IOR/L/PS/20/CA12

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 1872. The letters are dated December 1871-December 1872. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

• Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Bushire [Bushehr]
• Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire
• Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar, Bushire and Aden
• Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar
• Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and 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 covers issues including:

• Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway in Persia [Iran], and irrigation
• Issues concerning Princely States, including internal administration and issues of succession
• Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
• Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
• Banking and finance
• Telegraphy
• Education, including efforts at promoting literature, science, and art by the Government of India
• Judicial affairs, including the trial of Wahabee [Wahhabī] leaders in Bengal
• Land issues, including: the cultivation of cinchona, coffee, and opium; coal mining; land administration and revenue settlements
• Issues concerning emigration from India to British, French, and Dutch colonies, and the proposed emigration of Indian labourers to Cuba
• A cholera epidemic in Bengal
• A cyclone in Madras [Chennai]
• Frontier affairs, including a rebellion against the Khan of Khelat [Kalat], conflict and negotiation with Wuzeeree [Wazīrī] tribes on the Northwest Frontier; the question of maintaining the garrison in Peshawur [Peshawar]; an expedition against the Looshai [Mizo people] and a planned expedition to the Garo Hills on the Northeast Frontier
• Military affairs, including the supply of military units
• An insurrection of the Kookas [Namdharis/Kuka Sikhs] in Punjab, including the case of the summary execution of insurgents by John Lambert Cowan, Deputy Commissioner of the Loodiana [Ludhiana] District
• The assassination of the Earl of Mayo, Viceroy and Governor-General of India, in Port Blair
• Affairs in Persia, including the arbitration of the Mekran [Makran] and Seistan [Sistan] borders, the proposed secondment of British officers to the Persian army, famine, and Persia’s relations with Turkey
• Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of the Sultan Syud Toorkee [Sayyid Turkī bin Sa’īd Āl Bū Sa’īd] and the loss of Charbar [Chabahar] and Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas] to Persia
• Affairs in Zanzibar, including: the slave trade; the delegating of customs management to Jairam Sewjee; the issue of the Zanzibar Subsidy to Muscat; and correspondence with the missionary Dr David Livingstone in Central Africa
• Affairs in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, including: the Turkish [Ottoman] campaign in Nejd [Najd] and suspected Turkish designs on Bahrein [Bahrain]; and the settlement of Odeyd [Khor al-Udayd], claimed by Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi], by an independent tribe;
• Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including transit dues on roads and the proposed colonisation of Socotra by Italy
• Affairs in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], including tribal insurgency and alleged trade in enslaved people at Bussorah [Basra]
• Affairs in Central Asia, including the Russian advance, the visits of envoys from Bokhara [Bukhara] and Yarkund [Yarkant] to India, and negotiations with Russia concerning the northern boundary of Affghanistan [Afghanistan]
• Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar]
• The Panthay Rebellion in China.

The primary correspondents are:

• The Government of India
• The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
• The Resident at Aden
• The Political Resident in the Persian Gulf
• The Political Agent in Muscat
• The Political Agent in Zanzibar.