Part 2 — INTRODUCTION.

Introduction. Musalmán Gujarát, a.d. 1297–1760. Muhammadan rule in Gujarát lasted from the conquest of the province by the Dehli emperor Alá-ud-dín Khilji (a.d. 1295–1315), shortly before the close of the thirteenth century a.d., to the final defeat of the Mughal viceroy Momín Khán by the Maráthás and the loss of the city of Áhmedábád at the end of February 1758.

This whole term of Musalmán ascendancy, stretching over slightly more than four and a half centuries, may conveniently be divided into three parts. The First, the rule of the early sovereigns of Dehli, lasting a few years more than a century, or, more strictly from a.d. 1297 to a.d. 1403; the Second, the rule of the Áhmedábád kings, a term of nearly a century and three-quarters, from a.d. 1403 to a.d. 1573; the Third, the rule of the Mughal Emperors, when, for little less than two hundred years, a.d. 1573–1760, Gujarát was administered by viceroys of the court of Dehli.

Introduction. Musalmán Gujarát, a.d. 1297–1760. The present Sorath stretches no further than the limits of Junágaḍh, Bántwa, and a few smaller holdings.

Káthiáváḍa.The name Káthiáváḍa is of recent origin. It was not until after the establishment of Musalmán power in Gujarát that any portion of the peninsula came to bear the name of the tribe of Káthis. Even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, the name Káthiáváḍa was applied only to one of the sub-divisions of the peninsula. In the disorders which prevailed during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Káthis made themselves conspicuous. As it was from the hardy horsemen of this tribe that the tribute-exacting Maráthás met with the fiercest resistance, they came to speak of the whole peninsula as the land of the Káthis. This use was adopted by the early British officers and has since continued.

Under the kings, 1403–1573.Under the Áhmedábád kings, as it still is under British rule, Gujarát was divided politically into two main parts; one, called the khálsah or crown domain administered directly by the central authority; the other, on payment of tribute in service or in money, left under the control of its former rulers. The amount of tribute paid by the different chiefs depended, not on the value of their territory, but on the terms granted to them when they agreed to become feudatories of the kings of Áhmedábád. Under the Gujarát Sultáns this tribute was occasionally collected by military expeditions headed by the king in person and called mulkgíri or country-seizing circuits.

Under the Mughals, a.d. 1573–1760.It was the policy of Akbar rather to improve the existing system than to introduce a new form of government. After to some extent contracting the limits of Gujarát he constituted it a province or sûbah of the empire, appointing to its Administration.government an officer of the highest rank with the title of sûbahdár or viceroy. As was the case under the Áhmedábád kings, the province continued to be divided into territories managed by feudatory chiefs, and Crown Lands.districts administered by officers appointed either by the court of Dehli or by the local viceroy. The head-quarters of the army remained at Áhmedábád, and detachments were told off and placed under the orders of the officers in charge of the directly administered divisions. These district governors, as before, belonged to two classes, paid officers responsible for the management of the crown domains and military leaders in possession of lands assigned to them in pay of their contingent of troops. The governors of the crown domains, who were now known as faujdárs or commanders, had, in addition to the command of the regular troops, the control of the outposts maintained within the limits of their charge. Like their predecessors they accompanied the viceroy in his yearly circuit for the collection of tribute.

As a check on the military governors and to help them in collecting the revenue, the distinct class of account officers formerly established by king Áhmed I. (a.d. 1412–1443) was again introduced. The head of this branch of the administration was an officer, second in rank to the viceroy alone, appointed direct from the court of Dehli with the title of diván. Besides acting as collector-general of the revenues of the province, this officer was also the head of its civil administration. His title diván is generally translated minister. And though the word minister does not express the functions of the office, which corresponded more nearly with those of a chief secretary, it represents with sufficient accuracy the relation in which the holder of the office of diván generally stood to the viceroy.

Village Officers.The ámil or mámlatdár dealt directly with the village officials, namely with the mukaddam or headman, the patwári or lease manager, the kánúngo or accountant, and the haváldár or grain-yard guardian. The haváldár superintended the separation of the government share of the produce; apportioned to the classes subject to forced labour their respective turns of duty; and exercised a general police superintendence by means of subordinates called pasáitás or vartaniás. In ports under the mutasaddi was a harbour-master or sháh-bandar.

Desáis.Crown sub-divisions had, in addition, the important class called desáis. The desáis’ duty appears at first to have been to collect the salámi or tribute due by the smaller chiefs, landholders, and vántádárs or sharers. For this, in Akbar’s time, the desái received a remuneration of 2½ per cent on the sum collected. Under the first viceroy Mírza Ázíz Kokaltásh (a.d. 1573–1575) this percentage was reduced to one-half of its former amount, and in later times this one-half was again reduced by one-half. Though the Muhammadan historians give no reason for so sweeping a reduction, the cause seems to have been the inability of the desáis to collect the tribute without the aid of a military force. Under the new system the desái seems merely to have kept the accounts of the tribute due, and the records both of the amount which should be levied as tribute and of other customary rights of the crown. In later times the desáis were to a great extent superseded by the district accountants or majmudárs, and many desáis, especially in south Gujarát, seem to have sunk to patels.

Land Tax.Up to the viceroyalty of Mírza Ísa Tarkhán (a.d. 1642–1644), the land tax appears to have been levied from the cultivator in a fixed sum, but he was also subject to numerous other imposts. Land grants in wazífah carried with them an hereditary title and special exemption from all levies except the land tax. The levy in kind appears to have ceased before the close of Mughal rule. In place of a levy in kind each village paid a fixed sum or jama through the district accountant or majmudár who had taken the place of the desái. As in many cases the jama really meant the lump sum at which the crown villages were assessed and farmed to the chiefs and patels, on the collapse of the empire many villages thus farmed to chiefs and landlords were Introduction. Under the Mughals, a.d. 1573–1760. Land Tax. retained by them with the connivance of the majmudárs desáis and others.

Justice.The administration of justice seems to have been very complete. In each kasbah or town kázis, endowed with glebe lands in addition to a permanent salary, adjudicated disputes among Muhammadans according to the laws of Islám. Disputes between Muhammadans and unbelievers, or amongst unbelievers, were decided by the department called the sadárat, the local judge being termed a sadr. The decisions of the local kázis and sadrs were subject to revision by the kázi or sadr of the súbah who resided at Áhmedábád. And as a last resort the Áhmedábád decisions were subject to appeal to the Kázi-ul-Kuzzát and the Sadr-ûs-Sudûr at the capital.

Levies.During the decay of Musalmán rule in Gujarát in the first half of the eighteenth century, shareholders of the garásia class in government villages, who were always ready to increase their power by force, levied many irregular exactions from their more peaceful neighbours, the cultivators or inferior landholders. These levies are known as vol that is a forced contribution or pál that is protection. All have this peculiar characteristic that they were paid by the cultivators of crown lands to petty marauders to purchase immunity from their attacks. They in no case partook of the nature of dues imposed by a settled government on its own subjects. Tora garás, more correctly toda garás, is another levy which had its origin in eighteenth century disorder. It was usually a readymoney payment taken from villages which, though at the time crown or khálsa, had formerly belonged to the garásia who exacted the levy. Besides a readymoney payment contributions in kind were sometimes exacted.

Service Lands.The second class of superior landholders were those whose title was based on a Musalmán grant. Such grants were either assignments of large tracts of land to the viceroy, district-governors, and nobles, to support the dignity of their position and maintain a contingent of troops, or they were allotments on a smaller scale granted in reward for some special service. Land granted with these objects was called jágír, and the holder of the land jágírdár. In theory, on the death of the original grantee, such possessions were strictly resumable; in practice they tended to become hereditary. No regular payments were required from holders of jágírs. Only under the name of peshkash occasional contributions were demanded. These occasional contributions generally consisted of such presents as a horse, an elephant, or some other article of value. They had more of the nature of a freewill offering than of an enforced tribute. Under the Musalmáns contributions of this kind were the only payments exacted from proprietors of the jágírdár class. But the Maráthás, in addition to contributions, imposed on jágírdárs a regular tribute, similar to that paid by the representatives of the original class of superior Hindu landholders.

Condition of Gujarát, a.d. 1297–1760.The changes in the extent of territory and in the form of administration illustrate the effect of the government on the condition of the people during the different periods of Musalmán rule. The following summary of the leading characteristics of each of the main divisions of the four-and-a-half centuries of Musalmán ascendancy may serve as an introduction to the detailed narrative of events.

Introduction. Condition of Gujarát, a.d. 1297–1760. Self-governed Zamíndárs. The above summary contains frequent references to three classes of zamíndárs: (1) The zamíndárs of the self-governed states; (2) The greater zamíndárs of the crown districts; and (3) The lesser zamíndárs of the crown districts.

Self-governed Zamíndárs.In the case of the zamíndárs of self-governed states the principle was military service and no tribute. The author of the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi says that finally the zamíndárs of the self-governed states ceased to do service. In spite of this statement it seems probable that some of this class served almost until the complete collapse of the empire, and that tribute was rarely levied from them by an armed force. In the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi account of the office of súbahdár or názim sûbah the following passage occurs: When occasion arose the názims used to take with their armies the contingents of the Ránás of Udepur Dúngarpur and Bánsváda, which were always permanently posted outside their official residences (in Áhmedábád). This shows that these great zamíndárs had official residences at the capital, where probably their contingents were posted under wakíls or agents. It therefore seems probable that their tribute too would be paid through their representatives at the capital and that a military force was seldom sent against them. Accordingly notices of military expeditions in the tributary sarkárs are rare though they were of constant occurrence in the crown districts.

Crown Zamíndárs.The position of the zamíndárs of the khálsa or crown districts was very different from that of the zamíndárs of self-governed territories. The khálsa zamíndárs had been deprived of the greater portion of their ancestral estates which were administered by the viceregal revenue establishment. In some instances their capitals had been annexed. Even if not annexed the capital was the seat of faujdár who possessed the authority and encroached daily on the rights and privileges of the chieftain. The principal chiefs in this position were those of Rájpípla and Ídar in Gujarát and the Jám of Navánagar in Káthiáváḍa. Of the three, Rájpipla had been deprived of his capital Nándod and of all the fertile districts, and was reduced to a barren sovereignty over rocks, hills and Bhíls at Rájpípla. Ídar had suffered similar treatment and the capital was the seat of a Muhammadan faujdár. Navánagar, which had hitherto been a tributary sarkár, was during the reign of Aurangzíb made a crown district. But after Aurangzíb’s death the Jám returned to his capital and again resumed his tributary relations.

Smaller Zamíndárs.The lesser holders, including grásiás wántádárs and others, had suffered similar deprivation of lands and were subject to much encroachment from the government officials. Throughout the empire widespread discontent prevailed among subordinate holders of this description as well as among all the zamíndárs of the crown districts, so that the successes of Shiváji in the Dakhan found ardent sympathisers even in Gujarát. When the zamíndárs saw that this Hindu rebel was strong enough to pillage Surat they began to hope that a day of deliverance was near. The death of Aurangzíb (a.d. 1707) was the signal for these restless spirits to bestir themselves. When the Maráthás began regular inroads they were hailed as deliverers from the yoke Introduction. Condition of Gujarát, a.d. 1297–1760. Smaller Zamíndárs. of the Mughal. The Rájpípla chief afforded them shelter and a passage through his country. The encouragement to anarchy given by some of the Rájput viceroys who were anxious to emancipate themselves from the central control further enabled many chieftains girásiás and others to absorb large portions of the crown domains, and even to recover their ancient capitals. Finally disaffected Muhammadan faujdárs succeeded in building up estates out of the possessions of the crown and founding the families which most of the present Muhammadan chieftains of Gujarát represent.

Marátha Ascendancy, 1760–1802.When the imperial power had been usurped by the Marátha leaders, the chiefs who had just shaken off the more powerful Mughal yoke were by no means disposed tamely to submit to Marátha domination. Every chief resisted the levy of tribute and Momín Khán reconquered Áhmedábád. In this struggle the Maráthás laboured under the disadvantage of dissensions between the Peshwa and the Gáikwár. They were also unaware of the actual extent of the old imperial domain and were ignorant of the amount of tribute formerly levied. They found that the faujdárs, who, in return for Marátha aid in enabling them to absorb the crown parganáhs, had agreed to pay tribute, now joined the zamíndárs in resisting Marátha demands, while with few exceptions the desáis and majmudárs either openly allied themselves with the zamíndárs or were by force or fraud deprived of their records. Gáikwár Saved by British Alliance, 1802.So serious were the obstacles to the collection of the Marátha tribute that, had it not been for the British alliance in a.d. 1802, there seems little doubt that the Gáikwár would have been unable to enforce his demands in his more distant possessions. The British alliance checked the disintegration of the Gáikwár’s power, and the permanent settlement of the tribute early in this century enabled that chief to collect a large revenue at a comparatively trifling cost. Not only were rebels like Malhárráo and Kánoji suppressed, but powerful servants like Vithalráv Deváji, who without doubt would have asserted their independence, were confirmed in their allegiance and the rich possessions they had acquired became part of the Gáikwár’s dominions.

Power of Local Chiefs.Since the introduction of Musalmán rule in a.d. 1297 each successive government has been subverted by the ambition of the nobles and the disaffection of the chiefs. It was thus that the Gujarát Sultáns rendered themselves independent of Dehli. It was thus that the Sultán’s territories became divided among the nobles, whose dissensions reduced the province to Akbar’s authority. It was thus that the chiefs and local governors, conniving at Marátha inroads, subverted Mughal rule. Finally it was thus that the Gáikwár lost his hold of his possessions and was rescued from ruin solely by the power of the British.