Memoir on Thar and

great relief to the inhabitants of the Thurr and Parkur in years of scarcity, by enabling
many to leave their families at home, while they went to the neighbouring provinces,
where grain was cheap, and brought from thence that necessary of life for their families,
instead of being obliged to emigrate with them, from inability to defray the customs
duties, &c. in addition to the cost of the grain.
106. In 1852, the land frontier duties in Sind were abolished. This measure, in a
pecuniary point of view, caused a reduction in the revenue of the Thurr and Parkur
districts, of about Rupees 12,000 per annum. It allowed, however, of a free interchange of
the produce and products of Sind with other countries, and was apparently a sound and
politic measure. In judging of the practical result of such measures in a primitive society,
however, it should be remembered that much of the rapidly increasing prosperity of the
people must be attributed to increased security of person and property, and to the general
effect of our rule, which in giving security, especially in newly acquired territories,
enables all classes to obtain justice by an easy, simple, and yet sure process; and this,
probably as much as the abolition of customs duties, has tended to increase the effective
desire of accumulation amongst all classes, and to stimulate individuals to exertion,
which nothing but a feeling of security can create; and thus the results of the abolition of
the land transit duties cannot be judged of simply from the quantity of goods imported or
exported at particular points of the frontier. The measure was a comprehensive one, and
its results can only be judged of by the effect on the whole province. As far as the Thurr
and Parkur is concerned, I humbly conceive that the measure has cheapened and actually
brought a variety of articles within the means of a class, that previously were unable to
enjoy them; it has necessarily increased the demand for these articles, which, being partly
of British manufacture, advantages British trade. Again, the bringing of these articles,
necessaries of life they may appear to us, but whether they be so, or luxuries, as they
would probably appear to an unsophisticated and primitive people, matters not at present:
the bringing of these articles, I say, within the means of a lower, and consequently more
extensive class of society, tends to raise and increase their wants, and thus cause in them
a desire to accumulate the means of providing what gradually becomes almost a
necessary of life. To do this permanently in a thriving, or, in other words, an increasing
society, the means must be produced, as these new wants are supplied by importing the
articles required, while it is a maxim of political economy, that the imports of a country
must be governed by its exports; and to provide exports therefore, to enable the required
articles of an advancing community to be imported, the inhabitants must either extend the
sphere of their labours, or by improved cultivation, and the application of improved
principles to manufactures, make their labour more effective. It matters not which course
is adopted; they both alike tend to develop the resources of the country, and the
advancement of civilization.
Population.
107. An opinion has been hazarded above, that at the conquest of Sind, the population of
the Thurr and Parkur was about 30,000. This, however, is a mere conjecture, though
based on the best information I have been able to command, there being no data beyond
<strong>Memoir</strong> on the Thurr and Parkur Districts of Sind. Copyright © www.panhwar.com
32