§1. India in 1600. §2. British at Surat and Masulipatam: Commercial
and Social Life, 1612-1638. §3. Rise and Growth of Madras, 1639-1680:
Portuguese and Dutch Neighbours. §4. British Rule and
Representative Government, 1686. §5. Mixed Corporation of Europeans
and Natives, 1688. §6. Slavery and the Slave Trade in India.
§7. Madras, Surat, Bombay, and Hughly. §8. Collision with the Great
Mogul, 1686-1700. §9. Domestic Administration, 1700-1746. §10.
Wars against France in Southern India, 1746-1756. §11. The Black
Hole at Calcutta, June, 1756.
Rise of British rule.
The rise of British rule in India is a problem
in history. A single association of British traders
established factories which grew into fortresses, and
governed native towns which became the capitals of
a British empire. The march of events is without
a parallel in the annals of the world. In 1600 the
East India Company obtained from Queen Elizabeth a
charter of exclusive rights to trade in the Eastern seas.
In 1612 it established its first factory at Surat. In
1639 it began to build a fortified factory at Madras,
whilst a Hindu population of weavers and other
manufacturers grew up by its side. Before the
beginning of the eighteenth century, before Queen
Anne ascended the throne of Great Britain, the
British settlements at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta
had each a fortress and a town. How Hindu and
Mohammedan populations were ruled by British
traders will be told in the present chapter. How
the British traders acquired provinces and established
an empire belongs to the after chapters.
Northern India:
the Great Mogul.
§1. In 1600 the whole of Northern India was under
the dominion of a Mohammedan sovereign, known as
the Great Mogul. His revenues and armies were
the marvel of Europe. His empire extended from
the mountains of Cashmere to the Bay of Bengal,
from the slopes of the Himalayas to the tableland
of the Deccan. It covered large Hindu populations
and many Hindu principalities, for throughout this
vast area the Great Mogul was sovereign lord of all,
the emperor, the Padishah.
Southern India:
Mohammedan Sultans and Hindu Rajas.
South of the Mogul empire was the Deccan or
"south." The country was a terra incognita to
Europeans. The interior had been conquered by Mohammedan
invaders from the north, and distributed
into kingdoms under Sultans, who formed a barrier
against the Moguls. East and west were hills and
jungles stretching to the sea, mostly held by Hindu
Rajas who were hostile alike to the Sultans and the
Great Mogul. Mohammedan rule, however, had
never as yet extended further south than the river
Kistna. The whole region from the Kistna to Cape
Comorin—sometimes known as the "Peninsula"—was
under the dominion of Hindu Rajas.
Portuguese fortresses.
The western coast of the Deccan and Peninsula
was dotted with Portuguese fortresses, mounted with
cannon and garrisoned by Portuguese soldiers. The
Portuguese had made their way to India round the
Cape of Good Hope about the end of the fifteenth
century, and for a hundred years had been building
factories in the territories of Hindu Rajas, and converting
them into fortresses. Nothing of the kind
would have been allowed by the Great Mogul, or
by the Sultans of the Deccan, but the Portuguese
had persuaded the Hindu Rajas that they would
help and protect them, and the Rajas never saw
the danger until the fortresses were bristling with
cannon and opposition was useless. The Portuguese
capital was seated on the island of Goa, about
half-way between Surat and Comorin, and was a
centre of the Catholic religion as well as of
Portuguese trade.[1]
British traders at Surat.
§2. British merchants in the service of the East
India Company would gladly have traded on the same
sea-board, which was known as the coast of Malabar,
but they were shut out by the Portuguese fortresses.
Accordingly they sailed further northward, and tried
to get a footing in the Mogul port of Surat. This
port was a centre of the Mohammedan religion and
an emporium of Mogul trade. It was the starting-point
for all pilgrims going to Mecca, and the point
to which they returned when their pilgrimage was
over. It was the rendezvous of Mogul merchants
who despatched ships to the Persian Gulf and Red
Sea, and sent goods overland to the great capitals
of the Mogul empire—Agra, Delhi, and Lahore.
British defeat the Portuguese.
At Surat, however, the British were thwarted by
the Portuguese. The Nawab of Surat was told that
the British were pirates. The merchants of Surat were
threatened with the capture of their ships if they
had any dealings with the British. Fighting was the
only way of meeting the difficulty. Accordingly the
British attacked a Portuguese fleet outside the bar of
Surat. The news of battle and the roar of cannon
brought the Nawab, the merchants, and half the
population of Surat to the sea-shore. The British
sunk or burnt several Portuguese ships until the
residue of the fleet steered back to Goa. The
Moguls were fascinated by the victory. They saw
that the British had not only superior strength on
their side, but Allah and kismet. The Nawab of Surat
feasted the conquerors in his tents on the sands, and
the Surat merchants eagerly bought British cargoes
and supplied Indian commodities to the brave men
who had beaten the Portuguese.
British factory at Surat, 1612.
In 1612 the British set up a factory at Surat in a
large Indian house, with warehouses and offices below
and chambers and refection-rooms above. It was a
London establishment transferred to a Mohammedan
seaport. The British merchants, factors, and writers
lodged and boarded together like members of one
family. Native brokers or banyans were employed
to buy cotton goods, silks, indigo, and other Indian
commodities; whilst public auctions were held in the
factory for the sale of British broadcloths, glass and
cutlery, especially sword-blades, and also for the
sale of lead, copper, quicksilver, and other European
commodities. The spirit of enterprise was as busy
amongst the British as in after years. One factor
urged the Company to send ships up the river Indus
and open up a trade with Central Asia; whilst another
tried to persuade the Great Mogul to lay down leaden
pipes from the river Jumna to the city of Ajmere, a
distance of more than two hundred miles, in order to
convey drinking-water to the imperial palace in the
heart of Rajputana.
Factory life.
In those early days no British ladies were allowed
to reside in India. If a servant of the Company
happened to be married he was obliged to leave his
wife in England. The "English House," as it was
called, was thus a bachelor establishment, without
ladies, but not without Surat punch or Persian wine.
An English chaplain read prayers every morning and
evening, and preached two sermons on Sundays. An
English surgeon attended the sick factors, and the
Mogul authorities and other grandees often applied
for his services, and thus enabled him to promote
the Company's interests on more than one important
occasion. The chief of the factory was known as the
President, but all business was transacted by the
President with the help of four or five senior merchants,
who met twice a week in council. This
management of affairs by a President in Council has
survived the lapse of nearly three centuries. To this
day the government of presidencies and the vice-royalty
of India are in each case carried on by a
President in Council.
Foreign guests.
Within a few years the "English House" at Surat
was well known to all European sea-captains and
voyagers. Not only British travellers, but Italians,
Germans, and Frenchmen, were heartily welcomed by
the honest factors at Surat. All were impressed with
the order and regularity of the establishment, in
which decorum and discipline were as strictly maintained
as in Leadenhall Street or the Cheape. But
when working hours were over the grave men of
business proved to be convivial Britons of the old-fashioned
type, and on Friday evenings especially, all
the married men met together to drink the health of
their absent wives to the detriment of their own.
Foreign guests who could not speak the English
tongue were in no want of amusement. In 1638
a young gentleman from Holstein, named Mandelslo,
spent some months in the "English House," and
passed the time very pleasantly, visiting the ships
at anchor outside the bar of the river Tapty, and
hearing the latest news of Europe from sea-captains
versed in many languages, or wandering down the
row of banyans' shops, which often contained as
much wealth, hidden under dirt and squalor, as
the houses of London merchants and goldsmiths.
On Sundays, after sermon, the factors carried off
their guest to their gardens outside Surat, where
they all shot at butts, and were regaled with fruit
and conserves.
British and Moguls.
The European gentlemen at Surat were always
polite to Mohammedan grandees, and were generally
politely treated in return, excepting perhaps at the
custom-house. British sailors and ill-mannered
Englishmen would, however, occasionally show a
contempt for Asiatics, which the President could
not always restrain. British interlopers on the high
seas set the Company's charter at defiance, and
carried on a lawless trade, plundering the Mohammedan
pilgrim ships and ill-treating the passengers.
The Mogul authorities insisted that the Company's
servants were to blame, and would listen to no
explanation, but sent large bodies of Mogul soldiery
to environ the "English House," and stop all trade,
cutting off all food and water, until a sufficient fine
or ransom had been paid.
Trade on the eastern coast.
About 1620 the East India Company established
another factory at Masulipatam on the eastern side
of India. The Hindus along the coast of Coromandel
were famous for painting muslins and calicoes, and
there was a growing demand for such goods amongst
the eastern islands, whilst valuable cargoes of nutmegs
and other spices could be obtained in exchange. But
Masulipatam was seated in Mohammedan territory.
A Sultan of the Deccan, reigning at Golconda, had
extended his dominion eastward to the coast of
Coromandel, and established the port of Masulipatam
for the importation of horses from the Persian Gulf.
The traders at the British factory were therefore
cramped and worried by the Mohammedan
authorities, and yearned to effect a settlement on
the territories of some Hindu Raja further south,
where they could fortify a factory and mount it
with British cannon without the interference of local
authorities.
British territory and fortress at Madras,
1639.
§3. In 1639 a British merchant named Day bought
a strip of territory on the Coromandel coast, about
300 miles to the south of Masulipatam. It was
within the dominions of a Hindu Raja, and was
about six miles long and one mile inland. It included
a small island, which faced the sea and was
defended on the land side by a river. Mr. Day
agreed to pay the Raja a rent of 500l. a year in
native coin known as pagodas, and the transaction
was duly engraved on a plate of gold. A factory of
brick was built upon the island, and mounted with
cannon, and called Fort St. George. The Raja was
perfectly content. He was too glad to get a rent
of 500l. a year to raise any difficulty as regards
fortifications or cannon.
Fort St. George and Black Town.
This factory was the germ of the city of Madras,
on the coast of Coromandel. Weavers, washers,
painters, and hosts of other Hindu artisans, flocked to
the spot and eagerly entered the service of the
British, and began to set up their looms and to
weave, wash, and paint their cotton goods in the
open air beneath the trees. Villages of little huts of
mud and bamboo soon grew up on the sandy soil to
the north of the island and factory. Each avocation
formed a caste, which generally had its own quarters
and its own headman. In this manner a Hindu
settlement grew up by the side of Fort St. George
and was known as Black Town; and the whole
locality, including Fort St. George and Black Town,
was called Madras, and was the first territory acquired
by the East India Company in India.
Despotic rule.
The transition of the British traders from a factory
under Mohammedan control to an independent
settlement of their own must have been a grateful
change. The President and Council at Fort St.
George were de facto rulers of the whole settlement,
native as well as European, with all the powers of
despotic princes and with no interference from
without. They acted as a supreme court of judicature
for Englishmen in all cases civil and criminal;
no Englishman, however, could be condemned to
death unless convicted of piracy, which was regarded
as the most heinous of crimes. On all other capital
charges the Englishman was sent to England for
trial.[2]
Portuguese and Dutch neighbours.
Four miles to the south of Fort St. George was
the Portuguese town of St. Thomé; but the Portuguese
were now friends with the English. Their
power was being overshadowed by that of the Dutch,
who had founded a town and fortress at Pulicat,
nearly thirty miles to the northward of Fort St.
George.
Dutch trade in India.
The Dutch settlements in India were the outcome
of the hostility of Spain. For centuries the Dutch
had been the carriers of Europe, from the Mediterranean
to the Baltic. In the period which
preceded the sixteenth century they had bought
Indian commodities at Genoa, Naples and Venice.
After the Portuguese established a trade in India, the
Dutch went every year to Lisbon to buy Indian
commodities for the European markets. In 1580
they threw off the yoke of Spain, and founded the
United Provinces. That same year Spain and Portugal
were formed into one kingdom under Philip II.
In an evil hour for Portuguese interests in India,
Philip thought to punish the Dutch by shutting them
out of Lisbon. The Dutch revenged themselves by
sailing round the Cape and buying what they wanted
in the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. In 1600
they built a factory in Java, which grew into the
city of Batavia. In 1610 they built a square fort
on the Pulicat Lake, which grew into the town of
Pulicat and threatened to become the capital of
Dutch ascendency in India.
Right and Left Hands.
The Indian quarter at Madras was almost entirely
Hindu. Scarcely a Mohammedan took up his abode
within the Company's bounds. Accordingly one of
the earliest acts of the President and Council was to
divide the streets of Black Town into those of the
right and left hand. All over Southern India, the
lower castes of Hindus are divided into Right and
Left Hands, and yet no one can account for the
distinction, or satisfactorily define the respective
rights of each Hand.
The so-called Hands are, however, intensely jealous
of each other. For generations each Hand in the
towns of Southern India has had its own streets and
its own pagoda. At Madras, if one Hand passed
in religious procession along the streets of the other
Hand, or if the members of one Hand chanted
Hindu hymns or mantras before the pagoda of the
other, a fray would break out in Black Town, which
could only be suppressed by British soldiers, and
then would be followed by a strike of weavers or
painters, or the flight of all the members of one Hand
to the Portuguese settlement at St. Thomé. These
conflicts, which more than once brought the settlement
to the brink of ruin, reached a climax in
Governor Pitt's time, as will appear hereafter.
Mohammedan invasion.
Meanwhile, the country round about Madras was
in a state of turmoil. The Mohammedan army of the
Sultan of Golconda was advancing against the Hindu
Rajas of the south, and formed a camp in the
neighbourhood. The Raja who had sold the territory
to the East India Company fled away to the interior,
and was never heard of more. The Mohammedan
army captured the Portuguese town of St. Thomé,
dismantled the walls of the fortress, and carried off
the cannon to Golconda; and they would have
treated Fort St. George in like fashion, had not the
British stoutly resisted, and quieted the Sultan by
engaging to pay him the rent which they had previously
paid to the Raja.
Troubles with Dutch and French, 1670.
About 1670, or some thirty years after the
foundation of Madras, the state of affairs was complicated
by Charles II.'s unholy alliance with France
against the Dutch. A French fleet attacked St.
Thomé and drove out the Mohammedans. A Dutch
fleet from Pulicat recaptured St. Thomé, drove out
the French, and restored the place to the Sultan of
Golconda. The British settlement was in sore peril;
but in 1674 there was peace between Great Britain
and Holland, and the danger was over.
Increase of population.
These troubles brought many strangers to Madras,
and the population, white and black, was largely
increased. Many Portuguese families from St.
Thomé took refuge in Madras, and added to the
strength of the European settlement, known as
White Town, by building houses under the protection
of the factory guns. The British factors and
soldiers of the garrison married the daughters of
the Portuguese, much to the horror of the English
chaplain of Fort St. George, as the marriages were
accompanied by numerous conversions of bridegrooms
to the Catholic faith. At the same time
wealthy Hindu traders and bankers began to build
substantial houses in Black Town for the sake of
British protection. Many invested their money in
trading voyages; some acted as brokers or banyans
for the supply of Indian commodities to the Company's
servants; others bought European goods at the
public auctions, and supplied the native dealers up
country.
Fort St. George, 1670-86.
§4. Within forty years of the building of the
British factory, Madras was the pride and glory of
the East India Company. Fort St. George, or White
Town, was a European city in miniature. The
primitive factory in the centre was replaced by a
stately mansion with a dome, which was known as
the Governor's House, but included a town-hall, a
council-chamber, and sundry offices. It was seated
in an open square, having a strong wall along each of
its four sides, guards' houses, and bastions at each
corner mounted with cannon. Outside the fortification
were little streets, paved with pebbles, containing
about fifty European houses. There was also a
Protestant church for the English inhabitants, and
a Catholic chapel for the Portuguese residents. The
whole of White Town was environed by an outer
wall, sufficiently fortified to keep off an Indian army.
None but Britons, or Europeans under British protection,
were permitted to reside in White Town.
The garrison consisted of two companies of European
soldiers, and a large number of native guards, who
were known as peons.
Hindu town under British rule.
At this time the population of the native town was
estimated at 300,000 souls, but was probably half
that number, and an attempt was made to introduce
something like a representative government.
Whenever the Governor and Council desired to
know the wishes of the people generally, or to act
with their consent, they summoned the headmen
of castes, and consulted them accordingly. Justice,
however, was administered by two English gentlemen,
who sat twice a week in Black Town in a building
known as the Choultry. The Justices of the Choultry
tried all offences and disputes amongst the Hindus,
and fined, flogged, or imprisoned at discretion. The
old English punishments of the stocks, the pillory,
and the gallows were also in full force in Black Town,
but no Hindu was executed without the confirmation
of the Governor and Council. The Justices of the
Choultry were bound by no code of laws; they were
simply instructed by the Directors of the Company in
England to decide all cases, civil and criminal, according
to "equity and good conscience," guided by
English law and their own experiences of Hindu
customs and usages.[3] A Hindu superintendent of
police was appointed under the title of "Pedda
Naik," or "elder chief;" and he was bound to maintain
a certain number of constables known as peons,
and keep the peace of the town. He was expected
to prevent theft and burglary, and either to recover
stolen property, or to pay the value to the owner.
In return, the Pedda Naik was allowed to cultivate a
few fields rent free, and to levy a small octroi duty,
or toll, on articles of Hindu consumption.
Protection of Hindus.
The main difficulty at Madras was to keep the
peace between the European soldiers of the garrison
and the Hindu population. Any European soldier
who remained outside the Fort at night time was set
publicly in the stocks for a whole day. Any European
who attempted to get over the Fort walls, was imprisoned
in irons for one entire month, and kept on
rice and water. Any soldier who threatened to
strike a Hindu was whipped. Any European who took
an article out of a shop or bazaar, under pretence of
buying it at his own price, was sentenced to pay
treble the value to the party aggrieved.
Question of taxation.
Another difficulty was to keep the streets of Black
Town clean and wholesome. The Governor and
Council summoned the heads of castes, and proposed
to levy a small tax on every house. The heads
assented to the measure, but offered to carry out the
work themselves, and to raise the necessary funds in the
same way that they levied contributions from their
respective castes for defraying the cost of public
festivals. All this, however, was a blind on their
part to delude the British Governor and Council.
Nothing was done by the heads of castes, no money
was collected, and the streets were dirtier than ever.
Contumacy of heads of castes.
Meanwhile Madras was threatened by the Sultan of
Golconda, and the Directors in England instructed the
Governor and Council at Madras to build a wall round
Black Town, and meet the cost by levying a small
ground-rent from each householder. In this case no
difficulty was anticipated. The Hindus might ignore
the importance of sanitation, but they could scarcely
refuse to contribute towards the defence of their
lives and property, to say nothing of their wives
and families. The heads of castes, however, raised
strong objections, but found that the Governor was
bent on carrying out the orders of the Court of
Directors. The heads of castes were told that the
rents must be paid, and that those who refused to pay
must be prepared to sell their houses and leave the
British settlement. At this threat they all promised
to pay, but secretly prepared for a general uprising.
Hindu rebellion, 1686.
Suddenly, one Sunday morning, the 3rd of January,
1686, it was known in Fort St. George that the Hindu
population of Black Town were rebelling in Asiatic
fashion. Under the orders of the heads of castes, the
Hindu servants of the Company had thrown up their
duties, bazaar dealers had shut up their shops, and
provisions and grain were kept out of the town. The
Governor in Fort St. George sent a detachment of the
British garrison to guard the entrances to Black Town
and suppress the tumult. Proclamation was made
by beat of drum that unless the heads submitted
before sunset, their houses would be pulled down on
the following morning, the sites sold by auction, and
the rebels and their families banished for ever.
Hindus who failed to return to their duties would be
discharged from the Company's service; dealers who
kept their shops closed would be heavily fined and all
their goods confiscated. These peremptory orders had
the desired effect. The heads of castes seemed to be
completely cowed. Before sunset they appeared at
the Fort and begged pardon for their rebellion, and
were told to put an end to the tumult in Black Town.
Wholesome despotism.
Next morning the heads of castes returned to the
Fort and presented a petition, begging to be relieved
from the payment of the ground-rent. Each man
was asked in turn whether he would leave the town,
and each in turn said that he would submit, and then
the whole body declared with one voice that they
would not pay the tax. Proclamation was at once
made by beat of drum that the orders of Sunday
would be immediately put in execution. The Hindus
bent to the storm. They saw that they were at the
mercy of their British rulers. The shops were opened,
provisions were brought into the town, and all the
artisans and servants of the Company returned to
their duties. The ground-rents were collected without
demur, and later on the scavenger-tax was raised
without difficulty.
Mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, 1688.
§5. When the news of these disturbances reached
England, the Directors in Leadenhall Street, or rather
their once celebrated chairman, the great Sir Josiah
Child, devised a scheme for rendering municipal
taxation acceptable to the native population. A
charter was obtained from James II. for founding
a corporation in Madras, consisting of a mayor,
twelve aldermen, and sixty burgesses; but it was
suggested by the Court of Directors that the heads of
Hindu castes, as well as Britons, might be appointed
aldermen and burgesses, and it was hoped that the
corporation would be willing to tax themselves and
the inhabitants generally, for keeping the town clean,
improving the public health, building a guild-hall
and hospitals, and establishing schools for teaching
the English tongue to Hindus, Mohammedans, and
other Indian children. Before the Governor and
Council at Madras could offer a single suggestion,
they received instructions cut and dried. The mayor
and three senior aldermen were always to be covenanted
British servants of the East India Company,
and they alone were to be Justices of the Peace. The
remaining nine might belong to any nationality, and
included Portuguese, Hindu, and Jewish merchants
having dealings with the Company at Madras. Thirty
burgesses were named in the charter, but they were
all Englishmen; and the remainder were to include
the heads of all the castes, so as to induce the whole
of the Hindu inhabitants to contribute cheerfully to
the public works already specified. The mayor and
aldermen were to wear red silk gowns, and the
burgesses white silk gowns, and maces were to be
carried before the mayor. In a word, all the paraphernalia
of an English municipality in the seventeenth
century were sent to Madras to be adopted
by the new corporation.
Corporation festivities.
The new municipality was inaugurated with much pomp
and ceremony in 1688, the year of the glorious
Revolution. The Governor of Madras was outside
the corporation, but the mayor and three senior
aldermen were members of council. On Saturday,
the 29th of September, 1688, the Governor received
the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses in the council-chamber
at Fort St. George. The members of the
new corporation then took the oaths and sat down to
a corporation dinner; and after a while they all
marched to the town-hall in their several robes, with
the maces before the mayor. Nothing, however, is
said about the heads of castes, and nothing more
about the burgesses.
Failure of municipal rule.
The mayor and aldermen were to be a Court of
Record, with power to try all causes, criminal and
civil, in a summary way, according to "equity and
good conscience," and such laws and orders as might
be made by the Company. The corporation were
authorised to levy taxes for building a guild-hall, a
public jail, and a school-house for teaching English,
arithmetic, and merchants' accounts to Indian children,
and for payment of the necessary salaries. Henceforth,
two aldermen sat as justices of the Choultry;
but the corporation raised no tax and founded no
institution, and eventually died out from sheer want
of vitality.
Slavery under Hindu rule.
§6. All this while the slave trade was an institution
in Madras, and indeed, throughout Southern India.
In most of the Hindu kingdoms of the Peninsula, the
farm-labourers were slaves or serfs attached to the
soil; they were probably aboriginal populations who
had been reduced to slavery by their conquerors.
Prisoners of war, male and female, were also compelled
to serve the conquerors as domestic servants,
and treated as slaves of the family.
Mohammedan slavery.
When Turks and Afghans introduced Mohammedan
rule, slavery was recognised, but Hindu slaves might
raise their condition by embracing Islam, and the
converts might become important personages in the
household, and marry female members of the family.
The favourites of a grandee or Sultan might even
marry a daughter, and rise to the rank of steward of
the household or minister of state, like Joseph in the
court of the Pharaohs.
Mogul restrictions.
When the Moguls established their dominion over
Northern India there was a change for the better. It
was a fundamental law of the Moguls that no
subject should be enslaved, but only captives taken
in war. This law was still enforced when the
Moguls became Mohammedans, for they always
looked upon the slavery of subjects with horror,
whatever might be their race or religion. Foreign
slaves, male and female, provided they were not
Mohammedans, were sold by private dealers, or in the
public bazaar.[4]
Portuguese slave trade.
Unfortunately, the Portuguese and other nations of
Europe had not as yet awakened to the iniquity of
slavery and the slave trade. During the Portuguese
wars in Africa, Moors and Negroes were carried off as
prisoners of war and sold as slaves in Lisbon. In
India the Portuguese established depôts for the
purchase of slaves. At Goa female slaves were to be
found in every Portuguese household, and sometimes
were sent into the streets to sell sweetmeats
and confectionary, and earn money for their masters
in other ways.
Kidnapping from Bengal.
For many years large numbers of Hindu slaves
were brought from Bengal. The Portuguese had been
permitted to build a factory at Hughly, on the river
Hughly, about 120 miles from the sea. During
an interval of civil war they fortified this settlement
and landed numerous cannon, whilst a native
town grew up in the neighbourhood. Meanwhile,
the scum of Goa and other Portuguese towns, chiefly
military deserters and apostate monks, had established
themselves on the islands near the mouths of
the Ganges, built a fleet of galleys, and led the lives
of pirates, brigands, and kidnappers. These men
were the pest of the Sunderbunds. They scoured
the waterways of the delta of the Ganges, carried off
whole villages into slavery, and especially delighted
in capturing marriage processions, with the bride and
bridegroom and all their kinsfolk and acquaintance
in the bravery of silks and jewels. The Portuguese
at Hughly were base enough to deal with these
villains, to buy the poor wretches who had been
kidnapped, and to ship them to Goa, where they
were sold as slaves at the daily auctions on the
Exchange, together with other commodities from all
parts of the world. The rascally kidnappers at the
mouths of the Ganges, and the pious traders at
Hughly, alike quieted their consciences by baptising
their victims, and boasting of having saved their
souls from hell.
Vengeance of the Great Mogul.
Such a state of things aroused the Great Mogul
to take action. The very existence of a Portuguese
fortress and cannon within his dominions had given
mortal offence, and this unholy slave trade sealed the
fate of the Portuguese at Hughly. The settlement
was environed by a Mogul army. There was a rush
of ladies and children to the shipping, but the river
was low and the vessels ran aground. There was
absolutely no way of escape; all provisions were cut
off, and the Portuguese were starved into surrender.
Five or six hundred prisoners, many of noble birth,
were sent to Agra. Some saved their lives by
turning Mohammedans; others, mostly priests,
perished as martyrs; the choicest of the lads and
maidens were sent to the palace of the Great Mogul,
and the remainder were distributed amongst the
mansions of the Mohammedan grandees. For generations
afterwards the doom of the Portuguese at
Hughly was likened to the Babylonian captivity of
the Hebrews.
Slave trade at Madras.
Hughly was captured in 1632. Seven years later
the British built their factory at Madras, on the coast
of Coromandel. At every Portuguese settlement in
Southern India the slave trade was still in full swing,
for the sway of the Great Mogul had only been
extended over the northern part of the Deccan, and
was as yet far away from the Peninsula. Accordingly
the British traders at Madras connived at the exportation
of slaves by sea. Some restraints, however,
were placed upon kidnapping by insisting on the
registration of every slave bought or sold in Madras,
together with the names of the seller and purchaser,
in order that the information might be given in the
event of any inquiry by kinsfolk or acquaintance, and
also that a fee might be levied on the registration
of every slave.
Great Mogul conquers the Deccan.
In 1688 the British rulers of Madras abolished
the slave trade by public proclamation. The Great
Mogul, the once famous Aurangzeb, was engaged
in conquering the Sultans of the Deccan. Unlike
his predecessors, Aurangzeb was a bigoted Sunni, or a
zealous believer in the four Caliphs who succeeded
Mohammed. The Sultans of the Deccan were Shiahs
who damned the first three Caliphs as usurpers, and
swore that Ali, and Ali only, the son-in-law of the
Prophet, the husband of Fatima and the father of
Hassan and Hosein, was the rightful successor of
Mohammed. Under such circumstances Aurangzeb
was impelled by pious zeal for the interest of the
Sunni religion to conquer and slay the heretic
Sultans of the Deccan and annex their dominions
to the Mogul empire. He next prepared to march
his army further south into the Peninsula, with the
view of conquering the Hindu Rajas and compelling
their idolatrous subjects to accept the religion of the
Koran.
Stoppage of the slave trade.
The British at Madras were greatly alarmed at the
threatened approach of the Great Mogul. They
were naturally afraid of sharing the fate of the Portuguese
at Hughly. Accordingly they abolished the
slave trade by proclamation, and sent numerous
petitions to Aurangzeb, tendering their submission
to the Great Mogul, praising his imperial majesty
to the skies, imploring his protection as though he
had been another Cyrus or Darius, and engaging to
pay the old rent of 500l. per annum in pagodas.
Matters were finally arranged, but it is grievous to
add that the pious Aurangzeb was not so careful
of the welfare of the Hindus as his liberal and
tolerant predecessors. He preferred the laws of
Mohammed to those of his Mogul ancestor, Chenghiz
Khan; and within a few years the slave trade at
Madras was as brisk as ever.
British toleration.
§7. The Mogul conquest of the Sultans of the
Deccan drove many Mohammedans to settle at Madras.
The British traders protected the lives and property of
Hindus and Mohammedans, and permitted them to
worship as they pleased. In early days, the Directors
had repeatedly pressed their servants at Madras to
convert the Hindu worshippers of idols to the truths
of Christianity, and no one in the British Isles seems
to have doubted the possibility or expediency of the
work. The British traders at Madras, however,
deprecated any interference whatever. They described
a terrible riot that broke out at St. Thomé
because of some interference with a Hindu procession,
and they urged that the frays between the Right and
Left Hands were sufficient proof that it was best to
leave the Hindus alone. As for Mohammedans, they
were the subjects of the Great Mogul, and interference
with the dominant religion in India was out
of the question.
Flourishing private trade.
During the latter years of the seventeenth century,
the British settlement at Madras had grown into a
principality, independent, and self-contained. At
the same time it presented rare attractions to
traders, Asiatic as well as European. The Company's
servants were paid very small salaries, but
were allowed the privilege of private trade in the
eastern seas, so long as they paid customs and did not
interfere with the European trade. Every Company's
servant in Madras, from the Governor to the
youngest writer, engaged more or less in trading
ventures. The number of traders was swelled by
private individuals who came from England, under
the licence of the Court of Directors; as well as by
Hindu, Mohammedan, and Armenian merchants, who
often took shares with the Company's servants.
Moreover, this private trade increased the demand
for European commodities which were sold by public
auction in Fort St. George, and swelled the revenue
of the East India Company which was derived from
the sea customs.
Decay of Surat.
Meanwhile the British situation at the Mogul port
of Surat had become intolerable. The religious
fanaticism of Aurangzeb had stirred up hatred and
discontent amongst Christians and Hindus. The
factors at the English House were more oppressed
than ever. On the north their trade was cut off by
the Rajput princes of Western Hindustan, who were
revolting against the Great Mogul and stopping the
caravans between Surat and Agra. On the south
they were exposed to the Mahrattas of the Western
Deccan, who attacked and plundered Surat, and
would have plundered the English House had not
the factors surreptitiously landed some cannon, and
called in the British sailors from the shipping, and
manfully beaten off their assailants.
Bombay, 1661-85.
Fortunately, the British had taken possession of
the island of Bombay, which Charles the Second
had obtained from the King of Portugal as part of
the dowry of the Infanta Catharine, and made over
to the East India Company. Bombay was nearly two
hundred miles to the south of Surat, and hedged
around by the Mahrattas, but being an island it was
well protected, and included both a fortress and a town.
Moreover, it had a magnificent harbour, and the
valuable trade with the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea,
and the Mozambique could be better carried on from
this harbour than over the bar of Surat at the
mouth of the river Tapty. Accordingly the East
India Company secretly resolved on leaving Surat for
ever, and removing the British factors and their trade
to the island of Bombay.
Bengal trade, 1640-85.
In Bengal the East India Company had established
a factory at Hughly, hard by the dismantled Portuguese
fortress; but were exposed to so much insolence
and extortion from the Mogul authorities that they
were prepared to leave Bengal rather than tamely
submit to further oppression. The trade was enormously
profitable, and had helped to defray the
cost of the fortifications at Madras and Bombay.
Saltpetre had been in large demand ever since the
breaking out of the civil war between Charles the
First and his parliament. Raw silk and opium were
equally marketable, and all three products could be
brought from Patna to Hughly by the river Ganges.
At Dacca, the old capital of Bengal to the eastward
of the Ganges, muslins were manufactured of so fine
a texture that a piece sufficient for a dress might be
passed through a wedding ring; and every young
lady in the British Isles who aspired to be a bride
was equally anxious to be led to the altar in a cloud
of Dacca muslin. Aurangzeb, however, stopped the
supply of saltpetre, because the Sultan of Turkey
complained that it was used by Christians in their
wars against true believers; whilst the Nawab of
Bengal, who resided at Dacca, was most overbearing,
and on one occasion ordered that Mr. Job
Charnock, the chief of the Hughly factory, should
be imprisoned and scourged, and his orders were
literally obeyed by the Hughly officials.
Plans of Sir Josiah Child, 1685.
§8. Sir Josiah Child, the chairman of the Court of
Directors, was endowed with real political genius,
but he was imperious and headstrong. He resolved
to make war upon the Great Mogul, and compel him
to make reparation for the misdeeds of the Nawab of
Bengal, and to cede sufficient territory for the establishment
of a fortress and a town corresponding to
the settlements at Madras and Bombay. He proposed
to coerce the Great Mogul by sending out
the Company's cruisers from Bombay to capture the
Mogul ships going to Mecca, until Aurangzeb
came to terms. He also persuaded James II. to
send a Royal fleet to Bengal to ensure the success
of his scheme. Should his plans fail, should Aurangzeb
prove obstinate and impracticable, it was
intended to form an alliance with the Raja of
Arakan, on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal,
and promise to help him in his wars against the
Great Mogul, provided he ceded the required territory
at Chittagong. In short, Sir Josiah Child
proposed to overawe the Mogul and establish
British trade with India on a lasting basis for the
future by means of three great fortresses—one at
Madras, a second at Bombay, and a third in Bengal
or at Chittagong.
Elements of mischief.
Unfortunately Sir Josiah Child was unable to cope
with the craft and capacity of Aurangzeb. That
keen-witted sovereign had spies in all directions, and
was gifted with such a power of divining what was
going on that he was often suspected of employing
supernatural agency. Meanwhile, Sir Josiah Child
was maintaining such profound secrecy that no Englishman
on the Bengal side knew what was going
on at Surat or Bombay, and no Englishman on the
Bombay side knew what was going on in the Bay of
Bengal, whilst the British at Madras knew nothing
whatever of the plans in operation.
Blunders and disasters.
The blundering that followed was most disastrous.
Whilst the Company's cruisers were capturing Mogul
ships as lawful prize, Aurangzeb drew the Surat factors
into his clutches, and threatened to put them to death
unless the prizes were restored and vast sums paid
by way of ransom. Meanwhile, the Royal fleet arrived
in Bengal, and made its way up the river Hughly,
under the command of a certain Captain Heath, who
would listen to no advice and regarded Asiatics with
contempt, whilst he was ready to make war on
anybody. He brought away Mr. Job Charnock and
the British factors from Hughly, with all their goods
and records. He captured all the Mogul ships he
encountered in the Hughly river. He bombarded a
Mogul town at the mouth of the river. Meanwhile,
the Nawab of Bengal was in a panic of fear at Dacca,
willing to make any terms provided only that the
terrible admiral would leave Bengal and solemnly
promise never to return.
A hot-headed admiral.
The Royal fleet sailed to Arakan and frightened
the Raja into a state of utter bewilderment. The
Raja could make nothing of the offer of the admiral
to help him against the Great Mogul, nor of the demand
for the cession of Chittagong, and he naturally
vacillated, prevaricated, and procrastinated. The admiral
was blind with rage and mortification, and
would have captured Chittagong by force of arms;
but the place was too strong for him. Accordingly,
he sailed away to Madras in a towering fury, and
landed Mr. Charnock and the British factors at
Madras, swearing that he had heard nothing but
deceit and lies since he first entered the Bay of
Bengal.
Humiliation.
The East India Company submitted to the Great
Mogul, but the great Josiah Child must have found
it a bitter pill. The prizes were restored, a vast fine
was paid, and pardon was humbly implored before
the Surat factors were restored to liberty.
Calcutta founded, 1690.
Meanwhile, the Moguls had learned to respect the
British. The fugitives from Hughly were invited to
return to Bengal, and permitted to purchase a strip
of land on the eastern bank of the Hughly river,
about twenty miles nearer the sea than their old
factory. It was three miles long and one mile inland,
and included the three native villages of Chutanutti,
Govindpore, and Kali Ghat, which grew into a native
town resembling that of Madras. Later on, the
Hindus round about revolted against Mogul oppression,
and the British took advantage of the general
alarm to convert their factory into a fortress and to
give it the name of Fort William, in honour of the
Prince of Orange. The native settlement was known
by the name of Calcutta, after the village of Kali
Ghat, or the "landing place of the goddess Kali."
Thus the dream of Josiah Child was realised, and
British trade in India was protected by three fortresses
and three towns—Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta.
Indian calm, 1700-40.
From the end of the seventeenth century to the
middle of the eighteenth the Company's settlements
were for the most part shut out from the Indian
world. The British had learned their lesson and
kept quiet, and the Moguls were busy fighting the
Mahrattas, and left them very much alone. The
Mogul conquests in the Deccan were made over to
a Mogul Viceroy known as the Nizam, whilst those
in the eastern Peninsula round about Madras were
placed in charge of a Nawab who was known as the
Nawab of the Carnatic. Meanwhile, the Moguls
kept the Mahrattas quiet by the payment of a yearly
black-mail known as chout, or "chauth," which was
reckoned at one-fourth of the land revenue, but was
often commuted for a lump sum. Thus India was to
all outward appearance in a state of calm, but it
was the calm that precedes a storm.
Typical Madras Governors.
§9. Although the administration of Madras was
carried on by a Governor and Council yet each
Governor had a strong personal influence and individuality.
Two of these Governors, an Englishman
and a Scotchman, may be brought under notice as
types of all.
Governor Pitt, 1698-1709.
Thomas Pitt, grandfather of the Earl of Chatham,
was Governor of Madras from 1698 to 1709. In 1702
the Nawab of the Carnatic was staying at St. Thomé,
trying to squeeze some 50,000l. out of the British at
Madras. He boasted loudly of his friendship for the
British whilst his troops were plundering their outlying
villages. He was entertained at dinner with
great pomp at Fort St. George, and gratified with
presents; but shortly afterwards he environed the
whole settlement with his army. Pitt held out for
months, getting his supplies by sea. At last Pitt
offered two or three thousand pounds in rupees, and
a peace was patched up, and the Nawab went away.
Imperious rule.
Governor Pitt was as lofty and mysterious in his
way as his illustrious grandson. He was much
irritated by a protracted quarrel between the Right
and Left Hands. He set up stones to mark the
boundaries between the streets, but they were
carried away at night time. The bulk of the Right
Hands fled to St. Thomé, and the Hindu populations
in all the country round about were in great commotion.
Pitt threatened to send a body of European
soldiers to St. Thomé, and put the deserters to the
sword. At this crisis, the Mogul officer at St. Thomé
turned the malcontents out of the town. They
went back to Madras submissive and crestfallen, and
begged to be forgiven. From this time, however, the
distinction between the Right and Left Hands was
abolished as far as the streets were concerned, and
all streets were opened to both Hands. But the old
strife is still burning in the hearts of the Hindus of
Southern India. They can be prevented from fighting
with swords and clubs, but they carry the battle
into the law-courts, where disputes are frequently
brought to a decision as regards the right of either
Hand to worship at a particular shrine and in a
particular way.[5]
Hasty tempter.
Pitt was severe on native offenders. Some thieves
went off with boat-loads of cotton goods, and the
gunner at Fort St. George was ordered to fire upon
them. The thieves escaped, but two peons who
connived at the robbery were whipped and put in the
pillory, whilst Governor Pitt thrashed the native
overseer with his own hands.
Pitt diamond.
During the siege of Madras Pitt managed to buy a
wonderful diamond from a Golconda jeweller at a
small price. In after years he sold it to the Regent
of France for 135,000l., and it was known as the Pitt
diamond. The matter created some scandal at the
time, but is now only remembered in connection with
Pope's lines:—
"Asleep and naked as an Indian lay,
An honest factor stole his gem away."
Governor Macrae,
1725-30.
James Macrae, a Scotch celebrity, was Governor
of Madras from 1725 to 1731. He carried out a
general survey of Madras and its suburbs for the
better collection of the quit-rents and scavenger-tax.
The population of Madras numbered 200,000.
The expenses of Fort St. George amounted to 20,000l.
a year, whilst the revenue from the sea customs was
under 5,000l.
Mayor's Court.
The Mayor's Court was re-organised in Governor
Macrae's time under the charter of 1726. It was
to consist of a mayor and nine aldermen for the
trial of all civil causes. Seven of the aldermen were
to be Englishmen, and the remaining two of any
nation, provided they were Protestant. The new
court was inaugurated in a style which seems inexpressibly
absurd in the present day. The new
mayor and aldermen were sworn in with much ceremony,
and then left Fort St. George in a grand procession
of soldiers with kettledrums and trumpets,
dancing girls with the country music, court attorneys
with all the chief gentry on horseback, and passed
through Black Town to the Company's garden in the
suburbs, where they were received by the Governor
and Council and duly fêted.
Breaking up of the Mogul empire.
Meanwhile, the Mogul empire was breaking up.
Aurangzeb died in 1707. Within thirty years after
his death the power of the Great Moguls had died out;
the name and prestige remained, but very little more.
The successors of Aurangzeb were Roisfainéants
shut up in palaces with wives and concubines, whilst
all real power was exercised by the Ministers of
State and the Viceroys of the provinces. In 1738-39
the British at the three Presidencies were startled by
the news that Nadir Shah had invaded India with a
large Persian army from the north-west, and had
plundered the city and palaces of Delhi and carried
away the spoil of Northern India. The payment of
the Mahratta "chout" was stopped at the Mogul
treasury, and armies of Mahratta horsemen were
making up the loss by the plunder of the Carnatic
and Bengal.
War with France, 1745.
§10. In 1745 news reached India that war had been
declared between Great Britain and France. This
was alarming news for the British traders at Madras,
as the French had established a flourishing town and
settlement at Pondicherry, on the coast of Coromandel,
about a hundred miles to the south of Madras, and a
collision might be expected at any moment between
the two settlements. Moreover, the Governor of
Pondicherry was a certain M. Dupleix, a Frenchman
of large capacity and restless ambition, who hated the
British with all the ardour of the typical Frenchman
of the eighteenth century. The same year a British
fleet appeared off the coast of Coromandel and
threatened Pondicherry; but the Nawab of the
Carnatic declared that he would have no wars between
European nations within his territories, and the
British fleet sailed away.
Madras captured, 1746.
In 1746 a French fleet appeared off Madras, but
the Nawab was not inclined to interfere; he had, in
fact, been bought over by M. Dupleix, the French
Governor of Pondicherry. The French bombarded
Fort St. George; the native inhabitants fled from
Madras; and the British inhabitants were carried in
triumph to Pondicherry as prisoners of war.
French defeat the Mogul army.
The Nawab of the Carnatic affected to be very
angry at this bombardment of Madras. He demanded
that the settlement should be transferred to his
authority, and sent an army of 10,000 Moguls to
take possession of the town and fortress. To his utter
amazement the army of 10,000 Moguls was utterly
routed by a battalion of 800 Frenchmen. From that
day it was felt throughout Southern India that no
Mogul army could stand against the rapid firing of
disciplined Europeans. In 1748 the war between
Great Britain and France was over for a while, and
Madras was restored to the British.
Brilliant success of Dupleix.
Later on, the death of the Nizam of the Deccan
threw the whole country into confusion. Rival
kinsmen began to fight for the throne of the province
without any reference to the Great Mogul. Dupleix
plunged at once into the fray. He saw that a French
force might turn the scale of victory, and he moved a
French army, under the command of Bussy, to help
a victorious candidate as occasion served, without the
slightest regard to the rightness or wrongness of his
claim. In 1751 he had realised his dream of ambition.
He had placed a Nizam on the throne at
Hyderabad, and he was rewarded with the cession of
a territory stretching 600 miles along the coast, for
the maintenance of a French standing army. To
crown all, he induced the Nizam to appoint him
Nawab of the Carnatic; and, in spite of Dupleix being
a Frenchman and a Catholic, the appointment was
actually made under the seal of the Great Mogul.
Meanwhile, the British had supported the claim of a
Mogul prince named Mohammed Ali to the throne
of the Carnatic, but had been circumvented at every
turn, and were now called upon to acknowledge
the superior authority of their bitter enemy
Dupleix.
Triumph of Robert Clive.
British rule in Southern India was at its last gasp.
If Dupleix could only have got hold of Mohammed
Ali, he might have been master of the Carnatic;
Madras might have been a French settlement, and a
French Governor and Council might have taken the
place of the British in Fort St. George. As it was,
Mohammed Ali was very nearly surrendering. He
had fled away to seek the help of the Hindu Rajas of
the south, and was being closely besieged by the
French in the city of Trichinopoly, 180 miles to the
south of Arcot. At this crisis Robert Clive saved
the East India Company. He left Madras with a
small force, and after a march of seventy miles into
the interior, threw himself into the city of Arcot,
the capital of the Carnatic, where the Nawabs of the
Carnatic had held their court for more than half a
century. The native garrison fled at his approach,
and the inhabitants, numbering 100,000, offered no
resistance. The French were aghast at hearing that
the capital of the Carnatic was in the hands of the
British. They despatched a large force from Trichinopoly,
but failed to recover Arcot. In the end
they raised the siege of Trichinopoly, and Mohammed
Ali was delivered out of their hands and placed by
the British in possession of the Carnatic, to the
exclusion of Dupleix and ruin of his ambitious
schemes.
Tragedy at Calcutta, 1756.
British and French were now anxious for peace,
and agreed to make Dupleix their scapegoat. They
threw the whole blame of the war upon the unfortunate
Frenchman, who returned to France and died in
poverty. In 1755 a treaty was patched up at Pondicherry,
but was never executed. In 1756, on the eve
of the Seven Years' War, terrible news arrived from
Bengal. The Nawab had captured the settlement at
Calcutta; and a hundred and twenty-three English
prisoners had been thrust into a barrack cell, and
perished most miserably of heat and suffocation.
Threats of the Nawab of Bengal.
§11. The tragedy was appalling, but the causes were
intelligible. About the beginning of the eighteenth
century, a Nawab of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, territories
considerably larger than the United Kingdom,
had removed his capital from Dacca to Murshedabad,
about a hundred miles due north of Calcutta. Here
he founded a dynasty, which reigned in peace for
some forty years. About 1742 a usurper seized the
throne of Murshedabad, and reigned as Nawab.
He died of extreme old age in April, 1756, and
was succeeded by a grandson, a young man timid
and suspicious, surrounded by foes eager to take
his life and throne. The new Nawab heard that
Governor Drake was sheltering one of his enemies at
Calcutta, and strengthening the fortifications; and he
ordered the British to surrender the refugee and stop
further defences. Governor Drake replied that he
knew nothing of any enemies of the Nawab; that he
was ready to obey the Nawab in all things; and that
he was repairing the defences on the river to prevent
being surprised by the French, as Madras had been
surprised ten years before. The Nawab was in a
fury at this message, and set off for Calcutta in
the heats of June with an army of fifty thousand
men.
Defences at Calcutta.
For half a century the British had paid little or no
attention to their defences. Fort William had been
deemed a sufficient protection on the side of the
river, and on the land side the native inhabitants
had begun to dig a ditch as a defence against the
Mahratta horsemen; but the Mahrattas were paid
chout to go away, and the ditch was never finished.
The Europeans dwelt in houses and gardens along
the bank of the river Hughly, on either side of Fort
William; and an English Church, the Mayor's Court
and some other buildings, covered Fort William on
the land side. The native quarter, including a large
bazaar, adjoined the Mahratta ditch, and avenues of
trees led from the native quarter to Fort William
and the European buildings.
Neglected precautions.
Had Governor Drake or any member of his Council
possessed a spark of military genius, they might
have held Fort William against the Nawab in spite
of his superior numbers. There was a garrison of
two hundred European soldiers in the Fort. The
European residents should have abandoned their
houses on the river, and repaired to the Fort with
their wives and children. The neighbouring buildings
should have been demolished to prevent the
Nawab's troops from approaching under cover. The
enemy should have been harassed with shells all day
and sallies all night, until the Nawab raised the siege.
Moreover, the beginning of the south-west monsoon
was daily expected. With it would come the ships
of the season from Europe. Could the besieged have
held out for ten days, they might have been rescued
by the ships, just as Charnock and the factors
were carried away from Hughly some seventy years
before.
Weak preparations.
Whilst the Nawab's army was approaching Calcutta,
the native population were flying en masse to the
neighbouring villages. There was also a large
population of Portuguese half-castes, which should
have been left to do the same, as they would have
been in no manner of danger. Unfortunately, two
thousand of these black women and children were
admitted into the Fort, and the overcrowding and
confusion were fatal. Meanwhile, batteries and
breastworks were constructed in the avenues leading
to the Fort, in the wild hope of protecting the
whole European quarter; but they were too far away
to be supported by reinforcements from the European
garrison.
Siege of Fort William.
At noon on Wednesday, the 16th of June, the
Nawab's army poured into the settlement through the
unfinished portion of the Mahratta ditch. They set
fire to the native bazaar, and, after meeting obstinate
resistance, they captured the batteries and breastworks
in the avenues. The European gunners spiked their
cannon and fell back upon the Fort; but the Nawab's
artillerymen drilled the cannon and turned them
round towards the Fort; whilst bodies of the Nawab's
matchlockmen occupied the buildings outside the
Fort which ought to have been demolished, and
opened fire upon the ramparts and bastions.
Escape of women and children.
The fighting lasted all Thursday and Friday. On
Friday night the English ladies and children were
placed on board the single ship which lay before the
Fort. On Saturday the firing was hotter than ever.
Hopeless efforts were made to place the Portuguese
women and children on board the ship, but they
would have been safer in the neighbouring villages,
for the overcrowding was such that many boats were
sunk and numbers were drowned. Governor Drake,
however, got on board, and the ship moved slowly
down the river, leaving the British soldiers and
others to their fate.
Loss of Fort William.
Throughout Saturday night the garrison fired
rockets for recalling the ship. At sunrise they
waved flags, but without effect. A Mr. Holwell, a
member of Council, was elected Governor in the room
of Drake. But resistance was useless. The British
soldiers broke into the arrack-room and got hopelessly
intoxicated. Late in the afternoon a mob of
the Nawab's troops advanced to the Fort with ladders.
In a few moments they were swarming over the walls,
whilst the drunken European soldiers ran to the back
of the Fort and broke down the gates leading to
the river. But the Fort was closely environed by the
Nawab's troops, and whilst some of the fugitives
may have escaped to the boats or been drowned in
the river, the bulk were brought back into the Fort
as prisoners of war.
Black Hole tragedy.
By this time the Nawab had taken possession of
Fort William, but was terribly disappointed at
finding very little money and only a poor stock of
merchandise. The season ships to Europe had carried
off all the Indian exports to escape the south-west
monsoon, and the ships from England were
waiting for the monsoon to carry their European
cargoes up the river. There were 146 prisoners,
and no place of security except the barrack cell,
known as the Black Hole, which rarely held more
than two or three prisoners, and was only eighteen
feet square. In this horrid hole they were driven
with clubs and swords, and next morning only
twenty three were taken out alive.
End of the first period.
Such was the close of the first act of the East
India Company's rule. Within a very brief space
of time the British traders entered upon a new era
of conquest and dominion; but the tragedy at
Calcutta in June, 1756, has never been forgotten,
and to this day there is not an English man or
woman in India who does not occasionally call up
a painful memory of the Black Hole.[6]
§1. From Calcutta to Plassy, 1757-58. §2. Nawab Rule under British
Protection. §3. British Arrogance: Massacre at Patna. §4. Lord
Clive's Double Government, 1765-67. §5. Warren Hastings, 1772-85:
Life and Career. §6. British Rule: Treatment of Bengal Zemindars.
§7. British Collectors and Magistrates: Circuit Courts and Sudder.
§8. Innovations of Parliament. §9. Collisions in Calcutta Council:
Trial and Execution of Nundcomar. §10. Clashing of Supreme Court
and Sudder. §11. Mahratta War: Goddard and Popham. §12. Triple
Alliance against the British: the Mahrattas, the Nizam, and Hyder Ali.
§13. Parliamentary Interference: the Two India Bills. §14. Charges
against Warren Hastings. §15. Lord Cornwallis, 1786-93: Perpetual
Settlement and Judicial Reforms. §16. Sir John Shore, 1793-98: Non-Intervention.
Madras politics.
In June, 1756, Calcutta was lost; the news reached
Madras in August. War with France was trembling
in the balance. An army of Europeans and sepoys,
under Colonel Clive, was waiting to attack the French
in the Deccan. A Royal fleet, under Admiral Watson,
was waiting to bombard the French at Pondicherry.
But the news from Calcutta outweighed all other
considerations; and Clive and Watson were dispatched
to the river Hughly with 900 Europeans and 1,500
sepoys.
Calcutta recaptured.
§1. The force appears small in modern eyes, but it
was irresistible against Asiatics. The ships of war, with
their tiers of cannon, were sufficient to create a panic.
The expedition reached Calcutta on the 1st of January,
1757. The Mogul commandant at Fort William fled
away in terror, and next morning the British flag was
hoisted over the factory. The Company's merchandise,
which had been reserved for the Nawab, was lying
untouched, but every house in the town, Asiatic as well
as European, had been plundered by the Mogul
soldiers.
Nawab accepts terms.
At this moment, news arrived that war with France
had begun. Clive and Watson were anxious to make
peace with the Nawab in order to fight the French.
The Nawab, on his part, was frightened at the British
fleet, and was ready to promise anything if the ships
and cannon would only go away. He agreed to
reinstate the British in all their factories and privileges,
and to pay full compensation for all the plunder that
had been carried away from Calcutta, so that nothing
further was wanted but the execution of these terms.
Treachery and intrigue.
The Nawab, however, never seems to have intended
to fulfil his promises. He vacillated, procrastinated,
and lied egregiously. He signed a treaty, but evaded
every application for the money. He worried Clive
and Watson with fresh promises and excuses until
they were wild with the delay. At last they discovered
that he was intriguing with the French for their destruction.
But the Nawab himself was environed with
dangers of all kinds. His own grandees were plotting
against him, and opened up a secret correspondence
with Clive. Englishmen, Mohammedans, and Hindus
became entangled in a web of conspiracy and craft,
from which it was difficult to escape with an unsullied
reputation. Eventually, the Nawab sent an army to
Plassy, on the route to Calcutta, as if to overawe the
British settlement. The army was commanded by
Mir Jafir, the head of the conspiracy for dethroning
the Nawab. Shortly afterwards, the Nawab himself
followed Mir Jafir to Plassy, and the whole force was
estimated at 50,000 men and forty pieces of cannon.
Battle of Plassy, June, 1757.
Clive advanced from Calcutta to Plassy with 3,000
men and nine pieces of cannon. The battle of Plassy
was fought on the 23rd of June, 1757, just a year
and three days after the Black Hole tragedy. It was
more of a British cannonade than an action between
two armies. Clive was expecting to be joined every
moment by Mir Jafir. The Asiatic plotter had sworn
to be faithful to both parties, and was mortally afraid
of both the Nawab and the British. He dared not
desert the Nawab, and he dared not fight the British.
For hours he did nothing. At last, towards the
close of the day, he moved his forces from the field,
and made off towards Murshedabad. Clive advanced
to charge the Nawab's camp, but the Nawab saw that
he was deserted and betrayed, and fled in abject terror.
The days of the fugitive were numbered. He hid
himself for a while with a favourite wife and his
choicest jewels, but was then taken prisoner and
brutally murdered by a son of Mir Jafir. Such was
the end of the once notorious Suraj-ad-daula, better
known to British soldiers and sailors as "Sir Roger
Dowler."
Overflowing riches.
Colonel Clive marched on to Murshedabad, and
installed Mir Jafir on the throne as Nawab of
Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. Clive, and Clive alone,
was the lord paramount of the hour, the hero of
Plassy, the invincible warrior. The money and
jewels in the treasury at Murshedabad were lavished
by Mir Jafir on Colonel Clive and his party. The
British officers of the army and fleet received large
donations. One million sterling was given to the
East India Company, another million sterling to the
inhabitants of Calcutta—European and Asiatic. A
hundred boats loaded with silver went down the
river from Murshedabad to Calcutta, followed by
the curses of the grandees; whilst the sight of the
boats approaching Calcutta was hailed with the joy
of men who had escaped shipwreck. "For once,"
says a contemporary, "and only for once, the people
of Calcutta were all friends."
Terrible responsibilities.
§2. The battle of Plassy was a British triumph,
but it entailed enormous responsibilities. Colonel Clive
had raised up a Nawab to be absolute ruler of territories
larger than Great Britain and Ireland, and far more
populous. Bengal, including the delta of the Ganges,
was one of the most fertile regions in the world, whilst
the inhabitants were most submissive and easily
governed. For centuries the Bengalis had been oppressed
by foreigners—Turk, Afghan, Abyssinian and
Mogul. The revenues, however, had been collected by
Hindu officials, as being at once more exacting in
their demands, and more easily stripped of their
ill-gotten gains.
Wretched rule of Mir Jafir.
Nawab Mir Jafir was most subservient to the
British and most anxious to please them, but was
otherwise as dissolute and worthless as any Turkish
pasha. In his younger days, when the Mahrattas
were harrying Bengal, Mir Jafir might have been a
good soldier, but since then he had degenerated into
a worn-out voluptuary, spending all the money he
could get on jewels and dancing-girls, whilst his own
troops were in mutiny for want of pay, and his
British supporters and protectors were demanding
further supplies for the payment of their own forces.
To make matters worse, the Nawab was removing
the old Hindu officials and placing his Mohammedan
kinsmen in their room.
Delhi affairs: flight of the Prince Imperial.
Suddenly, a new vista opened out to Clive through
the territory of Oudh, on the north-west, to the
remote capital of the Great Mogul at Delhi. The
Great Mogul was a mere pageant in the hands of
the Vizier, who exercised what remained of the imperial
authority. The Prince Imperial, the son and
heir of the Great Mogul, was afraid of being murdered
by the Vizier, and fled away into Oudh, and
threw himself on the protection of the Nawab.
Invasion of the Nawab of Oudh.
The Nawab of Oudh had long desired to get
possession of the Bengal provinces, and thought to
secure them by making the Prince Imperial a cat's
paw. He proclaimed that the Prince Imperial had
been invested by his father with the government of
Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. He then sent the Prince
forward with a large force to enforce the proclamation,
whilst he himself remained behind in Oudh and
awaited events.[7] To make matters worse, the Hindu
officials in the Bengal provinces, who had been dispossessed,
or were expecting to be dispossessed, were
preparing to join the invaders.
Clive's
difficulty.
Mir Jafir was in a panic of fear at the appearance
of the Prince Imperial, and proposed to pay him a
sum of money to go away. Clive would not listen
to the suggestion. He ignored the Prince Imperial
and the Great Mogul, and soon routed the invading
army. The Prince Imperial then became a suppliant
to the British, and implored Clive for help; but Clive
had been requested by the Vizier at Delhi to arrest
the fugitive, and would not commit himself. He,
however, sent a bag of 500 mohurs, about 800l.
sterling, to relieve the immediate necessities of the
Prince Imperial, and the money was gladly received
by the impoverished fugitive.
Wanted, a British army.
Meanwhile, Clive was at his wits' end for money.
The Bengal provinces could be held against any
enemy in India by a standing army of Europeans
and sepoys. Such an army could be maintained for
half a million sterling per annum, and the public
revenue amounted to three or four millions; but the
Nawab refused to disband his own rabble soldiery,
and pretended that he could not pay the Europeans.
Solution.
At this crisis Clive received a secret and startling
proposal from the Vizier at Delhi, that he should accept
the post of Dewan to the Great Mogul for Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa. In the palmy days of the Mogul empire,
every province was governed by two officials, the
Nawab and the Dewan. The Nawab kept the peace
and administered justice; the Dewan kept the public
purse, received the revenues, paid all salaries, and
sent the surplus as tribute to the Great Mogul. The
later Nawabs had become their own Dewans, and
spent the revenue as they pleased, without sending
any tribute to the Great Mogul. Had Clive closed
with the offer, it would have involved a mortal struggle
with Mir Jafir, for it would have deprived the Nawab
of all power over the public purse. But it would
have removed every financial difficulty, as the Vizier
would have been satisfied with a yearly tribute of
half a million sterling, or even less, whilst Clive
would have had the whole remaining surplus at his
own disposal.
Clive's offer to Pitt, 1759.
Clive would not accept the post of Dewan, either
for himself or for the East India Company. But he
wrote privately to the British premier, the first
William Pitt, and proposed that the British Crown
should act as Dewan to the Great Mogul. Under
such an arrangement, the Crown might have taken
over the Bengal revenues, sent half, or a quarter of a
million a year to Delhi, spent another half million on
a standing army, and devoted another half million to
the salaries of the Nawab and his officials; and then
might have secured a surplus of two millions a year
towards the payment of the national debt. William
Pitt, however, was already alarmed at the growing
power of the Crown, and he declined taking over the
proposed income lest it should endanger the liberties
of the British nation.
Turmoils in the north-west.
In 1760 Colonel Clive returned to England, and
in 1761 the war with France was over. India might
now have been at peace, but the north-west was in
a turmoil. The Great Mogul was murdered by his
Vizier. The Afghans had slaughtered 200,000
Mahrattas on the fatal field of Paniput, and established
their ascendency at Delhi. The fugitive Prince
Imperial was proclaimed Padishah, or Emperor, by
the Nawab of Oudh, who assumed the title of Nawab
Vizier; and the Padishah and his Nawab Vizier
invaded Behar and threatened Patna.
Change of Nawabs.
§3. The British at Calcutta were now in sore
peril, and there was no Clive to guide them. They
deposed Mir Jafir on their own authority, and set
up his son-in-law, Mir Kasim, as Nawab of Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa. The new Nawab was unquestionably
a better man than the deposed Mir Jafir;
but the transfer of a throne by a Governor and
Council of British merchants was somewhat startling.
There was, however, no one to resist the Calcutta
traders, and Mir Jafir yielded to his kismet, retired
from his post as Nawab, and removed to Calcutta, as
a safer residence than Murshedabad.
Mastery of the British.
Mir Kasim agreed to all the British demands. He
was bound over to pay half a million sterling for the
maintenance of the British army; but he averted
money disputes with the Company's servants by
ceding three districts in the immediate neighbourhood
of Calcutta, which yielded the same amount of
revenue, and the British could collect the money for
themselves. Above all, the new Nawab agreed, as
Mir Jafir had done before him, to free the Company's
servants from the payment of all inland transit duties
within the Bengal provinces.
Dealings with the Padishahs.
Mir Kasim, accompanied by a British force, took
the field against the young Padishah and the Nawab
Vizier. The invaders were soon defeated; the Nawab
Vizier fled back to Oudh, but the young Padishah
remained at Patna. Accordingly, the British determined
to get his sanction to their proceedings, and
thus to justify their appointment of a new Nawab in
the eyes of the people of India and the European
nations trading with Bengal. He was without territory
or revenue. His throne and capital at Delhi were in
the hands of the Afghans. Yet he had been proclaimed
Padishah in India, and was legally the Great Mogul.
Accordingly, the British determined to recognize his
sovereignty, and arrange for the appointment of Mir
Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, under
his imperial seal and commission.
British set up a Great Mogul.
It was somewhat audacious for a handful of British
traders to set up a Great Mogul for themselves as lord
paramount of India. It was still more audacious to
carry out the ceremony of installation in a building
sacred to silk and saltpetre. Nevertheless, the work
was done. The Company's factory at Patna was converted
into a Mogul palace; the centre room into a
hall of audience; the dining-tables into an imperial
throne. The Padishah was carried in procession to
the factory, and enthroned on the dining-tables as
the Great Mogul. Mir Kasim paid homage to
the sovereign, and was invested with the post of
Nawab of the Bengal provinces. In return, the
Nawab was bound over to pay a yearly tribute
to the Great Mogul of a quarter of a million
sterling.
Enthronement at Patna.
The installation of the Great Mogul, and the formal
appointment of the Nawab of Bengal, were established
facts, but no party was satisfied. The Padishah was
disgusted, because the British would not conduct him
to Delhi and place him on the throne of Aurangzeb.
The Nawab was disgusted at paying a heavy tribute
when the Padishah might have been forced by a
little pressure to sell the appointment for a bag of
rupees. He was apparently bent on breaking off all
relations with the British, and there was no objection
to his doing so. He moved his court from Murshedabad,
which was only a hundred miles from Calcutta,
to Monghyr, which was more than three hundred
miles. Here he formed an army of picked men, and
employed a European deserter, known as Sombre or
Sumru, to drill the troops in British fashion, and
began to manufacture muskets and cast guns.
No one satisfied.
The quarrel began about the right of the British
servants of the Company, under the treaty with
Mir Kasim, to carry their commodities through the
Bengal provinces free from the payment of all transit
duties. The British at Calcutta twisted the privilege
of non-payment into a right to carry such native commodities
as salt, tobacco, opium, betel, sugar, and oil,
without payment; whilst all Bengali dealers were
compelled to pay a duty at every station. The
British were thus able to undersell native dealers,
and monopolise the whole trade of the country. The
Nawab protested against this interpretation, and insisted
on collecting the duties, unless the goods were
bought for exportation by sea. Then ensued quarrels,
misunderstandings, frays and reprisals; the Nawab
complaining of the loss of duties, whilst the British
set him at defiance, and resisted all attempts to collect
the duties by force of arms.
Quarrel with Mir Kasim.
Mir Kasim cut away the British monopoly by
abolishing all inland transit duties. The Bengali
dealers were thus placed on the same footing as the
Company's servants. The Company's servants were
blind with wrath at this measure. They insisted that
they enjoyed a certain privilege under the treaty
with Mir Kasim, and that this privilege was rendered
valueless, by the general abolition of duties. Accordingly,
they proposed sending two of their number to
Monghyr to argue the matter with the Nawab.
Fresh exasperations.
The city of Monghyr is situated on the river
Ganges, three hundred miles above Calcutta and a
hundred miles below Patna. The two British envoys
were received and entertained by the Nawab, but
told there was nothing to settle; he had ceased to
collect duties from his own subjects and the British
had nothing to do with the matter. At this very
moment a boat arrived at Monghyr on its way to
Patna with a cargo of firelocks from Calcutta for the
garrison at the British factory. The Nawab at once
suspected that the British were preparing for war.
He confiscated the firelocks, and kept one of the
envoys as a hostage, but permitted the other to
return to Calcutta. The latter man was doomed.
On his way down the river he was fired upon by the
troops of the Nawab, and brutally murdered.
Mir Jafir restored.
When the news of this catastrophe reached Calcutta,
the Company's servants seem to have lost their
heads. In vain they were told that the British at
Patna, and those at another factory, were at the
mercy of the Nawab. They swore that they would
be avenged although every Briton up country was
slaughtered; and they wrote out a declaration to
that effect, and each man signed it. The Governor
and Council of Calcutta then went in a body to the
house of Mir Jafir, and restored him to his post as
Nawab of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, on the condition
that he once again levied the duties from Bengali
traders. Mir Jafir readily promised, and indeed
would have promised anything to recover his lost
throne.
Perils at Patna.
Meanwhile, the British at Patna were in extreme
danger. They had a European garrison at the factory,
but the factory was untenable. They made a
desperate effort to seize the town of Patna, and for a
few hours were successful. The Mogul commandant
was taken by surprise and fled with most of his
troops; but the Mogul fortress still held out. The
British ought to have stormed the fortress, but
delayed on account of the heat. The result was fatal.
The European soldiers went to the bazaar for drink,
whilst the sepoys plundered the shops and houses,
and within a very short time the whole force was
utterly demoralised.
British prisoners.
Suddenly, the Mogul commandant met with reinforcements,
and returned and recovered the town.
The British fled back to the factory, but saw that
they were being environed by the Nawab's troops.
They hurriedly embarked in boats, in the hope of
escaping up the stream into Oudh, but the enemy
closed around them. Had they resisted to the last,
some might have escaped. As it was they surrendered
as prisoners, and were taken to Monghyr, where they
found that the British inmates of another factory
had been arrested and imprisoned in like manner.
British advance: massacre at Patna, 1763.
An avenging army was soon on its way from
Calcutta. Murshedabad was captured, but not without
a stout resistance, for the drilled troops of the
Nawab were vastly superior to the rabble hosts that
had fought at Calcutta and Plassy. The British
force, however, overcame every obstacle, and pushed
on to Monghyr, whilst the Nawab fled to Patna,
carrying his prisoners with him to the number of a
hundred and fifty souls. At Patna the Nawab heard
that Monghyr was taken by the British, and resolved
on exacting a terrible revenge. His prisoners were
shut up in a large square building with a courtyard
in the centre. He ordered Sombre to slaughter the
whole, and the miscreant environed the building with
sepoys. The British assembled in the courtyard, bent
on fighting for their lives. The sepoys climbed to the
roof, but were assailed with a storm of brickbats and
bottles from the courtyard. Sombre ordered them to
fire on the prisoners, but they hung back, declaring
that they were sepoys and not executioners, and
would not fire on men without arms in their hands.
Then Sombre grew furious and violent; struck down
the nearest sepoys with his own hands, and threatened
and bullied the rest into obedience. The sepoys
yielded to their European master. Successive volleys
were fired into the courtyard, until it was strewed
with dead bodies. Not a single prisoner escaped
that horrible slaughter.
Mir Kasim and the Nawab Vizier.
The massacre at Patna sealed the doom of the
Nawab. He fled away into Oudh with his family
and treasures, but the avenging Furies were at his
heels. The Nawab Vizier received him with ostentatious
hospitality, but only that he might strip him of
his treasures. The Nawab Vizier declared war
against the British for the restoration of Mir Kasim,
but it was only that he might eventually get the
Bengal provinces into his own hands.
Battle of Buxar, 1764.
The war lasted many months, but was brought to
a close in 1764 by the battle of Buxar. The victory
gained by Sir Hector Monro at Buxar on the Behar
frontier was as decisive as that of Plassy. The
Nawab Vizier fled away in terror to the Rohilla
Afghans beyond his north-west frontier, leaving his
dominions at the absolute disposal of the British;
and Sir Hector Monro marched on to the capital at
Lucknow and took possession of the whole of Oudh.
British triumph.
The triumph of the British was complete. Mir
Kasim lost his treasures and died in obscurity.
The Nawab Vizier was a helpless fugitive; neither
Rohillas, nor Mahrattas, nor any other power could
help him against the British. The Great Mogul was
once more a suppliant in their hands. The British
were de facto masters of the bulk of the old Mogul
empire, and might have taken possession of the whole
of Northern India in the name of the Great Mogul.
As it was they proposed making over Oudh to the
Afghans, and restoring the Great Mogul to the throne
of his fathers at Delhi. Before, however, the Governor
and Council at Calcutta could change the map of
India, the Court of Directors upset their plans by
sending out Clive for the last time with the authority
of a dictator.
Lord Clive Dictator, 1765.
§4. The Directors of the East India Company
had been alternately infuriated and terrified at
the news from Bengal. They were extremely angry
at the quarrel about the private trade, especially
as they had not shared in the profits; but the
massacre at Patna filled them with grief and despair.
Accordingly Clive, who had been raised to the
peerage, was sent to Bengal as Governor, with full
power to act as he thought proper.
Settlement of Oudh.
When Lord Clive landed at Calcutta Mir Jafir was
dead, and the existing Governor and Council had
sold the throne of the three provinces to an illegitimate
son for 200,000l. and divided the money
amongst themselves. Lord Clive was extremely
wroth, but could do nothing. The offenders retired
from the service of the Company and returned to
England. Meanwhile Lord Clive stopped the expedition
to Delhi, restored Oudh to the Nawab Vizier,
and secured a handsome sum out of the transaction
for the benefit of the East Indian Company.
Company acquire Bengal, Behar, and Orissa,
1765.
But the crowning event in Lord Clive's life was the
acceptance of the post of Dewan to the Great Mogul
in the name of the East India Company. Henceforth,
the Governor and Council at Calcutta took over
the revenues of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa from the
Nawab's revenue officers, and provided for the military
defence of the three provinces. A quarter of a
million sterling was paid to the Great Mogul, and
half a million to the Nawab at Murshedabad for the
salaries of himself and his officials; but all interference
on the part of the British with the administration
of the Nawab and his ministers and servants
was strictly forbidden, as contrary to the policy of
non-intervention. Accordingly, the Nawab and his
officials were left to govern the country in their own
fashion, without a revenue and without an army.
Sorrows of the Great Mogul.
The Great Mogul, however, was not content. He
would not live in the Bengal provinces; he wanted
to go to Delhi, and he was sulky because the British
would not take him there. He set up his little court
at Allahabad, half-way between Calcutta and Delhi,
and lived like a prince; but he was unhappy. A
British brigade was posted hard by, and the officer in
command would not allow him to support his imperial
dignity by beating the imperial kettledrums,
because of the noise.
Agony of Bengal, 1765-72.
The arrangements as regards the Bengal provinces,
known in India as the acquisition of the
Dewanny, were carried out in 1765. In 1767 Lord
Clive returned to England, and the Bengal provinces
were reduced to greater misery than ever.
There was no one to control the native officials, and
they accumulated riches at the expense of the
masses. The wealth which the old Nawabs had
lavished on their pleasures was at least spent
within the three provinces; whereas it was now
sent to China to buy tea and silk for the East India
Company, or was remitted to England as the private
fortunes of the Company's servants. Bengal was
drained of its silver, and the masses loudly complained
that the British ought to protect them
against their oppressors. But non-intervention was
the cry both in Bengal and in the British Isles, and
nothing was done.
British supervisors.
Meanwhile the revenue had rapidly declined.
Before Lord Clive left Bengal he was compelled to
do something in spite of his policy of non-intervention.
He sent a British civil servant to every district
in the Bengal provinces, under the name of Supervisor.
The supervisors were to watch and report
what was going on, but not to interfere with the
Bengali officials.[8] They were to collect statistics
respecting the land, its produce and capacity; the
authorised amount of land revenue and the illegal
exactions; the administration of justice and the regulation
of trade. The British supervisors could only
report what they saw, and what the native officials
chose to tell them. One thing was certain: the
people were terribly oppressed and the administration
was in utter confusion; and so long as the British
played at non-intervention it was impossible to apply
a remedy.
Famine, 1770-71.
At last the dreadful famine of 1770-71 desolated
and depopulated the whole country. Terrible reports
reached England that the Company's servants had
leagued with the native officials to buy up all the
grain and sell it at famine prices. Meanwhile the
revenue had rapidly declined, and the blame was
thrown on the Bengali officials. Accordingly the
Court of Directors resolved to dismiss the Asiatic
officials, and to appoint covenanted British servants
in their room; and they selected Warren Hastings to
be Governor of Bengal, with peremptory orders to
carry out the necessary reforms.
Restricted authority of Lord Clive.
§5. The change from Lord Clive to Warren Hastings
was most momentous. Lord Clive was a soldier
born to command. Warren Hastings was emphatically
an administrator born to rule. From the first
Lord Clive had shirked all political responsibility.
He was content to place the East India Company in
the position of Dewan, with the additional duty of
maintaining a standing army for the defence of the
country, but without attempting to invest it with the
ruling powers of a Nawab. So long as the Company
took over the revenue, the Nawab and his officials
were left to govern the people, and administer law and
justice, according to their own will and pleasure. For
himself, Lord Clive was content to rule the Company's
settlement and some small cessions of territory
of no account, and to leave the outside masses in
utter darkness.
Vast dominion of Hastings.
Warren Hastings went to Calcutta as absolute
ruler over the three provinces. He was a prince
amongst princes; the equal if not the superior of
any Hindu or Mohammedan ruler within the Himalayas
and the two seas. As President of the Council
his authority was not confined by the Mahratta ditch,
but stretched far away over territories as large, if not
larger, than Great Britain and Ireland. He united
the powers of British Governor, Nawab, and Great
Mogul. He was destined to strip the Nawab of
every vestige of authority; to cut down his yearly
income from half a million sterling to 160,000l., and
to reduce him to the condition of a private Mohammedan
grandee dwelling at Murshedabad. As for the
Great Mogul, he had vanished from the scene. In
1771 he had quitted Oudh and returned to Delhi
with the Mahrattas, and thereby forfeited his pension
and empty suzerainty as far as the British were concerned.
Later on, the Mahrattas demanded payment
of the yearly tribute, but were flatly refused by
Warren Hastings.
Career of Hastings ante 1772.
In 1772 Warren Hastings was forty years of age,
with very large experiences. He had landed at Calcutta
at the age of eighteen, and served as a clerk and warehouseman
in the factory at Calcutta. In 1757, after
the battle of Plassy, he was Resident at the court
of Nawab Mir Jafir at Murshedabad. Later on,
during the quarrel with Mir Kasim, he was a member
of the Council at Calcutta, and one of the very few
who took the part of the Nawab. In 1764 he went
to England and became poor. In 1769 he returned
to India and was appointed member of the Council at
Madras. In 1772 he proceeded to Calcutta to become
Governor of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, in other words—to
govern territories covering an area of 150,000
square miles, or one-tenth of the great continent of
India. Henceforth his dominion extended from the
mouths of the Ganges to the foot of the Himalayas,
and from the frontier at Oudh to the frontiers at
Assam and Bhutan.
Two portraits.
Warren Hastings must be regarded in two different
aspects. In 1766, whilst residing in England, his
portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
represents a mild, benevolent, and intelligent English
gentleman. Twenty years afterwards another portrait
was painted, which represents a stubborn and
vindictive official, from whom all traces of the mild
gentleman had disappeared.[9]
British rule in Bengal provinces.
§6. The first task of Warren Hastings was to introduce
British administration into the Bengal provinces.
The work had been easy enough when dealing with
the population of towns, who were dependent on the
East India Company for employment and protection.
But dealing with provinces having a population of
twenty or thirty millions of Hindus and Mohammedans,
who knew very little of the British, and
very little of their laws or ways, was a very different
matter, and demanded extreme tact and caution.
Land revenue.
Warren Hastings began the work of government
with the reform of the land revenue—the backbone
of all administration in India. In those days
the task was beyond the strength of any Englishman
or body of Englishmen. During the Mahratta invasions
and sudden changes of Nawabs the collection of
the revenue had fallen into utter confusion, and it was
impossible for Europeans to understand local rights
or wrongs.
Zemindars and ryots.
The bulk of the land revenue in Bengal was collected
by middle men, known as zemindars, from
tenant farmers known as ryots. The zemindar was
half a landlord and half a revenue collector. He
generally possessed some hereditary land which was
the family demesne; but outside the demesne were
the landholders or ryots, from whom he collected the
rents. The zemindar was not a landlord in the eyes
of the ryots, because under Mogul law he could not
raise the rents. Still he was a great man within his
zemindary. He was magistrate, judge, and controller
of the village police; and he had armed followers in
his pay, who helped the village police in pursuing
robbers and collecting rents. He had the right of
hunting, fishing, and cutting wood, throughout his
zemindary. Moreover, he levied irregular cesses,
benevolences or aids, from the ryots, to defray
the expenses of a birth or marriage within his own
family, or to meet the demands of the Nawab in an
emergency like a Mahratta invasion.
British zemindar at Calcutta.
The changes in the status of Bengal zemindars
may be gathered from what is known of old Calcutta.
Before the battle of Plassy the East India Company
itself was nothing more than a Bengal zemindar, and
held the settlement at Calcutta on a zemindary
tenure. The Company was pledged to pay to the
Nawab a fixed yearly royalty for their little territory.
A British civil servant was appointed to represent
the Company as zemindar, to bear the name and
fulfil the duties of the post; and he collected the
ground-rents within the Company's bounds and paid
the yearly royalty to the Nawab. He could not raise
the rents, for that was forbidden by Mogul law, but
otherwise he was all powerful. He administered
justice, criminal and civil, like the Justices of the
Choultry at Madras. He also raised an additional
income by farming out certain trades as monopolies,
levying octroi duties on provisions, and taking fees
for the registration of marriages, and sale of houses,
boats, and slaves.
Auction sales of Calcutta lands.
After Plassy the British zemindar at Calcutta cared
nothing for Mogul law. He raised the rents within the
Company's bounds by the simple process of putting
the leases up to auction; and the eagerness of the
Bengalis to hold lands and sub-let them to under-tenants
led to much competition and a large advance
of rents. The zemindar who carried out this
innovation was no other than Mr. Holwell, the same
gentleman who was accepted as Governor of Calcutta
on the morning of the day that ended in the Black
Hole disaster. During that terrible night Mr. Holwell
seems to have imbibed hatred and contempt for
Moguls and Nawabs. Whilst Clive was shilly-shallying
with Mir Jafir, Holwell was urging the deposition
of the Nawab, the annexation of the Bengal provinces,
and the radical measure of putting up all the zemindaries
to public auction.[10] This scheme was ignored at
the time as the dream of a madman; but nevertheless,
within fifteen years, or half a generation, it was
seriously considered by Warren Hastings.
Mogul revenue records.
Mysterious disappearance.
The revenue records of the Moguls had always been
singularly complete down to the minutest detail.
The holding of every ryot and the area of every
zemindary had been measured and remeasured; the
average value of the yearly produce of every field had
been calculated; and the yearly rents payable by the
ryots and the yearly revenue payable by the zemindar
had been fixed in each case on the basis of the
average harvests. All these details had been entered
at length in the Mogul records. But the revenue
records which contained all the details respecting the
land in the Bengal provinces had mysteriously disappeared
when they were most wanted. A Mohammedan
contemporary says that they were all destroyed
when Mir Kasim fled into Oudh. Possibly they may
have been thrown into the Ganges and carried out
to sea.
British collectors.
Warren Hastings did perhaps the best he could
under the circumstances. By the stroke of a pen he
converted the British supervisors into British collectors
of revenues; and thus brought the new
collectors into direct contact with the zemindars, who
collected yearly rents from the ryots or tenant
farmers. The next work would have been to re-measure
all the lands and to make fresh estimates
of the average yearly value of the produce of each
field. This work had been carried out within the
Company's zemindary at Calcutta, and many frauds
and errors had been discovered and corrected. But
what was possible in an estate, was impossible in a
territory considerably larger than the British isles.
Warren Hastings had no means at his disposal for
re-measuring the lands and revaluing the yearly
produce, and it was utterly impossible to get at the
actual facts as regards rents and revenues. Not only
were the records lost, but the revenue administration
was in utter confusion; the ministers exacted what
they could from the zemindars, and the zemindars
in their turn oppressed the ryots. Moreover, no reliable
information could be obtained from ryots or
zemindars, who were alike suspicious of British intentions
and mortally terrified by the British invasion.
The new British collectors, with the help of native
officials, arrived at some approximate estimate of the
rents paid by the ryots in each zemindary, and then
every zemindar in possession was called upon to pay
a certain lump sum as yearly revenue for the whole
during a term of five years. If he accepted a lease
for the five years, well and good. If he refused, the
lease was sold to the highest bidder, with no other
reserve than that of requiring him to give the necessary
security for the yearly payment to the British
collectors.
Disastrous results.
Auction sales of zemindaries.
The experiment proved a failure. The revenue
demands had been fixed too high. Such was the
passion for local influence, that many zemindars had
agreed to pay a larger revenue than could be realised
from the rents. Vast amounts were lost as arrears
that could not be realised. Many zemindaries were
sold by auction, and were bought up by native
speculators who were ruined in their turn. When
the five years' leases had run out no attempt was
made to renew them; but zemindaries were let on
yearly leases until some permanent system could be
devised, and this arrangement continued in force
until the end of Warren Hastings's administration.
Judicial reforms: Mohammedan criminal courts.
§7. The system of judicial administration introduced
by Warren Hastings was equally cautious and
experimental. Bengal zemindars ceased to act as
magistrates or judges. The British collector became
magistrate and civil judge.[11] As magistrate he
made over all prisoners for trial to a Mohammedan
court, which was created in each district, but over
which he maintained some degree of control. A cazi
sat as judge and tried the prisoners, whilst muftis and
mulvis expounded or interpreted Mohammedan law;
but the British collector was present to see that
trials were properly conducted, and perhaps to intercede
when the punishment awarded was barbarous
or cruel. This was little more than a reform of
the existing system—such a reform as might have
been carried out by an Akbar or Aurangzeb. For
centuries Mohammedan law had been the common
law of Northern India, and Hindu criminal law,
with its hideous severities as regards caste, had been
ignored by Mogul rulers, although, no doubt, caste
laws were often enforced by the Hindus themselves.
Mixed civil courts: collectors, cazis,
pundits.
Civil justice was administered more directly by
the British collectors. In civil disputes, especially as
regards inheritance and marriage, the parties concerned
were necessarily guided by their own laws.
Accordingly the collector sat as judge, but was assisted
by Mohammedan lawyers in deciding cases
between Mohammedans, and by learned Brahmans, or
pundits, in deciding cases between Hindus. Under
most circumstances the cazi or pundit must often have
been the real judge, whilst the British collector was
only the representative of the supreme authority.
Courts of circuit and appeal.
Courts of circuit and appeal were also appointed to
travel through different areas, and sit as British
judges of assize in both criminal and civil courts.
Here was that same mixture of British and Asiatic
judges as in the collectors' courts. But many changes
were made from time to time in the judicial system,
and the whole question will be better considered
hereafter when dealing with the reforms of Lord
Cornwallis, who eventually succeeded Warren Hastings
as Governor-General.
Chief court or Sudder.
Meanwhile the Governor and Council still formed
the chief court at Calcutta, and confirmed all capital
sentences, or heard appeals in important civil cases,
as in the old times when British authority was
bounded by the Mahratta ditch. From time to time
they passed regulations for the guidance of collectors,
and eventually Warren Hastings drew up a clear and
concise criminal code with his own hands. This
chief court was known as the Sudder. It had a
civil and a criminal side, and lasted as an institution
down to the latest days of the East India
Company.[12]
Patriarchal justice.
Under such circumstances British ideas of justice
gradually superseded Mohammedan usages. Indeed
it was impossible to maintain the criminal law of the
Mohammedans in courts controlled more or less by
British judges. Under Mohammedan law theft was
punished by mutilation, adultery was punished by
death, or not punished at all unless four eye-witnesses
could be produced; whilst the most atrocious murderer
might escape from justice by the payment of a blood
fine to the kinsmen of his victim. Cazis and muftis
might be nominally independent, but practically they
yielded to British influences; and British judges
administered justice in a patriarchal fashion, which
might be condemned by trained lawyers, but was far
better suited to the condition of the masses than
British courts of law in the last century.
New members of Council and barrister judges.
§8. Whilst carrying out these reforms Warren Hastings
was taken somewhat aback by the appointment
of three English gentlemen, not in the service of the
Company, to seats in the Calcutta Council. At the
same time four barrister judges, equally independent
of the Company, were sent out from England to
form a Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta for
the administration of English law, civil and criminal.
The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was to extend
to all British subjects, and to all Asiatics who were
servants of the Company or had dealings with British
subjects. The Chief Justice was Sir Elijah Impey,
who was known to Hastings, as the two had been
schoolfellows together at Westminster. The three
other barristers were puisne judges.
Regulating Act of 1773.
The three new members of Council and the four new
Supreme Court judges had been appointed, not by
the East India Company, but by Parliament and the
Crown. The public mind in England had been
greatly stirred by reports of maladministration,
and in 1773 a "Regulating Act" had been passed to
bring the administration of merchant rulers under
some control independent of that of the East India
Company. No offence was intended to Warren
Hastings; on the contrary, he was raised by the
same "Regulating Act" to the post of Governor-General,
with a controlling power over Madras and
Bombay on all questions of war and peace. He
filled the chair as President of the Council, but
besides him there was only Mr. Barwell, who
belonged to the Company's service. The three
remaining members were the three strangers and
outsiders—General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and
Mr. Philip Francis, the reputed author of the Letters
of Junius.
Warren Hastings and Philip Francis.
§9. From the very first there were jealous suspicions
in the Council between the two gentlemen in the
service of the Company and the three gentlemen
appointed by the Crown. In one direction Warren
Hastings had laid himself open to an attack. In
an evil hour he had lent the services of a British
brigade to the Nawab Vizier of Oudh, and the
Nawab Vizier had employed the brigade against the
Rohilla Afghans on the north-west in a quarrel
with which the British had no concern. The Rohilla
Afghans were defeated by the British brigade, and
then plundered and brutally ill-treated by the
cowardly troops of the Nawab Vizier. Warren
Hastings could only defend himself by saying that
money was urgently required by the East India
Company, and that the Nawab Vizier had paid
heavily for the brigade.
Charges against Hastings.
Whilst Philip Francis and his two independent
colleagues were denouncing this transaction, the idea
spread amongst the Bengalis that the three new
members of Council had been sent by the King of
Great Britain to redress the wrongs of natives.
Petitions against Warren Hastings were poured into
the Calcutta Council, and seriously investigated by
Philip Francis and his two colleagues, whilst Hastings
and Barwell formed a minority and could not
override their proceedings. Hastings was charged
with having taken a bribe of 100,000l. from the
Nawab Vizier of Oudh. Then it was said that the
public auctions of zemindaries were shams; that the
native servants of Hastings and others had succeeded
in getting large estates at low leases, and that Hastings
had shared in the gains. Finally, a Brahman, named
Nundcomar, a man of notoriously bad character,
charged Hastings with having taken bribes for
certain lucrative appointments in the household of
the Nawab at Murshedabad.
Nundcomar executed.
Warren Hastings might have rebutted the charges
by producing his accounts, and allowing his steward
and other servants to be examined before the Council.
But he preferred standing on his dignity and refusing
to answer the charges brought forward by
Nundcomar, who was notorious for perjury, for
forging other people's seals, and for carrying on
secret correspondence with the enemies of the British.
Suddenly Nundcomar was arrested on a charge of
forgery, and tried in the Supreme Court by a full
bench, comprising Chief Justice Impey and the three
puisne judges, and, after a fair summing up, was
found guilty by a British jury, and hanged
accordingly.
Inaction of Hastings: extenuating
circumstances.
Nundcomar was a Brahman, and in those early
days no Brahman, under Hindu law, could be put to
death; whilst killing a Brahman, even by accident or
unavoidable circumstances, was regarded by Hindus as
the most horrible crime that could be committed by
man. Forgery was a capital offence under English law,
but not under Hindu or Mohammedan law. Hastings
might have reprieved Nundcomar, but would not interfere.
Philip Francis and his two allies, Clavering
and Monson, were insolent and aggressive in the extreme.
They had pushed Hastings into a corner from
which he could not escape without damaging his position
as Governor in the eyes of the Bengali population.
They were equally insolent towards Sir Elijah Impey
and the Supreme Court. They demanded, in arrogant
language, that every respect should be paid to
the caste feelings of Nundcomar during his imprisonment;
and whilst the trial was proceeding they
addressed the Chief Justice in the language of
reprimand, as though they had been his superiors.
Sir Elijah Impey went so far as to consult Hindu
pundits on the proper treatment of a Brahman under
confinement, and to act in accordance with their suggestions.
Indeed he seems to have regarded the pretensions
of a Brahman to be above English law, to be
as deserving of respect as the old "Benefit of Clergy,"
which was still in existence in England, although
taken away by statute from several offences. The
execution was delayed for more than a month after
conviction, and Nundcomar would probably have been
reprieved altogether, but for the arrogance of Philip
Francis and his two allies, and the additional perjuries
and forgeries which were committed in the course of
the trial. Had Sir Elijah Impey submitted further
to the dictation of Francis, the Supreme Court would
have lost all authority in the eyes of the people of
Bengal. The abstract justice in executing Nundcomar
for the crime of forgery may be open to question,
but Sir Elijah Impey, as Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, was bound to follow English law,
without making any exception in favour of a
Brahman.
Collision between the Supreme Court and the
Sudder.
§10. Meanwhile there was a collision between the
Supreme Court and the Sudder. The Supreme Court
began to exercise jurisdiction over zemindars and
other Asiatics throughout the Bengal provinces, and
to override the decisions of the Company's Courts.
Its powers had not been clearly defined, and on one
occasion it had been called upon to arbitrate in a
quarrel between Warren Hastings and General
Clavering, thus assuming a superior authority by
deciding differences between the Governor-General
and a member of his Council. Again, the judges of
the Supreme Court were qualified lawyers appointed
by the Crown, and they ignored the decisions of the
Company's servants, who were not lawyers.
Points in dispute.
The collision, however, was entirely due to the
false position which the East India Company had
taken up. The servants of the Company had as yet
received no authority from Parliament or the Crown
to act as judges, or to make laws. They affected to
treat the Nawab as a sovereign, and to act in his
name; but the Nawab was a fiction set up to hide
the territorial power of the East India Company
from the British nation. Warren Hastings pleaded
that the Bengal zemindars were servants of the
Nawab, over whom the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction.
The judges replied that the Nawab was a
puppet, a phantom, as unsubstantial as a king of the
fairies. Unfortunately, the maintenance of this
phantom Nawab for the benefit of the East India
Company has been for more than a century a dead
weight on the revenues of Bengal.
Parliamentary settlement, 1781.
In 1781 another Act of Parliament was passed
which put everything to rights. It authorised the
Governor-General and Council of Bengal to make
regulations which should have the force of laws, and
it restricted the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
to the old bounds of the settlement between the
Mahratta ditch and the river Hughly. But the state
of Englishmen—that is, of British born subjects of the
Crown—was exceptional. They could not be tried by
any of the Company's Courts, or under any of the
Bengal regulations. A British born subject who committed
a criminal offence in any part of the Company's
territories in Bengal could only be tried by
the judges in the Supreme Court, in accordance with
English law, and could only be convicted by a jury
of his own countrymen.
Alleged corruption of Impey.
Whilst the struggle was going on between the
Supreme Court and the Sudder, Warren Hastings
appointed Sir Elijah Impey to be chief judge in the
Sudder, on a salary of 7,000l. per annum, in addition
to his post as chief justice in the Supreme Court.
Philip Francis denounced this arrangement as a bribe
to Impey; possibly it may have been so, but in itself
the appointment was admirably suited to the exigencies
of the time. As an experienced lawyer, Sir Elijah
Impey was far better fitted than Warren Hastings to
act as chief judge in the Sudder, to hear appeals from
the Company's Courts up-country, and to control the
judicial administration of the Company's judges, who
could not pretend to any legal training. But the
malice of Philip Francis was as obvious in the case of
Impey as in the case of Hastings. Francis had been
cast in heavy damages by the Supreme Court as a
co-respondent; and he was bent on the ruin of Impey.
The result was that Impey was recalled to England
and impeached.[13]
Origin of the Mahratta power.
§11. Meanwhile the British had been drawn into a
war with the Mahrattas. For a hundred years the
Mahrattas had been the terror of India. Between
1660 and 1680, Sivaji, the hero of the Mahrattas,
founded the Mahratta kingdom in the Western Deccan,
between Surat and Goa. The head-quarters of the
family of Sivaji had been at Poona, about seventy
miles to the south-east of Bombay, and Sivaji's early
life and exploits were associated with Poona. Subsequently,
in consequence of Mogul aggressions, the
Mahratta capital was removed to Satara, about
seventy miles to the south of Poona.
Rise of the Peishwas, 1748.
In 1748 there was a revolution. The last descendant
of Sivaji was shut up in a fortress at Satara,
whilst the Brahman minister, known as the Peishwa,
removed to Poona, the ancient seat of Sivaji's family,
and cradle of his dynasty. The imprisonment of the
sovereign at Satara, and the reign of a Brahman
minister at Poona, hardened into an institution; and
whenever a Peishwa died, his successor went to
Satara to be invested with the office of minister by
his imprisoned sovereign.[14]
Peishwa and his feudatories: Sindia, Holkar,
&c.
The Mahratta kingdom covered the greater part
of the area of the Mahratta-speaking people. But
the Peishwa sent his lieutenants to collect chout,
or black-mail, in Northern India; and one of
these lieutenants, Mahadaji Sindia, became a greater
man than his master. Sindia always professed
to be the loyal servant of the Peishwa, and yet he
managed to exercise a commanding influence at Poona.
It was Mahadaji Sindia who carried off the Great
Mogul to Delhi in 1771 and established a dominion
in Hindustan, extending from the Gwalior territory
northward over the valleys of the Jumna and Ganges.
The other lieutenants were only beginning to play
their parts in history; they included Holkar of Indore,
the Gaekwar of Baroda, and the Bhonsla Raja of Berar
in the Deccan, immediately to the northward of the
Nizam.
British relations with Berar.
Very soon after the battle of Plassy, the British at
Calcutta came into contact with the Bhonsla Raja of
Berar. It was the Bhonsla Raja who compelled the
later Nawabs of Bengal to pay chout, and to cede
Cuttack; and when Lord Clive had concluded his
settlement with the Great Mogul and the Nawab
Vizier of Oudh, he advised the Court of Directors to
pay chout on condition of getting back Cuttack. But
the Directors did not want Cuttack and would not pay
black-mail; and the Bhonsla Raja pressed his demand
at convenient intervals, but wisely abstained from
invading the Bengal provinces.
Bombay and the Peishwas.
Meanwhile, the British at Bombay had come into
contact with the Mahrattas at Poona. For years
the East India Company had been anxious to hold
two important positions close to Bombay harbour,
namely, the little island of Salsette and the little
peninsula of Bassein. But the Mahrattas had wrested
Salsette and Bassein from the Portuguese, and would
not part with them on any terms. A civil war,
however, had broken out in the Mahratta country.
A Peishwa had been murdered. An uncle ascended
the throne, but was banished on suspicion of being
the murderer. He applied for help to the British at
Bombay, and offered to cede the coveted positions
if the British at Bombay would restore him to the
Mahratta capital. The Governor and Council at
Bombay closed with the offer, and the war began.
Disastrous retreat.
After some successes, the British at Bombay met
with disaster. Mahadaji Sindia appeared at Poona
with a large army to act against the banished Peishwa.
A British force advanced from Bombay towards Poona,
but took alarm at the report of Sindia's army, and
suddenly halted, and beat a retreat. During the
return march, the British force was environed by the
Mahrattas, and finally surrendered to Sindia under
what is known as the "Convention of Wurgaum."
Success of Warren Hastings.
Warren Hastings condemned the war from the outset;
as, however, the Company was committed to a
war, he exerted himself, in the teeth of Francis, to
maintain British prestige in India. He sent an
expedition, under Colonel Goddard, from Bengal to the
Mahratta country, and detached another force under
Captain Popham to capture Sindia's fortress at Gwalior.
The success of these exploits electrified half India.
The war was brought to a triumphant close, but all
conquered territories, excepting Salsette and Bassein,
were restored to the Mahrattas. Indeed, Warren
Hastings was not a conqueror like Clive; he acquired
no territory during his régime, excepting that of
Benares, which was ceded to the Company by the
Nawab Vizier of Oudh.
Three Asiatic powers in India.
§12. During the Mahratta war secret negotiations
were carried on between the Indian powers for a
confederation against the British. The two great
powers of the Deccan—the Mahrattas on the west
representing the Hindus, and the Nizam on the
east representing the Mohammedans—had hated one
another for the greater part of a century. A third
power, that of a Mohammedan adventurer named
Hyder Ali, was becoming formidable further south
on the western tableland of the peninsula. Hyder
Ali is said to have once served as a sepoy in the
French army. Later on, he entered the service of
the Hindu Raja of Mysore, and eventually ousted
the Raja, usurped the sovereign authority, and
conquered the countries round about.
Hyder Ali of Mysore.
For many years Hyder Ali was the Ishmael of the
Deccan and peninsula. His hand was against every
man, and every man's hand was against him. He
invaded alike the territories of the Mahrattas and the
Nizam in the Deccan, and those of the Nawab of the
Carnatic up to the suburbs of Madras and Fort St.
George. At the same time, he more than once exasperated
the British by his secret dealings with
the French at Pondicherry.
Invasion of the Carnatic, 1780: breaking up of the
confederation.
About 1779 Warren Hastings was warned that the
three powers—the Mahrattas, the Nizam, and Hyder
Ali—were preparing for simultaneous attacks on
Bengal, Bombay, and Madras, and that a large
Mahratta army was already on the move from
Berar territory for the invasion of the Bengal provinces.
In 1780 Hyder Ali desolated the Carnatic
with an army of a hundred thousand men, but he
was the only one of the three allies that kept to
his engagement, and was eventually driven back
by Sir Eyre Coote, one of the half-forgotten warriors
of the eighteenth century. The Nizam did
nothing; he probably waited to see what the others
would do. The Mahrattas of Berar encamped in
great force in the hills and jungles of Orissa, but only
appear to have wanted a money present; and after
wasting several months they were induced by Warren
Hastings to return to Berar. No movement of any
kind was undertaken against Bombay; and thus the
strange confederation of Mohammedans and Mahrattas
melted away.
Parliament interferes.
§13. The quarrels, the wars, and the irregularities
of Warren Hastings induced the British Parliament
to attempt radical changes. The antagonism between
Philip Francis and Warren Hastings had led to a duel,
in which Francis was wounded; and he returned to
England to pour his bitter prejudices against Warren
Hastings into the ears of Burke and Fox. The result
was that a bitter animosity was excited, not
only against Warren Hastings, but against the East
India Company; and Parliament was called upon to
decide whether the control of the administration of
British India ought not to be transferred from the
Court of Directors to the British Crown. The main
question was one of patronage. The patronage of
Indian appointments would render the Crown too
powerful, as the elder Pitt had foreseen in the days of
Clive; and George III. was already straining his royal
prerogative over Parliament and Ministers to an
extent which was exciting alarm.
Fox's India Bill, 1783.
In 1783, when the coalition ministry of Charles
James Fox and Lord North was in power, Fox brought
forward a bill for abolishing the Court of Directors,
and transferring their authority and patronage to
seven Commissioners nominated by Ministers. The
bill was passed by the Commons, but George III.
opposed it, and it was rejected by the Lords.
Pitt creates a board of control, 1784.
In 1784 William Pitt the younger brought in
another bill, which left the Directors in full possession
of their power and patronage, but brought them
under the strict supervision of a Board of Control,
consisting of six privy councillors nominated by the
Crown. Henceforth the President of the Board of
Control, who was always a member of the Cabinet,
was the centre of all authority, and was strictly
responsible to Parliament for the conduct of Indian
affairs.
Trial of Warren Hastings.
§14. Warren Hastings returned to England in 1785
to find that the minds of Burke, Fox, and other leading
statesmen had been poisoned against him by
Philip Francis. Eventually he was impeached by
the Commons and tried by the Lords in Westminster
Hall. Hastings was certainly responsible for the
Rohilla war, and also responsible for the execution
of Nundcomar; but the crowning charge against him
was that he had connived at the torture of the
servants of the Oudh Begums by the Nawab Vizier
of Oudh. The charge was painted in terrible colours
by Sheridan, and it may be as well to sum up the
actual facts.
Case of the Oudh Begums.
A Nawab Vizier of Oudh died in 1775, leaving
treasure to the value of some two or three millions
sterling in the public treasury at Lucknow. The
son and successor of the deceased ruler naturally
assumed possession on the ground that the money
was state property; but his mother and grandmother,
known as the two Begums, claimed it as private property,
which the late Nawab Vizier had made over to
them as a gift. Warren Hastings declined to interfere.
Philip Francis, however, insisted that the
British Government ought to interfere; and eventually
the money was made over to the Begums on
the condition that they paid some quarter of a
million towards the State debt due to the East
India Company.
Did Hastings connive at torture?
During the Mahratta war money was urgently
required. The Nawab Vizier owed large arrears to
the Company, but could not pay up unless he
recovered possession of the State treasures. Philip
Francis had returned to England. Accordingly
Warren Hastings abandoned the Begums to the
tender mercies of the Nawab Vizier, and connived
at the imprisonment of their servants. It subsequently
appeared that the Nawab Vizier tortured
the servants until the money was surrendered, but
there is no evidence to show that Warren Hastings
connived at the torture.
Services of Hastings.
Warren Hastings was undoubtedly a man of great
abilities and marvellous energy. His services to the
East India Company, and to British interests in India,
are beyond all calculation. But he was exposed to
great temptation in times when public virtue was
less exalted than it has been in the present generation,
and he was hedged around with enemies who
were spiteful and unscrupulous enough to misrepresent
any and every transaction. His errors were
those of his time, but his genius is stamped for ever
on the history of British India. His misdeeds cannot
be entirely overlooked, but he paid a bitter penalty.
For many months he was threatened by the proceedings
which culminated in his trial at Westminster
Hall. Eventually he was acquitted of all charges,
but his trial was protracted over seven long years
and ruined his private fortunes and public career.
Merits as an administrator.
After the lapse of a hundred years, the flaws in the
character of Warren Hastings may be condoned in
consideration of his merits as an administrator. He
found the Bengal provinces in chaos, and introduced
light and order. He converted British traders into
revenue collectors, magistrates, and judges, but he
established Courts of Appeal to supervise their proceedings;
and if his magistrates and judges had
no legal training, they were at any rate Britons
with a national sense of justice, and their decisions
were infinitely better than those of Bengal zemindars,
without law, or justice, or control. Warren
Hastings kept a watchful eye on British interests as
well as on the welfare of the people under his charge.
He sent a mission to Tibet, which shows his anxiety
for the extension of trade. He recorded a touching
tribute to the memory of Augustus Cleveland, a young
Bengal civilian who had done much to humanise and
elevate the rude Sonthals of the Rajmahal hills, which
sufficiently proves his sympathy with the well-being
of the masses. Altogether, if Warren Hastings is
not so free from blame as he is represented by his
friends, he certainly was not so black as he has been
painted by his enemies.
Lord Cornwallis, 1786-93.
§15. In 1786 Lord Cornwallis, an independent peer,
was appointed Governor-General. This event marks
a change in British rule. Lord Cornwallis was the
first British peer, and the first Englishman not in
the service of the East India Company, who was
appointed to the post of Governor-General. He
carried out two measures which have left their mark
in history, namely, the perpetual settlement with
the Bengal zemindars, and the reform of the judicial
system.
Perpetual settlement.
The settlement with the Bengal zemindars was still
awaiting a decision. Lord Cornwallis was anxious to
arrange the land revenue of the Bengal provinces on
English lines. He abandoned the yearly leases, and
concluded leases for ten years, with the view of eventually
declaring the settlement to be perpetual. Mr.
John Shore, a Bengal civilian, pressed for a preliminary
inquiry into the rights of the ryots, for the purpose
of fixing the rents. But Lord Cornwallis was opposed
to any further delay. In 1793 he proclaimed that
the ten years settlement would be perpetual; that the
tenant-rights of ryots would be left to future inquiry;
and that henceforth the Bengal zemindars would be
invested with the proprietary rights enjoyed by
English landlords, so long as they paid the fixed
yearly revenue to Government and respected all
existing rights of ryots and cultivators.
Judicial reforms.
The judicial system introduced by Warren Hastings
was modified by Lord Cornwallis. The British collector,
as already seen, was also magistrate and civil
judge. Lord Cornwallis decided that a collector
ought to have no judicial duties under which he
might be called on to adjudicate in revenue questions.
Accordingly a regulation was passed under
which the duties of revenue collector were separated
from those of magistrate and judge, and the magistrate
and judge was to be the head of the district,
whilst the revenue collector was his subordinate. It
is difficult to understand the merits of this measure.
Since then the two offices have been sometimes united
and sometimes separated. Eventually the two offices of
magistrate and collector were united in the same person.
Non-intervention.
Four provincial Courts of Circuit and Appeal were
created by Lord Cornwallis, and remained without
alteration for a period of forty years. One Court
was at Calcutta, a second at Dacca, a third at
Murshedabad, and a fourth at Patna. Each Court
consisted of three civilian judges and three Asiatic
expounders of the law, namely, a Mohammedan cazi
and mufti, and a Hindu pundit. The judges sat
in their respective cities to hear appeals in civil
cases; and they went twice a year on circuit to try
the prisoners who had been committed by the district
magistrates within their respective jurisdictions.
Munsifs and darogahs.
Lord Cornwallis also created a class of Hindu
civil judges named munsifs, and a new body of
Asiatic police under the name of darogahs. These
changes are best dealt with in connection with
modern reforms which will be brought under review
in a future chapter.
First war against Tippu.
Lord Cornwallis was engaged in two campaigns
against Tippu of Mysore, the son and successor of
Hyder Ali. The war is a thing of the past. Tippu
had invaded the territory of the Hindu Raja of
Travancore, who was under British protection; and a
triple alliance was formed against him as a common
enemy by the British Government, the Peishwa of the
Mahrattas, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. In the
end Tippu was reduced to submission and compelled
to cede half his territories, which were distributed
amongst the three allies. The confederation, which
only lasted to the end of the war, is memorable for
suggesting the idea of maintaining the peace of India
by a balance of power, which for a brief interval
dazzled the imaginations of Anglo-Indian statesmen.[15]
Shore, 1793-98; abolition of "dharna."
In 1793 Lord Cornwallis was succeeded by Sir
John Shore, the Bengal civilian who pressed Lord
Cornwallis to settle the rights and rents of the ryots
before proclaiming the perpetual settlement with the
zemindars. He is better known by his later title of
Lord Teignmouth. He was the first British ruler who
suppressed a Hindu institution. He put a stop to
"sitting in dharna," a Hindu usage which was subversive
of all justice and all law. It was based on
the superstitious belief that the life of a Brahman
was as sacred as that of a sovereign, and that killing
a Brahman, or being in any way implicated in
his death, was the most hideous crime that could be
committed by mortal man. Any Brahman might ruin
a Hindu, either for private revenge or to avenge
another, by sitting at his door and refusing to take
food. The victim was as helpless as a bird under the
fascination of a serpent. He dared not eat so long as
the Brahman fasted. He dared not move lest the
Brahman should injure himself or kill himself—a
catastrophe which would doom the victim to excommunication
in this life and perdition in the next.
The terrors of this superstition were removed by a
British regulation passed in 1797; and although
"sitting in dharna" is still a crime under the Penal
Code, the memory of the usage is passing away.[16]
Sir John Shore strictly adhered to the old policy of
non-intervention, which amounted to political isolation.
Meanwhile the Mahratta powers united to
demand enormous arrears of chout from the Nizam;
and the Nizam was utterly defeated, prostrated and
paralysed. All hope of a balance of power for the
maintenance of the peace of India was thus cast to
the winds. Finally, as if to show beyond all question
the absurdity of the idea, the Mahratta powers were
at war with each other for the mastery at Poona.
Such was the state of affairs in 1798 when Lord
Mornington, better known by his later title of
Marquis of Wellesley, succeeded Sir John Shore as
Governor-General, boasting, as he left Europe, that
he was going to govern India from a throne with
the sceptre of a statesman, and not from behind a
counter with the yard measure of a trader.
§1 Lord Mornington (Marquis of Wellesley), 1798-1805: last war against
Tippu, 1799. §2. Carnatic confiscated and annexed to Madras Presidency.
§3. Wellesley's scheme of a paramount power. §4. Second
Mahratta war: successes of Arthur Wellesley and Lake. §5. Disastrous
war with Holkar. §6. Return to non-intervention. §7. Sepoy mutiny
in Madras army. §8. Lord Minto, 1807-13: wars and alliances against
France. §9. Evils of non-intervention in Rajputana: troubles in Nipal.
§10. Lord Moira (Marquis of Hastings), 1813-23: war with Nipal,
1814-15. §11. Revival of the paramount power: Pindhari and Mahratta
wars, 1817-18. §12. Lord Amherst, 1823-28: wars with Burma
and Bhurtpore. §13. Lord William Bentinck, 1828-35; abolition of
Suttee. §14. Suppression of Thugs. §15. Administrative reforms.
§16. North-West Provinces: Joint Village Proprietors. §17. Madras
and Bombay Presidencies: Ryotwari Settlements. §18. Changes under
the Charter of 1833. §18. Sir Charles Metcalfe, 1835-36.
French menaces, 1798.
In 1798 British India was confronted on all sides by
France or Frenchmen. An army of sepoys, drilled
and commanded by French officers, was maintained
by the Nizam in the Deccan. Another French
officered army was maintained by Sindia in Western
Hindustan, between the Jumna and the Ganges.
Napoleon Buonaparte was invading Egypt, and
threatening to conquer the world.
Asiatic aspirations of Napoleon.
The successes and crimes of the French Revolution
had filled Europe with indignation and despair.
Napoleon Buonaparte had risen, like another Chenghiz
Khan or Timour, to take the world by storm. He
had driven the British from Toulon, conquered Italy,
wrested the Netherlands from Austria, threatened to
invade the British Isles, and then had landed in
Egypt, won the battle of the Pyramids, and proclaimed
himself to be a follower of the Prophet. Not
a man in Europe or Asia could penetrate the designs
of the young Corsican. Alexander of Macedon had
invaded Egypt as a prelude to the conquest of Persia
and India. Napoleon might follow in his footsteps
after the lapse of twenty-two centuries. He might
restore the Caliphat of Bagdad on the banks of the
Tigris, or resuscitate the sovereignty of the Great
Mogul over Northern India, from the banks of the
Indus to the mouths of the Ganges.
Tippu's alliance with France.
§1. The first duty of Lord Mornington was to get
rid of the French sepoy battalions in the Deccan and
Hindustan, and to provide for the defence of India
against France and Napoleon. Within three weeks
of his landing at Calcutta the note of alarm was
sounded in Southern India. Tippu, Sultan of Mysore,
had formed a hostile alliance with France against
Great Britain. It appeared that Tippu had been
groaning under his humiliation by Lord Cornwallis,
and burning to be revenged on the British government.
He hesitated to ally himself with the Mahrattas
or the Nizam, and coveted an alliance with a European
power. Accordingly he secretly sent emissaries
to the French governor of Mauritius, to conclude
a treaty with France and Napoleon against Great
Britain. The idea fired the imagination of the French
at Mauritius, and the fact of the treaty was published
in the Mauritius Gazette, and republished in
the Calcutta newspapers for the edification of the
new Governor-General.
Explanations demanded.
Lord Mornington naturally concluded that Tippu
was in collusion with Napoleon, and that a French fleet
might soon be sailing from Egypt down the Red Sea
to help Tippu in the invasion of the Carnatic, or to
help Sindia to restore the supremacy of the Great
Mogul over Oudh and Bengal. In the first instance he
called upon Tippu for an explanation, and proposed
to send an envoy to Seringapatam to arrange for a
better understanding between the two governments.
Tippu dumbfoundered.
Meanwhile Tippu was amazed and bewildered. To
have his secret designs suddenly published in successive
newspapers, and then to be called upon for an
explanation, seems to have stupefied him. He replied
that the French were liars, and refused to receive an
envoy from Lord Mornington. To have overlooked the
offence would have been sheer madness. Accordingly
Lord Mornington determined to revive the old alliance
with the Nizam and the Mahrattas against
Tippu; and meanwhile to get rid of the French
sepoy battalions.
French battalions disbanded at Hyderabad.
The Nizam welcomed a British alliance as offering
a means of escape from the crushing demands of the
Mahrattas. He was glad enough for the British to
disband his French sepoy battalions, which drained his
resources, and were threatening to mutiny for arrears
of pay. A British force was moved to Hyderabad,
the disbandment was proclaimed, and a battle was
expected. Suddenly, the French sepoys raised an
uproar, and the French officers rushed into the
British lines for protection. It was the old Asiatic
story of mutiny for want of pay, and when the
British advanced the money, the sepoys went away
rejoicing, and the French officers were thankful for
their deliverance.
Mahrattas evade a British alliance.
Lord Mornington next began his negotiations with
the Mahrattas, but they raised up a host of difficulties.
The Peishwa at Poona was a young Brahman, sharp
and suspicious. He was jealous of the British alliance
with the Nizam, which boded no good as regarded
future payments of chout, but he was anxious to
keep on good terms with the British. Accordingly
he promised to send a contingent to join the British
in the war against Tippu, but at heart he had no
intention of doing anything of the kind. With him
an alliance with the Christian or the Mohammedan
was a mere question of money. He was anxious to
sell his alliance to the highest bidder. Accordingly
he entertained Tippu's envoys at Poona in the hope
that the Sultan might eventually offer higher terms
than the British for the services of a Mahratta army.
Destruction of Tippu, 1799.
In 1799 Lord Mornington began the war against
Mysore. A British army from Madras, under the
command of General Harris, invaded it from the east,
whilst another force from Bombay invaded it from
the west. The two armies soon closed round Tippu.
He saw that he was environed by his enemies, and
that resistance was hopeless. He sued for terms, but
was told to cede the half of his remaining dominions
and pay up two millions sterling. He refused to
surrender on such crushing conditions, and retired to
his fortress at Seringapatam, resolved to die sword in
hand rather than become a servant or a pensioner.
In May, 1799, Seringapatam was taken by storm, and
the dead body of Tippu was found in the gateway.
Cruelty of Tippu.
The fate of Tippu might have been regretted but
for his cruel treatment of British prisoners in former
wars. At Bangalore, British captives were chained
together, starved, threatened, and tormented until
some were driven to become Mohammedans. The
consequence was, that during the advance on Seringapatam
British soldiers were burning for revenge,
and Sir David Baird, one of the greatest sufferers,
begged for the command of the storming party as a
relief to his outraged feelings. When the war was
over, the death and downfall of the tyrant was celebrated
in songs which were reverberated from India
to the British Isles, and the old strains are still
lingering in the memories of some who are yet living.[17]
Hindu Raj restored.
Lord Mornington annexed part of Mysore territory
to the Madras Presidency, and gave another share
to the Nizam; and he proposed, as will be seen hereafter,
to give a third share to the Mahrattas; but he
converted the remainder into a Hindu kingdom.
Accordingly an infant scion of the Hindu Raja, who
had been deposed by Hyder Ali some forty years previously,
was placed on the throne of Mysore in charge
of a British Resident and a Brahman Minister until he
should attain his majority. The subsequent career of
the Raja will be brought under review hereafter.
Annexation of the Carnatic.
§2. Soon after the capture of Seringapatam a clandestine
correspondence was discovered in the palace
between the Nawab of the Carnatic and the deceased
Tippu. The treachery was undeniable. At the same
time the discovery enabled the British to get rid of
a dynasty that had oppressed the people and intrigued
with the enemies of the East India Company for half
a century. Nawab Mohammed Ali, whom the British
had placed on the throne of the Carnatic in opposition
to the French, had died in 1795. His son and
successor had followed in the steps of his father, but
no complaints reached him, for he was smitten with
mortal disease. Lord Mornington, now Marquis of
Wellesley, waited for his death, and then told the
family that their rule was over. The title of Nawab
was preserved, and pensions were liberally provided,
but the Carnatic was incorporated with the Madras
Presidency, and brought under British administration
like the Bengal provinces.
Scandals of Nawab rule.
The annexation of the Carnatic delivered Madras
from a host of scandals which had been accumulating
for some forty years. The old Nawab had
removed from Arcot to Madras, and carried on
costly intrigues with the Company's servants in
India, and with influential persons in the British
Isles, in the hope of getting the revenues into his
own hands, and leaving the East India Company
to defend his territories out of their own resources.
He loaded himself with debt by bribing his supporters
with pretended loans, which existed only
on paper, bore exorbitant interest, and were eventually
charged on the public revenue. All this while,
he and his officials were obstructing British operations
in the field by withholding supplies, or treacherously
informing the enemy of the movements of the British
army. Since the annexation of the Carnatic in 1801
all these evils have passed into oblivion, and the
public peace has remained undisturbed.
Wellesley's political system.
§3. The war with Tippu taught Lord Wellesley
that it was impossible to trust the Mahrattas. They
would not join the British government against a
common enemy unless paid to do so; and they were
always ready to go over to the enemy on the same
terms. Accordingly Lord Wellesley proposed to
maintain the peace of India, not by a balance of
power, but by becoming the sovereign head of a
league for the prevention of all future wars.
Subsidiary alliances.
With these views Lord Wellesley proposed that
neither the Nizam nor the Mahrattas should take
any French officers into their pay for the future;
that neither should engage in any war or negotiation
without the consent of the British government; and
that each should maintain a subsidiary force of
sepoys, drilled and commanded by British officers,
which should be at the disposal of the British government
for the maintenance of the peace of India.
Nizam accepts.
The Nizam accepted the subsidiary alliance. He
provided for the maintenance of a Hyderabad Subsidiary
Force by ceding to the British government
all the territories which he had received on account
of the Mysore wars. By this arrangement all money
transactions were avoided, and the subsidiary force
was paid out of the revenues of the ceded districts.
Mahrattas refuse.
The Mahratta rulers utterly refused to accept subsidiary
alliances in any shape or form. They did not
want British protection, and they would not permit
any interference by mediation or otherwise with their
claims for chout against the Nizam. The Peishwa
would not maintain a subsidiary force, but he was
willing to take British battalions of sepoys into his
pay, provided he might employ them against Sindia
or any other refractory feudatory. He would not
pledge himself to abstain from all wars or negotiations
without the consent of the British government.
He was willing to help the British in a war with
France, but he would not dismiss the Frenchmen
in his service.
Sindia refuses British alliance against
Afghans.
Sindia was still more obstinate and contemptuous.
Mahadaji Sindia was dead. His successor, Daulat
Rao Sindia, was a young man of nineteen, but
already the irresponsible ruler of a large dominion in
Western Hindustan. He was all-powerful at Delhi,
and was bent upon being equally all-powerful at
Poona. He collected chout from the princes of Rajputana,
and, with the help of his French-officered battalions
of sepoys, he had established a supremacy over
the valleys of the Jumna and Ganges from the banks
of the Sutlej to the frontier of Oudh at Cawnpore.
Lord Wellesley would not venture to offer a subsidiary
alliance to a prince so puffed up with pride as young
Sindia. The Afghans, however, were threatening to
invade India, and Lord Wellesley invited Sindia to
join in an alliance against the Afghans. But Sindia
would not hamper himself with a British alliance. He
was not afraid of the Afghans. At any rate he waited
for the Afghans to appear before taking any steps
to prevent their coming.
British fears of France and Russia.
Lord Wellesley was not afraid of Afghans alone,
but of French or Russians, who might make their way
through Persia, join the Afghans, resuscitate the
Great Mogul, and establish a European empire in his
name as the rightful representative of Aurangzeb.
Accordingly Lord Wellesley sent the once famous Sir
John Malcolm on a mission to Persia to persuade the
Shah to bar out the French and prevent the Afghans
from invading India. Meanwhile, he anxiously
waited some turn in Mahratta affairs which would
bring their rulers into a more compliant mood towards
the British government.
Provinces taken from Oudh.
Lord Wellesley, however, determined that the
Nawab Vizier of Oudh should contribute something
further towards the defence of India against invasion.
The Nawab Vizier maintained a rabble army that was
costly and useless, and he depended entirely on
British troops for his defence against Afghans and
Mahrattas. He was urged to disband his rabble
army and replace it by battalions of sepoys trained
and commanded by British officers; but he was impracticable,
and Lord Wellesley got over the difficulty
by taking half his territory for the maintenance of the
required battalions. This was an arbitrary proceeding,
but it was justified on the score of state necessity and
self-preservation. It pushed the British frontier westward
to Cawnpore on the Ganges, where it was
close to Sindia and his French sepoy battalions, and
would be face to face with any foreign invasion from
the north-west. The new territories were called "ceded
provinces," and eventually were incorporated with
what are now known as the North-West Provinces.[18]
Sindia master of Holkar.
Meanwhile the Mahratta empire was falling into
the hands of Sindia. This ambitious feudatory tried
to pose as the protector of his suzerain the Peishwa.
The two, however, were perpetually plotting against
each other; the soldier and the Brahman were each
trying to be master. About this time Holkar died,
and Sindia hastened to Indore and put an imbecile
son of Holkar on the throne, as a preliminary step
to appropriating the territory and revenues.
Rise of Jaswant Rao Holkar.
At this moment a bandit prince appeared at Indore
with an army of predatory horsemen, brigands and
outlaws, the scum of Central India. He was a bastard
son of the deceased Holkar, and was known as Jaswant
Rao Holkar. He was routed by Sindia's French
battalions, but the scattered horsemen soon rallied
round his banners, and he went off to the south to
threaten Poona and the Peishwa.
Flight of the Peishwa.
The Peishwa was wild with terror. Under his
orders a brother of Jaswant Rao Holkar had been
dragged to death by an elephant through the streets,
and he had reason to believe that Jaswant Rao was
bent on revenge. His army was reinforced by Sindia,
but the united forces were utterly routed by Jaswant
Rao outside the city of Poona. Accordingly he fled
away to the coast, and embarked on board a British
ship for the port of Bassein, about twenty miles to
the north of Bombay.
Peishwa accepts subsidiary alliance, 1802.
The Peishwa was ready to make any sacrifice to
procure British help. Accordingly he accepted the
subsidiary alliance on the condition that the British
restored him to Poona. The terms were soon
arranged, and the treaty was signed at Bassein on
the last day of December, 1802. The Peishwa ceded
territories for the maintenance of a Poona Subsidiary
Force, and sacrificed his position as suzerain of the
Mahratta confederacy. For the future he was bound
to abstain from all wars and negotiations, even with
his own feudatories, excepting by the knowledge and
consent of the British government.
Surprise of the Mahratta feudatories.
§4. The Mahratta feudatories were bewildered and
stupefied by the treaty of Bassein. In a single day
the British government had become their suzerain
in the room of the Peishwa; the Christian governor
of Calcutta was lord over the Brahman Peishwa of
Poona. True, the Peishwa was restored to his
throne at Poona, but only as the creature of the
British government, not as the suzerain of the Mahrattas.
Sindia's hope of ruling the Mahrattas in the
name of the Peishwa was shattered by the treaty.
The Raja of Berar was equally down-hearted. The
Gaekwar of Baroda accepted the subsidiary alliance,
and ceased to play a part in history. Jaswant
Rao Holkar was out of the running; he was an
outlaw and an interloper.
Vacillations of Sindia and the Bhonsla.
The whole brunt of the struggle against the British
supremacy, if there was to be any struggle at all,
thus fell on Daulat Rao Sindia of Gwalior and the
Bhonsla Raja of Berar. Meanwhile the two Mahratta
princes moved restlessly about with large
armies, drawing nearer and nearer to the Nizam's
frontier as if to enforce their claims to chout.
They would not accept a subsidiary treaty, and
they would not break with the British government.
They tried to tempt Jaswant Rao to join
them, but the young brigand only played with
them. He got them to recognise his succession to
the throne of Indore, and then returned to his capital,
declaring that he must leave Sindia and the Bhonsla
to fight the British in the Deccan, whilst he went
away north to fight them in Hindustan.
Wellesley's campaign in the Deccan, 1803.
Lord Wellesley was well prepared for an outbreak.
His younger brother, Colonel Arthur Wellesley, was
watching Sindia and the Bhonsla in the Deccan, whilst
General Lake, commander-in-chief of the Bengal army,
was watching the French sepoy battalions of Sindia
in Hindustan. Sindia was vacillating and irresolute,
but his language was growing more hostile. He said
he was waiting for Jaswant Rao Holkar; he talked of
collecting chout in the Nizam's territory; and he
expressed doubts whether there would be peace or
war. At last he was told that he was breaking the
public peace, and must take the consequences.
British victory at Assaye.
The battle of Assaye was fought on the Nizam's
frontier on 23rd September, 1803. It was the old
story of a British army of five thousand men fighting
an Asiatic army of fifty thousand. The Mahratta
artillery worked terrible execution on the British
army, and one-third of its European force was left dead
or wounded in the field. But the Bhonsla Raja fled
at the first shot, and Sindia soon followed his example.
General Wellesley's victory at Assaye crushed
the hopes of the Mahrattas. Sindia especially took
his lesson to heart. It was followed by the capture
of fortresses and another victory at Argaum; and by
the end of 1803 the campaign in the Deccan was
over, and Sindia and the Bhonsla came to terms.
General Lake's campaign in Hindustan.
Meanwhile, General Lake had fought a brilliant
campaign in Hindustan. Directly he heard that war
had begun in the Deccan he left Cawnpore, on the
British frontier, and pushed his way to Delhi. He
defeated the French sepoy cavalry and captured the
fortress at Alighur. Next he defeated the French
sepoy infantry and entered Delhi in triumph. He was
received with open arms by the poor old Padishah,
Shah Alam, who once again threw himself upon
British protection. He left Delhi in charge of
Colonel Ochterlony, marched down the right bank of
the river Jumna, captured the city of Agra, and
brought the campaign to a close by a crowning victory
at Laswari, which broke up the French sepoy battalions
for ever, and placed the British government
in possession of the relics of the Mogul empire in
Hindustan.
British power paramount.
The campaigns of Wellesley and Lake established
the British government as the paramount power in
India. Sindia was driven by Wellesley to the northward
of the Nerbudda river, and by Lake to the
southward of the Jumna. The Bhonsla Raja was
deprived of Berar on one side and Cuttack on the
other, and was henceforth known only as the Raja of
Nagpore. The British government had acquired the
sovereignty of the Great Mogul and that of the
Peishwa of the Mahrattas. It took the princes of
Rajputana under its protection, and prepared to shut
out Sindia and Holkar from Rajput territories. Only
one Mahratta prince of any importance remained to
tender his submission, and that was Jaswant Rao
Holkar of Indore.
Relations with Holkar.
§5. The British government was not responsible for
the usurpation of Jaswant Rao Holkar. It was willing
to accept him as the de facto ruler of the Indore principality,
and to leave him alone, provided only that he
kept within his own territories, and respected the
territories of the British and their allies.
Holkar's pretensions.
Jaswant Rao Holkar, however, was a born freebooter,
a Mahratta of the old school of Sivaji. He
was not ambitious for political power like Sindia, and
he wanted no drilled battalions. He was a Cossack
at heart, and loved the old free life of Mahratta
brigandage. Like Sivaji, he was at home in the
saddle, with spear in hand, and a bag of grain and
goblet of water hanging from his horse. He and his
hordes scoured the country on horseback, collected
plunder or chout, and rode over the hills and far
away whenever regular troops advanced against them.
Indore was his home and Western India was his
quarry; and never perhaps did he collect a richer
harvest of plunder and chout than he did in Rajputana
during the latter half of 1803, when Lake was
driving Sindia and the French out of Hindustan, and
Wellesley was establishing peace in the Deccan.
Difficulties as regards "chout".
Jaswant Rao Holkar looked at the British government
from his own individual point of view. He was
no respecter of persons; he despised the Peishwa,
and had got all he wanted from Sindia and the
Bhonsla. The British government was his bête noire;
it had grown in strength, and was opposed to the
collection of chout. He wanted it to guarantee him
in the possession of Holkar's principality, and to
sanction his levying chout after the manner of his
ancestors; and he refused to withdraw from Rajputana
until these terms were granted. If his pretensions
were rejected, he threatened to burn, sack,
and slaughter his enemies by hundreds of thousands.
Such was the ignorant and refractory Mahratta that
defied the East India Company and the British
nation.
Lake attacks Holkar.
Disastrous retreat of Monson, 1804.
The reduction of Jaswant Rao Holkar was thus a
political necessity. In April, 1804, General Lake
entered Rajputana, and drove Jaswant Rao Holkar
southward into Indore territory. In June the rains
were approaching, and General Lake left Colonel
Monson to keep a watch on Holkar, with five battalions
of sepoys, a train of artillery, and two bodies
of irregular horse, and then withdrew to cantonments.
Colonel Monson pushed on still further south into
Indore territory, but in July everything went wrong.
Supplies ran low. Expected reinforcements failed to
arrive. Jaswant Rao turned back with overwhelming
forces and a large train of artillery. In an evil hour
Monson beat a retreat. The rains were very heavy.
The British guns sunk in the mud and were spiked
and abandoned. Terrible disasters were incurred in
crossing rivers. The Rajputs turned against him.
His brigade was exposed to the fire of Holkar's guns
and the charges of Holkar's horse. About the end of
August only a shattered remnant of Monson's brigade
managed to reach British territory.
Reaction against British supremacy.
For a brief period British prestige vanished from
Hindustan, and Jaswant Rao Holkar was the hero of
the hour. Sindia forgot his wrongs against Jaswant
Rao, and his defeats at Assaye and Argaum, and
declared for Holkar. Fresh bodies of bandits and
outlaws joined the standard of Holkar to share in
the spoil of his successes. With Mahratta audacity
Jaswant Rao pushed on to Delhi, to capture Shah
Alam and plunder Hindustan in the name of the
Great Mogul. He was beaten off from Delhi by the
small garrison under Colonel Ochterlony, but the
Jhat Raja of Bhurtpore received him with open arms
in that huge clay fortress, the stronghold of the predatory
system of the eighteenth century, which to
this day is the wonder of Hindustan. Holkar left his
guns in the fortress and went out to plunder; and
Lake, instead of following him up, wasted four months
in a futile attempt to capture the Bhurtpore fortress
without a siege train.
Reversal of Lord Wellesley's policy, 1805.
§6. The retreat of Monson was not only a disastrous
blow to British prestige, but ruined for a while the
reputation of Lord Wellesley. Because a Mahratta
freebooter had broken loose in Hindustan, the Home
authorities imagined that all the Mahratta powers had
risen against the imperial policy of the Governor-General.
Lord Wellesley was recalled from his post,
and Lord Cornwallis was sent out to take his place,
to reverse the policy of his illustrious predecessor, to
scuttle out of Western Hindustan, to restore all the
ceded territories, to surrender all the captured
fortresses, and to abandon large tracts of country
to be plundered and devastated by the Mahrattas,
as they had been from the days of Sivaji to those of
Wellesley and Lake.
Death of Lord Cornwallis.
Before Lord Cornwallis reached Bengal the political
outlook had brightened. Jaswant Rao Holkar
was flying into the Punjab from General Lake, and
was soon brought to bay. Daulat Rao Sindia was
repenting his desertion from the British alliance.
The Jhat Raja of Bhurtpore had implored forgiveness
and paid a heavy fine. But Lord Cornwallis was
sixty-seven years of age, and had lost the nerve
which he had displayed in his wars against Tippu;
and he would have ignored the turn of the tide, and
persisted in falling back on the old policy of conciliation
and non-intervention, had not death cut short
his career before he had been ten weeks in the
country.
Sir George Barlow's half measures, 1806.
Sir George Barlow, a Bengal civilian, succeeded for
a while to the post of Governor-General, as a provisional
arrangement. He had been a member of
Council under both Wellesley and Cornwallis, and
he halted between the two. He refused to restore
the conquered territories to Sindia and the Bhonsla,
but he gave back the Indore principality to Holkar,
together with the captured fortresses. Worst of all,
he annulled most of the protective treaties with the
Rajput princes on the ground that they had deserted
the British government during Monson's retreat from
Jaswant Rao Holkar.
Non-intervention: sad results.
For some years the policy of the British government
was a half-hearted system of non-intervention.
Public opinion in the British Isles, as expressed by
Parliament and Ministers, was impressed with the
necessity for maintaining friendly relations with the
Mahrattas, and for abstaining from any measure
which might tend to a renewal of hostilities. The
fact was ignored that Mahratta independence meant
plunder and devastation, and that British supremacy
meant order and law. Accordingly the Mahratta
princes were left to plunder and collect chout in
Rajputana, and practically to make war on each
other, so long as they respected the territories of the
British government and its allies. The result was
that the Peishwa was brooding over his lost suzerainty;
Sindia and the Bhonsla were mourning over
their lost territories; and Jaswant Rao Holkar was
drowning his intellects in cherry brandy, which he
procured from Bombay, until he was seized with
delirium tremens, and confined as a madman. All
this while an under-current of intrigue was at work
between Indian courts, which served in the end to revive
wild hopes of getting rid of British supremacy,
and rekindling the old aspirations for war and rapine.
Sepoy revolt at Vellore, 1806.
§7. In 1806 the peace of India was broken by an
alarm from a very different quarter. In those days
India was so remote from the British Isles that the
existence of the British government mainly depended
on the loyalty of its sepoy armies. Suddenly it was
discovered that the Madras army was on the brink
of mutiny. The British authorities at Madras had
introduced an obnoxious head-dress resembling a
European hat, in the place of the old time-honoured
turban, and had, moreover, forbidden the sepoys to
appear on parade with earrings and caste marks.
India was astounded by a revolt of the Madras sepoys
at the fortress of Vellore, about eight miles to the
westward of Arcot. The fallen families of Hyder
and Tippu were lodged in this fortress, and many
of Tippu's old soldiers were serving in the garrison;
and these people taunted the sepoys about wearing
hats and becoming Christians, whilst some secret
intriguing was going on for restoring Mohammedan
ascendency in Southern India, under the deposed
dynasty of Mysore.
Slaughter of British officers.
The garrison at Vellore consisted of about four
hundred Europeans and fifteen hundred sepoys. At
midnight, without warning, the sepoys rose in mutiny.
One body fired on the European barracks until half
the soldiers were killed or wounded. Another body
fired on the houses of the British officers, and shot
them down as they rushed out to know the cause of
the uproar. All this while provisions were distributed
amongst the sepoys by the Mysore princes, and the
flag of Mysore was hoisted over the fortress.
Suppression of mutiny; recall of Bentinck.
Fortunately the news was carried to Arcot, where
Colonel Gillespie commanded a British garrison.
Gillespie at once galloped to Vellore with a troop
of British dragoons and two field guns. The gates
of Vellore were blown open; the soldiers rushed in;
four hundred mutineers were cut down, and the outbreak
was over. The Home authorities wanted a
scapegoat; and Lord William Bentinck, the governor
of Madras, and Sir John Craddock, the commander-in-chief
of the Madras army, were recalled. Fifty
years afterwards, when the Bengal army broke out in
mutiny on the score of greased cartridges, many an
old officer wished that a Gillespie, with the independent
authority of a Gillespie, had been in command
at Barrackpore.
Lord Minto, 1807-13: lawless condition of
Bundelkund.
§8. In 1807 Lord Minto succeeded Barlow as
Governor-General. He broke the spell of non-intervention.
South of the river Jumna, between
the frontiers of Bengal and those of Sindia and
Holkar, are the hills and jungles of Bundelkund.
For centuries the chiefs of Bundelkund had never
been more than half conquered. They never paid
tribute to Mogul or Mahratta unless compelled by
force of arms; and they kept the country in constant
anarchy by their lawless acts and endless
feuds.
British conquest.
When the Peishwa accepted the British alliance, he
ceded Bundelkund for the maintenance of the Poona
Subsidiary Force. Of course the cession was a sham.
The Peishwa ceded territory which only nominally
belonged to him, and the British were too happy in
concluding a subsidiary alliance to inquire too nicely
into his sovereign rights over Bundelkund. The
result was that the chiefs of Bundelkund defied
the British as they defied the Peishwa, and Sir
George Barlow sacrificed revenue and ignored
brigandage rather than interfere with his western
neighbours. Lord Minto found that there were a
hundred and fifty leaders of banditti in Bundelkund,
who held as many fortresses, settled all
disputes by the sword, and offered an asylum to
all the bandits and burglars that escaped from British
territory. Lord Minto organised an expedition which
established for a while something like peace and order
in Bundelkund, and secured the collection of tribute
with a regularity which had been unknown for
centuries.
Dangers in the Punjab.
Lord Minto's main work was to keep Napoleon
and the French out of India. The north-west frontier
was still vulnerable, but the Afghans had retired from
the Punjab, and the once famous Runjeet Singh had
founded a Sikh kingdom between the Indus and the
Sutlej. As far as the British were concerned, the
Sikhs formed a barrier against the Afghans; and
Runjeet Singh was apparently friendly, for he had
refused to shelter Jaswant Rao Holkar in his flight
from Lord Lake. But there was no knowing what
Runjeet Singh might do if the French found their
way to Lahore. To crown the perplexity, the Sikh
princes on the British side of the river Sutlej, who
had done homage to the British government during
the campaigns of Lord Lake, were being conquered
by Runjeet Singh, and were appealing to the British
government for protection.
Mission to Runjeet Singh, 1808-9.
In 1808-9 a young Bengal civilian, named Charles
Metcalfe, was sent on a mission to Lahore. The work
before him was difficult and complicated, and somewhat
trying to the nerves. The object was to secure
Runjeet Singh as a useful ally against the French and
Afghans, whilst protecting Sikh states on the
British side of the Sutlej, namely, Jhind, Nabha,
and Patiala.
Runjeet Singh was naturally disgusted at being
checked by British interference. It was unfair, he
said, for the British to wait until he had conquered the
three states, and then to demand possession. Metcalfe
cleverly dropped the question of justice, and appealed
to Runjeet Singh's self-interest. By giving up the
three states, Runjeet Singh would secure an alliance
with the British, a strong frontier on the Sutlej, and
freedom to push his conquests on the north and west.
Runjeet Singh took the hint. He withdrew his pretensions
from the British side of the Sutlej, and
professed a friendship which remained unbroken until
his death in 1839; but he knew what he was about.
He conquered Cashmere on the north, and he wrested
Peshawar from the Afghans; but he refused to open
his dominions to British trade, and he was jealous to
the last of any attempt to enter his territories.
Missions to Persia and Afghanistan.
About the same time Lord Minto sent John Malcolm
on a second mission to Persia, and Mountstuart
Elphinstone on a mission to Cabul to provide against
French invasion. Neither mission was followed by
any practical result, but they opened up new countries
to European ideas, and led to the publication of works
on Persia and Afghanistan by the respective envoys,
which have retained their interest to this day.
Capture of Mauritius and Java.
Meanwhile the war against France and Napoleon
had extended to eastern waters. The island of the
Mauritius had become a French depôt for frigates and
privateers, which swept the seas from Madagascar to
Java, until the East India Company reckoned its losses
by millions, and private traders were brought to the
brink of ruin. Lord Minto sent one expedition, which
wrested the Mauritius from the French; and he conducted
another expedition in person, which wrested
the island of Java from the Dutch, who at that time
were the allies of France. The Mauritius has remained
a British possession until this day, but Java
was restored to Holland at the conclusion of the war.
Anarchy in Rajputana.
§9. During the struggle against France difficulties
were arising in Western Hindustan. The princes of
Rajputana had been engaged in wars and feuds
amongst themselves from a remote antiquity, but for
nearly a century they had been also exposed to the
raids and depredations of Mahratta armies. Lord
Wellesley had brought the Rajput princes into subsidiary
alliance with the British government, but the
treaties had been annulled by Sir George Barlow, and
war and pillage were as rampant as ever. The evil
had been aggravated by the rise of Afghan adventurers,
who had conquered territories and founded
new kingdoms in central India amidst the prevailing
anarchy; whilst a low class of freebooters, known as
Pindharies, plundered the villagers in the skirts of
the Mahratta armies, or robbed and pillaged the
surrounding territories, with a savage ferocity which
rendered them a pest and terror.
The Rana, or suzerain.
The hereditary suzerain of the Rajputs was a
prince known as the Rana of Oodeypore. The Rana
claimed descent from Rama, the hero of ancient
Oudh, and incarnation of Vishnu or the Sun, whose
mythical and divine glory is celebrated in the Ramayana.
Unfortunately the living Rana was a weak
and helpless prince, who was the dependent of his
own feudatories, whilst his territories were at the
mercy of Mahrattas and Afghans. He had a
daughter who was regarded as a prize and treasure,
not on account of her beauty or accomplishments,
for she was only an immature girl, but because her
high birth would ennoble her bridegroom and her
future sons or daughters.
War for the Rana's daughter.
From 1806 to 1810 the Rajas of Jeypore and
Jodhpore were fighting for the hand of this daughter
of the Rana. The girl herself had no voice in the
matter. In Rajput traditions a princess is supposed
to choose her own bridegroom in an assembly of Rajas,
by throwing a garland round the neck of the happy
lover. But in modern practice the "choice" has fallen
into disuse, and a gilded cocoa-nut is sent by the father
of the princess to some selected Raja as typical of an
offer of her hand. The cocoa-nut for the Oodeypore
princess had been sent to a Raja of Jodhpore, but he
died before the marriage, and the cocoa-nut was sent
to the Raja of Jeypore. Then followed a contention.
The new Raja of Jodhpore claimed the princess, on
the ground that the offer had been made, not to the
individual, but to the throne of Jodhpore. The Raja
of Jeypore, however, had accepted the cocoa-nut, and
insisted on his rights. The contention became a war
to the knife, and nearly every prince in Rajputana
took a part in the contest. Strange to say, the Rana
himself, the father of the princess, looked on as a
neutral whilst Jeypore and Jodhpore were fighting
for his daughter. Meanwhile his territories, known
as the garden of Rajputana, were ravaged by Sindia
and an Afghan adventurer named Amir Khan, until
nothing was to be seen but ruined harvests and
desolated villages.
Non-intervention.
Amidst this terrible turmoil, the princes and chiefs
of Rajputana implored the British government to
interfere. They asserted that there always had been
a paramount power in India; that such a power
had been formerly exercised by the Great Mogul;
that the East India Company had acquired that
power; and that the British government was bound
to stop the war. The Rana of Oodeypore offered
to cede half his territories if the British government
would protect the other half. Jeypore and
Jodhpore offered to submit their claims to British
arbitration, and pledged themselves to abide by
the decision. Lord Minto had only to declare which
bridegroom he recognised, and his dictum would have
been accepted. But Lord Minto shrunk from the
exercise of a sovereignty which would have been a
violation of the sacred dogma of non-interference,
and have carried British influence outside British
territories. Accordingly, the war was stopped by a
tragedy. The Rana settled the marriage dispute by
poisoning his daughter. The young princess is said
to have drunk the fatal draught with the courage
of a heroine, knowing that it would save her father;
but the unhappy mother was overpowered by grief,
and died broken-hearted.
Ghorka conquest of Nipal.
Meanwhile war clouds were gathering on the
southern slopes of the Himalayas. Down to the middle
of the eighteenth century, the territory of Nipal had
been peopled by a peaceful and industrious race of
Buddhists known as Newars, but about the year 1767,
when the British had taken over the Bengal provinces,
the Newars were conquered by a Rajput tribe from
Cashmere, known as Ghorkas. The Ghorka conquest
of Nipal was as complete as the Norman conquest of
England. The Ghorkas established a military despotism
with Brahmanical institutions, and parcelled
out the country amongst feudal nobles known as
Bharadars.
Ghorka rule.
Ghorka rule in Nipal was for many years distracted
by tragedies in the royal family, and civil wars between
the Bharadars for the post of minister. The Newars
were more down-trodden than the Anglo-Saxons under
the Norman kings. The Ghorka army was all-powerful,
but plots and assassinations were common enough in
the court and capital at Khatmandu, and the deposition
of a minister or a sovereign might be the work of
a day.
Ghorka aggressions.
During the early years of the nineteenth century
the Ghorkas began to encroach on British territory,
annexing villages and revenues from Darjeeling to
Simla without right or reason. They were obviously
bent on extending their dominion southward to the
Ganges, and for a long time aggressions were overlooked
for the sake of peace. At last two districts
were appropriated to which the Ghorkas had not a
shadow of a claim, and it was absolutely necessary to
make a stand against their pretensions. Accordingly,
Lord Minto sent an ultimatum to Khatmandu,
declaring that unless the districts were restored they
would be recovered by force of arms. Before the
answer arrived, Lord Minto was succeeded in the post
of Governor-General by Lord Moira, better known by
his later title of Marquis of Hastings.
Lord Moira—Marquis of Hastings,
1813-23.
§10. Lord Moira landed at Calcutta in 1813.
Shortly after his arrival an answer was received from
the Ghorka government, that the disputed districts
belonged to Nipal, and would not be surrendered.
Lord Moira at once fixed a day on which the districts
were to be restored; and when the day had passed
without any action being taken by the Ghorkas, a
British detachment entered the districts and set up
police stations.
Ghorka council of war.
Meanwhile the Ghorkas had been alarmed by the
letter of Lord Moira. A great council of Bharadars
was summoned to Khatmandu, and the question of
peace or war was discussed in a military spirit. It was
decided that, as the British had been unable to capture
the mud fortress of Bhurtpore, which was the work of
men's hands, they could not possibly capture the
mountain fortresses on the Himalayas, which were
the work of the Almighty. Accordingly, the council
of Bharadars resolved on war, but they did not declare
it in European fashion. A Ghorka army suddenly
entered the disputed districts, surrounded the police
stations, and murdered many of the constables, and
then returned to Khatmandu to await the action of
the British government in the way of reprisals.
Ghorkas superior to Mahrattas.
The war against the Ghorkas was more remote and
more serious than the wars against the Mahrattas.
The Mahrattas fought in the plains, and trusted in
their artillery; but when their gunners were shot or
bayoneted, as in the battle of Assaye, they seemed
to have lost all life and energy, and were broken up
into loose bodies of runaways. The Ghorkas, on the
other hand were resolute and hardy mountaineers,
with a Rajput pride, and military instincts like the
ancient Spartans. Their nerves had not been enfeebled
by opium, and they exulted in the strength
of their mountain fortresses, which they deemed
impregnable against all the world.
Difficult invasion of Nipal.
Those who have ascended the Himalayas to Darjeeling
or Simla may realise something of the
difficulties of an invasion of Nipal. The British army
advanced in four divisions by four different routes.
They had first to make their way through a belt of
marsh and jungle at the foot of the mountains. They
had then to climb precipices and shelves which would
have daunted the army of Hannibal. Moreover, it
was impossible to storm the fortresses without artillery;
and dragging up eighteen-pounders in the teeth of
snow-storms and mountain blasts, opening up roads
by blasting rocks, and battering down obstructions
with field guns, were tasks which would have tested
the genius of the ablest commanders.
Successes of Ochterlony 1814-15.
The operations of 1814 nearly proved a failure.
One general took fright at the jungle, and galloped
back to the plains, leaving his division behind. General
David Ochterlony, who advanced his division along
the valley of the Sutlej, gained the most brilliant
successes. He was one of the half-forgotten heroes
of the East India Company. He had fought against
Hyder Ali in the days of Warren Hastings, and beaten
back Holkar from the walls of Delhi in the days of
Lord Wellesley. For five months in the worst season
of the year he carried one fortress after another, until
the enemy made a final stand at Maloun on a shelf of
the Himalayas. The Ghorkas made a desperate attack
on the British works, but the attempt failed; and
when the British batteries were about to open fire,
the Ghorka garrison came to terms, and were permitted
to march out with the honours of war.
Peace with Nipal, 1816.
The fall of Maloun shook the faith of the Ghorka
government in their heaven-built fortresses. Commissioners
were sent to conclude a peace. Nipal
agreed to cede Kumaon in the west, and the southern
belt of forest and jungle known as the Terai. It
also agreed to receive a British Resident at Khatmandu.
Lord Moira had actually signed the treaty, when the
Ghorkas raised the question of whether the Terai
included the forest or only the swamp. War was
renewed. Ochterlony advanced an army within fifty
miles of Khatmandu, and then the Ghorkas concluded
the treaty, and the British army withdrew from Nipal.
The Terai, however, was a bone of contention for many
years afterwards. Nothing was said about a subsidiary
army, and to this day Nipal is outside the pale of
subsidiary alliances; but Nipal is bound over not to
take any European into her service without the
consent of the British government.
Imperial policy of Lord Hastings.
§11. Lord Moira, now Marquis of Hastings, next
turned his attention to the affairs of Malwa, the homes
of Sindia and Holkar, between Bundelkund and
Rajputana. Before leaving the British Isles, he had
a strong sense of the danger of Lord Wellesley's
policy, and a strong faith in the wisdom of non-intervention.
But a brief experience of the actual condition
of India compelled him to recant. The hordes of
Pindharies were swelling into armies. They ravaged
the territories of British allies, and threatened those
under British rule. Lord Hastings declared that
British power would never prosper in India until it
assumed the headship of a league like that projected
by Lord Wellesley. But the Home authorities were
still afraid of the Mahrattas, and Lord Hastings was
told that no league was to be formed in India, and no
steps taken against the Pindharies, that were likely to
be in any way offensive to the Mahrattas.
Pindhari raids.
In 1815-16, the last year of the Ghorka war, the
Pindharies extended their raids to British territory.
The horrors committed by these miscreants are
indescribable. Villages were environed by Pindharies,
and the inhabitants robbed and tortured. Fathers
piled firewood round their dwellings, and perished in
the flames with their wives and families, rather than
fall into the hands of Pindharies; whilst in some
villages, the whole female population threw themselves
into wells to escape a worse fate. George Canning
described Pindhari atrocities in a speech which aroused
parliament to a sense of its duties and responsibilities;
and it was resolved to make war on Sindia, Holkar,
or any other power in India, which should attempt to
shield the Pindharies from the just resentment of the
British nation.
Disaffection of Mahrattas.
Meanwhile the Mahratta princes had become unruly
and disorganised. Lord Wellesley had bound them
to the British government by subsidiary alliances;
but these ties had been loosened by his successors,
excepting in the case of the Peishwa. Accordingly
the Mahratta princes were smitten by a common
desire to throw off British supremacy, and return to
their old life of war and plunder. The Peishwa was
labouring to recover his lost suzerainty, with the help
of Sindia, Holkar, Nagpore, and the leaders of the
Pindharies. Sindia was more amenable to British
authority, and would have been guided by the advice
of the British Resident at his court, but, under the
policy of non-intervention, the Resident had been told
to confine his attention to British interests, and not to
interfere with Sindia. The result was that Sindia
was secretly negotiating with the Peishwa, the
Ghorkas, and even with Runjeet Singh of the Punjab,
for joint attacks on the British government. Holkar
had died of cherry brandy; the army of Indore was in
mutiny for arrears of pay, and its leaders were in
secret communication with the Peishwa; whilst an
infant Holkar and his regent mother had shut themselves
up in a remote fortress as a refuge against
the disaffected soldiery. Amir Khan the Afghan,
the most powerful prince of the period, had established
a principality at Tonk, in Rajputana, and commanded
a large army of drilled battalions, and a
formidable train of artillery.
Contumacy of the Peishwa.
Lord Hastings wanted to crush the Pindharies, but
to avoid all collision with the Mahrattas. The
Peishwa, however, seemed bent on provoking British
interference. A Brahman envoy, from the Gaekwar
of Baroda, had been sent to Poona, under a British
guarantee, to settle some obsolete dispute about
chout, and, in spite of the guarantee, the Brahman
had been barbarously murdered, under the orders of
the Peishwa and his minister. Lord Hastings accepted
the explanation of the Peishwa that he was innocent
of the murder, but ordered the Mahratta minister to
be imprisoned in the fortress of Thanna, near Bombay.
Later on the minister escaped from the fortress with
the connivance of the Peishwa, and was secretly protected
by the Peishwa, and it seemed impossible to
condone the offence.
Elphinstone and Malcolm.
At this crisis Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, one of
the ablest of the old Bengal civilians, was Resident at
Poona; whilst Sir John Malcolm, of the Madras
army, was negotiating with the Mahratta princes
for their co-operation in the war against the Pindharies.
Elphinstone found that the Peishwa was
secretly intriguing with his exiled minister, and
levying troops to an extent that meant mischief.
Accordingly he threatened the Peishwa with the displeasure
of the British government, and required him
to deliver up three important fortresses as a pledge
for his future good behaviour. The Peishwa then
artfully invited Sir John Malcolm to come and see
him, and so talked him over that Malcolm believed in
his good faith, and advised that the fortresses should
be given back. Elphinstone had no such confidence in
the Peishwa; nevertheless he restored the fortresses,
as he would not throw cold water on Malcolm's good
intentions.
Pindhari war: Mahratta plots.
By this time Lord Hastings had planned his campaign
against the Pindharies. The British force was
overwhelming, for it was known that the three predatory
powers—Sindia, Holkar, and Amir Khan—were
bent on sheltering the Pindharies by enlisting
them as soldiers or hiding them in the jungles until
the danger had passed away. They had no conception
of the scale on which Lord Hastings had planned
his campaign. They knew that a force was advancing
from the south, and that it would probably comprise
an army from Madras, the Hyderabad Subsidiary
Force, and the Poona Subsidiary Force; but they
fondly imagined that, if the Pindharies were kept out
of the way, the British forces would soon return to
cantonments, and that the Pindharies would then
revenge the attack on their homes by fresh raids on
British territories.
Mortification of Sindia.
Lord Hastings, however, was bent on disarming
Sindia, Holkar, and Amir Khan before exterminating
the Pindhari gangs, and thus guarding against the
possible revival of the gangs after the conclusion of
the war. Daulat Rao Sindia was suddenly asked to
give a friendly reception to the Madras army coming
from the south. He hesitated, vacillated, and asked
for time to consider the proposition. He was told
that consideration was out of the question; that he
was pledged to co-operate with the British forces
against the Pindharies; that a large Bengal army
was advancing from the north over the river Jumna,
under the direct orders of Lord Hastings in person;
and that the Pindharies would be environed and
exterminated by the two armies. Sindia was utterly
taken by surprise. He knew that it would be sheer
madness to fight against the Governor-General. He
hastened to receive the Madras army, and was lavish
in his professions of loyalty. He was then charged
with having violated treaties by carrying on secret
negotiations with Nipal and Runjeet Singh. He
solemnly protested his innocence, but two of his
messengers to Nipal had been arrested on the way,
and his own letters addressed to the Ghorka government
were placed in his hands in open durbar by the
British Resident, who simply stated what they were.
The letters in question were damnatory. Sindia had
proposed that Ghorkas and Mahrattas should join in
a common attack on the British government.
Sindia submits.
Sindia bent to his destiny. He saw that he was
checkmated at every turn. He was dumbfoundered,
and made no attempt to defend himself. Nothing
further was done. Lord Hastings left him in possession
of his territories, but took the Rajput princes
under British protection, and bound over Sindia to
co-operate against the Pindharies, and to prevent the
formation of any gangs for the future.
Amir Khan submits.
Amir Khan was growing old, and was glad to make
any terms which would leave him in possession of his
principality. He disbanded his battalions and sold
his cannon to the British government, on condition of
being recognised as hereditary ruler of Tonk. No
cause for uneasiness remained, excepting the disaffected
Peishwa of Poona, the mutinous army of
Holkar, and some suspicious movements on the part
of the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpore.
Destruction of the Pindharies.
When the rains were over the British armies began
to move. There were 120,000 troops under
arms, the largest force that had ever taken the field in
India under British colours; twice as many as Lord
Wellesley assembled in 1803-4, and four times as
many as Lord Cornwallis led against Tippu in 1791-92.
The Pindharies found themselves abandoned by
Sindia and Amir Khan, and environed by the armies
from Bengal and Madras. Many were shot down,
or put to the sword, or perished in the jungle, or
were slain by villagers in revenge for former cruelties.
Others threw themselves on British protection,
and were settled on lands, and became peaceful
and industrious cultivators. Within a few years
no traces of the Pindhari gangs were to be found
in India.
Hostility of the Peishwa.
All this while the Peishwa was at Poona, bent on
mischief. He resumed his levy of troops and his
secret intrigues with other princes. The Poona Subsidiary
Force was called away to the northward to
co-operate against the Pindharies, but Mr. Elphinstone
obtained a European regiment from Bombay,
and posted it at Khirki, about four miles from
the British Residency.
Treachery, defeat, flight.
The Peishwa was baffled by the European regiment.
He affected to regard it as a menace, and threatened
to leave Poona unless it was sent back to Bombay,
but he was quieted by its removal to Khirki. He
was relying on the support of Sindia and Amir Khan,
and was assured that the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpore
and the army of Holkar were preparing to join him.
On the 5th November, 1817, Mr. Elphinstone left
the British Residency at Poona, and followed the
European regiment to Khirki. That same afternoon
the Peishwa attacked the British force at Khirki
with an army of 26,000 men, but was beaten back
with heavy losses. At night the British Residency
was plundered and set on fire, and the magnificent
library of Mr. Elphinstone was utterly destroyed.
Twelve days afterwards the Subsidiary Force returned
to Poona, and the Peishwa was seized with a panic
and fled away from his dominions, never to return.
Plottings at Nagpore.
The next explosion was at Nagpore. The Bhonsla
Raja, who fled from Assaye, was dead, and a nephew
named Appa Sahib had succeeded to the throne.
Appa Sahib tried to ingratiate himself with the
British, but was playing the same double game as
Sindia and the Peishwa. Mr. Jenkins was Resident
at Nagpore, and when news arrived of the attack
on Khirki, Appa Sahib expatiated to him on the
treachery of the Peishwa and his own loyalty. All
this while, however, he was in secret correspondence
with the Peishwa, and levying troops for the coming
war against the British.
British preparations.
The British Residency was separated from the city
of Nagpore by the Sitabuldi hill. On the 25th of
November, 1817, eight days after the flight of the
Peishwa, all communication with the Residency was
stopped by Appa Sahib, and the Raja and his ministers
were sending their families and valuables out of
the city of Nagpore. Mr. Jenkins foresaw an outbreak,
and ordered the Nagpore Subsidiary Force to occupy
Sitabuldi hill. There was no European regiment
as at Khirki, and only 1,400 sepoys fit for duty,
including three troops of Bengal cavalry, and there
were only four six-pounders.
Victory on Sitabuldi hill.
At evening, 26th December, 1817, Appa Sahib
advanced against the hill Sitabuldi with an army of
18,000 men, including 4,000 Arabs and thirty-six
guns. The battle lasted from six o'clock in the
evening until noon the next day. The British force
was literally overwhelmed by the enemy. The Arabs
were closing round the Residency, when Captain
Fitzgerald charged them with the three troops of
Bengal cavalry. The sudden attack surprised and
bewildered the Arabs. The British sepoys on the
hill saw the confusion, and rushed down the slope
and drove the Arabs before them like sheep. The
memory of this victory has been preserved down to
our own time. The hill Sitabuldi is a monument to
the loyalty and valour of the Bengal cavalry. Every
visitor to Nagpore makes a pilgrimage to Sitabuldi to
behold the scene of one of the most glorious triumphs
of the old sepoy army in India. Appa Sahib fled
from Nagpore, but Lord Hastings refused to annex
the principality; and an infant grandson of the predecessor
of Appa Sahib was placed upon the throne,
under the guardianship of Mr. Jenkins.
Defeat of Holkar's army at Mehidpore.
On the 21st December, five days before the battle
of Sitabuldi, the army of Holkar had been defeated
by Sir John Malcolm at Mehidpore. Holkar's
soldiers had received their arrears of pay from the
Peishwa, and declared for the Peishwa. Malcolm approached
them with the Madras army, and they murdered
the regent mother on suspicion of negotiating
with the British, and began the battle of Mehidpore
by plundering the British baggage. Holkar's army
was defeated; the principality of Indore was placed
at the disposal of Lord Hastings. The infant Raja
was left on the throne, and Holkar's state was brought
into subsidiary alliance with the British government,
and required to cede territory for the maintenance
of a subsidiary army.
Peishwa at Satara.
Nothing remained to complete the pacification of
India but the capture of the Peishwa. He had fled
southward to Satara, to strengthen his cause by releasing
the captive Raja and setting up the old
standard of Sivaji. But British prestige had been
effectually restored by Lord Hastings, and the restless
movements of the Peishwa were little more than
feverish efforts to escape from his British pursuers.
Glorious action at Korygaum.
One glorious battle was fought on New Year's Day,
1818, a victory of Bombay sepoys which is celebrated
in Deccan songs of triumph to this day. A detachment
of 800 Bombay sepoys was drawn up at the
village of Korygaum, on the bank of the river Bhima,
near Satara, under the command of Captain Staunton.
On the opposite bank was the army of the Peishwa,
numbering 25,000 horse and 6,000 Arab infantry.
Staunton had but ten British officers and twenty-four
British gunners with two six-pounders. Staunton occupied
the village, but was environed by the Peishwa's
army, and cut off from all supplies and water. The
Mahrattas were mad to capture the village. Three
times they tried to storm it with rockets, but were
beaten back by sheer pluck and desperation. Raging
with hunger and thirst, Bombay sepoys and British
officers and gunners fought like heroes, whilst the
Peishwa looked on in anger and despair from a neighbouring
hill. Staunton lost a third of his sepoys and
eight out of his ten officers, but the Mahrattas left
six hundred killed and wounded on the field. Next
morning the Mahrattas refused to renew the fight,
and the army of the Peishwa moved away.
Extinction of the Peishwa, 1818.
Such a humiliation must have taken away all hope
from the Peishwa. For six months longer he kept
out of the reach of his pursuers, but was at last
environed by British troops under Sir John Malcolm.
He threw himself on the mercy of the British government,
and eventually talked over Sir John Malcolm,
as he had done a year or two previously in the
matter of the three fortresses. From feelings of pity
for an Asiatic prince who had ruined himself by his
own treachery, Malcolm gave his personal guarantee
that the British government would pay a pension to
the conquered Peishwa of 80,000l. a year. Lord
Hastings was extremely angry at such a charge upon
the yearly revenue, but would not withhold his
sanction to Malcolm's guarantee.[19] Since then there
has been no Peishwa of the Mahrattas. The ex-ruler
lived in idle luxury near Cawnpore, whilst his dominions
were incorporated with the Bombay Presidency.
A futile attempt was made by Lord Hastings to
revive the extinct Raja of Satara, but in the course of
years the Raja was intriguing like the Peishwa, and
the principality was eventually annexed by Lord
Dalhousie.
Pacification and protection of Rajputana,
1818.
The crowning event in the administration of Lord
Hastings was the renewal of protective treaties with
the princes of Rajputana. The raids of the Mahrattas,
which had been the curse and agony of Rajputana for
nearly a century, were stopped for ever. The territory
of Ajmere, in the heart of Rajputana, which had been
successively the head-quarters of Mogul and Mahratta
suzerainty, was taken over by the British government,
and is to this day the head-quarters of the Agent to
the Viceroy for the states of Rajputana, and a centre
of British supremacy and paramount power.
Lord Amherst, 1823-28: demands of Burma.
§12. Lord Amherst succeeded Lord Hastings as
Governor-General in 1823. The wars of 1817-18 had
established the peace of India, by breaking up the
predatory system which had been a terror to Hindus
and Mohammedans for more than a century. But
the king of Burma, to the eastward of Bengal, was
causing some anxiety by demanding the surrender of
political fugitives from his dominions who had taken
refuge in British territory. The British government
refused compliance. Had the refugees been given up,
they would have been crucified, or otherwise tortured
to death by the Burmese officials. Common humanity
forbade the concession, so the refugees were required
to keep the peace within British territory, and to
abstain from all plots or hostile movements against
the Burmese government.
Burmese aggressions.
For years the Burmese officials tried to bully the
British government into surrendering these refugees.
They knew nothing of the outer world, and treated
the British with contempt as a nation of traders, who
had paid the Indian sepoys to fight their battles.
Conciliation only provoked them to insolence and
aggression. They seized an island belonging to the
British. They overran the intervening countries of
Munipore and Assam, and demanded the cession of
Chittagong. Finally, they invaded British territory
and cut off a detachment of sepoys, and threatened,
with all the bombast of barbarians, to conquer Bengal,
and bring away the Governor-General in golden
fetters.
Expedition to Rangoon, 1824.
At last Lord Amherst sent an expedition under
Sir Archibald Campbell to the port of Rangoon, the
capital of the Burmese province of Pegu. The Burmese
officials were taken by surprise. They sent
a mob of raw levies to prevent the British from
landing, but the impromptu army fled at the first
discharge of British guns. The British landed, and
found that all the men, women, and children
of Rangoon had fled to the jungle, with all their
provisions and grain. The British occupied Rangoon,
but the country round about was forest and
swamp. The rains began, and the troops were struck
down with fever, dysentery, and bad food. No
supplies could be obtained except by sea from Madras
or Calcutta. Nearly every European in Rangoon who
survived the rains of 1824 had reason to remember
the Burmese seaport to the end of his days.
British advance to Ava.
Peace.
When the rains were over a Burmese general of
great renown approached Rangoon with an army of
60,000 braves, and environed the place with stockades.
There was some severe fighting at these stockades,
but at last they were taken by storm, and the
braves fled in a panic. The British expedition
advanced up the river Irrawaddy, through the valley
of Pegu. The people of Pegu, who had been conquered
by the king of Burma some sixty years before,
rejoiced at being delivered from their Burmese oppressors,
and eagerly brought in supplies. The British
expedition was approaching Ava, the capital of the
kingdom, when the king of Burma came to terms,
and agreed to pay a million sterling towards the
expenses of a war which cost more than ten millions.
The British were content with annexing two strips of
sea-board, known as Arakan and Tenasserim, which
never paid the cost of administration; and left the
valley of Pegu, and even the port of Rangoon, in
possession of the king of Burma. But Assam and
Cachar, between Bengal and Burma, were brought
under British rule, and eventually made up for
the expenditure on the war by the cultivation of
tea.
War against Bhurtpore, 1825-26.
Meanwhile, Lord Amherst had some difficulty with
the Jhat state of Bhurtpore in Rajputana, which had
defied Lord Lake in 1805, but had eventually been
brought under British protection. In 1825 the Raja
died, and the succession of an infant son was recognised
by the British government. An uncle, however,
seized the throne, and shut himself up in the
mud fortress which had resisted the assaults of Lord
Lake. At first Lord Amherst was disinclined to
interfere, but all the restless spirits, who had been
reduced to obedience by the wars of 1817-18, were
beginning to rally round the usurper, who had openly
defied the British government. A British force was
sent to Bhurtpore, under Lord Combermere. The
mud walls were undermined, and blown up with gunpowder.
The British soldiers rushed in, the usurper
was deposed, and the young Raja was restored to
the throne, under the protection of the paramount
power.
Lord William Bentinck, 1828-35: peace and
progress.
§13. Lord William Bentinck succeeded Lord Amherst
in 1828. His administration was emphatically
one of progress. He promoted English education
amongst Hindus and Mohammedans, and founded a
medical college at Calcutta. He laboured hard to
establish steam navigation between India and Europe
viâ the Red Sea, in the place of the old sailing route
round the Cape. He encouraged the cultivation of
tea in Assam and Cachar. He sought to open a trade
with Central Asia up the river Indus, but was foiled
by Runjeet Singh, who was still as friendly as ever,
but resolutely bent on keeping the British out of
his territories.
Abolition of Suttee 1829.
In 1829, the year after the arrival of Lord William
Bentinck, he electrified India by the abolition of
suttee. In these advanced days it is difficult to understand
why British rulers did not suppress this
hateful rite the moment they had the power. But for
many years toleration and non-intervention were a
kind of fanaticism with British administrators; and
the Bengalis appeared to exult in the performance of
a rite which they knew to be obnoxious to Europeans.
As a matter of fact, the number of suttees in Bengal
appeared to increase under British rule, and this was
most marked in the villages round Calcutta.
Relief of Hindus.
The abolition of suttee by treating it as a capital
crime was followed by none of the evils which had
been anticipated. There was no rising of the sepoys;
no discontent on the part of the masses. British rulers
were delivered from the odium of sanctioning a barbarous
crime under the plea of religious toleration;
whilst the living widow was no longer compelled to
immolate herself with her dead husband, nor was her
son forced by a sense of duty to apply the torch to
the funeral pile. The pride of Brahmans and Rajputs
may have been wounded when all concerned in the
performance of the ancient rite were punished by
imprisonment or death, but humanity has triumphed,
and suttees have vanished from British India, and from
every state owing allegiance to British sovereignty.
Thug atrocities.
§14. The suppression of the Thugs was another
work of the time. These detestable miscreants
appeared to the outer world as honest traders or
agriculturists, who occasionally went on pilgrimage
or travelled for business or pleasure. In reality they
were organised gangs of murderers, having a dialect
and signs of their own. They made friends with
other travellers going the same way; halted beneath
the shade of trees, and suddenly threw their nooses
round the necks of their victims, strangled them to
death, rifled them of their money and goods, and
buried them with a speed which defied detection.
Sometimes the unwary traveller was beguiled by a
female to a lonely spot, and was never heard of more.
Hereditary Thug gangs.
Every boy born of Thugs was brought up in what
may be called the religion of the noose. From his
cradle he was taught that he was bound to follow the
trade of his forefathers; that, like them, he was the
blind instrument of the deity of life and death. At
first he acted as a scout; then he was allowed to
handle and bury the victim; and finally tried his
prentice hand at strangling. Before committing his
first murder, one of the elders acted as his Guru or
spiritual guide, and initiated him in the use of the
noose as a solemn rite associated with the worship of
the goddess Durga, Bowani, or Kali, the mythical
bride of Siva, the incarnation of the mysteries of life
and dissolution, who is often represented with a noose
in her hand.[20] Throughout his after career he adored
the goddess as a tutelar deity; worshipped her in
temples where Thugs officiated as priests; and propitiated
her with offerings of flesh meat and strong
drinks, which were supposed to be most acceptable to
female divinity.
Suppression.
The Hindus were too fearful and superstitious
to suppress the Thugs. The Moguls had no such
scruples, and often condemned Thugs to a cruel
death; but wealthy Hindus would offer large ransoms
to save their lives, or would follow the miscreants to
the place of execution and regale them with sweetmeats
and tobacco. When, however, the British
discovered the secret organisation, they resolved to
break up the gangs and put an end to the hereditary
association. A department was organised for the
suppression of Thugs, and chiefs and princes were
called upon to co-operate in the work of extermination.
Between 1830 and 1835 two thousand Thugs were
arrested, and fifteen hundred were imprisoned for
life, or transported beyond the seas, or publicly
executed. Many saved their lives by giving evidence
against their fellows, but were shut up for the rest of
their days to protect them from vengeance, and to
prevent their return to a horrible profession which
had become an hereditary instinct in Thug families.
To this day the children or grandchildren of the old
Thug gangs, who were the terror of India within the
memory of living men, are manufacturing carpets,
or working at some other useful trade, within prison
walls.
Civil and judicial reforms.
§15. Lord William Bentinck put a finishing touch
to the civil and judicial administration which Warren
Hastings initiated and Lord Cornwallis reformed.
The district was still retained as the unit of Indian
administration, with its civil judge, and its collector
and magistrate, and necessary establishments of
native officials. But the civil judge was invested
with the criminal powers of a sessions judge for the
trial of prisoners, and henceforth known as the
district judge. The four provincial courts of circuit
and appeal were swept away, and the supervision of
districts was entrusted to commissioners of divisions,
each having five or six districts under his control.
Henceforth the collector and magistrate was under
the control of the commissioner, and was sometimes
known as the deputy commissioner.[21]
Asiatic officials.
Lord William Bentinck also introduced an Asiatic
element into British administration, which was the
first real movement in that direction. He appointed
natives of India to be "deputy collectors," and
created a higher class of native judges to those
appointed by Lord Cornwallis. They are known in
the present day as "subordinate judges." The further
development of these political experiments belong to
the later history.
North-West Provinces.
§16. Hitherto the "North-West Provinces" had
been a mere appendage of Bengal. They were
known as the Upper Provinces, whilst Bengal, Behar,
and Orissa were known as the Lower Provinces. But
a territory which extended from Assam to the
Punjab was too vast for the supervision of the
Governor-General of Bengal in Council. Accordingly
the North-West Provinces were separated from
Bengal and placed under a Lieutenant-Governor,
without a Council, but with a separate Sudder Court
and Board of Revenue.[22]
Hindu village communities.
The Hindu people in the North-West Provinces
are more masculine and independent than those of
Bengal. In Bengal the Hindu village communities
had nearly faded away under the domination of
zemindars. In the North-West Provinces the village
communities had survived every revolution, and have
been compared to little commonwealths, each having
an individual and domestic life of its own, unchanged
by the storms and troubles of the outer
world. The village community paid a yearly revenue,—a
share of the crops or a commutation in money,—to
whatever power might be uppermost, Mogul or
Mahratta, Mohammedan or Hindu. The members
took a keen interest, individually and collectively,
in settling the yearly rate to be paid by the whole
village to the government of the day. But otherwise
they cared not who was the reigning authority,
Sindia or Lord Wellesley; nor who was the French
general of the sepoy battalions of Sindia, nor who
was the British commander-in-chief of the armies
of the Governor-General.
Constitution of Hindu villages.
The village community was originally a brotherhood,
consisting of a tribe, family, or clan, who
settled in a particular locality, and distributed the
land, or the produce of the land, amongst themselves.
The area was called a village, but was more
like an English parish. The village community
managed its own affairs, and claimed a joint proprietorship
in all the land within the village area.
They rented out waste lands to yearly tenants,
strangers and outsiders, who were treated as tenants,
and shut out from the management. Some of these
tenants acquired rights of occupancy by prescription
or length of possession, whilst others were only
tenants at will.
Hereditary officials and artisans.
The village commonwealth had its own hereditary
officials, such as a village accountant, who kept a
record of all transactions between the joint proprietors,
and all accounts between the joint proprietors
and their tenants. There was also a village constable
or guide, who watched the crops and looked after
strangers. Sometimes, when a brotherhood had
decayed, a head man ruled the village in their
room; and the headman, with the help of the accountant
and constable, managed all the domestic
affairs of the village, and conducted its relations
with the outer world. To these were added hereditary
artisans, such as a carpenter, potter, blacksmith,
barber, tailor, washerman, and jeweller. In
like manner there was an hereditary schoolmaster,
astrologer, and priest, who were generally Brahmans.
The higher officials were remunerated with hereditary
lands, held rent free; but the others were paid by
fees of grain or money. Traces of these institutions
are still to be found in Behar and Orissa,
but in Bengal proper the village life has died
out. Hereditary artisans still remain, but hereditary
officials have become the servants of the
zemindar.
Land revenue.
These village communities contributed a yearly
revenue to the government of the day, either as
joint proprietors or through a head man. In theory
they claimed possession of the land because they
had cleared the jungle, and cultivated and occupied
a virgin soil. But they paid a revenue to the
Raja in return for protection, or to satisfy the
superior right of the sovereign, or as black-mail
to prevent the Raja from carrying off their crops
and cattle.
Talukdars or zemindars.
After the Mohammedan conquest the mode of
collection differed according to circumstances. Sometimes
officials were appointed by the sovereign.
Sometimes a local magnate, or a revenue farmer,
was employed, who collected the revenue from a
group of villages, and paid a yearly block sum to
the sovereign. They were middle-men, getting what
they could out of the village communities, and
paying as little as they could to the government
of the day. These local chiefs, or revenue contractors,
were known in the North-West Provinces
as talukdars. They corresponded to the zemindars
of Bengal, and often, like them, assumed the rights
of ownership over the villages.
Settlement with joint village proprietors.
Lord Wellesley ordered that the land revenue
in the North-West Provinces should be settled with
the talukdars at fixed rates, like the perpetual
settlement with the zemindars in Bengal. Fortunately,
there was a preliminary inquiry into the
conflicting rights of talukdars and village proprietors,
which terminated in favour of the villagers.
Lord William Bentinck travelled through the North-West
Provinces, and eventually the land revenue was
settled direct with the joint village proprietors.
Madras villages: Hindu colonisation.
§17. The Madras Presidency seems to have been
originally distributed into village communities of
joint proprietors. A Hindu legend has been preserved
to this day, which tells the story of old
Hindu colonisation. A Raja of the southern country
had a son by a woman of low birth. The people
refused to accept the prince as their Raja. Accordingly
the young man crossed the river Palar with
a band of emigrants, and cleared the forest to the
northward, near the site of the modern city of
Madras. For six years the emigrants paid no
share of the crops to the Raja. In the seventh
year they were brought under the revenue
administration.[23]
Joint village proprietors.
The modern history of this locality is equally
interesting. It was ceded by the Nawab of the
Carnatic to the East India Company during the wars
of the eighteenth century, and was known as the
Company's Jaghir. It was found to be in the possession
of joint village proprietors of the same
constitution as those described in the North-West
Provinces, and a settlement of the land revenue
was made with these joint proprietors.
Disappearance.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century
the rights of the joint village proprietors in Southern
India faded away under the tyranny of Asiatic rulers,
but the hereditary officials, artisans, and professionals
still survived. Few, if any, joint village proprietors
in their full entirety could be found in any villages
under the Nawab's officials; whilst those within the
Company's Jaghir had been duly respected and preserved
by the British officials. Under such circumstances
it was proposed to settle the revenue of the
Carnatic territory, acquired in 1801, with individual
ryots or landholders under what was afterwards
known as the ryotwari system.
Perpetual settlement ordered.
Lord Wellesley, however, interfered, and ordered
that perpetual settlements should be concluded with
zemindars. Somehow this zemindari settlement had
a fascination for British statesmen of the period.
It was believed that the creation of an aristocracy
of landlords would guarantee the permanence of
British rule in India. Accordingly, Lord Wellesley
was deaf to all arguments in favour of a ryotwari
settlement, and threatened to remove any public
servant in the Madras Presidency who should
hesitate to carry out his orders.
No zemindars.
Madras had no alternative but to submit. There
were zemindars in the Telugu country to the northward,
which had been conquered centuries previously
by the Mohammedan Sultans of Golconda; and with
these zemindars it was easy to conclude a perpetual
settlement. But there were no zemindars in the
Tamil country to the southward.
Zemindars created.
In this extremity there was no alternative but
to manufacture zemindars. Accordingly zemindars
were created in the Madras Presidency by the old
Bengal process of grouping villages together, selling
them by auction, and treating the lucky buyer as a
zemindar. But the new zemindars failed to pay the
stipulated revenue. The groups of villages were
again brought into the market, and as Lord Wellesley
had left India, the estates were bought in by
the Madras government, and the revenue resettled
with individual ryots or cultivators.[24]
Military bond-holders.
In Malabar and Canara on the western coast the
proprietors of land did not live in villages. They
were landholders of the old military type, clinging
to their lands with hereditary tenacity, employing
serfs or slaves to cultivate them, and paying no
revenue except feudal service and homage to their
suzerain. Eventually Malabar and Canara were
conquered by Tippu of Mysore, and the landholders
were compelled to pay revenue, or to surrender
their lands.
Thomas Munro: ryotwari settlement.
Thomas Munro is the real author of the ryotwari
settlement. He was a cadet in the Madras army,
who landed at Fort St. George about the time that
Hyder Ali was desolating the Carnatic. In 1792 he
was employed in settling the revenue in Malabar and
Canara, which had been ceded by Tippu to Lord
Cornwallis; and there he formed his ideas of a settlement
direct with individual landholders. The controversy
between Madras and Bengal raged for years,
but in the end Thomas Munro was victorious. He
converted the Board of Control and Court of Directors
to his views. He was knighted, and appointed
Governor of Madras. He died in 1827, after
having triumphantly introduced the ryotwari. The
zemindars in the Telegu country still retain their
estates with the proprietary rights of landlords.
Bombay: Mountstuart Elphinstone.
Meanwhile the Bombay Presidency had been vastly
enlarged by the acquisition of the dominions of the
Peishwa. Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, the contemporary
of Sir Thomas Munro, was appointed
Governor of Bombay. He introduced the ryotwari
settlement into the Mahratta country, and framed
a code of laws which remained in force throughout
the Bombay Presidency until 1860, when it was
superseded by the Penal Code.
Madras collectorates.
Lord William Bentinck's system of commissioners
of divisions was introduced into the North-West
Provinces and Bombay; but the Madras Presidency
was without commissioners or divisions, and was distributed
into twenty large districts or collectorates,
which on an average are as large as Yorkshire. In
Bengal and the North-West Provinces the districts on
an average are no larger than Devonshire. In each
Madras district there was a collector, who might be
described as a proconsul, and a civil and sessions judge,
corresponding to those in the other Presidencies. The
administration of the Madras Presidency, revenue
and judicial, has always been distinguished by a
larger element of Asiatic officials than either Bengal,
Bombay, or the North-West Provinces.
Charter Act of 1833: India Thrown open.
§18. The last and most important changes in the
rule of the East India Company were carried out
during the administration of Lord William Bentinck,
under the charter Act of 1833. Before, however,
dealing with this radical reform, it may be as well
to review the successive stages in the relations of the
East India Company towards parliament and the
crown.
Company and Crown, 1600-1688.
During the seventeenth century, the first of the
Company's existence, it mainly depended on the
favour of the crown. It had obtained a charter of
exclusive trade from Queen Elizabeth. It prevailed
on James I. to send Sir Thomas Roe as ambassador
to India, to propitiate the Great Mogul and secure his
good offices for the Company's trade. It sold
600,000 lbs. of pepper to Charles I. on the security of
bonds on the customs, and enabled that sovereign to
raise £60,000 for the expenses of his war with
Parliament. Oliver Cromwell however did not
approve of trade monopolies. The Lord Protector
was willing to help the English Company to fight the
Dutch Company, but he was of opinion that every
Englishman had as much right as the Company to
trade in the Eastern seas. Charles II. and James II.
renewed the Company's original monopoly and
privileges, and received presents in return, which
however rarely exceeded the modest sum of £1,200
a year.
Parliament interposes, 1688-1708.
Under William of Orange the monopoly of the East
Indies was again in danger. Parliament voted that
every Englishman might traffic wherever he pleased.
The Directors scattered bribes with a lavish hand;
but parliament insisted upon searching the books of
the Company. Then discoveries were made which
were scandalous alike to the Company and the nation.
Every man in power, from the highest to the lowest,
had taken money from the India House. In 1693
about £90,000 had been spent in corruption. The
Duke of Leeds was impeached in the House of
Commons for taking a bribe of £5,000, and £10,000
was traced to the illustrious William. In this extremity
the King prorogued parliament, and proceedings
were brought to a close.
The United Company.
The parliamentary vote however had abolished for
a while the monopoly of the trade with the East
Indies. A second East India Company was formed and
the two rivals nearly ruined each other. At last the
two Companies were united into one, and a large loan
was advanced to government by the new corporation.
Under this new arrangement the trade monopoly
was secured to the united Company throughout the
eighteenth century.
Old East India House.
In those early days every shop in London exhibited
a sign or emblem. The first old East India House was
a quaint building with a large entablature in front,
bearing three ships in full sail and a dolphin at each
end. The business was distributed amongst the
Directors, and transacted in committees. All the
Directors put their names to the letters sent to India,
and signed themselves "Your loving friends." To
this day the business of the India Office is conducted
by committees, but the "loving friends" vanished
with the East India Company.
New India House.
In the early half of the eighteenth century a new
India House was built in Leadenhall Street. It was
here that the Directors grew into merchant princes, and
administered the affairs of provinces, until they built
up our Anglo-Indian empire. Here too began the
later conflict between the Company and the House of
Commons. George III. was bent on coercing parliament
and removing his ministers at will. But
during the coalition ministry of Lord North and
Charles James Fox, there was a battle royal between
parliament and the crown.
Fox's India Bill.
In 1783 Fox introduced his bill for abolishing the
Court of Directors, and transferring their power and
patronage to seven commissioners nominated in the
bill. An agitation arose which threw the whole
kingdom into a ferment. The King claimed the right
of governing all countries conquered by his subjects.
Accordingly he claimed the right of nominating the
seven commissioners, and thus getting all the power
and patronage of the Court of Directors into his own
hands. But the House of Commons would not trust
the King. Whigs and Tories saw that their liberties
would be endangered by such additions to the royal
prerogative, and they passed Fox's bill by large
majorities.
Hostility of George III.
King George was furious. His only hope was that
the obnoxious bill would be thrown out by the Lords.
He caused a message to be conveyed to every peer,
that his Majesty would withdraw his friendship from
any one who voted for the bill. Accordingly the
bill was thrown out by the Lords. Fox and Lord
North were ignominiously dismissed, and William
Pitt the younger became prime minister.
Pitt's India Bill.
Pitt's India Bill of 1784 was a marvel of statesmanship.
The Court of Directors was left in the full
exercise of all patronage as regards first appointments
in England to the ranks of the Indian civil services,
or to cadetships in the armies of the three Presidencies.
All promotions in India were left to the
local governments and to the Governor-General in
Council. Parliament exercised a constitutional control
over the whole administration of the Anglo-Indian
empire; and the patronage, whether in England
or in India, was wisely kept out of the hands of either
ministers or the crown.
Abolition of monopoly.
Under the charter act of 1813 the trade of the
Company with India was thrown open to the British
nation, but the Company still retained its monopoly
of trade with China. The Company, however, suffered
little by the loss of its monopoly as regards
India. It was an old-established firm of two centuries
standing. Its settlements and shipping were all in
full swing, and it continued for twenty years longer
to carry on a splendid business, which suffered but
little by the rivalry of private interlopers. Meanwhile,
as already seen, it had become the paramount
power in India by its successful wars against Nepal
and Burma, the extinction of the Peishwa, the humiliation
of Sindia and Holkar, and the extermination
of the predatory system.
End of Company's trade.
Under the charter act of 1833 all trading on the
part of the East India Company, whether with India
or with China, was brought to a close. The East
India Docks were emptied of the Company's shipping,
and the trade of Europe in the Eastern seas was
thrown open to the whole world.
Licensing system.
Another radical change was also effected. Ever
since the first establishment of the Company's settlements
in India, no British born subject, not in the
service of the Company, had been permitted by law
to reside in India without having previously procured
a license from the Court of Directors. This
license system was brought to a close in 1833,
and any British born subject might take up his
residence in India, and trade or travel wherever
he pleased.
Constitutional changes.
The constitution of the British government in
India was remodelled. The Governor-General of
Bengal was created Governor-General of India with
increased control over Madras and Bombay. The
Council of India, which hitherto consisted of the
Governor-General as President, two Bengal civilians,
and occasionally the commander-in-chief of the
Bengal army, was increased by the addition of a
law member. Mr., afterwards Lord, Macaulay was
appointed to the new post. His labours will be
noticed hereafter in dealing with the constitutional
changes of 1853.
Centralisation.
Henceforth all legislative authority and financial
control were centred in the government of India;
and the governments of Madras and Bombay were
stripped of all power to enact laws, and prohibited
from creating any new office or making any grant of
money, without the consent of the Governor-General
of India in Council, or the sanction of the Court of
Directors.
Stagnation at Madras and Bombay.
The charter of 1833 was not an unmixed good.
It stopped all progress in Madras and Bombay by
bringing those Presidencies too closely under the
control of Bengal. For twenty years they had no
representatives in the Council at Calcutta. They
had framed their own systems of land revenue.
They were relieved of the cares of trade, which had
been a worry to Governors and Governors-General
from the days of the Marquis of Wellesley to
those of Lord William Bentinck. But after the
year 1833 they were more or less paralysed by
the loss of all discretion and responsibility in matters
of legislation and expenditure. Great events were
about to agitate Northern India, but for twenty
years Madras and Bombay were without a history,
and the work of administration was as lifeless and
monotonous as the working of a machine.
Popular administration of Bentinck.
Lord William Bentinck left India in 1835. His
administration had been eminently popular with all
classes of the community; and his memory is preserved
to this day as that of a just and able ruler,
who paid due regard to the rights and claims of
Asiatics as well as of Europeans.
Sir Charles Metcalfe, 1835-6: coming collisions
with Asiatic powers.
Sir Charles Metcalfe, the Bengal civilian, who was
sent on a mission to Runjeet Singh in 1808, and
since then had filled some of the most responsible
posts in the Anglo-Indian empire, acted as Governor-General
between the departure of Lord William
Bentinck in 1835 and the arrival of Lord Auckland in
1836. A new era was beginning to dawn upon
India. Great Britain was about to appear, not only
as mistress of an Anglo-Indian empire, but as an
Asiatic power coming more or less into collision
with four other Asiatic powers—Persia, Russia,
Afghanistan and China.
§1. Russian advance checked by Nadir Shah, 1722-38. §2. First Cabul
war under Lord Auckland, 1838-42. §3. Lord Ellenborough, 1842-44:
return from Cabul and conquest of Sind. §4. War in Gwalior: reduction
of Sindia's army. §5. Lord Hardinge, 1845-48: Sikh rule in the
Punjab. §6. First Sikh war: Moodki, Ferozshahar, Aliwal, and
Sobraon. §7. Lord Dalhousie, 1848-56: Second Sikh war: Chillianwalla
and Goojerat: annexation of the Punjab. §8. British rule: patriarchal
government. §9. Second Burmese war, 1852: annexation of Pegu.
§10. Lord Dalhousie as an administrator: no roads in India. §11.
Trunk road, trunk railway, telegraphs, Ganges canal. §12. Annexations
of Nagpore, Satara, Jhansi, and Oudh. §13. India Bill of 1853:
new competitive Civil Service. §14. New Legislative Council: Lord
Macaulay and the Penal Code. §15. Departure of Lord Dalhousie, 1856.
§16. Lord Canning, 1856-62: expedition to the Persian Gulf. §17.
Mogul family at Delhi. §18. Condition of Oudh.
Lord Auckland, 1836-42: jealousy of Russia.
Lord Auckland landed in Bengal at a grave political
crisis. Great Britain was growing jealous of Russia as
regards India, and tact and common sense were required,
not to promote a war, but to prevent one.
Jealousy of Russia was a new sensation. Great Britain
had been indignant at the partition of Poland, but the
two nations had become reconciled during the wars
against France and Napoleon. Later on Russia began
to extend her empire, and to menace Turkey on one
side and Persia on the other; and at last it dawned on
the people of the British Isles that unless there was a
speedy understanding between British and Russian
diplomatists, the Cossack and the sepoy would cross
swords on the banks of the Oxus.
Central Asia: Afghanistan and Turkistan.
§1. Central Asia is a new world which has been
slowly opening up to European eyes. It includes the
vast territories of Afghanistan and Turkistan, which
intervene between British India, Persia, Russia, and
China. It is a region of desert and mountain, ruined
gardens and dried-up springs—the relics of empires
which flourished in the days of the so-called Nimrod
and Sennacherib, and the later days of the fire-worshippers,
but were brought to rack and ruin by
the Tartars and Turkomans in the armies of Chenghiz
Khan and Timur.
Cradle of India.
The whole of this region, and, indeed, the whole of
Central and Northern Asia, has been the cradle of the
people of India from the remotest antiquity. Hindus
and Mohammedans are all immigrants from beyond
the Indus. The Dravidian races, the pre-Aryan
people, brought their devil worship and noisy orgies
from Northern Asia into Hindustan. Eventually they
were driven to Southern India by the Aryan people,
who brought the Vedic gods and hymns, the sacred
hôma and the ministration of Rishis, from Persia
and Media into Northern India. The Rajputs, the
Greeks, and the Indo-Scythians of Hindustan, were
all strangers from the north-west. The Turks and
Afghans, who invaded India during the Crusades,
and the Moguls, who established their empire in the
days of the Tudors, were all sojourners from the
same remote region. Thus Russia is only following
the old instinct of Dravidians and Aryans, as she
advances southward from the steppes towards Persia
and India. She expands on land just as Great
Britain expands on the sea.
Russian advance to Persia, 1722.
The marches of Tartar, Turk, Afghan, and Mogul
belong to a distant period. The march of Russia
began in the first quarter of the eighteenth century.
Peter the Great had been humiliated by Turkey on
the banks of the Pruth, and looked to Persia for
compensation. Persia was on the brink of ruin. In
1722 the Afghans had advanced to Ispahan; and the
Czar and the Sultan prepared to divide her remaining
territory. Turkey took the western provinces, whilst
Russia occupied the provinces along the south of the
Caspian. The Caspian was a base for an advance on
India, and had Peter lived he would have found his
way to India. The road was easy viâ Meshed to
Herat, and the Mogul empire would have fallen into
his hands like an over-ripe plum. The British at
Calcutta were a little hive of traders, who would have
been helpless to resist a Russian invasion. Most
probably they would have preferred Russia to
the Mogul, and would have sent a deputation to
the Russian camp to pray for the protection of
the Czar.
Checkmated by Nadir Shah, 1727.
But Peter the Great died in 1727, and Nadir Shah,
the last of the "world stormers," stepped in and
snatched Persia from Russia. Nadir Shah was a Turk
of the noble tribe of Afshar; a brigand in his youth,
but destined to be as great a general as Cyrus or
Napoleon. In 1727, the very year that Peter the
Great died, Nadir Shah joined the dethroned Shah of
Persia, drove the Afghans back to their own territories,
and conquered Khorassan as far as Herat. Eventually
he imprisoned the Shah, and usurped the throne of
Persia. He compelled Turkey to retire from the
western provinces, and Russia to retire from the
provinces on the Caspian.
Persian invasion of India, 1738-39.
In 1738 Nadir Shah captured Candahar, invaded
the Punjab, and entered Delhi in triumph. His
battalions of Persians and Turkomans, trained and
disciplined under picked officers, were irresistible
against Afghans and Moguls. He did not want to
conquer India, but only to plunder it. He carried off
the treasures of Delhi, the spoil of Hindustan, and the
peacock of jewels which had blazed for a hundred
years over the throne of the Great Mogul. Thus,
within twelve years of the death of Peter the Great,
the parade of jewels, which might have adorned the
Kremlin, became the prize of Nadir Shah.
Nadir Shah and his Persian officers.
Nadir Shah was the last of the line of Asiatic
warriors that began with Sargon and Cyrus, and
culminated in Chenghiz Khan and Timur. He was
tall, powerful, and loud-voiced, with an eye of lightning,
and an expression that alternately terrified and
charmed. He stood out head and shoulders above
his Persian officers, arrayed in a plain cloak lined with
black lambskin from Bokhara, a crimson turban, a
richly-mounted dagger in his belt, and a huge battleaxe
of steel in his hand. He was ever at work from
morn till night, inspecting troops, administering
justice, dictating letters, or transacting business by
word of mouth. His fare was of the plainest boiled
rice, with a little meat, bread, cheese, radishes, and
parched peas whilst his drink was butter-milk or
water. His officers were Asiatic dandies, clad in rich
pelisses trimmed with furs, smart vests with gold and
silver lace, crimson hats with four peaks, or arrayed in
coats of mail with steel helmets and sharp pikes.
They scorned the frugal fare which satisfied their
Turkish master. They delighted in Persian dishes,
such as pillaws stuffed with plums and raisins, savoury
stews, dainty bits of meat known as kabobs, together
with grape jelly, and confections; and they revelled
in wine and strong waters, to the horror of all strict
Mohammedans.
Russian advance: war declared, 1838.
§2. A century passed away. Nadir Shah was
forgotten, and Russia was again menacing Persia and
dabbling in the Caspian. In 1837 Persia was besieging
Herat under the pretence that it had formed part
of the empire of Nadir Shah; but Russia was in the
background putting forth Persian claims as a cat's-paw
for seizing Herat. Great Britain, however, was resolved
that neither Persia nor Russia should take
Herat from the Afghans, to whom it had properly
belonged ever since the death of Nadir Shah. In
October, 1838, Lord Auckland declared war to compel
Persia to retire from Herat. It was also determined
to dethrone Dost Mohammed Khan, the ruler of
Afghanistan, because he had been carrying on a
suspicious intercourse with Russia, and to set up Shah
Shuja in his room, because he had been dethroned
many years previously by Dost Mohammed Khan,
and was therefore the rightful ruler of Afghanistan.
Moreover Shah Shuja had been living many years in
British territory under British protection, and was
therefore likely to prove a more faithful ally against
Russia, than Dost Mohammed Khan.
Political mistakes.
The declaration of war was a mistake. Persia had
already taken the alarm, and raised the siege of Herat.
Dost Mohammed Khan may have been a usurper, but
he had been accepted by the Afghan people as their
ruler, and he was a man of undoubted capacity. If
he had been properly treated in 1836-37 he might
have become as useful an ally to the British government
as he proved himself to be twenty years later.
Shah Shuja, on the other hand, whom the British
wished to set up in his room, was a weak and worthless
prince, and it was doubtful at the time whether
the Afghan people would accept him as their ruler,
especially if he were forced upon them by the British
government.
First Afghan war, 1838-42.
Thus began the first Cabul war. The British army
was shut out from the Punjab by Runjeet Singh, and
compelled to take a circuitous route through Sind.
A bridge of boats was constructed to carry the army
over the Indus at Sukkur; but in those days Sind
was a foreign territory, and no reliance could be
placed on its rulers. Indeed, had the British met
with a defeat in Afghanistan, the Amirs, or rulers of
Sind, would possibly have destroyed the bridge, and
cut off their return to India.
British advance to Cabul, 1839.
In February, 1839, the British army crossed the
river Indus, and advanced along the Bolan Pass to
Quetta, and thence to Candahar. Major Rawlinson
remained at Candahar as minister and envoy of Shah
Shuja, supported by a force under the command of
General Nott. The main army, under Sir John
Keane, advanced northward, captured the important
fortress of Ghazni, and conducted Shah Shuja to
Cabul, whilst Dost Mohammed Khan fled away
northward to Bokhara. Shah Shuja was placed on
the throne of Afghanistan, under the guidance
of Sir William Macnaghten, the minister and envoy
at Cabul, protected by the British army under
Keane, who was subsequently created Baron Keane
of Ghazni.[25]
British successes, 1840.
The year 1840 brought unexpected good fortune.
Runjeet Singh died in 1839, and his successor opened
the Punjab to the march of British troops. Russia
sent a counter expedition from Orenburg towards
Khiva, but it was stopped by snows and want of
water, and compelled to return. Shah Shuja, however,
was only maintained on the throne at Cabul by
British arms and gold. The Afghans cared nothing
for him. So long as they received subsidies from the
British authorities they remained loyal, but there
was no enthusiasm. The hill tribes, who occupied
the passes into the Punjab, were equally loyal so
long as they received pay, but otherwise might turn
against the British at any time, and cut off their
return to India. The shopkeepers and bazaar dealers
at Cabul were satisfied, for they reaped a golden
harvest from their British customers. Towards the
close of 1840 Dost Mohammed Khan returned to
Cabul and surrendered to Sir William Macnaghten.
This was a stroke of luck which for a brief space
threw the destinies of Central Asia into the hands
of British rulers. The Dost was sent to Calcutta
as a prisoner but treated as a guest, and often
played at chess at Government House. Meanwhile
British officers and officials fancied they were
perfectly safe, and were joined by their wives
and families, who gladly exchanged the depressing
temperature of India for the cool climate of Cabul.
Afghan disaffection, 1841.
In 1841 the prospect was less charming. The
subsidies were cut down and there was general
discontent. The Afghans were sick of Shah Shuja
and weary of British occupation, and there was a
secret longing for a return to the old life of riot and
rapine. The wild hill tribes, who were supposed to
guard the passes leading to the Punjab, were still
more disaffected; but these matters were kept
secret, and Sir William Macnaghten and the other
officials kept up a show of confidence, whilst difficulties
and dangers were hedging around them more
and more closely from day to day.
British army in danger.
At the same time the position of the British army
was unsatisfactory. It should have held the great
fortress of Bala Hissar, which commanded the whole
city of Cabul, and could have put down any disturbance
with the utmost ease. But Shah Shuja
was jealous of the presence of British soldiers, and
they were lodged in a cantonment three miles from
the city, with no defence beyond a low mud wall
which horsemen could gallop over. Lord Keane
returned to India, and was succeeded in the command
by General Elphinstone, who was too old for
the post. Still there was no show of apprehension.
Sir William Macnaghten lived with his family in a
house close to the cantonment. He was appointed
Governor of Bombay, and was to have been
succeeded by Sir Alexander Burnes as minister and
envoy. Burnes lived in a house within the precincts
of the city, and thought himself as safe in Cabul as
in Calcutta.
Threatening outlook.
As the year 1841 wore away, disappointments and
anxieties began to tell on Sir William Macnaghten.
Shah Shuja was a useless burden, like the old man
of the sea on the shoulders of Sinbad. The hill
tribes had closed the passes between Cabul and
Jellalabad, and in October Sir Robert Sale was sent
with a brigade to re-open communications. Sale
fought his way to Jellalabad, and there entrenched
his troops and waited for reinforcements.
Outbreak and murder.
On the 2nd November there was an outbreak in
the city of Cabul. Burnes barricaded his house, but
was soon environed by an angry mob of Afghans.
He sent an urgent message to the British cantonment
for a battalion of infantry, and two field-pieces,
which at that early hour could have penetrated the
city and effected his deliverance. But the danger
was underrated, and no force was sent lest it should
offend Shah Shuja. That same afternoon the gateway
of the house was burnt down by the mob,
and Burnes and twenty-three others were brutally
murdered.
Afghan revolt.
By this time the outbreak had culminated in
an insurrection. The population of the villages
round about had joined the rioters, and thousands
of Afghans were hurrying into the city of Cabul in
the hope of plunder. Later in the afternoon two
battalions of British infantry tried to cut a way
through the narrow streets and crowded bazaars,
but found the task beyond their power, and were
compelled to return to the British cantonment.
Akbar Khan, the eldest son of Dost Mohammed,
appeared at the head of the insurrection; whilst
Shah Shuja was shut up in the Bala Hissar, helplessly
waiting for the British to suppress the
rebellion, and deliver him from the fury of his
subjects.
Murder of Macnaghten.
Sir William Macnaghten and General Elphinstone
were paralysed by the dangers and anxieties of their
position. Provisions were running short in the
British cantonment; supplies were withheld by the
people of Cabul; and soldiers and sepoys were
becoming demoralised. At last it was decided to
retreat to Jellalabad—the half-way house between
Cabul and Peshawar; and negotiations were opened
with Akbar Khan for the supply of provisions and
carriage. The greed of the Afghans was insatiable.
Akbar Khan demanded vast sums as ransom, and
the surrender of British officers as hostages for the
payment. On the 23rd December, 1841, there was
a final meeting between Sir William Macnaghten
and the Afghan chiefs, and the British minister and
envoy was suddenly attacked and murdered by
Akbar Khan.
British disaster in the Khyber, 1842.
Notwithstanding the murder, negotiations were
re-opened. In January, 1842, the British forces
began to retreat from Cabul, followed by Akbar
Khan and a large army of Afghans. More money
was demanded, and more hostages were surrendered,
including British ladies and children. Then followed
treacheries and massacres. The British army, numbering
four thousand troops and twelve thousand
camp-followers, entered the Khyber Pass beneath a
heavy fall of snow. The hill tribes crowned the
precipitous heights on either side, and poured a
murderous fire on the retreating masses, whilst the
soldiers of Akbar Khan joined in the horrible work
of murder and plunder. The whole of the surviving
force perished in the Khyber Pass with the exception
of a surgeon named Brydon, who escaped on a
pony to Jellalabad, and lived to tell the tale for
more than thirty years afterwards.
Eldred Pottinger.
One British officer appears to have kept his head
amidst all these bewildering disasters. This was
Captain Eldred Pottinger, a man who knew how to
lead Asiatics, and how to control them. He was
inside Herat throughout the siege, and by sheer
pluck and fertility of resources kept the enemy at
bay until the siege was raised. He was one of the
hostages made over to Akbar Khan, and was sent
with the others to a fortress in the northern mountains.
There he bribed the Afghan commandant
with a written promise of a future ransom. He
hoisted the British flag over the fortress, took
possession of the surrounding country, collected the
revenue, called in supplies, and kept up the spirits
of ladies and children amidst the general depression
and humiliation. Eventually the prisoners were
delivered from their enemies and restored to their
families and friends; but Eldred Pottinger died
and was forgotten.
Lord Ellenborough, 1842-44.
§3. Before the tidings of disaster reached England,
Lord Ellenborough was appointed Governor-General
of India, in succession to Lord Auckland. In February,
1842, he touched at Madras, and heard of the
destruction of the British army in the Khyber Pass.
Meanwhile an avenging army, under the command
of General Pollock, was marching to the relief of
Sale, who was closely besieged at Jellalabad by an
Afghan army under Akbar Khan. The British
garrison at Jellalabad had defended the place
with the utmost resolution, and before the arrival
of General Pollock, Akbar Khan had been compelled
to raise the siege.
Candahar.
Up to this time nothing was known of General
Nott at Candahar. The fact was that he and Major
Rawlinson were holding out against overwhelming
odds, as Elphinstone and Macnaghten ought to have
done at Cabul. History teaches that such a surrender
as that of Macnaghten to Akbar Khan too often
means "massacre." It meant "massacre" at Patna,
in the days of Mir Kasim, and during the sepoy
mutiny of 1857 it bore the same meaning at Jhansi
and Cawnpore.
Close of the Afghan war, 1842.
General Pollock advanced westward from Jellalabad,
whilst General Nott advanced northward from Candahar.
Both armies met at Cabul. Shah Shuja had
been murdered, and Akbar Khan had fled away to
the northward. All the British hostages, including
the ladies and children, reached Cabul in safety.
Dost Mohammed Khan was set free at Calcutta, and
returned to Cabul and recovered his throne. Thus
the first Cabul war was brought to a close, and for
some years the Afghans were ignored.
Outside troubles.
The disasters of 1841-42 led to disturbances in
Asiatic states outside British territory. The Amirs
of Sind were tempted to violate their treaty obligations.
In 1843 they were defeated by Sir Charles
Napier in the battles of Meanee and Hyderabad, and
their territories were eventually incorporated with the
Bombay Presidency. There was also some excitement
in Nipal and Burma; but British prestige was restored
by the victories of Pollock, Nott, and Napier, and the
disorders soon died away. Meanwhile, the British
government was drawn into a war with China; but
relations with China have not as yet been brought
to bear upon British rule in India.
Gwalior affairs, 1843.
§4. In 1843 Lord Ellenborough interfered in the
affairs of Gwalior. The ruling prince, who was known
by the hereditary name of Sindia, had died without
leaving any son, real or adopted. He had been a
weak and incapable ruler, and had permitted the
army of Gwalior to grow too powerful for the state,
and to swallow up two-thirds of the public revenue.
Overgrown army, 1843.
The disbandment of the army was necessary, not
only for the well-being of Gwalior, but for the security
of the British government. It numbered 40,000 men
and 200 guns. Meanwhile, the Sikh army in the
Punjab had grown more dangerous. It consisted of
some 60,000 men, well provided with artillery, who
had been drilled and trained by French officers. It
was no longer under the control of a strong ruler like
Runjeet Singh, and at any moment might cross the
Sutlej into British territory. Under such circumstances
a junction of the Sikh army with the army
of Gwalior would have raised a terrible storm in
Hindustan.
Revolt, 1843.
The death of Sindia rendered some action necessary.
He had left a widow who was only twelve years of
age. This girl, however, was permitted to adopt a
small boy of eight, and a minister was appointed,
under the sanction of Lord Ellenborough, to conduct
the administration of Gwalior during the minority.
Shortly afterwards the girl dismissed the minister
from his post, and he was fool enough to accept the
dismissal. The girl then appointed a minister of her
own, and won over the army by large distributions of
money, in open defiance of the paramount power.
The consequence was that disturbances broke out in
Gwalior, and many persons were killed.
Settlement, 1843.
Lord Ellenborough proceeded to Agra, and ordered
the British army to advance to Gwalior under Sir
Hugh Gough. Two battles were fought on the same
day, the 29th of December, 1843, one body of the
Gwalior army being defeated at Maharajpore, and
another at Punniar. Lord Ellenborough then carried
out the necessary reforms. The army of Gwalior was
reduced from 40,000 men to 9,000, and the number
of guns from 200 to thirty-two. A subsidiary force was
created of sepoys, trained and commanded by British
officers, which was afterwards known as the Gwalior
Contingent. The government was taken out of the
hands of the girl-widow, and entrusted to a council of
regency, consisting of six nobles of Gwalior, who
acted under the advice of the British Resident until
the adopted prince attained his majority.
Lord Ellenborough recalled, 1844.
In June, 1844, Lord Ellenborough was recalled by
the Court of Directors. It was urged that he was too
fond of war, but it was whispered that he had given
mortal offence by promoting military officers to posts
previously occupied by civilians. The question raised
some controversy at the time, as the recall was opposed
by Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington;
but it has long ceased to be of importance, and may
be dropped into oblivion.
Sir Henry Hardinge, 1845-48.
§5. Sir Henry Hardinge succeeded Lord Ellenborough
as Governor-General. At this period the
Punjab was a political volcano, and the Sikh army
was a menace to Hindustan.
Rise of the Sikhs, 1400-1500.
The Sikhs were religious fanatics, dating back to
the fifteenth century. Their founder was a prophet,
or Guru, named Nanuk Guru, who was at once priest
and king. The object of the Guru was to reconcile
the Hindu religion with the Mohammedan by teaching
that there was but one God, one Supreme Spirit,
and that the Vishnu of Hinduism and the Allah of
Islam were one and the same deity. The church of
Nanuk was a platform of comprehension. A brotherhood
was formed, known as Sikhs, and all its members
were declared to be equal in the eyes of God
and His Guru, whatever might be their individual
caste, wealth, or position.
Sikh religion.
The Sikh religion was in reality a revival of a
Buddhism recognising deity. Nanuk Guru bears a
striking resemblance to Gotama Buddha. He was
born in 1460 of the royal race of Kshatriyas, the
modern Rajputs, or "sons of Rajas." He taught that
goodness in thought and deed was especially pleasing
to God. He denounced the distinctions of caste, and
preached universal charity and toleration. He was
followed by a line of nine Gurus, who taught the
same doctrines and formed an apostolic succession,
inspired by God, and worshipped as incarnations or
avatars of deity. The city of Amritsar, the "pool
of immortality," became the sacred city of the Sikhs,
and every year formed a centre of Sikh gatherings
like those of the Hebrews at Jerusalem and
those of Mohammedans at Mecca.
Persecutions of Aurangzeb.
The new faith was eagerly accepted by Hindus,
especially those of the lower castes, but Mohammedans
stood aloof from the heresy. The stern
Aurangzeb, who reigned as Great Mogul from the
days of Oliver Cromwell to those of Queen Anne,
persecuted the Sikhs with relentless ferocity, and the
ninth Guru was beheaded in the imperial palace of
Delhi in the presence of Aurangzeb and his courtiers.
Guru Govind: the Khalsa.
Under Guru Govind, the tenth and last of the old
Sikh pontiffs, the Sikhs were transformed by persecution
from a brotherhood of saints into an army of
warriors. Guru Govind stands out as the real founder
of the Sikh Khalsa or "saved ones." He set apart
five faithful disciples, namely, a Brahman, a Rajput,
and three Sudras, to form a Khalsa, and to be a
model for all other Khalsas. He consecrated them
by sprinkling holy water; he gave to each the name
of Singh, or "lion warrior," but he gave to the
whole five collectively the name of Khalsa; and he
solemnly promised that wherever a Khalsa was
gathered together, he, their Guru, would be in the
midst of them.
Army of the Khalsa.
Henceforth the Sikhs were known as the "Army
of God and the Khalsa." The constitution was
changed. Guru Govind was taken prisoner by the
Moguls and executed, and his successors lost their
spiritual prestige. The Sikhs were divided into
twelve misls or clans, each having its own chief
or Sirdar; but the Sirdars changed with the times.
Some took the field at the head of their sons and
vassals, zealous only for God and the Khalsa. Others
were mere freebooters, who led bodies of irregular
horse to devastate and plunder. Others again formed
a brotherhood of fanatics known as Akalis, who called
themselves soldiers of God, and were distinguished
by steel bracelets and dark-blue dresses and
turbans.
Runjeet Singh, 1800-39.
Out of these discordant elements Runjeet Singh
created his famous army of the Khalsa. By consummate
tact he stirred up the old enthusiasm of the
Sikh soldiery, whilst employing French officers to
drill and command them. He added Cashmere and
Peshawar to his dominions, and was known as the
"Lion of Lahore." His depravity is indescribable;
his court at Lahore was a sink of iniquity, like the
cities of the plain; but, knowing the real source of
his power, he gloried in the title of "Commander-in-Chief
of the Army of God and the Khalsa."
When he died, in 1839, four queens and seven
slaves were buried alive with his remains.
Hopeless anarchy.
Between 1839 and 1845 the Punjab was sinking
into hopeless anarchy. There was a deadly conflict
between Sikhs and Rajputs. Plots and murders followed
in rapid succession. Princes, ministers, and
generals were carried off in turns by assassination or
massacre. Meanwhile the treasures of Runjeet Singh
were squandered in wild debauchery, or lavished on
the army. There was a British envoy at Lahore, but
he could do nothing. On one important occasion he
reported that every minister of state had been drunk
for several days. On another occasion he entered
the council-hall unexpectedly, and found the prime
minister figuring in the guise of a dancing-girl
amidst the applause of his colleagues. An infant,
named Dhuleep Singh, said to be the son of Runjeet
Singh, was the nominal sovereign; but the queen-mother,
a woman of low origin, and her minister
and paramour, were the rulers of the country.
Army supreme.
By this time the army of the Khalsa were masters
of the state—the prætorian guards of the Punjab.
It was dangerous to the Sikh government, and was
only kept quiet by money and concessions. It demanded
more pay, and got it. The French officers
fled for their lives. The Sikh officers were compelled
to obey certain little Khalsas, which by this time
had come to be elected by the soldiery in every
corps, and were supposed to be animated by the
invisible but presiding spirit of Guru Govind. The
army was bent on sacking the capital and slaughtering
all who stood in their way, whilst the Akalis, the
fanatical soldiers of God, were burning to purge
the court at Lahore of its iniquities.
Non-intervention.
The Sikh rulers implored the British government
to protect them against the army of the Khalsa; but
non-intervention was still the ruling policy, and the
British government refused to interfere. Meanwhile
the dangers of Sikh invasion had been minimised by
the reduction of the army of Gwalior, and the British
government underrated the strength of the Sikh
army. Amidst the general lull the crash came. The
ministers were afraid of a reign of terror at Lahore,
and sent the army of the Khalsa across the river
Sutlej to plunder the cities of Hindustan.
Sikh invasion, November, 1845.
§6. The British government was taken utterly
by surprise. There was no warning whatever, and
the enemy was estimated to number 100,000 men
with 150 large guns. Ferozpore, the frontier station
of the British army on the north-west, was held by
a British force of 10,000 men. The Sikhs might
have overwhelmed Ferozpore, and marched on to
Delhi and Agra before the main army could have
taken the field. Fortunately for the British the
Sikh generals were cowards and traitors, thinking of
nothing but themselves. The British force at Ferozpore
moved out and offered them battle, but they
shrank from a collision. They divided the Sikh
army into two bodies: one stopped to watch Ferozpore,
whilst the other entrenched a camp a few
miles off at Ferozshahar.
Moodki, December.
Sir Henry Hardinge and Sir Hugh Gough were
soon moving to the frontier with a British army.
On the 18th of December a battle was fought at
Moodki. The Sikh general fled at the outset, but the
Sikh soldiers opened fire with a rapidity and precision
which for a while staggered the British. At
last the British gained a victory, but it was not
decisive.
Ferozshahar.
Two days after Moodki, the British attacked the
Sikh force at Ferozshahar. They met with a resistance
which they never expected. The Sikhs were
again deserted by their general, but fought with the
reckless bravery of zealots; and Sir Hugh Gough
charged up to the muzzles of their guns with cold
steel before he could carry their batteries. Night
came on, and the firing ceased. During the darkness
there was an uproar in the enemy's camp, and it
turned out that the Sikh soldiers were plundering
their own treasury—the military chest which their
general had left behind in his hasty flight from the
field. Next morning the battle was renewed,
but the Sikhs had lost their enthusiasm, and were
soon in full retreat to the Sutlej.
Aliwal and Sobraon, 1846.
Early in 1846 the Sikh army recrossed the Sutlej
by a bridge of boats. Sir Harry Smith defeated one
force at Aliwal, but the main army of the Khalsa
was strongly entrenched at Sobraon. In February
Hardinge and Gough advanced to storm the
entrenchment. Then followed the hardest and
bloodiest battle which the British had hitherto
fought in India. The Sikhs fought with the
desperation of despair, but were slowly beaten back
by the fiery resolution of the British. At last they
retreated to the Sutlej, and thousands were drowned
in the river. Their general had fled on the morning
of the battle, and had broken down the bridge to
prevent their return to the Punjab.
Mixed government, Sikh and British.
Thus ended the first Sikh war. The British army
marched in triumph to Lahore, and Sir Henry
Hardinge, now Lord Hardinge, began to settle the
future government of the Punjab. He was unwilling
to annex the country, for the British nation
was already jealous of the territorial possessions of
the East India Company. He dared not withdraw
the British army lest the army of the Khalsa should
spring again into life and sweep away the Sikh régime.
He tried a compromise. He recognised the infant,
the queen-mother and her minister, as de facto
rulers of the Punjab. He reduced the army of the
Khalsa to a third of its former strength. He
annexed the frontier province on the north, known
as the Julinder Doab, and he demanded a subsidy
of a million and a-half sterling towards the expenses
of the war.
Sale of Cashmere.
The money was not to be had. Out of twelve
millions sterling that were found in the Lahore
treasury after the death of Runjeet Singh, only half
a million remained. The difficulty was overcome
by the Viceroy of Cashmere, a Rajput named Golab
Singh, who held the province in subordination to
the Sikh government. He offered one million sterling,
provided the British government recognised him
as Maharaja of Cashmere, independent of Lahore.
The bargain was struck, and Cashmere was sold to
Golab Singh.
Council of Regency.
Still it was impossible for the British to withdraw
from the Punjab without bringing on a second war.
Before the end of 1846 the queen-mother was found
to be utterly unfit to rule, whilst her minister was
stirring up the people of Cashmere to revolt against
the Maharaja. The minister was removed from his
post. Eight of the leading Sirdars at Lahore were
formed into a council of regency, under the direction
of Sir Henry Lawrence, the British Resident at
Lahore; and it was determined that a small British
force should remain in the Punjab until the infant
Dhuleep Singh attained his majority.
Lord Dalhousie, 1848-56.
§7. Two years passed away. In 1848 Lord
Hardinge was succeeded by Lord Dalhousie, and
returned to England accompanied by Sir Henry
Lawrence. Sir Frederic Currie, a Bengal civilian,
was Resident at Lahore, and the Punjab was to all
appearance quiet. About this time the Sikh governor
of Multan, named Mulraj, quarrelled with the
council of regency at Lahore, and resigned his post
in disgust. Two Englishmen, Mr. Vans Agnew and
a Lieutenant Anderson, were sent to Multan with a
Sikh escort to take overcharge.
Revolt at Multan, April, 1848: murder of two Englishmen.
Multan is situated on the river Chenab, about
200 miles to the south-west of Lahore. The two
Englishmen reached the place in April, and took up
their quarters at a mosque in the suburbs. Mulraj
paid them a visit, and there was some disagreement
about the accounts, but the two Englishmen went
over the fortress with Mulraj, and all three left the
place together on horseback. At that moment the
two Englishmen were felled from their horses.
Mulraj galloped away into the country, and the two
Englishmen were carried away to the mosque and
brutally murdered. Mulraj returned to the fortress,
and issued a proclamation calling on the people of
all religions to revolt against British supremacy.
Revolt of Shere Singh.
The Sikh and British authorities at Lahore treated
the outbreak as an isolated rebellion. Lieutenant
Herbert Edwardes, a rising officer, marched an
irregular force against Multan; but though he defeated
the rebels, he could not capture the fortress. A Sikh
noble, named Shere Singh, marched from Lahore to
co-operate with Edwardes, and a British force under
General Whish was also sent in a like direction. It
turned out, however, that Shere Singh was negotiating
with the rebels inside the fortress, whilst swearing
fidelity to the British authorities outside. When the
British guns had opened fire, and the capture of the
fortress was a mere question of hours, Shere Singh
suddenly beat the drum of the Khalsa, proclaimed a
religious war against the British, and started for the
north with the whole of his men as fast as their long
Sikh legs could carry them. Whish saw that pursuit
was hopeless, and could only entrench his troops and
wait for reinforcements whilst keeping watch on
Multan.
Army of the Khalsa.
The hot weather was coming on, British advance
was delayed, and the British authorities at Lahore
were discovering that a second Sikh war was inevitable.
The queen-mother was organising a general
confederacy against the British government, but her
intrigues were found out in time, and she was sent
to Benares to repent at leisure. Rebel chiefs were
plotting in all directions to get rid of the British
government, and bring back the old days of anarchy
and plunder. Later in the year many villages were
found empty. The able-bodied men had gone off to
join rebel chiefs, and fight once more for God and
the Khalsa; and no one remained behind but the
halt and the lame, the women and the children.
Afghans occupy Peshawar.
To crown all, Dost Mohammed, Khan of Cabul,
had joined the rebel Sikhs. As a Mohammedan he
must have hated the Sikhs and their religion,
especially as Runjeet Singh had wrested the important
valley of Peshawar from Afghan dominion.
But he saw his opportunity to recover Peshawar.
He overran the valley and captured the fortress of
Attock; and he determined that whatever might
happen, he would hold Peshawar for the future
against Sikh or Englishman.
Gough's advance, 1848.
In November, 1848, the British army, under Lord
Gough, entered the "land of the five rivers." On
the 13th of January he approached the army of Shere
Singh, which was strongly entrenched at Chillianwalla
on the left bank of the Jhelum—the Hydaspes of the
Greeks—and probably not far from the spot where
Alexander routed the Rajput army of Porus. The
Sikh army was hidden from view by a dense jungle.
Lord Gough ordered a reconnoitre; he proposed to
give his army a night's rest, and to begin the battle
next morning.
Chillianwalla, 13th January, 1849.
Shere Singh upset this arrangement. He did not
care to fight the British army after a night's rest, and
after his position had been reconnoitred. He stirred
up the Irish blood of Lord Gough by opening a fire
on the British camp. The impetuous general returned
the fire, and ordered an advance. For a brief interval
nothing was to be heard but the roar of artillery,
whilst the battle was hidden from view by smoke and
jungle. Presently the British guns were silenced by
the advance of infantry, and soon afterwards the
sharp rattle of musketry told that the conflict had
begun. But the battle of Chillianwalla was disastrous.
The Sikh artillery continued to roar after the British
artillery was silenced. A brigade of British infantry
was beaten back. A cavalry brigade was repulsed
with a loss of guns. At last, the ringing cheer of
British infantry told that the day was gained, but it
was dearly purchased with the loss of 2,400 officers
and men. The Sikhs were driven from their position,
but they entrenched themselves still more strongly
on better ground only three miles off. Had there
been a forward movement on the following morning,
the doubtful success of the 13th of January might
have been converted into a decisive victory.
Fall of Multan, 22nd January.
On the 22nd of January Mulraj surrendered the
fortress of Multan to General Whish. This enabled
Whish to bring his forces to the help of Lord Gough.
Later on Shere Singh began a march to Lahore, but
was stopped by Gough and Whish at Goojerat on the
right bank of the Chenab.
Goojerat, 21st February.
The battle of Goojerat was fought on the 21st of
February, 1849. It was known as "the battle of
the guns," for there was no premature advance of
infantry or cavalry, as at Chillianwalla. For two
hours and a-half the Sikh army was pounded with
British shot and shell, and then, and not till then, a
charge of bayonets and a rush of cavalry completed
the destruction of the army of the Khalsa. The
victory at Goojerat saved the reputation of Lord
Gough. Sir Charles Napier had been sent out to
supersede him as commander-in-chief, on account of
the losses at Chillianwalla; but before Napier could
reach India the war was over, and Chillianwalla was
condoned, although it could not be forgotten. The
Punjab was once more prostrate at the feet of the
British, and the Afghans were driven out of Peshawar.
Annexation of the Punjab, 1849.
The mixed government of Sikhs and British had
failed in the Punjab, under Sir Henry Lawrence and
Sir Frederic Currie, as it had failed in Bengal nearly
a century before under Clive and his successors.
Lord Dalhousie decided, and to all appearance rightly,
that annexation was the only chance of salvation for
the Punjab. So the weak and helpless relics of the
family of Runjeet Singh were pensioned off by the
conquerors, and his kingdom was incorporated with
the British empire, and formed into a province under
British rule.
British rule in the Punjab.
§8. The administration of the Punjab was, in the
first instance, placed under a Board of three members.
But the Board did not work smoothly, and Lord
Dalhousie objected to Boards, and preferred fixing
responsibilities on individuals. Accordingly Mr. John
Lawrence, a younger brother of Sir Henry Lawrence,
was appointed sole ruler of the Punjab under the
title of chief commissioner. It will be seen hereafter
that John Lawrence was destined to leave his mark
in history; to become Governor-General of India, and
finally to take his seat in the House of Lords. The
Punjab was delivered from the grinding exactions of
Sikh officials, and brought under the just and impartial
rule of British officers. Within the space of
less than a decade, the kingdom of Runjeet Singh,
which had been distracted by wars and disorders
worse than those of England under the Heptarchy,
was brought under the civilised and European
administration of the nineteenth century.
Non-Regulation.
The Punjab was parcelled out into divisions and
districts, like the Bengal and North-West Provinces.
It was not, however, brought under the "Regulations,"
which had the force of laws in Bengal, Madras, Bombay,
and the North-West Provinces. For some years
it was known as a non-Regulation province; in
other words, British administration in the Punjab was
carried on according to the spirit of the Regulations,
and on the same lines as the administration of the
North-West Provinces, but a large margin of latitude
and discretion was allowed to the chief commissioner,
and he was empowered to issue his own instructions
and orders, which might sometimes be out of harmony
with the Regulations.
Patriarchal government.
The result was that a so-called patriarchal rule prevailed
in the Punjab, which was admirably adapted
to the transition state of the "land of five rivers."
British officers laboured to govern the country, and
to administer justice amongst a mixed population of
Sikhs, Mohammedans, and Hindus, according to local
circumstances and usages, rather than according to
the strict letter of the law which had prevailed for
generations in Regulation provinces.
District officers.
Under the non-Regulation system the duties of
magistrate, collector, and civil and sessions judge
were discharged by a single officer, who was known
as the deputy-commissioner. The deputy-commissioner
was thus not only the head of the civil
administration of his district, but the magistrate
and judge. Below him were certain grades of
assistant commissioners, whose duties were of a
similarly comprehensive character. Half of these
grades were taken from the ranks of the Indian
civil service, and the other half from British officers
in the Indian army. Below them were grades of
uncovenanted officers, European and Asiatic, known
as extra assistant commissioners, who corresponded
more or less with the class of deputy-collectors
created by Lord William Bentinck.
Commissioners.
The commissioners of divisions controlled the administration
of the districts under their charge after
the manner of commissioners in Bengal, Bombay, and
the North-West Provinces. They also heard appeals
from the courts of deputy-commissioners. Another
officer, known as the "financial commissioner," controlled
the expenditure of the entire province, in
subordination to the chief commissioner.
Judicial commissioner: Punjab code.
There was no Supreme Court, and no Sudder Court,
in the Punjab. In those patriarchal days a single
officer, known as the "judicial commissioner," controlled
all the law courts in the province, and was
the last court of appeal. Meanwhile a code of laws
was drawn up, under the directions of the chief commissioner,
by his secretary, Mr. (now Sir Richard)
Temple. Since then Sir Richard Temple has filled
high positions in India, which were only second
in importance to those occupied by his illustrious
master.
Land settlement: village system.
The land settlement in the Punjab was carried
out on the same lines as that in the North-West
Provinces. Proprietary rights of village communities,
joint or otherwise, were recognised as far as
possible. The village system was perhaps as perfect
in the Punjab as in any other part of India, but
for years the rights of village proprietors had been
ignored or stamped out under Sikh rule. The
revenue collectors of Runjeet Singh cared nothing
for proprietary right, nor indeed for any law or
usage which debarred them from exacting as much
revenue as possible from the cultivators of the land.
North-West Provinces.
Meanwhile the land settlement of the North-West
Provinces, which had been modified by Lord William
Bentinck, was brought to a close under the supervision
of Mr. Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor.
It was based on the principle of recognising, defining,
and recording all existing rights of proprietors of
every kind and sort, from those of hereditary chiefs
and landlords, down to village proprietors, joint or
otherwise. The settlement included a full record of
the rights of all proprietors in every village. Every
field was measured and mapped; every house was
entered on a list. All shares in the land, and all
joint and separate liabilities for revenue, were registered.
The customs of the village were recorded,
and formed a manual of village law. Finally, details
of all lawsuits under the settlement officers were
preserved, and formed a history of the village settlement.
This system was carried out in the Punjab
and other new provinces of British India. In Bengal,
however, it is stopped by the zemindari system;
whilst in Madras village rights are equal under the
ryotwari system.
Second Burmese war, 1852.
§9. In 1852 a second Burmese war was forced
upon Lord Dalhousie. A treaty of commerce and
friendship had been concluded with the king of
Burma at the end of the first war, but of late years
it had been grossly violated. Burmese officials had
condemned British sea captains to fine and imprisonment
on false charges, and British merchants residing
at Rangoon were preparing to abandon their property
and leave Burmese territory unless they were protected
by their own government.
Arrogant officials.
Commodore Lambert was sent to Rangoon to investigate
complaints. He was treated by the Burmese
officials with such insolence and arrogance that negotiations
were impossible. Eventually he seized a
Burmese ship by way of reprisal, but engaged to
restore it on receipt of something like 1,000l. as
nominal compensation for British sufferers. In reply
the Burmese fired on the commodore's steamer, and
the firing was promptly returned. From that moment
war was inevitable.
Annexation of Pegu.
A British expedition under General Godwin reached
Rangoon. The Shway Dagohn pagoda, the great
cathedral of Buddhism in Burma, was taken by
storm; and then all fighting was over. The court
of Ava was powerless and paralysed. It could not
resist British forces, and simply left the British
authorities to do as they pleased. Upper Burma
was abandoned to the king, and the rich valley of
Pegu, and port of Rangoon, were added to the British
empire; and eventually the three divisions of Pegu,
Arakan, and Tenasserim were formed into the
province of British Burma.
New frontiers of British Empire.
The annexation of the Punjab and Burma are the
crowning events of the nineteenth century. Lord
Wellesley had delivered India from Tippu, and
established the paramount power of the East India
Company over the Mogul viceroys and the Mahratta
princes. Lord Hastings had converted Nipal into a
staunch ally, and stamped out the predatory powers
of Central India. Lord Dalhousie annexed the
empire of Runjeet Singh, excepting Cashmere, and
the empire of the Alompras, excepting Upper Burma,
and thus laid down frontiers which remained
unchanged for an entire generation.[26]
Lord Dalhousie as an administrator. Progressive
policy.
§10. But Lord Dalhousie left his mark in history
as an administrator rather than as a conqueror.
Having annexed the Punjab and Pegu, he threw his
whole soul into the administration. The Punjab was
soon traversed with roads like a Roman province,
and one magnificent and difficult road was completed
from Lahore to Peshawar. Rangoon was cleared
of malarious jungle, and planned out in streets
and roads like a European city. The working of
British administration in the new provinces has been
most successful. Lord Dalhousie not only delivered
the population from oppression and violence, but
introduced order, liberty, and law, such as prevails
in no Oriental country outside the British pale from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Chinese Seas. Lord Dalhousie
may have petted the Punjab and Pegu at
the expense of Madras and Bombay, but he was
never unmindful of the interests of the Anglo-Indian
empire. He is the first Governor-General who
laboured for the benefit of India in the interests of
the British nation, as well as in those of the East
India Company.
Public works of the East India Company.
Public works in India before the advent of Lord
Dalhousie had chiefly consisted of military and civil
buildings, such as barracks, arsenals, jails, and
hospitals. The Company, however, was the landlord
of India, and the bulk of the people were its
tenants; it had therefore sought to improve the
condition of its tenants after the manner of landlords.
It encouraged the cultivation of tea, coffee,
and cotton. It restored choked-up channels, which
had been dug by Mohammedan Sultans of former
days for watering their palaces, gardens, and hunting
grounds; and it converted them into canals
for irrigating a large acreage in the North-West
Provinces. Such was the origin of the Western and
Eastern Jumna canals, which were constructed
in the days of Lord William Bentinck and Lord
Auckland. Each canal received the water from the
upper stream on the slope of the Himalayas, and
irrigated the high lands which were above the level
of the lower stream. Above all, the Company
sanctioned the Ganges canal which was purely a
British undertaking, constructed for navigation as
well as for irrigation.
Northern India: old caravan routes.
But India was without roads. Rough caravan
routes traversed Northern India in the seventeenth
century, and European travellers landing at Surat
could find their way to Ajmere, Agra, and Delhi.
From Delhi again there was a caravan route through
the Punjab and Afghanistan to Persia and Turkistan.
But in the eighteenth century all were closed.
Rajput rebels and outlaws stopped all travelling
between Surat and Agra; the Jhat brigands of
Bhurtpore stopped it between Bengal and Delhi;
and Sikhs and Afghans cut off all trade with Persia
and Turkistan.
Water-ways.
In Northern India the ordinary route from Calcutta
to the north-west was by water. The rivers Jumna
and Ganges flow from the Himalayas in a south-easterly
direction until they meet at Allahabad in the
centre of Hindustan. The Jumna flows past Delhi
and Agra; the Ganges flows past Cawnpore; and
after meeting at Allahabad, the two rivers flow in one
united stream past Benares, Patna, Monghyr, and
Calcutta, until they reach the Bay of Bengal. But
travelling up country against the stream was always
tedious, and a journey which formerly occupied
months by water, now only occupies the same number
of days by rail.
Deccan: no traffic.
In the Deccan the routes were much worse. There
was no traffic between Bombay and the Mahratta
country until 1831, when Sir John Malcolm opened
a cart-road through the western Ghats, and thus
broke through the mountain wall which cut off
Bombay from the interior. In the Nizam's country
there were no roads except a rough route between
Hyderabad and the seaport at Masulipatam, which
was cursed by every British Resident from the days
of Clive and Verelst down to very modern times.
Southern India: palanquins.
In Southern India there were neither caravan
routes nor waterways of any moment. Hindu Rajas
never opened out the country like the Mohammedans
of Northern India. Hindu infantry and light Mahratta
horsemen required no roads; and Rajas and
other Hindu grandees were carried in palanquins.
Europeans travelled in palanquins down to the present
generation, and were in no fear of robbers.
Ladies and children were borne along through
jungles and over rivers; leopards and tigers were
kept off at night by lighted torches; and the sure
feet of the half-naked coolies carried travellers
safely over rocky heights and troubled waters.
Macadamised roads.
Mr. Thomason, who was Lieutenant-Governor of
the North-West Provinces from 1843 to 1853, was
the first Bengal administrator who constructed macadamised
roads. His object was to connect the large
cities under his jurisdiction, but the work once begun
soon advanced apace. A trunk road was commenced
between Calcutta and Delhi, and in 1850 mail carts
ran for the first time between the two capitals of
Northern India. The annexation of the Punjab gave
a further impetus to road-making, and Calcutta and
Delhi were soon brought into communication with
Lahore and Peshawar.
Proposed railways.
Meanwhile railways had created a furor. Promoters
in the British Isles were anxious to construct
railways in India at the expense of the East India
Company, but the idea did not recommend itself to
the men who had the largest experience of India.
There was a natural reluctance to accept schemes by
which speculators might profit at the Company's
expense, whilst the gain to the people of India would
be doubtful. It was currently believed, by men who
had spent the best part of their lives in the country,
that Hindus would never travel by railway; that
they would trudge on foot, and carry their families
and goods in carts and cars, as they had done in the
days of Porus and Megasthenes.
Lord Dalhousie, a new type of Indian statesman.
§11. Lord Dalhousie was the type of British
administrators of the modern school. He had served
two years' apprenticeship in Great Britain as President
of the Board of Trade under Sir Robert Peel,
and he was especially familiar with the construction
of British roads and railways. In India he opened
the great trunk road from Calcutta to Delhi, and post
carriages, known as "dak gharies," soon superseded
the old river "budgerows." Other metalled roads
were begun in Madras and Bombay. Still one thing
was wanting. Calcutta was united to all the great
capitals of Northern India—Allahabad, Agra, and
Delhi—but Bombay and Madras were as far off as
ever from both Northern India and each other.
Trunk railway lines.
Railways would remedy the evil, and Lord Dalhousie
was bent on introducing them. He planned
a trunk system which in the present day unites the
three Presidencies, and connects them with the north-west
frontier. He induced railway companies to
undertake the construction, by giving a government
guarantee of five per cent. interest per annum on
the outlay; and before he left India three experimental
lines were already in progress, namely, one
from Calcutta, a second from Bombay, and a third
from Madras. Such was the origin of the three great
railways of India, namely, the "East Indian," which
runs through Northern India; the "Great Indian
Peninsula," which runs through the Deccan; and the
"Madras railway," which runs through Southern
India.
Telegraph system, 1853-55.
Between 1853 and 1855 the telegraph system was
constructed, which electrified Europeans and awakened
the Asiatics from the torpor of ages. Madras and
Bombay could talk with all the great cities of
Northern India, and Rangoon was placed in telegraphic
communication with Lahore and Peshawar.
Unfortunately there was only one line of wires from
Allahabad to Delhi, and when the wires were cut by
the sepoy mutineers of 1857, communication was cut
off. This incident, however, belongs to the régime
of Lord Dalhousie's successor.
Ganges canal, 1854.
In 1854 the Ganges canal, the greatest work of
irrigation ever accomplished, was completed by Sir
Proby Cautley and opened by Lord Dalhousie. The
British nation has never realised this grand undertaking
of the old East India Company. It receives
the water on the lower slope of the Himalayas, and
runs along the Doab, or high lands between the
Jumna and Ganges, throwing out distributaries at
intervals. About eighty miles to the south-east of
Delhi it separates into two branches, one flowing
into the Ganges at Cawnpore, and the other flowing
into the Jumna near Etawah. The whole length of
the canal and branches for navigation is 614 miles;
the length of the distributaries for irrigation is
3,111 miles.
Annexation policy.
§12. Lord Dalhousie was so convinced of the
superiority of British administration, that he considered
every opportunity should be taken for bringing
the territories of feudatory princes under British rule.
Hitherto it had been the policy of the East India
Company to perpetuate the dynasties of its feudatories.
If a feudatory prince was without a son,
he was advised by the British Resident to adopt one.
But Hindu princes shrink from the idea of adopting
a son. It is often as difficult to persuade a Raja to
adopt as it used to be to persuade Englishmen to
make wills. He puts it off with some vague intention
of marrying another wife, which he is permitted
to do under Hindu law when the first wife is barren.
Accordingly Hindu princes often die without leaving
any son whatever, real or adopted. Under such
circumstances the widow was permitted to adopt a
boy, and the East India Company permitted this
boy to succeed to the principality.
Question of adoption.
Adoption, however, is purely a religious ceremonial.
It is the outcome of the religious belief of the Hindus
that when a man dies his soul goes to a sort of
purgatory until his sins are washed away; and that
during this interval it is the duty of a son, real or
adopted, to offer cakes and water to refresh the soul
in question. The East India Company accepted the
adoption as giving a claim to the principality, because
it settled the succession when a natural heir was
wanting. Lord Dalhousie decided that the adoption
gave no claim to the principality, but only to the
personal property of the deceased feudatory, because
he was anxious to bring the territory under British
administration.
Satara and Nagpore.
The Court of Directors refused to accept the views
of Lord Dalhousie in the case of "protected allies,"
such as Sindia, Holkar, and the princes of Rajputana.
But they accepted his views as regards "dependent
principalities," such as Satara and Nagpore, which had
been created, or artificially resuscitated, by the Marquis
of Hastings, and in which the Hindu rulers had turned
out very badly. Accordingly, Nagpore and Satara
became British territory, and were brought under
British administration.
Jhansi in Bundelkund.
A chiefship in Bundelkund, known as Jhansi, was
also annexed to the British empire. The chiefs and
princes of Bundelkund were situated far away to the
south of the river Jumna. They were cut off by hills
and jungles from the civilising influences of British
rule, and retained much of the lawlessness and anarchy
of the eighteenth century. The chief of Jhansi died
without leaving any heir, real or adopted. The widow
was allowed to adopt a son for the offering of cakes
and water, but not allowed to adopt a successor to the
principality, and the territory accordingly lapsed to
the British government, and was brought under
British administration. The widow was very angry.
She had expected to rule Jhansi as queen regent; but
a Hindu lady brought up in the seclusion of a zenana
cannot always be trusted with the irresponsible powers
of a despot. She yielded to her fate, but it will be
seen hereafter that she bottled up her wrath and
waited for revenge.
Obsolete controversy.
Since Lord Dalhousie's time the controversy as
regards adoption has become obsolete. The right of
adopting a son, who should not only offer cakes and
water to the soul of the deceased, but succeed him in
the government of the principality, has been distinctly
recognised by the British government. Meanwhile
the aspect of the question has entirely changed. In
the days of Lord Dalhousie few, if any, of the Indian
feudatories of the British government showed any
signs of progress. In the present day the heirs to
principalities are taught in schools and colleges, and
are learning something of India and the great world
around them by the help of railways and telegraphs.
It is therefore to be hoped that a day may yet
dawn when British systems of administration may be
worked in every feudatory state in India by trained
Asiatic officials.
Exceptional annexation of Oudh.
Last of all, Lord Dalhousie annexed the Mohammedan
kingdom of Oudh to the British empire. This
was an exceptional measure, having nothing whatever
to do with the Hindu usage of adoption. The Nawab
of Oudh had assumed the title of "king," but had
degenerated under British protection into an Oriental
ruler of the worst possible type. His kingdom was
parcelled out amongst a landed aristocracy, known as
talukdars, who were half landlords and half revenue
collectors, like the zemindars of Bengal. Every
talukdar of position had a fortress of his own, with
a garrison and guns. He collected rents from the
ryots, but paid little or no revenue to the king's
officers, unless compelled by force of arms. The king
lived secluded in his palaces at Lucknow, surrounded
by greedy and corrupt officials, immersed in Oriental
pleasures, ignorant of what was going on outside his
capital, yet maintaining a rabble army, which was
either in mutiny for want of pay, or plundering the
villages for bare necessaries. A British Resident was
appointed to Lucknow, but he could only interfere
by way of advice, remonstrance, or warning. A
British force was stationed in Oudh, under the
direction of the Resident, but only for the maintenance
of the public peace, and not for interference
in the administration. Deposition of the king would
have done no manner of good, for there was not
a prince of the family capable of governing the
country in his room. It was thus impossible to
maintain the dynasty without sacrificing the interests
of ten millions of population whom the
British government was bound to protect. At last,
in 1856, the territory of Oudh was annexed to
the British empire, and brought under British
administration.
India Bill of 1853; new Civil Service.
§13. In 1853 the last charter of the East India
Company, which had been granted in 1833 for a
term of twenty years, was brought to a close.
Parliament refused to renew the charter, but declined
as yet to abolish the Company, and meanwhile
carried out some constitutional changes. It placed
the Indian civil service on a national basis, by
abolishing the system of nomination by the Court
of Directors, and introducing the system of
competitive examinations, which was eventually
thrown open to all British subjects—Asiatic as
well as European.
New Legislative Council.
In like manner Parliament broadened the supreme
government of India by creating a new legislative
council. The Governor-General in Council continued
to exercise supreme control over the executive. At
the same time this executive council was formed
into a legislative council by the addition of representative
members; namely, the chief justice and
one puisne judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta,
and one representative member from each of the
four presidencies, namely, Madras, Bombay, Bengal,
and the North-West Provinces.
Constitutional germ.
§14. The legislative council was opened in 1854.
It was the first germ of representative government
in India. Lord Dalhousie introduced parliamentary
forms, and the debates were conducted with a spirit
which recommended them to the attention of the
Indian public, official and non-official, Asiatic and
European. The Governor-General and executive
council exercised a veto on the introduction of bills.
But four Indian civilians represented the governments
of four presidencies, and the judges of the
Supreme Court represented, more or less, the interests
of the public outside official circles. Moreover,
although the Asiatic populations had no voice in
the debates, they were enabled to express their
objections in the form of petitions, which were duly
considered by the committees of the council on the
several bills. In a word, the legislative council of
India, imperfect as it may have been, was an
advance in the development of constitutional
government of India, and will accordingly be brought
under review in the concluding chapter.
Macaulay and the Penal Code.
The new legislative council brought to light
Lord Macaulay's draft of a Penal Code, which had
been shelved for nearly twenty years. The delay,
however, had not been without its advantages.
Mr. (now Sir Barnes) Peacock, took charge of the
bill under which the Code became law, and subjected
its clauses to a careful revision. Moreover, the representative
civilians from the four presidencies,
and two judges of the Supreme Court at Calcutta,
had opportunities for discussing any or every clause
from local and imperial points of view, which could
scarcely fail to adapt the Penal Code to all parts of
British India.
Characteristics of the Code.
The Penal Code had evidently been drafted in
Lord Macaulay's best style. It was eminently clear
and concise, free from redundancies and repetitions,
and singularly happy in the definitions of offences
and law terms. It embodies illustrations, as well as
explanations, of every conceivable offence known to
criminal law. Consequently, no educated individual,
Asiatic or European, who refers to the Penal Code,
can possibly make any mistake as regards the
criminal law in British India. It did not, however,
take effect until 1860. Meanwhile events transpired
which opened up an entirely new era in the progress
of Great Britain as an Asiatic power.
Lord Dalhousie leaves India, 1856.
§15. In 1856 Lord Dalhousie left India for ever.
He had alarmed Anglo-Indians of the old school by
his energetic promotion of moral and material progress
without regard to the ignorance or prejudices
of the Asiatic populations; but besides his grander
measures, he carried out a thousand and one smaller
reforms which to this day are felt and appreciated
by Asiatics as well as by Europeans. It was Lord
Dalhousie who introduced cheap postage; who caused
Calcutta to be lit with gas; who purified the south-west
breezes of fever and malaria by clearing the
jungles of the Sunderbunds; who sat by the cradle
of the new legislative council of 1854, and thus
nourished the earliest germ of representative government
which British rule had planted in India. In
a word, Lord Dalhousie prepared the way for that
great measure which will be told in a future chapter,
namely, the transfer of the government of India
from the East India Company to the British Crown.
Lord Canning 1856-62. War with Persia, 1856-7.
§16. Lord Canning succeeded Lord Dalhousie in
1856. To all outward appearance there was no
cause for alarm in any part of India. Persia had
again laid siege to Herat, as she had done in 1837;
but the British government had come to an understanding
with old Dost Mohammed of Cabul, and
had given him money and arms. A mission was
sent to Candahar under Major (now Sir Peter)
Lumsden. A British expedition was sent to the
Persian Gulf under Sir James Outram, and captured
Bushire. Eventually Persia withdrew her pretensions
as regards Herat, and peace was concluded
in March, 1857.
Status of the "king" at Delhi.
Proposed removal from Delhi.
Meanwhile the status of the so-called king of
Delhi, the relic of the Great Mogul, was under
consideration. For more than half a century the
family had lived in a palace at Delhi on a yearly
pension from the British government. There was
much marrying and giving in marriage, and the
palace was a hive of princes and princesses without
any apparent occupation save that of petitioning for
increased pensions. Lord Ellenborough contemplated
removing the family from Delhi, but the measure
was postponed. At last Lord Dalhousie took action.
The so-called king was very old, and could not live
many years. Lord Dalhousie recognised a grandson
as successor to the pageant throne, on the condition
that when the old king died, the whole family should
clear out of Delhi and take up their abode in a royal
residence some miles off, known as the Kutub.
Palace intrigues.
This design was frustrated. The old king had
married a young wife, and she had a son, and she
determined that her son should be king. The
grandson, who had been recognised by Lord
Dalhousie, died suddenly; it was said that she
had poisoned him. Lord Canning ignored her son,
and recognised a brother of the dead prince as heir
to the title, on the same conditions. Henceforth
the queen, like the princess of Jhansi, bottled up
her wrath and waited for revenge.
Land settlement in Oudh.
Lord Canning, however, was somewhat uneasy
about Oudh. A British administration had been
introduced under a chief commissioner, with commissioners
of divisions and deputy commissioners of
districts, but nothing was done to reconcile the
talukdars in the provinces to the change of rule.
On the contrary, a land settlement was introduced
corresponding to that which had been effected in the
North-West Provinces. But half a century had
elapsed since the acquisition of the North-West
Provinces. Meanwhile the talukdars of Oudh had
ceased to be mere middle men, and had grown into
landed proprietors; whilst the rights of village
proprietors, individual or joint, had been ignored
or stamped out by the new landlords.
Disaffection of talukdars.
The early British administrators settled the revenue
direct with the villagers, and told the talukdars that
their claims to proprietorship, if they had any, would
be considered hereafter, or might be settled in the
law courts. Under such cool treatment the talukdars
of Oudh might well be disaffected towards their new
British rulers. Rightly or wrongly, by long possession,
or by recent usurpation, they had become de
facto landlords, and under the new system they
saw their estates transferred to their tenants. Early
in 1857, however, Sir Henry Lawrence was appointed
chief commissioner of Oudh, and he was expected
to reconcile all parties.
Imagined wrongs of Oudh villagers.
Strange to say, the villagers of Oudh, who had
profited so much by the new land settlement, had
a secret grievance of their own which no one seems
to have suspected. They held their lands on better
terms than their fathers or grandfathers, but many
families had lost position in the eyes of their
neighbours. For generations Oudh had been the
chief recruiting ground for the Asiatic soldiery of the
Bengal army; and under Mohammedan rule every
sepoy was the great man of his family, and indeed
the patron of his native village. If any villager
had a grievance, he applied to the sepoy, and the
sepoy applied to his British officer, and his petition
was forwarded to the British Resident at Lucknow;
and the Mohammedan court was too anxious to
please the Resident to make any difficulty about
redressing wrongs so strongly supported, whatever
might have been the abstract merits of the case.
When, however, the king was replaced by a chief
commissioner, the sepoy was referred to a British
court for justice, and was no better off than his
neighbours. This loss of privilege and prestige
rankled in the heart of sepoys from Oudh, and they
began to look upon annexation as a wrong done to
themselves, although they had not, and could not
have, any sympathies for the deposed king.
Coming catastrophe.
Such was the state of affairs in India when the
storm of 1857 was about to burst upon Hindustan,
which was to shake British power in Northern India
to its very foundations, and sweep away the East
India Company for ever. The outbreak was
hardly felt in the older presidencies of Bengal,
Madras, or Bombay, nor in the Punjab or Pegu,
nor in Nagpore or Satara, the provinces recently
annexed without conquest, nor, with few exceptions,
in the feudatory states under British suzerainty. The
main fury of the storm was spent on Oudh and the
North-West Provinces; and the significance of this
localisation will appear in the after history.
§1. European soldiers and Asiatic sepoys. §2. Three British armies in
India: Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. §3. Sepoy army of Bengal:
Brahmans and Rajputs. §4. Enfield cartridges: general horror of
pork: Hindu worship of the cow. §5. Agitation of the sepoys at
Barrackpore. §6. First mutiny against the cartridges: Berhampore.
§7. Second mutiny: Barrackpore. §8. Oudh: mutiny at Lucknow:
suppressed. §9. Mutiny and massacre at Meerut. §10. Mohammedan
revolt and massacre at Delhi: general excitement. §11. British advance
from the Punjab to Delhi. §12. Siege of Delhi by Europeans, Sikhs,
and Ghorkas. §13. Punjab and John Lawrence: antagonism between
Sikhs and Mohammedans. §14. Sepoy plots at Lahore and Mian Mir:
quashed. §15. Peshawar and frontier mountain tribes. §16. Execution
of sepoy mutineers at Peshawar. §17. Brigadier John Nicholson:
worshipped by a Sikh brotherhood. §18. Proposed withdrawal from
Peshawar. §19. Mutiny at Sealkote: wholesale executions. §20. Siege
and storm of Delhi, September 1857: peace in the North-West.
Military rule in India.
It is a common saying that "India is held by
the sword;" but the phrase is misleading, and in
one direction it is absolutely untrue. The British
army is not maintained to rivet a foreign yoke on
the subject populations. Its main duty has been
to keep the peace between rival princes, to put down
fighting between antagonistic religions, and to protect
India against foreign aggression.
Paucity of European troops.
§1. The small number of European troops in 1857
proves that India was free. In the Bengal provinces,
which cover a larger area than Great Britain and
Ireland, and a denser population, there were scarcely
any European troops. A single regiment sufficed to
garrison Calcutta; and of this regiment one wing was
quartered in Fort William within the city, whilst the
other wing was quartered in Dumdum arsenal, seven
miles off. With this exception, there were no
European troops within 400 miles of Calcutta. One
European regiment was quartered at Dinapore, to the
westward of Patna, and another at Rangoon, in the
newly-acquired province of Pegu. There was also a
European regiment at Lucknow in Oudh, and two
European regiments at Meerut in the North-West
Provinces, about forty miles from Delhi, and a
thousand miles from Calcutta. But the bulk of the
European regiments in India were quartered in the
Punjab, the frontier province on the north-west.
This frontier is the only vulnerable side of India. It
faces Afghanistan; but it also faces a possible combination
of European and Asiatic powers, which may
some day menace the British empire in India.
Sepoys or Asiatics.
The army of the East India Company was mainly
composed of native soldiers, known as sepoys. The
term "native," however, is equivocal, and sepoys are
best called Asiatics, to distinguish them from British
soldiers, who are known in India as Europeans. They
were formed into regiments corresponding to European
battalions, and were drilled and commanded by
European officers corresponding to regimental officers
in Her Majesty's army. Each regiment had also an
Asiatic staff of sepoy officers, known as naiks,
havildars, jemadars, and subahdars—corresponding
to corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains.
Such regiments were known as "regulars."
Army strength.
In 1857 the regular army of the East India
Company comprised in round numbers about 200,000
Asiatics, commanded by 4,000 European officers, and
about 45,000 British-born soldiers. But the European
regiments were not all taken from Her Majesty's
service. The East India Company had enlisted nine
European regiments for exclusive service in India,
who were known as Fusiliers and Locals. Moreover,
in addition to the regular sepoys, there were battalions
known as irregulars, because they had fewer regimental
European officers. They were raised specially
for service in particular provinces, and also for
service in the contingent and subsidiary forces
maintained by feudatory states under existing
treaties.
Tried fidelity.
The sepoy army had been the pride and glory of
the East India Company for more than a hundred
years. It won its first laurels in the old wars against
the French in Southern India; and from the battle
of Plassy in 1757, to the dawn of 1857, it had shared
the triumph of the British army in building up the
Anglo-Indian empire. For perfection of discipline, and
fidelity to their European officers, the sepoys might
for many years have been favourably compared with
the soldiers of any continental army. Hindus and
Mohammedans fought side by side with Europeans,
and one and all were bound together by that brotherhood
in arms, which grows up between soldiers of all
races and climes who have been under fire together in
the same campaign.
No religious distinctions.
On the parade-ground and on the battle-field all
differences of race, caste, and religion were for the
moment forgotten. Together, sepoys and soldiers
fought, not only against the French, but against
Nawabs and Sultans who were Mohammedans, and
against Mahrattas and Rajas who were Hindus.
Together, they had crossed the Indus and the Sutlej
to fight against Afghans and Sikhs; climbed the
shelves and precipices of the Himalayas to punish
the aggressions of the Ghorkas of Nipal; and ascended
the waters of the Irrawaddy to chastise the
arrogance of Burmese kings. When the sepoys were
called out by the British magistrate to repress riots
between Hindus and Mohammedans, they put their
religion into their pockets and fired with the utmost
impartiality on both parties, although in their hearts
they must have sympathised with one side or the
other. But the pride of the sepoy, whether Hindu
or Mohammedan, was to be "faithful to his salt"—in
other words, to be loyal to the master from whom
he drew his pay.
Sepoy ways.
But sepoys have ways of their own which Europeans
cannot always understand, unless they have
served with them shoulder to shoulder, and listened
patiently and considerately to the outpourings of
their grievances. A sepoy is proud of his corps,
jealous for its reputation, and respectful to his officers.
Hindus of the higher castes, such as Brahmans and
Rajputs, and Mohammedans of noble and ancient
families, are alike amenable to British discipline.
But sepoys can be stung to insubordination by
insult or injustice, like soldiers of other races. Sepoys
have been known to sacrifice caste prejudices to help
European officers in time of need, but they resented
needless interference or looks of scorn with the sullen
pride of Orientals. At Vellore, in 1806, the Madras
sepoys were driven to mutiny by the contemptuous
orders of the military authorities as regards caste
marks and turbans, and above all by the jeers of the
Mysore princes, who taunted them with becoming
Christians. Yet during the first Cabul war and
other distant campaigns, sepoys often forgot their
caste in cases of emergency, and cheerfully obeyed
orders which they would have resented in their
own country, or in the presence of inconvenient
witnesses.
Mutiny at loss of batta.
Injustice again, real or imagined, is as intolerable
to sepoys as it is to children. More than once a
regiment has been deprived of batta, or field allowances,
under circumstances which kindled a burning
sense of wrong. This batta is given during service
in foreign territory, but is withdrawn after the return
of the sepoys to British territory. Thus, sepoys who
had borne the brunt of the wars in Sind and the
Punjab, were suddenly deprived of batta when those
countries became British provinces, and naturally
rebelled against what must have appeared to them
a crying injustice. The sepoy complained that he
had helped to conquer Sind for the East India
Company, and was then punished by the loss of
batta. The paymaster pointed to the regulations,
but the result was disaffection amounting to
mutiny.
Disbandment.
Under such circumstances there was no alternative
but disbandment. There can be no pardon for
mutineers, yet capital punishment, or even a long
term of imprisonment, would be needlessly severe in
dealing with ignorant sepoys. As it was, their doom
was terrible in the eyes of their fellows. In a
moment they were deprived of all hope of pension,
which secured to every sepoy, a life provision in his
native village when age or infirmity compelled him
to retire from the army.
Three armies: Bengal, or Northern India.
§2. The Company's regular forces in India were
formed into three distinct armies, namely, those of
Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and each army had its
own commander-in-chief. The armies of Madras and
Bombay were mostly recruited in their respective
presidencies; but the people of Bengal are not a
fighting race, and the Bengal army was mostly recruited
from the warlike populations of Oudh and
the North-West Provinces. Again the Bengal army
was not kept within the limits of the Bengal presidency,
but was distributed over the whole of Northern
India as far as the north-west frontier. It was
consequently larger than the two other armies put
together. It garrisoned Bengal, the North-West
Provinces, and the newly-acquired provinces of Oudh
and the Punjab; whilst it overlooked, more or less,
the Asiatic states to the south and west of the
Jumna, including the principalities and chiefships of
Rajputana, the territories of Sindia and Holkar, and
the smaller domains of a host of minor feudatories.
Bombay in the Deccan; Madras in the South.
The Bombay army garrisoned the Western Deccan
and Sind, and the Madras army garrisoned Southern
India and Pegu; but neither of these armies played
any prominent part in the great sepoy revolt of 1857-58.
Some disaffection was shown in the Bombay
army which was nearest to the Bengal sepoys, and
caught something of the contagion. The Madras
army was for the most part still further south;
and only one regiment caught the infection, and was
promptly disbanded.
Hindus in Bengal army.
§3. The sepoy army of Bengal was mainly composed
of Hindus. Taking the average strength of
every regiment at 1,000 sepoys, there would be 800
Hindus and 200 Mohammedans; and the antagonism
between the two religions was supposed to secure an
additional safeguard against mutiny or disaffection.
High castes: Brahmans and Rajputs.
High caste was the main characteristic of the
Hindu sepoys in the Bengal army. Of the 800
Hindus in every regiment, about 400 were Brahmans,
the sacred caste of India, who claim to be gods, and
are supposed to be endowed with supernatural
powers. Next to the Brahmans were about 200
Rajputs, the royal caste of India, who claim to be
"sons of Rajas," and are soldiers by birth as well as
calling. The remaining 200 Hindus were men of low
caste, who were regarded as inferior beings. The
Brahmans were powerful over all, and were worshipped
by the Rajputs as well as by the low
castes.
Discipline and caste.
Pride of caste was thus the moving spirit of the
Bengal army. This, however, was not perceptible on
the parade ground or field of battle, except in the
lofty mien, haughty bearing, and splendid physique
of the men. The Bengal sepoys were taller on
the average than any European armies, excepting
perhaps the Russian guard.[27] On duty the Brahman
and Rajput obeyed the word of command when
given by a low caste sepoy officer. Off duty, the
low caste sepoy officer prostrated himself in token
of worship before the Brahman soldier under his
command.
Growing insubordination of the Bengal sepoys.
But pride of caste had its disadvantages, and for
years the Bengal sepoys had displayed a laxity of
discipline, and a spirit of insubordination towards
their European officers, which had been unknown
in the older days. They had been pampered and
humoured to an extent which diminished their
efficiency, and many officers of experience lamented
the change. But any report to that effect was
naturally offensive to the higher military authorities;
and those who were most alive to the
growing evil found that it was best for their own
interests to keep their opinion to themselves.
Calcutta, Dumdum, Barrackpore, Berhampore.
It has been seen that Calcutta was garrisoned by
a single regiment of Europeans, one wing being
quartered in Fort William and the other in the
arsenal at Dumdum, about seven miles off. Nine
miles north of Dumdum, and sixteen miles north
of Calcutta, is the pleasant station of Barrackpore,
where the Governor-General has a park and country
mansion, and where four sepoy regiments were
cantoned with their European officers, but without
European troops. About 100 miles still further
north is the station of Berhampore, hard by the
old capital of Murshedabad; and here a regiment
of sepoy infantry was posted, with half a regiment
of sepoy cavalry and a battery of sepoy artillery.
Sepoy huts and lines.
A sepoy regiment in the Bengal army was cantoned
in ten rows of huts, a company of 100 sepoys in each
row. The arms and ammunition of each company
were kept in a circular magazine in the front of each
line. The European officers, with or without wives
and families, lived round about in one-storied houses
with thatched roofs, known as bungalows. The European
officers rarely visited the sepoy lines during the
heat of the day, but two European sergeants were
appointed to each regiment to lodge close to the lines
and report all that was going on.
Enfield rifle: musketry schools at Dumdum, Meerut,
and Sealkote.
§4. In 1856 the Russian war was over, and the
Enfield rifle, which had been used with such success
in the Crimea, was introduced into India. Accordingly
three musketry schools were established in
Northern India for teaching the sepoys of the Bengal
army the use of the new rifle. One school was established
at Dumdum for the instruction of the sepoys
in the Bengal presidency; another at Meerut, forty
miles from Delhi, for those in the North-Western
Provinces; and the third at Sealkote for those in the
Punjab. Under this arrangement, detachments from
the different regiments were to be sent from time to
time to one or other of these schools until the whole
Bengal army was familiar with the use of the Enfield.
It will be seen hereafter that the three most dangerous
mutinies in India grew out of these musketry
schools.
Greased cartridges.
In those days every sepoy and soldier had been
accustomed for generations to bite off the end
of his paper cartridge before loading his musket.
Accordingly a supply of cartridges for the new rifle
was received from England, and forwarded to each of
the three schools, and further supplies of the same
pattern were manufactured in the arsenal at Dumdum
by low-caste workmen known as Lascars. Suddenly
it leaked out that the new cartridges were greased
with the fat of cows, or with the fat of pigs. Thus
every Hindu sepoy who bit the cartridge would lose
his caste and religion as if he had eaten beef; whilst
every Mohammedan sepoy would be polluted by contact
with pork, and not only lose his religion, but
be barred out for ever from the heaven of celestial
houris.
Discovery at Dumdum.
A Lascar employed in Dumdum arsenal met a
Brahman sepoy going to Barrackpore, and asked him
for a drink of water out of his brass lotah. This was
an unusual request, intended to vex and annoy the
Brahman. A thirsty low-caste Hindu might ask a
high-caste man to pour water into his mouth, but
would not offend the Brahman by the bare suggestion
of drinking out of his lotah. The Brahman
turned away in disgust at the idea of low-caste lips
polluting his drinking-cup. The Lascar retorted that
the Brahman would soon be as impure as himself,
for he would bite the new cartridges which had
been smeared with the fat of cows and pigs, and
would lose caste altogether.
Horror of Hindus and Mohammedans.
The Brahman was thunderstruck at this taunt.
Europeans who have never visited India can scarcely
realise the horrors that must have seized on his
Brahmanised imagination. Suet and lard are such
familiar ingredients in European cookery, that no one
in the British Isles could have been surprised at their
being used for greasing Enfield cartridges. But to
Europeans that have lived in India, the bare fact
that cartridges should have been greased with suet or
lard, to be bitten by Hindu or Mohammedan sepoys,
seems a mad freak of fortune which is altogether
incomprehensible. In the fierce antagonism between
the two religions, Hindus have thrown dead pigs
into Mohammedan mosques, and Mohammedans have
thrown slaughtered cows into Hindu temples; but
the British government stood on neutral ground. It
had always professed to hold an even balance between
the two religionists, and any attempt to destroy the
caste of Hindus, or the religion of Mohammedans,
was altogether foreign to the ideas of Asiatics or
Europeans.
Pigs unclean.
It is easy to understand why both Hindus and
Mohammedans regard swine as unclean. The Jews
have had the same horror of pigs and pork from time
immemorial. To this day, both Hindus and Mohammedans
shudder, or affect to shudder, at the idea of
Europeans cleaning their teeth with brushes made of
bristles; and none but those of enlarged experiences,
who have been Europeanised out of their religious
prejudices, or smitten with a passion for European
luxuries, would venture to eat a slice of ham.
Cow worship.
The cow is not more to Mohammedans than it is
to Europeans, but the Hindus worship it as a deity.
Gratitude for the milk and butter which she gives
to the family has swelled into affection and adoration,
which have invested a common-place animal with
attributes that are at once mystic and divine. The
cow is the living representative to the Hindu of all
that is beautiful and spiritual in women, and of all
that is mysterious in the sex. The cow is the
incarnation of the earth, the mother of all things,
the goddess of good fortune, the living manifestation
of Lakshmi; she who was created by the gods, who
descended from the heaven of Indra and churned the
ocean, until the bright goddess rose out of the waves,
like a Hindu Aphrodite, to become the wife of the
supreme spirit, Vishnu. To kill a cow is a sacrilegious
crime, like killing a Brahman, a woman, or a
Raja. To taste the flesh of a cow is as revolting
to the Hindu imagination as tasting the flesh of a
mother.
Eating beef a mortal sin.
Eating or tasting beef through the most distant
medium is a mortal sin in the eyes of Hindus. Under
Hindu rule, when the caste system was enforced by
village communities, the vile sinner was driven from
his wife, family, kinsfolk, and village by the ban of
Brahmanical excommunication. In the days of Mohammedan
persecutions, thousands of Hindus were
compelled to swallow shreds of beef by tyrants of the
stamp of Tippu Sultan of Mysore, in order to force
them to become Mohammedans. There was no way
of escape. They had no alternative but to accept Islam,
marry a Mohammedan wife, and enter a new life and
career with a new home and surroundings.[28]
Excitement at Barrackpore.
§5. The ball set rolling from the arsenal at
Dumdum soon assumed monstrous dimensions in the
cantonment at Barrackpore. The sepoys blindly
accepted the conclusion that Her Majesty the Queen
and Lord Canning had arranged a secret scheme for
converting them all to Christianity. The greased
cartridges, they decided, must have been manufactured
expressly to destroy their religion; to
compel them to become Christians, and to eat beef
and drink beer until they became as strong as
Europeans, and were able to conquer Persia,
Russia, and China. Wild fictions, the outcome of
Oriental imaginations which would not have imposed
upon a European child, were greedily accepted and
talked over as matters of fact, by the ignorant and
credulous sepoys. India, it was said, was being
bound in iron fetters by railway lines and telegraph
wires; and now the poor sepoy was to be cut off
from his countrymen and co-religionists, and to
become the helpless vassal of his European masters,
like the genii who are slaves to magicians and
sorcerers.
Fruitless explanations.
These ridiculous stories soon reached the ears of
the European officers. General Hearsey, who commanded
the Calcutta division, assembled the
sepoys on the parade ground at Barrackpore, and
reminded them that the British government had
never meddled with their religion or caste, and had
heavily punished any European officer who had
attempted to do so. But his words were thrown away;
the brains of the sepoys were too heated, and their
convictions too deeply rooted, to be explained away.
For months they had been discussing the expedition
sent from Bombay to the Persian Gulf to defeat the
designs of Russia on Herat; and now there was to
be a war with China! The general might say what
he pleased, but the British government had obviously
manufactured the greased cartridges to destroy the
caste of the poor sepoys, to make them eat beef and
drink beer until they were strong enough to conquer
the world.
Secret incendiarism.
The sepoys at Barrackpore were bewildered and
terrified. They were too afraid to speak, and began
to set houses on fire. The suspicious telegraph office,
the magic house at Barrackpore, was burnt down.
Other buildings followed. The agitation was reported
to the military authorities at Calcutta. The composition
of the cartridge was explained to the sepoys.
The drill was changed, and the sepoys were no longer
required to bite the cartridge. But nothing would
stop the panic. The sepoys argued with severe logic
that if the cartridges had not been greased with the
objectionable fat there would have been no occasion
to change the drill. Eventually the issue of the
greased cartridges was stopped altogether, but the
sepoys were as suspicious as ever. As yet, however,
there was no open mutiny at Barrackpore. Discipline
was maintained with the usual strictness, and the
word of command was obeyed without demur.
Barrackpore was too near Calcutta, too near the
stronghold of British supremacy which had controlled
Bengal for a hundred years, for the sepoy as yet to
dream of open mutiny.
Contagion at Berhampore.
§6. Matters were at this pass when a small guard
of sepoys was sent on duty from Barrackpore to
Berhampore, a hundred miles to the northward.
Here, it will be remembered, was a regiment of sepoy
infantry, half a regiment of sepoy cavalry, and a
battery of sepoy artillery. The new arrivals from
Barrackpore were duly feasted by their comrades of
the sepoy infantry, and the whole story of the greased
cartridges was told with all the latest embellishments
of fiction.
Cartridges refused.
The next day, the 25th of February 1857, a parade
for exercise with blank ammunition was ordered for
the following morning. Blank cartridges were issued
to the infantry of the same pattern that had been
used for generations, but the sepoys refused to accept
them. Colonel Mitchell was in command of the
station, and threatened the men with court martial.
Accordingly the sepoys took the cartridges in gloomy
silence and returned to their lines.
Mutiny.
In the middle of the night the regiment rose as
one man; it was the 19th Native Infantry of the
Bengal army. Every company seized arms and
ammunition from its magazine, and then the whole
regiment rushed out of the lines and shouted defiance.
Colonel Mitchell had no European force to suppress
the outbreak; nothing but half a regiment of sepoy
cavalry and the sepoy battery, and it was extremely
doubtful whether the men would fire on the mutineers.
However he ordered out the cavalry and battery,
and advanced with his European officers towards
the infantry lines by the light of torches. As he
approached there was a halt and a pause. Tanks
of water were in the way, and horses and guns might
have been lost in the darkness.
Hesitation.
Neither side wished to take action. The mutineers
shrank, as yet, from firing on their European officers.
The sepoys, under Colonel Mitchell, might have
refused to fire. The whole cantonment might have
joined in the mutiny, and the civil stations in the
country round about would have been in sore peril.
So there was a parley. The colonel pointed out to
the mutineers the absurdity of their fears and the
enormity of their offence, and conjured them to give
up their arms and return to their lines. The mutineers,
on their part, were not prepared to push
matters to extremities. Their excitement had cooled
down as they saw their European officers advancing
with the Asiatic cavalry and artillery, whilst the lurid
scenery was lit up by flaming torches. Accordingly
it was arranged that they should return to their lines,
and that the force advancing against them should
return to their own quarters.
Alarm at Calcutta.
The news of this unexpected outbreak at Berhampore
naturally alarmed Lord Canning. He had much
sympathy for the deluded and infatuated sepoys, but
the mutiny could not be ignored. It was absolutely
necessary to disband the regiment, but there was no
European force to carry out the measure. Unless
European soldiers were present, the sepoys might
have resisted disbandment, and other sepoy regiments
might have joined the mutineers. No soldiers could
be spared from the European regiment which was
quartered at Fort William and Dumdum. Accordingly
steamers were sent to Burma to bring away
the European regiment quartered at Rangoon.
Sepoy terrors.
§7. On the 20th March the European regiment
from Rangoon entered the Hughly river. The 19th
Native Infantry was marched from Berhampore to
Barrackpore, knowing that it was to be disbanded.
At Barrackpore the sepoys were in a ferment. They
felt that they were to be coerced by the European
soldiers. It was not forgotten that some thirty
years before, a sepoy regiment at Barrackpore had
refused to go to Burma unless paid double batta,
and had been scattered by a volley of grape, and its
number erased from the army list. Accordingly the
sepoys at Barrackpore had good reason to fear that
they might be mowed down by the artillery unless
they accepted the greased cartridges.
Mungal Pandy.
Of the four sepoy regiments at Barrackpore, the
34th Native Infantry had the greatest cause for
alarm. It was the 34th that furnished the sepoy
guard which played so much mischief at Berhampore;
and the sepoys of the 34th openly expressed
their sympathy with those of the 19th. About the
end of March it was reported to Lieutenant Baugh,
the Adjutant of the 34th, that the sepoys in his
regiment were much excited, and that one of them,
named Mungal Pandy, was marching through the
lines with a loaded musket, calling on the sepoys to
rise against their officers, and swearing to fire at the
first European that appeared on the scene.
Assault on Lieut. Baugh.
Lieutenant Baugh at once put on his uniform,
mounted his horse, and rode off to the parade ground
with a pair of loaded pistols in his holsters. There
was the quarter-guard of the regiment, consisting of
twenty sepoys under the command of an Asiatic
lieutenant, known as a jemadar. In front of the
quarter-guard was the gun which fired the salutes at
sunrise and noon. Mungal Pandy saw Baugh riding
up, and got behind the gun, and deliberately fired at
him. The horse was wounded and the rider was
brought to the ground. Baugh, however, disengaged
himself, snatched a pistol, and advanced on Mungal
Pandy before the latter could reload his musket.
Baugh fired and missed. At that moment Mungal
Pandy rushed at him and cut him down with a
sword.
Outbreak and suppression.
The European serjeant-major of the regiment had
followed Baugh at a distance, and shouted to the
quarter-guard to help their officer. But the sepoys
sympathised with Mungal Pandy, and the jemadar
forbade them to stir. The serjeant-major came up
breathless, and attempted to seize Mungal Pandy,
but he too was struck down. On this the jemadar
advanced with his twenty sepoys, and began to
strike Baugh and the serjeant-major with the butt
ends of their muskets. At this moment a Mohammedan
orderly, who had followed Baugh from his
house, ran up and arrested Mungal Pandy just as
he had reloaded his musket. He was followed by
General Hearsey and other officers. The general
drew a pistol from his belt and rode up to the
quarter-guard, ordered the men to return to their
post, and threatened to shoot with his own hands
the first sepoy who disobeyed orders. By this bold
action the regiment was overawed, and the storm
cloud passed away just as it was about to burst
upon the station.
Disbandment of 19th Native infantry.
Two days afterwards there was a solemn parade at
Barrackpore. All the European force available was
assembled on the ground, including the regiment
from Rangoon and a wing and two batteries from
Dumdum. The 19th Native Infantry was marched
into Barrackpore, repentant and ashamed. They had
petitioned for forgiveness, but there was no pardon
for mutiny. The orders of Lord Canning were read
aloud, setting forth their crime, exposing the absurdity
of their fears, and ordering the disbandment. The
men laid down their arms and marched away. The
19th Native Infantry had ceased to be.
Hesitation.
For some weeks the 34th Native Infantry was not
disbanded. Mungal Pandy and the jemadar were tried,
convicted, and hanged, but the plague of mutiny was
not stayed. Not a sepoy would point out the men
of the quarter-guard who assaulted the European
officers. April, however, passed away, and nothing
was done.
Disaffection in Oudh.
§8. Meanwhile there were unpleasant reports from
Oudh. Sir Henry Lawrence, the new chief commissioner,
was anxious to redress the wrongs of the
Oudh talukdars, but was vexed by the mutinous
spirit of the sepoys. He had a single regiment of
Europeans and two batteries of European artillery.
He had to deal with four sepoy regiments of the
Bengal army—three of infantry, and one of cavalry.
Worst of all, he had to deal with irregular regiments
of sepoys, who had been in the service of the king
of Oudh, but had been taken over by the East India
Company. They retained their Asiatic officers, but
were drilled and commanded by a limited number of
European officers, and hence were termed irregulars.
These Oudh irregulars sympathised with the regular
Bengal sepoys, and were beginning to manifest a
hostile spirit by refusing to accept the cartridges.
Sir Henry Lawrence Chief Commissioner.
In 1857 the province of Oudh was separated from
the North-West Provinces by the river Ganges and
the town of Cawnpore. The capital was at Lucknow,
in the centre or heart of Oudh, about fifty-five miles
to the north-east of Cawnpore. Sir Henry Lawrence,
the chief commissioner, lived in a large mansion at
Lucknow, which was known as the Residency. The
city of Lucknow extends four miles along the right
bank of the river Goomti, and all the principal buildings,
including the royal palaces and gardens, and
the Residency, are situated between the city and
the river. On the opposite bank were the British
cantonments; and two bridges over the river connected
the city and Residency on the one bank with
the cantonments on the opposite shore.
Mutiny at Lucknow.
On the afternoon of the 3rd of May a startling
event occurred in the cantonments. Four sepoys of an
irregular regiment entered the bungalow of the European
adjutant. They were armed to the teeth, and
they told him to prepare for death. They had come
to kill him, they said, not because they disliked him,
but because he was a European and a Feringhi. The
adjutant was unarmed. He promptly replied that it
was of no use to kill him, for that the mutiny would
be suppressed, they would be hanged, and another
adjutant would be appointed in his stead. The would-be
murderers were struck by his words, and left the
house without doing him any injury.
Suppression by Lawrence.
The news reached Sir Henry Lawrence in the
evening, and he resolved to act at once. He crossed
the river and called out the European forces and the
four regiments of regular sepoys, and then advanced
against the mutineers, whose lines were seven miles
off. The rebels were taken by surprise; they could
do nothing. They were ordered to form in front of
their lines, and they obeyed. They saw cavalry and
infantry, soldiers and sepoys, on either side, and a
battery of eight guns in front. They were ordered
to lay down their arms, and they did so. The port-fires
of the artillery were lighted. The mutineers
were seized with a panic, and cried out, "Do not
fire!" They then rushed madly away. The ringleaders
and most of their followers were arrested
that night by the Bengal sepoys, and were confined
pending trial. It will be seen hereafter that within a
single month, the very sepoy regiments that arrested
the mutinous irregulars rose against their European
officers. Meanwhile, however, the quick action of
Sir Henry Lawrence prevented any premature explosion,
and gave him the month to prepare against
the possible contingency.
Disbandment of 34th Native infantry.
Next day the outbreak and suppression of the
mutiny were telegraphed to Lord Canning at Calcutta.
He was delighted with the promptitude and prudence
of Sir Henry Lawrence. He saw the necessity for
taking some decided action at Barrackpore. The
European officers of the 34th Native Infantry reported
that the sepoys were disaffected, and that
they themselves had lost all confidence in the men.
Accordingly Lord Canning determined to disband
the regiment. On the 6th of May, at early morning,
the Europeans were once again drawn up on the
parade ground. The 34th Native Infantry was
disbanded as the 19th had been five weeks before,
but, unlike the sepoys of the 19th, they showed no
signs of contrition. Still, it was hoped that the disbandment
of the 34th would put an end to the mutiny.
Sepoys and Europeans at Meerut.
§9. So far the agitation was the work of the
greased cartridges in Dumdum arsenal. But there
was a second school of musketry at Meerut in the
North-West Provinces, a thousand miles from Calcutta
and only forty miles from Delhi. The military
cantonment at Meerut covered an area of five miles,
and was the largest in India. At one end were the
lines of three sepoy regiments, two of infantry and
one of cavalry, whilst the bungalows of the European
officers were scattered about. At the other end of
the cantonment were the European barracks, in which
a European force was quartered strong enough to
have routed four times the number of sepoys. There
was a regiment of Dragoon Guards, known as the
Carabineers; a battalion of the 60th Rifles; two troops
of horse artillery, and a light field battery. The
European barracks were thus at a long distance from
the sepoy cantonments, and the interval was occupied
by shops, houses, and gardens.
Disaffection.
At Meerut there was to all appearance literally
nothing to fear from the sepoys. The Europeans
were all-powerful. Yet at Meerut the agitation
against the greased cartridges was as uncontrollable
as elsewhere. General Hewitt commanded the
station, and he and the colonels of the sepoy
regiments expostulated with the men on the absurdity
of imagining that the British government had
the slightest desire to interfere with their caste
or religion. But their remonstrances were thrown
away. Buildings were burnt down; the sepoys left
off saluting their officers; and it was whispered that
they had resolved never more to touch a single
cartridge.
The test.
At last General Hewitt determined to bring the
sepoys to the test in the presence of the European
force, and, if necessary, to stop the contagion by
condign punishment. The regiment of sepoy cavalry
was selected. A parade of ninety men of the several
squadrons was ordered for the morning of the 6th of
May. The old cartridges were issued, the same which
had been used for generations, but eighty-five men
stood out and refused to handle them. The delinquents
were arrested and tried by a court martial of
sepoy officers. They were all convicted of mutiny;
eighty were sentenced to imprisonment with hard
labour for ten years, and the remaining five to a like
imprisonment for six years. All were recommended to
the mercy of General Hewitt, but the recommendation
was ignored, and it was determined to carry out the
sentence at once in accordance with orders received
by telegram from Lord Canning.
Parade for punishment.
The mutineers were placed under a strong European
guard, consisting of two companies of the 60th Rifles,
and twenty-five men of the Carabineers. The parade
for punishment was held at daybreak on Saturday the
9th of May. The three regiments of sepoys were
drawn up to behold the disgrace of the delinquents;
and the men of the sepoy cavalry also were brought
out to look on the degradation of their comrades.
The sepoys on parade must have felt their hearts
burning within them, but they were powerless to
save. The Carabineers and Rifles were on the ground,
and were ordered to load and be ready. The batteries
of artillery were in position, and received the
same orders. The slightest movement of disaffection
or revolt would have been followed by a terrible
slaughter. Not a sepoy stirred from the ranks. The
prisoners were brought on the ground, stripped of
their uniforms and accoutrements, and put in irons.
They were utterly broken in spirit. They put up
their hands and cried for mercy, and were then led
away, cursing their comrades for not coming to their
rescue.
Folly and mischief.
Then followed an act of inconceivable folly. The
eighty-five sepoys who had been kept for three days
under a strong guard of European soldiers, were made
over to the civil authorities, and lodged in the civil jail,
only two miles from the sepoy cantonments, under the
charge of Asiatic warders. The consequence was that
the sepoys brooded over the fate of their comrades, and
secretly determined on rescuing them from the jail,
and murdering their European officers.
Sunday morning.
Strange to say, not an idea of danger seems to have
crossed the minds of the British authorities at Meerut.
The Europeans went to church on Sunday morning,
lounged through the heat and languor of the day,
and prepared for church in the evening. Meanwhile
there had been agitation and excitement in the sepoy
lines, but nothing to excite alarm. The native
women of the bazaar taunted the sepoys of the cavalry
with not having rescued their comrades, and that
was all.
Mutiny and massacre.
Suddenly, about five o'clock on that Sunday afternoon,
the sepoys seized their arms and ammunition,
and rushed out of their lines, with loud shouts and
discharges of musketry. A detachment of sepoy
cavalry galloped off to the jail, and liberated not
only their eighty-five comrades, but all the other
prisoners, 1,500 in number. The whole body then
returned to the cantonment and joined the sepoys,
who were burning down bungalows, and murdering
every European they met, regardless of sex and age.
Ladies riding in carriages, and officers driving in their
buggies, who had left their homes without a suspicion
of evil, were assaulted and fired at as they drove
along. In a word, within a brief space of time the sepoy
cantonments, and the roads round about, were a scene
of riot, bloodshed, and outrage, which are beyond
description. At last, fearing that the European
soldiers would soon fall upon them, the whole mass
of sepoys, the cavalry in front and the infantry
straggling behind, rushed off to Delhi. The
movement was only natural. Delhi was the only
walled city in the North-West Provinces in which
they could find a refuge. No European troops were
quartered within the city or the suburbs; and a vast
magazine of arms and ammunition was seated in the
heart of the city, mostly in charge of Asiatics, who
would doubtless open the gates at the first demand
for surrender.
Inaction.
For a long time nothing was known at the European
barracks of the mutiny and murder that was going on
in the sepoy cantonment. When the news arrived
of the outbreak, there was much delay and confusion.
The Rifles were paraded for church, and time was
lost in serving out arms and cartridges. The Dragoons
were put through a roll-call, and then lost their way
amongst the houses and gardens between the European
barracks and the sepoy lines. When the lines were
reached, the sepoys had gone off to Delhi, and darkness
was setting in. Had the Dragoons galloped after
the sepoys, the mutiny might have been crushed, and
there would have been no revolt at Delhi.
Heedlessness.
But the military authorities at Meerut were unequal
to the crisis. Nothing was thought of but the safety
of the station. The Rifles and Dragoons were kept
at Meerut to guard the treasury and barracks, whilst
the sepoy mutineers were pushing on to Delhi to set
up the old king—a Mohammedan prince, in whom the
Hindu sepoys had no interest or concern. Messages,
however, were sent to Brigadier Graves, who commanded
the Delhi station, to tell him what had taken
place at Meerut, but no Europeans whatever were
sent to help him in the terrible extremity which
awaited him.
Escape to Delhi.
§10. All night the sepoy mutineers were running
to Delhi; anxious only to escape from the vengeance
of the Europeans. When and where they first began
to cherish wild hopes of restoring the Mohammedan
régime, and setting up the last representative of the
Great Mogul, as the sovereign and Padishah of Hindustan,
is a mystery to this day. One thing only
is certain; the Hindu sepoys, who composed four-fifths
of the mass of mutineers, could have had no
sympathy in the revolt of the Mohammedans, beyond
providing for their own immediate safety against the
wrath of the Europeans.
Mohammedan rule at Delhi.
Delhi, however, had been the capital of the
Mohammedans of India when the Caliphs were still
reigning at Bagdad; and Mohammedan Sultans and
Padishahs had ruled Hindustan for centuries before
the rise of British power. In 1857 the relics of
Mohammedan dominion were still lingering at Delhi
under the shadow of British supremacy. The last
representative of the once famous Great Mogul was
still living in the imperial palace at Delhi, a pensioner
of the British government, but bearing the empty
title of "king." The ruins in the neighbourhood of
Delhi are monuments of the triumphs of Islam and the
Koran, raised by warriors from Cabul and Bokhara,
who were reverenced as Ghazis—as destroyers of
idols and idolaters. Indeed, the pilgrim who still
wanders amongst the palaces, mosques, mausoleums,
towers, domes, archways, terraces, and gardens of
Delhi, and the country round, may yet recall the
days when the Hindus were a conquered people,
and the Mohammedans were their oppressors and
persecutors.
Sepoy garrison at Delhi.
In May, 1857, British power at Delhi was represented
by three regiments of sepoy infantry, and a
sepoy battery of artillery, under the command of
Brigadier Graves. There were no European troops at
Delhi, except the regimental officers and sergeants
attached to each corps, and nine Europeans who had
charge of the British magazine in the heart of the
city, with a host of Asiatic subordinates. None of
the sepoys had as yet shown any sign of disaffection,
but it will appear hereafter that they had all caught
the contagion of mutiny, but kept their secret until
the moment for action arrived.
Cantonment on the Ridge.
The sepoy regiments were cantoned on a rising
ground, known as the Ridge, which was situated
about a mile to the north of Delhi, and overlooked
the whole city. The bungalows of the European
officers were scattered about the vicinity. At the
furthest end of the Ridge was a strong position,
known as Flagstaff Tower. Further away to the left,
the river Jumna skirted the eastern side of Delhi;
and the mutineers from Meerut were expected to
enter the city in this direction by a bridge.
Mutineers expected.
Brigadier Graves had but a short warning. The
mutineers would certainly travel all night, and would
probably arrive early on the Monday morning. It
was useless to cut away the bridge, as the hot weather
was at its height, and the stream was easily fordable.
Everything depended on the loyalty of the sepoys
at Delhi. So long as they remained staunch, the
brigadier might hope to defend the city and cantonment
against the mutineers from Meerut. If,
however, the sepoys at Delhi joined the rebels, there
was nothing to be done but to await the European
reinforcements which might be expected from Meerut.
Meanwhile, the brigadier sent circulars to all non-military
residents to take refuge in Flagstaff Tower.
Preparations for battle.
The three regiments of sepoy infantry, and the
battery of sepoy artillery, were ordered out. The guns
were loaded, and every preparation made for the
coming battle. The brigadier addressed the men in
stirring language. Now was the time, he said, for the
sepoys at Delhi to show their loyalty to the Company.
The sepoys responded with loud cheers. One regiment
in particular eagerly demanded to be led against
the mutineers; and the brigadier marched them out
to fight the rebels, leaving the two other regiments on
the Ridge.
Treachery.
Presently the cavalry from Meerut were seen
galloping towards the city. After them at no great
distance was a large mass of rebel infantry, with their
bayonets gleaming in the sun, and their red coats
soiled by the dust of the night march. Neither
horse nor foot showed the slightest hesitation. As
the cavalry approached the brigadier ordered his
men to fire. The rattle of musketry followed, but
not a single trooper fell from his horse. The faithful
sepoys had fired in the air.
Firing in the air.
Then followed a pause. The European officers held
on in sheer desperation; they hoped to be reinforced
by British soldiers from Meerut. The sepoys hesitated
for a while, lest they should be cut to pieces
by the Europeans, whom they too expected to arrive.
Could the Europeans have appeared in time, Delhi
might have been saved in spite of the suspicious
firing in the air.
Treachery.
Useless firing was a treachery that was new to
sepoy regiments commanded by British officers, but
it was common enough in Asiatic armies commanded
by their own generals or princes. Mogul history
abounds in stories of Asiatic officers corrupted by
gold, and ordering their troops to fire on an enemy
without bullet or ball. Such treachery was scarcely
possible under European officers, and consequently the
rebel sepoys loaded their muskets with cartridges,
and then fired into the air.
Rebels in the palace.
It was soon evident that the king was making
common cause with the rebels, for the sepoys from
Meerut were pouring through the palace to join their
comrades in the city. No Europeans arrived from
Meerut, and the Delhi sepoys began to fraternise with
the rebels.
British refuge.
Brigadier Graves rallied a few of his men who still
remained faithful, and escaped to Flagstaff Tower.
Here he found a large number of European ladies
and children, and all the gentlemen who had been
able to reach the place of refuge. A company of
sepoys, and two guns served by sepoy gunners, still
guarded the Tower, and had they remained faithful
might have kept off the enemy. But the force on
the Ridge was rapidly melting away. The hearts of
all the sepoys were with the rebels. All were burning
to join the scoundrels in the city in the work of
plunder and destruction; and those who were posted
at the Tower only waited for an opportunity to move
off in the same direction.
Massacre of Europeans.
Meanwhile the old "king of Delhi" had connived
at the slaughter of Europeans. Mr. Frazer, the
commissioner of the Delhi division, and Captain
Douglas, who commanded the palace guards, were
cut down within the royal precincts. Mr. Jennings,
the chaplain, and some ladies and children, numbering
altogether about fifty souls, had taken refuge within
the palace walls, in the hope of being protected by the
royal pensioner against the mutinous sepoys. Had
the ladies and children been admitted into the inner
apartments, they would have been safe. But there
was a rush of rebel sepoys into the presence of the
old king to make their salams and hail him as their
Padishah; and they loudly demanded the death of
every European. The old king could not or would
not interfere, and told the sepoys that he made the
prisoners over to them, to do with them as they
pleased. The unhappy victims were shut up in a dark
room with coarse and scanty food. They were offered
their lives on the condition that they became Mohammedans,
and entered the service of the king as menials
or slaves. One and all refused, and one and all were
eventually butchered in the palace of Aurangzeb.
Flagstaff Tower.
The Europeans in Flagstaff Tower were in sore
peril. Ladies were terrified and anxious for absent
husbands, whilst children were clamouring for milk
and food. The men were distracted by the suddenness
of the danger, and the stories of murder and
outrage that came from the city. All eyes were
strained in the direction of Meerut. Every one
longed for the arrival of European soldiers to relieve
them from the agony of suspense, and quash the
fearful rebellion that was surging up in Delhi.
Explosion of the magazine.
Later on in the afternoon, the great magazine in
the heart of Delhi was seen from the Ridge to explode
in a cloud of smoke and flame. It was in charge of
Lieutenant Willoughby of the Bengal artillery, but
he had only eight Europeans with him; the guards
and workmen were all Asiatics. Arms were served
out to every one; loaded guns were pointed to the
gateways; and a train of gunpowder was laid to the
chief magazine. A vast host of rebels pressed round
the enclosure, and demanded the surrender of the
magazine in the name of the king. Admittance was
refused, but the rebels brought ladders to the walls,
or climbed to the roofs of neighbouring buildings,
and poured a hot fire on the inmates of the magazine.
Most of the workmen joined the rebels. Those who
still remained staunch threw away their rifles, and
seemed bereft of their senses. At last Lieutenant
Willoughby ordered Sergeant Scully to fire the train.
In a moment there was a great upheaval. Hundreds
of rebels were blown into the air; but unfortunately
the greater part of the stores fell into the enemy's
hands. Willoughby and three others got away out
of the city scorched, bruised, and insensible; but
Willoughby was murdered a few days afterwards in
a neighbouring village. Scully was wounded by the
explosion, and killed by the rebels; he and his four
companions were seen no more.
Flight from Flagstaff Tower.
By this time all hope of rescue had died out from
the fugitives in Flagstaff Tower. It was feared that
the rebels would return to the Ridge to complete
the work of slaughter. All fled the best way they
could—men, ladies, and children; some in carriages,
others on horseback, and many on foot. Even at
this distance of time, it is terrible to think of their
sufferings. Many were slaughtered by the rebels,
but some found refuge in the houses of Hindu
villagers, who treated them with kindness and
hospitality at the risk of their own lives.
Last telegram.
Before the day was over the clerk at the telegraph
office on the Ridge sent his last telegram. "The
mutineers from Meerut are masters of Delhi; several
Europeans have been murdered; the office must be
closed." Shortly afterwards the rebel sepoys swarmed
out of the city to complete the work of destruction
on the Ridge, and the poor telegraph clerk was cut
to pieces and heard of no more.
Sudden alarm.
Within a few moments the fatal news reached
every capital in India:—Lahore in the Punjab;
Agra and Allahabad in the North-West Provinces;
Lucknow in Oudh; Benares, Patna, and Calcutta in
Bengal; Bombay in the Deccan; Madras in the
remote south. From Calcutta and Bombay the
revolt of Delhi sent a thrill through the whole
British empire. Men familiar with India, her
history, and her people, could not believe the news.
It was the heaviest blow to British prestige in
India since the tragedy of the Black Hole in Calcutta.
A century of European civilisation had been
swamped by a mutiny of Asiatic sepoys against
greased cartridges. Delhi was lost; the Mogul
régime was restored; the North-West Provinces were
slipping away from the British empire.
Reviving hopes.
The public mind was greatly agitated by the
disaster. Many could not realise the fact that Delhi
had revolted; that the old king had been proclaimed
Padishah of Hindustan. Others rushed to the opposite
conclusion and thought that India was lost.
In India European hearts were kindled with a burning
desire for the recovery of the revolted city. It
was hoped that Delhi would be retaken in a few
days, and the contagion of mutiny brought to a close
by the destruction of the mutineers. Indeed it was
obvious to the British authorities that the European
forces at Meerut might have crushed the rebellion at
the outset, had a Clive, a Gillespie, or an Ochterlony
been in command. Sir Henry Lawrence had suppressed
a still more dangerous outbreak at Lucknow
with a disaffected city in his rear, and the revolt
at Delhi ought to be suppressed at once in a like
manner.
General Anson at Simla.
§11. General Anson, the commander-in-chief of
the Bengal army, was at Simla in the Himalayas,
nearly 200 miles to the north of Delhi. He was an
officer of good repute, but of no Indian experience,
and was chiefly known as the Major A., who had
written a treatise on whist. He received a telegram
from Lord Canning to make short work of Delhi, and
other telegrams to the same effect from Mr. John
Lawrence, the chief commissioner of the Punjab.
General Anson began to assemble a force at Umballa,
and he despatched a regiment of Ghorkas to the Sutlej
to escort a siege-train from the Punjab over the river.
He was anxious to fortify Umballa, about sixty miles
from Simla on the road to Delhi. He ordered three
European regiments on the Himalayas to march at
once to Umballa. John Lawrence, however, was dead
against any delay. He wanted to recover Delhi, not
to entrench Umballa; and he promptly telegraphed
that "clubs were trumps, not spades." Meanwhile
the sudden change from the cool hills to the hot
plains brought on cholera amongst the Europeans.
The vanguard of the European force left Umballa
on the 19th of May, but eight days afterwards
General Anson died of cholera.
Demand for European soldiers.
Meanwhile Lord Canning had telegraphed to Bombay
for the European troops that were returning
from the Persian expedition, and to Madras, Ceylon,
Burma, and Singapore for every European soldier
that could be spared. His object was to form a
European column at Calcutta, and to push it up the
valley of the Ganges with all speed to Allahabad, to
crush any incipient mutiny on the way, and to penetrate
and suppress the growing disaffection in Oudh
and the North-West Provinces. It was out of the
question that a column from Calcutta could reach
Delhi, and he looked to Mr. John Lawrence, the
chief commissioner of the Punjab on the other side
of Delhi, to send all the Europeans and artillery he
could spare to join General Anson.
General Barnard.
Sir Henry Barnard succeeded Anson as commander-in-chief.
He pushed on the force to Alipore,
within ten miles of Delhi. On the 7th of June he
was joined by the European brigade from Meerut, and
prepared to advance against Delhi.
Rebel position.
By this time the Delhi rebels were prepared to
await an attack in the open. They had taken up a
strong position to the right of the great trunk road
leading to the city, and had utilised its natural advantages
with remarkable skill. One body of rebels
was posted in a vast caravanserai; a square enclosed
by walls, with towers at the four corners. The walls
were loop-holed for musketry, and the towers were
occupied by sharp-shooters. In front of the caravanserai
they had a battery of artillery and a
howitzer, raised on an elevation and defended by
earthworks, faggots and gabions. The main force,
however, was posted in a neighbouring village, where
the houses and gardens furnished an excellent cover
for infantry. This position was defended by seven
regiments of sepoy infantry, two of sepoy cavalry,
and a strong battery of sepoy artillery. To those
regular forces were added the artillerymen of the
palace at Delhi, and volunteers of all kinds, attracted
by hatred of the Feringhi, enthusiasm for Islam, and
thirst for blood and plunder.
Battle of the Serai.
The battle of Serai was fought on the 9th of June.
At sunrise Sir Henry Barnard advanced with two regiments
of European infantry and two guns. He could
not silence the fire of the rebel battery, and it was
carried with the bayonet by a regiment of European
infantry. Meanwhile the other regiment drove the
rebels away out of the village. The combined British
force stormed the caravanserai and gave no quarter.
At this juncture Brigadier Hope Grant appeared with
three squadrons of cavalry and two guns, and utterly
routed the rebel army and pursued it to the suburbs
of Delhi.
Return to the Ridge.
That same afternoon the British returned as conquerors
to the old cantonment on the Ridge. Within
a month of the revolt, they had avenged the massacre
at Delhi, and restored the prestige of British sovereignty.
Sepoy vagaries.
The battle of Serai revealed strange inconsistencies.
The rebel sepoys, who had shot down their officers,
and were in open revolt against British rule, were as
proud as before of their exploits under British colours.
The Company's medals were found on the red coats of
the dead rebels, officers as well as men. Stranger still,
pouches full of the very greased cartridges that brought
on the mutiny were picked up on the ground occupied
by the rebel army.
Mischievous delay.
The month's delay however had done considerable
mischief. The plague of mutiny had broken out
at other stations, and the rebel garrison at Delhi had
been reinforced by large bodies of mutinous sepoys.
The details were nearly all alike—sudden outbreaks,
shooting at officers, setting fire to bungalows, and
plundering the treasury. The mutineers, however, did
not in all cases rush off to Delhi. Some crept sadly
to their own homes, and buried the silver rupees they
had brought away, or joined the bands of outlaws
and brigands that began to ravage the surrounding
country. Meanwhile the European officers of nearly
every sepoy regiment, whilst ready to believe that
other regiments would revolt, were prepared to stake
their lives on the fidelity of their own men, and
opposed any attempt to disarm them.
Rebellion in the North-West Provinces.
In due course the disaffection of the sepoy army
began to stir up certain classes of the civil population.
The Bengal provinces were free from this taint,
excepting perhaps at Patna where the Mohammedans
are very strong. Indeed in Bengal proper the Hindu
villagers often arrested rebel sepoys of their own free
will, and made them over to the British authorities.
In the Madras and Bombay presidencies there were no
signs of discontent. But in Oudh, as already described,
and in the North-West Provinces between Delhi and
Allahabad, there was a growing disaffection. Rebellion
was preached by Mohammedan fanatics yearning for
the restoration of Islam as the dominant religion.
Dispossessed talukdars, who thought themselves,
rightly or wrongly to have been unjustly dealt with
in the settlement of the land revenue, took a part in
the disturbances. In a word all the turbulent and
ill-conditioned elements of the population in the north-west,—all
"who were discontented or in debt,"—readily
joined in the insurrection; possibly to revenge
some fancied injury, but mostly from that love of riot
and plunder which had been universal in Hindustan
under Mahratta supremacy. At the same time a
spirit of hostility to Europeans was manifested, which
was without precedent in the history of British rule in
India. Towards the end of June, Mr. John Colvin, the
Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces,
with all the European residents in the neighbourhood
were closely besieged by mutineers and rebels in the
fortress of Agra.
Siege of Delhi: perils of British.
§12. The British force reached the Ridge on the
evening of the battle. It then numbered 4,000 troops,
half Europeans and the other half Sikhs and Ghorkas.
The city might have been taken by surprise at an
earlier date, but the month's delay had elated the
sepoys, and given them time to look to their defences.
The British troops were encamped behind
the Ridge, and were thus protected from the
fire of the rebels. They were, however, the besieged
rather than the besiegers. They were threatened
on all sides, except the rear, by mutineers and
rebels. The rear, however, was open to the Punjab,
and all reinforcements and supplies were brought up
from the Punjab. For weeks, and indeed for months,
the British force could only hope to hold their
position until reinforcements could arrive from
Lahore or Calcutta. The city of Delhi was strongly
fortified with walls and bastions loaded with cannon,
and environed by a broad, deep ditch, filled from the
river Jumna, which rendered it as impregnable as
Babylon of old. It was impossible to storm such
fortifications without a strong army of British
soldiers and an adequate siege train, all of which
were anxiously expected from the Punjab.
Strength of the rebels.
Meanwhile the rebels inside the walls of Delhi
were being constantly reinforced by fresh bodies of
mutineers. They were in possession of the arms,
ammunition, and other stores, which had been collected
in the British magazine for more than a
generation. They were in receipt of daily supplies
of provisions from the neighbouring villages, and it
was impossible to cut off the convoys. A force of
4,000 men could scarcely be expected to environ
a city seven miles in circumference, or even to
approach within cannon shot of the walls.
Punjab and John Lawrence.
§13. Bengal was completely separated from Delhi
by the disaffection which flooded the North-west
Provinces. All hope of crushing the rebels at Delhi
rested on the Punjab; and John Lawrence sent Europeans
and Sikhs, siege guns and supplies of all kinds,
as fast as they were available to the British force
behind the Ridge. In June the "Punjab Guides"
reached the Ridge, one of the best regiments in the
Indian army. It belonged to the Punjab Frontier
Force, which was recruited from the mountain tribes
between the Punjab and Afghanistan, and trained
and commanded by British officers.
Sikh hatred of Mohammedans.
In 1857 the Sikhs had learnt to respect their
European rulers, who maintained order and law.
They had no sympathy for the Mohammedans, nor
for the king of Delhi. On the contrary, they remembered
the murder of their Gurus and saints by
Aurangzeb and his successors, and were burning to
be revenged on Delhi and the Mogul. During the
reign of Runjeet Singh they had outraged the
Mohammedans of the Punjab by polluting their
mosques and profaning the tombs of their holy men.
Accordingly the Sikh warriors of the Khalsa, the
very men who had fought against British supremacy
at Chillianwalla and Goojerat, were now anxious to
join the Europeans in putting down the revolt at
Delhi and sacking the capital of Islam in India.
Mutinous spirit of sepoy garrisons.
John Lawrence had thus nothing to fear from
the Sikhs. Nor had he anything to fear from the
Mohammedans, for they were only anxious for protection
against the Sikhs. The Hindus of the Punjab
cared for no one but themselves; most of them were
traders and money-lenders whose interests were
bound up in the maintenance of British rule. The
terror of the Punjab lay in the sepoy regiments of
the Bengal army that garrisoned the country. The
sepoys in the Punjab had no real ground for alarm at
the greased cartridges; the issue had been stopped
at the school of musketry at Sealkote, on the Cashmere
frontier. But the contagion was as virulent
as ever. They were maddened by the conviction
that the British government was bent on destroying
their religion and caste; and when they heard of the
outbreak at Meerut and revolt at Delhi, they were
bent on mutiny and massacre.
Lahore and Mian Mir.
Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, is situated in
the heart of the province, about half-way between
Delhi and Peshawar. The fortress at Lahore was
held by a battalion of Bengal sepoys, which was
relieved once every fortnight—that is, on the 1st
and 15th of every month. There was also a European
guard within the fortress of about a hundred
British soldiers. Six miles from Lahore was the
cantonment of Mian Mir, where three regiments of
Bengal sepoys were quartered, together with one
regiment of Europeans, and two batteries of
European artillery.
Sepoy plots.
§14. News of the revolt at Delhi reached Lahore
on the 12th of May. Without a moment's delay, a
secret plot was formed between the sepoys in the
fortress at Lahore and those in the cantonment at
Mian Mir for the slaughter of Europeans. On the
15th May, when the sepoy battalion in the fortress
was to be relieved by another sepoy battalion, the
two were to join together, murder their own officers
and then overwhelm the European guard. A signal
was thereupon to be given to the cantonment at
Mian Mir, on which the sepoy regiments were to
break out in mutiny, murder the officers, and
environ and overwhelm the regiment of Europeans.
Defeated.
Fortunately the plot was betrayed by a Brahman
to the British authorities, and the scheme was defeated.
On the morning of the 15th of May, the
sepoy regiments in the cantonment at Mian Mir
were drawn up on parade as usual. Suddenly, they
were ordered with a loud voice to lay down their
arms. Before them was a thin line of European
infantry which presently fell back, and revealed
the mouths of twelve guns pointed at the sepoys
with lighted fires. The European infantry began
to load their rifles behind the artillery, and the
sepoys could hear the clicking of locks and ramrods.
The would-be rebels saw that the game was up.
They threw away their muskets and sabres in sheer
terror. More than 3,000 Asiatic sepoys, who were
preparing to murder their officers, had surrendered
their arms to less than 600 Europeans. The plot in
the fortress at Lahore was crushed in a like fashion.
The European guards had been strongly reinforced
by a detachment from the regiment at the cantonment
at Mian Mir; and the two sepoy battalions
were disarmed before they could unite for the
slaughter of Europeans.
Chamberlain's flying column.
Later on it was found that all the Bengal sepoys
in the Punjab were more or less tainted. Measures
were taken to avert or counteract the evil. Suspected
regiments were removed to localities where the Sikhs
were most hostile to the Bengal army. A flying
column of Europeans, Sikhs and others, was organised
to act against threatened points and overawe intending
mutineers by rapid movement and vigorous
action. In the first instance it was commanded by
Brigadier Neville Chamberlain, who rose to be one of
the most distinguished officers of the time. Later
on, the column was commanded by Brigadier John
Nicholson, the hero of the day, who, as will be seen
hereafter, was cut off in the very zenith of his fame.
Peshawar valley.
§15. The valley of Peshawar was another cause of
anxiety. It lies in the north-west corner of the
Punjab beyond the river Indus, and faces the Khyber
Pass. It is the key to India, the route by which
Alexander the Great and the early Mohammedan
conquerors invaded the Punjab.
Frontier tribes.
Ever since the British conquest, the Peshawar
valley had been harassed by the same mountain
tribes that had worried the Macedonians, the Mohammedans,
and the Sikhs under Runjeet Singh. Tribes
living within the circle of British outposts could be
compelled to live in peace; but tribes living beyond
the border, and outside British influence, were turbulent,
murderous and predatory. Occasionally they
assassinated a British officer, or gave an asylum to
criminals, or committed raids on British territory or
on tribes living under British protection, and not
unfrequently stole horses and other property from
the British cantonment. All this while they were
strictly forbidden to cross the border into British
territory; and any tribesman who dared to disobey
this law, was liable to arrest and imprisonment until
the elders of his tribe made their submission and paid
a fine.
Peshawar cantonment.
The valley of Peshawar was held by 9,000 Bengal
sepoys and about 3,000 Europeans. Here, as at
Lahore, there was a perpetual fear of mutiny and
murder. A secret enemy was dwelling in the
British camp that was capable of any amount of
secrecy and treachery. Accordingly the cantonment
was declared in a state of siege. The Europeans
took up strong positions, and some of the Bengal
regiments were disarmed.
Mutiny and murder.
§16. Towards the end of May a sepoy regiment
rose against its officers. The colonel had staked his
life on the fidelity of his men, and they had not
been disarmed; and owing to this infatuated belief
in the fidelity of the sepoys, the rebels had been able
to set out for Delhi with their arms and ammunition.
The colonel was in the ranks to the last, labouring to
keep the men to their colours; but his efforts were
vain, and he retired broken-hearted and shot himself.
The rebels, however, were pursued and scattered, by
the flying column under Neville Chamberlain, and
120 were taken prisoners and brought back to
Peshawar.
Executions at Peshawar.
The prisoners were tried for mutiny and were
all condemned to death. But John Lawrence recoiled
from such wholesale executions. He did not
want to exact vengeance on the mutineers, but to
terrify other regiments from following their example.
Forty of the worst were sentenced to death, but the
remaining eighty were imprisoned for periods varying
from three to seven years. The condemned forty
were blown from guns at Peshawar on the 10th of
June.
Volunteering of Sikhs and tribes.
The disarmament of the sepoy regiments, and the
executions at Peshawar, convinced the populations
of the Punjab that the British were masters. There
may have been some of the old Sikh soldiers of the
Khalsa, who were still yearning for the expulsion of
the British from the land of the five rivers; but even
in their case the old hostility was forgotten in the
feverish longing to be revenged on Delhi for the
persecution and slaughter of their saints. Possibly
they were still more eager to plunder the palaces and
bazaars of Delhi. The mountain tribes outside the
British frontier, who professed to be Mohammedans,
were as enthusiastic as the Sikhs to share in the sack
of Delhi. They implored pardon for all past offences,
paid up all fines, and volunteered to help the British
to capture the revolted city.
Sore peril.
John Lawrence sent the Punjab Guides to
Delhi, and raised nineteen or twenty regiments of
Sikhs and others. But he could not spare more
Europeans. Mutiny threatened him on all sides.
At Julinder three Bengal regiments murdered their
officers, broke open prisons, and ran off to Delhi
before the flying column under Neville Chamberlain
could overtake them.
John Nicholson, the sainted warrior.
§17. At this crisis Neville Chamberlain was sent
to join the British force on the Ridge, and John
Nicholson took the command of the flying column.
He disarmed several sepoy regiments without firing a
shot, but had no mercy for rebels. He was a fine
type of the zealous and single-minded European
officers of the old East India Company's army; a
hero who was reverenced by Asiatic soldiery for
his dash and valour, and worshipped by his men
as one of the demigods of India. Indeed in one
case the worship of Nicholson was literal. A religious
fraternity of Sikhs took the name of
"Nicholsons"; or as they pronounced it "Nikkal
Scynes." They wore salmon-coloured garments
and black felt hats as a distinctive garb, and
they sang hymns with a chorus of "Guru Nikkal
Scyne." In 1854 a deputation of these worshippers
waited on Nicholson, threw themselves at his feet
and chanted his praises. He remonstrated, but they
persisted, and he ordered his native servants to whip
the nonsense out of them. The devotees, however,
gloried in being flogged, and declared that it was a
just punishment for their sins. Nicholson was
obliged to run away from his worshippers. It will
be seen hereafter that he fell in the storming of
Delhi. When the news of his death reached the
fraternity, two of them committed suicide, whilst the
third embraced Christianity out of respect for the
memory of his "Guru."
Proposed withdrawal from Peshawar.
§18. John Lawrence was hedged round with
dangers. European regiments were urgently demanded
for the siege of Delhi, and he could not
spare a man. He was compelled to keep 3,000
Europeans for the defence of the valley of Peshawar,
and he had only 2,000 Europeans left to garrison
the rest of the Punjab. In this dilemma he proposed
to abandon Peshawar and make it over to Dost
Mohammed Khan of Cabul. He argued that if the
force locked up in Peshawar could be sent against
Delhi, the city might be captured in a week, and
the revolt brought to a close. Subsequent events
strengthened this impression. On the 23rd of June,
the centenary of the battle of Plassy, the besieging
force at Delhi was nearly overpowered by the rebels.
Several sepoy regiments had mutinied in Rohilcund,
to the north-west of Oudh, and joined the rebels
at Delhi. The Gwalior contingent, a subsidiary force
officered by Europeans, and maintained in Sindia's
territory, had broken out in mutiny. Altogether
John Lawrence was convinced that Delhi must be
captured at all hazards, and that it was absolutely
necessary to retire from Peshawar.
Opposition.
But the military authorities at Peshawar, including
General Sidney Cotton and Colonel Herbert Edwardes,
vehemently opposed the measure. They were unanimously
agreed that the loss of Peshawar would
entail such a loss of prestige as to turn Sikhs and
Afghans against the British government. They
urged that relief might be already at hand; that
five or six European regiments might be advancing
from Bengal to Delhi, and that four or five times
that number might be on the high seas from
England.
Negatived by Lord Canning.
The burning question was referred to Calcutta for
the decision of Lord Canning. The reply was a long
time coming, but it settled the matter at once.
"Hold on Peshawar to the last!" John Lawrence
was overruled.
Mutiny at Sealkote.
§19. In this extremity John Lawrence determined
to disarm every Bengal sepoy in the Punjab,
and then to send every European soldier and gun to
Delhi that could be spared. Nicholson hurried on the
disarming, when news arrived that the sepoy brigade
at Sealkote, on the Cashmere frontier, had broken
out in revolt, murdered their officers, and then gone
off to Delhi. Nicholson hurried after the brigade,
overtook it on the banks of the Ravi, and almost
annihilated it. Nearly every rebel was slain, or
drowned in the river, or surrendered by the villagers
to the British authorities.
Terrible execution.
There was one more tragedy in the Punjab which
cannot be ignored. A sepoy regiment mutinied after
it was disarmed, and tried to escape to Delhi. It was
pursued by a British magistrate with a detachment of
irregular horse. About 280 escaped to an island in a
river, and being without arms and without food, they
were compelled to surrender. The magistrate, however,
could not possibly dispose of 280 rebels. He
could not imprison them, and it was dangerous to let
them loose. In this terrible emergency he saw no
alternative but to have them shot in gangs. It was
a measure which can only be justified by the law of
self-defence and state necessity. The magistrate left
the scene pale and trembling.[29]
Siege of Delhi.
§20. Towards the end of June the hot season
passed away. The rains began; military operations
before Delhi became possible in the daytime. Sir
Henry Barnard died on the 5th of July, and was succeeded
by General Archduke Wilson. On the 14th
of July an attack on the British outposts was repulsed
by General Chamberlain. Towards the middle of
August, John Nicholson arrived from the Punjab with
his flying column. On the 4th of September a heavy
siege train arrived from the Punjab, and fifty large
guns were placed in position.
Captured, September 1857.
From the 8th to the 12th of September, four
batteries poured a constant storm of shot and shell
on the doomed city. On the 13th the breaches were
practicable. At three o'clock on the following morning,
three assaulting columns were formed in the
trenches, whilst a fourth was kept in reserve. The
Cashmere gate was blown open by gunpowder; one
column pushed through the gateway, whilst the
others escaladed the breaches. The advancing
columns were exposed to a ceaseless fire from houses,
mosques, and other buildings, and John Nicholson
received a mortal wound. Then followed six days
of desperate street fighting. On the 20th of September
the British flag waved in triumph over the
old capital of Hindustan and the palace of the Great
Mogul.[30]
Peace in the north-west.
Immediately after the fall of Delhi, a column was
sent down the grand trunk road, to relieve the fortress
at Agra, and to open up communications between
Delhi and Allahabad. Within a few short months
peace and order were restored to the North-West
Provinces, and the brigandage and anarchy which
for a brief interval revived the memory of the old
Mahratta days, disappeared, it is hoped for ever, from
Hindustan.[31]
§1. Bengal and Lord Canning: General Neill's advance from Calcutta. §2.
Sacred city of Benares: Hindu population overawed. §3. Fortress at
Allahabad: treachery and massacre. §4. Cawnpore: extreme peril. §5.
Story of Nana Sahib. §6. European refuge in the barracks. §7. Nana
Sahib at Cawnpore: aspirations after Hindu sovereignty: delusion of
General Wheeler. §8. Mutiny and treachery: barracks beleaguered by
Nana Sahib. §9. First massacre at Cawnpore: massacre at Jhansi.
§10. Advance of General Havelock. §11. Second massacre of women
and children: the well. §12. Lucknow and Sir Henry Lawrence: May
and June. §13. Siege of British Residency at Lucknow: July to September:
death of Sir Henry Lawrence. §14. Havelock's advance and
retreat. §15. Advance of Havelock and Outram. §16. Relief of Lucknow.
§17. Sir Colin Campbell's advance: deliverance of the garrison.
§18. Mutiny of the Gwalior contingent: defeated. §19. End of the
mutiny and rebellion: causes.
Surprises.
The progress of events in Northern India, from the
revolt at Delhi in May to the capture of the city in
September, was a mystery to every Anglo-Indian.
Many had foreseen that the Bengal army was in an
evil way; that Bengal sepoys had been pandered
until the discipline of the army had become dangerously
loosened. But no one foresaw mutiny,
murder, and massacre. Every fresh budget of news
was consequently a surprise which baffled the oldest
civilian and the most experienced general. There
was much angry controversy, and much bitter recrimination;
but such obsolete quarrelling may well
be dropped into oblivion. The lessons which the
mutiny teaches are best gathered from a plain
narrative of events, not by conjectures as to plots
and conspiracies which may have had no better
origin than those of Oates and Bedloe.
British soldiers.
§1. Whilst Mr. John Lawrence was sending Europeans
and Sikhs from the Punjab to reinforce the
besiegers on the Ridge at Delhi, Lord Canning was
sending similar reinforcements from Bengal to Allahabad,
to relieve the beleaguered garrisons at Cawnpore
and Lucknow, and to crush the growing disaffection
in Oudh. Immediately after the revolt at Delhi,
Lord Canning had sent telegrams and steamers to
Madras and Bombay, to Ceylon, Burma, and Singapore,
to send to Calcutta every European soldier that
could be spared. Every local government responded
to the call, and Lord Elgin, who was at Singapore
pushing on a war with China, sent two British regiments,
that were coming round the Cape, to the help
of Lord Canning. It was a noble sacrifice. Lord
Elgin's heart was in the Chinese war, but he felt as
a Briton, that the suppression of a sepoy revolt in
India was of far more pressing importance to the
British empire than hostilities against China.
Allahabad and Cawnpore.
During the latter part of May, European soldiers
were landed at Calcutta, and sent in batches to
Allahabad. At that time Lord Canning was most
anxious to relieve Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow.
The railway had been completed for a hundred miles
from Calcutta. Accordingly the soldiers were sent
by railway from Calcutta, then by boats up the river
Ganges to Allahabad, at the junction of the Ganges
and Jumna, about half way between Calcutta and
Delhi. From Allahabad they were sent a hundred
and twenty miles still further up the Ganges to the
town of Cawnpore, where the river formed a line of
frontier between the North-West Provinces and Oudh.
It will be seen hereafter that only a few Europeans
reached Cawnpore, and that none of those sent up
from Calcutta ever reached Lucknow.
Neill's advance.
The British reinforcements were commanded by
Colonel Neill, a Madras officer who had served in the
Crimean war, and was distinguished by force of will.
On one occasion the station-master at Calcutta proposed
sending away a railway train without the
soldiers, because the latter were delayed. To his
utter surprise he was arrested by Neill, and kept
under a guard until every soldier had taken his seat.
The incident is trivial, but it tells the character of
Neill.
Delay at Benares.
§2. Colonel Neill did not reach Allahabad for some
days. He was detained at Benares from the 4th to
the 9th of June. This city, the Jerusalem of the
Brahmans, is situated on the river Ganges, about
420 miles above Calcutta and eighty miles below
Allahabad. It had a population of 300,000, mostly
Hindus. The cantonment is two or three miles from
the city, and was occupied by a regiment of Bengal
infantry, one of irregular cavalry, and a Sikh regiment.
There was no European force whatever to keep the
city and cantonment in check beyond thirty British
gunners, but this number would have been ample
had there been no scare about greased cartridges.
No danger was to be apprehended from the civil
population of Benares. The sepoy regiments in the
cantonment were the only cause for alarm.
Turbulence of the people.
Yet the Hindu population of Benares had always
been bigoted and turbulent. During the persecuting
reign of the Mogul Aurangzeb, in the seventeenth
century, the Hindus of the sacred city were kept
down by brute force, and compelled to pay the poll-tax
levied on infidels, whilst Mohammedan mosques
were built on the ruins of Hindu temples. Under
the tolerant rule of the British, the Hindus had been
more contented, but there had been occasional fights
between Hindus and Mohammedans, especially at
festival times. Moreover, the Hindus at Benares
were under the thumb of the Brahmans, and were
more bigoted and exacting under British rule than
they had dared to be under Mohammedan domination.
A British magistrate, however, had generally
kept the peace in Benares with the help of Asiatic
police, but occasionally he found it necessary to call
out a detachment of sepoys.
Hostility of the Brahmans: stamped out by
Gubbins.
For many years the Brahmans at Benares utterly
refused to have the sacred city lighted or drained.
They declared that lighting and drainage were contrary
to the Hindu religion, and the arguments of
the British magistrate to the contrary were a sheer
waste of words. At last, in 1851, the British magistrate,
a Mr. Frederic Gubbins, carried out these
municipal reforms in the teeth of a Hindu mob.
Then followed a commotion at Benares precisely
similar to that which occurred at Madras in the
seventeenth century, when the British rulers endeavoured
to reform the sanitary condition of their
city. The traders and bazaar dealers shut up their
shops, and refused to supply the cantonment with
grain. Mr. Gubbins was pelted and fired at, and
fled for his life. He called out a detachment of
sepoys, arrested the ringleaders of the riot, and
lodged them in the jail. From that moment Mr.
Gubbins was lord of Benares. He rode through the
city and ordered all the shops to be opened, and
there was no one to say him nay.
British and Mogul rule.
All this was of course very wrong. The Supreme
Court at Calcutta, with its bench of British judges,
trained to respect the liberties of British subjects,
would have been aghast at such proceedings. But
from the days of Warren Hastings to those of Lord
Canning, the Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras,
and Bombay were prevented by the Act of Parliament
passed in 1781 from interfering in any way
with the administration of the Company's servants
outside the limits of the Presidency capitals. It
might, however, be added that the action of the
British magistrate, arbitrary and high-handed as it
must appear to British readers, was mild and merciful
in comparison with Mogul severities. Under an
imperious ruler like Aurangzeb, trains of armed elephants
were driven through the masses in the streets,
and trampled down all that came in their way,
until the crowd broke up and fled in terror at
the carnage.
Brave civilians.
Right or wrong, the action of Mr. Gubbins in 1851
was remembered by the people of Benares in 1857.
Mr. Gubbins was by this time judge at Benares, and
a Mr. Lind was magistrate and collector. The Bengal
sepoys in the cantonment were disaffected, but there
was no sign of insurrection in the city. The British
residents were in alarm, and it was proposed to
remove to the fortress of Chunar, on the other side
of the river Ganges, which was occupied by invalided
British soldiers. But Gubbins and Lind refused to
desert their posts and abandon Benares. Accordingly
the other British residents resolved to stay likewise;
and it was arranged that in the event of a mutiny
of the sepoys, they should all take refuge on the roof
of the treasury, about two miles from the cantonment,
which was guarded by Sikh soldiers.
Mutiny at Benares: disasters.
Colonel Neill arrived at Benares on the 4th of
June. A detachment of Europeans had been obtained
from Her Majesty's 10th Foot, which was posted at
Dinapore, and preparations were being made for disarming
the Bengal sepoys. Neill joined in the work,
but there were untoward incidents. The Europeans
were drawn out and the three guns were loaded. The
Bengal sepoys were ordered to lay down their arms,
and some obeyed. Suddenly, however, the whole
regiment of sepoys took alarm and fired at the Europeans.
The gunners opened fire on the mutineers.
The irregular cavalry joined in the outbreak. The
British officer in command of the Sikh regiment was
shot dead. The Sikhs were seized with panic and
fired on the Europeans. The gunners then discharged
a volley of grape at the Sikhs; and sepoys, irregular
horse, and Sikhs fled in hot haste from the cantonment,
and dispersed in all directions over the
surrounding country.
Loyalty of Sikhs and Hindus.
This disaster might have sealed the fate of the
Europeans at the treasury. When the Sikh regiment
at the cantonment was scattered by a discharge
of grape, the Sikh guards at the treasury might
have revenged the slaughter by firing at the Europeans
on the roof. Fortunately Mr. Gubbins was
there, and so too was an old Sikh general, who had
fought against the British in the Sikh wars, and
was residing at Benares under surveillance, but
had become reconciled to British supremacy. Both
Gubbins and the Sikh exile pointed out to the
guards, that cannonading the Sikhs at the cantonment
must have been unpremeditated, and was
probably a misunderstanding or an accident. Had
it been otherwise, the Europeans at the treasury
would never have placed themselves under the protection
of Sikh guards. This explanation satisfied
the Sikh guards, and the station was saved. It
should be added that British authority was nobly
supported by the Raja of Benares and another
Hindu gentleman of high rank and influence.
Allahabad: strategic importance.
§3. Colonel Neill spent some days in driving the
mutineers from the neighbourhood of Benares, and
then went on to Allahabad. On his arrival he found
the city in a state of insurrection and uproar, whilst
the Europeans were shut up in the fortress, and besieged
by mutineers and rebels. The city of Allahabad
was situated, as already described, at the junction of
the Ganges and Jumna, in the centre of Northern
India, and about half-way between Calcutta and
Delhi. It is the strongest fortress between Calcutta
and Agra. It commands the whole river communication
between Bengal, Oudh, and the North-West
Provinces. It also commanded the old trunk road
between Calcutta and Delhi. In the treasury there
was £200,000 in silver. Yet, when the mutinies
broke out in May, the station and fortress were
garrisoned entirely by Asiatics, namely, one Bengal
regiment, half a Sikh regiment, and a battery of
sepoy artillery. There were no European soldiers
whatever at Allahabad, except the British officers in
command of the sepoys.
Misplaced confidence.
The colonel and officers of the Bengal sepoys had
the most perfect confidence in their men. They had
always encouraged the sepoys in their sports, and
contributed toward the expenses. It was rumoured
in the newspapers that the sepoy regiment was disaffected,
but the colonel published an unqualified
denial, and declared that the rumour was false and
malicious. The British residents at Allahabad were,
however, by no means satisfied with this denial. They
were alarmed at the reports which reached them of
mutiny and murder elsewhere, and after the revolt at
Delhi, they complained that they were not sufficiently
protected. But no European soldiers were
available, not even to garrison the important fortress.
Accordingly the British authorities tried to allay
the public fears by ordering up sixty-five European
invalids from Chunar. Thus the European garrison
of the great fortress at Allahabad, which commanded
all communications between Bengal and the North-West,
consisted for a while of sixty-five invalids.
Eventually 100 European non-combatants formed
themselves into a volunteer company, and helped to
garrison the place. Meanwhile, every batch of
European soldiers that arrived from Bengal was at
once sent 120 miles further up the river Ganges to
the city of Cawnpore, the frontier station towards
Oudh.
Treachery.
Allahabad was tranquil. In spite of the outbreak
at Meerut, the revolt at Delhi, and the reports of
mutinies at other stations, all fear of danger seemed to
have passed away. On the 1st of June, the suspected
Bengal regiment volunteered to join the besieging
force at Delhi. This movement was at once accepted
as a certain proof of the loyalty and fidelity of the
sepoys. The thanks of Lord Canning were sent by
telegraph to the officers and men, and news arrived at
the same time that the sepoys had mutinied at
Benares, and were in full march to Allahabad en
route for Delhi.
Expected mutineers from Benares.
Preparations were at once made for repulsing
the rebels. The fortress was garrisoned by sixty-five
European invalids, 100 European volunteers,
600 Sikhs, and 100 sepoys of the faithful Bengal
regiment. The guns of the fortress were pointed to
the Benares road. The only entrance to Allahabad in
that direction was by a bridge over the Jumna. Accordingly
two guns and two companies of the Bengal
sepoys were ordered down to the bridge to open fire
upon the mutineers from Benares.
Asiatic craft.
On the 6th of June every European at Allahabad
was expecting the mutineers from Benares. In the
afternoon the thanks of Lord Canning were publicly
read on the parade ground to the remaining companies
of the Bengal sepoys. The men cheered like Europeans,
and when the regiment fell out, the British officers
shook hands with the sepoys. The mess dinner in
the evening was attended by every British officer at
the station who was not on duty elsewhere. At the
mess table nothing was to be heard but rejoicings and
congratulations. The Bengal regiment at Allahabad
had proved its loyalty, and received the thanks of the
Governor-General. Eight young ensigns, mere boys,
who had just arrived from England, were present at
this memorable dinner.
Mutiny and massacre.
Suddenly an alarm was sounded. No alarm was
felt, however, because every one thought that the
rebels from Benares had reached the bridge. The
officers buckled on their swords, mounted their
horses, and rode down to their lines to call out the
men. On reaching the parade ground they were
received by a volley of musketry from their own
sepoys, the men with whom they had shaken hands
that very afternoon. The colonel managed to escape
to the fortress, but most of the officers were shot
dead. At the same time the sepoy guards at the mess
house fell on the young ensigns who had been left behind.
The boys fought desperately for their lives, but
were overpowered by numbers and brutally murdered.
Jumna bridge.
By this time the sepoys at the bridge heard the
firing in the cantonment, and at once broke out in
mutiny, and turned against their officers. The
British officers were taken by surprise and could do
nothing. Some were shot dead, but most of them
plunged into the river Jumna, and escaped by
swimming to the fortress.
Fortress at Allahabad.
All this while the Fort at Allahabad was in imminent
danger. There were 200 Europeans within
the walls, but many were invalids, and nearly all
the others were volunteers. They had to deal with
400 doubtful Sikhs and 100 Bengal sepoys. They
heard the sound of firing, and thought that the
rebels had arrived from Benares; but the blazing
bungalows in the cantonment soon told a very
different story. The Bengal sepoys were promptly
disarmed and turned out of the fortress. The
Sikhs were left to do as they pleased. They
soon began to plunder the European stores, which
private merchants had deposited in the Fort for
safety; and they sold the liquors to the European
soldiers for small sums, so that drunkenness soon
added to the general terror and confusion. The
result was most lamentable. When British soldiers
can buy excellent wines and spirits at a few pence
a bottle, they soon become drunk and incapable
and such was the state of affairs inside the fortress
of Allahabad after the mutiny of the 6th of June.
Devilry.
Meanwhile the horrible devilry outside the fortress
was as murderous and destructive as at Meerut. The
whole station was mad with excitement and riot.
Houses were plundered and burnt. Women and
children were tortured and butchered. The jail was
broken open and every prisoner released. The sepoys
plundered the treasury and divided the money
amongst themselves, and then dispersed to their
several homes to place the silver in a place of safety.
But many suffered from their own folly. They were
pursued by the very miscreants who had been let out
of the jail, and many were savagely murdered and
stripped of their ill-gotten treasures.
Neill restores order.
Three days afterwards Colonel Neill reached Allahabad
with a detachment of Europeans from Benares.
He recovered the bridge, entered the fortress, took
over the command of the station, and soon put an
end to the drunkenness and disorder. He could not
punish the Sikhs, for they were the only Asiatic
soldiery who were likely to prove faithful, whilst the
Bengal regiments were breaking out in mutiny on all
sides. Accordingly he stopped the drunkenness of
the European soldiers by buying up all the remaining
liquors from the Sikhs, and making them over to his
commissariat officers. He then turned the Sikhs out
of the Fort, and encamped them without the walls
but within range of the guns.
Cawnpore advance stopped.
§4. On the 30th of June Colonel Neill left Allahabad
for Cawnpore with 400 Europeans, a regiment
of Sikhs, and two squadrons of sepoy cavalry on
whom he could not depend. Three days afterwards
he received a terrible message from Sir Henry
Lawrence at Lucknow. The sepoys had mutinied
at Cawnpore. A Mahratta Brahman, named Nana
Sahib, had taken possession of the town and cantonment
with a large army of Mahratta soldiers and
rebel sepoys. The Europeans at Cawnpore had been
closely besieged by the enemy, but their fate was unknown.
Neill, however, was ordered not to advance
unless he had two complete regiments of Europeans
under his command. Neill was therefore compelled
to return to Allahabad, and to halt there for the
arrival of more Europeans from Bengal.
Story of Cawnpore.
The story of Cawnpore is the most heart-rending episode
in the annals of British India. In the earlier years
of the century it had been the most important military
station in Northern India. It was from Cawnpore
that Lord Lake had started westward on his famous
campaign against Sindia and the French sepoy battalions,
which ended in the capture of Delhi and the
deliverance of the Mogul from the Mahrattas. But
the old glory had departed from Cawnpore. For
years the British government had been concentrating
its European strength at Meerut, Lahore, and Peshawar.
Cawnpore was stripped of all European soldiers,
and nothing remained of the British regiments that
had once been quartered there, but some half-ruined
barracks and a hospital.
General Wheeler.
In 1857 four regiments of sepoys were cantoned at
Cawnpore, namely, three of infantry and one of light
cavalry. But there was a large trading community
of Europeans and the mixed race known as Eurasians.
Moreover, there was a considerable number of ladies
and children, families of the British officers of the
European regiment quartered at Lucknow. The
station at Cawnpore was commanded by General Sir
Hugh Wheeler, an old sepoy officer, who had served
under Lord Lake, and was present during the Afghan
and Sikh wars. He had been fifty-four years in India,
and could thus look back upon a military career which
began in 1803. He was familiar with sepoy ideas,
feelings and aspirations. Yet not even General
Wheeler, with his long experiences, was able to
provide against such an unprecedented disaster as a
mutiny of the Bengal army against greased cartridges.
Sore peril.
Cawnpore is seated on the southern bank of the
Ganges. It overlooks Oudh on the east and the North-West
Provinces on the south and west. It is the vertex
of an angle, fifty-five miles south-west from Lucknow,
and 120 miles north-west from Allahabad. The
European residents had been greatly alarmed at the
revolt at Delhi, for both the town and the cantonment
were absolutely at the mercy of the sepoys.
Barracks and hospital.
Sir Hugh Wheeler had anxiously watched the flood
of mutiny which was closing around him from the
North-West Provinces, from Oudh, and from Bengal.
He was anxious to provide for the safety of the
Europeans without alarming the sepoys. Accordingly
he repaired the old barracks and hospital as a refuge
for the Europeans, entrenched them as well as he
could, and stored up provisions for a siege. At the
same time he ordered the British officers to show
confidence in the sepoys by sleeping at the lines,
and to spare no pains to keep the men staunch to
their colours.
Ex-Peishwa at Bithoor.
§5. About six miles to the northward of Cawnpore
was a castellated palace, at a place known as
Bithoor. Here the ex-Peishwa of the Mahrattas had
been permitted to reside after his surrender to Sir
John Malcolm, in 1818. He was harmless, and like
all Brahmans was resigned to his fate. He lived like
a king who had retired from business with an ample
fortune, and he indulged in every sensual pleasure
which money could command. He died in 1853
leaving no son, real or adopted.
Nana Sahib.
A boy was brought up in his household who was
known as Nana Sahib. He also was a Mahratta
Brahman, the son of a dependant of the ex-Peishwa;
he was a favourite of the exiled prince and was
treated as one of the family. Accordingly, when the
ex-Peishwa died in 1853, Nana Sahib boldly asserted
that he was an adopted son. The widow of the
ex-Peishwa denied the fact, and asserted her own
claims to the property. The truth has long ceased to
be a matter of any consequence. Nana Sahib and
the widow appear to have come to some secret
understanding. He was permitted to inherit the
castellated palace and grounds at Bithoor, as well as
the money savings which amounted to about half
a million sterling, and had been invested in government
paper. He also provided for the widow in the
palace of Bithoor.
Preposterous claims.
Nana Sahib had thus obtained all that he could
possibly have claimed had he been adopted according
to all the forms of Brahmanical law. But
he laid claim to a continuation of the pension
of £80,000 a year, which had been granted to the
ex-Peishwa at the instance of Sir John Malcolm;
and Lord Dalhousie refused to take his pretensions
into consideration. Nana Sahib invented lies,
which were plausible only to those who were not
familiar with the real circumstances. He declared
that the ex-Peishwa had surrendered his dominions on
the understanding that the pension should be granted
to him and to his heirs for ever. But this falsehood
was contradicted by history, and no one gave it
the slightest credence except the enemies of the
East India Company, or the opponents of Lord
Dalhousie's policy.
Pertinacity.
Nana Sahib was a genuine Mahratta, and
would have persisted in forcing his claims from time
to time upon the British government if he had lived
for a hundred years. He was polite and smooth-tongued,
flattering every European of influence that
came in his way, and ever boasting of his loyalty to
the British government. He professed to take the
utmost pleasure in the society of Europeans, and was
noted for his entertainments at Bithoor, to which he
invited all the European society at Cawnpore. He
affected to live in state like a Hindu Raja; he kept
six guns for firing salutes, and entertained a large
number of Mahratta troops and followers. But he
never forgot his claim to the pension. He constantly
harped upon the so-called injustice that deprived
him of it; and he employed agents both in India and
Great Britain to urge the British government to treat
the pension as perpetual and hereditary.
Cunning.
When the Bengal sepoys began to express horror
at the greased cartridges, Nana Sahib denounced their
folly in supposing that the British government had
planned the destruction of their religion. When the
news arrived of the outbreak at Meerut, he persuaded
the civil officials at Cawnpore to send their wives
and other ladies to Bithoor until the storm had blown
over. He boasted that he could protect them against
any number of sepoys, and arrangements were actually
made for securing the ladies at Bithoor in the event
of a mutiny. Later on, when the revolt at Delhi had
become common talk, the Nana proposed to organise
a body of 1,500 Mahrattas to take the sepoys by
surprise, and put them all to the sword, should they
show the slightest symptom of mutiny.
Anxieties of the Europeans.
By this time the anxiety of the Europeans at
Cawnpore was becoming intolerable. The ladies
especially suffered severely. On any night a signal
might be given, and a mob of armed sepoys might be
rushing about like madmen, burning down bungalows
and murdering the women and children in their
beds. All were yearning for the recapture of Delhi.
Indeed, every European in India felt that the plague
of sepoy mutiny would never be stayed until Delhi
was once again in the hands of the British
government.
Expected mutiny, 21st May.
§6. On the 21st of May, Sir Hugh Wheeler
received a distinct warning that the sepoys were
about to mutiny. He sent to all the European
residents at Cawnpore to repair towards evening
to the empty barracks. He despatched an express to
Lucknow to beg Sir Henry Lawrence to spare him
two or three companies of the European regiment.
He was alarmed for the safety of the treasury, which
was seven miles from the barracks under the charge
of sepoy guards. He attempted to remove the
treasure to the barracks, but the sepoys refused to
part with it, declaring that they could guard it where
it was. Sir Hugh Wheeler was obliged to yield, for
he had no means at hand to coerce the sepoys; but
he accepted the offer of Nana Sahib to place a
body of his Mahratta soldiers on guard at the
treasury. That very night 200 Mahratta soldiers,
armed with matchlocks and accompanied by two
guns, were moved from Bithoor and quartered at
the treasury. The arrangements seem to have been
made for the convenience of the sepoys, rather than
for the security of the Europeans. The jail was
close to the treasury, with its criminal inmates; so
too was the magazine which contained the military
stores. All three buildings were near the river
Ganges on the road to Delhi.
Horrible suspense.
The confusion and terror which prevailed that
night may be imagined. Ladies and children were
hurried from their homes, and huddled together in
the old hospital building. Guns were drawn up on
each side. The children were hushed off to sleep,
but the ladies were too terrified to close their eyes.
Next morning eighty-four European soldiers arrived
from Lucknow and cheered the inmates of the
hospital and barracks. But during the week that
followed, the suspense was almost beyond endurance.
One lady lost her reason, and all suffered from trials,
privations, exposure and alarms which cannot be
described. Daily and hourly they expected an insurrection
of Asiatics who knew not how to pity or
how to spare. Some wished that the storm would
burst upon them and put an end to the harrowing
anxiety that was eating into their souls. Amidst
all these dangers the British officers still slept at the
sepoy lines.
Hope.
On the 31st of May, after a horrible night, the first
instalment of European reinforcements arrived from
Bengal. Others appeared during the two following
days, and brought the joyful news that they were
the forerunners of several regiments; that European
troops were pouring into Calcutta from Madras,
Burma and Ceylon, and were being hurried up by
river steamers, bullock trains and country carriages.
Sir Hugh Wheeler was so confident of being very
shortly more than a match for the sepoys, that with
a chivalrous regard for the safety of Sir Henry
Lawrence, he sent a portion of his Europeans back to
Lucknow.
Sickening delay.
Then followed the delays at Benares and Allahabad;
the stoppage of reinforcements; the hope
deferred that maketh the heart sick. To crown all,
the Indian sun was burning fiercely on the barracks,
and the hot winds of June were blowing through the
rooms. Many Europeans were carried off by sickness,
and their fate was almost to be envied, for life
itself was becoming intolerable. Had the Europeans
been all men, they might have cut their way to
Agra, and forced a passage down the river to Allahabad.
But Sir Hugh Wheeler had 300 women and
children on his hands, and it was impossible to carry
them away in the face of sepoys and rebels. No
other alternative was thought of for a moment. No
European could dream at such a crisis of leaving
women and children to the tender mercies of sepoys.
Nana Sahib at Cawnpore.
§7. All this while there were no suspicions of
treachery as regards Nana Sahib; yet in reality the
Mahratta Brahman was moving about like an evil
spirit in disguise. To show his loyalty and attachment
to the British, he left his palace at Bithoor,
and took up his quarters at a house within the civil
station at Cawnpore. His real purpose was to excite
the sepoys to revolt, but to prevent them from
rushing off to Delhi, and rallying round a Mohammedan
sovereign. He was not a Mohammedan, but
a Hindu; besides that, he was a representative of
Hindu sovereigns, the extinct Mahratta Peishwas,
who, according to his own views, were the rightful
rulers of India. In his secret heart he fondly
dreamed of upsetting British supremacy, and restoring
the old days of Mahratta anarchy, when the
Brahman Peishwa ruled at Poona as the head of the
Mahratta confederacy, whilst his lieutenants, Sindia
and Holkar, plundered Hindustan in his name.
Blindness of the Europeans.
A more dangerous character than Nana Sahib
never entered a British cantonment in India. The
civil officials and the army officers were alike deceived.
No one believed in his truth or honesty,
but they imagined that he was looking after his own
interest with that pertinacity which characterises
Mahrattas. In other words, that he was rendering
ostentatious services in the hope of being rewarded
with the life pension of the deceased Peishwa.
Unpopularity of Nana Sahib.
But Nana Sahib encountered overwhelming difficulties
from the outset. Like all Mahratta Brahmans
he had the highest opinion of his caste and claims.
Indeed his assumption was unbounded. But the
Brahmans and Rajputs of Oudh and the North-West
Provinces, who formed the bulk of the sepoy army
of Bengal, were by no means inclined to accept a
Mahratta sovereign, unless they were highly paid
for their allegiance. They were prepared to make
him their tool, and to tender him sham reverence,
so long as he was liberal with money and bangles
of gold or silver; but they had no more respect for
the Mahratta, than the sepoys at Delhi had for the
Mogul Padishah.
Secrecy and duplicity.
Nana Sahib seems to have been more or less aware
of this state of affairs. He had entertained a large
number of Mahratta soldiers ostensibly to help the
British to suppress the sepoys; just as the ex-Peishwa
had raised a Mahratta army in 1817 ostensibly to
help the British to suppress the Pindharis. Meanwhile
Nana Sahib quietly sold out the half million
sterling which had been invested in government
paper. He had thus ample funds for carrying out
his designs. But neither Nana Sahib nor the sepoys
betrayed the thoughts that were agitating their
brains. Secrecy and surprise, with the necessary
element of duplicity, are the main strength of
Orientals.
Mutiny of 4th June.
§8. On the 4th of June, the very day that Neill
reached Benares, Sir Hugh Wheeler was warned
that the sepoys were plotting mutiny and murder.
Accordingly he ordered the British officers to leave
off sleeping at the sepoy lines. That same night
the sepoys broke out in mutiny. The cavalry galloped
off to the treasury and helped the Mahrattas
to plunder it. The British officers left the barracks
and hastened to the lines, but were fired upon by
the sepoys. The rebels loaded a number of country
carts with plunder from the treasury and magazine,
and then set off with all speed to the first stage
on the road to Delhi.
Nana Sahib joins the sepoys.
Nana Sahib accompanied the rebels, but implored
them not to go to Delhi. He swore that a large
treasure was hidden away in the barracks, and urged
the sepoys to return and capture it, and slaughter
all the Feringhis. Asiatics will believe any stories
of hidden treasure. The sepoys were also told that
enough guns and powder remained in the magazine
to enable them to storm the barracks with ease.
Accordingly, on the 6th of June, the sepoys returned
to Cawnpore with Nana Sahib at their head.
Propitiates Mohammedans and Hindus.
Nana Sahib now began to appear in his true
colours. He pitched his camp in the centre of the station
and hoisted two standards, to conciliate both
Mohammedans and Hindus; namely, the green flag
of Islam, and the Hindu god Hanuman, the friend
of Rama, the avatar of Vishnu. He sent a body of
horsemen into the town of Cawnpore to kill every
European and Christian they could find. He
mounted some heavy guns and prepared to assault
the entrenched barracks.
Bombardment of European barracks.
Next morning, the 7th of June, Nana Sahib sent
a letter to General Wheeler threatening to attack
the British garrison. Several guns began to open
fire on the barracks, and volleys of musketry were
discharged from all quarters. Meanwhile Nana
Sahib was reinforced by mutineers from Allahabad,
by irregulars from Lucknow, by rebels from Oudh,
and by armed bands of brigands and blackguards
from all the country round.
Cruelty and cowardice.
At this period Nana Sahib was guilty of cowardly
malice and revolting cruelty which appear incredible
to Europeans. British refugees were flying from
mutinous sepoys; floating down the river Ganges
in boats in the hope of reaching Allahabad. They
were arrested at Cawnpore, brought before the
inhuman Mahratta, and brutally murdered. Men,
women, and children were cut to pieces like cattle.
The Europeans in the barracks heard nothing of
these butcheries, or the story of Cawnpore would
have had a different ending. But they knew
enough to resist to the death every assault of the
enemy. The rebels, on their part, kept up a hot
fire, and made frequent rushes on the earthworks,
but they never ventured on hand-to-hand encounters.
Their one solitary exploit was to set fire to the
hospital, and then, whilst the place was burning,
and every effort was being made to save the inmates,
a mass of rebels tried to storm the barracks. The
assault, however, was a failure. The enemy was
driven back by the British guns, but many of the
sick and wounded Europeans perished in the flaming
hospital.
Parleying and perfidy.
On the 24th and 25th of June there was some
parleying. The British garrison could hold out no
longer. Provisions and stores were exhausted. Nana
Sahib was frightened and humiliated by the obstinate
courage of the British. Moreover he was yearning
for the pomp and pleasure of sovereignty. Under such
circumstances he sent written messages to General
Wheeler by the hands of a woman. He solemnly
swore that he would provide boats for the passage
of the whole of the beleaguered Europeans down
the Ganges to Allahabad, provided the British would
surrender their arms, and leave him in possession of
the cannon, and of what remained in the treasury
and magazine. Few men of Indian experience would
have trusted in the good faith of Nana Sahib; but
Sir Hugh Wheeler was bowed down by the weight of
years, and by the terrible responsibility of the women
and children, and in an evil hour he accepted the
terms offered by the false-hearted Mahratta.
Massacre.
§9. On the morning of the 27th of June, 450
Europeans left the barracks and proceeded to the
river side. The sick and wounded were carried in
palanquins; the women and children were placed on
elephants and bullock carts; the men went on foot.
Forty boats were moored in the shallows of the river,
and the men waded through the water whilst the
others were carried to the boats. All were on board
by nine o'clock, and the boats were loosened from
their moorings. A crowd of sepoys and rebels was
assembled on both banks of the river to witness the
departure of the Europeans. Suddenly a bugle was
sounded. Volleys of musketry were fired upon the
boats, and shrieks of agony and terror rose from the
hapless passengers. Presently the thatched roofs of
some of the boats caught fire, and the flames rapidly
spread as the boats were huddled together. Many
of the doomed passengers jumped overboard. One
boat escaped down the stream, but only four individuals
survived to tell the story. Many were shot
dead or were drowned in the river. The rest were
all dragged ashore helpless and unarmed. The men
were allowed a few moments to prepare for death,
and one of their number who had preserved a Prayer
Book, read a portion of the Liturgy. All the men
were then shot dead by volleys of musketry. The
women and children, who escaped alive, to the
number of 125, were carried off and lodged in a
building close to the head-quarters of Nana Sahib.
Triumph of Nana Sahib.
That night there were great rejoicings in the station
at Cawnpore. The Mahratta Brahman was puffed
up with his so-called victory over British captives.
Money and bangles were freely distributed to the
murderers, whilst salutes were fired from the cannon,
and the whole station was ablaze with fireworks and
illuminations. The infamous Nana Sahib, the last
faint shadow of the Mahratta Brahmans who had
once reigned at Poona, was proclaimed conqueror of
the British, and Peishwa of Hindustan.
Terrors.
But the avenging furies were already at the heels
of the Mahratta Brahman. Neither drugs nor dancing
girls could quiet his terrors. The Mohammedan
sepoys were already plotting his destruction; they
wanted to restore the reign of Islam, not to set up
the idolatry which was denounced in the Koran.
The lavish distribution of treasures might please
them for a while, but would not satisfy them in the
end. Meanwhile, the Rajputs were ready enough
to accept his rupees and bangles, but they were his
masters, and compelled him to do their bidding. To
crown his anxieties, a column of European soldiers
was soon on its way from Allahabad to avenge the
slaughter of their countrymen at Cawnpore, and to
deliver British wives, mothers, and widows, together
with their helpless children, from the hands of the
perjured destroyer.
Massacre at Jhansi.
That same month of June saw a like massacre at
Jhansi, about 150 miles to the south of Cawnpore,
amidst the hills and jungles of Bundelkund. British
rule had been introduced, together with a garrison of
Bengal sepoys. The sepoys mutinied as they did
elsewhere, and the Europeans, to the number of
fifty-five men, women, and children, took refuge in
an old fortress until the storm blew over. The
sepoys could not capture the fortress. The widow
of the deceased chief sent them elephants and guns,
but they were of no avail. At last it was known
that the provisions within the fortress were exhausted.
The widow and the sepoys solemnly swore
to conduct the besieged to another station, if they
would only lay down their arms. The terms were
accepted; the besieged left the fortress two by two,
and were all seized, bound, and butchered without
further parley.
General Havelock.
§10. Early in July, General Havelock reached
Allahabad with 1,000 Europeans and 200 Sikhs, and
joined his forces with those of Colonel Neill, and
took the command. The one object of the expedition
was to relieve the British garrisons at Cawnpore
and Lucknow, and to save the women and children.
Henry Havelock was short in stature, and spare
in form. He was a pale man of ascetic habits,
who might have served in Cromwell's Ironsides.
He was a soldier to the backbone, but religious
to the verge of fanaticism. His whole life was
devoted to fighting and prayer. He thirsted for
military glory and the conversion of Mohammedans
and Hindus. He had seen much service. He had
distinguished himself in the first Burma war and the
first Afghan war, and had published clear and able
narratives of both campaigns. He had also distinguished
himself in the Gwalior war and the two
Sikh wars; and he had just returned from the Persian
expedition, in which he had commanded a division.
But the straitness of his religious views had interfered
with his promotion, and the greater part of his life had
been spent in regimental duty. He was approaching
the age when men usually retire from active service;
but he was destined, during the last few months of
his career, to become famous throughout the civilised
world.
Advance on Cawnpore.
On the 7th of July General Havelock left Allahabad
for Cawnpore with less than 2,000 Europeans and
Sikhs. By this time the slaughter of the Europeans
at Cawnpore was noised abroad, but there were still
hopes of saving the women and children. There was
a march of 120 miles between Allahabad and Cawnpore.
An Indian sun glared down at intervals, but
the heat was moderated by heavy rains, which were
equally deadly. Fever, dysentery, and cholera, carried
off more victims than the enemy's fire. But men
and officers were one and all animated by the same
determined spirit to be revenged on Nana Sahib and
the rebels, and to save the women and children at
Cawnpore.
Treachery of a deputy collector.
At Futtehpore, about two-thirds of the way to
Cawnpore, there had been a sepoy mutiny, and
civil rebellion, headed by a Mohammedan deputy
collector. The European residents had already sent
their wives and families to Allahabad, and when the
outbreak took place they all escaped on horseback
save one. The exception was Mr. Robert Tucker, of
the Bengal civil service, the judge of the district, who
refused to abandon his post. The Asiatics, headed
by the Mohammedan deputy-collector, environed Mr.
Tucker's house and overpowered him, but not until
he had slain sixteen men with his own hands. He
was then brought to a mock trial, at which the
Mohammedan presided, and of course was condemned
and executed, and his head, hands, and feet held up
for the inspection of the rabble.
Defeat of the Nana.
When Nana Sahib was master of Cawnpore, he
sent a large force of rebel cavalry to Futtehpore,
to defeat the European column, and if possible to
capture the fortress of Allahabad. But he was too
late. Had the rebels advanced against Allahabad
before the outbreak, they might have captured the
fortress, and blocked out all reinforcements from
Bengal. As it was, they were utterly defeated and
dispersed by Havelock's column.
Execution of a murderer.
After the battle the Mohammedan deputy-collector
appeared to offer his congratulations to General Havelock.
To his intense surprise, he found that his crime
was known to the British authorities. He was
arrested on the spot, and within a brief interval he
was tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of
the British judge.
Tragedy at Cawnpore.
§11. Next day another rebel force was routed,
and then followed a crowning victory at Cawnpore.
But now Havelock was too late. Maddened by
defeat, Nana Sahib had ordered the slaughter of
the women and children, and then had fled away
in the hope of finding refuge at his castle at
Bithoor.
The well.
Never before had British soldiers beheld such a
sight as met their eyes at Cawnpore. Other fugitive
women and children had been captured by Nana
Sahib, and 200 helpless beings had been imprisoned
in the same building. A veil may be thrown over
their sufferings. Some of the poor ladies were compelled
to grind corn for the household of Nana Sahib,
and they were glad to do so, as it enabled them to
bring back some flour for their half-starved children.
In this wretched plight, longing for relief but despairing
of succour, they had been suddenly attacked by
sepoys and rebels, and mercilessly hacked to pieces
with swords and hatchets, and then thrust into a
well. Never, so long as a Briton remains in India,
will the ghastly well at Cawnpore be forgotten. Since
then a Christian church has been built over the well,
and a marble angel is seen with outspread wings, as
if imploring forgiveness and mercy.
Destruction of Bithoor.
Havelock advanced to Bithoor, but Nana Sahib had
fled into Oudh. At Bithoor Havelock demolished
the castle, and brought away the guns. Within a
few days he left General Neill at Cawnpore, and
crossed the Ganges into Oudh with a force of 1,500
Europeans and Sikhs, for the relief of Lucknow.
Lucknow: May to July.
§12. It was now the middle of July, and it is
necessary to glance at the progress of affairs at
Lucknow since the 3rd of May. On that day an
irregular corps of Oudh sepoys had threatened to
murder its European adjutant; but that same night
a force of European soldiers and Bengal sepoys
marched against them. The mutineers surrendered
their arms, and then rushed off in a panic of terror
towards Delhi. The Bengal sepoys hotly pursued
them, and arrested the ringleaders. But the scare
at greased cartridges was rankling in the breasts
of these very Bengal sepoys; and Sir Henry
Lawrence had reason to fear that sooner or later
they would break out in mutiny like the Oudh
Irregulars.
Bengal sepoys rewarded.
For the moment, however, the Bengal regulars had
been overawed by the prompt action of the Europeans.
Accordingly Sir Henry Lawrence determined
on a public distribution of presents to the Asiatic
officers and sepoys who had distinguished themselves
on the 3rd of May; and thus to show that if the
British government was prompt to punish mutiny,
it was equally prompt in rewarding faithful service.
Durbar of 12th May.
A grand durbar was held on the evening of the
12th of May. The whole of the European civil and
military residents at Lucknow, all the officers and
men of the Bengal regiments, and many Asiatic
officials were assembled on the lawn in front of the
Residency. Carpets had been laid down, and chairs
arranged to form three sides of a square. Sir Henry
Lawrence entered, followed by his staff, and a large
body of officers, and took his seat at the head
of the assemblage. Beside him were deposited the
trays of presents. Before, however, distributing the
rewards, he delivered a solemn and earnest speech
in Hindustani.
Speech of Sir Henry Lawrence.
Sir Henry Lawrence reminded the Hindu sepoys
that Mohammedan rulers had never respected
their religion, and had converted many Hindus to
Islam by forcing beef down their throats. He
reminded the Mohammedan sepoys that their religion
had been cruelly persecuted by the Sikh rulers of
the Punjab. He reminded one and all that for a
whole century the British government had tolerated
both Hinduism and Islam, and never interfered with
either. He dwelt on the power and resources of
Great Britain, her numerous ships and her exploits
in the Russian war; and he declared that within a few
months she could assemble an army as large as that
in the Crimea in the vicinity of Lucknow. He urged
all present to believe the assurances of the British
government, and he solemnly warned the sepoys that
if any of them became the dupes of fools or knaves,
like the mutineers at Berhampore and Barrackpore,
the British would inflict such a punishment as would
be remembered for generations. The presents were
then distributed, and Sir Henry Lawrence shook
hands with the recipients.
News of revolt at Delhi, 16th May.
The speech and the rewards made a deep impression
on the sepoys, but it did not last. Four days
later the news arrived of the revolt at Delhi, and
mischief was again brewing. Another fortnight
passed away without mutiny, and Sir Henry Lawrence
gained time for making the necessary preparations.
He entrenched the Residency and adjoining
buildings, and collected large quantities of provisions
and stores. Meanwhile the Europeans in Lucknow,
who were not serving as regimental officers, were
formed into a volunteer corps.
General mutiny, 30th May.
On the 30th of May in the middle of the night,
about 2,000 sepoys of the regular Bengal army broke
out in mutiny at the cantonment on the opposite side
of the river. European officers were killed, and
houses were pillaged and burnt. Sir Henry Lawrence
hurried across the river with a company of Europeans
and two guns, to protect the bridges and prevent the
mutineers from communicating with the disaffected
population of Lucknow. Presently the sepoys came
rushing up to the bridges, but were driven back by
a volley of grape. They dispersed, but made no
attempt to reach Delhi. On the contrary, they halted
at a place named Sitapore, within the province of
Oudh, where they remained several weeks and did
nothing.
Proposed retreat to Cawnpore.
Meanwhile the storm was gathering. Early in
June news arrived of the treachery of Nana Sahib at
Cawnpore. General Wheeler wrote to Sir Henry
Lawrence imploring help and protection for the
women and children in the barracks. But Sir Henry
Lawrence was in sore straits and could not spare a
European soldier. He had been authorised to withdraw
from Oudh in case of emergency, and possibly
had he beat a retreat from Lucknow to Cawnpore, he
might have prevented the massacres. But the step
would have been more hazardous and desperate than
the abandonment of Peshawar by his brother John.
No one anticipated massacre, and reinforcements of
Europeans from Bengal might reach Cawnpore at any
moment, and stamp out the mutiny and crush the
Nana. Retreat from Oudh would not only have
involved the loss of a province, but imparted a fatal
strength to mutiny and murder from Bengal to the
Punjab. The flag of Mohammedan revolt was still
floating over Delhi, and had it floated over Lucknow,
the second Mohammedan city in Hindustan, British
prestige would have vanished for a while from
Northern India.
Mutineers in the districts.
In June mutiny and murder were running riot at
different stations in Oudh. At some places the atrocities
committed on Europeans were heart-rending. At
one station there was an outbreak on a Sunday
morning. The sepoys rushed into the church during
divine service and killed the British magistrate and
several officers. Some thirty Europeans, including
ladies and children, fled for their lives, and escaped to
a station named Mohamdi, where a detachment of
Oudh irregulars were quartered under the command
of Captain Orr. The very sight of European fugitives
taking refuge at the station, drove the sepoys into
rebellion. Captain Orr assembled the Asiatic officers
and appealed to their common humanity. The men
were moved to compassion. They crossed their arms
on the head of one of their comrades, and solemnly
swore to conduct all the Europeans in safety to
another station.
Massacre of Europeans.
The convoy started at five o'clock in the evening;
the men on foot or on horseback, and the women and
children in a carriage and baggage waggon. Suddenly
they found that they were pursued by sepoys. They
did their best to hasten on the carriage and waggon,
but were soon overtaken and surrounded. A gun was
fired, a British officer was shot down, and then
followed a general massacre. Women and children
were slaughtered with infernal cruelty. A few fugitives
escaped the slaughter, but were doomed to
privations and sufferings on which it is painful to
dwell.
Hostility at Lucknow.
§13. The Residency at Lucknow was still a place
of refuge, although it might possibly be soon overwhelmed
by numbers. No effort was spared by the
disaffected to stir up the city population against the
British authorities. Proclamations were posted from
day to day on Hindu temples, and Mohammedan
mosques and palaces, calling upon the people to wage
a holy war against the Feringhi. Horrible effigies,
dressed as British officers and children, but without
heads, were carried through the streets by the rabble.
Plots were discovered and individuals were arrested,
but British prestige was dying out with alarming
rapidity, and by the end of June British authority
had little influence outside the limits of the Residency
at Lucknow.
Disaster at Chinhut.
On the 29th of June reports came in that an army
of 6,000 rebels was marching towards the British
Residency, and that an advanced guard of 1,000
might be expected to arrive on the following morning.
Sir Henry Lawrence marched out to attack the
advance guard, with 300 Europeans, eleven guns,
and about 300 Asiatics, including sepoy cavalry,
and native artillery drivers. There was treachery
from the outset. Instead of an advanced guard of
1,000, the whole body of insurgents was hidden in
the jungle behind the village of Chinhut, about six
miles from the Residency. As Sir Henry Lawrence
approached he was met by a heavy fire from a battery
of guns posted in the village. The Europeans
advanced; the British guns returned the enemy's fire
with great effect, and victory was assured. At that
moment the Asiatic artillery drivers turned traitors,
cut the traces, tumbled the guns into a ditch, and
deserted to the enemy. The 300 Europeans were
thus left exposed to a terrible fire and forced to beat
a retreat. They were compelled to abandon their killed
and wounded, and only one hundred reached the Residency.
Sir Henry Lawrence was severely wounded,
and worn out with fatigue and despair, but was
brought away on a gun-carriage.
Defence of the Residency.
The rebel army followed the Europeans. They
reached the bridge which led to the Residency, but
were driven back by the fire of the British batteries.
They forded the river at another spot, and began
to plunder the wealthy quarter of Lucknow. This
gave the British garrison breathing time. They
abandoned the cantonment on the opposite bank,
and many of the buildings near the Residency.
Henceforth they contracted the area of defence to
the British Residency and a few houses within the
Residency enclosure.
Residency besieged, 30th June.
The siege of the British Residency soon began in
right earnest. The besieged within the enclosure
numbered 500 British soldiers, 150 British officers,
500 women and children, and some 300 or 400
sepoys who had remained loyal. The besiegers
soon numbered from 25,000 to 50,000 rebels. They
environed the Residency enclosure with a circle of
guns. They kept up a heavy and continuous fire,
and killed and wounded many of the British garrison,
but they could not capture a single position.
Death of Sir Henry Lawrence, 4th July.
On the second day of the siege Sir Henry Lawrence
was mortally wounded by the bursting of a
shell. He died on the 4th of July, exhorting those
around him to entrench night and day, and to shut
their ears against all suggestions of surrender.
Such was the terrible lesson which had been taught
to every European in India by the treacherous
massacres at Cawnpore.
Dissension amongst the rebels.
The besiegers increased in numbers with marvellous
rapidity. They were joined by all the rebel
sepoys in Oudh; by the vassals of the talukdars,
who were mostly brigands; and by the scum of the
population of Lucknow. They were, however, at
constant strife with each other; torn by quarrels
about religion, politics, or personal animosities. One
prince was raised to the throne and another was
placed in command of the army, but their authority
was nominal. The rebels elected their own officers,
and the officers chose their own generals; but
cowardice and insubordination were rampant, and
commanding officers often lost their lives in attempts
to uphold their short-lived dignities.
Anarchy in the city.
Repulse of rebels, 21st July: news of
Havelock.
Meanwhile there was a reign of terror in the city
of Lucknow. The orderly and peaceful classes,
which made up the bulk of the population, were
overwhelmed by taxes and exactions of all kinds;
and bankers, traders and other wealthy citizens, must
have yearned for the restoration of a rule under
which life and property were always respected.
At early morning, on the 21st of July, there was
a general assault. The batteries opened on the
Residency from all sides. The sepoys advanced in
compact masses to the trenches, but were driven
back by the fire of the Europeans. The next day
the struggle was renewed, but with the same result.
The British garrison, amidst all these toils and privations,
exulted in the conviction that they could
repulse the assaults of the rebel besiegers until help
should arrive. That very night a faithful sepoy got
inside the Residency with the news that General
Havelock had compelled Nana Sahib to fly for his
life, and had recaptured the city and cantonment of
Cawnpore.
Havelock retreats.
§14. Havelock failed to reach Lucknow. His
brave little column worked wonders. It scattered
large armies of rebels by bayonet charges, but it was
rapidly reduced by three fatal diseases—fever, dysentery
and cholera. Havelock could not spare troops
for keeping up his communications with Cawnpore;
he was compelled to carry his sick and wounded
with him, and he was losing fifty men a day. Before
he had fought his way a third of the distance, he
was compelled with a heavy heart to fall back on
Cawnpore.
Mutiny in Behar: defence of Arrah.
Havelock reached Cawnpore just in time to save
Neill from being overwhelmed by rebel armies.
European reinforcements from Bengal had again
been delayed by mutinies. At Patna there had
been a Mohammedan plot which was quashed at
the outset by Mr. William Tayler, a Bengal civilian.
At Dinapore, ten miles west of Patna, three sepoy
regiments had mutinied. At Arrah, twenty-five
miles still further to the west, a large body of rebels
had attacked and plundered the station; but sixteen
Europeans and fifty Sikhs defended a single house
against 3,000 rebels for an entire week, when they
were relieved by a detachment of Europeans from
Dinapore under the command of Major Vincent
Eyre.
European garrison at Lucknow.
Meanwhile the suspense of the Europeans in the
Residency at Lucknow was becoming intense. The
provisions were coarse and beginning to fail. Most
of the native servants and all the bakers had fled at
the beginning of the siege. Balls, bullets, and fragments
of shells fell into every dwelling-place; and
ladies and children on beds of sickness were as much
exposed to the fire of the enemy as the soldiers in
the trenches. There was, however, no slackening on
the part of the garrison. Every man in the Residency
worked in the trenches. Officers, soldiers, and
civilians were either returning the enemy's fire, or
digging with spades and pickaxes. The rains allayed
the burning heat; but fever, dysentery, and cholera
carried off their victims. No one thought of capitulation.
Cawnpore had steeled every British heart.
Husbands and fathers would have slain their own
wives and daughters, rather than they should have
fallen into the hands of the merciless besiegers.
Delay of Havelock.
All this while General Havelock was impatient to
attempt a second advance on Lucknow. His force
was too small to fight a way through the streets of
the city into the Residency enclosure. Could the
garrison have cut their way out, he might possibly
have convoyed the whole body in safety to Cawnpore.
But Brigadier Inglis, who commanded the garrison,
was hampered with 450 women and children. He
had no carriage, and in any case he was unwilling to
abandon the guns and treasure. So Havelock and
Inglis were both compelled to await the arrival of
further reinforcements from Bengal.
Advance of Havelock and Outram, September.
§15. At last about the middle of September, a
column of 3,000 troops was formed at Cawnpore, of
whom 2,700 were Europeans. General Sir James
Outram was sent from Calcutta to take the command,
and Havelock must have smarted at the supersession;
but Outram, who was known as the Bayard of
India, chivalrously refused to supersede him. Accordingly
the column left Cawnpore under Havelock's
command.
Britons to the rescue.
Never in British history had a more resolute or
enthusiastic column of soldiers taken the field. It
was something for the crusaders to wrest Jerusalem
from the infidels. It was something to stand against
overwhelming numbers at Agincourt and Cressy. But
Havelock and his men had to rescue British women
and children from the horrible fate that befell the
victims at Cawnpore; and neither shot nor shell,
bullet nor barricade, could have availed against
British valour in such a cause.
City and Residency.
There was a five days' toilsome march from the
Ganges at Cawnpore to the city of Lucknow. Then
a day's halt for rest. Then on the glorious 25th of
September, Havelock and his men fought their way
into the city, whilst Outram, with a sublime contempt
for rebels, scorned to draw his sword, and hammered
about with a walking-stick. But the work was no
child's play. A rebel battery had to be carried with
the bayonet. Then the high street was reached, which
led from the suburbs to the Residency, but it was
long and narrow. The British column might have
suffered heavily from barricades, or from a raking fire
which might have been opened from the houses on
either side. Outram, however, was familiar with the
whole labyrinth of roads and lanes. He led the main
body through by-ways towards the Residency, whilst
the high street was closed by Highlanders and Sikhs.
Towards evening a junction was formed, and the
united forces marched straight on to the Residency.
Anxieties of the garrison.
Throughout the whole day the beleaguered garrison
in the Residency had been anxious and bewildered.
In the morning they heard the roar of cannon in the
distant suburbs. They beheld a mob of Asiatic
fugitives from the city—men, women, and children,
with terrified sepoys in full uniform all rushing to
the bridges, or wading and swimming through the
river. The guns of the Residency opened fire, but
the rebel batteries responded with a storm of shot
and shell. In the afternoon discharges of musketry
were heard; the fusillade drew nearer and nearer.
Presently the Europeans and Sikhs appeared on the
scene with mounted officers in front. Finally
Havelock and Outram dismounted from their horses,
and were carried on the shoulders of their men
through an embrasure into the Residency.
Cheers and tears.
§16. Then arose ringing cheers which must have
astonished the Hindu gods on Mount Meru. The
pent-up hearts of the half-starved garrison could find
no other way of giving vent to their emotions. From
every pit, trench, and battery, from behind sand-bags
piled on shattered houses, from the sick and wounded
in the hospital, nothing was to be heard but shouts
and cries of welcome. The British soldiers who
poured into the Residency were equally moved.
They had saved women and children from the
destroyer. Rough and bearded warriors shook hands
with the ladies all round. They took the children in
their arms, kissed them and passed them from one to
the other; and with tears running down their cheeks,
they thanked God that all were rescued. But in the
hour of gladness there was a dash of sorrow. The
gallant Neill had met with a glorious death in the
streets of Lucknow.
Havelock's dilemma.
Havelock and Outram had cut their way into the
Residency, but the question was how to get out
again. It was comparatively easy to lead enthusiastic
battalions into a beleaguered fortress, but it
was a very different thing to convoy 400 women and
children, 600 sick and wounded, and a quarter of a
million sterling in silver, through the narrow streets
of Lucknow exposed to the fire of swarms of rebels
thirsting for blood and rupees.
Unexpected provisions.
There was, however, no alternative. Provisions
were exhausted. Suddenly the commissariat discovered
a vast stock of grain which had been
overlooked after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence.
The problem was solved. The oxen which dragged
the guns, ammunition, and baggage of Havelock's
column would furnish the garrison with butcher's
meat for months. Accordingly it was determined
to remain behind the defences of the Residency
enclosure until another European army advanced
to the conquest of Oudh.
Sir James Outram in command.
Sir James Outram was now chief commissioner of
Oudh, and general in command of the garrison.
Many positions were wrested from the rebels, and
the area of defence was enlarged. The garrison was
no longer in daily peril, and it was felt that an
avenging army of Europeans and Sikhs would soon
deliver them.
Advance of Sir Colin Campbell, November.
§17. Meanwhile, Sir Colin Campbell, one of the
heroes in the Russian war, had been appointed commander-in-chief
of the Bengal army, in succession to
General Anson. He reached Calcutta in August, and
prepared for a second expedition against Lucknow. In
October an army of 4,700 Europeans and thirty-two
guns was assembled at Cawnpore. In November
the expedition set out for Lucknow, under the new
commander-in-chief.[32] It included a detachment of
sailors from the Shannon frigate, who had brought
their guns to bear upon the rebels, under the command
of Captain William Peel, a son of the illustrious
Sir Robert. The sailors excited the wonder of
Asiatics, especially as it was reported that they
had fish-tails like tritons, and were harnessed to
the guns.
Deliverance: death of Havelock.
Sir Colin Campbell did not attempt to drive the
rebels out of the city of Lucknow. His one object
was to bring away the besieged from the Residency.
By Outram's advice he did not advance through
streets or by-ways, but made a detour through the
palaces and other royal buildings. After much hard
fighting, he reached the Residency, and brought away
all the besieged at twenty-four hours' notice. The
besiegers were outwitted. They knew nothing of
what was going on, and continued to fire upon the
Residency for hours after it had been abandoned.
But again there was sadness. General Havelock
lived long enough to receive the cross of Knight
Commander of the Bath, and died amidst the tears
of the women and children whom he had done his
best to rescue.
Gwalior rebels at Cawnpore.
§18. Many a soldier grieved over the retirement
from Lucknow, but the retreat was a painful necessity.
The Gwalior contingent, maintained by Sindia
under the treaty of 1843, had broken out in mutiny
and joined the forces of Nana Sahib. An army of
20,000 rebels advanced on Cawnpore, defeated
Brigadier Wyndham, who had been left in charge,
and occupied the town. Sir Colin Campbell shipped
the precious convoy from Lucknow on board a flotilla
of steamers, and despatched them to Calcutta. He
then took the field, and drove the Gwalior rebels
out of Cawnpore.
Calcutta, 30th January, 1858.
On the 30th of January, 1858, all the Europeans
in Calcutta flocked to the banks of the Hughly, to
welcome the return of the besieged from Lucknow;
but when a procession of widows and orphans appeared
in black raiment, with pallid faces and
emaciated forms, the acclamations of the crowd
died away in a deep and painful silence, and every
eye was filled with tears for the sufferings of the
survivors of the beleaguered garrison at Lucknow.
Conclusion.
§19. Here ends the story of the siege and relief
of Lucknow. In 1858 Oudh was conquered, the
rebellion was crushed, peace and order were restored,
and a compromise with the talukdars was effected on
the battle-field. The reconciliation of the people of
Oudh with British rule and supremacy will be noted
in a future chapter.
Causes of the revolt in Oudh.
Greased cartridges were the cause of the sepoy
mutinies of 1857, but they were not the cause of
the revolt in Oudh; and yet it was impossible for
the British government to postpone the deposition of
the king of Oudh or the annexation of the kingdom.
Unheeded warnings.
Oudh had been drifting into anarchy ever since
it had been taken under British protection. Every
Governor-General from Lord Wellesley to Lord Dalhousie
had denounced the administration of Oudh
as tyrannical, oppressive, and corrupt. Every ruler
of Oudh had been threatened in turn; but as the
Resident was warned not to interfere beyond tendering
advice, repeated threats were as unheeded
as the old cry of "wolf." Sir James Outram, the
Bayard of India, and last British Resident at Lucknow,
summed up his views in the following words:—"I
have always been the upholder of native states
as long as they retained a spark of vitality, and we
could recognise them without infringing our treaties
or our suzerain power. It is, therefore, most painful
for me to have to acknowledge that if we persist in
maintaining this feeble and corrupt dynasty, we shall
be sacrificing the interests of ten millions of individuals
whom we are bound by treaty to protect
by ensuring them a good government, capable of
defending the life and property of its subjects."
Feudatory states: mutinous contingents.
The feudatory states of India which owe allegiance
to the British government displayed no sympathies
with the Bengal sepoy, or with their mutinies against
greased cartridges. Some may have trimmed and
wavered, and were prepared to join the winning
side. Contingent and subsidiary forces caught the
infatuation against greased cartridges, and revolted
against their British officers, and joined the mutineers.
The Gwalior contingent revolted, but Sindia remained
loyal. Holkar's troops revolted at Indore, and murdered
every European they could find; and this
could scarcely have been a rebellion against greased
cartridges.[33] But after the lapse of a generation any
suspicions of disloyalty that may linger in the minds
of those who are familiar with the history of the
time, may be dropped in oblivion.