Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/231

 KHE 223 instance, to form a sot of republics, and tbat of Kheri a set of little mon- archies. The answer seems to be the same if a similar question be asked touching the Anglo-Saxon race in England and in Anerica. The first layer of a fairly civilized people over a primeval country or over one merely sprinkled with savages is sooner or later democratic; if a second layer supervene by conquest, or if subject races are introduced wherever there is no amalgamation, there must be submission, and that submission will generally end in the autocracy of one. The reason is clear. When a tribe of equally well born individuals has abundance of land and po natural evenirs, internal disputes are rare, external enemies there are none and there is no reason why it should abandon any portion of, its liberty. Thus in Hardoi, Unao, and Sitapur the Clliattris came in very early; the popula- tion of other castes was very sparse; there was no barbarous foe which could presume to oppose them; they divided the land. So with the Tháru communities in the Tarái forests; they were homogeneous residents in the depths of a lonely wilderness; the form of society adopted by them was republican. In eastern Oudh, on the other hand, the Kankpurias, the Tilok Chandi Bais, the Sombansis, the Bisens, found not only organized Bhar kingdoms, with whom a doubtful war had to be waged, but a great Musalmuan kingdom, that of Jaunpur, which would look with jealousy on ilie rise of Hindu self-government. The clans had to part with a por- tion of their liberty in order to secure the promptness and energy neces- sary in times of war, and vot consistent with republican institutions. So the Saxons of the Heptarchy had to select kings in order to lead them against the Britons, but the English colonists in the American wastes adopted and retained republican institutions. The village community not a republic-But here the fact must be borne in mind, that ever since the advance of the Arians into India there never has really been republic in the greater part of Northern India in the European sense of the word. The soldier clan, that of the Chhattris, including that of the Játs, Bhars, Gújars, &c., &c., numbers in the Punjab about one-fifth, in Rajputána about one-fourth, in the North-Western Provinces about one-fourteenth, and in Oudh less than one-twentietla of the population ; yet, except where Musalmans have intruded and dis- turbed the natural order of things, these Chhattris, or rather a section of them, have retained in their hands practically all the landed property, and with it the authority belonging to the society: in Kheri, for instance, before annexation they had four-fifths of the country. When therefore we speak of republics, or of independent village communities, we speak of such among the Chhattris, leaving the great mass of the people entirely out of consideration ; these communes are really military oligarchies, fairly answering to that of Rome in the first four centuries after the overthrow. of the monarchy. Caste tempered the odministration by an oligarchy.—But again it must be remembered that these societies were composed of a series of castes, each of which had authority over its own members for offences committed within that caste. The province, and consequently the power of Government was then limited in the extreme; the mutual relations of the castes were regulated by custom, and infringements of these regula