CHAPTER VI

LAND SETTLEMENTS IN THE PUNJAB

A PORTION of the Punjab was annexed to the British dominions by Lord Hardinge in 1846, after the first Sikh War; and the remainder was taken over by Lord Dalhousie after the second Sikh War in 1849. And we have a clear and lucid account of the condition of the Province, under its former Sikh ruler sas well as under British rule, in the First Punjab Administration Report, published in 1852.

Under the great Ranjit Singh, who had consolidated the Province into a strong and powerful kingdom, men who distinguished themselves by their courage and high capacity were deputed to the remoter districts for the collection of revenue, armed with pretorian and proconsular power. Among them was General Avitable who held down Peshawar with an iron hand, as also the doughty Hari Singh who kept the fierce and turbulent mountaineers of Hazara in unwilling submission. In the districts nearer to Lahore, Kardars or agents were employed to collect the revenue; and their most important proceedings were subject to review by the Lahore Ministry.

Written law there was none; but a rude and simple justice was dealt out. "Private property in land, the relative rights of land-holders and cultivators, the corporate capacities of Village Communities, were all recognised. Under the direction of the local authorities, private arbitration was extensively resorted to. The most difficult questions of real and personal property were adjudicated by these tribunals. . . . The Maharaja

constantly made tours through his dominions. He would listen to complainants during his rides, and he would become angered with any Governor in whose province complaints were numerous. At court also, he would receive individual appeals."'

The taxation was heavy. "But in some respects the Government gave back with one hand what it had taken with the other. The employés of the State were most numerous; every village sent recruits for the army who again remitted their savings to their homes. Many a highly-taxed village paid half its revenue from its military earnings; thus money circulated freely." 2

The Land Tax under Maharaja Ranjit Singh was in theory assumed to be one-half the gross produce, but in practice "may be said to have varied from two-fifths to one-third of the gross produce. The proportion prevailed in all the provinces which the Sikhs had fully conquered, and which were fairly cultivated, and may be said to have been in force in all their Cis-Indus possessions, except the province governed by Dewan Mulraj. Beyond the Indus, owing to the distance from control, the less patient character of the population, the insecurity of property, and the scarcity of population, the revenue system pressed more lightly on the people.'

The Land Tax, such as it was, was raised not in money but in kind; and it was therefore proportionate to the produce of the fields in good years as well as in bad years. Under such a system cultivators were not called upon to pay a fixed and immutable sum when their harvest had failed; nor were they required in years of low prices to pay a revenue calculated on the basis of high prices.

The second treaty of 1846, concluded in December of that year, provided that a British Resident should control the civil and military affairs of the Punjab; and

1 Punjab Administration Report, 1852, paragraph 28.

2 Ibid., paragraph 31.

3 Ibid., paragraph 233.

5

Henry Lawrence was appointed the first Resident. There is no brighter name in the Indian annals of this period, renowned for able administrators and brave soldiers, than Henry Lawrence the Pacificator. Born in 1806, he had seen service in the first Burmese War of 1825; he had controlled Sikh chieftains at Peshawar and helped Pollock's advance into Afghanistan in 1842; and he had taken a part in the battle of Subraon which concluded the first Sikh War in February 1846. There was no man in India who knew the Sikhs better or had more influence with them than Henry Lawrence; and there was none who felt a greater respect for their virtues, or a truer desire to maintain their position, dignity, and independence.

As Resident, Henry Lawrence was practically the ruler of the Punjab; and he secured the assent of the Council of Regency, consisting of eight Sardars, in all his measures of reform. One reform was of doubtful benefit to the people the substitution of the British system of collecting land revenue in money for the old system of payment in kind. The State-demand was nominally reduced; but the cultivators found no relief under the summary settlements and money assessments made by British officers. In other respects, however, Lawrence was more successful and more in touch with Sikh institutions. A simple code of laws, founded on Sikh customs, was framed by fifty selected heads of villages under the supervision of Sardar Lehna Singh. Oppressive duties and Government monopolies were abolished. Able and efficient officers, selected by Henry Lawrence, carried out his ideas, and controlled the administration in different parts of the Province. And Sardars, Chiefs, land-holders, and the people generally, appreciated his administration, and accepted the rule of the great Pacificator.

Unfortunately, the two men, who had secured peace in the Punjab, left India not long after. Henry Lawrence was compelled by ill-health to leave the country at the close of 1847. And Lord Hardinge made over the reins of

Government to Lord Dalhousie early in 1848. The troubles which arose soon after, and which were allowed to grow until they culminated in the second Sikh War, have already been narrated in another chapter.

Sir Henry Lawrence, now knighted for his distinguished services, hastened back to India on hearing of these disturbances, and stood by Lord Gough in the hardfought field of Chilianwala in January 1849. The next battle, at Gujrat, fought in February, broke the power of the Sikhs; and the question of the ultimate fate of the Punjab came up for decision. Henry Lawrence was against British annexation; his brother John Lawrence is said to have been for it.1 On March 29, 1849, the Proclamation was issued announcing that the sovereignty of the Punjab had passed over to the Queen of England.

Sir Henry Lawrence had tendered his resignation as soon as he had heard of this decision, partly from his avowed view of the injustice of the annexation, but mainly from the belief that the arrangement that would ensue would be harsh to the conquered people. But Lord Dalhousie knew the value of the Pacificator's work, and would not let him go. He sent his Secretary to Sir Henry, desiring him to continue in his leading position in the Punjab, "if only for the special reason that it would ensure his having the best opportunity for effecting his great object-the fair and even indulgent consideration of the vanquished; the smoothing down of the inevitable pangs of subjugation to those proud and brave enemies, with whose chiefs and leaders no man was so familiar as he, or so appreciative of what was noble in their character."2

1 This is the accepted belief, but John Lawrence himself denied it eighteen years after. He wrote to Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India, as follows: "I may say, with perfect truth, that I have never been connected with any great measure of annexation, except as regards that of the Punjab; and, in that case, I was only concerned in carrying out the measure, and not in the policy of annexation itself." -Letter dated June 25, 1867. Quoted in Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence (1885), vol. ii. p. 385.

2 Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator. By Lieutenant-General M'Leod Innes (1898), p. 113.

To this appeal, urged on such a reason, Sir Henry could not but yield. Lord Dalhousie entrusted the administration of the Punjab to a Board, consisting of Sir Henry Lawrence as President, his brother John Lawrence, and Charles Mansel who was soon succeeded by Robert Montgomery. Sir Henry conducted the political work; John Lawrence was in charge of civil and revenue administration; Mansel and his successor Montgomery superintended the administration of justice.

The Board did not work smoothly or harmoniously. Henry Lawrence, impelled by his generous instincts, strove to maintain for the fallen Sardars a high position and status in the new British Province, and to recognise in them the aristocracy of the country as they had been. John Lawrence tried to carry out the narrower view of Lord Dalhousie that the Sardars deserved little but maintenance; that none should intervene between the people and their alien rulers. Henry Lawrence endeavoured unceasingly to recognise the natural and influential leaders of the people. John Lawrence, charged with revenue administration, was anxious to have a tighter grip on the Land Tax paid by the Cultivators; and saw in the due recognition of the old Sardars an alienation of the revenues supposed to be due to the State only.

The two brothers, who had the highest personal regard for each other, became estranged in their official relations; and the work of the State suffered. "My brother and I," wrote John Lawrence to the Secretary to the Governor-General, "work together no better than we formerly did. Indeed, the estrangement between us has increased. We seldom meet, and still more seldom discuss public matters. What I feel is the mischief of two men brought together, who have both strong wills and views diametrically opposed, and whose modes and habits of business do not conform.” 1

1 Letter of December 5, 1852. Life of Lord Lawrence, by Bosworth Smith (1885), vol. i. p. 332.