Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Dhuboy, 1780 October 15, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749–1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Dhuboy, 1780 October 15
- Date:
- copied between 1794 and 1800
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Series I: A voyage from England to Bombay with descriptions in Asia, Africa, and South America
- Part of Collection:
- volume 11, page 9-21
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
- Scope and Content:
- Forbes introduces this letter as an overview of the agricultural and economic qualities of the areas under his control. He identifies his subject as the areas adjacent to Dhuboy (Dabhai), “where I have been visiting the villages under my care, and inspecting the crops, to enable me to form a proper judgement of the annual assessment.” He follows this introduction with a brief overview of some of the principle crops in the region: cotton and rice form the majority of his analysis, and he provides some details as to their methods of cultivation, often in the same fields. He also remarks on the grains cultivated in the region, and mentions in particular the fondness of the local inhabitants for various pulses, and the use of ghee as a commodity for export. “Villages in Guzerat” After completing his description of the agricultural production of the region, Forbes launches into a discussion of the villages and their methods of governance. These are small villages, composed of mud and brick houses, with a temple or mosque and no other public buildings. There are, however, numerous wells throughout the countryside, built “with a noble flight of steps to the water, finished at a great expense, and far from the cheerful haunts of men.” These wells, according to Forbes, often act as metaphors for spiritual rewards in sacred texts, and he offers a lengthy quotation from Isaiah 33 as a comparative example. One finds temples throughout the province as well, often constructed by “some opulent Hindoo, who wishes to perform an acceptable service to his creator, or to transmit his name for posterity.” According to the customs and friendly dispositions of the villages, Forbes says, all travelers are greeted with generosity, regardless of their wealth, race, religion, or caste. He concludes his overview of village with the conclusion that the villagers are happy, and yet, they have no sense of liberty, as a blind person has no sense of color, and “seem born to submission.” “Mode of Cultivation, and Collection of the Revenues, in Guzerat” Forbes’s conception of village life as intertwined with submission appears in his discussion of his next topic, the management of production and collection of revenues in each village. He begins with an investigation of notions of property, and concludes that the ownership of land in Indian villages more closely reflects ancient Germanic customs rather than contemporary English ones. Land is held not by individuals, but by the government, and it is allotted to the village. Most villagers make their living off the land, though some are supported by pensions, such as brahmins, disabled individuals, and barbers. The latter, according to Forbes, spend their entire day devoted to their trade, without receiving any payment, and are therefore support at the public’s expense. Forbes at last turns to various types of collectors and middlemen, none of whom strike him as honest men. He does not go into great detail about the precise nature of these figures’ vices: he claims their “cunning and chicanery…cannot be easily be described, and indeed would be too unpleasing and uninteresting a subject to trouble you with.” He does, however, give a rough idea of their embezzlement of funds, and labels the Zemindars “a corrupt race.” His final thoughts concern an example of extortion committed by the agents of “Asiatic Despotism,” in this case from a nearby capital. He tells the story of a collector who, having become quite wealthy, was arrested by members of the government he served, and tortured so that he would give up his riches. Forbes describes the methods of torture in detail—it involves a bed of thorns—and recounts that it was not until his captors threaten to murder his son—via an enraged wild cat—that the collector relented and relinquished his estate. He was, Forbes says, then assigned to a different area, so that he might become rich once again, and then exploited once again. Forbes uses this brief detour into methods of torture to include one he describes as the worst he has witness: “sheep-skin death” practiced by the Marathas. In this case, the unfortunate subject is wrapped tightly in a washed and stretched sheep skin, which then contracts as it is exposed to the sun, tearing off the flesh of the victim. Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 2, chapter 25.
- Physical Description:
- 13 pages
- Genre:
- Correspondence , Botanical illustrations, Ornithological illustrations, Travel sketches, Maps, Watercolors (paintings), Drawings (visual works), Engravings (prints), and Portraits
- Subject Terms:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819. Descriptive letters and drawingsForbes, James, 1749-1819. Oriental memoirs
- Associated Places:
- EnglandItalyScotlandWales
- Associated People/Groups:
- East India CompanyForbes, James, 1749-1819
- Finding Aid Title:
- James Forbes archive
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11734.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199928
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199928?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1