Administrative of Tinnevelly 1792-1857

Administrative History of Tinnevelly 1792-1857” is a captivating theme. The author has identified it as a potential area for writing a book for Tinnevelly district has long been recognised on a miniature scale as the facsimile of the Madras Presidency and as an epicentre of Tamilnadu politics. Moreover this still remains a virgin soil for intensive study for as far as my knowledge goes no one has taken it up so far for writing any book. This is an added advantage and incentive to the author. As far as the years 1792 and 1857 are concerned they have got a special significance to this present work. Only in 1792 the English East India Company signed the historic Treaty of Carnatic with Mohammad Ali the Nawab of Arcot. By this treaty the Company took over from Mohammad Ali the revenue administration of the Carnatic which included the Tinnevelly district also. In this respect the treaty of 1792 resembles the famous Treaty of Allahabad 1765 by which the English East India Company obtained the Diwani right. The same is the case with 1857. In that eventful year the British Crown took over the administration of the whole of British India from East India company and Tinnevelly too shared the same fate. The Carnatic Treaty of 1792 and the suppression of the poligari rebellion paved the way for the Company’s implementation of its administrative reforms. By 1801 the whole of the Carnatic and the Tinnevelly region came under the English East India Company. Mohammad Ali finally handed over to the English not only the sovereign power but also the whole management of revenues. Since then the English concentrated their efforts on the consolidation of their authority through a relatively better administrative machinery effective land revenue system and a well-organised judiciary. An efficient police system was entrusted with the maintaining of law and order. Prison in the formal sense of the term and prison administration in India were the British innovations. The British take over of Tinnevelly thus marked a transition from pre-modern era to modern times. To put it in a nutshell all activities of the English East India Company centered on collection of land revenue administration of justice controlling of famines pestilences and crimes and imparting of education. A critical study of the administration of Tinnevelly under the English East India Company is of great significance for it ushered in an era of peace and prosperity by setting in motion forces which soon radically changed the pre-modern Tinnevelly region into a modern administrative division under the colonial rule even though the British did not fail to serve their own vested interests. Of course there are several works like H.R. Pate’s The Madras District Gazetteers: Tinnevelly (Madras: Government Press 1917) B.S. Baliga’s Studies in Madras Administration (Madras: Government Publications 1960) and R. Caldwell’s A History of Tinnevelly reprint (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services 1982) dealing with Tinnevelly. But they do not furnish adequate data for the present work. Caldwell simply narrates the general aspects of historical developments upto 1802 and much importance has not been given to its administration. Likewise Pate. He simply outlines the general features of the Company’s administration in the Tinnevelly district leaving the other aspects untouched. Therefore having felt the need to fill the gaps the scholar has ventured to do further research on the Tinnevelly district making use of several new source materials hitherto untapped.