'Prosperous' British India

Finally, I must be permitted to say that the writing of this book has been the hatefullest and most painful duty I have ever performed. I have put to myself, a score of times, Lord Melbourne's question, 'Can't you let it alone?' and always I have had to answer, 'No, I can't.' And it's as well I can't. For, if I could I should be a contemptible creature. To me, things in India are as I describe them to be, and I have no choice but to so describe them.

DORSET HOUSE, DORSET SQUARE,

LONDON, N.W.

November, 1901.

SOME OF THE AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

OFFICIAL.

The Dufferin Inquiry in 1887-88 as to the Steadily Underfed Population of India:

'Confidential' Volumes:

a. An Inquiry into the Economic Condition of the Agricultural and Labouring Classes in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh.

b. Similar Inquiries for Bombay, Madras, Bengal, Panjab, Central Provinces, Assam, the Berars, and AjmereMerwara.

[These volumes constitute the nearest approach to an economic inquiry into Indian conditions yet undertaken.]

Statistical Abstracts of British India, Nos. 1 to 35.

Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India, Nos. 16 to 36.

Famine Commission Inquiries and Reports:

The Orissa Famine of 1866.

The Famine of 1877-78;

Especially

a. Miscellaneous Papers bearing on the Condition of the Country and People;

b. Appendix-Vol. III., Chapter I.-Condition of the Country and the People; and

c. Information Furnished by the Madras Board of Revenue to the Famine Commission of 1878-9.

The Famine of 1897-98;

Report and Evidence. Several volumes.

Area and Yield of Crops. Third Issue, 1901.

Parliamentary Inquiries into the East India Company's Administration prior to Renewal of the Charter

Reports of Select Committees of Parliament on the Affairs of the East India Company during the Last Half of the Eighteenth Century. Ten volumes.

Inquiry into Panjab Indebtedness, by S. S. Thorburn.

Agricultural Statistics of British India. Tenth to Fifteenth Issues. Financial and Commercial Statistics of British India. Several Issues. Report on the Revised Settlement of the Gurgaon District, 1872-83. Census of India

a. General Report, 1881. Three volumes.

Several District Manuals of Madras and Bombay.

And Numerous other Official Publications, including the Gazette of India and Provincial Gazettes;

Also, the Several Official Commission Inquiries of the past
Twenty Years.

NON-OFFICIAL.

'India,' by Sir John Strachey, G.C.S.I.

'England's Work in India,' by Sir W. W. Hunter, and other works by the same author.

'The Dictionary of Statistics,' by Mulhall.

'The Law of Civilisation and Decay,' by Brooks Adams.

The Science of Civilisation,' by C. B. Phipson.

'The Poverty of India,' by Dadabhai Naoroji.
'Famines in India,' by Romesh C. Dutt, C.I.E.
'The Great Famine,' by Vaughan Nash.

'The Indian Tribute,' by Thos. Inwood Pollard.

'Asia and Europe,' by Meredith Townsend.

'Life of Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, K.C.B.,' by the Rev. G. R. Gleig. Two volumes.

'Eastern India,' vol. i., 'Behar and Shahabad.' Montgomery Martin. Max Müller's Works.

'The Indian Problem Solved.'

'Mussulmans and the Moneylenders in the Panjab,' by S. S. Thorburn. Improvement of Indian Agriculture,' by J. A. Voelcker.

The Economic Revolution of India,' by A. K. Connell, and more than
Two Hundred Other Volumes, such as the Rulers of India Series,
Biographies, e.g., Marquis of Wellesley, Lord Hastings, and
others,

With Several Files of Indian Newspapers, and Volumes of the
Sarvajanik Sabha Journal.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION.

Facsimile LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD GEORGE HAMILTON,

P.C., M.P., Secretary of State for India