CHAPTER II.

GREAT VARIETIES IN THE NATIVES OF INDIA;-THEIR CHARACTER INFLUENCED BY SOIL, CLIMATE, FOOD, &c. RATHER THAN BY FOLITICAL INSTITUTES;-OPINIONS AS TO THEIR QUALIFICATIONS FOR HIGH OFFICIAL SITUATIONS, AND UNAVOIDABLE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT CAUTIOUSLY INDUCTING THEM INTO PLACES OF TRUST AND EMOLUMENT.

IN

THERE is scarcely any subject connected with India concerning which more misrepresentation exists, or which requires to be more thoroughly known, than the character of its inhabitants; before proceeding, therefore, to explain the nature of the government by which they are controlled, it is necessary to say something as to their varieties, particularly as several authors speak of one hundred and twenty million of human beings as if they were one family, and describe them after the manner of Bishop Heber,* when he first visited the shores of Bengal, "Angeli forent si essent Christiani!"

*The worthy and talented divine saw reason to correct this Augustine saying, as will be subsequently seen; and as to identity of character, he says, "It is a great mistake to suppose that all India is peopled by a single race, or that there is not as great a disparity between the inhabitants of Guzerat, Bengal, the Duâb, and the Deckan, both in language, manners, and physiognomy, as between any four nations in Europe." Vol. ii. p. 409.-And again: "The inhabitants of the presidencies of Madras and Bombay and of the Deckan are as different from those nations which I have seen and from each other, as the French and Portuguese from the Greeks, Germans, and Poles." P. 380.-In the greater part of the Upper Provinces of Bengal, the languages of the body of the population are so little settled, that it would be extremely difficult to translate the Regulations of Government into any language that would be understood by them, unless a separate translation were made for every district.

*

It would be as ridiculous to speak of all the inhabitants of Europe as one race because they wear hats, shave, and are professedly christians, as it would be absurd to speak of the many millions who inhabit India as a single genus, because they all wear turbans, do not shave, and are, in the aggregate, nominally disciples of Menû. In fact there is a greater diversity of character and language,† among the natives of the peninsula of Asia, than in all Europe. In the former we have the submissive and industrious Soodras; the insidious and talented Brahmins; the generous and urbane Thakoors; the ambitious but sensual Mahomedan; the warlike and cunning Mahrattas; the peaceful, moneychanging Jains; the feudatory and high-spirited Rajpoots; the roving and thieving Bhatties and Catties;‡ the scrupulously honest Parsees ;§ the lynx-eyed Jews;|| the professionally murdering Thugs and Phansingars,¶ the heroic

* The Hindoos shave the lower lip-the Mahomedans the upper lip, sometimes.

+ Mr. Crawfurd, in his Colonization pamphlet, admits that, "in India, there are at least thirty nations speaking as many distinct languages. There are several forms of religion, and these again are broken down into sects and castes, the followers of which are full of antipathies towards each other. The Indian nations are unknown to each other; the Mahrattas are as much strangers to the people oi Bengal or to those of the Carnatic, as we are; the Seiks are strangers to the Mahrattas; and some fifteen million of Mahomedans differ from each other in nation, in sect, and often in language." Pp. 67 and 68.

These wandering outlaws worship the sun, and hold the moon in great veneration: Mr. Rickards compares them to the ancient Germans as described by Tacitus.

§ The character of these people for intelligence, morality, and true nobleness, will rank with that of any nation in the world.

The Jews are very numerous in India and China, and, like all Asiatic Jews, are distinguished from those of Europe by a peculiarity of feature and immense Roman noses.

The Phansingars of the south of India are professional murderers, like the Thugs. It is remarkable that in the latter community, which is composed of all castes, Brahmins are the most numerous, and they are the directors of their horrid vocation.

Goorkhas; the mercantile Armenians; the freebooting Pindarries; the vindictive but grateful Nairs; the sedate Nestorians;* the filthy Mugs; the self-proud Persians; the actively commercial Chinese ;† the martial but mercenary Sindeans; intelligent Syrians; bigotted Roman Catholics; independent but despotic Poligars; fanatical Gosseins; proscribed Sontals; piratical Concanese; trafficking Bunyans; turbulent Mhairs and Meenas; degraded Munniporeans; sanguinary and untameable Coolies; quaker-like Kaits;§ wild Puharrees;|| pastoral Todawars;¶ usurious Soucars and Shroffs ;** outcast Pariars ; ferocious Malays; innocent Karians; dissolute Moguls ;†† peaceful Telingas; anomalous Grassias; grasping Jauts (Jats); keen-sighted Bunnias; ‡‡ mendicant Byragies; jesuitical

*This sect of ancient Christians are very numerous in the south of India.

+ This extraordinary race are very numerous in Calcutta, and they are engrossing all the artizan business to themselves by their superior industry and skill.

The Roman Catholics in Hindostan amount to about 600,000, scattered over different parts of the country.-[The Hindoos say that the Catholic form of worship is derived from theirs.]

§ They support each other; not one is uneducated, and they are never seen in a state of mendicity or in a menial capacity; they differ from the "Society of Friends" in not being strictly of a moral cha

racter.

This singular people inhabit the hilly country between Burdwan and Boglipoor, and are totally distinct from the inhabitants of the plains in features, language, religion, and civilization. They have no castes, care nothing for the Hindoo faith, do not worship idols, and, under the management of such men as the late Mr. Cleveland or Mr. Charles Glass of Boglipoor, would form some of the most useful subjects in the Company's dominions.

¶ This tribe have a strong resemblance to the ancient Romans. ** Bankers and money-brokers; they are usually possessed of immense wealth.

++ The dingy-white colour of the Moguls of the north-west provinces is as displeasing to the eye as their filthy licentiousness is to the mind.

‡‡ The retail dealers and petty dealers of Central India, who form an extensive and useful class of society.

Charuns and minstrel Bhâts; avaricious Mewatties; restless and depraved Soondies;* well-trained fighting Arabs and Patans;† commercial Bringaries and Lodanahs; aboriginal Gonds;§ and, in fine, tribes of Sours, Baugries, Moghies, Googurs, Gwarriahs,|| &c., too numerous and diversified to depict, and presenting if not a similar number of languages, a corresponding diversity of dialects, and a complete distinction in manners, customs, and occupations; to speak therefore of the inhabitants of the peninsula of Asia as we would of those of the peninsula of Europe, denotes either the height of ignorance or of intentional misrepresentation.

It is the fashion of the present day to ascribe the character of nations to the nature of institutions under which they live,** and therefore Mr. Rickards and other authors

*The illegitimate descendants of the Rajpoots, who are looked upon with disgust by every other community for their habitual and numerous vices.

The Arabs and Patans are mercenary soldiers, and, like most others of the warlike profession, ready to fight for those who pay them best.

They live always in tents, have no home, trade in grain, with which they travel from country to country, or follow the route of armies, who, in their most fierce contests, consider these valuable attendants as neutrals. Their dress and usages are peculiar, and they preserve a marked separation and independence.

§ The Gonds, wherever they are not completely under our control, still continue to offer to their deities human sacrifices.

These people support themselves by stealing women and children, to sell! Under the extension of British sway, they are fast disappearing.

The modern dialects of India, according to the last edition of Hamilton's Gazetteer, are the Hindostany, Bengalese, Cashmerian, Dogura, Ooch, Sindy, Cutch, Gujeratty, Concanese, Punjaby, Bicanere, Marwar, Jeypoor, Odeypoor, Harowty, Malwa, Broj, Bundlecundy, Mahratta, Magadha, Koshala, Maithala, Nepaulese, Orissa, Telinga, Carnata, and Tamul.

** The writer of this work, in order that he might better trace the remote causes of the character of nations, made a large collection of the skulls of different people, a portion of which are now in the museum at Calcutta. The marked variety in the cranial configuration of the Hindoos,

contend that all the East-India Company have to do is to give perfect political liberty to the people of India, and as they are "capable of every virtue and every acquirement that can adorn the human mind,"* the fruits of such will be immediately developed.

Mr. Rickards will permit me to say that I have met among the dark coloured races of Asia and Africa, individuals whose personal prowess, mental qualifications, and moral worth, would place them in the highest standard among their European brethren; but while the remembrance of those are to me a pure delight, such as the green turf and limpid brook is to the wearied traveller in the desert, on which memory loves to linger, I cannot, in a comprehensive view of the condition of the people of India, think that it is in the power of the Company's government, by a talismanic touch, to alter the settled habits which ages have imprinted on the nations subject to their sway. I ask those who contend for the homogenousness of human character, have we not variety in climates, in soils and in minerals ;-in vegetables, in fish, in insects, birds and animals, subject to certain defined laws and influenced by natural causes? Why should it be otherwise with men who, in colour, physiognomy, stature, speech, gesture, habits, music,† and mental as well as

Hindoos, the Burmese, the Chinese, New Hollanders, Europeans, Malays, African Negroes, &c., astonished all who saw them. The difference between the Burmese and the Hindoo, for instance, consists in the occipital bone of the latter being quite globular; and in the other so flat, that the skull rests on a broad base. In the New Hollander the top of the skull, at the junction of the parietal bones, is like a steep-sloping roof of a house in the northern African it is like the top of Table-mountain at the Cape of Good Hope. Every nation having marked traits of character, no matter what may be their political institutions, present similar peculiar formations of the mental case.

* Rickards' India, vol. i. p. 269.

Every nation has a distinct character in its music.