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The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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would jump up in wild excitement and go off with their hawks
and their rifles, and leave the affairs of state to look after
themselves.
All this seems very irregular, but the system has many good
points about it, the chief of which is that the ruler and people
see each other face to face, and know each other man to man.
There is an excellent custom in Chitral, by which every man of
importance in the country is expected to come down to the
capital to attend these durbars for at least a couple of months
every year, and each village has to send a contingent to serve
the Mehtar, either in his guard or in some household capacity.
An ebb and flow of men from the provinces to the capital is
thus set up, and every man of any note becomes intimately
acquainted with the Mehtar and the Mehtar with him, and the
greater number of the lower classes also come to know their
ruler personally. So intimately, indeed, does the Mehtar in
this way become acquainted with his men, that I found Nizam-ul-
Mulk knew the name, the personal history, and the character of
nearly every man in his country. Since he was a small boy
he had attended his father's durbars, and so, seeing year after
year the relays of men coming to attend them, he had got to
know every man of any position, and most of the common
people as well. This personal intimacy between the ruler and
the ruled, and the method by which the ruler administers justice
and governs his country face to face with his people, and not
by deputy and by paper, are really good points in the system
of government in Chitral. I have related how despotic is the
authority of this Mehtar, but the reader will see that by this
system of durbars the people also have a voice in the conduct
of the affairs of the country, and it would be impossible for a
ruler to go far against the wishes of his people.
Though the Mehtar has so absolute authority, he is bound
to consult, and perhaps even defer to, the wishes of the
Adamzadas, or nobles, for he is not so much the ruler over a
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