Augustus Cleveland
Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
Augustus Cleveland was the Collector of Bhagalpur in the 1780s. A collector was the Company's chief revenue official in a district. He replaced the brutal policy of the 1770s, when the British hunted down and killed Paharias, with a policy of pacification, which means calming a group down by making deals with it. His policy changed the way Paharia chiefs related to their own people.
Example
In the 1780s Cleveland offered Paharia chiefs of the Rajmahal hills an annual allowance. In return, they had to keep their men in order. Many chiefs refused. Those who accepted lost respect in their community, which now saw them as stipendiary chiefs, meaning paid servants of the colonial government.
Don't confuse with
- Francis Buchanan: a Company surveyor who travelled through the Rajmahal hills in 1810–11 and wrote about the region. He was not the official who made Paharia policy.
Related concepts
- Paharia
- Rajmahal hills
- Shifting cultivation
- Paharia pacification policy
- Stipendiary chief
- William Hodges
- Aquatint
- Picturesque