HC Deb 05 April 1883 vol 277 cc1492-3
MR. O'DONNELL

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, If it is true that the tax which the Maiyas of Junaghur were slaughtered for refusing to pay had been previously referred to the consideration of the Secretary of State for India; whether it is true that the Secretary of State approved of the imposition of the tax; whether the said tax was an imposition instead of the Military service which the Maiyas were bound and willing to pay to the Rajahs of Junaghur; whether it is true that the Maiyas had always refused to pay a money tax instead of Military service, and denied the right of the Government to change the ancient condition of their tenures without their consent; whether the Secretary of State for India authorised the exaction of the tax by force; and, whether he can state under what authority the conditions of tenure of the lands of the Maiyas were changed without their consent?

MR. J. K. CROSS

It is scarcely possible, within the compass of an answer to a Question, to give an intelligible account of the proceedings, dating from 1866, which have ended in the recent affray. It is, however, a fact that, in 1876, the question of the terms on which the Maiyas were entitled to hold their lands having come before the Secretary of State in Council, it was suggested to the Bombay Government as worthy of consideration whether, in accordance with a judicial decision given by a political officer of local experience in 1867, a moderate annual money payment should not be substituted for the Police Service, which was, undoubtedly, a condition of tenure, but which, owing to the altered circumstances of Kattywar, could not be enforced. The Political Agent in Kattywar and the Bombay Government agreed in thinking that there were sound reasons for the adoption of the course suggested, which was accordingly sanctioned by the Secretary of State in Council, in December, 1876, since when no Correspondence has passed. In answer to a Question from the hon. and learned Member for Hereford (Mr. R. T. Reid) about this attack on the Maiyas, I stated that the Report ordered by Government had not yet been received. When it comes I shall be able to give further information.