That there have been abuses no one denies; but for years past the
majority of the planters in Tirhoot, Chupra, and Chumparun, and in the
indigo districts generally, not merely the managers, but the
proprietors and agents have been laudably and loyally stirring, in
spite of failures, reduced prices, and frequent bad seasons, to
elevate the standard of their peasantry, and establish the indigo
system on a fair and equitable basis. During the years when I was an
assistant and manager on indigo estates, the rates for payment of
indigo to cultivators nearly doubled, although prices for the
manufactured article remained stationary. In well managed factories,
the forcible seizure of carts and ploughs, and the enforcement of
labour, which is an old charge against planters, was unknown; and the
payment of tribute, common under the old feudal system, and styled
_furmaish_, had been allowed to fall into desuetude. The NATIVE
Zemindars or landholders however, still jealously maintain their
rights, and harsh exactions were often made by them on the cultivators
on the occasions of domestic events, such as births, marriages,
deaths, and such like, in the families of the landowners. For years
these exactions or feudal payments by the ryot to the Zemindar have
been commuted by the factories into a lump sum in cash, when villages
have been taken in farm, and this sum has been paid to the Zemindar as
an enhanced rent. In the majority of cases it has not been levied from
the cultivators, but the whole expense has been borne by the factory.
In individual instances resort may have been had to unworthy tricks to
harass the ryots, the factory middle-men having often been oppressors
and tyrants; but as a body, the indigo planters of the present day
have sternly set their faces to put down these oppressions, and have
honestly striven to mete out even-handed justice to their tenants and
dependants. With the spread of education and intelligence, the
development of agricultural knowledge and practical science, and the
vastly improved communication by roads, bridges, and ferries, in
bringing about all of which the planting community themselves have
been largely instrumental, there can be little doubt that these old
fashioned charges against the planters as a body will cease, and
public opinion will be brought to bear on any one who may promote his
own interests by cruelty or rapacity, instead of doing his business on
an equitable commercial basis, giving every man his due, relying on
skill, energy, industry, and integrity, to promote the best interests
of his factory; gaining the esteem and affection of his people by
liberality, kindness, and strict justice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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