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
_December_ 3, 1849.--Kinalee, ten miles over a plain, highly
cultivated and well studded with groves, but we could see neither
town, village, nor hamlet on the road. A poor Brahmin, Gunga Sing,
came along the road with me, to seek redress for injuries sustained.
His grandfather was in the service of our Government, and killed
under Lord Lake, at the first siege of Bhurtpore in 1804. With the
little he left, the family had set up as agricultural capitalists in
the village of Poorwa Pundit, on the estate of Kulunder Buksh, of
Bhitwal. Here they prospered. The estate was, as a matter of favour
to Kulunder Buksh, transferred from the jurisdiction of the
contractor to that of the Hozoor Tehseel.* Kulunder Buksh either
could not, or would not, pay the Government demand; and he employed
two of his relatives, Godree and Hoseyn Buksh, to plunder in the
estate and the neighbourhood, to reduce Government to his own terms.
These two persons, with two hundred armed men, attacked the village
in the night; and, after plundering the house of this Brahmin, Gunga
Sing, they seized his wife, who was then pregnant, and made her point
out a hidden treasure of one hundred and seven gold mohurs, and two
hundred and seventy-seven rupees. She had been wounded in several
places before she did this, and when she could point out no more, one
of the two brothers cut her down with his sword, and killed her. In
all the Brahmin lost two thousand seven hundred and fifty-five
rupees' worth of property; and, on the ground of his grandfather
having been killed in the Honourable Company's service, has been ever
since urging the Resident to interpose with the Oude government in
his behalf.
[* The term "Hozoor Tehseel" signifies the collections of the revenue
made by the governor himself whether of a district or a kingdom. The
estates of all landholders who pay their land-revenues direct to the
governor, or to the deputy employed under him to receive such
revenues and manage such estates, are said to be in the "Hozoor
Tehseel." The local authorities of the districts on which such
estates are situated have nothing whatever to do with them.]
The estate of Bhitwal has been retransferred to the jurisdiction of
the Amil of Byswara, who has restored it to Kulunder Buksh; and his
two relatives, Godree and Hoseyn Buksh, are thriving on the booty
acquired, and are in high favour with the local authorities. I have
requested that measures may be adopted to punish them for the robbery
and the cruel murder of the poor woman; but have little hope that
they will be so. _No government in India is now more weak for
purposes of good than that of Oude_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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