Proceedings of a Meeting of the Madras Native Association, held on 26th and 27th December 1882.

The Members of the Association resolve to record their observations and suggestions on the scheme of local self-government propounded by the Government of India in their Resolution of the 18th May 1882.

2. The Association considers that the resolution, if carried out, is calculated to raise the character of the people, reduce the expenses of Government, and bring the rulers and the ruled closer together. So soon therefore as the Resolution was promulgated, the Association. addressed itself to the question of working out the details of the scheme with reference to the circumstances and conditions of the several Districts of this Presidency, with a view to placing before the Government of Madras a sketch which might be of some help to it in its deliberations on the subject. In order that the Association might not allow itself to be led away, by the prospect of the adoption of a singularly liberal policy, into making illconsidered suggestions and thus defeating the very object which the scheme is intended to promote, it drew up a memorandum explaining the chief features of the scheme propounded by the Government of India and indicating the various points on which information was required, and circulated it to Public Associations in the Mofussil and Native gentlemen, official and non-official, of position and influence, who have had experience of the actual working of Municipalities and Local Fund Boards, or are otherwise competent to give valuable advice in regard to the scheme under consideration. Several Associations and gentlemen have favored this Association with their replies, which, together with the memorandum circulated, are printed as Appendices B and C.

3. One of the members of the Association visited the Southern Districts of this Presidency with the view of guaging public feeling and acquainting himself with the local circumstances and peculiarities in their

A

bearing on the present question. His tour has shown that the Viceroy's Resolution has evoked in all parts of the country a degree of interest which has exceeded all expectation. Crowded meetings were held in various towns in all parts of the Presidency, the people assembled numbering, in some instances, three, four, and five thousands. The enthusiasm displayed, coupled with the spirit. of moderation with which the discussions were conducted, seems to the Association to be of happy augury for the success of the experiment. Copies of the Proceedings of these meetings are printed as Appendix D.

4. Before going into the details of the programme sketched out by the Association, it may be as well to offer a few remarks on one or two of the general questions involved in the scheme.

The first question to be considered is, are the people of this Presidency competent to conduct the duties of local self-government on the scale contemplated in the Resolution under discussion ?It seems to the Association that it is against all evidence to say that the people of this Presidency do not possess that measure of intelligence which is necessary to make them interest themselves in matters which concern them and their neighbours so nearly. Corporate action is not a thing unknown in this country. It was at one time universal when village communities were living institutions and managed all their internal concerns without external interference.

On this subject, without referring to the ancient Institutes of the country or the authority of eminent historians, it might suffice to quote here the remarks of Sir Charles Trevelyan, taken from his evidence before the Finance Commission of 1872.

"I was going to remark on the preparedness of the people of India for this development, both by ancient habit and recent cultivation. The foundation of Indian Society is the village Municipality; it has been the salvation of India. One foreign conqueror after another has swept over India, but the village Municipalities have stuck to the soil like their own Kusa grass which they liken it to; it is a kind of grass which it is impossible to tear up by the roots, because it grows in bunches, and

they say that the village constitution is like that grass. They have been nursed in it, it is perfectly familiar to them, and even in the large towns, for instance, Delhi, although there was then no official Municipality, yet the people acted in the Municipal spirit. I remember the Sahookars coming forward in a body with their Chowdry at their head to make a representation on a subject which interested them. The same thing has repeatedly taken place at Benares and elsewhere. Then the natives are by no means deficient in public- spirited liberality; the country is covered with ancient works, tanks, caravanserais, and works of various kinds which have been coustructed by individual munificence, and the extraordinary liberality of the Parsees and others who have acquired fortunes during the late tide of mercantile activity is well known. If the councils are merely consultative, the members would never become emancipated from the control of European official presidents. The natives should not always be made to go in leading strings. It is the old story of not allowing a boy to go into water till he can swim; he never will learn to swim unless he goes into the water and incurs a little risk and paddles about At first no doubt they will be timid and frugal, but a a little done willingly is better than a great deal done under compulsion or done for them. Give them the raising and spending of their own money and the motive will be supplied, and life and reality will be imparted to the whole system. All would act under a responsibility under the eye of those who would be familiar with all the details, and would have the strongest possible interest in maintaining a vigilant control over them. Aud it will be a school of self-government for the whole of India, the longest step yet taken towards teaching its two hundred millions of people to govern themselves, which is the end and object of our connection with that country."

The several castes and guilds in this country have, even to this day, councils of their own to discuss and decide affairs connected with their several occupations, and the Panchayet system was till lately a popular mode of deciding disputes. The Association is decidedly of opinion that if the area of jurisdiction be sufficiently narrowed to make the people take a real interest in the proceedings

of the Boards, and if the existing official trammels be removed, then local self-government would become a reality. The duties which the local bodies will have to perform have reference only to such simple matters as the repair of local roads, the maintenance of primary schools, and drainage-matters which may be safely entrusted to men of ordinary intelligence and experience.

The failure of Devastanum Committees is often urged as a conclusive argument against an extension of local self-government; but the Association considers the argument to be fallacious and the conclusion unsound. There is no doubt that Devastanum Committees have failed, but the failure is due mainly to the defective character of the legislation under which the District Committees were formed, and the manner in which Government disconnected itself from the management of Religious Institutions. Devastanum Committees were not appointed immediately after Government withdrew from the management of religious institutions. The withdrawal took place in 1842, and the Committees were appointed in 1863. During the interim some of the temples were made over to the control of irresponsible heads of Mattams, and others were left to take care of themselves. The consequence was peculation and disorder. When Committees were appointed in 1863, their power was not extended to all the religious Institutions which were formerly managed by Government, but was restricted to those institutions only in regard to which Government had, up to the date of passing the Act, exercised the power of nominating the trustees. This necessarily excluded from the control of the Committees several important temples, such as those at Tirupathi, Trivellore and Conjeveram, which had been made over to the management of particular individuals prior to 1863, and even in regard to others, there being no records to show in which institution Government had previously exercised the right of nomination and in which they had not, the trustees openly refused to submit to the control of the Committees, who had no power under the Act to enforce their rights except by instituting, at their own expense, Civil suits which the trustees had the means to defend from the funds of the temple, It is true that Act XX