What laws governed the Punjab under British rule during the Board of Administration between 1849 and 1853?
score:3
The best answer I could find was from Volume 1 of the "Punjab Customary Law" series which contained "a selection of the records from the Punjab Government".
In the book the author printed an extract of a letter (Page 49) written in 1849 from the "Secretary of the Government of India" (H. M. Elliot) which would have been the East India Company to the President of the Board, H. M Lawrence.
In it the Secretary communicated the wishes of the Governor General (The Earl of Dalhousie) to keep things simple by saying the "Governor General would wish to uphold Native institutions and practices, as far as they are consistent with the distribution of justice to all classes;" he then clarified this idea by saying:
With the knowledge now generally prevalent respecting village coparcenaries, there is no apprehension that our officers will not exert themselves to maintain those important bodies in all their integrity. In this and other respects, such as the local laws which regulate the tracing of criminals and the responsibility of landholders for their pursuit and apprehension, the popular institutions will be improved and consolidated by our measures, and the Native system of accounts and reports may also be adhered to, without any great and radical deviation; so that the only material alteration will consist in the introduction of Europeans as supervisors and executive officers.
He went on to specify that the policing were not be receiving any new laws:
With respect to the introduction of our System of police, the Governor General has no wish that our voluminous laws should be introduced into this new country. The several abstracts of our Regulations may be considered to contain sufficient for the guidance of our Magistrates, to whom necessarily a larger discretion must be left than they have in our older provinces.
The next letter in the book was written in 1853, after the Board was disbanded. This suggests the Board governed in a way that enhanced the police force and enforced the laws that were already in place.
What this meant for the people on the ground was most likely a continuation of the legal systems set in place by the Mughal Empire and as the British later discovered (Page 61) a mix of Hindu, Muhammadan and Lex Loci (the law of the place) Laws with the British commenting that people of the "Sikh persuasion, are in civil and secular affairs, generally bound by Hindu law".
This seems to suggest that any previous proclamations by John Lawrence on cultural and religious practices that were seen as harmful and to be met with "the severest penalties" were most likely lost.
What was also interesting, is how much control the General Governor of India had over a "Non-Regulation Province" which goes against the idea the Board had "absolute and supreme executive" control over the Punjab.
At this point it feels like if I want to know more I would need to start reading letters to and from Robert Montgomery who was the first Judicial Commissioner and C. G. Mansel who was entrusted with the administration of justice and the police.
After 1853 the Punjab Civil Code was created and became part of a whole history of Anglo-Muhammadan Law.
More post
- 📝 Why is the Harappa (Indus Valley) civilization considered one of the six independent cradles of civilization?
- 📝 "No sane man will dance."? When / where / about-what did Cicero say this?
- 📝 Why bother attacking castles at all? Why not go around?
- 📝 What caused the decline of the Spanish empire?
- 📝 Would a commissioned officer in the Royal Navy during the mid-late 18th century ever sail on a vessel other than a man-o-war, ship of the line, etc?
- 📝 Did Richard II of England willingly abdicate the throne to Henry of Bolingbroke?
- 📝 Why did the British Empire manage to conquer huge swaths of land abroad but couldn't supress nationalism within the British Isles?
- 📝 What do the markings in 75mm WW1 trench art mean?
- 📝 Did Western "New Imperialism" actually free slaves in Muslim lands?
- 📝 How did recognition by Morocco influence the history of the USA?
- 📝 What was the biggest shipbuilding centre in Europe during the Second Industrial Revolution?
- 📝 Why was communism at odds with pan-Arabism?
- 📝 What exactly were currours, and what were they used for?
- 📝 What is this metallic object with teeth in mouth, screw to tighten and a handle?
- 📝 Was there ever a conqueror who named the place after themselves?
- 📝 Were there mercenaries around for WWI?
- 📝 Which military uniforms are shown in these photos?
- 📝 Why were the Scandinavians not as expansive as other Europeans in global colonization?
- 📝 Was marriage a religious institution in its beginings or not?
- 📝 When were the most reigning monarchs related to each other?
- 📝 Where did the railroad companies find workers to build the rails?
- 📝 When did the Ecclesiastical courts in England lose the authority to mete out punishments such as imprisonment and execution?
- 📝 What is the position of modern scholarship as regarding the claims of professor Samuel Rafinesque in his book about the indigenous Americans
- 📝 Why did the maize-based society that Spain found in the Central Valley of Mexico not dominate over Europe?
- 📝 How did the Romans build straight roads that stretched very long distances?
- 📝 Was Charles V of France opposed to commoners learning?
- 📝 How did sugar go from a luxury to a necessity in 18th century?
- 📝 How were new states admitted to the Union?
- 📝 Why was the capital of Ukraine moved in 1934?
- 📝 How to attack Fort Ross
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What laws governed the Punjab under British rule during the Board of Administration between 1849 and 1853?
- 📝 On what basis do some historians accuse the British government of genocide during the great Irish famine?
- 📝 What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
- 📝 What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?
- 📝 What weapons were manufactured in India by the British forces which were used during world wars?
- 📝 What was the nominal strength of a company in a British Regiment during the American war of Independence?
- 📝 What was the alcoholic beverage of choice for British soldiers during WW2?
- 📝 During the Peninsula War, what British material aid was given to Spain/Portugal?
- 📝 What percentage of British people during the industrial revolution were rich?
- 📝 During segregation and Jim Crow laws in the US what happened if a person was allowed to use white facilities but other users objected?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 What date does a 1738 British author intend by "soon after the revolution"?
- 📝 What set Checkpoint Charlie apart from the other border checkpoints in Berlin during the Cold War?
- 📝 What was the ratio of German to Soviet losses on Eastern front during different stages of the war?
- 📝 Why did the UK allow India to be a republic rather than a democratic parliament under the British Monarch?
- 📝 What made the English the dominant power of the British Isles?
- 📝 What was lost when the British burned the White House in 1814?
- 📝 What caused the imposition of strict celibacy for Catholic priests during the 11th century?
- 📝 What East German laws and regulations were extended to the West after unification?
- 📝 What was the size of surface of a cereal crop needed per man per year during the Dark Ages in Western Europe?
- 📝 What effect did the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir have on Great Britain's international relations during WW2?
- 📝 What was the value of the spice trade during the age of exploration?
- 📝 What was the liquor that was based on petrol which was produced in the USSR during the Second World War?