Memoir on Thar and

65. The murderer of the former Rana, and usurper of his rights in Parkur, had fled; and
the British Government therefore suggested the restoration of the former Rana’s nearest
male relation (there being no lineal male descendant) to the ancient rank and station of
the chief of the district. This interference was at first cavilled at by the Sind authorities,
but the suggestion was eventually adopted; and the former Rana’s cousin, by name
Kurunjee, received from the hands of Captain Roberts his investiture as Rana of Parkur:
he was then a child of three years old.
66. The usurper Juggoojee was given up to the British Government by that of Sind, and
detained in Kutch a prisoner, and subsequently a prisoner at large, on a subsistence
allowance of one rupee a day, till A.D. 1844, when the small village of Boodesir, in
Parkur, was given to him in lieu of the money allowance, and he was allowed to reside
there. He enjoyed the revenues of the village till August 1852, when he died, and the
village was resumed, * —a few ploughs of land being allotted to his more immediate
relations for free cultivation.
67. The gradual and growing necessity of protecting Kutch and Guzerat from the
depredations of the banditti, as well as the means adopted for punishing the leaders and
protectors of the freebooters, will have been, it is hoped, clearly seen from the foregoing
pages. The loss occasioned by these depredations was so extensive, varied and
continuous, as almost to baffle calculation; ten lacs of Rupees, however, would not
probably have covered the immediate losses occasioned, while the consequences were
still more disastrous, viz. deserted villages, and devastated and depopulated districts.
About this period (in 1833), for the first time for centuries, the eastern part of Kutch and
* The son and other near male relations of Juggoojee appealed against this resumption of the village to the
Commissioner in Sind in December 1854, when the Commissioner was in Parkur. The appeal was reported on in letter
No. 341 of 185-4, dated 25th December, as follows :—
"Soda Juggoojee was in exile from the date of our force entering Parkur, till he was made over to the British
Government as a state prisoner, during which period any rights in Parkur which his relationship to the Rana gave him a
claim to, were enjoyed by the Rana, he having forfeited them by the murder of his relative, the former Rana, by name
Ruttun Sing. Whatever therefore may have been his rights in Parkur formerly, they had long ceased to exist when the
district fell under our rule.
"The only other point for consideration that suggests itself to me, with reference to the petition under report, is, whether
it was intended, in granting the village of Boodesir to Juggoojee Soda, to do so in perpetuity or not. The wording of the
correspondence is vague, and the best attention that I have been able to give the subject leaves me doubtful of what was
intended; while the grant, whether it be looked on as a life one, or in perpetuity, appears to me in the light of an act of
grace, 'emanating from the British Government as conquerors of Sind, or as an arrangement of political expediency,
rather than as an acknowledgment of Soda Juggoojee's usurped rights in Parkur, which we had been chiefly
instrumental in depriving him of many years previously.
"It was under this view of the case, that I hesitated in bringing the subject to the notice of the Commissioner, to
recommend the continued alienation of the village to the descendants of Soda Juggoojee, considering that their right to
it could not be substantiated or deemed valid, in the absence of enjoyment for so many years previous to the conquest
of Sind; while the alienation of villages, except where indispensable on principles of equity or expediency, appears a
questionable policy."
The Acting Commissioner in reply, in February 1856, observes that the late grant was one of grace, and in all respects
similar to other life grants which were made by the late Governor, as of grace. Petitioner should there be informed, that
the arrangement made in 1853 cannot be disturbed.
<strong>Memoir</strong> on the Thurr and Parkur Districts of Sind. Copyright © www.panhwar.com
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