The Angrias. 1814-1840.

In Angria's territory, under its native rulers, civil and criminal justice were roughly almost recklessly administered. [Compiled from Mr. Courtenay's letter 14th February 1841 in Bem. Gov. Rec. Pol. Dep. 391, and Mr. J. M. Davies' letter 22nd February in lorn. Gev. Rec, Pol. Dept. 1237.] For important cases a general court of justice was held for a few hours on Sunday evenings nominally under the chief but really under the minister. Petty cases were settled at Alibag by a judge or nyayadhish appointed by the minister, and in the district by the sub-divisional officers. Oral evidence was taken in the presence of the parties and no record was kept, except that in civil cases final decisions were sometimes entered as memoranda on loose slips of paper. The cases were summarily disposed of, underhand fees or karkuni paid to the subordinate court officials settling all disputes. No arrears of business were allowed; the court continued to sit till every case was heard. Every decision was final; there was no appeal. Actions for debt were not common as neither execution of decrees nor imprisonment for debt was allowed. In criminal cases capital punishment was rare. Those who could pay a heavy fine were never imprisoned except for contempt or obstinacy, and those who could not pay underwent the extremest punishments short of mutilation. The forts were the Angria's prisons. They received their inmates for no specified term. The barred rooms in the Kolaba fort, though close and ill-aired were fairly wholesome but other prisons were terrible dens. In the Underi or Henery fort a flight of steps hid by a trap-door led underground to a strong door which gave entrance to a room seven feet high and twelve feet in diameter, a loathsome den swarming with vermin. About 1836, on suspicion of being concerned in a gang robbery, fifteen persons were sent to this loathsome- dungeon, and, in four months, thirteen of them died raving mad, from want of light, air, and water. In 1840 the Political Superintendent found two of the prisoners alive. They were reduced to skeletons and one of them was blind of an eye. Their lives had been saved by the death of the others and by being allowed to go on the bastions for a few hours daily. Besides these two, twenty-two persons suffering similar punishments were taken out from other dungeons by the Political Superintendent. They had been denied water except for drinking and were loaded with the heaviest irons; they were squalid and filthy, diseased and frightful to look at. Nothing was recorded against them, and no term of imprisonment had been fixed. They had been in confinement from three to twenty years. [Of twenty-two prisoners who were confined on chanrges of robbery. One Agri had been imprisoned for twenty years; two Kathkaris for twelve, six Kathkaris for eleven, seven Kathkaris for seven, and two Marathas for eleven years; for theft one Sutar had been confined for twelve and one Musalman for three years; and for petty theft two women bad been imprisoned, one for eight and the other for seven years.] The charges against them were almost forgotten, but it was admitted that none of them had been guilty of worse offences than robbery and theft. They were of the poorest classes and therefore unable to buy their release either by paying fines or bribes to state servants. They waited for some festive or joyous occasion to bring them the chance of freedom. As their sufferings were disproportionate to the vague and unrecorded charges against them, the Political Superintendent set them free.

Slavery.

There was a long established custom of providing female slaves for the chief, by condemning to slavery women, whether married or single, who had been guilty of infidelity or impropriety. Free intercourse between these condemned women and the male community was encouraged in the grossest manner in order to rear a class of slaves. A condemned woman was styled kulmini and her offspring lekavlis or bastards. She was first made to pay a fine according to her means, under penalty of being sent to the fort among licentious soldiery. After the fine was wrung from her she was taken into the chief's household, or, if unsuitable for that purpose, was made to perform all sorts of out-door drudgery.[Mr. J. M. Davies mentioned (1840) an instance in which a woman besought him to intercede for her. She was condemned as a slave and had already paid a fine for being allowed to work out of doors. She was again threatened to be sent to one of the forts unless she paid a further sum or Rs. 90. When the Divan was consulted on the matter his reply was that it was the custom.] Others again who agreed to pay an additional bribe obtained a license to practise prostitution. The number of these female slaves at any one time depended on the demand for their services. Their offspring, fathered indiscriminately by the court antendants, swelled the mob of the chief's followers. The male offspring sometimes obtained respectable men's daughters in marriage, though this did not alter the servile position of the husband. The daughters of slave women were kept in the chief's residence and did not appear in public.

Forced Labour.

Among minor pieces of injustice compulsory labour occupied an important place. On all public occasions the Kunbis or cultivating classes were obliged to work without wages. They were bound at their own cost to carry the state share of the grain to the appointed port, and to supply gratis a certain quantity of straw whenever it was wanted. They had to cut and carry a certain quantity of straw and reeds for thatching and occasionally to dig ponds and wet docks for shipping. They were also made to contribute goats and fowls for the yearly sacrifices, and on all occasions to supply vegetables, pulse, milk, whey, and butter. The fishermen had their share of forced labour. Each boat had to make nine trips every season to Ramraj, about five miles east of Cheul on the right bank of the Kundalika creek, to fetch firewood for the chief's establishment, or pay a fine of 7s. (Rs. 3½) on every trip less than nine. Other boats had to carry grain to Bombay under similar penalties.