The people are of a decidedly warlike disposition. The bulk of the inhabitants are Hindus, though the dominant race for centuries, until the British annexa- tion, was Mohammedan. The Brahmans are now the most numerous class, but there are twenty-nine differ- ent Rajput tribes. It is these two classes that mainly supplied the famous (or infamous) sepoys of the Ben- gal army. In 1869 Oude contained 7767 Christians, 9,713,730 Hindus, 1,011,110 Mohammedans, 56 Bud- dhists, and 487,884 persons of all other creeds. Hindos- tanee is the language most in use, with a greater ad- mixture of Persian and Arabic and less of IlindQ. than in the more easterly provinces. The houses of the peo)ile are generally of mud or unburnt brick, and the walls are carried up six or seven feet above the roof, to form a sort of enclosed court for the women, which is covered during the rains by a light temporary roofing of bamboo and grass. The rooms have no ceilings, and the floors are of earth, well packed and smooth.
The most characteristic feature in the social economy of Oude is that of the village communities, each of which constitutes a little republic of itself. The payment of a land-tax is one of the oldest institutions of the countrj-. At the time of the British annexation it was supposed that the chiefs known as talukdars, who received this tax from the immediate cultivators of the soil, and paid a fixed sum on account thereof to the native govern- ment, were merely middlemen, who exacted from the villagers as much as possible, but themselves possessed no proprietary rights whatever. Acting on the assump- tion that they were only collectors of revenue, the first land settlement made under British rule, in 1856-57, dis- possessed the talukdars of nearly all their villages, and provided for tlie payment of the land-tax by the actual occupants of the soil directly to the government. The injustice of this settlement led to great dissatisfaction, and was ultimately admitted by the British authorities. The talukdars were in fact an ancient landed nobilitj', with well-establislied rights of property in the soil, which were entitled to recognition, notwithstanding the frequent extortion which had been practiced upon the subordinate proprietors. The present land settlement, completed in 1859, recognises the rights of both classes, confirming to each their possessions as they existed at the time of the annexation in 1856. According to the
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parliamentary accounts for 1871-72, it is so framed as to secure village occupants from extortion, and to exact certain duties and responsibilities from the talukdars. Half the gross rental is paid to the government. The net land revenue in 1871-72 amounted to £1,207,902. In the same year the licenses for the sale of spirits and drugs, and the excise on opium, yielded £78,100. The total revenue in 1872-73 amounted to £1,650,602; ex- penditures, £626,519. The total number of educational institutions in 1871-72 was 1548, with an average daily attendance of 37,720 pupils. They comprise the Can- ning College at Lucknow, with 720 students, of whom 56 were in the college department ; 11 high schools, and 747 village schools; 81 schools for girls, with 1908 pu- pils. The expenditure for the support of schools amount- ed to £47,420. In each school district a library is main- tained for the use of the schoolmaster; and there is said to be a school within four and a half miles of every child in Oude. There is a museum at Lucknow. Seven news- papers, four English and three native, are published in the province.
Oude is believed by Sanscrit scholars to be the an- cient Kosala, the oldest seat of civilization in India. The country was conciiiered by a INIohammedan army in 1195, and made a province of the Mogul empire. In 1753 the vizier of Oude, Saffdar-Jung, rebelled against his imperial master, Ahmed Shah, and forced the latter to make the governorship hereditarj' in his familj'. His son, Sujah-ud-Dowlah, became entirely independent, and founded a djmasty which ruled the country, generally in a most deplorable manner, until the East India Company found itself forced to adopt the extreme measure of annexation, Feb. 7, 1856. The necessity for this high- handed but most beneficent act is claimed by the Brit- ish to be interpreted by the statistics of crime in Oude during the last years of its independence. One item will suffice : from 1848 to 1854, there were, on an average, no fewer than 78 villages burned and plundered every year, while murders, robberies, abductions, and extortions were i every-day occurrences. A feeble king, a blackguard sol- diery, and a lawless peasantry had brought about a most helpless and ruinous anarchy. Many British residents in India, however, disclaimed this state of affairs, and regretted the step as unjust towards the people of Oude, and as impolitic for Britain. When the mutiny of 1857 broke out, Oude became one of the great centres of re- bellion. Upon this the confiscation of all the estates of the talukdars was proclaimed by lord Canning; but wlien the country was subdued by force of British arms the estates of all such as laid down their arms and swore fealty to the British government were restored. The forts of the petty chiefs, however, were dismantled and the inhabitants disarmed. The province is now admin- istered by a chief commissioner. The principal feature of the present condition of affairs in Oude is the preser- vation in their integrity of the estates of the talukdars. Missionary labors have been extensively carried on in Oude, and have been crowned with great success. Thus the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has by far the i most flourishing mission, has its headquarters at Luck- now, and supports an English and nati\'e church ; a press, which sent out 3,000,000 pages in 1875; a relig- ious newspaper called the Witness, with 656 subscribers ; a boarding-school, and 1000 Sunday-school scholars. We have not room here to give further details, but re- fer the reader to the art. India and the books men- tioned below.