LETTER IX.
Saturday, March 20, 1813.
In searching for the causes, which have prevented an extensive introduction of the British manufactures into the countries subject to the dominion or influence of the British Crown in India, it naturally occurs; that no measure appears ever to have been concerted, for the general purpose of alluring the attention of the natives of India to the articles of European importation. This neglect, has evidently arisen from the opinions which have been so erroneously entertained, concerning the civil and religious prejudices of the Hindoos.
The evidence of Mr. Colebrooke has been adduced, to prove that those opinions are wholly unfounded; the following extracts from the Travels of Forster, in the years 1782-3, will further evince, that the Hindoos, far from entertaining any indisposition to engage in commercial dealings with strangers, have widely extended themselves in different foreign countries for that express purpose.
Herat.—"At Herat, I found in two Karavanseras about one hundred Hindoo merchants, who, by the maintenance of a brisk commerce, and by extending a long chain of credit, have become valuable subjects to the Government. When the Hindoos cross the Attock, they usually put on the dress of a northern Asiatic, being seldom seen without a long cloth coat, and a high cap[5]."
Turshish.:—"About one hundred Hindoo families, from Moultan and Jessilmere, are established in this town, which is the extreme limit of their emigration on this side of Persia. They occupy a quarter in which no Mahomedan is permitted to reside; and I was not a little surprised to see those of the Bramin sect distinguished by the appellation of Peerzadah, a title which the Mahomedans usually bestow on the descendants of their Prophet. Small companies of Hindoos are also settled at Meschid, Yezd, Kachin, Casbin, and some parts of the Caspian shore; and more extensive societies are established in the different parts of the Persian Gulf, where they maintain a navigable commerce with the western coast of India[6]."
Baku.—"A society of Moultan Hindoos, which has long been established at Baku, contributes largely to the circulation of its commerce; and, with the Armenians, they may be accounted the principal merchants of Shirwan. The Hindoos of this quarter usually embark at Tatta, a large insular town in the lower tract of the Indus; whence they proceed to Bassorah, and thence accompany the caravans, which are frequently passing into Persia: some also travel inland to the Caspian Sea, by the road of Candahar and Herat. I must here mention, that we brought from Baku five Hindoos; two of them were merchants of Moultan, and three were mendicants, a father, his son, and a Sunyassee (the name of a religious sect of Hindoos, chiefly of the Brahmin tribe). The Hindoos had supplied the little wants of the latter, and recommended him to their agents in Russia, whence, he said, he should like to proceed with me to England. The Moultanee Hindoos were going to Astrachan, merely on a commercial adventure[7]."
Astrachan.—"The Hindoos also enjoy at Astrachan every fair indulgence. They are not stationary residents, nor do they keep any of their females in this city; but, after accumulating a certain property, they return to India, and are succeeded by other adventurers. Being a mercantile sect of their nation, and occupied in a desultory species of traffic, they have neglected to preserve any record of their first settlement, and subsequent progress, in this quarter of Russia; nor is the fact ascertained, with any accuracy, by the natives of Astrachan[8]."