Thread by @thekaipullai

Post the battle of Buxar in 1765, where the East India company defeated the armies of Mir Kasim, (AKA, the SIL of Mir Jafar), the Nawab of Awadh & the Mughals, they were rewarded with the tax collection rights of India's then most prosperous provinces, Bengal, Bihar & Orissa

Getting the rights is one thing, but actually collecting the money is another. India already had an entrenched zamindari system for tax collection, which was proving a huge obstacle for the Brits.

Warren Hastings, the then Governor General quickly understood the difficulties.

So, to ensure smooth revenue collection systems, and the fact that it is the revenue collection part of it that will help the British in all other aspects, he decided to come up with a new idea, euphemistically called, Judicial Plan.

At first it didn't work.

In 1774, they updated the plan and divided Bengal into six provinces. However the question of collection still remained.

There were too many collection offices and systems.

So his successor, George Campbell, decided to do one thing.

He decided to institute an office, that is answerable to no Indian, an overall head of the but the crown appointed head. That office was supposed to be the king of that province and was in charge of pretty much everything.

No native could question them.

They were quasi gods.

And the name of the office, "Collector".

The office of the Collector was explicitly made to loot India. All the provisions were made to protect them from the repurcrussions of the loot. They could not be sacked, replaced unless the crown said so.

And crown rarely did.

In fact, till late 1800s no Indian could become a collector.

It was an imperial office, with an imperial writ which overrode any writ made by local government.

And what do we do after we become a Sovereign Country, we continue with this system.

A system explicitly designed for suppression and oppression of Indians.

Office of collector is very powerful. It is the head of government in a district. It doesn't answer to state or centrally elected leaders. It reports directly to the crown, sorry, President of India.

No state government can sack a collector. It can only transfer.

They can do whatever they want.

And some, sadly do.

Take the example of the Tripura collector. And today's video where One guy beats the crap out of a minor guy who wanted to buy Medicenes.

Both will never face any sanction for this sacrilege. The slapper might even go on to become the Secretary of Child Development, designing programs to help minors.

Unless we change this imperial system designed to loot and stunt India's growth, we will never change.

Here's that sacrilageous video. Share max

https://twitter.com/rahulroushan/status/1396140860417339392?s=19

Funny part is, delivery of central government policies is the writ of the Collector, not the local MP or the MLA.

We can change our MP and MLA, but what about the Collector.

A system, where the most powerful local Governance post is non electable, is not a democracy.

Another examples of the atrocity. Wouldn't have been out of place when East India company was ruling Bihar

https://twitter.com/iPratyush_/status/1396140658927173633?s=19