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Dimapur Bazar - Hindus and religious questions; opium passes; ruination of jhum land by oil company |
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1/4/1926 To Nichuguard after visiting the bazar. The Kayas object to the well being covered in, and they will not be able to draw water in a bucket for religious purposes. Apparently water that comes through piping is profane. As it is their will and they are paying half the cost and society will suffer little if they all die I see no reason why they should not compass their own funerals if they wish, and propose to have a lid of wood over the well and to raise the water in an endless chain instead of a pump. This will, I think, obviate a pukka covering to the well. The next area to be metalled in the Mussalman quarter, from Sadaram's by-pass to the Masjid. I hope there will be fund [sic] this year. The Hindus have had everything so far. Mattresses, table napkins, easy chair and mosquito nets are needed for the Inspection Bungalow at Dimapur. If I remember rightly I sent the extra Assistant Commissioner to Dimapur last rains to check the furniture and report on necessary replacements. I do not think I have yet had the report from him. |
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On the way past old Dimapur I ordered Abdul Ghafur to remove his porch from constructing [sic obstructing] public road. He proceeded with his usual impudence to claim that the road was his and he made it. Also that he had actually withdrawn his fence from the real boundary of his land to a line within the land, which is hardly what one expects of a Sylheti cultivator. I observed that he had just erected a most superior house of tin and nahor while applying (repeatedly) to my court to be allowed to appeal against a decision without paying court fees - on the ground of poverty. |
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Some Kacharis came for opium passes. They have apparently migrated from Golaghat Sub Division, where they held passes, but cannot produce the same. They are obviously kaniyas, and both elderly. Meanwhile they seem to have got some of their supplies from Dadu Singh and Jilimili Sonar, who are registered eaters of Dimapur. |
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At Nichuguard I went up to the Whitehall Petroleum Corporations' borings. One boring I am glad to say has proved a failure. The second has gone down to 1300 ft. and so far found nothing but mild oily shrills and sandstone. They are now proposing to bore further south and want to make a road there and take up land for buildings etc. A prospecting licence is a fraud. It merely suggests innocuous peregrinations with a hammer chipping rocks or brandishing a divining rod. As a matter of fact it entails a quasi-permanent occupation of a considerable area, the erection of elaborate machinery and buildings, and the felling of much forest and the clearing of cultivatable land. A deputation came in from three villages north of the river saying that they would not have the oil company on their land at any price. As a matter of fact the company invariably picks out the best jhum land - i.e. the top of low tilas to drill their poles or build their roads, and the villages north of the Diphu are very short of cultivatable land in any case. In the evening I disposed of several cases and petitions. |
