IOR/L/PS/20/CA2

Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the India Office from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1862. The letters are dated 3 January 1862-31 December 1862. The abstracts are numbered 1-140 and each have one of the following titles:

• Abstract of Letters Received from India
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from India
• Abstract of Military Letters Received from India
• Abstract of Letters Received from the Resident at Aden
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from the Resident at Aden.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence included in the volume concerns events in British India, the Persian Gulf, and Aden and the coast of East Africa, including:

• Revenue and expenditure
• Communications, such as postal services and telegraph lines
• Public works, including railways and roads, canals and river navigation, ports, irrigation, and forestry
• Land issues, including taxation, surveys, the use and sale of land, and disputes over the payment of rents
• The affairs of the Princely States, including internal administration and succession, and other dynastic affairs of local rulers
• Internal affairs, including the reorganisation of police forces and the establishment of High Courts
• Military affairs, including the recruitment and disbandment of military units, organisation and supply, the reduction of military expenditure, military reform, and the command of military units, and also the fortifications and harbour defences at Bombay [Mumbai]
• The production of crops, such as indigo, cotton and opium
• The pay and pensions of civil and military personnel in India
• Emigration from India to British and French colonies
• The 'suppression' of suttee [sati] in India
• The construction of a telegraph line in the Persian Gulf as part of a line between England and India, particularly along the Mekran [Makran] Coast in Persia [Iran]
• French activity in the Indian Ocean, including at Aden, the Red Sea, and Madagascar
• Affairs in Aden, including a dispute concerning a debt owed to the Foudtheli [Faḍlī] ruler, Sultan Ahmed [Aḥmad bin ‘Abdullāh al-Faḍlī], and proposals for the improvement of defences at Aden
• Affairs in Afghanistan, including the operations of the Ameer of Cabul [Kabul], Dost Mahomed [Dūst Muḥammad Khān Bārakzāy, Amīr of Afghanistan] against Herat
• Affairs in Burmah [Burma or Myanmar], including proposals for the establishment of a British Chief Commissionership
• Affairs in East Africa, including the trade in enslaved people at Zanzibar, and the 'massacre' of European sailors by Somalies [Somalis]
• Affairs in the Gulf, including: the intention of the Ruler of Bahrein, Sheikh Mahomed Bin Khaleefa [Hakim of Bahrain, Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah] to declare war against the Wahabees [Wahhābīs] due to a dispute with the ruler of Demaun [Damman], Mahomed Bin Abdoollah [Muḥammad bin ‘Abdullāh]; and a revolt of the Beni Sâd [Āl Sa‘d] against the Sultan of Muscat, Seyed Thoweynee [Sayyid Thuwaynī bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
• Affairs on the Northeast Frontier of India, including the military campaign against a ‘disturbance’ in the Cossyah [Khasi] and Jynteah [Jaintia] Hills, and the threat of an attack upon Darjeeling by Bhotan [Bhutan].

The primary correspondents are:

• The Government of India (Education, Electric, Financial, Foreign, General, Home, Judicial, Legislative, Marine, Political, Public Works, Railway, Revenue and Telegraph departments)
• The Governor-General of India
• The Political Resident, Aden
• The Political Agent, Zanzibar.

The abstracts were printed and bound in London, and each one includes the following colophon: ‘LONDON: Printed by GEORGE E. EYRE and WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE, Printers to the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty. For Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.’