HC Deb 27 July 1908 vol 193 cc848-9
MR. REES

To ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the Government of India inherited from its predecessors in title large endowments for the upkeep and repair of Hindu temples and Mahomedan mosques, which they were compelled by the Government at home to make over to the management of committees, appointed ad hoc, after resorting to the necessary legislation; and whether, since this action gave dissatisfaction in India which exists to the present day, there is any prospect that the Government will reconsider the present unsatisfactory position in this behalf.

(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) Under the old Regulations of the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Codes, Government officers were charged with the duty of supervising the proper application of the endowments granted by former rulers for the support of mosques, Hindoo temples, and other religious purposes. In 1863 an Act was passed, No. XX., for the transfer of these duties to trustees, themselves professing the religions for the maintenance of whose services the endowments were granted. The Secretary of State does not accept the statement in the Question that the Government of India are compelled by the Government at home to "carry through this legislation." The principle of non-interference with the religious observances of the people is one of the settled; principles of Indian administration. Various proposals, chiefly in Madras, have since been, made for giving the public interested in these endowments greater facilities for enforcing the due application by the trustees of funds which should he devoted to religious purposes, but the projects laid before the Government have generally proved open to objections which have been fatal to them. There is, however, a Bill now before the legislative council of the Governor-General, introduced by the hon. Dr. Rashbehary Ghose on 20th March last, for giving greater facilities to the public for calling for and inspecting the accounts of public charities including trusts of a religious nature. My hon. friend will find the Bill and the debate which attended its introduction printed in the Gazette of India for March last, which is in the Library of the House.