A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & IISleeman, W. H. (William Henry), Sir
History
A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II
Sleeman, W. H. (William Henry), Sir
Oudh (India) -- Description and travel
The Nazim is permitted to levy for incidental expenses, only ten per
cent. over and above the Government demand; and required to send one-
half of this sum to Court, for distribution. He is ostensibly
required to limit himself to this sum, and to abstain from taking the
gratuities, usually exacted by the _revenue contractors_, for
distribution among ministers and other influential persons at Court.
Were he to do so, they would all be so strongly opposed to the
_amanee_, or trust system of management, and have it in their power
so much to thwart him, in all his measures and arrangements, that he
could never possibly get on with his duties; and the disputes between
them generally results in a compromise. He takes, in gratuities,
something less than his contracting predecessors took, and shares,
what he takes, liberally, with those whose assistance he requires at
Court. These gratuities, or nuzuranas, never appeared, in the public
accounts; and were a governor, under the _amanee_ system, to demand
the full rates paid to contractors, the more powerful landholders
would refer him to these public accounts, and refuse to pay till he
could assure them of the same equivalents in _nanker_ and other
things, which they were in the habit of receiving from contractors.
These, as a mere trust manager, he may not be able to give; and he
consents to take something less. The landholders know that where the
object is to exact the means to gratify influential persons about
Court, the Nazim would be likely to get good military support, if
driven to extremity, and consent to pay the greater part of what is
demanded. When the trust manager, by his liberal remittances to Court
patrons, gets all the troops he requires, he exacts the full
gratuities, and still higher and more numerous if strong enough. The
corps under Captains Magness, Bunbury, Barlow, and Subha Sing, are
called _komukee_, or auxiliary regiments; and they are every season,
and sometimes often in the same season, sold to the highest bidder as
a perquisite by the minister. The services of Captain Magness and
Captain Bunbury's corps were purchased in this way for 1850 and 1851,
by Aga Allee, the Nazim of Sultanpoor, and he has made the most of
them. No _contractor_ ever exacted higher _nazuranas_ or _gratuities_
than he has, by their aid, this season, though he still holds the
district as a trust manager. Ten, twenty, or thirty thousand rupees
are paid for the use of one of these regiments, according to the
exigency of the occasion, or the time for which it may be required.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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