Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:02:56.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Control of Fate and Fortune: The Origins of the Market Mentality in British Administrative Thought in South Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Neil Rabitoy
Neil Rabitoy
Affiliation:
California State University, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One basic phenomenon characterized administrative development in the Bombay Presidency between 1800 and 1820: a fundamental transformation in the British administrative mentality. In brief, this transformation amounted to a shift, completed by 1813, from a cautious conservatism to one of innovation for the sake of administrative regularity. This shift can in part be explained as the natural product of the territorial cessions by the Marathas to the Bombay Government in 1802–3: Bombay ceased from that date to be solely a commercial presidency and became a government with territorial responsibility. It took about a decade for this new role to be fully accepted and to be reflected in the attitudes of Bombay administrators.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 737 - 764
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See: Rabitoy, Neil, ‘Sovereignty, Profits, and Social Change: British Administration in Western India, 1800–1820,’ (Ph.D. diss., U. of Pennsylvania, 1972), passim.Google Scholar Also, Rabitoy, , ‘System vs Expediency: The Reality of Land Revenue Administration in the Bombay Presidency, 1812–1820,’ Modern Asian Studies 9:4 (1975), 529–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarRabitoy, , ‘Administrative Modernization and the Bhats of British Gujarat, 1800–1820,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review XI, 1 (1974), 46–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The author is aware that the ideas of the Physiocrats and Adam Smith are not adequately described in either of these terms nor can they be adequately summarized in a single paragraph. This paper, however, does not examine those ideas but analyzes their application in a specific administrative setting within which they were understood essentially to mean that government should refrain from interfering in the natural operation of the marketplace.Google Scholar

3 MSA, RDD, 61:1128–9, Consultations of Date, 1 April 1808. He was appointed by the Court of Directors.Google Scholar

4 IOI., Personal Records, 19:69, 75.Google Scholar

5 MSA, RDD, 62:1639, Rickards' ‘Essay on Taxation,’ July, 1808.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 1642–3.

7 Ibid., 1635.

8 Ibid., 1646–7, 1668.

9 Ibid., pp. 1643–6. MSA, RDD, 74:952, Rickards' Minute of 11 July 1811.

10 MSA, RDD, 62:1821–2, Rickards' Minute of 7 July 1808.Google Scholar

11 IOL, Commercial Proceedings, Rn. 415, 23:1690. Rickards' Minute of 24 May 1808.Google Scholar

12 See for example: MSA, RDD, 69:1648–50, 1661. Rickards' ‘Essay on Taxation,’ July 1808. IOL, Commercial Proceedings, Rn. 415, 23:1690–1, Rickards' Minute of 24 May 1808.Google Scholar

13 MSA, RDD, 62:1659, 1666–8, Rickards' ‘Essay on Taxation,’ July, 1808. MSA, RDD, 74:949–50, Rickards' Minute of 11 July 1811.Google Scholar

14 MSA, RDD, 62:1655–8, 1662, Rickards' ‘Essay on Taxation,’ July 1808.Google Scholar

15 MSA, RDD, 62:1869, Duncan's Minute of July 1808. See also: IOI., Revenue Letters to Bombay, 1:188–9, 202–3, Letter of 10 Jan. 1810; IOL., Commercial Proceedings, Rn. 415, 23:1693–4, Lechmere's Minute of July 1808.Google Scholar

16 MSA, RDD, 62:1879, Duncan's Minute of July 1808.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., 1887.

18 Ibid., 1879–1880.

19 IOL, Home Misc. Series, 731a:171, Duncan to Scott, 3 July 1803.Google Scholar

20 MSA, RDD, 73:901–30, Rickards' Minute of 12 July 1811.Google Scholar

21 IOL., Revenue Letters to Bombay, 1:188–9, Letter of 10 Jan. 1810. MSA, Public Dept., Letters From, 18:365–67, 331–9. Parliamentary Papers, 22 June 1813, Rickards to Court of Directors, 9 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

22 IOL., Hm. Misc. Ser., 731. a:36–7, Duncan to Scott, 17 May 1801Google Scholar

23 IOL., Minto Papers, M499, Nepean to Minto, 6 Jan. 1813. IOL, Misc. Ltrs Rec'd. 123:74f-g, G. Dundas to Commissioners of the Navy, 14 April 1811.Google Scholar

24 It is not clear that they were the first to do so. For a full discussion of their careers and character, see Rabitoy, ‘Sovereignty,’ passim.Google Scholar

25 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., 1810, Rn. 415, 32:240–1, Walker to Duncan, 8 Aug. 1805. IOL., Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 14:1804, Broach Rev. Com. to Gov.-in-Council, 14 Nov. 1806.Google Scholar

26 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 7:316, Walter to Grant, 3 Feb. 1805.Google Scholar

27 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 10:2270, Reso. of Govt, n.d. (1805).Google Scholar

28 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 14:2072, Reso. of Govt, n.d. (1806). MSA, RDD, 50:946–7, Rev. Com. Broach to Govt, March 1806. IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 33:747, Mins of Govt, 8 April 1810.Google Scholar

29 IOL, Misc. Ltrs Rec'd, 121:93b, Prendergast to Ramsey, 5 Dec. 1810.Google Scholar

30 MSA, Extracts of Duncan, 3:184, Prendergast to Duncan, 12 July 1808. IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 14:1446–47, Prendergast to Warden, 30 July 1806. MSA, RDD, 54:2995–3000, Reso. of Govt, 30 April 1806.Google Scholar

31 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1696, Min. of Duncan, 3 July 1808.Google Scholar

32 MSA, Extracts of Duncan, 3:143–6, Memo on Cotton Trade of Gujarat, n.d.Google Scholar

33 MSA, RDD, 54:3000, Reso. of Govt, 30 April 1806. IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 14:2074, Reso. of Govt, n.d. IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 14:1805, Broach Rev. Com. to Govt, 14 Nov. 1806. IOL, Misc. Ltrs Rec'd, 121:93b, Prendergast to Ramsey, 5 Dec. 1810.Google Scholar

34 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 22:896–7, Wren to Gov.-in-Council, 15 April 1808.Google Scholar

35 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 22:849, Min. of Rickards, 25 April 1808.Google Scholar

36 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1675–6, Prendergast to Gov.-in-Council, 11 May 1808.Google Scholar

37 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1678, Min. of Rickards, 24 May 1808.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., 1690–1.

39 Ibid., 1687.

40 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1695, Lechmere's Min. of 6 July 1808.Google Scholar

41 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1696, Min. of Duncan, 3 July 1808.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., 1698.

43 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1703, Min. of Rickards, 9 July 1808.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., 1701.

45 MSA, RDD, 63:2005–6, Min. of Rickards, 23 July 1808.Google Scholar

46 IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 23:1704, Govt Mins 9 July 1808. IOL, Bbay Comml Pro., Rn. 415, 25:731, Govt Mins, 28 Dec. 1808.Google Scholar

47 MSA, Extracts of Duncan, 3:166, Remarks by Walker on the Cotton Trade, n.d.Google Scholar

48 MSA, RDD, 62:1880, Min. of Duncan, 7 July 1808.Google Scholar

49 MSA, RDD, 63:1896, Min. of Duncan, 8 July 1808.Google Scholar

50 IOL, Rev. Ltrs to Bbay, 1:188–99, 210–11, Court to Bombay, 10 Jan. 1810.Google Scholar

51 MSA, RDD, 73:901–2, Min. of Rickards, 11 July 1811.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., 912–22.

53 See e.g., IOL, Bbay Pub. Pro., Rn. 344, 38:1416–17, Min. of Rickards, n.d. (1811). IOL, Bbay Pub. Pro., Rn. 344, 5:8191–201, Series of Minutes by Duncan and Rickards, 1808. MSA, JDD, 57:110–11, Minute of Rickards, 3 Jan. 1811.Google Scholar

54 MSA, Pub. Ltrs From, 18:365–6, Court to Bombay, Jan. 1811. Rickards, Robert, The Speeches of Robert Rickards (London: 1814), 14 June 1813.Google Scholar

55 Rickards, R., India: or Facts Submitted to Illustrate the Character and Condition of the Native Inhabitants with Suggestions for Reforming the Present System of Government (2 vols, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1829).Google Scholar

56 MSA, RDD, 80:1526–32, Court to Gov.-Gen.-in-Council, 15 Jan. 1815.Google Scholar

57 IOI, Rev. Ltrs to Bbay, 1:275–6, Court to Bbay, 16 May 1815.Google Scholar

58 IOI, Rev. Ltrs from Bbay, 3:121–3. Bbay to Court, 17 April 1816.Google Scholar

59 IOI, Rev. Ltrs to Bbay, 2:102–5, Court to Bbay, 18 June 1817.Google Scholar

60 Ibid., 110.

61 Ibid., 111.

62 Bhatia, B. M., Famines in India (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1963), 105.Google Scholar

63 Etheridge, A. T., Report on Past Famines in the Bombay Presidency (Bombay: Education Society's Press, 1868), 58–9.Google Scholar

64 Duncan to Henshaw, 15 Oct. 1803, in Etheridge, Report, lxxiv.Google Scholar

65 MSA, Grain Scarcity, 320:466, Duncan's Minute of 10 June 1805.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., 471.

67 Ibid., 473. The object was to assist the Company's territories, all of which were to the north of Bombay.

68 Ibid., 481.

69 MSA, Grain Scarcity, 318:214, Govt. Min. of 13 April 1804. MSA, Grain Scarcity, 318:289, Walker to Grant, 20 April 1804. MSA Grain Scarcity, 318:123, Govt. Min. of 1 March 1804. MSA, Grain Scarcity, 319:1148–9, Walker to Steadman, 1 Sept. 1804.Google Scholar

70 MSA, Grain Scarcity, 319:1167, Steadman to Walker, 31 Aug. 1804. MSA, Grain Scarcity, 319:1166, Walker to Grant, 6 Sept. 1804.Google Scholar

71 MSA, Grain Scarcity, 319:1145–6, Walker to Grant, 1 Sept. 1804. MSA, Grain Scarcity, 318:285–6, Steadman to Walker, 20 March 1804. MSA, Grain Scarcity, 319:1166–7, Steadman to Walker, 31 Aug. 1804.Google Scholar

72 MSA, Grain Scarcity, 318:88, Govt Min. of 20 Feb. 1804.Google Scholar

73 MSA, RDD, 40:73–4, Walker to Grant, 8 Sept. 1803. A system of public works was not started, probably because the scarcity was not serious enough in the Company's districts. Etheridge, Report, xcvii.Google Scholar

74 IOL, Mss. Eur. D. 666, Lt. Hardcastle to Capt. Aitcheson, 30 Sept. 1812 (no page). Etheridge, Report, 36–7.Google Scholar

75 Carnac, James Rivett, ‘Some Accounts of the Famine in Guzerat in the Years 1812 and 1813,’ Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay 1819, 1:296, 300.Google Scholar

76 Ibid., 301.

77 MSA, PDD, 339:3659–60, Nepean's Min. of 24 August 1812.Google Scholar

78 MSA, PDD, 339:3671–2, Petition from 73 Sundry Native Inhabitants of Bombay to Gov.-in-Council, 21 Aug. 1812. MSA, PDD, 339:3672–3, Govt Mins of 24 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

79 MSA, PDD, 339:3647, Govt Mins of 20 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

80 MSA, PDD, 339:3821–4, Bench of Justice to Nepean, 2 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

81 MSA, PDD, 339:3827–9, Govt Reso. of 5 Sept. 1812. MSA, PDD, 339:3781–2, Nepean to Lord Minto, 1 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

82 MSA, PDD, 339:3846, Govt Reso. of 7 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

83 MSA, PDD, 339:3773–80, Govt Reso. of 1 Sept. 1812. MSA, PDD, 341:432, Romer to Warden, 22 Sept. 1812. MSA, PDD, 341:422–3, Romer to Maj. Baker, 15 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

84 MSA, PDD, 340:3904–5, Keate to Newnham, 30 Aug. 1812. MSA, PDD, 340:3914–15, Carnac to Warden, 30 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

85 MSA, PDD, 341:4686, Kaira Grain Com. to Warden, 12 Oct. 1812. MSA, PDD, 345:74–5, Keate to Warden, 25 Dec. 1812.Google Scholar

86 MSA, PDD, 339:3885–6, Keate to Warden, 26 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

87 MSA, PDD, 339 and 340:3890, Govt Mins of 9 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

88 MSA, PDD, 340:4215–16, Carnac to Warden, 9 Sept. 1812. MSA, PDD, 340:4216, Govt Mins of 25 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

89 MSA, PDD, 343:5398, Mins of Govt, 9 Dec. 1812.Google Scholar

90 MSA, RDD, 80:1701, Rowles to Warden, 18 Sept. 1812. Prior to Nepean's statement on free trade, Rowles had suggested public works, the end of duties and premiums for imports and ‘any’ other measure to alleviate the famine conditions: MSA, PDD, 339:3771–72, Rowles to Warden, 22 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

91 MSA, RDD, 90:3096, Rowles to Warden, 1 Sept. 1813.Google Scholar

92 IOL, Rev. Ltrs from Bombay, 1:295–6, Ltr. of 10 June 1815.Google Scholar

93 MSA, PDD, 340:3899, Notification Published by Rowles, 27 Aug. 1812. MSA, PDD, 340:3896–8, Mahadajee Coondeo to Rowles, 25 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

94 MSA, PDD, 340:3892, Rowles to Warden, 29 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

95 Ibid., 3894–6.

96 It was also true that both men questioned the other's jurisdiction: MSA, PDD, 340:3906–10, Keate to Newnham, 30 Aug. 1812.Google Scholar

97 MSA, PDD, 340:4067, Keate to Warden, 4 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

98 Ibid., 4068.

99 Ibid., 4069.

100 MSA, PDD, 340:4076–7, Govt Reso. of 16 Sept. 1812. It is interesting that the official who drafted this resolution for the Government, Francis Warden, was instrumental in thwarting Gov. Elphinstone's attempts to alleviate famine conditions some ten years later: see Etheridge, Report, 134–7.Google Scholar

101 MSA, PDD, 345:259, Keate to Warden, 5 Jan. 1813.Google Scholar

102 MSA, JDD, 67:988–9, Keate to Warden, 31 July 1813.Google Scholar

103 MSA, PDD, 346:527–30, Carnac to Warden, Jan. 1813. MSA, PDD, 346:721, Govt Mins. of 8 Feb. 1813.Google Scholar

104 Woodruff, Philip, The Men Who Ruled India: The Founders (New York: Schocken Books, 1964), 240.Google ScholarDouglas, James, Bombay and Western India (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1893), 2:32–3.Google ScholarShepherd, Samuel T., Bombay (Bombay: The Times of India Press, 1932), 48.Google Scholar

105 IOL, Home Misc. Series, 731a:171, Duncan to Scott, 3 July 1803.Google Scholar

106 See Rabitoy, ‘Sovereignty,’ passim.Google Scholar

107 Bhatia, Famines, 104. Most scholars argue that traditional Indian government recognized a role for government in famines, though this could never have been too effective: e.g., Edwardes, S. M. and Garrett, H. L. O., Mughal Rule in India (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), 204, 239.Google ScholarIkram, S. M., Muslim Civilization in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), 72.Google ScholarHabib, Irfan, The Agrarian System of Mughal India (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1963), 100–10. I am not, however, convinced that this was so or that it was a real administrative ideal. On the other hand, I am willing to defend the distinction made in this essay between Duncan's and Nepean's administrations.Google Scholar

108 The term modern is employed here in the sense defined by Cohn, Bernard S., India: The Social Anthropology of a Civilization (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971), 99.Google Scholar

109 This argument is made at length in Rabitoy, ‘Sovereignty,’ passim.Google Scholar

110 Bhatia, Famines, 91–2, 121.Google Scholar

111 Etheridge, Report, 130.Google Scholar

112 MSA, RDD, 90:3094, Rowles to Warden, 19 Sept. 1813.Google Scholar

113 IOL, Rev. Ltrs from Bombay, 1:42, Ltr. of 16 April 1814.Google Scholar

114 MSA, RDD, 40:73–4, Walker to Grant, 8 Sept. 1803. Etheridge, Report, 58–9. Bhatia, Famines, 121.Google Scholar

115 Abbajee Gunesh to Duncan, n.d. in Etheridge, Report, ciii.Google Scholar

116 The Government carried out a review of the 1803–4 famine measures: MSA, PDD, 339:3773, Govt Reso. of 1 Sept. 1812.Google Scholar

117 Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations (New York: Random House, 1937) 651 (book IV, ch. 9).Google Scholar

118 See e.g.,: MSA, PDD, 339:3795, Keate to Nepean, 23 Aug. 1812. MSA, JDD, 67:982–4, Keate to Warden, 31 July 1813. MSA, PDD, 340:4072–3, Capt. Cunningham to Col. Lloyd, 29 Aug. 1812.

119 This was Regulation I, 1814. See: MSA, RDD, 80:565–9, Rowles to Warden, 10 Sept. 1812. MSA, JDD, 66:595–6, Ct. of Cir. and App. to Newnham, 26 May 1813. MSA, JDD, 67:793–5, Rowles to Newnham, 26 June 1813.