Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s7: 16. Dr. Hope's Views
Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s7
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16. Dr. Hope's Views
c19.s7.1
It should be noted in this connection that British courts of law were at first unpopular in India. Their settled code of procedure, which ought to have commended itself to the Indian suitors was at the beginning regarded as an unnecessary innovation. The punishment inflicted by these courts, the rapidity with which their judgments in some cases were enforced, also bewildered the illiterate Maratha peasant, and it is no wonder that they sighed for the Panchayat with which they were familiar.
c19.s7.2
In fact the simplicity of the old judicial system readily caught the imagination of European writers and Dr. Hope, who had first-hand knowledge of India, definitely expressed himself in favour of the original Maratha judicial system. He says, "We have found much to admire and very little to detest in the administration of public officers at Gwalior. Such is our conviction knowing well that if the people of India—the 180 millions—could go to the poll on a choice of governments an almost countless majority would prefer a native one to one which was ever supervising and controlling every act of their public life and haunting them with a vision of an English court of Law." ²⁷
c19.s7.3
²⁷ The House of Scindea, p. 5.