Chamaraja Wodeyar X.
Dr. B. R. AMBEDKAR
OPEN UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
HYDERABAD-500 033
Dr. B.R. AMBEDKAR OPEN UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
CallNo. H£ Accession No.
Author:
Title
This book should be returned on or before the date
last marked below.
DEDICATED
to the revered memory of
CHAMARAJA WODEYAR X. Maharaja of Mysore,
who first made ihe experiment of a constitutional
form of Government for an Indian State a success, and
in the hands of whose son
HIS HIGHNESS KRISHNARAJA WODEYAR IV.
the present MAHARAJA,
it has received great development.
PREFACE.
In this volume is comprehended the story of modern Mysore
from 1868 to the present time. If Bowring came hack to life and
took a survey of Mysore, it would not be far from truth to say that
he would find the Mysore Administration developed more largely on
the British model than when he left the country. Similarly, if
Sir James Gordon revisited the earth, he would find that what was
regarded in his time as only an experiment in constitutional
government in the hands of Indians is no more so, but has
practically established itself as a successful reality, though not in
the exact form generally associated with it in other countries. It is
true that the expression ' Constitutional Government ' has not the
same meaning in Mysore as it has, for instance, in England. This
constitutional government in Mysore cannot be attributed to any
struggle between the sovereigns of the country and its people, but
is the outcome of a spontaneous desire on the part of Chamaraja
Wodeyar X, the first Ruler of Mysore after the Rendition in 1881,
and of his son and successor the present Maharaja Krishnaraja
Wodeyar IV, to share the responsibilities of government with the
people of the State. Whether in taxation or legislation or in any
important administrative measure, the people may be said to possess
an effective voice to influence the final decisions of Government.
Rarely are the wishes of the representatives of the people as
expressed in the two constitutional assemblies — the Representative
Assembly and the Legislative Council — are overriden, unless the
ministers of the Maharaja can place a clearly convincing case
before His Highness. The ministers themselves being generally
the inhabitants of the State and being affected by the operations of
any measure that may be introduced in the same manner as the
rest of the people, few occasions arise for radical differences of
opinion between them and the people to cause embarrassment to
the sovereign who, in the existing political circumstances of the
country, cannot divest himself of the final voice with which he is
invested, A perusal of the chapters of this volume will
confirm the truth of this statement. These happy results, it must
be acknowledged, are as much due to the care bestowed on and
the solicitude evinced in the imparting of suitable education and
proper political training to their wards Chamaraja Wodeyar X and
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV by the British Government during the
period of their minority, as to the naturally good instincts possessed
by these two rulers. It may also be noted that the value of the
experiment of a constitutional form of government in Mysore
transcends the limits of the State, as the hope expressed by the
Government of India that such a form of government, if successful,
would serve as a model for other Indian States may be said to have
been substantially realised.
In conclusion, I repeat my obligations to all those whose
names have been mentioned in the previous volume — Sir Mirza
Ismail and Messrs. Ranganatha Rao Sahib, T. V. A. Iswaran,
N. Madhava Rao, A. V. Ramanathan, T. R. A. Thumboo Chetty,
B. T. Kesava lyengar, R. Ranga Rao, M. Seshadri, M. Rama
Rao, H. V. Ramaswamy, A, K. Syed Taj Peeran, K. Mylari Rao,
Amildar K. Seshagiri Rao —as well as to C. M. Cariapa and
C. E. Noronha.
In the preparation of this volume also, I have to repeat
that my obligations are due to my assistant Mr. B. M. Gopala
Rao, B.A. (Hons.), for the very valuable help he has given me.
Messrs. Higginbothams are again entitled to my thanks for
their neat execution of this volume also.
BANGALORE, M. SHAMA RAO.
September 1936.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I. — Installation of Chamaraja Wodeyar X. 1 to 12
CHAPTER II. — Fresh arrangements connected with the
Palace ... ... ... ... 13 to 19
CHAPTER III. — Closing years of the British Com-
ERRATA.
Page 304. Line 14 from top — For * Mysore* read ' Madras.'
Page 384. Line 20 from top — For ' clear1 read * cleaner.1
CHAPTER VI. — Re-settlement of political relations with
the British Government ... ... 43 to 53
CHAPTER VII. — Re-settlement of political relations
with the British Government (Continued I — An
experiment in constitutional government for
Native States ... ... ... 54 to 58
CHAPTER VIII. — Investiture of Chamaraja Wodeyar
with ruling powers ... ... ... 59 to 67
CHAPTER IX. — Economic, social and other conditions
in Mysore about the period of the young
Maharaja's assumption of power ... ... 68 to 73
CHAPTER X. — Establishment of a Representative
Assembly — Experiment of establishing Anglo-
Indians and Eurasians in agricultural and
industrial occupations — Death of Rangacharlu... 74 to 81
CHAPTER XI. — Appointment of Sir K. Seshadri Iyer
as Dewan — Steps taken to improve the finances
of the State ... ... ... 82 to 90
iv
PAGE.
CHAPTER XII. — More Judges for the Chief Court —
Revenue Code, Local Boards Bill — Separate
legislative branch in the Secretariat — Some
important Regulations including the Prevention
of the Infant Marriage Regulation ... ... 91 to 98
CHAPTER XIII. — Improvement of administrative
efficiency (Continued) — Anche or local post —
Life Insurance — Civil Service examination —
Status of village servants — Offer of Imperial
Service troops — Revision of the State Council... 99 to 107
CHAPTER XIV. — Famine Policy — Railways ... 108 to 114
CHAPTER XV. — Irrigation ... ... ... 115 to 121
CHAPTER XVI.— First agricultural and industrial
Exhibition — Special encouragement given to
arecanut gardens — Agricultural Banks — En-
couragement to industries — Gold Mining — Trade
and development of communications — Census of
1891 ... ... ... ... 122 to 133
CHAPTER XVII. — Progress of education in general —
Special encouragement to women's education —
Oriental Library — Archaeology — Encouragement
to native drama — Chamaraja Wodeyar's catholi-
city of mind ... ... ... 134 to 140
CHAPTER XVIII. — Four distinguished visitors — Lord
Dufferin, Prince Albert Victor, Lord Lansdowne
and Field Marshal Sir George Wolsley (later
Viscount), Commander-in-Chief ... ... 141 to 154
CHAPTER XIX. — The Representative Assembly and
its growth ... ... ... ... 155 to 165
CHAPTER XX.— Tours of the Maharaja— His last days. 166 to 170
CHAPTER XXL— The Maharani- Regent — Reformed
State Council — Sir Seshadri Iyer continued as
Dewan — Visits of Lord Elgin and Lord Curzon. 171 to 174
PAGE.
CHAPTER XXII. — Some useful measures introduced —
Construction of the Marikanave reservoir — Re-
construction of the Palace destroyed by fire —
First appearance of plague — The Kaveri Electric
Power scheme — Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Victoria — Boer War — Military Transport Corps
— Census of 1901 — Sir Seshadri Iyer's retire-
ment and death in 1901 — Sir P. N. Krishna
Murti appointed Dewan ... ... 175 to 185
CHAPTER XXIII— Termination of the Regency— In-
vestiture with power of H. H. Krishnaraja
Wodeyar IV — Edward VI Ts coronation in
England ... ... ... ... 186 to 195
CHAPTER XXIV. — Form of the new Government in
Mysore ... ... ... ... 196 to 201
CHAPTER XXV. — Maharaja's visit to Delhi for the
Coronation Durbar — Opens the Madras Exhibi-
tion and visits Lord Ampthill, Governor of
Madras — Tours in the State — Yuvaraja's illness
at Ajmer — Visits of Lord Kitchnerand H. R. H.
the Prince of Wales — Birthday and Dasara
festivities ... ... ... ... 202 to 209
CHAPTER XXVI. — Various administrative improve-
ments— Mr. Kiernander's scrutiny of the finances
• of the State — Educational progress — Local
Boards Regulation passed — Revised scheme of
tank restoration — Ethnological investigations —
Electric illumination of Bangalore City — Co-
operative Societies Regulation — The eccj
conditions of the country as they
opening years of the Maharaja's ru
CHAPTER XXVIL— Retirement of Sir
Murti— V, P. Madhava Rao and
the next successors — V. P.
'gloomy view of the finances of
vi
r
measures to establish equilibrium — Change in
the working of the State Council — Railways —
Study of forestry — Sericulture — Mining — Irri-
gation— Veterinary Department — Abolition of
Halat — Establishment of a Legislative Council —
Tank Panchayet — Completion of the Palace
reconstruction — The Kannambadi reservoir —
Formation of the Public Health Department —
Encouragement to Ayurvedic and Unani
medicines — The Newspaper Regulation — The
Co-operative Movement — Economic Conference. 223 to 240
CHAPTER XXVIII. — Anniversary of Queen Victoria's
Proclamation — Visit of Lord and Lady Minto to
the State— Death of Edward VII— Accession to
the throne of George V — Coronation Durbar at
Delhi ... ... ... ... 241 to 246
CHAPTER XXIX. — Sir M. Visvesvaraya appointed
Dewan — Visit of Lord Hardinge and the treaty
of 1913 ... ... ... ... 247 to 250
CHAPTER XXX. — Part played by Mysore in the Ger-
man War ... ... ... ... 251 to 260
CHAPTER XXXI. — Fresh railway construction— Deve-
lopment of electric power and Kaveri arbitration
— Jury System — Separation of magisterial from
executive functions — Reform of the Legislative
Council — Fresh financial scrutiny ... ... 261 to 269
CHAPTER XXXII. — Economic Conference— Establish-
ment of the Mysore Bank — Sandal Oil Factory —
Soap ^Eactory — Commercial and industrial
activities— Climber of Commerce — Bhadravathi
Iron Works — Sericulture — Agricultural experi-
ments— Rural arid Malnad improvements —
Educational improvements — A University for
Mysore ... ... ... ... 270 to 280
t COPTER XXXIII.— Local Self-Government ... 281 to 286
vii
PAGE.
CHAPTER XXXIV.— Aftermath of the war— Food
control — Retirement of Sir M. Visvesvaraya and
appointment of Sir M. Kantaraj Urs — Mr. A. R.
Banerji acting Dewan during Sir M. Kantaraj
Urs' illness — Effects of food control — Unsettle-
ment of the State's finances — Public loans of
1920 — Income-Tax — Special finance com-
mittee ... ... ... ... 287 to 294
CHAPTER XXXV.— Outbreak of influenza— Education
— Development of Local Self-Government —
Industries and Commerce — Sericulture ... 295 to 301
CHAPTER XXXVL — Wet assessment concessions —
Encouragement to coffee industry — The Bhadra-
vathi Iron Works — Krishnarajasagara Hydro-
Electric Works — The Co-operative Committee —
Tank Restoration — The Public Service and the
Backward Communities — The problem of un-
employment— Railways — Unprecedented floods.. 302 to 309
CHAPTER XXXVII. — Representative Assembly and
Legislative Council reforms ... ...310 to 315
CHAPTER XXXVIII. — The Seal Committee Report on
constitutional reforms ... ... ... 316 to 330
CHAPTER XXXIX. — Inauguration by the Maharaja of
the reformed Legislative Council and the Repre-
sentative Assembly ... ... ... 331 to 336
CHAPTER XL. — Distinguished visitors to Mysore —
Lord Chelmsford, Prince of Wales, the Earl of
Reading and the Prince of Connaught ... 337 to 339
CHAPTER XLI. — Retirement of Sir A. R. Banerji —
Mr. Mirza Muhammad Ismail (afterwards Sir)
appointed Dewan — His policy enunciated —
Financial adjustments — Taxation Enquiry —
Assets and Liabilities of the State — Economic
Depression — Policy regarding public loans re-
§t$ted — EJxcise Duty on notches 3nd sugar .., 340 to 345
viU
PAGE.
CHAPTER XLII.— Visit of Lord Irwin— Reduction of
subsidy by Rs. 10i lakhs— Silver Jubilee ... 346 to 353
CHAPTER XLIII.— Views of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. 354 to 367
CHAPTER XLIV. — The Maharaja as a pilgrim — From
Almora to Manasarowar ... ... 368 to 377
CHAPTER XLV. — The Maharaja as a pilgrim —
(Continued) — From Manasarowar to Mount
Kailas and return ... ... ... 378 to 386
CHAPTER XLVI. — Census of 1931 — Measures for
encouraging trade and manufacture — Revival of
Dasara Exhibition — Deputation of Mr. N.
Madhava Rao to England— A Trade Commis-
sioner in England for Mysore — Sericultural
developments — The Dasara Exhibition of 1935... 387 to 396
CHAPTER XL VI I. — Various measures tending to the
increase of material prosperity — Gold Mining —
Bhadravathi Iron Works — Extension of electric
power — Railways — Irrigation — Establishment of
a Sugar Factory — Agreement with the Madras
Government ... ... ... 397 to 407
CHAPTER XLVIII. — Measures relating to agriculture —
Record of Rights — Improvement of live-stock
and veterinary aid — Unemployment and Bhadra
agricultural colony — The economic position of
the agriculturists during this period ... 408 to 416
CHAPTER XLIX.— Sanitation, Public Health and
Rural Improvements ... ... ... 417 to 422
CHAPTER L.— Education— Local Self -Government—
The Representative Assembly and the Legislative
Council ... ... ... .. 423 to 429
CHAPTER LI. — Two important legislative measures :
Workmen's Compensation- Regulation and the
Regulation to amend the Hindu Law as to the
* rights of women w4 iu certain other directions,,. 430 to 43$
ix
PAGE.
CHAPTER LII. — Visit of Lord Willingdon to Mysore —
Abrogation of the Article 18 of the Treaty of
1913— Death of the Maharani late Regent ... 437 to 441
CHAPTER LIII. — Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms —
Constitution of the Chamber of Princes — The
Butler Commission and its report ... 442 to 446
CHAPTER LIV. — The Simon Commission ... 447 to 450
CHAPTER LV. — Conference at Bangalore preliminary
to the Round Table Conference ... ... 451 to 454
CHAPTER LVI. — The first Round Table Conference... 455 to 465
CHAPTER LVIL — The Second and Third Round
Table Conferences ... ... ... 466 to 469
CHAPTER LVIII. — The proposals of the White Paper
and their consideration by a Joint Parliamentary
Committee ... ... ... 470 to 477
CHAPTER LIX. — The Government of India Act of 1935
as passed by Parliament — Sir Mirza Ismail, Lord
Willingdon and Lord Linlithgow on its future
working ... ... ... ... 478 to 483
CHAPTER LX. — The Mysore State and Federal
India — Settlement of certain issues prior to its
accession to the Federation ... 484 to 491
Appendix ... ... ... ... 493 to 497
CHAPTER!.
Installation of Chamaraja Wodeyar X.
It was customary with the Mysore royal family that after the
completion of the funeral ceremonies of a deceased Maharaja the
coronation of his successor should take place without much interval
of time. The ceremony of seating the young Prince on the throne
should therefore have followed about the middle of April 1868.
But beyond the proclamations published by the Commissioner no
further action leading to the installation was taken. This inaction
caused considerable anxiety not only to the Ranees in the Palace
but also to the other relatives of the Maharaja as well as the
general public. It was pressed on the attention of Bowring by the
leading people of the country that the usual coronation ceremony
should take place, so that at the ensuing Dasara His Highness
might seat himself on the historic throne of Mysore and receive the
homage due to his position from his subjects. It was also urged on
the Commissioner that as the representative of Her Majesty's
Government he should attend the installation ceremony which
was to be marked with all the solemnity as was associated on the
occasion of the installation of Krishnaraja Wodeyar in 1799.
Bowring, however, considered it advisable previously to
consult the Government of India on the matter and accordingly
applied on the 7th May 1868 for instructions. In doing so, he wrote
that as the young Maharaja was a ward as well as a minor if he
was placed on the throne at that time possibly future complications
might arise as to the extent of his rights and jurisdiction which had
been left undefined being subject to decision in the future. He also
considered that there was no strict analogy between the proposed
installation of the young Maharaja and the installation of 1799 and
that the present Maharaja could not as a ward be permitted to be
enthroned until the British Government was satisfied of his
competency to discharge worthily the important duties that would
devolve on him.
The Government of India on their part referred the question
on the 12th June to the Secretary of State desiring to have
9. pronouncement of the Home Government on the subject.
In this communication the Government of India expressed their
own opinion in these terms : " Having regard to the views
expressed in your despatch, dated 16th April 1867, it appears to us
that until the Maharaja attains his majority and is found qualified
for Government and until the terms on which the administration
will be made over and the conditions of the new treaties are
arranged, anything like a formal installation would be premature
and out of place/*
Meanwhile, there was considerable solicitude in the minds of
the people of Mysore as to the value of the proclamation published
relating to the recognition of the young Maharaja as successor to
the throne of Mysore, so much so that there was danger of the
proclamation being regarded as a mere scrap of paper. The Dasara
festival also was not far distant when according to the family
custom the Raja was to show himself to his subjects seated on his
throne. On the 10th of August the two Ranees addressed a
communication to the Commissioner pointing out in view of the
approaching Dasara the urgent need of procuring a reply regarding
the performance of the installation ceremony, so that there might be
no* break in that long observed custom. On the 19th September
following Major Elliot, Superintendent of the Ashtagram Division
and Officer in charge of palace duties, waited on the Ranees and
announced to them the message he had received from the Commis-
sioner conveying the consent of the British Government for the
performance of the installation ceremony of the young Maharaja.
The Government in England had read the situation more correctly
than either the Government of India or the Commissioner of Mysore
inasmuch as they considered that recognition by mere proclamation
would be incomplete and that a formal ceremony of installation
was needed to inspire confidence in the sincerity of the
intentions of the British Government. The date on which this
announcement was made corresponded to the 5th day of the Dasara
festival and at once removed the gloom that had been felt every-
where by the suspension of the public performance of this annual
pageant. The news at once spread in the town and there were
general rejoicings with a distribution of sugar to the people in all
the streets of Mysore. Later in the day the leading townspeople
sought an interview with the young Maharaja and presented fruits
and garlands. After this function was over, Bakshi Narasappa and
other important officials of the Palace visited Major Elliot at his
residence and presented him fruits and garlands as a token of
thankfulness and joy on the part of the royal family for the happy
message coqveyed. On the 22nd September Bowring came to
Mysore and on the next day corresponding to the 7th day of the
Dasara at 12 noon the installation ceremony took place in a
specially erected pandal in the inner quadrangle of the Palace.
Even though the interval for making arrangements was very short,
all the leading men were assembled with a number of Europeans
also. After the religious ceremonies were finished, Bowring and
Elliot holding the hands of the young Prince seated him on the
throne when three volleys of musketry and a royal salute were
fired. The Maharaja was pelted with a storm of flowers from every
side and the large assembly testified by shouts and clapping of
hands their satisfaction. The family priest next pronounced
benedictory prayers and offered to His Highness water from several
sacred streams with other consecrated articles. On these initiatory
ceremonies being completed, the genealogy of the royal family was
read out aloud and on its termination the spearmen rattled their
spears, the band struck up, and the building resounded with the
shouts and cheers of the people. Bowring then proceeded to
present to the Maharaja on the part of the Viceroy a khillat
of 21 trays fastening a piece of jewellery round His Highness*
neck and a similar khillat was submitted through him for
the Viceroy's acceptance. The Rajbindies and officials then each
in turn presented their nazars and the ceremony concluded with the
customary offering of pansupari and garlands of flowers. In the
evening there was the usual durbar and continued daily during
the whole of the Dasara festival.
In this connection the account given by Mrs. Bowring in a
letter to a friend from the time she left Bangalore with her husband
till she returned is so graphic and replete with interesting details
that no apology is needed to reproduce it here, though somewhat long,
" On Saturday, September 19, a telegram was received from
Mysore that the installation of the young Raja must take place on
the 23rd as the wise men and astrologers having consulted the stars
found that that was the auspicious day, the hour to be between 1 1
and 12 o'clock. It was ^useless to remonstrate at this short notice,
so L — said * Fiat ', and I grumbled and set Marie and two tailors
to work and stitch their fingers off to get ready.
"The Raja's stables having been reduced from unlimited
supplies of horses and carriages to ten pairs it was no longer
possible to post royally along the road of eighty four miles in His
Highness* carriage as of old. So bullocks were laid and out of
consideration for my bones the bullock coach was discarded and a
pole adjusted to the office carriage which makes up into a bed
" A pair of bullocks having been pressed into the service with
many blows and shouts we set off at a famous trot, a Silledar
curvetting in front and several more kicking up adust behind, while
a peon ran in front shouting to everybody to keep out of the way.
Away we went, down through the native town, the people staring
and salaaming, out into the wild rocky country beyond. As we
passed through the different taluks or villages, the Amildar or
Magistrate came out to meet us followed by the inhabitants and
while we changed bullocks presented garlands of flowers and limes
and chatted with my husband in Canarese of the coming event.
" After a time, the road became more rough — very bad indeed — and
the bullocks had hard work to get along. The difficulty was over-
come by a native, with only his loins girt, sitting on the shaft,
shouting and twisting the tails of the poor beasts, while the driver
lashed and the peons running on either side poked them with their
sticks! Two wild-looking natives ran on ahead, as it grew dark,
with torches, the smoke and smell of which were anything but
agreeable. As we approached the village, a native with a curious
horn announced our arrival by a cheerful blast. During the night
in passing through the villages we saw the people asleep outside
their huts rolled up in their blankets white or coloured looking like
90 many mummies, The great banyan trees looked so ghastly in
the moonlight with their gnarled branches and beardlike
appendages.
44 Once during the night we were awakened by loud cries and
stopping found that the SUledar had given a whack to a pair of
bullocks at the head of a train of carts which had resulted hi the
animals upsetting the cart into a ditch. The cries were so piteous
that we concluded that the driver was under his cart and L — got
out to render assistance but found the man unhurt sitting by the
wayside weeping — I ought to say howling — and wringing his hands,
Indian fashion, instead of setting to work to do anything.
" At the Maddur Station which was nice and clean I made
myself tidy. We had a comfortable breakfast and being joined by
Major C — started again at 6 o'clock in a comfortable carriage of
the Raja's with good horses.
" We soon crossed the Kaveri the first Indian river I had
seen. The country was very green with rice crops and mulberry
trees and is irrigated by the water channels of the Kaveri at this
season of the year. We now got along at a great pace and soon
came in sight of Seringapatam peeing out amongst the luxuriant
vegetation. There was the mosque, the fort, the tomb of Tippu
Sultan, the house and garden occupied by the Duke of Wellington
and the lofty monument erected to the memory of the officers who
perished at the storming of the fort. In crossing an arm of the
Kaveri we had a beautiful view at the Raja's bathing-place beneath
a very picturesque bridge. Great flights of steps lead down to the
water and women in bright clothes were filling their brass vessels
with the water and walking away with them on their heads. The
river looked so deliciously cool that it is not very strange that these
poor Indians should worship it when it is the source of such
blessings to their country.
" The next stage seemed very short and we were joined by a
regiment of Silledars who look very well in a body with their gold
and scarlet dresses and turbans. The native saddles also are very
handsome, whilst the horses adorned with coloured ropes and tassels
necks add greatly to the general good effect. They
certainly consider themselves fine fellows and show o&and kick up
no end of dust. I was nearly choked.
" Next we came upon a man with his horn ; then a temple with
all the dancing girls outside in their best, with their priests and
their everlasting tomtoms. A little farther on was a deputation of
all the merchants of the city with a congratulatory speech with a
stout burly gentleman with much gesticulation, which had we not
been obliged to listen to it almost uncomfortably in the glare of the
sun would have amused me greatly. Then garlands and
bouquets were thrown into the carriage. I was indeed rejoiced to
reach the Residency and get into the cool house.
"On Wednesday at 11 o'clock we were all dressed and
assembled at the Residency which was formerly a palace of the
Raja and has in it one of the finest rooms in India. All the
company at last arrived and we went off in carriages preceded by
the Silledars, while natives ran on each side bearing very long
lances with scarlet streamers and gold cords and tassels. These
lances they shake and clang in a peculiar manner and to my mind
most musically. In the procession were carried some curious
batons and mitres, insignia of royalty.
" All the people were thronging about and when we turned
under the gates of the fort within which is the Palace and arrived
at the great square in front of it, the noise was such that it was
impossible to make any one hear. It was all dumb show. God
save the Queen ! Native music ! Tomtoms ! A great mass of
human beings in the square and every individual shouting. Had I
not been told what to expect, I should have been frightened.
" Upon driving up in front of the Palace, one of the princes
came forward. I salaamed, he salaamed and extended his two
hands upon which I placed one of mine and he led me up the steps
surging with people into the inner court of the Palace to the chair
on which sat the young Raja to whom I salaamed and with whom
I then shook hands.
" My husband and Major Elliot following did the same and
they took the little man by the h^pd &n4 leading him up th$
silver Steps lifted him on to his throne. Then you should have
heard the row! The lances were clanged, the English hurrahed,
the natives shouted and the bands and tomtoms played. I never
was in such a din, and the crowd surged up, and there came a
perfect shower of flowers. We were pelted on all sides and L —
had to protect the little Raja with his cocked hat, while Major
C — did his best for me; but it was hopeless and there was
nothing for it but to endure. My dress was ruined at once, all the
flowers being soaked in attar of roses ! I looked up expecting to
see the little Raja terrified and in tears, but like a high-born
oriental he sat as cool as a cucumber.
" I must describe the little fellow to you and his throne.
Chamaraja Wodeyar, Maharaja of Mysore, is going on for
seven years of age. He is not dark but of a rich olive complexion,
with most splendid eyes. He has bare feet, coat and trousers of
gold and a beautiful turban hung round with great drops of
emeralds and diamonds. Major £ — had the State rings and
bangles made to fit his small feet and fingers. The throne is like
what one reads of in a fairy tale, of solid gold, very ancient, and
exquisitely chased and carved. From the arms hang ropes of real
pearls. The umbrella above it is surmounted by a peacock in
emeralds and diamonds. Two attendants stood behind waving
feathers tipped with diamonds and two others waved in the air in
a peculiar way Kashmere shawls or what looked to me like them.
" After a time, order was established and we all sat down, the
English on the left, the royal princes on the right. The little king
looked about him with astonishing coolness and began chewing a
betel-nut ! Had he cried, the people would have thought it a bad
omen. As it was, he was a born king and they were all delighted.
"Then followed the ceremonies. First came the Brahmins,
with incantations and prayers, sprinkling the child with the waters
of the sacred rivers of India. Secondly, his pedigree from the gods
down to the present day was read out. We gave him three cheers
and there was a great row. Thirdly, presentation of the fruits of
the earth carried in on trays, the Raja laying his tiny hand OQ
ft
everything with great dignity. Fourthly, presentation of 21 trays
of presents and a very handsome necklace from our Government,
and my husband fastened the ornament round the little fellow's
neck. Fifthly, descending from his throne the Raja presented
21 trays to L — and fastened a splendid necklace of pearls,
diamonds and rubies round his neck, a shawl embroidered in green
and gold being thrown over his shoulders. Then the Raja placed
wreaths of flowers over L's neck and mine, but he could not get
them over my bonnet which seemed to amuse him greatly. Then
he presented each with a rose, and a gold tray being handed in he
scented the roses with attar and gave each of us a betel-nut, after
which he was again placed on his throne.
" Then followed the homage of all his relatives who advanced
one by one and bowing down placed their heads on the throne, each
offering a present which the Raja just touched. Then all the
English officers salaamed and shook hands and were handed out to
the carriages as before amidst renewed shoutings, the bands playing
* God save the Queen.'
" I must tell you that the floor of the raised platform was
carpeted with cloth of gold which was soon inches deep in flowers.
" In the afternoon of the same day we went a second time to
the Palace for a durbar. Inside the Palace is a great room looking
on and opening into the square but upstairs and the throne had
been placed in the balcony so that all the public might see it.
"First came the Brahmins and the child had actually to
worship his throne walking round it three times and throwing
lotus flowers at the foot of it, prayers being meanwhile recited.
Then L — put him on his throne, while the mob below closed in
and there was another storm of flowers, L — protecting the
Raja's face with my fan !
" Then there were wrestlers below fighting, then sword-dancing
and behold the State elephant painted and done up for the occasion
in his best. He was led up to the front of the balcony and saluted
with his trunk in the air. He was followed by the State horse
magnificently caparisoned and lastly came the sacred cart
worshipped as an impersonation of the Deity covered .with pearls
and cloth of gold. Finally all ended with fireworks and 'Good
Night.'
" On returning to the Residency we had just time to dress for
the grand dinner given to all the European officers. After dinner,
we drank the health of the Queen, L — made a short speech, and
then we drank the Raja's health. After dinner, we had music and
we got up some Christy Minstrel's songs. In fact, everything
went off well.
" On the following day L — and I drove round the town of
Mysore and had a very picturesque view of the old walls of the
fort, an avenue of trees, and a large tank a lake-like sheet of water,
with Chamundi rising beyond, on the summit of which is a house
and a temple dedicated to the tutelary deity of the Mysore dynasty.
On returning we all went to the stables to see the horses and feed
the pigeons, great beauties, and formerly special pets of the late
Raja.
" After breakfast, we went to the Palace and saw all over it.
It is a most curious and interesting place. We went first into the
inner courtyard where the installation took place the day before
and then took a squint down a long dirty -looking passage to the
kitchen, which Major Elliot advised us not to visit. Passing up
an open staircase into a low wide gallery we saw to the left the
ladies apartments and turned to the right into a small ante-room
lighted from above, in the centre of which was a square place
railed off and slightly sunk in which are kept the sacred cow and
her calf. The former was evidently viciously disposed towards us
and made a thrust at the railing to get at us ringing a silver bell.
Her daughter however was more amiable and allowed us to pat
her. They Were both as sleek as horses and had each an attendant
watching to administer to their wants.
" We then went into the inner durbar-room. In the centre the
ceiling was hung with long chains of coloured glass beads and as
the sun shone upon them the effect was very pretty. The doors
A2
Id
Were of massive silver carved all over with hideous gods and
goddesses * In the Raja's proper bedroom we were
shown a pearl necklace composed of 2400 pearls.
" We then went to another part of the Palace to pay our visit
to the queens. The gentlemen had to speak to them through a
curtain, but I was allowed to pass behind with a lady interpreter.
On going in, I found all the six ladies seated on chairs. I salaamed
to each and shook hands. A chair was then placed for me before
the first queen and I was asked to sit down.
" As to their costume, as they were all in mourning no jewels
were worn and all had plain clothes excepting the first queen who
had on a very rftagnificent green and gold shawl. She was a
nice-looking old lady with refined features and after shaking hands
with me rarely spoke during my visit. Next to her sat No. 2,
a jolly, good-natured, portly old lady who talked all the time as
fast as her tongue would go. She began by drawing my chair
close to her and seizing and squeezing both my hands in hers said
she was delighted to see me and we had the following conversation.
Mrs. B. — ' I hope you were not all much fatigued by
yesterday's ceremonies ?'
2nd Queen (tears rolling down her fat cheeks). — ' My two eyes
were not big enough to look at it all ! But you must intercede that
it may not be all show but real !'
Mrs. B — ' There is no further need of intercession. The boy
is crowned and the British Government will protect his rights !'
3rd Queen — * We are overcome with gratitude to Mr. Bowring.
We know that all the joy we feel is owing to him !'
Mrs. B — ' I should like to see the mother of the young Raja !'
1st Queen—' We will send for her !'
" Then the second began talking to my husband in Canarese
through the curtain and in a few minutes in came the young Raja
and his mother, a very nice-looking young woman with splendid
u
eyes like her son's. She salaamed down to the ground and then
with all her heart in her eyes she took up the little fellow and put
him on my lap saying * I give my child to you. He is not mine
any longer and you must protect him and intercede for him.' Then
women servants came in with a silver dish with a garland of
flowers which the child took and put round my neck and then
placed a rose in my hand scented by him from a gold scent-bottle
with attar. Finally he handed me a betel-nut, all which I, of
course, accepted with a salaam.
"The little boy was superbly dressed and had on such a
necklace !
1st Queen — ' Do you admire the necklace ?'
Mrs. B — ' It is most beautiful but the child is far handsomer
than the jewels.'
" At which pretty speech great satisfaction was evinced by all
the ladies*
3rd Queen — * I see by your face that you love children. Have
you any of your own ?'
Upon which an explanation followed of the loss of my baby.
2nd Queen — ' You have travelled a long way. Do you like
India ?'
1st Queen — ' We will show you our jewels ! '
Mrs. B — could not speak for looking at them !
2nd Queen — ' You speak more kindly to us than any English
lady we have seen. We like you better than any one we have seen/
" But here a message came that I had remained long enough
and that I must come away. So I shook hands with them all, the
second queen begging me to ask L — to send them to Benares that
they may finish their religious duties for their husband's soul. The
little Raja gave me his two hands and conducted me out with
astonishing self-possession and gravity.
12
"When I got out, the gentlemen began laughing at me for
.staying so long but I found they were, nevertheless, all curiosity to
know what the queens were like and what they had said.
" We next visited the library. The books are all written on
palm leaves strung together and compressed between wood, ivory
or silver plates. Poems and fairy tales comprise the literature of
the 'country and some of the books were illuminated.
" We then visited the armoury, a most curious collection, but
some of the weapons were terribly cruel and made me shudder !
We then passed into a great durbar -room full now of boxes of
treasures. We had one box opened and looked till we were tired at
ladies' clothes made of cloth of gold worth Rs. 1000 each. We
saw shawls by the dozen and our eyes ached with looking. Some
of the boxes were marked outside with the name of the queen whose
particular treasure they contained.
" I was attacked by a violent cold and could not go to the
evening durbar but was told that the little Raja complained of the
great weight of his turban and begged he might have a lighter one,
which I think shows him to be a very sensible child.
" On returning to Bangalore we travelled at different hours
and I was glad to see something of the country we had before
passed in the dark, parts of which are strikingly picturesque. We
entered Bangalore in the evening and as we drove through the
pettah or native town we came in for the procession at the close of
the Dasara. All the gods and goddesses were being carried on
cars with shoutings and tomtoms, the people being painted and got
up in most extraordinary costumes, so that it really was a very
singular sight but I was so sleepy and tired that I could hardly
take it all in. Thus ended our visit to Mysore which I thoroughly
enjoyed notwithstanding the fatigue and my cold,"
CHAPTER II.
Fresh arrangements connected with the Palace.
The demise of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar in March 1868
a little over a year after his adopted son was recognised as the heir
to the throne of Mysore caused anguish and disappointment in
the minds of all those who were associated with His Highness in
the struggle for the restoration of the country. Bakshi Narasappa
was the principal agent and co-adjutor of the deceased Maharaja in
this struggle and his acute intellect, diplomatic cleverness and
capacity for organization were of no inconsiderable service to the
Maharaja. It was also a feature of this struggle that several of the
European and Indian officers in the service of the State as well as
others lent their hearty co-operation to the Maharaja in what they
considered his righteous cause.
Bowring who was Commissioner was fully aware of this
attitude on the part of some of his subordinate officers but considered
it prudent to assume an air of indifference about the matter to avoid
giving rise to any possible trouble by any hasty action of his. He
mistrusted especially the officials of the Hebbar Sri Vaishnava
class, " the wily lyengar clan " as he called them and who were in
his eyes as able as they were unscrupulous. A high official named
B. Krishna lyengar was regarded by him as head of this party and
to get him out of his way Bowring had promoted him some years
before to the charge of an outlying district. Krishna lyengar
however was not, as Bowring found later, a man to be easily
suppressed and he continued to carry on as before correspondence
from Kolar where he was placed and with an affectation of
confidence showed to Bowring himself several letters he had
received from Colonel Macqueen and other Europeans interested in
the Maharaja's cause. Narasappa also specially laid himself open
to the suspicion of Bowring as he had been the principal channel
of access to the Maharaja and had control over the Palace purse.
To assist Major Elliot to wind up the late Maharaja's affairs
Bowring regarded that the services of a native officer were essential
and, in the circumstances above described, that officer he thought
14
should be one imported from outside the State and quite unconnected
with Mysore. Accordingly Bowring obtained the sanction of the
Government of India for the appointment of a native assistant to
Major Elliot and obtained from the Madras Government the service
of C. V. Rangacharlu, a Deputy Collector in the Madras Service,
who subsequently became the first Dewan of Mysore when'
Chamaraja Wodeyar was entrusted with the Government of the
State. Rangacharlu was a pupil of E. B. Powell the famous
educationist of Southern India and at the time he joined the
Mysore Service was 37 years old. Rangacharlu began his service
as a clerk in 1849 and in 1856 he wrote a bold and outspoken paper
on bribery and condemned it in strong terms as a vice not to be
tolerated among public officials. He joined the Mysore Service in
April 1868 and Bowring at the very first interview he had with him
found him not only a man of undoubted ability but also as a man
possessed of somewhat uncommon ambition. Rangacharlu
had an intimate knowledge of revenue matters and accounts,
combined with unusual sagacity and shrewdness, though his manners
were peculiar and not attractive at first sight.
Major Elliot and Rangacharlu were engaged for over 6 months
in the laborious task of overhauling the Palace affairs and reorgani-
sing the establishments there. There were at the time of
Krishnaraja Wodeyar's death 7 departments in the Palace under
the designations of — 1. Aramanay. 2. Barr Cutcherry. 3. Body-
Guard. 4. Zillo Cutcherry. 5. Killey Cutcherry. 6. Shagird
Pesha Cutcherry and 7. Khazana. The total number of employees
was 10,119 at a monthly cost of Rs. 78,000/-. Among the religious
and charitable institutions to which grants were confirmed were
included, taking into consideration the catholicity of Krishnaraja
Wodeyar's mind, the Civil Orphan Asylum at Madras and the
Roman Catholic Church at Mysore. The Maharaja had also
established four chatrams or feeding-houses and some temples, the
chatrams being situated on the four important roads leading out of
the Mysore town within a radius of about 4 miles and two more
being situated in the town itself. Major Elliot's proposal to abolish
these feeding-houses and to utilise the funds for establishing one
large chatram as well as poor-house at Mysore in memory of Hie
15
Highness was not accepted by the Government of India. On the
other hand, they suggested that one good chatram might in addition
to the existing ones be established at Mysore. Reference has
already been made to the English School and the hospital maintained
by His Highness. These two institutions were transferred to the
Education*and Medical departments respectively and fees for tuition
were introduced in the former, orphan boys however being admitted
without payment. The services of a conductor were obtained from
the military department of the Madras Government and all the guns
in the Mysore fort which were not absolutely required were
destroyed and large quantities of shot and cartridges were broken
up and rendered unserviceable.
The Palace enquiry was conducted under three heads — debts
of the late Maharaja, scrutiny into property of all kinds, and
remodelling and reduction of existing establishments. The revision
of the establishments demanded the exercise of great discretion,
firmness and patience and it was done on a liberal basis. After
revision, three thousand one hundred and ninety-six persons were
retained at a monthly cost of a little above Rs. 19,000 and the
remainder of the employees were either absorbed in the Government
departments or given gratuities and pensions on a special scale so
as to minimise all hardship. The establishments were divided into
three cutcherries and eight minor branches with a general office of
management. Cutcherries — (i) Aramanay Dufter ; (ii) • Killey
Dufter; (iii) Zillo Dufter. Minor Branches — (i) Religious or
Chamundi Thotti ; (ii) Out-door servants or Avasarada Hobly;
(iii) In-door servants — Samukada Ooligai Khas; (iv) In-door
servants — Zenana ; (v) Stables — Aswasala and Gajasala ; (vi) Cows —
Karohutty ; (vii) Maramat ; (viii) Gardens or Bagayat. There
were also attached to the general office Tosheekhane or treasury,
Correspondence and Accounts, and Supplies or Motikhane. The
term 'cutcherry' was confined to the three principal depart-
ments which were prominently connected with the state and
dignity of the Palace and over which the leading members of the
Maharaja's relations were continued as honorary Bakshis. The
remaining establishments which were of a more private and
personal character were styled Ilakhas and were superintended by
16
one or more paid servants under the name of Gurkars. The
Aramanay Dufter Cutcherry was a general office of record for the
Palace, to which all the papers requiring to be preserved were
transferred from time to time by the several Ilakhas. To this
office were also entrusted the duties of keeping the genealogy of the
Maharaja and his relations, rules of precedence, custom* and other
matters. The Killey cutcherry dealt with the sepoy establishment
retained for providing guards for the fort and palace and escorts of
body-guard. The Zillo cutcherry was intended to regulate and
undertake all arrangements connected with escorts and processions
and comprised the whole of the Rachaiwar and Bahlg forces. The
Rachaiwars were chiefly employed as trustworthy guards in the
interior apartments of the palace where admission was not allowed
tp the more miscellaneous classes of sepoys. The JBahle or spearmen
provided some of the outside guards and were also largely
employed as escorts for the Maharaja and his relations. They
represented a class of the Bedar peons so famous in the former
Carnatic warfare — a class addicted to hunting and noted for their
great jdaring, hardy habits, and strong attachment to their
masters.
To provide for the reasonable ambition of old and distinguished
servants of the Palace the class of Moosahibs was also retained
who corresponded to privy councillors and attended durbars and
other State occasions in which they were allowed certain rights of
precedence. After Rangacharlu was employed for regulating
Palace affairs, Bakshi Narasappa was placed in the class of
Moosahibs.
During the late Maharaja's time the salaries of Palace establish-
ments were counted in Canteroi Pagodas and fanams and now they
were ordered to be disbursed in British currency as was the case in
all the offices under the Commissioner. It was specially enjoined
on the Commissioner that while care was to be taken to avoid all
extravagant expenditure, at the same time the dignity and comfort
of the Maharaja were to receive scrupulous attention* Major
Elliot and Rangacharlu performed the work entrusted to them with
great promptitude, tact and judgment, the duties on which they
1?
were employed involving as they did an inquiry into confused and
intricate accounts and needed firmness and discretion.
As regards one-fifth share of the net revenues of the State
which were being paid to the late Maharaja under the Subsidiary
Treaty of 1799, the same was closed under the authority of the
Secretary of State for India. The Secretary of State at the same
time impressed upon the Governor- General the need . of adminis-
tering in trust the revenues of Mysore and for making adequate1
provision for the support of the Maharaja, his family and dependents
during the period of minority, the unappropriated balances being
accumulated for the future benefit of the Maharaja and of the State
of Mysore.
In April 1868 Bowring proposed to the Government of India
that the young Maharaja should take his residence in the palace in
the fort at Bangalore. But the Government of India overruled the
proposal as it was open to misconstruction and the Secretary of
State subsequently concurred in this decision. The attempted
removal of the family from the present home, said the Secretary of
State, was open to be regarded with suspicion by ail the inmates of
the Palace and probably with consternation by the ladies of the
family.
In October 1868 the Secretary elf State sanctioned the appoint-
ment of a Guardian to the young Maharaja and approved of the
nomination of Lieu tenant -Colonel Gregory Haines who was formerly
Superintendent of the Bangalore Division. Krishnaraja Wodeyar
while he was alive had proposed this appointment in April 1867.
His words contained in a Khareetha addressed to the Viceroy at
the time may be taken as even now retaining the freshness of the.
significance which they possessed at the time they were written. " I
am very desirous," said His Highness, " that my son Chamarajendra
Wodeyar who by the blessing of God has now entered on. his fifth
year should receive greater advantages of education and 'training
than I myself enjoyed in my childhood and youth, and as it is no
longer possible for me to delay the matter and as it is the best time'
calculated for the purpose, I have to inform your Excellency that
A3
18
With this view I have selected as his Guardian Lt-Col. Gregory
Haines, late Superintendent of the Bangalore Division, an officer
well-known and respected in this country and who has received from
Earl Canning an acknowledgment of his services to the State
" Although there may be a difference of opinion between your
Excellency and myself as to the actual position and rights of this
dear child, I feel sure there will be no difference of opinion between
us as to the value of education to the princes and nobles of India.
I am equally sure that whatever may be the destiny of my son and
heir and whatever duties may devolve upon him, your Excellency
and your Excellency's successors will never forget that he is by
birth a member of this ancient royal family and that he is by Hindu
law the son of the Raja of Mysore, ' the oldest ' and ' the staunchest '
although the humblest ally of Her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain and India." Colonel Gregory Haines' appointment how-
ever was made after the death of Krishnaraja Wodeyar on account
of the delay caused in connection with the correspondence between
the Viceroy and the Secretary of State. After his arrival in India,
Colonel Haines was placed in subordination to the Commissioner
and was also given the assistance of Rangacharlu who was
appointed to the newly created post of Controller of the Palace and
was expected to make himself useful in regulating and controlling
the officers of the Palace household.
The Government of India also pointed out that the education
to be imparted to the young Maharaja was to embrace a sound
knowledge of the English language and literature as well as of the
languages most prevalent in Mysore, besides provision for good
physical and moral training. It was further prescribed that the
young Maharaja should be taught to ride, to swim, to play cricket
and to handle firearms and he was also to be encouraged to devote
himself successively to those strengthening exercises which were
suited to his country, position and age, and that by precept as well
as by example his views were to be constantly directed to the
discharge of the regal and administrative functions which his high
office would one day demand. It was also expressly laid down that
while truthfulness and sound morality were to be inculcated, at the
19
same time there was to be no interference whatever with his
religion or his forms of worship.
Lt.-Col. Haines continued only for a few months in Mysore and
he was obliged to resign his appointment as he was too old and had
also differences of opinion with the Chief Commissioner. In June
1869 the Government of India appointed Colonel G. B. Malleson as
his successor. He was an officer of the Indian army and possessed
a reputation for ability, experience, varied information and good
judgment and was 44 years of age at the time when he entered on
his new duties.
CHAPTER III.
Closing years,, of the British Commission*
The British Government after the demise of Krishnaraja
Wodeyar became practically a trustee for the administration of the
country on behalf of his successor the young Chamaraja Wodeyar
and the Commission continued in power till March 1881, when the
administration was transferred to the hands of the young Maharaja
on the 25th of the same month. Bowring, as we have seen,
resigned his appointment and left the country in February 1870 and
in the interim between his departure and the restoration of the country
to the Maharaja's rule there were three Chief Commissioners. The
first was Colonel Richard Meade who was, prior to his appointment
in Mysore, Agent to the Governor-General for the Central Indian
States and whom the Earl of Mayo who had by this time succeeded
Sir John Lawrence chose as the fittest person to administer the
State of Mysore and in a letter addressed to him, dated 3rd
February 1870, wrote: "In taking Mysore you have assumed a
most interesting and responsible task which will require the exercise
both of political and administrative duty of the highest importance.
It is needless for me to recapitulate the relations under which the
British Government now stands to that State. They are unique in
India and though the fate of the State in future may be still
uncertain, it is our duty to endeavour by every means in our power
during the period in which it wholly remains in our hands to place
every part of its administration upon a firm and efficient basis."
In 1871 sub-divisions composed of groups of taluks were constituted
and an Assistant Superintendent was placed in charge of each, the
object being to bring the Government officers in closer communica-
tion with the people and to give the Assistant Superintendents a
greater interest in their work.
The first step of preparing the State for administration by the
natives of the country was taken in the time of Colonel Meade. In
March 1873 the Government of India sanctioned a scheme for the
appointment of a class of Attaches or probationers for the higher
grades of the executive service pf the §tate. These Attaches
21
to ta trained for permanent appointments in the Commission on
giving proof of turning out to be good and efficient public .servants.
The persons selected for these posts were to be chosen from
amongst the best educated youths belonging to the families of the
State most entitled to consideration from their acknowledged
position in the State or their eminent public services. The age
limit for the Attaches was fixed at between 18 and 23 and the total
number was limited to four for the time being. It was also laid
down that no person appointed an Attache was to be retained in
that post for more than two years, unless he was considered
qualified for permanent employment. At the same time it was
clearly expressed that there was no desire to abandon entirely the
existing practice of promoting to the higher grades officials in the
lower grades whose services and character merited special reward.
The main object of the measure now initiated was to establish
amongst the officers a higher tone than generally could be looked
for from men who commenced their career in the smaller situations
in which they had toiled for a long number of years and become
accustomed to temptations on account of inadequate salaries often
so damaging to one's character. In 1873 the designation of
Commissioner was substituted for that of Superintendent through
all the grades, the head of the administration having already been
called Chief Commissioner in 1869. In the same year an important
scheme for the establishment of MunsifFs courts with purely civil
jurisdiction was brought into operation. The Amildars were
relieved of their jurisdiction in civil cases and the judicial powers
of other officers were greatly modified. The re-organisation of the
police was commenced, one of the principal features of the scheme
being the recognition of the village police and its utilisation after
being placed on a reasonable footing of efficiency. The local
military force was greatly improved by proper selection of men and
horses and by the enforcement of a regular course of drill. Special
training was provided for preparing native officers for the Public
Works, Survey and Forest departments.
Meade was a true follower of Bowring and he not only
supported the reforms which the latter had introduced but also
developed them and extended them to various other branches of the
22
administration. Meade's views on what is called the Regulation
System of Government contained in the Administration Report for
1872-73 are instructive : " There are some," he said, " who oppose
every reform tending towards the introduction of a Regulation
System on the ground that the administration may become too
elaborate and that the system of Government usually termed
Patriarchal is best adapted to a native State. These however
are not the views which during the last ten years under the
directions of the Government of India have actuated the adminstra-
tion The present Chief Commissioner believes that while
over-elaboration in the system of Government cannot but be an
evil as well in a native State as in British territory, the patriarchal
system is even less adapted to a native State than to a province
under the British rule, for the reason that those personal qualities
in the ruler which can alone secure for such a system even a
moderate and transient success are rarely possessed by the natives
of India On the other hand, in these days of high education
no difficulty will ever be experienced in procuring the services of
native officers who are qualified to work any system however
elaborate. Nor, if we examine the conditions of those States which
are now governed by native rulers, do we find any tendency to
allow subordinate officers to improvise any decisions for themselves
unchecked by law, precedent, or central authority
The patriarchal system in a native State is a synonym for
anarchy and corruption and the most successful native States are
those which strive to imitate a European model. The Chief Com-
missioner therefore believes that the closing years of British rule in
Mysore should witness not disorganisation in the vain pursuit of a
phantom system of native administration but a thorough consolida-
tion of what has already been done to the end that the Province
may be handed over to His Highness the Maharaja in perfect
order."
In September 1873 Meade was called away to Baroda for a few
months as the chairman of the committee appointed to enquire into
and report upon the affairs of that State, which it was believed
had become serious. He returned to Bangalore in March 1874
jrfter this duty and in June following received the title of K.C.S.{T
He continued in Mysore till February 1875 when he was again
required to go to Barpda as member of the committee which was to
enquire into the charge against Malhar Rao, Gaekwar of Baroda,
of attempting to poison the British Resident at his court.
During Sir Richard Meade's absence R. A. Dalyell of the
Madras Civil Service who was at the time a member of the
Viceroy's Council officiated for him. Meade though he finished his
labours at Baroda by November following was not able to return to
Mysore as he was transferred to Hyderabad as Resident by Lord
Northbrook who had succeeded the Earl of Mayo who was
assassinated in the An damans by a prisoner there. C. B. Saunders
then took Meade's place permanently as Chief Commissioner and
continued in Mysore for two years and it was during his time that
there occured the great famine of Southern India which crippled
the resources of the country and caused an appalling mortality
among the people.
In the years 1875 and 1876 the monsoons had failed to give a
sufficient quantity of rainfall as was needed for a normal harvest.
The Mungar or the early rains of 1877 which fell as usual had
raised hopes of a normal year. But the Hingar or the later rains
disappointed these expectations and it became certain that measures
were necessary to meet the grim spectre of famine. The surround-
ing Madras districts were also in the same plight. Even in the
earlier period some attempts had been made to give help to the
people by starting relief works in several parts of the State as well
as by granting remissions of assessment. The State forests were
thrown open for the grazing of cattle and a few other measures
were also adopted. The only railway that existed in the State at
the time was the one from Madras to Bangalore and although large
quantities of grain were imported into the State, yet the want of
adequate conveniences for internal transport stood in the way of
affording relief to the stricken people when and where needed. In
May 1877 there were 1,00,000 of people fed in relief kitchens and
in August this number rose to 2,27,000, besides 60,000 employed on
relief works paid in grain and the 20,000 on the railway to Mysore
under construction.
Sir Richard Temple who afterwards became Governor of
Bombay had been deputed as special Commissioner to co-operate
with the Government in carrying? out relief measures. Lord Lytton
who had succeeded Lord Northbrook as Governor- General visited
Mysore in September 1877 and finding that relief on a larger scale
was needed sent a number of European officers from Northern
India to cope with the distress. Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Elliot
was appointed Famine Commissioner and Major (afterwards Sir
Colin) Scott-Moncrieff, Chief Engineer. Copious rains however in
the months of September and October brought joy to the stricken
population and ultimately put an end to the famine, although relief
works were not generally closed till November 1878. At this time
a fund called the Mansion House Fund raised in London and to
which contributions were generously made by the people in England
afforded considerable support for the rehabilitation of the people
who had suffered from the famine and for resuming their vocations.
The Christian Missions and other private bodies took charge of a
number of orphan children for whose upbringing the Government
also gave large contributions.
Before the famine broke out, there was an invested Govern-
ment surplus of Rs. 63 lakhs in the treasury. This amount was all
spent and there came to be a debt of 80 lakhs of rupees due to the
Government of India who advanced the money for meeting this
calamity. The population also was reduced by about a million, not
to speak of the appalling loss of cattle. The revenue collections
which in the year before the famine stood at over Rs. 109 lakhs fell
in 1876-77 to Rs. 82 lakhs and in 1877-78 to Rs. 69 lakhs.
At the close of the famine relief operations the Goverment at
Calcutta while commending to the Secretary of State for India the
services of the European officers also referred appreciatively to the
services rendered by the native officials. " Especially those of a
higher standing and superior education/1 said the Government of
India, " laboured strenuously and successfully in relieving distress
and in carrying into effect the instructions that had been issued for
guidance in the conduct of relief operations," .
25
Another event of importance of a pleasanter nature however
that took place during Saunders' term of office was the proclaiming
of the Queen of England as Empress of India. This event was
fittingly celebrated in all parts of the Mysore State. The young
Maharaja and Saunders who had both received invitations from the
Viceroy attended the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi held on the 1st
January 1877 which not only set the seal on India being a part of
the British Empire but also opened the way for the establishment
of a new political relationship between the British Government and
the Native States of India.
In April 1878 J. D. Gordon (afterwards Sir James) succeeded
Saunders as Chief Commissioner. Gordon belonged to the Bengal
Civil Service and had been' transferred to Mysore as Judicial
Commissioner. In April 1878 he was appointed Chief Commissioner
in succession to Saunders. It was in the early years of his period
of office as Chief Commissioner that the Mysore Government under-
took to construct for the first time a line of railway and this line
was the one from Bangalore to Mysore, a distance of 88i miles,
begun as a famine relief work. So far back as 1871 this project had
been thought of and an estimate prepared, but the Secretary of
State had put off the proposal on the ground whether it was not
preferable to spend money on irrigation works rather than on
railways. When famine broke out in 1877, it became a necessity
to start immediate relief works and among these were the banks and
cuttings on the metre guage of the suspended railway line from
Bangalore to Mysore. By the time the famine operations ceased in
October 1878 a sum of Rs. 7 lakhs had been spent, of which Rs. 4
lakhs worth of work was substantially available for the completion
of the line. The cost of the line was estimated at about Rs. 60 lakhs.
Gordon was strongly in favour of executing the project. But the
main obstacle in the way was that the Mysore State was already
under obligation to the Government of India to the extent of Rs. 80
lakhs spent in combating famine. The Chief Commissioner proposed
that if the repayment of this debt was postponed he would be able
to meet the cost of construction from the current revenues of the
State. The Government of India however were more inclined to
advance the cost from their own funds rather than allow the postpone-
A4
26
rhent of the repayment of the debt. Lord Cranbrooke who was
then Secretary of State for India decided in May 1879 that the re-
covery of the debt might be postponed on condition of paying 5 per
cent interest per annum on the amount till it was 'discharged and
that the construction of the railway might be undertaken from the
current revenues of the State. Subsequently an agreement was also
concluded with the Madras Railway Company to extend their broad
guage line from the C. & M. Station terminus to the Bangalore City
railway station, a distance of 3 miles.
The great famine of 1877-78 led to considerable unsettlement
in the finances of the State. Bo wring and Meade had both aimed
at raising the standard of administration in Mysore to that
prevailing in British India and they were averse to maintain large
sums of surplus money in unfructifying reserve. Accordingly,
much money had been spent on irrigation, on the employment of a
large number of European officers on liberal salaries, on the formation
of new departments, and on promotions to native officers. During
the period that famine prevailed, necessarily a larger expenditure
had to be incurred on mitigating its horrors. On the cessation of
famine, therefore, it became clear that material reductions in
expenditure could not be avoided and on J. D. Gordon the last Chief
Commissioner fell not only the unpleasant task of introducing
drastic cuts in State expenditure but also the imperative need of
handing over to the young Maharaja's hands a fairly efficient
system of administration.
To facilitate the reduction of the establishments, rules for the
grant of liberal pensions and gratuities were temporarily promul-
gated and with the co-operation of C. V. Rangacharlu who had now
been appointed Revenue Secretary to the Government of Mysore
with the view of eventually being appointed Dewan, Gordon
resolutely faced the situation. During the two years of famine
1876-78 there was a fall in revenue of 67 lakhs and the expenditure
during these years exceeded the normal collections by about 66i
lakhs in consequence of the requirements of famine relief, so that
the total deficit from diminished revenues and increased expenditure
amounted to 13 Sir lakhs Against this amount however was the
27
surplus invested in the Government securities which on sale
realised a little over Rs. 61 lakhs, the rest being met from the loan
advanced by the Government of India. While only 104 lakhs of
rupees was budgetted as revenue for 1878-79, the actual collections
amounted to 121 lakhs on account of the unexpectedly bountiful
harvests of the year, coupled with the good prices which ruled,
which enabled the ryots to pay large portions of the accumulated
arrears of revenue. The expenditure however was 126 lakhs of
rupees. Considerable reductions had therefore to be carried out in
the expenditure of the several departments as it was no longer
possible to keep up its old level. The Public Works grant was
reduced by nearly one- half and the Irrigation Department was
abolished as a separate branch and the provincial and local fund
works were concentrated under one agency. The training of natives
for posts in the D. P. W. had already begun by the establishment
of an Engineering College and these trained men began gradually
to take the place of the European officers at smaller cost. In
the Judicial Department a native Civil and Sessions Judge on a
salary of Rs. 1200 was substituted for the Commissioner on
Rs. 2500 in the Nandidoorg Division and Judicial Assistants were
called Subordinate Judges. Similar changes were also introduced
in the two other divisions sometime later. For four of the
districts out of eight native officers on lower pay were appointed
as Deputy Commissioners and a reduction was also made in the
number of Assistant Commissioners by the abolition of the sub-
divisions and of separate police Assistant Commissioners.
The coffee planters of Mysore held their lands under grant
subject to an excise tax of Re. 1 per cwt. of coffee produced. In
order to safeguard their interests on the administration being
handed over to native rule, the Chief Commissioner proposed that
each planter should have the option of choosing either a 30 years'
settlement at Re. 1 per acre or a permanent settlement at Rs. li.
The Government of India however vetoed the latter and the
planters then accepted the 30 years' leases under protest. They
however sought the intercession of the Secretary of State and an
understanding was arrived at that on the transfer of the administra-
tion to the Maharaja there was to be no difficulty for the cpffee
planters both European and native to obtain a permanent settlement
of their holdings at a fixed acreage rate.
In 1878-1879 the Forest Department was abolished and the
Conservator was transferred elsewhere, there remaining only three
trained forest officers and the control was transferred to the
Revenue Department.
Among the welcome legacies bequeathed by the British Com-
mission to the future Maharaja's Government was 3750 miles of
public road planted with trees on both sides at distances varying
from 12 to 60 feet.
CHAPTER IV.
Education of Chamaraja Wodeyar— Visit to the Delhi
Imperial Assemblage — J. D. Gordon who was Judicial
Commissioner appointed Guardian.
Colonel Malleson who had been appointed Guardian to the
Maharaja in July 1869 and who in future years became noted as
the historian of the great Indian Mutiny displayed great sagacity
and tact in rendering the course of training pursued both pleasant
and profitable. By August 1871 the young Maharaja had learnt to
take pleasure in his school lessons and was inspired with emulation
to outstrip his school-fellows. He also evinced a desire to excel
in those active and athletic exercises and pursuits which were
essential to the formation of a manly character. An accident
forced Lt.-Col. Malleson to go on leave for a time, when
J. D. Gordon temporarily took his place. Associated with these
two officers were Rangacharlu and Jayaram Rao who was head-
master of the special school established for the education of the
young Maharaja. Jayaram Rao was a person of high intellectual
qualifications and excellent moral character on whom devolved the
practical duties of tuition. At this time it was also realised that
for a Prince whose destiny was to rule over a country, residence
in places other than his capital would also be beneficial. The
Secretary of State at this time strongly impressed upon all
concerned in the education of the young Maharaja the extreme
desirability of remembering that when he came of age he had to
rule over mainly a Hindu people peculiarly jealous of and attached
to the faith of their ancestors. Malleson himself had fully realised
that any measure which might alienate from the young Prince the
sympathies of his people was to be carefully guarded against. The
Secretary of State also regarded the attempt on the part of the
British Government to train up an Indian Prince upon principles
recognised by European statesmen without offending the prejudices
or injuriously affecting the interests of many attached to oriental
model as an experiment of supreme importance and hopefulness.
The course of life devised for the Maharaja in the early years
Of his education was that he was to live under the care of his first
30
adoptive mother Rama Vilas Maharani who was to regulate his
diet and minister generally to his comfort. The special school was
established in the Lokaranjana Mahal at some distance from the
Palace and was modelled on the public schools of England, the only
difference being that the learning of English took the place of Latin
and Greek. In respect to the formation of classes, the preparation
of lessons, the mode of examination, the hours of work and of play
and the general control of the masters the system that was followed
was based upon that which prevailed at Winchester. The number
of boys in the school was 60 and they were divided into four classes
each of which had its own separate master. One of the masters
assisted the Maharaja in his lessons.
For the first time during the summer of 1872 Chamaraja
Wodeyar in his 9th year was taken out of Mysore to visit
Ootacamund. In December 1874 Colonel Malleson took the
Maharaja on a visit to the Gersoppa waterfalls or Jog as it is also
called on the western border of the Shimoga district where the
river Sharavathi makes a magnificent leap into a gorge of 960 feet
in depth and flows into the western sea at Honavar. Towards the
end of 1875 the young Maharaja was taken to Bombay on a visit
to the Prince of Wales who had arrived there for a tour in India
and who later succeeded his mother Victoria as Edward VII.
The standard of education which the young Maharaja had
reached in English when he was 13 years old may be gathered from
the following two letters which he wrote at the time, one to a school
companion and the other to Sir Richard Meade.
Letter to m School Companion.
OOTY, WEDNESDAY,
28th April 1875,
My Dear Friend Ibrahim,
We are quite well by the good grace of our Creator. I
received your kind letter on the 28th April. I was very glad to
that letter. We are spending our time in. reading, walking,
running and every day cricket playing. In reading Physical
Geography of India we finished beginning three chapters. We are
going hunting twice a week and we killed one tiger and 20
porcupines and some jackals Convey my best compliments
to Abbas Khan, Bheema Rao and C. Subbaraj Urs. Here all the
boys give their compliments to you.
I am yours
CHAMARAJENDRA WODEYAR.
Letter to Sir Richard Meade.
MYSORE,
23rd December 1875.
My Dear Sir Richard Meade,
Colonel Malleson delivered to me this morning your letter of
the 18th instant. At the same time he explained to me the reasons
of duty which had caused you to accede to the wishes of His
Excellency the Viceroy and to leave Mysore for Hyderabad.
I can easily understand your preference for a place which you
know, when the other is comparatively unknown. I used to
experience a similar feeling when it was proposed to take me from
Mysore to Bangalore. But I trust the results in both cases may
be the same.
At all events, you have given me the example of sacrificing
inclination to duty, though I must admit that since my journey to
Bombay my previous prejudices against change have been
removed.
My best wishes will go with you and it will always be a
pleasure to me to hear that you and Lady Meade are happy.
I remain,
£>ear Sir Richard Meade,
Your sincere friend
CHAMARAJA WODEYAR,
Early in 1875 Colonel Malleson thought it was time to
introduce some changes in the arrangements as they existed then
for the Maharaja's education. In 1874 a house had been bought at
Bangalore and this house with the repairs and renovations needed
had almost reached completion and become fit for occupation.
Malleson's proposals now were :—
1. An English gentleman was to be selected from one of the
English universities to fill the office of private tutor to
His Highness occupying a house adjoining that of the
Maharaja and exercising supervision also over his home
life.
2. One of the masters was to accompany His Highness to
Bangalore occupying the post of assistant tutor and
manager of the household.
3. Seven or eight young Arasu boys and the second brother of
the Maharaja were to accompany His Highness occupy-
ing rooms in the same house.
4. The school at Mysore was to continue to work for the time
being under the supervision of Rangacharlu.
5. Colonel Malleson also proposed that the appointment of
Guardian which he himself held might be abolished.
By the appointment of an English university graduate as
tutor Malleson expected that broad, liberal and manly ideas would
be instilled into the mind of the young pupil and his thoughts
would be directed to the great duties and responsibilities which
were to devolve on him and that thereby such prevailing ideas as
that royalty was a pageant, that the k'ing was an irresponsible
despot, and that the government of a country was the means of
securing an unlimited command of the national purse would be
regarded by the Maharaja as foreign to the conduct of life of one in
his position. In Malleson's opinion, the tendency of the Indian life
was to bring the mind into a groove from which it rarely emerged
and it was therefore necessary that by the side of the Maharaja
J3
there should be an English tutor whose mind had thought out
problems for itself and which took nothing on trust.
The Marquis of Salisbury (formerly Lord Cranborne) who was
Secretary of State at this time on a reference being made to him by
the Government of India for the selection of a tutor expressed
dissent from the views of Colonel Malleson and communicated his
own views in these terms : — " If no other object was in view but to
bestow upon His Highness the best possible instruction in
philosophical and literary knowledge, no exception could be taken
to the arrangement proposed by Colonel Malleson. Such teaching
could not be given more effectively than by a tutor fresh from the
education of one of the English universities. But literary efficiency
is not in this instance the principal object to be attained. At an
age when the education of other men is not complete His Highness
will be invested with powers upon the due exercise of which the
happiness of large numbers will depend and will be charged with
duties which will leave to him little leisure for the pursuits of a
student's life. It is of great importance that he should be well
instructed in the knowledge which will help him to success
in this high vocation. The principles of the Government which
will be administered by his authority and in his name, the
special dangers and errors to which it is exposed, the blessings
which if rightly directed it may confer, the warnings or the
encouragement furnished by the history of the other princes of his
own race are matters to which his mind should be specially turned
during the remaining years of his minority. To the communication
of such knowledge some familiarity with the experience of Indian
administration in its various forms is essential. A person duly
qualified will be more easily found in India than in England. Your
Excellency will doubtless be able to select in the military or the
civil service under your orders, on suitable salary and condi lions,
some gentleman possessed of the requisite administrative
experience and fitted by character and disposition to win the
confidence of his pupil. It is needless for me to remind your
Excellency of the importance of the issues which may depend on
the choice you are about to make. Not only the happiness of the
people of Mysore but the future form and permanency of native
34
ftite in India will be largely influenced by the career of the Prince
whose education you are preparing to complete."
The Government of India agreeing with the above views of
the Secretary of State appointed in July 1876 Captain F. A. Wilson
of the Royal Artillery temporarily as tutor. He was at the time
holding the appointment of Superintendent of the Tehree State and
had formerly discharged the duties of tutor to the Nawab of Jowra
in a manner which secured to him the good opinion of his official
superiors and the sympathies of the native community. After
Captain Wilson arrived in Mysore and relieved Malleson, the latter
was allowed to retire from service and the office of Guardian was
placed in abeyance for the time being.
Regarding the contemplated removal of the headquarters of the
Maharaja to Bangalore, it was found that the intended step had
caused on the part of the Ranees and His Highness1 family
generally a certain amount of distress and uneasy feeling, which it
was considered desirable to avoid. It was also a question whether* the
Maharaja's removal from his hereditary capital was not open to
grave political objections. It was accordingly decided that while the
young Maharaja was free to pay occasional visits to other parts of his
dominions and to British India, Mysore was to be regarded as his
permanent place of residence.
On the 1st January 1877 the memorable Imperial Assemblage
was held at Delhi to celebrate the assumption of the additional title
of "Empress of India" by the Queen of England as representing
the Paramount Power. The Maharaja of Mysore received an
invitation from Lord Lytton to attend this assemblage and
Chamaraja Wodeyar with his two brothers Gopalaraj Urs and
Subramanyaraj Urs, his brother-in-law Basappaji Urs, Dalavoy
Devaraj Urs, C. B. Saunders, J. D. Gordon, Captain Wilson,
Rangacharlu and a few others left Mysore for Delhi on the 10th
December 1876 and reached that place on the 19th. The gathering
on the occasion at Delhi was on an unprecedented scale in the annals
of India. There were assembled Princes and other important
personages from all parts of the country. During the time devoted
35
to receiving and returning the visits of the chiefs there were
banquets and receptions and entertainments of every kind. At the
Assemblage itself, ranged in a vast semicircle in front of the
Viceroy's seat were all the important ruling princes and noblemen
of India interspersed with the Governors, administrators and other
high officers in diplomatic or military uniforms.
At noon a flourish of trumpets from six heralds announced the
arrival of the Viceroy. Then the Queen's Proclamation was read
in sonorous tones by the chief herald and there after a translation
was read out in the Urdu language to the assembly by the Foreign
Secretary. At its conclusion the Royal Standard was hoisted in
honour of Her Majesty the Empress and a grand salute of 101
salvoes of artillery was fired, interspersed at intervals with
feux-de-joie from the combined lines of British and native infantry,
while massed bands played the British national anthem. The
scene at this moment, according to an eye-witness, was very unique.
The splendid semicircle of princes, the vast expanse of troops,
brilliant retinues, State elephants and crowds on crowds of human
beings shading off into the distance, the sounds of music sounding
above the roar of the artillery and the reverberations of the
feux~de-joie combined to produce an effect never to be forgotten
by those who witnessed the scene.
As the echoes of the last salvo died away, the Viceroy delivered
an address explaining the intentions of Her Majesty in assuming
the new title. The Queen, said Lord Lytton, regarded India as a
glorious inheritance and recognised in its possession a solemn
obligation to use her power for the welfare of its people and for
safeguarding the rights of the feudatory princes. He claimed as a
distinctive feature of the present as contrasted with past regimes
the maintenance of order, justice and perfect religious toleration
and towards the conclusion of the address Lord Lytton pronounced
these memorable words : " It is on the gradual and enlightened
participation of her Indian subjects in the undisturbed exercise of
mild and just authority and not upon the conquest of weaker States
or the annexation of neighbouring territories that Her Majesty
relies for the development of her Indian Empire." A telegraphic
36
message of greeting received on the occasion from the Queen was
also read by the Viceroy : " We Victoria by the grace of God, of
the' United Kingdom, Queen -Empress of India, send through our
Viceroy to all our officers, civil and military and to all Princes,
Chiefs and peoples now at Delhi assembled, our royal and Imperial
greeting and assure them of the deep interest and earnest affection
with which we regard the people of the Indian Empire. We have
witnessed with heartfelt satisfaction the reception accorded to our
beloved son and have been touched by the evidence of their loyalty
and attachment to our House and Throne. We trust that the
present occasion may tend to unite in bonds of yet closer affection
ourselves and our subjects, that from the highest to the humblest
all may feel that under our rule the great principles of liberty,
equity and justice are secured to them, that to promote their
happiness and to add to their prosperity and advance their welfare
are the ever present aims and objects of our Empire."
On the conclusion of this grand event at Delhi during the whole
period of which the young Maharaja of Mysore was treated with
every mark of consideration as one belonging to the first rank of
princes along with the Nizam of Hyderabad and Gaekwar of
Baroda, the party left the place on the 9th January 1877 and
arrived at Mysore on the 29th of the same month visiting on the
way Agra, Cawnpore, Benares, Nasik and several other places of
interest.
Now reverting to the Maharaja's education. After a
little over a year's experience, it was found that for the
higher training of the Maharaja for the important duties which
awaited him and for the proper ordering of the household an
officer of greater weight and influence than one of Captain Wilson's
standing and experience was required, while for the direction of the
young Prince's studies there was also the need of an officer of more
practical experience in education. J. D. Gordon the Judicial
Commissioner was considered to be the fittest person to occupy the
post of Guardian at the stage then reached in the educational
progress of the Maharaja and he was accordingly appointed to the
post about the end of 1877.
37
For the post of tutor there was, as we have seen, at first an
idea to appoint an English University graduate but the Secretary
of State felt that it was desirable that one should be selected from
among the existing officers of Government. For he thought that a
person who had no experience of official life and who felt himself
under no special obligation of obedience to the Government might
out of mere partisanship for the Maharaja or in pursuance of some
speculative view use his influence in a manner embarrassing to the
British Government. To avoid such a contingency W. A. Porter,
Principal of the Kumbakonam College, who had the reputation of
being a famous educationist in Southern India was appointed tutor
to the Maharaja in 1878.
CHAPTER V.
Marriage of Chamaraja Wodcyar — Tours in the Stale —
Finishing touches to his education.
In February 1878 the Maharaja completed his 15th year and
it was considered time to marry him to a suitable bride. The bride
selected was named Kempananjammanniavaru and was 12 years
of age at the time of marriage. She was the daughter of Narse
Urs of the Kalale family who was a descendant in the female line
of Immadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar who ruled the country before the
government passed into the hands of Haidar. The bride had
received fairly good education in English, Kanada and Sanskrit.
On the morning of the 26th May Chamaraja Wodeyar seated
on an elephant with his two brothers Gopala Raj Urs and Subra-
manyaraj Urs one on either side passed in procession in the four
main streets of the fort at Mysore with all the paraphernalia usual
on such occasions and arrived in front of the Palace where he was
received on behalf of the bride's party by Bakshi Basappaji Urs
the brother-in-law of the Maharaja and conducted to the marriage
pavilion. Here the marriage ceremony was performed according
to Hindu rituals in the midst of the rejoicings of all the assembled
people. At the time of the tying of the Thali or the marriage
symbol the Chief Commissioner and a number of European officers
were present. When the Thali was tied and the contracting
parties became formally united, a royal salute of 21 guns was fired
from the ramparts of the fort. The Chief Commissioner then went
up to the screen behind which the surviving Dowager Maharani of
Seetha Vilas was seated and intimated to her the contents of a
telegram received from the Viceroy conveying the congratulations
of Lady Lytton and himself on the happy occasion and in return
the Maharani desired her thanks to be conveyed for the honour
done to her House. The Chief Commissioner then delivered a tray
of presents from the Viceroy consisting of a fine diamond ring for
the Dowager Maharani and a diamond necklace for the bridegroom
which was fastened round his neck by the Secretary to Govern -
#}ent. A pearl necklace and a golden waist-belt set with precious
stones were presented to the bride. At this time an imperial salute
of 31 guns was fired. On behalf of the Dowager Maharani 31
trays containing valuable cloths and jewels were delivered to the
Chief Commissioner as the representative of the Viceroy for the
latter's acceptance.
Various sports and entertainments were arranged for the Indian
visitors and assembled guests during all the days of the festivities.
A banquet for the European guests took place on the 3rd June in
the Jagan Mohan Palace. At the conclusion of the dinner, the
Maharaja with some of his relations and leading officials joined the
party. After the toast of Her Majesty was proposed by the
Maharaja, J. D. Gordon who had become Chief Commissioner by
this time in acknowledging the toast expressed the hope that His
Highness would live to rule his State with justice and benevolence.
On the night of the next day a grand procession took place.
His Highness was seated in a gold am bar i or howdah on a magni-
ficent elephant and was attended on foot by his relations and native
gentlemen. Elephants richly caparisoned and surmounted with
howdahs and carrying the State flag led the procession. These
were followed by troops of Silledar horses and these again by a
company of Barr sepoys, behind whom walked the bearers of
insignias and other paraphernalia of State accompanied by the
English band and other music. The rear of the procession was
similarly brought up by bodies of Silledar horses and elephants.
The whole length of the cavalcade was lined on both sides by
Silledar horses and Bahle peons carrying long spears mounted with
flags which had a picturesque effect in the torch light with which
the procession was profusely illuminated. The procession after
leaving the fort proceeded through the main street of the town
under arches and pandals erected by the townspeople for the occa-
sion. There was also a general illumination of the town. The
procession passed on its return through the camp of the English
guests at the Residency where His Highness was loudly cheered
and reached the Palace at about 1 a.m.
W. A. Porter took charge of the Maharaja's education in the
beginning of July 1878 and at the very outset introduced a few
40
salutary changes. Instead of teaching the Maharaja in the class
along with others Porter acted mainly as his private tutor, thereby
allowing His Highness to have all his lessons by himself. The
subject in which the royal pupil took the most interest was Physics
and he showed great patience and handiness in working with the
instruments and his interest in the experiments was always fresh.
Except sometimes on a hunting morning when the run had been an
unusually long one, Porter never found the Maharaja attending his
class late or absenting himself. His cheerful and ready application
to all his lessons even to those for which he had no great liking or
aptitude was as great as his regularity. He was never sullen or
ill-tempered under difficulty but always did his best with a cheerful
temper. One of the teachers A. Narasimha lyengar assisted the
Maharaja in the preparation of his lessons and was in a considerable
degree his attendant companion. The Maharaja also took a deep
interest in games and athletic exercises. He hunted twice a week
during the hunting season and had the character of a forward rider.
On most other mornings he rode out for exercise. His afternoon
amusements were lawn tennis, cricket and driving. He also played
polo one evening in the week.
On the occasion of a visit to the famous Kaveri waterfalls at
Sivasamudram, Porter recorded the following notes: — "The
interest shown in the Maharaja all along the route was in fact
very remarkable and in many cases touching and impressive.
Though the journey was perfectly private, the arrangements
requisite for conveying so large a party necessarily made the fact
known at the chief places along the route and the interest of the
people was shown in a way which was evidently wholly spontaneous.
On the part of the simple villagers the feeling manifested had
something in it of almost religious veneration. Away on the
outskirts of the crowd, too far away to receive any notice or
recognition or serve any object except to gratify his feeling of
reverence, a poor ryot would drop on the ground and this simple act
of devotion over would rise and stare with all his eyes, or a woman
equally far away from the scene with a child in her arms would put
it down at full length with, its face to the ground and then drop
41
beside it. Any one could see by unmistakable signs that loyalty to
the ancient dynasty of Mysore is still a living and powerful feeling.
All I have since noticed in every journey made with the Maharaja
confirms my first opinion. Whenever he travels, it seems to be a
holiday along the route and the faces of the crowd as evincing the
intensity of their feelings are subjects of unfailing interest."
In April 1878 Saunders retired and Gordon was made Chief
Commissioner combining the duties of the Guardian also and on
him devolved the responsibility of giving the finishing touches to
the training of the Maharaja for the proper administration of his
country. Luckily, Chamaraja Wodeyar was found to be of a
tractable disposition and all the efforts made by Gordon and Porter
to train up their young ward for his future responsibility bore happy
fruit. In November 1879 the young Maharaja was taken on a tour
through the State accompanied by the Chief Commissioner J. D.
•Gordon, General Secretary W. J. Cunningham, tutor W. A. Porter,
Revenue Secretary Rangacharlu and Chief Engineer Colonel
Johnson. In the course of the tour as well as on other occasions
the system of administration and various administrative details as
they affected the people in their homes were explained to the
Maharaja. His Highness wherever he went was welcomed
enthusiastically by his subjects by means of addresses and other
demonstrations. Gordon spent much time with the Maharaja at
Mysore, at Bangalore and at Ootacamund and availed himself of
these opportunities to converse with him on various subjects and to
draw out his mind.
In the latter half of the year 1880 the Maharaja was again
taken out on a tour of six weeks. During this period His Highness
travelled through most of the districts in the State, visiting not only
the headquarters of districts but also many other places of interest
and importance. The loyalty and devotion displayed by all classes
of people during this tour were, as the Chief Commissioner himself
bore testimony, most remarkable. " At every station," wrote
Gordon, " the Maharaja was greeted by an immense concourse of
the population who had flocked from all parts of the Province to see
At every turn of the road it may almost be said there were
A6
42
eager crowds from the neighbouring villages gathered to welcome
him. Triumphal arches, illuminations and other joyful demonstra-
tions were everywhere spontaneously and enthusiastically made in
honour of the occasion, so that the whole tour may be described as
one continuous procession. The principal officials and the leading
members of the local communities were at each place introduced to
His Highness. He visited and inspected with me schools and all
other institutions as well as important public works, roads, bridges
and tanks. At all these places every opportunity was taken to
impress on his mind what was important and to direct his attention
to it. The effect has been, on the whole, most beneficial both
in opening his mind and in awakening in him a kindly interest in
the welfare of the people with whom he has thus early been brought
in contact." After this tour was completed, Porter led His Highness
over a somewhat higher range of subjects embracing the leading
facts of constitutional history and the elementary principles of
political economy. The practical details of the administration were
imparted by the Chief Commissioner himself or by Colonel A. C.
Hay, Commissioner of the Ashtagram Division, stationed at Mysore.
At the period at which we have now arrived the Maharaja's
education and political training may be said to have been practically
concluded and, in the meanwhile, arrangements for the investiture
of His Highness with ruling powers also went on apace as will be
seen in the next chapter.
CHAPTER Vt.
Re-settlement of political relations with the British
Government — An experiment in constitutional Government
for Native States — Revision of administrative departments.
In June 1875 the Marquis of Salisbury who was then Secretary
of State for India called the attention of the Government at Calcutta
to the advisibility of making a beginning for overhauling the
administrative machinery of Mysore so as to adapt it for the
Maharaja's rule when the time came for the restoration of the
country to His Highness. The Government of India were also
aware that several complicated questions required solution in the
interval that existed before the young Maharaja's installation in
power. The distraction caused by the famine however had prevented
both the Government of India as well as the Chief Commissioner
from bestowing any attention on this subject and it was not till
November 1878 that the matter was taken up.
On the 9th of November of that year the Government of India
in a letter addressed to the Chief Commissioner observed that in
settling the new form of administration for Mysore it was to be
noted that the case under consideration was different from that of
any other Native State which had been temporarily administered
by the British Government. Two generations of the inhabitants
of Mysore had grown up under British rule and in one part of the
State there was a considerable body of English settlers who relying
upon the protection assured to them by a systematic administration
had invested their capital and acquired valuable property in the soil.
The whole population had thus become accustomed to be governed
upon principles which were universally admitted to be essential.
The laws were written and duly promulgated, criminal and civil
justice was dispensed by regular courts, the assessment and
collection of revenue were made under permanent rules and
generally the administration was carried on upon the same method
and according to the standard of conduct which prevailed through-
out British territory. It was therefore advisable, they said, that before
Mysore was transferred to its future ruler the Government of India
4+
should take adequate guarantees against any prejudicial changed
being made in the administration which had taken root in the
country.
The Government of India also considered it necessary to
determine at the outset -the main conditions which were to be
attached to the investiture of His Highness the Maharaja with the
full powers of executive government. These conditions, in their
opinion, were to be regarded as forming something of the nature of
a constitution for Mysore and were to be regarded as not liable to
change without the assent of the British Government. The first
condition was that the body of laws and rules made for the transac-
tion of public affairs approved by the Government of India upto the
time of the transfer were to remain in force until they were modified
by competent authority. Any material deviation from the adminis-
trative system thus settled required the concurrence of the Govern-
ment of India, while for the amendment of laws provision was to be
made by the establishment of some legislative machinery. An
immediate consequence of the declaration of the principle that all
official authority was derived from some definite sanction would
mean that no demands for taxes or other payments to the State
could be made except under some law or prescriptive right or recog-
nised custom. Further, a clear distinction was to be drawn between
the private fortune1 of the Maharaja and the public revenues of the
State, so that no appropriation of public money could be made
otherwise than under the regularly constituted authorities entrusted
with its expenditure. Complete accounts of the public expenses
were to be rendered and subjected to competent audit. The system
of annual appropriations based on a budget estimate to supply the
funds needed for the several departments of the Government was to
be continued. In judicial matters the executive was to have the
same ample power of interference which was possessed by the
executive government in British India and by similar analogy the
restrictions upon prosecutions of public servants for acts done in
their public capacity were to be the same as those established by
the laws of British India. These were to be, according to the
Government of India, the principles which the future Government
of Mysore was to accept and maintain.
45
Next as regards the manner in which the administration was
to be organised, it was thought necessary to follow at all events at
the outset the form of administration as it existed then. The
administration at the time was conducted by a Chief Commissioner
aided by a Secretary, by a Judicial Commissioner who besides
exercising a general supervision over the proceedings of the inferior
courts of justice was the chief judioial appellate authority in the State,
by three Commissioners of Divisions who discharged both judicial
and administrative functions and by an organisation in each district
at the head of which was a Deputy Commissioner who was judge
and magistrate as well as collector. In the Departments of Public
Works and Education the organisation was very similar to that
which prevailed in British Provinces. The management of the
police was under the Deputy Commissioners of districts aided by
Police Assistants and by a Deputy Inspector-General who exercised
a general supervision over the whole police of the State. There
was a small military force under the command of a European
officer who was designated Military Assistant to the Chief
Commissioner.
Under the future regime most of the duties which were being
discharged by the Chief Commissioner, it was considered, would
fall to the share of the principal officers of the Maharaja's
Government in subordination to him. The allotment of functions
to these officers and the fixing of their relative responsibilities were
matters for careful deliberation. While it was desirable, said the
Government of India, that the vigour and promptitude in the des-
patch of business which usually resulted from investing one person
with ample and superior powers should be secured, especially during
the early years of the Maharaja's rule when he was yet to acquire
sufficient strength and experience, it should at the same time be
recognised that the system of concentrating the executive authority
over all departments in a State in the hands of a single high official
had proved by constant trial to be open to objections. Where the
Chief of a State was able and energetic, the extensive powers of a
Dewan, it was believed, rarely survived for any period after the
termination of a Chief's minority. Where the Chief was by training
or temperament indisposed to assume the burden of personal
administration, the institution of a Dewan favoured that indisposi-
tion and encouraged tendencies which were apt in the end to affect
injuriously the position and character of the hereditary Chief. The
Government of India therefore considered that the safest arrange-
ment at the beginning was to provide the Maharaja with a Council
consisting of not more than three of the highest officials at head-
quarters. Of this Council, one member could be selected as the
Maharaja's chief executive officer or Dewan and as the immediate
directing head of the departments in all matters except those which
by the rules of business were to be reserved for consideration in
Council. The other two members were to be selected from among
the heads of the principal departments according to personal
qualification and were to undertake in addition to their special
departmental business such portions of the work sent up to the
Council as were allotted to each. At the Council which would meet
once or more often in the week the Maharaja was to usually preside
and no important measure was to be inaugurated until it had been
thus collectively discussed and passed. In the Judicial Department
provision was needed for a Chief Court of appeal which was to
discharge the duties then being discharged by the Judicial Commis-
sioner. In the opinion of the Government of India this court was
to be composed of a plurality of judges with a European Chief
Judge for some years to come. The administration of the police
was also to remain for many years to come in the hands of a
European officer and similarly the department of Public Works.
J. D. Gordon the Chief Commissioner gave his concurrence to
the above principles and propositions and at the same time impressed
upon the Government of India the ad visibility of maintaining a
proper and adequate machinery for the administration of the State
and of placing some restriction on the military forces to be main-
tained by the State. As regards the Chief Judge of the High Court
being a member of the State Council, Gordon expressed the opinion
that though the combination in the same person of the functions of
a Lord Chancellor with those of a Chief Judge might not be in strict
accordance with European ideas, yet in a native administration it
would be a source of strength to the executive government without
impairing the judicial administration of the High Court. Gordon
47
also suggested that the proposed Council might with advantage be
supplemented by a deliberative assembly composed of eminent
retired officials, representatives of great local families, and represent-
atives of the various sections and interests of the people before whom
all proposed legislation, important measures of administrative
reform and budget appropriations of public money might be placed
for discussion and opinion. Such an assembly would, in his opinion,
give the executive government an expression by practical and
intelligent men of public opinion on all proposed measures, while it
would not fetter the action of the executive. Moreover, it would
afford the further advantage of providing a field of useful occupation
and distinction to the leading non-official members of the commu-
nity. As regards the ruler himself, having regard to the inevitable
imperfections of chiefs succeeding to power by hereditary right and
to the attendant evils in fixing on them the responsibility for the
acts of Government, it was desirable that the Maharaja should not
take upon himself too much of the details of administration. He
should, of course, take a lively interest in the administration, exercise
a healthy influence upon it by approval or displeasure, but in the
main, said Gordon, it was desirable that he should confine himself to
the consideration and discussion and the approval or veto of general
measures and of nominations to the more important offices and to
the selection of proper men for filling the highest posts in the
administration.
In May 1879 Lord Lytton's Government addressed a despatch
to the Secretary of State which began with a recital of Lord
Northcote's observations made in 1867 of the need of assuring a
sufficient guarantee for the continued good administration of the
Mysore territory whose inhabitants had become used to orderly
government for a long period under British rule and contained a
summary of the measures which, in their opinion, secured the
object in view as set forth in the correspondence with the Chief
Commissioner of Mysore. The despatch also set forth that the
transfer of a rich and civilised State from British to native rule
with the stipulation that its Government should continue to be
maintained at the British Indian standard of efficiency was a unique
experiment in^sinUQh «*s it w^s necessary to n^^int^in the dignity
48
and comparative independence of the ruler of the State by reserving
to him personally some substantial share in the actual direction of
the affairs of his State, remembering that in the great majority of
the States in India the ruler's authority was by theory, though not
actually, unlimited. This consideration had however to be
subordinated to the still more essential necessity of providing
beforehand some positive guarantees and checks against the
consequences which would follow any serious misuse of the ruler's
power through inexperience, through an unfortunate disposition, or
under the advice of bad counsellors. At the same time, it was
necessary to remember that while the constitution framed with
these objects should continue effectively to fulfil them, the ruler and
his Government should not feel themselves kept too closely under
tutelage and restraint. The first step in framing the constitution
was to surround the Maharaja with counsellors and high officials of
known ability and experience and to establish such methods of
transacting public business as would ensure every step being taken
after deliberation and under distinct responsibility.
As regards the deliberative assembly proposed by Gordon, the
despatch stated that it was premature to introduce in the beginning
an institution which had not been tried in British India and which
was not known to have succeeded elsewhere under circumstances
analogous to those of Mysore, although some such accessory
development might follow in the future.
The despatch also referred to the importance of the military
establishment of the State. It was necessary that this establish-
ment should not undergo a reduction below a certain numerical
strength which should be adequate to the dignity and importance of
the ruler of a State like that of Mysore. The Silledar Horse was a
body of old standing and of long repute and it would be. impolitic to
leave the State with a local force of that kind much inferior in
numbers to the mounted troops which were kept up in other first
class States for internal protection and for display. The despatch
concluded with these important observations : — " The experiment of
placing His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore at the head of a
constitutional government — that is, a Government to fee cpn4ucte4
49
on fixed and fundamental principles — undoubtedly makes a new
departure in the policy of the Imperial Government towards the
Native States of India. To determine the proper method of dealing
with these States and of discharging the responsibilities which they
entail upon the Paramount Power has always been and still is a
problem of great difficulty. For the improvement of their condition
and their gradual assimilation to the general system and standard
of the Imperial Government is almost essential to their
preservation. But the knowledge that we are now anxious to
preserve Native States and the feeling of political security which
has gradually gained ground among their rulers have tended almost
as much to impede as to facilitate our endeavours to strengthen and
consolidate these governments. In the period which preceded
British predominance in India, a State which fell into confusion and
embarassment was in imminent danger from attack by more
powerful neighbours and in the period which followed it was often
threatened with annexation. The Native States have now no longer
anything to fear either from foreign conquest or from annexation,
while the Chiefs have received a distinct assurance from Her
Majesty's Government that the succession of their legitimate heirs
shall be recognised and maintained. Thus, while the power of the
ruler has remained in theory and occasionally in practice absolute,
the natural preventives and antidotes to extreme imprudence and
mismanagement have to some extent been withdrawn. It is certain
that this freedom from fear of the consequences of lax and injurious
administration has been to some perceptible extent detrimental in
its effects upon their counsellors and officials and upon all those
who are influential in the governments of the States.
" Under these circumstances and through the operation of
these causes the Supreme Government has been obliged of late
years to interpose frequently in the affairs of Native States. The
incapacity or the grave misconduct of a ruler has produced compli*
cations which have demanded immediate and stringent remedies, or
the interval of a long minority has made it necessary to superintend
more closely a State's management. Where the government has
not been for the time sequestrated and placed under British officers,
the personal authority of the ruler has ordinarily passed with little
A7
56
change into the hands of some native minister specially selected for
ability. But while the frequent intervention of the British
Government in any shape to restore order in a Native State is of
itself inconvenient and undesirable and while the expedient of
introducing British officers has its obvious drawbacks, the alternative
of entrusting very large powers to a single minister however able
and energetic has been found by experience to be attended with
special disadvantages.
" The policy now enunciated proceeds upon the broad principle
that in order to guard against chronic misrule in a Native State and
to obviate the necessity for frequent and arbitrary interposition by
the Supreme Government to remedy the consequences of such
misrule, it is expedient to avail ourselves of every opportunity of
placing some reasonable limitations upon the personal power of the
ruler or of the minister to whom the administration may be
entrusted. The limitations thus imposed must be brought on public
record in order to place them beyond question or controversy ;
and in certain cases the general power of supervision to be exercised
by the Supreme Government may need to be strengthened and
extended. If the application of these principles to Mysore be
approved by Her Majesty's Government, they may form the ground-
work of a settled policy which will guide the Government of India
in the general discharge of its responsibilities towards feudatory
States. A new and valuable precedent will have been established
and this with the experience which will have been gained in Mysore
may enable us in future to deal systematically with similar questions
of reorganisation or reform "
In August 1879 Viscount Cranbrooke, Secretary of State for
India, conveyed his approval of the measures proposed by the
Government of India for the gradual adaptation of the then existing
administrative system of Mysore to the new conditions in which
that State was to be placed on its transfer to native rule. He also
agreed with the Government of India that the experiment of placing
the Maharaja of Mysore at the head of a Government to be
conducted on fixed and fundamental principles was a new departure
in the policy of the Imperial Government towards the Native States
il
of India. To determine the proper method of dealing with those-
States and of discharging the responsibilities of the British
Government towards them had always been a problem of great
difficulty. The absolute security against internal revolt now
enjoyed by native rulers entailed upon them obligations towards
their subjects which they could not be allowed to disregard. It was
in the gradual and judicious extension in Native States of the
general principles of government which were applied in British
territory that their rulers would find the surest guarantee of their
administrative independence and the best safeguard against
intervention on the part of the Paramount Power. Experience
alone could determine how far the proposed system would effect a
perfectly satisfactory adjustment of the relative powers of the
Maharaja, his Minister and Council, and the British Government.
Much would depend on the cordial goodwill and co-operation of the
native ruler himself and it was therefore the desire of Her Majesty's
Government that no time should be lost in explaining to the
Maharaja the changes in the administration which were already in
course of execution and the political organisation of which he was
intended to be the head. His Highness was then of an age to take
a comprehensive and intelligent view of the question which
intimately affected his future position, in order that he might form
at least a general idea of the system which he would be required to
administer.
On the 3rd March 1880 the Government of India informed the
Secretary of State that the Chief Commissioner had frequently
discussed with and explained to the Maharaja the administrative
changes which were being made or were contemplated and the
nature of the political institutions over which His Highness was to
preside. With regard to the extent to which the direction of the
administration would remain in the hands of the Maharaja himself,
the Government of India communicated their views to the Secretary
of State in these words — " It has never been intended that His
Highness1 personal authority in State affairs should be other than
wide and substantial or that the powers entrusted to the Dewan or
to the Council should be exercised independently of the State's
It is mpst difficult, on the ope hand, to define befprehan4
32
with any precision the share of authority to be retained in
His Highness' hands without producing the appearance, if not the
effect, of limiting that authority; and this we desire not to do
formally. On the other hand, it is not easy to settle any exact
limitations other than rules of procedure in the transaction of
business upon the powers either of the Dewan or the Council which
will not in practice be construed as giving them some independent
authority within those limitations. According to the system we
would introduce, no councillor or ministerial officer would have any
constitutional power to act independently of the Maharaja or to
issue orders except in His Highness* name and subject to His
Highness* revision. Thus the chief authority and the ultimate
governmental responsibility would in all classes rest actually as well
as nominally with the State's ruler. But we consider it essential
under this system of personal government to provide that all
important acts and orders shall necessarily have passed through
certain departmental formalities and shall have undergone certain
regular processes of examination and joint consultation before they
issue in the Maharaja's name and by his will. Moreover, since
it is obviously necessary that a large part of the details of current
business should be disposed of by His Highness' ministers, it is
equally necessary that these ministers should have defined duties
and responsibilities. For these reasons and with these objects we
consider it expedient to give the official advisers and chief ministerial
officers a voice in all important deliberations and the right to place
on record their views regarding any matter of consequence affecting
the administration of the country. Unless some such foothold in the
system of Government is secured to the members of the Council,
they can scarcely be held answerable either for the proper discharge
of their departmental duties or for the advice which they may give
to the Maharaja and their influence and utility will be proportionately
slight* But beyond this privilege of advising and of recording their
advice, the proposed measures would confer upon them no separate
status."
Before handing over the administration to the young Maharaja,
considerable reductions in expenditure became necessary on account
of the f«41 iA the cganual reverse due to the famine of 1876-1977
53
and this task was undertaken in the period between 1878-1881.
The total expenditure in 1878-1879 was Rs. 1,09,50,760 and the
same in 1881 on account of revision stood at Rs. 99,96,281. One
effect of this revision of expenditure was that intermediate offices
of control like those of the Commissioners of Divisions were
abolished and District and Sessions Judges were appointed for per-
forming judicial work which was being done by the Commissioners.
So far as the higher judiciary was concerned there came to be a
complete separation between the executive and judicial functions
from this period.
CHAPTER VII.
Re-settlement of political relations with the British
Government — (continued).
With their Despatch dated 3rd March 1880 to the Secretary of
State the Government of India submitted to him for approval the
draft of a written Instrument embodying the conditions under which
the young Maharaja was to assume possession of his State and also
defining authoritatively his future relations with the Paramount
Power. As regards the internal administration of the State, the
Instrument advisedly avoided entering upon details but reserved to
the Governor -General in Council discretionary power of interposi-
tion when he considered it necessary. The draft also in the
Preamble made no reference to the preceding engagements
which existed between the British Government and Krishnaraja
Wodeyar III. The Government of India said that there was no
necessity to examine in detail the terms of the previous treaties
except so far as it was necessary to reconcile the maintenance of
an Indian Dynasty on the Throne of Mysore with the good
government of the country and the security of British interests.
Agreeing with the view contained in Sir Stafford Northcote's
Despatch of 1867, the Government of India also said that the present
settlement was to supersede all prior engagements and was to
constitute a new departure in the relations between the British
Government and the Maharaja's Family.
The first question related to the succession to the Throne of
Mysore regarding which this important pronouncement is contained
in the despatch: "The Government of India now deals with
successions in the ruling families of Native States throughout India
upon certain general principles which if not formulated in writing
are universally recognised in practice. Where there is a natural
heir whose title to succeed is beyond dispute according to law and
usage, he succeeds as a matter of course unless he is obviously and
totally unfit, though in this as in every other case a succession is
thoroughly understood to require formal confirmation and recogni-
tion by the Paramount Power, Where the successipa i§ disputed,
55
the Supreme Government steps in and decides authoritatively
according to the usages of the race or the family. Where all heirs
natural or adopted fail, the Supreme Government will not only
recognise such successor to the rulership of a Native State as on
general considerations may seem best but may attach to the
succession whatever conditions seem fitting and desirable
" It appears to us, nevertheless, expedient in the particular
case of Mysore that the main conditions under which the throne
will become hereditary in the Maharaja's Family should be distinctly
entered upon record. We think this advisable not only for reasons
analogous to those which have induced the Government of India to
make definite stipulations for the future administration of the
country but also because since this Instrument will be in some
sense the title-deed of the family, there may be a tendency to
regard it as exclusively representing the whole body of rights and
liabilities existing between the State and the Supreme Government.
The 3rd clause of the Instrument has therefore been so framed as
to forestall all controversy regarding the right of the British
Government to pass over an heir on the ground of obvious
incapacity, or to decide among claimants to the succession, or
generally to select a successor among collaterals where no clear
pretensions to succeed by inheritance can be established. This last
mentioned provision appears very expedient in the case of Mysore
where the collateral branches of the Ruling House are remote, while
the order of succession among the collaterals is so far as can be
ascertained singularly unsettled, obscure and complicated. The
form in which the clause has been drawn admits the right of
adoption, while it precludes, in our opinion, the possibility of any
such difficulty arising as has- been produced by doubts as to the
right construction of Lord Canning's Adoption Sannads. It will
be noticed that no succession will be valid until it shall have been
recognised by the Governor- General in Council and that by the
last clause of the Instrument the decision of the Governor- General
in Council upon any question regarding the succession is final."
As regards the annual subsidy and the extra contributions to
be paid to the British Government for the protection ensured to the
56
State by that Government, it will be remembered that the claim
had been expressed in very general terms in the Subsidiary Treaty
of 1799 and in 1807 these indefinite liabilities were commuted to
the maintenance of a body of 4000 effective Horse. It was
estimated at the time that of this body 3000 Horse represented
the additional force which the State was required to maintain for
external defence. During the days of the British Commission
large reductions in the body of the Silledar force had been
sanctioned from time to time and the number in 1880 stood at
one-fourth of the number of 4000 mentioned in the treaty of 1807.
These reductions, it is understood, were made with the object of
economising the State's revenue by limiting the Silledar Horse only
to the strength requisite for the needs of internal administration.
It was considered very improbable under the military system
of the British Government as it existed that the Maharaja would in
the future be required to raise the force upon a military footing to
its full obligatory complement or to keep up cavalry ready to
accgmpany British troops on foreign service. The existing body
of 1000 horsemen was accepted as sufficient for the internal
protection of the State and it was proposed that the cost of
maintaining the remaining 3000 horsemen calculated at Rs. lOi
lakhs might be added to the Subsidy of Rs. 24i lakhs, raising it
in all to Rs. 35 lakhs per annum.
As regards the land required for British cantonment or for any
other establishments or purposes connected with British interests
within Mysore, the Government of India said that they assumed
that Bangalore would remain in their possession and under
complete jurisdiction, although in demarcating the precise limits it
was unnecessary to include the whole town which formed the chief
centre of provincial trade. The Maharaja, they said, need not be
required to yield in full sovereignty the lands required by
the British Government. It was sufficient to reserve such lands hi
occupation on perpetual assignment securing under the Instrument
the British Government's right to hold at pleasure these and any
other lands which they might require for similar purposes.
The Government of India also now proposed that the
opportunity might be taken to make over the island of Seringapatsuq
$9
absolutely to the Mysore State which was still regarded as British
territory though it had been from 1829 in the possession of the
Mysore Government upon an annual rent of Rs. 50,000, this rent
being entirely remitted for the future.
The external relations of the Mysore State were proposed to be
placed on the same footing as those of all Indian States and the
Maharaja was to have no political communications with any other
State except through the medium of the Government of India.
The employment in his service of Europeans was to be subject to
the approval of the British Government and jurisdiction over
European British subjects could only be exercised by the British
Government. In regard to railways and telegraphs in Mysore,
the British Government was to be free to reserve power to retain
the working of them in their own hands and to assume jurisdiction
over railway lands where necessary as had been done in almost all
the other States of India. The draft Instrument also stipulated
that the consent of the British Government was requisite for the
alteration of any laws in force at the time of the transfer and for
any material change in the constituted system of any important
branch of the administration and also that no title-deeds granted or
settlement of land revenue made under British administration were
alterable except by a competent law court.
On the 12th August 1880 Lord Hartington who was then
Secretary of State in a despatch to the Marquis of Ripon who had
succeeded Lord Lytton as Governor- General conveyed the approval
of Her Majesty's Government to the draft Instrument of Transfer.
In doing so, Lord Hartington while accepting the proposed total
subsidy of Rs. 35 lakhs as fair observed that the recent famine in
the State had imposed so heavy a burden on its resources that the
British Government instead of being able to hand over the country
to the Maharaja with a surplus found the revenues of the State
burdened with a debt to the Government of India amounting to
Rs. 80 lakhs. In these circumstances Her Majesty's Government
influenced by a desire not to place any undue burden on the finances
of Mysore in the early stage of the Maharaja's rule expressed
willingness to postpone the increased subsidy of Rs. 10i lakhs for a
A8
5S
period of five years from the date of the Maharaja's accession to
power. In this despatch Lord Hartington also added that Her
Majesty's Government were glad that steps had been taken to
explain fully to the Maharaja the administrative changes which
were being made or were contemplated as well as the nature of the
political institutions over which His Highness was to preside and
that it was intended that his share in the work of Government was
to be a substantial one, though no doubt it was right that the
Maharaja's advisers and chief ministerial officers should have a
voice in all important deliberations affecting State affairs.
CHAPTER VIII.
Investiture of Chamaraja Wodeyar X with Ruling Powers.
All preliminary arrangements for transferring the State to the
Maharaja's hands having been completed, a Durbar for formally
effecting this transfer was held in the Palace at Mysore on the
morning of the 25th March 1881. Lord Ripon was not able to be
personally present at the Durbar and under his instructions the
Right Honourable W. P. Adams, Governor of Madras, represented
the Viceroy on behalf of the Government of India. The Governor
arrived at the Palace gate with his personal staff escorted by a body
of troops and was received with the usual honours. A short time
after, the Governor, the Maharaja and J. D. Gordon the Chief
Commissioner entered the Durbar hall and took their seats on a
raised platform, the Governor seating himself in the centre with the
Maharaja on his right and the Chief Commissioner on his left.
The British civil and military officers, the Mysore officers and all
others invited for the occasion were seated to the right and left of
the platform.
The Governor of Madras then rose and said that at the request
of the Viceroy and Governor- General of India he was there as his
representative, as the Viceroy was unable to be present in person.
It gave him, the Governor said, great pleasure to be present on the
occasion considering the intimate relationship of the Presidency of
Madras with the State of Mysore. He then called upon
R. Davidson, Chief Secretary to the Government of Madras, to read
the following proclamation : — " Whereas in the year 1868 the
Viceroy and Governor- General of India in Council announced by
proclamation to the chiefs and people in Mysore that His
Highness Chamarajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, the adopted son
of the late Maharaja Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar Bahadur, had
been acknowledged by the Government of India as successor
to Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar and as Maharaja of the
Mysore territories and declared that when His Highness
Should attain the age of eighteen years the Government
60
of 'the country would be entrusted to him, subject to such conditions
as might be determined at the time;
" Now, therefore, His Excellency the Viceroy *and Governor-
General of India in Council announces to the chiefs and people of
Mysore by command of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland and Empress of India that His Highness Sri
Chamarajendra Wodeyar Bahadur is placed in possession of the
territories of -Mysore and invested with the administration of the
Mysore State.
"And His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor- General in
Council declares further to the chiefs and people of Mysore that the
administration of the aforesaid territories by the British Government
has on this day ceased and determined."
After the proclamation was read, the Maharaja was formally
installed at 7-15 a.m. and the Governor on delivering the Instrument
of Transfer to His Highness said : — " Maharaja Chamarajendra
Wodeyar Bahadur, Maharaja of Mysore — As the representative of
the Viceroy and Governor- General of India and in obedience to the
proclamation which has just been read, I now invest you with the
administration of the State of Mysore and in doing so I dgsire
to offer you my warmest congratulations and on behalf of the
Queen-Empress and the Viceroy as well as for myself and all here
present I wish you success and prosperity and that you may long
continue to rule over a peaceful, happy and contented people. Her
Majesty the Queen-Empress always mindful of the gracious words
she used in the proclamation to the Princes, Chiefs and people of
India in 1858 has by the great act which we celebrate this day
given a further practical proof of her desire scrupulously to adhere
to that proclamation both in letter and spirit.
41 Your Highness — The Queen and Viceroy are well aware of
the high and responsible trust which the British Government this
day commits to Your Highness* charge. But happily they also
know that you have endeavoured to render yourself fit for the great
duty that devolves upon you and that under the guidance of Mr.
Gordon, tfoe Chief Commissioner of Mysore, you have studied the
61
principles of Government and by the interest that you have shown
therein and also by your own manly life and conduct you have given
every indication of becoming a wise, liberal and enlightened ruler.
Having therefore this confidence in your good qualities, believing
also in the attachment of the chiefs and people of Mysore to Your
Highness and in their steadfast loyalty to the British Government,
I now on behalf of the Viceroy and Governor- General of India
present you with this Instrument of Transfer and pray that God
who watches over us whatever our creed may guide you aright in
all that you undertake and may bless the act that we perform
this day.1*
The Maharaja in response said : — " Your Excellency — I am
deeply sensible of the generosity and kindness which Her Majesty
the Queen-Empress has invariably shown to my Family. In now
installing me as ruler of the territory of my ancestors Her Majesty
has given a further proof of the justice and generosity which the
Mysore House has ever experienced at the hands of the British
Government. I beg Your Excellency to convey to Her Majesty an
expression of my deep, grateful loyalty and attachment to the
British Crown and my assurance that it shall be my earnest
endeavour by promoting the welfare of the people to prove myself
worthy of the confidence reposed in me. I would ask Your
Excellency to accept my thanks for the kind interest shown in me
on this occasion."
The usual khillats from the Viceroy were then presented to the
Maharaja. At this time a telegraphic message arrived from the
Viceroy which ran as follows : — " I am commanded by the Queen -
Empress to offer to Your Highness Her Majesty's congratulation
upon your installation and to express Her Majesty's best wishes for
Your Highness' prosperity and that of your country. The Queen-
Empress also commands me to thank Your Highness warmly for
the very kind and loyal telegram which Her Majesty has received
from you." A gentle shower of rain fell at the time the Durbar
was held and this incident and the birth of a daughter to His
Highness on the llth March previous were regarded as happy
auguries for th$ future and caused rejoicings among the people,
62
In the afternoon addresses were presented to the Maharaja
from various taluks, towns and districts as well as from Societies
and Associations. Among the addresses was one on behalf of the
Catholic community of Mysore presented by His Lordship
Dr. Coadou in Latin. It was a unique address full of meaning and
good sense and a translation of it in English was read by T. R. A.
Thumboo Chetty a prominent member of that community and who
held a high position in the Mysore Service. The address after
offering the felicitations of the communitty concluded with these
words : " We also pray with our whole heart and beseech God
that He may grant that wisdom with which He enlightened the
heart of King Solomon. May He grant you so to rule that your
reign may be a reign of peace and justice, so to govern that under
your auspices the good may walk without fear in the path of
righteousness and the bad may be frightened out of their evil ways.
May God grant that as the throne on which you sit is of refulgent
gold so may Your Highness be resplendent with virtues which
become a King. May God grant that during your reign the
ministers who help you with their counsel and stand round your
throne may walk in the ways of justice and that the people subject
to your sceptre may enjoy undisturbed peace and happiness "
His Highness in reply said : — " Those who labour in the cause
of religion are always a help to Government and your religion
especially may well be credited with inculcating principles of peace
and loyalty in the minds of the people. The 26,000 Canarese
Christian population of my territories peacefully and zealously
following their industrial occupations without any collision with
fellow countrymen of other faiths bear testimony to the fact how
while propogating your faith you sacredly avoid breaking social
institutions or impairing mutual good-will. Permit me, my Lord
Bishop, to assure you of my support and sympathy in your
disinterested godly work. I am touched by the piece of Jewish
history quoted by you. I assure you that trust in God and
submission to His Will have ever ruled and shall ever rule the
conduct of my family and myself and I look to that high power as
my help and guide and for crowning with success my endeavours in
the good government of my country and of my people."
63
On the evening of the same day a second durbar was held at
which the following proclamation issued by His Highness was read
and was also published in all parts of the State : — " Whereas the
Government of the territories of Mysore heretofore administered on
our behalf by the British Government has this day been transferred
to us by the proclamation of His Excellency the Viceroy and
Governor- General of India in Council, dated this 25th day of
March 1881, we do hereby notify and declare that we have this day
assumed charge of the said Government and we call upon all our
subjects within the said territories to be faithtul and to bear true
allegiance to us, our heirs and successors.
" We do hereby further declare that all laws and rules having
the force of law now in force in the said territories shall continue to
be in force within the said territories.
" We do hereby accept as binding upon us all grants and
settlements heretofore made b}' the British Government within the
said territories in accordance with the respective terms thereof,
except in so far as they may be rescinded or modified either by a
competent court of law or with the consent of the Governor -General
in Council.
" We hereby confirm all existing courts of Judicature within
the said territories in the respective jurisdictions now vested in
them and we confirm in their respective appointments the judges
and all other officers, civil and military, now holding office within
the said territories.
" For the conduct of the executive administration of the said
territories under our commands and control we have resolved to
appoint a Dewan. And we placing trust and confidence in the
loyalty, ability and judgment of Chettipaniam Veeravalli
Rangacharlu, C. I. E., do hereby appoint the said Chettipaniam
Veeravalli Rangacharlu, C. I. E., to be our Dewan for the conduct
of the executive administration of the said territories.
" His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General in
Council having complied with our request to lend us the services of
64
the present judicial Commissioner Mr. John Doublas Sandford,
Bengal Civil Service, Barrister-at-law and Master of Arts to aid us
m the administration of justice in our territories, we hereby confirm
the same John Douglas Sandford in his appointment under the
designation of Chief Judge of Mysore*
" We have further resolved that a Council shall be formed to
be styled * the Council of His Highness the Maharaja of
Mysore ' which shall consist of the Dewan for the time being as
ex-officio President and of two or more members to be specially
appointed by us from time to time. It shall be the duty of the
members of the said Council to submit for our consideration their
opinions on all questions relating to legislation and taxation and on
all other important measures connected with the good administration
of our territories and the well-being of our subjects. We are
accordingly pleased to appoint Chettipaniam Veeravalli Rangacharlu,
C. I. E., Dewan, ex-officio President, Trichnopoly Rayalu
Arogyaswamy Thumboo Chetty, Judge, ex-officio member, Purna
Krishna Rao, Attupakam Ratna Sabhapathy Mudaliar to be
members of the said Council, to hold office as such Councillors for
the term of three years or during our pleasure."
Thumboo Chetty before he joined the Mysore Service was
MunsifT of Pnrghi in the Bellary district. In February 1867 he
was appointed Head Sheristadar of the Judicial Commissioner's
Court at Bangalore and at the time of his appointment as senior
member of the Council was holding the post of Distrkt and
Sessions Judge of the Nandidoorg Division. He belonged to the
Catholic community and had earned a name for assiduous work and
upright conduct. The other two, Purna Krishna Rao and
Sabhapathi Mudaliar, were retired officers who had held high
positions in the days of the British Commission.
J. D. Gordon (later Sir James) who had shown himself a
genuine friend and sincere well-wisher of the young Maharaja was
appointed the first Resident of Mysore. He retired from his post
as Resident in 1883 on account of illness. In grateful memory of
65
his services to Mysore a statue was erected later and stands before
the public offices at Mysore.
The cantonment area of Bangalore was demarcated and the
jurisdiction over it was transferred to the British Government for
administrative purposes. The introduction of the Act III of 1880
was regarded as superfluous inasmuch as it was intended for
military cantonments in British India, while Bangalore was never
merely a military cantonment and was not a part of
British India, it being regarded as a mere station in a
foreign territory. The Civil and Military Station was to be
administered by the civil officers of the British Government under
the laws introduced from time to time with the Governor- General's
authority. But the Maharaja was to retain sovereignty over the
territory, though by the terms of the Instrument of Transfer His
Highness renounced the exercise of jurisdiction within it. The
Bangalore fort continued to be in the possession of the British
Government as the arsenal was kept there and it was not till 1888
that it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Maharaja in
exchange for the Residency.
The Maharaja's Civil List was fixed at Rs. 13 lakhs per
annum with the proviso that during the next five years only 10
lakhs were to be appropriated. This amount of 13 lakhs was
based on the annual average sum given to Krishnaraja Wodeyar III
as 1/5 share of the net revenues of the State. From this amount
was to be incurred all charges classed as Palace Charges at the
time and generally all expenditure relating to the personal wants of
the Maharaja and his family, his relations and dependents apart
from the public requirements of the State. The Government of
India at the same time looking to the numerous and miscellaneous
charges that would fall upon the Civil List admitted the
desirability of its revision from time to time.
There was a State banquet at the Jagan Mohan Palace on the
night of the day of installation and the Madras Governor in his
speech referred to a variety of topics. " In the first and foremost
place/' he said, " let your Government always be guided by truth.
A9
66
You have been brought up in the observance of it ; insist upon it in
others. Without absolute and pure truth no Government can
long stand. I hope you will be recognised as a mild and gentle
ruler, but if you show the utmost severity in any cases of deviation
from truth, you may be sure of this that the British Government
and all good men will support you. Choose your ministers with
the utmost care and circumspection, but when you have once
chosen a man to act in a confidential position give him your fullest
confidence, have no concealment, no corner in your mind which
your confidential adviser does not know. Allow no intrigue or
outside influence to undermine him in your estimation t
Whoever your Resident may be make a friend of him and go to
him for advice in any difficulty. You may depend upon it that he
can have no ulterior motive or end to serve and that the advice he
gives is meant for your good and for the good of the State of
Mysore. You have a large Province to administer. Do not waste
too much time in details but endeavour to grasp the large questions
and see the country for yourself."
On the 1st April 1881 the Maharaja sent a formal letter to the
Viceroy intimating his assumption of the Government of the
Mysore territories. " I have to announce to Your Excellency with
grateful feelings," said His Highness, "my assumption of the
Government of my territories on the 25th March 1881 under the
proclamation of the Government of India of the same date and
under the Instrument of Transfer whicih has been delivered to me
in due form by His Excellency the Governor of Madras on Your
Excellency's behalf. I am deeply sensible of the generosity and
kindness which Her Majesty the Queen-Empress has invariably
shown to my Family and in now installing me in the Government
of the territories of my ancestors Her Majesty has given a further
proof of the justice and generosity which the Mysore House has
ever experienced at the hands of the British Government. I beg
Your Excellency to convey to Her Majesty an expression of my
deep and grateful loyalty and attachment to the British Crown and
to accept my grateful acknowledgments to yourself and my
assurance that it shall be my earnest endeavour by promoting the
67
welfare of my people to prove myself worthy of the confidence
reposed in me."
The Marquis of Ripon on receipt of this letter sent a reply in
which among other matters he stated that he had read with
pleasure His Highness* assurance that in administering his
dominions it would be His Highness* earnest endeavour to promote
the welfare of his people and to prove himself worthy of the con-
fidence reposed in him, " It is my sincere hope," concluded the
Marquis of Ripon, " that bearing in mind the important duties that
now devolve upon you, Your Highness will conduct the administra-
tion of your dominion with justice and firmness, so that while
securing the affection and prosperity of your people you will
maintain the honour of the Mysore State and preserve the cordial
relations now existing between the British Government and Mysore.*'
CHAPTER IX.
Economic, social and other conditions in Mysore about
the period of the new Maharaja's assumption of power.
Reference has already been made to the disastrous effects
produced by the great famine of 1876-77. A test census was taken
on the 19th January 1878 throughout all the villages comprised in
one hobli in each of the 51 taluks out of a total number of 68, no
census being taken in 17 taluks where the famine had not been
severely felt. The area in which the census was thus taken
represented 8 per cent of the whole country. The average
population of a hobli before the famine was about 8000 persons.
In the hoblies in which this partial census was taken the total
population as taken in 1878 amounted to 2,94,126 persons as
compared with 4,12,934 who were reckoned at the census of 1871,
thereby showing a loss of population equal to 28.77 per cent in the
areas where the census was taken. It was found that 15.1 percent
of the people had died, that 7.9 per cent had emigrated and that the
remainder 5.77 were not accounted for. C. A. Elliot, the Famine
Commissioner, calculated that the total loss of population in the
whole State amounted to 10,50,000, while Gordon set it at 7 lakhs
and the loss in property was estimated at Rs. 10 crores. In any
case the mortality from famine in Mysore was deplorably great.
Lord Cranbrooke, the Secretary of State, at the time expressed the
opinion that it was necessary to investigate how far the melancholy
sacrifice of life which had taken place was due to causes which
could at the time have been rendered less severe or how far such
causes could be counteracted in any future similar visitation. Lord
Lytton who, it will be remembered, visited Mysore in 1877 wrote a
memorandum in November 1878 and the following extract from
this memorandum summarises the disastrous effects of this famine.
" The beginning of the recent calamity was the partial failure
of the rains in 1875. The rainfall was from one- third to two-thirds
of the average. Much of the food crop was lost ; but the stocks of
food in Mysore have always been large ; and this failure caused
only temporary or occasional distress, for the price of food did not
69
rise to double the ordinary rates. In the year 1876 the rainfall
again was short ; barely a third of the ordinary harvest was reaped ;
matters were aggravated by the fact that crops had failed in the
adjacent districts of Madras and Bombay; and by the middle of
December 1876 famine had begun. From December till March
matters grew' worse ; 500 tons of food (enough to support 900,000
people) were imported daily by railway; yet the price of food
ranged during those months at 13 to 15 R>s a rupee; that is to say,
at four to five times the ordinary rates. In the months of April and
May 1877 the usual spring showers came and hope revived. But
as the month of June wore on and as July came, it was apparent
that the early rains were going to fail again, and for the third year
in succession. Panic and mortality spread among the people;
famine increased in the land; and it was not until the bountiful
rains of September and October 1877 that the pressure of famine
began to abate. During the eight months of extreme famine no
crops were reaped ; the price of food ranged from 3 to 6 times the
ordinary rates, and for the common people there were no means of
earning wages outside the relief works. Even in 1877-78 though
some relief was felt, the yield of the harvest was less than half the
food-crop of an ordinary year. From November 1877 till the
present time of writing (November 1878) the price of food has
ranged at nearly three times the rate of ordinary years."
The second regular census was taken on the 17th February
1881 and the area of the State at this census was regarded to be
24,723 square miles based upon the measurements of the Revenue
Survey then in progress. The total population in 1881 numbered
41,86,000 giving a density of 169 per square mile. In 1841 the
population was calculated at 30 J lakhs and in 1851 at a little over
34i lakhs. In 1860 it was about 38i lakhs. These estimates were
more or less based on the Khaneshumari or village accounts,
according to which only an enumeration of families was made.
The rate of increase based on these estimates for 29 years was thus
1.16 per cent per annum. The total population in 1871 according
to ' the first regular census was 50,55,412 speaking six different
languages — Kanada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindusthani, Marathi and
English in tb* descending order of minority. During the rule of
70
Haidar Ali and Tippu Sultan which lasted from 1761 to 1799
unceasing warfare not only kept the country in continual turmoil
but also led to a great intermingling of various classes in the
population. A strong Mahratta element had been introduced into
the northern and eastern parts of the present Mysore State by
Shahji the father of Sivaji who governed that part of the country
on behalf of the Bijapur Kings. Next followed the Mughal
Government of Sira. Subsequently, even after the Mysore Rajas
had established their power, large tracts in the centre of the country
were pledged to the Mahrattas to buy off their repeated invasions.
During the last wars of Mysore with the British vast hordes of
Lambanies also known as Brinjaries accompanied the march of the
latter for the supply of grain, while considerable numbers of Tamil
camp followers and traders attended on their footsteps for service
and trade and many of these settled in the State. The Telugu-
speaking people were mostly the descendants of those who came to
the country during the days of the Vijayanagar rule. Taking the
normal increase that should have occurred if there had been no
famine at only 1 per cent instead of at 1.16 per cent per annum,
the population of 1881 showed a decrease of 8,69,224 being a
diminution of 17.19 per cent on the previous census largely attri-
butable to the disastrous effects of the famine of 1876-77.
Regarding the civil condition of the population in 1881,
11,55,674 males and 7,57,563 females were single ; 8,02,297 males
and 8,14,607 females were married; and 1,27,871 males and
5,28,176 females were widowed.
The sale by public auction of women accused of adultery was
very frequent even in the earlier days of the British Commission
and it was only by a proclamation issued in 1834 that this odious
practice by which the Government derived a revenue under the head
of Samayachar was completely prohibited. Among Brahmins and
Vaisyas females were not sold jbut expelled from their caste and
branded on the arm as prostitutes. They then paid to the
contractor an annual sum as long as they lived and when they died,
all their property became hist Females pf other Hindu, castes were,
71
sold by the contractor unless some relative stepped forward to
satisfy his demand.
Taking the occupations of the people, the regular commercial
classes numbered 45,366 males and 10,142 females ; agricultural
class numbered 10,08,826 males and 5,99,809 females or a little
over 16 lakhs; industrial class 1,28,926 males and 46,034 females;
professional class 90,452 males and 4948 females. Among the
professional classes those engaged in Government Service numbered
65,015.
There were under instruction in 1881 only 1.63 of the total
population. The number of illiterates formed 94.18 per cent of the
total population. Only one boy out of 5 of school-going age and
one girl out of 100 of the same were under instruction.
Of the total area of land 12,177 square miles were regarded as
uncultivable, 5491 square miles as cultivable and 7055 square miles
were under cultivation. The amount of payments to Government
whether as land revenue or quit-rent was Rs. 68,11,568. In
addition, wet lands were charged also with an irrigation cess of one
anna per rupee of the land assessment. The total amount of local
rates and cess paid on land was Rs. 5,62,558 and was appropriated
towards district roads, rural education and other local requirements.
House and other taxes were levied in all municipalities. The
average incidence of amount of payments per acre of revenue-paying
cultivated area was Re. 1-11-3, while that of local rates and cesses
per acre of cultivated land was 1 anna 11 pies. The average
incidence of rent paid per cultivated acre was Re. 1-8-1.
The exact yield from the land wet or dry cannot be
accurately calculated. In 1881, however, it was regarded that an
average estimate of 2 Candies per acre (l Candi being equal to 160
seers) for dry and 3 Candies for wet land was considered not far
from the actual produce in a good year. The seed grains came to
8 seers per acre for dry and 25 seers for wet land and the wastage
was reckoned at 5 per cent, leaving a residum available for domestic
or other purposes. The consumption per head of a labouring adult
when well off was generally about 1 seer or 2 Tbs a day and rather
above it than below. Taking women, children and infants
together along with adult males, the average consumption was
about li Ibs a day. The usual rate of consumption per head per
annum was li Candies or 480 Ibs.
The coffee plantations offered employment to a great number
of labourers in coffee-picking which lasted from November to the
end of February, when almost all the coolies returned to their
villages to observe the Ugadi feast or new year in their own homes
only a few remaining in the coffee districts, though a good number
returned in April when there was work to be done in hoeing and
weeding the planted ground or clearing for fresh plantation. The
eastern parts of Hassan and of Mysore were the tracts in which
emigration was most common. Tumkur and the western parts of
Bangalore also supplied some labour, but none went from Kolar or
the east of Bangalore and hardly any from Chitaldrug. These
coolies totalling about l£ lakhs were employed annually in Coorg,
Manjarabad, Koppa and Nilgiri plantations. The wafees generally
given were 4 annas per man and 2 annas 8 pies per woman per day.
Upto the time of the famine there were in the interior of the
Mainad labourers called Huttalu and Kondalu with many of the
respectable ryots. But after the famine, they almost ceased to
exist. Their masters rinding it difficult to maintain themselves
during the famine did not attempt to prevent these labourers from
leaving their service.
The number of towns and villages returned in 1881 was 17,655
which when compared with the 19,630 returned in 1871 showed a
diminution of 1975 or 10 per cent.
Mysore the Dynastic capital and Bangalore the chief seat of
Government were the only two places in telegraphic communication
in 1881 except railway stations on the lines from Bangalore to
Mysore and from Bangalore to Jalarpet. From Bangalore, how-
ever, telegraphic lines ran through north to Bellary and west via
Mercara to Mangalore and Cannanore without intermediate
stations. Messages could be wired from Bangalore to all parts of
India and the world. In the interior of the country good roads
73
intersected almost every part and means of communication as
compared with the past had become easy.
As regards trade in ordinary years, salt, piece-goods and metals
were brought to Bangalore by rail and distributed by country-carts
all over the State, ragi, rice, coffee, cocoanut and arecanut being
exported in return. The food supply was usually in excess of the
local consumption. The ordinary load of a cart was more than i a
ton and the ordinary day's march 18 to 20 miles.
A10
CHAPTER X.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
Establishment of * Representative Assembly — Experiment
of establishing Anglo-Indians and Eurasians in agricultural
and industrial occupations— Death of Rangacharlu.
Chamaraja Wodeyar assumed the reins of Government under
very favourable circumstances so far as he was personally
concerned. The Supreme Government had shown unwearied
solicitude in providing for him a general education which was to
befit him for the exalted position to which destiny had called him.
His Highness had been placed under able tutors who spared no
efforts to instil into his mind high ideas of public morality and
conduct. His political training was attended to by some of the
high officers of the State and the British Government evinced a
sincere anxiety that when their young ward was placed in power
no occasion should arise for interference similar to that of 1831.
No doubt the Instrument of Transfer placed on His Highness*
shoulders full responsibility for efficient administration of the
country. But, at the same time, care was taken to surround His
Highness with expert advisers and to provide him with a
machinery of Government which enabled him when dealing with
measures coming up for his decision to obtain all facts bearing on
the subject at one view in a thoroughly sifted form as well as the
opinions of his expert officers who were more or less veterans in the
public service. At the time His Highness received the country
from the hands of the British there was, however, one great cause
of anxiety and that was that the country was just emerging from
the evil effects of a disastrous famine which had disorganised the
finances of the State burdening it with a debt of 80 lakhs of rupees
to the British Government, not to speak of the disappearance of the
surplus of about a crore of rupees and of the loss to the country of
a million of its inhabitants and of property worth 10, crores of
rupees. His Highness and his advisers were fully mindful of the
situation in which they were placed and faced their task in the early
years with courage and prudence.
75
The new Government after it was established earnestly wished
to provide itself with the means to guage popular opinion on the
measures of Government from time to time. Accordingly,
encouraged by Sir James Gordon who was the first Resident after
the Rendition the now famous Representative Assembly was
brought into existence by a proclamation of the Maharaja, dated the
25th August 1881, only five months after the date of ?the investiture
of the Maharaja with power. In this proclamation it was stated
that the object of the establishment of such an assembly was to
make better known to the people and better appreciated by them
the views and objects of His Highness' Government in the
measures adopted for the administration of the State. For the
attainment of this object a beginning was to be made by an annual
meeting at Mysore immediately after the Dasara festivities of a
number of representative landholders and merchants from all parts
of the State, before whom the Dewan was to place the results of
the past year's administration and a programme of what was
intended to be carried out in the coming year. Such an arrange-
ment, it was considered, by bringing the people into immediate
communication with the Government would serve to remove from
their minds any misapprehension in regard to the views and actions
of Government and would convince them that the interests of the
Government were identical with those of the people.
The first Assembly the members of which had all been
nominated by district officers was attended by 144 members,
although the attendance had been declared voluntary. Rangacharlu
placed before this Assembly which met on the 7th October 1881 an
abstract of the financial position of the country as well as the
administrative, industrial and other measures that were in
contemplation, and the following paragraph from . this address
affords instructive reading : — " I must not omit to place before you
the important truth that the prosperity of the country can never be
assured until the labour of its people yields a surplus over and
above the food consumed by them. So long as the labour of the
agriculturists scarcely yields the food consumed by them, it is not
possible to avoid their complete prostration on the occurrence of a;
famine or other calamity. Improvement in this respect can only be.
76
effected by diminishing the proportion of the human labour
employed in the production of the country by the application of
machinery and capital. Irrigation works answer this purpose to
some extent as they enable a larger quantity of produce to be raised
by the same labour. But on the much wider area of dry lands the
produce yielded is scarcely more than sufficient for the consumption
of the cultivator and his family. It is even worse with the
artisan and manufacturing classes. Hitherto the high rate of
interest for money in the country and the cheapness of labour have
told against the employment of costly ' machinery. But now
that English capital is being drawn to India on cheap terms and a
wide gap has been made in the labouring population by the recent
famine, the present time offers a particularly favourable opportunity
for raising the status of the people by the introduction of capital
andk machinery in industrial pursuits. Extensive tracts of good
land 'lie waste for want of labour both in this province and in the
neighbouring British territories affected by the famine. They offer
a good field for capitalists to bring them under cultivation for the
growth of exportable articles by means of steam-ploughs and other
machinery. Such an extension of cultivation and manufactures by
means of machinery by outstriping the growth of population will'
tend to increase wages and raise the status of the labourer. At
present population increases at a more rapid rate than production
and increasing want and poverty is the inevitable result/'
The railway from Bangalore to Mysore was opened for through
traffic in February 1882 and proved not only a great boon to the
country from the beginning but also a profit -yielding concern.
The idea of having teak sleepers from the Mysore forests for this
line was found not feasible. Although there was a large demand
for timber in connection with the construction of Bangalore- Mysore
line, it was found cheaper to get Rangoon timber from Madras than
1 to use the timber of the Mysore forests, except to a small extent at
the Mysore end of the line. Creosoted pine sleepers which were
considered superior to the teak for this particular purpose were
brought all the way from Europe by sea and by the railway from
Madras and were delivered at Bangalore at cheaper rates than the
77
Mysore teak sleepers and with a rapidity which could not be hoped
for in the Mysore forests.
In 1882 Rangacharlu inaugurated a measure of great financial
importance which marked a new policy in obtaining capital for
profitable undertakings. In that year in order to extend the railway
line from Bangalore as far as Tiptur, a loan of Rs. 20 lakhs was
floated by the new Government at 5 per cent interest per annum.
Tenders from private English and native gentlemen were received
from Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, Allahabad, Peshawar, Karachi,
Ahamedabad and other places to the extent of nearly one-half of
the loan. The most noticeable feature however was the large
amount subscribed in small sums by the ryots and merchants in the
Shimoga, Kadur and Tumkur districts showing how much the
railway was appreciated by them. It was at the same time realised
that the full advantages of the railway could not be obtained unless
it was carried to Kadur and the great arecanut mart of Birur and
both places brought into nearer communication with Shimoga. In
undertaking the local railways it was intended not only to meet the
necessary and urgent wants of the people but also to train a select
number among them in the working of the railways and of the
engines and machinery connected with them. Arrangements were
also made for placing a number of native young men of intelligence
and good health and physique in the locomotive workshops to
receive their training, so that a considerable portion of the working
staff might be manned from them in future.
Although reductions to the extent of 8 lakhs of rupees had
been effected in the charges of the administration before the country
was transferred to the Maharaja's hands, yet the new Government
found that further reductions were indispensable, especially as the
extension of railways was a pressing need. Rangacharlu was fully
alive to the financial situation of the State and in his :
Representative Assembly in 1881 observed that
on a Government wishing to reduce its exper
efforts to a proper retrenchment rather than de
expectation of deriving an increase of revenue fr
country. Accordingly in 1882 Rangacharlu we
78
reducing the eight districts of the State to six by the*abolition of
Hassan and Chitaldrug districts and by the reduction of 69 taluks
to 60 replacing them by 3 sub-divisions under Assistant Commis-
sioners and 17 sub- taluks under Deputy Amildars.
It was a matter for gratification that after the Representative
Assembly was instituted in Mysore the Government of India
resolved upon a comprehensive scheme for extending self-govern-
ment in local matters throughout the British territories in India.
Their despatch of 8th May 1882 which contained their orders on the
subject from its earnestness of purpose, its liberal views and far-
seeing statesmanship might be regarded, said Rangacharlu, as
introducing a new era in Indian administration. The universal
satisfaction with which it had been received throughout India was
also proof of the appreciation of the boon by the people and refuted
the assertion often made that they were not yet prepared for
self-government. The stirring appeal which he then addressed to
the representatives is worth recalling to mind even now and bears
testimony to the earnestness of purpose with which his mind was
actuated. " If the spread of any high degree of education among
the great mass of the people were to be insisted upon," he said,
" we may have to wait for ever. What is required in the great
body of representatives is common sense and practical views which
are sure to be possessed by men of ordinary knowledge engaged in
industrial and other useful occupations. The real education for
self-government can only be acquired by the practical exercise of
representative functions and responsibilities under the guidance, as
observed by the Government of India, of officers possessed of
administrative tact and directive energy and evincing an earnest
interest in the success of the experiment It cannot be too
often impressed on the representatives that in the discharge
of the important functions entrusted to them they are ex-
pected to evince a true public spirit and to be actuated by
- considerations not of any personal wants or grievances or of even
those of any particular caste or section of the community only but
considerations of the interest of the public at large. It cannot
however be concealed that Government officers themselves require
as much education in the rpatter a.$ the less informed representatives
79
of the people and earnestness on their part to promote the public
interest, not to mention considerations of personal distinction and
importance, begets a desire to devise and carry out what appear to
them useful works ;• and this is not unnaturally followed by
intolerance of difference of opinion or opposition from others.
These have to give way to the higher qualities of a patient and
watchful interest in the proceedings of others which they must be
content to guide and direct by advice and suggestions without any
abatement of their earnestness to promote the public interests.
District officers have to be strongly imbued with the idea that in
municipal and other matters the public interests are better served
by diffusing sound ideas on the subject amongst the people and
thereby inducing them to work out the results for themselves than
by the Government doing the work for them. Though the objects
arrived at may not be accomplished so promptly and successfully as
by Government agency, the result will be enduring and will have a
spreading influence amongst the people and will be less subject to
those changes which often characterise the improvements initiated
by public officers.
" Whatever Government or any few outsiders can do must be
small compared with what the great mass of the population engaged
in industrial pursuits could accomplish in their several occupations
when stirred up by a desire for advancement. When all the world
around is working marvellous progress, the 200 millions of people
in India cannot much longer continue in their long sleep simply
following the traditions of their ancestors of 2000 years ago and
earning a miserable subsistence, ready to be crushed on the first
occurrence of a famine or other calamity. Steam began to be
utilised in Europe as a motive power only in the beginning of the
19th century. India then used to export cloths to England. Now
England notwithstanding a severe competition from the other
countries of Europe and America supplies the greater portion of the
world with cloths and other manufactures. These are not the
fruits of any large individual discoveries which alone can attract the
attention of the official mind but the result of numerous individual
men devoting their intelligence to effect small discoveries and
improvements from day to day in their several occupations which
so
in their aggregate produce such marvellous wealth and general
prosperity. What then may not be accomplished if the large
population in this country once entered on a similar career of
progress. The one great problem to be solved by Indian statesmen
is how the people could be raised from the crushing influence of
officialdom and stirred up to industrial enterprise and progress."
A unique experiment of establishing Anglo-Indians and
Eurasians on the land received encouragement from the Mysore
Government at this time. A Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Associa-
tion had been formed in 1879 for the purpose of improving the
economic condition of the families belonging to this community and
industrial and agricultural pursuits were intended to be largely
encouraged among them. To begin with, a boot and shoe factory
was started and a number of young Eurasians were apprenticed
to various trades. A land scheme was also taken in hand which
aimed at the formation of agricultural settlements or colonies.
The Mysore Government lent ready aid by granting in July 1881
nearly 4000 acres of land selected by the Association to- be held
free of assessment for the first five years. With the help of Sir
James Gordon special sanction was obtained for holding a lottery
in order to raise funds for starting the scheme. One lakh was thus
obtained, but half of it was allotted for prizes. The original
intention was to establish four colonies : —
ACRES.
Glen Gordon ... 527 ) To the west of Bangalore on
Haldwell Green ... 757 J the Magadi Road.
Whitefield ... 542 ) 10 ., , , _,
Sausmond ... 926 ) 12 miles east of Bangalore.
This novel venture however, it may be stated, did not fulfil
all the expectations formed of it. There are at present only two
settlements Whitefield and Sausmond where some Eurasians and
Anglo-Indians reside.
The encouragement given by the Mysore Government to this
novel venture on the part of the Eurasian community was however
based upon very laudable motives. In 1882 in his address to the
81
Representative Assembly Rangacharlu explained that the first
object of making large grants of land to this community was to
enable such of the members as were in need of occupations to find
a home and the means of pursuing agricultural industry. It was
also hoped at the time that if the experiment succeeded it would
have an important bearing on the general agriculture and industry
of the country, as agricultural improvements of foreign countries
were likely to be readily adopted by them and when tried practically
and successfully would be taken up by the people in general.
Rangacharlu however was not destined to live long and carry
out his ideas. In the latter part of December 1882 he was taken
ill and went to Madras. He was expected to return in about a
fortnight. But fate willed it otherwise. He died at Madras on
the 20th January 1883 and his death was deeply deplored by all.
He was 52 years old at the time. His high talents and unblemished
integrity of character won for him the admiration of all who knew
him. His simple habits and warmth of heart always attracted to
him a large circle of friends. His memory is now perpetuated by a
building constructed at Mysore known as the Rangacharlu Memo-
rial Hall where on one of the walls hangs an oil-painting of his
likeness.
CHAPTER xf.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
. Appointment of Sir K. Seshadri Iyer as Dewan — Steps
taken to improve the finances of the State.
The choice' of a. Dewan for a Native State" is always a matter
of some difficulty as 'a number of cohrliictihg claims require to be
balanced before any 'decision can be arrived at. At this time thfee
candidates were prominently mentioned for the place. The first
was P. N. Krishna Murthi who was a direct descendant of the
great minister Purnaiya and the fifth holder of the jahagir of
Yelandur granted to his arfcestor. Krishna. Murthi was regarded
as the first nobleman of the country. He was 32 years of age.
The other two T, R. 4. Thumboo Chetty and K. Seshadri Iyer
though, they came as strangers to Mysore had served long under the
k ; . • » u*i • r-
Mysore Government. Thumboo Chetty was 46 years old and
Seshadri Iyer 38 year{s. The official status of all these officers was
more or ,less equal, Krishna Murthi and Seshadri Iyer being heads
of districts and Thumboo Chetty a District Judge. Krishna Murthi
from his long ancestral connection with the State had considerable
local support, though he was the youngest of the three. Thumboo
Chetty had a reputation for rectitude and conscientious discharge
of duty. He was already a member of the State Council though in
an ex-officio capacity. Seshadri Iyer was yet unknown to the
people as possessing any special merits. It took about 3 weeks for
the choice to be made and it was at last announced that the
Maharaja had selected Seshadri Iyer as his Dewan. The announce-
ment evoked no enthusiasm at the time and it is said that it took even
Seshadri Iyer by surprise. He had begun his official life in 1866 as
Translator in the Collector's office in his native town of Calicut in
the Madras Presidency and later there being need in Mysore for the
services of capable English-knowing men, Seshadri Iyer at the
suggestion of Rangacharlu was appointed Judicial Sheristadar
in the Superintendent's office at Mysore, which post he joined on
the 30th October 1868. He took the B.L Degree of the Madras
University in 1874. In 1879 he was Deputy Commissioner and
83
District Magistrate of one of the districts and from August 1881 he
had been placed on special duty in the Dew^nls office} under
Rangacharlu. Seshadri Iyer entered upon his n^w duties with
great earnestness and wisdom and proved himself a man of
undoubted talents.
The finances of the State, as we have already seen, were in a
disorganised state and on "assuming office the new Dewan found
that he was faced with a serious situation which required prompt
attention. The retrenchments begun in 1878-79 and continued
even after the Maharaja came to power did not yield a saving of
more than 8 lakhs of rupees a year. The average annual revenue
as then developed was not expected to bring in more than 102 lakhs
which 'included the cost of collection -Rs. 10i lakhs. Against
the net amount -of Rs. ^ 91i lakhs were ear-marked certain
fixed charges amounting to about Rs. 48 lakhs such as the Subsidy,
the1 Civil List, Interest on Famine and Railway loans. Early in 1884
the British Government took over under its direct management
from the Durbar the administration of the Assigned Tract forming
the Civil and Military Station of Bangalore and the surplus revenue
which this tract was yielding was thereby lost to Mysore. The
! available amount for public works and civil administration was less
than 44 lakhs of rupees. The average total expenditure of the
State on the minimum calculation could not, it was found, be
reduced below Rs. 99J lakhs and the State was therefore faced with
a deficit of 7 to 8 lakhs of rupees a year, unless a remedy was found
in time. On account of the large departmental reductions already
noticed the administration had become very much centralised and
in the hands of the Dewan was concentrated the control of all the
principal departments ' such as the tand Revenue, Forests, Excise,
Mining, Police, Education, Muzrai and Legislation, ''aiici it had
become apparent that without close supervision by separate
departmental heads the work of the departments must deteriorate,
as it was impossible for one man, whatever his capacity, to do
justice to this extraordinary multiplicity of work.-
Seshadri Iyer's first attention in the circumstances in which he
was placed was naturally turned to find m$ans qf .meeting the deficit
84
and finding funds lor improving the efficiency of the administra-
tion. It should be said to his credit that in 1884 only a little more
than a year after he became Dewan when he had yet to consolidate
his position, he made bold to put forward a strong plea for the
payment of the surplus revenue of the Station and even carried an
appeal to the Secretary of State, though without success. The
surplus however that had accumulated till then was allowed to be
appropriated towards a partial payment of the Subsidy.
Seshadri Iyer took this disappointment calmly and turning his
attention to the enhanced Subsidy of Rs. 10i lakhs and finding that
the period during which it had been suspended had only two years
more to run submitted with the full concurrence of the Maharaja
a vigorous representation to the Government of India for the
remission of this new burden. There was, he said, no special
elasticity about the revenues of Mysore. In the first three decades
of the 19th century the annual average revenue was Rs. 86f, Rs. 86i
and Rs. 76 lakhs respectively. In the first three decades after the
British assumption of the Government in 1831 it was Rs. 70i lakhs,
Rs. 76 and Rs. 84i lakhs respectively. The subsequent increase
whereby the maximum average of Rs. 105 lakhs was reached in the
decade before the famine was due to rise in prices owing to such
exceptional causes as the American Civil War which caused a great
demand in England for Indian cotton on account of the supply
from America having failed. Agricultural operations in Mysore
depended upon a rainfall which was most uncertain. The
Revenue Survey and Settlement was not expected to produce
any large increase and required also a long number of years for its
completion. The incidence of taxation taking into account the
Rs. 12 lakhs which the Mysore population was contributing to the
salt revenues of British India was already so high as Rs. 2-4-0 per
head per annum and increase of revenue by additional taxation was
therefore out of question. The country was likely to require half a
century to recover from the terrible loss of population and property
due to the famine. An income thus reduced without any
immediate prospect of any material growth had also to meet
some new charges such as interest on Famine and Railway
loans, the increase to the Civil List, augmentation of pensionary
85
charges, remuneration of village servants in taluks where the new
Survey and Settlement had been introduced in substitution of
Mirasi or grain payments. The enhancement of the Subsidy to
Rs. 35 lakhs in these circumstances would, urged Seshadri Iyer,
reduce the amount required for the ordinary administration .of the
country to a sum with which it was impossible to maintain good
Government. The extension of the railway line to Harihar which
was the terminus of the. Southern Mahratta Railway was an
important work of famine protection and it was a duty in the eyes
of the Mysore Government to execute it without any delay.
J. B. Lyall was the British Resident at this time and had
succeeded Sir James Gordon the first Resident who retired from
service and proceeded to England on account of illness. Lyall's
abilities -were of a high order and his political views were of a
statesmanlike character. Seshadri Iyer's representation strongly
supported as it was by the new Resident received sympathetic
consideration at the hands of the Government of India as well as
of the Secretary of State, with the result that the extra levy of
Rs. 10$ lakhs was further postponed for a period of 10 years till the
end of March 1896. In his address to the Representative Assembly
in October 1885 the Dewan in expressing gratitude for this boon on
the part of the British Government said that it was only a fresh
but a very signal illustration of the generous treatment which the
Mysore State had invariably received at the hands of the
Paramount Power, for it enabled the Mysore Government to
maintain the administration at least at the standard of efficiency as
it stood then.
No Government however, it was recognised, could be content
with merely marking time or doing the routine business that came
to its hands from day to day. All the departments were in great
need of improvement and a scheme of decentralisation was an
urgent necessity. Immediate measures also were necessary to
afford the country protection against the uncertainties of seasons,
not to speak of the distresses deepening into famines at times.
The liquidation by instalments of the debt due to the Government
of India as well as the payment of interest at 5 per cent per annum
86
imposed a great strain on the finances of the State as they stood at
the time. . Some way however had to be found for the immediate
introduction of some of the improvements which were essential for
the .nOriual life of the country. During the famine of 1876-78
the jtjracts .-of country that suffered most were over 50 and
100 miles If fcotn the nearest railway and the area now situated on
either side fof; the Bangalore -Harihar line was found to have
suffered- the severest distress and this part of the country therefore
needed the earliest protection from the spectre of a future famine.
• , i ' E ." *
*l The State had already constructed 141 miles of railway from
< Mysore, to Gubbi from its own resources supplemented by a public
loan! of, Rs, 2Cklakhs and it was also in a position to carry the line
as far^S Tiptur. The line from Tiptur to Harihar 125 miles in
length. had already been surveyed. But the construction could not
be undertaken as the resources of the State, it was found, could not
be safely relied oh to yield a surplus revenue every year and even
then it -would be many years before the line could reach Harihar.
In these circumstances the Durbar agreed to a proposal made by
the Government of India that. the extension from Gubbi to Harihar
should -.be executed- with foreign capital. The Secretary of State on
behalf dip Mysore negotiated a loan with the Southern ,,Mahratta
Railyvay Company of ^"1,200,000 at 4 per cent interest per annum on
the hypothecation of the whole line including the line from Mysore
to Tiptur and the Company also was entrusted with the work of
construction from Tiptur to Harihar. This measure enabled the
Durbar ta discharge in full in 1889, earlier than it would have been
otherwise possible, the famine debt of Rs. 80 lakhs due to the
Government of India by appropriating for that purpose the amount
of the refund of a little over 68 lakhs, the cost incurred by the
Mysore Government till then for the construction of the line upto
Tiptur. . J .
By this time the Durbar was also relieved to a very large extent
of its financial embarassments by the growth of its land revenue and
by the development of other sources of revenue. The land revenue
which had suffered greatly from the effects of the famine reached
R&. B7 lakhs in the year 1886-87 .out of which excluding the
collections of old arrears, 80 lakhs of rupees was regarded as the
amount of normal land revenue per year.
Among the other items of revenue which • contributed to th^
growth of the finances might be mentioned Excise, Fores,t and
Gold Mining. The Abkari or the excise revenue yielded in the yeaf '
1881 only a little over Rs. 10i lakhs and by 1892-93 the year
previous to that of Chamaraja Wodeyar's death it almost trebled
itself. This large increase was due not to any extraordinary growth
of intemperance on the part of the consumers but to the adoption of
more effective measures to intercept the revenue which was' going
into other pockets and to divert it to the State treasury. As rega«Is
arrack, the policy followed was one of gradual enhancement of duty.
In 18S1 there existed differential rates of duty per gallon in
different parts of the State. But these varying rates were later
assimilated to a uniform rate while the selling price continued
at the old rate. Further, all outlying distilleries were abolished
and a new system of manufacture and distribution under
centralised control was introduced. In 1892 the manufacture
of arrack was separated from that of distribution. By this measure
the Government was able to attract to the business of manufacture
the capital, resources and technical knowledge of a large Madras
firm Messrs. Parry & Co. and thereby to reduce the cost of
the manufactured article. The right to vend liquor was
separately sold throughout the State. In the case of Banga-
lore and Mysore cities and the Kolar Gold Fields individual
shops were sold and elsewhere clusters of villages and only in
a few cases entire taluks. The work of vending was thus placed in
the hands of persons of local knowledge whose watchfulness
in their own interest was a most useful check upon illicit distillation
in their respective tracts. The increase of duty which involved
no increase of price to the consumer and of the sale of the right
of vend had the effect of securing to Government money which
till then formed the profits of middlemen.
As regards toddy, the system in existence was one of eight
large District Farms for the entire State. These farms were given
out for terms of three years for the highest tender by a limited
88
number of persons whose standing in the business practically
excluded all outside competition. Under this system owing to the
existence of a series of middlemen between the Government and the
contractor the State did not derive its proper share of the revenue
and owing to the want of sufficient control the date groves
themselves deteriorated to such an extent as in some places to
imperil the toddy revenue of the future, while in many instances
the quality of toddy supplied to the public was so bad as to drive
many persons accustomed to this comparatively innocent drink
to the more harmful arrack. To remedy these defects, the
eight large farms were divided into smaller farms numbering 1236.
The increase of revenue was due not to any increase in the number
of shops but almost entirely to the abolition of needless inter-
mediaries between the Government which owned the date groves
and the small farmer who supplied a certain number of shops from
a particular grove or part of a grove.
There was a progressive rise in the Excise revenue during the
thirteen years of Chamaraja Wodeyar's reign and 63 per cent of the
rise in the incidence of total taxation was more or less due to this
source. The moral and social aspects of this large increase of
Excise revenue require some consideration on account of their
importance. The increased revenue from toddy was almost wholly
the result of improved management, while that from arrack was
due to both improved management and increased consumption.
Compared with 1881-82 there was a total increase of revenue of a
little over 12 lakhs of rupees in 1894, of which Rs. 5,67,000
represented increased consumption. This increased consumption
was however chiefly among migratory gangs of coolies and artisans
employed in the Gold Mines, mills, public works, buildings and
coffee plantations. Altogether 3,94,751 gallons of arrack were
consumed during 1893-94 giving a consumption of 4.1 drams per
head of population. In the Kolar Gold Fields there was a labour
population of 11,000 including women and children constituting
1/440 of the total population of the State and they consumed
43,937 gallons which was a little over 1/9 of the total consumption
for the whole State giving a consumption per head of nearly 4
gallons. In the large city of Bangalore which was the chief centre
80
of industry in the State the consumption was 37.8 drams per head
of population, while the large cooly population living in the outskirts
of the Bangalore City and Cantonment swelled the arrack con-
sumption of the taluk to 14.3 drams per head. Owing to similar
Conditions in the Mysore City the rate of consumption was 18.3
drams per head. In the coffee tracts of Manjarabad, Koppa,
Chikmagalur and Mudigere the rate of consumption was 10.9 drams
per head. These figures showed that 10i per cent of the total
population of the State resident at the time in the Gold Fields, the
Mysore City, the Bangalore City and taluk and the coffee tracts
were responsible for 52 per cent of the total consumption of the
State.
Another method of increasing the resources of the State was
undertaken by the closer conservancy of forests than before.
Several State forests were extended and a large number of valuable
jungle tracts which were in varying stages of denudation were
brought under proper conservancy. The solution of the fuel
problem had become pressing. The railway extension to Harihar,
the advancing Kolar Gold Industry, the cotton and woollen mills at
Bangalore and a rising population with expanding cultivation
tended to enormously increase the demand for fuel and to diminish
the source of its supply. There thus arose the necessity for care-
fully conserving large jungle tracts and as many of them as
possible, more especially those in the vicinity of the railway. The
spontaneous growth of timber in forests and of fuel in reserved
jungle tracts was supplemented by plantations on an ex tensive scale.
In 1893-94, 65.37 per cent of the forest revenue was derived from
sandal wood and 34.63 per cent from all other sources such as
timber or wood-fuel.
Gold Mining also began to yield a revenue from the year
1886-87 and for the first time a Royalty of Rs. 47,000 at 5 per cent
on the production found its entry in the budget and this item of
revenue gave a continuous increase every year subsequently.
Leaving out of account the income from the State Railways as
well as that of the C. & M. Station of Bangalore, the total revenue
A12
at the State which was slightly over Rs. 104 lakhs in 1881 rose to
nearly Rs. 167f lakhs in 1893-94, the increase being over 61 per
cent. This revenue was derived from taxes properly so called as
well as from sources which were not really taxes. In Mysore the
heads of Land Revenue, Excise, Mohatarfa, Sayer, Stamps and
Registration were at the time taken as coming under taxation proper.
Taking the revenue under these heads only, there was an increase
from Rs. 93,04,000 to Rs. 1,38,12,000 or 48i per cent. The income
from sources other than taxes such as Royalty from Gold Mining,
forest revenue and similar items nearly trebled itself during the
same period. The rise in the incidence per head of population was
from Rs. 2-4-4J to Rs. 2-13-7J or 25i per cent. Thus the amount
of increase was 9 annas and 3 pies.
The assets and liabilities of the State on 31st March 1881
the opening year of Chamaraja Wodeyar's rule were — assets a
little above Rs. 49 J lakhs, liabilities nearly Rs. 30$ lakhs ; on the
30th June 1895 the closing year of the same rule — assets a little
above Rs. 3 crores and 60 lakhs, liabilities nearly Rs. 1 crore and
84 lakhs, excess of assets over liabilities a little above Rs. If crores
as compared with the excess of assets of a little more than Rs. 18i
lakhs in March 1881.
CHAPTER XII.
Charaaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
Improvement of administrative efficiency.
More judges for the Chief Court — Revenue Code,
Local Boards Bill—Separate Legislative Branch in the
Secretariat — Some important Regulations passed including
the Prevention of Infant Marriage Regulation.
We have seen that on account of the famine of 1876-1877 the
administrative efficiency of the State had suffered considerably and
various measures were now adopted to revive and improve that
efficiency. The Judicial Department claimed the earliest attention.
Sir James Gordon in his minute dated 10th February 1879 had
represented to the Government of India the need of a High Court for
Mysore with a plurality of judges instead of only a single judge
designated Judicial Commissioner. On account of restricted finances
the question had however been postponed and at the time of the
Rendition beyond calling the highest court the Chief Court of
Mysore and the single presiding judge as the Chief Judge nothing
more had been done. In 1883 Seshadri Iyer conveyed the cheering
news to the members of the Representative Assembly that the
Maharaja had decided upon the introduction of a plurality of judges
from May 1884. Regulation I of 1884 governing the Chief Court
was subsequently passed. The number of judges was raised from 1
to 3 and Section 1 1 of the new Regulation prescribed that where in
any suit or proceeding it was necessary for the Chief Court to decide
any question regarding succession, inheritance, marriage or caste or
any religious usage or institution, the Mahomedan law where the
parties were Mahomedans and the Hindu law where the parties were
Hindus, or any custom (if such there was) having the force of law
and governing the parties or property concerned was to form the
rule of decision, unless such law or custom had by legislative
enactment been altered or abolished and that where no rule
existed, the Chief Court was to act according to justice, equity and
good conscience. When Thumboo Chetty was Chief Judge, he
92
arranged at the request of the members of the bar for the publication
weekly of a digest of important decisions and rulings of the Chief
Court.
The revenue administration of the State was found to be
dependent on mere executive orders and circulars issued from time
to time and a Revenue Code was imperatively needed to remove
most of the difficulties and defects which marred the revenue
administration and also to set at rest many important differences of
opinion. A Bill based mostly on the Bombay Revenue Code was
prepared and explained by Seshadri Iyer to the members of the
Representative Assembly at the meeting held in October 1883.
The Bill was a pretty large one and also of great importance,
considering the subject to which it referred. , Some of the chief
matters codified referred to the relation of land-lord and tenant,
the rights of Government in land, and the mining and forest rights
of the Government and of the occupants of agricultural lands,
upon all of which there existed at the time neither any definite
nor any uniform practice. The rules for the recovery of
Government revenue had been varied so frequently by executive
orders that precedents could be quoted on almost any side of a case
involving the public and sometimes the revenue officers themselves
in useless litigation attended with much expense and delay. In the
new code the provisions relating to these and other matters were
simplified arid while care was taken for the proper collection of
revenue, private rights to property were adequately protected. The
rights and obligations of Inamdars and their tenants were definitely
defined in strict accordance with usage. Provision was made
for protecting tenants from capricious enhancement of rents
by Inamdars, the grounds on which and the mode in which the
rents were enhanceable being definitely prescribed. Where written
leases were executed, the Inamdars were given the right to recover
the demands through the revenue authorities as if they , were
demands for Government land revenue. The jurisdiction of civil
courts in revenue matters had been vague and these courts were
considered competent to take cognisance of almost any revenue
matter. The Bill now excluded in clear terms from the jurisdiction
of civil courts only such matters as had immediate reference to the
93
appointment, dismissal and remuneration of village servants, the*
assessment and realisation of the Government revenue and the
protection of tenant rights. In October 1884 the Dewan again
referred .to this Bill at the meeting of the Representative Assembly
and while stating that it had undergone thorough revision at the
hands of a committee composed of able and experienced officers
mentioned also that except on a few points (which need not be
specified here) no material alterations had been suggested by the
committee.
This Revenue Bill formed the subject of discussion between
the Mysore Government and the British Residents of the period
and it was finally forwarded in 1886 for the approval of the
Government of India. This Government, however, took a long
period of more than two years to accord their sanction and the Bill
became law only with effect from 1st April 1889, thereafter limiting
as far as possible the former uncertainties of the revenue
administration due to varying executive actions based on
individual temperaments. Sir James Lyall and Sir Dennis
Fitzpatrick were the British Residents whose co-operation was
regarded as most valuable in the promulgation of this piece of
legislation. Reference has already been made to the former and as
regards the latter it may be stated that he was an able lawyer who
had an intimate knowledge of the various Indian enactments and of
the debates connected with them and always looked out for facts.
Advantage was taken of the introduction of this Regulation to
inaugurate a system for the regular hearing and disposal of all
revenue matters coming before the Government in appeal or
revision. The Revenue Code excluded, as has been mentioned
already, from the jurisdiction of the civil courts an important class
of questions which arose before the revenue authorities and it was
essential that these and other matters involving rights often of a
quasi -judicial nature should not be finally decided without thorough
investigation and without full opportunities being given to the
parties interested to support their claims and contentions. It was
therefore ordained by the Maharaja that all revenue appeals and
revision cases coming up before the Government were to be heard
94
and decided at least by two members of the State Council and that
the procedure adopted was to be generally that of the civil courts.
Another subject which also engaged the attention of the
Maharaja's Government at this time was the broadening of self-
government in local matters. Rangacharlu had touched upon this
subject in 1882 in his address to the Representative Assembly and
in 1883 when Seshadri Iyer met the representatives he also
referred to this subject and called attention to a draft Local Boards
Regulation which had already been published in the official Gazette.
This Bill when it became law was to supersede the rules issued by
the Chief Commissioner in 1874 for the formation of District
Committees and for purposes to be carried out by them. These
rules were found defective on account of the preponderence of the
official members, absence of reasonable powers of disposal over the
funds and the unlimited subordination of the Committees to
Government officers in the administration of these funds. The new
Bill assumed the taluk or the existing sub-division of a taluk
to be the unit of area for which a Local Board was to be
constituted. As one chief cause of the inefficiency of the existing
District Committees lay in the fact that their members did not
possess the requisite local interest and local knowledge, it seemed
evident that if the system was to have a fair trial a beginning was
to be made with a Taluk Board. The functions of these Boards
were, to start with, to relate to such matters as elementary
education, medical, charitable and other similar institutions, local
plantations and water-supply. As regards the constitution of these
Boards, the Bill provided for a preponderence of the non-official
element in them but left to Government as to whether the members
were to be appointed by nomination or by election by the rate-
payers. It also provided for an official or an elected President.
This course, assured the Dewan, had been advisedly adopted in
.the public interest in order to prevent failure in their working.
" Village communities " said the Dewan "have not yet recovered
from the severe blow which owing to political causes they sustained
early in the century; and administrative activities have to be
revived an4 nurtured sifter a long period of disuse under an
95
autocratic Government. Under such circumstances, it is not
surprising to find the greater part of the Province unprepared at
present for the elective system How soon the elective
system can be extended to any particular Taluk Board will depend
upon the appreciation of its labours by the people interested ; for
without such appreciation, it will not be advisable to resort to
such election in any case. The non-official members of the
District Board which is to be constituted for each district or
sub-division of a district, will, however, all be delegates from the
Taluk Boards, and it will at first be under the presidency of the
District or Sub-Division officer as the case may be "
Referring to the Taluk Boards, one of their functions, said
the Dewan, would relate to elementary education. This was an
important subject as the hobli schools had proved not an adequate
medium for the wide spread of elementary education. It was found
that they were wanting in that popular element in their constitution
and direction which alone could give them success and it had
therefore been provided in the Bill that the Local Boards assisted
by Village Boards where practicable were to take entire charge of
these schools, manage them with the funds that were made
available for them, appoint and dismiss the masters at their own
discretion, the Government interference being limited to the
prescribing of the proper standard of education for them and to
providing the Board with a good and competent staff of inspectors.
Next in importance to education, observed the Dewan, was the
establishment of hospitals and dispensaries in places where the
Boards deemed them to be required and the formation of a body
of travelling dispensers of medicine at times of cholera and other
epidemics was to come under the jurisdiction of these Boards ; and
similarly, institutions of charity such as Chatrams and
Dharmasalas. The Bill did not specifically provide for the transfer
of all Government Muzrai institutions to the Boards' management,
but there existed provision for such transfer whenever such step
was likely to be attended with advantage. Charitable institutions,
especially the feeding chatrams would, it was expected, fare better
under the Boards' management than they did under the
96
Government, thereby obviating the long-standing complaints of
mismanagement and peculation against these institutions. It was
also proposed to entrust works of irrigation such as tank repairs
to the District Local Boards and that as the majority of the
members would naturally belong to classes having large interests in
agriculture in all parts of the district, it was likely that all
important tanks throughout the district would receive their due
share of attention. This Bill was submitted to the Government of
India in April 1885. But it was received back after nearly a year
with an exhaustive minute by C. E. R. Girdlestone who was then
the British Resident and further discussion became necessary.
After the Rendition though a Representative Assembly came
into existence no separate Legislative Council was formed. But
a separate department was constituted in 1886 in the head office
under the superintendence of an officer designated the Legislative
Secretary. The European members of the United Planters'
Association pointed out more than once the need of such a council
as suited to the age in which they lived. Among the reasons which
influenced the Durbar not to countenance the proposition put
forward, the main one was that it would not be possible with a
Legislative Council as part of the constitution to give effect in
practice to the principle laid down by the Government of India
that the chief authority and ultimate responsibility was in all cases
td rest actually as well as nominally with the State's Ruler. Under
the Instrument of Transfer the people of Mysore including the
European planters had a guarantee that the British laws in force in
Mysore at the time of the Rendition would not be altered by the
Mysore Government without the concurrence of the Governor-
General in Council. Any special legislation required by the
planting community of Mysore could be easily introduced with the
previous approval of the Government of India. The legislative
measures, it was stated, which necessarily were required for a
progressive administration mostly followed those introduced for
British India and the modifications required for their adoption in
Mysore -were made by the executive government in consultation
with the -British Resident and were promulgated in the State with
the sanction of the Maharaja.
97
A number of other Regulations were passed during the reign
of Chamaraja Wodeyar and an enumeration of some of the
important ones will show to what subjects they related : — 1. Mysore
Civil Court Regulation of 1883. 2. Mysore Chief Court Re-
gulation of 1884. 3. The Mysore Legal Practitioners Regulation
of 1884. 4. The Mysore Land Revenue Code of 1888. 5. The
Land Improvement Loans Regulation of 1890. 6. The
Mysore Arms Regulation of 1890. 7. The Mysore Factories
Regulation. 8. The Mysore Railways Regulation. 9. The Mysore
Infant Marriages Prevention Regulation.
The last Regulation was an important piece of social legislation.
The imperative need of this legislation was brought home to the
Government from the figures relating to marriages revealed in the
census report of 1891. The number of married girls under 9 was
18,000 as compared with only 12,000 in 1881. The increase was 50
per cent whereas the increase of population during the same period
of 10 years was only 18 per cent. Again out of 9,71,500 married
women in the country in 1891 the statistics specially collected at
the census showed that 11,157 had been married at or before the
age of four (74 in the first year, 349 in the second, 2347 in the
third and 8387 in the fourth) and 1,81,000 between the ages of 5
and 9. Of the girls married before nine, 3560 were found to be
widows at that early age. In regard to boys, it had been ascer-
tained that 512 had been married before four, 8173 between 10 and
14 thus giving a total of 81,516 boys, all married before 14.
The proposed raising of the marriageable age of boys to 14
was expected to react beneficially on the marrying age of girls.
For, considering the disparity that generally prevailed between
husband and wife it was not too much to infer that in all boy-
marriages under 14 the girls were more likely
above 9 years of age and therefore the raising of
age of boys to 14 would, it was considered, en
nearly 82,000 girls to put off their marriage
These facts established that the evil attempte
one of some magnitude showing signs more of
of decline. The progressive party in the
urged on the Government in the light of the census figures the need
of some prohibitory legislation and thereupon the Government
consulted the heads of religious institutions who expressed the
opinion that such marriages were opposed to the spirit of the
Sastras. The general popular sentiment was also found to be in
favour of some kind of prohibition. The Government, however,
wished to move cautiously and explained to the Assembly in 1892
that as a beginning it was proposed to prohibit marriages of girls
below 8 years and those of men above 50 years of age with girls
below 16 years. It was inexpedient to treat such marriages if they
took place as altogether void, as the nullity of such marriages would
involve endless difficulties regarding legitimacy of children born
and their rights of inheritance. The utmost therefore that was
intended to be done was to visit the persons responsible for such
marriages with criminal penalties.
A draft Regulation on the lines above indicated was published
in 1893 with the view of affording the fullest opportunity for
discussion and criticism. In his address to the Representative
Assembly held in October of that year Sir Seshadri Iyer observed
that though the Bill was regarded in a few quarters as an undue
interference with the liberty of the subject, yet the measure had
been framed in response to the general sentiment of the country
which demanded under the authority of the law the abolition of
certain usages which were as much opposed to the spirit of the
Hindu Sastras as to the best interests of society. This Bill was
finally passed into law in the latter half of 1894 embodying some
of the more valuable suggestions made at the meetings of the
Representative Assembly. The Dewan impressed upon the
members of the Representative Assembly that met in October 1894
that His Highness the Maharaja wished the Regulation to be
particularly regarded as an important measure of protection against
a growing evil of some magnitude.
CHAPTER XIII.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X 1881— 1894.
Improvement of administrative efficiency — (continued).
Anche or Local Post — Life Insurance — Civil Service
examination — Status of village servants — Offer of Imperial
Service Troops — Revision of the State Council.
Among the measures adopted during this period for the
improvement of administrative efficiency were two which elicited
much comment. The first one related to the Anche or local
post and the second was the institution of a Civil Service
examination open to the whole of India. The Anche, no doubt,
needed much improvement and two alternative proposals were
received from the Director- General of Post Offices in India. The
first proposal was that the complete control of the postal arrange-
ments in Mysore should be surrendered by the Durbar to the
Imperial Postal Department, that that department was to take over
the whole of the postal establishments existing in Mysore, pay them
from imperial revenues and treat Mysore in all postal matters
exactly as if it were a British Province, the service correspondence
of the State being carried at the cheap official rates as in British
India prepaid by service stamps. The proposal was regarded in
some quarters as advantageous to Mysore as it would secure
centralisation and uniformity of rules and organisation, remedy that
public inconvenience which naturally resulted from Mysore being
isolated from the rest of India in postal matters and would save the
Maharaja's Government the trouble and cost of maintaining a local
postal department which at best imitated the imperial system in a
manner necessarily imperfect. It involved, it was further said, no
interference, administrative or political, though the liability of the
State in respect of mail robberies would increase as the British
postal system expanded. The alternative proposal was : —
1. That Mysore was to adopt all British rules and rates of
postage using British postage stamps over-printed
100
' Mysore ' which were to be supplied to it for the mere
cost of manufacture ;
2. That all paid inland correspondence, official or non-official,
transferred from Mysore to British post offices or vice
versa was to be delivered free, each post office keeping
whatever it collected in stamps or on bearing letters ;
3. That Mysore was to introduce the Money-Order, Insurance,
Value-payable Parcel, Postal -Note and other systems
peculiar to British Indian post office retaining any fees
it earned on account of them. This alternative proposal
while securing complete reciprocity to the State in all
postal matters was regarded as throwing great responsi-
bility upon the State and also as involving it in
additional expenditure for the improvement of the then
existing establishment.
The whole subject was discussed at the meeting of the
Representative Assembly in 1885. The representatives unanimously
expressed their opinion that the department should be retained by
the Durbar and worked even at a loss if. it was unavoidable. The
Government of Mysore thereupon intimated to the Director- General
that the second alternative was agreeable to them, but a reply was
received that that alternative proposal had led to some practical
inconvenience in the States to which it had been applied and that it
could not be introduced elsewhere until more experience was gained.
After much correspondence, the Anche was at last amalgamated
with the British postal system from the beginning of April 1889.
The change was financially a gain to Mysore to the extent of J a
lakh of rupees per annum. The Dewan when he next met the
members of the Representative Assembly had, however, to adopt
an apologetic tone in justifying this transfer. Surrounded on every
side by British territory and its highly developed postal system, the
isolation of the local post, said the Dewan, could not long continue
without causing marked inconvenience to trade and without
impeding general progress. With the railways and roads which
Were so rapidly opening out every part of the country and the
growth of commercial relations with the other parts of India,
101
Mysore was expected to keep pace with the requirements of the
times and requisitions had indeed been made from various quarters
for the insurance of parcels, money orders, telegraph offices and
other new wants such as were elsewhere met by the Postal
Department. It was however apparent that such an elaborate
system could not usefully be attempted by a purely local post, for
the essential condition of success in every postal system was
centralised control and absolute uniformity of rules and organisation.
As there were some difficulties in improving the local Anche, His
Highness' Government decided to amalgamate the local with the
imperial post. This explanation of the Dewan to the Representa-
tive Assembly was felt as somewhat of a volte-face by the side of
what had been said in the earlier year regarding the retention of the
department in the. hands of the Durbar and the introduction of all
the conveniences found in the British postal system. Though the
transfer has become an accomplished fact, the desire in the minds
of the people for its retention has not even now been wholly
extinguished, especially as its origin was associated with so
distinguished a ruler of Mysore as Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar,
the contemporary of Aurangzebe.
After the Rendition, various attempts had been made from
time to time to improve the efficiency of the subordinate public
service by prescribing the minimum general qualifications that were
required for the various grades of appointments. Till 1892 no
attention, however, had been paid to the upper service. In 1874, as
we have seen, an attempt had been made to improve the tone of the
public service by direct appointments to it of young men of
education and good antecedents. The scheme however had not
been systematically followed, and especially with the large
reductions carried out consequent on the famine the appointments
to the service became somewhat haphazard, with the result that it
became increasingly difficult, it was said, to find men of requisite
qualifications to fill vacancies in the higher ranks of the service.
The new scheme prescribed the holding of a periodical competitive
examination open to the whole of India and that those who passed
in this examination were to be admitted as probationary Assistant
Commissioners, an equal number being admitted by nominations
102
from among the members of old Mysore families and from among
the distinguished officers of the subordinate service. Strong
objection was taken at the time to placing the young men of Mysore
under such odds as would be involved when they were required to
undergo an examination in which they had to sit side by side with
candidates drawn from, as was said, the Himalayas to Cape
Comorin. The European officers who had served in Mysore
had borne testimony to the equal capacity of the Mysorean with
his brethren outside the State. A competitive examination
confined as it generally was to persons- of talent placed the
Mysorean in point of numbers under a great disadvantage,
especially a test by the number of marks scored involved an
element of chance also according to the temperaments of the
examiners. Vigorous protests against such a disability imposed
on the Mysore graduates were made both in the Representative
Assembly as well as outside. But the grievance was not remedied
till after a number of years.
A measure brought into effect to help the employees in the
public service was the introduction of a system of Life Insurance
from 1st December 1891. This subject had engaged the
consideration of the Government of India some years earlier,
but it was abandoned on the ground of the difficulty of managing
the business and the fear that the native community might not
avail itself of its advantages as largely as was necessary. His
Highness' Government, however, now made bold to extend this
boon of insurance to its own servants over and above the existing
privileges of pensions and gratuities. The system aimed at offering
a ready and safe investment for the small savings of the official
class and at securing for them and their families a certain and
substantial provision in the future in return for small payments
spread over a series of years which were not likely to be felt as
burdensome. The Government made no profit out of the
business. The measure was calculated not only to benefit the
families of the public servants left .in want but also to
improve the general tone of the public service and to promote
its independence and purity of character. The salient points
pf the scheme were that every person who entered the service
103
of Government after a particular date on a monthly pay of
Rs. 10/- and upwards upto a limit of Rs. 500/- was to be required
to insure his life with the Government for a bonus which was to be
payable to him on his attaining the age of 55 or to his family in
the event of his dying before that age in return for a premium of
10 per cent on the salary. The offiials already in the service were
also given the option of insuring their lives, if their age did not
exceed 45 years. To avoid undue risk to Government, a limit of
Rs. 50/- was prescribed as the maximum premium payable by all
officials even when their salaries exceeded Rs. 500.
Another measure which engaged the attention of Government
in the early period of Chamaraja Wodeyar's reign was the
improvement of the status of village officers. Subsequently,
however, it was found that no tangible improvement was possible.
But the remarks made by the Dewan in 1883 in his speech to the
Representative Assembly are of some interest, though the
reasoning is not quite convincing. "The village establishments
remain to be revised, not with the object of effecting
any immediate reduction in the remuneration now paid to them but
for the purpose of improving their status and of avoiding in the
future a needless, heavy expenditure. The Survey and Settlement
abolished the levy of mirasi by Shanbogues and Patels and fixed
their remuneration on a liberal scale. It is not desirable to alter
this scale, but the remuneration according to it must be paid not
by cash payments from the treasury which are not valued but in
the shape of service inam lands which confer upon their holders a
position and status in the eyes of village communities and which
for that reason are highly prized. Money remuneration has the
effect of converting them into paid Government officials of the
lowest rank and of affecting their traditional influence as heads of
villages. Moreover, the amount which has to be paid from the
treasury on this account is annually increasing. In 1878-79 it was
Rs. 80,000. It has since gradually increased and is now about
Rs. 2i lakhs. Unless the whole system is altered as above
indicated, it may amount to nearly 7 lakhs by the time the
Revenue Settlement of the Province is complete. Under such
circumstances, the conversion of the money payments into land
104
emoluments is a step which should not be longer delayed. II
carried out with proper precaution, it ought not to entail any
appreciable decrease in the land revenue, for assignments of land
as service inams must necessarily include a fair proportion of
arable, unoccupied land and will to a large extent be
counterbalanced by increased cultivation "
In the year 1889 the Dewan announced the forest policy of the
Maharaja's Government which was to conserve all forest tracts and
to husband their resources to aid natural reproduction by artificial
means, to replace indiscriminate felling by systematic operations, to
allow the agricultural classes facilities for grazing and for meeting
their essential wants and to ensure an unfailing supply of
sandalwood.
We have seen how the efficiency of the Silledar cavalry
underwent considerable deterioration during the days of the British
Commission. There was in the State excellent military material
from which a very efficient force could readily be raised. In
physique the Mysorean was far superior to the average man of the
plains and he was specially noted for his endurance and hard work
in distant countries and under the most trying conditions of climate
and fatigue. The Bedar Infantry and the Mysore Cavalry so well
known for their valour were all drawn from warlike classes who
were indigenous to the country and who furnished excellent
recruits for an army. The climate of Mysore placed the inhabitants
in a better position than most other provinces for maintaining an
excellent cavalry and the Amrit Mahal cattle of Mysore also
provided an exceptional advantage in the matter of transport. The
limitations under which the Durbar was placed in regard to
military matters offered no effective means of readily devising
measures to raise the efficiency of the Mysore troops. In 1883,
however, a cavalry officer of the British Service was appointed as
Staff Officer for the purpose of drilling the Silledars and bringing
them up to a higher standard of efficiency. In 1885 the three
regiments of Silledars stationed at Bangalore, Mysore and Shimoga
with detachments at other district headquarters were all stationed
105
either at Bangalore or Mysore for greater convenience of manage-
ment, furnishing detachments where required. About this period a
change in the military policy of the Imperial Government towards
the Indian States became markedly visible. The policy of
isolation and mistrust pursued in the earlier period of British rule
towards Indian Princes gradually gave place to one of union and
friendship with them. As an illustration of the policy of the earlier
period, it may be stated that in 1788 when the Raja of Travancore
applied to the Governor of Madras to lend as a matter of favour
and friendship four officers and twelve sergeants well acquainted
with the exercise and discipline of troops for employment in his
State, the Governor replied that it was contrary to the system of
the Company to lend their officers to command any troops except
such as were actually in their own pay and under their authority.
In 1885 when war seemed imminent with Russia on the other side
of the north-west frontier of India, the Indian Princes in a body
approached the Viceroy with offers of the whole resources of their
States to supplement those of the Supreme Government. Again, in
1887 on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's
accession to the throne, many rulers of Indian States offered to
contribute in a very liberal way to the defence of the empire. But
the Government of India did not think it necessary or in all
respects desirable to accept from the Native States the pecuniary
assistance which they so freely tendered. In 1888 Lord Dufferin
the Viceroy in a speech at Patiala in November of that year
suggested that the Princes who had specially good fighting material
in their armies might raise a portion of their armies to such a pitch
of general efficiency as would make them fit to go into action side
by side with the Imperial troops.
Chamaraja Wodeyar influenced by the traditions of his family
was one of the first to accept this suggestion by offering to
reorganise and improve the military forces of Mysore and to place
them at the disposal of the Imperial Government for active service
with the regular armies of the empire. Other Princes also,
especially those of Hyderabad, Kashmir, Patiala, Indore and
Bikanir, had made similar offers and all these were received by the
Supreme Government in the spirit in which they were made. In
AM
106 , .
his' speech to the Representative Assembly in 1889 the Dewan was
able to announce that Major Mellis who had been deputed by the
Government of India to reorganise and improve the existing armies
of various States had already completed his work in Kashmir, the
Punjab and the Rajputana States and was expected to visit Mysore
in connection with his important mission. Major Mellis commenced
his work in Mysore in 1 890 and completed it in the following year.
The two regiments of Silledars were broken up into two corps, one
for imperial and the other for local service. In order to permit
of the former being brigaded with the troops of the British
Government and kept in a constant state of efficiency for active
service, it was stationed at Bangalore. It was armed with breech
loading carbines, provided with camp equipage and a standing
Pony Transport so as to be ready for immediate active service
whenever called upon for the purpose, and in matters of pay,
discipline and equipment it was made similar to the native cavalry
in the British Service. This new plan, as stated by Sir William
Lee-Warner, secured in comparison with the former establishments
of Native States both efficiency and economy — efficiency, because
the officers lent to the States ensured the uniformity and harmony
of organisation and equipment required by the general system of
Imperial defence and economy, because larger bodies of inefficient
levies were disbanded.
In 1887 the subject of reconstituting the State Council came
up before the Maharaja, as the Dewan felt the necessity of having
as one of the councillors an officer with revenue experience who
could be deputed for the inspection of the ordinary revenue work in
the districts. Nothing however was done till Krishna Rao died in
1888, when Colonel Grant, Superintendent of the Revenue Survey,
was proposed to be appointed as a member of the Council. The
Government of India, however, considered it inadvisable that a
European officer should be a member of His Highness' Council
and the proposal fell through. In April 1889 Sabhapathi Mudaliar
was allowed to retire and P. Chentsal Rao, a retired member of
the Madras Service, was appointed a member of the Council. In
May of the same year an addition was made to the Council
subjects by prescribing that all matters coming before His
107
Highness* Government either in appeal or in revision under
Section 217 of the Mysore Land Revenue Code were to be heard
and decided by a committee consisting of not less than two
members of the Council, except in certain specified cases. In July
1891 Chentsal Rao was placed in charge of the Land Revenue
Department in addition to the charge of Local Fund and Municipal
Departments.
CHAPTER XIV.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X 1881 1894.
Famine Policy :— Railways.
There have been droughts and famines in India from the
remotest times arising out of the climatic conditions of the country
and references to deficiency of rains, failure of crops and consequent
distresses caused to the people exist both in the Sanskrit and
vernacular literatures of India. There are also references to
various kinds of measures put in operation to carry relief to the
suffering people. There were however, it must be admitted, no
systematised attempts to mitigate the horrors arising out of these
visitations. Irrigation as testified by the numerous tanks and
river canals found all over the country was one means of
combating this failure of rain. But on account of want of facilities
of communication it was not possible to carry food easily and
rapidly from where it was in plenty to parts where its lack was
sorely felt.
In 1769-70 there was a terrible famine in Bengal and the
records of the period showed that about a third of the population
perished from starvation. Even under the British rule for a long
number of years the principles and methods of famine relief were
unsettled. It was in connection with the Orissa famine of 1886
that a policy of famine relief was for the first time inaugurated.
After the great famine of 1876-78, a Commission was appointed by
Lord Lytton to enquire into the whole subject of famines in India
and to advise the Government on the measures to be taken for their
prevention and relief. Their report for the first time reduced to
system the administration of famine relief. The labours of this
Commission resulted in formulating general principles for the proper
treatment of famines and in suggesting particular measures of a
preventive or protective character. In Mysore at the time of the
famine of 1876-78 the means of communication in the shape of
roads had been admirably developed during the regime of the
British Commission, but there was no easy and rapid transport
109
except carts drawn by bullocks to carry the food to the stricken
parts. As a consequence, in spite of the large sums spent to
provide food for the distressed people and in spite of the strenuous
efforts made by the officers of the British Commission to mitigate
the distress caused, the loss of life and property was appalling.
Prudence now directed that the Government of Mysore should
always be prepared to meet contingencies of deficiency or failure of
rainfall causing scarcity, if not famine.
In 1885 the rains held off for a time in some parts of the State
and there was fear of a drought occurring. In October of the same
year in his speech to the Representative Assembly the Dewan while
accepting the British Indian mode of famine relief, indicated a few
lines of departure from it. The system of relief, said the Dewan, was
almost to be the same as that which was prescribed for all the
British Provinces. There was, however, one point connected with
the administration of relief upon the importance of which His
Highness* Government laid special stress. In their opinion, it was
essential that a scheme of relief in order to be efficient should begin
with works in the vicinity of villages inhabited by the agricultural
population. The main object of the relief was to be the prevention
of the dispersion of families in quest of distant works. Near every
inhabited village it was therefore considered advisable to provide
suitable work such as the improvement of tanks, the digging of
wells and the formation of village roads, the improvement of
existing local sanitary arrangements, construction of Saguvalikattes
and other similar works. The employment of the people on such
works, it was believed, would enable them to return to their homes
at the end of each day's work and thus it would be possible to
preserve the mutually helpful bonds of village society. The early
commencement of such works was to be regarded as of paramount
importance. Experience showed, according to the Dewan, that
in the earlier stages of distress the ryots preferred to cling to their
homes upon unwholesome or insufficient food rather than seek
employment on distant works. It was only when even such food
failed and emaciation set in that they left their homes in quest of
work or food and entered upon that career of aimless wandering
which was so fruitful a source of suffering in the famine of 1876-77,
110
A programme was accordingly arranged for some of the most
affected parts of Tumkur and Chitaldrug on the principle of leaving
no inhabited village without suitable work within a radius of 3
miles. At the same time, to meet the contingency of a drought
deepening into a famine of some intensity involving landless classes
on a large scale arrangements .were also made for undertaking
when required a system of works under the professional control of
the Public Works Department and intended chiefly for persons who
generally resorted to such works for employment. The scheme of
relief under the management of the Department of Public Works
comprised the restoration or repair of a large number of tanks and
the formation of a few useful new roads and the improvement of
existing ones, the works being so situated that the labouring and
even the agricultural classes could reach them without losing touch
of their village homes. It was at the same time realised that when
a desolating famine like that of 1876-78 occurred, resort must
necessarily be had to the larger projects of railways and irrigation.
Again in 1891-92 a severe drought occured which affected the
whole State except the Malnad taluks. In the Maidan parts of the
Mysore and Hassan districts the south-west monsoon was so
scanty and precarious that the early dry crops were completely lost
except in a few scattered places. The northern and eastern
districts did not get any of the early rains and had in consequence
to defer the preparation of land for cultivation much beyond
the usual season. A few showers which came later permitted the
sowing of nearly the usual extent of land with the ordinary crops
in most taluks. These soon began to fade from insufficient
moisture. The rain which fell towards the end of September raised
hopes of a favourable change in the season. But by November it
was evident that the north-east monsoon also was disappointing
and that the general outturn of dry crops would not be much above
a four anna average in most taluks. The tanks received no water
and wet cultivation under them could not be attempted. The
failure of fodder was widespread and altogether there was every
indication of an impending distress of a very aggravated type and
s the et^d oi November the. price of food grains began to ri
Ill
rapidly owing to the local failure of crops as well as large exports
to the neighbouring Madras districts.
In these circumstances the chief aim of Government, said the
the Dewan to the Representative Assembly in October 1892, was
to put into operation the policy sketched in 1885 and to provide
work to the affected people as far as possible near their own homes.
Accordingly, minor tanks conveniently situated were first selected
whether yielding any revenue or not. To meet the rare cases where
minor tanks were not available as , also to provide work near
villages after completion of the tanks taken up, a programme of
work of a supplementary character was kept ready. These works
were also of special local utility being such as those relating to
village sanitation, planting of topes in villages and round the fringe
of the waterspread of the bigger tanks. The execution of these
works was entrusted to the hereditary village patels as it was
deemed safer to rely upon the autonomy of the village than upon
any paid agency from outside. A system of periodical inspection
and general control by the local revenue authorities was established
and wide discretion given to district officers as regards the details
of execution with due regard to local circumstances. Later,
Government bore* testimony to the fact that the entire official
agency from the patels to the district officers had shown itself fully
equal to the high responsibility placed upon it and to the scheme of
relief planned being carried out with complete success in every
affected part.
Besides placing the means of earning wages within the ready
reach of the general population, several other measures were also
adopted for the relief of special classes. The most important and
the largest among these classes was the class of weavers, the
demand for whose articles had been very much reduced owing to
the high prices of food grains that prevailed. After much considera-
tion of alternative measures, the Government eventually adopted a
system of purchase, according to which advances of money were
made to local merchants of standing for purchasing on behalf of
Government the entire produce of the looms at the market-value to
be re-sold when the demand became re-established. The merchants
112
were paid a small commission and in return they guaranteed the
full recoupment of the advances made. The scheme was in
operation in a number of weaving centres and afforded relief to
considerable bodies of weavers who generally were the first to
suffer on every occasion of widespread scarcity and high prices. In
the Bangalore City the relief given extended to so many as 4000
looms and 10,000 weavers.
The Maharaja's Government were not content with merely
starting famine relief works when actually the need for them arose.
It was regarded that the opening out of the State by means of
railways was a necessary preliminary not only to meet droughts and
famines but also for the development of the material resources of
the State. The first line of railway from Bangalore to Mysore
was, as has been already stated, commenced by the British
Commission and was opened for through traffic in February 1882
and proved to be a great boon to the country even from the
beginning. The railway line from Bangalore to Tumkur constructed
from funds obtained by the railway loan of Rs. 20 lakhs was
opened for through traffic on the llth August 1884. Further,
this line was carried as far as Gubbi, an important centre of trade
at a distance of 1 1 miles from Tumkur, by using surplus stores and
by a cash outlay of li lakhs of rupees from the current revenues.
The whole system of railway from Mysore to Gubbi was 141 miles
in length. The survey of the line from Gubbi to Tiptur had
already been finished. At this stage the Durbar agreed in 1885 to
the proposal made by the Government of India for the construction
of the line from Gubbi to Harihar by means of foreign capital.
The Secretary of State on behalf of Mysore negotiated, as we
have seen, a loan of £ 1,200,000 at 4 per cent per annum with
the Southern Mahratta Railway Company. The proceeds of the
loan raised by the Company amounted to £ 1,224,000 including a
premium of 2 per cent and was equivalent in Indian currency to
Rs. 1,63,82,801. Out of this amount, the Durbar reimbursed itself
the amount spent on the railway constructed by it, viz.>
Rs. 68,60,508 and out of the remaining amount the cost of the
113
construction of the line from Tiptur to Harihar by the Southern
Mahratta Railway Company was defrayed.
It was agreed that the entire railway from Mysore to Harihar
was to be worked by the Company from 1st July 1886 as a separate
system distinct from their railways in British India and the cost of
management was to be apportioned between the two systems in the
proportion of their respective gross earnings. Out of the net
earnings of the Mysore system the Company were to retain for
themselves a quarter-share, the remaining three-quarters being
handed over to the Mysore State. The loan raised by the Company
was not redeemable before 1st March 1936 but was redeemable
after that date upon a year's previous notice being given. The
contract with the Company regarding the management of the line
was to be in force for a period of 46 years from the 30th June 1886
to 30th June 1932. The railway from Gubbi to Harihar was
completed by the Company in 1889 and on the 5th August of the
same year the lines from Mysore to Tiptur and from Harihar to
Tiptur were finally linked together and the through line declared
open by Chamaraja Wodeyar.
The ambition of the Durbar grew with this success to secure
to the State a system of railway communications as complete and
perfect as was possible. In his address to the Representative
Assembly in 1891 the Dewan assured the members that if the
financial conditions continued to improve as they had done in the
past, there would be no pause in the construction of more railways
which had been already mapped out and the State would thereby
become intersected by lines which in the decade preceding the
Rendition were only thought of as remote possibilities. The
railways completed during the reign of Chamaraja Wodeyar besides
the Bangalore- Harihar line were the extension from Mysore to
Nanjangud 15i miles in length, the line from Bangalore to
Hindupur 5li miles and the Kolar Gold Field railway 10 J miles.
This last line was entrusted to the Madras Railway Company and
the remaining ones to the Southern Mahratta Railway Company
for management for fixed periods. The results of the survey to
A15
'114
Carry the line from Nanjangud to Gudaloor were found dis-
couraging and the Governments of Madras and Mysore concurred
that this project should give way to that proposed to connect
Nanjangud with Erode. The line from Bangalore to Guntakal was
expected to advance the commercial prosperity of Mysore by
connecting it with Bellary, Secunderabad and other important
places to the north-east and to give a special impetus to the traffic
in cotton and grain. The Kolar Gold Field Railway was expected
to give an impetus to the Gold Mining industry.
CHAPTER XV.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
Irrigation.
As regards extension and improvement of irrigation, it was
found in the early years of Chamaraja Wodeyar's rule that the
irrigable area was only 15 per cent of the area under cultivation.
Of this small area the greater portion was dependent upon tank
irrigation. These tanks were fed by rain which at times failed
when most needed. The Government was also under no illusion as
regards the damage done to irrigation by allowing tanks in the State
generally to deteriorate.
So far back as 1866 Bowring who was then Commissioner of
Mysore had found that the ryots had silently ignored their
obligation and that the whole duty and cost of repairing the tanks
both in regard to the requisite labour and material had fallen on the
Government. At the same time he had also realised that it was
manifestly impossible for Government to undertake the petty annual
repairs of this large number of tanks scattered in all parts of the
State. The ryots' liability was re-emphasised in 1873 by the Chief
Commissioner of those days. Owing, however, to the decline of
communal spirit, the absenteeism of the land -lords and the absence
of any penalty for non-performance, it was found in the early years
of the Maharaja's rule that nothing substantial had been achieved.
There existed 38,000 tanks, both large and small, and it was found
that these required regular attention both towards their restoration
as well as towards their maintenance.
In 1884 the Dewan said at the Representative Assembly
meeting of that year that they could not conceal from themselves
the fact that a large number of the tanks were in complete ruin,
that the failure of the system of tank management was due to the
non-recognition of the important fact that the ryot was jointly
interested with the Government for the upkeep of the tanks and
that when Government found that with its costly agency it could
not undertake with any prospect of profit the full management of
116
these tanks it became necessary to call upon the ryots to once more
come forward with their co-operation. It was true that the ryots
had to a large extent lost all traditions of combination for works of
public utility, nor were the civil officers in a position to enforce the
ryots' liabilities in an efficient manner. The various inams and
privileges attached to the upkeep by ryots had been withdrawn and
cesses had been imposed on the understanding that the work was to
be done by Government. Thus by emphasising at different times
the responsibility of the one or the other of the two bodies
interested in the tanks and by neglecting the interests of the other
the tanks on the preservation of which so much depended had been
allowed to deteriorate. The Dewan concluded this portion of his
address with these words which are as true now as they were then :
" Any reform in our tank system must start with a clear recognition
of the fact that it was beyond the ability of any Government to
undertake the repair and maintenance of all the tanks in the State
with any ultimate benefit to its revenues, nor would it be equitable
to throw the burden on the ryots after the village system or what
little remained of it had been disorganised and after the ryot had
tacitly been relieved of his responsibilities by the imposition of
special cesses for the repair of tanks."
In these circumstances it became necessary for the
Maharaja's Government to evolve a new policy. To start with, it
was considered necessary to draw a distinction between tanks
which Government was to reserve for its direct management
through the Public Works Department and tanks that could be left
to the ryots under the supervision of the Revenue Department. It
was true that from long disuse there was not the same skill
available in villagers for the purpose intended as in the earlier
days, but it was considered that under the sympathetic guidance of
the Revenue and the Public Works Departments the old spirit
could be revived and that thereby the ryots would rise to the
occasion and utilise to their advantage the opportunities created.
Accordingly the proposal now took the shape of reserving all tanks
yielding more than Rs. 500 revenue under the direct control of the
Public Works Department, the number of such tanks being 790.
From the large revenue these tanks yielded, from the heaviness of
117
the cost of their repair, and from the risk involved in their breach,
it was regarded as advisable that they should be managed by the
skilled agency under Government. Tanks yielding less than
Rs. 500 were proposed to be handed over to the management of the
villagers concerned subject to the responsible control of the revenue
officer but without any hard and fast rules irksome to the ryots. This
system, it was hoped, would be sufficiently elastic to admit of its
easy application to the varying conditions of the Maidan and the
Malnad or of places where capital and intelligence were
forthcoming and places where ryots were too poor and ignorant
to do anything without State-aid.
In return for the responsibility to be transferred to the ryot it
was proposed to relieve him of the payment of the irrigation cess of
one anna per rupee of assessment. In the case of works other than
maintenance whole or partial remissions of wet kandayam for one or
more years were also to be granted according to circumstances in
order to enable the ryots immediately to carry them out. If motives
of self-interest failed to have the desired effect, the next step was to
throw open the tanks to private capital and enterprise under the
' Chouthayi ' system or remission of one-fourth of the land assess-
ment. In the case of tanks requiring an exceptionally heavy outlay
for their repair or restoration concessions even more liberal were to
be granted. Under the existing system when a tank breached it was
many years before it was repaired and in partial relief half the wet
assessment was remitted. The ryots paid half assessment for some
years and when the prospect of the tank being repaired became
more and more remote, they often resigned their holdings to the loss
of the entire assessment to the Government. When these proposals
were discussed in the Representative Assembly in October 1884
they were found to be beset with many difficulties and there were
also differences of opinion on the subject as to the limit to be fixed
in regard to the relative responsibilities of the Public Works
Department and the ryots. The settlement of the question one
way or the other was however imperative and the Government
were in favour of testing the scheme by introducing it tentatively
in seven selected taluks,
118
AS regards the general irrigation policy of the Government,
the DetarSui explained in 1886 that it was to be a settled policy of
the Government to assign for the general improvement of irrigation"
as large an allotment as was compatible with other demands on the
finances of the State. The Durbar was conscious, said the Dewan,
that a great deal remained to be done either in the shape of
general improvements or the reconstruction of ruined or abandoned
tanks likely to be remunerative or the restoration and where
practicable the extension of channels drawn from the Kaveri
Sind other rivers. Though the magnitude of these works in the
aggregate was very large, still the Government accepted it as a
settled principle that their annual operations on them were to be
limited only by the extent of the resources at their disposal for the
time being. In the case of the tank maintenance scheme already
describee! the Rs. 500 limit was lowered to one of Rs. 300, and put
into . operation in eight selected taluks, one in each district instead
of only seven. A new Public Works Division was formed and to
it ^vas entrusted all improvements of irrigation and the restoration
and ejcteqsion of channels drawn from the rivers Kaveri, Hemavathi,
Kapini and Lakshmanathirtha.
After the minor tank restoration scheme entrusted to the ryots
was in, operation fbr some time, the Dewan in his speech to the
Representative Assembly of 1887 gave a hopeful indication of the
success of the scheme. The scheme, he said, was an earnest effort
to revive a custom which though formerly well recognised had
unfortunately been allowed to fall into. disuse in later times. On
the whole, a fair measure of success having been achieved the
scheme continued to be extended to other taluks. The Dewan in
concluding his speech relating to this *part of the subject. again
emphasised on the obligation that rested on the ryots in these
earnest words : " I need scarcely remind you, gentlemen, that the
principle that the villagers must do the earthwork required for the
proper maintenance of their tanks and appeal to the Government
only when stonework or masonry work is required is an ancient
custom of the land as old as the tanks themselves. Successive
'Chief Commissioners' took advantage of every opportunity to
impress this principle upon the executive officers of the Governmept.
When the irrigation cess was imposed, the Government restricted
the appropriation of the funds thereby raised to the repair and
improvement of tanks as distinguished from mere ' maintenance '
. which was expressly declared to continue as an obligation on the
part of the ryots. So lately as October 1873 the Chief Commis-
sioner in the Public Works Department laid down elaborate rules
"for the enforcement of this obligation. The practical enforcement,
however, of the ryots' obligation as regards the tanks whether
brought up to standard by the Public Works Department or not
varied very much with each district officer's appreciation of the
importance of this part of his duty. To add to this unsatisfactory
condition of things the famine intervened and completely disorga-
nised the administrative machinery, and the different opinions from
time to time expressed as to the future tank policy of the
Government contributed not a little to unsettle people's minds.
Under such circumstances His Highness the Maharaja's Govern-
ment deem it of paramount importance to declare and enforce a
definite policy on the question and hence the scheme now
promulgated which aims at the re -establishment of a formerly fully
recognised custom — a scheme moreover which is essential for the
well being of the State, for it is possible in no other way to cope
'with the work of maintaining in perfect safety the enormous number
of tanks, large and small, scattered all over the State. When once
this end is attained, — and it is possible to attain it only by the ryot
making good the deficiencies due to his past neglect — the annual
work required of him for proper future maintenance will indeed be
.very slight and the Government will always undertake all work of
improvement, all stone and masonry work and also repair all
damages done by breaches and other inevitable accidents beyond
-the power of the ryot to avert."
The Government also by this time had become fully aware
that the improvement and extension of the river channels in
Mysore and Hassan districts were of equal importance with that of
the upkeep of tanks. Accordingly the enlargement and extension
of the Jodi Rampur channel was taken in hand as well as the
extension of the Ramasamudra channel to a distance of 10 miles
beyond its former limit. The Rajaparameswari channel was also
120
improved. It was calculated that on the full completion of the
extension of these channels an additional area of nearly 30,000
acres could be brought under wet cultivation in about five years.
A forecast programme for the next five years was prepared in 1889 .
including all projects costing over Rs. 20,000. In this programme
were included the great Marikanave dam, a project for the
construction of a new anecut across the Kaveri to be called after
the name of Chamaraja Wodeyar and the permanent improvement
of the old Chikkadevarajasagar, Virjanadi and Devaraya systems.
The Dewan invited the representatives to make any suggestions on
the programme by way either of alterations or additions from their
intimate knowledge of local wants and local interests and several
of the suggestions so made were accepted.
In 1890 it was found that several works included in the
irrigation programme would be materially affected by the rights
claimed by the Madras people to the drainages of Mysore hitherto
passed unchecked or but partially checked across the Mysore
boundaries and it became therefore necessary to place some
reasonable limit to the extent of the claims put forward by the
Madras ryots. As this was a general question and had a most
important bearing on the future irrigation policy of the State, a
representation was made to the Government of India for a fair
adjudication.
In 1891 His Highness' Government became impressed with
the need of giving encouragement to irrigation from wells which for
protective value in times of drought and local prosperity in
ordinary times were considered far superior to ordinary works of
tank irrigation. In the famine of 1876-1877 the only oases amidst
the general desolate appearance of the country were besides the
tracts watered by the river channels those special regions favoured
with well irrigation. The disappearance of surface springs in
localities where they formerly existed and a general lowering of the
spring level which had taken place in the northern and north-
eastern taluks of the State indicated the need for exceptional
activity in the construction of new irrigation works on a large
scale. Want of capital and almost the usurious interest at which
121
alone money could be had in the market had been the cause of the
ryot's inability to provide himself with irrigation wells even when
all other conditions were favourable. The Durbar, therefore, now
resolved to make advances for the sinking of wells at a nominal
rate of interest repayable in easy instalments in a long number of
years and the procedure under which such advances were
obtainable was made exceedingly simple. No further security was
demanded from the ryot than the well and the land it irrigated and
exemption from enhanced assessment was also guaranteed to the
holders of lands and the risk of any failure in finding water was
undertaken by Government. A special officer was appointed to
give the advances on the spot without the delay of circuitous
correspondence through the usual official channel. The ryots were
somewhat mistrustful of this scheme in the beginning but
subsequently they evinced an eager desire to avail themselves
of its benefits and in the districts of Kolar, Tumkur, Chitaldrug
and Bangalore loans were taken within a short time for 917 kapile
and 530 yatam wells calculated to irrigate 5252 acres.
Another important class of works for which Government loans
were given was the construction and repair of Saguvalikattes or
small reservoirs for impounding water generally. The restriction
placed upon the construction and improvement of these kattes by
an order of 1873 had been felt as a great hardship, especially in the
Chitaldrug district where much of the dry cultivation depended
upon the retention of moisture under these kattes. That order was
accordingly withdrawn and special encouragement was afforded for
the construction and improvement of these most useful private
works by a system of Government loans.
A16
CHAPTER XVI.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
Growing prosperity of the country — First Industrial
and Agricultural Exhibition in 1888 — Special encourage-
ment given to arecanut gardens — Agricultural Banks —
Encouragement to Industries — Gold Mining — Trade and
development of communications — Census of 1891.
During the reign of Chamaraja Wodeyar there was owing to a
variety of causes an increase in the agricultural prosperity of the
country. Generally the seasons were favourable for agricultural
operations and there was also an increase in the growth of
population creating larger and larger demands for agricultural
products. The census taken in 1891 showed an increase of nearly
10 lakhs of people as compared with the number in 1881. The
opening up of the country by means of railways and roads and the
extension of irrigation had also their due share of influence in
producing this agricultural prosperity. Taking Raiyatwari lands
alone, inams or rent-free lands being inconsiderable in extent in
Mysore and not subject to any appreciable variation, the occupied
area increased from 40,90,402 acres in 1881 bearing a land revenue
assessment of Rs. 63,51,000 to 61,73,826 acres in 1894 bearing an
assessment of Rs. 84,47,525. Out of the increase, nearly a third
was due to the introduction of the Revenue Survey and Settlement
into 31 taluks, while the remaining two-thirds was wholly due to
the extension of cultivation. Taking the two together, the total
increase in the occupied area was 51 per cent, while that in the
assessment was 33 per cent. It is evident, therefore, that the
individual ryot held more land in 1894 in which year Chamaraja
Wpdeyar died and paid proportionately less for it than in 1881, the
average assessment per head showing a decline from Re. 1-8-10 to
Re. 1-5-11.
Prior to 1886 the office of the Director of Agriculture was held
along with the offices of the Inspector -General of Police and of
Forests and Plantations. In that year a separate Director of
123
Agriculture and Statistics was appointed and he was also entrusted
with the duties of collection of statistics relating to rainfall,
cultivation, breeding of stock, promotion of experiments in
agriculture, trade and manufacture. In October 1888 during the
Dasara festivities an Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition was
held for the first time in Mysore and was opened by the Maharaja
on the 16th of the same month.
The aims of an Exhibition were stated by L.- Ricketts the
President of the Exhibition Committee to be to guage the resources
of the country, to stimulate agricultural and industrial pursuits by
disseminating useful information, to create a healthy emulation and
secure excellence in the quality of products and to enhance their
value by increasing the demand for them. The educational
importance of the Exhibition consisted, according to the President,
in forming as it were a vast sample room where the best specimens
of agricultural produce and a varied collection of arts and
manufacture could be seen together. The Exhibition was held in
the Gordon Park at Mysore, a prominent site having been selected
midway between the New Public Offices and the Oriental Library.
The exhibits were classified under the following heads : —
SECTION A. Horses and Ponies, Cattle, Sheep and Goats.
SECTION B. Field Produce, Garden, Plantation and Jungle
Produce, Fibres, Spices and Condiments,
Sugars, Dyes and colours, Miscellaneous
Vegetables and fruits.
SECTION C. Machines, Implements and Tools.
SECTION D. Ploughing competition.
SECTION E. Fine Arts.
SECTION F. Industrial Arts: Hardware
thenware, Glassware, FujiWjpBasketwarc
Textile Manufactures,
SECTION G. Foliage Plants.
124
The Exhibition gave an opportunity to the members of the Repre-
sentative Assembly as well as to the visitors in general for
comparing the agricultural capabilities of their respective taluks
with those of other places, for informing themselves of the success
that had been attained in various parts of the country in improving
the breed of cattle and for obtaining some practical idea of the
extent to which manual labour could be saved by the employment
of suitable machinery for lifting water for irrigation purposes as
well as for other operations connected with agriculture. In 1890
the Dewan announced that an increased number of agricultural
scholarships was to be given to the Mysore students proceeding to
the Madras Agricultural College for study on condition of their
carrying on agriculture on their own lands and farms after
completing their course of instruction. It was thereby the hope of
Government to create agricultural centres on improved principles
in different parts and by that means to bring about a gradual and
steady permeation through the community of information respecting
improved methods of agriculture and other industries connected
with it.
The Supari or betel-nut garden owners of the Malnad were
given special encouragement for the preservation of existing
gardens as well as for the opening of new ones. The representa-
tive members from the Shimoga district had on several occasions
placed before Government the hardships caused to the garden owners
by the double levy of a heavy land assessment as well as a Sayer
duty on the produce. In regard especially to the supari growers of
Sagar and Nagar it was evident that they suffered not only from a
comparatively high land assessment in addition to a Sayer duty on
the produce but also from difficulty of procuring labour, from want
of suitable markets within easy reach, and from a peculiar kind of
rot known as Koleroga which affected the betel trees, for all of
which remedial measures were necessary. In 1887 a set of Shraya
rules was issued as a partial solution for the difficult problem of
of garden assessment in the Malnad. Bearing in mind the
importance of maintaining uniformity in the system of assessment,
the Durbar arrived at the conclusion that it was necessary to retain
in the hands of Government a special garden rate which had the
125
sanction of the usage of the country. As a first step the Shraya
rules introduced gave formal effect to a system which had fallen
into disuse on the introduction of the Revenue Survey. The rules
issued offered liberal encouragement for the formation of new gardens
by allowing in the Malnad a nominal assessment of 4 annas per
annum for 12 years and for a progressive assessment during the
next three years. In the case of all arecanut gardens situated
elsewhere and all cocoanut gardens wherever situated the
assessment was fixed at 4 annas per acre for the first 9 years,
followed by a progressive assessment during the next three years.
In 1891 Government made a concession to the ryots of the Malnad
taluks by granting to them full rights in their Soppinbettas to such
garden owners as had defined tracts to their gardens. Where
no such allotment existed, a survey party was deputed for alloting
such Soppinbettas to each survey number of the garden. The
garden owners were free to cut in the Bettas assigned to them all
kinds of trees except sandal and teak.
In 1894 a scheme of Agricultural Banks which was expected
to yield very beneficent results was introduced and the Dewan's
speech to the Representative Assembly of that year expounding
the hopes and intentions of His Highness* Government is worth
reproducing in full : — " Before concluding, I wish to make a few
observations regarding the establishment of Agricultural Banks in
this country which on more than one previous occasion was pressed
on the attention of Government. The subject has now received
that careful study and investigation which its vital importance
demands and I am able to place in your hands the Kanada draft of
a scheme whereunder banks for the special benefit of agriculturists
can most readily be established in this country. The details of the
scheme are set forth in full in the draft before you but I may in
this place add a few remarks in explanation of its more salient
features.
" On the one hand, we have large accumulations of unused
capital in the country as evidenced by the balances in the Presidency
and other Exchange Banks, the refusal of the former to receive any
private deposits except as current ones carrying no interest and the
126
high premium which the Government of India 3$ per cent securities
command. On the other hand, we have the agriculturist suffering
from inability to raise the funds required for his bona fide purposes
except at ruinous rates of interest. In our own State the balance
of the Government Savings Banks deposits has risen from 4
lakhs in 1S81 to 28 lakhs during the last year though the rate of
interest was recently reduced to 3$ per cent, but the borrowing
power of our ryot is as low as ever. The substantial agriculturist,
especially the coffee planter and the grower of exportable produce,
is able to obtain some credit from the foreign buyer on the security
of his crops at 9 and 12 per cent interest. But the ordinary ryot is
unable to get any credit except at usurious rates. To bridge over
the wide gulf that thus separates capital from want is one of the
most important problems of the day in this country and it is not
without considerable diffidence that His Highness* Government
approach its solution. But we derive the hope of eventual success
from what has already, been accomplished in some European
countries where conditions very similar to ours have existed. These
countries have tried various experiments for the reorganisation of
land credit by interposing an intermediate body such as the Land
Credit Banks of the continent between the capitalist and the
agricultural borrower. These experiments have been attended with
varying degrees of success according to the degree of identification
attained of the interests of the intermediate body with those of the
borrower. But the most successful system has proved to be that
in which the agriculturists forming themselves into an association
on strictly co-operative principles substituted their own credit for
that of the intermediate body, thus securing for themselves the
fullest return for their own credit as agriculturists and doing away
with the profits of the middlemen.
"The existing conditions among us offer no insuperable
obstacle in the way of the establishment and successful working of
similar associations in this country under the designation of
Agricultural Banks. Indeed, speaking of our State, the tracts in
which the Suttige and crop-advance systems exist afford highly
favourable cpnditipns fpr their establishment,"
12?
The essential principles underlying the constitution of" these
banks were : —
1. Every bank was to be an association of landholders formed
on strictly co-operative principles and enlisted on the
basis of mutual confidence arising from the mutual
information of one another's character and resources,
the object being the common benefit of cheap credit and
not the earning of divisible profits.
2. The bank was to have no share capital, the funds required
for the bank being obtained by means of loans raised
or deposits received.
3. The members were to contribute their liability only.
4. The funds raised by the bank were to be lent only to its
members at such moderate rates of interest as would
leave the bank a small margin for the actual expenses of
management and for the formation of a Reserve Fund.
5. The affairs of the bank were to be managed by a body
elected from among the members themselves and giving
their services gratuitously.
6. No loan was to be made except for an approved purpose
such as some agricultural operation which with ordinary
care could be expected to repay the loan and to leave
some profit to the borrower.
While the credit of the bank was in the process of growth, the
Government were prepared, assured the Dewan, to help the bank
with deposits of money at favourable rates of interest. Further,
exemptions were also to be granted from stamp and other duties to
provide for the special registration of loans and their ready
recovery, for the custody of funds in public treasuries and for the
periodical audit of accounts. The co-operative spirit on which the
association was based was, of course, to come from the people
themselves. " I have no doubt," concluded Sir K. Seshadri Iyer,
" such a spirit is to be found in most parts of the State, at least to
128
the extent of enabling us to make a small beginning. Small
beginnings and early struggles are the necessary conditions of
vigorous life and I indulge in the hope that the scheme if carefully
worked on a moderate scale and in places where the conditions are
most favourable will soon be the means of establishing a system of
agricultural banks throughout the country. They will be a great
education to the people in thrift and co-operation and they will be
the means of creating a wholesome public opinion against
unproductive expenditure and extravagance of all kinds."
The importance of industrial development was equally
realised by the Maharaja's Government. In 1881 Rangacharlu in
his address to the Representative Assembly in explaining the fall
in land revenue drew pointed attention to the loss of a million of
the population of the country and the consequent reduction in
demand for food grains leading to a fall -in their prices and deterring
the ryots from bringing more lands under the plough, indicating
thereby how much the success of agriculture was dependent on the
flourishing condition of the manufacturing industries. The old idea,
said Rangacharlu, that India must confine itself to the growth of
agricultural produce was giving way to the more correct theory
that no country could prosper unless its agricultural and manufac-
turing industries were equally fostered. In 1890 Sir K. Seshadri
Iyer in explaining to the Representative Assembly certain
concessions granted to a private capitalist for the establishment of
a large scale iron industry in the Malavalli taluk, which however
did not materialise, announced that it was to indigenous industries
that they should look for the growth of capital and wealth in the
country and real progress in other directions also. With the
general poverty of the people on the one hand and their growing
intelligence on the other, the great want of the people was doubtless
the establishment of suitable industries on a scale calculated to
afford a variety of remunerative occupations to large numbers and
thus to obviate profitless competition within narrow spheres.
Under such circumstances, the Dewan further said, it behoved the
Government to do everything in their power not only to foster
existing local industries but also to establish new ones wherever
possible and recognising the principle that a far more powerful
129
agency in the matter than Government was the enterprise and
intelligence of the people themselves, it was always the policy of
Government to give every reasonable encouragement for the growth
of new industries.
An outstanding industry that grew up during the reign of
Chamaraja Wodeyar was that of Gold Mining. Mysore has now
acquired a definite place among the gold producing countries of the
world, The existence of old workings in the tract of country
adjacent to Bowringpet in the Kolar District had long been known.
But it was not till 1873 that any special attention was directed to
them. In that year, one M. F. Lavelle, a resident of Bangalore who
possessed some knowledge of Geology retired from the army and
applied to the Government of Mysore for the exclusive privilege of
mining in the Kolar District. His request was granted, one of the
conditions being that a Royalty of 10 per cent was to be paid on all
ores raised. Lavelle commenced operations by sinking a shaft in
1875 near Oorgaum. But finding that large capital was required for
carrying out the work, he next year with the approval of the
Government transferred all his rights and concessions to a military
officer by name Beresford. This officer with some friends formed a
syndicate known as the Kolar Concessionaires who took up the
matter in earnest, at the same time obtaining a reduction in the
rate of Royalty from 10 to 5 per cent. On these terms twenty
square miles forming the Kolar Gold Fields were from time to time
taken up by the Concessionaires and the Royalty and rent claimed
by Government were further optionally allowed to be commuted by
an immediate payment of Rs. 55,000 per square mile. By 1881
the Concessionaires secured the aid of Messrs. John Taylor & Sons,
a firm of mining engineers in London. A general rush was now
made for gold and rules for grant of mining-leases in other parts of
the State were drawn up on similar terms. In 1886, finding that
the Kolar Concessionaires were realising vast sums by sale of land
containing gold, a fine of one-tenth of the consideration for every
assignment of the lease was levied by Government.
The Government in 1886 also considered it necessary to have
the country generally surveyed with reference to auriferous tracts
A17
130
and Lavelle accordingly made a rough survey which was then gone
over by Bruce Foote of the Geological Survey of India and duly
mapped out. On information thus obtained, the existing rules were
modified by providing for the grant of prospecting licences and
making the grant of a lease conditional on a Company being
formed within two years with paid-up working capital of £ 5000
per square mile and by reserving to Government the right to limit
the total area to be leased for the time being and to dispose of
mining leases for such areas by public competition. Under these
conditions about ninety-seven square miles in all were leased out
up to 1891, the land being situated in every district except
Bangalore which was not within the auriferous zone.
In 1894 the Dewan stated in the Representative Assembly
that under a system of prospecting licences and mining leases on
favourable terms British capital and enterprise were attracted to
the State and the mineral resources of the country had been so far
developed that the anticipations of the past had been more than
realised and the position of Mysore as a gold -producing country
had become assured. The time therefore had arrived to organise
and carry out a systematic survey of the State. At the end of 1894
a regular Geological Department was established under Bruce
Foote whose services were borrowed from the British Government.
The work of this department was to include a thorough
investigation and record of the mineral resources of the country, the
collection in a special museum of objects of geological and mining
interest, maintenance of a laboratory for the purpose of making
assays and analyses of minerals, and the training of young men for
the work of the department in all its branches. Geology was also
added to the curriculam of the Central College as an optional
subject for the University Course.
It need scarcely be said that there was always much risk and
uncertainty inherent in the mining industry and the success of even
the Kolar Gold Mines was for a considerable time far from assured.
In February 1881 one Captain B. D. Plummer, a miner of great
experience, was appointed manager of the Nandidoorg Mine and
Tie commenced operations there. These were continued till April
131
1883, when work was stopped for want of funds. Captain
Plummer, however, from the crush ings found that the prospects
were encouraging and urged the shareholders to continue the work.
But the shareholders had not the courage to venture more money.
Meanwhile, another of the Companies the Mysore Mine had also
come nearly to the end of its resources. A balance of only
£ 13,000 remained and it was a question whether to divide this
among the shareholders or to risk it on the mine. The strong
advice of John Taylor prevailed and Captain Plummer was sent in
December 1883 to do the best he could with the amount available.
What actually occurred afterwards has now become a matter of
history. The Champion Load was discovered by Captain
Plummer and by 1885 the success of the Kolar Gold Fields became
established. The £ 1 shares of the Mysore Mine which was as
low as 10 pence were soon quoted £ 7-10-0 and it paid in 1886 a
Royalty of Rs. 33,368 to Government. This was the first sum of
Royalty received by the Mysore Government and in succeeding
years it went on increasing till in 1894-95 it was Rs. 7,33,527.
In 1894-95 there were 13 Companies at work representing a capital
of £ 35,00,000 with a labour population including women and
children, of 400 Europeans and 11,700 Indians. The annual
payments on the spot in wages and otherwise exceeded 60 lakhs of
rupees. In an area which was a few years ago a desolate waste
sprung up a large and flourishing town humming with life and
activity. A branch railway, as has been already stated, was
opened in 1893 running from the Bowringpet junction 'of the
Jalarpet-Bangalore line through most of the principal mining areas
proving an immense convenience. In 1886-87 the total output of
gold was 16,325 ounces valued at Rs. 8,88,606 and in 1894-95 the
total production was 2,34,859 ounces valued at £ 8,44,271. The
total quantity of gold produced during a period of about 10 years
was 10,56,941 ounces valued at Rs. 2,34,39,352 plus £ 23,45,915.
The total amount of Royalty received by the Mysore Government
at 5 per cent on the gross income was Rs. 31,68,872. These figures
showed the magnitude of the interests created. But although the
country was naturally benefited greatly thereby, the principal
transactions all took place in England where all the capital had been
132
raised and whither all the gold was conveyed. The dealings in
shares took place on the London Stock Exchange and except some
. shares held by the Mysore Government very few shares were held
by the people of the country. The Captains and other officials were
English but the labour employed as far as Europeans were
concerned consisted principally of Italian miners, and the native
miners were at one time largely Moplahs from the Western Coast
but in course of time others also were attracted by the liberal wages
given.
Next turning to the textile trade, Bangalore became one of the
most important distributing centres for this trade in Southern
India. The first mill started in the Mysore State at Bangalore was
in the year 1884 now known as the Mysore Spinning and
Manufacturing Mills. The next mill started was in 1887 under the
designation of the Bangalore Woollen, Cotton and Silk Mills.
These Mills were started with local capital and large concessions
were given by the Government in the shape of suitable sites and
facilities for water supply. The Durbar also subscribed towards the
share capital. These mills though now in a prosperous condition
had a very chequered career in the earlier years and came to be
largely financed with outside capital and the management also
passed into the hands of outside agencies.
During the reign of Chamaraja Wodeyar considerable impetus
was given to the trade of the country both by the extension of
railways and by connecting them with those in British India as
well as by the increase of the mileage of good roads. In the first
ten years of this reign 471 miles of entirely new roads were opened
out and 218 miles of roads which were incomplete at the time of the
Rendition were fully completed. Some of these roads were
reckoned as important railway feeders on which the development of
the railway traffic mainly depended. The road from Avinhalli and
that from Talguppa were designed and carried out via the Ninne
Ghat to Gersoppa so as to afford a much needed outlet for the
supari of the western Malnad. The construction of bridges over the
Thunga at Hariharpur and the Bhadra at Balehonnur materially
133
removed the great obstacles that existed to the trade of Mysore
with the Western Coast.
In February 1891 the usual decennial census was taken of the
entire State on the system adopted in British India. The
population of the whole State including that of C. & M. Station,
Bangalore, was found to be nearly 49j lakhs as compared with
nearly 42 lakhs in 1881, the increase being nearly 18.08 per cent.
To reach the figures of 1871 when the first census was taken and
when the population was a little over 50j lakhs, there still existed
a gap of over one lakh which had to be made up.
CHAPTER XVII.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
Progress of education in general — Special encourage-
ment to women's education — Oriental Library — Archaeo-
logy Encouragement to Kanada drama —Chamaraja
Wodeyar's catholicity of mind.
During the reign of Chamaraja Wodeyar both branches
of education general and special received considerable
encouragement. In 1881 the number of schools was only 866 and
in 1894 the closing year of the Maharaja's reign, the number
of schools increased to 1797 and the expenditure on them from
Rs. 3,15,000 to Rs. 8,20,000. The increase in the number of boys
was from 39,413 to 83,398 and in that of girls from 3000 to 12,000.
Eight hundred primary vernacular schools, fifty English Middle
Schools, five Industrial Schools, two Normal Schools, thirty
Sanskrit schools, one first grade English College and three Oriental
Colleges were newly established. Taking the census figures of 1891
it was found that in a period of 10 years from 1881 the total
number of educated males among the population of the State had
increased from 2,34,698 to 2,61,508 or 11.4 per cent and of educated
females from 9082 to 17,885 or 96.3 per cent.
The financial exigencies of the early period of the Maharaja's
rule necessitated the abolition of a separate departmental head for
education and his designation of Director of Public Instruction was
in 1883 changed to that of Education Secretary to the Dewan and
with these duties were combined the duties of Police Secretary to
the Dewan as well those of the Census Superintendent. In August
1884 Archaeology was substituted for police duties and in April
1890 Education was separated from Archaeology and was entrusted
to Dr. H. J. Bhabha, a Parsi gentleman of ability who was
principal of the Maharaja's College at the time.
On the occasion of the prize distribution on the 24th March
1882 to the students of the Maharaja's College at which Chamaraja
135
Wodeyar presided, Rangacharlu on behalf of His Highness*
Government stated that the requirements of an advancing age did
not permit of education being left to the chances of individual
philanthropy as in former days but that it was necessary that
Government should undertake the maintenance of public schools
and colleges, care being however taken not to allow them to
degenerate into a mere Government Department worked on mere
routine and on considerations of monetary gain. Further, if
educational institutions were to attain their highest success,
emphasised Rangacharlu, they needed to be characterised by public
spirit, purity of intentions and devoted attachment between masters
and pupils which belonged to the older schools. No nation could
thrive without a highly educated class at its head and the system of
Government schools would never be complete without the colleges.
So long as these colleges were attended by all classes of people and
a well-devised system of scholarships placed them within the reach
of the more gifted students of the poorer classes, it might fairly be
accepted that it was the national and not individual interests that
were served. Education was but a means to an end and a desire for
it could only spring among the people by political ambition, or any
religious movement, or great industrial changes. What was really
required at the time, concluded Rangacharlu, .was to stimulate a
desire for education among the large agricultural classes. If this
was accomplished, Government would no more be called upon to
pay for their education than are required to feed them.
Till the year 1886 however, education did not receive much
support from Government funds on account of various other
urgent demands on its revenue. In that year Sir K. Seshadri
Iyer was in a position to announce in the Representative
Assembly the educational policy of Government for the future.
It would be the aim of Government, he said, to maintain
unimpaired and in thorough efficiency all the means of elementary
and secondary education and to bring them within the reach of all
classes both by direct agency and by assisting private efforts, to
promote a scholarly study of the local vernacular and of the
Sanskrit language, to elevate and extend female education and to
conduct it on a system strictly national so as to enlist popular
136
sympathy in its progress and to encourage higher education and
train young men for the professions of medicine and engineering.
The most notable advance during the period of Chamaraja
Wodeyar's rule was that made in women's education. There existed
in the days of the British Commission a few schools for girls
managed by religious bodies. But these were not generally popular as
they paid little regard to the religious beliefs and social habits of the
people. As a consequence, the attendance in these schools was very
limited and the girls attending mostly belonged to the lower strata
of society. As far as the Mahomedan population was concerned, no
girls belonging to that community attended any school. In the very
first year of Chamaraja Wodeyar's accession to power this defect
was recognised and a school at Mysore was started under the desig-
nation of the Maharani's Girls' School where caste prejudices were
consulted and teachers drawn from respectable communities were
appointed. This school later developed into the far-famed Maharani's
College. At the end of the first year of the existence of the school,
Rangacharlu presided at a prize distribution and his views on
women's education are interesting. " I attach great importance," he
said, " to getting up among our leading families numbers of young
ladies with a high English education who could feel for the
advancement of their sex and take up the same position in regard
to them as that occupied by educated men in relation to their
brethren. We cannot altogether trust in the legislation of men for
the softer sex any more than in the legislation of one class for
another. Such legislation is as much apt to err on the side of
extravagance as on that of despotism, indulging in imaginary ideas
of women's rights and other extravagant notions. The happy
mean will be arrived at if we leave to women all that concerns
themselves to be judged and determined by the standard of their
feelings and ideas on the subject." By the course adopted, the
orthodox sentiments of the people were conciliated and several
other girls' schools also subsequently started gained in popularity.
A school was later opened at the important pilgrimage centre of
Melkote and another was established at Tumkur to commemorate
the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, both mainly
maintained from private funds. By the year 1889 women's education
137
came to be regarded as an object of general approval and the
Maharani's Girls' School was always looked up to as a guide. An
English lady of good literary attainments was at this time deemed
necessary to be appointed as Lady Superintendent at its head.
An important change was made in the system of supervision
over girls' schools throughout the State. To enable the local people
directly interested in the success of women's education to watch
over the growth of the system and so direct it that every step taken
might enlist in advance the sympathy and support of the native
community at large, Government placed in 1890 every girls' school
maintained from State funds under the immediate supervision of a
local committee. The committees were given large powers of
management and the initiative was generally allowed to rest in
almost all cases with them. Women's education, the Government
considered, could not become firmly established in the country until
the people began to look upon the education of their girls, whether
children or adults, as necessary and as obligatory as that of
their boys.
The Maharani's Girls' School, Mysore, Arya Balika Pathasala
in Bangalore and the Empress Girls' School at Tumkur which had
been started and worked as aided private institutions were later
converted into Government institutions on account of their size and
importance and were also placed under the supervision of
committees. The Maharani's Girls' School underwent a thorough
revision of its system of studies and management at the hands of
the influential committee appointed to supervise it. Five Brahmin
ladies trained in the school were appointed teachers in the same
institution and subsequently the number was raised to 16 as lady
teachers became available. So many as 59 girl pupils above the
age of 12 attended the Maharani's School showing strong
indications of the disillusion of social prejudices against women's
education. A training class consisting of ten pupils was also for the
first time opened and a graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge,
was appointed Lady Superintendent. Before leaving this subject,
it may be stated that in its early years women's education owed its
progress to the zealous services of Rai Bahadur A. Narasimha
A1S
13$
lyengar whom we have already met as tutor to Chamaraja Wodeyar
and who subsequently as Durbar Bakshi to His Highness used all
the influence he possessed for the wider spread of knowledge among
women, not to speak of the large sums he spent from his own purse
in behalf of a cause of which he was an earnest advocate.
Various other measures of improvement in education were also
introduced during this reign. An Industrial School was opened at
Mysore in February 1892 with arrangements for imparting
instruction in carpentry, blacksmiths* work, masonry, pottery, rattan
work and free-hand drawing. The pupils of this school were drawn
from all classes — Hindus of all castes, Mahomedans, Native
Christians and Eurasians. The Maharaja's College affiliated to the
Madras University was raised to the first grade and came to occupy
the same status' as the other first grade college in the State, namely,
the Central College at Bangalore. A number of Government
scholarships was instituted for the benefit of the Mysore students to
study the subjects of Engineering, Medicine, Veterinary Science,
Arts and Forestry in the British Indian Colleges at Poona,
Madras, Bombay and Dehra Dun. In 1888 the Maharaja
instituted a system of special scholarships for the benefit of the
palegar pensionaries of the State and for the Mahomedans. The
former were designed as inducements to the principal palegar
houses to put the younger members of their families under suitable
courses of instruction to qualify them for the public service.
It was found that the Mahomedans had not come forward readily
to avail themselves of the benefits of higher education and the
scholarships now provided for them were intended as an encourage-
ment to march alongside of the other communities. The fees
payable by Mahomedan pupils were also reduced to half of the
usual rates so as to give special impetus to the spread of education
among them.
Government aid was also extended to a large number of
private schools, among which were included many giving
instruction in Sanskrit. The promotion of the study of Sanskrit in
conjunction with that of Kanada was calculated to raise the general
standard of education in the country. An examination known as
139
the Mysore Local Examination for vernacular candidates was
instituted in 1886, while the Middle School Examination afforded a
similar goal to the pupils of English Schools. The Mysore Local
Examination was also later recognised as a qualifying test for some
of the subordinate grades of the public service.
His Highness was a great patron of Sanskrit and Kanada
learning. The Sanskrit college which had been started some years
before was greatly improved and examinations in all branches of
that learning open to scholars from all parts of India were instituted
and liberal rewards were given to them at the durbar during
the Dasara festival, along with the certificates of merit. To
encourage Kanada learning and literature a Sabha was started
under the name of * Karnataka Bhashojjivini Sabha ' and a
pathasala was also established in connection with it. Pandits
Seetharama Sastry, Kasturi Rangachar, Vyakarana Shamachar and
Sundara Sastrigal were noted Sanskrit Pandits at the time.
Basavappa Sastry was a Kanada scholar of great merit who wrote
not only original works but also brought out apt translations into
Kanada of Kalidasa's * Sakuntala ' and other dramas in Sanskrit.
Among the Mahomedans was Moulvi Shabudin, a well-known
scholar both in Urdu and Persian. To mark the appreciation of
His Highness for great learning or extraordinary public services,
various titles were instituted and were conferred on deserving men.
Prior to the period of Chamaraja Wodeyar there were no regularly
constituted theatres in Mysore of the modern type. His Highness
established one and attached it to the Palace and gave considerable
encouragement to those connected with it. The catholicity of the
Maharaja's mind may be understood from the fact that he was the
first Hindu Ruler who gave material encouragement to Swami
Vivekananda and enabled him to proceed to Chicago to attend the
Parliament of Religions held there.
In 1887 on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Queen
Victoria advantage was taken to found an institute at Mysore as a
memorial of the occasion, in which it was proposed to make as
complete a collection as possible of ancient manuscripts both
Sanskrit and Kanada and to provide facilities for scholars for
140
consulting and obtaining copies of the works. This Oriental
Library was opened to scholars for the first time in October 1891.
In the last year of His Highness* reign there were in all in this
library 1653 printed works and 1358 manuscripts in Kanada and
Sanskrit.
In 1890 it was found that a more vigorous and systematic
effort was needed for the completion of the archaeological survey of
the State. In the neighbouring Madras and Bombay Presidencies
regular archaeological survey had already been established and it
was found that Mysore by occupying an intermediate position often
contained the key or connecting link to much that was being
discovered in those Presidencies. Accordingly this work was
separated from that of the Education Secretary and B. L. Rice was
put in sole charge of it, as he was by his high scholarly attain-
ments and varied researches in Indian antiquities regarded as
specially qualified to take charge of the work. The most important
of the inscriptions found in Mysore were the edicts of Asoka in the
Molakalmuru taluk of the Chitaldrug district. These edicts
subsequently formed the subject of learned papers published in
Paris, Vienna and London. At the end of each of the inscriptions
were a few letters which were later deciphered by Professor Buhler
of Vienna as the word * Lipikarena ' indicating the profession of
the engraver in Kharoshtri or Baktrian-Pali characters which were
written from left to right.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X 1881 1894.
Four distinguished visitors — Lord Dufferin, Prince Albert
Victor, Lord Lansdowne and Field-Marshal Sir George
Wolsley (later Viscount) Commander-in-chief.
Lord Lytton was the last Viceroy that visited Mysore in the
days of the British Commission. But his visit was purely a
business one in connection with the mitigation of the acute famine
that prevailed at the time in the Mysore State. Lord Dufferin who
succeeded the Marquis of Ripon was the first Viceroy to pay a
friendly and ceremonial visit to the Maharaja at Mysore in
November iSSfi. The Countess of Dufferin also accompanied
her husband on this occcision. His Excellency arrived at Mysore
on the 1st December and was received by His Highness and other
principal officers and citizens of the State with all the honours due
to the rank of so distinguished a guest. There was an exchange of
visits later between the Maharaja and the Viceroy on the same
day. At night the Palace was brilliantly illuminated.
On the same night a State banquet was given at which the
Maharaja proposed the health of the Queen -Empress, and the
Dewan on behalf of the Maharaja proposed the health of the
Viceroy and of Lady DufTerin in a speech full of sentiments of
gratitude to the British Government for the generosity shown in
restoring to their ancient heritage the old Hindu Royal family of
Mysore and for the benefits conferred on the country- by British
rule for a period of half a century*. Towards the end of the
Dewan's speech a reference was also made to the movement started
by the Countess of Dufferin whose labour of love in the cause of
the suffering women of India had won for her a high place in the
affections of the Princes and peoples of India.
Lord Dufferin in responding to the toast gave expression,
among other matters, to these sentiments : — " Under the benevolent
rule of the Maharaja good government, enlightened progress and
the blessings of education are everywhere in the ascendent and
142
there is no State within the compass of the Indian Empire which
has more fully justified the wise policy of the British Government
in supplementing its own direct administration of its vast territories
by the associated rule of our great feudatory Princes It has
now been my good fortune to have passed through most of the
Native States of India and to have come into intimate contact with
the Chiefs, and I have no hesitation in saying that though there
may be differences between them, though some states may be more
advanced than the others, some rulers less sensitive than others to
the weighty responsibilities imposed on them by Providence, on the
whole my experiences have been eminently satisfactory and
reassuring and the Queen -Empress and the Government of Great
Britain have the greatest reason to congratulate themselves on the
general enlightenment, the desire to do their duty and the conscien-
tious application to affairs which are so generally prevalent amongst
them."
After the banquet, there was in addition to the display of
fireworks a performance of a very interesting and exciting kind of
war-dance by a party of Manjarabad Gowdas. Illuminated by
various coloured lights, the figures and faces of the dancers are
described to have assumed most fantastic appearances, while the
successive flashes from their swords lent a fierce lustre to the
performance and conveyed the impression of a real warfare.
The next day the Viceroy received an address from the
members of the Representative Assembly of Mysore and referring
to the general contentment prevailing in the country said : — " That
you should use such terms does not surprise me, for your good
fortune has placed you under the rule of one of the most intelligent,
upright and high-minded among the great Princes of India and when
I leave this country, I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that,
at all events so far as this part of the country is concerned, its
welfare, its proper security and its peace are amply provided
for I am very glad that you have touched upon the question
of education, as it gives me an opportunity of impressing in as
earnest and as strong a language as I can command, the extra-
ordinary pleasure J have experjepced in seeing on every side such
143
manifest signs of the deep interest with which that subject is
regarded in this State as well as of the liberal and intelligent energy
with which its development is being prosecuted. When I passed
along what I imagine must have been a quarter of a mile of street,
lined on either side in rows of eight and ten deep, with the youth of
the country congregated under their respective teachers, I felt that
you were laying broad and deep for all time to come the foundations
of a prosperous future. But great as has been my satisfaction at
these proofs of the progress made in general education, I was still
more pleased by a sight which, I imagine, is not to be seen in any
other part of India and that was the appearance of rows and rows
of young ladies belonging to the highest caste families assembled
together under the same admirable system and enjoying, as far as I
can understand, as extensive opportunities of acquiring knowledge,
of enlarging their experience and of strengthening their understand-
ing as could be found in any of the most advanced cities of Europe.
And those gentlemen who are the leaders of society and who
represent the aristocracy of the land, who have in so generous and
liberal-minded a manner seconded the able efforts of Her Highness
the Maharani to establish the Mysore female school are entitled to
the greatest credit for their exertions I am pleased to think
that the Maharaja should have called to his counsels men of such
intelligence, influence and authority as I see around me."
On the 2nd December Lady Dufferin presided at a prize
distribution to the pupils of the Maharani's Girls' School. This
school was started on the 21st January 1881 with a strength of 28
pupils. It was necessary to establish this school in order to make
women's education popular among the upper grades of the Hindu
society consistently with their cherished customs and manners. At
the time of Lady Dufferin's visit in December 1886 the strength of
the school had risen to 463 pupils, of whom 6 had reached the high
school stage. A home-teaching branch was opened to continue the
education of such girls as could no longer attend school on account
of their domestic circumstances and to impart instruction to some
elderly ladies who began to express a desire for studying at home
being unable and unwilling to attend school in consequence of their
conditions of life. This branch began with 15 pupils and two
144
teachers and in 1886 when Lady Dufferin visited the school there
were 67 pupils, one of whom was a middle aged widow belonging to
a respectable orthodox family. One subject on which special stress
was laid in the school was the teaching of Hindu music which was
considered essential for women for being sung on festive occasions.
The study of Sanskrit occupied an important position in the
curriculum, for it was deemed a living language so far as moral and
religious readings were concerned. After the prize distribution was
over, Lady Dufferin and the Viceroy proceeded to shake hands with
a number of those present and expressed their warm interest in the
work which had been undertaken. At night there was an
entertainment in the Rangacharlu Memorial Hall which was
brilliantly illuminated on the occasion. The entertainment
programme included a nautch, a performance on swords and a
Hindu drama ' Droupadi Swayamvara.' The last was acted in
Kanada by a group of high caste young men. The Viceroy seemed
interested in the whole performance but especially with the dancing
on swords. After the entertainment was over, he went up to
examine the stand upon which the blades were fixed.
Later, after Lady Dufferin returned to England, she published
a book called "Our Viceregal Life in India" in which occurs the
following passage: — "When we saw them (the young children of
the Maharaja, two girls and a boy) they were all carried in by men,
though the eldest girl is six years old. She and her sister looked
intensely solemn and wore their hair plaited very stiffly and smoothly
down. The boy looked very delicate."
The next visitor to Mysore was the lamented Prince Albert
Victor, eldest son of King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales.
His Royal Highness landed at Bombay on the 9th November 1889
and after visiting Hyderabad and Madras left the latter place on
the night of the 22nd. On the morning of the 23rd the royal train
passed Bangalore on its way to Mysore and halted at Seringapatam
for a while. Here the first sight noticed by the Prince was that
near the railway bridge where feathery bamboos were hanging down
to the water's edge of the Kaveri river and spreading their roots
were completing the destruction of the fort-walls begun by British
145
guns in 1799. The Prince visited the corner where the breach was
made and through which the British troops entered and the place
where they divided themselves into two parties. The next place
visited was the summer-house of Tippu known as Daria Dowlat, a
beautiful garden-house of open halls and verandahs. From the
Daria Dowlat the royal party proceeded to the Mausoleum of
Haidar and Tippu. After luncheon, the party crossed the second
branch of the Kaveri at Paschimavahini and boarded the
special train.
At the Mysore Railway-station the Prince was met by the
Maharaja attended by the Dewan and other officers as well as by
notable men of the place, besides a complimentary escort consisting
of the Mysore Lancers, gaily caparisoned elephants, the Mysore
infantry clad in scarlet, carriages drawn by teams of white horses
wearing pink aigrattes and other paraphernalia of magnificence.
The next day the J4th of November was spent in exchange of
visits between the Prince and the Maharaja and in a visit to the
Maharani's Girls1 School. At the time the Prince visited the school
it is stated that there were five hundred well-dressed and intelligent
girls between the ages of six and sixteen. From the Maharani's
Girls* School the Prince paid a visit to the Palace. At night there
was a banquet in honour of the distinguished visitor. After the
banquet was over, His Royal Highness was driven round the city
to witness the illuminations. The large tank to the east of the
fort known as the Doddakere tank was lighted up by thousands of
wicks burning in earthen saucers containing oil. Eight circular
basket boats floated over a surface of small rippling waves, their
gunwales being picked out with lamps, the reflections of which
shimmered down the slowly moving surface of the water. In the
centre of the lake was a glittering white house built of pith and
talc, all one blaze of light. Later in the same night there was an
entertainment in the Rangacharlu Memorial Hall where were
presented some unusual features. On either side of the vestibule
had been placed transparencies exhibiting types of the various
classes of people who inhabited the Mysore country. These were
all in pairs, male and female, in their usual costume. Among them
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146
Wefe a few peculiar ones — the Saranas who served at the temple,
the male carrying a bell in his right and a bunch of peacock
feathers in his left hand and an umbrella under his left arm, and
the female also carried a bell and wore a rough bead necklace and
bead wristlets ; Vuribattidasiyas or fire-eaters, the man carrying a
saucer of fire on his head, and in his left hand a lighted wick, the
end of which he now and again put into his mouth, the female
carrying faggots under her left arm ; Jenukuruba or honey -drawer
dressed in very simple costume with only a cloth girt about his
loins and carrying only a stick.
On the morning of the 25th November the Maharaja drove
the Prince forty -six miles on his way to the Khedda camp in the
Chamarajnagar taluk where G. P. Sanderson, the famous elephant
shikar of the time, awaited the party. The locality chosen for the
operations was the Biligirirangan hills, a small range by some
thirty miles in length by ten in width which formed a portion of the
southern boundary of Mysore. His Royal Highness1 drive from
Mysore to the camp was somewhat long and wearisome and the last
five miles were accomplished on horseback under a hot sun. The
royal party and the gentlemen accompanying arrived at a place
called Budipadaga at 1-30 p.m. The quiet neighbourhood of this
place was enlivened by much bustle and preparations, with the
result that a canvas city had come into existence. There was one
main road terminating at one end at His Royal Highness' tent and
flanked on each side by the tents of His Highness the Maharaja,
Colonel Sir Oliver St. John the British Resident in Mysore,
Dewan Seshadri Iyer and of the other visitors who were invited to
be present and officials whose duties necessitated their presence
there. Native shop-keepers were established with stocks of rice
and other provisions for sale to the camp followers. A temporary
post office was also opened.
After bath and breakfast, a start was made for the Khedda
where a herd of* elephants had been impounded. His Royal
Highness and Sir Edward Bradford who was attached to the
persona] staff of the Prince rode on an elephant and Sanderson
accompanied them to explain to His Royal Highness the arrange-
147
ments by which the herd had been surrounded and what the further
programme was. The Maharaja, Sir Oliver St. John and othere
rode on horseback, while the Dewan trotted along in a small
bullock-cart belonging to Sanderson which was well adapted for
jungle travel. On arriving at the Khedda the party proceeded
on foot outside the enclosure to a sort of jungle grand stand.
This stand overlooked at a distance of thirty yards the gateway
through which the elephants were to be driven into the small
Khedda or enclosure in which they were to be secured. The
pavilion was screened with leaves as were also the gateway and
the barricades and the whole of the enclosure and the ground in
front of it where all had lately been trampled and bare had been
converted into a dense, cool covert by the simple horticultural
expedient of sticking feathery bamboos and leafy saplings into the
ground to a height greater than the elephants* backs. The
pavilion was sixty feet long and ten wide and a level space had
been made for it by cutting into the steep hillside and using the
earth for banking up the floor. Along the whole length of the
pavilion a bench made of bamboos extended and the floor and roof
were neatly matted. The rope by which the gate of the Khedda
was suspended was led to this place and secured, so that by cutting
a small cord the gate was to be released. The Maharaja was
entrusted with a knife for cutting the cord, an experienced hunter
standing near to apprise when the correct moment arrived.
All had been prepared for the drive before the arrival of His
Royal Highness and the party. The beaters were in position and
only awaited the signal to begin. A platform had been constructed
on a tree which overhung a stream about twenty yards from the
gate by which the elephants were to enter the first enclosure and
where it was necessary for Sanderson to station himself to help the
men at the moment of getting the elephants through the gates and
where the beasts were likely to break and charge the beaters. The
platform had been made large enough to accommodate more than
one in case the Prince desired to see the drive from that point.
This the Prince elected to do and accompanied by Captain Harvey
and Sanderson, His Royal Highness climbed the ladder into the
148
platform which had been made comfortable by an elephant's soft
pad being spread as a cushion to sit on.
Immediately the signal was given the beat commenced and
after much varied fortune the herd breaking back more than once,
the animals came and stood close to the tree on which stood the
Prince's platform. His Royal Highness had a good view of them
here at the distance of but a few yards. The herd ought to have
been driven in at the first attempt. But the beaters were some-
what excited on the occasion and it was some time before the herd
was made to descend the bank of the stream under the tree on
which was the platform. At last in a compact herd, each
individual elephant struggling not to be last, they crowded through
the gateway into the first enclosure urged on by several charges of
small shot which His Royal Highness plied them with. The herd
continued its march through this enclosure into the inner one, above
which on the hillside a visitors' stand had been erected and the
rope controlling the gate of which was in the Maharaja's hands.
As soon as all the elephants entered the inner enclosure His
Highness dropped the gate. All was made secure in a short time,
when the dividing gate between the enclosures was hauled up and
on a few of the hunters climbing the stockade and showing them-
selves, the elephants retired into the first enclosure. They were
then left for the night with the run of the two enclosures which
were guarded all round with fires by the hunters. His Royal
Highness and party returned on horseback led by men with torches
to the camp at Budipadaga.
About 1 p.m. the next day the Prince and the visitors again
started for the Khedda to see the operation of tying up the captives.
By the time the royal party arrived, the elephants had all been
driven into the inner enclosure where they were temporarily
confined, while the gate of the outer enclosure was opened and the
tame elephants or ' Koonkies ' as they were called were admitted.
These were twelve in number and had been brought to Mysore some
months previously from Dacca, 1000 miles away in Bengal. They
were all females except one and were all highly trained animals
that had been employed in the Bengal Kheddas. They were
149
exceedingly docile and allowed the men to move about among their
legs, taking care not to injure them intentionally or by inadvertence.
The Mahuts or keepers of these elephants were also men from
Dacca. These Koonkies were drawn up in a row awaiting the
re-admission to the outer enclosure of the herd confined in the inner
one. Some of the Koonkies had ropes hanging down their shoulders
as a sort of ladderr by which the men below could quickly climb up
their backs during the work of tying up if danger threatened them.
Seated behind the Mahuts on the backs of two of the best elephants
were two chief rope- tiers who with no clothing but a pair of short
drawers and with the ready ropes in their hands were anxious to
begin the difficult and dangerous work of leashing each elephant's
legs together.
When the Prince, the Maharaja, Sir Oliver St. John and
visitors had taken their places, the gate dividing the enclosures
was opened and the herd was driven towards the enclosure where
the Koonkies were. As soon as some ten or twelve elephants
had entered, the others were frightened back and the gate was
closed, the object being to make the work of the Koonkies more
easy by only giving them a few elephants at a time to deal with.
Among the elephants that were cut off from entry was the mother
of a calf which latter had found its way in advance of her. Missing
her little one and divining where it had gone, the mother charged
the gate with the force, it is said, of a battering ram. The men
had just commenced to secure it but she burst it open and with the
heavy flap gate dangling on her head and back she got through
and joined her young one.
The wild elephants now approached the Koonkies which were
drawn up in a line to make their acquaintance as it were. No
sooner was the dividing gate once more secured than the work of
tying up commenced. A tame one was ranged up along each side
of the largest wild one, while another was placed face to face to it
to prevent it from moving forward. The rope-tiers now slipped to
the ground and standing close behind the wild elephant dexterously
secured its legs together by thin ropes in a figure of 8. During
this time the tame elephants on each side of the wild one squeezed
150
it tightly between them and it being unable to see behind was not
aware of what was being done to its hind legs as the ropes were
lightly tied. A soft rope of loosely twisted jute as thick as a man's
arm was now secured to one hind leg and the end taken to a tree
by a rope-tier under shelter of a couple of tame elephants. Two
turns being taken round the tree the wild elephant was backed
against it from where it stood several yards away. This was done
by the tame elephants between which it stood being backed, while
the elephant facing the wild one butted and forced it to retire.
After the tame ones left it, the wild elephant struggled hard to
release itself by throwing itself on the ground and its hind legs
raised straight behind it, but all to no avail. In this way the larger
elephants were quickly secured, when the time of the youngsters
came. For all of five and a half feet in height and under, the
simple plan of lassoing was adopted. Each tame elephant had a
stout, soft rope fastened round it, about 15 feet of the rope being
free and having a running noose at the end. This was held open
by the Mahut with both hands and thrown over the head of any
young elephant that offered a good chance. In this manner all the
elephants 37 in number were secured and after large cables had been
put round the necks of the bigger ones, they were all marched out
tied to one or two Koonkies according to size and were then
fastened in a large clearing among the trees where the undergrowth
had all been removed. Here fodder had been cut and stacked in
readiness and despite the strangeness of their position, none of
them refused the succulent grass and bamboo leaves that were
placed before them.
After bison shooting for a day, the party returned to Mysore on
the 28th November and left for Bangalore the next day, where also
a grand reception was accorded to the Prince. Before the Prince
proceeded to Travancore, one of the functions performed by His
Royal Highness was the laying of the foundation-stone of a
permanent building for the periodical horticultural show in the
Lai Bagh gardens belonging to the Mysore Government.
The next visitor was Lord Lansdowne who was the second
Viceroy to visit Mysore after the termination of the
151
Commission. His Excellency accompanied by Lady Lansdowne
and his staff arrived at Mysore on the 10th November 1892 and
was received by the Maharaja, his principal officers and the leading
men of the State with all the pomp and ceremonial usual on such
occasions. The same night there was a State banquet in the Jagan
Mohan Palace. Lord Lansdowne in responding to the toast of his
health proposed by the Dewan on behalf of the Maharaja, referred
to the momentous change which had been made eleven years
previously in the administration of the country by placing it in the
hands of an Indian Ruler and said that the responsibility of those
who had taken that step was a very serious one. " I am glad to
bear witness to the fact." he further said, " that His Highness has
never given cause to regret the decision carried out in 1881 by Lord
Ripon's Government. The Mysore State far from adding to our
cares and anxieties has been administered with much success. Its
people are contented with their position and its ruler has shown by
his acts that he was worthy of the trust reposed in him. If the
result had been different, the Maharaja would certainly have been
held accountable. The result having been what it is, he is entitled
to the most liberal measure of credit. He has proved himself an
intelligent and upright ruler who has from the commencement of his
reign shown himself alive to the duties of his position. His Highness
has received an education which has enabled him to profit by the
culture and understand the political ideas of the West. But he has
not lost touch of his own people or forfeited their confidence and
probably there is no State in India where the ruler and the ruled
are on more satisfactory terms or in which the great principle upon
which His Highness has insisted — Government should be for
the happiness of the governed — receives a greater measure of
practical recognition. There is, perhaps, no better test of the
soundness of the administration than its ability to pass without
discredit through a period of exceptional difficulty. The Mysore
State has lately encountered such a trial and has, I am glad to say,
surmounted it successfully. I have to express my acknowledgments
of the manner in which His Highness has placed a portion of his
troops under special discipline, in order to qualify them to take
their place alongside of ours for the defence of the empire. I am
152
glad to think that that portion of the outlay which has been
appropriated for the Imperial Service troops has been the means of
adding to the resources of the empire as well as to the efficiency of
the Mysore army without imposing an excessive burden upon the
exchequer of the State. There is one other matter as to which I
should like to say a few words. I have watched with the utmost
interest the valuable experiment which His Highness has instituted
in the formation of the consultative council known as the Mysore
Representative Assembly. This council has been in existence ever
since His Highness' accession and of late years he has increased its
numbers and has invited the various Local Boards, Municipalities
and Public Associations to depute members to it. More recently
still, the wealthier classes of the community have been permitted to
choose a certain proportion of the members and I understand that
the qualification for membership has been fixed so as to include not
only the largest land -holders and the most representative merchants
and traders but also in certain cases the possession of a high
education has been recognised as in itself a qualification. His
Highness has found that his hands have been materially
strengthened by the deliberations of the public body thus constituted
and I sincerely congratulate him on the result of the experiment.
It is one which possesses a particular interest for me, because as
you are aware the Government of India is at this moment itself
engaged in a very interesting attempt to increase the numbers and
to enlarge the functions of its own Legislative Councils. His
Highness in his desire to inform himself of the feelings of the
leading classes and people of Mysore has, it seems to me, acted
with true statesmanlike instincts I am glad to have this
opportunity of publicly assuring His Highness of the goodwill and
approval of the Government of India/'
On the morning of the 12th November the party drove to
Hinkul, a distance of 3 miles where the Imperial Service troops of
Mysore was stationed. The regiment was drawn up on the
parade ground under the command of Colonel Mclntyre, Military
Secretary to the Mysore Government, and was inspected by the
Viceroy and the Maharaja and were then put through some
manoeuvres culminating in the march past. The troops drew from
153
His Excellency encomiums for their smartness and up-to-date
methods.
In the afternoon several addresses were presented to the
Viceroy, one of which was from the members of the Representative
Assembly in which reference was made to the necessity of some
kind of legislation for the prevention of infant marriages and the
Viceroy's reply to this part of the address is interesting : — " I shall
be glad to hear," he said, " that your efforts to secure a measure of
reform in regard to infant marriages are successful. The subject is
one of very great difficulty. The Government of India has, as you
are aware, given practical proof of its desire to protect immature
children. But in passing the measure to which I refer — a measure
which appeared to us to be required in the interests of humanity —
the Government of India did not attempt to interfere with the
domestic institutions of this country. As such, we feel that it is
mainly to the spontaneous action of the people, whether within or
without the limits of British India, that we must look for social
reforms of the kind which you desire to effect."
To afford an opportunity for the Viceroy and his party to
witness the catching of elephants, Khedda operations had been
arranged in the Kakankote Jungles at a distance of about 30 miles
from Mysore. G. P. Sanderson to whose labours the success of the
Khedda conducted on the occasion of the visit of Prince Albert
Victor in 1889 was due had died sometime previously and no one
coveted to take his place at Kakankote. It was at such a time that
an Amildar by name K. Shania lyengar came forward and offered
his services to relieve the Mysore Durbar from the embarrassing
position in which they found themselves. Shama lyengar's
audacity was the wonder of his friends. Amateur though he was,
he succeeded in every detail of the operations and was profusely
complimented by the Viceroy on the success achieved by him. On
the afternoon of the next day the party left for Seringapatam and
after visiting all places of interest there, the Viceroy, Lady
Lansdowne and staff left for Bangalore by special train.
Field- Marshal Sir George Wolsley (later Viscount) who
succeeded the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-chief of the
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154
feritish army in 1895 was a visitor to Mysore during the Dasara of
1894 and in a paper contributed by him to one of the English
magazines has made the following interesting observations : — " The
day after I reached Mysore, I drove with His Highness round the
lake (or properly speaking, the tank) to the new race course and it
was on that occasion that I first saw his five children — three
daughters and two sons. The eldest princess is of marriageable
age according to eastern etiquette being nearly fourteen. But
owing to her father's enlightened views, she is fortunate enough to
be exempted from what is called the Purdah Just before
the race began, the children joined their father and kept up a brisk
conversation all the time with their English governess by whom
they were accompanied. The young princesses did not wear either
hats or bonnets, but they had strings of pearls and other precious
stones twisted in their dark, silky hair. The two little boys both of
whom speak English very prettily wore coats of richly brocaded
silk and trousers to match, together with turbans thickly sprinkled
with pearls and emeralds which glittered and sparkled brightly as
the sun's rays flashed upon them. Both they and their sisters
looked bright and intelligent and they all seemed to be healthy
and happy."
CHAPTER XIX.
Chamaraja Wodcyar X— 1881— 1894.
The Representative Assembly and its growth.
In October 1883 in his address to the Representative Assembly
Sir Seshadri Iyer assured the members that the Maharaja took
great interest in the success of the annual meeting of the
representatives and entertained the hope that the Assembly
would become, year after year, more and more useful to the country.
It had become manifest that it was in the power of the
representatives to contribute in some measure to the good govern-
ment and prosperity of the country by carefully watching the
working of the administration in all its branches, by unhesitatingly
pointing out all shortcomings that might strike them and by
affording practical suggestions for improving the condition of all
classes of His Highness' subjects. Again in October 1885 Sir
Seshadri Iyer assured the representatives that the Maharaja had
become fully convinced that the opportunities given for the
representation of public wants and for the suggestion of measures
calculated to better the condition of the people was appreciated as a
valuable privilege in all parts of the State. The continued interest
the representatives evinced and the practical common sense
which characterised their discussions had disproved the misgivings
of the earlier period whether the establishment of an institution of
the kind was not premature. Strengthened by this assurance, His
Highness' Government now took a step forward in widening the
privileges of the members by investing the Local Boards with
power to nominate their representatives to the Assembly from
among their members.
Prior to 1887, in order to represent the landed interests the
Deputy Commissioners had been required to select from each taluk
one or two cultivating land-holders possessed of general influence
and information. Similarly it had been left to the same officers to
select three or four leading merchants for each district generally to
represent the interests of trade. In August 1887 a property
qualification -was introduced, the numbers for each district were
156
fixed and the names of the members were published in the official
Gazette. Recognised public Associations were also allowed to
depute representatives. The Dewan in his speech to the Assembly
that mst in October following referring to these changes said that
His Highness the Maharaja's earnest desire to take the people into
his confidence more and more in the adoption of various measures
for their advancement had been very fairly realised and that the
success attained in the past six years afforded an encouragement to
his Government to persevere in their endeavours to make the
Assembly of still greater help for the good administration of the
State. The Dewan also explained that the changes newly
introduced were intended to secure in the Assembly as full a
representation as possible of every interest in the country and
thereby to procure the most complete information regarding the
wants and wishes of every class of His Highness1 subjects. In
fixing a property qualification in an agricultural country like
Mysore the first place was naturally accorded to the land-holders
and each of the sixty-six taluks that then existed was authorised to
send five of its largest land-holders. In the provision which enabled
the Local Boards and Municipalities to nominate members for the
Assembly there was a fair guarantee for the representation of all
other classes and localities, while the privilege given to the
important Associations to depute members afforded the means of
securing the views of the more advanced section of the community.
Before 1887 there existed no rules of any kind to regulate the
proceedings of the Assembly. The course generally followed was
that at the termination of the Dewan's address the members
individually made such observations and representations as
suggested themselves to them at the time. Generally one or two of
the representatives of each district acted as spokesmen except
when any particular member stood forward to give expression to
any particular statement. In 1887 it was prescribed that the
members of the several districts were to meet together at Mysore
and choose in concert the subjects for discussion and to nominate
persons to speak on the subjects chosen. The object of these
measures was to render the discussions more useful and to give to
the observations of such members the authority and weight which
157
the 'opinions of individuals could not by themselves be expected
to possess.
Satisfactory as the working of the Assembly on the above lines
proved itself to be, the subject of further improving the constitution
of the Assembly again engaged the attention of Government in
1890. At the meeting of the Assembly of that year, Sir Seshadri
Iyer complimented the members on the moderation, the intelligence
and the practical good sense which had in the past characterised
their discussions and on the material help they had given in the
discussion of important questions and on the sustained interest they
had evinced in public affairs. The Maharaja was now convinced
that the time had arrived when the wealthier and more enlightened
classes could with safety be entrusted with the privilege of choosing
the members to the Assembly. A set of draft rules was accordingly
placed before the Assembly for discussion and in these rules the
property qualification was so fixed as to include the largest land-
holders and the leading merchants and traders in each taluk, besides
high education being made a qualification by itself for a voter to
exercise the privilege of election. The property qualification
proposed was the payment of a land revenue of from Rs. 100 to
Rs. 300 or of a Mohatarfa tax of from Rs. 13 or more, or the
ownership of one or more inam villages with a total assessment of
Rs. 500. These property qualifications were expected to give not
less than 50 qualified persons on an average for each of the 66 taluks.
All persons so qualified by property or by education were to meet
and elect from among themselves 2, 3 or 4 persons according to a
fixed scale as members of the Assembly for their respective taluks
as well as for the cities of Bangalore and Mysore. In addition to
the members thus elected, the various Local Fund Boards, Munici-
palities and Public Associations were also to depute members to the
Assembly from among themselves. The maximum number of
members of the Assembly thus constituted was expected to be about
351. The Dewan closed this subject at the meeting of the Assembly
in 1890 with these earnest and significant words : — " Let me add that
it is His Highness* sincere hope that the privilege he has now been
pleased to grant will be exercised to the fullest extent and in the
most beneficial manner possible and that it will be so appreciated
158
by all as to enable His Highness gradually to enlarge the circle of
electors, so as to give wider effect to the principle of representation
in the constitution of this Assembly." The new rules were
brought into effect in the following year and the Assembly which
met in the Dasara of 1891 was elected under these rules.
At a meeting of the Assembly on the 15th October 1891, the
Dewan communicated to the representatives the gratification of
the Maharaja that all misgivings naturally entertained as to how the
experiment of obtaining representatives for the Assembly by election
would succeed, had been dispelled and that though unused to the
system the electoral body had been able in the very first year of its
existence to exercise the privilege with so much judgment and sense
of responsibility and to send to the Assembly men in every way
qualified to speak on its behalf. The Dewan further said that the
fact that men representing the capital, the industry and the intellect
of the country should have so early taken so much interest in the
scheme augured well for the future of the institution. He also
conveyed a message from His Highness acknowledging the expres-
sions of warm gratitude which had reached him from all sides for
the privilege of election granted. In 1893 a further reform was
introduced by which the system of annual election was replaced by
one of triennial election which the representatives had been urging
on the attention of Government. The Dewan in referring to this
subject stated that it had given the Maharaja great pleasure to
extend the duration of the Assembly from one to three years,
especially as His Highness hoped that the concession granted
would enhance the interest of the members in the subjects brought
forward by them and would afford them the opportunity for
continuous action from year to year, adding thereby largely to the
further practical usefulness of the Assembly.
It need hardly be stated that the scope of this book does not
allow of any exhaustive summary being given of the proceedings of
the Assembly. To satisfy, however, the curiosity of our readers as
to the lines on which the proceedings were conducted, a short
summary of the exchange of views between the Government and
the members of the Assembly relating to some of the important
159
subjects discussed in the earlier years may be given. The discus-
sions of the Assembly extended to every department in the State
and related to a variety of subjects. ' To merge their individual
grievances in those of the community in general and by a due
attention to public interests to qualify themselves for higher
privileges ' — these words had formed the text of an exhortation by
Kangacharlu to the representatives assembled for the first time in
1881. There was little need, however, for this appeal to the
representatives not to confound, in Tennyson's language, the rustic
cackle of their burgh with the murmur of the world. They quite
understood that the great object of the new institution was the
promotion of the public interests in general, and that if they looked
to securing any personal advantages or obtaining redress for any
personal grievances, they would be disappointed. Accordingly a
Hindu member Tangali Seshappa and a Mahomedan member Syed
Amir Ali Sahib assured Kangacharlu of their abiding sense of
gratefulness for the privilege granted to them and of their resolve
to offer their co-operation in a disinterested manner. The
succeeding years showed that these assurances were no mere idle
words but had a ring of sincerity in them.
From the keen interest the representatives evinced from
the very beginning in the proceedings of the Assembly, His
Highness1 advisers evidently felt encouraged to take them more
and more into their confidence. The local or individual grievances
to which Kangacharlu made reference were very few in number,
a lamp-post at Kolar, a midwife at Chikballapur, a chattram or
free-feeding house at Arasikere, and even here it may be
observed that though the subjects were local they were not
personal. In expressing their loyalty and attachment to the
person and the family of the Maharaja as well as in expressing
their gratefulness for the benefits conferred on the country by the
Paramount Power, the representatives were ever to the front. In
1884 on the occasion of the birth of a son and heir to the
Maharaja, Ganesh Rao a coffee-planter from Kadur read an
address in which the great honour of the title of G. C. S, I. con-
ferred on His Highness by the Queen- Empress and the birth of a
160
prince as heir to the throne were referred to as joyful events for
which they all returned thanks to Providence. In 1885 the
representatives obtained the permission of His Highness' Govern-
ment to present an address of thanks to the Imperial Government
for the postponment of the enhanced Subsidy for a period of ten
years. In December 1886 when Lord Dufferin visited Mysore, the
representatives took occasion to assemble at the capital and in an
address presented to the Viceroy, repeated on behalf of the people
of Mysore their deep gratitude for the lasting benefits which the
half-century of British rule had conferred on them. Lord Dufferin
in his reply stated that it was always a fortunate circumstance
when a Viceroy found himself in the midst of a community who
were able to bring to his notice such proofs of their general pros-
perity as to which the members had referred, and still more so,
when in the language with which he was approached, he saw
evidence of an equally wide-spread contentment with the adminis-
tration under which they lived. He finally complimented them by
saying that he was glad that the Maharaja had called to his
counsels men of such intelligence and influence. In November
1892 when Lord Lansdowne visited Mysore, the members of the
Assembly presented an address to him also and a few sentences
quoted from his reply will show what keen interest he felt in the
success of the experiment which had been inaugurated by the
Maharaja. " The inquiries which I have made from those who are
best able to judge," said the Viceroy, " have satisfied me that your
proceedings have served a most useful purpose and have brought
His Highness* Government into touch with all classes of the com-
munity. I have heard with much pleasure that your discussions
have been conducted in a thoroughly practical, spirit and that
on the one hand, the members have not hesitated to bring forward
grievances where they existed, while on the other the Dewan had
dealt in the frankest possible manner with the suggestions which
have been made. You are quite right in supposing that this
remarkable experiment has a special interest in my eyes, because
the Government of India is at this moment engaged in introducing
considerable changes in the constitution and functions of the
British Indian Legislative Councils."
161
The functions of the representatives, it may be noted, were not
confined to mere thanksgiving or to mere presentation of addresses
but they also pressed their claims for more substantial privileges.
The progress of the Assembly was due as much to the earnest
importunity of the members as to the sympathetic interest of the
Government in its improvement. Whenever the occasion demanded
it, the representatives did not hold back from giving fearless
expression to their demands. At the same time, they kept themselves
aloof generally from what could be regarded as discourteous or
obnoxious criticism. The Government of the time amply
appreciated this attitude on the part of the members and hardly on
any occasion was the cordiality subsisting between the Government
and the members disturbed. In 1883 the representatives raised the
question of the Famine Debt of nearly a crore of rupees due to the
Government of India and sought for information concerning the
arrangements made for its liquidation. They wished to know
whether the Government had any idea of fresh taxation in the
shape of general land customs or general house- tax ; and they were
satisfied only when they were assured by the Dewan that a way had
been devised to reduce the famine loan without imposing any new
charge on the country and that the Government of India had very
considerately consented to receive the loan in annual instalments of
four lakhs each. In the same year a request was made that all the
proceedings of the Government might be in Kanada also. The
Government considered this request a reasonable one. Having
called the representative men of the country to the counsels of the
State, it was regarded as both right as well as expedient that their
desire to keep themselves informed of the measures of the
Government needed to be satisfied.
In 1884 the representatives urged that the Revenue Code
might be referred to them for opinion and that it might be passed
only after their views were obtained. In a subsequent year they
suggested that a meeting for the nomination of the members might
be held one month before the Dasara, and that the names of the
representatives chosen together with the subjects to be discussed
might be published in the official Gazette. They also sought
162
t>ermission for access to any Government records they needed
for information before they came to the Assembly. Two other
suggestions which they made although they proved to be not
feasible in the then existing state of things, still bore testimony to
their anxiety for securing due and prompt attention to such matters
as could not be disposed of at the Dasara meeting itself. One
suggestion was that a Standing Committee should be appointed to
attend to all subjects the settlement of which was put off for
reference to heads of departments, and the other was to see that no
delay occurred in early consideration being given to the subjects
postponed. Finding that sometimes the orders issued by the
Government were based on an imperfect acquaintance of the wants
of the people, the representatives made a bold suggestion in 1888
that all circulars issued by the Government might, as a rule, be
previously discussed by the Assembly. The suggestion was
however found impracticable as it necessitated the continuance of
the sitting of the Assembly during the entire year. But they so far
succeeded as to obtain a promise from the Dewan that the orders
of each year or for that matter any order of Government might
be discussed during the annual meetings freely and that the
Government would gladly consider their opinions and accept all
reasonable amendments proposed. In the same year the members
from Kadur proposed that a proposition recommended by a
majority of the representatives might be at once passed. The
Dewan in reply regretted that though in theory it was a fair
proposal, still he could not see his way as matters stood then to
grant their wishes as some of the proposals might affect Imperial
policy or sanctioned principles of administration. But he assured
them that every deference possible would be paid to their wishes.
Prior to 1887 the Amildar used to send a written order from the
taluk office to each representative directing him to attend the
Assembly at Mysore. But the representatives now considered that
an order from the Amildar was inconsistent with their dignity as
members of the Representative Assembly. It was thenceforth
prescribed that the members should be invited by means of letters
from the Deputy Commissioners instead of by Takeeds or orders
from Amildars.
163
An objection taken by the representatives in 1889 affords an
explanation as to why salaried officers of Government were
subsequently declared ineligible either to vote for or sit in the
Representative Assembly. Raghavachar, Sheristadar of the
Bangalore Deputy Commissioner's office and a municipal councillor
for the city of Bangalore, was chosen as a delegate to the
Representative Assembly on behalf of the Bangalore Municipality
and the opinion was now expressed that it was unlikely that a
Government servant could do justice to his position as a member
of the Assembly while remaining as a salaried officer of
Government. The Dewan could not interfere with the discretion
of the Municipality at the time. But subsequently an order was
issued excluding Government servants from seeking nomination to
the Assembly. It was represented that the annual address did not
contain the details of receipts and disbursements and the Dewan
agreed to supply the members with the detailed budget for their
information.
The Survey and Settlement introduced into some taluks was
regarded by the representatives as tending to the impoverishment
of the ryot and to the general deterioration of the country and
strong protests were made. The persistence which they showed in
agitating for a reduction of the assessment of arecanut gardens in
the Malnad parts of the State led to an acknowledgment on the part
of the Government of the justice of their agitation and to the
appointment of a special officer for purposes of investigation.
A simpler procedure was desired to be prescribed for the grant of
loans under the Land Improvement Regulation and the Regulation
passed in 1890 satisfied the wishes of the representatives in this
respect. The representatives also brought to light many of the
anomalies which existed in the administration. It was an anomaly,
for instance, that the assessment on lands JU^lfMIMtttL the
rain-fed tanks were higher than on land§
channels. In the matter of Darkhasthg
applications for lands and for their relinc
out that the ryots were required by
applications for new lands written by thd
164
in which the lands happened to be and also to get all relinquish*
ments certified by him. The Dewan regretted that that practice
should have been still adhered to by the taluk officials and issued
instructions to at once discontinue the same.
There were several other matters also which were brought
forward by the members for the consideration of Government. The
taluk authorities, it was stated, directed criminal prosecution for
felling trees of the unreserved kind standing on the margin of a
ryot's field and belonging to him. One of the forest rules directed
the ryot not to cut for manure such branches of the jungle trees as
were thicker than an inch in girth. But when inadvertently they
did so, where accurate measurements were not possible, they were
exposed to criminal prosecution. Regarding trees that could be
felled for fuel, the Inspector- General of Forests had published a
list enumerating 33 kinds of trees, all conserved againt felling and
the ryots could only fell trees other than those enumerated. The
jungles in some places contained no other trees fit for fuel and the
restriction had practically closed the jungles against obtaining
any fuel supply. A kind of duty known as Kan-Khist was
continued to be paid by the ryots of Koppa, although its abolition
had been notified by Bowring when he was Chief Commissioner.
In matters relating to the police and to judicial courts, the
representatives were very explicit and expressed the opinion that
the cost of civil litigation was very heavy and that the delay
that generally took place in the disposal of suits was unusually
long. The conveniences that were likely to be created by
the establishment of Village Panchayet Courts or arbitration
tribunals as well as the introduction of the Jury System were also
suggested. The anomaly of combining police, magisterial and
revenue functions in one and the same officer did not escape the
notice of the Assembly. Loud complaints were made against the
Arms Act, especially by the representatives of the Malnad where
wild animals abounded. The depredations caused by these animals
were very damaging and in the harvest season when the arms were
most needed, they were seized by the police and taken away to
taluk office and not returned till a renewed ligence was obtained
165
and that meant considerable delay. The prohibition of the
slaughter of cows, the improvement of industries, the ameliora-
tion of the condition of Lambanies, Korachars and other wandering
gangs, the improvement of primary education, the introduction of
technical instruction, the extension of female education, the
encouragement of Mahomedan youths by means of scholarships to
seek collegiate education, the institution of vernacular examina-
tions— these and numerous other subjects engaged the attention of
the representatives and were placed before Government at their
annual meetings.
The members of the Assembly were proud of the offer by the
Maharaja of a military contingent for Imperial defence and were
thankful to the Government of India for its acceptance.
CHAPTER XX.
Chamaraja Wodeyar X— 1881— 1894.
Tours of the Maharaja — His last days.
Chamaraja Wodeyar's first tour after he assumed power was
made to Madras. Lord Ripon the Viceroy was to have visited
Mysore in February 1884. But on account of the prevalence of
cholera there, the visit did not take place. Lord Ripon was a very
popular Viceroy and it was during his time that Chamaraja
Wodeyar had been invested with power and the State restored to
his rule. The Maharaja considering that it was but right on his
part to make the personal acquaintance of Lord Ripon before he
left India, proceeded to Madras and bade farewell to the out -going
Viceroy.
In 1887 the Maharaja undertook another tour. On the 16th
December of that year His Highness started on a tour to Northern
India and halted at Bombay for ten days. Here he acquainted
himself with the working of all the public institutions. The next
important place he visited during this tour was Calcutta, where he
returned the visit of the Earl of Dufferin who had visited the
Mysore State in the previous year. General Roberts (afterwards
Lord) who was the Commander-in-chief of the Indian army at the
time gave a garden party in honour of the Maharaja. On the
return journey His Highness paid visits to the Native States of
Jeypore and Jodhpur, and while at Bombay he paid a visit to the
Duke of Connaught who was then in command of the army.
In December 1892 the Maharaja again visited Calcutta
travelling from Madras to that place by sea and returned the visit
of Lord Lansdowne. In 1893 His Highness stayed for two months
at Bombay and met Lord Elgin when he was on his way to
Calcutta to assume the viceroyalty from Lord Lansdowne.
His Highness also toured on more than one occasion in various
parts of the State and acquainted himself personally not only with
the conditions of the country but also with the wants pf his subject^
167
These visits enabled His Highness to introduce various
improvements both in his capital as well as in other places.
Chamaraja Wodeyar's last tour was undertaken in December
1894. His Highness left his capital on the 9th of that month with
the Maharani and the children and a large retinue and passing
through Poona, Allahabad and other places, finally reached Calcutta
and on the 21st of that month visited the Viceroy Lord Elgin. On
the 23rd His Highness had an attack of fever and on the 26th his
illness was regarded as serious. On the 27th one of the Calcutta
doctors was called in for consultation who along with Dr. Benson
the Durbar Surgeon examined the royal patient and discovered that
the disease from which His Highness was suffering was the
insidious throat-disease Diphtheria. The malady was a serious one
and ail remedies to check its course were of no avail and the
Maharaja passed away on the morning of the 28th surrounded by
the members of his family, a number of State officials and a large
number of followers.
The Dewan Sir K. Seshadri Iyer immediately communicated
the sad news of the Maharaja's death to the Foreign Secretary, Sir
William Cunningham, who in the days of the British Commission
had served in Mysore as Secretary to the Chief Commissioner and
had known the Maharaja from his boyhood. Lord Elgin was
shocked by the news when it was conveyed to him and immediately
issued instructions for postponing a visit to him of the Maharaja of
Kapurthala fixed for that day. The Foreign Secretary and an
aid-de-camp Captain Pollen were immediately deputed to convey
the condolences of the Viceroy to the members of the bereaved
family and, needless to say, they found the Maharani and the
children overwhelmed with sorrow.
It was at first proposed that the Maharaja's body should be
taken to Benares for cremation, but on the advice of Gurudas
Banerji, Judge of the Calcutta High Court, it was settled that the
cremation was to be at Kalighat on the banks of the Ganges.
Various preparations had to be made and it was nearly six o'clock
in the evening by the time the funeral cortege reached Kalighat
168
The Foreign Secretary and Captain Pollen accompanied the
procession as well as the Dewan and an aid -de -camp of the
Maharaja of Kapurthala. On either side of all the roads on which
the funeral procession passed, crowds of people were assembled
expressing the greatest sorrow for the sudden and untimely death
of the Maharaja whom they had seen only two years before in
radiant health. At Kalighat the last funeral rites were performed
by the deceased Maharaja's brother-in-law Bakshi Basappaji Urs
on behalf of the two sons Princes Krishnaraja Wodeyar and
Narasimharaja Wodeyar who were both of tender years.
The next day a message reached the Maharani from the
Viceroy that the eldest son Krishnaraja Wodeyar was recognised as
successor to the deceased Maharaja and that till the form of
administration was settled, the Dewan Sir Seshadri Iyer was to
carry on the daily administration of the State with the advice of the
British Resident and as far as possible in consultation with the
Maharani's wishes. On the 30th December the Maharani and the
children with all the retinue left Calcutta, the Foreign Secretary
and Captain Pollen taking leave of them at the Railway-Station.
In the meanwhile, Colonel Henderson the British Resident
who had been immediately apprised by the Foreign Secretary of the
sad event that had taken place, sent instructions by wire from
Bangalore to the Controller of the Palace at Mysore to place seals
on the doors of all the important apartments in the Palace and
reached Mysore the next day with T. R. A, Thumboo Chetty who
was then in temporary charge of the Dewan's duties. The
Resident in announcing to the people of Mysore who had assembled
in the Palace Square the sad intelligence of the Maharaja's death
spoke as follows : — " It is with feelings of the profoundest sorrow
that I have to communicate formally to those assembled here that
the distressing intelligence has been received by telegram of the
sudden and untimely death of His Highness the Maharaja
Chamarajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, Knight Grand Commander of
the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India, which melancholy
event took place at Calcutta yesterday at 7 a.m. This is not a
suitable occasion for the expression of the sorrow which these
grievous tidings must cause not only in Mysore but throughout all
India and even beyond wherever the name of your beloved sovereign
is known. I am indeed come among you accompanied by my
friend Mr. Thumboo Chetty, the Senior Member of the Council
who has been left in temporary charge of the administration of the
country, to exhort to you to exercise for the present all possible
self-control in the expression of those very natural emotions called
forth by this grievous intelligence and to urge all those present,
relatives of His Highness and the civil and military officers of the
State, to do their best to allay any excitement or apprehension that
may possibly be caused by the news of the melancholy event. You
are aware that the succession to the administration has been settled
by the 3rd Article of the Instrument of Transfer and in due course
the formal recognition of His Excellency the Viceroy and the
Governor- General to the succession as therein provided will be
received and the necessary arrangements made after the
Subaswikaram ceremony. You must also be aware that under the
same Instrument arrangements for the administration of the
country have been definitely laid down, so that all apprehensions of
any change in the policy of the Government of India towards Mysore
may be at once dismissed as baseless. The deep interest ever
shown by the Government of India in the welfare of Mysore and
the friendly relations that ever existed with the illustrious Kuler
whose loss we have now occasion to deplore are a sufficient
guarantee that the best possible arrangements will be made for the
administration of the country and for the welfare of all classes
of the people."
There was great mourning throughout the State and all public
offices and courts were closed for eight days. Thirty -two minute
guns were fired in Bangalore and Mysore and all flags kept at
half-mast till the ceremony on the twelfth day was completed.
The Maharani and the children reached Mysore on the 3rd
January 1895 and at once drove to the Palace from the Railway-
Station in the midst of crowds of people whose grief expressed itself
in loud lamentations. Messages and letters of condolence reached
the bereaved family from all parts of India as well as from outside
A22
170
where His Highness* reputation as a beneficent ruler had reached.
A message was also received from the Queen- Empress expressing
her sorrow for the bereavement. On the 5th of the same month
the inhabitants of Mysore presented through the Dewan a written
representation to the Maharani expressing their sorrow for the
unexpected death of their ruler and wishing that Her Highness
during the minority of her young son should fill the place of the
departed Maharaja and rule them till the minority terminated.
Chamaraja Wodeyar left five children surviving him at the
time of his death — three daughters and two sons ranging from 14
to 6 years. The present Maharaja was only 10 years old at the
time and the present Yuvaraja Narasimharaja Wodeyar only six.
In his address to the Representative Assembly that met in
October 1895 the Dewan Sir K. Seshadri Iyer referred in these
terms to the loss the country had sustained by the death of
Chamaraja Wodeyar : " Our late sovereign passed away in the
prime of life and in the midst of a most beneficent career. His
untimely death was lamented as a great national misfortune
throughout India; it evoked feelings of widespread sympathy in
England ; it was deplored as an imperial loss by the British
Government. For us, his subjects, whose good always occupied
the foremost place in his heart, it is impossible to cease to bemoan
our great loss. Time cannot assuage our sorrow. The many
monuments of his rule will ever remind us of the nobility of his
character and the beneficence of his aims/'
Later, to perpetuate the memory of Chamaraja Wodeyar an
equestrian statue by Onslow Ford was placed in the Lai Bagh at
Bangalore. A marble statue was also placed subsequently before
the north-gate of the fort at Mysore and a similar one in the
Cubbon Park at Bangalore. At the place of cremation in Calcutta
a brindavan has been erected and a dharmasala also established,
where gifts of grain are given to the people daily.
CHAPTER XXL
The Maharani — Regent.
Maharani appointed Regent — Reformed State Council —
Sir Seshadri Iyer continued as Dewan — Visits of Lord
Elgin and Lord Curzon.
The Proclamation read by the British Resident Col. Henderson
did not quite relieve the anxiety of the people of Mysore as to the
future of their State during the minority of their young Maharaja.
There was an eager wish, as we have already seen, on the part of
the people that the Maharani should for the time being take the
place of the deceased ruler on behalf of her son. It took, however,
some time for the Government of India to announce definitely the
ad interim arrangements made for the administration of the
country and to give relief to the minds of the people. The
coronation of the young Maharaja was fixed for the 1st February
following at which Col. Henderson the British Resident was
present. On this occasion a Khareetha addressed by the Viceroy to
the young Maharaja was read which contained the announcement
that Her Highness the Maharani Kempananjammanni Avaru had
been appointed as Regent to carry on the administration during the
minority of her son, — an announcement which was hailed with
visible joy by all who were present at the time and accepted with
sincere rejoicings everywhere by the people of the State.
It is only on rare occasions that women in India are called on
to face situations such as the one that arose in Mysore. We have
seen how Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni successfully fulfilled all the
expectations formed of her during the minority of Krishnaraja
Wodeyar III. Maharani Kempananjammanni equally rose to the
occasion to worthily fill the gap which had been caused by the
untimely and unexpected demise of her illustrious consort, away
from his home and surroundings in the distant city of Calcutta.
The Maharani though thus suddenly bereft of her beloved partner
in life was fortunately found to possess an extraordinary degree of
mental courage, and it is stated that when Sir William Cunningham,
172
the Foreign Secretary, offered condolences on behalf of the
Government of India, Her Highness judiciously replied that it
appeared to her as if the Maharaja had proceeded to Calcutta to
personally entrust his family and his State to the special care of the
Paramount Power. In October 1895, when Sir K. Seshadri Iyer in
his address to the Representative Assembly gave expression to the
sentiment that in their great affliction they had the consolation to
know that the illustrious consort of their departed Maharaja was
with them to guide and to encourage them in the task of administra-
tion, and that striken with sorrow though she was, yet Her
Highness had with exemplary self-denial placed the prestige of her
great name, her rare intelligence and her great heart at the disposal
of her loving subjects by consenting to preside over the administra-
tion of the country as Regent of the State, that sentiment found a
ready echo in the hearts of all present on the occasion. An old and
respectable Mahomedan representative member who was present at
the time was overheard to remark : " Hakdarka huk hai ; Usme Kya
farrak" — it was but the claimants right and there was no
departure there."
Nevertheless, it must be confessed that here and there some
misgivings were felt as to the wisdom of placing the Maharani in
the void caused by the death of her distinguished husband. To
her own subjects, the Maharani was known as the worthy spouse of
their beloved sovereign and the mother of a happy group of
children. To the outside world, she was known as an enlightened
lady who had lent the weight of her name to an institution at
Mysore for the education of girls. The Government of India knew
her as the holder of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India
which had been conferred on Her Highness in 1893. Outside the
Palace precincts these items constituted the sum- total of knowledge
regarding the new Regent and even this knowledge was mostly
based on report inasmuch as only very few who could judge of her
merits had the privilege of knowing her by sight. Fortunately the
result proved that these misgivings were baseless and it was the
good fortune of Mysore to find in the Maharani a ruler who
possessed much tact and intelligence,
173
A few days after the installation of the young Maharaja, the
new administration assumed its full form. Sir K. Seshadri
Iyer was continued as Dewan and to assist him and the Maharani-
Regent an Executive Council of three whole-time members was
formed with T. R. A. Thumboo Chetty, P. N. Krishna Murti who
was a Judge of the Chief Court and Abdul Rahaman who was
a Deputy Commissioner. During Chamaraja Wodeyar's reign
although there existed a council, it had played no effective
part in the administration of the State. So far back as April 1886
Thumboo Chetty had drawn the attention of Sir Seshadri Iyer to
the need of improving the constitution of the Council so as to make
it really a useful institution. But the latter had contented himself
by replying that the real difficulty was about finding the men. His
own words were : — " The ministry in your memo must be an
Executive Council. I shall only be delighted to have such a
Council. Where are the men ? Never mind the cost which really
is only a subordinate matter "
The Government of India however, after Chamaraja Wodeyar's
death, considered that there was need for a strong Council and the
rules of business of the re-constituted Council were accordingly
revised. The subjects which were to be laid before the Council were
more precisely defined than in the notification issued in 1881. The
list of subjects contained in that notification was found so vague as
possibly to afford opportunities to a member to unduly hamper the
Dewan by pressing for submission to the Council all kinds of
insignificant questions and hence the subjects were more exactly
defined. In the revised list of subjects were also now included all
questions relating to the appointment of officers to the upper grades
of the Civil Service in all its branches, which the Government of
India considered, should be matters for the consideration of the
whole Council. The Dewan-in-Council was to distribute the work
of the State by departments between himself and the three
councillors. The member in charge of a department was
competent to dispose of all ordinary work of that department and to
issue orders in the name of the Government, referring however
matters of doubt, delicacy or importance to the Dewan and
it was within the sphere of the Dewan tQ determine whether
174
final orders could be issued or not without reference to the Council
as a whole. It was at all times open to the Dewan to refer any
matter to the Council. The decisions of the Dewan -in -Council
were to be carried into effect where there was no difference of
opinion, but where the Dewan did not agree in any opinion with the
majority of the Council, power was given to him to refer the matter
to the Regent for her orders. It was also made incumbent on the
Dewan to refer to the Resident all matters which had to go
up to the Government of India. The Dewan also possessed the
right to call for the production of any public records from any of
the departments assigned to a member of the Council for re-
consideration in the Council.
The Palace arrangements and the Civil List expenditure were
entirely placed in the hands of the Maharani- Regent. The purdah
which according to custom Her Highness observed proved no bar
to her desire to acquaint herself with the wants and wishes of her
subjects. Her Highness readily granted interviews to the British
Resident, to her ministers and to the leading officers of the State
and invited them to discuss with her important questions that
concerned the prosperity of the country.
Lord and Lady Elgin paid a visit to the country in November
1895 and so did Lord and Lady Curzon in November 1900.
CHAPTER xxii.
The Maharani— Regent.
Some useful measures introduced — Construction of the
Marikanave Reservoir — Re-construction of the Palace des-
troyed by fire — First appearance of Plague — The Kaveri
Electric Power Scheme — Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Victoria — Boer War — Military Transport Corps — Census of
1901— Sir Seshadri Iyer's retirement and death in 1901
Sir P. N. Krishna Murti appointed Dewan.
Early in the period of the Regency, considerable relief was
given to the supari garden -owners of the Malnad by a reduction in
the annual assessment imposed on the lands on which the trees
stood, the rates in the four taluks of Sorab, Sagar, Nagar and
Koppa being assimilated to those of Thirthahalli which had been
accepted as equitable. The relief amounted to 22 per cent of the
tax which had been imposed. The garden-owners with scarcely an
exception when consulted, preferred a reduction in the land-tax to
the abolition of the Sayer duty, the incidence of the latter being
regulated by the actual production of the year and they did not also
look with favour upon a system of tree- tax, though under such a
system the land-tax would have been reduced to the ordinary rice
rates and the Sayer abolished altogether.
A number of other useful measures introduced during the
Regency may also be referred to. A Department of Geology had
been established during the late reign in October 1894 and
R. Bruce Foote, retired Superintendent of the Geological Survey of
India, placed in charge of it. Shortly after, the geological survey
was undertaken and it brought to light the great iron ores forming
the upper part of the Dharwar system in the Bababudan hills west
of Kadur. In the year 1897-98 a Mining Regulation was passed
and rules were framed more or less similar to those in force in
England, New South Wales, the Transval and other countries.
There was a remarkable development of the Gold Mining industry
during this period. The population of the Kolar Gold Fields which
m
in 1891 was only 7085 rose to 38,204 in 1901. The value of gold
extracted from the commencement of the industry was over £16
millions, out of which the value of the quantity produced during the
period of the Regency was a little over £\2\ millions. The Royalty
received during the eight years of the Regency was more than
Rs. 91 lakhs. As more water was required to treat the ore, the
Bethamangala tank was improved at a cost of Rs. 1 1 lakhs and its
water was allowed to be used for gold mining purposes. In
December 1901 the Hon'ble Mark Napier was deputed by
Messrs. Taylor & Sons, London, as a delegate on behalf of the
Kolar Mining Companies and the long-pending question of the
renewal of the leases was settled. An agreement was arrived at
between the Mysore Government and the leading Companies,
allowing the latter to renew the leases for a further period of 30
years from 1910 on condition of their paying 5 per cent Royalty on
the gross output, together with 2i per cent on all dividends declared
by the Companies.
In 1898-99 a beginning was made for the establishment of an
Agricultural Department by the appointment of an Agricultural
Chemist for the purpose of a systematic examination of soils in all
parts of the State, the ascertainment of the appropriate manures
required for particular soils, the adoption of measures for the
removal of insects and other pests, the introduction of improved
methods of cultivation generally, the revival of decaying industries
and other allied purposes.
Two important changes under Excise were introduced in 1897.
The first was the increase of the retail price of arrack per gallon
from Rs. 5-5-0 to Rs. 6-6-0. This increase was expected to exercise
a moderating, salutary effect upon the consumer without inflicting
any undue hardship. The other change introduced was the system
of licences for tapping trees for toddy and the allotment of specific
groves for specific shops which led to the augmentation of the toddy
revenue without any increase in consumption.
With regard to educational improvements, the First in Arts
classes affiliated to the Madras University were opened in the
Maharani's Girls' School in 1897. In 1900 a regular college
department was formed and the name of the school was altered to
that of the Maharani's College in 1901. Spacious and well-
ventilated buildings were constructed for hostels for students both
at Bangalore and Mysore. In other places also homes for students
were established in rented or Government buildings. A liberal
grant and a large extent of land were offered for the location of the
Indian Institute of Science proposed to be established by J. N. Tata
in Bangalore. In 1896 a Regulation was enacted for the appointment
of a special tribunal to settle the claims of certain descendants of
Brijlal Das to whom an award had been made during the days of
the British Commission for some money due to him from
Krishnaraja Wodeyar III. Brijlal, however, had refused the sum
granted in the award claiming a higher amount. The special
court however found that none of the applicants were the legal
heirs of the deceased creditor entitled to receive the sum awarded,
namely, Rs. 5,67,338-15-1. The Maharani- Regent however, true
to the traditions of her family decided to allot the amount for
charitable purposes under the designation of ' Darnodar Das
Charities.' The whole of this amount was invested in Government
of India 3j per cent securities and it was decided that four-fifths of
the income from the investment was to be devoted to the grant of
scholarships to enable selected candidates to prosecute post-graduate
studies or researches of an advanced scientific or technical
character in any university or other institution in India or in any
foreign country. The remaining one-fifth of the annual income
from the fund was decided to be spent in granting scholarships to
the members of the Guzerati community to which Damodar Das
belonged.
The Regulation relating to Local Boards which, as we have
seen, was first published in 1883 and was pending from that year
on account of prolonged discussions between the Government of
India and the Government of Mysore was finally passed into law
in 190L
Among the notable public works undertaken or completed
during the Regency were the construction of the Marikanave
A23
Reservoir, the re-construction of a part of the Mysore Palace, and
the opening in December 1899 of a railway line from Birur to
Shimoga connecting the latter place with the Bangalore -Harihar
railway line. The construction of the great Marikanave Reservoir
in the arid district of Chitaldrug about which there had been contro-
versial opinions from the days of Sir Mark Cubbon, was finally
undertaken in the year 1897-98 and was successfully completed in
1906, four years later after Krishnaraja Wodeyar's accession to
power and the project cost in all about Rs. 39 lakhs.
The re -construct ion of a part of the Palace in the Mysore fort
became necessary in 1897. In the early part of that year, some
days after the celebration of the marriage of the eldest princess
Jayalakshmi Ammanni, an accident occurred which caused for the
time being some gloom among those who witnessed it. On account
of the folly of a maid-servant, the marriage pandal erected in the
quadrangle of the Palace caught fire and one-fifth of the old building
was destroyed including the Sejje and the three storeys rising above
it up to the gold pinnacles, the Sanskrit Library, the armoury, the
music-room and the Balakhana. Fortunately the occurrence was
turned to advantage and it proved a veritable blessing in disguise,
as it tended to some extent to encourage and conserve the declining
sculpture of India. A new design prepared by an English architect
and following at the special desire of the Maharani- Regent the
general outline of the old building as constructed in the days of
Purnaiya was adopted. A large number of masons and other
workmen were collected from all parts of India. The new building
was constructed mostly of stone and iron materials and it came as a
revelation at the time that excellent stones of all kinds were
procurable in abundance from quarries in the Mysore State itself.
The quarry at a place called Turuvekere furnished a unique kind of
trap which lent itself to the finest and most elaborate carvings and
kept very sharp edges. The masons from Trichnopoly, Madras and
other districts from Southern India were at first able to work only
with pointed chisels but they learnt from their brethren of Kolhapur,
Jeypore and other places in Northern India to work with sharp-
edged, wedge-shaped tools and were able to do exquisite carving.
179
The work was finally completed in the year 1912, ten years after
the close of the Regency. The new structure further improved
subsequently by the present Maharaja now stands in the midst of
clean surroundings and artistically laid out gardens attracting the
admiration of visitors.
One sad occurrence which in common with other parts of India
beclouded Mysore in this period was the outbreak of the plague
which defied all human efforts put forward for its suppression.
This fell disease prior to its appearance in the Mysore State had
broken out and was increasing in virulence at Hubli in the Dharwar
district of the Bombay Presidency, a populous town only 80 miles
from the Mysore frontier. It was, therefore, deemed essential that
all possible precautions should be taken to prevent its entry into
Mysore. The Epidemic Diseases Regulation passed in 1897 armed
the Government with extensive powers to this end. Under this
enactment, rules were framed from time to time for meeting the
special exigencies of the situation as they arose and various
precautionary measures were adopted such as the establishment of
railway and frontier inspection station and outposts, the examina-
tion of passengers by rail and road, and the establishment of
temporary plague hospitals and segregation and health camps.
Notwithstanding all these precautionary measures, plague first made
its appearance in the Bangalore City on the 12th August 1898 and
from there it spread with increasing virulence in every direction in
the districts of Bangalore, Mysore, Kolar and Tumkur. The
severity of the epidemic reached its height in the Bangalore City in
the months of October and November, during each of which
months more than 1000 persons fell victims to it. Altogether it
was calculated that in the first year of this outbreak, there were
nearly 15,000 attacks and *more than 12,000 deaths. Vigorous
measures were adopted by Government to check the spread of the
disease by making provision for the treatment of the disease in
special hospitals. Accommodation was provided in camps for
contacts and persons living in infected houses. Infected persons
and houses were subjected to systematic disinfection. Plague
corpses were removed at the expense of the State to the burial or
180
burning grounds allotted for the purpose. Every encouragement
was afforded for inoculation. A large number of houses condemned
as unfit for habitation were demolished in the Bangalore City after
payment of compensation, and congested portions opened out by
the removal of many more. Special attention was paid to sanitation
both in cities and in villages. Two large extensions Basavangudi
and Malleswaram covering an area of 1000 acres and capable of
providing accommodation for 50,000 persons were laid out in the
Bangalore City. A large number of temporary health camps was
also established. Free issues of timber and bamboos were made to
the poorer classes to enable them to camp out. Relief works for
the indigent people were started wherever necessary. Advances to
Government servants of a year's pay was sanctioned in the
Bangalore City to enable them to build houses in the new
extensions and of three months' pay in certain infected taluks for
putting up sheds. Yet this dire disease, as Lord Curzon expressed,
baffled all attempts to eradicate it, defying analysis, defeating the
utmost efforts of medical skill and administrative energy, inscrutable
in its origin, merciless in its ravages, sweeping off very often
thousands in a day and tens of thousands in a week. In Mysore it
continued its havoc in all parts of the State and in the last four
years of the Regency period from the outbreak of the disease 61,000
persons were attacked, of whom nearly 47,000 perished. The
magnitude of this calamity is not to be measured by its numbers
alone. Its ravages led to the unsettlement of the families of
these victims and left numerous young children without proper
guardians.
A work which was planned and completed during the period
of the Regency was the great Kaveri Electric Power scheme.
Prior to 1899 the possibility of generating electric power by the
utilisation of the Kaveri Falls at Sivasamudram had been discussed.
In 1894 Edmund Carrington, an electrical engineer, had applied
for a concession of the water power at the Falls. He was con-
nected with Mr. Holmes of Madras, one of the pioneers of electric
lighting in India. These gentlemen and Col. Henderson the then
British Resident in Mysore who took a keen interest in the scheme
181
recognised the possibility of transmitting electric power to long
distances. The Mysore Government considered it advisable to
investigate the practicability of generating power at the Falls and
obtained the loan from the Madras Government of the services of
Col. Pennyquick, R.E., then Chief Engineer at Madras, for the
purpose. In his report he took a most favourable view of the
capabilities of the Falls. In June 1899 Captain A. J. De
Lotbiniere, R.E., Deputy Chief Engineer of Mysore, after studying
the account of the installation at Niagara Falls conceived the idea
of working the machinery at the Kolar Gold Mines with electricity
generated by the power of the Kaveri Falls. The scheme received
the support of Sir K. Seshadri Iyer and was approved by the
Maharani. By August 1900 the agreements with the Mining
Companies were formally ratified and signed and contracts were
given to the General Electric Company of New York and Messrs.
Escher Wyss & Co., Zurich, for the supply and erection of electric
and hydraulic plant respectively, all details having been scrutinised
by a committee of experts in London. In connection with the
preliminary works required at Sivasamudram before the arrival of
the machinery, a temporary camp was opened at a place called
Rottikatte, li miles from the works, and ground was broken by
beginning the excavation on the 10th of August 1900 of the suplpy
channels, a memorable day, it may be said, in the industrial history
of the whole of India. All the labour required for the works had
necessarily to be imported on account of the thinly populated
surroundings of Sivasamudram. During the last quarter of 1900
and the first six months of 1901 the number of labourers did not
fall short of 5000. The first party of the General Electric
Company's engineers and employees arrived in India in December
1900, the remainder following at intervals during 1901 as their
services were required. The first shipment of line material arrived
at Marmugao in January 1901 and the final survey of the line,
jungle clearing and other preliminary operations through the
country to be traversed, in many parts very rugged and difficult,
were at once commenced. The whole of the plant for generation,
transmission and distribution, together with the buildings required
for the purpose, was ready in June 1902 and on the 30th of that
182
month electric power was for the first time transmitted to the
Gold Fields, the switch being operated by Mrs. Robertson, wife of
the British Resident. The agreement with the Mining Companies
at this time was for a supply of 4000 horse power for a period of
ten years. The cost of the scheme was about -Rs. 50 lakhs. Thus
one of the greatest and most recent developments of modern
science was successfully carried out in Mysore and to the
Maharani- Regent and her advisers as well as to Captain Lotbiniere
belonged the credit of carrying out this bold enterprise.
The Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen-Empress Victoria
celebrated on the 21st and 22nd June 1897 afforded an occasion
for rejoicings throughout the State and an opportunity to the
Maharani -Regent to once more give expression to the traditional
loyalty and grateful devotion of both the Ruling Family and the
people of Mysore to the British throne. The celebration at
Bangalore was conducted by Her Highness in person. In
commemoration of the event, the Maharani -Regent laid the
foundation-stone of a hospital known as the Victoria Hospital on
the day of the Jubilee and a building was constructed at a cost of
about Rs. 4 lakhs which was opened to the public by Lord Curzon
towards the end of 1900. The building is a handsome, two-storied
one with abundant accommodation and equipped with the most
modern appliances.
In 1901-02 the Boer War was concluded. In this connection,
Mysore had the honour and satisfaction of several of its residents
joining the famous Lumsden's Horse. More than 100 horses were
supplied for mounting this corps and four non-commissioned native
officers with some syces accompanied these horses.
Another obligation towards strengthening the bond of Imperial
friendship cheerfully undertaken during this period was the
formation of a Transport Corps as a complement to the regiment of
Imperial Service Lancers which had been organised during the time
of Chamaraja Wodeyar for the purpose of Imperial defence. From
the days of the treaty of Seringapatam in 1 799 about 200 bullocks
183
of the Amrut Mahal breed used to be supplied yearly for British
bullock batteries. But after the Boer War as all batteries were
ordered to be horsed, the British Government was no longer in need
of the Mysore bullocks. The full strength of the corps now formed
was 300 carts and 700 ponies. As regards the cadre of the corps,
it was organised as closely as possible on the cadre of the transport
trains in the British service.
Queen Victoria died in the beginning of the year 1901 after a
long reign of 64 years. The Dewan referred to this occurrence in
his speech to the Representative Assembly in 1901 as an event
which affected the people of Mysore not merely in common with the
teeming millions of the British Empire but with the whole mankind
over whose hearts the good queen had firmly established her
dominion by her personal virtues as she had done over those of her
own subjects by the beneficent exercise of her sovereign power.
The accession of the Prince of Wales to the throne as Edward VII
was at the same time welcomed.
In 1901 the usual decennial census was taken and it was found
that the population had increased notwithstanding the devastations
of plague by about 12 per cent, the density per square mile rising
from 168 to 188. Of girls less than 10 years old, fewer were found
married and fewer widowed than in 1891 ; the actual figures were —
7130 girls under the age of 10 against 18,072 at the census of 1891,
due no doubt mostly to the restrictions placed on such marriages by
the Infant Marriage Regulation passed some years earlier.
Similarly, against 705 married boys below 10 years of age in 1891
there were only 235 such in 1901. As regards education, the
census standard of literacy was low being limited only to reading
and writing. About 5 per cent of the entire population were found
to be literate, consisting of 8.8 per cent of the males and 0.6 per cent
of the females.
The area under cultivation increased by more than two and a
half lakhs of acres. In June 1900 by which time it was found that
out of a total area of the State 1,74,55,539 acres, the extent of
184
culturable land was 69,60,442 acres. There were 65,03,556 acres
under cultivation at the end of the year made up as follows : —
Wet 7,73,677 acres assessed at Rs. 31,34,825.
Dry 53,17,508 „ „ „ 41,65,900,
Garden 2,43,611 „ „ „ 12,93,232.
Coffee 1,65,691 „ „ „ 1,80,902.
Cinchona I
and 3069 „ „ „ 1912.
Cardamom j
Total 65,03,556 acres assessed at Rs. 87,76,771.
The revenues of the State showed a progressive development
from 181 lakhs of rupees in the first year to 189 lakhs in 1901-02,
the last year of the Regency. Even after paying the increased
Subsidy of Rs. 10i lakhs per annum to the British Government
which became payable from July 1896, the State was able to grant
larger allotments than before for education, sanitation, medical
relief and other objects which directly benefited the people.
Excepting the personal changes which were inevitable, the
provisional Government underwent no alteration during the period
of the Regency. Abdul Rahaman having retired in 1895,
V. P. Madhava Rao, Inspector-General of Police, was nominated to
his place. Madhava Rao was a native of Tanjore and had entered
the Mysore Service as a clerk in the office of the Guardian to the
late Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar when the latter was a minor.
Madhava Rao rose to the position of a Member of Council after
holding various appointments. In March 1901 Sir K. Seshadri
Iyer who had been on long leave on account of ill-health
retired but did not survive his retirement for any length of
time, having died in September of the same year. He
possessed a powerful intellect and a strenuous will, though
in warmth of heart he was not the equal of Rangacharlu. During
his long period of office, he rendered various useful services to
the country of his adoption and achieved distinction as a statesman
of Indian repute. Later, a statue was raised and a building known
185
as the Seshadri Iyer Memorial Hall in the Cubbon Park at
Bangalore to commemorate his services was constructed. Sir
W. W. Hunter of the Indian Civil Service and the first compiler of
the Gazetteer of India at one time characterised Sir Seshadri Iyer
as a man who gave his head to Herbert Spencer and his heart to
Parabrahma. T. R. A. Thumboo Chetty, the Senior Councillor,
who was acting as Dewan in place of Sir Seshadri Iyer while the
latter was on leave also retired simultaneously with him after a
long and honourable career.
P. N. Krishna Murthi (later Sir) was now appointed Dewan
and for the two vacant councillorships C. Srinivasa lyengar one of
the Secretaries to Government and Rao Bahadur C. Madiah,
Deputy Commissioner of Mysore, were appointed. V. P. Madhava
Rao now became the Senior Member of Council.
It was fortunate that there were only a few changes among
the British Residents. After Col. Henderson left Mysore in
February 1895, his place was taken by Sir William Lee-Warner
and by Sir Macworth Young for short periods. In December 1896
Col. Donald Robertson, Governor- General's agent, Central India,
became the occupant of the Resident's place during the rest of the
period of the Regency.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Termination of the Regency — Investiture with power
of H. H. Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV— Edward VII's Coronation
in England.
In 1902 the young Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV reached
the age of 18 years and was considered both by his education and
the administrative training he had received quite competent to
assume the responsibility of ruling his State. Almost in the first
year of her lonely life the Maharani- Regent had readily given her
consent to an arrangement by which Mr. S. M. Fraser (afterwards
Sir) of the Bombay Civil Service was appointed Tutor and Guardian
of the young Maharaja. Before he came to Mysore, he had held a
similar position in Kolhapur and had earned a name for having
very successfully trained up the ruler of that State. It was
considered at the time by a large number of people that it was cruel
to separate the son from the mother. Her Highness, however, saw
the wisdom of the arrangement and suppressing her natural feelings
yielded to the sense of duty she owed to her son. Fortunately
Mr. Fraser's tact, conciliatory disposition and abilities were such as
to cause no regret on the part of the Maharani for the approval she
had given to the arrangement for the education of her son.
Under the guidance of Mr. Fraser, a systematic and sustained
effort was made to prepare His Highness for the duties of his
exalted office, which was ultimately attended with great success.
The curricula of studies were framed with a view to giving the
Maharaja an intelligent knowledge both of the theory and practice
of government. The reading of modern history and science was
combined with a study of the principles of jurisprudence and
methods of revenue administration. This book learning was
supplemented by extensive tours in every part of the State by
which the Maharaja was brought into contact with all classes of
officials and gained a first-hand knowledge of the nature and
resources of the country which he was to govern. In the last tour
made before assuming the government of the State, His Highness
H. H. Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, G.C.S.I., G.B.E.
187
in several places took the opportunity to visit taluk and other
offices to examine the accounts and papers of village officials and
to speak to the people by his own mouth and thus was introduced
to the practical working of the machinery of the districts. To
familiarise himself with legal procedure, His Highness more than
once attended the law courts and sat upon the bench with the
presiding judges and magistrates. On some occasions His Highness
attended the meetings of the State Council and followed the discus-
sions with intelligent appreciation of the points raised. It was the
opinion of those responsible at the time for the Maharaja's training
that His Highness had made excellent use of the opportunities
afforded to him. The Maharaja's health during his minority was
uniformally good. He had regular and varied outdoor exercises
which developed his physical strength and endurance. His
Highness Jearnt to play tennis and racquets well and was able to
acquire proficiency in horsemanship.
The investiture ceremony took place on the 8th August 1902
at Mysore and it was performed by the Viceroy Lord Curzon.
A deputation from Mysore consisting of Mr. C. L. S. Russel, first
assistant to the British Resident, Bakshi Bassappaji Urs a
nobleman of the State and related to the Royal Family and V. P.
Madhava Rao, Member of the State Council, welcomed the
Viceregal party at Hindupur on behalf of the Maharani- Regent and
accompanied the party to Bangalore, arriving there on the 4th
August. The Viceroy made a stay of two days at Bangalore. On
the afternoon of the first day he drove to the Imperial Service
Cavalry and Transport Lines and witnessed some 200 Imperial
Service Lancers under the command of Captain Macquiod execute
various manoeuvres. On the arrival of the Viceroy at the Imperial
Service Lines, he was received by Dewan Krishna Murthi and
conducted to a position near the saluting flag. After the horses of
the entire regiment had lain down on the word of command so as
to form covers for their riders in action, the regiment formed mass
and the men dismounted and left their horses entirely alone with
the rein passed through the girths. Rockets, carbine discharges
and other noises were then made to test the training of the horses
and except one or two horses which broke away, the remainder kept
188
perfectly steady and unconcerned. After galloping past and
advancing in review order, the Lancers cheered His Excellency.
The Viceroy remarked that the display he had seen proved the
excellence of the training of the horses and the special attention
paid to the matter by Colonel Desaraj Urs and Captain Macquiod.
The manoeuvres subsequent to special show in connection with
the horses reflected great credit, said His Excellency, on the
. regiment. On the night of the next day, the Viceroy and party
attended a reception given by the Dewan P. N. Krishna Murthi
at the latter's palatial residence ' Puma Prasada.' On the 6th
August the electric works at Sivasamudram were visited and
Mysore was reached on the morning of the 7th, where the Viceroy
was received with all the ceremonies usual on such occasions.
On Friday the 8th August 1902 a grand durbar was held in the
pavilion attached to the Jagan Mohan Palace. The civil and
military officers of the Government and others who had been
invited for the occasion were in their seats before the arrival of the
Viceroy. A deputation consisting of the Dewan and three principal
officers of the State waited on His Excellency at 9-15 a.m. for the
purpose of conducting him to the durbar hall. His Excellency left
his residence at 9-30 a.m. attended by the Private and Military
Secretaries and the Under- Secretary in the Foreign Department
and was escorted by a wing of a regiment of British cavalry and a
battery of Royal Field Artillery. His Highness the Maharaja
accompanied by Colonel Donald Robertson the British Resident
and four principal nobles and officers of the State received the
Viceroy as he alighted from his carriage. A guard of honour
furnished by the Royal Warwickshire Regiment with band and
colours which had been drawn up outside the durbar hall saluted
the Viceroy on arrival. The band played a slow march as the
procession approached the door of the durbar hall and at the
entrance a second guard of honour of British troops presented arms.
A royal salute of 31 guns was fired from the ramparts of the fort
and the band played the British National Anthem. All present rose
on the entrance of the procession and remained standing till His
Excellency th* Viceroy took bis seat ro the date, The Maharaja
rssr
took his seat on the right hand and on the left of the Viceroy were
seated the Resident, the Foreign Secretary and other British officers.
The other European guests were seated in an other group at some
distance apart. On the right of the Maharaja sat the Dewan, the
nobles and other native officers and guests in the order of their rank
and precedence in different rows. After all were seated, the Foreign
Secretary declared the Durbar open.
His Excellency the Viceroy then rose and addressed His
Highness the Maharaja in these words : — " Your Highness and
Gentlemen — This is the first time since I have been in India that I
have been called upon personally to instal a Ruling Chief. It gives
me the greatest pleasure that the Chief in whose case I am about
to discharge these agreeable functions should be one whose career
I have had such close opportunities of watching and for whom I
entertain so sincere a regard as the young Maharaja of Mysore.
Indeed, I think I may add that I should not have come all the way
from Simla at this season of the year had I not felt the keenest
personal interest both in this State and in its future Ruler. About
the latter I shall have a word to say presently. But first let me
explain how it is that the fortunes of the Mysore State occupy such
a place in the concern and regard of the Government of India.
" We can never forget that for 50 years this State was under
British administration during which time it enjoyed the full
benefits of the discipline and method and experience that are
associated with the British system. At the end of that period a
great experiment was made. The famous Rendition took place
and the State was given back to its native rulers. It is interesting
to recollect that the statesman who was mainly responsible for that
act was the veteran Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, who only three
Weeks ago resigned the helm of affairs in England after half a
century of unsurpassed service to the State. It was a just and
magnanimous act, but it was also, as I have said, a great experi-
ment ; for if the result had been failure, then a cruel rebuff would
have been administered to the generosity which dictated the
proceeding and the cause of Native States and of Native Adminis-
tration throughout India must have suffered a lasting recoil*
wo
The eyes of every one therefore were directed upon Mysore to see
how the venture would result and how far the State would justify
the confidence reposed in it. I will not pretend that there have
never been shades in the picture or that an unassailable standard
has everywhere been maintained. In this world we talk about
ideals more often than we realise them. But this I can unhesita-
tingly say — the State has been well served by the members of its
Ruling Family and by faithful and patriotic ministers. The first
Dewan Rangacharlu did not long survive the Rendition. But his
successor Sir Seshadri Iyer for 1 8 years wielded an authority that
was a reflex of his powerful character and abilities and that left its
mark upon every branch of the administration. The late Maharaja
whose amiability and excellence of disposition endeared him to all
was unfortunately removed by a premature death while still in the
prime of life. And since then Sir Seshadri Iyer has died also.
Thus the old order has passed away and we stand on the threshold
of a new era.
" For nearly eight years there has been a minority during
which the Regency has been in the hands of Her Highness the
Maharani- Regent assisted by a Dewan and Council and relying upon
the firm and constant support of the British Resident. As the head
of the Government of India, I have pleasure in stating that the
smooth progress of events during the minority has been largely due
to the unfailing tact and discretion of Her Highness. If I may be
allowed to say so, she has set an example of public and domestic
virtue which has been of equal value to her people and to her
family and which has earned for her the admiration and respect of
all. It gives me pleasure to announce that in recognition of these
services I had submitted to His Majesty the King-Emperor the
request that he would allow Her Highness the salute of 19 guns to
be continued to her for life and that His Majesty has gladly
consented to bestow upon Her Highness this exceptional mark of
favour. It is our hope now that she is retiring from the responsible
position which she has so long and successfully filled that she may
observe the fruits of her sagacious example and may meet with the
rewards of her motherly devotion in the conduct and career of
foer son,
191
" I am thus brought to the circumstances that have led up to
the ceremony of to-day. The young Maharaja whom I am about
to instal has recently attained his eighteenth birthday. He has
passed through a minority of nearly eight years. They have not
been idle or vapid years spent in enjoyment or dissipated in
idleness. They have been years of careful preparation for the
duties that lie before him and of laborious training for his exalted
state. It is no light thing to assume the charge of 5,000,000 of
people and it is no perfunctory training that is required for such a
task. In Mr. Fraser we were fortunate enough to discover a Tutor
and Governor thoroughly alive to the duties of his onerous position
and well qualified to win the confidence as well as waken the
energies of his pupil. In Colonel Robertson the young Chief has
met with a mentor as sympathetic as he was wise, and under this
combined influence, associated by those happy domestic associations
to which I have before referred, we have seen the natural good
judgment and sound sense of the Maharaja develop by steady
degrees until we felt satisfied of his capacity to assume the full and
final responsiblity of the government of men. He has made
frequent tours among his people. He has studied their wants and
needs at first hand. He has thereby acquired the knowledge which
will enable him to understand the problems with which he will be
confronted. Fortified by this knolwedge, his naturally business-like
habits and his instinctive self-reliance should enable him to steer a
straight course. He will be assisted by a Dewan who has already
earned confirmation in his responsible office and by two capable
Councillors of State. He will have the advice of a Private
Secretary whose abilities have specially recommended him for the
selection. The time, I hope, will never come when the Maharaja
may be unable to rely upon the support and counsel of the
British Resident to whom he should turn, not as to a schoolmaster
but as a protector and friend."
Then turning towards the Maharaja, Lord Curzon continued : — •
" Pray do not think that I am going to read you a lecture. Rulers
are not made virtuous by installation homilies but by the instincts
of their nature, by a diligent training and by a willingness to profit
by the wisdom and experience of others. There was a learned
French priest named Fenelon who was specially engaged to give
lectures in the art of rule to the grandson of Louis XIV of France.
But I am sorry to say that the young man was no better at the end
than at the beginning. Similarly we know that all the precepts of
the wisest of men, King Solomon, left no impression upon his son.
I am not going, therefore, to give you a text- book of moral maxims.
I will only ask you to remember this — the young man of 18 who
becomes a Ruler not only enjoys one of the noblest opportunities but
also bears one of the greatest responsibilities in the world. Upon you
to a large extent will depend the happiness and comfort of several
millions of your fellow creatures who already look up to you with
reverence, who if you rule well, will regard you with devotion but
if you rule badly, with indifference and despair. You are put in
this place not for your own sake ; to think that is the greatest of
all human errors, but for theirs. If you act conscientiously and
dutifully, you may leave a name that will live for generations in
the memory of your people. If you throw away your chances and
become a sluggard or worse, your name will be written in water
and your memory will pass like a puff of smoke from the minds of
men. Therefore I beg of you at this turning-point in your life
to remember these things. Put your heart into your work. Be
just. Be courageous. Be merciful to the lowly. Be considerate
to all. Work as though you were going to live not for 90 years
but for 5 ; for duty, believe me, cannot afford to loiter and there
ought to be no blank spaces in a Ruler's dairy "
The Maharaja was after the conclusion of the speech formally
led up the dais by the Viceroy and installed in one of the two State
chairs. The Foreign Secretary having read the titles of the
Maharaja, the Viceroy declared that the Maharaja was invested
with full powers of administration. The event was immediately
signalised by a salute of 21 guns from the fort, while the band
played the National Anthem. The Viceroy's khillats were then
brought in and conferred on the Maharaja.
The Maharaja th«n rose and made a reply to the Viceroy's
speech in these words: — "It is with feelings of no mere con-
veational loyalty and gratitude — loyalty to His Majesty the King-
193
Emperor and gratitude to yourself his representative — that I
acknowledge the great honour conferred upon me in receiving at
Your Excellency's hands the charge of my State this day. The
history of Mysore with the romantic fortunes of our ancient dynasty
must ever inspire in its Ruler a feeling of gratitude to the British
throne, which adds, I think, a special quality to the allegiance
which it is my first duty to publicly tender to the person of His
Gracious Majesty King Edward VII. The restoration of His
Majesty to health by God's goodness is nowhere in the British
Empire hailed with more heartfelt thankfulness than in the loyal
State of Mysore. To Your Excellency I owe something more
than ordinary thanks. In common with the rest of the Chiefs of
India, I am indebted to Your Excellency for the many acts by
which you have proved yourself to be our friend, most of all perhaps
for the ennobling ideal of duty ever held up before us, and the words
of weighty advice which Your Excellency has now addressed to me
will, believe me, sink the deeper into my mind from the example
and authority of the illustrious Viceroy who has uttered them. But
more than this, I am under a particular and personal obligation to
Your Excellency for the distinction bestowed upon me by this
second visit to Mysore.
" In gratefully acknowledging the sacrifice entailed on Your
Excellency, I would venture to assure Your Excellency that I shall
never forget the honour done me on this the most important day of
my career. How important are the responsibilities which now
devolve upon me I fully realise and this it is my ambition to prove
by performance rather than by words. The inheritance to which I
succeed is no ordinary one and I appreciate what Mysore owes to
wise statesmen and the care of the British Government under the
Regency of my revered mother. But at the same time, I know full
well that I cannot rest on the laurels won by others and that my
utmost efforts are needed not only to maintain for my subjects the
benefits they already enjoy but to press onward to a yet higher
standard of efficiency. How far I may be granted the ability to
cope with the problems before me the future only can show, but it
is a comfort to me to feel that I shall for some time at any rate
enjoy the assistance of my well proved friend the Honourable
A25
194
Colonel Donald Robertson as Resident of the State. And speaking
with all deference, I am able to say that I begin my task with some
knowledge of its difficulties, thanks to the education I have received
from Mr. Fraser to whom I hope to prove that his labours for the
past six years have not been without fruit. This much at any rate
can confidently be affirmed that the desire and the effort to succeed
shall not be lacking. I have now seen a great deal of my State
with its beautiful scenery and its loyal people and it would be a
poor heart indeed that was not filled with pride and love for such
an inheritance. May Heaven grant me the ability as well as the
ambition to make a full and wise use of the great opportunities of
my position and to govern without fear or favour for the lasting
happiness of my people."
In the afternoon the Maharaja received addresses from
various bodies and made separate suitable replies. To the members
of the Madhva Siddhantonnahini Sabha, a religious body represent-
ing the followers of Sri Madhva's Dwaitha philosophy, His
Highness conveyed the assurance that all institutions which had
for their object the development of reverence and godliness in man
deserved encouragement and as such the Sabha had his sympathy.
To the representatives of the London and Wesleyan Missions in
the Mysore State, His Highness said that their efforts to spread
education and to foster qualities of good citizenship needed no
commendation at his hands, that it was a matter of pride and
pleasure to him that they spoke in such appreciative terms of his
late lamented father and of his revered mother, and striving after
the same high ideals as they entertained, he would continue to
promote the welfare of all classes and creeds among his subjects.
To the members of the Mahomedan community, the Maharaja
replied in Urdu and assured them that it was his great wish that
his Muslim subjects in Mysore should progress in the arts, science
and literature like the other communities. To the representatives
of the North and South Planters* Associations, His Highness said
that it was gratifying to him to note their reference to the
broad-minded and enlightened principles that had guided the
administration of his illustrious father and of his esteemed mother
and to assure them that he would be guided by the same principles.
195
A number of other addresses also were presented to His Highness,
among them being one from the inhabitants of the French
Settlement of Pondicherry, another from the members of the
Eurasian and Anglo- Indian Association of Mysore and Coorg, and
a third from the people of Coorg. Among the deputations that had
arrived to offer their congratulations to the young Maharaja was
one from Kapurthala in the Punjab.
The happy recovery of the King- Emperor Edward VII and
His Majesty's Coronation in England on the day succeeding the
installation of the Maharaja were events of common rejoicing
throughout the British Empire. On this day an open air
Coronation parade service was held in Mysore on the old polo
ground adjoining the Government House at which both the Viceroy
and the Maharaja were present. Lord Curzon after spending a
few days in the jungles of Mysore in the Gundlupet taluk engaged
in bison shooling and other shikar, finally left Mysore on the
morning of the 13th August and proceeded to Ootacamund.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Form of the New Government in Mysore.
The investiture of the young Maharaja with ruling powers
came at a time and in circumstances more fortunate than existed
in the days of His Highness' grand-father or of his father.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar III had by the prudent management of
Purnaiya no financial embarrassment when he started his career as
actual ruler. But the Paramount Power allowed him to assume
the government merely imposing on him a vague obligation to rule
the country to the benefit of his subjects, without making any
proper provision to give His Highness adequate training to do so
according to the standard expected by that Power. Chamaraja
Wodeyar no doubt succeeded to the government of a peaceful
country with all the advantages of a good education and proper
political training for the great position he was to fill. But it must
at the same time be said that the country had been devastated by a
severe famine and had been left burdened with a debt of Rs. 80
lakhs with all branches of administration crippled. On the other
hand, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV was fortunate to assume the
country in more favourable circumstances inasmuch as he had
received not only a good training fitting him for his position but
also whose parents had by wise management left him a surplus of
more than Rs. 44 lakhs in the treasury, with a reconstructed
Government consisting of efficiently administered departments.
The first official act of the Maharaja was the issue of a
proclamation to the people of the State in which His Highness
announced that he had assumed on the termination of his minority
the government of the country from the hands of his revered
mother. All judges and magistrates and other officers of the civil
and military departments were continued in their respective posts
and were allowed to exercise the respective functions belonging to
them, subject to such alterations as might be made in the future for
the good of the State. His Highness also declared that it would
197
be his earnest endeavour to promote the advancement of the State
as well as the welfare of his subjects following in the footsteps of
his illustrious father of blessed memory and of his revered and
beloved mother. P. N. Krishna Murthi (afterwards Sir) was
continued as Dewan, but the number of Members of the State
Council which was three during the period of the Regency was
reduced by one and V. P. Madhava Rao and C. Srinivasa lyengar
were confirmed in their places.
On the accession of the Maharaja to power, the exigencies
which existed during the time of the Regency to have a Council
more or less of an executive character ceased to operate. To the
British Government the Maharaja was solely responsible for
maintaining amicable relations with that Power and for the efficient
administration of his State. The Council, therefore, resumed its old
character of being a Consultative Council. But at the same time
care was taken to maintain it as an efficient body with real power,
acting not only in co-operation with the Dewan but also serving as
a sort of check on his actions and opinions. The work of the State
was distributed as during the Regency period between the Dewan
and the Councillors according to a prescribed list and a schedule
was drawn up in which all cases which needed the orders of His
Highness the Maharaja were specified. Cases falling under this
schedule were, in the first instance, to be submitted by the Secretary
concerned to the Councillor in charge of the department on whom
rested the initiative entailing where necessary the preparation of a
note for the consideration of the Council. The matter was then to
be placed before the Council and submitted with the opinions of the
Dewan and the Councillors for the orders of the Maharaja, Cases
not falling under this schedule were to be dealt with by the Dewan
as the senior executive officer of the State. In such matters the
Secretary was to draft the necessary orders and forward the papers
to the Dewan through the Member of Council concerned. If any
material difference of opinion became perceptible between a member
of Council and the Dewan, it was left to the discretion of the
Dewan to treat the subject as a Council matter or to submit the
same for the orders of the Maharaja. If in any matter connected
with a department not directly under his own charge the Dewan
198
considered that immediate action was necessary, he was free to
issue orders on his own authority, a copy of the order issued being
at once sent to the Councillor concerned and a report being also
made to the Maharaja for the necessity of such an order. A
Revenue Commissioner was also appointed for the State with
the powers specified in the Land Revenue Code and V. P. Madhava
Rao was appointed to the place, in addition to his being a member
of the Council.
Evan Machonochie (afterwards Sir) of the Bombay Civil
Service was appointed Private Secretary to the Maharaja. It was
considered at the time that an undue share of authority had passed
into the hands of the Dewans during the period of the Regency and
in Lord Curzon's opinion such a state of things did not betoken a
healthy future. The Maharaja, he regarded, ought to be the actual
ruler of his people and master in his own house. It was therefore
thought that a Private Secretary drawn from the Indian Civil
Service and who was equipped with the requisite experience would
be able to relieve His Highness of drudgery, show him something
of the method of disposing of work in British Government offices,
and while suppressing his own personality exercise some influence
in the direction desired. Mr. S. M. Fraser (afterwards Sir), Tutor
and Governor of the Maharaja during his minority, left Mysore
after the investiture ceremony was completed and his parting
assurance to Machonochie was that in any contingency His
Highness could be trusted to ' go four annas better ' than could be
reasonably expected,— an assurance that was to be most amply
fulfilled in the succeeding years.
Sir Evan Machonochie has recorded the following sketch of the
Maharaja in his book * Life in the Indian Civil Service ' which he
published in 1926 after his retirement. — " Happily, His Highness is
to-day ruling wisely a contented people and it is sufficient to say
that I found in him a kind and considerate Chief and a loyal friend.
On young shoulders he carried a head of extraordinary maturity
which was, however, no bar to a boyish and whole-hearted enjoyment
of manly sports as well as of the simple pleasures of life. He rode
straight to the hounds, played polo with the best, and a first class
199
game of racquets. He was devoted to animals, particularly his
horses and the terrier that would be his constant companion, and
he never failed to attend stables of a morning to watch the training,
supervise the care and gratify the taste for lucerne and carrots of a
stable of carriage horses, hunters and polo ponies that ran well into
the second hundred. It was at such times or on a morning ride
that confidential matters could be most easily discussed and so we
did much business out of office. He had the taste and knowledge
to appreciate Western music as well as his own. So my violin came
out of its case after many years and we would have musical
evenings at my house, with quartets and the like, in which His
Highness would take the part of first violin."
Regarding the Maharam- Regent, Machonochie has recorded in
the same book this estimate of her character.1 — " A word of tribute
is due to Her Highness the Maharam, late Regent. A certain
clinging to power would have been more than excusable in a lady
of character and education who during the eight years of her son's
minority had ruled the State. But I can say that never during the
seven years that I spent in Mysore was I aware of the faintest
indication on her part of a desire to intrude, even in minor personal
matters, upon her son's domain. Dignity and good sense could no
further go."
Scarcely had the Maharaja been in power for a week, when he
summoned an extraordinary meeting of his Council at Mysore on
the 14th August 1902 and addressed the members in these words: —
" Dewan Sahib and Councillors — , Our business to-day is purely
formal and will not detain us long. My object in calling this
extraordinary meeting is two-fold. In the first place, I desire that
no time should be lost by the new administration in giving tangible
evidence of its existence and, in the second place, I wish to take
the earliest opportunity of meeting my Dewan and Councillors
personally in their corporate capacity. We are once again at the
beginning of a new experiment in Mysore. Whether that experi-
ment will be a success or the reverse will depend greatly on you.
Of your devotion to myself personally, I am well aware. In your
devotion to the interests of the State, I have full confidence. No
200
human institution can be perfect and the new scheme of administra-
tion will, no doubt, disclose one kind of defect or another. As the
fruit of the labours of my Dewan, aided by my good friend the
Resident Colonel Robertson, I myself hope and expect much.
This object can only be attained however by single-hearted and
unselfish co-operation between the members of Council of the
State. It cannot be expected that you will always agree with one
another or that I shall always agree with you. It may be that at
times you will feel soreness individually and collectively at being
overruled. At such times I ask you to give credit to those who
disagree with you for being actuated by the same sense of public
duty as yourselves and to reflect that in giving your honest opinion
and urging it to the utmost of your power you have done your duty
and retained your self-respect. I ask you to banish all sense of
resentment and to address yourselves to the next question before
you with undiminished courage and goodwill. If this is the spirit
that animates our labours, I can, relying on your mature experience
and proved abilities, look forward with confidence to the future. In
conclusion, I desire to assure you collectively of my loyal support
and individually of my unfailing sympathy and consideration.
May Heaven always guide us to the lasting good of my dear
people."
Some rooms were allotted in the Palace for the Private
Secretary's office and His Highness lost no time in getting to work.
He also attended the office with unfailing regularity at any time
after eleven and usually remained there till the business of the day
was completed. Apart from private correspondence and disposal of
matters relating to the Palace, a large number of papers relating to
Government were placed before the Maharaja daily for his orders
and the number of such papers exceeded 900 even in the first year
of his rule. Judged by even a quantitave standard, said the Dewan
Sir P. N. Krishna Murthi in his address to the Representative
Assembly of 1903, it must be acknowledged that the new scheme
was not behind its predecessor and that His Highness had borne
a considerable share of the work of the State. The subjects dealt
with by His Highness were, as might be expected, of considerable
variety and range embracing all the important cases in all the
201
branches of the administration. The Dewan also said that His
Highness with the shining examples of his two illustrious parents
before him had shown the same earnest devotion to duty and given
the same unfailing support to his ministers as had been received
at the hands of His Highness* father and his mother.
CHAPTER XXV.
KrUhnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Maharaja's visit to Delhi for the Coronation Durbar —
Opens the Madras Exhibition and visits Lord Ampthill,
Governor of Madras — Tours in the State — Yuvaraja's illness
at Ajmer— Visits of Lord Kitchner and H. R. H. the Prince
of Wales— Birthday and Dasara Festivities.
On the 1st January 1903 the Maharaja took part in the
historic functions of the great Durbar at Delhi to celebrate the
event in India of the accession of Edward VII to the throne as
successor to Queen Victoria. A Mysore camp was formed at a
distance of about six miles from the fort with a large party of
officials and other guests who accompanied the Maharaja. The
Imperial Service troops took part in the Coronation mancL-uvres
and earned the encomiums of the British military department for
their smart turn-out, soldierly bearing and excellent behaviour. In
the State itself durbars were held at all district headquarters and
other places at which proclamations in English and Kanada
announcing His Majesty Edward VI Ts accession to the throne as
King of England and Emperor of India were read to the assembled
people. School sports and illuminations and fireworks formed
parts of the programme. Divine worship was conducted in all
temples and mosques and there was a general feeding of the poor
of all classes. A large number of prisoners were released in
honour of the occasion.
In December 1903 the Maharaja proceeded to Madras in
response to a request to open the Industrial and Arts Exhibition
got up there. On the 22nd of that month the citizens of Madras
received His Highness at the Railway Station with an address of
welcome, and in reply the Maharaja while expressing genuine
pleasure at meeting so many of the leading citizens of that great city,
conveyed the assurance to them that his earnest desire was to uphold
the great traditions of the State and to do what in him lay to maintain
for Mysore that position in the Indian polity which they were good
203
enough to assign to it. On the 26th the Exhibition was opened by
His Highness and the following extracts from his speech on the
occasion indicate some of his views : — " Here, in India, the
problem is peculiar. Our trade tends steadily to expand and it is
possible to demonstrate by means of statistics the increasing
prosperity of the country generally. On the other hand, we in
India know that the ancient handicrafts are decaying, that the
fabrics for which India was renowned in the past are supplanted by
the products of Western looms, and that our industries are not
displaying that renewed vitality which will enable them to compete
successfully in the home or the foreign market. The cutivator on
the margin of subsistence remains a starveling cultivator, the
educated man seeks Government employment or the readily
available profession of a lawyer, while the belated artisan works on
the lines marked out for him by his forefathers for a return that
barely keeps body and soul together. It is said that India is
dependent on agriculture and must always remain so. That may
be so ; but there can, I venture to think, be little doubt that the
solution of the ever recurring famine problem is to be found not
merely in the improvement of agriculture, the cheapening of loans,
or the more equitable distribution of taxation, but still more in the
removal from the land to industrial pursuits of a great portion of
those, who, at the best, gain but a miserable subsistence, and on the
slightest failure of the season are thrown on public charity. It is
time for us in India to be up and doing ; new markets must be
found, new methods adopted and new handicrafts developed, whilst
the educated unemployed, no less than the skilled and unskilled
labourers, all those, in fact, whose precarious means of livelihood is
a standing menace to the well-being of the State must find employ-
ment in reorganised and progressive industries It
seems to me that what we want is more outside light and assistance
from those interested in industries. Our schools should not be left
entirely to officials who are either fully occupied with their other
duties or whose ideas are prone, in the nature of things, to run in
official grooves. I should like to see all those who " think " and
*' know " giving us their active assistance and not merely their
criticism of our results. It is not Governments or forms of
204
Government that have made the great industrial nations, but the
spirit of the people and the energy of one and all working to a
common end."
Early in January following, the Maharaja paid a visit to Lord
Ampthill, then Governor of Madras. Sir Evan Machonochie gives
in his book the following description of this visit : — " I remember
being much struck with the attitude of the crowd as we drove in
state. On such occasions an Indian crowd is impassive and the
progress of a Governor usually excites no more than a dull
curiosity. With a Maharaja the scene is very different. To gaze
on his auspicious countenance brings good luck. Every face is
eager, animated and smiling and the babies are held up in their
mothers* arms to share in the blessings diffused by the divinity of
his presence.11
The first tour undertaken by the Maharaja within the limits of
the State after he assumed power was in November 1904. On the
18th of that month His Highnes left his Palace at Mysore soon after
9 a.m. in semi-state with escort and drove to the toll-bar on the
Bannur road. Here a motor car was waiting and His Highness
and the Yuvaraja with two others of the party started shortly after
10 o'clock. Rapid travelling was impracticable owing to the
numerous pandaJs erected all along the road by the inhabitants of
the adjoining villages and the throngs of people that were gathered
to catch a sight of His Highness. The Maharaja stopped at a
number of places on the way where he conversed with officials and
others. Outside Gargeshwari a deputation was present of the Sri
Vyasaraya Mutt at Sosal6 closeby with the insignias of the
institution and an address of welcome. At Tirumakudlu the
'Maharaja was received by the district officers and by the important
-local people. His Highness then embarked on a raft with a very
•carefully designed canopy and was conveyed across the junction of
the Kaveri and Kapila rivers to the steps of the Gunja Narasimha
Swamy temple at T-Narsipur. The scene during the crossing was,
it is stated, most striking. Thousands of people from all the
country round had collected and filled the river, wading up to the
waist and deeper to get a glimpse of the Maharaja. The insignias
205
of the Lingayat and other communities were also displayed and
the whole distance between between the Mysore road and the
temple was paced with a surging crowd, jostling and splashing but
immensely good-humoured and most anxious to lend a hand at the
raft. The high banks on the Narsipur side were hidden by sight-
seers offering a most enthusiastic welcome.
A pandal had been erected in the temple precincts where His
Highness received addresses from the T-Narsipur Municipality and
inhabitants of the taluk and acknowledged them briefly in Kanada.
In the afternoon a visit was paid to the Hoysala temple at
Somnathpur, some 4 miles alon^r the Bannur road on the north side
of the Kaveri. After returning to camp, His Highness visited in
the evening the temples on either side of the junction, when the
river banks and bed and adjoining buildings were illuminated
effectively.
On the morning of the 19th November His Highness left
T-Narsipur on horseback and reached Nanjangud at about
10-30 a.m. As on the previous day, pandals were much in evidence
all along the route, at each of which short halts were made. Out-
side the town of Nanjangud a deputation from the Sri Ragha-
vendraswamy Mutt and the temple received His Highness and
numerous pandals along the streets of the town testified to the
loyalty of the inhabitants. In a pandal in the Bazaar Chowk, His
Highness received an address from the Municipality enclosed in a
silver casket and acknowledged it in a short reply. The members
of the Municipality and of the Representative Assembly, the local
officials, legal practitioners and leading merchants were then
introduced to His Highness. In the afternoon His Highness visited
some of the local offices and institutions and the evening closed
with fireworks and illuminations. On the 20th the party left
Nanjangud in the morning and taking the road to Gundlupet turned
from Begur to Hediyal where a shooting camp had been formed.
The next day His Highness and the Yuvaraja returned to Mysore.
In subsequent years His Highness made trips to various
places Ajmer, Calcutta, Bombay, Kashmir, Simla, Badrinath,
206
Mount Kailas. The trip to Ajmer was in connection with the
illness of His Highness' brother the Yuvaraja who was studying at
the Mayo College. On receiving news that the Yuvaraja had an
attack of typhoid, the Maharaja started off at a moment's notice
with his mother and his durbar physician. Happily, all ended well
and the patient recovered and returned to Mysore. The Maharaja
and the members of his family were however not so fortunate in the
case of the second princess Narasarajammanni who passed away
while still young after a long illness in November 1904 and the
whole country mingled its sorrow with that of the members of the
Royal Family.
The earliest visitor to the Maharaja after his accession to
power was Lord Kitchner, the brilliant British General and
Commander-in-Chief of the Indian forces. In April 1904 he visited
Mysore and inspected the Imperial Service Regiment and the
Transport Corps of the State.
In January and February 1906 Their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales (subsequently known as George V
and Queen Mary) paid a visit to the State. They were warmly
welcomed everywhere with spontaneous demonstrations of joy and
devotion by all classes of people in the State. To afford the august
visitors an opportunity to see the products of the arts and industries
of the State and its resources as well, an Industrial and Agricultural
Exhibition was held at Mysore. Their Royal Highnesses paid a
visit to it and evinced considerable interest in the exhibits. The
Prince of Wales also laid the foundation-stone of the Chama-
rajendra Technical Institute at Mysore, and at Bangalore he
unveiled the statue raised to the memory of Her late Majesty the
Queen- Empress Victoria.
At the banquet in honour of the Prince and Princess of Wales
on the 30th January 1906 the Maharaja said: — "The fortunes of
Mysore will ever be associated in history with the consolidation of
the British Power in India. It was in Mysore that the great Duke
of Wellington received his baptism of fire and won his first laurels.
It was with the aid of the Mysore Horse and the Transport that he
.gained imperishable fame on the battle fields of the Deccan. In
207
the horsemen who now have the greatly -prized honour of forming
your escort and personal guard, Your Royal Highnesses see the
descendants of the men who fought at Seringapatam and in the
Deccan. Of the efficiency of my Imperial Service troops, it is not
for me to say more than that one and all have worked their hardest
to fit themselves for the front line of the army of the Empire. But
of their spirit I dare affirm that the one ambition of every officer
and man is to emulate the valour of his ancestors in the service of
His Majesty the King- Emperor. I beg Your Royal Highness to
convey to His Gracious Majesty the assurance that whenever the
call may come, Mysore will not be found wanting."
The Birthday and the Dasara festivities now assumed their
old splendour even in a larger degree than they possessed in the
days of His Highness' father and of his grand -father. On these
occasions large numbers of European and Indian guests are usually
invited and larger and larger crowds of people are attracted to the
capital to witness the sports and gaieties taking place at the time.
On occasions of his Birthday the Maharaja goes to the Government
House in procession through some of the main streets and there
His Highness is welcomed by his European guests. At night His
Highness returns to the Palace in grand procession. Polo tourna-
ments, lawn tennis matches and various other sports are also
combined with horse racing during this period.
Occasion may be taken here to mention that Sir S. M. Fraser
the former Tutor of the Maharaja returned to Mysore in the
capacity of British Resident in 1905 and when he proposed the
toast of His Highness at the Birthday Banquet held on the 15th
June 1908, the Maharaja gave expression to these sentiments:—
" I find some difficulty in responding adequately to the more than
generous terms in which you, Sir, have proposed my health, but if I
am tempted to ascribe some measure of your appreciation to the
partiality of an old friend, it is none the less gratifying to me to
learn that the hospitality of Mysore is so warmly recognised by my
friends. There are, however, two references in your speech to
which I can respond without reserve. As you truly observe, my
lamented father established a tradition of personal regard and,
208
indeed affection, between the Ruler of Mysore and his European
friends and that tradition I regard it as my duty and my privilege
to maintain. In the second place, you have referred to the
peculiar relation in which Mysore stands with regard to the
Government and officers of the Paramount Power. This relation
stands on the solid basis of benefit conferred on the one hand and
as I am proud to maintain, justified on the other. The friendship
thus begun has been confirmed and cemented by the closest and
most cordial intercourse at work and at play, in fair weather and in
foul, for more than one hundred years. That these relations may
ever be continued is, I can assure you, the earnest desire of Mysore
and its Ruler."
The celebration of the Dasara first began, as we know, in the
days of Raja Wodeyar, one of His Highness' ancestors in the
beginning of the 17th century. This festival opens on the first day
of Aswija (September or October) and annually attracts to the
Mysore City multitudes of people both from inside and outside the
State as well as a number of European and other visitors interested
in the social and artistic aspects of the occasion. Vijayadasami or
victory day is the name given to the last day of the Dasara, while
the preceding nine days are designated Navaratri or Nine Nights.
On the morning of the first day of the festival His Highness goes
to Chamundi Thotti where all the religious functions of the Palace
take place. An image of the family goddess is here installed. On
this occasion His Highness appears before the image wearing a
special vesture and also a Kankanam or bangle sacred to the
goddess. This bangle is not removed nor does His Highness leave
the Palace until the first nine days of the festival are completed.
Following the traditions of his ancestors, the Maharaja daily in the
evening sits on the throne in view of the public and in the open
space in front of the Palace a programme of musical drills and
other displays is gone through. To the durbar on the ninth day,
European guests are invited and are received with appropriate
formalities usual on such occasions, while the latter return to the
Maharaja the usual civilities. The Resident is seated in a chair of
state on His Highness1 right, while the other European guests are
feated in long rows on the same side. On the left are seated
209
members of the Ruling Family, Arasu noblemen, State officers and
other invitees. His Highness seated on the golden throne and
wearing magnificent jewels is the gorgeous centre of a brilliant
scene. At the close of the scene the guests bow in front of the
throne and each lady is handed by the Maharaja a bouquet and a
small bottle of scent.
On the tenth day the Maharaja goes in full State procession to
the Banni Mantap (so designated in memory of the Banni tree on
which the Pandavas are said to have deposited their arms during the
year of their obligatory concealment) situated at some distance to the
north of the city. On the morning of this day the State sword is
placed in a palanquin and sent to the Banni Mantap along with the
State horse and the State elephant. The great procession takes
place late in the afternoon through the streets packed with dense
crowds of sight-seers on both sides. The Maharaja sits in a golden
howdah carried on the back of a magnificent elephant. At Banni
Mantap a parade is held just after sunset. Alter the parade, His
Highness performs Puja (worship) before the State sword and the
Banni tree. The sword, the elephant and the horse are then sent
back to the Palace. His Highness follows them in a. magnificent
procession illuminated at one time by torch lights which have given
place now to bright electric lights.
CHAPTER XXVt.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Various Administrative Improvements— 1902— 1906.
Finance.
During the period closing the early part of the year 1906
various measures of internal improvement were inaugurated.
The earliest administrative event of the new Maharaja's reign
was the completion of the examination of the State accounts by
Mr. Kiernander, a retired financial officer of the Government of
India. In the year 1881 the ordinary revenue of the State was
Rs. 107i lakhs, while in 1902-03 the first year of the Maharaja's
reign it stood at Rs. 180 lakhs. What were regarded as permanent
charges in which little scope existed for curtailment in a time of
necessity amounted to about Rs. 95$ lakhs, while in 1881 it was
about Rs. 58 lakhs. The increase in expenditure was partly due
to the enhancement of the Subsidy. The total expenditure under
other administrative heads where reduction was possible in a time
of need was about Rs. 88 lakhs as compared with Rs. 39 lakhs in
1881 the year of the Rendition. It was found, however, that the
most appreciable increases related to such useful departments as
Medical, Education, Public Works, Police, Law and Justice. Mr.
Kiernander recorded his testimony to the prosperous condition of
the finances of the State notwithstanding the heavy drain on its
resources due to enhanced Subsidy, cost of reconstruction of a
number of administrative departments, the Kaveri Electric scheme
and other items.
Sir Donald Robertson, the British Resident who vacated his
office in November 1903, apart from the service he rendered in the
framing of the Mysore Constitution was also helpful in placing the
financial control of the State on a more satisfactory footing. He
suggested the appointment of a trained audit officer as Comptroller
of the State finances and this suggestion was accepted by the
Durbar. He also expressed the opinion that this officer should have
adequate freedom to express his views on matters involving any
211
substantial expenditure or departure from financial rules as well as
the right of direct access to His Highness in the last resort.
Application was made to the Government of India for the services
of a qualified officer and one was borrowed from the Finance
Department of that Government. Both this officer as well as his
successor, however, did not perceive the difference between British
India and a Native State and made no attempt to apply the audit
rules of British India in a flexible manner to the Mysore State. In
British India, it is believed that the financial officers are accustomed
generally to have the Secretary of State at their back and in the
case of any difference with the Government have the privilege of
the last word expressed with considerable latitude. In a Native
State, on the other hand, the Government for the time being and the
Maharaja as matters stand at present should have the final word.
Educational Progress.
Notwithstanding the progress that was achieved in the
general education of the people since the Rendition in 1881,
there was still a vast field of popular ignorance which the light
of knowledge had not touched. Out of a population of nearly
54 millions, only 4.8 per cent were returned at the census of
1901 as literate, or in other words 95.2 per cent of the population
were unlettered. If the two sexes were viewed separately, the
percentage of males literate was 8.8 of their population and that of
females 0.6 per cent to their total number. Similarly the
percentage of male pupils under instruction was 23.09 and that of
females 4.15 or an average of 13.62 for the children of both sexes
together to the school-going population. The percentage of
number of schools to the number of towns and villages was 23.29.
It was regarded at this time as a serious problem how within a
reasonable time further facilities could be created to diminish this
appalling mass of popular ignorance.
In the year 1902 when the Maharaja began to rule his State,
there were 2231 public schools, their total attendance being
1,11,624. The percentages of boys and girls to those of school-
going age were respectively 23 and 4. In this year some schools
were opened specially for the backward class of Lambanies.
212
total expenditure on education was Rs. 11,44,352, A number of
private benefactions now began to come in for educational and
other purposes. Of these, the offer of Sowcar Doddanna Setty of
Bangalore to construct and endow a free English school up to the
Lower Secondary standard at a large cost and the gift by Sowcar
Padma Setty of a substantial building named Vani Vilas Pathasala
after H. H. the Maharani- Regent at Sravanabelagola, the great
pilgrim centre of the Jains, were noteworthy. The same Sowcar
gave also an endowment for scholarships.
Various other measures were also adopted to give an impetus
to all kinds of education. In 1902-03 two scholarships were for the
first time awarded to Mahomedan students to study in the famous
college at Alighar established by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. In the
same year the Maharani's Girls' School at Mysore was raised to the
grade of a college and affiliated to the Madras University, and one
young lady passed in two and another in one of the branches of the
B.A. Degree examination and a third in the First in Arts
examination, and from this time the college began to admit girls of
respectable parentage of all communities. In 1905 a further
impetus was given to adult female education by instituting 30
scholarships for the education of widows, in addition to the scholar-
ships given from a fund called the Devaraja Bahadur Fund.
In 1902 an offer of substantial help was made by the Mysore
Government to the provisional committee for the Institute of
Science projected by J. N. Tata of Bombay on the understanding
.that it was to be located at Bangalore. It took some time for
the provisional committee in consultation with the Government of
India to accept this offer. In 1905, however, it was settled that
the institute was to be established in Bangalore and the annual
grant from the Mysore Government was fixed at Rs. 50,000.
In the social and economic conditions of the country as they
stood at this time, it was considered that any scheme of technical
education which involved a large outlay or the co-operation of a
large number of people would end in disappointment, if not total
failure. It was therefore regarded safer to embark on humbler
213
schemes of technical or industrial education. The object kept in
view was not the imparting of any ideal, theoretical or scientific
course of instruction but the teaching of such industries and trades
on improved methods as were adapted to supply the existing wants
of the people such as carpentry, weaving, silk-rearing, iron-work,
rattan -work, lacquer -work and to turn out every year a number of
pupils fully equipped with the means of earning their livelihood. As
a first step, schools were established at Chennapatna and four
others places and these were intended more or less as workshops
also conducted on business principles. In the case of industries for
training in which facilities did not exist in the Mysore State,
a number of scholarships was instituted to enable Mysore pupils to
undergo training in the School of Arts, Madras or Bombay, or other
institutions where such industries were taught. In connection with
the weaving industry, weaving schools with a carpentry class
attached in which elementary drawing was also taught were
established at Hole-Narsipur and three other places.
As an experimental measure, a few selected schoolmasters were
deputed to Tata's Silk Farm at Bangalore for training for a period
of three months in improved methods of growing mulberry trees,
rearing silk worms and reeling, the ultimate object being to train up
a number of schoolmasters who like the special inspectors in Japan
were to help in the constant maintenance of a healthy breed of
worms.
Apart from increasing the efficiency of the artisans and of their
mechanical appliances, it was also considered necessary to give
dignity to the various callings which they greatly lacked at the time
and which therefore precluded the higher classes from engaging
themselves in them as freely as they otherwise would have done.
As a means to achieve this object, it was considered desirable to
teach some of the handicrafts to the high school and college
students. It was also considered necessary in order to increase the
level of the knowledge of the technical arts .among the higher
classes to depute a number of students to foreign countries for the
purpose of studying selected industries in those countries.
Accordingly three students were deputed to America to learn
214
electrical engineering in the workshops of the General Electric
Company at Schenectaddy. An officer of the Geological Depart-
ment was sent to England to undergo an advanced course of training
in Geology.
Local Self-Government.
The Local Boards Regulation which was long in incubation
from 1883 at last received the approval of the Government of India
and was passed into law by the Durbar in 1902, and the rules
required under this enactment were issued in September 1903.
Under these rules were constituted eight District Boards
corresponding to the 8 revenue districts, 77 Taluk Boards one for
each taluk or sub-taluk and 38 Unions. These Unions were
formerly Minor Municipalities and they were converted into Unions
as they contained a population of less than 3000 each. The
strength of the members of a Union was to be fixed in each case by
Government and the chairman of the Panchayet or the governing
body was to be appointed by Government on the recommendation
of the Deputy Commissioners. Each Taluk Board was to consist of
12 members, four ex-officio — the Assistant Commissioner, the
Amildar, the medical officer and the senior officer of the Public
Works Department, 4 elected members being men of the full age of
21 years able to read and write and either holding or owning in the
taluk land assessed at not less than Rs. 50 per annum, or officiating
as Patel of any village in the taluk, or paying a house-tax of not
less than Rs. 5 per annum. The electors were to be men with
the same qualifications, the educational qualification being however
regarded as not indispensable. One member of the taluk head-
quarter Municipal Board was to be elected by its members from
among their own body and the remaining three were to be
nominated by Government. The District Board was to consist of
(a) ex-officio members — the Deputy Commissioner as President,
Assistant Commissioners in revenue charge of the taluks as well as
the Assistant Commissioner if any at the headquarters not placed
in revenue charge of a taluk, and the chief or senior officer for the
district in each of the departments of Medical Relief, Engineering
and Education ; (b) one non -official representative from each of
the taluks in the district to be elected by the members of the Taluk
215
board from among their body ; and (c) such number as would
make up the strength of the Board, which strength in the case of
the Mysore District was to be 30 and in the case of the other
districts 25, to be appointed by Government on the recommendation
of the the Deputy Commissioner. The Vice- President of the District
Board was to be one appointed by the Government or one elected
by the members when so authorised by Government. The
members of the Local Boards other than the ex-officio members
were to hold office for three years. Questions coming before the
Local Boards were to be decided by a majority of votes.
The income under Local Funds consisted chiefly of the one
anna local cess collected on a number of items of revenue. 76 per
cent of the cess on land revenue in each district was credited to the
District Board of that district and was expended within the district
through the agency of District and Taluk Boards and Unions.
The balance of 24 per cent, together with the 33 per cent of the
local cess on Excise and other items of revenue, went to form a
fund called the Village School Fund which was spent entirely on
primary education in rural parts.
Mysore City Improvement Trust.
In 1903 an annual sum of Rs. 3 lakhs was allotted for the
improvement of the Mysore City and a Trust Board to carry out
improvements was also formed. Sir Evan Machonochie has given
in his book " Life in the Indian Civil Service " a description of the
work done by this Board : — " Shortly after my arrival, a committee
was constituted to consider the improvement of the Mysore City.
It was composed of all the leading officials of the State and was too
large to be of any practical use. I ventured to suggest that if they
N would appoint a small sub-committee and place at its disposal a
competent surveyor, it would be possible to submit definite
proposals. This was agreed to and we got to work. The
committee included the Civil Surgeon (P. S. Achuta Rao), a
Mysorean who besides possessing high professional qualifications
was the most genial and kindly of men Another (M. Venkat-
krishnaiya) was the editor of the * Mysore Herald * which was the
organ of the local opposition. He devoted much ink and eloquence
216
to attacks on our early efforts towards a new efficiency and
preached ' Mysore for Mysorean ' with much vigour. But his
intentions were good and we got on amicably. We were fortunate
in the officer of the Public Works Department placed at our
disposal. J. E. A. D'Cruz was not only a good all-round engineer
and an exceptionally competent surveyor but also an untiring and
devoted worker. The committee went over every part of the
town, — a not very appetising business before breakfast, — for though
the late Maharaja had effected immense improvements in the way
of magnificent roads and had opened new quarters laid out on the
grand scale, much of the town was congested and some portions
were no better than slums. In something like six months
Mr. D'Cruz with a diminutive staff mostly trained by himself and
at trifling cost had completed an admirable city survey giving every
holding in detail to scale We submitted our proposals and
suggested the formation of an Improvement Trust ' to carry them
out with a substantial allotment from Government funds. The
proposal was accepted and the Trust was constituted, composed of
a few officials and some leading citizens with a senior executive
engineer as chairman. We got to work, cleared out the slums,
straightened and widened the roads, put in a surface drainage
system leading into main sewers that discharged into septic tanks,
provided new quarters for the displaced population and tidied up
generally. The city of Mysore, as a consequence, challenges
comparison for beauty, cleanliness and general amenity with any
capital of its size in the world."
Irrigation.
The large number of tanks in the Mysore State inherited from
the past always was, as we have already seen, a matter of much
soiiejjade to- the Government. A distinction was maintained
between tanks paying an assessment of Rs. 300 and under and
>ho'se paying Rs. 100 and under. For the latter the Government
was incurring no expenditure, while for the former it undertook to
do the masonry And stonework provided the ryots did the earth-
work. This distinction was abolished in 1904 and all masonry and
stonework was undertaken to be executed by Government under
217
certain specified conditions. In special cases, however, when the
amount of earthwork imposed an unreasonable burden on the ryots,
discretion was given to the Deputy Commissioners to allow some
relaxation. By this measure it was hoped that the people would
accord their full co-operation in preserving from deterioration the
great heritage of tanks, the usefulness of which could not be
over-rated.
Ethnological Survey.
An Ethnological Survey was inaugurated by the Government
of India soon after the census of 1901 and the Mysore Government
also followed their example shortly after. The survey included not
only a systematic enquiry into the ethnography of each of the
major castes but also a detailed examination, from an anthro-
pometric point of view, of their physical characters. The
ethnographic portion of the survey in Mysore was entrusted to the
late H. V. Nanjundaiya who was Secretary to Government at
the time.
Electric Lighting of Bangalore.
The Electric Power Scheme continued to yield considerable
profit, and power began to be applied for purposes of illumination,
besides that of mining. On the 3rd August 1905 the electric-
lighting scheme for the Bangalore City was completed, the inaugural
ceremony being performed by the Hon'ble Sir John Hewett,
Member of the Viceroy's Council. In declaring that Bangalore
was the first city in India to be lighted by electricity, Sir John
Hewett complimented His Highness' Government for the
far-seeing wisdom that marked the administration of the State.
Co-operative Societies*
As has been already stated, the Agricultural Banks started
for the relief of rural indebtedness had not fulfills
formed of them. The problems relating to
the agriculturists and the industrialists
important to be left to themselves and as
necessary to devise better methods. Fort
of India had passed a measure in 1904
Credit Societies Act and the Durbar takinf
218
knowledge and larger experience of the Supreme Government
adopted the same Act for the Mysore State in June 1905 with
certain modifications suited to local conditions. This Regulation
was intended to be helpful to all classes of people for the
furtherance of thrift and providence among them. To the
agriculturists and artisans especially, the Regulation was intended
to be an easy means of combination by which they could obtain
the credit they needed for their business and derive benefit in other
ways also. The societies were also meant to act in behalf of the
members for the supply to them of raw material, seed or manure,
articles of consumption or other requisites. There existed also
a provision in the Regulation to authorise the Registrar who
was the supervising otficer of all societies to himself settle disputes
relating to their business or to refer them to arbitration.
In the first year of the introduction of this new scheme, seven
societies were started at different places. The society at Bangalore
was purely an urban society and the one at Hole-Narsipur was
mainly intended for the benefit of the weavers of that taluk. The
society at Kotta in the Sira taluk was a grain bank in which the
capital subscribed by the members and the loans issued were in the
shape of grain. His Highness the Maharaja manifested keen
interest in the development of these societies and placed a large
sum of money from his own purse at the disposal of the Registrar
for popularising this movement. His Highness1 Government also
gave exemption from stamp and registration fees and issued well-
considered rules for the settlement of disputes by arbitration.
They also granted advances of money to the societies in the early
years of their working. In the second year, the number of societies
started was 15 and the society at Saligram in the Krishnarajanagar
taluk deputed one of its members to Baroda to study the improved
processes of weaving introduced there.
The economic condition* of the country as they stood in the
opening years of the Maharaja's rule.
The total area of Government lands under occupation before
the Rendition was the largest in 1875-76, viz., 42,31,826 acres.
219
There was a falling off in the subsequent years in the occupied
area in consequence of famine. In 1881-82 the extent under
occupation excluding area under coffee was 42,13,505 acres. The
extent of cultivated area steadily increased from that year and
in 1903 the total area was a little over 66 lakhs of acres,
showing an increase of more than 56 per cent from the year of the
Rendition. The area under dry crop rose from 35,20,687 acres to
55,57,331 ; that under wet crop from 5,54,554 acres to 7,97,904
and that under garden crop from 1,38,264 acres to 2,43,866. The
net value of the produce of an acre of dry cultivation was calculated
at Rs. 12/-, of wet at Rs. 50/- and of garden at Rs. 80/-. Taking
these estimates which were considered moderate, the total value
of the yield in 1903 which was an average year was calculated to
amount to a little over Rs. 12i crores. The nature of the cultiva-
tion underwent little improvement in the interval and the increase
could more or less be attributed only to the extended area brought
under cultivation. Applying the standards of 1903, the total value
of the produce of 1881 may be considered to have amounted to a
little over Rs. 8 crores, the error if any being in favour of 1881
when prices were low as compared with those of the later year.
The average area of a holding increased from 4.8 acres in the period
from 1893-97 to 7.22 in the next five years, the assessment also
similarly rising from Rs. 6.3 to Rs. 9.6 for each estate.
An Agricultural Chemist had been employed for some years
before the Maharaja assumed power. But most of his time had
been taken up in acquainting himself with the agricultural and
industrial conditions of the country and with the fitting up of a
chemical laboratory. He was now directed to devote his attention
only to those points that would be of help to the agriculturists.
His efforts were required particularly to be directed to a systematic
examination of soils in all parts of the State, the ascertainment of
the appropriate manures required for particular soils, the adoption of
measures for the removal of insects and other pests, the introduc-
tion of improved methods of cultivation generally and other allied
purposes. An Entomologist was also appointed to assist the
Agricultural Chemist in the investigation of the insect pests that
attacked the crops.
220
The depression in the coffee trade owing to the competition front
Brazil and other causes much retarded the growth of that industry
throughout India. The Durbar, therefore, with great willingness
complied at this period with the request made by the North and
South Mysore Planters' Associations for a conference on the
subject. V. P. Madhava Rao, Member of Council, who was
deputed on behalf of Government met Graham Anderson and other
leading planters and conferred with them on the state of the
industry at Mudigere and Sakalespur, the two important centres of
coffee growth. Some of the important subjects considered were the
registration of titles, levy of coffee cess, measures for preventing
adulteration of coffee. The question of introducing the Coffee
Stealing Act and the Labour Law were also touched upon. The
fullest assurance of sympathy and help on the part of Government
was given to this enterprising body of gentlemen whose industry
was of so much benefit to the country. Later, a contribution from
the State of Rs. 5000 was sanctioned to enable the Planting
Associations to exhibit Mysore coffee and cardamoms at the
Luisana Purchase Exposition held in 1904.
The introduction of the Survey and Settlement was completed
in 1895 in all parts of the State and the first revision settlement
was begun in the year 1900 and the first taluks taken up were
Challakere and Molakalmuru. It was noteworthy that there was
no necessity in any case whatever for again classifying the soil, the
original classification having been found quite satisfactory. The
maximum enhancement of assessment on account of revision was
about 22 per cent on the original settlement and the minimum was
15 per cent, it being understood that the Government was entitled
to a maximum limit of enhancement of 33 per cent. The most
noticeable effect of the new revision was upon the garden rate
which underwent considerable diminution. The average rate was
reduced in Davangere from Rs. 4-6-11 to 2-13-9 and in the
Chitaldrug taluk from Rs. 3-14-5 to Rs. 2-8-2, there having been a
corresponding decrease in the other taluks also. This reduction
was partly due to the large extent of dry lands about 2616 acres
which had been converted since the first settlement into garden by
means of well irrigation without any aid from Government water
221
and on which only dry rates were levied. In the Chitaldrug
District it was found that there was an increase of prices all round
of 35 to 40 per cent since the original settlement. The facilities of
communication had also improved and the opening of the railway
had not only improved the market for its produce but had also
helped in the development of its resources.
The establishment of an experimental farm near the Hebbal
village in the Bangalore taluk was taken in hand by the
Agricultural Chemist in 1905. A Mycologist and Entomologist
for the investigation of insect pests and plant diseases was selected
in Canada.
The procedure of inviting objections if any to the grouping of
villages and to the maximum rates of assessment within two
months before a revision settlement became final was found to give
to the land- holders no clear ideas as to how their holdings were
individually affected, and facilities were now therefore created for
appeals being preferred within three months from the introduction
of the revised settlement.
While development of communications in the shape of roads
and railways had tended to bring about an expansion of the area of
the land under cultivation and a consequent increase in the produce
derived from it, the same cause had had a somewhat detrimental
effect on the manufactures of the country. The artisans as
in other parts of India generally carried on their occupations
in their own homes and found a market in their own
neighbourhood or, at best, at short distances from their places of
business. The facilities of transport now created while opening a
a market for grain and other raw produce of the country, at the
same time opened also a door for the influx of cheap foreign goods
which necessarily caused a shrinkage in the manufacturing industries
of the State. The statistics of the railborne trade during the ten
years from 1890 to 1900 showed a large export trade in grain and
pulse, hides and skins, horns, oil seeds, raw silk and similar produce,
while the imports were mostly such as manufactured leather, cotton
goods, European liquors, oils, salt and other articles. The economic
222
position of the Mysore artisan from his own choice continued to be
one of isolation and like the agriculturist, he was unable to enter into
any large combination for a common purpose. The same industries
as were in existence in the early years of the Rendition such as
metal industry, pottery, carpentry, textile fabrics continued without
much change. No doubt in the early years of the Rendition a few
factories came into existence such as the Woollen Manufactory,
the Cotton Mill, the Tile Works and the Sugar Manufactory at
• Goribidnur. But most of these were under European management
and afforded no evidence of progress of either technical knowledge
or co-operative spirit among the people of the country. Attempts
to encourage the manufacture of paper, the establishment of iron
industry on a large scale, the spinning and weaving of silk by
machinery did not produce any appreciable results.
To give an incentive to industries, a separate Mysore Section
was organised in December 1904 in connection with the Bombay
Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition held there. A number of
exhibitors and artisans from some of the chief centres of manufacture
were sent to Bombay to study the exhibits and the working of some
of the industrial institutions there. A few influential ryots were
also sent to acquaint themselves with the several improved patterns
of agricultural implements exhibited there. In this year a
commencement was made of holding rural exhibitions by organising
a Cattle and Agricultural Show at Hiriyur on the occasion of the
annual jatra or congregation of people to pay homage to the
presiding deity of the place. Besides the local cattle and articles
produced in the district, products from other parts of the State were
also exhibited. There was also a collection of several varieties of
manure, the composition and nature of which the exhibitors
explained to the visitors. In the ploughing competitions, there were
different kinds of ploughs at work to demonstrate their comparative
merits.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Various Administrative Improvements — 1906-12.
Sir P. N. Krishna Murthi laid down the office of Dewan on
the 30th March 1906 and he was succeeded by V. P. Madhava Rao
who continued in office for three years. This latter officer had
retired from the Mysore Service in 1904 and was at the time he
came back to Mysore holding the place of Dewan of Travancore.
With Sir P. N. Krishna Murthi retired also his two collegues who
were Members of the State Council, viz., C. Srinivasa lyengar and
C. Madiah, their places being taken by T. Ananda Rao who was
Revenue Commissioner at the time and Mr. K. P. Puttanna Chetty
(afterwards Sir) who was a Deputy Commissioner. Ananda Rao
was a son of Sir T. Madhava Rao, a famous Indian statesman of
the bygone days, and had entered the Mysore Service as a
probationer in November 1873 during the days of the British
Commission. He was appointed Dewan in succession to Madhava
Rao in March 1909. Mr. Puttanna Chetty had entered the
Mysore Service in 1875 as a clerk in one of the Government offices
and had been a Deputy Commissioner for some years, when he
was chosen to fill the vacancy on the State Council. He was all
along known as a strenuous worker and a man of upright conduct.
The new Dewan, Madhava Rao, took a somewhat pessimistic
view of the finances of the State as they appeared to him at the
time, although the Kaveri Power Scheme and the Bethamangala
Water Works had both begun to yield incomes, the former from
1902-03 and the latter from 1906-07. Madhava Rao justified
his view by stating that in the seven years from 1898-99 to
1904-05 the liabilities of the State had considerably increased under
Savings Bank deposits and the Insurance Fund, while simulta-
neously the cash and invested reserves had considerably decreased
from Rs. 140 lakhs in the beginning of 1898 to Rs. 43i lakhs in
1905-06. He accordingly introduced certain remedial measures
which, he considered, would set right the situation. Prior to the
224
year 1899, Savings Bank deposits were being received in the
Government treasuries up to a maximum limit of Rs. 5000 on each
individual account. In August of that year all limitation on the
deposits was withdrawn, with the result that the deposits which
stood at Rs. 38 lakhs on the last day of June 1899 rose to Rs. 95
lakhs at the close of 1905. A revised limit was now imposed in
August 1906 fixing the maximum deposit at Rs. 2000 a year at 2
per cent instead of at 3j per cent per annum, the total balance at
the credit of an individual depositor not exceeding Rs. 5000 at any
time. A sum of Rs. 48 lakhs was added to the reserve of the
State from the additional revenue derived from the Kaveri Power
Scheme and the Bethamangala Water Works. A Famine Reserve
of Rs. 2 lakhs a year was created from 1906-07 to meet the
expenditure on possible future famines without dislocating the
normal finances. Madhava Rao justified the creation of this
reserve, somewhat dubiously however, by stating that in a year of
famine while heavy expenditure would be necessary on relief
measures, the revenue resources of Government would be crippled
and in the absence of a special provision for meeting the situation
the Government would be forced to contract loans and to starve the
administrative departments. In October 1912 which was the
closing year of T. Ananda Rao's Dewanship the limits imposed on
Savings Bank deposits were removed in response to the repeated
demands of the people for affording facilities for investment.
Change in tbe working of the Council.
In 1906 a welcome change was introduced in the working of
the State Council. The modified rules invested the members with
a certain measure of administrative responsibility, the lack of
which had been felt to be the chief reason why the new Consulta-
tive Council of 1902 had failed to fulfil the objects with which it
was constituted. Under the revised rules the Members of the
State Council, though not formally possessing any executive powers
as such, were empowered in their respective departments to pass
final orders in the name of the Government instead of merely
recording their opinions on all ordinary matters which were not of
sufficient importance to require reference to the Dewan or to the
.Council as a body.
225
Railways.
In 1906 the construction of a light railway from Bangalore to
Chikballapur which had been under discussion for some years
past was undertaken by an indigenous private company, the first
co-operative effort of its kind on a large scale. As an encourage-
ment to such an undertaking, a guarantee of four per cent interest
on the capital cost was sanctioned by Government. The contract
for the working of the Mysore State lines by the Southern Mahratta
Railway Company having terminated, a fresh agreement was
concluded with the same company now known as the Madras and
Southern Mahratta Railway Company by the Secretary of State for
India acting on behalf of the Durbar and this agreement came into
effect from the 1st July 1908. Under this revised agreement, the
Railway Company received a remuneration of 1/20 of the net
earnings of all the lines as against one-fourth of the net earnings
of the Mysore-Harihar line and nothing for the branch lines under
the old contract.
Study of Forestry.
The proper conservancy of forests received much attention
during this period. In 1881 the total area of the State forest was
454 square miles. In 1904 it was 1950 miles exclusive of 1200
square miles of ghaut forest and 183 square miles of Kan forest.
In 1906 two students were deputed for the study of forestry at the
university of Oxford and five students to the college at Dehra Dun.
Sericulture.
In the same year the Government took advantage of the
existence of the Sericultural Farm at Bangalore started by the
great philanthropist J. N. Tata to develop the practical side of
sericulture and to make the farm a training-ground for persons
interested in the industry. In 1908 arrangements were made for
the Japanese silk-expert in charge of the farm to visit centres of
silk industry and to give suitable advice on the selection of seed
and the rearing of worms.
In 1907 was commenced the Industrial and Agricultural
Exhibition during the period of the Dasara festivities at Mysore at
226
which agricultural and industrial products of the State and of places
outside the State were exhibited and the use of the machinery and
implements connected therewith were demonstrated and explained.
The first Exhibition was held on the 5th October 1907 and in
opening the same the Maharaja said that it was not to be expected
that such Exhibitions would have an immediate or revolutionary
influence on the agriculture and industries of the country. But
they offered to all classes an opportunity of seeing what their
neighbours were producing, to craftsmen they were of especial use
in indicating the directions in which their skill might be most
usefully directed, while distributors might learn from them of new
markets on the one hand, and on the other, of new sources of supply.
Whatever other disappointments might be in store, His Highness
further said, of the educative value of these Exhibitions and of their
far-reaching influence on the economics of the country there was no
doubt.
Mining.
In order to provide for the safety and well-being of the
employees of mines and for preventing theft of and illicit traffic in
mining materials including gold in various stages of extraction, a
Regulation had been passed in 1897 known as the Mysore Mines
Regulation. Being an enabling law, certain sections of this
Regulation were applied only to a limited tract of the country round
the Gold Fields in the Bowringpet taluk. The Regulation so far
as it went, worked satisfactorily but was found defective when
stolen gold in the shape of amalgam or sponge gold was converted
into bar gold for which great facilities existed in and around the
Gold Field areas. The necessity for bringing the unwrought gold
or bar gold within the purview of the Regulation now forced itself
on the notice of Government. A revised Regulation was according-
ly brought into operation extending to unwrought gold also the
presumption contained in the old Regulation that property of the
description peculiar to the Mining industry when found in the
possession of individuals in the Mining area was illegally obtained
until the contrary was proved, which of course was an evident
departure from the accepted maxims of criminal jurisprudence.
227
About the year 1907, many manganese deposits were discovered
and a great rush for lands containing them took place on account of
the success which had been achieved by the Mysore Manganese
Company, Limited. It was felt that as this Company had been the
pioneer of an industry new to the State, it required some protection.
The Government accordingly decided to withhold the issue of
further licences in the Shimoga district until the conditions of
successfully working the mineral became clearly understood. But
as a tentative measure, it was decided to permit manganese to be
mined under prospecting licences for a period of three years without
insisting on mining leases being taken out. A further consideration
of the matter showed that where actual mining operations were
going on involving a large outlay of capital, the issue of long period
leases was undesirable and that the tying up of large areas under
prospecting licences did not deserve encouragement. At this time,
chrome also was sought after and a number of licences were
issued for its mining.
Irrigation.
During the year 1906-07 the Marikanave Works were
practically completed and water began to be supplied from that year
to the lands below the reservoir. The Government tentatively
sanctioned for this tract a system of levying differential water rates,
regard being had to the nature of the crops which the occupants
desired to raise and the quantity of water required for them. This
measure was adopted to popularise wet cultivation among the people
of the district who were unaccustomed to it.
Veterinary Department.
A Veterinary Department helpful to cattle-owners was
established during the Dewanship of Madhava Rao. To
start with, an inspector of cattle diseases was appointed whose
duties consisted of the investigation of the nature of epidemic
diseases among cattle, visits to localities where such diseases were
prevalent and the adoption of measures for checking their ravages.
He was also required to devote his attention to improve veterinary
knowledge in rural parts by organising and encouraging local effort
and by instructing the rural cattle doctors and large cattle-owners
228
in a scientific diagnosis of cattle diseases and a proper application
of easily available indigenous drugs. In January 1908 a veterinary
hospital was started in Bangalore and in May following, hospitals
and dispensaries were opened at Mysore, Chickmagalur, Kolar and
Hassan in furtherance of the scheme for a Civil Veterinary
Department. The serum required to inoculate cattle was obtained
from the Government of India Bacteriologist working at the
Muktesar laboratory in the Punjab.
Abolition off HaUt.
The Halat which was a tax on supari or arecanut which had
been substituted in place of a share of produce payable to
Government some years previously was abolished from the
beginning of 1907. The decadence of the supari industry and the
necessity of relieving it of the burden of this impost had been urged
for many years past. The subject had engaged the attention of
Government from 1891 and as the outcome of the investigations
made by a special officer deputed for the purpose, some relief was
given to the industry in the year 1896 by a reduction of assessment
on supari gardens, but the Halat remained though felt as open to
objection. Various considerations were regarded as standing in the
way of its abolition, the chief of which was the supposed inability
of the State to forego an item of revenue which yielded about
Rs. 3$ lakhs annually. In 1905 Sir P. N. Krishna Murthi after a
close study of the matter and after consultation with all those whose
opinions were of any weight, placed the matter before the Maharaja
with his own opinion and His Highness agreeing with his Dewan
generously sanctioned the entire remission of this irksome levy.
The remission of this was to have been announced at the meeting of
the Representative Assembly in the Dasara of 1905. But it could
not be done on account of some unexpected difficulties in the
way. On V. P. Madhava Rao succeeding Sir P. N. Krishna
Murthi, he took some time for the consideration of the subject
once more, and it was not till 1907 that this much needed relief to
the areca garden-owners was granted.
In the same year, an important change in the rules was made
tor the grant of land for coffee cultivation to help the poorer
229
cultivators by reducing the minimum area to be granted for
cultivation from 15 to 5 acres.
The LafUUtire Council.
A measure of considerable importance introduced during this
period was the establishment of a Legislative Council which
formally came into existence on the 22nd June 1907. In
previous years, on several occasions the need for such a Council had
been pressed on the attention of the Government, especially by the
European coffee- planters. But as all changes in the laws which
were in force at the time of the Rendition could only be made in
consultation with the Government of India and introduced after
their approval, a separate Legislative Council had been deemed
unnecessary. As time went on however, the necessity of such a
Council came to be felt and in March 1907 a Regulation was passed
authorising its establishment. Before the establishment of this
Council, all new legislative enactments as the need arose used to be
passed by the State Council and then brought into force with the
sanction of the Maharaja. The character and composition of the
State Council, the smallness of its numbers and the want of
publicity in its proceedings did not permit of the Bills being
considered as fully and from as many points of view as sometimes
their importance demanded. His Highness was therefore now
pleased to sanction the formation of a Legislative Council and to
appoint to it, besides a certain number of official members, a
limited number of non -officials also who could bring their practical
experience and knowledge of local conditions and requirements to
bear on the discussious of the measures before the Council.
The Dewan, according to the enactment, was the President
and the members of the State Council were Vice- Presidents
ex-officio of this Council. There were to be not less than ten and
not more than fifteen additional members, of whom not less than
two-fifths were to be non -officials. The elective principle, however,
was not adopted in the recruitment of the non-official members and
instead the Representative Assembly was given the privilege of
deputing two of its members to the Council,
230
Tank Panchayet.
The Tank Panchayet Bill was introduced in the Legislative
Council on the 1st October 1908 by Mr. K. P. Puttanna Chetty
who was then a Member of the State Council. The rules issued in
1873 and in 1887 had not produced any satisfactory results.
In 1903 a committee was appointed to investigate the causes of this
failure. This committee pointed out that though no material
changes were needed in the rules as they stood, yet there were two
circumstances which militated against their efficient working. The
first was the want of a spirit of co-operation among the ryots and
the second was the absence of sufficient inducements to make them
take a real and personal interest in their tanks. The present Bill, in
addition to educating the ryots to co-operate with one another,
aimed also at creating in them an interest in the proper maintenance
of their tanks. This it was intended to be done by the creation of a
Panchayet, thereby allowing a certain measure of self-government
to the ryots in respect of the tanks. The Bill did not relieve the
ryots of any of their existing obligations, nor did it impose any
additional obligations on them. All that it did was that it only
altered the agency by which these obligations were enforced. In
place of the purely official agency then existing, the Bill substituted
the agency of Panchavets composed mostly of members elected by
the ryots themselves. The Bill did not contemplate the constitution
of Panchayets compulsorily in places where the villagers did not
wish to have them, but the Panchavets were to be formed only in
villages where not less than two-thirds of the inhabitants wished to
have them ; and even in these cases, discretion was left with the
Government to accept the proposal or not, according as conditions
for the favourable working of the scheme existed or not. As an
immediate consequence of the constitution of a Panchayet in a
village, the enforcement of the Tank Maintenance Rules became
vested in the Panchayet ; and as a corollary, the Panchayet became
possessed of the power which hitherto vested in the village Patel
and the hobli Shekdar or revenue inspector to apportion the work
required for the maintenance of the tank or tanks in the village
among the ryots according to their respective obligations. If a ryot
failed to do the work that fell to bis share or preferred to commute
231
his quota of labour into a money payment, it was to be open to the
Panchayet to get the work done out of the funds at its disposal and
recover the cost from the ryot. The Bill also proposed to transfer
to the Panchayet the power to grant the beds of tanks for temporary
cultivation of quick -growing crops. In order to avoid the
waste of water that might be caused by different ryots
commencing the sowing of wet crops at different times,
the Bill also laid down that the Panchayet was to decide on the
time when such sowing operations were to be commenced
as well as to regulate the issue of water from the tank.
A Tank Panchayet specially empowered by Government with the
consent of a majority of not less than two-thirds of the ryots whose
interests were affected in any year, having regard to the quantity of
water available in the tank, were allowed to impose such restrictions
as it considered necessary on wet cultivation below the tank. If in
accordance with a decision of the Panchayet any holder of wet land
was not allowed water to irrigate his land, the Bill proposed to
allow a remission of half the assessment on the land. As regards
the funds required by the Panchayet for the work, it was proposed
that the money payments from the ryots in lieu of labour and a
portion of the irrigation cess fund collected in the village were to be
credited to a fund called the Tank Fund to be controlled by the
Panchayet. As an additional inducement to the ryots to constitute
Panchayets, it was also proposed that several items of receipts
which were then credited to the general revenues of the State, such
as the sale proceeds of the right of tishmg in the tank and of the
right of grazing in the tank bed were to be credited to the Tank
Fund. The Bill also embodied that when the Panchayet undertook
the work of construction, restoration or improvement, it was open
to the Government to entrust to the Panchayet the stone and
masonry work also which was to be done at the cost of Govern-
ment. There was a general feeling everywhere that an attempt
should be made to revive the ancient indigenous institution of the
Village Panchayet. The scheme proposed in the Bill was an
attempt in that direction.
The Bill as revised by the Select Committee finally came up
before a meeting of the Legislative Council on the 22nd November
232
1910 and was passed into law and came into operation from
February 1911.
It may be stated that the Royal Commission on Decentralisation
in India whose report was issued after the introduction of the above
Bill in the Mysore Legislative Council, in expressing their views on
village organisation suggested the gradual establishment of Village
Panchayets by beginning with those villages in which the
circumstances were most favourable by reason of homogeneity,
natural intelligence and freedom from internal feuds and by
conferring on them only certain limited powers at the commence-
ment which the Mysore Bill more or less anticipated.
Notwithstanding all the efforts made to establish village
autonomy in the management of the tank, it may be stated that the
scheme has been attended with somewhat indifferent success
till now.
Completion of Palace reconstruction.
In 1910 the reconstruction of the Palace on account of the old
building having been destroyed by fire in 1S97 was practically
completed and it became possible for the Maharaja to hold the
Dasara durbars amid the old historic surroundings after an
interval of 13 years. The design of the new Palace had been
entrusted to Henry Irwin who built the Viceregal Lodge in Simla.
The Palace was built throughout of massive stone including fine
granite, porphyry and marble, all from local quarries and its
construction led to the assemblage of a large number of skilled
craftsmen — masons, carvers in wood and stone, and marble inlayers
from Agra and other places. The decoration of the durbar hall was
entrusted to the Travancore artist Ravi Varma and his brother
Raja Varma.
The Kaanambadi Reservoir.
During Dewan Ananda Rao's time, the proposal to construct a
large reservoir across the Kaveri at Kannambadi took shape in the
year 1911. The main object of this reservoir was to provide
irrigation for perennial crops for which till then there had been no
Wtisfectory provision in that valley and to protect the supply of
electric power by impounding some of the water which was then
going to waste into the sea, and along with the canals when
completed, the reservoir was expected to prove a large protective
work which would materially minimise the evil effects of a famine.
The construction of the dam was started in November 1911. In
the first stage, it was intended to raise the dam to a height of 97
feet with weir crest at 80 feet above the river bed with a storage
of a little over 11,000 million cubic feet of water. This first stage
of the work was estimated to cost Rs. 91 lakhs.
Public Health.
A Department of Public Health was formed in the year
1906-07. The Government had spent large sums of money in
combating the plague from the time the disease broke out in 1898
and the necessity had shown itself for the formation of a separate
Health Department to overcome such diseases in a systematic
manner. Special health officers were appointed for the cities of
Bangalore, Mysore and Kolar Gold Fields. A laboratory also was
provided for the Health Department.
Medicine.
At the same time, the Government felt that while extending
medical aid on western lines, it was equally the duty of a Native
State to encourage also the indigenous systems of medicine,
Ayurvedic and Unani. Accordingly a scheme was introduced for
imparting instruction in these systems by qualified professors.
Arrangements were also made for the teaching of Anatomy and
Physiology in the new institution.
The Newspaper Regulation.
In 1908 an enactment known as the Mysore Newspaper
Regulation was passed into law which created much uneasiness in
the country. The Regulation required every printer, publisher and
editor of a newspaper to obtain the permission of the Government
before starting the same and provided also for any permission
granted being withdrawn at any time. Certain penalties were also
provided for the cases in which papers were published without
permission or after such permission had been revoked. Some of
234
the provisions of this Regulation were regarded by the public as
very drastic and Madhava Rao in his speech to the Representative
Assembly in the same year put forth a long defence, although it did
not quite allay the apprehensions entertained regarding the scope
and character of the enactment. " As regards the Newspaper
Regulation, there is," said the Dewan, " nothing to be alarmed
about. It is not contended that the legislation gives more powers
to the Government than were already inherent in the Maharaja.
Hut objection has been taken by our critics to the power to refuse
permission and withdraw it when once granted being reserved to
the executive Government. This objection, however, assumes that
the Government of His Highness the Maharaja will exercise power
arbitrarily on the least provocation and that the press will be exposed
to the petty tyranny of officials dressed in brief authority. I have
already assured the public that the Government would always be glad
to have their acts criticised with as much freedom as the critics like,
provided that the criticisms stopped short of disseminating absolute
falsehoods and deliberate perversions of facts likely to be
prejudicial to the interests of the State. The Government of His
Highness have never shrunk from giving publicity to their acts and
the opening of the Press Room and the public discussion of
questions in this very Assembly than which there is not a body in
the whole of India better representing the people of a State will
convince you that such is their attitude. There is a misapprehen-
sion still prevailing even in the minds of otherwise well-informed
persons that the refusal or withdrawal of permission under the
Regulation may depend upon the whims and caprices of individual
officers. In regard to this, I may assure vou that such a fear is
quite groundless and that all such cases will be treated as scheduled
cases under the rules of business which have to be considered by
the State Council and submitted to His Highness the Maharaja
for his orders. This is what has been done in the past and this
will invariably be done in the future also Government
would have been glad if it was possible to do so, to lay down rules
for regulating their action under the Regulation. But I think
you will admit that it is extremely difficult to bring under rules
all the circumstances that would justify Government taking action
235
under the Regulation. All that it is possible to say is that the
Regulation will not be put into force in regard to any newspaper,
unless the character of the publication is such that its continuance
is undesirable in the interests of the State or in the cause of public
morality."
Education.
In 1908 the erection of buildings needed to locate the Tata
Institute was commenced and the Maharaja's Government gave a
special grant of Rs. 5 lakhs towards the cost.
To bring the rudiments of education within the reach of all in
rural parts, the levy of school fees was abolished in all village
Elementary Schools from October 1907. The fees levied in the
Lower Secondary classes maintained in such schools and in the
vernacular classes of Anglo- Vernacular schools were also abolished
and elementary education in all Government schools was thus
made entirely free. In the year 1908 a beginning was made to
introduce moral and religious teaching in Government schools.
A departmental conference was held to draw up curricula for this
teaching and suitable text-books were selected and prescribed.
In April 1909 in response to the representations made in the
Assembly from time to time, a scheme for the constitution of
Benches of Honorary Magistrates was introduced and as a first
step, two such courts were formed in Bangalore and Mysore as a
tentative measure.
The Co-operative Movement.
By 1907 the Co-operative Movement became known all over
the State and popular interest in it was aroused. The movement
at this time also received the active support and keen sympathy
of several retired officers of Government and among the early
pioneers, the names of Dewan Bahadur C. Srinivasa lyengar who
had retired from the State Council, M. S. Narayana Rao who had
retired as a Deputy Commissioner and C. D. Ramaswamaiya a
retired Superintendent of Police came in for honourable mention.
In this year a Central Co-operative Bank was started at Bangalore
for supplying funds to the various outlying societies and the
236
Maharaja generously placed a large sum of money as fixed deposit
in the Bank to mark his appreciation of the usefulness of such an
institution. About this time, Mr. R. Ranga Rao a graduate of
promise was deputed to England to go through a course of study at
the London School of Economics with special reference to
co-operative credit and types of co-operative institutions in the
continental countries of Europe, where the movement had achieved
marked success.
The Maharaja on the 5th October 1907 when he opened
the Dasara Exhibition of that year lent further support to
the Co-operative Movement by personally commending it to the
public in his speech. " I make no apology," said His Highness,
" for drawing your attention to the existence of the Co-operative
Societies Regulation and of a highly qualified officer specially
deputed to advise and assist those who desire to take advantage
of its provisions. I have little doubt in my own mind that the
main difficulty which at present prevents large classes of the
community from successful competition in industrial and
other enterprises is the deficiency of organised capital and the
want of confidence between man and man, of which that deficiency
was in no small measure the result. Under the co-operative
system, any local body of craftsmen or agriculturists, however
poor and however limited in numbers, has the means of acquiring
gradually and from small beginnings sufficient capital to provide for
immediate needs and for future progress, and I would urge on all
educated and enlightened men, whether immediately connected or
not with agriculture, crafts or commerce, the duty of promoting
these societies to the extent of their ability. Apart from the
material return which is their immediate object, such societies have
in every country where they have taken root proved great moral
educators and promoters of mutual confidence, self-reliance and
honest enterprise."
By 1911 the number of societies increased to more than 200,
and during the Dasara festival of that year a conference was held at
Mysore which was attended by co-operators from all parts of the
State numbering about 300. Sri Narasimharaja Wodeyar the
237
Yuvaraja opened the conference. His Highness in the course of a
speech characterised by great earnestness described the advantages
of Co-operation in these words : — " Various expedients have been
tried in the past for bringing together capital and labour to the
greatest advantage of the community at large. Western countries
such as Germany, Denmark, England have found out by experience
that the best method of doing this is by a co-operation of the
workers for purposes of mutual benefit. This idea of co-operation is
based on the great principle of self-help and combination
Self-help and combination for mutual benefit are, in fact, essential
for our advancement as a community and Co-operative Societies
bring these two forces together for our economic advantage, a thing
which the most ignorant person can understand, work for and profit
by A conference like this will focus experience,
elucidate matters of doubt, and give a fresh impetus to the
movement The Co-operative Movement demands in
almost every village willing and intelligent workers who will take
the trouble to understand the principles of co-operation and carry
them into practice. Have we not patriotism enough ? Are we not
anxious to improve the lives and promote the welfare of our
ignorant brethren ? Do we not all admire beneficent action and
practical work for the Rood of others ? Then let us all give some
of our time, thought and energies to promoting the Co-operative
Movement which is so certain to improve the welfare of the
poverty-striken masses around us. There is no industrial
movement higher and more worthy of attention than this one of
co-operation. I see in it a field in which the members of every
village community can train themselves in habits of business and
the management of their own affairs. I cannot too earnestly
impress on you all that it rests with the people themselves to make
the Co-operative Movement a permanent success "
Economic Conference.
About the year 1911 when the results achieved in the fields of
agriculture, industry and commerce were reviewed, it was felt that
without more vigorous efforts on reformed lines the country must
remain economically backward for a long period to come* With a
238
view to bring together the non-officials as well as the officers of the
Government in the deliberations connected with the economic pro-
gress of the State, the Maharaja directed the formation of an
Economic Conference to keep up a sustained interest in the
numerous questions relating to economic progress by a constant
interchange of views.
The first session of the conference was held at the public
offices at Mysore during the Birthday Week on the 10th June 1911
and the two succeeding days, and the Maharaja inaugurated the
conference personally with a speech from which the following are
extracts : — " It will be your privilege at this first session to
consider measures for the economic development of the
country With the growth of communications and the
increasing use of steam and electricity, questions of economic
interest are assuming new aspects closely associated with the
well-being of the people. The need for greater attention to
industrial and commercial development is beginning to be
recognised in British India. We have also therefore to give
increasing attention to our economic problems The
economic inefficiency of our people will be patent to any one who
looks beneath the surface of things In the more advanced
countries of Europe, it is stated that the earning power of the
people averages Rs. 400 or more per head per annum. In England
it is taken at Rs. 600 to Rs. 700 per head. In India we have it on
high authority that the average income per head does not exceecj
Rs. 30. As regards education, the proportion of the entire
population who can read and write is over 90 per cent
in the United Kingdom and Germany and over 80 in Japan.
In Mysore the corresponding proportion is only 5 per cent.
The average death-rate in Mysore is about the same as in the
neighbouring British Provinces, that is, over 30 for every 1000 of
the population. The corresponding death-rate in England and
Germany is as low as 15 to 18 per 1000. The comparison under
the above three heads forcibly brings to light the extent of poverty,
ignorance and low vitality prevailing in our midst and is a striking
reminder of the economic inefficiency of our people * That
Country is, the most prosperous which has the least number of
239
useless or unemployed people' is, I understand, a common saying in
Europe Education is the sovereign remedy for all economic
evils. Agriculture which is our staple industry should be practised
on more scientific lines. Manufactures and trades the chief
instruments for increasing wealth should be specially encouraged....
We cannot hope lo succeed if we continue to work with antiquated
tools and old-fashioned business methods The number of
questions requiring attention is so large that officials single-handed
can do very little for their solution. The non-officials will require
guidance and further have not had experience and opportunities of
co-operation for public good on a large scale. This conference will
bring officials and non-officials together and there will be committees
and sub-committees formed to carry on its work throughout the
year \Vewantearnest\vorkers. It is our desire to reach
all people who desire to co-operate. The aim we have in view,
namely, the economic security and vital efficiency of the people
must appeal to every right-thinking person." At this opening
conference three committees were formed relating to Education,
Agriculture, and Industries and Commerce and certain questions
were referred to them for detailed consideration and the preparation
of schemes for being placed before the next conference.
By about the Dasara of 1912 the objects of the conference
became widely known among the people and the committee for
industries and commerce was strengthened. His Highness*
Government at this time also engaged the services of Mr. A.
Chatterton (afterwards Sir), officer in charge of the Pumping and
Boring operations and the Bureau of Industrial Information in
Madras, and under him six special officers were appointed to work.
An industrial survey of the State was also started at the same time
under a special officer appointed for the purpose. District committees
were formed in the districts and funds were placed at their disposal
for small establishments, experiments and contingencies. The
industries and commerce committee paid attention to a large
number of subjects such as the improvement of silk and silk goods,
tanning, hand-weaving, sandalwood-carving, lacquerware, manu-
facture of toys, the manufacture of tiles. The most promising of
240
these from the point of view of production of wealth in the State
was the silk industry, the export of silk and silk goods in favourable
years being valued at over a crore of rupees. One of the first steps
which the industries and commerce committee considered necessary
for the promotion of industries was the provision of suitable facility
for financing enterprises within the limits of the State and accord-
ingly proposed the establishment of a State-aided Bank.
In order to encourage the formation of District Agricultural
Associations, the agricultural committee made grants of sums
varying from Rs. 70 to Rs. 250 to the agricultural associations in
the districts of Mysore, Kolar, Tumkur, Hassan and Kadur. The
subject of improving sericulture engaged the serious attention of
this committee. A number of scholarships was allotted for training
students in the Tata's Silk Farm at Bangalore. A dozen students
were sent to the Lai Bagh at Bangalore to learn Horticulture.
Steps were also taken to institute an enquiry into the subject of the
indebtedness of the Mysore ryot and his general economic condition
and to more largely popularise the Co-operative Movement among
the agricultural classes. This committee also issued from time to
time leaflets in English and Kanada on subjects coming within
its sphere.
The committee for education prepared a Bill for the introduc-
tion of compulsory education as well as a revised Grant-in-aid Code.
This committee also recommended, as a preliminary step to the
establishment of a Mysore University, the improvement of college
hostels and libraries, the provision of honours courses and the grant
of diplomas. A special grant of Rs. 2 lakhs was provided for the
extension of primary education, of which Rs. 1 lakh was for opening
new schools and improving the existing ones and the other lakh
was for school buildings.
CHAPTER xxvtii.
Krithnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Anniversary of Queen Victoria's Proclamation —
Visit of Lord and Lady Minto to the State— Death of
Edward VII — Accession to the throne of George V —
Coronation Durbar at Delhi.
On the 2nd November 1908 the 50th anniversary of Queen
Victoria's historic Proclamation of 1858 issued after the suppression
of the Indian Mutiny was celebrated throughout the State, and
durbars were held at all district headquarter towns and the Royal
Proclamation was read to all the assembled citizens in English and
in the vernaculars. In commemoration of the event, the poor were
fed and clothed and sports and treats arranged for school children.
The following message of His Majesty the King-Emperor to the
Princes and People of India was reprinted in the official Gazette in
English and Kanada and copies of the same were widely distributed
in the State: — " It is now fifty years since Queen Victoria, my
Beloved Mother and my August Predecessor on the Throne of
these Realms, for divers weighty reasons, with the advice and
consent of Parliament, took upon herself the Government of the
territories theretofore administered by the East India Company.
I deem this a fitting anniversary on which to greet the Princes
and peoples of India in commemoration of the exalted task then
solemnly undertaken. Half a century is but a brief span in your
long annals ; yet this half century that ends to-day will stand amid
the floods of your historic ages, a far-shining land-mark. The
Proclamation of the direct supremacy of the Crown sealed the
unity of Indian Government and opened a new era. The journey
was arduous and the advance may have sometimes seemed slow ;
but the incorporation of many strangely diversified communities
and of some three hundred millions of the human race, under
British guidance and control, has proceeded steadfastly and without
pause. We survey our labours of the past half century with clear
gaze and good conscience.
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242
11 Difficulties such as attend all human rule in every age and
place have risen up from day to day. They have been faced by
the servants of the British Crown with toil and courage and
patience, with deep counsel and a resolution that has never faltered
nor shaken. If errors have occurred, the agents of my Government
have spared no pains and no self-sacrifice to correct them ; if
abuses have been proved, vigorous hands have laboured to apply
a remedy.
" No secret of empire can avert the scourge of drought and
plague, but experienced administrators have done all that skill and
devotion are capable of doing to mitigate those dire calamities of
nature. For a longer period than was ever known in your land
before, you have escaped the dire calamities of war within your
borders. Internal peace has been unbroken.
" In the great Charter of 1858, Queen Victoria gave you noble
assurance of her earnest desire to stimulate the peaceful industry of
India, to promote works of public utility and improvement, and to
administer the Government for the benefit of all resident therein.
The schemes that have been diligently framed and executed for
promoting your material convenience and advance — schemes
unsurpassed in their magnitude and their boldness — bear witness
before the world to the zeal with which that benignant promise
has been fulfilled.
"The rights and privileges of the Feudatory Princes and
Ruling Chiefs have been respected, preserved and guarded ; and
the loyalty of their allegiance has been unswerving. No man
among my subjects has been favoured, molested, or disquieted by
reason of his religious belief or worship. All men have enjoyed
protection of the law. The law itself has been administered
without disrespect to creed or caste, or to usages and ideas rooted
in your civilization ; it has been simplified in form and its
machinery adjusted to the requirements of ancient communities
slowly entering a new world.
" The charge confided to my Government concerns the
destinies of countless multitudes of men now and for ages to come ;
243
and it is a paramount duty to repress with a stern arm guilty
conspiracies that have no just cause and no serious aim. These
conspiracies I know to be abhorrent to the loyal and faithful
character of the vast hosts of my Indian subjects, and I will not
suffer them to turn me aside from my task of building up the
fabric of security and order.
" Unwilling that this historic anniversary should pass without
some signal mark of Royal clemency and grace, I have directed
that, as was ordered on the memorable occasion of the Coronation
Durbar in 1903, the sentences of persons whom our Courts have
duly punished for offences against the law should be remitted or in
various degrees reduced ; and it is my wish that such wrong-doers
may remain mindful of this act of mercy and may conduct them-
selves without offence henceforth.
" Steps are being continuously taken towards obliterating
distinctions of race as the test for access to posts of public authority
and power. In this path I confidently expect and intend the
progress henceforward to be steadfast and sure, as education
spreads, experience ripens, and the lessons of responsibility are well
learned by the keen intelligence and apt capabilities of India.
" From the first, the principle of representative institutions
began to be gradually introduced, and the time has come when, in
the judgment of my Viceroy and Governor-General and others of
my counsellors, that principle may be prudently extended.
Important classes among you representing ideas that have been
fostered and encouraged by British rule, claim equality of citizen-
ship and greater share in legislation and government. The politic
satisfaction of such a claim will strengthen, not impair, existing
authority and power. Administration will be all the more efficient,
if the officers who conduct it have greater opportunities of regular
contact with those whom it affects and with those who influence
and reflect common opinion about it. I will not speak of the
measures that are now being diligently framed for these objects.
They will speedily be made known to you and will, I am very
confident, mark a notable stage in the beneficent progress of your
affairs,
241
" I recognise the valour and fidelity of my Indian troops, and
at the New Year I have ordered that opportunity should be taken
to show in substantial form this, my high appreciation, of their
martial instincts, their splendid discipline, and their faithful
readiness of service.
" The welfare of India was one of the objects dearest to the
heart of Queen Victoria. By me, ever since my visit in 1875, the
interests of India, its Princes and peoples have been watched with
an affectionate solicitude that time cannot weaken. My dear son
the Prince of Wales and the Princess of Wales returned from
their sojourn among you with warm attachment to your land and
true and earnest interest in its well-being and content. These
sincere feelings of active sympathy and hope for India on the part
of my Royal House and line only represent, and they do most
truly represent, the deep and united will and purpose of the people
of this Kingdom.
*' May Divine protection and favour strengthen the wisdom
and mutual goodwill that are needed for the achievement of a task
as glorious as was ever committed to rulers and subjects in any
state of Empire of recorded time."
In November 1909 Lord and Lady Minto paid a visit to the
State. During their stay of a fortnight they visited the celebrated
Gersoppa Falls, the historic place of Seringapatam, the Kunigal
Stud Farm and the Kolar Gold Fields. They also witnessed the
Khedda operations for the capture of elephants at the Kakankote
jungles. Their Excellencies met with a most loyal and enthusiastic
welcome everywhere in the course of their visit.
At the banquet given in honour of his distinguished guest on
the 25th November 1909, the Maharaja said: — " The
four years which have elapsed since Your Excellency came to India
have been years of strenuous work and grave anxiety. A wave of
sedition and anarchy has swept over the Indian Empire, and the
Government of India have had no light task in grapping with these
insidious foes and maintaining that law and order which have
always been the watch word of British rule in India, , f . . f ,
245
I can assure Your Excellency that the efforts of the Government of
India to maintain its authority have always had my sincere
sympathy and that I am and always have been ready to co-operate
to the utmost of my power in furthering these efforts. Your
Excellency needs no assurance of my own loyalty to the King-
Emperor and as regards my people, I take this opportunity of
publicly expressing my conviction that they are actuated by
nothing but friendly feelings towards the British race and loyal
sentiments towards the Paramount Power. Happily, therefore, it
has not been necessary for my Government to adopt any repressive
measures except to arm ourselves, as a matter of precaution, with
summary powers against a small but irresponsible section of the
public press Their existence is in itself sufficient to
keep in check the evil against which they are aimed and I trust it
may never be necessary to enforce them rigorously."
The Opthalmic Hospital at Bangalore constructed later was
named after Lord Minto in commemoration of his visit to the State.
The sad news of the demise of Edward VII was received in
India on 7th May 1910 and caused great regret throughout the
country as a powerful factor for the preservation of the peace of
Europe was thereby lost. In announcing this great calamity which
had befallen the empire, the Maharaja directed that all public
offices, courts and schools in the State should be closed for five
days from that date. All flags were ordered to be hoisted
half-mast high and sixty-eight minute guns were fired at the
Palaces at Mysore and Bangalore.
The Viceroy announced on 9th May 1910 that His Majesty
King George V had been proclaimed King of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India and this was
communicated to the people of Mysore on the same date under a
salute of 101 guns. The Proclamation of His Majesty's accession
to the throne and the declaration made by him subsequent to it was
read at the Residency at Bangalore on the 12th May 1910 in the
presence of the officers of the Mysore and British Governments and
the principal citizens of the City and the Civil and Military Station,
246
The coronation of the King-Emperor was celebrated at Pelhi on
12th December 1911 and in response to the invitation of the
Viceroy the Maharaja was present at the Imperial Durbar held
there. His Highness was accompanied by the Yuvaraja and by
the principal officers and Sirdars of the State as well as a few
leading non-official gentlemen. The great event was also
celebrated throughout the State in a manner befitting the occasion.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Sir ML VUvesvaraya appointed Dewan — Visit of Lord
Hardinge — Conclusion of the treaty of 1913 — Yuvaraja
appointed Extraordinary Member of the State Council.
T. Ananda Rao on whom the title of C. I. E. had been conferred
by the British Government was also honoured with the title of
Pradhana Siromani by the Maharaja before his retirement from the
Dewanship which took place on the 10th November 1912.
Mr. M. Visvesvaraya (afterwards Sir) who was Chief Engineer of
Mysore at the time became his successor. Sir M. Yisvesvaraya
was born in 1861 at Mokshagundam a village in the Mysore State
and received his earlv education in the Government school at
Chikballapur and took the B.A. Degree from the Central College,
Bangalore. He then joined the Poona College of Science and won
a guaranteed appointment as an Assistant Engineer under the
Bombay Government in 1884. In 1895 he designed and carried
out the water works of Sukkur Municipality in Sind. In 1898 he
visited China and Japan and in 1901 he gave evidence before the
Indian Irrigation Commission. He designed and constructed
automatic gates patented by him at Lake Fife storage reservoir for
the Moota Canal and the source of water supply to the Poona City.
He also introduced a new system in 1903 and represented the
Bombay Government at the Simla Irrigation Commission in 1904.
In 1906 he was deputed to Aden to advise the executive committee
of the Aden Settlement with regard to certain sanitary matters.
He also visited Egypt, Canada, the United States of America and
Russia in 1908. He retired from the British Service in 1909, when
he was appointed Chief Engineer of Mysore. He soon established
a name as a strenuous worker for the good of the State and his
extensive knowledge of the world, combined with his abilities, soon
came to be regarded as an asset which could be utilised for larger
purposes. The Maharaja accordingly broke the old tradition of
drawing the Dewans of the State always from the Revenue and
Executive Services of the Government and appointed Sir M,
248
Visvesvaraya as his Dewan in 1912. Sir M. Visvesvaraya was also
the first Dewan who had no connection with the old Mysore Com-
mission, though he had his training under the British Government.
Lord Hardinge, Viceroy and Governor- General of India, and
Lady Hardinge paid a visit to the State in November 1913. Their
stay in the State lasted from the 3rd to 21st November and included
visits to the Gersoppa Falls, Mysore, Seringapatam, the Kheddas,
Bangalore and the Kolar Gold Fields. Lord Hardinge's visit was
made memorable by His Excellency's announcement of a new
treaty of Mysore in place of what was called in 1881 the Instrument
of Transfer. We have seen that when Chamaraja Wodeyar was
installed in power, a document known as the Instrument of
Transfer signed by Lord Ripon, then Governor-General, was placed
in His Highness* hands as his authority to rule the country.
Subsequently it became noticeable that the position actually held
by the Maharaja as the ruler of a first class Native State was
not the same as what the Instrument of Transfer appeared to
assign to him. At the State Banquet held on the 6th of
November, Lord Hardinge announced that it had been decided
to replace the Instrument of Transfer by a formal treaty
between the British Government and the Maharaja, the
terms of which were agreed to by both the parties.
" After a very careful consideration of the question, I
have decided with the concurrence of His Majesty's Secretary of
State for India," said Lord Hardinge, "to substitute for the
Instrument of Transfer a new treaty which will place the
relations between us on a footing more in consonance with Your
Highness* actual position among the Feudatory Chiefs in India.
His Majesty's Government in accepting my proposal have observed
that Your Highness* views on this question were stated with much
force and moderation and that they derive additional weight from
the high character and reputation which Your Highness has always
borne. With this observation I desire to associate myself in the
fullest degree and I look on it as a particularly happy circumstance
that it should have fallen to my lot to convey to Your Highness on
this occasion so striking a proof of the esteem and regard in which
249
you are held by those responsible for the government of the empire."
This announcement, coming as it did from so popular a Viceroy as
Lord Hardinge whose escape from a cruel bomb outrage in the
previous year had caused universal rejoicing in India and nowhere
more so than in the Mysore State, added doubly to the pleasure the
visit gave both to the Maharaja as well as to His Highness'
subjects.
On the day following the banquet, the Maharaja acknowledged
in writing the gratitude felt both by himself and his people for the
grant of the treaty : — " It is difficult for me to express in words,"
said His Highness, " my gratitude for the gracious and generous act
of Your Excellency's Government in granting a treaty to Mysore to
replace the Instrument of Transfer under which Mysore was
restored to my father's rule thirty-two years ago. I can only assure
Your Excellency that I value very highly not only the gift of the
treaty itself but the trust and confidence in my Government which
the grant of the new treaty implies. I could wish for no greater
reward for my efforts to maintain a high standard of administration
than the gracious words of praise and encouragement which have
fallen from Your Excellency's lips. Not only will the new treaty
be welcomed by all classes of my people, but it will draw still closer
the bond of gratitude and loyalty which has always united us to the
British Government and will also be regarded as a signal proof of
the sympathy and generosity which have always marked the policy
of the Supreme Government towards Native States." The treaty
was formally executed at Mysore on the ^6th November following
between the Maharaja and Sir Hugh Daly, the British Resident in
Mysore at the time, acting on behalf of the Governor -General who
later ratified the same.
The terms in the new treaty are not strikingly different from
those contained in the Instrument of Transfer. The new treaty has,
however, this merit that while the Instrument of Transfer was a
one-sided document, the treaty of 1913 is a document concluded by
two parties both able to realise the significance of their actions.
Article 22 of the Instrument of Transfer underwent a little
modification by limitirg the very wide scope which it ga\e to the
A33
256
Governor-General to interfere in all the internal concerns of the
State generally. Article 23 of the Instrument of Transfer relating
to the resumption of the State by the British Government in
certain contingencies was entirely omitted. The general prohibi-
tion to repair fortresses or strongholds contained in Article 7 of
the old Instrument was made applicable only to repairs for
military purposes.
The Yuvaraja, Narasimharaja Wodeyar, now became a
dominant personality in the State next to the Maharaja. The
Yuvaraja was born in June 1888 and joined the Mayo College at
Ajmer in November 1903 when he was a little over 15 years old.
But he was obliged to discontinue his studies in that college a
few months after on account of illness and returned to Mysore in
April 1904. At Mysore a special institution was organised and the
young prince received very careful education at the hands of
private tutors specially engaged for the purpose. On completing
his education, he was appointed Military Secretary to the Maharaja
and worked in that capacity for some time. In the early part of
1913 he started on a European tour with a staff of three officers
and with his cousin Balaraj Urs and returned in October after
spending about six months in that continent. In this travel the
Yuvaraja visited a large number of institutions both on the
continent as well as in England, studying the varied activities of
the countries he passed through. He was accorded a cordial
reception wherever he went and returned filling his mind with rich
experience and possessed of an ardent desire to work for the uplift
of the people. After his return from Europe, in order to give His
Highness a larger scope for the exercise of his abilities as well as
to enable him to obtain a deeper insight into the working of the
Government machinery, he was appointed in 1914 as an Extra-
ordinary Member of the State Council.
CHAPTER XXX.
KrUhnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Part played by Mysore in the German War.
We have seen that on the occasion of the visit of His late
Majesty King George V (then Prince of Wales) in January 1906 to
Mysore, the Maharaja expressed a hope that the Mysore Imperial
Service troops may some day have an opportunity of showing their
spirit by being associated in the fight for the defence of the empire
whenever it might come. Such a contingency arose in 1914 when
the great German War was launched and almost all the important
countries of the world were ranged on one side or the other. This
war lasted for a little over four years and caused the greatest
havoc that the world has witnessed. For the first time in the
history of India the Indian troops conveyed to France stood face to
face with a highly organised European enemy and successfully
resisted them in their own continent. The troops of Native States
who had on account of long-established peace in India come to be
looked upon as fit only for pompous parades and ceremonial shows
quickly proved their mettle when the opportunity they longed for
presented itself.
In August 1914 the Maharaja intimated to the Viceroy that
he felt that at that time of danger, it was the duty of all the
feudatory States and also of the people of the British Empire as a
whole to stand shoulder to shoulder for the defence of the empire
and offered the services of the Mysore troops as well as a sum of
Rs. 50 lakhs to the Indian War Fund. This offer of men and
money created a profound impression all over India and England.
At a meeting of the Indian Legislative Council, Lord Hardinge
the Viceroy commended this striking and patriotic offer by His
Highness whose loyalty, generosity and liberal views, he said,
were so well-known. The Marquess of Crewe, the then Secretary
of State for India, speaking in the House of Lords referred in
appreciative terms to the splendid offer, as he called, of the
Maharaja of Mysore,
252
The Mysore regiment consisting of 29 officers, 444 non-
commissioned officers and men with 526 horses, 49 mules and 132
followers left Bangalore on the 13th October 1914 under the
command of Regimentdar B. Chamaraja Urs. Major M. H.
Henderson accompanied the regiment as special service officer and
Colonel J. Desaraja Urs as the representative of the Durbar.
Fifteen draughts of reinforcements aggregating 3 officers, 426 other
ranks and 49 followers were despatched to the field subsequently
from time to time. The Mysore Transport Corps was mobilised
for active service in 1915. Six detachments of the corps consisting
of 12 officers, 321 ranks, 49 followers, with 210 carts, 468 bullocks,
7 mules and 35 ponies were despatched in September 1916 under the
command of Furzulla Khan. To keep the corps up to strength,
nine draughts of reinforcements consisting of four officers, 133
ranks and 37 followers with bullocks were also sent.
To meet the local and Imperial demands in regard to man
power, a Central Recruitment Committee was constituted in the
State. A director of recruiting was appointed and district
recruiting agencies were organised. Though the difficulties to be
surmounted were great, nearly the whole of the required number of
recruits 5000 were secured before the termination of the war.
Early in 1915 a separate fund was also started for providing
the Mysore troops at the front with articles of comfort and also to
relieve want and distress among the members of their families left
behind. The idea emanated from the Yuvaraja who was a
Member of the State Council at this time in charge, among others,
of the military portfolio and who evinced keen interest in all
matters connected with the war. Arrangements were also made
for awarding speedily special pensions and gratuities to those
disabled in service and to the families of those who lost their lives,
for securing fresh recruits for the army, for enlisting the aid of the
public and for various other matters. All this work meant of
course, constant thought and involved also heavy strain, which the
Yuvaraja willingly faced. As an encouragement to the men at the
front, a spirited message conveying the best wishes of His
Highness the Maharaja, the Royal family and of the people of
253
Mysore was printed and copies were sent for distribution ?rmong all
officers, men and followers at the front : " At this hour of supreme
struggle of the British Empire and its Allies," said the message,
" you enjoy the great honour of forming a part, however small, of
the magnificent army which is fighting for the cause of liberty and
righteousness. We have heard with keen pleasure and pride of
your heroic conduct in the field and of your brilliant successes.
We have no doubt that whatever the duty assigned to you, you
will do it in such a way as will add fresh lustre to the country and
uphold the high traditions of Mysore for loyalty and devotion to
the Crown of England. Day by day and minute by minute,
you are present in our thoughts and our prayers. Those dear
to you whom you have left behind are our sacred charge until
you return victorious. Remember always in whatever you do that
the fair name and honour of Mysore are in your keeping and that,
to an Indian, honour is dearer and far more precious than life.
Have firm faith in Providence and in the justness of our cause and
by the grace of Almighty God you shall be safe and successful/'
The Mysore Imperial Service Regiment had three engagements
with the enemy in the Suez Canal Zone in November 1915 and
took part in the attack on Gaza in Palestine in November 1917.
They did excellent work both in the battle of Gaza and in the
subsequent pursuit. In the latter half of 1918 the regiment was
placed in the firing line and in the last action of Aleppo on 26th
October 1918 the regiment suffered serious casualties. In addition
to the excellent work carried out by them in active operations
against enemy outposts, they were also employed on the arduous
task of constructing strong field works for the defence of the Suez
Canal and in guarding important and valuable points in the lines of
communications. In every case they carried out the tasks allotted
to them to the entire satisfaction of General Sir John Maxwell,
Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, as was
reported by him to the Commander-in-Chief in India. In the
victory of Gaza and subsequent pursuit of the enemy the Mysore
Lancers were often under heavy fire. But there was not a single
instance of shirking or alarm and it was acknowledged that they
254
had acquitted themselves as if they had been old and tried soldiers.
In December 1917 the Commander-in-Chief of the army in
Palestine on the completion of the operations resulting in the
capture of Beersheba and Gaza specially commended the good work
done by the Mysore Lancers. In a despatch from General Sir
Edmund Allenby, dated the 31st October 1918, dealing with the
operations which resulted in the destruction of the Turkish army,
the liberation of Palestine and Syria and the occupation of
Damascus and Aleppo, special reference was made to the work of
the Mysore Lancers in the field. Dealing with the capture of
Haifa, General Allenby stated that two miles from the Haifa,
Rhode, in the passes between the spur of Mount Carmell on the
left and the marshy banks of river Kishon on the right, the fifth
Cavalry Division reaching this point on the 23rd September was
shelled from the slopes of Mount Carmell and found the road and
the river crossings defended by numerous machine guns. While
Mysore Lancers cleared the rocky slopes of Mount Carmell, the
Jodhpur Lancers charged through the defile and riding over the
enemy machine guns galloped into the town, where a number of
Turks were speared in the streets and a large number of prisoners
taken.
The Mysore Imperial Service Transport Corps which was sent
to Mesapotamia for active service turned out much useful work.
Landing at Basra early in October 1916, they were at first employed
on convoy work on the lines of communication. The Corps was
subsequently concentrated for work at Shaik Saad and beyond and
early in 1917 was employed in clearing the battle fields of Sanniaya
and Hai. The Corps was unfortunate in losing their Commandant
Furzulla Khan who died in hospital in July 1917.
: ' 'Where all Acquitted themselves with distinguished gallantry,
ft is difficult to make a selection of individual heroes. However, a
few names may-be mentioned. Commandant A. T. Thyagaraj of
the Transport Corps was specially mentioned in the despatches for
gallantry and deftaftion to duty and was awarded the title of
' Captain ' by His Jlighness the Maharaja. Jama<}a.r Abdul Gaffaj
255
Khan of the Imperial Lancers while serving in Egypt showed great
coolness and gallantry under very heavy fire while leading on the
the 25th October 1918 his squadron in a charge against a strongly
held enemy position. He rallied his squadron after his British
officer had been killed and continued in action though the squadron
had suffered heavy casualties. Risaldar A Lingaraj Urs was a
young hero who was killed in action at Aleppo on the 26th October
1918 during the final phase of the operations in Palestine. On a
previous occasion this hero did a daring feat. On the 23rd
November 1915 a squadron of the Mysore Lancers operating 15
miles east of Cantarah obtained touch with a force of sixty Turks
on camels, the advance guard of a raiding party 200 strong. These
were pursued for seven miles, with the result that 7 were killed,
twelve were captured and many others wounded. Amongst the
dead was a famous Bedouin leader. He was killed after a hand-to-
hand fight by Lingaraj Urs and the latter was awarded the Indian
Order of Merit for this act of gallantry. The significance of the
gallant deed done by Lingaraj Urs lay in the fact that after the
Bedouin leader's death, the attempts on the Suez canal entirely
ceased.
Risaldar Subbaraja Urs was another young hero whose
gallantry was rewarded by the grant of the Indian Distinguished
Service medal. During an attack on the ferry-post Ismalia on 2nd
February 1915, the patrol was commanded by Subbaraja Urs and
this patrol came suddenly upon the enemy who were entrenched
and advanced close to them mistaking them for their own men.
The enemy immediately opened fire and the patrol had to retire
from the enemy's entrenchments under a heavy fire. Sowar Ram
Singh of the Bhavnagar Lancers had the misfortune to have his
horse hit in the leg, with the result that the horse fell and the^ rider
also over the horse's head. Subbaraja Urs who wj
yards in front of the sowar at the time had his aj
the mishap. He immediately returned to the
Singh had fallen, took him on his own hor
they were behind a hill. Subbaraja Urs
February 1920 and in the following md
Commandant of the Imperial Service Lancers J
256
Risaldar B. P. Krishne Urs was yet another young hero who
is entitled to all honour. He left for active service with his
regiment in 1914. He greatly distinguished himself in meeting
the attack of the Turks on the Suez Canal in 1915, when with about
forty men he captured eighty camels and took forty Turks as
prisoners along with much booty. In the beginning of 1916 he
joined the staff of General Archibald Murray and served on it for
nine months, during which time he had the opportunity of meeting
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and accompanying him
on his visits to various camps. In 1917 he followed the regiment in
its march from Suez to Gaza, where he was sent to gain experience
in trench warfare. In an action on the 26th October 1918 in the
Suez Canal Zone, Krishne Urs showed great gallantry while
leading his squadron in a charge against a strongly held army
position under very heavy fire. He was severely wounded in the
hand and chest but continued to lead his squadron until exhaustion
compelled him to fall out. His splendid example inspired all
ranks. He was awarded the Military Cross by the British
Government, the title of * Captain ' by the Maharaja and the
* White Eagle of Serbia ' by the King of Serbia.
Mir Turab Ali was another hero who rose to the position of
Risaldar by his military prowess. He enlisted himself as a sowar
in the Imperial Service Lancers in 1903, when he was about 18
years old. Turab Ali's intelligence and energy gave him
opportunities to secure rapidly higher and higher positions and he
left for active service to Egypt in October 1914. On arrival, he
was detailed to undergo machine-gun training and scarcely had he
been a week old at this course, when his skill was put to the proof
during an attack on a Turkish redoubt at Belel-Mahadat. By the
time Turab Ali fired 300 rounds out of his machine-gun, the gun
got jammed. But the fire was so effective that such of the
defenders as did not fall hastily retreated. Turab Ali got his
commission as Jamadar in January 1915 and was placed in charge
of a machine-gun section and he was ever present with his section
in every engagement in which his regiment took part and specially
distinguished himself in the attack upon Gaza. He was for some
257
time appointed instructor of the 15th machine-guns squadron and
he trained and made ready for the field two sub- sect ions of the
Bikanir Camel Corps and Jodhpur Imperial Service Lancers.
Turab AH accompanied the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade to
Jericho and took part in several engagements, his name being
mentioned in despatches for gallantry and devotion to duty. Turab
AH also took a conspicuous part in the capture of Haifa. Under a
heavy fire of machine-gun and artillery he led an attack upon a
hillock capturing a Turkish officer, four machine-guns and other
booty. One of these guns was brought to India by the regiment as
a war trophy. For these distinguished services Turab AH was
awarded the Indian Order of Merit and the Maharaja promoted him
to the position of a Risaldar.
Sirdar Bahadur B. Chamaraja Urs left for Egypt in October
1914 in command of the Mysore Imperial Service Lancers. His
military career began in March 1890 as Jamadar, Local Service
Regiment. He rapidly rose from position to position and in May
1905 was permanently appointed Commandant of the Imperial
Service troops. He was presented valuable Khillats by His
Highness the Maharaja in open durbar in recognition of his services
in connection with the visit of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales and
Princess of Wales in 1906. Relating to his services in Egypt,
Major-General W. A. \Vatson, Commanding Line of Communica-
tion Defences, writing to Chamaraja Urs on 27th March 1916
said : -" From the moment when the brigade was concentrated at
Deolali seventeen months ago, it was evident to me that your
regiment was imbued with a splendid military spirit and it
was clear that your own character and influence was the
cause. You have never hesitated to enforce discipline or feared
to inflict punishment and the result has been that your men have
reached a high standard of efficiency. They have behaved
admirably, sometimes under trying circumstances, both in the
camp and in the field. Their success in the action at Bel-el-Jafir
on the 23rd November 1915 must have been a great satisfaction to
you. I congratulate you on being commander of a regiment of
which you may justly feel proud.** Chamaraja Urs was present
in the action around Gaza in Palestine in November 1917
A33
258
ftnd showed remarkable bravery and steadiness in leading the
men under his command during the attack which ultimately ended
in victory. On the 7th February 1918 Brigadier- General C. R.
Harbard, Commanding Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, in
writing to the Inspector- General, Imperial Service troops in India,
said : " Regimentdar B. Chamaraja Urs (Sirdar Bahadur) having
been ordered to return to India, I feel that I cannot let him vacate
the command of Mysore Lancers in the field without placing on
record my appreciation of the services this officer has rendered,
which I trust may be brought to the notice of His Highness the
Maharaja of Mysore. A strict disciplinarian and possessing a
strong innate sense of justice, Chamaraja Urs has always maintain-
ed the right spirit in his men and by his personal example has
taught them to undertake any duty, however monotonous and
irksome it may have been, with cheerfulness and alacrity. The
British officers who have been connected with the regiment since
it came on service have all remarked upon the nice tone that
prevailed in this regiment and what a pleasure it was to work
with them. I attribute this tone in a large measure to the influence
of Chamaraja Urs. Instead of resenting the presence of Special
Service officers, he has always shown himself grateful for their
assistance, and the good name that the Mysore Lancers have won
for themselves during their stay in Egypt is largely due to the
good relations that have always existed between this officer and
through him with the other officers of the regirhent."
On returning to India, he was appointed Chief Commandant in
1919. For his distinguished military services he was appointed to
the order of British India in June 1916. His Highness the
Maharaja honoured him with the first class Medal of the
Gandabherunda Order and the position of Lt.-Col. in the Mysore
army. He also received the foreign decoration of the White Eagle
of Serbia from His Majesty the King of Serbia.
Last but not least comes the honoured name of Col. Desaraja
Urs who, as has already been stated, went to Egypt as the
representative of the Durbar and whose ardent military spirit is
remembered even now with pride by the people of Mysore. As a
259
testimony to his innate military instincts, it may be stated that he
preferred service in the military department, though he could have
easily entered any of the civil departments on higher emoluments.
He was appointed attache in the Mysore Military Department in
August 1884. After a short period of service, his fighting instinct
asserted itself and resigning the State Service in June 1885 joined
the British Military Department as Jamadar, 3rd Madras Light
Cavalry. He soon obtained an opportunity for active service.
From September 1886 to October 1887 he was in the field in Burma
during the Burmese War which resulted in the capture of King
Thebaw and the annexation of his country. On the 14th December
1887 his services were lent to the Mysore State by the Madras
Government, when he was appointed assistant to the Military
Secretary and aid-de-camp to His Highness the Maharaja. In
December 1890 he resigned the Madras Service and was appointed
Commandant, Imperial Service Regiment, in March 1894 and in
August 1897 he rose to the responsible position of Chief Com-
mandant, Mysore State troops, which he held continuously for a
period of 22 years.
From October 1914 to January 1916 he served in Egypt during
the Great War and his name was mentiond in the despatches of
General Maxwell, Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Egypt. In
August 1917 in appreciation of the services rendered by him during
the war, His Majesty the King- Emperor awarded him the honorary
rank of Lt.-Col. in the British army and in June 1918 His
Highness the Maharaja decorated him with a first class medal of
the Gandabherunda Order.
Apart from the work in connection with the arrangements for
field service, the Durbar undertook with alacrity much other work
of a miscellaneous character at the request of the Government of
India. With a view to conserve all the tanning bark grown for the
tanning of hides urgently required for army purposes, skin tanning
was prohibited about the close of the year 1917 and a special police
establishment was maintained to prevent any evasion of the rules.
The great loss unavoidably caused to the people in consequence of
r^ inability to work up a valuable raw material was cheerfully
260
borne by them in aid of the war. Some 19,000 army blankets were
supplied to the Indian Munitions Board. One lakh and fifty
thousand cubic feet of rosewood were supplied by the State Forest
Department to the gun-carriage factory at Jubbalpore and 30,000
teak metre gauge sleepers for railway construction in Mesapotamia ;
land lastly, about 20,000 acres of plantation and Kaval lands were
leased to the British Grass Farm for raising grass.
. The Government of India offered to refund to the Durbar the
cost of mobilising their troops for active service amounting in all to
Rs. 11 lakhs. But His Highness while greatly appreciating the
offer, preferred that the cost of mobilisation should form part of the
contributions made by the Durbar in aid of the war. In April
1918 His Highness made a further gift of Rs. 10 lakhs for war
purposes and also contributed Rs. 20 lakhs towards the War Loan.
In June 1918 His Highness issued a stirring message to his
subjects calling upon them to join the army in larger numbers and
to contribute liberally to the War Loan. The war, however, came
to an end in November 1918 by the Germans suing for peace.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Various Administrative Improvements — 1913 — 1918.
Although the period from 1914 to 1918 was a period of great
excitement and anxiety on account of the great European War,
there was no lack of continuity in the introduction of various
internal improvements to enhance the prosperity of the country.
Sir M. Visvesvaraya was a financier of advanced views and he was
in favour of incurring larger expenditure for the material and
moral advancement of the country. He was also not a timid
financier inasmuch as he held the view that public borrowing for
productive purposes which had an unsavoury odour to some was
quite justified when it brought additional revenue to the State and
gave occupation and food to the people.
In November 1912 when Sir M. Visvesvaraya became Dewan,
the assets of the State amounted to Rs. 795 lakhs and the liabilities
to Rs. 362 lakhs. During the six years he was in charge of the
administration, the revenues of the State ranged between Rs. 255
and Rs. 315 lakhs. The expenditure increased progressively from
Rs. 202 lakhs in 1912-13 to Rs. 298 lakhs in 1918-19, but in spite
of this increase in expenditure, large annual surpluses were left.
Railway Construction.
The construction of fresh lines of railway which had been
suspended for some time was resumed. The work on the
Mysore-Arsikere railway line via Hassan was commenced in
November 1913 and completed and opened for traffic in 1918.
This line was 103 miles in length and crossed three rivers the
Lakshmanatirtha, the Kaveri and the Hemavathi. In 1913 the
Government at the request of the Chikballapur Light Railway
Company took over the construction of this line to its hands and
the section between Yelahanka and Devanhalli was opened for
goods traffic in the following year. Similarly the Kolar District
Board metre gauge line from Bowringpet to Chikballapur via
Kolar, Srinivasapur and Chintamani was also completed ancj
262
opened for traffic. On the 17th December 1913 His Highness the
Maharaja opened the completed line from Bowringpet to Kolar and
in his speech on that occasion said : " I am particularly glad
to perform the opening ceremony, because I wish to show my
appreciation of the public spirit which has prompted the people of
the Kolar District to construct this much needed line among
themselves. As the pioneers of Local Fund Railways in Mysore,
you deserve the warm support of my Government and I earnestly
hope that when you have shown the way, other districts will not
be slow to follow."
A tramway was also undertaken for construction between
Tarikere and Narasimharajapur and completed as far as Luckwalli
at this time. In 1915-16 a Railway Committee was constituted
consisting of official and non -official members to advise the
Government on questions relating to railway policy, finance,
construction and establishment. In fulfilment of the conditions of
the branch lines agreement, the Government of India agreed in
1918 to restore to the State the management of the Bangalore-
Mysore, Mysore-Nanjangud and Birur-Shimoga sections from
the hands of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Company.
With the resumption of these lines, a total length of 372 miles
of metre and narrow gauge lines came under the management of
the State.
For the satisfactory development, however, of the trade and
commerce of the State, it was understood that two main arterial
connections were of vital importance. The metre gauge system
terminated at Nanjangud and unless it was continued and
connected with the same system in South India, the Mysore
railway system would remain incomplete. This question which
was of 30 years standing at the time was again brought under
correspondence with the Government of India. Similarly a railway
line was needed to connect the State railway system with a
suitable port on the West Coast. A project for a line from
Arsikere to Mangalore via Hassan was for a long time under the
consideration of His Highness* Government. But later it was
Abandoned as the port of Mangalore was not open to shipping for
at least 3 months in the year. It was now considered preferable
to have a port at Bhatkal and investigations for the purpose were
started. The sea-board near Bhatkal was only 10 miles from the
State frontier. There was a project to construct a new railway
from Shimoga to the top of the Western Ghauts for opening up
the forests and the Malnad area and the distance of Bhatkal from
the terminus of the new railway was less than fifty miles. The
length of additional railway needed to join the sea-board at this
point was much shorter and the descent from the top of the Ghauts
to the coast much easier than it was from any other point.
Bhatkal however was entirely in British territory and the execution
of the project depended entirely on the sympathy and support of
the Government of India.
Development of Electric Power.
The electric scheme obtained considerable development from
time to time ever since it was started. By 1912 a sum of over
Rs. 83 lakhs had been spent as capital outlay and the net profit in
that year amounted to 8.51 per cent on the total capital invested,
after deducting interest charge at 4 per cent. Both the city of
Mysore and the Civil and Military Station of Bangalore were for
the first time illuminated with electric lighting in the year 1908.
Subsequently arrangements were also made for supplying electric
power at cheap rates for small household appliances and industrial
concerns.
In 1913 an agreement was concluded with the Gold Mining
Companies to afford protection to the existing power supply by
storage in the Kannambadi reservoir and also to provide them with
an additional supply of power. The dam of the Kannambadi
reservoir begun in 1911 had risen by this time to a height of 51.50
feet in the river bed. The storage of water thus far secured not
only enabled the Government to guarantee to the Gold Mines
power supply up to 9321 H.P. as previously agreed to, but also to
supply additional power to the extent of 5000 H.P. Regarding the
second stage of the reservoir, as there were differences of opinion
between the Madras Government and the Mysore Durbar, the
Government of India appointed a Court of Arbitration presided
264
over by Sir Henry Griffin, Judge of the High Court of Allahabad,
assisted by the Hon'ble Mr. Nethersole, Inspector- General of
Irrigation in India, as assessor. The proceedings of the court
commenced on the 18th July 1913 and after conducting investi-
gations for nearly ten months, the Court submitted its award to the
Government of India in 1914. In March 1916 that Government
confirmed the award of the Arbitration Court, thereby enabling the
Durbar to undertake the construction of the second stage of the
reservoir project which when completed was expected to bring
under irrigation an additional extent of land of over 1,25,000 acres
in the Mandya, Malavalli, Nagamangala and T-Narsipur taluks.
Among the inhabitants of the Kaveri delta, particularly those of
Tanjore and Trichnopoly districts, there was however considerable
misconception regarding the effect of this award. The area in the
Mysore territory irrigated at this time by the Kaveri was 1,15,000
acres, while the corresponding area in the lower reaches of the river
within the Madras Presidency was 12,25,000 acres ; that is to say,
92 per cent of the area irrigated by this river lay in the Madras
Presidency and only 8 per cent in Mysore. Three-fourths of the
water-supply of the river however passed through Mysore territory
and thus the benefit derived by the State was wholly incommensu-
rate with the high proportion of the total flow contributed by
Mysore. A large surplus flow in the river went to waste into the
sea year after year after meeting the needs of both the Mysore and
Madras irrigation and the Mysore project was intended to intercept
only a small portion of this surplus. The award contained a
proviso placing the Mysore Government under an obligation to
deliver a constant supply of 900 cubic feet of water per second
regularly in the hot weather, while the natural river flow was
on occasions as low as one-tenth of that discharge, compelling
Mysore thus to pay a heavy price for the award in her favour.
Fresh attempts for efficient maintenance ol tanks.
During this period fresh attempts were made to devise more
efficient methods for the proper maintenance of tanks. As the
efforts hitherto made had not yielded the expected results, a
committee was now appointed for the investigation and suggestion
265
of more efficient means than those hitherto adopted. This
committee submitted its report in August 1918. The report stated
that there were many tanks in the State with atchkats (maximum
cultivable area) disproportionate to their capacities due to a variety
of causes such as the accumulation of silt in the tank thereby
diminishing the storage of water, the indiscriminate grant of fresh
lands on Nirsardi or water-rate without reference to the capacity of
the tank, there being no co-ordination between the three depart-
ments concerned in the matter — the Public Works who were
responsible for the storage of water, the Revenue Department
whose duty it was to grant facilities for extension of cultivation
and the Settlement Department whose duty consisted in fixing
assessments on lands more or less as they found them at the time
of their operations. Further, the mode of choosing major tanks
for restoration was left to chance without a properly pre-arranged
programme. It was also found that there were still 737 major
tanks waiting for restoration out of a total number of 2507 in the
State. The rule enjoining the pre-payment of one-third of the
estimated amount either in money or in labour proved irksome to
the land-holders and was often evaded. In addition to the major
tanks which had not been touched, there were also 18,490
minor tanks still to be restored. At the rate at which
restoration in the past had been carried out, the committee
calculated that it would take 140 years to complete the
whole. Further, simultaneously with the efficient restoration of
tanks, there was also needed an arrangement for their periodical
repair and proper maintenance. Various other methods such as
the commutation of the ryot's liability by the imposition of an
acreage cess, attempts to revive the communal spirit by the
formation of village statutory bodies under the Tank Panchayet
Regulation had also failed to fulfil the expectations formed of them.
The question of efficiently maintaining the tanks was however of
paramount importance to an agricultural country like Mysore, and
at all times it has caused anxiety to Government to find an
effective solution in a matter where old established traditions were
light-heartedly interfered with in the past.
A34
266
The Introduction of the Jury System.
Frequent representations having been made at the meetings of
the Representative Assembly for the introduction of the jury
system in the trial of sessions cases, the Government sanctioned
for the first time its introduction in the Bangalore and Mysore
districts from July 1917 and the system was extended in later years
to other districts.
Separation of Magisterial from Executive functions.
In 1916 one hundred and twenty-eight Village Munsiffs' Courts
commenced to work. In the same year sanction was accorded to
the formation of courts of Benches of Honorary Magistrates at
four of the district headquarter towns and these courts were made
permanent in May 1918, the scheme being subsequently extended
to the remaining four districts also.
In 1907 as an experimental measure, the Amildars of seven
taluks in different parts of the State had been relieved of their
magisterial functions and the same assigned either to City
Magistrates or to Munsiffs. Later, the Government became
convinced that it would tend on the whole to a better and prompter
administration of justice, if the duty of trying cases was assigned
as far as possible, to officers whose attention was not distracted by
other important and heavy work, and accordingly in May 1918 a
scheme was introduced for providing a separate agency for the
disposal of original criminal work. According to this scheme,
three grades of special magistrates came into existence — those of
the first grade being first class magistrates with, as a rule, appellate
powers, those of the second grade generally exercised second class
powers, and the third grade magistrates generally exercised second
class powers. Assistant Commissioners, Amildars and Deputy
Amildars continued to be magistrates ex-officio, but they ceased to
exercise magisterial functions in practice, except such as were
really executive in their nature under the Criminal Procedure Code.
The scheme was in the first instance introduced in the districts of
Bangalore and Shimoga where it came into operation from 1st July
1919 and was completed hi the whole State by 1925.
267
In 1906 the Mysore Municipal Regulation VII of that year
had been passed into law and the Municipal Councils of the cities
of Bangalore and Mysore had been brought under its operation. A
change in the appointment of Presidents of Municipal Councils was
made in 1913 allowing the choice to be made from among non-
officials also. The Bangalore City Municipality was the first to be
selected for this change and Sir K. P. Puttanna Chetty who had
retired as a Member of the State Council readily came forward to
fill this place. In the Municipalities of Kolar, Tumkur and
Chickmagalur non-officials were appointed as Vice-Presidents.
Reform of the Legislative Council.
After an experience of the working of the Legislative Council
for about 8 years, it was found that improvements in certain
directions were needed and these were effected by Regulation I of
1914. The Legislative Council formed in 1907 had been based on
the model of the British Indian Act of 1861. But though this act
had been revised more than once, the Mysore Council continued on
its old lines. In order to improve the representative character of
the Council, the number of members was raised to 24 from the old
maximum number which varied from 15 to 18. Of the increased
number, 4 were nominated on the recommendation of the Represen-
tative Assembly, 4 by territorial representation from the districts.
Ten were officials and six were nominated by Government. The
number of elected members by these changes was raised from 2 to
8. The privileges of discussing the annual State Budget and of
raising interpellations were given. The Council, however, had no
power to modify or to add to the budget or to move resolutions on
the same. The interpellations were limited to 12 questions at each
session and the nature of the questions to be admitted was
determined, among other considerations, on the measure of
support accorded to the questions by the members. These changes
however did not modify the ultimate character of the Mysore
State constitution and the responsibility for the good government
of the country rested entirely with the Maharaja as settled by
the Government of India. In reforming the Legislative Council
Highness was Actuated by a keen desire to associate the
268
representatives of his subjects in the councils of the administration,
so that they might bring to bear their influence on the policy and
activities of Government.
Finance.
The privilege of discussing the annual financial budget of
the State accorded by the Maharaja was for the first time
availed of by the Members of the Legislative Council at their
meeting held in July 1914. Subsequently the Finance Committee
was re-constituted and the scope of its work was enlarged with a
view to enable it to investigate means of expanding revenue as well
as scope for retrenching expenditure. In order that greater
attention might be given to the more important questions connected
with finance and the development of revenue, a full time Financial
Secretary was also appointed in 1916. The draft budget was also
ordered to be published before the session of the Representative
Assembly was held, so that the members might have ample time to
carefully acquaint themselves with the allotments made for each
department. In this year J. S. Chakravarthi who had been
appointed to the new post of Financial Secretary, speaking
at the Budget Session of the Legislative Council humourously
likened the Mysore finances before this reformed committee came
into existence to an ailing Purdahnashin Sultana and he pointed
out the difficulties under which the doctors formerly laboured
whenever they wanted to understand the condition of the patient.
Till a couple of years ago, he said, the doctors could only diagnose
the disease by examining the tongue shown through a slit in the
purdah or a hand thrust through a door chink, but under the change
introduced, the doctors had been given the necessary access to the
extent permitted by civilised medical etiquette.
On account of the world war which prevailed at this time, the
political and other conditions had become very unstable and it was
therefore considered that the finances of the State should undergo
further scrutiny by an expert. Mr. K. L. Datta, a retired officer of
the Finance Department of the Government of India, was
temporarily appointed to make an independent examination of the
accounts and finances of the State, no such examination having
269
taken place after that of Mr. Kierpander in 1902. Mr. Datta on
reviewing the State's finances as they stood on the 30th July 1916
found that the State had succeeded in creating assets equal to its
gross income for nearly two years after making provision for the
two loans which it had raised and was of opinion that the
administration might be justly proud of the results achieved. A
new classification of the budget heads was introduced by Mr. Datta
and the budget also came to include for the first time the detailed
estimates of the Public Works Department.
CHAPTER XXXII.
KrUhnaraja Wodcyar IV.
Economic and other improvement* — 1913 — 1918.
Economic Conference.
The Economic Conference which began in 1911 had achieved
some beneficial results in the shape of training the people through
its committees and associating them in public work with
Government officers. In May 1913 the conference was strengthened
by election to it by ballot of eight members from the Representative
Assembly. In his address to the Representative Assembly in
September 1914 the Dewan Sir M. Visvesvaraya used these
earnest words to rouse the people to greater activity : " The
recent growth of communications has been bringing us closer to the
populations of the world. It is an advantage to come into contact
with people more civilised than ourselves, if we can profit by their
example. But this close association has also brought us increased
responsibilities. It has brought us into the vortex of the struggle
for existence. Where formerly the economic effects of local
enterprises were determined by local conditions, we are called upon
without adequate training or skill and with our primitive
implements to take our place in international competition. In the
face of the increasing severity of the struggle, our spirit of content,
our indifference to science and material progress are a growing
peril."
To stimulate interest in the work connected with public
measures in rural areas, it was arranged to hold district and taluk
conferences commencing from July 1916. At these conferences,
questions connected with economic subjects, village improvement
and co-operative societies and the wants of the people generally
were discussed. These conferences had an educative value and
they helped the district officers to ascertain and catalogue local
wants and to focus the activities of the people on specific
measures of improvement. In his address to the Representative
Assembly held during the Dasara of 1917 Sir M- Visvesvaraya
271
who was from the beginning the inspirer of the idea of the
Economic Conference summed up its objects in these words :
" All the activities hitherto attempted, though appearing
fragmentary, should be taken as forming a connected scheme of
progress. A determined effort is necessary to raise the level of
education and working power of the masses, including the
backward and depressed classes. With the spread of primary
education at one end and the university with its rapidly developing
modern side on the other, our education will help to create greater
homogeneity and social unity among our population. The end and
aim of our activities should be to increase production and wealth, to
strengthen and encourage habits and practices among our people
which are already found to be good, to correct wrong popular
beliefs and to place before them sound ideals based on the
experience of progressive nations ; in other words, to prepare a
prosperous, energetic, alert and enterprising population. All
activities of the State may be classed under one or other of the
three main heads — administration, economic progress, and civic and
social progress. Those which fall under administration are attended
to by His Highness1 Government, assisted by the representations
and advice of the Representative Assembly or other public bodies.
The economic activities are controlled by a semi-official organisation
which is becoming more and more effective and in which a large
number of Government officers and non-official gentlemen are taking
part. The civic and social activitie's have been recently begun and
a considerable amount of propaganda work is needed before the
activities assume their rightful importance in the public eye.*'
In 1918 the Maharaja decided that the Economic Conference
organisation was to remain permanent. With the Legislative
Council, the Representative Assembly and the Economic
Conference, it was believed that there would be more or less a
complete organisation for the political and economic training of the
people.
EftUblifthmtat of th« Mysora Bank-
We have seen that in 1912 the Industries and Commerce
Committee of the Economic Conference recommended the
272
establishment of a financing Bank for the encouragement of
industries and commerce. The scheme subsequently took shape
and a Bank of the kind proposed was established under the
patronage of the State and commenced work from 2nd
October 1913.
Sandal Oil Factory.
Various special economic activities were also undertaken
during this period. Prior to 1916, sandal wood was being sold by
public auction by the Forest Department which brought a fairly
good revenue to the State. Soon after the outbreak of the war,
the auction sales of sandalwood held in November and December
1914 proved unfavourable, and on the recommendation of Sir Alfred
Chatterton the idea of converting sandalwood into oil and placing
the oil on the market was then seriously considered by Government,
with the result that a small sandalwood distillation factory was
established at Bangalore which commenced work in May 1916.
As the undertaking proved successful through the energy and
resourcefulness of Sir Alfred Chatterton, a factory on a larger scale
was established at Mysore and work commenced in August 1917.
Soap Factory.
It was found that very good soap was being made on a small
experimental scale in the Indian Institute of Science. To develop
the industry on a commercial scale, the Government established a
soap factory at Bangalore and placed it under the supervision of
Mr. S. G. Sastry (now Director of Industries) who had been
specially deputed to England to acquaint himself with the methods
of manufacturing soap in that country. The factory commenced
working in February 1918.
Commercial and Industrial activities.
In the year 1918 the Department of Industries was reorganised
by the addition of a commercial section. A Central Industrial and
Commercial Museum was started and a scheme for granting loans
for cottage and minor industries also came into operation. A small
party of merchants and officers was deputed to Japan to study
industries and trade there.
Chamber of Commerce.
In his speech on the 26th June 1915 to the Economic
Conference, Sir M. Visvesvaraya threw out a suggestion for the
establishment of a Chamber of Commerce for the whole State.
The question of starting this Chamber received special attention at
the hands of the Industries and Commerce Committee for 18
months, prominent among the members of this Committee being
Sir Alfred Chatterton, W. C. Rose, Mr. B. K. Garudachar,
Vardhamaniah and Mr. Ranganatha Rao Sahib. The com-
mittee found that the bulk of the trade in the State was
carried on in a very primitive fashion. The outlook of the
merchants was narrow, their power of co-operation feeble and
their business methods out of date. They were ignorant of
trade statistics and on account of lack of training they were
unable to adapt themselves to the rapidly changing conditions of
the world trade. One of the means to broaden the outlook of the
merchants was no doubt the establishment of an association like the
Chamber of Commerce which would give them opportunities of
personal service and of joint deliberation and action on large
questions connected with industries and trade generally. The
object of the Chamber was to bring the wants and grievances of the
men engaged in industry and trade to the notice of the Government
and of public service corporations like the railway companies,
municipal and other local bodies, bank, post and telegraph or other
authorities whose operations affected them. In the second place,
the Chamber was to maintain a continuous study of large
commercial questions of local interest and constantly strive to
strengthen the conditions under which trade and industries were
carried on at the time. The Chamber was also intended to focus
and consolidate commercial opinion on current topics and to publish
the united judgment of representative merchants and businessmen
regarding such topics for the information of the public.
A Chamber with these objects was inaugurated on 8th May
1916 in the hall of the Government High School, Bangalore, at a
meeting at which over 500 merchants were present. The Chamber
began work in 1917 under the chairmanship of W. C. Rose its first
president and sub-committees of the Chamber were formed at
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274
Tumkur, Davangere, Chickmagalur and Tiptur. The Chamber now
possesses a building of its own due to the munificence of Sir Haji
Ismail Sait and others.
The Iron Works at Bhadravathi.
The valuable deposits of iron ore on the Bababudan hills
which had been discovered and reported upon by the Geological
Department of the State now engaged attention as to whether
these deposits could be worked on a commercial scale. The lack
of coal in the State however stood in the way of working them.
But now the question of manufacturing pig iron on a small scale
with the aid of charcoal fuel was investigated by Mr. C. P. Perin
of the firm of Messrs. Perin & Marshall of New York who were
Consulting Engineers to the Tata Iron and Steel Company, Ltd.,
of Sakchi, and on his advice the Government installed a wood
distillation plant to manufacture charcoal and a blast furnace for
smelting iron. The scheme was financed by Government and the
Tata Iron and Steel Company was appointed in 1918 to manage
the technical portion of the concern under the general supervision
of a Board of Management.
Sericulture.
Measured by its outturn, sericulture next to agriculture was
the most important industry carried on in the State. But owing
to the spread of disease amongst the worms, the industry began
to show signs of decline and in 1913 experiments were started in
the Tata Silk Farm at Bangalore which was then under the control
of a member of the Salvation Army to ascertain what improvements
could be effected in the reeling of silk for the local market and a
silk filature also was established at Chennapatna.
Under the direction of Signer Mari whose services were
engaged in 1914, a rearing school at Chennapatna was established
where there existed a Central Farm — the gift of a local merchant
Mr. Abdul Quddus — for supplying disease-free eggs on a large
scale. A Central School was opened at Mysore for the training
of the staff of the department and for purposes of demonstration
and instruction to the ryots. A number of other schools were also
275
opened in some of the important centres of the State. Later, a
reeling school was started at Santemarhalli and in the school at
Chennapatna special arrangements were made to train a large
number of gosha women in re-reeling and twisting.
Agricultural Experiments.
In 1913 an Agricultural School was opened in Bangalore and
the curriculum of studies in the school was made as practical as
possible. The major portion of the students' time was given to
practical farm-work, only the principles of elementary sciences
being taught to enable the students to understand agricultural
processes. In the same year the Agricultural Department was
strengthened by the appointment of a Director as its head. In
1914 the department was re-organised and a large amount of new
work was inaugurated, particularly demonstration work which was
extended to every district in the State.
In December 1914 the Government sanctioned a scheme for
the creation of some large landed estates and blocks of land
available for the purpose in each district were published for general
information. At Nagenhalli in the Mysore District a Government
farm was opened to investigate questions connected with sugarcane
and to study the agricultural needs of the area commanded by the
Kaveri channels.
Rural and Malnad Improvements.
Increased attention began to be paid during this period to rural
improvements. In 1913 in his address to the Representative
Assembly Sir M. Visvesvaraya drew attention pointedly to the
condition of the villages in the State and to the vast possibilities of
improvement that existed if only organised efforts were made for
the purpose. One of the measures proposed for vrllage improvement
was the formulation of a scheme for the establishment of Village
Improvement Committees. The system of devoting half-a-day's
labour every week for improving village sites and carrying out
works of communal benefit was begun in 1915. For the formation
of roads, wells and other improvements, Government grants were
supplemented by the villagers with contributions either in the shape
276
of cash or labour. The improvement of village cart-tracks and tree
planting received special attention. To ensure progress under the
rural water-supply scheme, the purchase of a set of boring tools and
the employment of a special staff were sanctioned for each district.
A special scheme for Malnad improvement was introduced in
February 1914 and in a period of a little over two years, rank
vegetation was cleared in 570 villages. Fifty -four wells were
completed, some village roads were opened and greater facilities
were afforded to the people for building houses for themselves.
Propaganda work included the distribution of leaflets on sanitation
and hygiene and the exhibitions of lantern slides depicting the health
conditions in the Malnad and the precautions to be taken by the
people residing in the area. A disease survey was also commenced
on a small scale in the Sagar taluk.
Educational Improvements.
In the year 1913 a comprehensive scheme of elementary and
advanced technical and commercial education was introduced by
the Government and it consisted in the main of the establishment
of the Chamarajendra Technical Institute at Mysore and a Com-
mercial and a Mechanical Engineering School at Bangalore. The
Engineering School and the Industrial School which existed at
Mysore were combined to form the nucleus of the new Chama-
rajendra Technical Institute. The institute consisted of five
sections, viz., the Engineering Section, the Industries and Crafts
Section, the Fine Arts Section, the Commercial School Section and
the Workshop. The Commercial School at Bangalore provided for
an elementary course in commercial subjects in English and Kanada
for one year and a secondary course in English for two years. The
Mechanical Engineering School undertook to teach the management
and care of oil and steam engines, erection of machinery, working
of mills, electric work, driving motor cars and other subjects. The
main object of Government in starting these institutions was to
create an incentive for manual work in the younger generation and
to enable them to earn their subsistence by following an
independent profession in after life,
277
In 1913 a Regulation for introducing compulsory primary
education was passed into law and in the following year, sanction
was given to the opening of 1000 elementary schools on a revised
grant-in-aid basis. The principle followed was that the villagers
were to supplement the grant given by Government by contributions
in money or kind, so that no teacher was required to serve on less
than Rs. 10 a month. The scheme of compulsory education was
introduced in 15 selected centres to start with. In the same year
the Widows' Home at Mysore was taken over by Government and
was attached to the Maharani's College as a hostel. Provision was
also made for imparting English instruction in a large number of
Girls' Schools. The re-organisation of women's education provided
also for instruction in industrial and domestic arts in addition to
education of a literary character.
In 1915 a new scheme for opening more village elementary
schools was brought into operation under a grant-in-aid basis by
offering a Government contribution of half the cost of each school.
The scale of pay of village schoolmasters was revised at a cost of
nearly half a lakh of rupees annually. To encourage the study of
English in rural areas, the rate of contribution payable by the
villagers concerned for village English Schools was reduced and
many night schools for adults were also opened. A provision of
Rs. 7000 in the budget was made for the grant of scholarships in
foreign countries for the study of various technical subjects such as
Paper Manufacture, Banking, systems of Education, Organic
Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering and Acturial Science. One of
the most hopeful features of the situation was that the people were
fully alive to the advantages of education and readily came forward
with liberal contributions for maintaining teachers and constructing
school buildings.
A Unirersitjr for Mysore.
It was felt at this time that without a separate university for
Mysore the educational system would be seriously defective and
accordingly a university was started and began work from July
1916. The University Bill as introduced in the Legislative
Council provided for a new type of university of which the colleges
278
formed an integral part. His Highness the Maharaja was the
Chancellor of the University and the late H. V. Nanjundaiya who
had rendered distinguished service both as a Judge of the High
Court of Mysore and also as a Member of the State Council was
the first Vice-Chancellor. On the 12th October 1916 on the
memorable occasion when the first meeting of the Senate of the
new Mysore University took place, the Maharaja as Chancellor
made a speech from which the following are extracts : —
" I think we all realise the solemnity and importance of
to-day's ceremony. It marks an epoch in the development of
education in the Mysore State ; for, what could be more significant
in our history than the creation at the express desire of the people
of a national university. It is the first university in this country
to be founded outside the limits of British India and is an
institution which meets the special needs of Mysore and which will
in time have far-reaching effects on the intellectual progress and
the material development of the State. I feel that on this occasion
I should publicly state how great is the debt of gratitude we
owe to the University of Madras under whose fostering care the
constituent colleges of our university have attained their
present state of high efficiency. Nearly all our distinguished
Mysoreans owe their education to the same university and are
justly proud of the connection The ideal of university
life which the constitution of the older universities in India has
hitherto favoured no longer remains the same and the creation of
local teaching universities is the inevitable outcome of the circum-
stances of the present time. Our university is in reality one of the
first fruits of the benevolent policy inaugurated by the Government
of India of the encouragement of smaller and more compact
universities approximating to the unitary type. The university
derives an advantage by the appointment of a full-time Vice-
Chancellor who can devote all his energy to administrative work
and establish intimate relations with the professors and lecturers.
This feature of our university is so far unique in India
Another advantage is that we have a special guarantee of harmony
and efficiency in the fact that the principals of the colleges and
representative professors have a place on the Council and therefore
279
a direct voice in prescribing courses of study, in directing exami-
nations and, in fact, in every detail of administration. This
intimate connection between the teaching staff and the university
is still further strengthened by the fact that all the professors
without exception are constituted members of the university and
have a seat on the Senate. Another very important feature in a
small university is the stricter control which it can exercise over
the social life of the students. The Unions which are to be built
at Mysore and Bangalore will encourage the best form of club
life among both professors and students. The hostels which we
intend to extend and amplify will develop the residential feature in
university life. Supervision will be exercised also over non-
residential students who are not living with their parents or
relations. I need hardly point out how great a stimulus will be
given to the important branch of athletics by the development of
residential life, the erection of gymnastic and cricket pavilions and
the direct influence of the professors who will in time be provided
with residences in the university areas. I feel that I ought to say a
few words as to what I think should be the aim of our university.
In the first place, we should spare no effort to gain for the Mysore
University the respect of the educational world. This end can
only be achieved by maintaining a really high standard of teaching
and examination and also by never allowing that standard to be
lowered, however strongly you may be tempted by the lure of
numerical results. It should be the aim, too, of the university to
turn out graduates who are not merely learned but who are of
high character and refinement which are the distinguishing marks
of every true gentleman/' The first convocation of the university
for conferring degrees was held on the 19th October 1918, when
His Highness the Maharaja as Chancellor presided and Sir
Ashutosh Mukherji, Judge of the Calcutta High Court and Vice-
Chancellor of the Calcutta University, delivered the convocation
address.
In this year a donation of Rs. 2 lakhs and an annual recurring
grant of Rs. 12,000 were sanctioned for the Hindu University at
Benares, of which the Maharaja was the Chancellor.
280
In the year 1917 a sum of Rs. 1 lakh was provided in the
budget for the grant of scholarships to pupils belonging to the
backward and depressed communities, chiefly to encourage them
to take to higher education.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Various Administrative Improvements — 1913 — 1918.
Local Self-Government.
Local Self -Government in Mysore had achieved a fair measure
of success and it was now deemed advisable to take a step forward.
A new Bill to amend the Municipal Regulation of 1906 was
accordingly introduced in the Legislative Council on the 29th June
1917. The legislation effected in 1906 although based on liberal
principles was found not to have produced any marked results,
especially in the case of Minor Municipalities owing to the prepon-
derance of the official element and to too much subordination of the
councils to Government officials. The Regulation was also too
complex for the smaller towns to which it could not be applied,
thereby causing the anomaly of the existence of Municipal Boards
created under the executive orders of Government alongside of those
constituted under statutory provisions. In 1915 the Dewan in his
address to the Representative Assembly had stated that the Local
Bodies were not playing their legitimate role in the administration
of the country and that the apathy displayed by these bodies was
attributable chiefly to a deficiency in the elected popular element
and to the want of reasonable powers of control over their own
funds. There were at this time before Government two well-
considered reports, one by the Local Self-Government Committee
and the other by the Local Finance Committee. The first committee
was appointed in February 1914 under the presidency of the late
Sir M. Kantaraj Urs who was a Member of the State Council at the
time and the second in May 1914 under the chairmanship of Dewan
Bahadur C. Srinivasa lyengar who was a retired member of the
same Council. In 1915 a conference of Local Boards and
Municipalities had been held in Mysore which was opened by His
Highness the Yuvaraja. At this conference Sir K, P. Puttanna
Chetty who had considerable experience in municipal problems
invited attention to the fact that Government exercised too much
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282
supervision and control over Municipalities and that thereby those
institutions had come to be regarded as mere adjuncts of Govern-
ment. Under the rules as they stood at the time, the Deputy
Commissioner was the president of all the Municipalities outside the
Regulation in the district and also of all the Regulation Municipali-
ties in the taluks. The sub-division Assistant Commissioners were
the presidents of all Regulation Municipalities in the taluks of which
they were in revenue charge. The Local Self -Government
Committee very rightly pointed out in their report that the nominal
appointment of Deputy Commissioners as presidents of these small
Municipalities had been of very little value inasmuch as they hardly
attended any of their meetings. Although the Regulation of 1906
was meant to mark a distinct advance in the principles of local
self-government so far as Municipalities were concerned, it really
did not affect the municipal administration of a majority of the
Boards which had been established without a statutory basis, though
it was admitted that these Boards undoubtedly tended to educate
the people in the art of managing local affairs.
The object of the amending Bill of 1917 was to bring within
the purview of the Regulation such of the non- Regulation Munici-
palities and the Unions in inam villages as were fit to be constituted
into Minor Municipalities. Under the new constitution, an increase
in the elected element was introduced, one-third being increased to
one-half in the case of Town Municipal Councils and two-thirds in
the case of City Municipalities. The Government also accepted
the principle recommended by the committee and the conference of
the election of Presidents and Vice-Presidents in the City and Town
Municipal Councils and also of providing in the Regulation itself
for a full-time paid President who might or might not be an official.
Another amendment in the Bill was intended to invest Municipal
Councils with enlarged powers, limiting the control of Government
to broad questions only. In order to give an increased scope of
work to the Municipal Councils, power was also reserved by the
Government to vest selected Municipal Councils with the control of
Elementary Education, Medical Relief including vaccination, and
Muzrai institutions.
283
Again as regards the Local Boards, the Regulation of 1902
which governed them was characterised by the above Committee as
' illiberal * in its provisions. The Taluk Boards were found to be
wholly inactive for lack of any distinct sphere of work for them.
The revenue officials of all grades were invariably Presidents from
the Deputy Commissioner downwards and the Amildars were
nominal presidents of more than one Union in their taluks. Although
in 1907-08 villages comprising three hundred houses or 1000
inhabitants were authorised without any distinction to be constituted
into Unions, the Union administration had not proved any more
successful than before.
In 1917 it was considered that under the circumstances
mentioned above, instead of introducing amendments to the Local
Boards Regulation of 1902 it was desirable to recast it as a whole
and to introduce it in the Legislative Council as a new Bill. The
most important feature in the new Regulation after it emerged
from the Legislative Council was the insertion of a chapter on
Village Panchayets and the reason assigned for this addition was
that the village should for ever be the unit of local self-government
and that greater attention was therefore to be paid to the improve-
ment of village administration, thereby laying a surer foundation
for the more efficient development of local self-government. A
large number of Village Improvement Committees had been
established under the executive orders of Government and were
already working in the State on definite principles. It was now
intended to place on a statutory basis all those committees which
had attained a fair amount of efficiency and to notify them as
Panchayets. The majority of the members of these Panchayets
were to be elected as well as the President. Their functions were
classified under three heads — 1. Ordinary duties connected with
the maintenance of roads, sanitation, water-supply and other like
items ; 2. improvement work ; and 3. education, irrigation, village
courts and other connected work. The Bill also contained the
necessary provision for giving these Panchayets financial
autonomy, subject to the general supervision of the Taluk Boards.
The Panchayets besides having their own funds accruing from house-
tax, taxes on vacant village sites and other items were also to have
284
a definite portion of the local cess and Mohatarfa, apart from any
Government contributions they might receive.
Next as regards the Taluk Boards, the main defect in the
system as it existed then was that these Boards had no definite
responsibilities and functions and so far had been only the agents
of District Boards in name. The Government in the main
accepted the recommendations of the Local Self -Government
Committee, according to which there was to be an elected majority
in all the Boards, both district and taluk. The Taluk Boards
were to be given independent powers subject only to the control of
the District Boards to administer and control only those functions
and services which were more or less localised, leaving to the
District Boards functions and services which required a co-ordinate
organisation throughout the district. This necessitated a separate
Taluk Board Fund for administrative purposes as well as a
separate budget, for all of which necessary provision was made in
the new Bill. The Bill also contained in accordance with the
views of the Committee provisions for the transfer of institutions
such as minor Muzrai institutions, primary education, medical
relief and veterinary dispensaries. The Government's desire was
ultimately to develop the District Boards into District Councils
and the Bill accordingly provided that in matters that did not
ordinarily come within their functions, it was open to the Boards to
pass resolutions on the subjects outside their cognisance and send
them to Government for consideration.
Sir Albion Banerji who belonged to the Indian Civil
Service and was employed for the time being as a Member
of the Mysore State Council, in piloting this Bill through
the Legislative Council on the 29th June 1917 quoted from
Harris1 ' Problems of Local Self -Government ' the following
passage in order to indicate the spirit which lay behind
the Bill : " If we endeavour to formulate one or two of the
principles underlying the best lines for administration to follow, the
first will undoubtedly be that local government is the business of
the local authorities and that all that the Central Government
has to do is to give them information and guidance, to apply the
285
whip or the brake. Complete independence of the Central
Government is certainly undesirable, but local authorities must be
freer than they are at present to make experiments, even to make
mistakes. Continuous meddlesome interference by the Central
Government hampers good government, delays progress, destroys a
sense of responsibility, and this in turn discourages the best men
from taking part in the local administration."
On the 28th September 1917 when the report of the Select
Committee on the above Bill was considered in the Legislative
Council, Sir A. R. Danerji strongly deprecated the idea of
representation on communal grounds which had been urged by
some of the members, though rejected by the Select Committee as a
whole. " The best representatives in Municipal Councils and
Local Boards are certainly those who do not take a sectarian or
communal view of their duties and responsibilities but have a
broader outlook and discharge their duties as true citizens. The
whole principle of communal representation is opposed to every
sound idea of advancement, solidarity and the promotion of
common interests so far as Municipal and Local Boards'
administration is concerned." Again, when the same member
brought forward a motion at the meeting of the Legislative Council
held on the 28th March 1918 to pass the Bill into law, he reverted
to the subject of communal representation and once more explained
his views in these words: — " The expression ' communal represen-
tation ' only means to me the interests of minorities amongst the
population who on account of their low numerical strength are
unable to cope with electoral contests with the majorities
When legislating on affairs relating to local self-government, the
Legislative Council would be entering into dangerous ground if it
attempted to solve questions relating to such delicate matters as
sectarian and caste differences. What one would hope with the
refining process of civilisation and enlightenment is to see a gradual
coalescence of the different communities that constitute the Hindu
population of the country and a corresponding increase in the
homogeneity of interests and a spirit of equality of rights and
obligations in all dealings between man and man."
286
The Bill on receiving the assent of the Maharaja became law
as Regulation V of 1918. In accordance with its provisions, the
Municipalities were classified into Minor, Town and City Municipal
Councils. The Deputy Commissioners, as a general rule, ceased to
be members of such councils and Amildars were appointed as
presidents of taluk headquarter Municipalities as well as of Minor
Municipal Councils in the taluk, except when an Assistant
Commissioner or a non-official member was appointed as such.
Several Town and Minor Municipal Councils were allowed the
privilege of electing their own Vice- Presidents.
As regards the Local Boards, the Local Boards Regulation II
of 1902 had been amended by Regulation IX of 1911 whereby
power was conferred on the District Boards to frame bye- laws for
the regulation of markets, slaughter-houses, cart-stands, hotels,
burial and burning grounds, and for the control of unwieldy
traffic on roads. In 1916-17 rules were framed for the election
of Vice- Presidents for the District Boards. Subsequently,
however, to give effect to the the Government Order of November
1916 on the scheme of local self-government as recommended by
the special committees already referred to as well as to consolidate
the existing law, a revised Regulation known as the Mysore Local
Boards and Village Panchayets Regulation VI of 1918 was passed
on the 25th June 1918. The number of members on District and
Taluk Boards was increased so as to provide for an elected
majority in all Districts and Taluk Boards, giving independent
powers to Taluk Boards subject only to a general control by the
District Board and allotting separate funds to Taluk Boards. The
Regulation also provided for the establishment of Village
Panchayets and authorised them to undertake — 1. the ordinary
maintenance of roads, sanitation, water-supply, drainage ;
2. improvement works as specified in the village improvement
scheme ; and 3. all other communal work connected with education
and irrigation. The Regulation also empowered the Local Boards
to raise a special cess for guaranteeing repayment, of loans for
specified purposes,
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Aftermath of the war — Food control — Retirement of
Sir M. Visvesvaraya and appointment of Sir M. Kantaraj
Urs — Mr. A. R. Baner ji acting Dewan during Sir M. Kantaraj
Urs' illness — Effects of food control — Unsettlement of the
State finances — Public loans of 1920 — Income-tax — Special
Committee for investigation of the financial condition of
the State.
Now turning to the aftermath of the Great War. All the
countries of the world had to face severe economic evils almost
immediately after the conclusion of peace. Lord Curzon one of the
former Viceroys of India said that to meet the new situation after
the war, new schemes, new plans, new policies needed to be devised
and that a new adjustment was called for of many of the basic
principles upon which public life rested at the time.
In the Dasara Session of the Representative Assembly held in
1918, Sir M. Visvesvaraya observed that that year had been a trying
one for the country. The war, the drought and the unparalleled
epidemic of influenza which spread into this part of the country
marked a distressing combination of calamities which pressed
heavily on the population and especially on the poorer classes. The
deficiency of food supplies was a common experience all the world
over at that time. The position in Mysore was intensified by the
almost entire failure of the south-west monsoon. A Director of
Food Supplies was appointed in May 1918 to regulate railway
traffic and among his other duties, he was asked to watch the prices
of food grains and other necessaries of life and to suggest measures
from time to time to prevent cornering and holding up of stocks.
All district officers were instructed to keep in close touch with the
state of the market in their respective charges. These measures of
vigilance were supplemented with others when it was found that the
failure of the south-west monsoon unsettled the grain trade and
caused a further rise in the prices. At the same time it was noticed
288
that large quantities of grain were being exported from some of
the frontier taluks of the State to. British India.
These circumstances necessitated greater precautions on the
part of Government and a more elaborate organisation. In August
1918 to prevent a possible depletion of stocks, the export of food
grains from the State was prohibited except under licences which
were to be granted only after the issuing officer satisfied himself that
the export was urgently required at the destination, was not
abnormal in quantity or direction, and would not prejudicially affect
the food requirements of the State. Ookads or watching stations
were established on the frontier roads to guard against the
unauthorised export of food grains and to collect statistics of grain
exported under licence. Frontier police parties were also organised
to prevent surreptitious exports. These measures, however helpful
in themselves, were found not fully effective in controlling the export
of grain as several hundred miles of frontier required much more
vigilance to guard than could be devised. Government thereupon
in September and October took the additional step of fixing the
maximum retail prices of the principal food grains in the districts
of Bangalore, Tumkur, Hassan, Kolar and Mysore. But this
measure had an altogether unlooked-for result as merchants and
agriculturists alike became unwilling to part with their grain at the
prescribed maximum rates and preferred to hold up stocks. The
distress caused by higher prices synchronised with the wider spread
of influenza all over the State.
The cumulative effect of all these adverse circumstances was
that the position became serious in November 1918. Rice was
actually sold at 3j seers per rupee and ragi at 8 seers in Bangalore
and even with these abnormally high prices the markets were
indifferently supplied. The situation was then carefully reviewed
and the policy to be pursued was explained by Sir M. Visvesvaraya
at a public meeting at Bangalore held on the 16th November 1918.
Detailed instructions were then issued to restrict more rigidly the
exports, to compel people to declare stocks, to control movement of
grain from village to village, from taluk to taluk, and from district
to district, to license wholesale and retail merchants, to fix revised
maximum wholesale prices for ragi and rice and to fix a lower1
maximum for commandeering by Government. In order to work
out the scheme, Mr. K. Mathan of the Mysore Civil Service who
subsequently rose to be a member of the State Council was
appointed a whole-time Food Controller.
At this time Sir M. Visvesvaraya went on leave from 10th
December 1918 for six months prior to retirement and was
succeeded by Sirdar M. Kantaraj Urs (afterwards Sir) who
belonged to the first rank of noblemen in Mysore being the brother
of the Do wager -Maharani who was Regent during the minority of
her son Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. Sir M. Kantaraj Urs was born
in 1870 and received his early education in the Maharaja's College
at Mysore and then joining the Madras Christian College took the
B.A. Degree in 1894. He was appointed to the Mysore Service as
a probationary Assistant Commissioner and then became Assistant
Private Secretary to his sister the Maharani -Regent. He rose to
the position of a Member of the State Council in 1913 and
continued to hold that place till he was appointed Dewan. He was
however not able to take charge of his office till 14th June 1919 on
account of illness, and in the meanwhile, Mr. Albion Banerji
(afterwards Sir) of the Madras Civil Service, then First Member of
the State Council, acted as Dewan. Sir M. Kantaraj Urs was the
first Dewan who had no connection either with the Mysore
Commission or with the British Service outside the State.
Now reverting to the events of the aftermath of the war, the
immediate effect of the more rigid control of food grains was to
slightly lower their prices but the effect was temporary. Merchants
lost all incentive to bring grain to the market and the agriculturists
more tightly held up stocks and only parted with small quantities
under compulsion, as the maximum prices fixed were far below the
actual market price. Clandestine sales continued in greater volume
and frequency, leaving Government powerless to deal with such
cases under penalties. The only alternative left for Government
was to commandeer stocks to supply areas where there was distress
and this was proceeded with. Rice and ragi were supplied to
Shimoga, Kolar and Kadur districts and also to the two cities of
A37
Bangalore and Mysore. Two provincial depots were opened in
Bangalore and Tumkur and depots at all district and most of the
taluk headquarters were also opened according to necessity. From
the middle of November to the end of December 1918 nearly
43,000 pallas of food grains were commandeered and this stock was
largely supplemented by imports of rice from Burma and elsewhere.
Notwithstanding all these expedients, it was found impossible for
Government to keep the markets supplied by their own unaided
efforts.
The situation was necessarily reconsidered in the light of
actual experience and more reliable data. A relaxation of the
rules controlling internal trade was then ordered in the hope
expressed on all sides that supplies would be more readily coming
to the market, Government retaining the power to commandeer at
their own rates whenever they considered that there was need to do
so. According to this policy, while exports from the State were
strictly regulated, all restrictions on internal traffic were withdrawn.
Agriculturists and merchants were allowed to sell at their own rate
according to the conditions of the market. It was no doubt
anticipated that an immediate rise in prices would result from these
measures. But this was considered less of a public evil than a
total absence of supplies in the markets which was beginning to be
felt in every district, people depending entirely on supplies
commandeered by Government and sold at below market rates.
The strain on Government depots everywhere came almost to a
breaking point when not only the poor for whom they were
intended but others also resorted in large numbers. Accordingly
the attempt to bring under regulation not only export trade but
also internal traffic as well as the wholesale and retail distribution
of foodstuffs was given up in January and February 1919, and a
modified policy was adopted of an absolute control over exports
and imported rice and limited control over available stocks to meet
emergent demands in the cities of Bangalore and Mysore, district
headquarters and other places only for the purpose of bringing
relief to the poor.
A preliminary census of foodstuffs was taken in October 1918
and a more detailed one in December following. According to the
291
figures received, the stock of food-grains on the 10th December
1918 was 3,06,493 pallas of rice, 15,78,784 palias of ragi, 1,51,191
pallas of Jola and 36,044 paJlas of Navane, a palla being equal to
100 measuring seers. The new harvest was estimated to yield
12,89,134 pallas of rice, 30,77,817 pallas of ragi, 7,79,470 pallas of
Jola and 1,78,416 pallas of Navane. The total supply of all kinds
of food-grains was calculated to be sufficient for about 8 months
assuming the rate per head of population to be 2 pallas per annum.
Whatever policy the Government pursued, there was one point on
which there was unanimous agreement at this time, namely, total
prohibition of export of food-grains from the State subject only to
the fulfilment of the obligations to allow a certain quantity to be
exported to Madras, Hosur, Wynad, the Nilgiris and Coorg. In
regard to this policy however, a serious difficulty arose when the
Government of India sought the co-operation of the Mysore Durbar
in the matter of relaxing inter-provincial restrictions in respect of
minor food-grains. But the difficulty was overcome by the
Government of India permitting the Mysore Government to import
in exchange for an equivalent of ragi aud pulses sufficient
quantities of rice from Burma, Bengal and Madras, as the quantity
of rice grown in the State was not enough for the consumption of
the people of the State even during normal years. Various
inducements were also offered to the ryots to grow more grain
under the Marikanave and Kannambadi channels and under other
tanks, chiefly in the shape of cash advances for the purchase of seed
grains and manures, or remission of wet assessment on failure
of crops.
Though the agricultural season in 1919 was propitious and
yielded a liberal harvest, it was found that in the following year the
prices did not show a diminution but remained at about 113 per
cent above the pre-war level as against 143 per cent in July 1919.
All restrictions against the export of food continued therefore to be
maintained, local supplies also being augmented by large imports of
rice from Burma as the only effective means against profiteering.
By May 1921, however, as it was found that the markets were all
adequately supplied with the necessary grains, the food depots were
all closed, the post of Food Controller was abolished and all
292
restrictions on the export of food grains were withdrawn from the
end of June of the same year.
Another effect of the aftermath of the war was the
unsettlement caused in the revenues of the State. During the
regime of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, both the income as well as the
expenditure increased largely. But the increased expenditure was
well within the growth of revenue and the surplus in the year
1917-18 was as large as Rs. 52$ lakhs. In the very next year
however, the position transformed itself into one of a small deficit.
It became necessary therefore to constantly maintain strict
scrutiny over all kinds of expenditure and for this purpose
the Budget Finance Committee was reorganised and strengthened.
After the reorganisation, this committee came to consist of six
officials and the same number of non -official members, with
one of the members of Government as chairman. Of the
six non-official members, two were from among the members
of the Representative Assembly by election, one from the Legislative
Council and the remaining three were nominated by Government.
Notwithstanding all the care taken, the decrease in revenue
persisted on account of high prices, increased cost of living,
unstable exchange and inflated currency as well as a shrinkage
under certain heads of revenue. Taking the effect of variations in
exchange first, the main items of State revenue realised in England
were the Royalty payable by the Gold Mining Companies, receipts
on account of electric power sold to the Mines and the proceeds of
the sale of sandalwood oil. The average annual income under
these heads was hitherto Rs. 60 lakhs at the old rate of Is. 4d. the
rupee. The Committee on Indian Exchange and Currency
recommended a higher exchange rate for India, the reason among
others being that it would not only serve to keep down prices but
also would effect a saving in the charges incurred in England. The
Government of India accepted this recommendation and as a
consequence, the exchange rate became as high as 2s. a rupee. The
decrease in receipts for the Mysore Government in the year 1920
ampunted to Rs, 13*47 lakhs, of which about Rs. 10$ lakhs was
293
entirely due to the rise in exchange and the remainder to diminished
demands for sandal wood oil and tanning bark.
The Government now considered that a stage had been reached
at which it was inadvisable to trench further upon the accumulated
balances at its credit without jeopardising the capacity of
Government to meet current liabilities, it being at the same time
found impossible to curtail to any material extent their
commitments towards capital expenditure. It became therefore
necessary for Government to resort to public loans and to
additional taxation to meet their obligations. Accordingly, for the
execution of capital works a new loan was floated, the terms of
which were announced in July 1920. Prior to the flotation of this
new loan, the 4 per cent loan of Rs. 20 lakhs raised in 1906 had
been converted into one of 5 J per cent with a currrency of 25 years.
Two issues were now offered with a view to meet the varying
requirements of investors. One was a seven year loan carrying
interest at 7 per cent issued at par and the other was a 6i per cent
long-term loan repayable in 20 to 30 years at par and issued at 97i
per cent. The loans were kept open for subscription for 3 months
through the whole of India. The limit to the loan was fixed at 2
crores which was over subscribed. A large amount of subscriptions
was received from outside the State testifying to the confidence
placed in its credit. The wisdom of establishing the Bank of
Mysore was now proved by the active help it gave in placing
the loan on the market.
To overcome the difficulty that no adequate return could be
expected from the capital works till they were completed while an
increase in revenue was urgently required to restore equilibrium
between the receipts and expenditure, it also became necessary to
resort to additional taxation. Mr. Datta the financial expert had
expressed the opinion that Government servants, members, of the
learned professions, bankers and large industrial concerns in
Mysore did not contribute their proper quota of general taxation
and the only way to reach them was by the imposition of
an income-tax. There were also a large number of persons
and companies from outside Mysore who enjoyed the benefits
294
of an advanced administration but paid no tax on their
income. A Bill to levy income-tax was accordingly introduced
in the Legislative Council and was passed into law in June
1920. At about the same time, an increase was made to the rates
of general stamps as well as of court fees. In the first year of
the working of the Income-Tax Regulation, the total revenue derived
was Rs. 14 lakhs and the number of assessees was 4209.
At the same time, retrenchment measures also became
necessary because of the practically stationary character of the
revenues, coupled with the substantial increase in the standard of
expenditure for some time past. The increased cost of living had
necessitated the grant of relief to the subordinate services to the
extent of Rs. 20 lakhs per annum, the cost of the upkeep of the
army during the German War as well as the higher prices paid for
materials and other necessaries for the different service depart-
ments had swelled the expenditure. Land revenue which was the
mainstay of the resources of the State was practically steady at
Rs. 107 lakhs showing little sign of development. The other heads
of revenue also showed no perceptible progress except Excise
which notwithstanding the increased rates at which the intoxicants
were sold to the drinking population, far from showing a diminution
was attended with a tendency to show an increase. In February
1922 a special committee was appointed consisting of four non-
officials presided over by Sir K. P. Puttanna Chetty to review the
State's finances and to formulate proposals for wiping out the
deficit and for restoring financial equilibrium. Of the proposals
made by this committee for the improvement of revenue as well as
for the reduction of expenditure, almost half the number was
accepted by Government.
On the 1st May 1922 Sir M. Kantaraj Urs retired from his
appointment having again been taken ill and Mr. A. R. Banerji
(afterwards Sir) was made permanent Dewan. While holding
office, he showed himself as possessed of a genuine desire to
advance the interests of the country of his birth, though in his
efforts he laboured under considerable handicap on account of
physical weakness caused by ill-health,
CHAPTER XXXV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Administrative and other Improvements — 1919-25.
Outbreak of Influenza.
On account of an outbreak of influenza in 1918 there was
widespread distress as well as loss of life throughout the State,
which numbered about 2\ lakhs of persons or 2.9 per cent of the
total population. The Government spent large sums in relief
measures and it was brought home that an effective organisation
for medical relief, prevention of epidemics and improvement of
sanitation and public health both in towns and villages was
necessary and urgent, and a committee was accordingly appointed
to investigate the subject and formulate a scheme.
Education.
The Scout Movement was established in the Mysore State in
the year 1919 and continued to make good progress. In the
matter of women's eduction, the college and collegiate high school
classes maintained in the Maharani's College were transferred to
the control of the University. The education of the Panchamas or
Adi-karnatakas as they are called now received particular attention
during this period. The Central Panchama Boarding School at
Mysore was raised to the status of a Kanada High School with
separate sections for industrial and normal training. To further
stimulate education among the Panchamas, special concessions
were granted in the shape of scholarships, travelling allowance to
and from schools to pupils learning English, free supply of books
and slates, and allowances to parents while the children were under
training in schools. Next as regards fees, all fees in middle
schools were abolished from the year 1918-19, education below the
high school grade being imparted absolutely free to all
communities. In regard to the higher grades of education,
increased facilities were afforded to the poorer classes of all
communities by providing freeships and scholarships on a liberal
scale, in addition to the special encouragement given to the back-
ward communities.
In May 1921 Government passed orders on an educational
memorandum which had been drawn up containing a programme
for the spread of primary education in the State. The most
important measures indicated in the memorandum and sanctioned
now were the gradual conversion of aided village primary schools
to Government institutions, the development of vernacular middle
schools into anglo- vernacular schools of a uniform type, the
combination of practical with literary instruction and the establish-
ment of a large number of industrial schools, the extension of the
course of normal training, the provision of special facilities for the
education of Panchamas and the revision erf the scale of pay of all
appointments in the tutorial line as well as of the inspectorate.
The execution of this programme was calculated to involve an
additional expenditure ranging from Rs. 21 to Rs. 41 lakhs in the
course of five years. To meet this heavy expenditure, the levy of
an education cess under the Local Boards and Municipal
Regulations was determined upon to enable the Local Bodies to
contribute towards the cost of primary education both in rural as
well as in urban areas.
After a year's experince however, it was found that the
progress made under the educational memorandum was slow owing
mainly to want of funds. The percentage of expenditure on
education to the total revenues was already about 14 including
revenues derived from capital and industrial works. The
percentage to normal revenues was 1 7. To carry out the education
programme, it had been calculated that a cess of one anna in the
rupee would be raised by all the' District Boards on certain items
of revenue and of two annas in the rupee by City Municipalities
and one anna in the rupee by the other Municipalities. It was
however found in 1924 that the anticipations of the Govern-
ment in the matter of raising sufficient funds by means of an
education cess had not been realised and that the amount so far
realised was only Rs. 2,92,000. It was also found that only five
districts had taken action in the matter, while the remaining three
districts and practically all the Municipalities had remained
indifferent. Even where the cess was levied, it was only half an
anna in the rupee as against one anna suggested in the Government
297
Order on the memorandum. The financial basis of the memo-
randum therefore, it was found, required serious consideration.
Development of Local Self-Government.
In 1919 the constitution of the Taluk and District Boards were
defined in accordance with the Taluk Boards and Village
Panchayets Regulation VI of 1918 and rules were also framed for
making due provision for the representation of important interests
and communities on these Boards. The Town and Minor Municipal
Councils were permitted to elect their own Vice-Presidents. The
development of economic work in the districts which was hitherto
being managed by the District and Taluk Progress Committees
was transferred in 1920 to the District and Taluk Boards. The
Municipal Regulation of 1906 was amended by Regulation III of
1921 making suitable provision for conduct of work relating to
economic development by the Municipalities. The Local Boards
and Village Panchayets Regulation was also amended to render it
obligatory on the part of the Local Boards to devote attention to
economic development and to levy an education cess. One
noticeable advance under Local Boards administration was the
grant of the privilege of electing a President to the Bangalore
District Board and the appointment of non-official gentlemen
as Presidents for the District Boards of Kolar and Hassan. All
the District Boards now came to have non-official Vice-Presidents.
A Local Self -Government Conference was held in the year
1923 and 48 resolutions were submitted to Government for
consideration. The conference recommended the abolition of
Village Improvement Committees and urged the constitution of
Panchayets for all villages in the State on a statutory basis. This
measure had been repeatedly urged for consideration ever since the
introduction of the village improvement scheme and the Govern-
ment now accepted the recommendation of the conference to
constitute a Panchayet for every village or group of villages in the
State. Each Panchayet was to consist of not less than 5 and not
more than 12 members, at least half of whom were to be elected.
The chairman of the Panchayet was to be nominated by
Government in the initial stages, the right of election being
A3*
conceded when the Panchayets were well established and showed
satisfactory work. The functions of the Panchayets were classified
under two heads- — obligatory and optional, the former including
village sanitation and communications and the latter all other items
of work which promoted the health, convenience or comfort of the
inhabitants. Provision was made for investing select Panchayets
with powers under the Village Courts and Tank Panchayet
Regulations and Forest Panchayet Rules and also for the transfer
of the control over Muzrai institutions and supervision over village
elementary schools. To enable the Panchayets to function
efficiently they were empowered to levy taxes on houses, shops,
vacant sites and backyards, the rural Mohatarfa taxes being
abolished. The Amildar was invested with the powers of control,
inspection and supervision of the Panchayets in order to provide
for close and efficient supervision over their working.
On the introduction of the Panchayet scheme, the Government
expressed readiness to abolish all the Taluk Boards and thereby
allow the District Boards a freer scope to attend to all the
district, taluk, inter-taluk and inter- village services under sanitation,
communications, medical relief and other services. The removal of
the intermediary agency of the Taluk Boards left the District
Boards a free hand in developing the larger local interests in the
districts, while securing to them greater control over their finances
and concentration of funds in their hands. The franchise was
extended to women to vote at elections to the District Boards.
Besides the Kolar Gold Fields Sanitary Board constituted for
the special sanitation of the mining area under the Mines
Regulation, there were in 1924-25 eight District Boards.
As regards Municipalities, the resolutions of the conference
did not recommend any radical changes either in their constitution
or functions. The more important of the recommendations of the
conference accepted by Government were — 1. the elected element
in the Minor Municipal Councils was raised from one-third to half
the strength of the Municipal Council ; 2. franchise was extended
to women to vote at elections; 3. the Presidents of City and
Town Municipal Councils were ordinarily to be elected and it was
299
also accepted that the election might be made by the general body
of voters instead of by the Municipal Councils concerned.
Industries and Commerce.
During the period up to the end of 1925 after the termination
of the world war, anticipating the recommendations of the Indian
Industrial Commission, the development of industries was
recognised as one of the primary duties of Government. As a
consequence, following the example of the British Indian
Provinces, a well-equipped Department of Industries and
Commerce came into existence in Mysore also. The establishment
of the Sandalwood Oil Factory — a direct product of the war — was
found not only to have rescued a valuable source of revenue which
had been seriously threatened during the war, but also demonstrated
the practicability of carrying on a chemical industry producing
a medicinal oil of a high degree of purity with the assistance
of the chemists trained in the local colleges. The Soap and the
Metal factories established by the Department of Industries also
gave promise of success. The Commercial Section of the depart-
ment issued for the first time a review of the railborne trade for the
year 1918-19 and also a report regarding the road traffic of the
State and helped the formation of an Association of grain merchants
in Bangalore. In 1921 the administration of the Industries
Department was entrusted to Mr. P. G. D'Souza, a member of the
Mysore Civil Service who had been specially deputed to Europe
and America to study the industrial and commercial developments
and organisations in the countries of those continents. The
concerns under the control of the Industries and Commerce
Department at this time were the Soap Factory, the Central
Industrial Workshop, the Metal Factory, the Art Workshop, the
Weaving Factory and the Arts and Crafts Depot. Some of these
were started as pioneer concerns, while others were established
partly for training and demonstration purposes and partly as
commercial concerns. In January 1923 the department was
reorganised and the control over industrial education transferred to
it. In this year Government also granted certain concessions for
the establishment of a Match Factory in the State,
300
In April 1924 there was an exhibition in London of the
resources of all parts of the British Empire. The Mysore
Government participated in this exhibition in a manner befitting
the importance of the State and its varied resources. A special
Mysore court was established with a floor space of about 1200
square feet occupying a prominent position in the Indian pavilion.
Mr. S. G. Sastry who was at this time Industrial Chemist to the
department was placed in charge of this court. The exhibits from
Mysore won the appreciation of all the visitors to the Mysore
court and the opportunity afforded by the exhibition was utilised
for finding new markets for the surplus products of the State.
According to the statistics gathered, it was found in 1924 that
there were for a year imports of Rs. 1.69 crores worth of grain and
pulses, Rs. 3.88 crores worth of yarn and textiles, Rs. 67.67 lakhs
worth of oils and Rs. 124 lakhs worth of drugs and chemicals; and
exports of Rs. 47 lakhs worth of oil seeds, Rs. 68 lakhs worth of
cotton, Rs. 23.66 lakhs worth of hides and skins and Rs. 29 lakhs
worth of unmanufactured leather, Rs. 37 lakhs worth of silk and
Rs. 58 lakhs worth of sugar and jaggery. These figures indicated
that Mysore was being exploited for its valuable raw materials.
Its food production was insufficient and the people of the State had
to go outside for many of their requirements which could very well
be provided within the State itself. It was also found that the
balance of trade had gone against the State for a number of years.
In 1922-23 the balance of railborne trade that had gone against the
State was Rs. 178 lakhs, but in the subsequent year it turned in
favour of the State to the extent of Rs. 75 lakhs. This result
however was found to be due more to the decrease of imports of
commodities like salt, sugar, piece-goods, 'coal, machinery and
provisions" than to any increase in the exports which remained
The bulk of the trade remained in the hands of outside
middlemen. Large quantities of piece-goods were usually imported
into Bangalore whence they were exported to various centres. A
major portion of 'the money required for financing this trade was
tp have cpm$ from outsi<te ap<J the profits derived from these
301
transactions were estimated at nearly a crore of rupees. It may
be said, however, that these figures related only to railborne trade
and did not show the position of Mysore as a whole by taking into
computation the Malnad trade in the important products of coffee,
paddy, cardamom, areca and jaggery and the exports of silk to
Kollegal in the Coimbatore district by road. The statistics
gathered also went to show that the question of increased food
production was one of great importance. Action was taken by
Government in this direction by throwing open for cultivation a
number of Amrut Mahal grass reserves and date groves to the
extent of above 50,000 acres.
Sericulture.
In 1919 there were 10 taluk sericultural schools distributed
throughout the sericultural parts of the State and at 8 of them the
sons of ryots received training in improved methods. A silk expert
from Japan was now engaged for the general development of the
silk industry and was also entrusted with the control of all research
and experimental work in the State. A lady expert from Japan
was also engaged for the introduction of foot-reeling as a home
industry. The Government grainages supplied large quantities of
disease-free eggs but as the demand was larger than the supply
could meet, a scheme for the establishment of private grainages
under departmental supervision was also introduced.
CHAPTER XXXVL
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Administrative and other Improvements — 1919-25.
In the year 1921 a long-standing grievance received solution to
some extent which was to the advantage of the land-holders. The
holders of lands under tanks had been placed under obligation under
the rules of the Survey Settlement to pay the wet assessment on
their holdings whether the tank received a sufficient supply of water
or not. At the meetings of the Representative Assembly this
subject was being repeatedly pressed and now Government came to
a decision that whenever in any tract not less than half the total
cultivable area or atchkat was left uncultivated in any year, or if
cultivated, did not yield more than a quarter of the normal yield,
the collection of half the assessment was to be postponed for a year
and if similar conditions prevailed during the following year also,
the suspended assessment was to be remitted. This measure was
to some extent a departure from the established principles of Survey
and Settlement as introduced in Mysore. In Mysore the Bombay
system of Settlement was, as we have seen, followed under which
wet lands were classed with reference to the capacity of the tanks
to supply them with water for irrigation and the assessment on
them was fixed with reference to the average of a series of years
good and bad, making sufficient allowance for occasional deficiencies
of rainfall and other vicissitudes. A system of assessment however
under which a soil assessment and a water assessment are separately
imposed on wet lands and the water assessment is remitted when no
water is given for irrigation is regarded as more equitable on account
of its simplicity and elasticity, though in practice some difficulties
may be encountered.
Encouragement to Coffee Industry.
In 1924 a Bill to impose a cess on coffee grown in the State
was introduced in the Legislative Council. Coffee, as we have seen,
was in the beginning used to be cultivated in the State on Waram
or produce-scaring system. Subsequently a halat or a cash levy
303
was introduced which varied from four annas to one rupee per
maund of produce. On account of the great fluctuations in prices
subsequently, a system of acreage assessment of Re. 1 per acre for
temporary and Rs. 1-8-0 per acre for permanent tenures was next
substituted. The Bill referred to was now introduced not as a
money bill to add to the general revenues of the State but was
intended to give special assistance to an important industry which
was in need of special attention. But the terms on which the
coffee lands were given were not the same as those applying to the
agricultural lands in general. It was regarded that when Govern-
ment gave lands on concession terms, it was not to be expected
that the whole cost of special investigations or of special facilities
leading to an increase in the outturn of the industry concerned
should be defrayed from the general revenues of the State. The
industry however had passed through a series of vicissitudes for the
past some years and deserved some encouragement, and the main
object of this legislation was to establish a principle of mutual
co-operation between the Government and the people where special
circumstances warranted a generous treatment. This Bill was
passed into law in the year 1926. In this connection, it may be
mentioned that the supari or areca cess as a separate cess was
abolished in this period as the industry enjoyed no special concessions
and as it was also felt that it was the duty of the Department of
Agriculture to help the supari growers with advice and to suggest
the necessary remedies against causes that interfered with supari
cultivation.
The Bhadravathi Iron Works.
After the difficulties due to the war for obtaining the requisite
machinery from foreign countries had been overcome, the Bhadra-
vathi Iron Works were started. Messrs. Tata & Sons were
appointed agents and a Board of Management was also appointed.
The construction of the plant in the Iron Works was for the most
part completed by December 1922 and the blast furnace started
working from the 18th January 1923. In June 1924 the agreement
concluded with the Tata Iron and Steel Company was terminated
by mutual consent.
304
KrUhnarajasagara Hydro-Electric Works.
By 1921 the first stage of the Krishnarajasagara Reservoir as
the Kannambadi tank was now named was nearly completed. The
power generated at Sivasamudram with the first three installations
which were in existence when the dam was commenced was
13,000 H.P. With the finishing of the first stage of the dam, the
power generated -increased from 13,000 H.P. to 32,000 H.P. On
the completion of the sixth installation, the storage in the reservoir
was expected to enable the Government to develop irrigation to the
extent of about 70,000 acres.
*
With regard to the further raising of the storage capacity of the
Krishnarajasagara reservoir, there arose a dispute between the Mysore
Government and the Government of Madras as to the extent of
their respective rights to share the waters of the river. A conference
took place at Mysore on the 13th November 1923 at which Lord
Willingdon then Governor of Madras was present and Sir Albion
Banerji the Dewan represented Mysore. After full discussion
lasting for some period, an agreement was arrived at between
the two Governments in February 1924 and this agreement was
subsequently ratified by the Secretary of State for India. By this
agreement it became possible for the Mysore Government to bring
under cultivation more than 21 lakhs of acres of land.
The Co-operative Committee.
In the year 1920 the Government appointed a committee of 10
members consisting of officials and non-officials, with the Hon'ble
Sir Lallubhai Samaldas Mehta of Bombay as chairman to examine
the progress of co-operation in the State and to suggest lines of
further development. The Committee toured in all the districts and
submitted their report to Government in 1923. As proposed in
the report of the Committee, an Apex Bank was established in the
year 1925.
Tank Restoration.
Notwithstanding the extreme solicitude shown by Government
for the proper restoration of all the irrigation tanks in the State, the
progress was found to be extremely slow. The ryots profiting by a
305
tank were expected to contribute all the earthwork required, while
the Government's share consisted in completing the stonework.
Next, it was made optional for the ryot to pay a money value for
his share of the work. After some time, this pptional commutation
of labour into money was made a compulsory levy and the total
contribution was made recoverable in five equal instalments.
These changes however brought no increased efficiency in the work
of restoration and in agreement with the views expressed both in
the Representative Assembly as well as in the Legislative Council
a new amended Tank Regulation was brought into force by
Government from September 1923. By the change effected by this
Regulation the voluntary contribution was converted into a com-
pulsory levy of one-fourth the estimated cost of the work. The
duty of executing the repairs was taken out of the hands of the
Revenue Department and entrusted to those of the Public Works.
The latter were also directed to proceed with the work without
waiting for the recovery of the contribution as in the past, once the
estimate was sanctioned.
The Public Serrice and the Backward Communities*
In the year 1920-21 the Government passed orders to increase
the representation of the backward communities in the service of
the State. So long ago as 1892, in considering the question of
recruitment to the civil service Sir K. Seshadri Iyer referring to the
question of maintaining a fair proportion of all classes in the service
of the State had remarked of the Brahmin community that it was
already too well represented. During the tenure of Sir. M.
Visvesvaraya's office as Dewan, several measures were adopted for
securing the increased representation of non-Brahmin communities
in the Public Service. In 1914 a somewhat lower scale of qualifica-
tion for appointments of Amildars was prescribed for non-Brahmin
candidates. In 1915 this principle was extended to the class of
Shekdars or Revenue Inspectors. In 1916 it was directed that 25
per cent of the appointments was to be given to qualified members
of the non-Brahmin communities. In August 1918 the Govern-
ment in appointing a committee of six non-official gentlemen
presided over by Sir Leslie Miller, Chief Judge of the Chief Court,
A39
306
wished that as there was at the time a large preponderance of the
Brahmin community in the Public Service, measures should be
devised for the adequate representation of all communities. The
committee submitted their report in August 1919 and in May 1921
the Government decided that, provided qualified candidates were
available, the proportion of the members of the backward
communities in all departments of the State Service was to be
gradually raised to 50 per cent of the total strength in 7 years,
exclusive of those in inferior service. To achieve this end the
Government directed that during this period of seven years
candidates belonging to the backward comrnunities were to be
given preference in respect of initial appointments so long as
they possessed the prescribed qualifications. A Central Recruit-
ment Board was also instituted with one of the members of the
State Council as chairman to register all applications for
appointments and to put applicants in touch with offices where
vacancies existed and also to serve as a vigilance committee for
watching the administration of the rules.
The Problem of Unemployment.
By 1923 it came to be felt that a verv large number of
graduates and under-graduates were being annually turned out of
the University who could not find employment. Some attempt was
made as proposed by the University to equip it for teaching not
merely the arts and humanities and the pure sciences but also the
application of science to agricultural, technological and vocational
subjects, thereby opening fresh fields of employment. Sir Albion
Banerji in September 1925 in his speech at the Dasara Session of
the Representative Assembly summed up the results of the
extension of collegiate and secondary education in these words :
" Since the Mysore University was started, it has turned out 85
M.A.'s, 963 B.A.'s and 197 B.Sc.'s. According to the statistics of
the Central Recruitment Board, no less than 405 graduates and 517
candidates with under -graduate qualifications and 2708 Secondary
School Certificate holders applied for Government Service but
failed to secure any post. The total number of appointments in all
grades in the State Service is about 20,000, of which appointments
307
those on a pay of above Rs. 100 are one thousand and the rest are
those carrying a salary of Rs. 15 and above up to Rs. 100. The
percentage of school- going population who now come up for higher
grades of education is increasing gradually from year to year. All
our high schools are over-crowded and split up into innumerable
sections. The middle schools are filled to overflowing and as
regards primary schools, Government cannot open them as fast as
is necessary to meet the demands of the people. As circumstances
stand at present, general education is only a passport to Govern-
ment Service. The inevitable result is that all those who are
qualified according to certain prescribed standards knock at the
door of Government for employment and the majority of them
cannot be absorbed as the scope is limited. That is the problem of
unemployment In the course of the past 4j years the total
number of appointments made by Government through the
Recruitment Board came only to 2410. When we compare these
with the total number of applications which came to 28,000, it is
pitiful to imagine the distress, the disappointment and the hardship
that these poor, unfortunate candidates may now be labouring
under, if during the period of their whole educational career their
one object was to seek a Government appointment "
Railways.
The metre-gauge line from Chikjajur to Chitaldrug 21 miles
was opened for traffic in May 1921. The State had now over 400
miles of open lines owned by it under its management, including
the Nanjangud-Bangaloreand Birur-Shimoga sections, a total length
of nearly 140 miles which were resumed from the Madras and
Southern Mahratta Railway Company on 1st October 1919, besides
275i miles worked for it by the same Company and they constituted
a valuable asset worth about Rs. 5 crores.
Owing to various urgent demands on the finances of
Government, the chief of them being the Krishnarajasagara and
the Iron Works schemes, sufficient allotments could not be made
for railway construction and proposals were now made to some of
the District Boards to ascertain whether they could raise any
capital in the districts to complete the construction of the unfinished
308
lines, so that they might be part-proprietors with the Government
of such railways. The Mysore District Board accordingly came
forward to make the Nanjangud-Chamarajanagar line their own
concern and the Board was authorised to float a loan with
Government guarantee to resume the construction of this railway.
Unprecedented Floods.
In July 1924 there were unprecedented floods in five of the
districts of the State, rising to a height of 30 feet in some of the
rivers. In the Mysore district the valleys of the Kaveri, Kapini,
Hemavathi and minor tributaries like the Taraka were seriously
affected. One hundred and two villages, Besides the towns of
Nanjangud, Yedatore (Krishnarajanagara as it is now called),
Seringapatam and T-Narsipur suffered the heaviest and nearly
4000 houses collapsed in this area and property to the extent
of nearly Rs. 3j lakhs was destroyed. Public roads, tanks,
channels and anekats were breached in several places and traffic
was interrupted. The Nanjangud road and railway bridge and also
the Wellesley Bridge at Seringapatam were seriously threatened
and suffered considerable damage. Nearly 8000 acres of land were
damaged and portions entirely washed away. In the Shimoga
district besides the town of Shimoga which was inundated, fifteen
important villages on the banks of the Thunga and the Bhadra
suffered badly. In Shimoga 735 houses were under water, of
which 250 collapsed. In other places the total number of houses
lost was estimated at about 1000. Agricultural lands also suffered
as in the Mysore district. In the Kadur district there happened no
serious damage to the villages, but paddy lands suffered severely
and caused considerable loss to the agriculturists. In the Hassan
district the damage was slight except that nearly 100 houses were
lost, Ramnathpur being the worst sufferer. The damages to the
roads, channels and anekats also contributed to the agricultural
distress. In the Chitaldrug district Harihar suffered much.
Various relief parties were sent to the affected parts with funds
and provisions to help the villagers who had been rendered home-
less and destitute by this unprecedented visitation and to re-settle
them by providing them with suitable sites higher up and nearby.
309
On account of the promptness of the official aid and help from the
people in general, no lives were lost and much of the property that
otherwise would have been lost was saved.
A public meeting was held at Mysore on the 2nd August 1924
in the Rangacharlu Memorial Hall to express sympathy with those
who suffered from the floods and to organise relief measures for
them. A meeting was also held at Bangalore on the 8th of the
same month to organise a Central Flood Relief Committee with His
Highness the Yuvaraja as chairman. The Government of India
sent a message expressing their deep concern at the loss and the
suffering caused by the floods and H. E. the Viceroy also conveyed
to His Highness the Maharaja his personal sympathy with those
who had suffered. The Servants of India Society collected
subscriptions and materially helped in affording relief. The Kolar
Gold Field Mining Board also did the same and the Maharaja
contributed Rs. 15,000 from the privy purse.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Proposals to place the Representative Assembly and the
Legislative Council on a reformed basis.
In the year 1902 when the present Maharaja assumed the
reins of Government, no meeting of the Representative Assembly
was held on account of the virulence of the plague which prevailed
in the State during the season of the Dasara festivities. On the
5th October 1903 His Highness was able Jo open the Assembly
personally when it met as usual in that year at Mysore. His
Highness at the very start stated that the decision of the previous
year to postpone the meeting was taken with much reluctance and
acknowledged that one of the conspicuous results of the establish-
ment of the Assembly was the consolidation of a sense of common
interest between the Government and the people.
In the Dasara Session of 1913 a proposition was brought
forward by the members of the Assembly that a second session
should be held, as one sitting in a year for a few days was not
enough to deal adequately with all the subjects which the
representatives brought forward. Of the prominent speakers on
this subject at the time may be mentioned the names of Ramanuja
lyengar of Gubbi, C. Srinivasa Rao of Chickmagalur, Amble
Anniah Pandit, M. Venkatakrishniah of Mysore, D. Venkataramiah
of Bangalore. In this year certain rules were for the first time
issued for the discussion of subjects in the Assembly. It was laid
down that every subject was to be first introduced and explained
by the member or one of the members by whom it was sent up to
Government and that any other member who wished to speak on
the subject might follow. The members introducing the subject
were given the right to close the discussion with a reply.
The system of triennial election was, as we have seen,
instituted in 1894 and on the occasion of the 8th such election in
1915 the election rules were slightly revised, the candidates being
required to notify their desire to stand for election one month
311
before the date fixed for such election. The dates for the several
preliminary events such as the submission of the representations
to be brought forward, the district meeting for the selection of
subjects were all fixed a month earlier than usual. The number of
representatives due to be returned was fixed at 290.
The privilege of holding a second session of the Assembly
every year was granted by the Maharaja in 1917, and in April of
that year when the second session was held for the first time, the
State budget was placed before it for discussion prior to its going
to the Legislative Council. A new procedure for the preliminary
investigation of questions by means of committees was adopted.
This procedure, it was expected, if properly developed would
faciliate the work of the Assembly by placing before it concrete
issues or definite recommendations formulated after a thorough
study of the questions by members specially interested in them.
The change was intended also to provide special opportunities to
members to make constructive proposals for the consideration of
Government in matters in which they took an interest.
Among the committees appointed was one to discuss and
report on the constitution and improvement of the Assembly itself.
In passing orders on this report in April 1918 the Government
introduced certain changes in the constitution of the Assembly.
Firstly, the electorate was broadened by the adoption for all taluks
in the State of a uniform qualification of the payment of land revenue
of Rs. 50 or of a Mohatarfa payment of Rs. 10 per annum.
Secondly, the distinction between the qualification for voting and
for membership was abolished, thereby rendering it identical for
both, and thirdly the privilege of interpellation on matters of public
interest subject to certain restrictions were granted. Subsequently
a re-distribution of the seats was also made in order to provide
larger representation to Municipalities.
In his concluding remarks at the close of the meeting of the
Representative Assembly in April 1918, the Dewan Sir M.
Visvesvaraya pointed out that till then members brought up
individual subjects of varying degrees of importance, but that in the
312
future, time had to be found not only for such subjects but also for
large questions previously reported upon by special committees and
for budget debate and interpellations. Thenceforward it was
necessary for the Assembly, the Dewan further said, to curtail
greatly individual complaints and specific subjects and for the
members to give increased attention to large schemes, comprehensive
proposals and general principles of progress, not to speak of attempts
to place correct ideals before the public to mould their habits and
thoughts properly.
On the 13th October 1919 the question of the time for holding
the second session of the Assembly was discussed and on the
suggestion of Amble Anniah Pandit and other members, it was
settled that the second session should begin every year a few days
prior to the Birthday of the Maharaja.
In 1920 the term of office of the members deputed by the
Municipal Councils and other corporate bodies was raised from one
to three years so as to be in agreement with that of the members
returned from the taluk electorates, as the term of one year was
found too short for any useful work and the change also avoided
the drawback of re-elections to the Legislative Council from the
Representative Assembly in the case of members elected by that
Assembly. Provision was also made for bye-elections when
vacancies occurred. Retired officers of the Mysore State troops
were given the privilege of voting for members as well as standing
for membership.
In July 1921 a deputation of ladies interested in the subject of
women's franchise waited on the Dewan Sir M. Kantaraj Urs and
pressed for the removal of sex disqualification in the matter of
voting for and election to the Representative Assembly, the
Legislative Council and Local and Municipal bodies. This subject
was also discussed in the Dasara Session of the Representative
Assembly of the same year.
In 1922 the Legislative Council had in addition to the Dewan
and Members of Council a strength of 30, of whom 12 were
officials and 18 were non-officials. The functions of this Council
313
as they stood at the time comprised — (l) legislation (2) discussion
of the budget (3) interpellations and (4) moving of resolutions,
which power had been conceded in 1919. Certain subjects such as
the Subsidy payable to the British Government, the Civil List,
Military Forces were outside the competence of the Council. No
measure could also be introduced without the previous sanction in
writing of the Dewan.
It was now felt that the time had come to take a further step
forward in the policy of associating the people more and more with
the Government and increasing the popular element in the
administration and accordingly a re-constitution of both the Repre-
sentative Assembly as well as of the Legislative Council was
decided upon, based on past experience of the working of these
institutions. The general principles on which the reconstitution
was to be based were clearly enunciated.
The Representative Assembly was to have a definite place in
the constitution of the State. The qualifications for voters were to
be substantially reduced so as to extend the franchise to a consider-
able extent. The sex disqualification for voters was to be removed.
No new tax was to be levied without previously consulting the
Assembly. This Assembly was also to have the right of moving
resolutions on matters relating to the public administration and also
on the annual State budget. It was to be consulted in regard to
all important legislative measures. The legislative programme of
the year was to be placed before it at the Dasara Session and the
general principles of the Bills were to be discussed. In cases
where legislation was introduced in the Legislative Council before
discussion in the Assembly, the Maharaja's consent was ordinarily
to be reserved till the next session of the Assembly. The strength
of the Assembly was to be fixed at about 200, provision being also
made for the representation of minorities and of special interests
by nomination, if necessary. The Dewan was to continue to be
the President of the Assembly, while the Members of the State
Council were to be Vice-Presidents. Local subjects were not, as a
rule, to be brought before the Assembly but were to go before the
District Boards whose functions were to be enlarged,
M4
The strength of the Legislative Council was to be increased
and fixed at not less than 40 and not more than 50 members. The
number of members elected from the Uepresentative Assembly to
this body was to be substantially increased. Provision was to be
made for the representation of special interests such as industries
and commerce, planting, educational, minorities. This Council
was also to be given the power of voting on the annual State
budget by major heads in respect of all items of expenditure except
those affecting the Palace, the military, pensions of public servants
and the political relations with the British Government. In parti-
cular cases where this Council refused its% assent to a provision in
the budget or reduced it, it was to be open to the Government
to restore the provision, if they considered it essential.
All matters relating to the internal administration of the State
were to be thrown open for discussion both in the Representative
Assembly as well as in the Legislative Council except those
specifically excluded. The resolutions of the Representative
Assembly and the Legislative Council were to have effect only as
recommendations to Government. In order to enlarge the opportu-
nities of the non -official representatives of the people to influence
the everyday administration, one or more Standing Committees
consisting of the members of the Legislative Council and the
Representative Assembly were to be appointed in an advisory
capacity on the model of the Standing Committees of the Indian
Legislature. The members were to be selected from a panel to be
elected by the members of the Representative Assembly and the
Legislative Council respectively from among themselves. The
meetings of the Standing Committee were to be held under the
chairmanship of a Member of Government and summoned at such
times and as frequently as might be decided by the Dewan. All
major questions of general policy on which the member in charge
of the department concerned desired the advice of the committee
were to be placed before it. The existing Budget Finance
Committee consisting of officials and non-officials was to be
abolished.
On the 10th October 1922 when the Dasara Session of the
Representative Assembly concluded, Sir Albion Banerji made the
31S
following appeal to the members in connection with the reform of
the constitution : — " This is not the time to discuss
the merits of the scheme that His Highness has been pleased to
sanction for the liberalisation of his administration on the lines
generally indicated. No scheme however perfect can please every-
body. All I desire to impress upon you is that so far as His
Highness* Government is concerned, every shade of opinion
expressed has been carefully weighed and considered and that they
have reason to believe that the scheme will receive the enthusiastic
support of the whole moderate opinion of Mysore. I am myself
fully confident that with the political insight and sagacity which
the people of Mysore possess in a marked degree they will recognise
that Mysore history and Mysore traditions and above all, the
absolute solidarity of interest between the Ruler and the ruled that
exists in the State point to a path of progress and healthy evolution
on the lines now announced and that they will appeal to one and all
as the measure of advancement in constitutional progress that is
indicated by our present conditions and limitations "
Before the Assembly dispersed to meet again in June 1923 for the
second session, the Dewan announced that the Maharaja had given
his approval to the appointment of a mixed committee of officials
and non -officials presided over by Dr. (afterwards Sir) Brajendranath
Seal, Vice-Chancellor of the University, for the elucidation of all
the details connected with the constitution of the Assembly, the
electorates, the length and frequency of the sessions and the
procedure of the House.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Krithnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Seal Committee Report on Constitutional Reforms.
The Committee over which Sir Brajendranath Seal presided,
submitted its report to Government in March 1923 and it was
published in April following, to elicit public opinion on the proposals
contained in it. The report was widely discussed by public bodies
and also at various conferences, and a large number of representa-
tions and suggestions were sent to Government. The report was
unanimous on all important points except on the question of the
representation of minorities. Careful and detailed consideration
was given to this report as well as to all other views placed at the
disposal of Government and the decisions arrived at were embodied
in a Proclamation issued by the Maharaja on the 27th October 1923
as well as in the two Regulations, one relating to the Representative
Assembly (XVIII of 1923) and the other to the Legislative Council
(XIX of 1923), promulgated on the same date. These two
Regulations did not pass through the Legislative Council but were
issued by His Highness on his own authority, possessing as he did
as between himself and his subjects undivided sovereign authority
under the Mysore constitution as it stood, and it was therefore
expressly provided in the Legislative Council Regulation itself that
that Council had no authority to alter its own constitution nor that
ot the Representative Assembly. It is true that amendments to the
Legislative Council Regulation of 1907 made in the years 1914,
1917 and 1919 were placed before and passed through the Legislative
Council. But in doing so, it was subsequently realised that the
constitutional aspect of the matter had been overlooked. Other
matters taken out of the purview of the Legislative Council were —
1. All measures relating to or affecting the Ruling Family of
Mysore; 2. the relations of His Highness the Maharaja with the
Paramount Power or with foreign Princes or States ; and 3. matters
governed by treaties, conventions or agreements then in force or
thereafter to be made by the Maharaja with the Paramount
Power.
317
The Proclamation issued began by asserting that it was the
constant desire of the Maharaja to provide for the increasing
association of the people in the administration of the State, that the
measures which had been introduced from time to time towards this
end had met with a gratifying response from the people and from
their chosen representatives, and that an announcement had already
been made by the Dewan as to His Highness' resolve to take
further substantial steps in the same direction. His Highness now
ordained that the Representative Assembly established by his father
by an executive order forty-two years ago was for the future to be
placed on a statutory basis with enlarged functions. The Assembly
was to have the privilege of being consulted on all proposals for the
levy of new taxes and also, except in cases of urgency, on the
general principles of all measures of legislation within the cognisance
of the Legislative Council. The Assembly was also given the right
of passing resolutions on all matters relating to public administration
and on the general principles and policy underlying the annual
State budget. The following however were placed outside the
scope of the Assembly : — 1. the Palace including the staff and
household of His Highness the Maharaja. 2. the Military Forces.
3. the pensions of public servants. 4. Items of expenditure relating
to or affecting :
(a) the relations of the Maharaja with the Paramount
Power or with other States ;
(b) matters governed by treaties or conventions or agree-
ments then in force or thereafter to be made by the
Maharaja with the Paramount Power.
5. Interest on loans and charges on account of sinking funds
guaranteed at the time of raising the loans.
6. Expenditure of which the amount is specified by or under
any law.
The Assembly was to consist normally of 250 members, power
being reserved to the Government to increase the number up to a
maximum of 275 for the purpose of removing inequalities of repre-
sentation if any and in order to provide for new interests and
constituencies that might develop in the future,
318
The Proclamation also declared that the Legislative Council
was to be enlarged and its constitution revised so as to increase the
elected element and to ensure a statutory non-official majority as
well as to provide for special interests and minorities. The Council
was to have the power of voting on the annual State budget by
major heads in respect of all items of expenditure save those
specially excluded from its cognisance, with power however to
Government to restore a provision wholly or partly disallowed by
the Council, if they considered such restoration necessary for the
carrying on of any department or for the discharge of Government's
responsibility and also to authorise in cases of emergency such
expenditure as might be necessary for the safety and tranquillity
of the State notwithstanding the absence of provision therefor in the
budget.
In order to increase and widen the electorate, representatives
of the urbran as well as the rural constituencies in the Legislative
Council were to be returned by direct election and in the case of
members to the Representative Assembly the existing property
qualifications were to be reduced by one-half. The franchise was
extended to all persons paying income-tax. The franchise was also
extended to women possessing the qualifications prescribed for
voters. In order to ensure that the Representative Assembly truly
voiced the wishes and sentiments of the people, all members of the
Assembly except those representing special interests and minorities
were to be returned by direct election. To enable the representatives
of the people to maintain close touch with and influence the every-
day administration of the State, Standing Committees consisting of
such number of members as might be prescribed, elected by the
Representative Assembly and the Legislative Council were to be
formed to help the Government in an advisory capacity. The
Economic Development Boards dealing with the subjects of
education, agriculture and industries and commerce were to be
continued in close relationship with the Representative Assembly
and the Legislative Council and reconstituted on new lines. The
Proclamation also expressed the desire of His Highness that the
constitution, powers and functions of the Municipal Councils, District
and Taluk Boards and Village Panchayets were to be revised so 3,3
319
to give them the largest possible measure of responsibility and
autonomy in the administration of local affairs. The Government
was to have power to make rules in regard to all matters of detail
not provided for in the Proclamation or in the Representative
Assembly or in the Legislative Council Regulations and to introduce
such modifications as might be necessary or expedient in the future,
but not so as to curtail in any manner the powers and privileges
granted in the Proclamation. Finally, the Proclamation closed in
these words : " My Government will take immediate steps to give
effect to this Proclamation and to adopt such measures as may
become necessary from time to time to carry out my intentions. I
now invite my people to utilise the larger opportunities of public
service and usefulness to the State which I am now conferring upon
them and I have every confidence that they will respond to my call
with the same loyalty and sense of responsibility as in the past
and in a spirit of mutual toleration and goodwill. It is my earnest
prayer that these measures now inaugurated may under Divine
guidance promote the happiness and prosperity and ensure the
progress of all classes of my subjects."
The Government in fixing the details found that the constitution
of the Assembly as it existed at the time was defective in some
respects. While the taluk representatives came in by direct
election by the taluk voters, in the case of representatives of urban
areas and the Kolar Gold Field Sanitary Board the election
was secondary, the members representing them being returned not
by the voters in these areas directly but by the Municipal Councils
in the former case and the Sanitary Board in the latter. In the
case of the members deputed by the District Boards the
representation was even more remote, since these Boards included
members returned by secondary election through the Municipal
Councils and Taluk Boards. A mixed electorate consisting of direct
and indirect constituencies caused many anomalies and failed to
secure proper representation of the people. The recommendation
of the Committee to have direct election for the Representative
Assembly was therefore accepted by Government. The Government,
however, differing in some respects from the conclusions of the
Seal Conmiitee decided that the two City Municipalities of
320
Bangalore and Mysore were to be given the privilege of returning
four members each, while the Town Municipalities were to return
only one member each and all Municipalities with a population of
5000 or more were declared Town Municipalities. It was also
prescribed that seats reserved for the representation of special
interests and minorities were to be filled up by persons elected by
recognised Associations as far as possible, and the special interests
selected for representation were — the Mysore University, Legal
interests, European planting interest, Indian planting interest, Gold
Mining, Trade and Commerce, and Inamdars' interests. These
constituencies were given the privilege of returning one member
each, except the University which was to return two. Seats were
also provided for the representation of such interests as Factory
and Mining Labour, industries other than Gold Mining and the
like when organisations were formed to develop these interests.
In the case of minorities, the Seal Committee recognised that
the problem of their representation was one of great importance
and that the demand for their protection was not unreasonable.
But they rejected as unsuitable the devices of exclusive communal
electorates and the reservation of seats for communal candidates in
plural constituencies, which they considered would likely widen and
perpetuate the cleavage between communities. The majority of the
Committee recommended a system of * facultative representation '
of minorities through Associations or by nomination where it
became necessary, such minorities being communities numbering
not less than 20,000 persons as classified in the Census tables. As
regards the Mahomedan community, the majority of the Committee
were of opinion that between the general electorates and the
Associations, the Mahomedan community had reasonable expectations
of obtaining adequate representation in the Assembly. Regarding
Panchamas and Animists, the Committee remarked that their
literacy was extremely low and that vigorous efforts were necessary
for the political education and the increased representation of these
classes. Referring to Indian Christians, the Committee stated
that having regard to the total strength of this community and the
percentage of literacy which was more than that among the
321
followers of the Hindu religion, its adequate representation wa§
desirable.
The Government considered that the scheme proposed by the
Committee for securing the adequate representation of the minorities
through Associations was an extension of the scheme already in
vogue and while providing for it, they thought it necessary to go
farther than the Committee for the reason that certain communities
which were distinct social groups might not under the new method
of direct election through the general electorates succeed in
securing proper representation of their interests. This could only
be remedied by guaranteeing to them a certain number of seats in
the Assembly fixed with reference to the percentage of their popu-
lation, literacy, present representation and voting strength. The
Government therefore decided that in the event of these commu-
nities not obtaining the required number of members through the
general electorates, provision was to be made for the return of such
number of members as might be required to make up the
guaranteed number either through recognised Associations or
by nomination if necessary. 15 seats were guaranteed for
Mahomedans, 5 for Indian Christians and 3 for the Depressed
Classes. The principle of separate communal electorates the
Government rejected as inexpedient and unsuited to Mysore. The
guarantee provided was only intended for securing adequate repre-
sentation with the hope that in course of time the same would
become unnecessary as education spread and political consciousness
developed, leading to a homogeneity of interests in place of the
present divergences. Ten seats were also kept in reserve for
communities less than 20,000 in number who failed to secure repre-
sentation through the general electorate. In the case of members
returned through Associations representing minorities and registered
under the Mysore Societies Regulation, the Associations, it was
ruled, must have been formed for the furtherance of one or more
specific interests of the community or for its general advancement.
The number of members on the roll of any Association was not to
be less than 100 members, except when Government for special
reasons accepted a smaller number. Membership of the Assembly
was restricted to non-officials, but as proposed by the Committee
322
the officers deputed by Government could sit in the Assembly and
take part in the proceedings, without however any right to vote.
Yelandur and Sringeri Jahagirs which hitherto had no place in the
Assembly were now accorded representation.
It was open to any member of the Representative Assembly to
propose an amendment to the general principles of any measure
but not to particular clauses in the Bill. The President might
thereupon at his discretion obtain the opinion of the Assembly by
taking votes. In the case of Bills brought forward by non -official
members with the Dewan's previous consent, the general principles
as sent in by the member were to be placed before the Representa-
tive Assembly at its next session before the Bill was introduced in
the Legislative Council. In urgent cases Government reserved
power to pass Bills through the Legislative Council and to submit
them to His Highness, in which case there would be no
consultation of the Assembly. Such Bills were, however, to
be of such extreme urgency as to justify the Government
to pass them at a single sitting of the Legislative Council by
suspending the rules of business. As regards taxation, the
Committee recommended that proposals for the levy of new
taxes were to be laid before the Assembly for discussion and the
opinion of the Assembly ascertained by votes, any modifications
which might be suggested in the course of the discussion being also
put to the vote at the discretion of the President. In the case of
any new taxation involving legislation, the Representative Assembly
was to be consulted before legislation was introduced in the
Legislative Council. In accordance with the Committee's recom-
mendation, new taxes were defined as taxes which required for
their imposition the passing of a new Regulation or the amendment
of an existing one.
The practice as to the annual State budget prior to the passing
of the Representative Assembly Regulation was that it was placed
before the Assembly for general discussion and the representations
made by the members during these discussions were taken into
consideration by the Government before the budget was finally
passed. The Assembly was now given the right of moving
323
resolutions on the budget. But in keeping with the constitution
and character of the Representative Assembly as a body voicing
popular opinion on the general principles underlying the matters
submitted to it without undertaking any detailed examination, the
resolutions were to have reference only to the general principles
and policy underlying the budget and not to any particular grants
or appropriations.
The Assembly hitherto did not possess the right to divide in
respect of any matter placed before it, although Government had
frequently taken the opinion of the Assembly on specific questions
by votes. The Committee recommended that the practice of
presenting addresses to the President either sectional or by the
whole House might be discontinued, but that addresses by the
whole House to His Highness the Maharaja might be permitted
and the Government agreed with the Committee in these matters.
Before the Representative Assembly was placed on a statutory
basis, the following were eligible to stand as candidates and to vote
at elections : 1. Persons paying land revenue to Government of
not less than Rs. 50 per annum. 2. Kadim tenants paying an
annual rent of not less than Rs. 50 to the holder of an alienated
village to which certain of the provisions of the Land Revenue Code
had been applied. 3. Those who paid annually Mohatarfa tax or
Municipal tax of not less than Rs. 10 to a Municipal Council.
4. Every person who was the owner of one or more entire Inam
villages with a total beriz of Rs. 250 per annum and who ordinarily
resided in the constituency. 5. Every graduate of a University
who ordinarily resided in the constituency. 6. Every person who
was a retired or pensioned officer, whether commissioned or non-
commissioned, of the Mysore State troops. .
The Committee proposed that these qualifications should be
modified so as to reduce the property qualifications of voters and
candidates by 50 per cent and the Government accepted the
recommendations. The Committee also recommended that all
persons paying income-tax to Government should be qualified as
voters and candidates and that sex disqualification should be
324
removed so as to render women eligible to vote at the elections to
the Representative Assembly which also were accepted by Govern-
ment. In cases of special interests and Associations representing
minorities, the qualification of voters and candidates was to be the
membership of the Association or other institution concerned,
except that in the case of the Mysore University only fellows were
to be eligible to stand as candidates for the Representative
Assembly. In the case of general qualifications required for voters
and candidates for the Representative Assembly, the Government
agreed with the Committee that no special literacy qualification
was to be prescribed as the language in which* the proceedings of
the Assembly were conducted was mainly Kanada. Government
also agreed that to be a voter or a candidate, he was to be a
subject of the Mysore State possessing certain residential
qualifications, except in case of special interests where exemptions
could be granted.
The actual composition of the Legislative Council as last
constituted in 1919 was — nominated members (official and non-
official) 5, elected members by District Constituencies 8, by the
Representative Assembly 4, and by the Mysore University 1,
total 13. The Committee recommended that exclusive of the
ex-officio members, the strength of the Legislative Council should
be fixed at 50, that not less than 50 per cent of this total strength
was to consist of non -official members and that not more than
one-third of the non-ofRcial members were to be nominated, the
other non-official members being elected representatives of the various
constituencies. The Committee also recommended that in addition
to the strength of 50 members as fixed above, not more than two
persons having special knowledge or experience of the subject matter
of any particular Bill might be temporarily nominated to this Council
for the purposes of such a Bill. The above recommendations were
accepted by the Government with the modification that the propor-
tion of non -official members was to be not less than 60 per cent
instead of 50 per cent as proposed by the Committee so as to ensure
a decided non-official majority. As regards the constituencies
representing special interests, the Mysore University was to consist
of the fellows of the University. The member to represent
325
Commerce and Trade was for the time being to be returned by the
Chamber of Commerce. The member representing the Planting
Interest was to be elected by a constituency consisting of owners of
estates of not less than 50 acres under coffee, tea, cardamom or
rubber. If the member returned by this constituency did not
represent European planting interest, one of the eight seats reserved
for the nomination of non-official members was to be given to the
representative of the European Planters' Association in the State.
Labour was to be represented by one member who pending the
formation of a proper electorate was to be nominated by Govern-
ment. The members deputed to this Council by the Representative
Assembly were to be voted without any restriction as to the
candidates representing particular districts or divisions. As regards
the 8 seats reserved for nomination of non-official members,
Government agreed with the Committee's proposal that these nomi-
nations were to be made with a view to secure the representation of
the Depressed Classes, Child and Woman welfare, Minorities,
Education and such others. Two seats on this Council were
guaranteed to the Mahomedan community. But when two
Mahomedans secured seats through the general electorates, there
were to be no nominations. The same principle applied to the
Indian Christian community except that only one seat was
guaranteed to them. Similarly one seat was guaranteed to the
Depressed Classes.
As regards the powers of the Legislative Council, no legislative
measure of any description could be introduced into the Council
without the previous sanction in writing of the Dewan and the leave
of the Council duly obtained. It was also not competent to the
Council to pass any measure affecting the Ruling Family of Mysore
and other specified matters as might be reserved by the Maharaja
from time to time including extradition of criminals, European
vagrants, European British subjects, the Post Office, Telegraphs
and Railways. In the case of subjects excluded from the purview
of this Council, it was open to Government to frame any Regulation
that might be required and any such Regulation when assented to
by the Maharaja was to come into operation. In cases not
excluded from the purview of this Council in which legislation was
326
urgently required, Government had power to frame emergent
Regulations which if assented to by the Maharaja were to have
the same force as a Regulation passed through the Council for a
period of six months from the date of their promulgation in the
official Gazette. The Legislative Council Regulation and the
Representative Assembly Regulation were excluded from the
purview of this Council and thus the constitution, powers and
functions of the Legislative Council and of the Representative
Assembly were outside the cognisance of the Legislative Council.
Changes in the constitution were therefore possible only by means
of Proclamations or Regulations promulgated by the Maharaja
independently of the Council.
As regards the annual State budget, the power of the
Legislative Council hitherto extended only to a general discussion
of the budget and the Council had no power to submit or propose
any resolutions on it. The grant of the power now to vote on the
State budget was a measure of far-reaching importance and signifi-
cance. While the resolutions adopted by the Council had effect only
as recommendations, voting or refusing had under the terms of the
announcement a binding effect on the Government which could
only be annulled for a specified reason. Further, voting by major
heads imposed an important limitation on the Government's powers
of re-appropriation of sanctioned expenditure. Since the grant was
to be sanctioned by the Council under major heads, re-appropriations
by the Government from one major head to another was no longer
permissible. It was thus made possible for the Legislative Council
with its statutory non-official majority to exercise a large measure
of control over the financial policy of the Government. The
Government did not consider it necessary or desirable to exclude
the salaries of any class of public servants from the vote of the
Council, as the result would have been a considerable curtailment of
the control over financial policy and administration which it was
proposed to vest in the Council.
As regards the qualifications of voters in the rural constituencies,
the following were deemed eligible to vote : — 1. All persons paying
land revenue of not less than Rs. 50 per annum to Government ;
327
similarly Kadim tentants paying an annual rent of not less than
Rs. 50 per annum to the holders of alienated villages and those
who paid annually Mohatarfa or Municipal tax of not less than
Rs. 10 to a Municipal Council. 2. All persons who owned one or
more entire Inam villages with a total beriz or assessment of
Rs. 250 per annum and who ordinarily resided in the district.
3. All graduates of a University who ordinarily resided in the
constituency. 4. All persons who were retired or pensioned officers
(whether commissioned or non-commissioned) of the Mysore State
troops. 5. All persons who paid income-tax to Government.
As regards urban constituencies, the qualifications of voters
were to be the same as those of voters in the rural constituencies,
except that in respect of property qualifications, the qualifications
laid down for voters at municipal elections were to be accepted in
lieu of those prescribed for voters in rural constituencies of the
Legislative Council. No distinction was made in the property
qualifications of voters and candidates to the Legislative Council.
Regarding Standing Committees, Government decided that
there were to be, to begin with, three Standing Committees, one in
connection with the Railway, Electrical and Public Works
Departments, one in connection with Local Self -Government and
the Departments of Medicine, Sanitation and Public Health and the
third in connection with Finance and Taxation, the Government
reserving discretion to appoint committees for other departments
or to add other departments to the above committees.
In view of the formation of a Standing Committee of Finance and
Taxation, the Budget Committee that then existed was abolished.
As separate Boards existed for Education, Agriculture and
Industries and Commerce, no separate Standing Committees were
appointed for them. In order that the Legislative Council might
be in a position to know to what extent its wishes as expressed in
its grant of demands had been complied with, the formation of a
committee of the Legislative Council which would scrutinise the
audit and appropriation reports of the Audit Department of
Government and bring to the notice of the Council all deviations
from its intentions was sanctioned.
In July 1919 the Economic Conference which had undergone
several improvements in its working during its existence of eight
years was made a permanent adjunct to the administration with a
strong and compact organisation consisting of — (l) a Central
Economic Development Board for organising and co-ordinating
the work of all agencies, (2) three provincial Boards dealing with
Education, Agriculture, and Industries and Commerce, and
(3) a Board of Scientific Research and Advice. As regards work
in the districts, economic development work was made an integral
part of the functions of the local self-governing bodies. All the
Boards were re-constituted so as to provide for the adequate
representation of the Representative Assembly as well as of the
agencies working in the districts and of semi-official and private
bodies devoted to economic work of any importance and of
special interests.
In accordance with the announcement contained in His
Highness' Proclamation, the advisory Boards of Education,
Agriculture and Industries and Commerce connected with the
economic development work were re-constituted and continued in
close relationship with the Representative Assembly and the
Legislative Council. The Board of Scientific Advice was abolished
as a separate entity and its work was assigned to a sub-committee
of the Industries and Commerce Board and such scientific experts
from outside as might be co-opted by them.
The main features of the constitutional changes introduced
may for the sake of convenience be thus summarised — Property
qualifications of voters was reduced by one-half. A large number
of urban constituencies was created. The disqualification of
women on the ground of sex from exercising the franchise was
removed. By these changes the total strength of the electorate
increased from 28,000 to over 1,00,000. The unscientific
combination of direct and indirect elections was done away with.
The representation of special interests was systematised and Labour
was recognised as one of the special interests to be represented
both in the Representative Assembly and in the Legislative
Council. Adequate provision was made for the representation of
minorities under a scheme that sought to avoid the widening and
perpetuation of the cleavage between communities. Communities
which formed distinct social groups and were not likely to obtain
their due share of representation were afforded special protection
by the guarantee of a fixed number of seats both in the
Representative Assembly and in the Legislative Council. The
Representative Assembly was given a definite place in the
constitution and its position as a popular body placing before the
Government the wants and wishes of the people and voicing
public opinion in respect of legislation, taxation, finance and
administrative measures generally was recognised by statute. The
strength of the Legislative Council was substantially raised and it
was given an increased elected element with a statutory non-official
majority. By its power of voting on the State budget it secured
an effective voice in determining the financial policy of the
Government. The association of the representatives of the people
in the everyday administration of the principal departments of
Government was obtained by the formation of Standing Committees
consisting of members of both Houses. The Development Boards
for the promotion of the economic interests of the State already in
existence were reconstituted so as to work in close relationship with
the Representative Assembly and the Legislative Council.
Lord Ronaldshay, now Marquis of Zetland and Secretary of
State for India, it may interest the readers to know has in a
book written by him and known as " The Heart of Aryavartha "
expressed the following views on the constitution as visualised in
in the Seal Committee Report : — " The Committee while not
ignoring the present-day tendencies, based its proposals on Indian
rather than Western theory and gave expression to Indian rather
than to European ideals. The basic fact of such a constitution
was the assumption that the head of the State was the supreme
executive authority as well as the source and sanction of law. The
sovereign of an Indian State was regarded as representing the
people directly and primarily in his person and as standing
in a more direct and vital relationship to them than the members of
any representative body. He might seek the aidvice of individuals
330
or of corporations; he might delegate his functions to individuals
or to chambers, but he remained the head of the body politic, such
other limbs as might evolve or be created being but subordinate
members — organs of one Will centred in the head wherein rested
the permanent reservoir of law-making power. While this was the
recognised position of the head of the State, the object of the
introduction into the constitution of other bodies was in the main to
provide machinery for perfecting the process by which effect was
given in the domain of legislation and of administration to the one
undivided Will of the State."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Inauguration by the Maharaja of the Reformed
Legislative Council and the Representative Assembly.
On the 17th March 1924 His Highness the Maharaja
inaugurated the new Legislative Council and the Representative
Assembly at a joint session held at Mysore. His Highness in
welcoming the members who had been elected by an enlarged
electorate under a wider franchise, complimented them on their
now being regarded as truer representatives of their constituencies
than ever before and on their having larger opportunities of
influencing the decisions of Government in accordance with popular
demands. " I recall to mind on this occasion," said His Highness,
"the words which I spoke nearly 21 years ago when I opened the
Representative Assembly in person for the first time after I
assumed the reins of Government. The hopes I then expressed of
the value of the yearly gatherings of the Assembly in contributing
to the well-being and contentment of my subjects have been amply
fulfilled. The Legislative Council, too, which came into existence
in 1907 with certain important functions bearing on legislation,
finance and administration generally has fully justified expectations.
Yet you will realise that the changes which I am inaugurating
to-day are fundamental, providing as they do for a far closer
association of the people with the administration and affording a
freer outlet for their natural and legitimate aspirations than seemed
possible a few years ago.
" I am aware that a section of my people are in favour of
further radical changes, including a wider franchise and increased
powers. While fully sympathising with their ideals, I may state
that our decision was made after prolonged consultation. Each
State must evolve its own constitution suited to its own needs and
conditions and to the genius of its people. Without departing
from the fundamental principles of development common to all
forms of polity, it has been deemed necessary to maintain the
332
character of the Representative Assembly as essentially a body
for consultation and reference as well as representation, directly
voicing the needs of the people and with a constitution sufficiently
flexible to expand with the expanding consciousness of the people,
leaving to the Legislative Council the more formal work of
legislation and other functions usually associated with such bodies,
" I have no doubt that you will use your new powers to
strengthen all the beneficent activities in the country to spread
education, to diffuse knowledge, to further industrial enterprise
both public and private, and to foster the, civic virtues and the
spirit of social service The Standing Committees of the
Legislature will, I hope, bring the popular representatives into
closer association with the principal departments of Government.
When the projected extension of Local Self-Government comes
about and the powers of the District and Taluk Boards, Munici-
palities and Village Panchayets are enlarged, there will be many
opportunities for men of ability to take part in public work and for
the local management of local interests.
" There is a certain self-discipline which lies at the root of
success, and which I feel you must observe for the serious treatment
of public issues. I trust that, although party conflicts will be
inevitable, your discussions will be conducted with mutual tolerance
and respect and will be consistent with the decorum and the dignity
of a State Legislature. A wise restraint is necessary in expressing
your views. Exaggeration and violence of speech defeat their own
purpose. I would urge you also to make a thorough study of the
subjects before you speak on them and in all your pleadings, to
place the interests of the State as a whole before those of any
section or class. A third point which I would emphasise is that
you must keep in close touch with the Government and the people
and interpret the one to the other. In this way may we hope that
the long silence of the depressed and the humble will be broken and
full responsibility for their well-being shouldered by the educated
and well-to-do classes.
" It is the ambition of my life to see the people of my State
develop self-sustaining qualities, exhibit initiative <w4 enterprise,.
333
and take a front rank in all progressive movements and activities in
the country. In making our plans for the future, we have got to
take note of the tremendous changes of the recent past. India
under the beneficent guidance of the British nation is shaping into
a federation of Provinces and States. We, in Mysore, form as it
were a nation within a nation. While co-operating with both the
Government of India and the rest of the Indian public in measures
which lead to the prosperity of the country as a whole, we in our
local sphere should promote education and economic growth to the
fullest extent permitted by our resources, so that our people may
not fall behind other Provinces and States in the race of progress.
" That the history of Mysore in the recent past has run
smoothly is a good omen for the future. We have known neither
stagnation nor precipitate change. We have been advancing
steadily, adapting our constitution and administrative machinery to
new times, needs and aspirations. All constitutional progress
relates to the enlightenment of the people and the quickening and
utilising of their energies in the business of the State. Progress of
this kind has been the constant aim of the Government of Mysore.
The ceremony which I am performing to-day is thus a step in a
continuous and well-ordered process of development which has been
going on for over forty years and it is my hope that the process
will continue with the same adaptability in the future.
" You will find yourselves exercising a considerable, frequently
a decisive, influence upon the policy of Government. Not merely
your resolutions, but all that you urge in debate will be of high
importance. I would have you apprehend with mind and heart
this vital fact that the interests of Government and people are
identical. The happiness of the people is both the happiness and
the vindication of Government. Any difference of opinion between
the executive and yourselves — and such differences naturally occur
in all lands and all along the road of progress — can refer only to the
means, never to the end. You can count upon responsiveness and
goodwill in Government, as they certainly count upon them in you.
" This day, therefore, marks the dawning of a new era in the
history of Mysore, My faith in the power and willingness of my
334
people to render patriotic service is firmly rooted in experience and
you may rely on my abiding sympathy with your aspirations,
If every act of yours is guided by common sense, goodwill
and useful study of facts and of experience, if your powers are used
only for the promotion of the common good, you cannot fail to rise
in power and influence. You will help to build up the prosperity
and reputation of our State and will become custodians with me of
its permanent interests "
At the Dasara Session of the Representative Assembly in 1925
Sir Albion Banerji, the Dewan, reviewed the work done by both the
Legislative Council and the Representative Assembly since their
inauguration on a reformed basis by the Maharaja. Taking the
Representative Assembly first, it was found that Government had
consulted it in respect of 14 Bills, most important of which were
the Coffee Cess Bill, the Mysore Village Panchayet Bill, the
Mysore District Boards Bill, the Bill to amend the Mysore
Municipal Regulation, the amendment of the Press Law, the
Ancient Monuments Preservation Bill and the amendment of the
Mysore Muzrai Regulation. On their own initiative Government
took the opinion of the Assembly on certain matters under their
consideration, and among the most important of these were the
question of reciprocity between the Hindus and Mahomedans
regarding the stoppage of music in front of mosques and temples
and the question of prohibiting cow-slaughter. The privilege of
interpellating Government was fully exercised by the Assembly and
the number of questions asked by the members on matters of
various kinds came to 140. In respect of resolutions also on
matters of general importance, the members had shown great
keenness in the exercise of their privilege. The total number of
resolutions moved during the three previous sessions amounted to
nearly 50. All these items of work were in addition to the
discussion of over 360 subjects of a general character. Most of the
matters which were dealt with by the House were of a highly
useful and interesting nature and included such important matters
as trade conditions in Mysore, technical education in the lower
schools, promotion of temperance, encouragement of indigenous
335
system of medicine, extension of medical relief, improvement of
sanitation, restoration of minor tanks, promotion of education
among all classes of His Highness' subjects, promotion of industries,
grant of relief on occasions of floods and drought, extension of
Sanskrit education, re-organisation of the Civil Service, Panchama
education, working of the Recruitment Rules, rural education,
education in the Malnad, town and village improvements. Speaking
generally, there was not a single Department of Government the
work of which did not come in for review before the House.
The Assembly had two opportunities of exercising the privilege
of discussing the general principles involved in the annual State
budget and in moving resolutions in respect of it. In the course of
the general discussions, the Dewan acknowledged that the Govern-
ment had received most useful suggestions and the discussion of
resolutions had given the Government an opportunity of explaining
their principles and policy.
Turning to the Legislative Council, the work transacted by
it was equally heavy and varied. The Council considered 21 Bills,
of which 14 were passed and the others were in various stages of
consideration. The number of resolutions on general matters
moved in the Council was nearly 50 and the number of
interpellations asked was over 160. The Council also passed the
budgets for- two years and in connection with them moved no
less than 177 motions for reduction or omission of grants.
In closing the review, the Dewan bore whole-hearted
testimony to the work done by the two Houses in these weighty
words : — " It will be clear from the facts and figures given by me
that the representatives of the people in both the Houses have
taken the fullest advantage of the opportunities afforded to them by
the reforms. The keenness of the members to obtain information
and help Government with useful advice has been a pleasing and
prominent feature of the working of the two Houses. On behalf of
Government I can assure this House that the Government have
given their most earnest attention to the suggestions of the peoples'
representatives and in all possible cases have already given or will
336
soon be giving effect to them. I may mention in passing that the
average attendance of members of both the Houses was never so
high in the pre-reform days as it is now and the sessions of both
the Houses are also longer. This is a clear indication of the
interest, earnestness and public spirit displayed by the members in
the discharge ot their duties, responsibilities and privileges.0
CHAPTER xt.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Distinguished Visitors to Mysore — Lord Chelmsford,
Prince of Wales, the Earl of Reading and the Prince of
Connaught.
In the early years of the post-war period there were a number
of distinguished visitors to the Mysore State. Lord Chelmsford
who was Viceroy of India visited Mysore in December 1919 with
Lady Chelmsford and was accorded a grand reception.
H. R. H. the Prince of Wales (now His Majesty King Edward
VIII) paid a visit to the State in January 1922. Prior to His
Royal Highness' visit to Mysore, the Maharaja had as Chancellor
of the Hindu University at Benares met the Prince when the
degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by that University.
During his visit to the Mysore State between the 18th and 23rd of
that month, the Prince visited Bangalore and Mysore Cities,
Seringapatam and the Krishnarajasagara Irrigation Works and
witnessed the Khedda operations at the Karapur camp. His Royal
Highness was welcomed by all classes of people in Mysore with
spontaneous demonstrations of joy and devotion.
At the banquet given on the 19th January 1922, the Maharaja,
in proposing the toast of his guest, in the course of his speech said
that no one who had followed the events of the Great War could
help realising that while it had resulted in overthrowing the three
great monarchies of Europe, its effect on the British Empire had
been to strengthen the bonds between king and people and to leave
the British Throne more deeply seated in the affections of every
class of His Imperial Majesty's subjects. Truly, further said the
Maharaja, might His Royal Highness be described as England's
princely ambassador who won the hearts of the Empire's subjects
wherever he went.
In response to the toast, the Prince of Wales referred among
other matters, to the military services rendered by Mysore during
A43
the German War: — " In October 1914 Your Highness* Imperial
Service Lancers sailed from India for Egypt. They fought in
Egypt where I had the pleasure of seeing them in 1916 and
subsequently took part in a two years' desert campaign which
ended in the capture of Gaza and the fall of Jerusalem. In both
the latter engagements they played a brilliant part. They then
joined the 15th Cavalry Brigade and were active in the advance
in the Jordon valley and the final series of engagements which
broke down the Turkish resistance and carried our arms into Syria.
They distinguished themselves at Haifa, where they drove the
enemy from strong positions on Mount Carmel capturing seven
guns and three hundred prisoners. At the final action at Aleppo
they were again to the fore with a fine charge against heavy odds
in which they suffered severe casualties. They only returned to
India in February 1920. The honours and decorations won by
the corps and the frequent mention of the officers and men in
Despatches bear eloquent testimony to their courage and efficiency
and to the excellent spirit and tone that prevailed in the regiment.
" The Imperial Service Transport Corps proceeded to
Mesopotamia in 1916 and continued on active service till the end of
the war. It won the highest recommendations from the General
Officer commanding in Mesopotamia. All praise is due to this
gallant corps and to the officers who helped them to deserve and win
their high reputation. In addition to keeping those units up to their
full strength, 5000 of Your Highness' subjects enlisted in the units
of the Indian army.
" When I turn to the more prosaic, but equally important,
question of the ways and means for the war, I find that the
'assistance given by the Mysore State has been of an equally high
order. At the outbreak of the war, Your Highness offered Rs. 50
lakhs towards the cost of our Expeditionary Forces. You added a
further gift of Rs. 10 lakhs and later another gift of Rs. 13 lakhs.
Your State subscribed Rs. 14 lakhs in the war loans. The people
of Your State gave Rs. 2 lakhs to the war charities and invested
Rs, 113 lakhs in the war loans.
339
" The contributions from Your Highness1 State and subjects
reached a total of nearly Rs. 2 crores. Besides this, the State was
prominent in the supply of hides, timber, blankets and other
material necessary for the efficiency of our arms.
" The war record of Your Highness1 State is, indeed, a notable
one and it is a great privilege to me to be able to offer my thanks
and congratulations in person to-night to Your Highness on these
achievements."
On the occasion of his departure, on crossing the State frontier
His Royal Highness sent a message to the Maharaja conveying the
great pleasure he felt in making His Highness* acquaintance and
his great admiration for the beauties of Mysore and the efficiency
of the administration that prevailed.
The Earl of Reading, Viceroy and Governor- General of India,
accompanied by H. E. the Countess of Reading paid a visit to the
State from the 27th November to the 5th December 1923. At the
State Banquet on the 29th November, the Maharaja welcomed the
Viceroy not only as the chief representative in India of His Majesty
the King-Emperor but also personally as an eminent jurist,
diplomatist and statesman with a record of high achievements in the
public life of Great Britain. In replying to His Highness' speech,
His Excellency bore testimony to the sound traditions of administra-
tion prevailing in Mysore and the past achievements of the State
and the development of its resources and the expansion of natural
production.
In 1925 His Royal Highness the Prince of Connaught,
grandson of Queen Victoria, paid a visit to Mysore with the
Princess of Connaught and both were accorded an enthusiastic
welcome in the Mysore City.
CHAPTER XLI.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Retirement of Sir A. R. Banerji— Mr. Mirza Muhammad
Ismail (afterwards Sir) appointed Dewan— His policy
enunciated— Financial adjustments— Taxation Enquiry-
Assets and liabilities of the State- Economic depression-
Policy regarding public loans re-stated— Excise duty on
matches and sugar.
In February and March 1925 Sir A* R. Banerji went on short
leave and Mushir-ul-Mulk Mir Humza Hussain who was a
Member of the State Council officiated for him. Sir A. R. Banerji
retired on the 1st May 1926 from the Mysore Service and was
succeeded in his office by Amin-ul-Mulk Mr. Mirza Muhammad
Ismail (afterwards Sir), Private Secretary to the Maharaja. He
was only 43 years of age at this time having been born in 1883.
He was a school-mate of His Highness the Maharaja and was a
grandson of Ali Asker who, as we have already known, rendered
considerable help to Krishnaraja Wodeyar III in his attempts to
obtain the restoration of his State into his hands from the British
Government. Sir Mirza Ismail joined the Mysore Service as an
Assistant Superintendent of Police in 1905 and in 1910 became
Assistant Secretary to the Maharaja. Thereafter he continued
attached to the Maharaja's staff and successively filled the places
of Huzur Secretary and Private Secretary to His Highness till he
became Dewan on 1st May 1926. At the time this appointment
was made, there was much diffidence in the minds of the people as
to the advisibility of the appointment of a comparatively young
man with very limited official experience, but subsequent events
have proved that no mistake was made.
Sir Mirza Ismail's period of office has been a very eventful one,
coincident as it has been with the period of political reforms in
British India and the Round Table Conferences in England. At
the very outset of his career he declared that his main task would
be to make possible for every class of the Maharaja's subjects the
341
life of comfort and contentment as far as possible and that for that
purpose he needed the co-operation of all. The Birthday Session
of the Representative Assembly commenced on the 14th June 1926
and at this session the new Dewan in a speech of some length
elaborated the main lines of his future policy. " While
we accept all the objects and plans bequeathed to us by previous
administrations and intend to do our best for them in the light of
the conditions of our time, let me pause," said the new Dewan,
" to lay some special stress on one or two points. The economic
question stands first among all our questions and it will continue to
receive our constant and careful attention. To take the simplest,
the most obvious and yet the most neglected of matters — the
production and use of the necessities of life within the State.
Home production, manufacture and the proper use of the necessities
of life are the triple root of material prosperity. The first step
towards the larger attainment of such prosperity is the improvement
of means and methods of agricultural production. To this the
Government will give all possible help. I need not emphasise,
since it is patent to us all, the desirability of the development of
agricultural co-operation and of technical instruction The
Government are fully aware also of the need that exists for
increasing facilities for industrial enterprise and for the expansion
of trade, both inland and foreign. Much was attempted in these
fields in our State, as we all know, by way of study and experiment
in the past, and I am anxious that efforts should be renewed in the
same direction, on more fruitful lines, if possible. Government
will be ready to respond to any well-considered and practical
suggestion for the encouragement of local enterprise, either in the
field of large scale manufacture or commerce, or in the field of
indigenous arts and crafts. We have all felt the need for the
extension of avenues of employment — particularly for the middle
and the poorer classes. This is undoubtedly the most pressing and
the most widely felt problem to-day. But there is no royal road to
its solution. Greater prosperity for which all should work will
cause a natural increase of employment. The State will do what
it can in this respect in the various works that are in hand or are
under consideration. Such works need not necessarily be utilitarian.
342
They may also be beautiful, for beauty and order are as necessary
to the welfare of the nation as utility. Then, looking at the
sanitary conditions of our towns and villages. They can command
neither comfort nor good health. Improvement in this respect
must depend very largely on more earning capacity, for improve-
ment means expenditure which affects both the Government and
the people. This is an other reason why special efforts should be
made towards augmenting the natural production of the State.
Where material increase flows through the life of a country, it
carries better conditions over a wider area. I would, therefore, also
urge that the development of handicrafts^ and village industries
should be pushed on as vigorously as possible With
economic and educational development goes also political develop-
ment. Indeed, political advancement is at bottom a question
of public education ; and this means a process of patient study
and careful preparation on the part of both the Government and
the people In this respect, Mysore affords an unrivalled
opportunity for developing a form of Government which may
serve as a type for study, and perhaps adaptation, by other
parts of India I would therefore appeal to you that
you might spare all the time and thought that you possibly can
to the task of promoting public work and popular organisation in
your localities. We shall be eagerly looking for instances of
non-official initiative and effort in reviving rural industries, in
helping joint action in manufacture or trade, in building up
co-operative societies and aided schools, and in making the
institutions of local self-government more successful "
After his advent as Dewan, Sir Mirza Ismail found that far
too large a sum of money was being set aside annually for the
liquidation of the loans taken by the State. He rightly observed
that it was inexpedient to make the present generation share all the
burdens, leaving to the next generation only the enjoyment of the
benefits accruing from the productive works on which capital had
been spent. At the time the Assembly met, the Rupee Debt of the
State stood at Rs. 354.42 lakhs against which had accumulated a
a sum of Rs. H6 lakhs forming the Sinking Fund The net
343
Rupee Debt was therefore only Rs. 238 lakhs. The time also
was favourable to convert the short term loans into long term ones
at rates of interest favourable to the tax-payer, as this latter kind
of loans had come to be viewed with favour by the investing public.
Even taking interest at 6 per cent and the Sinking Fund at 4 per
cent, the yearly contribution required from the general revenues to
wipe off the remaining Rupee Debt in 30 years was only Rs. 18.5
lakhs, while at the time the amount set apart to meet the charges
towards both interest and Sinking Fund was no less than Rs. 42.39
lakhs. It was therefore found possible to divert over Rs. 20 lakhs
out of the accumulations towards making provision for new capital
works, such as the High Level Canal from the Krishnarajasagara
Reservoir and for some of the nation-building activities which had
not been adequately provided for.
In the latter part of 1926 Mr. N. S. Subba Rao (now
Director of Public Instruction) who was a specialist in economics
was placed on special duty to prepare an accurate and up-to-date
statement of the facts relating to each tax or group of taxes levied
in Mysore, to see how far the recommendations of the Taxation
Enquiry Committee of the Government of India were applicable to
the conditions existing in Mysore, and to make his own suggestions.
The object of the Government in so doing was to follow in the
wake of the Government of India and the Governments of some of
the other countries of the world who had come to feel the necessity
for arranging for an equitable system of taxation that could be
readily expanded whenever necessary. The special officer
completed his report by the Dasara of 1927 and sent the same to
Government.
By the middle of 1929 the Government emerged from a
condition of financial stringency to one of fair prosperity and ease
and the Dewan was able to assure the Representative Assembly
that he could with sufficient optimism venture to translate into
permanent conventions some of the arrangements for expansion
which the Government had been carrying out in a more or less
hand-to-mouth way in the past three years. The total of the
material assets of the State at the end of June 1926 amounted to
344
Rs. Ill crores, while at the end of 1930 the same more or less
reached the neighbourhood of Rs. 14 J crores. In addition to these
assets, there were cash and investments without diminution from
1926 amounting to about Rs. 6 crores in 1930. Against these two
categories of assets, there were liabilities which amounted to
Rs. 11.16 crores in 1926 and to about Rs. 13.94 crores at the end
of June 1930. The result was that the assets and liabilities account
showed an increase of material assets by three crores with no
reduction under cash and investments.
Early in 1930 a world-wide depression of prices due to over-
production began to prevail and over-production meant unemploy-
ment for workers and loss for the capitalists and no way could be
readily discovered even by the wisest men of the world for over-
coming this calamity. The Government of Mysore managed,
however, to maintain the State activities as before without resorting
to any additional taxation, but secured a margin of saving in the
payment of interest by converting some of the older loans raised at
higher rates of interest in the past into those bearing lower rates.
Sir Mirza believed that in these days of new processes, of rationali-
sation and of world-wide combines, progress was essential to
existence and that it was not possible to mark time, but that we
had to set our faces forward and struggle ahead unless we wished
to be swept back by the tide. At the Dasara Session of the
Representative Assembly in 1930 Dewan Bahadur Mr. M. N.
Krishna Rao (afterwards Sir), First Member of the State Council,
in his capacity as acting Dewan on account of Sir Mirza Ismail's
absence in England in connection with the Round Table Conference,
re-stated the views of Government regarding the raising of public
loans, remarking that it was neither possible nor desirable to
undertake from current revenues public works which were more or
less of permanent utility and which cost large sums of money.
The progress of the country however demanded that such works
were essential and the only means of financing them was to raise
public loans. The policy of Government, according to Mr. Krishna
Rao, was therefore to be to borrow the funds required for carrying
out a continuous programme of capital works calculated to develop
345
the resources of the country and improve the economic condition
of the people.
In October and December 1933 a 4 per cent loan free from
income-tax repayable after twenty or thirty years at the option of
the Government was issued in two instalments. The total
subscriptions to the loan amounted to about Rs. 2\ crores and with
this amount and the accumulations of the Sinking Fund at the
usual rate of Rs. 17.78 lakhs per annum, the Government calculated
that they would be able to pay off the unconverted securities
maturing before 1941 amounting to Rs. 380 lakhs without resort to
further public borrowing. In 1934 a windfall occurred to the
Mysore revenues from the action of the Government of India in
imposing an excise duty on matches and another on factory-
produced sugar. The excise duty on matches was one of the
measures of taxation contemplated for the purpose of balancing the
budget under the new constitution to be later set up in India and
these duties came to be levied in advance of the introduction of the
new constitution. Mysore in common with other States agreed to
recover a corresponding tax on matches manufactured in the State
and to pay the proceeds into a common pool along with the
proceeds of the British Indian tax for distribution between British
India and the States on the basis of estimated consumption. The
amount of the duty on matches manufactured in Mysore was
estimated at Rs. li lakhs per annum, while the share of the
Mysore Government of the proceeds of the general taxation on the
consumption basis was expected to amount to about Rs. 5 lakhs
per annum. As regards sugar, in order not to give an amount of
protection greater than was required by the industry, the Govern-
ment of India imposed an excise duty Re. 1-5-0 per cwt. on factory-
produced sugar from 1st April 1934. The Government of India
invited the States which produced sugar in factories to impose an
equal duty for their own benefit on production in their territories as
otherwise sugar exported from these States would be made liable
to import duty on entering British India. The Mysore Govern-
ment accepted the proposal of the Government of India and agreed
to levy the duty as suggested.
A44
CHAPTER XLII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Visit of Lord Irwin— Reduction of the Subsidy by
Rs. 1(H lakhs— Silver Jubilee of the Maharaja.
Lord Irwin who succeeded Lord Reading as Viceroy in
November 1925 visited with Lady Irwin the State from the 25th
July to 1st August 1927. At the State Banquet held on the 29th
July the Viceroy in replying to the toast proposed by .the Maharaja,
announced a reduction of Rs. 10i lakhs, in the subsidy of Rs. 35
lakhs paid by the State to the Government of India since the
Rendition. In doing so, His Excellency said : " For many years
we have watched and admired the maintenance of those high
standards of administration ; we have not forgotten the noble services
you have rendered to the British Government when the need for
service was the greatest, and we are not blind to what Your
Highness has done to set an example of the fashion in which the
government of a great State should be conducted Mysore
has perhaps a longer tradition of progressive government than any
other State in India, and the Government of India can feel assured
that any relief which they may feel it in their power to give will
inure to the benefit of the people of your State/'
The University of Mysore took occasion to hold a special
convocation and confer the honorary degree of D.Sc. on Lord
Irwin.
On the 8th August 1927, Krishnaraja Wodeyar completed the
25th year of his rule. Ever since his assumption of power, His
Highness had striven hard to promote the welfare of his subjects
and to keep his State in the forefront, so that it became common to
readily cite the name of Mysore whenever any reference was made
to well-governed Native States. Long before the Jubilee arrived,
considerable eagerness was manifested by the people of Mysore for
the celebration of the day in a manner worthy of the high reputation
of their Sovereign and in keeping with the benefits they had
received from him.
347
On the llth April 1927, a large and enthusiastic public meeting
was held in the Lai Bagh at Bangalore to concert measures for the
celebration of the Jubilee at which representatives from all the
districts were present. The gathering consisted of both ladies and
gentlemen and Sir Mirza Ismail the Dewan presided. The
chairman in his speech began by saying that at that meeting there
were no officials or non -officials, no critics or champions of policy
and that the strongest and subtlest unifying power in the State was
the personality of the Maharaja. " Those of us who have had the
honour of knowing something of the personal life of His Highness,"
continued Sir Mirza, " know that he is essentially a man of simple
taste, though not in the bald sense sometimes associated with that
term. There is a simplicity without taste. But His Highness'
simplicity includes the love of beauty and includes a very simple
and strong desire that his people shall share in the beauty of culture
and of nature that he loves. In fulfilment of this desire, he has
bounteously inspired and helped every movement for beautifying
the environment of his people. His Highness has penetrated
deeply into the actual life of his people, not officially only, but
often without announcement or recognition ; and what he has not
been able to do fully in the body, he has assiduously tried to do
with the imagination, by keeping in close and constant touch with
all that concerns the welfare of the State. His impartiality in the
consideration of opposing details in affairs, his quick and sound
judgment, the dignity and restraint which goes with him as a never-
failing atmosphere are realised by all who know anything of his
life and work. To us in Mysore, he stands as the centre of our
social organisation and in personality. To India as a whole and to
the large body of persons beyond India who are looking to India
for fresh light and direction in the present time of world-crisis, he
stands as the type of the true succession of Indian rulership. In
the modern ruler a new tolerance and neutrality is called for and
the broad-mindedness of His Highness has passed into a proverb.
A religious devotee himself, he makes no distinctions on religious
grounds. He follows his own faith and respects the sincere faith
of others. But it is probably in the department of public affairs,
in legislation and administration that His Highness has, taken his
348
place as one of the most sagacious statesmen of our time. He has
recognised, on the one hand, the increasing political importance of
the individual citizen, and, on the other hand, he has felt the
necessity and advantage of viewing Mysore as a vital member of the
great entity called India, with whose destinies those of Mysore are
interwoven. His Highness is ever alert to the indications of the
growing spirit of humanity both within Mysore and India as a
whole and ever eager to adapt the machinery of co-operative life
to the behests of evolution "
On 13th June 1927 when the Birthday Session of the
Representative Assembly began, the Dawan announced to the
members that the proposal to celebrate the Silver Jubilee had evoked
unparalleled enthusiasm throughout the State, that people every-
where were arranging to celebrate the Jubilee in a fitting manner
and that a permanent memorial was also intended to be erected to
serve to remind the future generations of the era of well-being and
progress which the State had enjoyed under a benign and far-
sighted ruler.
The 8th August 1927 was, as has been already stated, the day
of the Silver Jubilee of His Highness' reign and it began at Mysore
with a salute of 25 guns. The weather was delightfully mild and
pleasant. Thousands of His Highness' loyal subjects had
assembled to pay their homage to the Sovereign and all the
proceedings were marked by much enthusiasm and devotion. At
9 a.m. His Highness proceeded from the Palace to the marriage
pavilion in the Jagan Mohan Palace and took his seat in a chair of
State. The pandits and Vaidiks were ranged in a semi-circle in
front of His Highness. The Vaidiks chanted verses from the
three Vedas invoking the blessings of the Almighty on their
Sovereign. Sacramental rice was then showered on His Highness
by the pandits. His Highness then stood up and made a speech
in Sanskrit expressing his gratitude for their benedictions, coming
as they did from such a scholarly body of representatives of ancient
learning as he saw before him.
At 10 a.m. His Highness entered the Durbar Hall of the
Palace and took his seat in a chair of State, The Yuvaraja
349
accompanied His Highness and took his seat on the dais to the
left of his brother. There was a large gathering of invited persons
from all parts of the State. The military forces had assembled in
the courtyard and saluted. Obeisances were offered to the
Maharaja which were duly acknowledged. A Sanskrit Pandit then
recited a number of Sanskrit verses in appreciation of the many
virtues of His Highness and of the benefits of his rule. Sir K. P.
Puttanna Chetty then, with the permission of His Highness, made
a speech in Kanada in which he referred to the numerous benefits
which the people of Mysore had obtained during the 25 years of
His Highness' reign and also spoke of the great qualities of head
and heart which His Highness possessed. Urdu and Sanskrit
versions of the speech were also read.
In reply His Highness made the following speech : —
" My Beloved People,
"It gives me the deepest pleasure to receive this address from
you, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for
the sentiments of loyalty and devotion to my throne and
person that you have so eloquently expressed.
" I thank God who has blessed Mysore so abundantly in
material ways that He has blessed her also with a sincere,
modest, liberal-minded and industrious people; and I thank
my people themselves, my Government and my officers that
by their hearty co-operation for the good of Mysore they
have earned for it the name of the Model State and the signal
proof of appreciation which we have just received from the
Supreme Government.
" I pray that we may all be assisted in the years to come to
work together in the spirit of brotherhood for the same good
end, so that with an efficient administration, increased facilities
for agriculture, industry and commerce and equal opportunities
for all, we may devote our common energies to a level in
keeping with the foremost countries of the world.
350
" It is my earnest desire that this spirit of brotherhood
should be extended to the continuous improvement of the
conditions of those who are less fortunate than ourselves,
remembering that all the communities alike are members of
my people and children of our country.
" I pray that a similar spirit may extend itself to the dumb
creation, and that we may see animals, and especially those
we hold sacred, treated with ever-increasing consideration
for the feelings which they cannot express.
" And I appeal specially to the rising generation to hold
before themselves always the ideal of brotherhood and good
citizenship, so that when they come to fill our places, they may
continue in all good ways to advance and increase the welfare
of our beloved Motherland.
" Finally, I send my loving greetings to each one of my dear
people, with a heart full of solicitude for their happiness.
With increasing effort I shall, while life lasts, endeavour to
promote their welfare and prosperity, and I pray that God may
give me light and strength to achieve this, the supreme object
of my life and rule."
His Highness also issued the following message to his
subjects : —
THE PALACE,
MYSORE,
8th August 1927.
On this day, when I complete the twenty-fifth year of my
reign, I send my loving greetings to each one of my dear
people, with a heart full of solicitude for their happiness.
With unceasing effort I shall, while life lasts, endeavour to
promote their welfare and prosperity, and I pray that God may
give me light and strength to achieve this, the supreme object
of my life and rule.
(Sd.) Krishnaraja Wodeyar,
351
Souvenirs containing a photo of His Highness and the message
were distributed in the Durbar.
At 5 p.m. His Highness accompanied by the Yuvaraja drove
in state to the Silver Jubilee Clock Tower. A shamiana had been
put up and tastefully decorated. Her Highness the Maharani late
Regent and all the Palace ladies were present in motor cars. Their
Highnesses took their seats on a raised dais and thousands were
able to pay their homage to the Maharaja. A pandit read some
verses composed by Rajakavibhushana Mr. H. Lingaraj Urs.
The Rajkumar C. Desaraj Urs, nephew of the Maharaja, then
requested His Highness to switch the clock into action. His
Highness accordingly complied and the bell of the clock struck
25 times. Its sonorous peal was heard above the acclamations of
the multitude. This clock tower, it may be stated, was intended by
all the employees of the Palace to commemorate the Silver Jubilee
of the reign of His Highness the Maharaja and an inscription to
that effect was recorded on the tower. His Highness then drove in
state to a public fete which had been organised in the grounds
near the Government House and after witnessing the same,
returned to his residence. The Fort Palace was illuminated in the
evening.
The next day in the morning in honour of the Silver Jubilee,
the Boys and Girls of Mysore organised a meeting in the Jagan
Mohan Palace Pavilion, at which His Highness the Yuvaraja
presided. Prince Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, the eldest son of the
Yuvaraja, was also present at this meeting. A message of
congratulation and loyalty was sent by the Boys and Girls to the
Maharaja. The message was carried to the Palace by a relay of
Boy Scouts and the following reply was received from His
Highness : " I am deeply touched by the message of the Boys and
Girls of Mysore. I cannot wish them anything better in reply than
that they be all their lives good Mysoreans and good Scouts
and Guides/*
In the evening of the same day, the Pinjrapole Society
organised a tree-planting ceremony to commemorate the Silver
352
Jubilee at the Pinjrapole grounds. His Highness the Yuvaraja
arrived on the grounds at 5 p.m. and was received by Sir Charles
Todhunter, Private Secretary to the Maharaja, and other members
of the Committee. In response to the request of Sir Charles
Todhunter, His Highness planted the first tree in the Mysore
Jubilee tope which was one of the many that were planted
all over the State that day. The Yuvaraja, in a short concluding
speech, expressed a wish that the trees planted that day might
flourish exceedingly, and that the Pinjrapole Society and the
animals entrusted to its care might flourish with them and that as
the trees spread out their branches, so the Society might spread its
interests, bringing more and more of the 'suffering dumb creation
under its sheltering care.
The citizens of Bangalore expressed a strong wish that the
Maharaja should visit their city and that there should be some
demonstration of the joy that the celebration of the Jubilee had
given them. In compliance with these wishes, a procession took
place on the 7th September 1927 in the Bangalore City. On the
evening of that day, His Highness drove in a carriage and four with
escort from the Bangalore Palace to the Cubbon Park, accompanied
by the Yuvaraja, the Dewan and Sirdar Lakshmikantharaj Urs.
Their Highnesses were received by the President, the Commissioner
and members of the Municipality. An address was then read by
the President and it was presented to the Maharaja in a beautiful
casket. Among other matters, the address stated that they were
highly grateful for the opportunity given to the citizens of
Bangalore to demonstrate their deep love and reverence to their
Sovereign, that that day had been looked forward to with
unbounded pleasure by all classes and communities in the city, and
that the occasion would stand as a memorable landmark in the
history of the corporation. His Highness made a suitable reply
and said that he would watch with pleasure and sympathy the
various improvements which they were carrying out to enhance its
beauty and healthfulness and at the same time, impressed upon
them the extreme importance of paying a due share of their
attention to the less favoured parts of the city and of doing all that
353
lay in their power to brighten the lives and surroundings of the
poorer classes, so that they too might enjoy the benefits of a
healthy and enlightened life. After a short interval, Their Highnesses
mounted an elephant which was kept ready and the procession
started from the Seshadri Memorial Hall. On the procession
reaching the City market-square, His Highness alighted at a
specially erected pavilion and the members of the Municipality who
were introduced to His Highness paid their respects. His
Highness remounted the elephant and the procession continued.
Fireworks were displayed in the grounds of the District Offices as
the procession passed. The procession came to a close at the new
Krishnflrajendra Circle.
It took some time to decide the form of the memorial and in
1929 an announcement was made that it would take the form of a
Technological Institute at Bangalore. The Maharaja laid the
foundation of this institute near the Krishnarajendra Circle,
Bangalore, on 8th March 1933. Before performing the ceremony,
His Highness made a speech in which he referred to the multitude
of events startling in their own way occurring in the first quarter of
the 20th century which coincided with his own reign. " My
greatest hope for the future of this Technological Institute is," said
His Highness, " that it will form an abiding link between the
purely literary education to which we have so largely devoted
ourselves in the past and the practical adaptation of new inventions
and discoveries which must, whether we like it or not, form so
great a part of our life in the future."
A third part of the subscriptions raised was made available to
to the district, taluk and other committees who established memo-
rials suitable to their own local needs. These local memorials have
been generally in the form of public utilities such as Orphanages,
Hospitals, Maternity Wards, Poor Houses, Public Halls, Recreation
Grounds, Reading Rooms, Libraries and other like institutions.
CHAPTER XLIIf.
Krithnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV's views on some religious,
social and other topics.
The decorous reserve and the studied stiffness which the
Indian Princes of the olden days were accustomed to assume
whenever they appeared in public no longer characterise the
Princes who have received training under »the modern methods of
educational discipline. They have become frank in their manners
and sociable in an enlarged degree when they are in company.
They are freely to be seen gracing public gatherings and presiding
over functions of various kinds, no longer deterred by any old-world
sentiments of rank or dignity from giving expression to their views
on public or other questions whenever circumstances call for
them. Krishnaraja Wodeyar has freely availed himself of such
opportunities, and the workings of his mind stand revealed to all
those who wish to know them. These views of His Highness go
to reveal that the mind behind them is a cultured mind not bound
by any narrow limits, but bold and forward in its movements.
A few typical views of His Highness* expressed on various
occasions will illustrate the truth of these remarks. These views
are valuable not only for the immediate purpose they served but
also for serving as beacon lights for the guidance of the people of
the country and a model for his successors to follow.
In December 1902 on the occasion of a visit to Poona when
the Gayana Samaj there presented him an address, His Highness
in expressing his pleasure for the welcome offered to him said that
he appreciated the compliment that in Mysore under the auspices
of his revered parents this fine art had made much advancement.
As a lover of music of both the East and the West, it pleased him,
His Highness said, to renew his acquaintance with the Gayana
Samaj and to assure the Samaj of his hearty interest in it and
in its aims.
355
On the 22nd December 1903 when the Maharaja visited
Madras to open the Industrial Exhibition organised there by the
citizens of Madras, His Highness in reply to a welcome address
said that his earnest desire was to uphold the great traditions of his
State and to do what in him lay to maintain for Mysore that
position in the Indian polity which had been assigned to it in the
address. His Highness congratulated himself that thus early in
his career he had been afforded an opportunity of meeting so many
of the most enlightened citizens not only of Madras but of all parts
of India and of taking his part with the people of India in a
movement which had for its object the development of the
industries of India, their great Motherland.
In January 1904 in addressing a deputation of Mysoreans
resident in Madras, His Highness said that though for the
administration and development of Mysore the best heads and
hearts that the soil could produce were needed, he would be the last
to discourage young men from seeking an honourable livelihood
abroad. For it was certain that though absent for a while, they
were not unmindful that Mysore was their home and would ever be
eager when opportunity offered to devote the knowledge and
breadth of mind acquired by residence amongst progressive
communities to the service of their Motherland.
In reply to an address from the Lingayat Community
presented on the 8th June 1906 on the occasion of the elevation of
Mr. K. P. Puttanna Chetty (now Sir) as a Member of Council, the
Maharaja gave expression to the view that the doors of education
and of the Public Service lay open to all alike and in the appoint-
ment which had then been made they could find ample assurance
that those who proved their fitness would not lack recognition from
him or from his Government.
In reply to an address presented on the 28th August 1906 on
the occasion of the opening of the Wesleyan Mission Hospital at
Mysore, His Highness said that the Wesleyan Mission were old
friends of all in Mysore and were the pioneers of modern education
in the city and that their good work was well-known to every
$56
This their latest enterprise was one that must appeal to the hearts
of all. The provision of medical relief for the sick and suffering
women and children was a question apart from all questions of
caste, creed or nationality and there was no object to which those
that were in a position to help could more worthily contribute.
In January 1907 the Maharaja visited Calcutta and in reply to
an address presented by the members of the Association for the
advancement of scientific and industrial education, His Highness
said that there had been an awakening all over the Indian continent
regarding the urgent need that existed for ^recovering the ground
which had been lost in the matter of industries and commerce and
that all those who took a true interest in the well-being of the
country could not but rejoice at the signs of revival that were
noticeable on all sides.
In reply to the address presented by the citizens of Mysore on
llth March 1907 congratulating the Maharaja on the title of
G. C. S. I. conferred on him by His Majesty the King-Emperor,
His Highness said : — " You allude in your address to the honour as
being a fit recognition of my four years' personal rule. Though I
appreciate the depth of feeling which has prompted you to express
this opinion, yet I must candidly confess that I cannot altogether
endorse it. I feel that I have only just begun my work of
administration, that there is a very great deal to be done and that
very little has yet been achieved. My responsibility is a heavy one,
but I fully realise it. As it has pleased Providence to call upon me
to discharge it, I can only submit to the Divine Will. It shall ever
be my aim and ambition in life to do all that lies in me to promote
the progress and prosperity of my beautiful State and the happiness
of my beloved people. I can assure you that I shall not spare
myself in my endeavours to accomplish this. Neither perseverence
nor effort will, I trust, be ever found wanting in fulfilling that aim."
In reply to the address of the Vokkaligara Sangha consisting
Of people mainly following the occupation of agriculture, His
said on the 1 7th October 1907 that any improvement that
H. H. Narasimharaja Wodeyar, G.C.I.E.
357
tended to the welfare of that community must command his warm
support.
On the occasion of the Birthday Banquet to his European
friends on the 27th June 1910, His Highness said: — "It is a
renewed pleasure to me as the Mysore Birthday Week comes round
year after year to welcome my English friends to the capital of my
State, and this year that pleasure is intensified by the thought that
the large and distinguished company who have been my guests on
this occasion have come here not only to join in the celebrations of
my birthday but to unite with my people in the universal rejoicing
occasioned by the marriage of my brother. Mr. Eraser has alluded
in feeling and eloquent terms to the strong bond of affection which
unites my brother and myself, and I can assure you that it is a
source of great pride and gratification to me to realise what a high
place my brother has secured in your regard. My mother too will,
I know, appreciate very deeply the congratulations on the happy
event in our family which Mr. Eraser has so gracefully offered
her I also appreciate very much the complimentary
words in which Mr. Eraser has alluded to the military rank recently
conferred on me by His Majesty the King-Emperor. Not only do
I feel proud to belong to the British army as my father did before
me, but I regard it as an honour to be associated with such a fine
regiment as the 26th Cavalry It is difficult for me to give
an adequate response to the warm and friendly words in which
Mr. Eraser has referred to his many years of close association with
my family and his personal relations with myself, and I can only
acknowledge the deep debt of gratitude which I owe him for the
care and devotion which he displayed during my boyhood and early
manhood and to which I mainly owe any small measure of success
that I may have attained in my work of administration."
In laying the corner-stone of the Y. M. C. A. building at
Bangalore on the 14th April 1912, His Highness welcomed the
extension of the Association's work to the State as he felt that its
influence religious, moral and educational would be all for the good,
not 'only of its Christian members but also of the young men
belonging to other religions who would pass tbeir leisure hours
358
within its walls. The people of India, His Highness further said,
owed a deep obligation to the Missionary Schools and Colleges which
had done so much not only to spread education but to impart a high
moral character to the vast number of Indian pupils who had come
under their influence There could be no more valuable
training for a young man than that which made him fear his God
and do good to his neighbour, or in other words, which taught him
to believe in his own religion, to be a good citizen and to render
social service.
On the occasion of the opening on the llth April 1913 of the
Vani Vilas Ursu Girls* School which is said to have come into
existence mainly through the instrumentality of His Highness1
cousin the late H. Nanjundaraj Urs, the Maharaja said that it was
a trite saying that no community could expect to advance when
half of its members were illiterate and ignorant The
education of the future mothers of children could not with impunity
be neglected and it was therefore none too soon that they had
awakened to the true needs of such an education.
In reply to an address presented to him at Davangere on the
19th December 1914 by the people of the place on the occasion of
his provincial tour, His Highness referring to the German War
which had begun a few months before, said that though it might be
admitted that the war had affected the business of the producers
and exporters of cotton and oil seeds, still it was to be understood
that distress of that kind was inevitable and could not easily be
remedied by administrative measures. Whatever might be the
effect of the war on their trade, they were to remember that ties of
gratitude and friendship bound them to the British Government and
that they were to submit cheerfully to some sacrifice in support of
the righteous cause for which Great Britain and her allies had taken
up arms.
On the occasion of the opening on the 6th July 1915 of the
Seringapatam Memorial Mantap built on the site where Krishnaraja
Wodeyar III was born, His Highness said — " There are few places
more closely associated with Mysore history than the island and
fortress of Seringapatam, and it is a spurce of peculiar satisfaction tp
359
me that this site should be chosen for a memorial to my illustrious
grandfather whose name will long be remembered not only in
connection with the restoration of our ancient dynasty after the fall
of Seringapatam but with its second restoration after 50 years of
British administration. It may be truly said that we owe that
signal act of generosity and justice — the Rendition of Mysore in
1881 — to the recognition by the British Government of the high
personal character of my grandfather, of his patience and fortitude,
and of his unswerving loyalty to the British Government during
many years of adversity I grieve to see as I look around
me the ruin and decay which have fallen on this once flourishing
city and no one can sympathise more deeply than I do with the
earnest wish of its inhabitants to see something of its former
prosperity restored
" As I stand on this historical battle-ground, my thoughts
naturally go back to the terrible war now raging in Europe in which
our Indian soldiers are righting side by side with their British
comrades in defence of a righteous cause. May we all unite in a
constant prayer for victory to the British arms and for an
honourable and lasting peace."
On the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of the Daly
Memorial Hall for the location of the Mythic Society on 31st
August 1916, His Highness referred to the two objects of the
memorial building, namely, to provide a local habitation to the
Mythic Society and to honour the memory of Col. Sir Hugh Daly
who was till recently the British Resident in the State. Sir Hugh
Daly's active interest in the progress of the State and his geniality
won for him a warm place in the hearts of the people of Mysore.
His Highness also said that if the objects of the Mythic Society
came to be better understood — to conduct researches connected
with history and archaeology — he hoped that the people of
Mysore, not the learned few only, would feel pride and interest in
its work. Much of the credit for the building was due to Father
Tabard who was its founder and mainstay The building
would serve to recall to the memory of the future generations the
name of a high-minded British officer who was a sincere friend of
560
Mysore and its people. It would bring together Europeans and
Indians to work on a common platform for an object which appealed
to the higher intellectual tastes of civilised life.
On the occasion of the opening of the Science Congress
presided over by Sir Alfred Bourne, Director of Tata Institute, on
10th January 1917 His Highness said : — " The last half of a century
has witnessed a marvellous progress in the application of science to
the needs of man. Inventions and improvements have been
pouring in with bewildering rapidity. Transport by land, water
and air has been quickened and cheapened. The uses of science for
alleviating sickness have been multiplfed. That fever can be
defeated by science can be demonstrated by what has been done on
the Panama Canal.
" Meeting as we do here in an atmosphere of peace and
sunshine, our thoughts cannot but turn to the Great War and to
the terrible scenes of death and destruction which are being enacted
in Central- Europe. One cannot help feeling it a tragedy that
science to which the world so largely owes its progress and
civilisation is being, as it were, debased in this war and used for the
purpose of destroying human life May we not look
forward to a time when science will be hailed not only as a beacon
light of civilisation but as the world's peace-maker
" Scientific education in India is in its infancy and her
industrial output per ' head of population is as yet a negligible
quantity. India at the rate her population is growing cannot long
maintain herself by merely growing raw produce. Science has
soon to come to the aid of her agriculture and industry to maintain
her population."
In reply to the address of the Chamarajanagar Municipal
Council on 8th December 1917, His Highness appealed to the
people to develop the spirit of co-operation with Government, for
Government by its unaided efforts could achieve very little and
that any real progress must depend on the initiative and
the public spirit of the people themselves, that they must not
361
look to Government or its officers to do everything for them, but
must learn to be self-reliant and to develop the resources of the
country by their own independent efforts also.
In reply to an address by a Non-Brahmin deputation at
Karikal Thotti on 24th June 1918 His Highness said : — " It has
always been my earnest desire to see all classes of my subjects
represented in just proportion in the Public Service. The preponder-
ence of the Brahmins in the Government Service is due to
inevitable causes and I feel convinced that time and the spread of
education and enlightenment will gradually remove the inequality
of which you rightly complain. At the same time, I must tell you
that it is far from my desire that any community should in any way
be penalised on account of its caste, simply because it has worked
hard and utilised fully the opportunities for advancement which are
open to all my subjects. For, I believe I have in the Brahmin
community subjects as loyal as any among my people. Nor can I
for a moment forget the eminent services rendered in the past and
are still being rendered to my House and State by the representa-
tives of that gifted community. My ambition is to pursue a
righteous policy as between various castes and communities in the
State, neither unduly favouring nor suppressing any community but
trying to uplift them all for the permanent good of the State.
" My Government is using its utmost endeavours to encourage
backward classes in the State and you may rest assured that this
policy of affording special facilities and encouragement to all
communities who are lagging behind in the race of progress will be
readily pursued in future even more than it has been in the past."
In 1915 when the Benares Hindu University was founded, the
Maharaja was elected as the first Chancellor of the University,
On the first convocation of the University on 17th January 1919,
His Highness gave utterance to these sentiments : — " Of the many
important measures which distinguish the viceroyalty of Lord
Hardinge, not the least in its beneficent and far-reaching effects is
the Benares Hindu University Act of 1915 by which the Govern-
A46
362
rhent of India, under his inspiration and guidance, set the seal of its
approval upon one of the greatest popular educational movements
of the times After many vicissitudes and many years of
toil, we are assembled here to-day to gather the first fruits of our
labours, and this important event in the history of our University
conies happily at a time when the most terrible war that the world
has ever seen is at an end. We rejoice on such an occasion to
congratulate His Majesty the King- Emperor and the British nation
on the decisive victory of the British Empire and its Allies. The
war has demonstrated the greatness of the British character, no
less than the deep-rooted loyalty of the Princes and people of India
to the British connection. May we hope that the outlook of the
human race is changing and a new era is dawning on a world
saddened by the tears and sacrifices of many nations — an era of the
reign of right as opposed to might, of principle as opposed to
expediency, and of peace as opposed to aggression Centres
of culture like this University have a noble purpose to serve and
can contribute materially to the enlargement of human ideals and
to the promotion of interracial and international fellowship. But
they can achieve this end only if their outlook is as wide as
humanity itself
" Especially should we Hindus with our glorious past beware
of the temptation to confuse patriotism with blind adoration of
ancient days, coupled with a repugnance for everything modern and
foreign. No nation is impoverished by commerce with other
nations; no civilisation can suffer by intercourse with other nations
and by an intelligent appreciation of the principles, ideas and
practices that have proved to be beneficial to other peoples and
countries I understand that in America where the
problem of fusing a variety of peoples into a common nationality is
as urgent, though perhaps not so difficult, as in India, education in
citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the constitution have been
included amongst the objectives of the school system. The
cultivation of the ethics of citizenship and patriotism is specially
needed in India where clan, tribe and caste have had a deplorable
tendency to produce communal exclusiveness and differences.
363
" The country needs something more than the accomplished
gentleman. It needs men of enthusiasm even more than refined
intellectuals pursuing the easy path of worldly wisdom, worldly
compromise and worldly success. It needs men of stout hearts and
strong hands who will not allow their conscience to be drugged by
sophistry of any kind, or their nerve to be paralysed by the fear of
unpopularity, but will oppose wrong wherever found and fight
unflinchingly the battle of social justice and emancipation on behalf
of the weak and down -trodden."
At the opening on the 14th April 1922 of the mosque at the
Body Guard Lines at Mysore constructed at the Maharaja's cost
and presented to the Mahomedan community, His Highness made
a speech in Urdu and said that it was one of the striking features
of Islam that it laid special emphasis on the inestimable value of
prayer, and that it would give him great pleasure if the Mussalman
community made full use of the mosque and if they constantly
resorted to it for prayer and meditation The Almighty
God could confer no greater blessing on a Ruler, further said the
Maharaja, than the happiness and well-being of his people be they
Hindus, Mahomedans or Christians in whose welfare, spiritual as
well as material, he is deeply interested.
On the occasion of the celebration on the 3rd September 1923
of the Janma Ashtami of Sri Krishna by the members of the
Sanatana Dharma Pratap Sabha of Srinagar, His Highness who
happened to be in Kashmir at the time gave utterance to the*e
elevated sentiments: — "On this auspicious day our thoughts
naturally turn to the holy nativity and life of Sri Krishna and our
minds piously dwell on the meditations of His Divine virtue. We
may not attain to the same level of perfection as He ; it would
indeed be presumptuous on our part even to dream of achieving it,
but we may at least strive to follow his footsteps, to understand the
words of wisdom contained in the songs of that Celestial Bard, to
emulate his example and to gain that personal holiness without
which no man can come up to true knowledge of God
The sacred Hindu religion is the priceless heirtage handed down to
us by our forefathers and it is, believe me, God's best gift to us."
364
On the occasion of the All -India Jain Conference held at
Sravanabelagola on the 14th March 1925, His Highness said : —
" In welcoming this all- India gathering of Jains to the land of
Mysore, I cannot forget that this land is to them a land of pilgrimage,
consecrated by some of the holiest traditions and the tenderest
memories of their faith. This picturesque rock on an elevated
table-land was, as a thousand year old tradition has it, the scene
where the venerable Bhagavan Srutakevali Bhadrabahu leading the
first migration of the Jains to the Southern Peninsula broke his
journey through the jungles and took up his abode, and tradition
still points to the cave in which years after he passed away in
Sallekhana leaving his foot-prints on the fock This is
also the sacred spot to the Muniswara Gomata Fora
thousand years has the Muniswara's colossal statue carved, it may
be, out of a huge boulder on the rock and visible for miles around
ruled over this scene, unsurpassed in massive grandeur and sublimity
of spiritual power by anything that the Egyptian or Assyrian
monuments can show What is unique in Jainism among
Indian religious and philosophical systems is that it has sought an
emancipation in an upward movement of the spirit towards the
realm of infinitude and transcendence and that it has made power,
will, character, in one word charitra, an integral element of perfec-
tion, side by side with knowledge and faith.
" The conference is, I understand, a purely religious and social
one. It will have nothing to do with politics. I commend the
wisdom of the promoters on this limitation. Let me not, however,
be misunderstood in this commendation as putting politics outside
the pale of your consideration as something to be dreaded or ignored.
On the contrary, I feel that every intelligent person should take an
earnest and intelligent interest in the political questions of the day
and contribute his and I ought, perhaps, to add her share towards
the solution of the problems that must inevitably arise from the
necessity of adapting the organisation of humanity to the needs of
its expanding consciousness
" In the sphere of politics whether concerning India or any of
the areas of which it is composed, you are Indians first and Jains
365
afterwards. As Jains you command the sympathetic interest of
everyone looking at the problems of your community from your
particular standpoint. As Indians, your political point of* view as
well as of every other religious community in India should, in my
opinion, be that of India as a whole.
" So long as the thousand and one different communities into
which our country is split up bear this doctrine in mind and act
towards one another in a true spirit of brotherhood, we need have
no misgivings as to her future. It is when the purely religious and
social questions invade politics that vast difficulties arise, difficulties
which must inevitably retard the progress of the country. Within
the religious and social sphere of each community there can be no
improvement which does not exercise a beneficial effect on the
general progress of the country. We must, therefore, wish every
community all possible success in its endeavour to advance itself
religiously, socially and educationally. At the same time, we must
realise that if there is to be real progress in the country at
large, it must be all along the line ; it must embrace every
community. And I personally consider it the sacred duty of the
more advanced communities not only to have earnest regard for
their own progress, but also to extend a helping hand to less
fortunate communities which from some remediable cause are
lagging behind in the path of human evolution."
On the occasion of the celebration of the Jubilee of the
Maharaja's Sanskrit College at Mysore on the 20th October 1926,
His Highness said: — "Started in 1876 at the express desire of my
grandfather, its importance cannot be judged by numerical
standards alone. For, this institution stands for ancient culture.
It is the centre of Sanskrit learning from which a knowledge of the
rich store of our ancient heritage has radiated to all parts of the
State and even outside. It has, in fact, preserved for the use of
future generations the essence of those traditions and characteristics
on which the structure of our Indian civilisation was built in the
past. This college is thus rendering a national service of no mean
order to the country. That this is not an unduly large claim will
be clear if we remember that in any reconstruction of our social,
366
political and religious polity, we could not and should not cut
ourselves off from our historic past and that our future must have
its roots in the past.
l< Besides, Sanskrit learning embodies a culture, a discipline, a
type of humanism which few other learning, old or new, dead or
living, can present to our age."
The mosque known as the Jumma Musjid Mosque at Mysore
was reconstructed at a cost of Rs. 38,000 by the State engineers at
the command of the Maharaja and was handed over on the 6th
April 1927 to the Mahomedan community* for use. When the
seat of Government was transferred from Seringapatam after the
events of 1799, there was no Jumma Musjid in the city and the
Mahomedan inhabitants who had migrated from Seringapatam
prayed that one might be constructed. This prayer for a mosque
was not only acceded to by Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, grandfather
of the present Maharaja, but he also attached a suitable cash grant
for the maintenance of the institution and for the relief of poor
travellers at a Langarkhana. The present Maharaja in declaring
the new mosque open wished that the building might endure for
many generations as a source of inspiration, as a place of goodwill,
as a centre of all that is best and noblest in the Mahomedan religion.
On the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of Saint
Philomena's Church at Mysore on 28th October 1933, His
Highness said: — "I believe with deep conviction that religion is
fundamental to the richest and strongest life of the nation. There
are diverse religions in this land of ours and frequently there exists
a most irreligious hostility between them. But we have been
gradually coming to understand that the unity is much deeper than
the differences, that while in creed and custom we are far enough
apart, in worship and in aspiration we are one. This being so, the
creed and custom of each religion among us is surely worthy of
reverent study by the followers of every other.
" You have reminded me that your present church was built by
my grandfather of revered memory ninety years ago To
367
you, My Lord Bishop, and to your clergy, the State and City of
Mysore are indebted for countless deeds of charity and goodwill
and for endless effort for the enlightenment and uplift of the people."
CHAPTER XLIV.
Krithnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Maharaja as a Pilgrim --From Almora to Manasarowar.
The Maharaja in June 1931 resolved to make a pilgrimage to
Lake Manasarowar and to Mount Kilas in the Himalayas. In the
previous year His Highness had visited Badari Narayan. The
royal party left Mysore on the 18th June 1931 and reached Almora
on the 24th of the same month and remained there till the morning
of the 27th. Six retired Indian sepoys who had seen war service —
three of them Ghurkas and the other three Kumaonese — were
engaged to guard the party right through. The party also carried
its own arms and ammunition. The party that accompanied His
Highness consisted of Messrs. 1. N. Rangachar,* Surgeon.
2. Sadeg Z. Shah, Assistant Secretary to His Highness.
3. Colonel A. V. Subramanyaraj Urs, Hon. A. D. C. 4. Major
S. Gopala Rao. 5. Captain Nabi Khan. 6. Lieut. Nanjaraj
Bahadur of the Mysore Lancers. 7. A. Venkatasubbayya, Manager,
Private Secretary's Office. 8. C. V. Subramanyaraj Urs,
Mokthesar, Khas Samukha. 9. K. Venkatarangayya, Clerk,
Private Secretary's Office. 10. C. Krishnappa, Sub- Assistant
Surgeon. Mr. Pratap Singh, Tahsildar of Almora, who was on
duty with His Highness on the occasion of the trip to Badari
Narayan was deputed by the United Provinces Government to
accompany the party to arrange for transport and other requisites.
The first start towards the destination was made on the morning
of the 27th June at 5-30 when the ponies and guides were ready,
and the first stage a distance of 8 miles was reached at 8 a.m.,
taking -up . Residence in the forest bungalow situated on a hillock.
There 'wete pine trees all along the route and patches of cultivation
In terraces on hill slopes and along the valleys. The bridle-path
is tortuous and follows the hillsides. Here some large-sized
•v
* The account of the trip appearing in the following pages is taken from
the diary kept by Dr. N. Rangachar during the time.
369
cardamoms were presented to His Highness by the local people.
The night was fairly cool with a bright moon and there was mist in
the valleys in which was running a small stream. The whole of
the kit was carried on mules.
The next camp at a distance of about 10 or 11 miles was
reached on the morning of the 28th. The first part of the journey
was all uphill for about 3 or 4 miles till a cool ridge was passed,
when the route was all downhill. All through there were pine
trees and a halt was made at the forest bungalow as in the first
stage. There were small plots of rice cultivation in the valley,
where a small stream was flowing.
At 4 a.m. on the morning of the 29th the journey was
commenced for the next camp, a distance of 12 miles, with the aid
of lanterns as it was still dark. The party walked for about 4 or 5
miles along the course of the stream referred to above till the Sarju
river was crossed, spanned over by a nice suspension bridge. As
the valley was very narrow and tortuous, it was very warm even in
the early morning. But the valley became broader towards the
Sarju and after crossing this river on ponies, an ascent of two miles
was made before the camp was reached. All the ryots of the
village turned up in the evening to pay their respects to His
Highness who graciously enquired after their welfare, and before
they departed they shouted " Mysore Maharaja Ki Jai ! " " Kilasa
Jatra Ki Jai ! " and went away quite pleased.
On the 30th as usual the party started early in the morning
and reached the camp at a place called Berinag at 8 a.m. The
first 6 miles were covered on foot as the path was mostly level.
As towards the end there was a steep zig-zag ascent for about
3 miles, this was accomplished on horseback. On thj
were small villages with patches of cultivation.
next camp was made was full of huge pine tr
.of villagers turned up with their drums and '
Here His Highness granted an interview^
Bhist, a wealthy land-lord who owned a te
the neighbourhood,
370
On the 1st July the next camp Thai at a distance of about 10
miles was reached. On the way the party met three European
missionary ladies who had settled there.
On the 2nd July the next camp Sandeo was reached, a distance
of 10 miles and on the 3rd July another camp Askot, about 5000
feet above the sea level. Here His Highness was welcomed by
Rajwar Vikram Bahadur Pal, the biggest land-lord there, and by
his uncle Kumar Khadga Singh Pal, a retired Deputy Collector. It
rained throughout the day. . In the valley a kind of paddy was
grown which did not require a constant supply of water. There
*
were also found many mango trees.
On the 4th July, Askot was left at 3-30 a.m. and the party
descended down a steep valley for about 3 miles and where the
roaring rapids of the Gowri Gunga was crossed, which joined the
Kali Ganga a mile or so further on. The party then made an
ascent on the right side of the Kali river in the opposite direction
of its course, the path being quite narrow in some places and also
very slushy on account of rain on the previous day. In some places
the path was several hundred feet above the bed of the river, and
the sides of the valley being almost perpendicular, the least slip
by the ponies would have ended disastrously. The camp at
Balavakot was safely reached at 8-30 a.m., a distance of 12 miles.
On the 5th July a start was made from this camp at 3-45 a.m.
and the next camp Dharchula, a distance of 1 1 miles was reached
at 7-30. In this part of the country were grown rice, maize,
plantains, mangoes, lemons and oranges. At this camp His
Highness was accommodated in the local school-building and the
rest of the party were accommodated in tents. Near the camp, it
was found that several coir ropes had been fixed across the river
Kali to the Nepal side, and from one of the ropes a trapeze-like
thing was hung with an inverted V-shaped piece of wood resting on
the rope, from the two limbs of which the trapeze was hanging.
People crossed the river just as a monkey does, holding on to the
rope by fingers and toes only, supporting their hips in the trapeze.
Women and nervous people, however, actually sat on the cross-bar,
371
tied with a piece of cloth to the trapeze itself and were pulled
across. His Highness granted an interview in the evening to
Swami Anubhavananda of the Ramakrishna Thapovan situated at
about a distance of two miles.
The next day's journey to the camp at Khela, a distance of
10 miles, was a very tiresome and difficult one. As the route was
not negotiable by laden mules, the kit was all sent by coolies. The
route followed up the course of the Kali was very narrow, in some
places only 3 feet wide or even less. It was passable for about
4 miles and the last piece of about 4 miles was a very steep zig-zag
ascent paved with rough stones and slippery. It made one feel
almost giddy to look down into the valley. At Khela as there was
no room to pitch tents, the party took up their residence in a few
houses belonging to the Patwari of the place.
A halt was made at this camp on the 7th July and the party
left on the 8th for the next camp at Thithla at a distance of
8 miles. This was reached at 9-30 a.m. It had rained heavily
the previous night and the ground was all damp. The tents had
been pitched in a small sloping field and the weather was so cold
that warm clothing was called for. In the evening a good many
villagers came to the camp for medicines and as much as could be
spared was readily given.
On the 9th July Galagar was reached and on the 10th Malpa,
a total distance of 21 miles. The latter was the most dangerous
part of the route and tired the party very much. " We walked
over rough stones and boulders," says Dr. Rangachar, "right on
the river bank, now running this way and now that, up and down,
helter-skelter ! We again crossed the Kali where it was narrowest
and began our ascents and descents through rugged narrow paths,
always precariously clinging to the edge or side of a precipice."
Captain Nabi Khan's poetic effusion relating to this march is
amusing :
" From Galagar to Garbayang, we crawled eight miles
Over boulders and rocks of every size,
To call it a road is all damn lies,
It is ^ short cut tp Heaven, if you slip sidewise,
372
The Medical Professor — what shall I say of his fate ?
Every few steps he progressed, he made a long wait.
For a mile we passed through the Nepal State,
The 10th of July is a memorable date.
Our beloved Maharaja, he led the whole way,
His kindness and charity, my words fail to say,
O ! Lord of the Kailas ! to you we all pray,
O ! Guard and protect him each hour of the day."
On the llth July the party left at 5 a.m. for the next camp
Budi and reached it at 9 a.m., a distance of about 7 miles. The
%
party rode for about a mile and then had to walk, as it became
unsafe to ride. The path was extremely narrow and, as usual,
on the edge of a precipice, with gaps in several places due to
landslips. These were "bridged by beams thrown across and
covered over with rough pieces of wood laid across, with earth on
top. There were several landslips, some of them recent, and in
one spot was heard a large stone falling into the valley with a
crash as soon as the party had passed the place. It was raining
most of the way. There were seen huge masses of snow in the
water in the valley on either side of the route. The camp was
pitched on a flat piece of ground about 2 acres in extent. There
was bright sunshine till 4 p.m. and the weather afterwards became
cloudy with chill winds blowing. The elevation of the place was
9600 feet.
The next day Garbayang a distance of 5 miles was reached.
At Garbayang there was a school with 30 children who welcomed
His Highness with songs. The elevation here was 10,500 feet and
the temperature early in the morning was 56 degrees Farenheit.
In the evening several Tibetans came to sell the locally made
woollen carpets and boots. The sole of the boots was made of thick
woollen twist and the top was made of multi-coloured pieces of
broad cloth, velvet etc., and reached up to the knee. In some cases
the sole which was an inch and a quarter thick was covered with
thin leather. Here at some distance was witnessed the third day
funeral ceremonies of the Bhotias. A quantity of wood had been
piled up and set on fire, round which the people danced to the
373
music of drums and cymbals, — men, women and children — with a
shield in the left hand and a naked sword in the right. Now and
again, they drank from a small cup a kind of liquor prepared out of
fermented rice and jaggery.
An enforced halt of 2 days was made at Garbayang as one of
the bridges ahead required repairs. The night was very cool and
on the next day from 8 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon, there
was brilliant sunshine and then alternate sunshine and drizzling
rain. Some Tibetans were found here with ponies for sale. These
people kept their hair uncut, parting it the centre in front and
plaiting it behind just as women in South India do. These Tibetans
had very little growth of hair on the upper lip and no beard, but
were found strong and sturdy. A Tibetan village headman from
Takalakot said to be a military officer who had to mobilise a
thousand fighting men when called upon by his Government to do
so came here with another Tibetan supposed to be rich but in
tattered garments. They paid their respect to His Highness and
noted down the strength of the party, the weapons in their posses-
sion and the object of the visit and then left. Later, the Rani of
Sanghai from the United Provinces, a most venerable-looking old
lady who was also on a pilgrimage to Kailas, had an interview with
His Highness. On the 14th there was nothing eventful. His
Highness and some of the party went down to the river-bed for a
walk and the advance party for the next camp left at 12 noon.
On the 15th July Garbayang was left at 6 a.m. and the next
camp was Kalapani, a distance of a little over 9 miles. The party
had to descend at first to the bed of the river Kali, a distance of
about half a mile. It was very slippery and more than two inches
of clay had stuck to the soles of the hob-nailed boots worn by the
party. In very many places it was impossible to ride or go in a
dandie and much walking was tiresome owing to the rarefied
atmosphere. The altitude at the camp was 12,000 feet above the
sea level, causing giddiness to a few of the party.
After making a halt on the 16th at Siangchum a distance of
about 5 or 6 miles, the next camp Takalakot was reached on the
374
17th at 10-30 a.m., though at the time the party started, there was
pouring rain. The village which was in Tibetan territory was
fairly large. The houses were built of mud and stone and roofed
over with mud on wooden joists and sticks. The villagers were
found to be extremely ugly and dirty, varying in complexion from
jet black to brown and all the men wore large ear-rings in their left
ear. Immediately behind the Mysore camp on a ridge about 300
feet above was the residence of the Jungpon (a Tibetan Commis-
sioner and District Magistrate) which looked like a castle.
Attached to it was also a large Buddhist monastery. The Jungpon
paid a visit to His Highness in the evening and presented some
Tibetan carpets. The interview took place with the help of Bhotia
interpreters and group photos were taken. He was accompanied
by his daughter, a girl of 14 or 15 years who was much interested in
the binoculars and cameras which the party carried. The Jungpon
was tall and well-built and had an air of authority about him.
Many Tibetans were revolving their prayer wheels. Here and
there stones smeared with red earth were piled up, and amidst the
piles sticks were fixed, to which rags of various colours were tied
and on some of the stones Buddhist prayers were found carved.
On the 18th July at eight in the morning the Maharaja with
some of the party started on a visit to the Jungpon. A zig-zag
'ascent had to be made over a pathway which was slippery on
account of the soil being loose and stony. When the top of the
ridge was reached, the Jungpon conducted His Highness through a
narrow passage to his residence. After passing through a gate and
ascending a few steps, the party entered a sort of courtyard in
which his mules were housed and on a small terrace was tied his
ferocious Tibetan dog, barking and tugging at his ropes to reach
the strangers. Another dirty courtyard was reached through a
flight of steps in which several blacksmiths and silversmiths were
working at a saddle. They were very dirty and one of them was
ferocious-looking. The Jungpon next conducted the party to his
private room, where they were all seated. The room was dark
with only one window and on one side there was an image of
and VWPUS other images, with silver wd bronze
375
containing consecrated water, bells and other accessories of worship,
all neatly arranged on wooden steps. The walls were painted with
dragons, parrots, deer etc., on a green background, and the whole
smelt of stale butter and ghee. For himself the Jungpon had a
cosy raised dais with cushions aad Tibetan carpets. Above him, on
the wall were hung some firearms of Chinese make and a small
stringed musical instrument on which he played some short
Tibetan airs. A gramophone with some records was presented to
the Jungpon and he was taught how to handle them. A pair of
binoculars also was presented. The Jungpon having shown much
interest in the nice Malacca walkingstick which had a dog's head
with a silver muzzle carved at the end of its bent handle which
His Highness held in his hand, the same was readily presented at
which the Jungpon was mightily pleased. By the side of one of the
passages was a dark room which was used as a Jock-up.
Next, the party was conducted to a large adjoining monastery
which was several storeys high, all with mud roofs, with small
covered openings on the top for ventilation and the escape of
smoke. In a fairly spacious hall supported on crudely carved
pillars, there were wooden seats for the Lamas and long narrow
mattresses for the smaller Lamas and the boy priests or novices
arrange4 in rows for them to sit or eat their food.
On a higher level was the sanctum in which there was a clay
image of a sitting Buddha painted in gold with a pleasing
expression and another of the Dalai Lama, with various accessories
for worship consisting of silver and brass cups, lamps full of butter
with burning wicks, drums, cymbals etc., too numerous to mention.
There was also a bowl made of the upper half of a human skull
lined inside with silver plate out of which consecrated water was
poured out with a spoon to the devotees. All round in shelves the
library of the monastery had been arranged. The whole place was
dark and smelt of stale butter. The Lamas and their pupils were
very dirty and were clad in brown or chocolate gowns with a waist*
band and had their heads close cropped. The chief Lama was then
visited and he was found to be a very old man. He made kind
enquiries regarding His Highness and others of the party and gave
376
some consecrated things consisting of some incense mixed with
dry moss and a piece of thin muslin received from the Dalai Lama
with his blessings. In all the dark passages there were the prayer
wheels and drums, which the devotees turned round while passing.
His Highness took leave of the Jungpon at about 11 a.m. and
returned to camp under a hot sun.
In the evening at about 5 o'clock a party of Tibetan dancers, some
men and two women, were sent by the Jungpon for the amusement
of His Highness and the party. The dancers were all fantastically
dressed, the men wearing masks and baggy trousers which bulged
out when they danced round and the women wore several tassels
round the waist that spread out along with their skirts. The dance
lasted for about half-an-hour to the accompaniment of a Tibetan
drum and a pair of brass cymbals worked by a woman. Several
Tibetan curios such as carved painted tables or stools, bronze
bells, silver filigree work, kettles were brought to the camp for sale.
There was not a drop of water on the ridge and women carried
water in iron drums on their backs from the river. The Tibetan
men and women were strong and sturdy and when they wished to
show respect to others, they put their tongues out several times.
They lived mostly on meat either fresh or dried and ' Sattu ' (fried
wheat powder) and rarely some kind of bread. •
On the 19th July His Highness again paid a visit to the
monastery and presented Khillats to the chief Lama who held a
regular religious durbar. The head Lama took his seat on a
special dais and he was first given consecrated water and some tea.
The other Lamas were then given the same and betwixt chantings
they all partook of dried meat, " Sattu ", and some cake. The
devotees made their offerings to the Lama and in return got his
blessings.
On the 20th July a start was made at 5 a.m. to the next camp
at a place called Rungung, a distance of about & miles. The
elevation at this place was 14,400 feet. Perfect stillness prevailed
throughout but for the jingling of bells on the necks of ponies
belonging to the party or the bark of the village dogs. There were
377
no birds seen on the route. Rice was underboiled at these heights
and the lips and noses of several of the party became cracked on
account of the cold to which emollients had to be applied.
On the 21st July the next halting place Gori Odial about
11 miles was reached at 8-30 a.m., the march occupying about
3i hours. Here were seen a few yaks that were used for carrying
pack-loads.
The next day Manasarowar was reached, at a distance of
about 10 or 11 miles, at about 9 in the morning. When the end of
the Gurla Pass was reached, the sun rose and the mists cleared
and a clear view of Lake Manas was obtained. After descending
for about a mile from the Gurla Pass towards the Manas Lake and
going for about 3 miles over the broad level ground along its shore,
the camp was reached at about 9 a.m., pitched only about 30 feet
from the water's edge and in full view of the lake, a distance of
about 10 or 11 miles from the last camp. His Highness and all
the Hindus in the camp bathed in the Lake and the water was so
cold as made one gasp for breath. Tarpans or oblations were then
offered to the names of ancestors, as this was a sacred lake not only
for the Tibetans but for the Hindus also. The elevation was
about 14,900 feet. The Rani of Sanghai also travelled with the
Mysore party from Garbayang and some sadhus who were also on
a pilgrimage to Kailas were helped with money and provisions.
CHAPTER XLV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Maharaja as a Pilgrim — From Manasarowar to
Mount Kailas and return.
On the morning of the 23rd July, the party left the western
shores of the Lake and went along its water's edge towards the
north for about 6 miles. On the way on a steep hill with loose
slippery side towards the lake, there was a monastery which His
Highness visited. About here several ducks were seen of moderate
size, some white in colour with a black patch over their heads and
others grey or brown. There were also some kinds of smaller birds
on the shore which flew away on the approach of the party. The
camp which had been pitched at a distance of about 1 1 miles was
reached at 9-30 a.m. Nearby was a hot sulphur spring and over
the hillock was a monastery. About noon a glimpse of the Kailas
peak was obtained through a gap in the clouds. Piercingly cold
winds blew throughout the day, though the sun was shining.
On the 24th leaving at 5-30 a.m., the foot of the Kailas Range
was reached at about 8-30 a.m., a distance of about 8 miles. On
the way small hares were seen running about. There were only
two houses near the camp and a large herd of yaks was seen here.
On account of the rarefied atmosphere, it was found that neither
man nor beast could exert much. There was here a Tar j an or
assistant to the Jungpon who could depute any one he liked to act
for him in his absence. His Highness visited his residence and was
conducted to a somewhat dark room with a single small window,
furnished in the same style as that of the Jungpon at Takalakot.
There was also a stringed musical instrument like a Banjo on which
the Tarjan played two short Tibetan tunes singing them himself at
the same time. The dwelling of a Tibetan shepherd was also
visited. It was a pit about 10 feet square and waist deep in the
ground and smoothened with mud-paste and roofed over with cloth
made of yak hair. There was a mudstove inside for cooking and in
one corner there was a small image of Buddha with cups for water.
379
lamp etc. It was quite snug inside, the whole family residing in
that single room. Many Tibetans, especially women, applied
jaggery paste to their cheeks and over their nose as a cosmetic
which made them hideous-looking. This they did to prevent
cracks in the skin. There were also seen some black crows which
were four times the size of those in India.
On the morning of the 25th July a start was made for the next
camp at a distance of about 7 miles. The whole Kailas Range
here became distinctly visible. The party had to cross over to the
other side of the maidan which was mostly boggy with innumerable,
small, tortuous streams coursing through it to go to Darchin where
the camp was. In this place was the residence of the governor
appointed by Sikkim to which country the place was stated to
belong. The governor was known as the Raja Loba and the camp
was pitched opposite to his residence with a hill stream intervening.
The other abodes consisted of rowties only in which several families
lived. As soon as the camp was reached, information was received
that the governor had too much liquor the previous night and had
very severe bleeding from the nose. He was treated by the
Maharaja's doctors, Mr. Rangachar and his assistant, and it was
found to be one of the worst cases treated by these doctors.
The governor was a tall, sturdy, fair-complexioned individual with
bushy hair and he recovered in the evening. After 5 p.m. His
Highness with some of the party paid a visit to Gangta-Gompa,
the biggest of the five Buddhist monasteries round about Kailas.
It was not as big as the one at Takalakot but was equally dark and
dirty inside. It was also a mud and stone storeyed structure. His
Highness was received at the entrance of the monastery by an old
Lama with burning incense, to the accompaniment of the blowing of
trumpets, horns and other instruments on the topmost mud terrace.
His Highness presented some red banath pieces and some cash to
the monastery.
26th July — Darchin was at the foot of the Kailas Range on its
eastern aspect. It was from this spot that pilgrims went to the
right and finished circumambulation or parikrama of Mount Kailas.
The party left camp at 5-30 a.m., followed the b^se of d ridge for
380
about 2 miles, when they came across a flat-bottomed valley with
a river flowing through it and separating Mount Kailas from
another hill chain. As the party entered the valley, they again
turned to the right and followed up the river on level ground for
about 5 or 6 miles and saw the peak in its southern and western
aspects. About the middle of this valley there was a monastery
known as Nendiphu on the other side of the river which was not
visited. High up on the Kailas side, there were some ibex
grazing. Owing to the high altitude and also on account
of some sulphureous smell here and there, exertion was very
difficult for both man and beast of the plains. The last 3 miles was
a gradual ascent over loose stones to* Didiphu, another small
monastery on the side of a stream. The party was completely
tired by 1 1 a.m. The camp had been pitched at the foot of Mount
Kailas on fairly level ground and the Mount itself was very near.
A good stream flowed down from the Kailas into a river down
the valley.
In the evening Dr. Rangachar, Major Gopala Rao and the
Tahsildar Mr. Pratap Singh mounted their ponies and went up a
rocky and slippery ascent to the base of the Mount said to be
18,000 feet above sea level, the elevation of the camp itself being
16,200 feet. The base of the peak was almost a parallelogram
and the Mount rose perpendicularly and the top was shaped like a
dome. When they reached the base, they found two huge masses
of snow had formed a buttress against it and through a triangular
opening below at the junction of the two masses a beautiful
stream was found gushing forth. In a small niche in a snow-wall
was a beautiful snow Lingam about 9 inches high and 3 inches in
diameter. The niche had the shape of a saracenic arch. It and
the Lingam at its entrance were so perfect that it was difficult for
the visitors to say if it was an accidental formation in the snow or
the handiwork of any skilled devotee. As it was about to get dark,
the visitors marched down carefully, in some places over hard
snow, to the camp, collecting on the way three specimens of a
flower known as Brahma Kamal or the Brahma Lotus, greyish in
colour, and reached the camp at 7-30 p.m. Some pigeons near the
camp were observed.
381
The second stage of the Parikram of Mount Kailas began
at 5-30 on the morning of the 27th July. For the first 3 or 4 miles
the route lay over a steep and stony ascent, tiresome both to men
and animals, till a ridge called Gowrikund, 18,600 feet above
sea level, the highest altitude during this trip, was reached. The
ascent however was nothing to the local Tibetans. The Gowrikund
was found to be a small frozen lake, with sheets of ice on it, with
rough craggy sides. From this ridge an easy descent of about
two miles over loose stones was made into the bottom of a valley
through which a stream was flowing. The valley was quite marshy
and added to the difficulties of the march. The sun was sharp and
there was a sulphureous odour also. At short intervals were found
several heaps of stones with carved Buddhist texts interposed.
When the camp at Zindiphu was reached about 10-30 a.m., it was
found to have been pitched right in front of a small, dirty
monastery.
On the morning of the 28th when the party started as usual
at 5-30 in the morning, a clear view of Goorla Mandhatha Range
was obtained. After proceeding for 3 miles down the valley along
the stream, Barkha maidan was again reached, the Parikram of
Kailas being finished. Barkha itself was reached at 8-45 a.m.,
a distance of 7 miles. The party were pleased that their pilgrimage
had thus far succeeded and that their return journey was
begun. In the evening as the sun was setting in the western
horizon, a mass of clouds above appeared golden and as the rest of
the sky was clear, a distinct view of the whole Kailas was obtained,
while the full moon rose on the eastern horizon.
On the 29th in deference to the wishes of the Rani of
Sanghai, His Highness camped on the borders of the Manas
2 miles south of Jieu Gompa and many had a dip in the Manas as
the day happened to be a full-moon day. The day was remarkable
in that strong gusts of cold wind brought down all the rowties
between 4 and 5 p.m. Subsequently the wind ceased fortunately.
At about 7 p.m. in the eastern horizon opposite to the camp just
where two ranges of hills sloped towards each other and in the
the Brahmaputra flowed out of Lake Manas, the full moon — a
382
brilliant, beautiful, big sphere — slowly rose up leaving a long silvery
column of its reflection in the calm waters of the lake and
gladdened all, giving an opportunity to Mr. Nabi Khan to expose
his camera. On the way a lean, lanky cheeta was observed to go
up a hill.
Three more stages on the return journey were completed on
the 30th and 31st July and 1st August respectively, a total distance
of 32 miles. On the 2nd August the party proceeded to Khojarnath
to visit a well-known monastery there. It was situated south-east
of Takalakot on the Mopchu or Karnali river. On the way were
found small, neat villages with well-cultivated plots containing
luxuriant peas, barley and a kind of wheat which was called Jav
and watered by diverted hill streams that formed neat canals. Each
village had its sheep and cattle grazing on the green grass bordering
the canals. The intense green of the cultivated fields was a pretty
sight. The canals were bordered by some blue, wild flowers. The
latter half of the route consisted of ascents and descents. The
camp was reached in 4 hours.
The village of Khojarnath was in the Sikkim territory and
consisted of a semi-circular plot of sloping ground, about 2 miles in
diameter, with a chain of hills for a background and a broad river
the Karnali separating it from another chain of hills on the Nepal
side. The monastery was situated right on the river bank unlike
other monasteries perched on steep precipitous hillocks. On
entering through a crooked, covered passage, the party came to a
square, open space with buildings on all the four sides. The main
shrine was covered terra cotta with mud plastering outside the
walls. On the terrace a round brass disc with a brass deer on
either side greeted the eye in front. On entering the gate, there
was a small courtyard the walls of which were painted with neat
figures of Buddha, flowers and wild animals. On proceeding
through an inner door on either side of which revolving prayer
drums or casks covered with leather were fixed, the party came
upon a small room on either side of which stood two painted clay
giants about 8 feet high. It was said that one of them represented
Havana. Beyond was a hall about 20 feet by 50 feet with wooden
pillars in two rows, and two rows of seats covered with mattresses
for the Lamas to sit in prayer. At the further end of the hall,
there was an image of seated Buddha with all the accessories for
worship. Behind this, there was a space of about 4 feet right
across and at the farthest end of the hall over a pedestal about 4
feet high were 3 standing metallic images cast out of an alloy with
more of copper in it, of Seetha, Rama and Lakshmana, each about
7 or 8 feet in height with a Prabhavali or a frame of Gothic shape
behind them. The whole casting was of exquisite workmanship.
Across the base of the pedestal, there was a perfect elephant at one
end and a horse at the other end, and in between, several gods and
goddesses in a sitting posture. Above this, there was something
like the stalk of a lotus, on either side of which were two nymphs
with bent backs and looking upward with folded hands. Then over
this came the lotus petals, the lower half turned downwards and
the upper half set upwards to form the top of the pedestal. On
this stood the image of Rama with Seetha to the right and
Lakshmana to the left. In fact, the pedestal formed a beautifully
designed bracket for the images. The faces were painted nicely.
There seemed to be more of silver in the alloy out of which the
images had been cast. The Prabhavali or the setting frame showed
designs of peacocks and other animals with some creepers and was
very beautiful. There were also two lions crouching on either side
of the base and when the hands were put behind the base, a gust of
air was felt. The figures were draped in cloth of gold and some
jewellery containing mostly torquoise and there was an embroidered
head-gear also over each image. The whole casting was faultless
and full of beauty. How old the images were it was unknown.
There was also a narrow, dark passage for pilgrims to go round the
main shrine. On a high bench facing the images, there were
several large silver and gold bowls containing ghee with wicks
placed in the centre and burning day and night. There was an
open Prakar or compound round this building in which innumerable
revolving prayer drums were installed. In a room there was a
huge drum or cylinder about 10 feet high and 5 feet in
diameter, with iron rings to set it going, and inscribed all
384
over with the sacred mantram " Om mani padme ham " in Tibetan
script. The wheel was constantly revolved by an old woman
sitting nearby. On coming out, the party turned into another door
on the left and on entering a similar very large hall paved with
mud and rough stones, found in a dark room a painted huge clay
image of Buddha as if seated on a stool or chair. In a large room
to the left of the hall there were several painted clay images of
rishis or saints all seated cross-legged and in an attitude of prayer.
Opposite to this room, i.e., to the right of the hall, in another
similar dark, large room there were again seven such, all sitting
cross-legged but with their hands clasped in various attitudes
denoting what were called Mudras. These latter were known as
Saptarishis or seven saints. To the left of the Buddha shrine in
another dark dungeon, there were two wild-looking figures of Kala
and Kali, all of painted clay and leather. In one corner of the roof
of the main hall, there were found suspended a crudely stuffed
gigantic wild yak and a tiger. The party then adjourned to the
first floor of the building where they were shown clay images of
Kali and Lakshmi installed in a large library containing many
printed Tibetan scriptures. This monastery was very much clear
than those seen before. The surroundings however were very
dirty, and outside the building on a wall was shown in gigantic
letters made of mud-paste and painted white the same " Om mani
padme ham." Nearby was a small detached tower supported on a
square base, with each side composed of a low, round arch. After
leaving the monastery, His Highness and the party went to the
residence of a young Lama higer up the valley — a neat building
of mud and stone. The courtyard on the first floor had a wooden
flooring and was neat and had nicely painted walls and wooden
railings. On one side of this courtyard on a sort of gadi or dais
sat the Lama aged only 16 and by his side on a lower seat was
found a child Lama aged only 6 years. Both of them were
supposed to be incarnations.. Both were fair*complexioned and
had a very smart appearance. The elder Lama had a bushy hair
and was reading some scriptures. He had, it was said, made a
vow not to stir outside the building for three years. He made kind
enquiries of His Highness who presented him with two pieces of
385
red and bright blue banaths and some cash. The Lama gave to
His Highness and the others his blessings and prasad.
From Khojarnath which was left on the 3rd August 1931 the
return journey to Almora occupied 21 days, the latter place being
reached on the 24th August. At Pala on the 5th August the
Tibetan territory was left behind and the party entered the Indian
territory. On the 6th August at Garbayang the local Bhotias
danced in a circle before His Highness with a shield in the left
hand and a sword in the right to the accompaniment of drums and
cymbals. On the 9th August when the party was on its way to the
camp at Galagar, a big stone fell injuring two or three coolies but not
very seriously. Some tent poles they were carrying were smashed.
On the way to the next camp Thithla a big stone got loose from above
and Mr. Venkatasubbaiya and his pony had a hair-breadth escape,
passing as it did right in front of him and falling into the valley.
On the 15th a halt was made at Askot as it was raining heavily,
and here the Rajwar Saheb invited His Highness and the party to
tea. On the 19th on the way to the camp at Saniodhiar, the path
lay through pine forests and several villages were passed on the
way with their luxuriant crops and streams. Most of the villagers
were waiting to have a darshan of His Highness and showered
flowers on him when he passed them. There was a small
orphanage maintained by an American missionary lady. On the
20th the camp at Bageshwar was reached. Bageshwar was found
situated right on both the banks of the Sarju rapids. Here the
party camped in the spacious dak bungalow which was situated
only about 20 feet from the water's edge. To the left was a very
nice suspension bridge, about 60 feet long, the width of the river.
The elevation was 3200 feet. There were two bazaars, one on
either side of the river. The people here gave a most enthusiastic
reception to His Highness decorating the streets and showering
flowers on him. The prominent citizens waited on His Highness
in the evening and presented an address in Hindi, enclosed in an
embroidered velvet bag, praying for a donation for extending the
local school-building. On the 21st August Binsar was reached, a
distance of 17 miles. His Highness camped in the bungalow of
A49
386
Mr. Devi Lai Sha, a rich merchant of Almora. On the 24th
Almora was reached and a halt of two days was made. During
these two days His Highness granted interviews to Government
officers and to several of the prominent citizens, and souvenirs,
Khillats and liberal presents were given to all who had rendered
service to His Highness. Almora was left on the 27th August and
Mysore was reached on the 7th September, greatly to the joy of His
Highness' subjects and of the members of the Royal family, thus
completing the pilgrimage and returning safely to his Capital with
all his followers after a hazardous journey of 2 months and 20 days.
CHAPTER XLVI.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Administrative and other improvements — 1926 — 1936.
Census of 1931.
The seventh Census was taken on Thursday the 26th February
1931 under the direction of Mr. M. Venkatesa lyengar of the Mysore
Civil Service who had been appointed Census Superintendent for
Mysore. The total population of the State on the date mentioned
was found to number 65,57,302 made up of 33,53,963 males and
32,03,339 females, the figures showing an increase of 5,78,410 over
those of 1921. The rate of increase for the whole population was
97 per mille. This population of over 6j millions was distributed in
16,591 towns and villages. The area of the State being 29,326
square miles, the density of the population in the State at the time
of this Census was 224 persons per square mile as compared with
142 in 1881 and the increase was more than 50 per cent compared
with the figures of the Census of 1881. Mr. Venkatesa lyerigar in
his Report has made some observations on this growth of population
which afford material for thought. " There are several reasons,"
he says, " for thinking that under present conditions the population
of the State, if it has not overtaken, is at any rate running abreast
of the means of subsistence. The first of these reasons is its low
standard of living Information about the standard of living of
the people in the State is lamentably lacking. A low standard of
living, the prevalence of unemployment and the presence of a
population which can migrate if a decent living were available
elsewhere, seem together to indicate that the State has a population
larger than its resources as now exploited can support in comfort."
Encouragement to Trade and Manufacture.
Further attention now began to be paid for the encouragement
of the trade and industries of Mysore. The statistics of the
railborne trade of the year 1924-25 showed a total trade during the
year valued at Rs. 25.45 crores, the value of the imports being about
Rs, 12.47 crores and that of exports about Rs. 12.98 crores.
388
Deducting from these figures the total value of the trade due to the
Gold Mines — an industry conducted under exceptional conditions — ,
the imports exceeded the exports by about Rs. li crores. On the
30th September 1926 Sir Mirza Ismail convened a meeting at the
Daly Memorial Hall, Bangalore, at which a large body of merchants,
tradesmen, bankers and others were present and a discussion took
place regarding the measures to be adopted for the expansion of
both trade and manufacture. The Dewan explained that the
foreign trade of the State passing through the railway no doubt
showed some increase in the figures, being then about Rs. 2529
lakhs as against Rs. 1677 lakhs in 1913-14. A great deal, however,
of this apparent increase was due to changes affecting the currency.
The total value of the trade of the State per head of population was
only Rs. 40 and both exports and imports were more or less
stationary. The trade in grains and pulses, in piece-goods and
cloth, in leather and skins, metals, oil-seeds and the like had passed
from local merchants into the hands of outsiders from distant
provinces in India who naturally took advantage of the openings
they found in Mysore. It was time, said Sir Mirza, that the people
of Mysore took a leaf out of their book and devised methods to give
training in large business houses to their boys, popularising suitable
schemes of apprenticeship for them. Further, it was necessary to
improve the methods of saving by which the availability of cheap
capital might be rendered automatic. Those interested in trade
should travel not only in India but also in foreign countries in order
to widen their outlook and strengthen their business connections.
Ten years ago, the Dewan further said, a Chamber of Commerce
was inaugurated in Bangalore, but a network of mercantile or
Trades' Associations affiliated to the chamber or assisting it in its
work and co-operating with it in its endeavours to further its
objects was yet to be created. Sir Mirza while expressing the
keen desire of His Highness' Government to afford all possible
facilities for the protection and expansion of the trades and
industries of the State, plaintively exclaimed that the trade condi-
tions were still primitive in the State, that the importance and value
of trade statistics had not yet been realised, and that enterprise and
adventure were wholly lacking. No doubt, the Bank of Mysore
389
started some years ago had done good work and had been of yeoman
service to the trade of the State, but there was still room for the
expansion of its usefulness.
In furtherance of these objects, marketing surveys were
subsequently conducted in collaboration with the Government of
India in respect of rice, wheat, groundnuts, linseed, tobacco, fruit,
eggs, milk, cattle, hides and skins. The virtues of Mysore goods
came to be prominently advertised in most of the leading newspapers
in India as well as in some of the newspapers in England. At
Bombay a Mysore Emporium was organised in order to improve
the sales of Mysore products and to facilitate an intensive propa-
ganda being carried on. It was opened on the 14th April 1936 by
Sir Chunilal Mehta. The emporium makes an effective display of
the products of the Government factories, and facilities have been
afforded to the private manufacturers also to display their articles.
Revival of Dasara Exhibition.
The Dasara Exhibition at Mysore was re-opened in 1927 after
an interval of 8 years and has continued to be held regularly from
that year. In 1928 Sir Mirza Ismail explained the objects of this
annual exhibition in these words : " The real function of an annual
exhibition like ours is to throw on the screen, so to speak, the
industrial activities and progress of the country. Each year's
exhibition should afford a cross section of the economic advance
of the country and show in a striking manner the chief points
of divergence and progress; and the Dasara at Mysore is the
most appropriate time for this stock-taking, because people from
all parts of the State and also from outside congregate here for
the national festival in a care-free and receptive state of mind.
As the exhibition should not only illustrate and record but
also teach and suggest, it should be the special care of the
Development Departments of the State to see that the most recent
knowledge pertaining to their work is exhibited in an easily
understandable form "
A Trade Commissioner (or Mysore.
In the year 1929 various defects were discovered in the
arrangement that existed of entrusting the sale of sandfU oil to
390
private agents. Government, therefore, deputed Mr. N. Madhava
Rao (now a member of the State Council) to make a close
investigation of the entire question in England and in America and
to formulate proposals for the realisation of the moneys due to
Government and for the adequate safeguarding of the sandal oil
business. This executive measure, though it was primarily
suggested by the requirements of the sandal oil business, later began
to exercise a very important influence on the trade interests of the
State in general, as it led to the permanent appointment of a Trade
Commissioner in London for Mysore. This officer, in addition to
his duties connected with the sandal oil business, has also been
entrusted with other functions of great importance to the develop-
ment of industries and commerce of the State. A close study of
the exports and imports of the State for formulating proposals to
conduct commercial transactions to the largest advantage of the
State, the extent to which markets for Mysore products can be
extended, the possibilities of supplying the requirements of foreign
countries by the development of industries for which Mysore
enjoys natural advantages, scientific and technical improvements
in manufactures which may advantageously be introduced in
Mysore, collection of commercial and industrial information having
a bearing on the existing or potential industries of the State and
making it available for those interested in commercial and
industrial enterprises — these also engage the attention of the Trade
Commissioner. Mr. N. Madhava Rao held the place of the Trade
Commissioner till he was relieved by Mr. 13. T. Kesava lyengar
of the Mysore Civil Service.
Sericultural Developments.
During the period between 1926-35 the silk industry was
confronted with a serious set back, supporting as it did about one-
eighth of the total population of the State. Due to the depressed
state of the market in America and the depreciation of the Japanese
currency, large quantities of foreign silk including artificial silk,
especially from China, were dumped on the Indian market at very
low prices. As a consequence, there was a marked fall in Mysore
in mulberry cultivation, production of cocoons and silk products,
391
The export of silk goods from Mysore to outside places which
amounted to 8,66,000 R>s in 1925-26 fell to 3,66,800 K>s in 1933,
while the imports which were comparatively insignificant in the
previous year rose to 1,64,400 lt>s. The area under mulberry
cultivation in the State decreased from 53,000 to 30,000 acres in
seven years.
In 1932 a representation was made to the Government of India
to increase the duty on raw silk and silk goods imported from
China and Japan. The question was referred by that Government
to their Tariff Board to investigate the case for protection. The
Board took evidence and on its recommendation the Government
of India passed a measure known as the Textile Protection
Amendment Act, 1934, which afforded however no substantial
protection as spun silk was given no protection.
In the meanwhile, the Mysore Government also took vigorous
measures for guarding this industry from ruin. In March 1927
the Sericultural Department was transferred to the control of the
Director of Industries and Commerce. An officer of the depart-
ment was also deputed to study the requirements of the Northern
India silk markets. It was found that the most serious drawback
was the inferior quality of the reeling due to the primitive character
of the appliances in use. An improved reeling machine patented
under the name of * The Mysore Domestic Basin ' was designed
by Mr. N. Rama Rao who was then Superintendent of Sericulture,
his object being to supplant the local charka.
A central Sericultural Association was formed in 1927 and
Mushir-ul-Mulk Mir Humza Hussain, a retired Member of the
State Council was its first President. The Association proved
itself a powerful ally of the department in propaganda work which
was essential for a comprehensive improvement of the industry
throughout the State. The first President died in the following
year and his place was taken by Dewan Bahadur Mr. K. R. Srinivasa
lyengar, also a retired member of the State Council. A scheme
of aided grainages introduced by the Government was adopted
with enthusiasm by those concerned and the supply of disease-
free eggs by Government farms began to be on a much
larger scale than before. The erection of a Silk Weaving and
Dyeing Factory at Mysore was completed in November 1931 and
work was commenced in January 1932. Mysore is now only
one of the two States represented on the Imperial Sericultural
Committee, the other being Kashmir.
The Dasara Exhibition of 1935.
The Exhibition held during the Dasara of 1935 was managed
by a special committee of which Rajamantrapravina Mr. S. P.
Rajagopalachar, Member of the State Council, was the chairman
and Mr. S. G. Sastry was the secretary, and the exhibits were so
arranged as to give a panoramic view of the progress made by
Mysore in arts and industries. More than a lakh of people visited
the exhibition. One noticeable feature of the exhibition of this
year was the increased attention paid to the educative side and the
importance attached to manufacture rather than to retail sales as in
previous years. As this aspect was specially kept in view by the
various departments of the Government of Mysore, special efforts
were made by them to exhibit the various activities in which they
were engaged. The very useful castings made at the Mysore Iron
Works, the fine sugar from the Mandya Sugar Factory, the
unrivalled quality of the Mysore sandal oil, the beautiful fabrics
shown in the stall of the Silk Weaving Factory, the modern ploughs
and spraying machines manufactured by the Central Industrial
Workshop, the insulators produced by the Porcelain Factory, the
guaranteed medicinal products of the Industrial and Testing
Laboratory, the artistic furniture of the Chamarajendra Technical
Institute, the children's dream in the form of new toys prepared
at the Chennapatna Industrial School and last but not
least, the well-known products of the Mysore Soap Factory — all
these were objects of great attraction. Another feature of
the exhibition was the number of demonstrations arranged by
the Department of Industries and Commerce. The Government
Soap Factory, Bangalore, demonstrated the process of soap-making
by the cold process which was capable of being practised as a home
industry. The same factory showed the different processes of toilet
soap manufacture. The Government Industrial and Testing
Laboratory demonstrated the process of manufacture of medicinal
tablets. Other demonstrations related to the manufacture of
electrical accessories, manufacture of improved varieties of bangles,
improved appliances in handloom weaving industry and to results
of sericultural research.
A special feature of the exhibition of this year was the part
played by the British Indian Postal Department in getting up for
the first time a show of their own under the guidance of Mr. G. V.
Bewoor, Director- General of Posts and Telegraphs. In this
section were shown by models the various methods of handling the
mail in India, such as steamship, railway, aeroplane, models of
letter-boxes, Post Offices and their appurtenances. There was also
a model illustrating the handling of the mail between Mysore and
Munnar, P.O., in the high range. On this route the mail was
carried by bus, rail, bullock-cart, ropeway and runner. There was
also a Broadcasting Section and here was exhibited a clock which
showed the time in a great number of towns in both hemispheres
simultaneously. The Telegraph, Telephone and Engineering
Sections displayed a variety of instruments of considerable value.
The various apparatus in use since the telegraph was first introduced
into India was also clearly illustrated, as also the effect of corrosion
by sea-air etc., on metal and the effect of lightning on the porcelain
insulators. Three Telephone Exchanges — Automatic, Central
Battery system and Repeater had been set up, also Bandot
Teleprinters, open and closed Morse Circuits, so that visitors could
see the actual working of the instruments. A small but valuable
collection of old and current stamps provided interest for Philatelists,
and a film showing the Post Office work in the city of Mysore was
projected automatically on a Kodascope in the Post Office portion
of the stall. The Neopost Franking Machine which was rapidly
replacing the adhesive stamps was specially interesting to
businessmen and journalists.
Ranging next to the Government of India exhibits was a grand
show arranged by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, under
the inspiration of its Director, Sir C. V. Raman. The contributions
to science both on the theoretical and practical side by the Director
A50
of the Institute and its staff and students was vividly brought
before the public.
Among the exhibitors was the firm of Mitsui Bussan Kaisha,
Ltd., of Tokio in Japan who for the first time displayed in Mysore
products of the various groups of industries under their control.
These exhibits gave the visitors an idea of the tremendous advance
made by Japan in recent years in the development of her
industries.
His Highness the Yuvaraja at the close of the exhibition
distributed the prizes and made the following observations : — " We
have just come to the conclusion of a Navaratri festival which in
the dignity of its ceremonial, in the brilliance of its pageantry, in
respect of the delights to the eye, the refreshment to the mind, the
sport and amusement provided, and in the multitude which have
come to enjoy it, has surpassed any of the most brilliant of its
predecessors Business to-day consists in persuading the
crowd. Advertising is the principle of mass production applied
to selling. Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to make
a better article. Business is never so healthy as when, like a
chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets.
These aphorisms which I have taken, not from the eloquent speeches
made at this exhibition but from the sayings of business magnates
such as Mr. Henry Ford, are nevertheless inherent in the advice
that has been given to you from year to year. It has been
suggested to you that what you want is village exhibitions! taluk
exhibitions and district exhibitions leading up to one great Dasara
Exhibition at the top of the pyramid. Then again, you require
sectional exhibitions such as are common in European countries, at
which each business in turn is given an opportunity of showing its
products. Thus you have in England exhibitions of machines, of
motors, of baking and confectionary, of dairy goods, of cloths, of
toys, and of numerous other groups of articles ; and great premises
which would accommodate this exhibition many times over are
kept busy almost throughout the year with one sectional exhibition
or another,
395
"Let me take one instance of a sectional exhibition that I
think would be infinitely invaluable to Mysore, and that is the one
that is suggested by His Highness the Maharaja in his speech here
in 1929 — an Ideal Home Exhibition. You have now a great boom
in building activity in the State and this is likely to increase if the
scheme for promoting House-Building Co-operative Societies comes
to pass. But which of you knows exactly what he wants in his
home? The idea of the home is developing from year to
year and in England, for instance, there has been an enormous
advance in the standard of comfort by the application to common
use of innumerable inventions as a result of Ideal Home Exhibitions
and the giving of prizes for the houses that give the greatest
amount of convenience for a limited sum. One of the best known
is the " Daily Mail House," and in that country a man of moderate
means who wishes to maintain a certain standard of convenience
can quite easily do so without going through the elaborate process
of employing architect, builder, etc., and learning by trial and
error, if he simply goes to a House-Building Society and says that
he wishes a house constructed on one or other of the standard
plans. I feel that, in circumstances like these, an Ideal Home
Exhibition would do an enormous amount to stimulate the building
trade, to promote the creation of House-Building Societies, and
above all, to increase the standard of comfort of the would-be
householder without involving him in unnecessary expense. If you
would add to that an exhibition of an idealised furniture which
would combine Eastern ideas of art with Western ideas of utility,
you would carry the idea one large stage further towards perfection.
The year that has just passed has seen a marked
advance in the publicity activities of our State It is
essential that none of us, and especially none of our business
people, should slacken in the effort both to keep Mysore goods in
the shop window and to see that there are plenty more in the shop
behind to justify the display. There is no better advice on this
subject than that of Sir W. S. Gilbert :
" If you wish in this world to advance,
" Your merits you are bound to enhance,
-396
" You must stir it and stump it,
" And blow your own trumpet,
" Or, trust me, you have'nt a chance."
CHAPTER XLVII.
Krishnaraja Wodcyar IV.
Various measures tending to the increase of material
prosperity— 1926— 1936.
Gold Mining.
It will be remembered that the Gold Mining leases were
renewed in December 1901 for a period of 30 years commencing
from 1910. The representatives of the Mining Companies applied
in 1934 for a further renewal of the leases, so that they might know
where they would stand in 1940 when the earliest lease was due to
expire. Accordingly the question was taken up for consideration
and fresh terms advantageous to the State were agreed upon for a
further period of 30 years from 1940. According to the new terms,
the State is to receive from the year 1940, in addition to the five
per cent Royalty on all gold produced, a Royalty calculated on
dividends varying from 2\ per cent to 40 per cent as the percentage
of dividend increased. In the interval between 1934 and 1940 it
was stipulated that the Mysore Government was entitled to receive
a yearly Royalty on dividends calculated at two-thirds of the scale
fixed for the new lease in lieu of the fixed 2\ per cent as settled in
1901. By this arrangement the State obtained the advantage of
participating to an increasing extent in the profits of the Companies
both during the interim between 1934-40 as well as in the future
from the latter year, while the Companies were enabled to arrange
their plans of working with a definite assurance of continuing in
possession of the mines for a further period of 30 years. As a result
of the new agreement concluded with the Companies and partly as
the effect of increased production and partly as the effect of
increased prices of gold, an incresse under Royalty amounting to
Rs. 9.80 lakhs accrued in 1935, besides an increase of income-tax
amounting to Rs. 1.63 lakhs.
i
The BhftdrtTftthi Iron Works.
The Bhadravathi Iron concern is now showing signs of improve-
ment. At the time the operations were started at Bhadravathi,
there was a general depression in the iron industry of the
598
The coal strike in England and the fall in the French and Belgian
Exchange affected the sale of Mysore charcoal pig iron in England
and on the continent. As some wrong impression prevailed
regarding the working of the iron mines, a committee of visitors
was appointed in 1928 from among the members of the Representa-
tive Assembly and the Legislative Council with a view to their
obtaining and disseminating first-hand information regarding these
works. Sir M. Visvesvaraya who had been chairman of the Board
of Management for 6$ years retired in 1929, his place being taken
by Sir M. N. Krishna Rao, a Member of the State Council.
The market for lime acetate was* considerably disturbed in
November 1929 by financial troubles in America and the position
was also subsequently rendered worse by the competition of
synthetic acid. The iron industry in India was in a somewhat
difficult position in 1930. The production was in excess of the
country's demand for iron and the export markets hitherto
available for the disposal of the surplus were rapidly contracting.
But the importance of the industry for national well-being could
hardly be over-estimated. A concern which manufactured only
intermediate products or relied largely upon an outside market was
always at a disadvantage. The Management therefore aimed at
developing gradually the manufacture of finished articles which
could find a ready market in the country.
In 1933 the position became worse by Japanese competition as
regards cast iron pipes. A representation was made to the Govern-
ment of India under the Anti-Dumping Law. The Iron and Steel
Duties Act of 1934 of the Government of India extended protection
to iron and steel products for seven years up to March 1941 and
gave some relief for the time being.
To tide over these difficulties, a Steel Plant was installed and
has been in operation from about the beginning of 1936. As a
result, the operations have yielded a profit which for the year from
July 1935 to the end of June 1936 are calculated to amount to
about Rs. 2 lakhs. The open-hearth furnace in the Steel Plant
was started on the 7th March 1936 and the Rolling Mills in the
first we$k of April About 3700 tops of steel ingots, 2000 tgns of
billets and 1250 tons of finished sections were manufactured up to
the end of August. Most of the troubles usually met with in the
initial stages have now been overcome. The furnance is designed
to give a daily output of 80 tons. The steel produced is found to
be exceptionally pure on account of very low percentages of
phosphorous and sulphur and is regarded as an ideal raw material for
special and other alloy steels. The high tension line from Mysore
to Bhadravathi supplies electric power to the plant for its working.
Economic Depression.
The economic activities, as we have seen, had received a
check for some years past. In 1927, however, the Economic
Superintendents were reappointed, one for each district. Statistics
of trade were incomplete as the trade across the frontier by road
was not taken into account, only figures relating to railborne trade
being ascertainable. Arrangements were therefore made in 1929
to collect statistics of trade passing across the more important
trade routes. But in 1931 it became necessary on account of
general depression to suspend the work of the Economic Conference
and to terminate the appointment of Economic Superintendents,
the Revenue Sub- Division Officers being entrusted with the work
of economic development in the districts.
The unparalleled economic collapse which began in 1931 all
over the world seriously dislocated the international trade. The
fall in commodity prices raised in about two years the real burden
of indebtedness by more than fifty per cent, falling with special
severity on countries in which the chief occupation was agriculture
and where primary commodities were largely raised for export.
Consequent on the suspension of the gold standard by the Govern-
ment in England, the downward trend in prices of commodities
was checked for sometime but it was shortlived. In 1931-32
the balance of railborne trade against Mysore was a little over
Rs. 2 crores, exports being a little over 8 crores and imports a
little over 10 crores of rupees. As Sir Mirza Ismail stated at the
Birthday Session of the Representative Assembly of the above
mentioned year, the causes were various for the phenomenal
economic depression that overtook the world. There had been,
400 -
according to Sir Mirza's analysis, slumps before; but what
distinguished the present slump was the extent and appalling
rapidity of the fall resulting in world-wide embarrassment and
inconvenience. No one could say definitely whether this world-
wide depression was due to the paucity or the maladministration
of the world's supply of gold, to over-production or under consump-
tion, to the fall in the price of silver, to the multiplication of the
tariff barriers since the German War especially in Europe, or to all
these causes put together. Production and consumption had got
out of step all the world over and people were faced with the
paradox of hunger caused by too much plenty. " A policy of
courage," concluded Sir Mirza, " is however the proper policy for
Mysore, and it is not therefore proposed that we should shut down
Bhadravathi or any of the other State industrial establishments
or call a halt in our schemes for development. On the other hand,
we have proposed that we should go ahead with the Irwin Canal,
with the new Silk Factory and with the electrification of towns
and similar schemes."
Extension of Electric Power.
In 1928 negotiations with the Madras Government were
completed for the supply of electric power from Sivasamudram to
Mettur at a cost of about Rs. 10i lakhs and the work having been
completed, power was supplied from the 23rd November 1928 till
June 1934. The Automatic Telephone was introduced in the
Bangalore and Mysore Cities and between them and opened to the
public. Every facility was afforded to the ryots to instal power-
driven pumps for irrigation purposes and the concessions allowed
were utilised freely. Power was also supplied to various places for
purposes of illumination. Arrangements were made early in
November 1931 for the supply of power to Salem and Erode towns
in the Madras Presidency from the power station at Mettur. In
1935 the Krishnarajasagara Hydro-Electric and Irrigation Works
represented an investment of capital between Rs. 7 and Rs. 7j
crores. The introduction of electric power in rural parts has
encouraged the .growth of several industries by substituting
mechanised power in place of manual labour. The ryot who used to
bail the water from his well by bullocks has in many places now
461
begun to realise the advantages of an electric pump by the help of
which he is able to pump water at the rate of about 2000 gallons
per hour. With the advent of electricity in rural areas, other small
power installations have also sprung up. The electric flour-mill,
the electric decorticator, the electric power loom are now to be seen
in several of the rural parts.
Hand-Spinning.
A great deal of enthusiasm was evoked in hand-spinning and a
Spinners' Association was formed and spinning demonstrations and
competitions were organised in many centres. The most notable
work in hand-spinning done during the decade was at Badanval
near Nanjangud, where an attempt was made to ascertain by
intensive work the prospects of reviving the hand-spinning industry
as a subsidiary occupation among poor agriculturists. The
organisation showed healthy signs of growth within the period of its
existence extending to about four years.
Railway*.
The Nanjangud-Chamarajanagar railway having been
completed, it was opened for traffic by the Maharaja on the 27th
August 1926. In the year 1919 the construction of this line was
first undertaken by Government, but after a time the work was
suspended owing to financial stringency. The Government,
however, was subsequently enabled to resume the work by the
Mysore District Board undertaking to finance the construction of
the line as a District Board Railway out of the proceeds of a
debenture loan of Rs. 8 lakhs, to which was added a portion of the
railway cess which was being levied.
His Highness on the occasion of opening this railway expressed
regret that he was opening only a very small part of the railway, that
between Nanjangud and Chamrajanagar. It was at one time intended
to continue the line to Erode. But the conversion of the line from
Erode to Trichnopoly from the metre gauge to the broad gauge
rendered through connection by that route no longer desirable. It
was however understood that it was intended to build metre gauge
connections from Gopichettipalyam on the one hand to Satya-
mangalam and Mettupalyam, and on the other, via Tiruppur and
A51
402
Dharapuram to Palni. These connections would give a through
metre gauge link from Dharwar on the north to Madura on the
south, or in other words, would bring lines which traverse the whole
length of the Mysore State on to a direct route between Bombay
and Colombo. The Government of Mysore, His Highness said, was
ready to undertake the portion of this length that lay within the
State, if the remaining portion was undertaken by the British
Government.
His Highness also at this time gave expression to a new
railway policy, namely, that of Government undertaking to build
railways on behalf of District Boards £o meet local requirements
on the latter undertaking a guarantee against loss and interest
charges. In such cases the railway cess where it was voted by the
District Boards was to be treated as a fund out of which the
amount so guaranteed was to be met.
During this period the construction of the Shimoga-Arasalu
railway up to Ragihosahalli, a distance of 19 miles, was also
resumed and completed up to Anantapur. A serious danger to
railway traffic, especially passenger traffic, now began to show itself
by automobile buses running parallel to railway lines. Excepting
the small broad gauge line of 55 miles between Bangalore and
Bisanantham, the whole of the railway system in the State built at
a cost of Rs. 6 crores belonged to Mysore.
Before leaving the subject of communications, reference may
be made to the new policy of co-operation inaugurated in 1929
between the Government of India and the Indian States in certain
matters, especially in the matter of road development and to which
Sir Frank Noyce, Industries and Commerce Member of the
Government of India, alluded in his speech on the 8th November
1935 on the occasion of the opening of the Vani Vilas Bridge
across the Kapini near T-Narsipur. This bridge cost about
Rs. 3j lakhs, one half of which was met from the reserve of the
Government of India in the Road Account. The Kaveri Bridge
close by which was built entirely at the cost of the Mysore State
opened a direct route to Sivasamudram, while the Kapini bridge
403
connected the same road with Kollegal and other important places
in the Madras Presidency. This co-operation between the British
Government and the Governments of the Indian States was the
outcome of a recommendation made by the Indian Road Develop-
ment Committee. This Committee proposed the creation of a
Road Fund by the levy of an additional duty of customs on excise
and petrol. The Committee also urged on the Government of India
that they should not stand on narrow legal grounds excluding Indian
States from the benefits of the fund. The Mysore State accordingly
came to share, in common with the other large States, in the fund
on the basis of the petrol consumed within her borders and was
eligible to receive grants from the reserve for specially selected
projects and for schemes of research and experiments. From the
year 1930 the Mysore State received over Rs. 12 lakhs from this
fund as its ordinary share.
Irrigation.
The extension of irrigation received vigorous attention in this
period. Detailed plans and estimates for the excavation of the
High Level Canal, subsequently named Irwin Canal in order to
perpetuate the memory of the visit to Mysore of Lord Irwin the
Viceroy of India, were the first to come under examination. A
committee presided over by Sir M. Visvesvaraya appointed to
investigate this problem in all its aspects unanimously approved an
estimate of Rs. 180 lakhs for the work and recommended that the
work should be started without delay. The Government accepted
this recommendation and sanctioned the construction of the High
Level Canal at a cost of Rs. 222 lakhs which was expected to bring
under irrigation 1,20,000 acres in the taluks of Mandya, Malavalli
and T-Narsipur. In the excavation of this canal, there was need
to bore a tunnel to a total length of 9183 feet. The borings from
the several sides exactly coincided and the whole work relating to
the tunnel, including the lining of masonry, was completed in the
early part of 1931. The waste weir gates were prepared at the
Bhadravathi Iron Works.
The Irwin Canal supplies water to an area hitherto practically
dry. The Krishnarajasagara Works constitute a combined
404
hydro-electrical and irrigational project of great magnitude costing
nearly Rs. 5 crores. The Krishnarajasagara Dam was practically
complete by about the end of 1932. It was the largest engineering
work undertaken in the State and a standing monument to the
talent, skill and resources of the engineers of the Mysore Public
Works Department, of whom Rajasevasaktha Dewan Bahadur
Mr. K. R. Seshachar was the most prominent.
Establishment of a Sugar Factory.
It was anticipated that when irrigation was fully developed in
the Irwin Canal area about 40,000 acres^ of land would be annually
cultivated with sugarcane. For the economic handling and disposal
of this considerable volume of sugarcane, a sugar factory was
needed even from the beginning. The sugar industry in India was
protected by a duty on imported sugar. The committee appointed
to work out the details connected with the use of the water of
Krishnarajasagara presided over by the late C. S. Balasundaram
Iyer who was then Member of Council, had provided in their scheme
for the introduction of the sugarcane crop which was more profitable
than rice. In 1933 a scheme for an enquiry into the cost of
production of sugarcane was sanctioned by the Imperial Council of
Agricultural Research for a period of 3i years and the experiment
of growing thick varieties of sugarcane was carried on in certain
selected villages. It was, however, a long step from growing
sugarcane to organising production on a scale suitable for
factory use. New varieties had to be produced, new methods
of cultivation and irrigation tried out and put into practice
and a satisfactory rotation arrived at. It had also to be
arranged that the cane crop came forward to the factory
in such quantities on each day that the factory could handle and
was not choked with cane at one period and stopped for want of it
at another. The credit of overcoming the initial difficulties was
due to Dr. L. C. Coleman who was then Director of Agriculture in
Mysore and the factory commenced work from the 15th January
1934 under the management of a company known as the Mysore
Sugar Company, the Government possessing the largest number of
shares in this company. In order to avoid waste in respect of the
405
bye-products, it was decided to utilise the molasses produced in the
factory for the distillation of alcohal, both potable and industrial,
and with this view the Central Distillery was shifted from
Bangalore to Mandya where the sugar factory existed and the
contract for the manufacture of country spirits was entrusted to the
Mysore Sugar Company which managed the factory. The Sugar
Factory which finished its first complete year of working on the 30th
September 1934 returned a profit of 10 per cent on its shares.
Agreement with the Madras Government.
A dispute between the Madras and Mysore Governments arose
regarding the interpretation of certain rules of the agreement of
1924. According to that agreement, the minimum flow of the
Kaveri that had to be ensured at the upper anekat in the Madras
territory before any water was impounded in the Krishnarajasagara
had been fixed on the basis of certain gauge readings at the Kaveri
Dam and it had been agreed that the discharge connoted by the
gauge readings should be finally fixed on the basis of the gaugings
of the 10 years ending 1926. Later however, the Mysore Govern-
ment demurred to this arrangement on the ground that the floods of
1924 had brought about a state of affairs not foreseen at the time of
the agreement. The Durbar therefore proposed that the period
taken as the basis for calculating the discharges should be the 7i
years preceding the floods of 1924. The Madras Government were
not agreeable to accept this proposal and as attempts to reconcile
the divergent views of the two Governments in a manner acceptable
to both were unsuccessful, the good offices of the Governmet of India
were sought for and recourse was had to arbitration. Sir A. Page,
Judge of the Calcutta High Court, was appointed arbitrator with
two expert assessors nominated by the two Governments, one each.
As a result of this arbitration, an agreement was finally arrived at
and accepted by the two Governments.
Under the 1924 agreement with Madras, besides the 1,25,000
acres under the Krishnarajasagara, Mysore was entitled to irrigate
1,10,000 acres more by constructing additional reservoirs in the
Kaveri valley and its tributaries. Investigations made showed
that under the Kapini 40,000 acres could be secured for irrigation
406
and the remaining area in the Hemavathi and Lakshmanathirtha
valleys. Mysore was also at liberty to extend irrigation by
improvement of duty under each of the existing channels in the
Kaveri valley by 33i per cent of the area irrigated in 1910
remaining unsubmerged.
The Krishnarajasagara Dam is If miles long and is intended
to store up water to a depth of 124 feet at full reservoir level. At
the entrance to the Dam, an ornamental gate-way has been built
from which a concrete road leads onwards over the Dam. Below
the Dam is situated the " BRINDAVANA " (Terrace Gardens)
laid out on both sides of the river. At the entrance to the garden
on the south side, in a niche built in the face of the Dam is located
a beautiful image of the goddess Kaveri with a bowl in her hand
from which a continuous stream of water flows indicative of
continuous prosperity and benevolence. On the eastern side is an
orange grove with a plant nursery for ornamental, shady and
economical trees supplying plants to different parts of the State.
At another place is a Government experimental orchard where all
varieties of fruits are grown. The variegated colours of the beds
with a large number of ever-playing fountains great and small
arranged all over, with the subdued roar of the cascades from the
pavilions give the whole place the appearance of a wonder land.
At night a string of electric lights adorn the full length of the Dam
and mildly illuminate the flowery landscape below. The Kaveri
image is illumined with a stream of small lights. These with the
coloured illumination of the fountains present an appearance which
is marvellous and enchanting to a degree. The fountains play day
and night and people in a position to judge have declared these as
one of the finest gardens in the world unequalled for their beauty
and grandeur.
Another irrigation project completed in the middle of 1936
was the Anjanapur Reservoir in the Shimoga district. The people
of the Shikarpur taluk were repeatedly urging on the Government
during a period of nearly 50 years the desirability of constructing a
reservoir across the river Kumudvathi and providing them with
irrigational facilities. The scheme had at one time been
investigated but given up for want of a suitable site for the weir,
407
In the year 1927 when the Dewan, Sir Mirza Ismail, toured in
Shimoga district, the people of the taluk again made a representation
to him for the construction of the reservoir and agreed also to pay
an acreage contribution of Rs. 50 and assessment at Rs. 10 per
acre. Further investigation of the project was immediately ordered
and a masonry dam across a narrow gorge with two channels
therefrom was at first thought of, but due to the unsatisfactory
condition of the rocky substrate so essential for a masonry dam,
that project was given up. Later, further surveys were undertaken
and an earthen bund at an other site was decided upon. An
estimate costing nearly about Rs. 18 lakhs was sanctioned in
November 1927. Work was started early in 1928 and it took eight
years to complete the reservoir.
On the 3rd September 1936 Rajamantrapravina Mr. Raja-
gopalachar, Member of the State Council in charge of the Dewan's
duties, performed the opening ceremony and during the course of
his speech said that the development of a virile and prosperous
peasantry which would give strength to any country was to be
welcomed and should be the main aim of any Government worth
the name. The construction of this reservoir, he further said, bore
a fresh testimony to the fact that in Mysore both the people and
Government took a live interest in promoting agricultural
prosperity.
The earthen bund is 5000 feet long and at the deepest portion
of the reservoir the height of the bund is 66 feet and the foundation
is 20 feet below the bed of the river. The width of the bund at the
bottom is 352 feet. The waste weir is 885 feet long. Two channels,
one on the right 18i miles long and another on the left 6i miles
long to irrigate 7812 and 1832 acres respectively, have been
provided for. The right bank channel when completed is also
expected to provide water supply to the Shikarpur town which
during the summer months at present suffers badly for want of
adequate supply of drinking-water.
CHAPTER XLVIIL
KrUhnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Various Administrative Improvements — 1926 — 1936.
Measures relating to Agriculture.
A Regulation known as the Coffee Cess Regulation was
enacted in 1926. An experimental coffee farm was established at
Balehonnur, half the cost of which was borne by the coffee planters.
It was placed in charge of an officer of high attainments who resided
on the spot and was assisted by a scientific staff competent to deal
with all aspects of the problem. Subsequently, the equipment of
the farm was improved and a small advisory committee consisting
of Indian and European planters was constituted in 1928 to assist
the Director. Later at the request of the United Planters'
Association of Southern India which came forward to co-operate
with the Mysore Agricultural Department, a European scientific
officer employed by the Association was placed to work under the
Director of Agriculture at this experimental station. The cultivation
and study of cardamoms and pepper were also included in the
programme of work of the station.
In 1927 the Government sanctioned a scheme for the supply
of small electrically driven pumps on hire-purchase system for
pumping water from the wells. The Electrical Department under-
took to supply and instal the pumping outfits complete and to put
them into operation at the start. No extra assessment was levied
when dry lands were irrigated by means of these pumping
installations.
Agricultural education made steady progress. In- addition to
the residential school at Ramakrishnapur which owed its existence
to the generosity of Mr. G. Venkataramaniah, a citizen of
Bangalore, a school was also established at Hassan at the instance
of the District Board.
Now turning to agricultural improvements, two measures
sanctioned in 1929 were calculated to have far reaching effects.
409
The first was the conversion of the Nagenahalli farm into a
paddy-breeding station where work on the improvement of this
important crop was actively pursued. The second was the
organisation in the Agricultural Department of a section to control
the distribution of pure seed of the new varieties of crops grown on
various farms maintained by the department. The Royal
Commission on Agriculture laid stress in their report on the
importance of providing an agency such as this and the Mysore
Government was the first in India to take action on their
recommendation. An interesting development was the manufacture
of improved ploughs by local blacksmiths and many of them proved
to be excellent copies of imported ones. Other agricultural
implements the sales of which were steadily growing were
cultivators and sugarcane mills and both these came to be almost
entirely of local manufacture.
Record of Rights.
The Land Revenue system in Mysore presented certain defects
which were repeatedly urged on Government as calling for remedial
measures. The rules did not provide for the compulsory mutation
of Khates with every change of title and for the separate recogni-
tion of all persons having interest in land as mortgagees and owners
of portions of Survey Numbers or co-sharers in the Revenue
Accounts. Much difficulty was also experienced by Government
in the collection of land revenue as the collecting officials
did not know as to who was responsible for the payment of
assessment. There were also frequent' complaints about the
disabilities caused to the inferior holders whose rights were not
safeguarded by the existing law.
To remedy these shortcomings, the Mysore Land Record of
Rights Regulation was enacted in April 1927 and the rules under
the Regulation were also issued soon after. The scheme was for
the first time introduced in 1927-28 in three selected taluks and was
received with great willingness by the people and the scheme is
being gradually extended to all parts of the State.
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416
The salient features of this Regulation are — 1. A Record of
Rights is to be maintained for every village giving particulars of
the names of all persons who are holders, occupants, owners or
mortgagees of land, or the assignees of its rent or revenue, and the
nature and extent of the interests of such persons. 2. It is made
obligatory for all persons acquiring rights in land to report the fact
to the authorities concerned leading to suitable modifications of the
entries recorded, thereby keeping the Record of Rights up-to-date.
3. No suit or application relating to agricultural land is to be
entertained in civil courts unless accompanied by certified extracts
from the registers maintained under this Regulation. An entry in
the Record of Rights is to be presumed to be true until the
contrary is proved. 4. Every plot of land belonging to different
persons in the same Survey Number is to be separately measured
and mapped and particulars regarding area and assessment of each
such sub-holding are to be recorded separately in the register.
The objects of the scheme are, in the words of the Government
Notification, to check litigation in regard to land and to facilitate
its disposal by the courts, to reduce unnecessary expenditure
by the ryots in executing and registering documents and to protect
them against fraud and fabrication of false claims. The Record is
also intended to be of assistance to Government as well as to the
ryots in the distribution of assessment among the various
claimants, the grant of takavi and land improvement loans and the
grant of suspension or remission of land revenue. The system
incidentally facilitates the work of the Land Mortgage Banks and
other forms of credit societies by presenting clearly the facts about
the value and security of mortgaged lands.
Improvement of Live-Stock and Veterinary Aid.
One of the most irnportant problems connected with
agriculture in Mysore is the improvement of live-stock and Mysore
cattle have a deservedly high reputation in India and large numbers
are exported annually to places outside the State. The Govern-
ment realising fully the existing and potential value of live-stock
and the importance of its improvement appointed in 1929 a strong
committee consisting of representatives from all the districts and
411
experts to investigate the whole question of agricultural improve-
ment, including the control of epidemic diseases. A Serum
Institute had been established in 1928 in order to save animals
from epidemics. Further measures were also now taken to provide
better breeding stock by establishing a large cattle-breeding station
at Ajampur in the Kadur District. Almost all the taluks were also
provided with veterinary dispensaries, the buildings required being
donated in several instances by private persons.
Unemployment and Bhadra Agricultural Colony.
At the Economic Conference held in 1929, Dr. Coleman in a
speech he made laid considerable stress on the necessity of an
attempt being made to place young men trained in agriculture on
the land and referred to the extensive areas in the State, more
especially in Amrut Mahal Kavals and date-reserves and under the
new sources of irrigation where also a sound agricultural training
would enable young men without occupation to earn a decent
living. The Government had also appointed a committee presided
over by the late C. S. Balasundaram Iyer, then Member of the State
Council, to investigate the problem of middle class unemployment
in Mysore. Again at the Economic Conference held in the year
following, Sir Mirza Ismail gave expression to the opinion that
middle class unemployment was not the whole of the problem,
though it happened at the time to be a specially urgent part of it.
The most disturbing phenomenon in the country as circumstances
stood at the time, said Sir Mirza, was undoubtedly the attitude of
mind of the young men who were bitter and disappointed on
account of economic despair and the only hope lay in turning more
and more of the educated young men towards a vocational career,
especially industrial and agricultural pursuits. Besides the Tech-
nological College which would be opened as a memorial of the
Silver Jubilee of the Maharaja which was expected to afford some
solution of the problem, it was also intended to establish an
agricultural colony as an experiment under the Bhadra Canal.
The Dewan concluded his speech in these words : " This problem
of unemployment is a really difficult problem We cannot
allow things to drift and we must make the utmost possible effort
412
to discover a remedy. It will not do to let our young men remain
a prey to pessimism. We must fill their hearts — they are the
future hope of the country — with that spirit of buoyant optimism
without which life becomes merely a drab existence."
The Economic position of the Agriculturists during this period.
During this period there were great fluctuations in the
economic position of the agriculturists. Between the years
1914-20 there was a gradual rise of prices from year to year and the
pinnacle was reached in the year 1919-20 following the cessation
of the Great War. Subsequent to 1920 the prices began to fall
until 1923, when they rose again and kept steady until 1928.
From this year they began to decline once again. The fall
continued from year to year until 1932 when it was arrested and
the prices showed a tendency to rise. The rise was however very
temporary and the prices began to decline once again, until they
reached the lowest level in June 1934. During the period of high
prices following the conclusion of the war, the agriculturists found
themselves able to increase their standard of life, but at the same
time their debts also increased as the appreciation of land values
tempted and enabled them to borrow more largely.
The Special Economic Survey officer for the Malnad appointed
in 1925 having proposed legislation on the lines of the Deccan
Agriculturists* Relief Act of Bombay to afford similar relief to
agricultural debtors, especially in the Malnad, a committee of
officials and non-officials with Mr. K. Chandy, Member of the State
Council as President, was appointed to consider the report of
this special officer. The committee having recommended legislation
being undertaken by Government on the lines of the Deccan
Agriculturists' Relief Act for the relief of indebted agriculturists
in the State, a note on the subject was placed before the
Representative Assembly at the Budget Session of 1926 and
a Bill was introduced in the Legislative Council in December
of the same year and was finally passed into law in July
1928. This Regulation applied to agriculturists whose yearly
income from agriculture did not exceed Rs. 500 and the aggre-
gate income from all sources did not exceed Rs, 1000. Un4er
413
its provisions, immovable property which was not specifically
mortgaged for debt was exempt from sale and in the case of all
debts, secured as well as unsecured, courts could permit repayment
in instalments extending normally up to eight years. This
Regulation was at first made operative in the three Malnad taluks
of Manjarabad, Sagar and Koppa and subsequently on the
recommendation of the Malnad Economic Depression Enquiry
Committee extended to all the Malnad taluks. Between the years
1929 and 1933 the prices of agricultural commodities fell by nearly
50 per cent and the gross money value realised by the agriculturist
decreased to that extent. In this connection, it may be of interest
to know what causes have, according to the " World Economic
Survey, 1932-33, League of Nations," contributed to the great
economic depression prevailing throughout the world. " There is
general agreement that the causes of the decline of prices are
many and complex. Important and far-reaching changes in the
geographical and technical structure of industry and trade, equally
important social developments such as a rising standard of living
together with lessened flexibility of adjustment, political difficulties
arising from reparation and war debt payments and tariff wars,
monetary arrangements connected with the post-war currency
stabilisations and the working of the new gold standard after it has
been restored, international capital movements, security speculation
and exchange difficulties — all entered into the background of the
price fall. The exact degree to which these various factors entered
into the combination of causes which precipitated the depression
has been a subject of lively controversy."
In April 1928 the Government sanctioned the opening of a
Central Land Mortgage Bank at Bangalore, its operations being
confined to the Malnad taluks of Sagar, Koppa and Manjarabad and
the Maidan taluk of Tumkur and first entrusted
supervision and control over the operations of
Director of Industries and Commerce. In view,
recommendation of the Royal Commission on
in response to the general desire expressed by
legislative Council and the Representative ASS
414
ment decided to bring the proposed Land Mortgage institution
within the purview of the Co-operative Societies Regulation and
the latter was suitably amended in 1929 to effect this purpose.
The Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank commenced work in
December 1929. Government sanctioned certain concessions to
the Bank by way of guaranteeing the principal and interest of
the debentures to be floated and of reimbursing the cost of its
establishment for the first two years.
At the session of the Representative Assembly held in October
1933 a representation was made that the Agriculturists' Relief Act
might be extended to all the taluks tof the State. Government
accordingly by a notification dated 30th December 1933 directed
the extension of the Regulation to all parts of the State with effect
from 1st January 1934. This extension of the Regulation proved in
practice, however, as one not quite of unmixed good. Representa-
tions to this effect were made at the session of the Representative
Assembly held in June 1934. It was said that the wholesale
extension of the Regulation had adversely affected the honest
money-lender and that it had also resulted in considerable shrinkage
of agricultural credit. The question also formed the subject of
discussion at the session of the Legislative Council which soon
after followed.
The Government appointed a committee in July 1934 presided
over by Mr. N. Madhava Rao to make a rapid enquiry into the
extent to which the fall in the price of agricultural produce had
affected the resources, debt obligations and credit facilities of
the land-owning and cultivating classes in different parts of the
State and to report upon the nature and extent of the assistance
that might be given to relieve them from the difficulties
caused by the depression. The committee after investigation
afitved at certain conclusions and of the main conclusions,
the first related to the effect of the depression on the
different classes of ryots concerned with agriculture as their
occupation. The fall in prices which began in 1931 did not, the
committee said, affect all classes of ryots equally. The field
latxntfers whp constituted ^bput a fifth of the agricultural
415
population were little worse off than before. Their wages in grain
remained unchanged. Money wages too kept steady during the
earlier years of the depression and where they showed a decline, the
fall had been less in proportion than the fall in prices, so that the
real wages of agricultural labour appeared scarcely to suffer. The
tenant cultivators had no obligation to pay taxes. Their rents were
generally paid in kind and even where money rents were in vogue,
they were, except in the Malnad, generally in a position to dictate
their own terms to their land-lords. The peasant proprietors formed
the bulk of the agricultural population. They generally grew all the
grain they required for their household and such small amounts as
they required for payment of services, taxes or to meet other
miscellaneous items were obtained by selling non-food crops or
from the profits of subsidiary occupations. There were various
occupations available in the vicinity of towns and cities such as
selling milk, curds and vegetables, hiring of carts which formed an
important source of income to the suburban ryot. But the peasant
owners in the interior parts had no such advantages. The
cultivation of non-food crops, the rearing of cattle, goats, sheep and
silkworms and suchlike occupations on which they depended had
ceased to be remunerative. It was believed that this class of
agriculturist was more heavily in debt than either the tenant
cultivator or the labourer who enjoyed comparatively little credit.
The classes which were most hard hit by the depression were the
land-holders who did not directly cultivate their lands or cultivated
only a small portion of their holdings. The fall of prices did not
affect also the growers of all the crops to the same extent. In the
cultivation of some of the crops like ragi, jola, cotton and
groundnut, the margin of net profit left to the cultivator was
comparatively low.
The second main conclusion related to the increase of
agricultural indebtedness. According to the calculations made by
the Banking Enquiry Committees of Bombay and Madras, the
average debt of the agriculturist in these provinces was Rs. 50 and
Rs. 49 respectively per head. As the conditions in Mysore were
not very different, the average debt of the agriculturist in Mysore
at Rs. 50 per head was considered a fair assumption. On this
416
basis the agricultural debt in the State, taking the prevailing
depressed prices, was calculated to amount to about Rs. 35 crores
representing nearly 30 times the land revenue assessment of the
agricultural lands. At this time, out of a total area of 87,85,173
acres of arable land, 81,48,898 acres or 92.8 per cent were under
occupancy.
The principal recommendations made by this committee to
reduce this appalling magnitude of debt were the expansion of
Land Mortgage Banks in order to enable the agriculturists to
convert their debts to long term loans which might be repaid out of
current income and conciliation between debtors and creditors.
The Government agreeing generally with these recommendations
have started action in the directions required.
The Government also appointed in September 1934 another
committee presided over by Rajasabhabhushana Mr. K. R. Srinivasa
lyengar, retired Member of Council, to examine how far the
extension of the Agriculturists' Relief Regulation to the whole
State had affected the credit of the agriculturists and to report in
what respects, if any, the Regulation required to be amended and to
submit also a draft Bill embodying the recommendations of the
committee for any legislation that might be required.
CHAPTER XLIX.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Sanitation, Public Health and Rural Improvements —
1926—1936.
At the Budget Session of the Representative Assembly in 1928
the Dewan made a clear enunciation of the sanitary policy of
Government as far as it related to the rural parts. " The crying
needs of the people, especially of those living in the rural parts who
form the bulk of the population," he said, have yet to be met and
no administration worth the name can remain indifferent to those
wants. The Government of Mysore cannot feel happy that they
have discharged their duty to the people unless successful efforts
are made to secure to every village of any size in the State all
those things which are essential to their well-being. There should
be no village of any importance in the State which does not possess
a drinking-water well without drying up when water is most
needed, a tank in good repair not silted up with the sluice neglected,
a satisfactory school with at least one competent teacher, a well-
managed co-operative society and a dispensary with sufficient stock
of medicines." Rural uplift, according to the words of the Dewan
used in 1929, was one of the Government's most urgent, as it was
one of their most sacred, duties.
Boreholes provided an effective way of dealing with the
problem of drinking-water supply, the cost being much less than
that of an ordinary well. Power drilling outfits as good as any that
were imported began to be made in Government workshops and
supplied for the purpose needed. A small establishment was
attached to the Sanitary Department for rendering assistance to the
Local Bodies in town-planning and for furnishing them with schemes
for the improvement of sanitation, drainage and water-supply.
The facilities offered by the Government were availed of by a large
number of Municipalities. Extension of towns received the
greatest attention, nor was the aesthetic side of town improvement
lost sight of as could be judged from the number of parks opened
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418
and the manner in which sites were allotted for public buildings.
Provision of drinking-water wells for every village in the State was
a matter of supreme importance and funds were allotted on a large
scale for the purpose. In 1925-26 there were 58,000 drinking-
water wells and 18,000 tube wells making a total of 76,000. In
1930-31 there were 1,00,000 of drinking-water wells and 1,14,000
tube wells making a total of 2,14,000. The largest water-supply
project undertaken was the Thippagondanhalli Reservoir to provide
water-supply to the growing town of Bangalore, the old Hesarghatta
tank which supplied water from 1891 being found insufficient for a
city with a growing population. In 1891 the combined population
of the City and Civil and Military Station of Bangalore numbered
1,80,000 and in 1931 it stood at 3,06,470. The new reservoir
solved the question of water-supply to Bangalore not only for the
present generation but for many generations to come. The cost of
the scheme amounted to Rs. 50j lakhs and the whole length of
14 miles of cast iron pipes required for this was supplied by the
Bhadravathi Iron Works. The general scheme of rural electrifica-
tion made steady progress and in 1930 power was taken to Kolar,
Tumkur and Malavalli towns and the lighting service was started
in all of them as well as in twenty other places.
In 1933 there were 10,600 Village Panchayets in operation.
The activities of some of these Panchayets included the supervision
and management of village schools, village forests, tanks and topes,
planting of avenue and fruit trees, purchasing of improved
implements of agriculture and sugarcane mills and letting them on
hire to the villagers and distribution of scientific manure. Weekly
labour for communal purposes was also insisted upon by the Village
Panchayets. There were also indications of the growth of a spirit
of public service as evidenced from the liberal donations that were
given for buildings, for schools, for hospitals and for other village
purposes.
Help by the Rockfeller Foundation of the U. S. A.
Under the auspices of the International Health Division of the
Rockfeller Foundation of America, a health survey of the State with
special reference to malaria and hookworm was undertaken in 1927
419
and for this purpose the services of Dr. Sweet of the same Founda-
tion were obtained. Four medical graduates of the State were
deputed for training in sanitation to America. As a result of the
spleen survey conducted by Dr. Sweet, three malaria experimental
stations were established one at Nagenhalli in the Mysore taluk, the
second at Mudigere and the third at Hiriyur. A Rural Health
Unit also was established at Mandya as an experimental measure
for the purpose of determining the staff, equipment and budget
necessary for organising eventually Health Units in all the taluks.
The League of Nations Malaria Commission who visited the State
in December 1929 at the invitation of the Durbar studied the
malaria-control work at the experimental stations at Nagenhalli
and Mudigere and the anti -malarial work in the Bangalore City and
expressed their appreciation of the manner in which the problem
was being studied. The Rockfeller Foundation lent in 1930 the
services of Mr. J. J. Mieldazis, a Sanitary Engineer, in addition to
the services of Dr. Sweet, the Consultant in Health. Under the
advice of this expert, the Government introduced at this time a
scheme for the further improvement of the Health Department.
A Board of Health was also created to advise the Government.
One of the main features of the scheme of reorganisation was the
constitution of bureaux for carrying on the work of the depart-
ment and seven such bureaux were constituted — (l) Bureau of
administration (2) Bureau of Epidemiology and Communicable
diseases (3) Laboratories (4) Vital Statistics (5) Health Education
(6) Sanitary Engineering and (7) Rural Health. Mr. Victor
Heiser of the International Health Board of New York visited the
State in March 1931 and advantage was taken of his presence to
discuss questions relating to the future development of the work of
the department. He recommended the extension of the Rural
Health Unit work and stressed the importance of health propa-
ganda. The Mandya Health Unit in a period of a little over two
years held 94 clinics and examined nearly 1400 children. It also
did about 15,000 anti-cholera, 10,000 anti-plague inoculations and
1631 vaccinations against small-pox. A publicity section was
formed in connection with the Bureau of Health Education and
the Rockfeller Foundation offered a contribution of money for
420
two years for the furtherance of the work of this bureau. The
operations of the Sanitary Engineering Bureau was extended by
transferring to its control the execution and maintenance of all
water-supply works except the works of Bangalore City. The
bureau dealt with all the public health engineering problems,
water-supply, drainage and town-planning. The Bureau of Health
Education organised a large number of cinema shows on health
subjects and over a lakh of persons witnessed them. Large
numbers of posters and leaflets on plague, small-pox, soil pollution
and bore-hole latrines were printed and distributed.
Medical Relief.'
The Durbar also realised that the medical relief that existed in
the State was inadequate. In 1928 there were approximately
330 doctors in the State or one for every 18,000 of the population.
Of these, only 40 were private medical practitioners, most of whom
resided in the cities of Bangalore and Mysore. As the extension
of medical relief through the agency of a Government staff was
necessarily slow and costly, a scheme was introduced for sub-
sidising private medical practitioners with a view to induce and
enable them to settle down in rural parts. A cheaper kind of local
fund dispensaries was also introduced under qualified doctors.
A noteworthy feature of this period was the generous contribu-
tions given by private persons for the extension of medical relief.
This was a welcome tendency and among the donors of this
period were Dharmaprakasa Mr. Chandre Gowda, Mr. Nagappa
Setty and Pandit Lakshmanachar. The Ayurvedic and Unani
hospitals received support from some of these donors. Towards
the construction of the Opthalmic Block in the Krishnarajendra
Hospital at Mysore, a contribution was made by Mr. Chidambaram
Chetty, son of the late Sir T. Mutthiah Chettiar. Mr. B. M.
Srinivasaiah of the Hindu Soap Factory at Bangalore donated a
large amount for the construction of an Electro-Therapy and
Radiology Block in the Victoria Hospital.
The building of the old Maternity Hospital at Bangalore was
satisfactory neither in its location nor in the accommodation it
421
afforded. A new building was therefore undertaken in 1930, the
foundation-stone of which was laid by H. H. the Yuvaraja. Other
hospitals constructed during this period were the Malle Gowda
General Hospital and the Siddalinga Setty Eye Hospital at Chick -
magalur. A new building for the hospital at Shimoga the
foundation-stone of which was laid by H. H. the Maharaja was
constructed and the hospital was named the McGann Hospital
after the name of a former Head of the Medical Department who
rendered good service to the State.
At the Dasara Session of the Representative Assembly held in
1934 the Dewan specially called attention to the great need that
existed for extending medical aid to women and children. He
pointed out that deaths from plague, cholera and small-pox put
together were less than one-third of the deaths of women in child-
birth and of children in the first two years of their life. Many
women for want of proper care were rendered invalids for life and
many children for want of similar care in their early years were
rendered defective in one way or another for the whole period of
their existence. As far back as 1880 there was established in
Mysore the Women's Hospital that bears the name of the Maharani
Kempananjammanni Avaru and in the closing years of her life was
constructed the magnificent new hospital in Bangalore bearing her
name and known as Vani Vilas Maternity Hospital. In 1923 her
brother Sir M. Kantaraj Urs set the example of endowing an
organisation for maternity and child welfare by leaving a sum of
Rs. 1,20,000 to establish the Gunamba Child Welfare and Maternity
Trust. This noble example was subsequently followed by other
people also and the donations within the past ten years have
amounted to over Rs. 9 lakhs. The Government have also
played their part by extending the employment of midwives
and by making special arrangements for such lady doctors as
there were in the State to extend their activities by visiting
places within reach from their headquarters. Maternity and
Child Welfare work has also advanced and in the period between
1932-34 seven to eight thousand babies came under expert
Scrutiny of doctors during the Baby Week Shows. Mysore
422
was ranked in the second, first and third places respectively in the
All-Empire Competition held in 1932, 1933 and 1934. In this
respect the efforts of the Red Cross Society under the guidance of
Sir Charles Todhunter, Private Secretary to the Maharaja, are
specially noteworthy in combating the ignorance which is
responsible for so much suffering and in establishing the Maternity
Homes and Child Welfare Centres.
A Bill was introduced by Government in the Legislative
Council to enable the public to know who were qualified medical
practitioners and the same was passed into law in December 1931.
In accordance with the provisions of4 this Regulation, a Medical
Council was established for the State with powers to register duly
qualified practitioners, to take notice of misconduct or unprofessional
behaviour on the part of such practitioners and to ensure a high
standard of instruction in medical schools and colleges whose
degrees or diplomas were recognised. Another measure related to
the licensing of shops for the sale of allopathic medicines in
Municipal areas and to the employment of qualified persons for
the dispensing of such medicines.
CHAPTER L.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Education— Local Self-Government—Chief Court de-
signated High Court — The Representative Assembly and
the Legislative Council— 1926— 1936.
The Elmentary Education Regulation was passed in the year
1929-30. Its main object was to invest Local Bodies with the
management, control and financing of elementary education, while
retaining effective powers of supervision, direction and ultimate
control over educational policy and administration in the hands of
the Education Department. It was a measure of far-reaching
importance and the credit of bringing it out belonged to Dewan
Bahadur Mr. K. Mathan, Member of the State Council. The
Regulation came into force from 1st January 1931 and 12 educational
authorities were constituted 8 for the districts, two for the cities of
Bangalore and Mysore, 1 for the town of Tumkur and 1 for the
Kolar Gold Field Sanitary Board area. School Boards were formed
as required by the Regulation and the rules framed defining the
powers and duties of the Boards. The District Educational Officers
were appointed as School Board Officers under the Regulation.
As an experimental measure, Kanada was made the medium of
instruction in one of the Government High Schools in each of the
cities of Bangalore and Mysore.
The transfer of control over primary education to the local
authorities took effect from 1st July 1931. The Mysore University
Regulation was amended in 1933 so as to make the Senate more
representative of popular interests.
Scouting continued to be popular. There were on the 30th
June 1933 ten thousand six hundred and forty-eight boys getting
scout training in all the branches. A contingent of four rovers and
a scout were deputed to represent the Mysore Boy Scouts at the
world rally at Godollo in Hungary. The Girl Guide Movement
was reorganised in May 1932 and there were about 500 Girl Guides
at this time.
424
The District Boards were re-constituted under the new District
Board Regulation from 1st February 1927 and the Taluk Boards
ceased to exist from that date. The Hassan and Kolar District
Boards were given the right to elect their own Presidents and the
Tumkur District Board the privilege of electing a Vice-President.
Women were given the privilege of voting at elections and women
members were nominated to some of these Boards. In the year
1928-29 the Municipal Regulation was amended removing the
disqualification of women on the ground of sex from being members
of Municipal Councils.
*
The District Boards extended their operations in directions not
hitherto usual to them. The District Board of Chitaldrug started
an orphanage in 1929 for providing a house for the board, lodging
and training of orphans. The District Board of Kadur established
at Chickmagalur a poor house for destitutes. The District Boards
of Hassan and Kolar undertook to contribute a portion of the cost
of maintenance of the high schools at Hole-Narsipur and Chinta-
mani respectively.
In 1930 the District Board election rules were modified
providing for a deposit to be made by every candidate seeking
election which was liable to forfeiture in certain cases.
The term of the Malnad Improvement Committee constituted
for a period of two years ended in August 1929. Each of the four
District Boards of Shimoga, Kadur, Hassan and Mysore now came
to have a Malnad Improvement Committee with the President of
the Board as chairman and four members of the Board as members
of the Committee, with the District Economic Superintendent as
Secretary. The Committees possessed the power of co-opting other
members for special purposes and were authorised to administer the
annual grants allotted for approved schemes of Malnad
improvement.
The Regulations relating to local self-government were further
revised in 1932-33. The main features of the revision of the
Municipal Regulation were the increase in the elected element in
425
Municipal Councils and the introduction of adult suffrage in the
Minor Municipalities.
In 1930 the designation of the Chief Court was changed to that
of the High Court of Mysore.
The pension scheme was defective in that it provided no
relief in cases where officials died before or soon after retirement.
Government therefore sanctioned in ] 929 a scheme of
compassionate gratuities for the families of officers dying in harness
or soon after retirement without enjoying the benefits of their
pensions.
The second general election of members to the reformed
Representative Assembly took place in 1926. Out of the 1,30,000
persons who were eligible as voters, more than 60,000 persons
actually attended the polls. There were as many as 782 candidates
who contested the 204 seats reserved for the rural and urban
constituencies. The facts indicated that the membership of the
Assembly was coming to be sought more and more as affording a
valuable opportunity for public service.
A special committee was appointed in 1927 in re-ponse to a
resolution in the Legislative Council to revise the rules relating to
the Representative Assembly and the Legislative Council. As
suggested by this committee, it was provided that an oath of
allegiance to the Maharaja was to be taken by the members of the
Legislative Council on their first entry. Another recommendation
of this committee was also accepted, namely, the removal of sex
disqualification so as to render women eligible for membership of
the Representative Assembly and of the Legislative Council. In
June 1930 for the first time some ladies took their seats as members
at the Budget Session of the Representative Assembly and the
Dewan on behalf of the whole Assembly offered them a warm
welcome not only on account of their practical knowledge of many
matters of which men were ignorant, not only because of their
ready sympathy with all those who were suffering or in distress, but
because it was essential to the welfare of Mysore as it was to that
of India in general that the women should work hand-in-hand with
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426
the men who could never reach the common goal without their aid.
The other changes introduced were : — (l) the inclusion of pleaders
as distinguished from the advocates in the Legal Interests
constituency of the Representative Assembly and title-holders in
the rural and urban constituencies of the Representative Assembly
and the Legislative Council and registered graduates in the Mysore
University constituency of the Legislative Council ; (2) the
obligation on the part of those seeking election to the Representa-
tive Assembly or the Legislative Council to make a deposit of a
fixed sum of money unless exempted in special cases on the ground
of being members of the Depressed Classes or candidates for a
minority or special interest on penalty of forfeiting the deposits, if
the candidates failed to secure at least one-eighth of the total number
of valid votes counted ; (3) adjudication of disputes relating to
elections triable by District Judges instead of by Deputy Commis-
sioners, subject further to an appeal to the Chief Court on points of
law ; and (4) permission to the members of the Representative
Assembly and the Legislative Council to put questions and move
resolutions in the respective bodies on matters relating to or
affecting the provisions of the Representative Assembly and the
Legislative Council Regulations.
The year 1931 was the year of the Golden Jubilee of the
Representative Assembly which, as we know, came into existence
ID the year 1881. Sir M. N, Krishna Rao who was acting as
Dewan at the time referred to the Assembly as the oldest political
institution of elected representatives in India and also as having
contributed in no small measure to the success and high standard
of administration of the State.
In June 1932 a special committee was appointed to review the
existing distribution of seats allowed to the Representative
V^..pV»iv and to examine certain other questions referred to it.
i ,.„ i uiinu.uee on investigation proposed that the number of seats
to be given to a taluk or sub- taluk should depend upon its
population, weightage being given to the Malnad taluks and to the
taluk of Molakalmuru on account of its remoteness. The committee
also proposed some re-adjustment in the number of seats allotted
427
to special interests and recommended that the seats for women
should be increased from 2 to 4. As regards the minorities, the
committee recommended the increase of Muslim seats from 15 to
18 and those of the Depressed Classes from 6 to 10, the latter
being contingent on suitable persons being available for nomination.
Among other matters, the committee recommended that the system
of proportional representation by means of the single transferrable
"vote should be introduced for the election of members from the
Representative Assembly to the Legislative Council and for the
election of Representative Assembly members from the city
constituencies of Bangalore and Mysore. These recommendations
were accepted by Government and brought into effect.
In the year 1934 a constitutional question of some delicacy
arose. At the meeting of the Budget Session of the Legislative
Council of that year, one of the members Mr. D. V. Gundappa
wished to move the following resolutions and interpellations :
1. This Council recommends to the Government of His
Highness the Maharaja of Mysore that they may be
pleased to appoint a committee at an early date to
frame and submit, after consulting public opinion, a
comprehensive scheme of constitutional reforms with a
view to expedite progress in the direction of
Responsible Government.
2. This Council recommends to the Government of His
Highness the Maharaja of Mysore that they may be
pleased to appoint a Standing Committee to consider
all questions pertaining to the entry of Mysore into an
All- India Federation and to make suggestions thereupon
to Government from time to time.
The interpellations were :
1. Will the Government be pleased to state: (a) What
action they have so far taken to secure for the State and the
citizens the utmost possible benefit of the abrogation of the Article
1$ of the Mysore Treaty of 1913 announced by His Excellency the
428
Viceroy in December 1933 ; and (b) what action they propose to
take hereafter towards that end ?
2. Will the Government be pleased to State : (a) whether
they were consulted by the Government of India or by His
Majesty's Secretary of State for India as to the necessity for the
legislative measure called the Indian States Protection Act passed
by the Indian Legislative Assembly in April 1934; (b) and if
consulted, what opinion they were pleased to give in reply ; and
(c) whether the Government of Mysore have at any time
expressed a desire for such a measure of protection ?
3. (a) Will the Government be pleased to lay on the table a
copy of the agreement between the State and the Government of
India as regards the adjustment of the surplus revenues of the
Assigned Tract of Bangalore ? (b) Will the Government be
pleased to state how this agreement will be affected by the terms of
the proposed retrocession of the said Assigned Tract to the State
of Mysore ?
These questions were, however, disallowed by the President of
the Legislative Council who was also the Dewan of the State.
Mr. Gundappa being dissatisfied with the ruling of the President,
thereupon wrote an article in the " Hindu " newspaper of Madras
of 23rd June 1934, discussing whether it was permissible for a
member of the Legislative Council to give publicity to matters not
admitted into the agenda by the President of the House. Where
the President was a person, said Mr. Gundappa in his article, who
might represent all sections of the House and who might fairly be
taken to give due consideration to every school of thought present
in the House, it was proper that the decision should be accepted as
binding every member not only in relation to his conduct on the
floor of the House but in relation to all his proceedings outside the
House also on matters which he sought to place before the House.
The supreme maxim, according to Mr. Gundappa, in this as in
other matters was that the highest and the largest public interest
should prevail, and when the discretion was vested in the
President, the presumption ^yas th^t his decisions, welcome qr
429
unwelcome to individual members, were actuated by considerations
of nothing less than the highest and the largest public interest.
The President's authority was in such matters final, because the
President might be presumed to have taken into consideration all
conceivable points of view and after deliberation to have upheld in
the end that which appeared to him as best in the interests of the
public. This general principle was, however, open to modification
where the President was not one who could be presumed to
represent all sections of the House and was one who might
reasonably be presumed to be identified with one point of view
more than with other possible viewpoints. The President of the
Mysore Legislative Council was not a member elected by the vote
of the House and that therefore was not entitled to be regarded as
the representative of the entire House in relation to those matters
on which there was any sharp cleavage of opinion in the House.
He was, besides, the head of the executive administration of the
State. Holding this view, the member felt that he had liberty to
give publicity to the resolutions and interpellations which he
wished to bring forward in the House.
It need not be said that the conventions and principles
referred to by Mr. Gundappa can have their full application only in
countries which have full political independence. But in British
India or in the Native States, they have obvious limitations as
matters stand at present. On the concluding day of the Birthday
Session of the Representative Assembly in June 1934, Sir Mirza
Ismail referred to this subject and had apparently these limitations
in mind when he said : — " Improve by all means what you have got
when any improvement is needed, but attempt no radical changes.
Let us, like practical men, check our ideals by actualities. There
lies our success and happiness."
CHAPTER LI.
Krishnaraja Wodcyar IV.
Various Administrative Improvements— 1926— 1936.
Two important Legislative Measures : Workmen's
Compensation Regulation and Regulation to amend the
Hindu Law as to the Rights of Women and in certain
other respects.
Workmen's Compensation Regulation.
In the Dasara Session of the Representative Assembly of
1927 the principles of a measure framed in the interests of
workmen known as the Workmen's Compensation Bill were
explained. The development of industries in the State in recent
years led to the use of machinery on a growing scale and to the
employment in mills, factories and other industrial concerns of a
large number of workmen who were exposed to risks of accidents
resulting in injury and sometimes in death. It was equitable that
the employers should grant compensation to their employees so
injured or to the families and dependants of such as happened to be
killed by accidents during the course of their employment. The
general principles of the Bill were accepted by a unanimous vote
by the Assembly. Its benefit to the work people will be under-
stood when it is stated that in the year 1931-32 the compensation
paid amounted to nearly Rs. 94,000. The sum paid to the
dependants of the deceased workmen amounted to Rs. 87,295.
The number of cases of injuries by accidents that came up before
the Commissioner was 314. Of these, 136 related to fatal accidents,
54 to non-fatal accidents and 108 to the registration of the
memoranda of agreements. Out of the total number of claims for
compensation, the Mining industry accounted for 269, textile
industries for 36 and the several Government Departments for 9.
Amendment of Hindu Law.
The question of improving the position assigned to women
under the Hindu Law as administered by the courts in the State
bad been frequently pressed upon the attention of the Government
431
and a resolution was also moved at the Dasara Session of the
Representative Assembly in 1928 recommending legislation on the
subject. The sense of the Assembly on this motion was that
before legislation was undertaken, it was desirable that the question
should be examined by a non -official committee. This proposal
commended itself to the Government and a committee consisting
of ten non-official gentlemen with Dewan Bahadur Mr. K. S.
Chandrasekhara Iyer, retired Chief Justice of the Chief Court of
Mysore as chairman, was appointed in June 1929. One of the
members was a lady, Srimathi K. D. Rukminiamma. The terms
of reference to the committee were : — (l) to examine in all its
aspects the question of improving the position of women under the
Hindu Law, inclusive of any other incidental points that might
arise in connection with and also with reference to recent legislation
in British India in the same direction ; (2) to submit a report to
Government indicating in what respects the Hindu Law as
administered at the time stood in need of reform ; and (3) to
prepare a draft Bill embodying the recommendations of the
committee in the matter. This committee held a number of sittings
to discuss the subject and also circulated a questionnaire.
A large number of replies to the questionnaire was received
and the committee bore testimony in their report to the breadth of
view, the comparative freedom from prejudice and the sincere
desire for progress evinced by the greater number of those who
individually and collectively favoured the committee with their
views. At a latter stage of the committee's work when the
materials available were digested and it became possible to put
the tentative conclusions reached into a form adapted for legislative
action, a number of distinguished lawyers and judges in different
parts of India were approached for advice and suggestions. The
committee submitted their report to Government in September
1930 after an elaborate and arduous examination of all the
materials available.
The committee expressed the opinion that the State of
Mysore had not 4o encounter the same difficulties as the British
Government had to face. The reasons behind the policy of
432
non-interference with the personal laws of the Hindus did not apply
with the same force to a Hindu State like Mysore as they did in
British India. There were many factors operating in British
India but not to the same extent in Mysore which impeded the
undertaking of such legislation, such as the policy of religious
non-interference, the marked diversities in conditions, languages,
laws and customs of the people inhabiting the large number of
British Provinces which on account of their extent formed as it
were a sub-continent by themselves. There were also several
schools of Hindu Law in British India and the principles applied
by one school often materially differed from or conflicted with
those of another, and it was therefore practically impossible to
enact a uniform and comprehensive code applicable to all Hindus
alike in British India. On the other hand, in the Mysore State the
large majority of the Hindus practically formed a compact
group and were governed by one uniform law, namely, the
Mitakshara system. Mysore in the past had taken the lead
in the eradication of evil social customs like infant marriage and the
employment of Devadasis in temples and religious institutions. It
had also gone very far on the way in recent years towards
enfranchising women for citizenship by the recognition of their
eligibility to serve on District and Municipal Boards, the Senate of
the University, the Representative Assembly and the Legislative
Council of the State. The committee also framed a draft Bill
amending the Hindu Law in all those points where they considered
necessary and named it * A Bill to amend the Hindu Law as to the
rights of Women.' The Bill consisted of five parts : — (l) In-
heritance (2) Separate Property and Adoption (3) Women's full
Estate (4) Women's Limited Estate and (5) Maintenance.
On the 4th June 1931 at the Budget Session of the
Representative Assembly the general principles of this Bill were,
on behalf of Government, explained by the Law Secretary,
Dewan Bahadur Mr. P. Mahadeviah, to the members. There
were two schools of thought, said the Law Secretary, one
the orthodox school which maintained that the law propounded
by Manu in times out of memory stood for all time and
433
required no change. There was also another school which
contended that the law laid down by ancient Rishis thousands of
years ago would not suit the altered conditions of society and that
it also required to be brought up-to-date so as to suit modern
requirements. The views of both these schools were carefully
weighed in the balance by the committee and their report, further
said the Law Secretary, explained at great length the reasons for
the modifications suggested by them. The one important departure
which the committee had sought to make in the law was with
reference to the recognition of the claims of women for inheritance.
The women had proved equal to men in the matter of education
and in other fields of life also had shown themselves fit to be
entrusted with responsibilities and it was no longer possible to
confine their activities to mere household duties. The committee
had taken full note of these changing conditions and the changes
contained in their draft Bill fully indicated this spirit. The main
objection from the point of view of orthodoxy, viz., the recognition
of the rights of women to property, was based on the suspicion that
it would affect their morals. The committee rightly characterised
this view as a coarse and incorrect appreciation of the tendencies
and inclinations of the women-folk. The Bill also proposed to
give to widows right of adoption in particular circumstances.
Following the ruling of the Bombay High Court which was
subsequently upheld by the Privy Council, the Mysore Committee
gave to the widow the right of adoption unless she had been
specifically prohibited by her husband in writing to make an
adoption. Similarly they recognised the right of an unmarried
daughter to a fourth share of the family property.
The general principles of the Bill were that no women were to
be excluded from inheritance on the ground of their sex or on the
ground of the absence of textual authority. Their right of heirship
and their place in the order of succession were to be governed by
the recognised cannons of heirship, namely, consanguinity and
propinquity. Property acquired by a member of a joint family by
his self -exert ions was prima facie to be regarded as separate
property in which female heirs were to have a heritable right.
A55
434
The point was made clear in British India by the passing of the
Hindu Gains of Learning Act. The right of a member of a joint
family to bring about a separation of interests by a unilateral
declaration of intention to divide was established by judicial
decisions, but it was not sufficiently well-known. The fact had
obviously a material bearing upon the rights of a coparcener's wife,
daughters and other female relatives. The law on this point was
therefore declared in clear terms in the Bill. The allotment of
shares to female relatives was enjoined in the texts of law and was
also in operation in certain parts of India. Although the practice
as it existed in the past could not be restored in full, the Bill
provided for the revival of the practice in the case of the widow,
the mother, the unmarried daughter and the unmarried sister. In
the matter of adoption, widows could only adopt if they were
specially authorised by the husband or if they obtained the consent
of the Sapindas after the husband's death, a consent which was
naturally difficult to obtain. In the Presidency of Bombay, widows
were presumed to have the authority to adopt except when there
was an express prohibition. The Bill accordingly embodied this
principle. Though, according to the Mitakshara, the term
* Stridhana ' was meant to apply to property of every description
belonging to a woman, the tendency of judicial decisions had been
to exclude various items of property from its scope, particularly
property acquired by inheritance. The result was the creation of
what was acknowledged to be an anomalous estate known as the
Hindu Widow's Estate, tending to the undue curtailment of
women's rights as well as to the perpetual fostering of protracted
and often speculative litigation. To avoid such contingencies, the
Bill provided that estates inherited by a female from another female
or from her husband or son or from a male relative connected by
blood should be classed as Stridhana. As regards maintenance, the
existing law presented some unsatisfactory features. While some
female relatives were legally entitled to be maintained, there was
only a moral obligation of maintenance in respect of certain others.
The right of maintenance was often liable to be defeated by the
collusion or improvidence of those on whom the legal obligation lay.
The Bill therefore defined the cases in which the obligation of
435
maintenance was personal and those in which the obligation was
dependent on the possession of property and also the circumstances
entitling a wife to separate maintenance. It was further provided
to treat the right to maintenance as a charge on property liable to
meet it, with priority over subsequent alienations not made in good
faith.
Among the members of the Assembly present were two lady
members Srimathi Kamalamma Dasappa and Srimathi Sakamma.
The first lady member in a speech she made expressed gratitude
for the paternal care that the Government was taking in the matter
of securing certain rights to the womanhood of the State. At the
same time, she brought to the notice of the Assembly that the All-
India Women's Conference had passed resolutions to the effect that
the recommendations of the Chandrasekhara Iyer Committee did
not go far enough and that women wanted equal rights with men in
the matter of inheritance. But the committee had proposed that
only one-fourth of the property should go to the unmarried daughter.
With reference to a querry from a member as to what special claim
had been established by the women of Mysore for a better treatment
in future, Srimathi Kamalamma Dasappa retorted by asking what
particular achievements had entitled the men of Mysore to the
superior position they were enjoying. She regretted that any
section of the male population should take a narrow view of the
matter, particularly at a time when every civilised country —
eastern and western — was anxious to improve the position of women.
Recent political developments in India had shown that woman was
capable of the best services and the highest sacrifices no less than
man. While men were fighting for their political rights in the
shape of responsible Government, how could these self-same men
deny women their legitimate claims in the matter of inheritance ?
If men were not prepared to extend these rights to women, how
could they expect their own claims for better rights and privileges
to be recognised by others ? There was a mistaken notion in
certain quarters that property was never safe in the hands of women.
She asked whether there were not cases of property having been
wasted by men. Under the Mahomedan law, women were allotted
a share of their father's property and they had managed and enjoyed
436
it in the most frugal manner. Did all Mahomedan ladies mismanage
their property ? It should be remembered, she said, that after all,
it was only their own sisters and daughters that were going to be
helped by the proposed legislation. Childless widows would as
heretofore spend their property on their own brothers' and sisters'
children. The other lady member Srimathi Sakamma was equally
effective in the part she took in the debate. When the general
principles of the Bill were put to vote, they were accepted by a
large majority, only four or five voting on the other side.
The Bill was next introduced in the Legislative Council and
passed through the usual stages. *Mr. S. P. Rajagopalachar,
Member of the State Council who was in charge of the Bill, stated
on the 19th December 1932 when the Bill had reached its final
stage that the Select Committee which considered the Bill had not
made any important changes and its report was practically
unanimous. " I lay stress on the fact," said Mr. Rajagopalachar,
" that it was found possible to produce an agreed report on such a
controversial Bill for two reasons. It indicates, in the first place,
that all aspects of the subject have been fully considered.
Secondly, in matters of social legislation as in the Bill before us, it
is better to carry the largest amount of informed public opinion
with us. It is not meant, of course, that every shade of opinion or
objection should be listened to, but it is essential that the broad
outlines of the legislation should find general acceptance." At
this stage a petition from the President, Mysore State Women's
Conference, dated 13th December 1932, was placed before the
Council asking for larger privileges and suggesting the postpone-
ment of the consideration of the Bill. The petition was read and
recorded. The Bill with only a few modifications was ultimately
passed by the Legislative Council and subsequently received the
assent of His Highness the Maharaja. It came into force from
1st January 1934.
CHAPTER LII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
Visit of Lord Willingdon to Mysore Aberration of
the Article 18 of the Treaty of 1913— Death of the
Maharani, late Regent.
Lord Willingdon, the Governor-General, with Lady Willingdon
visited the Mysore State in December 1933. Prior to this visit, he had
visited Mysore on no less than five occasions when he was Governor
of Madras and was therefore thoroughly well acquainted with the
internal conditions and progress of the State. A State Banquet was
given by the Maharaja on the 4th December and in proposing the
health of his distinguished guest, His Highness referred to Lord
Willingdon as being entitled to a warm welcome not only as the
chief representative of the British Crown in India but also as an
old and sincere friend of the State of Mysore. His Highness also
referred to His Excellency's visit occurring at a time of much
importance in the history of India, when all were looking forward
to a great advance in the system of administration and meanwhile,
were full of admiration for the success that had attended His
Excellency's policy of firmness and conciliation. " There are no
people in the world," continued His Highness, " who by nature and
tradition are more peace-loving, contented and responsive than
the people of India. There is no one who is more anxious to
do all that is humanly possible for the furtherance of the well-being
of the people committed to his charge than Your Excellency. Your
utter sincerity, your earnest desire to do the best you can for the
country you love regardless of all personal consequences are well
recognise.! and deeply appreciated. And I feel sure that when the
time comes for you to leave these shores, you will leave them
amidst the applause of a grateful people and with the consciousness
of having cemented those bonds of mutual esteem and interest
which alone can hold your country and mine permanently
together."
Lord Willingdon, in answering the toast after paying the usual
compliments, proceeded to speak on political and pther connected
438
matters. — " Your Highness has remarked that my visit is made at a
time of great importance in the history of India. Your Highness
is also well aware that the goal which we have set before ourselves
is not exactly approached by a road strewn with roses all the way.
Nevertheless, the determination of His Majesty's Government and
the Government of India to achieve that large advance to which
Your Highness refers, remains and will remain unshaken. This great
country has but recently passed through times as grave and fraught
with anxiety as any in its long history, — times which are still not
free from anxiety owing to the economic depression which still hangs
over us. And although signs are not wanting that happier days are
in sight, he would be a bold man who would prophesy that India is
more than at the threshold of that period of peace which is so
essential for her recovery and progress. But whatever troubles
India may have had to face, she has had friends and supporters
staunch and true, and none more constant in loyalty and devotion
to the British Crown than Your Highness. The active co-operation
of Your Highness1 Government has been of material assistance to
my Government and I am glad to have this opportunity of
sincerely thanking Your Highness for the very real services which
Mysore has rendered during the past troublous years.
" The record of progress of your State since my last visit
eleven years ago is certainly remarkable. Those years have not
been happy ones in the histories of the nations and they have closed
in an economic crisis of the first magnitude. It was impossible
that Mysore should escape altogether the worldwide depression.
That she should have been able, despite it, to continue to develop
her industries and provide for the welfare of her people in the way
she has done must compel the admiration of all observers
Of the varied and interesting programme that you have prepared
for me, there is no item that I look forward to with greater antici-
pation than my visit to the Krishnarajasagara I have good
reason to know that it was entirely the friendly co-operation shown
by Your Highness and your Government with the neighbouring
Presidency of Madras that secured the successful development of
the Mettur Project which by impounding ninety-thousand million
439
cubic feet of water will, it is hoped, bring prosperity hitherto
undreamed of to the ryots in that part of the Presidency of Madras.
Your Highness has not failed to realise the necessity of
providing facilities for rapid transport and there are, I am told,
450 miles of railway worked by the State. I can well appreciate
Your Highness1 anxiety to link by railway the southern portion of
Mysore with the adjoining districts of the Madras Presidency, but
as Your Highness knows well, there are certain difficulties in this
connection which have so far prevented Your Highness from
realising this long-cherished and most admirable ambition. But I
trust that in the future when circumstances are more favourable, a
means of surmounting these difficulties may be found. The
industries of Mysore are so numerous that I can do no more than
express my admiration for the energy and skill with which in the
face of economic depression they have been and are still being
developed. One such outstanding instance is the Sugar Factory
now nearing completion at Mandya. It is my sincere hope that the
labours of the Tariff Board which are even now engaging the
serious attention of my Government will result in restoring
prosperity to your silk and iron industries In 1923 Lord
Reading referred to the charter which inaugurated great constitu-
tional changes in your State. The confidence which Your Highness
has reposed in your subjects has been more than justified by the
passing of the years. The maintenance of that standard of
administration which was handed over to your revered father in
1881 has been a matter of satisfaction to the successive Viceroys,
and I am glad to be able to give signal proof of the recognition of
this high standard by the British Government by announcing that
in response to Your Highness* wishes the restrictions imposed by
Article 18 of the Treaty of 1913 on legislation by Your Highness*
Government have now been removed.
" Your Highness has referred to the remission of those portions
of Mysore revenues that now form a contribution to the Imperial
Exchequer. It will be remembered that the Davidson Committee
who visited your State in February 1932 have recommended that
all such contributions should as soon as possible be abolished A
440
reference to those recommendations will be found in paragraph 61
of the Introduction to the White Paper. The question is, in fact,
among those which are now engaging the attention of His Majesty's
Government and I can assure Your Highness that my Government
will not cease to give the matter its earnest and sympathetic
consideration. As Your Highness is aware, the position is
complicated by the economic depression which has affected the
rest of India no less than Mysore. I can only express the hope
that before long the general financial situation will materially
improve and that Your Highness may be relieved of your anxieties
over this matter.
" The question of the retrocession of a portion of the Civil and
Military Station of Bangalore to which Your Highness has referred
is under examination by the officers of my Government, and 1 hope
that by patience and goodwill it may be settled to the satisfaction
alike of my Government and of Your Highness.
" Federation is a word that is on everybody's lips to-day.
That it will come I am confident, that it will come and I look to
see Mysore play a leading part in the destinies of the new India — a
part she is well qualified to play by her traditions and her long and
distinguished history, no less than by her capacity for administra-
tion and by the fact that she has as her Ruler one of the most
enlightened and broad-minded Princes in India."
Death of the Maharani, late Regent.
This sad event occurred on the 8th July 1934 and there was a
spontaneous outburst of grief throughout the State and even abroad.
She was held in high esteem and affectionate reverence by all classes
of people for her great devotion, both during the period of her
Regency and ever afterwards, to every cause that was in the
interests of the people. At the Dasara Session of the Represen-
tative Assembly held on the 19th October 1934 the Dewan,
Sir Mirza Ismail, referred to the demise of Her Highness in
these words : " In addressing you this afternoon it is my sad duty,
in the first place, to refer to the great loss which His Highness the
Maharaja and the State have sustained in the death in July last of
441
His Highness1 revered mother, Her Highness Sri Vani Vilas
Sannidhana, who passed away before completing the allotted span
of years. On the death of His late Highness at the early age of
thirty-one, the responsibility for the guidance of the State during
the minority of her son devolved upon Her Highness and she
conducted the affairs of the State as Regent for nearly eight years
with much success and to the great admiration of all. To the end
of her life she took the keenest interest in all that concerned the
welfare of Mysore, and especially of its women. Her Highness
was distinguished, not by any desire to enter into public affairs, but
by her kindliness, generosity and womanly sympathy with all classes,
poor and rich, — and these qualities endeared her to all her people.
I know I am voicing the sentiment of all Hon'ble Members in
giving expression to our sense of the irreparable loss suffered by
His Highness the Maharaja and his people and in conveying to
Their Highnesses the Maharaja and the Yuvaraja the loyal and
sincere condolences of this House." It need not be stated that the
members of the Assembly all joined the Dewan in mourning for the
loss of so notable a figure as the late Maharani- Regent.
The Sri Vani Yilas Hospital for Women and Children in
Bangalore opened by His Highness the Maharaja in March 1935
and the Sri Vani Vilas Bridge across the Kapini opened by the
Hon'ble Sir Frank Noyce in November 1935 form fitting additions
to the many monuments already existing throughout the State
perpetuating her honoured name.
CHAPTER Lilt.
Krishnaraja Wodcyar IV.
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms — Constitution of the
Chamber of Princes — The Butler Commission and its
Report.
After the conclusion of the German War, the British
Government decided to adopt a new policy in relation to British
India and the Indian States. Edwin Montagu, Secretary of State
for India, announced in the House of Commons on the 20th August
1917 that it was intended to increase the association of Indians in
every branch of the administration and gradually to develop self-
governing institutions for the progressive realisation of responsible
Government in India as an integral part of the British Empire. A
further announcement was also made that in order to have a free
and informal exchange of opinions on the subject, the Secretary of
State was himself visiting India.
Shortly after, Montagu arrived in India and a joint investiga-
tion by him and Lord Chelmsford the Viceroy was carried out by
touring in all parts of the country and a joint report was submitted
by them to Parliament. In 1919 a new Government of India Act
was passed by Parliament.
Prior to 1919, there was no defined and authoritative distribu-
tion of business between the Central Government and the
Governments of the British Indian Provinces. The Government of
India was responsible for the whole country and necessarily kept
certain classes of business in its own hands such as the Army,
Relations with Asiatic countries and with most of the Indian
States. It also controlled Currency and Exchange, Public Debts,
Tariffs, Post Office, Telegraph and Railways. In certain spheres
such as Education, Police, Land Revenue, Public Health, the
Government of India shared responsibility with the Provincial
Governments. The Central Government was prior to 1919, more
or less, a closely compacted official machine and generally
autocratic. The Parliamentary Act of 1919 introduced a demarca-
443
tion of business between the Central and Provincial Governments
and entrusted to the latter full control over certain subjects
comprised within their sphere of action. New Legislative Councils
were set up in all the major Provinces on a unicameral and triennial
basis, elected for the greater part on a general franchise from
territorial constituencies. In these Councils the element of res*
ponsibility was restricted to certain specified subjects, thereby
creating what was called a dyarchical form of Government
designating some departments of Government as ' Transferred ',
while others were regarded as ' Reserved '. At the Centre a
bi-cameral Legislature was set up in which the Upper and the
Lower Houses, namely, the Council of State and the Legislative
Assembly were each given a majority of elected members with
powers as to legislation, finance and interpellation, but without the
power to change the executive government which remained solely
responsible to the Governor-General and through him to the
Secretary of State and Parliament.
With regard to the Native States, the powers of the Govern-
ment of India were obviously not so wide as those over the
Provincial Governments. No doubt the British Crown was
regarded as possessing general supremacy over the Native States
on the ground that the security which the Ruling Princes enjoyed
was due ultimately to the protecting power of the British
Government. In Lord Reading's words, where imperial interests
were concerned or the general welfare of the people of the State
was seriously or grievously affected, the ultimate responsibility for
taking remedial action rested with the Paramount Power.
The Princes were fully aware of their obligations to the
Paramount Power. But their anxiety lay in other directions.
They found that a body of political usage was gradually growing
up based on the precedents and rulings of the Political Department
of the Government of India which were often in conflict with
their rights as secured to them by their treaties. The financial
and economic relations between British India and the Indian
States were vague and various fiscal burdens were also found
indirectly thrown on the States without their having any
voice in the matter. Indeed, shortly after Montagu's pronounce-
ment in the Parliament, Sir M. Visvesvaraya who was then
Dewan of Mysore took occasion at the Dasara Session of the
Representative Assembly held in October of the same year to
observe that the Native States had a direct interest in the reforms
proposed for British India, the subjects of Indian States being
affected quite as much as the people of British India, especially
in questions connected with Currency, Fiscal and Commercial
Autonomy, Salt duties, Emigration, Army, Navy and Foreign
Affairs and he claimed on that score an effective voice for the
States in the Councils of the Empire. *
The Montagu -Chelmsford Report conceded, as a result of the
enquiries made, the claim of the Indian States for a share in the
deliberations of the Government of India in matters such as those
referred to by the Dewan of Mysore. The Report also contained
a recommendation for the creation of a Chamber of Princes as a
permanent consultative body. Accordingly in 1920 a Chamber of
this kind was inaugurated in which the leading Princes were
made members in their own right, while the rest elected their
representatives. The inauguration ceremony was performed by
the Duke of Connaught in February 1921 and the Royal Proclama-
tion then read formally marked the abandonment of the policy of
isolation of the Princes from the Central Government of the
country. It may be noted here that Lord Chelmsford had before
the Act of 1919 was passed, adopted the policy of establishing
direct relations with all the Indian States instead of several of
them remaining under the political control of the Provincial
Governments.
The Act of 1919, however, was regarded by several of the
Princes as further adding to their anxiety and they desired to know
whether in case a self-governing constitution was given to British
India or for India as a whole, this new constitution was to have
the conduct of the political relations which existed between them
and the Government of India and what safeguards there would be
for their sovereignty or in other words, whether the States would
continue as before to deal with the Governor- General in Council
445
who was responsible to the Government in England or whether
their relations were to he transferred to the executive government
responsible to the Indian Legislature. The Government of India
appreciating the point of view from which the Princes looked at
the proposed reforms undertook a revision of the methods of
carrying on political business with them, especially in relation
to their treaty rights, and the same Government also started a
codification of political practices as they existed both in the
Government of India Secretariat as well as outside in consultation
with the Standing Committee of the Chamber of Princes. A
special committee was also appointed by the Secretary of State for
India with Sir Harcourt Butler as chairman to report, firstly, upon
the relationship between the Paramount Power and the Indian
States with particular reference to the rights and obligations
arising from treaties, engagements, sannads, usage or other causes,
secondly, to enquire into the financial and economic relations
existing between British India and the States and lastly, to make
any recommendations that they deemed advisable or necessary for
a more satisfactory adjustment of all such relations for the future.
This special committee first assembled at Delhi in the middle
of January 1928 and held informal conferences and consultations
with the Government of India and with the Indian Princes and
their ministers. They also visited some ot the larger and more
important States including Mysore. The members of the
committee sailed from Bombay for England and reached London
in the early part of May. Several of the Princes also led by the
Maharaja of Patiala, Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes, visited
England and presented their case before the special committee
through Sir Leslie Scott whom they employed as their legal
adviser. The Mysore State was not represented by any counsel
but sent a separate reply of its own to the questionnaire issued by
the committee, as also did Hyderabad and a number of other States.
The representations of the counsel on behalf of the Princes in
England sought to establish the defectiveness of the political
machinery as it then existed on some main points. In the first
place, it gave the States no share in the determination of policy
446
affecting their relations with the Paramount Power as well as in
matters of mutual concern to them and to British India and in the
next place, it provided no impartial method of arriving at decisions
when differences arose between them and the British Government
or when questions arose regarding the proper interpretation of their
treaties.
The Butler Committee completed their report in 1929. They
were of opinion that Paramountcy vested in the Crown and that it
was difficult to devise a proper formula that would define its scope.
Paramountcy must, they said, be paramount in the interests of the
Princes themselves. This committee also recognised that the
policy of discriminating protection adopted by the Government of
India had raised the revenue from maritime customs from 5 to
nearly 50 crores of rupees, thereby reducing the taxable capacity of
the subjects of the States and created a situation in which the
States were entitled for relief.
CHAPTER LIV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Simon Commission.
The dyarchic from of government established by the
Parliamentary Act of 1919 did not tend to allay the political dis-
content that prevailed at the time in India ; on the other hand, the
demand for a unified form of responsible government grew in volume
from year to year. Section 84 A of the Parliamentary Act provided
for the appointment of a Commission within a period of 10 years
after the passing of the Act for the purpose of investigating how
far further it was desirable to extend the degree of responsible
government and to what extent there was growth of education and
the development of responsible institutions in British India.
Towards the close of 1927 the Government in England appointed a
Commission the head of which was Sir John Simon. This
Commission paid two visits to India, the first lasting from 3rd
February 1928 to 31st March of the same year and the second from
llth October 1928 to 13th April 1929.
As this Statutory Commission approached the final stages of
its work, it felt that without taking account of the Indian States
into consideration , no satisfactory solution of the problem of the
Indian constitution was possible. Sir John Simon, the chairman of
the Commission, pointed out in a letter dated 16th October 1929 to
the Prime Minister in England, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, that
whatever might be the scheme which Parliament would ultimately
approve for the future constitution and governance of British India,
it was essential that the methods by which the future relationship
between these two constituent parts of Greater India might be
adjusted should be fully examined. Sir John Simon further said
that it was clear that the Commission could not ignore the reactions
of the presence of the States on the problem it was studying in
British India, or the possible repercussions on the former of any
recommendations it might make regarding the latter, and suggested
that a conference of the representatives of both British India as
448
well as of Native States might be called to consider them before the
final proposals of His Majesty's Government were submitted to
Parliament. The Prime Minister on behalf of the British Govern-
ment accepted this suggestion and indicated that after the Simon
Report was received and considered in consultation with the
Government of India, His Majesty's Government would hold a
conference in London to which representatives of British India and
of the Indian States would be invited to discuss with them all the
problems relating to the future reforms.
Long before the appointment of* the Simon Commission,
Sir M. Visvesvaraya had urged, as we have seen, the claim of the
Indian States for a voice in the Councils of the Central Government
regarding the common concerns of India as a whole. In 1926 Sir
Mirza Ismail when he met the Representative Assembly for the
first time as Dewan at its Birthday Session was equally explicit.
The question of the position of the Indian States formed, with other
matters of common interest, the subject of discussion at an
informal conference held at Bikaner in August 1926 at which
the Dewan of Mysore also was present. At the Dasara Session
of the Representative Assembly in the same year Sir Mirza
Ismail made a very clear pronouncement on this subject
which may be quoted : — " With the gradual development of self-
government in India, the problem of the position of the Indian
States enters upon a new phase and India's prosperity and progress
depend in a large measure upon a right solution of this problem.
In Mysore, we desire no voice in the internal affairs of British
India and seek for ourselves complete autonomy in such affairs,
subject to the suzerainty of the British Crown. Details of relation-
ship will change with the changing times. Economically, however,
no Indian State can stand in isolation. Economic union is
becoming a world policy making for the mutual understanding of
nations and their co-operation in all things. In this world-wide
movement India is destined to play an important part and one of
increasing responsibility and power. She cannot but develop the
same policy within her borders, gradually breaking down both
.barriers and distinctions in economic matters. I believe that such
449
an effort will work more strongly towards political unity than the
immediate planning of any political federation. For it will bring a
living unity of purpose and action, out of which political unity will
naturally and fitly arise." Again at the Birthday Session of the
Assembly in June 1929, the Dewan acknowledged that the spirit of
the times and the inexorable logic of events were tending inevitably
to bring the two parts of India together both economically and
politically. There was no doubt, he said, that the trend of events
was towards a political federation, but that such a federation could
only endure if it was based on the sure foundation of common
ideals and mutual interests. While Mysore was quite
prepared, he further said, to join any well-devised scheme
of Federation which would ensure her share in the settlement of
common questions, she could however well afford to wait upon
events.
The Statutory Commission completed their report and presented
it to His Majesty's Government in May 1930. Their recommen-
dation mainly was that in the British Provinces the dyarchic system
should be discarded and the work of government entrusted entirely
to ministers, making however certain reservations in respect of law
and order and suggesting certain safeguards also. As regards the
federation of British India and the Indian States, the Commission
agreed that the ultimate constitution of India must be federal. For
it was only in a federal constitution that units differing so widely in
constitution as the British Provinces and the States could be
brought together while retaining their internal autonomy. A
number of considerations weighed with the Commission in arriving
at this conclusion. In the first place, there was, according to the
Commission, an essential geographical unity in diversity in the
Indian peninsula regarded as a whole. Next, there was a political
unity also as policies entered upon in one sphere had their
repercussions on the other. The political boundaries that separated
the Indian States from British India were only imaginary lines and
that popular movements on one side of these lines could not be
prevented from spreading into the other. Thirdly, the economic
forces were such that the States and British India must stand or
fall together, as there was a serious possibility that unless provision
450
could be made for the reconciliation of divergent interests the
number of tariff walls would be perpetuated in an area where fiscal
unity was most desirable. Fourthly, there were the common
needs for consideration of both the spheres, as there were few
subjects which formed the field of activity of a Central Govern-
ment in India which did not interest also the Indian States ; for
example, the Defence of India. Lastly, there was the increasing
growth of a sense of unity among the people of India as a whole
leading to an acuter sense of common nationhood. But the
Commission regarded Federation as a distant goal and contented
themselves by merely observing that the new constitution should
provide an open door whereby when it seemed good to them, the
Princes might enter on just and reasonable terms.
There was widespread criticism of the report in British India
for its denial of responsibility in the Central Government. There
was equal dissatisfaction in the States that no satisfactory solution
had been found to remedy the disadvantages under which they were
placed. While the Government of India made some effort to
disarm the criticism in British India of irresponsibility in the
Centre by an amplification in their despatch to the Secretary of
State dated 20th September 1930 the plan contained in the Simon
Report, they at the same time fully accepted the opinion of the
Commission regarding an AH- India Federation as only a distant
ideal. The time had not yet come, they said, when the general
body of Indian States would be prepared to take a step so far-
reaching in its character as to enter into any formal federal
relations with British India.
CHAPTER LV.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV*
Conference at Bangalore preliminary to the Round
Table Conference.
The visit of the Simon Commission, as has been already said,
did not rouse much enthusiasm in India on account of the absence
of any Indian representatives on that body. There was considerable
distrust and suspicion regarding the objects of this Commission
also. To revive confidence and as far as possible to dispel suspicion,
Lord Irwin the Viceroy within a few days of his return to India
after a visit to England on leave made a statement with the
authority of the Government in England on the 31st October 1929
and the essential points of this statement were : — (l) the recognition
that the natural goal of Indian political aspirations was the
attainment of Dominion Status ; (2) a promise that, after the
Statutory Commission had reported, Indian political opinion would
be consulted before any new Government of India Bill was placed
before Parliament. On the 9th July 1930 the Viceroy addressed
members of both Houses of the Indian Legislature and referring to
the Round Table Conference proposed to be held in London stated
that the conference would be free, irrespective of the Simon Report
or of any other document, to approach its task in order to reach a
solution that both England and India and all parties and interests
in them could honourably accept, and any such agreement at which
the conference was able to arrive would form the basis of the
proposals which His Majesty's Government would later submit to
Parliament.
It was arranged that the first Round Table Conference should
meet in London on 12th November 1930. The conference was to
consist of 16 British delegates representing all political parties in
Parliament, 15 delegates from the Indian States and 51 from
British India. Among the delegates from the Indian States were
10 Ruling Princes — the Maharajas of Alwar, Baroda, Bikaner,
Jammu a&d Kashmir, Nawangar, Patiata an<4 Rewa, Rang, of
452
Dholpur, Nawab of Bhopal, the Chief of Sangli and six ministers
from Native States among whom was Sir Mirza Ismail, Dewan of
Mysore. Among the 57 British Indian delegates from all parts of
the country there were two ladies, namely, Mrs. Subbaroyan from
Madras and Begum Shah Nawaz from the Punjab. Sir Mirza
Ismail represented not only the State of Mysore but also the States
of Travancore, Cochin and Pudukota.
On the invitations from the Viceroy reaching the delegates
who were to represent India, Sir Mirza Ismail issued invitations to
a number of important persons to meet at .Bangalore to consider the
subjects which were likely to be discussed in London. The
conference met at the new Legislative Council Chamber in the
public offices and lasted for two clays on the 19th and 20th August
1930. There were present at the conference H. H. the young
Maharaja of Travancore, the Raja of Sandur, Dewan Bahadur
SirT. Raghavaiya (Pudukota), Mr. A. C. Dutt, I.C.S., Dewan of
Travancore and Mr. T. S. Narayana Iyer, Dewan of Cochin, from
outside the State and a large number of representative persons
from inside the State which included members of the Represen-
tative Assembly and members of the Legislative Council, publicists
of note, Sir K. P. Puttanna Chetty, Sir Charles Todhunter,
Private Secretary to the Maharaja of Mysore, and Dewan Bahadur
P. Raghavendra Rao, ex- Member of the State Council.
Sir Mirza Ismail who presided at the meeting explained that they
had assembled for the purpose of taking counsel together regarding
the attitude to be adopted and the proposals to be made at the
Round Table Conference by the Indian States in general and the
South Indian States in particular. Referring to the Simon Report
which had been received with mistrust in India, Sir Mirza said that
though there were many things in it with which he did not agree,
yet it had to be admitted that it was a weighty production which it
would be unwise to discuss in a hasty spirit of prejudice, nor was
it fair and reasonable on the part of the Indians to expect the
British Government to ignore a report which had been prepared by
seven distinguished members of Parliament representing all parties
and which was regarded by their countrymen as a great essay in
453
const ituti on -making worthy of the closest study and destined to
rank as a State document of historic importance. Sir Mirza next
referred to the three major problems which, in his opinion, India
had to solve before she could hope to attain complete self-
government — the problem of the British community, the Hindu-
Muslim question and the problem of the States. Referring to the
Indian States, he expressed that they were the custodians of the
ancient learning and culture of India and that they were developing
towards a form of constitutional monarchy, though it had to be
acknowledged that some States were still far in the rear in
constitutional progress. Referring to the proposal of the Simon
Commission regarding the federation of India, Sir Mirza said that
he differed from the Commission when they opined that the vision
of a federal India was a distant ambition. On the other hand, it was
quite possible, he said, that the march of events could be made
more rapid by the immediate reorganisation of the Council of
State on an All- India basis by enlarging it and including re-
presentatives from the Indian States. He was further in favour of
the immediate establishment of a Supreme Court as the States
had a specicil interest in the institution of a tribunal that should
have powers to decide justiciable matters at issue between
themselves and the Government of India and the Provinces, or even
between the different States themselves. Another matter of
importance to which Sir Mirza referred was the equitable adjust-
ment of financial relations between the States and British India
and the just appraisment of their claims.
When the informal conference concluded on the 20th August
1930 after eliciting the opinions of those present, Sir Mirza in
winding up the proceedings said that there was general agreement
as regards the necessity for a closer association of the States with
British India for common purposes by entering an All- India
legislature in the shape of the Council of State. There was also
agreement that the States should have the fullest possible measure
of autonomy in their internal affairs, though in practice the degree
of autonomy depended largely on the system of administration in a
State, and it was clear that the mpre constitutionally a State was
434
governed the less justification or likelihood there would be for
intervention on the part of the Paramount Power in its domestic
concerns. Another matter on which also there was general agreement
was that so far as British India was concerned, it was desirable that
an element of responsibility should be introduced at the Centre if the
constitution was to work satisfactorily and to enjoy an adequate
measure of confidence and support from the people. A constitution
which provided full autonomy in the Provinces, responsibility at
the Centre (subject to such transitional safeguards as might be
unavoidable), and a closer association between British India and
the States in matters of common concern would, Sir Mirza hoped,
be the result of the Round Table Conference. As far as the
delegates from the Indian States were concerned, he gave the
assurance that they would appear before the British people, not so
much only as representatives of the States, still less as representing
any particular State, but as Indians desiring for their common
Motherland a position of honour among the nations constituting the
British Commonwealth, all united in allegiance to the Crown.
Sir Mirza Ismail sailed for London from Bombay on the 6th
September 1930, Mr. M. N. Krishna Rao (afterwards Sir), First
Member of the State Council, taking his place for the time being.
CHAPTER LVI.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The First Round Table Conference.
The first Indian Round Table Conference was inaugurated by
His Majesty the King- Emperor, George V, in the Royal Gallery
of the House of Lords on the 12th November 1930 and remained
in session till January 19th 1931. In opening the conference and
in offering a welcome to the members, His Majesty said: —
u More than once has the sovereign summoned historic
assemblies on the soil of India, but never before have British and
Indian statesmen and Rulers of Indian States met, as you now
meet, in one place and round one table, to discuss the future system
of government for India and seek agreement for the guidance of
my Parliament as to the foundations upon which it must stand.
Nearly ten years ago, in a message to my Indian Legislature I
dwelt upon the significance of its establishment in the constitutional
progress of India. Ten years is but a brief span in the life of any
nation, but this decade has witnessed, not only in India but
throughout all the nations forming the British Commonwealth, a
quickening and growth in ideals and aspirations of nationhood
which defy the customary measurement of time. It should there-
fore be no matter of surprise to the men of this generation that, as
was then contemplated, it should have become necessary to
estimate and review the results of what was begun ten years ago
and to make further provision for the future. Such a review has
been lately carried out by the Statutory Commission appointed by
me for the purpose and you will have before you the outcome of
their labours, together with other contributions which have been or
can be made to the solution of the great problem confronting you.
No words of mine are needed to bring home to you the momentous
character of the task to which you have set your hands. Each one
of you will, with me, be profoundly conscious how much depends
for the whole of the British Commonwealth on the issue of your
consultations. This community of interest leads me to count it as
of happy augury that there should be present to-day the represents^
456
tives of my Governments in all the sister-States of that
Commonwealth I cannot doubt that the true foundation
of self-government is in the fusion of divergent claims into mutual
obligations and in their recognition and fulfilment. It is my hope
that the future government of India based on this foundation will
give expression to her honourable aspirations."
After the King left the Royal Gallery, on the proposal of the
Maharaja of Patiala, the Prime Minister Mr. Ramsay Macdonald
was appointed chairman of the Conference. Mr. Ramsay Mac-
donald said, among other things, that the association of the Princes
for the first time in joint conclave with the representatives of the
people of British India was symbolical of the gradual moulding
together of India into one whole. Referring to the British Indian
delegates, the Prime Minister said that though he was mindful of
India's different communities, languages and interests, at the same
time he was also aware of the quickening and unifying influences
which had grown up irresistibly from her contact with Great
Britain and also of the aspirations for a united India which were in
the minds of her philosophers and rulers before the first English
trader set foot on her shores. The simple fact that the Indians had
come to their country to sit at one table with the set and sole
purpose of India's advancement within the companionship of the
Commonwealth was in itself an undeniable sign of progress
towards that end and also an inspiring challange to reach
agreement.
With the appointment of a committee to advise the conference
on the conduct of business, the session adjourned to the 17th
November. On that day the conference met at St. James' Palace
and there was a general discussion on the question whether the
future constitution of India was to be on a federal or unitary basis.
Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru was the first speaker and in an able and
lucid speech he stated that in his opinion a federal form of govern-
ment for India was most acceptable. Sir Tej Bahadur further said
that never before was India governed by agents and sub-agents as
it was being done at present and even Mahomedans who came as
invaders soon settled down in the country and became part and
457
parcel of the Indian social system. The system established by the
British however was that of Parliamentary Sovereignty, — sovereignty
exercised by some 600 and odd members of Parliament on behalf
of a population of 45 millions over 320 millions of people living
6000 miles away from England. Ordinary members of Parliament
had neither the necessary time, nor the necessary capacity, nor the
necessary vision to understand the mind or feelings of India, and
the Secretary of State, however distinguished he was, was one of
those 600 men and necessarily had to depend upon the advice of
men in the India Office. The Civil Servants might be entitled to
considerable regard, but while they could be very good servants, at
the same time they were very bad masters. Thus it came down to
the sovereignty of half a dozen men in England and half a dozen
men in India and that was how the theory of Parliamentary
Sovereignty worked out. It was therefore natural for India to seek
freedom within her own borders as an integral part of the British
Commonwealth of Nations. What India wanted and was
determined to achieve was a status of equality with the other
members of the British Commonwealth — an equality which would
give it a government not merely responsive to but responsible to
the popular voice. It would not do for the British Government
merely to offer Provincial Autonomy, unless it was coupled
with a decided and clear change in the constitution of the
Central Government made responsible to the legislature. At
that stage it might no doubt well be asked — what was to
be the relation of that responsible Central Government
to the Provinces and to the States. This question gave
rise to a further question whether the constitution was to be of a
federal or of any other character. The Indian Princes were every
inch as patriotic as any others and Sir Tej Bahadur's appeal to
them was that their vision should not be confined only to that part
of India which formed their territories, but that they should move
forward with the vision of India as one whole, each part of which
might be autonomous and might enjoy absolute independence
within its own borders, regulated by proper relations with the rest.
If there was agreement as regards responsibility in the Centre, it
was inevitable that a federal form of government afforded the best
A58
458
solution. The association of Indian States with British India was
to be welcomed for three reasons: — 1. The States would furnish a
stabilising factor in the constitution 2. they would begin the
process of unification at once and 3. they would furnish a practical
experience in matters of defence which was wanting in British
India. There might be difficulties in the way of the introduction of
responsibility in the Central Government in connection with Law
and Order, European interests, Commerce, Finance, Army and a
few other subjects. But these difficulties were, however, to be faced
and not regarded as insurmountable.
%
The next speaker was the Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh ji of
Bikaner who caused a dramatic surprise by declaring the adherence
of the Princes in general to the scheme of Federation so enthusias-
tically urged by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru. In connection with the
inquiries of the Butler Committee, the attitude of several of the
Princes in employing a counsel on their behalf to put forward their
side of the case before the committee appeared, said the Maharaja,
to have caused misgivings regarding the reforms, which however
were as much desired in the Indian States as in British India.
This clear pronouncement by the Bikaner Maharaja regarding
Federation was acceptable both to the British Government as well
as to the inhabitants of the States. His speech dispelled the
illusion that the Indian Princes were speaking only for themselves
and their dynastic interests and it became clear that they fully
deserved the compliment paid to them by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru
that the present-day Princes were Indians first and Princes after-
wards. The Maharaja spoke on a variety of topics which need not
all be referred to here. But a few extracts relating to the
establishment of a Federal Government in India may be given here
to understand the angle of vision of the Princes regarding
Federation. " My own conviction is that if we are to
build well and truly, we must recognise that associated with its
geographical unity India is a land of some diversity. Our starting-
point must be sought not in the dead hand of an impossible
uniformity but in an associated diversity. For these reasons, the
establishment of a unitary State with a sovereign Parliament sitting
459
at Delhi to which the whole people would look in small things as in
large is to my mind impossible. There would be no room in such a
constitution for the Indian States; moreover, such a Government
would crack under its own imponderability We of the
Indian States are willing to take our part in and make our contri-
bution to the greater prosperity and contentment of India as a
whole. I am convinced that we can best make that contribution
through a Federal system of Government composed of the States
and British India. These two partners are of different status.
The Indian States are already sovereign and autonomous of right
having the honour of being linked with the Crown by means of
treaties ' of perpetual alliance and friendship ' and unity of
interests. British India derives whatever measure of authority it
may possess by devolution. But it will not be beyond the wealth
of experience available at this Table to devise a means of linking
these differing units into a powerful Federal administration. As to
the question whether if a Federal Government is devised for India
the Princes and States will enter into association with it, the final
answer must obviously depend on the structure of the Government
indicated and on other points involved; such, for instance, as
certain necessary safeguards — constitutional and fiscal — for the
preservation of the rights and interests of the States and their
subjects. Federalism is an elastic term ; there are several forms of
Federal Government. Conditions in India are unique. We have no
historical precedents to guide us, and the position of the Indian
States is absolutely without parallel. All these and many other
grave questions of policy and of detail will have to be examined
and defined and settled first in committee and in informal discus-
sions. But, speaking broadly, the Princes and States realise that
an All-India Federation is likely to prove the only satisfactory
solution of India's problem A period of transition must
necessarily intervene before the Federal Government is fully
constituted and Federation cannot be achieved by coercion of the
States in any form. The Indian Princes will only come into the
Federation of their own free will and on terms which will secure
the just rights of their States and subjects The arrange-
ments between the Central and Provincial Governments in British
460
India are matters primarily outside the purview of the Indian
States. If our co-operation is sought, it will, I am sure, be gladly
and freely and honestly given. Our duty is to contribute so far as
we can to the evolution of a system of government which will lead
to the close and effective association of the Indian States with
British India."
H. H. Sikander Khan, the Nawab of Bhopal, in speaking
on the 20th November said: — " I note that
both Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru and other speakers recognise
that nothing in a system of Federation connotes any interference
with the internal affairs of the States, that their treaties
with the Crown will remain unaltered unless and until modified
by mutual consent, and that it is in matters of common
concern hereafter to be defined by mutual agreement and
in nothing else that Federation will be concerned. On that under-
standing only one feature has to be added to the picture that the
Federation shall be equal on both sides and that there can be no
question of the status of the States being in any way subordinate to
that of the rest of India. On those conditions I entirely agree with
the principle of Federation A free Indian State must
mean the disappearance of that doctrine of Paramountcy which has
been imported contrary to our treaties into the relations beween the
States and the Paramount Power and which has been so much in
vogue in comparatively recent times That is one of the facts
to be kept steadily in mind. On the other side of the case, we
Princes have no apprehension as to how the processes at work in
the rest of India where we must rely on democracy not being made
a cloak for aggression will affect our peoples and we shall be con tent
to leave it to our States to work out their own development. In
this connection, seeing that communal troubles have bulked so
largely in the news from India thus creating an impression that the
country is the cockpit of warring sects and thus standing in the way
of her aspirations, I wish to make it clear as the point has not been
brought out hitherto that among the Princes no rift exists as
between Muslims and Hindus and that in the Indian States
communal tension has so rarely occurred that it can be said to be
461
practically non-existent. This fact brings me to a second point,
namely, that there is nothing in our respective religions which
should lead to such ill-will and that the reason why it has arisen in
British India has been solely political. The various minority
movements have exactly the same basis and equally the attitude of
the politically-minded in India towards Great Britain which has
demonstrated itself at times in ways which are frankly to be
deplored is not, believe me, inspired by racial animosity but is solely
political and as soon as the foundations of the constitution for a
self-governing India are well and truly laid, these differences, we all
believe, will automatically disappear. These are facts which I can
state from personal knowledge and without risk of contradiction,
because we Indian Princes are not isolated in our States but from
our very position as rulers are bound to keep in touch with the
course of events and the trend of thought in other parts of India.
We know fully as well as the people of India represented by the
delegates here present, and possibly more clearly than the British
authorities, the amazing growth of the national feeling throughout
India."
On 20th November 1930 Sir Mirza Ismail said: — " I only
wish to say that in the opinion of the States which I am privileged
to represent at this conference — Mysore, Travancore, Cochin and
Pudukota — the time has come for a radical change in the present
system of government in India. That is a change which seems
equally necessary in the interests of both countries — not more
necessary for India than it is for Great Britain, — Great Britain
which is only less dear to us than our own Motherland. To my
mind, the success of this conference will be judged mainly by this
test — how far have we been able to bring England and India closer
together in bonds of true friendship and unity. India wants to
remain within the Empire as an equal partner with the rest. She
has no desire to sever her connection with Great Britain. As my
friend Mr. Jayakar said the other day, this cry of independence is
only a cry of despair. I would attach no importance to it save as
an indication of the intense desire felt by the people of India
generally for greater opportunities of self-expression and self-
development.
462
" There is, I believe, general agreement with the view, both in
this conference and outside, that the future Government of India
should be constructed on a Federal basis. What exactly is meant
by the term ' Federal ' in its application to the peculiar conditions
of India will have to be discussed and determined in committee.
That — I mean the constitution of the Central Government — is the
fundamental issue before this conference.
" By agreeing to join an All- India Federation, the Ruling
Princes have rendered incalculable service to their Motherland at
this most critical juncture in her history. Their attitude has
enormously facilitated the work of this conference and has made
the whole political problem of India more easy of a satisfactory
solution than it would have been otherwise. I am one of those
who entertain no doubt whatever that the Princes will never have
any reason to regret their decision and that they and their States
will occupy an honoured and assured position in the future councils
of their Motherland. India is a land of many creeds and many
communities and diverse interests ; but I believe that it is this very
diversity that will go far to ensure the requisite stability in the
democratic institutions that are proposed to be established in our
country.
" Another matter upon which we — I mean the Indian section
of the conference — are agreed is that a measure of responsibility
should be introduced at the Centre if the constitution is to work
satisfactorily and to enjoy an adequate measure of confidence and
support from the people. Whatever may be the risks and the
difficulties in taking such a step — and they are undoubtedly
considerable — the British Government will, we all hope, come to
the conclusion that a solution which does not satisfy the people at
large is no solution at all. It can neither work smoothly nor
endure for any length of time. A constitution which provides for
full autonomy in the Provinces, responsibility at the Centre subject
to such transitional safeguards as may be necessary and unavoidable,
and a close association between British India and the States in
matters of common concern — this, let us hope, may be the result of
463
our deliberations here, a result which, I venture to think, would
satisfy all reasonable people in India.
" In conclusion, I should like to assure my fellow delegates
from British India that we of the Indian States whole-heartedly
join with them in their appeal to the British nation to set India on
the road to self-government. I would, at the same time, venture to
ask my countrymen to remember — I hope I shall not be misunder-
stood, for I think I speak nothing but the obvious truth — that that
great journey cannot be accomplished successfully nor can those
patriotic aspirations, ours as much as theirs, be fully realised except
in company of their compatriots in the States and, may I also add,
with the goodwill and co-operation of Great Britain."
On the 8th January 1931 at the meeting of the Federal
Structure sub-committee Sir Mirza elaborated his views on the
form of Federation. The question of responsibility at the Centre, he
said, was really the crux of the whole problem of further constitu-
tional reforms in India and was the vital issue before the
conference. It was because the Simon Commission's Report
failed to recommend responsibility at the Centre and it was
because the Government of India Despatch, too, had not
suggested it that India was so sullen and dissatisfied. Sir
Mirza assumed that the future Government of India would be a body
responsible to the Legislature in all matters excepting those
relating to Defence and Foreign and Political Relations, with such
temporary safeguards as might be absolutely necessary in the
interest both of Great Britain and India. In his speech which
comprehended a number of other subjects also, Sir Mirza touched
upon the question of tributes or subsidies that some States paid.
Sir Bhupendranath Mitra's suggestion that if the tributes were
abolished the States should continue to furnish a fund for meeting
expenditure connected with the maintenance of
and their establishments was opposed, Sir
which brought these subsidies into
made by Sir Bhupendranath Mitra he not onl^
that the tributes were not instituted for the
political establishments, but that they were on
464
internal and external protection. In the future polity of India as
the function of protection would devolve on the Government of the
Federation of which the States would form an integral part, it was
logically right that the tributes must disappear, their place being
taken by contributions from the States based on grounds common
to all Provinces and States. Lord Sankey who presided, on the
conclusion of Sir Mirza's Speech, stated that any advice or any
views coming from the Dewan of Mysore would receive the most
careful consideration of all of them.
Towards the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister read a
declaration which contained, among other matters, a clear
enunciation of the policy of the British Government towards India.
His Majesty's Government, he said, had taken note of the fact that
the deliberations of the conference had proceeded on the basis
accepted by all parties that the Central Government should be a
Federation of All-India embracing both the Indian States and
British India with a bi-cameral legislature. The precise form and
structure of the new Federal Government was to be determined
after further discussion with the Princes and representatives of
British India. The range of subjects to be committed to it also
required further discussion, because the Federal Government was
to have authority only in such matters concerning the States as
would be ceded by their Rulers in agreements made by them on
entering into Federation. The connection of the States with the
Federation was to remain subject to the basic principle that in
regard to all matters not ceded by them to the Federation their
relations would be with the Crown acting through the agency of the
Viceroy. With a legislature constituted on a Federal basis, His
Majesty's Government were prepared to recognise the principle of
responsibility of the Executive to the Legislature.
On his return from London from the first Round Table
Conference, Sir Mirza Ismail received an ovation from the people of
Mysore. On the 1st June 1931 when he presided at the Birthday
Session of the Representative Assembly at Mysore, he was accorded
a* warm welcome by all the members present and two of them
Mr. H. C. Dasappa and Mr. Mahomed Imam gave expression to
465
the feelings'of the House on the occasion. Mr. Dasappa said that
the people of Mysore had been closely watching the discussions,
deliberations and developments at the Round Table Conference and
that they were pleased to find that their representative materially
contributed to the success of the conference. The Dewan's bold
assertion at the very outset that the Indian States would support
the formation of a Federated India and equally his pleading for
responsibility at the Centre should have gone a long way in
dispelling any doubts which the British Indian delegates might
have had about the attitude which the Indian States would take.
The other member Mr. J. Mahomed Imam also joined
Mr. Dasappa in supporting the welcome offered to the
Dewan and said that in the selection of Sir Mirza Ismail as
the representative of the South Indian States to the Round
Table Conference they felt that the whole of Mysore was honoured.
A so
CHAPTER LVM.
KrUhnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Second and Third Round Table Conferences.
The second Round Table Conference which took place after
the formation of the National Government in Great Britain
assembled in London on 7th September 1931 and remained in
session till 1st December of the same year. A feature of this
conference was that Mr. Gandhi attended it as the sole accredited
*
representative of the Indian National Congress. Sir Mirza Ismail
also was one of those who attended this conference.
In October 1931 Sir Mirza Ismail presented a note which
contained some suggestions regarding the proposed reformed
legislature for India. According to him, the two principal organs of
Federated India were to be a popular House known as the Federal
Assembly and an other House known as the Federal Council. The
Federal Assembly was to consist of representatives chosen by direct
and indirect election, preferably by both methods, the representation
being more or less on a population basis, the proportion of members
from the Native States being one- third of the total strength. The
Federal Council was to be that organ of the Federal Government
which was to uphold the federal character of the constitution and
was to be composed of the delegates appointed by the Governments
of the States and Provinces at their own discretion and exclusively
with reference to their expert knowledge, and these representatives
were to vote and act according to the instructions they received
from their respective Governments. The Central Government was
also to be represented in the Federal Council in order to safeguard
the co-operation of the supreme federal authorities and to prevent
the various elements in the Council from working on parallel lines
or against one another. The Federal Council was to have a
suspensory veto on laws passed by the Federal Assembly with
which it did not agree, but such veto was to be exercised within a
period fixed by the constitution in which case the Federal Assembly
was to show a qualified majority of two-thirds or three-quarters as
467
may be specified. Besides the right of first considering Bills when
introduced by the Federal Executive, the Federal Council was to
share with the Assembly the right of introducing Bills, the members
of both the bodies having the same right. The Federal Council
was also to be in possession of certain powers of an advisory
nature, such as the right of demanding information regarding
current administrative matters or legislative measures to be
introduced, matters relating to External Relations or nominations
to higher posts. The merits claimed for his scheme by Sir Mirza
Ismail in the main were the moderate size of the Council allowing
it to transact business more quickly and economically than a larger
body could, freedom on the part of the members from party
influences to a large extent, and avoidance as far as possible of
conflicts between the Governments of the units and the Central
Executive. This scheme, in Sir Mirza's opinion, had also the
merit of allowing such States as had no individual representation of
sending delegates to address the Council on matters in which they
were specially interested, without however any power to vote.
At the meeting of the Federal Structure Committee held on
the 2nd November 1931, Sir Mirza Ismail at the desire of Lord
Sankey the chairman added certain explanations in elucidation of
the views he had expressed. The draft report of the Federal
Structure Committee recognised, he said, the principle that the
Upper Chamber in the main was to represent the federal units as
such and spoke of its members as being in a special sense the
representatives of the federal units. But it was obvious that it was
only to the members from the Indian States that such a description
could be correctly applied. The members from British India could
not in the nature of things be regarded as the representatives of
their provincial governments which might have changed or of their
provincial legislatures which might have been dissolved after their
election as members of the Upper Chamber. It was in that view,
Sir Mirza said, that he urged the need for a second chamber
composed exclusively of delegates selected by and representative of
the governments of the Federation and of the units One of the
advantages of the scheme put forward by him was that it would, he
468
claimed, obviate the dissimilarity of methods between British India
and the Indian States in regard to the selection of members for at
least one of the Houses of the Federal Legislature. The experience
of Australia went to show the vital importance of close co-operation
and concerted action on the part of the Governments of the
federated units in all matters in which the country as a whole was
interested.
At the conclusion of the discussions of the second Round
Table Conference, the Prime Minister assured the members that the
declaration he made of the policy of His Majesty's Government at
the end of the first Round Table Conference was endorsed by the
National Government which had succeeded the Labour Government.
The great idea of an All- India Federation, he said, still held the
field and the principle of a responsible federal government subject
to certain reservations and safeguards through a transition period
remained unchanged. It was agreed that the Governors' Provinces
of the future were to be responsibly governed units enjoying the
greatest possible measure of freedom from outside interference and
dictation in carrying out their own policies in their own sphere.
Three committees were then appointed to investigate in India
questions of franchise and constituencies, problems of federal
finance, and specific problems arising in connection with the
finances of certain individual States, which committees subsequently
came to be commonly known as the Lothian, Percy and Davidson
Committees after the names of their chairmen. Later, the Indian
policy of the National Government was approved by an overwhelm-
ing majority in the House of Commons in a debate held on 3rd
December 1931 and similarly by the House of Lords on the 10th of
the same month.
When the second Round Table Conference dispersed, it was
believed that no further discussion was needed, but at the meeting
of the Indian Legislative Assembly held on 5th September 1932 the
Viceroy announced that it had been decided to hold a further
conference in London consisting of a small body of representatives
of British India as well as of the Indian States about the middle of
November following. This conference accordingly assembled in
469
London on the 17th November 1932 and lasted till the 24th
December following. The conference consisted of 34 delegates
from India and 12 members of the British House of Parliament.
Among the Indian delegates 12 represented the Indian States.
With the information furnished by the three constitutional
committees, the third conference was able to approach much more
closely to details and thereby the Government in England were
enabled to present their plans to the Parliament in a White Paper
in a clearer manner than would have been otherwise possible. This
White Paper was placed before Parliament on the 18th March
1933 and it was referred by the Parliament to the scrutiny and
investigation of a Joint Select Committee of both Houses of
Parliament consisting of 16 members of the House of Lords and 16
members of the House of Commons and was authorised to call into
consultation representatives of the Indian States and of British
India. Accordingly, 21 delegates from British India and 7 from
the Indian States attended the deliberations of this committee.
Sir Mirza Ismail was among this number and attended on behalf of
the South Indian States.
CHAPTER LVIII.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The proposals of the White Paper and their considera-
tion by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
In the White Paper presented to Parliament the Government
in England indicated their proposals with sufficient details for a
new constitution for India mainly under three heads: (1) Provincial
Autonomy (2) Federation (3) Responsibility at the Centre. These
proposals were based on the assumption that there was to be a
Federal form of Government with the Provinces of British India and
the Indian States as members which necessitated the reconsideration
of the Parliamentary Act of 1919 and the complete reconstruc-
tion of the Indian constitution established by that Act. Before
proceeding further, certain peculiarities which existed regarding the
Indian Federation may be noted. Federation elsewhere, as the
White Paper said, resulted from a pact entered into by a number
of political units each possessed of sovereignty or at least of
autonomy and each agreeing to surrender to the new central
organism which their pact created an identical range of powers and
jurisdiction to be exercised by it on their behalf to the same extent
for each one of them individually and for the Federation as a whole.
In the Indian Continent however, British India was a unitary
state the administrative control of which was centred in the
Secretary of State in respect of all concerns which related to its
government or revenues, and such powers as appertained to the
Provincial Governments in India were derived through the Central
Government by a species of delegation from this central authority
and were exercised subject to its control. It followed that the
Provinces had no original or independent powers or authority to
surrender. The States, on the other hand, though they were under
the suzerainty of the King- Emperor formed no part of His
Majesty's dominions. Their contact with British India was
maintained through the Governor- General who controlled the
Political Department of the Government of India. Besides, the
range of authority to be conferred upon the Federal Government
and the Legfslature in relation to the States could only be
determined by agreement with their Rulers, as they made it plain
that they were not prepared to transfer to a Federal Government the
same range of authority in their territories as was possible in the
British Provinces. It therefore followed that the range of powers
to be exercised by the Federal Government and the Legislature
necessarily differed in relation to the two classes of units which were
to compose the Federation. Accordingly it was proposed in the
White Paper to set up a Federal Legislature consisting of elected
representatives of British India and of the representatives of the
Indian States appointed by their Rulers and a Federal Executive
consisting of the Governor- General representing the Crown, aided
and advised by a Council of Ministers responsible, subject to
certain exceptions, to the legislature so composed and to endow
these authorities with certain powers and functions in relation to
British India and with such powers and functions in relation to the
States as the State-members of the Federation formally accepted.
Full liberty was reserved to the Crown to refuse to accept the
accession of any State to the Federation, if it was sought on terms
imcompatible with the scheme of Federation to be embodied in the
Constitution Act. After the Constitution Act was passed, the
Indian States were to be allowed to join the Federation only after
the Rulers of States representing not less than half their aggregate
population and entitled to hold not less than half the number of
seats to be allotted to the States in the Federal Upper Chamber
executed Instruments of Accession. The Federation was to he
brought into existence by means of a Royal Proclamation, but no
such Proclamation was to be issued until the two Houses of
Parliament presented an address to the Crown with a prayer for its
promulgation.
The Federal Legislature was to be bicameral, the two
Chambers possessing identical powers except that money Bills and
votes of supply were to be initiated in the Lower Chamber and the
range of functions of the Upper Chamber in relation to supply was
to be less extensive than those of the Lower Chamber. The Lower
Chamber or House of Assembly of the Federal Legislature was to
consist of a maximum of 375 members, of whom 125 were to be
appointed by the Rulers of Indian States who were members of the
Federation, the remaining 250 being representatives of British
India. The Upper Chamber or the Council of State was to consist
of a maximum of 260 members of whom 100 were to be appointed
by the Rulers of the States-members of the Federation. The
Governor-General was to be empowered to nominate not more than
ten members (not officials), thus providing an opportunity of adding
to the Chamber a small group of the type of elder statesmen.
Certain departments, namely, Defence, External Relations
and Ecclesiastical Administration %were to be regarded as
4 Reserved f and were to be administered solely by the Governor-
General, but he was to secure co-ordination in consultation as far as
possible with his counsellors and responsible ministers. The
defence of India was to an increasing extent to be the concern of
the Indian people and not of the British Government alone. The
ministers were to have the constitutional right to tender advice to
the Governor- General who was to be guided by that advice. The
Governor -General was to have power independent of his ministers
to dissolve, prorogue and summon the legislature, the power to
assent to or to withhold assent from Bills or to reserve them for
the signification of the King's pleasure, power to summon a joint
session of both Houses of the Legislature in case of emergency.
The Governor-General's special responsibilities related to the
prevention of grave menace to the peace or tranquillity of India or
any part thereof ; the safeguarding of the financial stability and the
credit of the Federation ; the safeguarding of the legitimate interests
of the minorities; the securing to the members of the Public
Services of any rights provided for them by the constitution and
the safeguarding of their legitimate interests ; the protection of the
rights of any Indian State; the prevention pf commercial dis-
crimination ; and any other matter which affected the administration
of any other departments.
In a constitution created by the federation of a number of
separate political units and providing for the distribution of powers
between a Central Legislature and Executives of the federal units
47*
on the other? a Federal Court was, in particular, needed to
interpret authoritatively the Federal constitution itself. It was
most convenient to entrust to a tribunal independent of Federal,
Provincial and State Governments the ultimate decisions of
questions concerning the respective spheres of these authorities.
Such a tribunal was in any event required in order to prevent the
conflict of decisions which might otherwise arise if the various
High Courts and State Courts interpreted the constitution in
different senses and made the law uncertain and ambiguous.
Regarding the inclusion in the Constitution Act of a series of
declarations commonly described as a statement of 'fundamental
rights ' designed to secure either to the community in general or to
specified sections of it rights or immunities to which importance
was attached, His Majesty's Government though they saw serious
objections to giving statutory expression to any large range of
declarations of this character, yet were of opinion that certain
provisions of that kind such, for instance, as the respect due to the
personal liberty and rights of property and the eligibility of all for
public office regardless of differences of caste or religion should
appropriately find a place in the Constitution Act.
The Joint Parliamentary Select Committee held its first sitting
on 12th April 1933 with the Marquis of Linlithgow, the present
Viceroy of India, as chairman. The Indian delegates took their
final leave of the committee on 16th November 1933. During
this interval the committee examined a mass of very diverse
evidence, oral and written, presented on forty-eight different days
by over 120 witnesses — ex-Governors of Provinces, representatives
of Service and Women's organisations, Communal and Commercial
Delegations, retired officials and a number of other persons English
as well as Indian and an ex-Cabinet Minister who all submitted
themselves to extensive interrogation at the hands of the members
of the committee and of the Indian delegates. The crowning
event in this record investigation was the performance of Sir
Samuel Hoare, the Secretary of State for India, who took the
witness-box on no less than 19 separate occasions and explained,
defended and elaborated the White Paper proposals for a total
A60
474
period of over 75 hours, during which he answered more than 5000
questions. On 28th July the last occasion on which Sir Samuel
Hoare appeared as a witness, remarkable tributes were paid to him
by the Marquis of Salisbury and Mr. M. R. Jayakar for placing
himself so unreservedly for examination at the hands of the
committee. Mr. Jayakar said that considerable satisfaction must
have been felt in India with the way in which the Secretary of
State had acquitted himself.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee in drawing up its report
took the report of the Statutory Comnfission as its starting-point in
dealing with the proposals of the British Cabinet. As regards the
federation of Indian States with the British Provinces, the Joint
Committee agreed with the observation contained in the White
Paper that the Indian States possessed sovereign rights of their
own, while the British Provinces formed part and parcel of British
India as a whole without any exclusive rights. The Joint
Committee recognised that the unification of the country which
could be achieved by an All -India Federation would confer added
strength, stability and prosperity to the federating units as a whole.
For want of such unification, several of the Ruling Princes though
firm friends of British rule, had sometimes felt their friendship
tried by the decisions of the Government of India running counter
to what they believed to be the interests- of their States and their
peoples. Under a Federal Government the Indian Princes might be
expected to give steadfast support to a strong Central Government
and to become helpful collaborators in policies which they had
sometimes in the past been inclined to criticise or even obstruct.
Another argument in favour of a Federal form of Government was
the economic condition of India as it existed. As the economic
life of India developed, the formulation of suitable economic
policies securing harmonious working for the whole of the country
was being put to an ever increasing strain. For instance, any
imposition of internal indirect taxation in British India involved
with few exceptions the conclusion of agreements with a number of
States for concurrent taxation within their frontiers, or in default
of such agreement the establishment of some system of customs
475
duties. With Certain exceptions, the States were themselves free to
adopt internal customs arrangements of their own which could not
but impede the flow of trade and even at the maritime ports
situated in the States the administration of the tariffs was imper-
fectly co-ordinated with that of the British Indian ports. The
tariff policies in which every part of India was interested were laid
down by the Government of India and the British Indian
Legislature in which no Indian State had a voice. Even where the
Government of India had adequate powers to impose internal
indirect taxation or to control economic development as in the
cases of salt and opium, the use of those powers had caused much
friction and had often left behind a sense of injustice. Moreover,
as matters stood then, a common Company Law, a common
Banking Law, a common body of legislation on Copy Right and
Trade Marks, a common system of communications were alike
impossible.
On these grounds the Parliamentary Committee expressed the
opinion that an All -India Federation had solid advantages viewed
from all sides. In acceding to the Federation however, the Indian
States, the committee said, should be assured of a real voice in the
determination of policies. The Princes had clearly expressed that
they were willing to enter the Federation only on the condition that
the Federal Government was responsible to the Legislature and not
an irresponsible one. The Parliamentary Committee agreed with
the proposal in the White Paper that when the Ruler of a State
signified his intention to the Crown to join the Federation, he should
be required to execute an Instrument of Accession and this instru-
ment was to be regarded as enabling all matters accepted as Federal
by him to be brought under the jurisdiction of the Federal
authorities under the new constitution, but outside these limits the
autonomy of the States and their relations with the Crown were not
to be affected in any way. The Instrument of Accession was to be
in all cases in the same form, though it might be recognised that
the list of subjects accepted by the Rulers as Federal need
not be identical in the case of every State. This list of subjects
however was to differ as little as possible from one another and a
Ruler who desired in his o>yn case to except or to reserve subjects
47«
in the standard list of Federal subjects ought to be invited to justify
the exception or reservation of certain subjects by the existence of
treaty rights or because he had long enjoyed special privileges.
Similarly no Royal Proclamation was to be issued until the
Rulers of States representing not less than half the aggregate
population of the States and entitled to not less than half the seats
to be allotted to the Federal Upper Chamber signified their desire
to accede to the Federation. The Parliamentary Committee also
agreed that the Proclamation should be issued on the King
being petitioned by both Houses of Parliament inasmuch as
Parliament had a right to satisfy itself not only that the
prescribed number of States had in fact signified their desire
to accede, but also that the financial, economic and political
conditions necessary for the successful establishment of the
Federation upon a sound and stable basis had been fulfilled.
In matters where the Crown possessed rights, authority and
jurisdiction in Native States, including those rights which were
comprehended under the name of Paramountcy which did not fall
within the Federal sphere, there should be a legal differentiation of
functions in the future in non-federal matters, the title of Viceroy
being attached to the Governor -General on the understanding
however that the offices of both the Viceroy and the Governor-
General were to be held by one and the same person. Outside
the Federal sphere, the States relations were to be exclusively with
the Crown and the right to tender advice to the Crown in this
regard was to lie with His Majesty's Government.
It was accepted by the Joint Committee that the representatives
of the States were to be appointed by the Rulers concerned, the
relative rank of the representatives in the Council of State
depending on the dynastic salute and other factors and in the case
of the House of Assembly, in the main, on the population. Where
matters were of exclusively British Indian concern, the States
representatives were not to be prohibited from exercising their own
judgment in supporting a ministry with whose general policy they
were fully in agreement, or from withholding their support to a
ministry whose policy they disapproved, The Joint
477
considered that, the true solution of the problem lay not in a
statutory prohibition but that the matter should be regulated by the
common sense of both sides and by the growth of constitutional
practice and usage. The Joint Committee further were of opinion
that while every Act of the Federal Legislature regulating any
subject which had been accepted by a State as a Federal subject
would apply proprio vigore in that State, yet this jurisdiction of
the Federal Legislature in the States would not be exclusive.
Where however there was a conflict between a State law and a
Federal law in any matter accepted by the State as Federal, the
latter was to prevail. The Parlimentary Committee accepted that
a Federal Court was an essential element in a Federal Constitution
as it was at once the interpreter and the guardian of the
constitution and a tribunal for the determination of disputes
between the constituent units of the Federation.
The Select Committee completed their report in October and
presented it to Parliament in the same month.
CHAPTER LIX.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Government of India Act of 1935 as patted by
Parliament — Sir Mirza Ismail, Lord Willingdon and Lord
Linlithgow on its future working.
On the basis of the White Paper and the report of the Joint
Parliamentary Committee on it, the British Government framed a
Bill for the reform of the Indian Constitution. This Bill after a
stormy passage through the two Houses of Parliament received the
Royal Assent on the 2nd August 1935 replacing the Act of 1919
except the preamble. This Act has been made applicable to the
whole of British India as well as to such of the Indian States as
will accede to the Federation, but is not to apply to such areas
as are specified. For the purposes of the Act, British India is to
be composed of eleven Governors' Provinces, namely, Madras,
Bombay, Bengal, United Provinces, the Punjab, Bihar, Central
Provinces and Berar, Assam, North-West Frontier Province,
Orissa and Sind and with the modifications which may be made by
the Governor-General, the Chief Commissioners' Provinces of
British Baluchistan, Delhi, Ajmer-Merwar, Coorg and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the area known as Panth
Piploda. Burma and Aden are to be separated from India and to
have no connection in the future with its Government. The Indian
States are classed under seventeen divisions, some of the States
being individually regarded as divisions, while others come
in groups.
The Act prescribes certain conditions to be fulfilled prior to
the introduction of the Federation. In the first place, no initiative
is to be taken till such number of States come forward as can claim
half the number of seats in the Council of State, containing also
not less than half the total population of all the States put together.
It is then open to the King on an address being presented by both
Houses of Parliament to approve of the Federation being introduced.
At the same time, every Ruler of a State wishing to join the
479
Federation is placed under an obligation to execute an Instrument
of Accession containing a declaration that His Majesty the King,
the Governor- General, the Federal Legislature, the Federal Court
and any other Federal authority established for the purposes of the
Federation can exercise in relation to his State such functions as
the Act might vest in them and this declaration is to be binding on
his heirs and successors also. The obligation also rests on the
Ruler to give due effect within his State to the provisions of the
Act so far as they may apply to his State. The Instrument of
Accession is to specify the matters which the Ruler accepts as
those with respect to which the Federal Legislature may make
laws for his State and in respect to which the executive authority
of the Federation may be exercised, while in the Governors'
Provinces such executive authority extends to all matters with
respect to which the legislature of the Province has power to make
laws. It is open to the Ruler of a State to extend the Federal
functions specified in his Instrument of Accession with the
consent of His Majesty. When any amendments are made
in the provisions of the Act by Parliament, these amendments
unless accepted by the Ruler of a State are not to be construed
as binding on him. After the expiry of a period of 20 years
from the date of the establishment of the Federation, if any Ruler
who has not joined the Federation expresses a wish to join it, he
can only do so if his request is supported by an address to the
Governor- General by both the Houses of the Federal Legislature.
The Governor-General may with the consent of the Ruler of a
Federated State entrust to the Ruler or to his officers functions in
relation to the administration of any law of the Federal Legislature
and may also by inspection or otherwise satisfy himself that the
administration on any Federal law is carried out in accordance
with the policy of the Federal Government. The executive
authority of the Ruler of a Federated State is to continue to be
exercisable in that State in Federal matters except to the extent
limited by any Federal law under the terms of the Instrument
of Accession. The Federal Legislature is not empowered to make
laws for a Federated State otherwise than in accordance with the
Instrument*
480
The Federal Legislature is to consist of His Majesty repre-
sented by the Governor- General and two Chambers to be known as
the Council of State and the Federal Assembly respectively. The
Council of State is to consist of 156 representatives of British India
and not more than 104 representatives of the Indian States. The
Federal Assembly is to be composed of 250 representatives of
British India and not more than 125 representatives of the Indian
States. The number allotted to the Mysore State which stands
next to Hyderabad is 3 in the Council of State and 7 in the Federal
Assembly. The Council of State is to be a permanent body not
subject to dissolution, but as near as possible one-third of the
members are to retire in every third year. Every Federal Assembly
is to continue for five years from the date appointed for its first
meeting unless dissolved earlier. The Council of State is to choose
two of its members as President and Deputy President and
similarly the Federal Assembly two of its members as Speaker and
Deputy Speaker and the two bodies are also to have power to fill
up vacancies as often as they occur. The Governor- General is
given power, except where he is satisfied that a matter affected
Federal interests or British subjects, to make rules in consultation
with the President or the Speaker for prohibiting the discussion of
or the asking of questions on any matter connected with any
Indian State other than a matter with respect to which the
Federal Legislature has jurisdiction to make laws for that State.
Similarly the Governor- General possesses power for prohibiting
the discussion of or the asking of questions on any matter in
connection with the relations between the King or the Governor-
General and any foreign State or Prince, or regarding the personal
conduct of the Ruler of any Indian State or any member of the
Ruling Family.
The executive authority of the Federation is to be exercised on
behalf of the King by the Governor «• General. Any powers
connected with the exercise of the functions by the Crown in itB
relations with Indian States, if not exercised by the King, are to be
exercised by his representative who is however to be the same
person as the Governor- General acting in a dual capacity.
481
There is to be a Council of Ministers not exceeding ten in
number to aid and advise the Governor- General in the exercise of
his functions, except in matters where he has discretionary power.
The Governor-General's ministers are to be chosen and summoned
by him, to be sworn as members of the Council and to hold office
during his pleasure. A minister who for any period of six
consecutive months is not a member of either chamber of the
Federal Legislature is to cease to be a minister at the expiration
of that period.
There is to be a Federal Court with a Chief Justice and a
number of puisane judges limited to six to start with. No person
is qualified to be a judge of this court unless he has for at least
five years been a judge of a High Court in British India or in a
Federated State, or is a barrister or pleader of ten years standing
including those in the Federated States. In the case of the Chief
Justice however, he is to be a barrister or a pleader of 15 years
standing. The Federal Court is to sit at Delhi and at such
other place or places as the Chief Justice may fix with the
approval of the Governor- General. The Federal Court is
given exclusive jurisdiction in any dispute between any two
or more of the following parties of the Federation — any of the
Provinces or any of the Federated States when the dispute involves
any question whether of law or fact on which the existence or the
extent of a legal right depends, subject to certain limitations. An
appeal lies to the Federal Court from any judgment or other order
of a High Court in British India, if the latter certified that any
substantial question of law as to the interpretation of the Act or any
Order- in -Council made under its authority is involved. An appeal
also lies to the Federal Court from a High Court in a Federated
State on the ground that a question of law has been wrongly decided
being a question concerning the interpretation of the Act or of an
Order- in -Council, or the extent of the legislative or executive
authority vested in the Federation by virtue of the Instrument of
Accession of that State, or has arisen under an agreement made in
relation to the administration in that State of a law of the Federal
Legislature. In these matters appeals lie to the King without the
A61
462
leave of the Federal Court and in any other matter with such leave.
Where the Federal Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction requires
the aid of the civil or judicial authorities in a Federated State, a
letter of request is to be sent to the Ruler of the State. The law
declared by the Federal Court or by any judgment of the Privy
Council is to be binding on all courts in Federated States also so
far as they are applicable. A High Court in a Federated State is
to be one which the King has declared to be so in communication
with the Ruler of the State.
This Act of Parliament evoked bitter opposition in England
and roused little enthusiasm in India, though it must be acknow-
ledged that it marks a distinct advance both for British India as
well as for the Indian States on the Act of 1919. With the larger
electorate leading to wider political training and with extended
ministerial responsibility, the new Act may be taken to concede a
larger measure of self-government. As far as the Indian States
are concerned, the Act may be considered to be a distinct gain to
them as it secures to them a voice in the Central Government of
India in the settlement of all concerns common to them and the
British Provinces. At the meeting of the Representative Assembly
at Mysore in June 1935 Sir Mirza Ismail expressed his opinion
in favour of accepting the Act and of giving it a fair trial.
On the 16th September 1935 Lord Willingdon addressed a
joint meeting of the Legislative Assembly and of the Council of
State and took occasion to refer to the Government of India Act.
He drew attention to two of the broad features of the new
constitution. The Act for the first time would, he said, consolidate
the whole of India, State and British, fpr purposes of common
concern under a single Government ; India for the first time would
become after the Federation Was introduced one great country. The
second broad feature was that the Government of India under the
new constitution would draw their authority by direct devolution
from the Crown just as the Dominion Governments did. They
Would cease to be agents and would stand for as full political
and juristic personalities exercising the functions of His Majesty.
483
On the 23rd September 1935 the Marquis of Linlithgow who
has now succeeded Lord Willingdon as Viceroy, speaking at a
luncheon at the International Grocers' Exhibition held in London
said that though there were still men of weight and experience who
regarded the changes to be introduced with doubt, if not fear, he
did not entertain such doubts but, on the other hand, considered
that the situation must be faced with resolution and without any
backward glances.
CHAPTER LX.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV.
The Mysore State and Federal India— Settlement of
certain issues prior to its accession to the Federation.
The preliminaries to be settled before the new India Act can
fully take effect are numerous and complicated as not only the
British Provinces have to be consulted before they can be placed
on a basis of autonomy but also the Indian States. The next stage
is that the Parliament should satisfy itself that the statutory
provisions have all been properly complied with and then present an
address to the King for the issue of the necessary proclamations.
These introductory measures must necessarily take some time and
it is only after all these formalities are fulfilled that the present
anomalous relations existing between the Government of India and
the Indian States can disappear.
The Mysore State has already in explicit language expressed
its readiness to join the Federation. But at the same time, there
are some obstacles in the way which the people of Mysore eagerly
wish to be removed before Federation becomes materialised. It
may be said that so far as Mysore is concerned, already a sort of
Federation exists between it and the Government of India in external
affairs, inter-State and Provincial trade, currency, public loans, post
and telegraph, railways, labour questions, defence and public health.
But the State is also under certain disabilities at present. It
possesses no liberty to levy frontier or transit duties. So far back
as 1864 the Commissioner of Mysore represented to the Govern-
ment of India that if Mysore or any other Native State was
required by the Paramount Power to surrender such duties, it
should receive compensation for doing so from the British Govern-"
ment. But the levy of all import duties was brought to an end by
a peremptory order of the Government of India without any
compensation in return. When Cotton Excise duties were
imposed in British India, there was a similar imposition in the
Mysore State at the instance of the Government of India, When,
485
however, these duties were taken off, Mysore was not consulted and
it was left in the invidious position of continuing the levy alone or
of facing a serious deficiency in its budget. In the case of silk, the
State is placed under a serious handicap. This industry gives
employment to nearly 2 lakhs of families. The Mysore State is
the largest producer of silk in India amounting nearly to 60 per
cent of the total output. The industry is threatened with serious
competition from China and Japan. In 1934 the Government of
India passed a measure which afforded some protection to this
industry against foreign competition. But Mysore had no voice in
the matter, though it has the largest production.
Then again, the Indian Taxation Enquiry Committee found on
a comparison of the figures for 1913-14 and 1924-25 that in the
case of articles of direct consumption there had been an increase in
the case of those consumed by the population of India as a whole
from Rs. 430 lakhs to Rs. 1 746 lakhs or by 307 per cent and in the
case of articles mainly of luxury consumed by the richer classes,
from Rs. 400 lakhs to Rs. 1416 lakhs or by 254 per cent. On a cal-
culation being made of the burden of this tax on the Mysore State,
it was found that in the case of the articles consumed by the poor
man alone a new burden had been imposed of approximately Rs. 35
lakhs or 34 times the burden imposed by the salt tax. Next, in the
matter of Exchange, the Mysore State has a serious grievance. It
receives part of the Royalties on gold, payments for electric power
by the Gold Mining Companies, payments for sandal wood oil and
one or two other items of revenue in sterling in London, and the
raising of the exchange value of the rupee from one shilling and four
pence to one shilling and six pence has caused to the State a loss
of about 7 lakhs of Rupees a year. The salt tax is a tax imposed
for Imperial purposes upon the State subjects and amounts to about
Rs. 10 lakhs a year so far as the Mysore State is concerned. In
the Mysore State the British Indian coinage is current, but it gets
no share of the profits nor of the interest on the currency reserves. *
* The profits on the coinage of silver, it may be stated, are not treated as
revenue but are held as a special Gold Reserve Fund available for maintenance
of exchange and they are invested in sterling securities in England,
'486
Next taking the burden of the Subsidy. As Sir Mirza Ismail
stated at the meeting of the Representative Assembly held in
October 1932, the Davidson Committee while recognising the
justice of the abolition of tributes as they were arbitrary and
unequal in their incidence on particular States, made a halting
recommendation that only that portion of the subsidy paid by a
State which exceeded 5 per cent of its annual revenue should be
immediately remitted and the remission of the balance might be
spread over a period extending to twenty years. This recommenda-
tion weighed heavily on Mysore inasmuch as it was the one
State which enjoyed no privileges or immunities worth mentioning
as a compensation for its payment. It may be said, however, that
the question of the abolition of the subsidy as far as Mysore is
concerned is not so much a Federal issue as one of political equity.
At present these tributes whatever might have been their origin
have become archaic and a source of humiliation to the people of
the States from whom they are levied.
On the 27th July 1933 at the meeting of the Joint Parlia-
mentary Committee, Sir Mirza Ismail drew the attention of the
Secretary of State, Sir Samuel Hoare, to the opinions expressed by
the Peel and Davidson Committees that there was no place for
cash contributions of unequal incidence paid by certain States as
such payments contravened the fundamental principle that contri-
butions to Federal revenues should be on a uniform and equitable
basis and asked whether a practice so wholly at variance with
principle did not deserve immediate termination. The Secretary of
State admitted the justice of Sir Mirza's contention but pleaded
want of funds, though it constituted a terrible drain on the resources
of the State and though the question had been coming up before the
Government of India for nearly a century in one form or another.
The third subject in connection with the entry of Mysore into
the Federation is the retrocession of what is known as the Assigned
Tract of Bangalore. After the fall of Seringapatam in 1799, a
certain number of British troops were maintained there. The place,
however, proved unhealthy and thereupon the Madras Government
had the control of the Prpvipci^l army selected some lands
487
near the city of Bangalore for the purpose of locating the troops
there and approached the Mysore Durbar for permission to occupy
the lands. This was readily granted and on a large vacant ground
near the village of Ulsoor some British troops were first settled in
1807. Later, some private dwelling-houses appeared on the fringe
of the military lands. The Commanding Officer at the time asked
the British Resident in Mysore to inform him as to the tenure, if
any, by which individuals held private property adjacent to the
Cantonment area. Thereupon the Madras Government wished to
fix an imaginary boundary to the Cantonment by extending its
limits as they stood then and proposed that the lands given were
to be held under certain conditions. Negotiations were then
carried on with the Maharaja through A. H. Cole the British
Resident at the time. The Maharaja while readily consenting to
the proposed conditions disagreed as to the need for any boundary
being fixed to the military lands, observing that he was at all times
ready to give such extent of land as was needed for the barracks,
parades, houses for the accommodation of military officers and
similar requirements, but that he could not assign more than was
needed as it would mean a considerable loss of revenue to the
Durbar. The Madras Government on the advice of the British
Resident did not pursue the matter further.
From the preamble of the old title-deeds it is clear that lands
for dwelling-houses within the Cantonment area were given by the
Commanding Officer only with the approval and the authority of the
Maharaja, thus recognising in an indisputable manner the
Maharaja's sovereign rights over the military lands. The lands on
which the present Civil Station stands were outside the limits and
the Commanding Officer had little to do with them. They
remained in the possession of the Mysore Government and were
disposed of by the officers of that Government without any
reference to the Commanding Officer. A civil population which
had been attracted by the trade and other opportunities for public
and private employment offered by the presence of the British
troops began to settle on these lands in growing numbers. The
administration of the two areas was not materially affected by th*
488
presence of the British troops as both the military lands and the
Civil Station remained under the authority of the State. The
police arrangements for the Cantonment were the same as those of
a standing camp, that is to say, the Commanding Officer had the
power of punishing all persons belonging to the army but he had no
authority over the civil population, this power being in the hands of
the Foujdar of the Bangalore Division and the Amildar of the
Bangalore taluk. In 1811 the Madras Government moved the
Durbar through the British Resident for the transfer of the entire
civil and criminal jurisdiction over the bazaars and the Cantonment
to their Commissariat Department. The Maharaja however was
unwilling to make any change in the existing arrangement. But
the Madras Government were anxious to secure the police jurisdic-
tion and as a compromise, the Maharaja agreed to appoint a
Commissariat officer under his own authority as the Superintendent
of Police, Bangalore, and the first Superintendent so appointed
was Captain Cubbon who later became the Commissioner of
Mysore. To avoid delay in the enquiry and punishment of offences,
Cubbon was authorised to dispose of all smaller offences
committed within the Fort or Cantonment. But all great offences
such as robberies of sums above 500 Pagodas were reported
to the Foujdar who referred the same to the Maharaja for
instructions. The Commissariat officer so appointed was ex-officio
head of the police over all persons belonging to the army and in all
such cases he was under the control of the Commanding Officer,
while his power over the non-military classes as Superintendent of
Police was derived from the Maharaja. All cases civil and criminal
beyond his jurisdiction were required by the Raja's Nirup or order
of appointment to be referred to the Mysore authorities, to whom
also appeals lay against his decisions. Both in the Cantonment and
Civil Station all persons not belonging to the military were treated
as subjects of the Mysore State paying their taxes to the Mysore
Government and submitting their disputes both civil and criminal
to the adjudication of the Mysore officers.
By 1830 the original Cantonment area had gathered importance
and when the headquarters of the Mysore Government were
489
established at Bangalore in 1831, this importance obtained
additional significance. When the authority of the Maharaja was
vested in a Commissioner in 1831, the Madras Government
attempted to take the Cantonment area under their own control
by disposing of the lands without any reference to the conditions
agreed upon in 1814. But the Government of India soon put
an end to this action on the part of the Madras Govern-
ment by the observation that the rights of the Maharaja had not
been alienated and the fact that a Commissioner was in charge of
Mysore did not confer any rights on the Madras Government to act
in contravention of the terms of the agreement. Strict conformity
with the conditions was enjoined and all grants of lands made in
the area were ordered to be reported to the Maharaja as before.
Though the Government of India thus set the matter at rest
for the time being, it was revived once again in 1858 in a more
intensified form. The Madras Government now set up the plea
that the Maharaja had transferred all his rights over the area to
themselves and that the area had come to be considered as a purely
military station from the time when the British troops began to be
first stationed there in 1807. This plea elicited a vigorous
protest from Sir Mark Cubbon on behalf of the Government of
Mysore and he maintained that the terms of the agreement of 1814
and the wordings of the Maharaja's Nirup conclusively negatived
the claim of the Madras Government. Matters came to a head
and both the Governments appealed to the Government of India.
The Supreme Government upheld the contention of Sir Mark
Cubbon and observed that Bangalore was not like an ordinary
British Cantonment but only a military station in a foreign
territory where houses were lawfully held under a peculiar tenure
from the Raja's Government.
The above arrangements in their entirety remained in force till
1881, when the British Government obtained the entire tract from
Chamaraja Wodeyar for the purposes of a British Cantonment
under the ninth Article of the Instrument of Transfer and since
then it came to be treated as an independent area under the direct
•control of the Government of India. The sovereignty right of the
A62
490
Maharaja no doubt is recognised evenTnow. So recently as 1923,
Lord Reading the Governor- General who was a great jurist also,
when he visited Bangalore in replying to an address presented by
the Municipality of the Assigned Tract declared in these memorable
words the status of the tract as he viewed it : — " Aspirations to
share in the responsibility for the administration and for representa-
tion always command my respect. You must however remember
that in your case your suggestion is hedged round with difficulties
arising out of the history and special conditions of the Assigned
Tract. This tract, you are aware, is not British India but is a
portion of an Indian State assigne4 to the Government of
India to be held and administered as a military station. The
permanent status of the tract is that of an integral part of the
Mysore State, though for a special reason the administration of this
portion of State territory is carried on by a Resident responsible to
the Government of India/* Though the civil jurisdiction over the
Cantonment was ceded by Chamaraja Wodeyar immediately after
he assumed charge of the administration of the State on 25th March
1881, it was not until 1st April 1884 that the Government of
India arranged for the full exercise of their jurisdiction over the
assigned area.
After the Government of India vested the civil jurisdiction in
the Cantonment area in the hands of the British Resident with the
powers of a Local Government, complicated questions arose regard-
ing the claim to the surplus revenue that accrued in this tract.
Under the Instrument of Transfer, the burden was cast on the
Durbar of carrying out in the lands adjoining the British Cantonment
all sanitary measures as were considered necessary ; similarly, the
Durbar was expected to facilitate the supply of provisions and
other articles needed for the troops and to exempt from duties and
taxes all goods imported or purchased for that purpose. Though
these obligations rested on the Durbar, it was not till 1913 that the
Mysore Government was able to obtain an explicit declaration when
Lord Hardinge was Viceroy that the surplus revenue belonged to
the Maharaja's Government.
The growth of political consciousness among the people of
Mysore has revealed to them that the situation as it stands at
491
present is greatly disadvantageous to them. The present area of
the Assigned Tract is 13i square miles containing a group of 15
villages, three times as much as the areas occupied by the
cantonments at Secunderabad in the Nizam's State or that of
Mhow in the Indore State. The population of the City and the
Assigned Tract together combined is 3,06,470, of whom 1,72,357
live in the Assigned Tract made up of 1,24,435 Indians and
something under 10,000 including the British troops 1300 and 9678
Europeans and Anglo- Indians. The Cantonment area which
originally was an assignment only for military purposes has thus
come to assume the character of an Anglo- Indian colony attracting
settlers even from distant parts of India on account of the salubrity
of its climate and the facilities it affords for the education of
Anglo-Indian children. In the light of the facts summarised here,
the people of Mysore regard that the restitution of the civil and
criminal jurisdiction over the Assigned Tract is an independent
issue and its solution need not wait till the Mysore State becomes
a partner in the Federation of India.
APPENDIX.
HL H. the Maharaja's trip to Europe.
(The information contained in the account given below has been
obtained through the courtsey of the proprietor of the ' TAI NADU ',
an enterprising Kanada daily newspaper of Bangalore.)
For sometime past, His Highness Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV
had been in somewhat indifferent health and when it was
announced that he had resolved to visit England and
some other countries of Europe to improve his health, His
Highness' subjects were pleased to hear the news. His Highness
the Maharaja, His Highness the Yuvaraja, Sir Mirza Ismail the
Dewan and the party accompanying them embarked on board the
P. & O. Steamer ' RANPURA ' and left Bombay on the 27th June
1936. At Aden which was reached on the 6th July, the Maharaja
visited the town in company with Sir Mirza Ismail, Mr. Sadeg Z.
Shah, Assistant Secretary and Major Nabi Khan, Aide-Camp, and
saw all the sights to be seen there. Marseilles was reached on the
10th July.
While on boardship, His Highness moved freely with the
passengers and is stated to have had a comfortable voyage.
From Marseilles London was reached on the 16th July after a
stay of four days at Paris. His Highness was accorded a hearty
reception when he alighted at the Victoria Railway Station in
London. Col. Neil was present on the platform as the representa-
tive of the India Office. At the Railway Station more than one
hundred and fifty students of Southern India, including a large
number from Mysore, also greeted the Maharaja. While in London,
the Maharaja had accommodation in Dorchester Hotel in special
rooms set apart for his use. The others who were with the
Maharaja in this hotel were the Yuvaraja, Sir Mirza Ismail, Major
Nabi Khan, Sadeg Z. Shah, Srikantharaja Urs and Dr. Robinson.
During his stay in London, His Highness received visits from
many of his old acquaintances and friends whom he knew in India
494
as well as from many distinguished men of England. Among the
visitors were Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, the Marquis of Zetland,
Viscount Halifax, Mr. Wedgewood Benn and the Marquis of
Willingdon.
On the 22nd July the Maharaja had an interview with His
Majesty the King in the Buckingham Palace and with the
Dowager Queen Mary on the 27th in the same place.
The daily programme of His Highness did not differ much
from what it was in his own country. He got up at five in the
morning and took a walk in the Hyde* Park. On the 29th of the
same month His Highness held a reception at which several of the
leading men and women of London were present.
The annual ceremony of what is known as Upakarma or
sacred thread -wearing happened to fall on the 3rd August and this
ceremony was performed on the banks of the Thames river at
Maidenhead.
A whole-time special train was engaged for His Highness'
visit to the important places in England and Scotland. This train
provided all the necessary conveniences for His Highness and he
spent his time in the special train, only going out when visiting
places in a motor car. His Highness also visited several of the
rural places in the country.
On the 19th August His Highness flew from the Croydon
Aerodrome to Berlin. The Dewan accompanied him. The
Maharaja reached Budapest by train on the 25th. Some of the
other places visited on the continent were Vienna, Lasaunne,
Zurich. A visit was also paid to the Riviera. The Maharaja,
the Yuvaraja and the party embarked on board ship Strathmore on
the 19th September and are expected to reach Bombay on the 30th
September. It has been a matter of rejoicing to the people of
Mysore to know that His Highness' health has greatly improved.
" The Times of London " published editorially the following
article on the visit of the Maharaja in its issue of the 16th July
V936. " No London season passes without the presence of 3
495
number of Indian Princes, some of them regular visitors but a
welcome precedent is set to-day by the arrival of the Maharaja of
Mysore. In any circumstances a first visit to these shores from
the head of so great and progressive a State would be an
outstanding event ; and its interest is enhanced by the high
personal esteem in which His Highness is held among all who
have come to know him. The ' MODEL STATE ' as it is called,
approximates more nearly than any other to the British Provinces
in its conception of good government ; nor is any Indian ruler held
in more universal esteem than Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar, who
succeeded when a boy of eleven, more than forty years ago. He
combines with the strictest Hindu orthodoxy a delight in athletic
sport and intellectual interests which will have full scope in a
country of which he has heard and read so much but now sees for
the first time. Interpretations of his visit as directly concerned
with the special problems of Mysore in relation to Federation — and
in particular that of the subsidy — have no foundation at all. After
severe family bereavement and in indifferent health, His Highness
comes to take a much-needed holiday. He is accompanied by,
and places implicit trust in, Sir Mirza Ismail, his Dewan for the
past ten years, who represented him at the successive Round Table
Conferences and made valuable contributions to the shaping of the
Federal scheme. While the Maharaja will be content to leave
political matters in Sir Mirza's hands, he will no doubt take the
opportunity to meet some of the outstanding figures in our public
life. But his stay will necessarily be short, for it is difficult to
think of him as absent from the famous celebrations of the
Dasara It is at this annual festival in October that
expression is given to the reverence and affection in which His
Highness is held by his six and a half million subjects of varying
race and creed."
Sir William Barton, a former British Resident at the court of
Mysore, in the * TIMES* issue of the same date contributed an
account of what he knew of Mysore and its Ruler : — " Opinions of
the political value of the Princes in the coming Indian Federation
differ, but if the great Hindu Prince, the Maharaja of Mysoref
496
whom London welcomes for the first time to-day, be representative,
the Indian States should be the backbone of the future Government.
Few Indian Princes have more friends in England than this
Maharaja, a man renowned for his hospitality as his country is
famed for its fine buildings and majestic landscape. Its Hindu
temples are gems of the classic period, and any land might be
proud of its engineering works. It is a delightful surprise that
the Maharaja has been able to surmount the difficulties that Hindu
orthodoxy places in the way of foreign travel and come to England,
the first ruling Prince of Mysore to cross the ocean. His visit is of
conspicuous importance. Mysore stands next in population and
revenue to the great State of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The
accession of the Princes to the new Federation is the question of
the hour in India, and it is a real advantage that the Prince
who will send the second strongest contingent to the Federal
Assembly should meet British statesmen, be received at the India
Office, and see something at first hand of the Empire which he has
so long and loyally supported.
" The Ruling Family of Mysore traces its origin to a princely
house in Kathaiwar of Rajput extraction. Its tutelary deity, the
goddess Chamundi, watches over its destinies from a mountain that
overshadows the Maharaja's capital. Born 52 years ago, the
Maharaja succeeded his father when still a child. He was brought
up under the supervision of British tutors and in 1902 invested
with ruling powers by Lord Curzon. He is a good all-round
sportsman, a keen rider, has a cultivated taste for Western music,
is a student of Sanskrit, and a great patron of the Brahmins.
Strictly orthodox, he does not appear at table with his guests.
A great gentleman in every way, he shines equally as a ruler and a
statesman. Although Mysore had a good start under British
administration from 1831 to 1881, it owes its predominance among
the States of India mainly to the efforts of the Maharaja during
his 30 years of rule. The country is chiefly agricultural and the
Maharaja has always kept the interests of the peasantry in the
forefront, winning the loyal affection of the countryside. The
Administration is indeed racy of the soil.
497
" The identification of the Prince with his people is strikingly
demonstrated at the great national festival of the Dasara, which
year after year is the occasion of an enthusiastic display of loyalty
from all classes of His Highness* subjects."
A63
INDEX.
PAGE.
Abdul Gaffar Khan, Jamadar ... ... ... 254.
Abdul Rahaman ... ... ... 173, 184.
Achuta Rao, P. S. ... ... ... ... 215.
Adams, W. P. ... ... ... ... 59.
Agricultural Banks ... ... ... ... 126.
Agricultural Department ... 176, 219, 220, 221, 275.
Agriculturists' Relief Regulation ... ... ... 412.
Ajmer —
Maharaja's visit to,,.. ... ... ... 206.
Albert Victor, Prince ... ... ... 144,145.
Aleppo —
action of, ... ... ... ... 253.
Allenby, Edmund ... ... ... ... 254.
Almora ... ... ... ... 368, 385, 386.
Amir AH Sahib ... ... ... ... 159.
Ampthill, Lord ... ... ... ... 204.
Ananda Rao, T. ... 223, 247.
Anche ... ... ... ... 100, 101, 102.
Anderson, Graham ... ... ... ... 220.
Anjanapur Reservoir ... ... ... 406, 407.
Anniah. Pandit, Amble ... ... ... 310,312.
Anubhavananda, Swami ... ... ... 371.
Aramanay Dufter ... ... ... ... 15.
Askot ... ... ... ... 370, 385.
Asoka Edicts ... ... ... ... 140.
Aswasala ... ... ... ... ... 15.
Attaches ... ... ... ... ... 20.
Avasarada Hobly ... ... ... ... 15.
Ayurvedic and Unani ... ... ... ... 233.
B
Backward communities and the Public Service ... ... 305.
Badari Narayan ... ... ... ... 368.
500
PAGE.
Bagayat ... ... ... ... ... 15.
Bageshwar ... ... ... ... ... 385.
Bahl6 ... ... ... ... ... 16.
Balasundram Iyer, C. S. ... ... ... 411.
.Balavakot ... ... ... ... ... 369.
Banerji, Gurudas ... ... ... ... 167.
Banerji, Sir Albion ...284, 285, 289, 294, 304, 314, 334, 340.
Bank of Mysore ... ... ... 271,272.
Barkha ... ... ... ... ... 381.
Basappaji Urs, Bakshi ... ... ... 38, 168, 187.
Basavangudi Extension ... * ... ... 180.
Basavappa Sastry ... ... ... ... 139.
Beersheba —
capture of, ... ... ... ... 254.
Begum Shah Nawaz ... ... ... ... 452.
Bel-el-Jafir—
action at, ... ... ... ... 257.
Benson, Dr. ... ... ... ... 167.
Beresford ... ... ... ... ... 129.
Berinag ... ... ... ... ... 369.
Bewoor, G. V. ... ... ... ... 393.
Bhatkal Harbour project ... ... ... 263.
Birthday festivities ... ... ... ... 307.
Bowring, Lewin ... ... ... 1, 3, 13, 17, 26.
Bradford, Sir Edward ... ... ... ... 146.
Brahmaputra ... ... ... ... 381.
Brindavana ... ... ••• ... ... 406.
Bruce Foote ... ... ... ... 130.
Budi ... ... ... ... ... 372.
Budipadaga... ... ... ... ... 146.
Butler Committee ... ... ... ... 445.
C
Cantonment of Bangalore 56, 65, 440, 486, 487, 488, 489,
490, 491.
Carmell, Mount ... ... ... ... 254.
Carrington, Edmund ... ... ... ... 180.
Central Recruitment Board ,,, .». ft. 306,
501
PAGE.
Chakravarthi, J. S. ... ... ... ... 268.
Chamaraja WodeyarX... 7, 30, 31, 34, 38, 60, 74, 166, 167.
Chamaraja Urs, B. ... ... .. 252,257,258.
Chamber of Commerce ... ... ... ... 273.
Chamber of Princes ... ... ... ... 444.
Chamundi Thotti ... ... ... ... 15.
Chandre Gowda ... ... ... ... 420.
Chandrasekhara Iyer, K. S. ... ... ... 431.
Chandy, K. ... ... ... ... ... 412.
Chatterton, Sir Alfred ... ... ... 239,272,273.
Chelmsford, Lord ... ... ... 337, 442, 444.
Chentsal Rao, P. ... ... ... ... 108.
Chidambaram Chetty ... ... ... ... 420.
Chief Commissioner ... ... ... ... 21.
Chief Court... ... ... ... ... 91.
Chrome ... ... ... ... ... 227.
Civil list ... ... ... ... ... 65.
Coffee trade-
depression of, ... ... ... 220,229.
Coffee Cess Bill ... ... ... 302,303.
Coffee Experimental Farm ... ... ... 408.
Coleman, Dr. ... ... ... ... 411.
Commissioner ... ... ... ... 21.
Connaught, Duke of ... ••• ... ... 444.
Co-operative Societies' Regulation ... 217, 235, 236, 237.
Co-operative Committee of investigation ... ... 304.
Council of State ... ... ... 64,225,250.
Cranbrooke, Lord ... ... ... 25, 50, 68.
Crewe, Marquis of ... ... ... ... 251.
Cunningham, W. J. ... ... ... 41, 167.
Curzon, Lord ... ... 174, 186, 195, 287.
Dalyell, R. A. ... ... ... ... 23.
Daly, Sir Hugh ... ... ... 249, 359.
Damodardas Charities ... ... ... ... 177.
Darchin ... ... ... ... . 379.
502
PAGE.
Dasara festivities ... ... .. ... 308.
Dasara Exhibition ... ... ... 389,392.
Dasappa, H. C. ... ... ... 464, 465.
Datta, K. L. ... ... ... 268, 269.
Davidson, R. ... ... ... ... 59.
Davidson Committee ... ,.. ... ... 468.
D'Cruz, J. E. A. ... ... ... ... 216.
Desaraj Urs, Col. ... ... 185, 252, 258, 259.
Desaraj Urs, C., Rajkumar ... ... ... 351.
Dharchula ... ... ... ... . . 370.
Diamond Jubilee ... .. 4 ... ... 182.
Diphtheria ... ... ... ... ... 167.
Director of Food Supplies ... ... ... 287.
Doddanna Setty ... ... ... ... 212.
D'Souza ... ... ... ... ... 299.
Dufferin, Lord ... ... ... 106, 141.
Dufferin, Countess ... ... ... 141, 143, 144.
Durbar at Delhi ... ... ... 201,245.
E
Economic Conference ... 237, 238, 239, 270, 271, 329.
Economic Depression ... ... ... ... 412.
Education ... ... 235, 240, 276, 277, 280, 295, 423.
Education Cess ... ... ... ... 296.
Edward VII—
accession of , ... ... ... ... 183.
death of , ... ... ... ... 245.
Electric Power Scheme... ... ... 180,217,263.
Elgin, Lord ... ... ... 167, 174.
Elliot, Major ... ... ... 2, 3, 14.
Elliot, Sir Charles ... ... ... ... 24.
Empress of India —
proclamation of, ... ... ... 25, 35.
Ethnological Survey ... ... ... ... 217.
European British Subjects ... ... ... 57.
Eurasian and Anglo- Indian Association ... ... 80.
Exhibition —
Industrial and Agricultural, M, „, 124,225,226,
503
PAGE.
Exhibition in London ... ... ... .. 300.
External Relations ... ... ... ... 57.
Famine of 1876 ... ... ... ... 23.
Famine Reserve ... ... ... ... 224.
Federal Court ... ... ... 481,482.
Finance ... ... .. ... ... 268.
Fitzpatrick, Sir Dennis ... ... ... 94.
Floods ... ... ... ... 308, 309.
Forestry —
study of, ... ... ... ... 225.
Fraser, Sir Stuart ... ... 186, 191, 194, 198, 206.
Furzulla Khan ... ... ... 252,254.
G
Gajasala ... ... ... ... ... 15.
Galagar ... ... ... ... ... 371.
Ganesha Rao ... ... ... ... 159.
Ganga Singhji, Maharaja of Bikaner ... ... 458.
Gangta-Gompa ... ... ... ... 379.
Gandhi, Mr. ... ... ... ... 466.
Garbayang ... ... ... ... ... 372.
Gargeshwari ... ... ... ... 204.
Garudachar, B. K. ... ... ... ... 273.
Gaza —
battle of, ... ... ... ... 253.
George V —
accession of, ... ... ... ... 254.
Girdlestone, C. E. R. ... ... ... ... 97.
Gold Mining ... ... ... 129, 175, 397.
Goorla Mandhata Range ... ... ... 381.
Gopala Rao, S., Major ... ... ... 368,380.
Goriodial ... ... ... ... ... 377.
Gordon, J. D. ... 25, 26, 29, 36, 39, 41, 46, 59,
64, 75, 80, 85, 91.
Government of India Act of 1935 ... ... 478, 479, 480.
Gowrikund ... ... ... ... ... 381.
504
PAGE.
Grant, Col. ... ... ... ... ... 107.
Griffin, Sir Henry ... ... ... ... 264.
Gundappa, D. V. ... ... ... 427, 428, 429.
H
Haines Gregory, Lt.-Col. ... ... 17, 18.
Haifa-
capture of, • •• ... ... ... 257.
Hand-spinning ... ... ... ... 401.
Hardinge, Lord —
visit of, ... ...fc ... 248, 249, 251.
Hartington, Lord ... ... ... 57, 58.
Hay, A. C., Col. ... ... ... ... 42.
Health Department ... ... ... ... 233.
Heiser, Victor ... ... ... ... 419.
Henderson, M. H., Major ... ... ... 252.
Henderson, Col. ... ... ... 168, 180.
Hewett, Sir John ... ... ... ... 217.
High Court... ... ... ... ... 425.
Hindu University of Benares ... ... ... 279.
Hindu Law reform ... ... ... ... 430.
Hoare, Sir Samuel ... ... ... ... 473.
Holmes ... ... ... ... ... 180.
Honorary Magistrates ... ... ... ... 235.
Hostels ... ... ... ... ... 177.
Humza Hussain ... ... ... 340, 391.
Imam, Mahomed ... ... ... 464, 465.
Imperial Service troops ... ... ... 105, 106, 107.
Income-Tax Regulation ... ... ... 294.
Indian Institute of Science ... ... 212,235.
Industries and Commerce Department ... 272, 299.
Industrial and arts Exhibition, Madras ... ... 201.
Influenza —
outbreak of, ... ... ... ... 295.
Instrument of Transfer ... ... ... ... 54.
Insurance ... ... ... ... 103, 104.
505
PAGE.
Iron Works at Bhadravathi ... 274, 303, 397, 398.
Irwin, Henry ... ... ... ... 232.
Irwin, Lord... ... ... ... 346, 451.
Irwin Canal ... ... ... ... 403.
Ismail Sail, Sir Haji ... ... ... ... 274.
.Ismail, Sir Mirza 340, 347, 388, 448, 452, 453, 454, 461,
462, 463, 464, 466, 467, 469, 482, 486.
J
Jayaram Rao ... ... ... ... 29.
Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, Prince ... ... ... 351.
Jayakar, M. R. ... ... ... ... 474.
John Taylor & Sons ... ... ... ... 129.
Joint Select Committee of Parliament 469, 473, 474, 475,
476, 477.
Jubilee, Silver —
of Krishnaraja Wodtyar IV, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350,
351, 352, 353.
Jungpon ... ... ... ... ... 374.
Jury System ... ... ... ... 266.
Kailas Range ... ... ... 378,380.
Kalapani ... ... ..." ... ... 373.
Kamalamma Dasappa ... ... ... ... 435.
Kannambadi Reservoir... ... 232, 263, 264, 304.
Kantaraj Urs, Sir M. ... ... 281, 289, 294, 421.
Karnataka Bhashojjini Sabha ... ... ... 139.
Karohutty ... ... ... ... ... 15.
Kempananjammanni Avaru, Maharani 38, 171, 190, 440, 441.
Kesava lyengar, B. T. ... ... ... ... 390.
Khedda ... ... 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 153.
Khela ... ... ... ... ... 371.
Khojarnath ... ... ... ... ... 382.
Kiernander ... ... ... ... ... 210.
KilleyDufter ... ... ... ... 15.
Kitchner, Lord ... ... ... ... 206.
Kolar Concessionaires ... ... ... ... 129.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar ... ... ... ... 17.
A64
506
PAGE.
Krishna Rao, Puma ... ... ... 64, 107.
-Krishna Murthi, Sir P. N. 82, 173, 185, 187, 188, 197, 223.
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. 168, 170, 186, 187, 188, 189,
192, 193, 194, 200,
Krishne Urs, B. P., Risaldar ... ... ... 256.
Krishnappa, C. ... ... ... ... 368.
Krishna lyengar ... ... ... ... 13.
Kunwar Khadga Singh Pal ... ... ... 370.
L
Lakshmanachar, Pandit ... * ... ... 420.
Lakshmikantharaj Urs, Sirdar ... ... ... 352.
Lai Bagh ... ... ... ... ... 150.
Lallubhai Samaldas Mehta, Sir ... ... ... 394.
Lambanies ... ... ... ... ... 211.
Land Mortgage Bank ... ... ... 413.
Lansdowne, Lord ... ... ... ... 159.
Lavelle, M. F. ... ... ... 129, 130.
Lee-Warner, Sir William ... ... ... 135.
Legislative Council 229, 267, 313, 314, 317, 318, 319,
329, 331, 334, 335, 425, 426, 427, 428.
Linlithgow, Marquis of ... ... 473> 433.
Lingaraj Urs, H. ... ... ... ... 35lt
Local Self -Government Committee ... ... 281.
Local Finance Committee ... ... .. 281.
Local Self-Government Conference ... 297, 424.
Local Boards Regulation of 1918 ... ... 283, 286.
Lotbiniere, A. J. ... ... ... ^ jg^
Lothian Committee ... ... ... mmm 45^
Lottery —
Eurasian and Anglo-Indian, ... ... ... go.
Luisana Purchase Exposition ... ... ... 220.
Lumsden's Horse ... ... ... --e Ig2.
Lyall, J. B. ... ... ... 85, 94.
Lytton, Lord ... ... ... 24, 34, 35, 68.
M
Macdonald, Ramsay ... ... ... 447, 456, 468.
507
PAGE.
Macquiod, Captain ... ... ... 187,188.
Machonochie, Sir Evan ... ... ... 198, 204.
Madhava Rao, V. P. ... 184, 185, 187, 197, 198, 220, 223.
Madhava Rao, N. ... ... ... 390,414.
Madiah, C. ... ... ... ... 185, 223.
Magisterial and executive functions —
separation of, ... ... ... ... 266.
Maharani, Rama Vilas ... ... ... 30.
Maharani's College ... ... ... 176,177,212.
Mahadeviah, P. ... ... ... ... 432.
Malpa ... ... ... ... ... 371.
Malleson, G. B., Col. ... ... ... 19,29,32,34.
Malleswaram Extension ... ... ... 180.
Manganese ... ... ... ... ... 227.
Manasarowar ... ... ... 377, 381.
Maramat ... ... ... ... ... 15.
Marikanave Reservoir ... ... ... 177, 227.
Marketing Surveys ... ... ... ... 389.
Mathan, K. ... ... ... 289, 423.
Match Factory ... ... ... ... 299.
Matches —
duty on, ... ... ... ... 345.
Maxwell, Sir John ... ... ... 253,259.
Mayo, Earl of ... ... ... 20, 23.
Mclntyre, Col. ... ... ... ... 152.
Meade Richard, Col. ... ... ... 19,29,32,34.
Medical Council ... ... ... ... 422.
Mellis, Major ... ... ... ... 107.
Mieldazis, J. J. ... ... ... ... 419.
Miller, Sir Leslie ... ... ... ... 305.
Mining Regulation ... ... ... ... 226.
Minto, Lord ... ... ... ... 244.
Mitsui Bussan Kaisha of Tokio ... ... ... 394.
Mitra, Sir Bhupendranath ... ... ... 463.
Moncrieff, Sir Colin Scott ... ... ... 24.
Moosahib ... ... ... ... ... 16.
Montagu, Edwin ... ... ... ... 442.
508
PAGE.
Municipal Regulation of 1918 ... ... 282, 286.
Mukherji, Sir Ashutosh ... ... ... 279.
Munsiffs1 Courts ... ... ... ... 21.
Mysore Spinning and Manufacturing Mills ... ... 132.
Mysore City Improvement Trust ... ... ... 215.
Mythic Society ... ... ... ... 359.
N
Nabi Khan, Captain ... ... ... 368,380.
Nagappa Setty ... ... ... ... 420.
Nanjangud —
Maharaja's visit to, ... ... ... 205.
Nanjundiah, H. V. ... ... ... 217,278.
Nanjundaraj Urs ... ... ... ... 359.
Nan jaraja Bahadur, Lt. ... ... ... 368.
Napier, Hon'ble Mark ... ... ... ... 176.
Narasappa, Bakshi ... ... ... 3, 13, 16.
Narasarajammanni ... ... ... ... 206.
Narayana Rao ... ... ... ... 235.
Narasimha lyengar, A. ... ... ... 40, 137.
Narasimharaja Wodeyar, Yuvaraja 168, 170, 206, 250,
252, 352, 394.
Nethersole, Hon'ble ... ... ... ... 264.
Newspaper Regulation ... ... ... ... 283.
Northbrook, Lord ... ... ... ... 23.
Noyce, Sir Frank ... ... ... 402,441.
Opthalmic Hospital ... ... ... ... 244.
Oriental Library ... ... ... ... 140.
Padma Setty, Sowcar ... ... ... ... 212.
Page, Sir A. ... ... ... ... 405.
Palace ... ... ... ... 178, 232.
Paramountcy ... ... ... ... 446.
Patiala, Maharaja of ... ... ... ... 445.
Pennyquick, R. E: ' ,,. ,,, ,„ ... 181,
50$
PAGE.
Percy Committee ... ... ... ... 468.
Pinjrapole Society ... ... ... ... 352.
Plummer, C. J. ... ... ... ... 91.
Plummer, B. D. ... ... ... 130, 131.
Pollen, Captain ... ... ... 167, 168.
Porter, W. A. ... ... 37,39,40,41,42.
Prince of Wales (now Edward VIII), visit of, ... 337, 338, 339.
Prince of Connaught ... ... ... ... 339.
Prince and Princess of Wales (George V and Queen Mary)
visit of, ... ... ... ... 206.
Proclamation of Edward VII ... 241, 242, 243, 244.
Puttanna Chetty, Sir K. P. ... 223, 267, 281, 294, 349.
R
Rachaiwar ... ... ... ... ... 16.
Raghavachar ... ... ... ... 153.
Railways ... 25, 26, 57, 76, 113, 114, 115, 225, 261, 262,
307, 401, 402
RajaLoba... ... ... ... ... 379.
Raja Varma ... ... ... ... 232.
Rajagopalachar, S. P. ... ... ... 392, 407, 436.
Raj war Vikrama Bahadur Pal ... ... ... 370.
Ramachandra Iyer, A ... ... ... ... 91.
Ramaswamiah, C. D. ... ... ... ... 235.
Ramanuja lyengar ... ... ... ... 310.
Rama Rao, N. ... ... ... ... 391.
Raman, Sir C. V. ... ... ... ... 393.
Rangacharlu, C. V. 14, 18, 19, 26, 29, 41, 63, 64, 75, 77,
81, 135, 159.
Rangachar, Dr. ... ... ... 368,380.
Ranga Rao, R. ... ... ... ... 236.
Ranganatha Rao Sahib ... ... ... 273.
Rangachar, Kasturi ... ... ... ... 139.
Ratnasabhapathy Mudaliar ... ... ... 64.
Ravi Varma ..« ... ... ... 232.
Reading, Earl of ... ... ... 339,443.
Record of Rights ... ... ... ... 409.
Regulation System ... ... .., ... 22,
510
_ PAGE.
Representative Assembly —
establishment of, ... ... ... 75.
growth of, 155, 161, 310, 311, 313,. 329, 331, 334,
335, 425, 426, 427, 428.
proclamation by the Maharaja of, ... 317, 318, 319.
Rice, B. L. ... ... ... 149.
Ripon, Marquis of ... ... ... 56,67.
Roberts, Lord ... ... ... <i§ 155.
Robertson, Mrs. ... ... ... ... 132.
Robertson Donald, Col. ... 185, 191, 193, 210.
Rockfeller Foundation —
help from, ... ... * ... 418, 419, 420.
Ronaldshay, Lord ... ... ... ._ 329.
Rose, W. C. ... ... ... ._ 273.
Round Table Conference, first ... ... ... 455.
Round Table Conference, second ... ... ... 466.
Round Table Conference, third ... ... 468, 469.
Rukminiamma, K. D. ... ... ... ... 431.
Rungung ... ... ... ... ... 376.
Rural Improvements ... ... ... 275, 276.
Russel, C. L. S. ... ... ... ... 187.
Sabhapathy Mudaliar ... ... ... ... 108.
Sadeg Z. Shah ... ... ... ... 368.
Saguvalikattes ... ... ... ... 122.
Sakamma ... ... ... ... ... 435.
Salisbury, Marquis of ... ... ... 33,43.
Salisbury, Marquis of ... ... ... ... 474.
Samukada Ooligai, Khas ... ... ... 15.
Sandeo ... ... ... ' ... ... 370.
Sanghi, Rani of ... ... ... ... 373.
Sanitary policy ... ... ... ... 417.
Sandal Oil Factory ... ... ... 272, 299.
Sandford, J. D. ... ... ... ... 64.
Sanderson, G. P. ... ... ... ... 146.
Sankey, Lord ... ... ... ... 464.
Sapru, Sir Tej Bahadur „, „, ,.. 456,
511
PAGE.
Sastry, S. G. ... ... ... 272,300,392.
Saunders, C. B. ... ... ... 23, 25, 41.
Scott, Sir Leslie ... ... ... ... 445.
Scout Movement ... ... ... ... 295.
Seal, Sir Brajendranath ... ... ... 315.
Seetha Vilas Maharani ... ... ... ... 38.
Seetharama Sastry ... ... ... ... 139.
Seringapatam ... ... ... ... 57.
Sericulture ... ... 225, 274, 275, 301, 390, 391.
Seshadri Iyer, Sir K. ... ... 82, 135, 168, 173, 184.
Seshadri Memorial Hall ... ... ... 185.
Seshachar, K. R. ... ,.. ... ... 404.
Seshappa, Tangalai ... ... ... ... 159.
Shabudin, Moulvi ... ... ... ... 139.
Shama lyengar, K. ... ... ... ... 153.
Shraya rules ... ... ... 125, 126.
Shyamachar, Vyakarana ... ... ... 139.
Siangchum ... ... ... ... ... 373.
Sikander Khan, Nawab of Bhopal ... ... ... 460-
Simon Commission ... ... ... 447, 449, 450.
Simon, Sir John ... ... ... ... 447.
Snow Lingam ... ... ... ... 380.
Somnathpur —
Maharaja's visit to, ... ... ... 205.
Soap factory ... ... ... ... 272.
Srinivasa lyengar, C. ... ... 185, 197, 223, 235, 281.
Srinivasa Rao ... ... ... ... 310.
Srinivasa lyengar, K. R. ... ... 391, 416.
Srinivasiah ... ... ... ... ... 420.
State Council ... ... ... 173, 197.
Stamps and Court fees ... ... ... ... 294.
St. John, Sir Oliver ... ... ... 146, 147.
Subsidy ... ... 55, 84, 85, 346, 439, 440, 486.
Subbaraj Urs, Risaldar ... ... ... ... 255.
Subba Rao, N. S. ... ... ... ... 343.
Subrahmanyaraj Urs, A. V., Col. ... ... ... 368.
Subrahmanyaraj Urs, C. V. ... ... ,.. 368,
512
PAGE.
Subbaroyan, Mrs. ... ... ... ... 452.
Succession ... ... ... ... ... 54.
Suez Canal ... ... ... ... 253,256.
Sugar —
duty on, ... ... ... ... 345.
Sugar Company ... ... ... 404,405.
Sundara Sastrigal ... ... ... ... 139.
Supari Halat ... ... ... 228, 303.
.Survey and Settlement ... ... ... 220,221.
.Sweet, Dr. ... ... ... .. ... 419.
Tabard, Father ... ... ... ... 359.
Takalakot ... ... ... ... ... 373.
Tank Maintenance 116, 216, 217, 230, 264, 265, 304, 305.
Tarjan ... ... ... ... ... 373.
Tata,J.N. ... ... ... ... ... 177.
.Tata Iron and Steel Company ... ... ... 274.
Tata Silk Farm ... ... ... ... 213.
Telegraph ... ... ... ... ... 57.
Temple, Sir Richard ... ... ... ... 24.
Textile Protection Amendment Act ... ... 391.
Textile trade ... ... ... ... 132.
Thakore Dev Singh Bhist ... ... ... 359.
Thai ... ... ... ... ' ... 370.
Thumboo Chetty, T. R. A. 62, 64, 82, 91, 168, 173, 185.
Thyagaraj, A. T., Captain ... ... ... 255.
Thippagondanhalli Reservoir ... ... ... 413.
Thirumakudlu Narsipur —
Maharaja's visit to, ... ... ... 204.
Thithla ... ... ... ... ... 37L
Todhunter, Sir Charles ... ... ... 352,422.
Transport Corps, Imperial ... ... ... 132.
Trade Commissioner ... ... ... ... $%gt
Treaty of Mysore, 1913 ... ... 248, 249, 250.
TurabAli ... ... ... ... 256,257.
sii
PAGE.
U
Unemployment —
problem of, 306, 307, 41 L
University of Mysore 277, 278.
Vani Vilas Bridge ... ... ... 402.
Venkatakrishniah, M. ... ... 215, 310.
Venkataramiah , ... ... ... 310.
Venkatasubbaiah . ... ... 368, 385.
Venkatarangiah, K. ... ... ... 368.
Venkatesa lyengar, M. ... ... ... 387.
Venkataramaniah, G. , ... ... ... 408.
Veterinary Department ... ... ... 227.
Victoria, Queen —
death of, ... ... ... 183.
Victoria hospital . ... ... ... 182.
Visvesvaraya, Sir M. , 247, 261, 287, 288, 289, 403, 444.
Vivekananda, Swami , ... ... ... 139.
W
War-dance ... ... ... ... ... 142.
Watson, W. A., Major-General ... ... ... 257.
Wet assessment —
rules for the remission of,
White Paper
Willingdon, Lord
Wilson, F. A., Captain ...
Wolsley, Sir George
Woollen, Cotton and Silk mills
Women's franchise deputation
Women's education
Workmen's Compensation Regulation
Y
Young, Sir Macworth ...
Z
Zenana Ooligai
Zillo Dufter
Zindiphu
469, 470, 471, 472, 473.
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