Sir James McCrone Douie

“ Introductory.—Of the provinces of India the Panjáb must always have a peculiar interest for Englishmen. Invasions by land from the west have perforce been launched across its great plains. The English were the first invaders who, possessing sea power, were able to outflank the mountain ranges which guard the north and west of India. Hence the Panjáb was the last, and not the first, of their Indian conquests, and the courage and efficiency of the Sikh soldiery, even after the guiding hand of the old Mahárája Ranjít Singh was withdrawn, made it also one of the hardest. ”

“ There is unfortunately no reason to believe that plague has spent its force or that the people as a whole will in the near future generally accept the protective measures of inoculation and evacuation. Vaccination, the prejudice against which has largely disappeared, has robbed the small-pox goddess of many offerings. As a general cause of mortality the effect of cholera in the Panjáb is now insignificant. But it is still to be feared in the Kashmír valley, especially in the picturesque but filthy summer capital. Syphilis is very common in the hill country in the north-east of the province. ”

“ Four out of five art students read in Lahore. Of the Arts colleges outside Lahore the most important is the St Stephen's College at Delhi. The Khálsa School and College at Amritsar is a Sikh institution. The Veterinary College at Lahore is the best of its kind in India, and the Agricultural College at Lyallpur is a well-equipped institution, which at present attracts few pupils, but may play a very useful rôle in the future. There is little force in the reproach that we built up a super-structure of higher education before laying a broad foundation of primary education. ”

“ Accustomed to the stable streams of his own land, he cannot conceive the risks the riverside farmer in the Panjáb runs of having fruitful fields smothered in a night with barren sand, or lands and well and house sucked into the river-bed. So great and sudden are the changes, bad and good, wrought by river action that the loss and gain have to be measured up year by year for revenue purposes. ”

“ The general height of the plains north of the Salt Range is from 1000 feet to 2000 feet above sea level. The rise between Lahore and Ráwalpindí is just over a thousand feet. Low hills usually form a feature of the landscape, pleasing at a distance or when softened by the evening light, but bare and jagged on a nearer view. The chief hills are the Márgalla range between Hazára and Ráwalpindí, the Kálachitta and the Khairimurat hills running east and west through Attock and the very dry and broken Narrara hills on the right bank of the Indus in the same district. ”

“ The district is very fully cultivated except in the hills. In the plains the rainfall is sufficient and the soil very cool and clean, except in the extreme west, where it is sometimes gritty, and, while requiring more, gets less, rain. The chief crops are wheat, the Kharíf pulses and bájra. The climate is good. The cold weather is long, and, except in January and February, when the winds from the snows are very trying, it is pleasant. In the plains the chief tribes are Rájputs and Awáns. ”

“ The object of the Kashmírí is to raise as much rice as he possibly can on the alluvium of his valley and on the rich soil deposited on the banks of mountain streams. Manure and facilities for irrigation exist in abundance, and full use is made of them in the cultivation of the favourite crop. Kangní takes the place of rice in many fields if there is any deficiency of water. On reclaimed swamps near the Jhelam heavy [Pg 319] crops of maize are raised. The tillage for wheat and barley is as careless as that for rice is careful. ”

“ One is the comparative absence of running or still water, except in the height of the rainy season, away from the large rivers. The slope is so rapid that ordinary falls of rain run off with great rapidity. The mountain scenery is often magnificent and the forests are beautiful, but the absence of water robs the landscape of a charm which would make it really perfect. Where this too is present, as in the valley of the Biás in Kulu and those of the Jhelam and its tributaries in Kashmír and Hazára, the eye has [Pg 20] its full fruition of content. Another is the silence of the forests. ”

“ When the snow melts there is excellent pasturage. The climate is pleasant in summer, but bitterly cold in winter. The Bára river with its affluents drains the glens of Tirah. The Aka Khel Afrídís, who have no share in the Pass allowances, own a good dear of land in the lower Bára valley and winter in the adjoining hills. The fighting strength of the above seven sections may be put at 21,000. When they have been able to unite they have shown themselves formidable enemies, for they are a strong and manly race, and they inhabit a very difficult country [17] . ”

“ In the west the rainfall is so scanty and in many parts wheeled traffic so rare that it is often wise to leave the roads unmetalled. There are in the Panjáb over 2000 miles of metalled, and above 20,000 miles of unmetalled roads. The greatest highway in the world, the Grand Trunk, which starts from Calcutta and ends at Pesháwar, passes through the province from Delhi in the south-east to Attock in the extreme north-west corner, and there crosses the Indus and enters the N.W.F. Province. ”

“ West of the Indus in the north the wild and desolate Bhangí-Khel glen with its very scanty and scattered cultivation runs north to the Kohát Hills. The rest of the district consists of the wide and flat valley of the Indus and the Thal or Uplands. In the north the latter includes an area of strong thirsty loam, but south of the railway it is a huge expanse of sand [Pg 260] rising frequently into hillocks and ridges with some fertile bottoms of better soil. Except in the north the Thal people used to make their living almost entirely as shepherds and camel owners. ”

“ Baháwalpur is by far the largest of the Panjáb States. But the greater part of it is at present desert, and the population, except in the river tract, is very sparse. Baháwalpur stretches from Ferozepore on the north to the Sindh border. It has a river frontage exceeding [Pg 281] 300 miles on the Sutlej, Panjnad, and Indus. The cultivated area in 1903-4 was 1451 square miles, and of this 83 p.c. was irrigated and 10 p.c. flooded. The rainfall is only five inches and the climate is very hot. South and east of the rivers is a tract of low land known as the "Sindh," which widens out to the south. ”

“ Chamba is a region of lofty mountains with some fertile valleys in the south and west. Only about one-nineteenth of the area is cultivated. The snowy range of the Mid-Himálaya separates the Ráví valley from that of the Chandrabhágá, and the great Zánskár chain with its outliers occupies the territory beyond the Chenáb, where the rainfall is extremely small and Tibetan conditions prevail. The State contains fine forests and excellent sport is to be got in its mountains. ”

“ The birth-rate is lower and the death-rate higher among Hindus than among Musalmáns, and their losses by plague in the central and some of the south-eastern districts have been very heavy. A change of sentiment on the part of the Sikh community has led to many persons recording themselves as Sikhs who were formerly content to be regarded as Hindus. It must be remembered that one out of four of the recorded Hindus belongs to impure castes, who even in the Panjáb pollute food and water by their touch and are excluded from the larger temples. ”

“ The country between the Umla and Márkanda in Thanesar gets rich silt deposits and is generally fertile. The Kaithal Nailí is the tract affected by the overflow of the Sarustí, Umla, and Ghagar. It is a wretched fever-stricken region where a short lived race of weakly people reap precarious harvests. The southern division is on the whole a much better country. It includes the whole of Karnál and Pánipat, the south of Kaithal, and a small tract in the extreme east of the Thanesar tahsíl. North of Karnál the Jamna valley or Khádir is unhealthy and has in many parts a poor soil. ”

“ Branches of Administration.—The provincial governments of India are organized in three branches, Executive, Judicial, and Revenue, and a number of special departments, such as Forests and Irrigation. Under "Judicial" there are two subdivisions, civil and criminal. The tendency at first is for powers in all three branches to be concentrated in the hands of single individuals, development tends to specialization, but it is a matter of controversy how far the separation of executive and magisterial functions can be carried without jeopardy to the common weal. ”

“ They are strong-bodied sturdy farmers, who keep fine oxen and splendid buffaloes, and live in large and well organized village communities. 37 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by canal and well irrigation, the former being by far the more important. The district consists mainly of a plain of good loam soil. There have been great canal extensions in this plain, which under irrigation is very fertile, yielding excellent wheat, cotton, and cane. There is a rich belt of well irrigation in the Jamna valley, and in the south of the district there are parts where wells can be profitably worked. ”

“ Monsoon or Inundation Canals.—The numerous monsoon or inundation canals, which take off from the Indus, Jhelam, Chenáb, Ráví, and Sutlej, though individually petty works, perform an important office in the thirsty south-western districts. By their aid a kharíf crop can be raised without working the wells in the hot weather, and with luck the fallow can be well soaked in autumn, and put under wheat and other spring crops. For the maturing of these crops a prudent cultivator should not trust to the scanty cold weather rainfall, but should irrigate them from a well. ”

“ Monkeys abound in the hills and in canal-irrigated tracts in the Eastern districts, where their sacred character protects them from destruction, though they do much damage to crops. Peafowl are to be seen in certain tracts, especially in the eastern Panjáb. They should not be shot where the people are Hindus or anywhere near a Hindu shrine. The great and lesser bustards and several kinds of sand grouse are to be found in sandy districts. The grey partridge is everywhere, and the black can be got near the rivers. ”

“ On the north-west it is commanded by the Bála Hissár, a fort outside the walls. The suburbs with famous fruit gardens are on the south side, and the military and civil stations to the west. The people to be seen in the bazárs of Pesháwar are more interesting than any of its buildings. The Gor Khatrí, part of which is now the tahsíl, from which a bird's-eye view of the town can be obtained, was successively the site of a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, a rest-house built by Jahángír's Queen, Nur Jahán, and the residence of Avitabile. ”

“ Seeing that the monsoon penetrates into the province and that it is traversed by large snow-fed rivers the Panjáb, except in parts of the extreme western and south-western districts, is not a desert like the Sahára or Gobí, and Schimper recognised this by marking most of the area as semi-desert. Still the flora outside the Hills and the submontane tract is predominantly of the desert type, being xerophilous or drought-resisting. The adaptations which enable plants to survive in a tract deficient in moisture are of various kinds. ”

“ The irrigated land in Bannu is heavily manured and is often double-cropped. Wheat accounts for nearly half of the whole crops of the district. The Marwats are a frank manly race of good physique. The Bannúchís are hard-working, but centuries of plodding toil on a wet soil has spoiled their bodily development, and had its share in imparting to their character qualities the reverse of admirable. The Deputy Commissioner has also political charge of some 17,884 tribesmen living across the border. There are good metalled roads to Dera Ismail Khán and Kohát, and also one on the Tochí route. ”

“ Care is needed to avoid a chill and the fever that follows. Clear and dry though the air is, the blue of the skies is pale owing to a light dust haze in the upper atmosphere. For the same reason the Himalayan snows except after rain are veiled from dwellers in the plains at a distance of 30 miles from the foot-hills. The air in these months before the winter rains is wonderfully still. In the three months after Christmas the Panjáb is the pathway of a series of small storms from the west, preceded by close weather and occurring usually at intervals of a few weeks. ”

“ Departments.—The principal departments are the Railway, Post Office, Telegraphs, and Accounts, under the Government of India, and Irrigation, Roads and Buildings, Forests, Police, Medical, and Education, under the Lieutenant Governor. In matters affecting the rural population, as a great part of the business of the Forest Department must do, the Conservator of Forests is subject to the control of the Financial Commissioners, whose relations with the Irrigation Department are also very intimate. ”

“ The conversion of the western Panjáb was the result largely of missionary effort. Pírí murídí is a great institution there. Every man should be the "muríd" or pupil of some holy man [Pg 119] or pír, who combines the functions in the Roman Catholic Church of spiritual director in this world and the saint in heaven. The pír may be the custodian of some little saint's tomb in a village, or of some great shrine like that of Baba Faríd at Pákpattan, or Baháwal Hakk at Multán, or Taunsa Sharif in Dera Ghází Khán, or Golra in Ráwalpindí. ”

“ The backbone of the district is a high and dry tract known as the Ganjí or Bald Bár. The advent of the Lower Bárí Doáb Canal will entirely change the character of this desert. Its south-eastern boundary is a high bank marking the course of the old bed of the Biás. Below this is the wide Sutlej valley. The part beyond the influence of river floods depends largely on the Khánwáh and Sohág Pára inundation Canals. The Ráví valley to the north-west of the Bár is naturally fertile and has good well irrigation. But it has suffered much by the failure of the Ráví floods. ”

“ About a quarter of the area is protected by irrigation from wells, the Agra Canal, and embankments or "bands," which catch and hold up the hill drainages. Owing to the depth and saltness of many of the wells the cultivation dependent on them is far from secure, and the "band" irrigation is most precarious. The large dry area is subject to extensive and complete crop failures. The average rainfall over a series of years is 24 inches, but its irregularities from year to year are extreme. The district is a poor one, and for its resources bears the heaviest assessment in the Panjáb. ”

“ The only comparatively flat land is on the banks above river beds, which are devoted to rice cultivation, the water being conducted to the embanked fields by an elaborate system of little canals or kuhls. This is the only irrigation in the mountains, and is much valued. The Submontane Zone has a rainfall of from 30 to 40 inches. Well irrigation is little used and the dry crops are generally secure. Wheat and maize are the great staples, but gram and charí, i.e. jowár grown for fodder, are also important. Some further information about Kashmír agriculture will be found in a later chapter. ”