In 1803 the Bombay presidency included only Salsette, the islands of the
harbour (since 1774), Surat and Bankot (since 1756); but between this
date and 1827 the framework of the presidency took its present shape.
The Gujarat districts were taken over by the Bombay government in 1805
and enlarged in 1818; and the first measures for the settlement of
Kathiawar and Mahi Kantha were taken between 1807 and 1820. Baji Rao,
the last of the peshwas, who had attempted to shake off the British
yoke, was defeated, captured and pensioned (1817-1818), and large
portions of his dominions (Poona, Ahmednagar, Nasik, Sholapur, Belgaum,
Kaladgi, Dharwar, &c.) were included in the presidency, the settlement
of which was completed by Mountstuart Elphinstone, governor from 1819 to
1827. His policy was to rule as far as possible on native lines,
avoiding all changes for which the population was not yet ripe; but the
grosser abuses of the old regime were stopped, the country was pacified,
the laws were codified, and courts and schools were established. The
period that followed is notable mainly for the enlargement of the
presidency through the lapse of certain native states, by the addition
of Aden (1839) and Sind (1843), and the lease of the Panch Mahals from
Sindhia (1853). The establishment of an orderly administration, one
outcome of which was a general fall of prices that made the unwonted
regularity of the collection of taxes doubly unwelcome, naturally
excited a certain amount of misgiving and resentment; but on the whole
the population was prosperous and contented, and under Lord Elphinstone
(1853-1860) the presidency passed through the crisis of the Mutiny
without any general rising. Outbreaks among the troops at Karachi,
Ahmedabad and Kolhapur were quickly put down, two regiments being
disbanded, and the rebellions in Gujarat, among the Bhils, and in the
southern Mahratta country were local and isolated. Under Sir Bartle
Frere (1862-1867) agricultural prosperity reached its highest point, as
a result of the American Civil War and the consequent enormous demand
for Indian cotton in Europe. The money thus poured into the country
produced an epidemic of speculation known as the "Share Mania"
(1864-1865), which ended in a commercial crisis and the failure of the
bank of Bombay (1866). But the peasantry gained on the whole more than
they lost, and the trade of Bombay was not permanently injured. Sir
Bartle Frere encouraged the completion of the great trunk lines of
railways, and with the funds obtained by the demolition of the town
walls (1862) he began the magnificent series of public buildings that
now adorn Bombay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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