The Letters of Gracchus on the East India QuestionMiles, William Augustus
History
The Letters of Gracchus on the East India Question
Miles, William Augustus
East India Company; India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947
HERAT.--"At Herat, I found in two Karavanseras about one hundred Hindoo
merchants, who, by the maintenance of a brisk commerce, and by
extending a long chain of credit, have become valuable subjects to the
Government. When the Hindoos cross the Attock, they usually put on the
dress of a northern Asiatic, being seldom seen without a long cloth
coat, and a high cap[5]."
TURSHISH.--"About one hundred Hindoo families, from Moultan and
Jessilmere, are established in this town, which is the extreme limit of
their emigration on this side of Persia. They occupy a quarter in which
no Mahomedan is permitted to reside; and I was not a little surprised to
see those of the Bramin sect distinguished by the appellation of
_Peerzadah_, a title which the Mahomedans usually bestow on the
descendants of their Prophet. Small companies of Hindoos are also
settled at Meschid, Yezd, Kachin, Casbin, and some parts of the Caspian
shore; and more extensive societies are established in the different
parts of the Persian Gulf, where they maintain a navigable commerce with
the western coast of India[6]."
BAKU.--"A society of Moultan Hindoos, which has long been established at
Baku, contributes largely to the circulation of its commerce; and, with
the Armenians, they may be accounted the principal merchants of
Shirwan. The Hindoos of this quarter usually embark at Tatta, a large
insular town in the lower tract of the Indus; whence they proceed to
Bassorah, and thence accompany the caravans, which are frequently
passing into Persia: some also travel inland to the Caspian Sea, by the
road of Candahar and Herat. I must here mention, that we brought from
Baku five Hindoos; two of them were merchants of Moultan, and three were
mendicants, a father, his son, and a Sunyassee (the name of a religious
sect of Hindoos, chiefly of the Brahmin tribe). The Hindoos had supplied
the little wants of the latter, and recommended him _to their agents in
Russia_, whence, he said, he should like to proceed with me to England.
The Moultanee Hindoos were going to Astrachan, merely on a commercial
adventure[7]."
ASTRACHAN.--"The Hindoos also enjoy at Astrachan every fair indulgence.
They are not stationary residents, nor do they keep any of their females
in this city; but, after accumulating a certain property, they return to
India, and are succeeded by other adventurers. Being a mercantile sect
of their nation, and occupied in a desultory species of traffic, they
have neglected to preserve any record of their first settlement, and
subsequent progress, in this quarter of Russia; nor is the fact
ascertained, with any accuracy, by the natives of Astrachan[8]."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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