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Sleeman, William, 1788-1856

"II"


The estate of Rehwa, held by Jeswunt Sing, tallookdar, had paid
regularly fifty-five thousand (55,000) rupees a-year; but it was so
desolated by Rughbur Sing, that it cannot now yield eleven thousand
(11,000) rupees. This estate adjoins Bhumnootee, Rajah Hurdut Sing's,
which, as above stated, regularly paid one hundred and eighty-two
thousand (182,000) rupees; it cannot now pay thirty thousand (30,000)
rupees. Such are the effects of the oppression of this bad man for so
brief a period.
Some tallookdars live within the borders of our district of
Goruckpoor, while their lands lie in Oude. By this means they evade
the payment of their land revenues, and with impunity commit
atrocious acts of murder and plunder in Oude. These men maim or
murder all who presume to cultivate on the lands which they have
deserted, without their permission, or to pay rents to any but
themselves; and the King of Oude's officers dare not follow them, and
are altogether helpless. Only two months ago, Mohibollah, a zumeendar
of Kuttera, was invited by Hoseyn Buksh Khan, one of these
tallookdars, to his house, in the Goruckpoor district, to negotiate
for the ransom of one of his cultivators, a weaver by caste, whom he
had seized and taken away. As he was returning in the evening, he was
waylaid by Hoseyn Buksh Khan, as soon as he had recrossed the Oude
borders, and murdered with one of his attendants, who had been sent
with him by the Oude Amil.


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