Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c6.s3.42

c6.s3.42

11. We deem it extremely unwise to do any thing which by creating irritation and disgust in the minds of a large part of the natives may weaken their confidence in our justice and without dilating on this topic we must observe that your own reflections as expressed in your letter of the 11th February 1811 are most judicious. You say ‘you can not close your report on the subject without noticing the extreme circumspection necessary to be observed in establishing new taxes among a people whose civil and domestic usages are so closely interwoven with religious rites and who are so particularly sensible to any innovation or departure from established custom’ and you justly observe in another passage that ‘no branch of the administration requires more prudence and circumspection and above all a more accurate knowledge of the temper and character of the people of India than the imposition of new taxes’.