Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c42.s2.t1.47

v3.c42.s2.t1.47

Legislation of Zālim Singh.—We are now to examine the Protector in another point of view, as the legislator and manager of the State whose concerns he was thus determined to rule. For a series of years Kotah was but the wet-nurse to the child of his ambition, a design upon Mewar [529], which engulfed as in a vortex all that oppression could extort from the industry of the people confided to his charge. From this first acquaintance with the court of the Rana, in S. 1827 to the year 1856, he never relinquished the hope of extending the same measure of authority over that State which he exerted in his own. To the prosecution of this policy Haraoti was sacrificed, and the cultivator lowered to the condition of a serf. In the year 1840, oppression was at its height; the impoverished ryot, no longer able to pay the extra calls upon his industry, his cattle and the implements of his labour distrained, was reduced to despair. Many died from distress; some fled, but where could they find refuge in the chaos around them? The greater part were compelled to plough for hire, with the cattle and implements once their own, the very fields, their freehold, which had been torn from them. From this system of universal impoverishment, displayed at length in unthatched villages and untilled lands, the regent was compelled to become farmer-general of Kotah.