8s. to £2 5s., and a girl of eight years from 11s. to £1 15s. They are allowed to marry, and their children become slaves, but the family are seldom sold separately."§ [p. 234.]
"Real slaves of the male sex, in Boglipore, are called Nufur, and their women Laundies. They may be sold in whatever manner the master chooses, but they are not often brought to market. The slaves here are in general industrious, seldom run away, and are rarely beaten."|| [p. 248.]
In Behar "slaves of the description of Nufur and Laundi, are very numerous, often liberated, seldom sold, and frequently, owing to the poverty of their owners, left to find a subsistence for themselves. In Gya, and some other places, slaves are occasionally sold, and formerly fetched a rupee for each year of their age, until they reached twenty, when they attained their highest value; but in general the price has recently greatly risen !"¶ [p. 258.]
"Theft is common throughout Ramghar, but murder more prevalent among a particular class, which are the slaves possessed by persons inhabiting the mountainous and inaccessible interior, and of savage and ferocious habits. When petty disputes occur, these slaves are compelled by their masters to perpetrate any enormity, and are more especially employed for the purposes of assassination. Any hesitation or repugnance on the part of the slave, is attended with immediate death, which is equally his fate should he fail in the attempt. On the other hand, if he succeed, he is sought out by the officers of Government, and executed as a murderer. The usual police have hitherto been unable to seize the cowardly instigator, and if recourse be had to a military force, he retires into the jungles. On the occurrence of such an event, the whole country is thrown into confusion and rebellion, during which many unoffending persons lose their lives; and the troops, after many ineffectual efforts to execute the Magistrate's orders, return to their stations, worn out with fatigue, and their numbers thinned by the pestilential atmosphere of the jungles. Neither do the slaves attach the slightest idea of guilt to the murders they are thus delegated to commit; on the contrary, when seized, they always confess, and appear to expect applause for having done their duty."* [p. 284. See an account of Goomsur, in the Northern Circars, vol. ii. p. 70.]
"Slaves are common in Afghanistan, mostly home-born, the rest imported. Abyssinians and Negroes are sometimes brought from Arabia through the ports of Sinde; the Baloochees sell Persians, and other prisoners; and many Caffrees are purchased or made prisoners. The Caffree captives are generally females, and much sought after on account of their beauty.† [p. 543.]
"Slaves are much employed in agriculture at Malari in Kumaon, and used to be purchased here by the Gorkhas."‡ [p. 661.]
Respecting Assam, contiguous to Bengal, Hamilton states, — "Capital punishments extend to the whole family of a rebel — parents, sisters, wife, and children; and it is probable, from these sources that the rafts are supplied, which are frequently seen floating down the Brahmaputra, past Goalpara, covered with human heads. All the domestics are slaves, and they are numerous; every man of rank having several, mostly procured among the necessitous, who mortgage themselves. Some are exported, and about 100, of pure cast, are annually sold in Bengal. The girls chiefly are bought by professional prostitutes, and cost from twelve to fifteen rupees. A Cooch boy costs twenty-five rupees; a Kolita fifty; slaves of impure tribes are sold to the Garrows."[/size]§ [Ham. Hind., vol. ii. p. 744.]
"The tract, at present occupied by the Independent Garrows, cannot be estimated at more than 130 miles in length, by thirty in breadth. Rungta, one of the principal Garrow Chiefs, died many years ago, and was succeeded by his son Agund, who is still alive, and is said to possess great wealth in slaves, brass pots, and human sculls [skulls]! This chief attended the marriage of the Zemindar of Currybarry's son, when a palanquin was presented to him; which, having first deprived of the poles as useless, he entered, and was borne away over the hills, on the heads of his slaves. On the death of a highland chief, of common rank, the head of one of his slaves should be burned with him; but if he be a chief of great dignity, a large body of his slaves sally out from the hills, and seize a Hindoo, whose head they cut off, and burn along with the body of their chieftain."* [Ham. Hind., vol. ii. p. 762.]
The Governor of Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, in 1807, very justly observes, — "Although domestic slavery, as practised by the Malays, meliorates, in a great degree, the situation of the slave, as permitted on this Island, when compared with that of the same class of people in other quarters of the globe — still, slavery in its mildest form is degrading in the minds of Britons; and hitherto only tolerated as a means of drawing population to an infant colony, which, from the now flourishing state of this Island, is no longer necessary, therefore derogatory to our national character, and should, in my opinion, cease to exist: at the same time every reasonable consideration is due towards their proprietors, so as to remunerate the one, without injustice to the other, or too suddenly interfering with ancient and authorized usages. This subject has, it appears, engaged the attention of the Hon. the Court of Directors, and they have more than once urged their Government here to adopt the necessary measures for effecting so humane and honourable an object, as the personal freedom of a considerable proportion of their subjects. I have consequently felt interested in the cause, and made such inquiries as enable me to state that there cannot be fewer than three thousand men, women, and children, in a state of bondage on this Island."† [Par. Papers on Slavery, p. 436; see also p. 454.]
The state of the slave trade in Pulo Nias, in 1821, is described in "The Life of Sir S. Raffles."—
We have seen that the Suttee exists in the Island of Bali, or little Java, and it is painful to state, that slavery also is found, and a slavery encouraged by European governments. —
Slavery exists in "its most hideous shape" in the Island of New Zealand; and the author of a recent work, relative to this Island, very justly remarks; — "'That slavery should be the custom of savage nations and cannibals, is not a cause of wonder; they are the only class of human beings it ought to remain with."† [Earle's Residence in New Zealand. Eclec. Rev., Sep. 1832.] Let the advocates of slavery consider with whom they are thus unceremoniously, but how justly, classed.
Of the Daerds, in Canara, under the Madras Presidency, the Collector of the Southern Division in 1801, states, — "By far the greatest part of the slaves employed in agriculture are the Daerds, of whom there are various descriptions; no order was ever given for their being included in the registers; the whole number of them, by the population statement, is 52,022, men, women, and children; of which number there are, in the Baincoor talook, 5,894: the number belonging to every landlord shall hereafter, as desired, be entered in the registers."‡ [Par. Papers, p. 548.] "Exclusive of the Daerds, there were another sect of slaves in Canara, though, I believe, many of them are now free. Under the Biddenore Government, all illegitimate children, save those by dancing girls, were considered the property of the Sircar, which took possession of, and sold them as slaves, to any person who would purchase them; the number of this sort now is about 722; there are also many slaves imported from Arabia."§ [p. 550.]
Some of the Daerds having enlisted in the Company's army, the Collector of Mangalore requested the Madras Government that they might be interdicted the service. The minute of Government acknowledges the existence of slavery in this and other parts of India. —
The Board of Revenue for the Madras Government in 1818, in a very judicious minute on slavery, candidly acknowledges its extensive prevalence; —
As has been stated, no correct idea can be formed from the Par. Papers, of the actual number of slaves in British India. The slaves in Batavia in 1812, before its surrender to the Dutch, exclusive of those belonging to Government (which did not exceed 281), were as follows; —
The following are the only official number of slaves observed (with the exception of those in Amboyna, amounting to 1,613, now ceded to the Dutch) in a careful investigation of the Papers; —
These few items, producing more than 200,000 slaves, would lead to the supposition, that their number in British India may equal and even exceed that of the West Indies. — And should not this fact be known, and efforts made to meliorate the state of these degraded people, and to elevate them to their proper place in society? When shall every subject of Britain be free as the air he breathes? How tardy, though encouraged by success, are our proceedings in this work of justice and mercy. But this will more clearly appear in the following chapter.
[quote cont'd from above:]
'I have examined the pullers themselves, on the subject of their being well or ill treated, and asked them what course they would pursue if ill used. They replied, they would seek other masters at a distance, that would treat them more kindly. In corroboration of this fact I have never received a complaint, either in my fiscal or magisterial capacity, since my appointment to this district, from a puller against his master. The right of the puller is so distinctly defined by custom, and the interest of the meerassidar so substantially affected by the good conduct and health of the puller, — that it is hardly possible to suppose the meerassidars would be so blind to their own interest as to cause their pullers to abscond, or by harsh treatment reduce them to sickness. From what has been already stated, it will be found, that agricultural slavery has existed in this district from time immemorial.'
"CANARA. — 'The origin of slavery in Canara is to be traced from extracts in an ancient book, called Sheehadry Pooranum, but by no means an authentic record. This treatise is stated to contain a fabulous narrative, which, when divested of its oriental imagery and metaphors, will be found to attribute the origin of slavery in Canara to the right of conquest.
The right of sale was, and is still, the master's exclusive privilege, either with or without the land. The price varies, and is settled amongst the purchasers and sellers. The usual rates are as follow: —
'For a strong young man, from twelve to twenty-six rupees.
'Do. a strong young woman, twelve to twenty-four rupees.
'Do. a child, never under four rupees.
'It is customary to pass a bill of sale, on a bargain being made, or a mortgage bond. The transfer, by purchase or gift, (in charity, or to the pagoda), is attended with a short ceremony, between the seller or giver, and receiver, and the slave. The slave drinks some water from his brass basin, and calls out, 'I am now your slave for ever.' The zillah court, has guaranteed this right by decrees, both on transfer of landed property, and on sale in execution of decrees. The master can lend his slaves out on hire. He can sell the husband to one person, and the wife to another! This is not often done, because neither of the purchasers can be sure of keeping his purchase. Care is always taken in purchasing not to carry the slave to any distant estate. The master can sell the children; but this is seldom done from the foregoing cause, the fear of desertion. The master, according to his means, feeds and clothes his slaves. He never pays them wages in money, but presents them on their marriages, or particular ceremonies, with a small sum. The quantity of food and clothing to a slave varies in every talook. It does not seem to be regulated by any rule, although it would appear that some original quantum obtained. The average may be thus estimated: —-- / FOOD / CLOTHING
A man / 1/2 Canara seer coarse rice, two rupees weight salt, a little beetel nut and leaf. / Two pieces of eanthey, six cubits. In some talooks, a combly and roomal given
A woman / 1 seer / 1 do. seven cubits long.
A child / 3/4 do. / 1 do. four do.
'The salt, beetel, &c., is optional. It is also customary to give them conjee from the master's house. I cannot learn that any want or cruelty is experienced by the slaves, the master being well aware that, on any ill-treatment, they will desert him; and that the trouble and expense attending their recovery would perhaps amount to the value of the deserters. Slavery seems to be inconsistent with rights and privileges. On these points I can only generally state, that the dhers of Canara possess none. The number of slaves of all descriptions, in Canara, has never been correctly ascertained; they may be estimated at 82,000.'
"MALABAR. — In Malabar (exclusive of Wynaud* ["The landed proprietors of Wynaud are torpid to a degree; all the field work is done by slaves called Paniers, who are held in higher estimation than the slaves of the lower districts. They are admitted to the threshold of their masters' houses, and they are even employed in grinding rice for the use of the temples!" (Par. Papers, p. 924.) Hamilton thus describes the ceremonies of respect in Malabar: "A nair, (soldier) may approach, but not touch a Brahmun. A tair, (cultivator) remains 36 yards off. A puliar, (slave) 96 steps off. A tair is to remain 12 steps from a nair; a meliar 3 or 4 steps farther, a poliar 96 steps. A meliar may approach, but not touch a tair. A polier is not to come near a malear or other cast. If he wish to speak to a Brahmun or other, he must stand at the above prescribed distances and cry aloud. Formerly a nair was expected instantly to cut down a tair, or musna, (fisherman) who defiled him by touching him; and the same fate awaited the poliar or pariar who did not turn out of the road for the nair." (Ham. Hind., vol. ii. pp. 278, 280.)]) the number of slaves is estimated by the Collector at 100,000. 'They are,' says the Collector, 'slaves of the soil, and are generally attached to the land of the proprietors of the ground on which they were born; but this is by no means considered an essential point, being frequently transferred by sale, mortgage, or hire. In Malabar, as in the West Indies, a man's wealth is as much appreciated by the number of his slaves, as by any other property he may possess! In one sect they observe what is termed makkatye; in another they observe the marra makkatye; the former, being the common laws of kindred, the latter similar to the customs among the Nairs, in which inheritance goes to the sister's son, and this constitutes the value of a female of one cast over that of the male, and vice versa, a male being more valuable where the progeny goes with him. The marriage contract is made entirely among the parents of the parties, without any interference on the part of the proprietor; to whom, however, it is necessary to make the proposed connexion.
'No valuable consideration is given to the owner by the male for the possession of the female. The contract may be dissolved at the pleasure of the parties connected; in which event the husband takes off the marriage necklace (commonly composed of shells or brass ornaments), which makes the dissolution complete, and each is at liberty to form new connexions; but whilst the contract lasts I have had opportunities in my magisterial capacity, when an assistant in the courts, of observing a wonderful degree of jealousy and tenaciousness of family honour, when contrasted with the general appearance, habits, and apparently brutish stupidity of these casts. The measure of subsistence to be given by the proprietor is fixed, and he is bound by the prescribed customs of the country to see it served daily. A frequent failure on the part of the master to perform this duty, is sure to be attended with desertion to another, from whom they expect kinder usage; and, when this takes place, the recovery of them is attended with difficulties that are not easily overcome; for, independent of being obliged to have recourse to courts of justice, months and years perhaps elapse before they can discover to what place the slave has absconded. The proprietor feels it his interest to see them well treated, through apprehensions of the consequence of an opposite conduct.
'I do not recollect any instance of a churma having appealed to a court of justice for protection from the ill usage of his master; but instances are not wanting of persons having been brought to justice and to a severe account for the murder or wounding of a slave; and as it is universally known throughout Malabar that British justice considers the life of the lowest individual as valuable as the highest character in the country, and that as severe a retribution would fall on the head of the murderer of a slave as of a rajah, we may consider them as well protected by the laws as any other race of beings. In some respects, churmas may be considered in more comfortable circumstances than any of the lower and poorer class of Natives. An instance of a churma being a beggar is unheard of: they and their families are sure of having the means of subsistence, for if the owner should be unable to afford this, he will sell, mortgage, or hire his churma to another, on whom would devolve the duty, as well as interest, of affording him such subsistence, as to enable him to go through the labours of the day."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 887-896.] † ["The churmas in Malabar are absolute property; they are part of the livestock on an estate. In selling and buying land it is not necessary that they should follow the soil; both kinds of property are equally disposable, and may fall into different hands. The churmas may be sold, leased, and mortgaged, like the land itself, or like any cattle or thing. The feumokar may hire them for pattom or rent independently of the land, or he may sell them altogether with his estate. The pattom on a churma is four fanams a year; if they are disposed of on otty, their price is thirty two fanams; if on the attipit ola or jenmon, forty-eight fanams. The jenmokar, by the ancient laws of Malabar, is accountable, to no person for the life of his own churma, but is the legal judge of his offences, and may punish them by death, if they should appear to deserve it. The kolloonaven can neither put to death a churma nor sell him, but he may chastise him. In the same manner as the soil the possession of churmas was originally confined to a particular class. They were then employed entirely in the labours of agriculture; but, although they were the first and sole cultivators in Malabar, it is not to be imagined that this is the case at present, since there are many kuddians of all casts, who cultivate their own lands."— (Walker's Rep. on Malabar. Par. Papers, p. 866.)]
To the above may be added the Report of the Collector of the NORTHERN DIVISION OF ARCOT. — "The slaves in the district are not numerous; exhibiting a total of 688, inclusive of men, women, and children. The practice of keeping them may be said to be confined to the five talooks of Arcot, Trevultoor, Cauvareeput, Poloor, and Suttawaid; for in Sholungar and Wondawash (the two other talooks in which, according to the statement, slavery prevails) their numbers are very small indeed. They are ostensibly employed in agriculture, and the pasturing of cattle, although they may occasionally do house work; and the persons in whose service they are principally engaged, are the Rajah, Brahmun, and Vellumwar casts. Children, born when their parents are in a state of slavery, become slaves also. It does not appear to be accurately settled to whom the child of a slave belongs; in one talook, it was said to the master of the male, in another to the master of the female slave; the question, perhaps, has never been agitated; for the people who keep slaves, most likely find it cheaper to buy than to rear them! and the offspring, when left to their parents' charge, who have barely sufficient to support themselves, die of absolute want! They have not any particular marks whereby they may be distinguished, except it is their wretched appearance; they are fed and clothed and subsisted entirely by their masters; their food consists of raggy, the coarsest kind of grain, and their clothing is a common cumly. I cannot discover, though I was very particular in my inquiries on the point, that they have any rights or privileges, and they are not possessed of any property, neither can they inherit any."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 873, 874.]
The latter part of the Par. Papers refers to the practice of stealing children, which appears "very prevalent at Madras." "I beg (says the Magistrate at Tinnevelly in Dec. 1825) to bring officially to notice a custom which is, I believe, more or less prevalent throughout the Madras territories, and, as far as my observation has gone, is very frequent in the district of Tinnevelly. The practice I allude to, is the sale and purchase of female children by dancing women, for the avowed purpose of bringing them up to a life of immorality. The custom is so notorious, and its tendency so evident, that no comment can be necessary; but I am apprehensive that, unless it be specially excepted from those purchases of children which are now (under some circumstances) legal, an opinion may be entertained that such dealings are countenanced by law. A prohibition of such transactions could not be complained of as an infringement of any acknowledged rights; it would serve as a check upon child-stealing, which is occasionally practised under the pretence of purchase, and the public expression of the will of the Government could not but have a beneficial tendency to promote morality."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 934, 935.]
The reply to this communication, by the Secretary of Government at Madras, it is presumed, cannot be read without feelings of strong disapprobation. "It is understood, from your letter, that in the opinion of the judges of the Foujdaree Adawlut, no new enactment is required upon this subject, because the selling or purchasing of children, for the avowed purpose of prostitution, may be punished under the law as it at present stands. The Governor in Council entirely concurs with the judges in deeming any enactment unnecessary; and is further of opinion, adverting to the nature of the institution of dancing women, and to its connexion with the ceremonies and observances, both religious and civil, of the great bulk of the people, that if it is at all expedient for the officers of Government to interfere, for the purpose of preventing parents or guardians from assigning children in the customary modes to be brought up to this profession, the interference requires to be conducted with the greatest caution. The remarks, to which reference is made, relate to the practice of selling children to be made slaves, and generally to the usages of the country with respect to slavery; and, it was observed, that that subject was one of much difficulty and delicacy. The subject now under consideration is of no less delicacy, and it seems to afford less inducement to interfere; for it is to be considered, that loss of personal freedom is not among the consequences of being brought up to be a dancing woman, and that the species of immorality which the interference would propose to redress prevails, is generally tolerated, in the most enlightened and most highly civilized nations of Europe, and is much more closely connected with general depravity and with misery in England than it is in India."† [p. 935. See also pp. 901-903.]
The present state of the melioration of slavery — for the abolition of it is not attempted — appears in an extract of a letter from the Hon. Court of Directors to the Governor of Madras, in April, 1824. "In the districts subject to your Presidency the rights and obligations of master and slave appear to be very indistinctly defined: and this obscurity of the law we apprehend to be favourable to the slaves; for whatever the legal power of masters may be, their actual control over the liberties of those persons who are nominally their slaves appears to be but small. We desire that you will be extremely cautions, in making any regulation for defining the relations of master and slave. It is our wish to improve the condition of the latter to the utmost extent, and we fear that, in defining the power of masters, acts of compulsion might be legalized, which by custom are not now tolerated, and the slaves might be placed in a worse condition than before. We shall defer making any further remarks on the subject, till we receive a further communication from you."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 901.]
To this, nearly two years after, the Governor in Council refers with approbation. "The opinions and views stated in these paragraphs coincide with those entertained by us."† [p. 901.] (Feb. 1826.) Thus the state of slavery in India, which at one time is represented as mild and scarcely needing attention, at another is considered of such a nature, that the Government is afraid to touch the subject — even to "define the relations of master and slave." Is this the way to eradicate one of the greatest evils incident to mortal man? "Surely," says the late Bishop Heber, "we are, in matters of religion, the most lukewarm and cowardly people on the face of the earth;"‡ [Jour., vol. ii. p. 465.] and is it not equally true, as it respects the interests of humanity in India?
The extent of slavery in India, at the present period, it is presumed, cannot be ascertained by the Parliamentary Documents now before the public. No census or general registration of the slaves appears to have been taken; it is only, therefore, from occasional remarks by the Magistrates, or the more regular statements of some of the Collectors under the Madras Presidency, that any probable estimate can be taken of the extent of slavery in the British dominions in the East. By the publication of this first volume of Parliamentary Papers on Slavery in India, sufficient information is given to urge the full development of the nature and extent of this system, and to excite the friends of humanity to increased exertion, till Britain, in all her dominions, regards the divine injunction, "Let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke."
The second Judge of Dacca, in 1812, remarks, respecting that district, — "Inveigling away and selling slaves, has long been a prevailing offence, I believe peculiar to this district, and numerous prosecutions are consequently preferred for recovering them."* [Par. Papers, p. 242.]
The same Gentleman observes respecting Sylhet, — "The odious practice of trafficing in slaves has long subsisted in that zillah, and doubtless many and various abuses have been committed under the cloak of an authorized commerce, or, at least, of such mercantile transactions not specially prohibited. The trade is carried on to a considerable extent, as is universally acknowledged; and, from the best information on the subject, it is computed, that the number of slaves in the district amounts to about ONE-SIXTH of the whole population; and this number progressively increases, as their offspring are also born slaves. It is impossible to form a correct calculation of the number of slaves annually exported from the district, but it is believed to be much less considerable now than formerly."† [p. 244.]
Of Sylhet, and the zillah Backergunge, the Magistrate, J. W. Sage, Esq., in 1816, observes,
"During the ten months I was at Sylhet, I often heard that some persons gained a livelihood by enticing boys and girls (whose parents were free) from their houses in the district, and from the adjoining territories of Kackar and Jynteah, disposing of some to wealthy natives in the district, and carrying some for sale to other places. It is a common practice amongst the lower class of native women, on the loss of their husbands, or at the time of a scarcity of grain, both in Sylhet and this district (Backergunge) to sell their children; by which the mothers gain a livelihood, and the children are better taken care of by their new masters. Some mothers sell their female children to prostitutes; sales of that description are always made known to the police darogahs, whose duty it is to convey the parties instantly to the Magistrate, that they may be punished for so nefarious a transaction. There are some, whose families have been in a state of slavery for the last hundred years, and who, when a sale of an estate takes place, are included in the purchase; as however many suits are instituted in the Sylhet district for slaves, and appeals are admitted by the court of appeal, I do not suppose Sir R. K. Dick had it in contemplation to draw the attention of Government to that class of people. It might, in some measure, prevent illicit transactions, if every one, purchasing a child, was, under pain of a heavy fine and imprisonment, ordered to register such sale, and enter into an agreement at the court, at the time of registering, binding himself to produce at the court the boy or girl he may buy, whenever the Magistrate should call upon him."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 217.]
"There are (says the philanthropic Judge of Bundlecund, in 1808, J. Richardson, Esq.) districts under the Company's dominions, (particularly Ramghur,) wherein, to my own knowledge, the greatest part of the cultivators and labourers are slaves. I have no scruple to avow, I deem this one great cause of the wild and uncultivated condition of the country, and the barbarous state of its inhabitants; for what human being will labour with good will, or a desire of improvement, when another enjoys the sole produce?"† [p. 300.] This Gentleman further observes, —
"By an enforcement of the spirit and principles of the Mussulman law, a total stop would be put to the horrid practice of slavery, which, almost incredible to state, exists contrary to law and reason, throughout our dominions in India, to a degree scarcely to be believed; not a Mussulman family, of even mediocrity, that has not numbers both of male and female slaves. The people about their persons, and the female attendants on their women, are almost all slaves; and, to my certain knowledge, they have slaves for the purpose of cultivation and field labour."‡ [p. 317.]
"In Nepaul" says Hamilton, "most of the domestic servants are slaves; and there are some Brahmuns who are slaves to Rajpoots, and, in high families, are employed as cooks (an office of great dignity), or in the service of public chapels. All other ranks are sold for common slaves, and persons of the best family have been degraded by the Raja, and given to damais, or tailors; by which they not only lose their liberty, but also their cast, which, to a Hindoo, is of much more importance, as in general among the higher classes, the cast of a slave is respected. It is reckoned very disgraceful to sell their children to any person of impure birth, or to an infidel, yet in cases of exigence it is frequently done, and the parents do not lose cast, which however they inevitably would, if they afterwards received their child into their house, even were he liberated by his master. All the female slaves, or Keties, not excepting those belonging to the Queen, are prostitutes, although the latter are allowed some privileges, and have considerable influence at court. In the day time they attend the Queen, and when she goes out, some of them, armed with swords, follow her on horseback, and form her body guard; on which occasions they are dressed and ride on horseback like men."* [Hamilton's Hind., vol. ii. p. 680.] ‡ ["Domestic Slavery, which is very common in India, however mild, surely demands the reprehension of every individual who has a proper idea of the dignity of human nature. In some parts of India, children are as much an article of sale, as goats or poultry." — Ward's View of the Hindoos, 1820, vol iii. p. 281.]
Hamilton, in his Description of Hindostan, thus speaks of slavery. — "Domestic slavery is very generally prevalent in Bengal, among both Hindoos and Mahomedans. More trusty than hired servants, slaves are almost exclusively employed in the house, for attendance on the members of the family, and in all the most confidential services. Every opulent person, every one raised above the condition of the simplest mediocrity, is provided with household slaves, and from this class chiefly, are taken the concubines of Mahomedans and Hindoos. In the lower provinces, under the Bengal Presidency, the employment of slaves in the labours of husbandry is almost unknown. In the upper provinces, beginning from Western Behar and Benares, the petty landlords, who are themselves cultivators, are aided in their husbandry by slaves, whom they very commonly employ as herds and ploughmen; landlords of a higher class have in a few instances the pretensions of masters over a part of their tenants long settled on their estates, and reputed to be descended from persons who were the acknowledged slaves of their ancestors. Their claims to the services of these hereditary serfs, who are scarcely to be distinguished from the rest of the peasantry, are nearly obsolete and scarcely attended with any practical consequences; but those employed in husbandry by the inferior classes of landlords are decidedly slaves. The employment of slaves in handicraft work is more rare, but not entirely unknown. It would be difficult to form a computation of the number of slaves throughout the country, and any steps towards the preparation of an accurate estimate would involve inquiries which cannot fail of exciting great alarm. Slaves are neither so few as to be of no consideration, nor so numerous, as to constitute a notable proportion of the population. The slave is more usually a favourite and confidential servant than an abject drudge; and he is held superior to the hireling both in his master's estimation and his own."† [vol. i. p. 105-107.]
"A portion of the population of the district of Tiperah are slaves, and the custom of disposing of persons already in a state of slavery is common throughout the district. On these occasions regular deeds of sale are executed, some of which are registered in the court of justice; and when an estate, to which slaves are attached, is sold privately, the slaves are commonly sold at the same time, although a separate deed of sale is always executed."* [Hamilton's Hind., 1821, vol. i. p. 182. Of Sylhet, see p. 196.]
"Among the domestics in Rungpore are both male and female slaves, especially towards Assam, and everywhere along the northern frontier. The people of Assam sell many slaves, and those of Cooch Bahar are not unwilling to carry on the same trade."† [p. 207.]
"Slaves in Dinagepore are very few, and were mostly purchased during the great famine in 1769, and the scarcity of 1787, to keep them from starving; but they turned out so idle and careless, that their labour was found much more expensive than that of hired labourers."‡ [p. 223.]
"In the district of Purneah are various classes of slaves; of which one class costs from £1 15s. to £2 5s.; in another class a youth costs from £1 8s. to £2 5s., and a girl of eight years from 11s. to £1 15s. They are allowed to marry, and their children become slaves, but the family are seldom sold separately."§ [p. 234.]
"Real slaves of the male sex, in Boglipore, are called Nufur, and their women Laundies. They may be sold in whatever manner the master chooses, but they are not often brought to market. The slaves here are in general industrious, seldom run away, and are rarely beaten."|| [p. 248.]
In Behar "slaves of the description of Nufur and Laundi, are very numerous, often liberated, seldom sold, and frequently, owing to the poverty of their owners, left to find a subsistence for themselves. In Gya, and some other places, slaves are occasionally sold, and formerly fetched a rupee for each year of their age, until they reached twenty, when they attained their highest value; but in general the price has recently greatly risen !"¶ [p. 258.]
"Theft is common throughout Ramghar, but murder more prevalent among a particular class, which are the slaves possessed by persons inhabiting the mountainous and inaccessible interior, and of savage and ferocious habits. When petty disputes occur, these slaves are compelled by their masters to perpetrate any enormity, and are more especially employed for the purposes of assassination. Any hesitation or repugnance on the part of the slave, is attended with immediate death, which is equally his fate should he fail in the attempt. On the other hand, if he succeed, he is sought out by the officers of Government, and executed as a murderer. The usual police have hitherto been unable to seize the cowardly instigator, and if recourse be had to a military force, he retires into the jungles. On the occurrence of such an event, the whole country is thrown into confusion and rebellion, during which many unoffending persons lose their lives; and the troops, after many ineffectual efforts to execute the Magistrate's orders, return to their stations, worn out with fatigue, and their numbers thinned by the pestilential atmosphere of the jungles. Neither do the slaves attach the slightest idea of guilt to the murders they are thus delegated to commit; on the contrary, when seized, they always confess, and appear to expect applause for having done their duty."* [p. 284. See an account of Goomsur, in the Northern Circars, vol. ii. p. 70.]
"Slaves are common in Afghanistan, mostly home-born, the rest imported. Abyssinians and Negroes are sometimes brought from Arabia through the ports of Sinde; the Baloochees sell Persians, and other prisoners; and many Caffrees are purchased or made prisoners. The Caffree captives are generally females, and much sought after on account of their beauty.† [p. 543.]
"Slaves are much employed in agriculture at Malari in Kumaon, and used to be purchased here by the Gorkhas."‡ [p. 661.]
Respecting Assam, contiguous to Bengal, Hamilton states, — "Capital punishments extend to the whole family of a rebel — parents, sisters, wife, and children; and it is probable, from these sources that the rafts are supplied, which are frequently seen floating down the Brahmaputra, past Goalpara, covered with human heads. All the domestics are slaves, and they are numerous; every man of rank having several, mostly procured among the necessitous, who mortgage themselves. Some are exported, and about 100, of pure cast, are annually sold in Bengal. The girls chiefly are bought by professional prostitutes, and cost from twelve to fifteen rupees. A Cooch boy costs twenty-five rupees; a Kolita fifty; slaves of impure tribes are sold to the Garrows."[/size]§ [Ham. Hind., vol. ii. p. 744.]
"The tract, at present occupied by the Independent Garrows, cannot be estimated at more than 130 miles in length, by thirty in breadth. Rungta, one of the principal Garrow Chiefs, died many years ago, and was succeeded by his son Agund, who is still alive, and is said to possess great wealth in slaves, brass pots, and human sculls [skulls]! This chief attended the marriage of the Zemindar of Currybarry's son, when a palanquin was presented to him; which, having first deprived of the poles as useless, he entered, and was borne away over the hills, on the heads of his slaves. On the death of a highland chief, of common rank, the head of one of his slaves should be burned with him; but if he be a chief of great dignity, a large body of his slaves sally out from the hills, and seize a Hindoo, whose head they cut off, and burn along with the body of their chieftain."* [Ham. Hind., vol. ii. p. 762.]
The Governor of Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, in 1807, very justly observes, — "Although domestic slavery, as practised by the Malays, meliorates, in a great degree, the situation of the slave, as permitted on this Island, when compared with that of the same class of people in other quarters of the globe — still, slavery in its mildest form is degrading in the minds of Britons; and hitherto only tolerated as a means of drawing population to an infant colony, which, from the now flourishing state of this Island, is no longer necessary, therefore derogatory to our national character, and should, in my opinion, cease to exist: at the same time every reasonable consideration is due towards their proprietors, so as to remunerate the one, without injustice to the other, or too suddenly interfering with ancient and authorized usages. This subject has, it appears, engaged the attention of the Hon. the Court of Directors, and they have more than once urged their Government here to adopt the necessary measures for effecting so humane and honourable an object, as the personal freedom of a considerable proportion of their subjects. I have consequently felt interested in the cause, and made such inquiries as enable me to state that there cannot be fewer than three thousand men, women, and children, in a state of bondage on this Island."† [Par. Papers on Slavery, p. 436; see also p. 454.]
The state of the slave trade in Pulo Nias, in 1821, is described in "The Life of Sir S. Raffles."—
"The number of slaves taken from Nias, in each year, exceed 1,500. The circumstances attending this inhuman traffic, were of the most appalling nature. Sir Stamford Raffles, then Governor of Bencoolen, in the immediate neighbourhood, was anxious to do the utmost possible good for such a people. He warmly advocated the receiving this Island under the protection of the British flag, and the immediate suppression of the slave trade, and hoped so great a benefit, so easily obtained, would be met with approbation by all the wise and good. But the Court of Directors of the East India Company, 'had no hesitation in declaring, that his proceedings, with regard to Pulo Nias, were deserving of their decided reprehension;' and, 'they were inclined to visit him with some severe mark of their displeasure for the steps he had taken,' and threatened to remove him from his government. After the transfer of Sumatra to the Dutch, the slave trade was resumed with greater vigour than ever, and numbers of these poor people have since been carried away to Batavia, and to the French Island of Bourbon."* [World Paper, Oct. 3, 1831.]
We have seen that the Suttee exists in the Island of Bali, or little Java, and it is painful to state, that slavery also is found, and a slavery encouraged by European governments. —
"Slavery may be said to exist on Bali, as all malefactors among the men, and all unfortunates among the women, become immediately the slaves of the king. Some of these he employs in working for him, and some he sends out to trade, on condition of their bringing him a certain portion of the profits; some, when old and useless, or flagrant offenders, are creesed [killed] out of the way; and some of better promise are sold to the Chinese, who dispose of them to the Dutch, or to French vessels, visiting the different sea-ports. Prisoners taken in war may be dealt with in the same way; and poor unprotected persons, who have no relatives to befriend them, are in danger of sharing the same fate. At Bali Badong, a person was established, on behalf of the Netherlands Government, to buy up these people and transport them to Java, to be employed as soldiers in the Dutch service. The contract was, it appears, for 1,000 fighting men, at twenty dollars a head; about one half of this number has been supplied during the last two years, who have cost the Government, including agency and transport, about 20,000 dollars. No persons are chosen for this purpose but young able-bodied men, the old, infirm, and deformed being rejected; and as soon as a sufficient number are collected together, the colonial cruizers come to take them away. Last year, two French ships came from the Mauritius, one to Badong, and the other to Penang Cove, to buy slaves. These preferred women, and valued them according to their youthful and plump appearance; for young women they gave generally 150 rupees, eighty for the middle aged, and rejected the old ones. Boys were also bought by them; but they seldom took grown-up men, as they might prove too stiff and stubborn for their management. These vessels took away about 500 slaves between them, and talked of coming again; the time of their arrival is generally in the beginning of the year, and of their return in March. With respect to the traffic of these French vessels, there can be no demur in denouncing it as a regular slave trade, deserving to be reprobated and punished as such. The Netherlands Government and their agent may, perhaps, designate the transactions in which they are engaged by some other name; they may, perhaps, call it redeeming these poor people out of slavery, or rescuing them from a still worse doom; but to the impartial observer, it would appear very nearly allied to it."* [Singapore Chronicle, June 3, 1830.]
P. 119-122
Unhealthy garrison stations, unnecessary hardships and privations produced extraordinary casualties in the Dutch native army, which had to be constantly recruited by conscription. “The conscripts raised in the provinces were usually sent to the metropolis by water; and though the distance be but short between any two points of the island, a mortality, similar to that of a slave-ship in the middle passage, took place on board these receptacles of reluctant recruits. They were generally confined in the stocks till their arrival at Batavia, and it is calculated that for every man that entered the army and performed the duties of a soldier, several lives were lost. Besides the supply of the army, one-half of the male population of the country was constantly held in readiness for other public services; and thus a great portion of the effective hands were taken from their families, and detained at a distance from home, in labours which broke their spirit and exhausted their strength.”
The forced services hitherto mentioned were more or less legalised injustice: but treatment, if it be possible, yet more cruel and lawless remains behind.
“The coasting vessels belonging to Chinese, Arabs, and others, navigate throughout the whole extent of the Archipelago, to Malacca and Acheen on one side, and to the Moluccas and New Guinea on the other. The class of common sailors on board these ships is almost exclusively composed of the natives of Java, who are known in the East under the general denomination of Malays. According to the maritime customs of the Malay peoples, all persons on board, from the captain downwards, including the petty officers, have an interest, however small, in the cargo, while the common sailors, Javans, are protected by these petty officers, their own countrymen.” As the native traders “do not possess the authority to obtain crews by force, it is only by a character for good treatment, by attention to the usages, prejudices, and comfort of the crews, that they can insure an adequate supply of hands.” As a consequence, “among themselves, the maritime population is distinguished for good faith and attachment,” “ and no instances occur of the crews rising either upon the Arab or Chinese commander: they are, on the contrary, found to be faithful, hardworking, and extremely docile.” On the other hand, when so-called “Malays” are employed in vessels belonging to Europeans, they frequently mutiny, and massacre their officers. The reasons for this difference are given in the following passages from Raffles’s paper on the “Maritime Institutions of the Malays”: —“The Javans are originally not a seafaring people; they have an aversion for distant voyages, and require the strongest inducements to quit the land, even for a coasting expedition in the smooth seas of their own Archipelago, beyond which, if they ever engage themselves on board a colonial vessel, they make an express agreement not to be carried. European vessels in want of hands for more distant voyages to Europe, India, and China, have been compelled therefore to resort to force or fraud, as the means of obtaining crews.
“The Dutch Government were in the habit of employing people as kidnappers, who prowled about at night, pounced upon the unwary peasant who might be passing alone, and hurried him on ship-board. When the direct influence of Government was not used, the native regents or chiefs were employed to obtain people for the crews of vessels: this they did sometimes in the same manner, though more frequently condemning to sea as many as were required, by an indiscriminate draft on the neighbouring population. The native chiefs were perhaps paid a certain head-money, on what may have been considered by the European commanders as nothing more than crimpage. The people who were seized were seldom of a seafaring class, but almost entirely landsmen, in many instances, perhaps, opium-smokers, or persons obtained from the lowest and most worthless part of the community. Once embarked, their fate was sealed for ever, and due care was taken that they never landed again on Java, as long as their services as sailors were required.
"In general, neither their language nor customs are in the least understood by their new master, for though most of the commanders in the eastern trade may speak the Malayan language and be accustomed to the Malayan character, they know nothing of the Javan language, and but little of the manners, habits, and prejudices of the Javan people.”
On the subject of slavery in the island Raffles wrote as follows in one of his Reports to Lord Minto:—"The Dutch had introduced slavery into Java on the ground that there did not exist in the island a class of people sufficiently adroit and docile for household service, and that they had therefore to create a class of domestic servants by rearing in their families children brought from other countries. But 'the Javans, during the residence of the British in Java’ were 'found perfectly trustworthy, faithful, and industrious; and the demand was alone wanting in this, as in most cases, to create a sufficient supply of competent domestics.’ The native Javans were never reduced to slavery,’ and the slave merchants drew their supplies in consequence from the neighbouring islands, particularly from Bali and Celebes. From returns obtained in 1814, it appeared that there were about 30,000 slaves in Java, of whom 27,142 were concentrated about the centres of Dutch life; the Samarang and Surabaya divisions containing 8170, while no less than 18,972 were crowded into either the Dutch capital, Batavia, or its environs. A few of these slaves worked for their masters at some handicraft or trade, or on their estates; but the majority were domestic servants.
“‘These slaves are the property of the Europeans and Chinese alone; the native chiefs (i.e . on Java itself) ‘never require the services of slaves, or engage in the traffic of slavery.’
‘Although they (the Dutch) adopted principles that admitted of the most cruel and wanton treatment of slaves, I would not be understood to say that they carried these principles into common practice. The contrary was almost universally the case.’
“‘The regulations and colonial statutes respecting slavery seem to have been framed on the principles of humanity, and with attention to the genius of the Christian religion;' but the Dutch carried with them into their Eastern empire the Roman law regarding slavery in all its extent and rigour. A slave was considered as a real property, incapable of personal rights, from which consideration the ill-treatment of a master towards his slave was not so much estimated on the principle of personal injury, as that of a proprietor abusing his own property; and although a slave, under such a system, might obtain a portion of property for himself with the consent of his master, his possession was always precarious, and depended on the discretion of his proprietor (in the same manner as a peculium adventitium with the Romans), becoming only the unlimited property of the slave, if the master allowed him to keep it after his emancipation.’”
-- The Life of Sir Stamford Raffles, by Demetrius Charles Boulger, With Portraits, Maps and Illustrations, 1897
Slavery exists in "its most hideous shape" in the Island of New Zealand; and the author of a recent work, relative to this Island, very justly remarks; — "'That slavery should be the custom of savage nations and cannibals, is not a cause of wonder; they are the only class of human beings it ought to remain with."† [Earle's Residence in New Zealand. Eclec. Rev., Sep. 1832.] Let the advocates of slavery consider with whom they are thus unceremoniously, but how justly, classed.
Of the Daerds, in Canara, under the Madras Presidency, the Collector of the Southern Division in 1801, states, — "By far the greatest part of the slaves employed in agriculture are the Daerds, of whom there are various descriptions; no order was ever given for their being included in the registers; the whole number of them, by the population statement, is 52,022, men, women, and children; of which number there are, in the Baincoor talook, 5,894: the number belonging to every landlord shall hereafter, as desired, be entered in the registers."‡ [Par. Papers, p. 548.] "Exclusive of the Daerds, there were another sect of slaves in Canara, though, I believe, many of them are now free. Under the Biddenore Government, all illegitimate children, save those by dancing girls, were considered the property of the Sircar, which took possession of, and sold them as slaves, to any person who would purchase them; the number of this sort now is about 722; there are also many slaves imported from Arabia."§ [p. 550.]
Some of the Daerds having enlisted in the Company's army, the Collector of Mangalore requested the Madras Government that they might be interdicted the service. The minute of Government acknowledges the existence of slavery in this and other parts of India. —
"The circumstances stated, by the Collector of the southern division of Canara, require, in the Board's opinion, particular consideration. He has represented, that serious injury will be sustained by the landholders of Canara, if their slaves are permitted to enter the sepoy corps, and desert the lands which they and their progenitors had cultivated for many generations. It is observed, by Mr. Ravenshaw, that, where these people enlist, they seldom continue in the service, but almost invariably desert; in this point of view it appears ineligible that they should be allowed to enter the corps; but as it may be considered beyond the province of the Board, to discuss the propriety of this measure in a military point of view, or the policy of emancipating this class of people, they will only observe, that encouraging these slaves thus to desert their masters would be disturbing a property sanctioned to them by the usages of the country, and the ordinances of their law; and, whilst it would be of no advantage to the army, it would be of considerable detriment to the revenue; for not only in Canara, but in several parts of India, it is this class of people who cultivate the soil, and on whose industry the landholder depends for the payment of the dues of the Sircar (government), and for the means of his own support."* [Par. Papers on Slavery, p. 552.]
The Board of Revenue for the Madras Government in 1818, in a very judicious minute on slavery, candidly acknowledges its extensive prevalence; —
"The provinces now subject to this government, appear originally to have constituted several distinct Hindoo states, which are still to be traced by the difference of language, manners, and customs, that so strongly distinguish the inhabitants of one part of the country from the other. The five northern sircars of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Rajahmundry, Masulipatam, and Guntoor, together with the districts of Bellary, Cuddaph, Paluand, and Nellore, or wherever the Telinga is the language of the people, may be considered one of these; the second may be said to include the district of Chingleput, the two divisions of the Arcot Soobah, Salem, Baramahl, Coimbatore, Madura, Dindigul, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, and Tinnevelly, or wherever the Tamil language is spoken; and the third comprises the provinces of Malabar and Canara, on the other coast of the Peninsula, where the Malayalam and Toolavo are the vernacular dialects of the country. In all these districts, the labourer, who holds the plouyh, and performs the inferior offices of husbandry, is of the lowest, poorest, most ignorant, yet most numerous order in society; in general an outcast, or, at least, often of the degraded class of Hindoos, and therefore usually resident in the outskirts of his village; everywhere without any property in the land which he can transfer by gift, sale, or bequest; and receiving from his employer, the ryot, little more than food, with a scanty supply of raiment! It is almost superfluous to remark that, with this description of persons, the government officers have seldom had any direct communications; yet this may possibly be the cause that their situation has not yet received that consideration which it appears to merit; for it is not, perhaps, sufficiently known, that throughout the Tamul country, as well as in Malabar and Canard,— far the greater part of the labouring classes of the people have, from time immemorial, been in a state of acknowledged bondage, in which they continue to the present time. It is, certainly, a curious circumstance, that in those provinces where the severe and arbitrary system of the Mussulman government was established at the most early and for the longest period, where consequently the public assessment on the land is the highest, and private property in the soil the most rare and least valuable, the labourer should also be the most free; while his condition is the most abject, in those countries where the ancient institutions of the Hindoos have been the least disturbed, where the public demand on the soil is the lightest, and private property in the land is universal and of the highest value. It seems probable, that slavery may have been as prevalent in the northern as it now is in the southern and western provinces; and the same circumstances, that reduced the landlord of Telingana to the situation of a landholder, may have tended gradually to weaken the power he possessed over his slaves, until they finally became emancipated from his authority."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 816, 817.]
As has been stated, no correct idea can be formed from the Par. Papers, of the actual number of slaves in British India. The slaves in Batavia in 1812, before its surrender to the Dutch, exclusive of those belonging to Government (which did not exceed 281), were as follows; —
"At Batavia and its environs, &c. / 18,972
In the Samarang division / 4,188
In the Sourabaya division / 3,682
Total / 27,142"† [p. 157.]
The following are the only official number of slaves observed (with the exception of those in Amboyna, amounting to 1,613, now ceded to the Dutch) in a careful investigation of the Papers; —
"Penang / 3,000
Arcot, S. Division / 17,000
- N. Division / 688
Trichinopoly / 10,600
Canara / 82,000
Malabar / 100,000
Total / 213,288"‡ [pp. 436, 887-890.]
These few items, producing more than 200,000 slaves, would lead to the supposition, that their number in British India may equal and even exceed that of the West Indies. — And should not this fact be known, and efforts made to meliorate the state of these degraded people, and to elevate them to their proper place in society? When shall every subject of Britain be free as the air he breathes? How tardy, though encouraged by success, are our proceedings in this work of justice and mercy. But this will more clearly appear in the following chapter.
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CHAP. IV. Methods proposed for the melioration and abolition of Slavery in India — answers to objections to its abolition arising from the supposed kind treatment of slaves — the preservation of children and adults in famine by selling themselves for support — the indifference of the slaves to emancipation, — decreasing the population of an Island or District — Mahomedan prejudices prohibiting any others than slaves attending on their women, and that they cannot dispense with slaves, — and the interest of the slave owners and the Government — concluding remarks, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 360-386
p. 360-386
BOOK V. SLAVERY
CHAP. IV. Methods proposed for the melioration and abolition of Slavery in India — answers to objections to its abolition arising from the supposed kind treatment of slaves — the preservation of children and adults in famine by selling themselves for support — the indifference of the slaves to emancipation, — decreasing the population of an Island or District — Mahomedan prejudices prohibiting any others than slaves attending on their women, and that they cannot dispense with slaves, — and the interest of the slave owners and the Government — concluding remarks.
It is interesting to trace the various steps proposed or adopted for the melioration and abolition of slavery in India. The Madras Board of Revenue, in 1819, thus close their interesting letter, from which copious extracts have been given:—
The propriety of improving the condition of slaves in India, has been urged by different functionaries of the British Government. Mr. Graeme, in his Report on Malabar in 1822, made the following judicious remarks: —
The Bengal consultations as early as 1774, in a letter to the Council of Dacca, contain the following judicious and humane observations, respecting the annihilation of slavery; —
It is to be deeply regretted that this excellent suggestion does not appear to have been acted upon. The second judge of the Bareilly Court of Circuit, in 1817, W. Leycester, Esq., proposed the same rational and effective method of gradually annihilating slavery.
The reply of the Court of Nizamut Adawlut to this humane judge was as follows; —
The measures proposed by Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of Java, in 1812, for the melioration of slavery in that island, were cordially approved by the Governor General, Lord Minto, and his Council. For an account of them, see Par. Papers, pp. 155-161.‡ [Relative to the melioration of slavery in Prince of Wales Island, see p. 453.]
The Madras Board of Revenue in 1818, express their conviction of the necessity and propriety of improving the civil condition of the slave. —
The Collector of the southern division of Arcot very judiciously remarks, upon these paragraphs,
These extracts shew some of the methods, for the gradual melioration or abolition of slavery, contemplated by those whose opinions are given in the Parliamentary Documents. The Philanthropist, who sighs, oh that all mankind were free! will rejoice to see a few proposals of more immediate measures for the emancipation of slaves. Upon "the practice of stealing children from their parents, and selling them for slaves," it is very justly remarked in a Minute of the Governor General, in 1774, —
The Magistrates of Patna, in 1774, stated to the Governor General, Warren Hastings, Esq., — "Whole families of slaves were formerly sold together, but we do not find that the custom, though of old standing, and still in force, is now attended to, except in the Mofussil, where sometimes the survivor of an old family, retired on his altermga, cultivates his lands by the hands of these slaves, who also perform the menial offices of the house. To a person thus situated, the keeping of slaves may answer; the grain produced by their labour serving for their support. It seems that, on the sale of a slave who separately procures his own subsistence, only one-half of the price is received by the owner, the other half going to the parents of the slave. In the city, few people choose these Kahaar slaves, being indifferent to their business, and equally expensive with other servants. [b]The female slaves, are of more use in families, none being without them. It is urged, that a condition of this kind is consistent with the manners of a country where women are kept in continual retirement, and such privacy observed in regard to them as would be much affected by a frequent change of servants. On the whole, we do not imagine that alterations, in the usage of slaves, will be attended with any consequences of moment to the cultivation or revenue of this province."† [p. 5.]
In 1808 a Committee was appointed, by the Government of Prince of Wales Island, to report upon the state of slavery, and the propriety of its abolition. Three of the four European members expressed themselves as follows: —
The late Governor Farquhar's plan for "annulling slavery in the shortest period in which that desirable object can be effected, without prejudice to individuals, or injury to the public interests in the settlement," was as follows: —
"My own ideas are," says W. E. Phillips, Esq., the successor of Governor Farquhar in 1807, "that a Committee should place a value on each slave, as also a value on his annual labour, after deducting his maintenance; and, that the slave should continue in bondage till the estimated value of his labour has reimbursed the master for his original cost. Should the slave deem himself ill-treated, he may at any time sell the labour due to that master to one more mild, and who may be disposed to advance that sum to the original master. As the value of labour here is very high, and that of the slaves the reverse, I do not think I am sanguine in estimating, that the greater part of these poor creatures would be free in TWO YEARS, from the date of their valuation.† [p. 436.] ‡ ["This judicious plan was adopted at Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles. — "Slavery was abolished within the settlement, with the reservation of what were called slave debtors, — persons who had engaged their services in payment of debt duly incurred. These were protected by having all their civil privileges preserved to them, excepting only the freedom of service; they were not allowed to be transferred to other masters, without their own consent; if their creditors died solvent they were discharged forthwith; if insolvent they were allowed to choose a master, and the value of their labour was carried to the bankrupt estate; but in no case could they be thus pledged, or kept for a longer period, in all, five years, nor for a less sum than twenty dollars yearly." — Mem. of Sir. S. Raffles. Ori. Qua. Rev., April 1830, p. 188.]
In these sentiments the Hon. Court of Directors in 1807, concurred. "As the toleration of slavery cannot be necessary at Prince of Wales Island, where the population is extensive and daily increasing, we consider it a subject deserving your serious notice, and direct that every means be resorted to for effecting its immediate abolition, provided the public interests of the settlement are not materially injured; but, even in that case, we conceive an early period may be determined for the entire emancipation of slavery at your Presidency, from the date of which it ought by no means to be tolerated."* [Par. Papers, p. 435.] It is deeply to be regretted that these humane and judicious measures were not adopted. If they had been so, slavery might now have been unknown in this Island.
It may be presumed, that various objections to the extensive melioration, and particularly the abolition of slavery, exist among the advocates of the slave system in India. It will now be our object, from the Documents already adverted to, to notice the principal of these objections, and to obviate them — not with our own arguments or language, but that of gentlemen in India, intimately acquainted with the subject upon which they have written. The official nature of these replies must add considerably to their value.
One of the most common objections to the discontinuance of the present system of slavery, in British India, is — the supposed kind treatment of the slaves. The comparatively mild nature of East Indian slavery, is often used as a reason for its continuance, and its abolition denounced as an evil. To this argument for slavery the following extract affords a very appropriate reply. —
A second reason urged for the perpetuation of slavery, and consequently an objection to its abolition, is the preservation of children and adults in famine, by selling themselves for support. On this view of the subject, which it must be confessed is one of considerable delicacy and importance, several Indian Magistrates have given their opinion. The Magistrate of Zillah Tiperah, under the Bengal Presidency, in 1816, writes —
Relative to this state of things, it is judiciously observed, by W. Leycester, Esq., the Second Judge of Bareilly,
The Second Judge of Moorshedabad in 1814, and the Magistrate of Tanjore in 1825, recommend that in seasons of great distress from famine, it should be allowed to sell children for a limited period. The latter gentleman says —
A third objection to the suppression of slavery in India is the supposed indifference of the slaves to their emancipation. The Collector of the Southern Division of Canara, in 1801, in describing the condition of the Daerds, advocates this sentiment: —
The interest of the slave proprietors, and not that of the slaves, is the great question in these remarks. But who can doubt whether slavery be better than freedom? The records of slavery, whether Eastern or Western, afford abundant proof of the dissatisfaction, the poverty, the misery attendant upon slavery, and, consequently, the desire of the slave to be free. The following extract from the Par. Documents may suffice:
— That slaves generally are indifferent to freedom — to the acquisition of property — to elevation in society — will rarely be received be those at all acquainted with that system, which, to use the words of Karl Minto, "must be viewed as a violation of one of the first principles on which society is constituted."‡ [p. 172.]
Another objection to the abolition of slavery occurs in the Papers relative to Prince of Wales Island, viz. decreasing the population.* [Par. Papers, p. 440.] There might be some appearance of propriety in this remark, as it respected the resort to the Island of Malays, Mahomedans, Chinese, and other nations who are favourable to slavery; but few of the advocates of slavery can be insensible that this system is inimical to the increase of population, and that its gains are "the price of blood." -- "The great advantage to population (says the Judge of Bundlecund in 1808), derived from the emancipation of slaves, cannot be better illustrated than by quoting an example adduced by Mr. Coxe, in his tour through the northern countries of Europe. Speaking of the slavery of the Polish peasantry, he has the following remarkable instance of the benefit accruing from their manumission. A few nobles, of benevolent hearts, 'and enlightened understandings, ventured upon the expediency of giving liberty to their vassals. The event has shewn this project to be no less judicious than humane; no less friendly to their own interests than to the happiness of their peasants. For it appears that, in the districts in which the new arrangement has been introduced, the population of the villages has been considerably increased, and the revenues of their estates augmented in a triple proportion.' The first nobleman who granted freedom to his peasants was Zamoiske, formerly great Chancellor, who, in 1760, enfranchised six villages in the palatinate of Moravia. These villages were, in 1777, visited by the author of The Patriotic Letters. On inspecting the parish registers of births from 1750 to 1760, during the last ten years of slavery immediately preceding their enfranchisement, he found the number of births 434; in the first ten years of their freedom, from 1760 to 1770, 620; and from 1770 to the beginning of 1777, 585 births. By these extracts it appears that, during the first period, there were only 434 births; second period, 620; third period, 770. If we suppose an improvement of this sort to take place through out the kingdom, how great would be the increase of population!"† [p. 301.] The argument against slavery arising from its depopulating tendency, is unanswerable. ‡ ["Upon the authority of Cape Papers of so recent a date as Dec. 1828, the slave population is found, from recent enumeration, to have been nearly stationary (in the Cape Colony) from 30 to 35,000, during; the last twenty years; although in that period, the free population of all classes and colours has almost doubled itself. The deplorable statistics of our West India Islands, where the slave population, as the registry proves, has actually decreased 28,000 in six years! leaves us little to be surprised on this score." Eclec. Rev., Jan. 1831, p. 37.]
An objection to the abolition of slavery peculiar to the Mahomedans is made on the ground, that the injunctions of their Prophet, prohibit any other than slaves attending on their women, and that therefore they cannot dispense with slaves. The nature of this objection, and the reply to it, are stated in the communication of the European members of the Committee formed at Prince of Wales Island, in 1808, to consider the propriety of the suppression of slavery in the Island. —
The Mahomedans further state on the general principle of this objection to the emancipation of slaves (to use the language of the European member of the Committee who, with the native members of it, dissented from his brethren):
The precept of the Koran enjoins giving slaves "a written instrument, allowing them to redeem themselves on paying a certain sum." Why oppose the abolition of slavery with such a precept before them? Is it not evidently from other motives than those of respect to their religion?
But the principal objection to the abolition of slavery, both in the East and in the West, is that which arises from the interest of the slave owners, and of the government. On this view of the subject it is stated by W. B. Bayley, Esq., Secretary to the Bengal Government in 1817, —
CHAP. IV. Methods proposed for the melioration and abolition of Slavery in India — answers to objections to its abolition arising from the supposed kind treatment of slaves — the preservation of children and adults in famine by selling themselves for support — the indifference of the slaves to emancipation, — decreasing the population of an Island or District — Mahomedan prejudices prohibiting any others than slaves attending on their women, and that they cannot dispense with slaves, — and the interest of the slave owners and the Government — concluding remarks, from Book V: Slavery, Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India"
by James Peggs
1832
p. 360-386
-- India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India, by James Peggs
-- Slavery in India: The Present State of East India Slavery; Chiefly Extracted From the Parliamentary Papers on the Subject, Printed March, 1828, August 1832, August 1838, by James Peggs, Third Edition, 1840
-- Slavery and the Slave Trade in British India; With Notices of the Existence of These Evils in the Islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, Drawn from Official Documents, by Thomas Ward and Col, And to Be Had At the Office of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841
-- Slavery in the Bengal Presidency Under East India Company Rule, 1772-1843, by Amal Kumar Cattopadhyay, Thesis presented at the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1963
-- The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, Volume 21, January to June, 1826
-- The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, Volume 22, July to December, 1826
p. 360-386
BOOK V. SLAVERY
CHAP. IV. Methods proposed for the melioration and abolition of Slavery in India — answers to objections to its abolition arising from the supposed kind treatment of slaves — the preservation of children and adults in famine by selling themselves for support — the indifference of the slaves to emancipation, — decreasing the population of an Island or District — Mahomedan prejudices prohibiting any others than slaves attending on their women, and that they cannot dispense with slaves, — and the interest of the slave owners and the Government — concluding remarks.
It is interesting to trace the various steps proposed or adopted for the melioration and abolition of slavery in India. The Madras Board of Revenue, in 1819, thus close their interesting letter, from which copious extracts have been given:—
"The Board are decidedly of opinion that slaves should not be sold for arrears of revenue; and prohibitory orders to this effect will be issued to Malabar, where alone it has occurred. In Malabar and Canara, alone, the number of slaves is calculated at 180,000; and the Board have now under consideration certain propositions from Mr. Graeme, the Commissioner in Malabar, for the melioration of their condition, and the gradual emancipation of slaves in that country. In the Tamil provinces the number of slaves is comparatively few; their condition is better, and any immediate emancipation of them would be attended by inconvenience, difficulty, and perhaps distress. This might, therefore, be at present deferred, until the practical remedy for the gradual abolition of slavery on the other coast shall have been fully considered and decided on. But, whatever may be the future decision respecting those who are already slaves, the Board think that a Regulation ought to be published, to prevent the further extension of slavery, and to meliorate, in some degree, by a few general enactments, the condition of those who are already slaves. The further purchase of free persons, as slaves, should be declared invalid and illegal; and all children hereafter born slaves should be declared free. But any person should be at liberty to contract, for a given sum, to labour for a term of years, or for life. Such contracts, however, should be in writing, and only binding upon the individual who executes it, not upon his wife or children.
"Slaves should be declared competent to possess and dispose of their own property, to the exclusion of any interference therewith on the part of their master. The Board further submit, whether it would not be proper to annex some penalty to the purchase of female children, for the purpose of being brought up as prostitutes. It might also be provided that the proprietors are to provide wholesome food and clothing for their slaves; that in sickness, age, or infirmity, they shall not neglect them; that they shall not have the power of corporeal punishment; that slaves, on being ill-treated by their masters, shall be allowed to claim the privilege of being sold to another; and that in breach of these laws, or refusal to comply with them, on the part of the master, the slave shall receive his liberty. It might further be provided, that slaves shall have the power to purchase their liberty at the price for which it was forfeited; and that slaves attached to lands or estates, which may escheat to Government, shall be liberated. Many of these provisions will be found to contravene those of the Hindoo law, which, with respect to Hindoos, is declared by the regulations to be in force; and the necessity, therefore, of a formal enactment of them in the code will be sufficiently apparent.
"The Collector in Trichinopoly has submitted a proposition for meliorating the condition of the pullers in the district, by adding two per cent, to their warum, which is at present only ten per cent. By this, he observes, 'the situation of the pullers would be greatly benefited, and the expense to Government would be not more than 2,000 pagodas per annum. This sum would materially tend to the comfort of 10,000 people, by whose industry the country is cultivated, and who, in point of fact, are the creators of revenue.' The Board are not aware of any objection to this measure, and it is accordingly resolved to recommend the adoption of it to Government. The Collector will report the result of it, and the effects it may have on the condition of the people. Resolved, also, That the Collectors in the other Tamil Districts be desired to report whether a similar measure could not be adopted with advantage in their Districts; and, if so, the extent of remission proposed. The Board would remark that the subject discussed, appears to them of great importance; that the suggestions which they have submitted should be well weighed before they are adopted; and that any legislative enactment, that may be deemed requisite, be framed with great caution. It may also be for the consideration of Government, whether the subject may not, as a general one, be referred, in the first instance to the Supreme Government, in order to ascertain the state of slavery in the Bengal territories, and whether any restrictions are imposed on it there."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 900.]
The propriety of improving the condition of slaves in India, has been urged by different functionaries of the British Government. Mr. Graeme, in his Report on Malabar in 1822, made the following judicious remarks: —
"Upon occasion of the condition of the slaves of Malabar being brought into notice, it was lately suggested that slavery should be subjected to the rule of the Mahomedan law. This, if carried completely into effect, would indeed mitigate the severity of slavery, and render slaves in Malabar a very different race of mortals; but, strictly speaking, slavery is not permitted by the Mahomedan law to be practised by any but Mussulmans, and even by them, only as regards the inhabitants of countries not agreeing to become converts to Mahomedanism, and at the same time refusing to pay the tax imposed by Mahomed upon infidels, or to permit the free exercise of the Mahomedan religion. Slaves made so by stealth, and not in open war, or an authorized occasion, are not recognised by the Koran; and the acquisition of slaves by purchase, as practised by the Moplar Mahomedans in Malabar, is equally irreconcilable to the Mahomedan law. Ill-treatment of slaves is, with them, punishable by the slave being emancipated, or being sold to another master, on conviction before the quazee.
"Though it may be allowed that slavery in Malabar is not intolerable, and not exercised to an excessive degree of active cruelty, the diminutive and squalid appearance, and the wretched hovels of a race of beings in the province, who, by a census taken of the population in Fusly 1216 (A. D. 1809) were reckoned to amount to 94,786, sufficiently indicate, that they do not enjoy that comfortable state of existence which every person should have it in his power to acquire by his labour. There are no doubt many free men in the different ranks of society who are equally indigent with the slave. The slave is scarcely ever exposed to the extremity of actual starvation; and it has been stated by respectable public authority, and I understand with correctness, that a beggar of this cast is seldom or never found. But among free men there are many, who are too proud, idle, and dishonest to work, and they have recourse to charity and fraudulent means to gain their subsistence; but it matters not, that many worthless characters are in worse circumstances, the question is, — whether slaves are as comfortable as they ought to be, and whether they acquire as much by their own industry in servitude, as they would in a free state."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 922.]
The Bengal consultations as early as 1774, in a letter to the Council of Dacca, contain the following judicious and humane observations, respecting the annihilation of slavery; —
"In those districts where slavery is in general usage, or any way connected with, or is likely to have any influence on the cultivation or revenue, which we are informed is the case at Sylhet, and may be so in the other (especially the frontier) parts of your division, we must desire you particularly to advise us what is the usage and every circumstance connected with it, and we shall then give such directions as we may judge to be necessary; but considering your reference, in the meantime, in the light of a general proposition, we are of opinion, that the right of masters to the children of the slaves, already their property, cannot legally be taken from them in the FIRST GENERATION, but we think that this right cannot and ought not to extend further, and direct that you do make publication accordingly." [p. 4.]
It is to be deeply regretted that this excellent suggestion does not appear to have been acted upon. The second judge of the Bareilly Court of Circuit, in 1817, W. Leycester, Esq., proposed the same rational and effective method of gradually annihilating slavery.
"Many estates in the country are cultivated by indigenous slaves, but it is very desirable, it should no longer be possible to transfer the African slave trade from the West to the East Indies, with only one proviso against it, that the slaves may not be resold; and it is also most desirable, that the present importation of females, for the purpose of breeding an hereditary race of slaves, should be put a stop to. Nothing, perhaps, is so recoiling as the idea of hereditary slavery — of a man's inheriting, at his birth, nothing but the misfortunes of his parents, without hopes of emancipation, without the possibility of rising in life, through exertion or talent, and liable every moment to be taken to the market and sold, and transferred to the possession of another. I can hardly conceive that there could be any objection to modifying the present system of slavery, by an act declaring the children of slaves to be free; that, if men will have slaves, they should also have to pay for them, and not to rear and inherit them like the produce, of a farm yard."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 345.]
The reply of the Court of Nizamut Adawlut to this humane judge was as follows; —
"The Court will only add, at present, that they participate in the sentiments expressed by Mr. Leycester, in abhorrence of hereditary slavery, and earnestly wish it could be discontinued, with regard to all children born under the British protection; but whilst it is allowed to remain, with respect to the progeny of existing slaves, born under the British Government in the West Indies and South Africa, the abolition of it, on general principles of justice and humanity, could not, the Court apprehend, be consistently proposed for India, where it has, from time immemorial, been sanctioned by the laws and usages of the country, and where the state of slavery is not so injurious to the objects of it, as in other countries where it is still maintained."† [p. 346.]
The measures proposed by Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of Java, in 1812, for the melioration of slavery in that island, were cordially approved by the Governor General, Lord Minto, and his Council. For an account of them, see Par. Papers, pp. 155-161.‡ [Relative to the melioration of slavery in Prince of Wales Island, see p. 453.]
The Madras Board of Revenue in 1818, express their conviction of the necessity and propriety of improving the civil condition of the slave. —
"The right which the slaves in the Tamil country possess to continue attached to the soil where they are born, which, though not universal, is pretty general among them; their dependence rather on a community than on an individual; and perhaps the vicinity of some of them to the Presidency, where a general knowledge prevails that the spirit of our government is inimical to bondage, seem all, more or less, to have contributed to render their condition in some degree superior to that of their brethren on the other coast. It is by no means, however, to be understood that this is universally the case. Their treatment necessarily depends principally on the individual character of their owners; and when we reflect on those evils that are inseparable from even the mildest state of slavery, and consider how large a portion of our most industrious subjects are at present totally deprived of a free market for their labour, restricted by inheritance to a mere subsistence, and sold and transferred with the land which they till, — policy, no less than humanity would appear to dictate the propriety of gradually relieving them from those restrictions, which have reduced them, and must continue to confine them, to a condition scarcely superior to that of the cattle which they follow at the plough!
"While such ought to be the policy pursued, with regard to this class of people, it would be obviously unjust to interfere with the private property, which there can be no doubt the ryots at present possess in their slaves; and it might be dangerous too suddenly to disturb the long established relations in society subsisting between these two orders. For the present, it would seem sufficient, with the view to prevent oppression or abuse of authority, to define, by legislative enactments, the power which may be lawfully exercised by a ryot over his slaves; but, as the revenue records do not afford information sufficiently minute and satisfactory for this purpose, it is resolved to call the particular attention of the collectors in Canara, Malabar, and the Tamil country to this subject, and to desire that they will take an early opportunity to communicate fully their sentiments for the consideration of the Board."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 818. See also, pp. 869-871.]
The Collector of the southern division of Arcot very judiciously remarks, upon these paragraphs,
"I take the liberty of suggesting that every labourer who is now free, shall be declared exempt from all possibility of slavery; denouncing penalties against every person who may attempt to enslave any subject under our government. Rules calculated to abolish the general abuse of slavery, to provide for slaves in sickness and old age, to confine the transfer of slaves to the village of their nativity, and to interdict all corporeal punishment or imprisonment, would prove an alleviation of the miseries inseparable from bondage. As the continuation, or the revival of slavery, is dependent upon the assistance owners contribute to the propagation of slaves, by advancing money for the expenses of marriages, perhaps a rule might be enacted prohibiting the enslaving of unborn children, by such a convention between the owners and their existing slaves."† [p. 872.]
These extracts shew some of the methods, for the gradual melioration or abolition of slavery, contemplated by those whose opinions are given in the Parliamentary Documents. The Philanthropist, who sighs, oh that all mankind were free! will rejoice to see a few proposals of more immediate measures for the emancipation of slaves. Upon "the practice of stealing children from their parents, and selling them for slaves," it is very justly remarked in a Minute of the Governor General, in 1774, —
"There appears no probable way of remedying this calamitous evil, but that of striking at the root of it, and abolishing the right of slavery, excepting such cases to which the authority of Government cannot reach; such, for example, as laws in being have allowed, and where slaves have become a just property by purchase, antecedent to the proposed prohibition. The opinions of the most creditable of the Mussulman and Hindoo inhabitants have been taken upon this subject, and they condemn the authorized usage of selling slaves, as repugnant to the particular precepts both of the Koran and Shastar, oppressive to the people, and injurious to the general welfare of the country."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 3.]
The Magistrates of Patna, in 1774, stated to the Governor General, Warren Hastings, Esq., — "Whole families of slaves were formerly sold together, but we do not find that the custom, though of old standing, and still in force, is now attended to, except in the Mofussil, where sometimes the survivor of an old family, retired on his altermga, cultivates his lands by the hands of these slaves, who also perform the menial offices of the house. To a person thus situated, the keeping of slaves may answer; the grain produced by their labour serving for their support. It seems that, on the sale of a slave who separately procures his own subsistence, only one-half of the price is received by the owner, the other half going to the parents of the slave. In the city, few people choose these Kahaar slaves, being indifferent to their business, and equally expensive with other servants. [b]The female slaves, are of more use in families, none being without them. It is urged, that a condition of this kind is consistent with the manners of a country where women are kept in continual retirement, and such privacy observed in regard to them as would be much affected by a frequent change of servants. On the whole, we do not imagine that alterations, in the usage of slaves, will be attended with any consequences of moment to the cultivation or revenue of this province."† [p. 5.]
In 1808 a Committee was appointed, by the Government of Prince of Wales Island, to report upon the state of slavery, and the propriety of its abolition. Three of the four European members expressed themselves as follows: —
"After mature deliberation, the undersigned are of opinion, that the views of humanity, and of the British Legislature, signified in the late Acts respecting the abolition of slavery in the British West India Islands, may be extended and adopted here, consistently with due attention to the political circumstances of this settlement. And, with all deference, they beg leave to recommend to the Honourable Board, — the immediate and positive emancipation of slaves, in preference to relying on the accomplishment of it by the establishment of an annual tax, which, while the richer masters would be able to meet it, might have the effect only, to induce the poorer to insist with rigour and inhumanity, on greater exertions of service from their slaves, in order to enable them also to pay it. Independent of the calls of humanity, and of the distinguished example afforded to the world by the British Legislature, the undersigned must allow, that these considerations have also had much weight in inducing them to recommend, the immediate and positive emancipation of slaves; though they at the same time are aware of the propriety and necessity of regarding as far as is consistent with humanity, the property of the owner, and the prejudice of the natives of higher rank; but these they are hopeful may be nearly assimilated and combined, by adopting, as the basis of emancipation, a custom which has been immemorially sanctioned and prevalent in the Malay countries, and on this island since the formation of the settlement, of mortgaging labour in consideration of a sum advanced, for which the person or persons become debtor."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 440, 441.]
The late Governor Farquhar's plan for "annulling slavery in the shortest period in which that desirable object can be effected, without prejudice to individuals, or injury to the public interests in the settlement," was as follows: —
"I recommend slavery being abolished at Prince of Wales Island. It is the greatest of all evils, and the attempt to regulate such an evil is in itself almost absurd. There was some excuse for using slaves in the West Indies, on account of the want of people, and Africa offered the readiest supply. But there is no excuse for continuing the practice in India, — a country fully peopled, and where cultivation and commerce can be carried on by free men! But, as slavery has in some degree been sanctioned by the government of Prince of Wales Island, it would be unjust, without an equivalent to the proprietors, to declare slaves free. Suppose that a committee were appointed, and authorized to affix to each slave on the island, a value at which his master should be obliged to liberate him, on tender of the amount. Such as could not procure funds from their relations or friends, equal to the valuation, to become debtors, and serve the creditors, as now practised, under the following simple regulations: — The lender to find the borrower, in lieu of his services, meat, clothes, and lodging, good and sufficient. If in chastising a borrower for any fault (without the authority of the police) the lender bring blood, the debt to be cancelled. If the lender cohabit with any of the female borrowers, the debt to be cancelled. No idleness in the borrowers is to add to the debt; but, if dissatisfied, the lender may demand his money. Should the emancipated slave be unable to procure the money, the master may apply to the police, where the necessary inquiries will be made, and correction given accordingly. The foregoing regulations would ameliorate the condition of those now slaves, and in time liberate the whole from debt, and give us from 4 to 5000 good subjects in place of useless sufferers. This is an object worthy of government's attention in every point of view."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 434, 435.]
"My own ideas are," says W. E. Phillips, Esq., the successor of Governor Farquhar in 1807, "that a Committee should place a value on each slave, as also a value on his annual labour, after deducting his maintenance; and, that the slave should continue in bondage till the estimated value of his labour has reimbursed the master for his original cost. Should the slave deem himself ill-treated, he may at any time sell the labour due to that master to one more mild, and who may be disposed to advance that sum to the original master. As the value of labour here is very high, and that of the slaves the reverse, I do not think I am sanguine in estimating, that the greater part of these poor creatures would be free in TWO YEARS, from the date of their valuation.† [p. 436.] ‡ ["This judicious plan was adopted at Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles. — "Slavery was abolished within the settlement, with the reservation of what were called slave debtors, — persons who had engaged their services in payment of debt duly incurred. These were protected by having all their civil privileges preserved to them, excepting only the freedom of service; they were not allowed to be transferred to other masters, without their own consent; if their creditors died solvent they were discharged forthwith; if insolvent they were allowed to choose a master, and the value of their labour was carried to the bankrupt estate; but in no case could they be thus pledged, or kept for a longer period, in all, five years, nor for a less sum than twenty dollars yearly." — Mem. of Sir. S. Raffles. Ori. Qua. Rev., April 1830, p. 188.]
In these sentiments the Hon. Court of Directors in 1807, concurred. "As the toleration of slavery cannot be necessary at Prince of Wales Island, where the population is extensive and daily increasing, we consider it a subject deserving your serious notice, and direct that every means be resorted to for effecting its immediate abolition, provided the public interests of the settlement are not materially injured; but, even in that case, we conceive an early period may be determined for the entire emancipation of slavery at your Presidency, from the date of which it ought by no means to be tolerated."* [Par. Papers, p. 435.] It is deeply to be regretted that these humane and judicious measures were not adopted. If they had been so, slavery might now have been unknown in this Island.
It may be presumed, that various objections to the extensive melioration, and particularly the abolition of slavery, exist among the advocates of the slave system in India. It will now be our object, from the Documents already adverted to, to notice the principal of these objections, and to obviate them — not with our own arguments or language, but that of gentlemen in India, intimately acquainted with the subject upon which they have written. The official nature of these replies must add considerably to their value.
One of the most common objections to the discontinuance of the present system of slavery, in British India, is — the supposed kind treatment of the slaves. The comparatively mild nature of East Indian slavery, is often used as a reason for its continuance, and its abolition denounced as an evil. To this argument for slavery the following extract affords a very appropriate reply. —
"The Madras Board of Revenue proceed to the consideration of that part of the letter from Government, which desires them to state their opinion 'whether the practice which actually prevails,' with respect to the sale of slaves, 'should be permitted to continue as at present, or whether it ought either to be laid under such resections as would render it less objectionable, or altogether abolished, as productive of evils for which no adequate remedy can be devised.' Where 'in some respects churmas may be considered in more comfortable circumstances than any of the lower and poorer classes of natives.' Where 'no want or cruelty is experienced by the slaves.' Where the 'abolition of the puller system would be attended with the most serious consequences.' Where they seem not to consider their situation, nor to shew any 'desire to be free and independent.' Where the treatment of slaves by their masters 'is the same as that of the other labourers, which is in general of a mild nature.' Where 'the slaves are, on the whole, better treated by their masters than the common class of free labourers.' Where, finally, humanity on the part of the masters is encouraged by a sense of their own interest, and a disposition to personal cruelty is restrained by the establishment of the courts of justice, it does not appear to the Board that any immediate interference on the part of the government is particularly called for, or that any alteration in the existing state of slavery should be made, except by degrees, and after mature consideration has been given to the subject.
"But, because no immediate measures are urgently called for, it does not follow, that — the most useful, the most laborious, and one of the most numerous classes of our subjects in these territories, should, from generation to generation, continue the hereditary bondsmen of their masters, incapable of inheriting property of their own, deprived of that stimulus to industry which possession of property ever inspires; and, because they are fed, clothed, and reconciled to the present condition, it does not follow that the Government should confirm institutions which doom those who have thus fallen into this condition, incapable of ever recovering their liberty, or of rising to a level with their fellow men! Independently of those principles, hostile to any restraint on liberty, which are innate in every British Government, and which, as contained in our judicial code, without any express enactment on the subject, have operated to check abuses of masters towards their slaves; and independently also of those feelings, among free men, which naturally prompt them to extend to every one under their Government the blessings which freedom confers, it appears to the Board, on the mere calculating principle of self interest and policy, to be desirable that no one should be deprived of the means of acquiring property, or of diffusing those benefits among society which proceed from an increase of capital and wealth."* [Par Papers on Slavery in India, p. 809.]
A second reason urged for the perpetuation of slavery, and consequently an objection to its abolition, is the preservation of children and adults in famine, by selling themselves for support. On this view of the subject, which it must be confessed is one of considerable delicacy and importance, several Indian Magistrates have given their opinion. The Magistrate of Zillah Tiperah, under the Bengal Presidency, in 1816, writes —
"Report states that, in the Mogul Government, slavery existed in the district of Sylet to such a degree, that persons would sell themselves as slaves to satisfy demands of rent; while others would, from similar necessity, dispose of their own slaves. Even at the present day it may be ascertained that some individuals, in order to supply the immediate wants of nature, voluntarily submit to a state of slavery, and dispose of their persons for determinate services, so long as they may be capable of performing them. Documents to this effect are executed in the customary manner with other written engagements; and the court may easily obtain them from the Magistrate of Sylhet. Since necessity alone would compel any person to submit to a state of slavery, it may, I presume, be inferred, that the slavery herein noticed originates in the extreme poverty of the lower orders of society, and to tolerate it, under certain restrictions, would be preferable to exposing the poorer classes of the community to the risk of perishing for want, by depriving them of the only ostensible resource left to enable them to support existence."† [p. 246.]
Relative to this state of things, it is judiciously observed, by W. Leycester, Esq., the Second Judge of Bareilly,
"I know it is argued, that slaves in India are treated kindly; that they are comfortable; that in times of scarcity many must starve and die, if people who have the means of feeding them are not allowed to purchase them as slaves. Many, I believe, are treated kindly; but that all are so, that there is not a great deal of ill treatment, nobody will, I believe, assert; and there is not a crime committed among mankind that has not, at one time or other, produced an incidental good, and it would be strange indeed if slavery were the only exception. But, it might be considered an adequate inducement to deeds of charity, to compensate them by the labours of the object of it, during one generation, instead of aggravating the sorrows of accidental necessity by slavery through all generations."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, p. 345. See also pp. 300, 325, 484.]
The Second Judge of Moorshedabad in 1814, and the Magistrate of Tanjore in 1825, recommend that in seasons of great distress from famine, it should be allowed to sell children for a limited period. The latter gentleman says —
"In seasons of great scarcity and distress it would perhaps be driving parents to great extremities, and more abhorrent to human nature, were any penalty attached to the sale of children by their own parents, or to the purchase of them direct from their parents; but the traffic should, in my opinion, be most strictly prohibited from extending any further, and a person, purchasing a child from its parents, should on no account have the power of disposing of it to another." † [p. 930. See also p. 325.]
A third objection to the suppression of slavery in India is the supposed indifference of the slaves to their emancipation. The Collector of the Southern Division of Canara, in 1801, in describing the condition of the Daerds, advocates this sentiment: —
"Slavery has been defined, 'an obligation to labour for the benefit of the master, without the contract or consent of the servant, the master at the same time having the right to dispose of him by sale, or in any other way to make him the property of a third person.' The sect of the Daerds who are bought and sold, and who come nearest to the description of slaves, differ from them in the following respects: first, their service is conditional; a master, at the time of purchase, agrees to give them the usual allowance of rice, cloth, &c.; if he fails, and refuses to do this, the Daerds are no longer bound to serve him, and can recover the balance of allowance due to them and their children. If the purchaser agrees to give the established allowances, the Daerds cannot refuse to enter his service; but if, from any real cause, they have a dread of their man, the old master will generally, on being asked, keep them until he can get another purchaser. A master cannot make a traffic of them; that is, he cannot put them up to public sale, or transport them, either by sea or land, to any place where there are not people of their own cast, which is confined to Canara; they can never be sent out of the province; they can even refuse to he sold out of the manganny in which they are born. This sect of Daerds, and their children, may be called 'conditional servants for ever.' Those of the Maurey Daerds, who are attached to estates, have the same privilege as those just mentioned, except that, in case of their landlord omitting to give them their regular allowance of rice, &c., they cannot quit his lands; but, on making a complaint, they can recover their right, with damages. All other descriptions of Daerds are 'conditional servants on the male side for life;' and in no case have they, so long as their master feeds and clothes them according to usage, a right to leave his service. Slavery is objected to, as being contrary to the fundamental principles of morality, because both men and women in that state, it is said, are tempted to commit and excite others to crimes they would not do in a free state. Supposing even that the service of the Daerds could be construed slavery, which in my opinion it cannot, the same objection does not apply to it, because, with them, it is merely the custom of their cast; and they are in general more attached to their wives and families, who live with them, than most other sects. So far, from conceiving there can be any radical objection to this kind of service, I am of opinion it is productive of very important political as well as moral good, and especially so, because it is one or the soundest and most necessary props, to the support and even existence of that meritorious spirit of industry and agriculture, with which the natives of Canara are so peculiarly possessed."* [Par. Papers on Slavery in India, pp. 550-554.
The interest of the slave proprietors, and not that of the slaves, is the great question in these remarks. But who can doubt whether slavery be better than freedom? The records of slavery, whether Eastern or Western, afford abundant proof of the dissatisfaction, the poverty, the misery attendant upon slavery, and, consequently, the desire of the slave to be free. The following extract from the Par. Documents may suffice:
"It is a question," says M. Elphinstone, Esq., Resident of Poona, in 1817, "how we are to treat slaves, subjects of his Highness the Paishwa, who fly from their masters, also subjects of his Highness, and take refuge in our camps. It is so obvious, that we cannot open an asylum for fugitive slaves within the Paishwa's territories, that I have hitherto directed persons in these circumstances to be refused leave to reside in our camps; but I shall be happy to be informed what is the proper course in such cases, and generally what is the law relative to the traffic in slaves, as far as is applicable to our forces in the territories of allied princes."† [p. 332.]
— That slaves generally are indifferent to freedom — to the acquisition of property — to elevation in society — will rarely be received be those at all acquainted with that system, which, to use the words of Karl Minto, "must be viewed as a violation of one of the first principles on which society is constituted."‡ [p. 172.]
Another objection to the abolition of slavery occurs in the Papers relative to Prince of Wales Island, viz. decreasing the population.* [Par. Papers, p. 440.] There might be some appearance of propriety in this remark, as it respected the resort to the Island of Malays, Mahomedans, Chinese, and other nations who are favourable to slavery; but few of the advocates of slavery can be insensible that this system is inimical to the increase of population, and that its gains are "the price of blood." -- "The great advantage to population (says the Judge of Bundlecund in 1808), derived from the emancipation of slaves, cannot be better illustrated than by quoting an example adduced by Mr. Coxe, in his tour through the northern countries of Europe. Speaking of the slavery of the Polish peasantry, he has the following remarkable instance of the benefit accruing from their manumission. A few nobles, of benevolent hearts, 'and enlightened understandings, ventured upon the expediency of giving liberty to their vassals. The event has shewn this project to be no less judicious than humane; no less friendly to their own interests than to the happiness of their peasants. For it appears that, in the districts in which the new arrangement has been introduced, the population of the villages has been considerably increased, and the revenues of their estates augmented in a triple proportion.' The first nobleman who granted freedom to his peasants was Zamoiske, formerly great Chancellor, who, in 1760, enfranchised six villages in the palatinate of Moravia. These villages were, in 1777, visited by the author of The Patriotic Letters. On inspecting the parish registers of births from 1750 to 1760, during the last ten years of slavery immediately preceding their enfranchisement, he found the number of births 434; in the first ten years of their freedom, from 1760 to 1770, 620; and from 1770 to the beginning of 1777, 585 births. By these extracts it appears that, during the first period, there were only 434 births; second period, 620; third period, 770. If we suppose an improvement of this sort to take place through out the kingdom, how great would be the increase of population!"† [p. 301.] The argument against slavery arising from its depopulating tendency, is unanswerable. ‡ ["Upon the authority of Cape Papers of so recent a date as Dec. 1828, the slave population is found, from recent enumeration, to have been nearly stationary (in the Cape Colony) from 30 to 35,000, during; the last twenty years; although in that period, the free population of all classes and colours has almost doubled itself. The deplorable statistics of our West India Islands, where the slave population, as the registry proves, has actually decreased 28,000 in six years! leaves us little to be surprised on this score." Eclec. Rev., Jan. 1831, p. 37.]
An objection to the abolition of slavery peculiar to the Mahomedans is made on the ground, that the injunctions of their Prophet, prohibit any other than slaves attending on their women, and that therefore they cannot dispense with slaves. The nature of this objection, and the reply to it, are stated in the communication of the European members of the Committee formed at Prince of Wales Island, in 1808, to consider the propriety of the suppression of slavery in the Island. —
"In support of this opinion (say the Committee), they adduce a passage in their Koran, which, on reference to Sale's translation of it,* [Vol. ii. p. 192.] the Committee find translated thus: —'And speak unto the believing women, that they restrain their eyes and preserve their modesty, and discover not their ornaments, except what necessarily appeareth thereof; and let them throw their veils over their bosoms, and not shew their ornaments unless to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husbands' fathers, or their sons, or their husbands' sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the captives which their right hand may possess, or unto such men as attend them and have no need of women, or unto children who distinguish not the nakedness of women; and let them not make a noise with their feet, that their ornaments which they hide may thereby be discovered.'
The undersigned deem it unnecessary to state to the Honourable Board the import, in their opinion, of this passage, or to elucidate it by remarking how much the manners of the Mahomedan society, particularly of the poorer classes, are in opposition to the doctrine deduced from it. They beg leave to call the attention of the Honourable Board to the following passage only of the Koran: —'And unto such of your slaves as desire a written instrument allowing them to redeem themselves on paying a certain sum, write one, if you know good in them, and give them of the riches of God, which he hath given you.'† [Sale's translation, vol. ii. p. 191.]
Which certainly not only directly enjoins the emancipation of slaves, but exactly in the manner suggested by the undersigned members. They, however, are far from wishing to recommend the adoption of any measure which might be generally disagreeable to the Mahomedan community, whether their objections to it originate in ignorant prejudice, or proceed from a regard to interest and convenience; but they have good reason to believe that the opposition, even among the followers of the Mahomedan religion, to the emancipation of slaves, is very partial, and confined almost entirely to a few of the first rank."* [Par. Papers, p. 443.]
The Mahomedans further state on the general principle of this objection to the emancipation of slaves (to use the language of the European member of the Committee who, with the native members of it, dissented from his brethren):
"By the law of their Prophet, a Mussulman may have four wives, if he can afford to maintain so many, and he is not restricted to any number of concubines. His wives are generally chosen from among the daughters of free men of equal rank with himself, but his concubines can only be taken from among his slaves. Now, say they, if all slaves are emancipated, or made simple debtors, our concubines will of course have it in their power to leave us, on paying the sum fixed upon as their value, which in most instances they will be able to do, from the fruits of their master's generosity; and, in this infant and confined settlement, Mahomedans will find it difficult to meet with suitable wives. It is considered by all Mahomedans, but particularly among the higher class of Malays, a very great disgrace for a woman, with whom he has once lived, to go with strange men, or leave his house without his consent, which their emancipation will enable them to do, even while they are with child by their master."† [p. 444.]
On my right, sat the poor deluded widow, who was to be the victim of this heart-rending display of Hindoo purity and gentleness; she was attended by a dozen or more Brahmuns; her mother, sister, and son (an interesting boy of about three years of age), and other relatives were also with her. Her own infant, now twelve months old, was craftily kept from her by the Brahmuns. She had already performed a number of preparatory ceremonies; one of which was washing herself in a strong decoction of saffron, which is supposed to have a purifying effect. It imparted to her a horrid ghastliness; —her eyes indicated a degree of melancholy wildness; an unnatural smile now and then played on her countenance: and everything about her person and her conduct indicated that narcotics had been administered in no small quantities....
An increase of activity was soon visible among the men, whose ‘feet are swift to shed blood.’ Muntrams having been repeated over the pile, and the woman and every thing being in readiness, the hurdle to which the corpse of the husband had been fastened was now raised by six of the officiating Brahmuns; the end of a cord about two yards long, attached at the other end to the head of the bier, was taken by the widow, and the whole moved slowly towards the pile. The corpse was laid on the right side, and four men furnished with sharp swords, one stationed at each corner, now drew them from their scabbards. The trembling, ghastly offering to the Moloch of Hindoism, ...Librarian's Comment: rather, the ego of husbands, who don't want their wives to "go" with other men, or "leave their house without their consent", as is also the case with the Mahomedans' slave-concubines, who cannot be emancipated against the Mahomedans' own rules of emancipation of slaves, for the same egotistical reason. Otherwise, why are the children allowed to live, but not the wife/mother?]
... then began her seven circuits round the fatal pile, and finally halted opposite to her husband’s corpse, at the left side of it, where she was evidently greatly agitated. Five or six Brahmuns began to talk to her with much vehemence, till, in a paroxysm of desperation, assisted by the Brahmuns, the hapless widow ascended the bed of destruction. Her mother and her sister stood by, weeping and agonized; but all was in vain—the blood-thirsty men prevailed. The devoted woman then proceeded to disengage the rings from her fingers, wrists, and ears; her murderers stretching out their greedy hands to receive them: afterwards all her trinkets, &c., were distributed among the same relentless and rapacious priests. While in the act of taking a ring from her ear, her mother and sister, unable any longer to sustain the extremity of their anguish, went up to the side of the pile, and entreated that the horrid purpose might be abandoned; but the woman fearing the encounter, without uttering a word, or even casting a parting glance at her supplicating parent and sister, threw herself down on the pile, and clasped the half-putrid corpse in her arms... The men with swords at each corner then hacked the cords, which supported the canopy of faggots—it fell and covered the lifeless corpse and the living woman! A piercing sound caught my ear; I listened a few seconds, and, notwithstanding the noise of the multitude, heard the shrieks of misery which issued from the burning pile. In an agony of feeling, we directed the attention of the Brahmuns to this; and while so doing, again—still louder and more piercing than before—the burning woman rent the air with her shrieks! ... the hymn ended, but not the shrieks and groans of the agonized sufferer; they still pierced our ears, and almost rent our hearts!
-- Excerpt from "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghaut Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India; to Which are Added, Humane Hints for the Melioration of the State of Society in British India," by James Peggs, 1832
The precept of the Koran enjoins giving slaves "a written instrument, allowing them to redeem themselves on paying a certain sum." Why oppose the abolition of slavery with such a precept before them? Is it not evidently from other motives than those of respect to their religion?
But the principal objection to the abolition of slavery, both in the East and in the West, is that which arises from the interest of the slave owners, and of the government. On this view of the subject it is stated by W. B. Bayley, Esq., Secretary to the Bengal Government in 1817, —
"With reference to the extent to which domestic slavery exists in India, under the established laws and usages of the Hindoos and Mahomedans, and to the known habits and feelings of the people relative to that point, the Vice President in council is of opinion, that the greatest care should be observed to guard against the prevalence of an impression, amongst the natives, that any general or direct interference, in the existing relation of master and slave, is contemplated by Government. Any impression of that nature might be expected to excite feelings of alarm and dissatisfaction; and on this ground it appears to be of importance that the Government of Bombay should avoid, as far as may be practicable, the official revival and discussion of this question, after the deliberate consideration which it has undergone in communication with the legal authorities at this Presidency."* [Par. Papers, p. 335.]
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