The Chingleput Ryots' Case was a prominent trial which took place in the then

Chingleput District Kancheepuram district is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The area comprising the present day Kancheepuram district was earlier a part of Chingleput district. The original Chingleput district was split in 1997 into ...

of the Madras Presidency in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

between 1881 and 1883. The action of the th M. E. Grant Duff provoked outrage all over the Presidency. Indian nationalists frequently cited the case as an example of the alleged unjust rule of the British Raj.

Origin

In May 1881, a group of ''ryots'' in the then

Chingleput district Kancheepuram district is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The area comprising the present day Kancheepuram district was earlier a part of Chingleput district. The original Chingleput district was split in 1997 into ...

accused an Indian ''

tahsildar In India and Pakistan, a Tehsildar or Mamlatdar is a tax officer accompanied by revenue inspectors. They are in charge of obtaining taxes from a tehsil with regard to land revenue. A tehsildar is also known as an executive magistrate of the relev ...

'' of extortion and filed a case against him in a local court. The ''tahsildar'' tried to threaten the ''ryots'' with dire consequences and allegedly got the

District Collector A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal reven ...

of Chingleput to prosecute them for

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. However, the ''tahsildar'' was still convicted for tampering with official records and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. The ''tahsildar'' filed a fresh appeal in the Madras High Court resulting in the reduction of the sentence from two to one year. Dissatisfied, the tahsildar appealed once again against the verdict. Though the Madras High Court refused to entertain a second appeal, the Governor of Madras intervened and issued an order on 31 May 1883 acquitting the tahsildar due to lack of evidence The District Collector of Chingleput who had allegedly shielded the corrupt ''tahsildar'' later acted as the Revenue Secretary of the Government of Madras.

Reaction

The Governor was heavily condemned and criticized by the Indian press for acquitting the corrupt ''tahsildar''. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', which had supported the ''ryots'' throughout the trial and even collected money to fight the case on their behalf, charged him with allowing the affair "to cast dirt on the fair face of British Justice". The incident was brought before the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

and Sir John Gorst, the

Under-Secretary of State for India This is a list of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State and Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Permanent Under-Secretaries of State at the India Office during the British India, period of British rule be ...

was questioned by James Tuite, the British Member of Parliament for Westmeath North in February 1887.

References

;Sources * {{cite web, title=INDIA (MADRAS)—THE COLLECTOR OF CHINGLEPUT, url=http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1887/feb/28/india-madras-the-collector-of-chingleput, date=28 February 1887, publisher=

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

Indian case law Madras Presidency Trials in India 1881 in India 1882 in India 1883 in India 1881 in British India 1882 in British India 1883 in British India