Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Sir George Barlow

Sir George Barlow was Governor of Madras from 1807 to 1813. A supporter of the Bengal zamindari system, he opposed Munro's ryotwari settlement. In 1808 his government replaced it with three-year village leases in the Ceded Districts and in Nellore; the Directors restored ryotwari after eight years. In the same year a petition to Barlow accused the Collector of Nellore of fraud, and William Thackeray was sent to investigate; the petitioners finally admitted their charges had no foundation.

Sir George Barlow came to Madras from Bengal, where the land had been settled on zamindars.1 In the Telugu districts his government undid Thomas Munro’s ryotwari system for a time.1 It also sent a sudden inquiry into the Collector of Nellore.2 See East India Company.

Governor of Madras

Maclean’s list of Governors shows Barlow in office from 24 December 1807 to 21 May 1813.3 Arbuthnot’s memoir of Munro calls him “a Bengal civilian”.1 He had been Secretary under Lord Cornwallis and a member of Lord Wellesley’s Council.1 In both posts he had been “an active supporter of the zemindari settlement of Bengal”.1

Village leases in place of ryotwari

Under the ryotwari system, the registered holder of each field dealt directly with the government.4 Arbuthnot says this system met “a determined opposition” from Barlow.1 Early in 1808 the Board of Revenue proposed a change from yearly ryotwari agreements to village leases for three years.5

The Anantapur gazetteer says the order followed early in 1808.6 In all the unsettled districts, the villages were to be leased for three years to their headmen and chief cultivators, or else to strangers.6 The rent was not to be lowered in bad seasons.6

So, soon after Munro left, ryotwari in the Ceded Districts gave way to village leases.1 Ten-year leases followed, as a step towards a permanent settlement.1 Arbuthnot says that under both “there were heavy losses of revenue”.1 After eight years the Court of Directors ordered a return to ryotwari.1 See Anantapur and Bellary.

In Nellore, ryotwari had worked for six years under the Collector, Mr. Travers.7 In 1808 the government ordered village rents there too, for three years at first.7 It said this would make it easier to bring in a permanent settlement later.7

The Nellore petition

Towards the end of 1808 some men came to Madras and gave Barlow a petition.7 It said that the Collector of Nellore, his peishcar (chief Indian assistant) Veerasawmi Naidu and other officials had embezzled 1,30,950 pagodas.7 After consulting the Board of Revenue, the Governor in Council sent William Thackeray to inquire “with all secrecy and promptitude”.2

The Nellore manual criticises the haste.2 No one checked who the petitioners were, or whether the people of Nellore had really sent them.2 Thackeray suspended the peishcar at once and ordered other officials removed.2 In the end the petitioners had to admit that their charges against the Collector were “utterly without a semblance of foundation”.8 See Nellore.

Footnotes

  1. Alexander J. Arbuthnot (ed.), Major-General Sir Thomas Munro: Selections from his Minutes, Vol. I (1881), memoir, p. xcix (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  2. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 520 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. 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)). ↩

  4. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 94 (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. 309 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 111 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 519 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 521 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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. Alexander J. Arbuthnot (ed.), Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras: Selections from his Minutes and other Official Writings (opens in a new tab), C. Kegan Paul, London, 1881, xcix. [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. 309. [Public domain]
  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Addison & Co.), 1905, pp. 111. [Public domain]
  5. 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. 519–521. [Public domain]
  6. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 94. [Public domain]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: