वापस जायें / Back

British Rule in Chhattisgarh

Annexation of Bhosle princely State in British India and re-establishment of British Rule in Chhattisgarh

On the death of Raghuji third on 11th december 1853 the British resident Mensel immediately took over the administration in his own hands on the same day. Governor general Lord Dalhousie rejected the right of the king to adopt a heir and annexed the kingdom under his doctrine of annexation on 13th March 1854. On 1st February 1855, the last Maratha Ziledar of Chhattisgarh handed over administration to the first Deputy Commissioner Charles C. Elliot.

The whole of Chhattisgarh was given the status of a district under British rule. The head of the district was the Deputy Commissioner. There was an Assistant Commissioner to assist him. There was the post of Extra Assistant Commissioner, which was reserved for Indians. Gopalrao Anand was appointed Extra Assistant Commissioner in Bilaspur and Mohibul Hasan in Raipur.

The new system of Administration under British Rule in Chhattisgarh

Civil administration was reorganized on the lines of Punjab. The administration was divided into Mal of revenue and Civil. The Civil administration was under the Deputy Commissioner who had both original and appeal jurisdiction up to Rs 5000. Latter Tahsildars were appointed and were given both civil and criminal jurisdiction.

The Tahsildari System

Initially three tahsildaris – Raipur, Dhamtari and Ratanpur were made. Tahsildars worked under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner. This post was reserved for Indians. Naib tahsildars were appointed as head of parganas instead of Kamawisdars. The salary tahsildiars was Rs 150 and of Naib Tahsildars Rs 50 per month. The number of Tahsils was increased to five on 1st February 1857. Dhamdha and Nawagarh were the two new Tahsils. Latter Durg was made Tahsil headquarter instead of Dhamdha.

Establishment of Central Provinces

On 2nd November 1861 Nagpur and administrative areas under it were reorganized into Central Provinces for administrative convenience. Following areas were included in central provinces -

1. Areas under the Nagpur State– There were three divisions in this – Nagpur division (Nagpur, Wardha and Bhandara districts), Raipur division (Raipur, Bilaspur and Sambalpur districts) and Godawari Taluq division (Godawari Taluq, Upper Godawari and Bastar district).
2. Sagar Narmada area – This had two divisions – Sagar division (Sagar, Damoh and Hoshangabad districts) and Jabalpur division ( Jabalpur, Mandla and Seoni districts)

The headquarters of Central Provinces was Nagpur and was headed by a Cheif Commissioner.

Creation of Chhattisgarh Division

Till 1861 Chhattisgarh was under the Chief Commissioner of Central Provinces. In 1862 Chhattisgarh became a division. Raipur became the headquarter. Sambalpur was included in Central Provinces and was a part of Raipur division. At this time Raipur division had three districts – Raipur, Bilaspur and Sambalpur. This continued till 1905.

Geographical reorganization and administrative changes

Sambalpur district was included in Odisha of Bengal presidency and in its place 5 princely states of Changbhakhar, Koria, Surguja. Udaipur and Jashpur was taken away from Chhota Nagpur of Bengal presidency and added to Chhattisgarh in 1905. Now Chhattisgarh had three districts – Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg. This continued till 1947.

Revenue administration in Chhattisgarh

The principle was that all land belonged to the Government. Land revenue was t he main source of income of the State. Three year settlement was done at the time of Elliot from 1855 to 1857. Parganas were reorganized and their number increased to 12. Revenue circles were made under the Parganas. Patwaris were appointed. Four new Parganas – Gulu, Simga, Maro and Bijapur wer emade in place of the three old parganas of Rajro, Lawan and Khallari.

The state was divided into three types of areas for the purpose of revenue collection —

1. Khalsa area
2. Zamindari area
3. Tahutdari area – Tahutdari system was started at the time of Capt. Sandis. He made tow Tahutdaris of Lormi and Tarenga. Before this two Tahutdaris of Sirpur and Lawan were made during the Maratha period. During the period of Elliot three more Tahutdaris – Sihawa, Khallari and Sanjari were made. The purpose was that Tahutdars will encourage the farmers to bring the fallow lands under cultivation, but this system was not successful as the Tahutdars were neither popular like the Gontias not efficient like the Zamindars.

The head of the village in the Zamindari area was the malguzar. He used to give Malguzari to the Zamindar and Zamindar gave the revenue fixed for his whole area to the Government. In the Khalsa area the farmers direclty deposited the land revenue through the Gontia. In the Tahutdari area the Tahutdars deposited the revenue. There were four main sources of income for the Government – Land revenue, Excise (tax on intoxicants), Sair (entry tax) and Pandri (tax on non-farming activities). All other taxes were abolished. The tax was collected in cash and the system of taking food grains as land revenue was abolished. The agricultural year was from 1st May to 30th April.

New officers were appointed in 1856. these wer Sarishtedar, Naib Sarishtedar, Muhafiz, Daftari, Wasil Baki Nawis, Pargana Nawis, Moharrir, Nazir etc. Similarly Kazanchi, Siyanawis, Moharrir, Fotedar etc. were appointed in the treasury. A code of rules was made for disposal of revenue matters which was called Dasut ul aman.

Justice administration

The deputy commissioner used to decide both civil and criminal matters. He was assisted by the Assistant Deputy Commissioner. The appeal went to the Commissioner. Appeal could be made in two months. The appeal against the decision of the Commissioner went to a Judicial Commissioner. The civil jurisdiction of Tahsildars was ended in 1856. Latter the postof District and Sessions Judge was created. The Tahsildars had some limited criminal jurisdiction as well. Deputy Commissioner had more powers. The Commissioner could pass a sentence of life imprisonment and the cases of capital punishment went up to the Governor General. Latter the powers of capital punishment were also delegated to the Commissioner. The Indian Penal Code came into force in January 1862. Latter administration of justice was separated from civil administration.

Police system

There were only 148 policemen in Chhattisgarh in 1855. Chhattisgarh was divided into four parts for police administration – Raipur Sadar, Raipur Tahsildar area, Dhamtari Tahsildari area and Ratanpur Tahsildari area. 15 police stations were made in each tahsildari area. Police manual was enforced in 1858 and the post Superintendent of Police was created in 1862. Raipur jail was made before 1854. Bilaspur jail was made in 1873.

Post

Harkaras were appointed to carry post in Raipur. The first postmaster was Smith who was appointed in 1857.

Transport

Capt. Agnue had started work on Raipur-Nagpur road. The Great Easter Road (GE Road) was made in 1862 which is now called NH 6. Bilapspur-Ambikapur road was constructed in 1905. The British started work on Railways under Nagpur-Chhattisgarh Railway in the early 19th century. Latter this was acquired by Bengal-Nagpur Railway and was converted to borad gauge. By 1900 Rajnandgaon, Durg, Raipur and Bilaspur were connected to the Bombay-Calcutta rail line. Dhamtari and Rajim were connected to Raipur by narrow gauge.

Industry

The CP cloth mill was made in Rajnandgaon in 1854 by Mackbeth brothers of Bombay. In 1897 it was sold to Shawalis company of Calcutta and was renamed as Bengal Cotton Mills (BNC Mills). Mohan Jute Mills were established in Raigarh in 1935.

Irrigation

Rudri Canal was made in Dhamtari in 1912-15, Murumsilli in 1923-25 and Tandula in Balod in 1931. Admabad, Kudhiya and Khutaghat were constructed. Many other tanks and canals were made for irrigation which improved agricultural production tremendously in Chhattisgarh.

Forest

Separate forest department under a Divisional forest officer at Raipur was made during the British period.

Education

There were only 58 schools in Raipur in 1864. The number of schools increased to 98 in 1897. Independent education department was made in 1910. Rajkumar College was established in 1893. A English medium girls school – Salem girls school was established in 1907 and Saint Paul’s school was started in 1911. Lawrie school started in 1913. In 1925, the Kali Badi was established which also started a school. American Mennonite institute was started in Dhamtari and Raipur for education. During the civil disobedience movement, Rashtriya School was started and was run by Wamanrao Lakhe. N.B. Khare became the Chief Minister of Central Provinces in 1937 and Pt. Ravishankar Shukla became the Education Minister. He started the Vidya Mandir scheme to improve education. Chhattisgarh Shikshan Samiti was formed in 1937. Pyarelal Singh was its first president. Chhattisgarhh College was established in 1938 with J. Yoganandam, who was an advocate in Mahasamund, as its first principal. At that time there were Universities in Nagpur and Sagar. People used to go to Nagpur, Allahabad and Varanasi for higher education. Mahakaushl Siksha Samiti was formed in 1944 and started the S.B.R. (Shiv Bhagwan Rameshwar Lal) College. Norman school and Brijesh school, (called Chintan Griha at that time) were started in 1885 in Bilaspur. Rashtriya school was established in the house of Badrinath Sao and was run by Pt. Shivdulare Mishra.

The impact of British Rule in Chhattisgarh

Administrative reforms

The poor administrative system of the Maratha period was improved in the British time. Chhattisgarh became a part of Central provinces. God systems of revenue, justice and police administration were established.

Economic Development

Agriculture had suffered greatly during the Maratha period. It improved greatly in the British time. This improved the economic condition of the people. Industry came to Chhattisgarh. Improvement in transport by roads and rail opened the state to trade and commerce.

Education

Education system improved during the British period. Women education got a fillip. Western education was also opened up in Chhattisgarh. During the freedom struggle patriotic feelings also got integrated in education system

Religions condition

Most of the people were Hindus. Many new movements for religious reforms like the Arya Samaj, Brahma Samaj, Ramkrishna MIssion etc. did exemplary work. Many religious reforms were started against the caste system, exploitation of the backward castes etc. Among them Kabirpanth has a very large number of followers. The Satnam panth started by Guru Ghasidas also spread to large areas in Chhattisgarh. Christian Missionaries had an impact in northern Chhattisgarh and many people particularly of the Oraon tribe and some Satnamis also converted to Christianity.

Social and Cultural condition

During the British period the freedom fighters also worked for socio-cultural reforms. Pt. Sundarlal Sharma did a lot of work for Harijans. Many scholars both foreign and Indian studied Indian history and brought a sense of National pride in the people. Gradually old customs and traditions changes and modern thoughts emerged in Chhattisgarh. The British time in Chhattisgarh can also be called the era of emergence of modern thoughts.