Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Lord Clive (Edward Clive)

Edward Clive, Lord Clive, was Governor of Madras from 1798 to 1803, when Rayalaseema and Nellore came to the Company. He appointed Thomas Munro as first Collector of the Ceded Districts in 1800. The Fifth Report says the permanent zamindari settlements of the Madras Presidency were mostly concluded in his time. In 1802 he released the Raja of Venkatagiri from keeping nearly 10,000 troops for the Company, and sent him a permanent grant with a letter of his own.

Edward Clive, Lord Clive, governed Madras in the years when the Company’s Telugu territory more than doubled. Rayalaseema came to it in 1800, and Nellore in 1801.1 His government chose Thomas Munro for Rayalaseema, and settled the coastal zamindars on fixed tributes.23 See East India Company.

Governor of Madras

Maclean’s list of Governors shows Lord Clive in office from 21 August 1798 to 30 August 1803.4 In those years the Nizam ceded the districts now called Rayalaseema, by the treaty of 1800.1 The Nawab of Arcot’s country, including the present Nellore district, followed on 31 July 1801.1

Munro for the Ceded Districts

Thomas Munro asked to be made Collector of the new Ceded Districts.2 His biographer John Bradshaw says Clive appointed him, and that he took charge in November 1800.2 Clive wrote that he had wanted to keep Munro on the Malabar coast.2 But Munro’s arguments had convinced him that “his labours in the Cis-Tumbudra and Kistna province will be more advantageous”.2 See Thomas Munro and Bellary.

The permanent settlement

From 1799 the Madras Government was preparing a permanent settlement of the land revenue, with each zamindar’s peshkash (tribute) fixed for ever.56 On 8 January 1800 the Governor-General, Lord Wellesley, wrote to Lord Clive about how the lands should be assessed.5 The Fifth Report says that the permanent settlements were “principally concluded during the administration of Lord Clive”.3

In the Rajahmundry district, the Godavari gazetteer says, the zamindars were confirmed in their estates in perpetuity in 1802–03.6 Their peshkash was generally fixed at two-thirds of the average gross collections.6 See Rajahmundry.

The Venkatagiri sanad

The Raja of Venkatagiri was bound to keep troops for the government.7 In 1802 his papers showed 9,788 armed men, costing him 1,27,323 star pagodas a year.7 On 24 August 1802 Clive sent him a sanad-i-milkiat istimrar (grant of permanent ownership), with a letter of his own.8

In the letter Clive released the Raja and his heirs for ever from giving any military aid.7 All troops for the country’s defence would now be in the Company’s own pay.7 In return, the Raja’s tribute was raised by about what he had spent on his soldiers.87 The Nellore manual says this new jamma (assessment) was not based on any inquiry into the estate’s resources.8 See Venkatagiri and Nellore.

Footnotes

  1. “Acquisitions of Territory by the British in the Presidency of Fort St. George”, in W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. III (1918), p. xxviii, Nos. XLIII–XLIV (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. John Bradshaw, Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency (1894), p. 112 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Firminger (ed.), Fifth Report, Vol. I (1917), p. 308 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. C. D. Maclean (ed.), Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1885), p. 269, list of Governors of Fort St. George (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  5. W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. I (1917), p. 210 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 164 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 721 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 720 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

Dynasties

East India Company

1759–1858 CE

The English East India Company in the Telugu country, from its first landing on the coast in 1611 to the Crown's take-over in 1858. For a century and a half it traded through factories at Masulipatam, Nizampatnam, Madapollam, Viravasaram, Vizagapatam, Injaram and Bendamurlanka, under farmans of the Golconda kings and the Mughals. Its fort at Madras stood on land granted in 1639 through the Nayaka Damarla Venkatadri. After Forde drove out the French it received the Masulipatam country (1759), the five Northern Circars by the emperor's grant of 1765 and the treaties with the Nizam of 1766 and 1768, Guntur (1788), the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema (1800) and Nellore with the Carnatic (1801). It governed through Chiefs and Councils, then Collectors. It fixed the coastal zamindars' land revenue permanently in 1802–03, and assessed the Rayalaseema cultivators under Thomas Munro's ryotwari system. It broke the power of the Vizianagaram raja at Padmanabham (1794) and of the poligars. After the Guntur famine of 1832–33 it built the Godavari and Krishna anicuts.

References

Sources (6)
  1. C. D. Maclean (ed.), Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (Appendices) (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1885, pp. 269. [Public domain]
  2. John Bradshaw, Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency (Rulers of India) (opens in a new tab), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1894, pp. 112. [Public domain]
  3. Walter Kelly Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, dated 28th July 1812, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), R. Cambray and Co., Calcutta, 1917, pp. 210, 308. [Public domain]
  4. Walter Kelly Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. III: British Acquisitions in the Presidency of Fort St. George, Madras Appendices, Wilkins' Glossary and Index (opens in a new tab), R. Cambray and Co., Calcutta, 1918, xxviii. [Public domain]
  5. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 164. [Public domain]
  6. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras, 1873, pp. 720–721. [Public domain]

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