
Fourth Days of Proceedings Trail of Bahadur Shah - Petition of Mathura Das and Salig Ram Merchants of Delhi
Fourth Days of Proceedings Trail of Bahadur Shah - Petition of Mathura Das and Salig Ram Merchants of Delhi
Secret Papers
MARC-12042023-419
April 13, 2023 at 2:43:04 AM
National archives of India
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Fourth Days of Proceedings Trail of Bahadur Shah - Petition of Mathura Das and Salig Ram Merchants of Delhi
The National Archives of India is located at the intersection of Rajpath and Janpath Road
Foreign
August 23 , 1857
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Mutiny
0.1
3
April 11, 2023 at 8:00:00 PM
Mohammed Abdulkarim
English

The Translation and Comment
by
Mohammed Abdulkarim:
of Original Document:
ABSTRACT OF PETITION, ON THE FACE, ABOVE THE ADDRESS,
We slaves, selling our culinary vessels, and overcoming thousand difficulties, have already paid Rupees 7,500 in thefirst instance to Your Majesty, and in the second to Miza Khair Sultan Bahadur. The Members of the Court and the Officers of the Army, intent on our ruin, now demand a third payment. We therefore pray that Your Majesty’s injunctions may be Jaid on the servants of the State and the Officers of the Army, to refrain from imposing any further demands on these faithful slaves.
To--The King ! Shelter of the World !
RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH,—That let it not be hidden from your divine Majesty’s knowledge that, previous to this, Your Majesty’s commands were laid on us, your faithful slaves, to pay 6,000 Rupeesinto the Treasury; and we were told that we should be subjected to no further demand. Your slave’s house had been previously plundered of every thing it con- tained, and of all we possessed, by the Soldiery and other people, on the day of the arrival of the troops from Meerut in Delhi, and all our banking and mercantile transactions were, in consequence, utterly ruined and suspended. Unable therefore though we were to meet Your Majesty’s commands, nevertheless that Your Majesty’s orders should be obeyed, we sold such articles of Jewellery, culinary vessels, &c , as still remained in our possession, and borrowing besides to make up the full sum, we paid the money into the Royal Treasury on the 3rd and 5th of June 1857. Recently again, the Commander-in-Chief Bahadur, and Mirza Khair Sultan Bahadur placed us under strict and pre-emptory injunctions to make asecond money payment, to meet the expenses of the Army. Feeling our utter helplessness, after a thousand difficulties we succeeded in making up 1,500 Rupees, which we gave to the said Royal Princes, obtaining in return a receipt, together with anorder, under the seal and signature of Mirza Muhammad Khair Sultan Bahadur (may his prestige last for ever) that no further demand was, on any account, to be made on us by the servants of the State, or by the Officers of the Army. Not withstanding all this, the Members of the Court and the other Officers of the Army now a third time require money from your faithful slaves, and are determined on their ruin whereas we, Your Majesty’s well-wishers, have no protection, but that of God, or Your Majesty; and whereas on two former occasions, despite the difficulties we had to overcome, we obeyed Your Majesty’s orders and paid money into the Treasury, and whereas we are now with difficulty able to procure even the daily necessaries of life, we therefore present this petition, and pray that according to the claims of justice, and the dictates of Your Majesty’s desire to foster the poor, Your Majesty will be pleased to issue orders to all the servants of the State and the Officers of the Army, to refrain from imposing this third demand on your slaves, as also to desist from their endeavours to ruin your slaves by these repeated demands, which they try to enforce by every means of coercion. so that thus obtaining justice, we may pray for the increase of Your Majesty’s wealth and power. Otherwise, in consequence of the dread of degradation, and from their inability to raise the funds required, the lives of your slaves will be sacrificed. It was necessary, and has therefore been submitted. (Prayers for the prosperity of the reign.) Petition of the slaves Mathura Das and Salig Ram, Merchants of Delhi. Signatures of the firm of Mathura Das and Salig Ram in the Hindi mercantile character.