of Five;' The old panchayat or elective Council of Five is one of the institutions Council, most deeply rooted in the Hindu mind. By it the village community was ruled, the head-man being only its executive official, not the legislator or judge. By it caste disputes were settled; by it traders and merchants were organized into powerful guilds, to the rules of which even European outsiders have had to submit. By a development of the pancháyat, the Sikh army of the khálsá was despotically governed, when the centralized system of Ranjit Singh fell to pieces at his death. Municipalities succeed it. Municipal statistics. 1877-83. The village organization was impaired or broken up under Mughal rule. Municipal institutions have gradually developed in place of the old Hindu mechanism of rural government, which had thus worn out or disappeared. Police, roads, and sanitation are the three main objects for which a modern Indian municipality is constituted. In rural tracts, these departments are managed (in different Provinces) by the Collector, or by one of his subordinate staff, or by a Local Fund Board. Within municipal limits, they are delegated to a Committee, who, until lately, derived their practical authority from the Collector's sanction, implied or expressed. Except in the larger towns, the municipalities can scarcely be said as yet to exhibit the attributes of popular representation or of vigorous corporate life. But the Local Government Acts, passed during Lord Ripon's Viceroyalty (ante, p. 428), have given a new impulse to the rural and municipal boards. education advances, they will doubtless be further developed. As In 1876-77, excluding the three Presidency capitals, there were altogether 894 muncipalities in British India, with 12,381,059 inhabitants, or just 7 per cent. of the total population. Out of an aggregate number of 7519 members of municipal committees, concerning whom information is available, 1794 were Europeans and 5725 natives; 1863 were exofficio, 4512 were nominated by Government, and 1144 elected, the last class being almost confined to the North-Western and Central Provinces. The financial statistics of these municipalities are given in a later section of this chapter. In 1882-83, the municipalities in British India, exclusive of the three Presidency cities, numbered 783, with 12,923,494 inhabitants. The passing of the Local SelfGovernment Acts (1882-84) has extended the elective principle, in a larger or smaller measure, all over India. The three great municipalities in the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay administered a population in 1877 of 1 million. Their governing bodies aggregated 176 members, of whom 122 were natives. Eighty of the members were elected by the ratepayers. In 1882-83, the municipalities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras governed a population of 1 million; the members of the three municipal bodies numbered 171, of whom 93 were elected.1 finance. FINANCE. It is difficult to present a view of Indian Imperial finance, which shall be at once concise and intelligible. The subject is full of controversies, and obscured by different Note on Indian Statistics. It may here be convenient to explain the considerations which have led to the selection of the years for which statistics are given in this and the following chapters. The Indian returns are rendered with great promptitude by the Government of India, in India itself. But these returns deal with a dozen Provinces and Administrations, covering an area equal to Europe less Russia. A considerable interval necessarily elapses between the local issue of the returns by the Indian Government and their final compilation and revision for Parliamentary purposes. During this revision, the totals are frequently altered owing to inter-provincial adjustments and other operations of account. The final presentment to Parliament is, however, the only authoritative English source of Indian statistics. It has therefore been adopted, so far as possible, in the present work. The latest return, in its final shape, as presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, which has reached the author before the sheets went to press in the summer of 1885, is the Blue Book entitled the Statistical Abstract relating to British India from 1873-74 to 1882-83. This admirable compilation of Mr. Charles Prinsep, Statistical Reporter in the India Office, has therefore been accepted as fixing the period to which information should be brought down in the present work--namely, the 31st March 1883. But the present author has also been guided in his selection of dates by other considerations-(1) The only two Census enumerations of the Indian population as a whole were taken respectively in 1872 and in 1881. These years are, therefore, the two great landmarks in Indian statistics. (2) The first edition of the present work took the year 1877, or in some cases 1878, as the latest period for which the final presentment of Indian statistics was available when it was written. The author has felt that it may be convenient to enable the reader to compare the progress during the quinquennial interval (1878 to 1883). He has therefore, in most cases, given the two sets of figures for 1877-78 and 1882-83. (3) In some departments it has been found practicable to bring down the final figures to 1884, and even to March 1885. This has only been done when it seemed to the author that the later statistics were required to exhibit really salient facts. In conclusion, the author begs it will be believed that in each case careful consideration has been devoted to the selection of the years for which the statistics are given. The individual considerations in different departments are too numerous to specify. It should always be remembered that the final presentment to Parliament of Indian statistics and accounts, available to the author when the sheets went to the press, refers to the decade ending 1882-83. Its obscurities. Its presentments of the same sets of accounts. In the first place, the aggregate revenue and expenditure are officially returned according to a system which, although necessary for Indian purposes, is apt to mislead the English critic. The Indian Government is not a mere tax-collecting agency, charged with the single duty of protecting person and property. system of administration is based upon the view that the British power is a paternal despotism, which owns, in a certain sense, the entire soil of the country, and whose duty it is to perform the various functions of a wealthy and an The busi- enlightened proprietor. It collects its own rents. It provides, the Indian out of its own capital, facilities for irrigation, means of communication, public buildings, schools, and hospitals. It also takes on itself the businesses of a railway owner, and of a manufacturer on a grand scale, in the case of opium and salt. These departments swell the totals on both sides of the balance-sheet with large items, neither of the nature of taxation nor of administrative expenditure. ness' of Govern ment. Changes in system of account. In the second place, the methods of keeping the Indian public accounts have been subjected to frequent changes during recent years, to such an extent as to vitiate all comparative statements for long periods of time. The commercial traditions, inherited from the days of the Company, regulated the Indian accounts until about the year 1860. From that date efforts have been made to bring the methods of Indian accounting into conformity with the English system of public accounts. It results that the same entries represent different facts at different periods. Thus, under the Company, the items usually represented the net sums; they now represent the gross sums. At one period, the gross receipts are shown, with a per contra for the charges of collection or for refunds. At another time, important classes of charges have been transferred from the Imperial to the Provincial Budgets, to be brought back again after an interval of a few years to the Imperial Budget, and again transferred to Local Finance. Capital expenditure on public works, at one period charged to current revenue, is at another period excluded, as being 'extraordinary' or 'reproductive.' The result. The entire net income of the railways, whether the property of ing obscurities. the State or of guaranteed companies, has now been entered as Imperial revenue, and the interest to shareholders as Imperial expenditure. The Indian accounts represent, therefore, not only the Indian taxation and the cost of administration. They represent the trade expenses and profits of the Government as a great railway owner, canal maker, opium manufacturer, salt ACTUAL TAXATION OF INDIA. 459 monopolist, and pioneer of new industries. They also represent these profits and expenses under diverse systems of account at different periods. The following pages will first endeavour to exhibit the actual taxation of British India, as compared with that of the Mughal Empire. They will then show the gross revenue and expenditure of British India, whether of the nature of taxation or otherwise, and analyze its principal items. taxation THE ACTUAL TAXATION paid by the people of British India Gross during the ten years ending 1879, averaged 35 millions. of British The subjoined tables show the gross items, exclusive of India. the opium duty which is paid by the Chinese consumer, tributes from foreign or feudatory States, forest receipts, and the Mint. The actual taxation arranges itself under seven branches, as given in Statement I. on the next page, from 1869 to 1879. This table was compiled from a special Parliamentary Return, and shows the net taxes, after deducting drawbacks and items not of the nature of actual taxation. Statement II. shows the revenue from the same items during the four following years, 1880-83, but without deductions or drawbacks. The average of these four years is 40 millions, without deductions or drawbacks, against 35 millions, after deductions and drawbacks, during the ten years ending 1879. taxation The net taxation of British India, that is to say, the sums Net and realized, less the cost of collection, averaged 32 millions 1 gross during the ten years ending 1879. Returns of net taxation, of British however, depend much upon the method on which they are India. prepared. But the final accounts as presented to Parliament enable us to arrive accurately at the gross taxation paid by the Indian people, which, as above shown, was 35 millions during the ten years ending 1879, or a rate of 3S. 8d. per head. Indian This rate contrasts alike with that now paid by the taxpayer English in England, and with that formerly paid in India under the and Mughal Empire. The 34 millions of people in Great Britain taxation. and Ireland pay 68 millions of Imperial taxation,2 besides heavy local and municipal burdens. The revenues of the [Sentence continued on page 462. 1 Compiled from the Parliamentary Return, 8th July 1880, pp. 4, 5. 2 Customs, 20 millions; Inland revenue, 48 millions: total taxation, 68 millions. The gross revenue of the United Kingdom in 1880 was £81,265,055, besides £29,247,595 of local taxation; total, £110,512,650. STATEMENT I. ACTUAL TAXATION OF BRITISH INDIA, 1869–79. 1869-70. 1870-71. 1871-72. 1872-73. 1873-74. 1874-75. 1875-76. 1876-77. 1877-78. 1878-79. £ £ £ 2,747 510 310 86,110 900,920 ... Customs, 238.504 2,638,835 35,149, 106 36,296,698 34.733,605 35,680,628 34,823.778 25.309,505 35,798,656 34,007,138 34.727,217 40,867,911 Deduct Refunds, Drawbacks, and adjusting Payments, as |