Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s10: 22. Slaves well treated

Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s10

Language: English

22. Slaves well treated

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The institution of slavery in Maharashtra had not the horrors of slavery of Europe and America. The slaves were treated well. They were sometimes freed on the occasion of great festivals, or simply because they were old. Moreover the slaves in the Maratha country were allowed to possess property, and sometimes actually secured their release by purchasing a suitable substitute for their owners. In the year 1773-74 two female slaves were bought by Fuli and Tulshi, female slaves belonging to the government.⁴⁴ Slaves on the government establishment were specially well treated. We find that in 1762-63, Rs. 1,303-4 was granted for clothes to be given to female slaves of government on the Dasra festival.⁴⁵ In the same year Badi a slave was released and allowed to go wherever she pleased.⁴⁶ In 1774-75 the daughter of a Muhammadan female slave attached to the cavalry under Sakhoji Mule was decently married to a Muhammadan boy.⁴⁷ It may be noted here that legal marriage of a slave girl meant her manumission.

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⁴⁴ P. D., Vol. VIII, p. 249.

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⁴⁵ P. D., Vol. VII, pp. 318-23.

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⁴⁶ Ibid, p. 318.

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⁴⁷ P. D., Vol. VII, p. 250.

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"A letter to Eshi, a woman, when you were at Purandhar, Rajashri Ranoji Bhonsle represented that you were his female slave's daughter. Thereupon you had been summoned to the Huzur, but it was found that the gentleman had formerly given you in marriage. Therefore he cannot force you to slavery. Nobody has any right to interfere with your liberty."⁴⁸

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⁴⁸ P. D., Vol. I, p. 213.

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The condition of the slaves in other parts of the Maratha empire was equally good. Broughton tells us in his *Letters from a Mahratta Camp* how well treated the slaves were in Sindhia's country. His knowledge was first-hand. Two female slaves belonging to Mamma (a relative of Daulat Rao Sindhia) came to his camp one day. "They told me," says Broughton, "that they were brought up in a family of Mamma, where they led a very easy life; their only employments, during the day, being to attend upon his wives, of whom he had three in camp, and rub the old gentleman's legs when he lay down to repose: and at night they were at liberty to dispose of themselves as they pleased. The Muha Raj's favourite wife has a number of these girls about her, from every part of India, who receive their daily food and two suits of clothes annually, and are allowed to earn as much more as they can and in any way they think proper. * * * The Butkees (female slaves) remain attached to the family during their lives." ⁴⁹

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⁴⁹ Broughton, p. 75. Compare with this the harsh treatment by the Portuguese of their slaves—"She imprisoned in her house one other slaves for having stolen something. By reason of severe punishment and deprivation of food he died, and was buried in the dunghill...... This murder of slaves and slave girls is common among the Portuguese, and few are the houses in which the skeletons of their bodies would not be found." Manucci, ed. Irvine, Vol. III, p. 113.

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Jenkins writes of the treatment accorded to slaves at Nagpur: "These are brought up in the families of their purchasers, generally as domestic servants, and are frequently placed almost on an equality with their master's children in regard to food and clothing; and it is not uncommon for persons who have no children of their own, to adopt their slaves as their sons, and leave their property to them at their death. Task-labor, or any work beyond what would be expected of a hired servant, is never exacted from slaves; and in general, they are treated with kindness and consideration, and become more the attached servants, and it may be said friends of the families in which they have been nurtured, than the degraded slaves, from whom no labor can be obtained except what is extorted by fear of punishment." ⁵⁰

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⁵⁰ Report on the Territories of the Rajah of Nagpore (Calcutta, 1827), p. 63.

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*Bigamy and Forcible Marriage :*

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Conjugal infidelity reminds us of two other offences connected with marriage, bigamy and forcible marriage. Polygamy in India was of course, no crime for a man, but bigamy on the part of a girl, specially when she was a Hindu, was unthinkable. Yet a few instances of this rare offence are recorded. The guardians of the girls were really to be blamed, the innocent victims were still in their minority. The usual punishment for forcible marriage was confiscation of property or excommunication or both. Sometimes the offender was fined. In one case an irregular marriage of a girl of three years, with a Brahman bridegroom forty-five years old, performed by force while the parents of the victim lay unconscious, was declared null and void and a second and more formal marriage with a suitable bridegroom was ordered. The offenders in this case were fined.⁵¹

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⁵¹ P. D., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-108.

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Of bigamy we have two cases only. In 1752-53, Nimbaji vallad Yesu Jhagda of Sinnar married the wife of Dhondji Mali of the same village according to the pat system. The aforesaid Dhondji had been away from home, and Bapuji Mali, his father-in-law, got his daughter married for a second time. But Nimbaji did not enquire whether Dhondji was living or dead before he married the girl. He was therefore fined Rs. 80⁵² In the second case the punishment inflicted was imprisonment. In 1770-71, Bhiu Bai Vyas, a Brahman lady got her daughter married twice and the whole family consisting of mother, daughter and a son was imprisoned at Shivner.⁵³ The boy in this case was clearly free from any guilt and here comes one of the drawbacks of the Maratha system. In order to overawe would-be offenders, the Peshwa's government committed to prison innocent children and helpless wives of convicted prisoners and absconding offenders. Repeated instances of such measures are found in the papers of the Peshwa's Daftar. We will here choose three only from those of the first Madhava Rao's administration. In 1765-66 we come across a paper which pithily states that Khandya Berad of Chakan having committed theft, his mother, wife and three children (two belonging to him and one to Somya Berad) were sent to fort Kohaj.⁵⁴ In 1766-67, certain Bhats having been caught thieving, 11 women and 12 children of their families were condemned to rigorous imprisonment. Their daily ration was fixed at one seer for each adult and half a seer for each child."⁵⁵

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⁵² P. D., Vol. II, p. 69.

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⁵³ P. D., Vol. VI, p. 211.

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⁵⁴ P. D., Vol. VI, pp. 203-204.

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⁵⁵ P. D., Vol. VI, p. 204.

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In the same year Baji Sonar was imprisoned at Killa Visapur for committing theft, and his wife was sent to prison at fort Sinhagad.⁵⁶

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⁵⁶ P. D., Vol. VII, p. 204. It should be noted that uncommon severity was practised in those days for effectively suppressing robbery. Warren Hastings found it necessary "to order that every convicted Dacoit should be executed in his own village in all the forms and terrors of the law and that his whole family should be made slaves and that every inhabitant of the village should be fined." Hunter, *The Annals of Rural Bengal*, p. 73.

Linked texts (1)

Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi