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33 in any way, the proposed levy becomes doubly vitiated in its indiscriminate incidence,-except in the rate of the proposed levy,-on the subjects as well as visitors to the Hill, if they are Jains.
A POLL TAX.
On economic grounds, moreover, the levy attempted by the Palitana Durbar is objectionable, as it is a kind of poll tax, which the united and accumulated wisdom and experience of the rulers and statesmen of India, past and present, have combined to exclude from the tax-systems of India. The great Akbar was the first, since the advent of Muslim rule in India and the introduction of the very idea of a pilgrim tax on non-co-religionists of the ruling power, to abolish all such invidious taxes, along with the famous Jazzia of hateful association. His heirs and successors, Hindus, Mussulmans and the British have followed in his footsteps, and steered clear of the vortex of taxing the pilgrims. The exceptions to the rule, such as there have been, have been generally condemned as unwise and unstatesmanlike. The British Government have rightly and wisely kept aloof from the poll taxes of whatever kind and name, as they know full well the hateful character of such impositions. In centres like Benares, there still survives, it is true, a tax
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