DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0273
265
10. I append tw<> statements showing details of all appointments. In these I have not
included the Telegraph, Postal, and Medical Departments nor the Indus Valley State Railway,
as these Departments are not under my control in any way.
11. 1 find that the opinion of officers serving in Sind is that Mahomedans are encouraged
in every way to enter the public service. Nor is this any new thing; for in 1865 the
Commissioner drew the attention of Collectors and others to the subject, and called for annual
returns to show the number of Mahomedans and Hindus taken into Government employ, the
object being to check an undue influx of Hindus. The only bar to the extended employment
of Mahomedans in the public service has been, to quote the words of the Collector of Hyder-
abad, “ the difficulty of finding qualified youths willing to serve.”
12. The Collector of Shikarpur makes the following observations on the employment of
Mahomedans:—
“ I can’t myself see that the Mussalmans have any grievance in this province. The Government schools
use a quasi-Mussalman character, which ought to give them the advantage in education. They hold most of the
land and some of the trade, which is chiefly with Mussalman States adjacent.
“No officer has any prejudice against them, and a good many are inclined to favour them rather more than
is for the benefit of the service.
“ With all this, one Extra Assistant Collector and five Mukhtyarkars, out of 16, are the only Mussalman
officers holding good positions in this enormous district, and in the neighbouring Mussalman State of Khairpur
hardly any of the work of what passes for administration is confided to them.
“ Of the six officers mentioned, three are men of to-day, all speaking English well, and likely to get on ; two
are of foreign families formerly in the Talpur service ; the third is a man of his own making.
“ I see no reason why they should not come to much higher promotion.
“ The other three are old men serving out their time,
‘ When you get down to the subordinates, you find that the mass of them are inferior munshis and peons
In the last-named rank, Hindus are even rarer than Mussalmans in the higher ranks.
“ The truth is that the Hindu civilization is much older than that of Islam. The ancestors of our Hindu
officials were engaged in trade or administration when those of even the Sayads were camel-drivers, and the in-
digenous races converted to Islam were the rudest and most ignorant, such as our own Jats and Muhanas.
“ The only Mussalmans who invariably do well in civil employ, those of Persian descent, are, like the
Hindus, the descendants of an ancient civilized nation.
“ The greater part of the Mussalmans of India are by race unfitted for the steady application which we
require of all subordinates, and when the Mogul Emperors wanted that sort of work, they, like us, used Hindu
officers, e. g., the land settlement under the Emperor Akbar was done by Raja Todarmal.
“ There seems to be a feeling amongst some officers that Mussalmans are more active and manly, and more
suited for out-of-door work than Hindus. Whence it is derived I don’t know. Certainly not from the history
of modern India, which was in a fair way to be divided between Sikhs and Marathas, but for our interference,
and certainly not from our own experience, for even in the Forest Department, I have got better work done out-
of-doors by Brahmins than by any Mussalmans; and here, though the superiority is less marked, I have one or
two Hindu Mukhtyarkars who can beat any of the Mussalmans, e.g., Rao Sahib Utamchand Satidas of Kambar
is the best road-maker in the district, although one of the oldest of my officers.
“ I hope that Government will not be induced by any false sentiments to introduce into the public service
for the benefit of any race or religion any departure from the principle of the selection of the fittest. If it is
done, both Government and the recipients of so ill-judged favours will surely rue it.”
13. 1 likewise append two letters, one from the Judicial Commissioner, the second from
1. No. 1449, dated 28th .July 1882,
from Judicial Commissioner in Sind;
2. No. 1068, dated 21st July, 1882,
from the Educational Inspector in
Sind.
the Educational Inspector for this Province, stating their
views.
14. The Judicial Commissioner has taken the suggestions
made by the Mahomedan memorialists each in turn, and has
shown, I think, that their first grievance— that the way
in which appointments are filled up excludes Mahomedans—even if a real one in Northern India
does not extend to the Bombay Presidency. In this view I concur, and as Mr. Birdwood has
gone so fully into details, I need not repeat them here.
15. With regard to the memorialists’ second prayer—that some comprehensive scheme,
similar to the one recently devised for the Eurasian community, be framed for the education of
Mahomedans. I also agree with Mr. Birdwood that the Education Commission now sitting
should be able to deal with the question, and that if its composition is not well suited for this
task, that it might be made so by the addition of some Mahomedan gentlemen to its numbers
16. The third prayer relates to the appointment of extra Mahomedan Judges in the
interior to expound Mahomedan law. So far as the Bombay Presidency is concerned this in
my opinion, is quite unnecessary.
17. The circumstances of Bombay Presidency and its history is so totally different from
those lC of the Eastern Provinces of the Mogul Emperors of Delhi,” to which the memorialists
refer, that no comparison can be made between them, and the memorialists' remarks are for
this reason quite inappropriate as applied to Western India generally, while as regards Sind its
position is altogether exceptional.
18. In Western India generally the British succeeded Hindu rulers, not Mahomedan, and
certainly the Mahomedan chances of employment now are better than they were in the days of
Hindu dynasties. Sind, of course, was an exception ; the dynasty that was overthrown was
34
10. I append tw<> statements showing details of all appointments. In these I have not
included the Telegraph, Postal, and Medical Departments nor the Indus Valley State Railway,
as these Departments are not under my control in any way.
11. 1 find that the opinion of officers serving in Sind is that Mahomedans are encouraged
in every way to enter the public service. Nor is this any new thing; for in 1865 the
Commissioner drew the attention of Collectors and others to the subject, and called for annual
returns to show the number of Mahomedans and Hindus taken into Government employ, the
object being to check an undue influx of Hindus. The only bar to the extended employment
of Mahomedans in the public service has been, to quote the words of the Collector of Hyder-
abad, “ the difficulty of finding qualified youths willing to serve.”
12. The Collector of Shikarpur makes the following observations on the employment of
Mahomedans:—
“ I can’t myself see that the Mussalmans have any grievance in this province. The Government schools
use a quasi-Mussalman character, which ought to give them the advantage in education. They hold most of the
land and some of the trade, which is chiefly with Mussalman States adjacent.
“No officer has any prejudice against them, and a good many are inclined to favour them rather more than
is for the benefit of the service.
“ With all this, one Extra Assistant Collector and five Mukhtyarkars, out of 16, are the only Mussalman
officers holding good positions in this enormous district, and in the neighbouring Mussalman State of Khairpur
hardly any of the work of what passes for administration is confided to them.
“ Of the six officers mentioned, three are men of to-day, all speaking English well, and likely to get on ; two
are of foreign families formerly in the Talpur service ; the third is a man of his own making.
“ I see no reason why they should not come to much higher promotion.
“ The other three are old men serving out their time,
‘ When you get down to the subordinates, you find that the mass of them are inferior munshis and peons
In the last-named rank, Hindus are even rarer than Mussalmans in the higher ranks.
“ The truth is that the Hindu civilization is much older than that of Islam. The ancestors of our Hindu
officials were engaged in trade or administration when those of even the Sayads were camel-drivers, and the in-
digenous races converted to Islam were the rudest and most ignorant, such as our own Jats and Muhanas.
“ The only Mussalmans who invariably do well in civil employ, those of Persian descent, are, like the
Hindus, the descendants of an ancient civilized nation.
“ The greater part of the Mussalmans of India are by race unfitted for the steady application which we
require of all subordinates, and when the Mogul Emperors wanted that sort of work, they, like us, used Hindu
officers, e. g., the land settlement under the Emperor Akbar was done by Raja Todarmal.
“ There seems to be a feeling amongst some officers that Mussalmans are more active and manly, and more
suited for out-of-door work than Hindus. Whence it is derived I don’t know. Certainly not from the history
of modern India, which was in a fair way to be divided between Sikhs and Marathas, but for our interference,
and certainly not from our own experience, for even in the Forest Department, I have got better work done out-
of-doors by Brahmins than by any Mussalmans; and here, though the superiority is less marked, I have one or
two Hindu Mukhtyarkars who can beat any of the Mussalmans, e.g., Rao Sahib Utamchand Satidas of Kambar
is the best road-maker in the district, although one of the oldest of my officers.
“ I hope that Government will not be induced by any false sentiments to introduce into the public service
for the benefit of any race or religion any departure from the principle of the selection of the fittest. If it is
done, both Government and the recipients of so ill-judged favours will surely rue it.”
13. 1 likewise append two letters, one from the Judicial Commissioner, the second from
1. No. 1449, dated 28th .July 1882,
from Judicial Commissioner in Sind;
2. No. 1068, dated 21st July, 1882,
from the Educational Inspector in
Sind.
the Educational Inspector for this Province, stating their
views.
14. The Judicial Commissioner has taken the suggestions
made by the Mahomedan memorialists each in turn, and has
shown, I think, that their first grievance— that the way
in which appointments are filled up excludes Mahomedans—even if a real one in Northern India
does not extend to the Bombay Presidency. In this view I concur, and as Mr. Birdwood has
gone so fully into details, I need not repeat them here.
15. With regard to the memorialists’ second prayer—that some comprehensive scheme,
similar to the one recently devised for the Eurasian community, be framed for the education of
Mahomedans. I also agree with Mr. Birdwood that the Education Commission now sitting
should be able to deal with the question, and that if its composition is not well suited for this
task, that it might be made so by the addition of some Mahomedan gentlemen to its numbers
16. The third prayer relates to the appointment of extra Mahomedan Judges in the
interior to expound Mahomedan law. So far as the Bombay Presidency is concerned this in
my opinion, is quite unnecessary.
17. The circumstances of Bombay Presidency and its history is so totally different from
those lC of the Eastern Provinces of the Mogul Emperors of Delhi,” to which the memorialists
refer, that no comparison can be made between them, and the memorialists' remarks are for
this reason quite inappropriate as applied to Western India generally, while as regards Sind its
position is altogether exceptional.
18. In Western India generally the British succeeded Hindu rulers, not Mahomedan, and
certainly the Mahomedan chances of employment now are better than they were in the days of
Hindu dynasties. Sind, of course, was an exception ; the dynasty that was overthrown was
34