Не было недостатка в претендентах на должности, которые здесь являлись наследственными; но напрасно было бы искать их среди потомков добродетельного Панчоли или строгого Амрачанда, и предсказание первого: «Прах покроет голову Мевара, когда добродетель бродит в лохмотьях», — исполнилось с точностью. Не было заметно ни талантов, ни влияния, ни честности; однако этот недостаток скорее вызывал печаль, чем удивление, и подстегивал к усилиям ради них, а не гасил надежду на улучшение, хотя всякое поле для деятельности, кроме арены интриг, было утрачено, а таланты дремали за неимением упражнения.
Недееспособность раны. —The Rana’s character was little calculated to supply his minister’s deficiencies. Though perfectly versed in the past history of his country, its resources, and their management; though able, wise, and amiable, his talents were nullified by numerous weak points. Vain shows, frivolous amusements, and an ill-regulated liberality alone occupied him; and so long as he could gratify these propensities, he trusted complacently to the exertions of others for the restoration of order and his proper authority. He had little steadiness of purpose, and was particularly obnoxious to female influence. It is scarcely to be wondered that he coveted repose, and was little desirous to disturb the only moment his existence had presented of enjoying it, by inviting the turmoils of business. No man, however, was more capable of advising: his judgment was good, but he seldom followed its dictates; in short, he was an adept in theory, and a novice in practice. The only man about the court at once of integrity and efficiency was Kishandas, who had long acted as ambassador, and to whose assiduity the sovereign and the country owed much; but his services were soon cut off by death.
Таковы были исходные материалы, с которых началась работа по реформированию. Цель состояла в том, чтобы вернуть положение дел в соответствие с той эпохой их истории, когда права князя, вассала и земледельца были одинаково четко определены — эпохой Амра Сингха.
Отношения раны с его нобилями. —The first point to effect was the recognition of the prince’s authority by his nobles; the surest sign of which was their presence at the capital, where some had never been, and others only when it suited their convenience or their views. In a few weeks the Rana saw himself surrounded by a court such as had not been known for half a century. It created no small curiosity to learn by what secret power they were brought into each other’s presence. Even the lawless Hamira, who but a short while before had plundered the marriage dower of the Hari queen [482] coming from Kotah, and the chief of the Sangawat clan, who had sworn “he might bend his head to woman, but never to his sovereign,” left their castles of Badesar and Deogarh, and “placing the royal rescript on their heads,” hastened to his presence; and in a few weeks the whole feudal association of Mewar was embodied in the capital.
Возвращение изгнанников. —To recall the exiled population was a measure simultaneous with the assembling of the nobles; but this was a work requiring time: they had formed ties, and incurred obligations to the societies which had sheltered them, which could not at once be disengaged or annulled. But wherever a subject of Mewar existed, proclamations penetrated, and satisfactory assurances were obtained, and realized to an extent which belied in the strongest manner the assertion that patriotism is unknown to the natives of Hindustan. The most enthusiastic and cheering proofs were afforded that neither oppression from without, nor tyranny within, could expel the feeling for the bapota, the land of their fathers. Even now, though time has chastened the impressions, we should fear to pen but a tithe of the proofs of devotion of the husbandman of Mewar to the solum natale: it would be deemed romance by those who never contemplated humanity in its reflux from misery and despair to the ‘sweet influences’ of hope; he alone who had witnessed the day of trouble, and beheld the progress of desolation—the standing corn grazed by Mahratta horse—the rifled towns devoted to the flames—the cattle driven to the camp, and the chief men seized as hostages for money never to be realized—could appreciate their deliverance. To be permitted to see these evils banished, to behold the survivors of oppression congregated from the most distant provinces, many of them strangers to each other, and the aged and the helpless awaiting the lucky day to take possession of their ruined abodes, was a sight which memory will not part with. Thus on the 3rd of Sawan (July),[16] a favourite day with the husbandman, three hundred of all conditions, with their waggons and implements of labour, and preceded by banners and music, marched into Kapasan;[17] and Ganesha was once again invoked as they reconsecrated their dwellings, and placed his portrait as the Janus of the portals. On the same day, and within eight months subsequent to the signature of the treaty, above three hundred towns and villages were simultaneously reinhabited; and the land, which for many years had been a stranger to the plough-share, was broken up. Well might [483] the superstitious fancy that miracles were abroad; for even to those who beheld the work in progression it had a magical result, to see the waste covered with habitations, and the verdant corn growing in the fields where lately they had roused the boar from his retreat! It was a day of pride for Britain! By such exertions of her power in these distant lands her sway is hallowed. By Britain alone can this fair picture be defaced; the tranquillity and independence she has conferred, by her alone may be disturbed!
Привлечение капитала. —To these important preliminary measures, the assembly of the nobles and recall of the population, was added a third, without which the former would have been nugatory. There was no wealth, no capital, to aid their patriotism and industry. Foreign merchants and bankers had abandoned the devoted land; and those who belonged to it partook of her poverty and her shame. Money was scarce, and want of faith and credit had increased the usury on loans to a ruinous extent. The Rana borrowed at thirty-six per cent; besides twenty-five to forty per cent discount for his barats, or patents empowering collection on the land; a system pursued for some time even after his restoration to authority. His profusion exceeded even the rapidity of renovation; and the husbandman had scarcely broken up his long-waste fields, when a call was made by the harpies of the State for an advance on their produce, while he himself had been compelled to borrow at a like ruinous rate for seed and the means of support, to be paid by expectations. To have hoped for the revival of prosperity amidst such destitution, moral and pecuniary, would have been visionary. It was as necessary to improve the one as to find the other; for poverty and virtue do not long associate, and certainly not in Mewar. Proclamations were therefore prepared by the Rana, inviting foreign merchants and bankers to establish connexions in the chief towns throughout the country; but as in the days of demoralization little faith was placed in the words of princes, similar ones were prepared by the Agent, guaranteeing the stipulations, and both were distributed to every commercial city in India. The result was as had been foreseen: branch banks were everywhere formed, and mercantile agents fixed in every town in the country, whose operations were only limited by the slow growth of moral improvement. The shackles which bound external commerce were at once removed, and the multifarious posts for the collections of transit duties abolished; in lieu of which chain of stations, all levies on goods in transit were confined to the frontiers. The scale of duties [484] was revised; and by the abolition of intermediate posts, they underwent a reduction of from thirty to fifty per cent. By this system, which could not for some time be comprehended, the transit and custom duties of Mewar made the most certain part of the revenue, and in a few years exceeded in amount what had ever been known.
Торговля в Бхилваре. —The chief commercial mart, Bhilwara, which showed not a vestige of humanity, rapidly rose from ruin, and in a few months contained twelve hundred houses, half of which were occupied by foreign merchants. Bales of goods, the produce of the most distant lands, were piled up in the streets lately overgrown with grass, and a weekly fair was established for the home manufactures. A charter of privileges and immunities was issued, exempting them from all taxation for the first year, and graduating the scale for the future; calculated with the same regard to improvement, by giving the mind the full range of enjoying the reward of its exertions. The right of electing their own chief magistrates and the assessors of justice, was above all things indispensable, so as to render them as independent as possible of the needy servants of the court. A guard was provided by the government for their protection, and a competent authority nominated to see that the full extent of their privileges, and the utmost freedom of action, were religiously maintained. The entire success of this plan may at once be recorded to prevent repetition. In 1822, Bhilwara contained nearly three thousand dwellings, which were chiefly inhabited by merchants, bankers, or artisans. An entire new street had been constructed in the centre of the town, from the duties levied, and the shops and houses were rented at a moderate rate; while many were given up to the proprietors of their sites, returning from exile, on their paying the price of construction. But as there is no happiness without alloy, so even this pleasing picture had its dark shades to chasten the too sanguine expectation of imparting happiness to all. Instead of a generous emulation, a jealous competition checked the prosperity of Bhilwara: the base spirit of exclusive monopoly desired a distinction between the native and the stranger-merchant, for which they had a precedent in the latter paying an addition to the town-duty of metage (mapa). The unreasonableness of this was discussed, and it was shown to be more consonant to justice that he who came from Jaisalmer, Surat, Benares, or Delhi, should pay less than the merchant whose domicile was on the spot. When at length the parties acquiesced in this opinion, and were intreated and promised to know [485] none other distinction than that of ‘inhabitant of Bhilwara,’ sectarian differences, which there was less hope of reconciling, became the cause of disunion. All the Hindu merchants belong either to the Vaishnava or Jain sects; consequently each had a representative head, and ‘the Five’ for the adjudication of their internal arrangements; and these, the wise men of both parties, formed the general council for the affairs of Bhilwara. But they carried their religious differences to the judgement-seat, where each desired pre-eminence. Whether the point in dispute hinged on the interpretation of law, which with all these sects is of divine origin, or whether the mammon of unrighteousness was the lurking cause of their bickerings, they assuredly did much harm, for their appeals brought into play what of all things was least desired, the intrigues of the profligate dependents of the court. It will be seen hereafter,[18] in visits to Bhilwara, how these disputes were in some degree calmed. The leaders on both sides were distinctly given to understand they would be made to leave the place. Self-interest prevented this extremity; but from the withdrawing of that active interference (which the state of the alliance did not indeed warrant, but which humanity interposed for their benefit) together with the effect of appeals to the court, it is to be apprehended that Bhilwara may fail to become what it was intended to be, the chief commercial mart of Central India.[19]
Реформа дворянства. —Of the three measures simultaneously projected and pursued for the restoration of prosperity, the industrious portion has been described. The feudal interest remains, which was found the most difficult to arrange. The agricultural and commercial classes required only protection and stimulus, and we could repay the benefits their industry conferred by the lowest scale of taxation, which, though in fact equally beneficial to the government, was constructed as a boon. But with the feudal lords there was no such equivalent to offer in return for the sacrifices many had to make for the re-establishment of society. Those who were well inclined, like Kotharia, had everything to gain, and nothing left to surrender; while those who, like Deogarh, Salumbar, or Badnor, had preserved their power by foreign aid, intrigue, or prowess, dreaded the high price they might be called upon to pay [486] for the benefit of security which the new alliance conferred. All dreaded the word ‘restitution,’ and the audit of half a century’s political accounts; yet the adjustment of these was the corner-stone of the edifice, which anarchy and oppression had dismantled. Feuds were to be appeased, a difficult and hazardous task; and usurpations, both on the crown and each other, to be redeemed. ‘To bring the wolf and the goat to drink from the same vessel,’ was a task of less difficulty than to make the Chondawat and Saktawat labour in concert for the welfare of the prince and the country. In fine, a better idea cannot be afforded of what was deemed the hopelessness of success than the opinion of Zorawar Singh, the chief of the latter clan, who had much to relinquish: “Were Parameswara (the Almighty) to descend, he could not reform Mewar.” We judged better of them than they did of each other.
Переговоры с вождями. —It were superfluous to detail all the preparatory measures for the accomplishment of this grand object; the meetings and adjournments, which only served to keep alive discontent. On the 27th of April, the treaty with the British Government was read, and the consequent change in their relations explained. Meanwhile, a charter, defining the respective rights of the crown and of the chiefs, with their duties to the community, was prepared, and a day named for a general assembly of the chieftains to sanction and ratify this engagement. The 1st of May was fixed: the chiefs assembled; the articles, ten in number, were read and warmly discussed; when with unmeaning expressions of duty, and objections to the least prominent, they obtained through their speaker, Gokuldas of Deogarh, permission to reassemble at his house to consider them, and broke up with the promise to attend next day. The delay, as apprehended, only generated opposition, and the 2nd and 3rd passed in inter-communications of individual hope and fear. It was important to put an end to speculation. At noon, on the 4th of May, the grand hall was again filled, when the Rana, with his sons and ministers, took their seats. Once more the articles were read, objections raised and combated, and midnight had arrived without the object of the meeting being advanced, when an adjournment, proposed by Gokuldas, till the arrival of the Rana’s plenipotentiary from Delhi, met with a firm denial; and the Rana gave him liberty to retire, if he refused his testimony of loyalty. The Begun chief, who had much to gain, at length set the example, followed by the chiefs of Amet and Deogarh, and in succession by all the sixteen nobles, who also signed as the proxies of their [487] relatives, unable from sickness to attend. The most powerful of the second grade also signed for themselves and the absent of their clans, each, as he gave in his adhesion, retiring; and it was three in the morning of the 5th of May ere the ceremony was over. The chief of the Saktawats, determined to be conspicuous, was the last of his own class to sign. During this lengthened and painful discussion of fifteen hours’ continuance, the Rana conducted himself with such judgment and firmness, as to give sanguine hopes of his taking the lead in the settlement of his affairs.
Соблюдение договора. —This preliminary adjusted, it was important that the stipulations of the treaty[20] should be rigidly if not rapidly effected. It will not be a matter of surprise, that some months passed away before the complicated arrangements arising out of this settlement were completed; but it may afford just grounds for gratulation, that they were finally accomplished without a shot being fired, or the exhibition of a single British soldier in the country, nor, indeed, within one hundred miles of Udaipur. ‘Opinion’ was the sole and all-sufficient ally effecting this political reform. The Rajputs, in fact, did not require the demonstration of our physical strength; its influence had reached far beyond Mewar. When the few firelocks defeated hundreds of the foes of public tranquillity, they attributed it to ‘the strength of the Company’s salt,’[21] the moral agency of which was proclaimed the true basis of our power. ‘Sachha Raj’ was the proud epithet applied by our new allies to the British Government in the East; a title which distinguished the immortal Alfred, ‘the upright.’
Легко вообразить, что реформа, затрагивавшая всю феодальную ассоциацию, не могла быть осуществлена без изнурительных и мучительных споров, когда целью был отказ от земель, на которые в одних случаях можно было заявить наследственное право, в других — признание успешной мести, тогда как для многих могло утверждаться давнее владение. Это было тем более мучительно, что, хотя оттенки, знаменовавшие приобретение таких земель, различались, в способе урегулирования не могло быть никаких исключений, а именно: безоговорочная сдача. В некоторых случаях ране приходилось отзывать собственные пожаловании, вырванные либо его нуждой, либо его слабостью; но ни в том, ни в другом случае нельзя было найти доводов, смягчающих отказ или способных парировать мощные, патетические и порой гнездящиеся на жалости или предрассудках обращения к справедливости. Приводились встречные призывы к их верности и необходимости восстановления справедливого веса и влияния их государя в социальном организме, без чего их собственное благополучие не могло быть обеспечено, однако индивидуальные взгляды и страсти слишком сильно поглощали их, чтобы склониться перед общим благом. Так недели проходили в обмене визитами, усмирении гордыни и лести тщеславию путем возрождения прошлых воспоминаний, что постепенно приучало вождей к этой мысли и приводило их к подчинению. Время, примирение и беспристрастная справедливость закрепили одержанную таким образом победу; и когда они увидели, что ничьи интересы не ущемлены, партийные взгляды чужды, а система охватывает своим благотворным действием каждый слой общества, за уступками последовало согласие. Некоторые из этих изъятий представляли собой отчуждения от короны, длившиеся полвека. Частных случаев трудностей избежать не удавалось, не навлекая на себя обвинений в фаворитизме и столь страшно опасаемого возобновления древних распрей, искоренение которых было непременным условием, но требовало огромной осмотрительности. Замки и земли в таком положении не могли быть ни оставлены у прежних владельцев, ни возвращены старым хозяевам без разжигания пламени гражданской войны. Единственной альтернативой было взятие короной предмета спора в свои руки и выплата компенсации из собственных владений. Было бы столь же утомительно, сколь и безынтересно вдаваться в детали этих договоренностей, когда один вождь должен был отказаться от сбора транзитных пошлин в самом важном торговом выходе страны, на который, как утверждалось, он обладал правом на протяжении семи поколений, как в случае с вождем Деогарха; или другого (вождя Бхиндара), владевшего сорока тремя городами и селениями сверх своего пожалования; Амета, Бадесара, Даблы, Лавы и многих других, владевших важными крепостями короны независимо от ее воли, равно как и прочих претензий, охватывающих каждое право и привилегию, принадлежащие феодальному обществу; достаточно сказать, что за шесть месяцев все эти мероприятия были завершены.