IOR/L/PS/20/C104/2

Content Warning: This volume reflects commonly held views and prejudices of the era in which it was created. Such views and prejudices may now cause offence and upset.

‘SEISTAN [Sistan]. A MEMOIR ON THE HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, RUINS AND PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY. IN FOUR PARTS. PART IV. THE PEOPLE OF SEISTAN’ (Calcutta [Kolkata]: Superintendent Government Printing, India, 1912), by George Passman Tate.

This account is based on opinions formed via observation and information collected during a visit of the Seistan Boundary Commission of 1903-05 under Sir Arthur McMahon. The volume is divided into six chapters and covers the different tribes and families in Seistan. Included are their locations, way of life, histories and traditions, the languages they speak, and estimates of family and population numbers. At the end of Chapter VI, the following appendices are included:

• ‘APPENDIX I. (A). ‘An Abstract of the village populations, and Pāgos, of the Shahristān [Shahrestan], and Miān Kangi [location unknown] Districts, of Seistan. PERSIAN TERRITORY. 1904-05.’
• ‘APPENDIX I. (B) Abstract of the Population in the Districts of Kang [Nimroz] and of Chakansur [Nimroz] of Seistan. AFGHAN TERRITORY. 1904-05.’
• ‘APPENDIX II. “BALOCH” AND “BRAHUI.”’
• ‘APPENDIX II. THE TAJIKS OF BOKHARA [Bukhara].’
• ‘APPENDIX IV. THE JATS IN MESOPOTAMIA [Iraq] AND SYRIA.’

An index titled ‘INDEX TO NAMES OF PERSONS, TOWNS, TRIBES, RIVERS, RUINS, LOCALITIES, etc. PARTS I TO IV.’ is included after Appendix IV.

The volume contains fourteen photographs. These have been catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C104/2 f 6v, f 9v, f 11v, f 15v, f 16v, f 22v, f 26v, f 28v, f 33, f 36v, f 42, f 44v, f 47v, and f 50v. It also contains one sketch, catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/C104/2 f 39v. The volume contains multiple spellings for multiple tribe and place names.

Tate writes from an anthropological viewpoint and uses language that suggests he was influenced by eugenics and racial ‘science’, in some instances expressing opinions presented as facts.