DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.614#0239
198 BENABES, PAST ANB PEESENT.
India Company; and Ms vast estates did not pay tribute,
but a fixed annual rent, to the British Government.
Warren Hastings says, " that his father, Balwant Singh,
derived the degree of independence which he possessed
during the latter part of his life from the protection
and intervention of our Government. His son, Cheit
Singh, obtained from our influence, exerted by myself,
the first legal title that his family ever possessed of
property in the land of which he, till then, was only
the Aumil, and of which he became the acknowledged
Zemindar by a Sannad granted to him by the Nabob
Shujah-ud-Dowlah (king of Oude, whose dominions, in
those days, extended as far as Benares), at my instance,
in the month of September, 1773. On the succession of
the Nabob Assof-ud-Dowlah, the rights of sovereignty
which were held by him over the Zemindary were trans-
ferred, by treaty, to the Company. Those rights were
indisputably his, and became, by his alienation of them,
as indisputably the Company's; and every obligation
and obedience which is due - from a Zemindar to the
superior magistrate, by the constitution of Hindustan,
became as much the right of the Company from Cheit
Singh as it had been due to his former sovereign, with
the additional ties of gratitude for the superior advan-
tages which he was allowed to possess with his new
relation. The unexampled lenity of our Government in
relinquishing to him the free and uncontrolled rule of
his Zemindary, subject to a limited annual fine, and the
royalties of the Mint, administration of justice and
police, ought to have operated as an additional claim
on his fidelity, but evidently served to stimulate his
India Company; and Ms vast estates did not pay tribute,
but a fixed annual rent, to the British Government.
Warren Hastings says, " that his father, Balwant Singh,
derived the degree of independence which he possessed
during the latter part of his life from the protection
and intervention of our Government. His son, Cheit
Singh, obtained from our influence, exerted by myself,
the first legal title that his family ever possessed of
property in the land of which he, till then, was only
the Aumil, and of which he became the acknowledged
Zemindar by a Sannad granted to him by the Nabob
Shujah-ud-Dowlah (king of Oude, whose dominions, in
those days, extended as far as Benares), at my instance,
in the month of September, 1773. On the succession of
the Nabob Assof-ud-Dowlah, the rights of sovereignty
which were held by him over the Zemindary were trans-
ferred, by treaty, to the Company. Those rights were
indisputably his, and became, by his alienation of them,
as indisputably the Company's; and every obligation
and obedience which is due - from a Zemindar to the
superior magistrate, by the constitution of Hindustan,
became as much the right of the Company from Cheit
Singh as it had been due to his former sovereign, with
the additional ties of gratitude for the superior advan-
tages which he was allowed to possess with his new
relation. The unexampled lenity of our Government in
relinquishing to him the free and uncontrolled rule of
his Zemindary, subject to a limited annual fine, and the
royalties of the Mint, administration of justice and
police, ought to have operated as an additional claim
on his fidelity, but evidently served to stimulate his