Tod tells us, in the Rajasthan, that the illegiti mate sons of the num of Mewar are called das, literally slave. They have no rank, though they are liberally provided for. Blume signifies ac quired slavery, in contradistinction t,o gola, a hereditary slave. The gola can only marry a golee ; the lowest Rajput would refuse his daughter to a son of the rana of this kind. Tho bussee can redeem his liberty. The gola has no wish to do so, because he could not improve his condition nor overcome his natural defecta. To the bussee nothing dishonourable attaches. The class retain their employments and caste, and are. confined to no occupation, but it must be exercised with the chief's sanction. Individuals reclaimed from captivity have in gratitude given up their liberty. Communities, when this or greater evils threatened, have done the same for protection of their lives, religion, and houour. Instances exist of the population of towns being in this situation. The greater part of the inhabitants of the estate of 13ijolli were the bussee of its chief, who is of the Pramara tribe. They are his subjects. The only badge denoting the bussee is a small tuft of hair of the crown of the head. The term interpreted has nothing harsh in it, meaning occupant, dweller, or settler. The numerous towns in India called Bussee have their origin in it. Famine in the regions of Rajasthan is the great cause of loss of liberty ; thousands were sold in one great famine. The predatory system of the Pindari and mountain tribes aided to keep it up. The Muhammadan slave girl is called Londi, but when associ ating with their master is one of the haram. The das or slave may hold a. fief in Rajasthan, but he never can rise above the condition in which this defect of birth has placed him.
Nafr.—In the west of Bengal the Nafr and his offspring were slaves for ever, and were traus ferable and saleable. In Punieya the Nafr was sometimes a domestic slave, sometimes an agri cultural slave.
Slavery in British India is illegal. About the year 1811 a British officer ia authority at Dehli abolished all forms of slavery. His name and the exact date have not been handed down. But by Act v. of 7th April 1843 slavery ceased to exist, by law, in any part of British India, though in many parts the people themselves have not yet freed themselves from their bonds, though public works and railways have greatly aided them. Act v. of 1813 appeared in consequence of information obtained by the Commissioners appointed to frame a code of Criniinal Law. They reported that the proportion of slaves to freemen varied in 'lumber in different parts of British India as one sixth, one-third, or two-fifths. On many estatm most of the cultivators were slaves. 200 or 250 landholders had as many as 2000 slaves each. In Calcutta, most Muhammadan, Portuguese, Armenian, l'arsee, and Jew inhabitants possessed slaves.
In the N.W. Provinces slavery was chiefly confined to the towns, and was generally of a domestic character.
In the hill districts of Kamaon, Garliwal, and in the whole border of the Himalaya from Kashmir to Assam inclusive, also in Arakan and the Tenasserim provinces. in all the territorv bottler ing the Malay Peninsula, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, slavery was everywhere common, and in some provinces included almost the whole of the labouring population. Throughout the Tamil country, as also in Malabar and Canara, by far the greater part of the labouring, classes of the people had from time inunemorial been in a state of acknowledged bondage. Itt only three districts of the Madras Presidency was this system of bondage unknown. In Malabar and Callan the labourer was the personal slave of the proprietor, and was sold and moitgaf,,ed by him independently of his lands. In the Tamil country the labourer was the slave rather of the soil than of its owner, and was seldom sold or mortgaged except along with the land to which he was attached. In every district of Telingana, some sort of serfage or bondage and domestic slavery were then still existing.
In the southern parts of the Bombay Presidency, bordering on the Southern Mahralta country, adjoining Malabar aud Canara, and in a few of the less civilised districts of Gnjerat, there were agricultural slaves • but in the other districts of that part of India only domestic slavery pre vailed, and that was confined to the towns and to the houses of people of importance. Comparincr the above information, district by district, witrt the very imperfect estimates of the population, Sir H. B. E. Frere has estimated the total slave population of British India in 1841 at between eight and nine millions of souls. The slaves freed in the British colonies on the 1st of August 1834 were estimated at between 800,000 and 1,000,000, and the slaves in North and South America in 1860 were estimated at 4,000,000 ; so that the • number in British India far exceeded that of the same classes in all the slave-holding colonies and dominions of Great Britain and America put together ; and in that number those of Sind, the Panjab, Oudh, Nagpur, and Burma are not included, a.s these provinces have only since then been added to the empire.
The domestic slave of British India seems to have been treated at least as well as the hired servants. Self sale—of men selling themselves into slavery to secure a provision for old age, to obtain a wife, or to pay a debt—was an ordinary origin of the servile state, and this was not com patible with any prevalence of harsh treat ment, and the prevalence of caste privileges aided to protect the slaves. 1Vith the Multant madans the female slaves were liable to become concubines of their masters ; but in most Hindu castes a stigma attached to such connection, and often prevented its open avowal. But every kind of service, both domestic and outdoor, was required of slaves.