Tamil Nadu Timeline

Law JusticeEast India Company rule

Madras Torture Commission appointed

· Chennai

A commission was appointed to investigate the torture of ryots by revenue officials in the Madras Presidency.

Peasants in many parts of the Madras Presidency were subjected to cruel treatment by revenue subordinates if they failed to pay taxes on time. Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty, with the help of the British MP H. Danby Seymour, pressed for an inquiry, and Seymour raised the matter in Parliament in July 1854. Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control, responded by appointing a Torture Commission in September 1854. Its report, submitted in 1855, confirmed the widespread use of torture in revenue and police work and led to reforms of the police. A further petition from Chetty and others was presented in the House of Lords in 1856.

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