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( १५४ ) मल्हारराव महाराज गायकवाड यांचा खरा इतिहास. दोन्ही कायद्यांची परस्परांशी तुलना करून त्यांमध्ये सोम्य कायदा कोणता याविषयीं तपशीलवार सांगत बसणे हा या ग्रंथाचा हेतु नाहीं म्हणून तसें न करितां मुंबई इलाख्यातील इनामकमिशनच्या कायद्यापासून दक्षिण देशांत काय अनर्थ झाला त्याबद्दल एका ग्रंथांत फार उत्तम लेख लिहिला आहे तो टिपेत लिहून त्यांतील भावार्थ येथे लिहितो ह्मणजे खंडेराव महाराज यानी इनाम जमिनीवर कर बसविला त्याबद्दल त्यांस दोष देणें ब्रिटिश सरकारच्या अधिकाऱ्यांस कसे शोभते ते लोकांच्या लक्षांत येईल. टिपेत लिहिलेल्या वाक्यांचा भावार्य असा आहे की, * सन १८५२ मध्ये एक कायदा मंजूर केला. त्या कायद्याने इंग्लिश कामदारांच्या एका लहानशा टोळीस हजारो लोकांच्या मिळकतीवर स्वतंत्रपणें सत्ता चालविण्याचा अधिकार दिला. हे कामदार लोक लष्करी खात्यांतील होते, त्यांस कायद्याची मूलतले चांगली माहित नव्हती आणि न्यायाचे काम कसे चालवावे याविषयी ते अगदीं अनभ्यस्त होते. या टोळीस ज्यांच्या मिळकतींचा तपास करण्याचा अधिकार दिला होता ते लोक मोठ्या घराण्यांतील होते. त्यांस आपल्या घराण्याविषयी मोठा ताठा असे व त्यांस आपल्या पूर्वज्यांच्या हक्काविषयीं मोठा अभिमान होता; कारण त्यांच्या पूर्वजांनी जे कांही मिळविले होते ते तरवारीच्या धारेने मिळविले होते. आपला कबजा कायम ठेवण्यासाठी दुसऱ्या कांहीं साधनांची गरज आहे असे त्यांच्या ध्यानी मनी देखील आले नव्हते. दक्षिण महाराष्ट्र देशांत जहागिरदारांचा भरणा फार मोठा होता. त्यांनी आपल्या जहागिरीबद्दल सनदा मिळविण्याचा कधीही प्रयत्न केला नव्हता व पुराव्याचे
- " So in 1852 an Act was passed which empowered a little body of English officers, principally of the military profession-men,it was truly said "not well versed in the principles of law, and wholly unpractised in the conduct of judicial inquiries"-to exercise arbitrary jurisdiction over thousands of estates, many of them held by men of high family, proud of heir lineage, proud of their ancestral privileges, who had won what they held by the sword,and had no thought by any other means of maintaining pos- session. In the Southern Mahratta Country there were large numbers of these Jaha- geerdars, who had never troubled themselves about title-deeds, who knew nothing about rules of evidence, and who had believed that long years of possession were more cogent than any intricacies of law. If they had ever held written proofs of the validity of their tenures, they had seldom been so provident as to preserve them,. But, perhaps, they had never had better proof than the memory of a fierce contest, in the great Gurdee-Ka wukht, or time of trouble, which had preluded the dissolution of the Mahratta power in western India and placed the white man on the Throne of the Peshwa. Year after year had passed, one generation had followed another in undisturbed posses. sion, and the great seal of Time stood them instead of the elaborate techinicalities of the Conveyancer. But the Inam Commission was established. The fame of it went abroad throughout the Southern Mahratta Country. From one village to another pass- ed the appaling news that the Commissioner had appeared, had called for titles that could not be produced, and that nothing but a general confiscation of the property were likely to result from the operation of this mysterious Tribunal. "Each day," it has been said, " produced its list of victims; and the good fortune of those who escaped but added to the pangs of the crowd who came forth from the shearing-house, shorn to the skin, unable to work, ashamed to beg, condemned to penury." The titles of no less than thirty-five thousand estates great and small, were called for by the Commission, and during the first five years of its operation three fifths of them were confiscated. (Kaye's History of the Sepoy War in India Vol. I. Page 176 )
