Last week we talked about a note written by Devchand Dharamshi Shethia, 'Arrival of the British in Kutch'. The book of Devchand Shethia, who gave a book on the important agreement with the British of the original Anjar and the Kutch Raj, was written by P. Republished by the Board of Trustees of the Rajbai & Dharamshi Shethia Memorial Trust. In 1978, Dev Chandbhai, who is one of the founders of the Kutch People's Council, opened the door to many evils of that time by giving a Gujarati translation of Kutch Raj's contracts with the company government. No matter how much one talks about development, it should be noted that before the British came to Kutch, some social evils were prevented. First of all, Rao Deshlaji respected the desire of the British to stop the slave trade. A special order dated 6-2-1836 was issued banning the slave trade. This educated English people had an understanding due to education, so on 9th Oct. In the first treaty with Kachchraj in 1820, the custom of 'milking a girl at birth' was stopped, Resident First Assistant G. J. Wilson was the first to sign an agreement demanding the cessation of this cruel practice, followed by Jagirdar-bhayats and these Kshatriyas in Kutchbhar sent a message to all others that henceforth Kanyaratnas would be welcomed. The Kshatriya society of Kutch accepted the importance of girls only in 1820. It is worth mentioning that after that in 1875, not only new agreements were made on this issue, in the agreement it was also decided to give the true facts of the sons and daughters born in the Bhayat's family in writing every year in the Durbar. A very important point in this agreement has been noted by Dev Chandbhai that to prevent the custom of 'milking' Suba was appointed in different jagirs who would silently give the details of birth and death in the court and it was planned to punish the Suba if any animal killing or milking was done anywhere and it was reported to the Raj of Kutch. The amount of fine which was collected by the Raj from the Suba was kept separately by the court and when any poor person wanted to marry a daughter, it was helped from a separate fund. For the enforcement of these rules Babbe Mehta was appointed who raised intelligence throughout the province to obtain information, punish and assist. However, the vassals of Kutch objected in writing against the prohibition of sati and called it an act against religion and also expressed their readiness to agree if the practice of sati was banned in the whole country. Following the strictness of the British against the practice of sati, prudence and the agreement of Kachchraj, in three different announcements respectively dated On 29-8-1852, 16-1-1853 and finally on 17-9-1854 Mirza Maharao Deshlaji of Kutch of Posh Sud Satam, Kumbar Patel's wife was raped behind her husband in Sanwa and after the death of Charan Devananda, his wife was buried alive in both incidents, as much as in actions. One year imprisonment for those who were present or helped him and the relatives of the deceased Curry. According to the Mumbai law, such a crime carries a rigorous imprisonment of 10 years, so it was advised to be careful in the future, and whenever someone wants to commit sati due to the death of a very dear relative (husband), a time-consuming decision was made to keep such a person in a room for 24 hours. Forced to change. After all these efforts, if there is any sati in any village, heavy fine was announced to the headman of the village and 10 years imprisonment to the relatives. Apart from this, from the notes of Devchand Shethia, the rules of peace established by the popular leader Laxmidas Kamdar are also described which are very significant. On the border of Sindh touching Kutch, the robbers of Koshia and Ran and Parkar were harassing. These robbers took shelter in Veerawav Pargana in the middle of the desert, so the Kutch court seized that Garas. Here the British advised to return the loot to the robbers, but Maharao Bharmalji flatly refused and showed that the ryots of Kutch were not ready for any compromise with the robbers. Finally, in all the declarations to prevent milking, sati practices, looting, the names of the Jagirdars of Gamegam have been mentioned, due to lack of space, those names have not been placed here. In short, the British made several agreements with Kutch Raj that proved to be a Company Government and stationed McMurdo in Anjar with a small army so that Kutch Raj could be watched by the British.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
