Pilgrims of India.
There is nothing which strikes a European more in travelling over the
great roads in India than the vast number of pilgrims of all kinds
which he falls in with, particularly between the end of November
[_sic_], when all the autumn harvest has been gathered, and the seed
of the spring crops has been in the ground. They consist for the most
part of persons, male and female, carrying Ganges water from the
point at Hardwâr, where the sacred stream emerges from the hills, to
the different temples in all parts of India, dedicated to the gods
Vishnu and Siva. There the water is thrown upon the stones which
represent the gods, and when it falls upon these stones it is called
'Chandamirt', or holy water, and is frequently collected and reserved
to be drunk as a remedy 'for a mind diseased'[1]
This water is carried in small bottles, bearing the seals of the
presiding priest at the holy place whence it was brought. The bottles
are contained in covered baskets, fixed to the ends of a pole, which
is carried across the shoulder. The people who carry it are of three
kinds--those who carry it for themselves as a votive offering to some
shrine; those who are hired for the purpose by others as salaried
servants; and, thirdly, those who carry it for sale. In the interval
between the sowing and reaping of the spring crops, that is, between
November and March, a very large portion of the Hindoo landholders
and cultivators of India devote their leisure to this pious duty.
They take their baskets and poles with them from home, or purchase
them on the road; and having poured their libations on the head of
the god, and made him acquainted with their wants and wishes, return
home. From November to March three-fourths of the number of these
people one meets consist of this class. At other seasons more than
three-fourths consist of the other two classes--of persons hired for
the purpose as servants, and those who carry the water for sale.
One morning the old Jemadâr, the marriage of whose mango-grove with
the jasmine I have already described,[2] brought his two sons and a
nephew to pay their respects to me on their return to Jubbulpore from
a pilgrimage to Jagannâth.[3] The sickness of the youngest, a nice
boy of about six years of age, had caused this pilgrimage. The eldest
son was about twenty years of age, and the nephew about eighteen.
After the usual compliments, I addressed the eldest son: 'And so your
brother was really very ill when you set out?'
'Very ill, sir; hardly able to stand without assistance.'
'What was the matter with him?'
'It was what we call a drying-up, or withering of the System.'
'What were the symptoms?'
'Dysentery.'
'Good; and what cured him, as he now seems quite well?'
'Our mother and father vowed five pair of baskets of Ganges water to
Gajâdhar, an incarnation of the god Siva, at the temple of Baijnâth,
and a visit to the temple of Jagannâth.'
'And having fulfilled these vows, your brother recovered?'
'He had quite recovered, sir, before we had set out on our return
from Jagannâth.'
'And who carried the baskets?'
'My mother, wife, cousin, myself, and little brother, all carried one
pair each.'
'This little boy could not surely carry a pair of baskets all the
way?'
'No, sir, we had a pair of small baskets made especially for him; and
when within about three miles of the temple he got down from his
little pony, took up his baskets, and carried them to the god. Up to
within three miles of the temple the baskets were carried by a
Brahman servant, whom we had taken with us to cook our food. We had
with us another Brahman, to whom we had to pay only a trifle, as his
principal wages were made up of fees from families in the town of
Jubbulpore, who had made similar vows, and gave him so much a bottle
for the water he carried in their several names to the god.'
'Did you give all your water to the Baijnâth temple, or carry some
with you to Jagannâth?'
'No water is ever offered to Jagannâth, sir; he is an incarnation of
Vishnu.'[4]
'And does Vishnu never drink?'
'He drinks, sir, no doubt; but he gets nothing but offerings of food
and money.'
'From this to Bindâchal on the Ganges, two hundred and thirty miles;
thence to Baijnâth, a hundred and fifty miles; and thence to
Jagannâth, some four or five hundred miles more.'[5]
'And your mother and wife walked all the way with their baskets?'
'All the way, sir, except when either of them got sick, when she
mounted the pony with my little brother till she felt well again.'
Here were four members of a respectable family walking a pilgrimage
of between twelve and fourteen hundred miles, going and coming, and
carrying burthens on their shoulders for the recovery of the poor
sick boy; and millions of families are every year doing the same from
all parts of India. The change of air, and exercise, cured the boy,
and no doubt did them all a great deal of good; but no physician in
the world but a religions one could have persuaded them to undertake
such a journey for the same purpose.
The rest of the pilgrims we meet are for the most part of the two
monastic orders of Gosâins, or the followers of Siva, and Bairâgîs,
or followers of Vishnu, and Muhammadan Fakîrs. A Hindoo of any caste
may become a member of these monastic orders. They are all disciples
of the high priests of the temples of their respective gods; and in
their name they wander all over India, visiting the celebrated
temples which are dedicated to them. A part of the revenues of these
temples is devoted to subsisting these disciples as they pass; and
every one of them claims the right of a day's food and lodging, or
more, according to the rules of the temple. They make collections
along the roads; and when they return, commonly bring back some
surplus as an offering to their apostle, the high priest who has
adopted them. Almost every high priest has a good many such
disciples, as they are not costly; and from their returning
occasionally, and from the disciples of others passing, these high
priests learn everything of importance that is going on over India,
and are well acquainted with the state of feeling and opinion.
What these disciples get from secular people is given not only from
feelings of charity and compassion, but as a religions or
propitiatory offering: for they are all considered to be armed by
their apostle with a vicarious power of blessing or cursing; and as
being in themselves men of God whom it might be dangerous to
displease. They never condescend to feign disease or misery in order
to excite feelings of compassion, but demand what they want with a
bold front, as holy men who have a right to share liberally in the
superfluities which God has given to the rest of the Hindoo
community. They are in general exceedingly intelligent men of the
world, and very communicative. Among them will be found members of
all classes of Hindoo society, and of the most wealthy and
respectable families.[6] While I had charge of the Narsinghpur
district in 1822 a Bairâgî, or follower of Vishnu, came and settled
himself down on the border of a village near my residence. His mild
and paternal deportment pleased all the little community so much that
they carried him every day more food than he required. At last, the
proprietor of the village, a very respectable old gentleman, to whom
I was much attached, went out with all his family to ask a blessing
of the holy man. As they sat down before him, the tears were seen
stealing down his cheeks as he looked upon the old man's younger sons
and daughters. At last, the old man's wife burst into tears, ran up,
and fell upon the holy man's neck, exclaiming, 'My lost son, my lost
son!' He was indeed her eldest son. He had disappeared suddenly
twelve years before, became a disciple of the high priest of a
distant temple, and visited almost every celebrated temple in India,
from Kedârnâth in the eternal snows to Sîtâ Baldî Râmesar, opposite
the island of Ceylon.[7] He remained with the family for nearly a
year, delighting them and all the country around with his narratives.
At last, he seemed to lose his spirits, his usual rest and appetite;
and one night he again disappeared. He had been absent for some years
when I last saw the family, and I know not whether he ever returned.
The real members of these monastic orders are not generally bad men;
but there are a great many men of all kinds who put on their
disguises, and under their cloak commit all kinds of atrocities.[8]
The security and convenience which the real pilgrims enjoy upon our
roads, and the entire freedom from all taxation, both upon these
roads and at the different temples they visit, tend greatly to attach
them to our rule, and through that attachment, a tone of good feeling
towards it is generally disseminated over all India. They come from
the native states, and become acquainted with the superior advantages
the people under us enjoy, in the greater security of property, the
greater freedom with which it is enjoyed and displayed; the greater
exemption from taxation, and the odious right of search which it
involves, the greater facilities for travelling in good roads and
bridges; the greater respectability and integrity of public servants,
arising from the greater security in their tenure of office and more
adequate rate of avowed salaries; the entire freedom of the
navigation of our great rivers, on which thousands and tens of
thousands of laden vessels now pass from one end to the other without
any one to question whence they come or whither they go. These are
tangible proofs of good government, which all can appreciate; and as
the European gentleman, in his rambles along the great roads, passes
the lines of pilgrims with which the roads are crowded during the
cold season, he is sure to hear himself hailed with grateful shouts,
as one of those who secured for them and the people generally all the
blessings they now enjoy.[9]
One day my sporting friend, the Râjâ of Maihar, told me that he had
been purchasing some water from the Ganges at its source, to wash the
image of Vishnu which stood in one of his temples.[10] I asked him
whether he ever drank the water after the image had been washed in
it. 'Yes,' said he, 'we all occasionally drink the "chandamirt".'
'And do you in the same manner drink the water in which the god Siva
has been washed?' 'Never,' said the Râjâ. 'And why not?' 'Because his
wife, Devî, one day in a domestic quarrel cursed him and said, "The
water which falls from thy head shall no man henceforward drink."
From that day', said the Râjâ, 'no man has ever drunk of the water
that washes his image, lest Devî should punish him.' 'And how is it,
then, Râjâ Sahib, that mankind continue to drink the water of the
Ganges, which is supposed to flow from her husband Siva's top-knot?'
'Because', replied the Râjâ, 'this sacred river first flows from the
right foot of the god Vishnu, and thence passes over the head of
Siva. The three gods', continued the Râjâ, 'govern the world turn and
turn about, twenty years at a time. While Vishnu reigns, all goes on
well; rain descends in good season, the harvests are abundant, and
the cattle thrive. When Brahma reigns, there is little falling off in
these matters; but during the twenty years that Siva reigns, nothing
goes on well--we are all at cross purposes, our crops fail, our
cattle get the murrain, and mankind suffer from epidemic diseases.'
The Râjâ was a follower of Vishnu, as may be guessed.
Notes:
1. Tavernier notes that Ganges water is often given at weddings,
'each guest receiving a cup or two, according to the liberality of
the host'. 'There is sometimes', he says, '2,000 or 3,000 rupees'
worth of it consumed at a wedding.' (Tavernier, _Travels_, ed. Ball,
vol. ii, pp. 231, 254.)
2. _Ante_, Chapter 5, [3].
3. Jagannâth (corruptly Juggernaut, &c.), or Purî, on the coast of
Orissa, probably is the most venerated shrine in India. The principal
deity there worshipped is a form of Vishnu.
4. Water may not be offered to Jagannâth, but the facts stated in
this chapter show that it is offered in other temples of Vishnu.
5. Bindâchal is in the Mirzâpur district of the United Provinces.
Baijnâth is in the Santâl Parganas District of the Bhâgalpur Division
in the province of Bihâr and Orissa. The group of temples at Deogarh
dedicated to Siva is visited by pilgrims from all parts of India. The
principal temple is called Baijnâth or Baidyanâth. Deogarh is a small
town in the Santâl Parganas (_I.G._, 1908, s.v. Deogarh; _A.S.R._,
vol. viii (1878), pp. 137-45, Pl. ix, x; vol. xix (1885), pp. 29-35
(crude notes), Pl. x, xi).
6. Pandit Sâligrâm, who was Postmaster-General of the North-Western
Provinces some years ago, became one of these wandering friars, and
other similar cases are recorded.
7. Seet Buldee Ramesur in original edition. The temple alluded to is
that called Râmesvaram (Ramisseram) in the small island of Pâmban at
the entrance of Palk's Passage in the Straits of Manaar, which is
distinguished by its magnificent colonnade and corridors. (Fergusson,
_Hist. Ind. and Eastern Arch._, vol. i, pp. 380-3, ed. 1910.) The
island forms part of the so-called Adam's Bridge, a reef of
comparatively recent formation, which almost joins Ceylon with the
mainland. A railway now runs along the 'bridge', and the pilgrims
have an easy task.
The Kedârnâth temple is in the Himalayan District of Garhwâl (United
Provinces), at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet.
8. The author's other works show that the Thugs frequently assumed
the guise of ascetics, and much of the secret crime of India is known
to be committed by men who adopt the garb of holiness. A man
disguised as a fakîr is often sent on by dacoits (gang-robbers) as a
spy and decoy. 'Three-fourths of these religions mendicants, whether
Hindoos or Muhammadans, rob and steal, and a very great portion of
them murder their victims before they rob them; but they have not any
of them as a class been found to follow the trade of murder so
exclusively as to be brought properly within the scope of our
operations. . . . There is hardly any species of crime that is not
throughout India perpetrated by men in the disguise of these
religious mendicants; and almost all such mendicants are really men
in disguise; for Hindoos of any caste can become Bairâgîs and
Gosâins; and Muhammadans of any grade can become Fakîrs.' (_A Report
on the System of Megpunnaism_, 1839, p. 11.) In the same little work
the author advises the compulsory registration of 'every disciple
belonging to every high priest, whether Hindoo or Muhammadan', and a
stringent Vagrant Act. His suggestions have not been acted on.
9. This incident still happens occasionally.
10. For the Râjâ, see _ante_, chapter 20, [6].
CHAPTER 75
The Bêgam Sumroo.
On the 7th of February [1836] I went out to Sardhana and visited the
church built and endowed by the late Bêgam Sombre, whose remains are
now deposited in it.[1] It was designed by an Italian gentleman, M.
Reglioni, and is a fine but not a striking building.[2] I met the
bishop, Julius Caesar, an Italian from Milan, whom I had known a
quarter of a century before, a happy and handsome young man--he is
still handsome, though old; but very miserable because the Bêgam did
not leave him so large a legacy as he expected. In the revenues of
her church he had, she thought, quite enough to live upon; and she
said that priests without wives or children to care about ought to be
satisfied with this; and left him only a few thousand rupees. She
made him the medium of conveying a donation to the See of Rome of one
hundred and fifty thousand rupees,[3] and thereby procured for him
the bishopric of Amartanta in the island of Cyprus; and got her
grandson, Dyce Sombre, made a chevalier of the Order of Christ, and
presented with a splint from the real cross, as a relic.
The Bêgam Sombre was by birth a Saiyadanî, or lineal descendant from
Muhammad, the founder of the Musalmân faith; and she was united to
Walter Reinhard, when very young, by all the forms considered
necessary by persons of her persuasion when married to men of
another.[4] Reinhard had been married to another woman of the
Musalmân faith, who still lives at Sardhana,[5] but she had become
insane, and has ever since remained so. By this first wife he had a
son, who got from the Emperor the title of Zafar Yâb Khân, at the
request of the Bêgam, his stepmother; but he was a man of weak
intellect, and so little thought of that he was not recognized even
as the nominal chief on the death of his father.
Walter Reinhard was a native of Salzburg. He enlisted as a private
soldier in the French service, and came to India, where he entered
the service of the East India Company, and rose to the rank of
sergeant.[6] Reinhard got the sobriquet of Sombre from his comrades
while in the French service from the sombre cast of his countenance
and temper.[7] An Armenian, by name Gregory, of a Calcutta family,
the virtual minister of Kâsim Alî Khân,[8] under the title of Gorgîn
Khân,[9] took him into his service when the war was about to commence
between his master and the English. Kâsim Alî was a native of
Kâshmîr, and not naturally a bad man; but he was goaded to madness by
the injuries and insults heaped upon him by the servants of the East
India Company, who were not then paid, as at present, in adequate
salaries, but in profits upon all kinds of monopolies; and they would
not suffer the recognized sovereign of the country in which they
traded to grant to his subjects the same exemption that they claimed
for themselves exclusively; and a war was the consequence.[10]
Mr. Ellis, one of these civil servants and chief of the factory at
Patna, whose opinions had more weight with the council in Calcutta
than all the wisdom of such men as Vansittart and Warren Hastings,
because they happened to be more consonant with the personal
interests of the majority, precipitately brought on the war, and
assumed the direction of all military operations, of which he knew
nothing, and for which he seems to have been totally unfitted by the
violence of his temper. All his enterprises failed--the city and
factory were captured by the enemy, and the European inhabitants
taken prisoners. The Nawâb, smarting under the reiterated wrongs he
had received, and which he attributed mainly to the counsels of Mr.
Ellis, no sooner found the chief within his grasp, than he determined
to have him and all who were taken with him, save a Doctor Fullarton,
to whom he owed some personal obligations, put to death. His own
native officers were shocked at the proposal, and tried to dissuade
him from the purpose, but he was resolved, and not finding among them
any willing to carry it into execution he applied to Sumroo, who
readily undertook and, with some of his myrmidons, performed the
horrible duty in 1763.[11] At the suggestion of Gregory and Sombre,
Kâsim Alî now attempted to take the small principality of Nepâl, as a
kind of basis for his operations against the English. He had four
hundred excellent rifles with flint locks and screwed barrels made at
Monghyr (Mungêr) on the Ganges, so as to fit into small boxes. These
boxes were sent up on the backs of four hundred brave volunteers for
this forlorn hope. Gregory had got a passport for the boxes as rare
merchandise for the palace of the prince at Kathmandû, in whose
presence alone they were to be opened. On reaching the palace at
night, these volunteers were to open their boxes, screw up the
barrels, destroy all the inmates, and possess themselves of the
palace, where it is supposed Kâsim Ali had already secured many
friends. Twelve thousand soldiers had advanced to the foot of the
hills near Betiyâ, to support the attack, and the volunteers were in
the fort of Makwânpur, the only strong fort between the plain and the
capital. They had been treated with great consideration by the
garrison, and were to set out at daylight the next morning; but one
of the attendants, who had been let into the secret, got drunk, and
in a quarrel with one of the garrison, told him that he should see in
a few days who would be master of that garrison. This led to
suspicion; the boxes were broken open, the arms discovered, and the
whole of the party, except three or four, were instantly put to
death; the three or four who escaped gave intelligence to the army at
Betiyâ, and the whole retreated upon Monghyr. But for this drunken
man, Nepâl had perhaps been Kâsim Alî's.[12]
Kâsim Alî Khân was beaten in several actions by our gallant little
band of troops under their able leader, Colonel Adams; and at last
driven to seek shelter with the Nawâb Wazîr of Oudh, into whose
service Sumroo afterwards entered. This chief being in his turn
beaten, Sumroo went off and entered the service of the celebrated
chief of Rohilkhand, Hâfiz Rahmat Khân. This he soon quitted from
fear of the English. He raised two battalions in 1772, which he soon
afterwards increased to four; and let out always to the highest
bidder--first, to the Jât chiefs of Dîg, then to the chief of Jaipur,
then to Najaf Khân, the prime minister, and then to the Marâthâs. His
battalions were officered by Europeans, but Europeans of
respectability were unwilling to take service under a man so
precariously situated, however great their necessities; and he was
obliged to content himself for the most part with the very dross of
society--men who could neither read nor write, nor keep themselves
sober. The consequence was that the battalions were often in a state
of mutiny, committing every kind of outrage upon the persons of their
officers, and at all times in a state of insubordination bordering on
mutiny. These battalions seldom obtained their pay till they put
their commandant into confinement, and made him dig up his hidden
stores, if he had any, or borrow from bankers, if he had none. If the
troops felt pressed for time, and their commander was of the
necessary character, they put him astride upon a hot gun without his
trousers. When our battalion had got its pay out of him in this
manner, he was often handed over to another for the same purpose. The
poor old Bêgam had been often subjected to the starving stage of this
proceeding before she came under our protection; but had never, I
believe, been grilled upon a gun. It was a rule, it was said, with
Sombre, to enter the field of battle at the safest point, form line
facing the enemy, fire a few rounds in the direction where they
stood, without regard to the distance or effect, form square, and
await the course of events. If victory declared for the enemy, he
sold his unbroken force to him to great advantage; if for his
friends, he assisted them in collecting the plunder, and securing all
the advantages of the victory. To this prudent plan of action his
corps afterwards steadily adhered; and they never took or lost a gun
till they came in contact with our forces at Ajantâ and Assaye.[13]
Sombre died at Agra on the 4th of May, 1778, and his remains were at
first buried in his garden. They were afterwards removed to the
consecrated ground in the Agra churchyard by his widow the Bêgam,[14]
who was baptized, at the age of forty,[15] by a Roman Catholic
priest, under the name of Joanna,[16] on the 7th of May, 1781.
On the death of her husband she was requested to take command of the
force by all the Europeans and natives that composed it, as the only
possible mode of keeping them together, since the son was known to be
altogether unfit. She consented, and was regularly installed in the
charge by the Emperor Shâh Alam. Her chief officer was a Mr. Paoli, a
German, who soon after took an active part in providing the poor
imbecile old Emperor with a prime minister, and got himself
assassinated on the restoration, a few weeks after, of his rival.[17]
The troops continued in the same state of insubordination, and the
Bêgam was anxious for an opportunity to show that she was determined
to be obeyed.
While she was encamped with the army of the prime minister of the
time at Mathurâ,[18] news was one day brought to her that two slave
girls had set fire to her houses at Agra, in order that they might
make off with their paramours, two soldiers of the guard she had left
in charge. These houses had thatched roofs, and contained all her
valuables, and the widows, wives, and children of her principal
officers. The fire had been put out with much difficulty and great
loss of property; and the two slave girls were soon after discovered
in the bazaar at Agra, and brought out to the Bêgam's camp. She had
the affair investigated in the usual summary form; and their guilt
being proved to the satisfaction of all present, she had them flogged
till they were senseless, and then thrown into a pit dug in front of
her tent for the purpose, and buried alive. I had heard the story
related in different ways, and I now took pains to ascertain the
truth; and this short narrative may, I believe, be relied upon.[19]
An old Persian merchant, called the Agâ, still resided at Sardhana,
to whom I knew that one of the slave girls belonged. I visited him,
and he told me that his father had been on intimate terms with
Sombre, and when he died his mother went to live with his widow, the
Bêgam--that his slave girl was one of the two-that his mother at
first protested against her being taken off to the camp, but became
on inquiry satisfied of her guilt--and that the Bêgam's object was to
make a strong impression upon the turbulent spirit of her troops by a
severe example. 'In this object', said the old Agâ, 'she entirely
succeeded; and for some years after her orders were implicitly
obeyed; had she faltered on that occasion she must have lost the
command--she would have lost that respect, without which it would
have been impossible for her to retain it a month. I was then a boy;
but I remember well that there were, besides my mother and sisters,
many respectable females that would have rather perished in the
flames than come out to expose themselves to the crowd that assembled
to see the fires; and had the fires not been put out, a great many
lives must have been lost; besides, there were many old people and
young children who could not have escaped.' The old Agâ was going off
to take up his quarters at Delhi when this conversation took place;
and I am sure that he told me what he thought to be true. This
narrative corresponded exactly with that of several other old men
from whom I had heard the story. It should be recollected that among
natives there is no particular mode of execution prescribed for those
who are condemned to die; nor, in a camp like this, any court of
justice save that of the commander in which they could be tried, and,
supposing the guilt to have been established, as it is said to have
been to the satisfaction of the Bêgam and the principal officers, who
were all Europeans and Christians, perhaps the punishment was not
much greater than the crime deserved and the occasion demanded. But
it is possible that the slave girls may not have set fire to the
buildings, but merely availed themselves of the occasion of the fire
to run off; indeed, slave girls are under so little restraint in
India, that it would be hardly worth while for them to burn down a
house to get out. I am satisfied that the Bêgam believed them guilty,
and that the punishment, horrible as it was, was merited. It
certainly had the desired effect. My object has been to ascertain the
truth in this case, and to state it, and not to eulogize or defend
the old Bêgam.
After Paoli's death, the command of the troops under the Bêgam
devolved successively upon Baours, Evans, Dudrenec, who, after a
short time, all gave it up in disgust at the beastly habits of the
European subalterns, and the overbearing insolence to which they and
the want of regular pay gave rise among the soldiers. At last the
command devolved upon Monsieur Le Vaisseau, a French gentleman of
birth, education, gentlemanly deportment, and honourable
feelings.[20] The battalions had been increased to six, with their
due proportion of guns and cavalry; part resided at Sardhana, her
capital, and part at Delhi, in attendance upon the Emperor. A very
extraordinary man entered her service about the same time with Le
Vaisseau, George Thomas, who, from a quartermaster on board a ship,
raised himself to a principality in Northern India.[21] Thomas on one
occasion raised his mistress in the esteem of the Emperor and the
people by breaking through the old rule of central squares: gallantly
leading on his troops, and rescuing his majesty from a perilous
situation in one of his battles with a rebellious subject, Najaf Kulî
Khân, where the Bêgam was present in her palankeen, and reaped all
the laurels, being from that day called 'the most beloved daughter of
the Emperor'.[22] As his best chance of securing his ascendancy
against such a rival, Le Vaisseau proposed marriage to the Bêgam, and
was accepted. She was married to Le Vaisseau by Father Gregoris, a
Carmelite monk, in 1793, before Saleur and Bernier, two French
officers of great merit. George Thomas left her service, in
consequence, in 1793, and set up for himself; and was afterwards
crushed by the united armies of the Sikhs and Marâthâs, commanded by
European officers, after he had been recognized as a general officer
by the Governor-General of India. George Thomas had latterly twelve
small disciplined battalions officered by Europeans. He had good
artillery, cast his own guns, and was the first person that applied
iron calibres to brass cannon. He was unquestionably a man of very
extraordinary military genius, and his ferocity and recklessness as
to the means he used were quite in keeping with the times. His
revenues were derived from the Sikh states which he had rendered
tributary; and he would probably have been sovereign of them all in
the room of Ranjit Singh, had not the jealousy of Perron and other
French officers in the Marâthâ army interposed.[23]
The Bêgam tried in vain to persuade her husband to receive all the
European officers of the corps at his table as gentlemen, urging that
not only their domestic peace, but their safety among such a
turbulent set, required that the character of these officers should
be raised if possible, and their feelings conciliated. Nothing, he
declared, should ever induce him to sit at table with men of such
habits; and they at last determined that no man should command them
who would not condescend to do so. Their insolence and that of the
soldiers generally became at last unbearable, and the Bêgam
determined to go off with her husband, and seek an asylum in the
Honourable Company's territory with the little property she could
command, of one hundred thousand rupees in money, and her jewels,
amounting perhaps in value to one hundred thousand more. Le Vaisseau
did not understand English; but with the aid of a grammar and a
dictionary he was able to communicate her wishes to Colonel McGowan,
who commanded at that time (1795) an advanced post of our army at
Anûpshahr on the Ganges.[24] He proposed that the Colonel should
receive them in his cantonments, and assist them in their journey
thence to Farrukhâbâd, where they wished in future to reside, free
from the cares and anxieties of such a charge. The Colonel had some
scruples, under the impression that he might be censured for aiding
in the flight of a public officer of the Emperor. He now addressed
the Governor-General of India, Sir John Shore himself, April
1795,[25] who requested Major Palmer, our accredited agent with
Sindhia, who was then encamped near Delhi, and holding the seals of
prime minister of the empire, to interpose his good offices in favour
of the Bêgam and her husband. Sindhia demanded twelve lâkhs of rupees
as the price of the privilege she solicited to retire; and the Bêgam,
in her turn, demanded over and above the privilege of resigning the
command into his hands, the sum of four lâkhs of rupees as the price
of the arms and accoutrements which had been provided at her own cost
and that of her late husband. It was at last settled that she should
resign the command, and set out secretly with her husband; and that
Sindhia should confer the command of her troops upon one of his own
officers, who would pay the son of Sombre two thousand rupees a month
for life. Le Vaisseau was to be received into our territories,
treated as a prisoner of war upon parole, and permitted to reside
with his wife at the French settlement of Chandernagore. His last
letter to Sir John Shore is dated the 30th April, 1795. His last
letters describing this final arrangement are addressed to Mr. Even,
a French merchant at Mirzapore, and a Mr. Bernier, both personal
friends of his, and are dated 18th of May, 1795.[26]
The battalions on duty at Delhi got intimation of this
correspondence, made the son of Sombre declare himself their
legitimate chief, and march at their head to seize the Bêgam and her
husband. Le Vaisseau heard of their approach, and urged the Bêgam to
set out with him at midnight for Anûpshahr, declaring that he would
rather destroy himself than submit to the personal indignities which
he knew would be heaped upon him by the infuriated ruffians who were
coming to seize them. The Bêgam consented, declaring that she would
put an end to her life with her own hand should she be taken. She got
into her palankeen with a dagger in her hand, and as he had seen her
determined resolution and proud spirit before exerted on many trying
occasions, he doubted not that she would do what she declared she
would. He mounted his horse and rode by the side of her palankeen,
with a pair of pistols in his holsters, and a good sword by his side.
They had got as far as Kabrî, about three miles from Sardhana,[27] on
the road to Meerut, when they found the battalions from Sardhana, who
had got intimation of the flight, gaining fast upon the palankeen. Le
Vaisseau asked the Bêgam whether she remained firm in her resolve to
die rather than submit to the indignities that threatened them.
'Yes,' replied she, showing him the dagger firmly grasped in her
right hand. He drew a pistol from his holster without saying
anything, but urged on the bearers. He could have easily galloped
off, and saved himself, but he would not quit his wife's side. At
last the soldiers came up close behind them. The female attendants of
the Bêgam began to scream; and looking in, Le Vaisseau saw the white
cloth that covered the Bêgam's breast stained with blood. She had
stabbed herself, but the dagger had struck against one of the bones
of her chest, and she had not courage to repeat the blow. Her husband
put his pistol to his temple and fired. The bail passed through his
head, and he fell dead on the ground. One of the soldiers who saw him
told me that he sprang at least a foot off the saddle into the air as
the shot struck him. His body was treated with every kind of insult
by the European officers and their men;[28] and the Bêgam was taken
back into Sardhana, kept under a gun for seven days, deprived of all
kinds of food, save what she got by stealth from her female servants,
and subjected to all manner of insolent language.
At last the officers were advised by George Thomas, who had
instigated them to this violence out of pique against the Bêgam for
her preference of the Frenchman,[29] to set aside their puppet and
reseat the Bêgam in the command, as the only chance of keeping the
territory of Sardhana.[30] 'If', said he, 'the Bêgam should die under
the torture of mind and body to which you are subjecting her, the
minister will very soon resume the lands assigned for your payment,
and disband a force so disorderly, and so little likely to be of any
use to him or the Emperor.' A council of war was held--the Bêgam was
taken out from under the gun, and reseated on the 'masnad'. A paper
was drawn up by about thirty European officers, of whom only one,
Monsieur Saleur, could sign his own name, swearing in the name of God
and Jesus Christ,[31] that they would henceforward obey her with all
their hearts and souls, and recognize no other person whomsoever as
commander. They all affixed their seals to this _covenant_; but some
of them, to show their superior learning, put their initials, or what
they used as such, for some of these _learned Thebans_ knew only two
or three letters of the alphabet, which they put down, though they
happened not to be their real initials. An officer on the part of
Sindhia, who was to have commanded these troops, was present at this
reinstallation of the Bêgam, and glad to take, as a compensation for
his disappointment, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand rupees,
which the Bêgam contrived to borrow for him.
The body of poor Le Vaisseau was brought back to camp, and there lay
several days unburied, and exposed to all kinds of indignities. The
supposition that this was the result of a plan formed by the Bêgam to
get rid of Le Vaisseau is, I believe, unfounded.[32] The Bêgam
herself gave some colour of truth to the report by retaining the name
of her first husband, Sombre, to the last, and never publicly or
formally declaring her marriage with Le Vaisseau after his death. The
troops in this mutiny pretended nothing more than a desire to
vindicate the honour of their old commander Sombre, which had, they
said, been compromised by the illicit intercourse between Le Vaisseau
and his widow. She had not dared to declare the marriage to them lest
they should mutiny on that ground, and deprive her of the command;
and for the same reason she retained the name of Sombre after her
restoration, and remained silent on the subject of her second
marriage. The marriage was known only to a few European officers. Sir
John Shore, Major Palmer, and the other gentlemen with whom Le
Vaisseau corresponded. Some grave old native gentlemen who were long
in her service have told me that they believed 'there really was too
much of truth in the story which excited the troops to mutiny on that
occasion--her too great intimacy with the gallant young Frenchman.
God forgive them for saying so of a lady whose salt they had eaten
for so many years'. Le Vaisseau made no mention of the marriage to
Colonel McGowan; and from the manner in which he mentions it to Sir
John Shore it is clear that he, or she, or both, were anxious to
conceal it from the troops and from Sindhia before their departure.
She stipulated in her will that her heir, Mr. Dyce, should take the
name of Sombre, as if she wished to have the little episode of her
second marriage forgotten.
After the death of Le Vaisseau, the command devolved on Monsieur
Saleur, a Frenchman, the only respectable officer who signed the
covenant; he had taken no active part in the mutiny; on the contrary,
he had done all he could to prevent it; and he was at last, with
George Thomas, the chief means of bringing his brother officers back
to a sense of their duty. Another battalion was added to the four in
1787, and another raised in 1798 and 1802; five of the six marched
under Colonel Saleur to the Deccan with Sindhia. They were in a state
of mutiny the whole way, and utterly useless as auxiliaries, as
Saleur himself declared in many of his letters written in French to
his mistress the Bêgam. At the battle of Assaye, four of these
battalions were left in charge of the Marâthâ camps. One was present
in the action and lost its four guns. Soon after the return of these
battalions, the Bêgam entered into an alliance with the British
Government; the force then consisted of these six battalions, a party
of artillery served chiefly by Europeans, and two hundred horse. She
had a good arsenal well stored, a foundry for cannon, both within the
walls of a small fortress, built near her dwelling at Sardhana. The
whole cost her about four lâkhs of rupees a year; her civil
establishments eighty thousand, and her household establishments and
expenses about the same; total six lâkhs of rupees a year. The
revenues of Sardhana, and the other lands assigned at different times
for the payment of the force had been at no time more than sufficient
to cover these expenses; but under the protection of our Government
they improved with the extension of tillage, and the improvements of
the surrounding markets for produce, and she was enabled to give
largely to the support of charitable institutions, and to provide
handsomely for the support of her family and pensioners after her
death.'[33]
Sombre's son, Zafaryâb Khân, had a daughter who was married to
Colonel Dyce, who had for some time the management of the Bêgam's
affairs; but he lost her favour long before her death by his violent
temper and overbearing manners, and was obliged to resign the
management to his son, who, on the Bêgam's death, came in for the
bulk of her fortune, or about sixty lâkhs of rupees. He has two
sisters who were brought up by the Bêgam, one married to Captain
Troup, an Englishman, and the other to Mr. Salaroli, an Italian, both
very worthy men. Their wives have been handsomely provided for by the
Bêgam, and by their brother, who trebled the fortunes left to them by
the Bêgam.[34] She built an excellent church at Sardhana, and
assigned the sum of 100,000 rupees as a fund to provide for its
service and repairs; 50,000 rupees as another [fund] for the poor of
the place; and 100,000 as a third, for a college in which Roman
Catholic priests might be educated for the benefit of India
generally. She sent to Rome 150,000 rupees to be employed as a
charity fund at the discretion of the Pope; and to the Archbishop of
Canterbury she sent 50,000 for the same purpose. She gave to the
Bishop of Calcutta 100,000 rupees to provide teachers for the poor of
the Protestant church in Calcutta. She sent to Calcutta for
distribution to the poor, and for the liberation of deserving
debtors, 50,000. To the Catholic missions at Calcutta, Bombay, and
Madras she gave 100,000; and to that of Agra 50,000. She built a
handsome chapel for the Roman Catholics at Meerut; and presented the
fund for its support with a donation of 12,000; and she built a
chapel for the Church Missionary at Meerut, the Reverend Mr.
Richards, at a cost of 10,000, to meet the wants of the native
Protestants.[35]
Among all who had opportunities of knowing her she bore the character
of a kind-hearted, benevolent, and good woman; and I have conversed
with men capable of judging, who had known her for more than fifty
years. She had uncommon sagacity and a masculine resolution; and the
Europeans and natives who were most intimate with her have told me
that though a woman and of small stature, her 'ru'b' (dignity, or
power of commanding personal respect) was greater than that of almost
any person they had ever seen.[36] From the time she put herself
under the protection of the British Government, in 1808, she by
degrees adopted the European modes of social intercourse, appearing
in public on an elephant, in a carriage, and occasionally on
horseback with her hat and veil, and dining at table with gentlemen.
She often entertained Governors-General and Commanders-in-Chief, with
all their retinues, and sat with them and their staff at table, and
for some years past kept an open house for the society of Meerut; but
in no situation did she lose sight of her dignity. She retained to
the last the grateful affections of the thousands who were supported
by her bounty, while she never ceased to inspire the most profound
respect in the minds of those who every day approached her, and were
on the most unreserved terms of intimacy.[37]
Lord William Bentinck was an excellent judge of character; and the
following letter will show how deeply his visit to that part of the
country had impressed him with a sense of her extensive usefulness:
'To Her Highness the Begum Sumroo.
'My esteemed Friend,--I cannot leave India without expressing the
sincere esteem I entertain for your highness's character. The
benevolence of disposition and extensive charity which have endeared
you to thousands, have excited in my mind sentiments of the warmest
admiration; and I trust that you may yet be preserved for many years,
the solace of the orphan and widow, and the sure resource of your
numerous dependants. To-morrow morning I embark for England; and my
prayers and best wishes attend you, and all others who, like you,
exert themselves for the benefit of the people of India.
'I remain,
'With much consideration,
'Your sincere friend,
(Signed) 'M. W. BENTINCK.[38]
'Calcutta, March 17th, 1835.'
Notes:
1. The reader will observe that the lady's name is spelt Sumroo in
the heading and Sombre in the text. The form Samrû, or Shamrû,
transliterates the Hindustâni spelling.
2. The author means General Regholini who was in the Bêgam's service
at the time of her death. (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. iii, p.
295.) The church, or cathedral, was consecrated in 1822, and coat
400,000 rupees. A portrait of the General, from Sardhana, is now in
the Indian Institute, Oxford, which also possesses a portrait of the
Bishop.
The best account of Begum Sumroo is to be found in _A Tour through
the Upper Provinces of Hindustan_, 1804-14, by A. D. = Ann Deane
(1823). Walter Scott introduces more than one of the stories about
the Begum into _The Surgeon's Daughter_ (1827), e.g.: "But not to be
interred alive under your seat, like the Circassian of whom you were
jealous," said Middlemas, shuddering (vol. 48, Black's ed. of the
novels, p. 382).
3. The Bêgam's benefactions are detailed _post_.
4. 'This remarkable woman was the daughter, by a concubine, of Asad
Khân, a Musalmân of Arab decent settled in the town of Kutâna in the
Meerut district. She was born about the year A.D. 1753 [see _post_.]
On the death of her father, she and her mother became subject to ill-
treatment from her half-brother, the legitimate heir, and they
consequently removed to Delhi about 1760. There she entered the
service of Sumru, and accompanied him through all his campaigns.
Sumru, on retiring to Sardhana, found himself relieved of all the
cares and troubles of war, and gave himself entirely up to a life of
ease and pleasure, and so completely fell into the hands of the Bêgam
that she had no difficulty in inducing him to exchange the title of
mistress for that of wife.' (E. T. Atkinson in _N.W.P. Gazetteer_,
1st ed., vol. ii, p. 95. The authorities for the history of Bêgum
Samrû are very conflicting. Atkinson has examined them critically,
and his account probably is the best in existence.) An anonymous
pamphlet published apparently at Sardhana and sent to the editor
anonymously long ago, gives the name of the Bêgam's father as 'Lutf
Ali Khan, a decayed nobleman of Arabian descent' living at Kotana.
Some writers state that the Bêgam was a dancing girl, and was bought
by Sumroo. Her name was Zêb-un-nissa.
5. This first wife died at Sardhana during the rainy season of 1838.
She must have been above one hundred years of age; and a good many of
the Europeans that he buried in the Sardhana cemetery had lived above
a hundred years. [W. H. S.] She was a concubine, named Bahâ Bêgam.
(_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. iii, p. 96.)
6. His name is spelt Reinhard on his tombstone, as in the text. It is
also spelt Renard. According to some authorities, his birthplace was
Trèves, not Salzburg. He is said to have been a butcher by trade, and
certainly deserted from both the French and the English services.
7. A more probable explanation is that the name is a corruption of an
alias, Summers, assumed by the deserter.
8. Kâsim Alî Khân is generally referred to in the histories under the
name of Mîr Kâsim (Meer Cossim). Mîr Jâfir was deposed in 1760, and
his son-in-law Mîr Kâsim was placed on the throne of Bengal in his
stead by the English. The history of Mîr Kâsim is told in detail by
Thornton in his sixth chapter, and also by Mill.
9. Probably 'Gorgîn' is a corruption of 'Gregory'. This name may be a
corruption of 'Georgian'.
10. Mill observes upon these transactions: 'The conduct of the
Company's servants upon this occasion furnishes one of the most
remarkable instances upon record of the power of self-interest to
extinguish all sense of justice and even of shame. They had hitherto
insisted, contrary to all right and all precedent, that the
government of the country should exempt all their goods from duty;
they now insisted that it should impose duties upon all other
traders, and accused it as guilty of a breach of the peace towards
the English nation, because it proposed to remit them.' [W. H. S.]
The quotation is from Book iv, chapter 5 (5th ed., 1858, vol. iii, p.
237).
11. The 3rd of October was the day of slaughter at Patna. The
Europeans at other places in Mîr Kâsim's power were also massacred;
and the total number slain, men, women, and children, amounted to
about two hundred. Sumroo personally butchered about one hundred and
fifty at Patna.
12. Our troops, under Sir David Ochterlony, took the fort of
Makwânpur in 1815, and might in five days have been before the
defenceless capital; but they were here arrested by the romantic
chivalry of the Marquis of Hastings. The country had been virtually
conquered; the prince, by his base treachery towards us and outrages
upon others, had justly forfeited his throne; but the Governor-
General, by perhaps a misplaced lenity, left it to him without any
other guarantee for his future good behaviour than the recollection
that he had been soundly beaten. Unfortunately he left him at the
same time a sufficient quantity of fertile land below the hills to
maintain the same army with which he had fought us, with better
knowledge how to employ them, to keep us out on a future occasion.
Between the attempt of Kâsim Alî and our attack upon Nepâl, the
Gôrkhâ masters of the country had, by a long series of successful
aggressions upon their neighbours, rendered themselves in their own
opinion and in that of their neighbours the beat soldiers of India.
They have, of course, a very natural feeling of hatred against our
government, which put a stop to the wild career of conquest, and
wrested from their grasp all the property and all the pretty women
from Kathmandû to Kashmîr. To these beautify regions they were what
the invading Huns were in former days to Europe, absolute fiends. Had
we even exacted a good road into their country with fortifications at
the proper places, it might have checked the hopes of one day
resuming the career of conquest that now keeps up the army and
military spirit, to threaten us with a renewal of war whenever we are
embarrassed on the plains. [W. H. S.]
The author's uneasiness concerning the attitude of Nepal was
justified. During the Afghan troubles of 1838-43 the Nepalese
Government was in constant communication with the enemies of the
Indian Government. The late Maharâja Sir Jang Bahâdur obtained power
in 1846, and, after his visit to England in 1850, decided to abide by
the English alliance. He did valuable service in 1857 and 1858, and
the two governments have ever since maintained an unbroken, though
reserved, friendship. The Gôrkhâ regiments in the English service are
recruited in Nepâl.
13. Aasaye (Assye, Asâi) is in the Nizâm's dominions. Here, on the
23rd of September, 1803, Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of
Wellington, with less than 5,000 men, defeated the Marâthâ host of at
least 32,000 men, including more than 10,000 under European leaders.
Ajantâ, or Ajantâ Ghât, is in the same region. (Owen, _Sel. from
Wellington Despatches_ (1880), pp. 301-9.)
14. His tombstone bears a Portuguese inscription:
'Aqui iaz Walter Reinhard, morreo aos 4 de Mayo no anno de 1778.'
(_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 96.)
15. According to this statement she must have been born in or about
1741, not in 1753, as stated by Atkinson. If the earlier date were
correct, she would have been ninety-five when she died in 1836.
Higginbotham, referring to Bacon's work, says she died at the age of
eighty-nine, which places her birth in 1747. According to Beale, she
was aged eighty-eight lunar years when she died, on the 27th January,
1836, equivalent to about eighty-five solar years. This computation
places her birth in A.D. 1751, which may be taken as the correct
date. The date of her baptism is correctly stated in the text.
16. She added the name Nobilis, when she married Le Vaisseau.
(_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 106, note.)
17. The author spells the German's name Pauly; I have followed
Atkinson's spelling. The man was assassinated in 1783.
18. This circumstance indicates that the execution of the slave girls
took place in 1782. (See _N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 91.)
19. The darker aide of the Bêgam's character is shown by the story of
the slave girl's murder. By some it is said that the girl's crime
consisted in her having attracted the favourable notice of one of the
Bêgam's husbands. Whatever may have been the offence, her barbarous
mistress visited it by causing the girl to be buried alive. The time
chosen for the execution was the evening, the place the tent of the
Bêgam; who caused her bed to be arranged immediately over the grave,
and occupied it until the morning, to prevent any attempt to rescue
the miserable girl beneath. By acts like this the Bêgam inspired such
terror that she was never afterwards troubled with domestic
dissensions.' (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. ii, p. 110.) It will
be observed that this version mentions only one girl. According to
Higginbotham (_Men whom India has Known_, 2nd ed., s.v. 'Sumroo'),
this execution took place on the evening of the day on which Le
Vaisseau perished in 1795. (See _post._) He adds that 'it is said
that this act preyed upon her conscience in after life'. This account
professes to be based on Bacon's _First Impressions and Studies from
Nature in Hindustan_, which is said to be 'the most reliable, as the
author saw the Bêgam, attended and conversed with her at one of her
levées, and gained all his information at her Court'. But Bacon's
account of the Bêgam's history, as quoted by Higginbotham, is full of
gross errors; and Sir William Sleeman may be relied on as giving the
most accurate obtainable version of the horrid story. He had the beat
possible opportunities, as well as a desire, to ascertain the truth.
20. Atkinson (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 106) uses the spelling
Le Vaisseau, which probably is correct, and observes that the name is
also written Le Vassont. The author writes Le Vassoult; and Francklin
(_Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas_, London, 8vo reprint
(Stockdale), p. 55) spells the name phonetically as Levasso. 'On
every occasion he was the declared and inveterate enemy of Mr.
Thomas.'
21. Thomas was an Irishman, born in the county of Tipperary. 'From
the best information we could procure, it appears that Mr. George
Thomas first came to India in a British ship of war, in 1781-2. His
situation in the fleet was humble, having served as a quarter-master,
or, as is affirmed by some, in the capacity of a common sailor. . . .
His first service was among the Polygars to the southward, where he
resided a few years. But at length setting out overland, he
spiritedly traversed the central part of the peninsula, and about the
year 1787 arrived at Delhi. Here he received a commission in the
service of the Bêgam Sumroo. . . . Soon after his arrival at Delhi,
the Bêgam, with her usual judgement and discrimination of character,
advanced him to a command in her army. From this period his military
career in the north-west of India may be said to have commenced.'
Owing to the rivalry of Le Vaisseau, Thomas 'quitted the Bêgam
Sumroo, and about 1792 betook himself to the frontier station of the
British army at the post of Anopshire (Anûpshâhr). . . . Here he
waited several months. . . . In the beginning of the year 1793, Mr.
Thomas, being at Anopshire, received letters from Appakandarow
(Apakanda Râo), a Mahratta chief, conveying offers of service, and
promises of a comfortable provision.' (Francklin, op. cit., p. 20.)
The author states that Thomas left the Bêgam's service in 1793, after
her marriage with Le Vaisseau in that year. Francklin (see also p.
55) was clearly under the impression that the marriage did not take
place till after Thomas had thrown up his command under the Bêgam. He
made peace with her in 1795. The capital of the principality which he
carved out for himself in 1798 was at Hânsî, eighty-nine miles north-
west of Delhi. He was driven out at the close of 1801, entered
British territory in January 1802, and died on the 22nd of August in
that year at Barhâmpur, being about forty-six years of age. A son of
his was an officer in the Bêgam's service at the time of her death in
1836. A great-granddaughter of George Thomas was, in 1867, the wife
of a writer on a humble salary in one of the Government offices at
Agra. (Beale.)
22. This incident happened in 1788. (See _N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii,
p. 99; _I.G._, 1908, vol. xii, p. 106.)
23. 'A more competent estimate may perhaps be formed of his abilities
if we reflect on the nature and extent of one of his plans, which he
detailed to the compiler of these memoirs during his residence at
Benares. When fixed in his residence at Hânsî, he first conceived,
and would, if unforeseen and untoward circumstances had not occurred,
have executed the bold design of extending his conquests to the
mouths of the Indus. This was to have been effected by a fleet of
boats, constructed from timber procured in the forests near the city
of Fîrôzpur, on the banks of the Satlaj river, proceeding down that
river with his army, and settling the countries he might subdue on
his route; a daring enterprise, and conceived in the true spirit of
an ancient Roman. On the conclusion of this design it was his
intention to turn his arms against the Panjâb, which he expected to
reduce in a couple of years; and which, considering the wealth he
would then have acquired, and the amazing resources he would have
possessed, these successes combined would doubtless have contributed
to establish his authority on a firm and solid basis.' He offered to
conquer the Panjâb on behalf of the Government of India, for the
welfare of his king and country. (Francklin, pp. 334-6.)
24. A small town in the Bulandshahr district of the North-Western
Provinces, seventy-three miles south-east of Delhi. Its fort used to
be considered strong and of strategical importance.
25. Afterwards Lord Teignmouth.
26. Major Bernier was killed at the storm of Hânsî in 1801. His
tombstone at Barsi village was found ninety years later (_Pioneer_,
Dec. 14, 1894). For epitaph of Joseph Even Bahâdur see _N.I.N. &
Qu._, vol. i, note 265.
27. Francklin says that the troops overtook the fugitives 'at the
village of Kerwah, in the begum's jaghire, four miles distant from
her capital', (p. 58.)
28. 'For three days it lay exposed to the insults of the rabble, and
was at length thrown into a ditch.' (Francklin, p. 60.)
29. According to George Thomas (whose version of the story is given
by his biographer), the Bêgam, when the mutiny broke out, was
actually preparing to attack Thomas. A German officer, known only as
the Liègeois, strenuously dissuaded the Bêgam from the proposed
hostilities, and was, in consequence, degraded by Le Vaisseau. The
troop then mutinied, and swore allegiance to Zafar Yâb Khân.
(Francklin, p. 37.)
30. Thomas says that the overtures came from the Bêgam. 'In a manner
the most abject and desponding, she addressed Mr. Thomas . . .
implored him to come to her assistance, and, finally, offered to pay
any sum of money the Marâthâs should require, on condition they would
reinstate her in the Jâgîr. On receipt of these letters, Mr. Thomas,
by an offer of 120,000 rupees, prevailed on Bâpû Sindhia to make a
movement towards Sardhana.' After negotiation, Thomas marched to
Khataulî, and 'publicly gave out that unless the Bêgam was reinstated
in her authority, those who resisted must expect no mercy; and to
give additional weight to this declaration, he apprised them that he
was acting under the orders of the Marâthâ chiefs.' After some
difficulty, 'she was finally reinstated in the full authority of her
Jâgîr'. This version of the affair, it will be noticed, does not
quite agree with that given more briefly by the author.
31. The paper was written by a Muhammadan, and he would not write
Christ _the Son of God_. It is written 'In the name of God, and his
Majesty Christ'. The Muhammadans look upon Christ as the greatest of
prophets before Muhammad; but the most binding article of their faith
is this from the Korân, which they repeat every day: 'I believe in
God, who was never begot, nor has ever begotten, nor will ever have
an equal,'--alluding to the Christians' belief in the Trinity. [W. H.
S.] For Mohammed's opinion of Jesus Christ see especially chapters 4
and 5 of the Korân.
32. To my mind the circumstances all tend to throw suspicion on the
Bêgam. The author evidently was disposed to form the beat possible
opinion of her character and acts.
33. After the Bêgam's death the revenue settlement of the estate was
made by Mr. Plowden, who writes in his report, as quoted in _N.W.P.
Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. iii, p. 432, 'The rule seems to have been
fully recognized and acted up to by the Bêgam which declared that,
according to Muhammadan law, "there shall be left for every man who
cultivates his lands as much as he requires for his own support, till
the next crop be reaped, and that of his family, and for seed. This
much shall be left to him; what remains is land-tax, and shall go to
the public treasury." For, considering her territory as a private
estate and her subjects as serfs, she appropriated the whole produce
of their labour, with the exception of what sufficed to keep body and
soul together. It was by these means . . . that a factitious state of
prosperity was induced and maintained, which, though it might, and I
believe did, deceive the Bêgam's neighbours into an impression that
her country was highly prosperous, could not delude the population
into content and happiness. Above the surface and to the eye all was
smiling and prosperous, but within was rottenness and misery. Under
these circumstances the smallness of the above arrear is no proof of
the fairness of the revenue. It rather shows that the collections
were as much as the Bêgam's ingenuity could extract, and this balance
being unrealizable, the demand was, by so much at least, too high.'
The statistics alluded to are:
Average demand of the portions of the Bêgam's Rs.
Territory in the Meerut district . . . . 5.86.650
Average collections . . . . . . 5.67.211
Balances . . . . . . . . 19.439
'Ruin was impending, when the Bêgam's death in January, 1836, and the
consequent lapse of the estate to the British, induced the
cultivators to return to their homes.'
Details of the Bêgam's military forces are given in _N.W.P.
Gazetteer_, vol. iii, p. 295. For the last thirty years of her life
the Bêgam had no need for the large force (3,371 officers and men,
with 44 guns) which she maintained. In her excessive expenditure on a
superfluous army, in her niggardly provision for civil
administration, and in her merciless rack-renting, she followed the
evil example of the ordinary native prince, and was superior only in
the unusual ability with which she worked an unsound and oppressive
System. She left £700,000. The population of Sardhana town has risen
from 3,313 in 1881 to 9,242 in 1911.
34 Zafaryâb Khân died in 1802 or 1803. His son-in-law, Colonel Dyce,
was employed in the Bêgam's service. 'The issue of this marriage was:
(l) David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who married Mary Anne, daughter of
Viscount St. Vincent, by whom he had no issue. He died in Paris in
July, 1851. In August, 1867, his body was conveyed to Sardhana and
buried in the cathedral. (2) A daughter, who married Captain Rose
Troup. (3) A daughter, who married Paul Salaroli, now Marquis of
Briona. The present owner of Sardhana is the Honourable Mary Anne
Forester, the widow of David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, and the
successful claimant in the suit against Government which has recently
been decided in her favour.' (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. iii (1875), p.
296.) This lady, in 1862, married George Cecil-Weld, third Baron
Forester, who died without issue in 1886. (Burke's _Peerage_.) Lady
Forester died on March 7, 1893.
35. In the original edition these statistics are given in words.
Figures have been used in this edition as being more readily grasped.
The amounts stated by the author are approximate round sums. More
accurate details are given in _N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. iii (1875), p.
295. The Bêgam also subscribed liberally to Hindoo and Muhammadan
institutions. Her contemporary, Colonel Skinner, was equally
impartial, and is said to have built a mosque and a temple, as well
as the church at Delhi.
The Cathedral at Sardhana was built in 1822. St. John's College is
intended to train Indians as priests, There are, or were recently,
about 250 native Christians at Sardhana, partly the descendants of
the converts who followed their mistress in change of faith. 'The
Roman Catholic priests work hard for their little colony, and are
greatly revered and respected. At St. John's College some of the boys
are instructed for the priesthood, and others taught to read and
write the Nâgarî and Urdû characters. The instruction for the
priesthood is peculiar. There are some twelve little native boys who
can quote whole chapters of the Latin Bible, and nearly all the
prayers of the Missal. Those who cannot sympathize with the system
mast admire the patience and devotion of the Italian priests who have
put themselves to the trouble of imparting such instruction. The
majority of the Christian population here are cultivators and
weavers, while many are the pensioned descendants of the European
servants of Bêgam Sumru, and still bear the appellation of Sâhib and
Mem Sâhib.' (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. iii (1875), pp. 273, 430.)
The Bêgam's palace, built in 1834, was chiefly remarkable for a
collection of about twenty-five portraits of considerable interest.
They comprised likenesses of Sir David Ochterlony, Dyce Sombre, Lord
Combermere, and other notable personages. (_Calcutta Review_, vol.
lxx, p. 460; quoted in _North Indian N. & Q._, vol. ii, p. 179.) The
mansion and park were sold by auction in 1895. Some of the portraits
are now in the Indian Institute, Oxford, some in the Indian Museum,
Calcutta, and some in Government House, Allahabad. A long article by
H. N. on Sardhana and its owners appeared in the _Pioneer_
(Allahabad) on December 12,1894.
36. A miniature portrait of the Bêgam is given on the frontispiece to
volume ii of the original edition. Francklin, describing the events
of 1796, in his memoirs of George Thomas, first published in 1803,
describes her personal appearance as follows: 'Begum Sumroo is about
forty-five years of age, small in stature, but inclined to be plump.
Her complexion is very fair, her eyes black, large and animated; her
dress perfectly Hindustany, and of the most costly materials. She
speaks the Persian and Hindustany languages with fluency, and in her
conversation is engaging, sensible, and spirited.' (London ed., p.
92, note.) The liberal benefaction of her later years have secured
her ecclesiastical approval, and I should not be surprised to hear of
her beatification or canonization. Her earlier life certainly was not
that of a saint.
37. In her younger days she strictly maintained Hindustani etiquette.
'It has been the constant and invariable usage of this lady to exact
from her subjects and servants the most rigid attention to the
customs of Hindoostan. She is never seen out of doors or in her
public durbar unveiled.
'Her officers and others, who have business with her, present
themselves opposite the place where she sits. The front of her
apartment is furnished with _chicques_ or Indian screens, these being
let down from the roof. In this manner she gives audience and
transacts business of all kinds. She frequently admits to her table
the higher ranks of her European officers, but never admits the
natives to come within the enclosure,' (Francklin, p, 92.)
38. The Governor-General's name was William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck,
I do not understand the signature M. W. Bentinck, which may be a
misprint. The eulogium seems odd to a reader who remembers that the
recipient had been for fifteen years the mistress and wife of the
Butcher of Patna. But when it was written, the memory of the massacre
had been dimmed by the lapse of seventy-two years, and His Excellency
may not have been well versed in the lady's history.
Perhaps the author was mistaken, and the letter was sent by Lady
Bentinck, whose name was Mary.
CHAPTER 76
ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE NATIVE ARMY OF INDIA
Abolition of Corporal Punishment--Increase of Pay with Length of
Service--Promotion by Seniority.
The following observations on a very important and interesting
subject were not intended to form a portion of the present work.[1]
They serve to illustrate, however, many passages in the foregoing
chapters touching the character of the natives of India; and the
Afghan war having occurred since they were written, I cannot deny
myself the gratification of presenting them to the public, since the
courage and fidelity, which it was my object to show the British
Government had a right to expect from its native troops and might
always rely upon in the hour of need, have been so nobly displayed.
I had one morning (November 14th, 1838) a visit from the senior
native officer of my regiment, Shaikh Mahûb Alî, a very fine old
gentleman, who had recently attained the rank of 'Sardâr Bahâdur',
and been invested with the new Order of British India.[2] He entered
the service at the age of fifteen, and had served fifty-three years
with great credit to himself, and fought in many an honourable field.
He had come over to Jubbulpore as president of a native general
court-martial, and paid me several visits in company with another old
officer of my regiment who was a member of the same court. The
following is one of the many conversations I had with him, taken down
as soon as he left me.
'What do you think, Sardâr Bahâdur, of the order prohibiting corporal
punishment in the army; has it had a bad or a good effect?'
'It has had a very good effect.'
'What good has it produced?'
'It has reduced the number of courts martial to one-quarter of what
they were before, and thereby lightened the duties of the officers;
it has made the good men more careful, and the bad men more orderly
than they used to be.'
'How has it produced this effect?'
'A bad man formerly went on recklessly from small offences to great
ones in the hope of impunity; he knew that no regimental, cantonment,
or brigade court martial could sentence him to be dismissed the
service; and that they would not sentence him to be flogged, except
for great crimes, because it involved at the same time dismissal from
the service. If they sentenced him to be flogged, he still hoped that
the punishment would be remitted. The general or officer confirming
the sentence was generally unwilling to order it to be carried into
effect, because the man must, after being flogged, be tumed out of
the service, and the marks of the lash upon his back would prevent
his getting service anywhere else. Now he knows that these courts can
sentence him to be dismissed from the service--that he is liable to
lose his bread for ordinary transgressions, and be sentenced to work
on the roads for graver ones.[3] He is in consequence much more under
restraint than he used to be.'
'And how has it tended to make the well-disposed more careful?'
'They were formerly liable to be led into errors by the example of
the bad men, under the same hope of impunity; but they are now more
on their guard. They have all relations among the native officers,
who are continually impressing upon them the necessity of being on
their guard, lest they be sent back upon their families--their
mothers and fathers, wives and children, as beggars. To be dismissed
from a service like that of the Company is a very great punishment;
it subjects a man to the odium and indignation of all his family.
When in the Company's service, his friends know that a soldier gets
his pay regularly, and can afford to send home a very large portion
of it. They expect that he will do so; he feels that they will listen
to no excuse, and he contracts habits of sobriety and prudence. If a
man gets into the service of a native chief, his friends know that
his pay is precarious, and they continue to maintain his family for
many years without receiving a remittance from him, in the hope that
his circumstances may one day improve. He contracts bad habits, and
is not ashamed to make his appearance among them, knowing that his
excuses will be received as valid. If one of the Company's sepoys[4]
were not to send home remittances for six months, some members of the
family would be sent to know the reason why. If he could not explain,
they would appeal to the native officers of the regiment, who would
expostulate with him; and, if all failed, his wife and children would
be tumed out of his father's house, unless they knew that he was gone
to the wars; and he would be ashamed ever to show his face among them
again.'
'And the gradual increase of pay with length of service has tended to
increase the value of the service, has it not?'
'It has very much; there are in our regiment, out of eight hundred
men, more than one hundred and fifty sepoys who get the increase of
two rupees a month, and the same number that get the increase of one.
This they feel as an immense addition to the former seven rupees a
month.[5] A prudent sepoy lives upon two, or at the utmost three,
rupees a month in seasons of moderate plenty, and sends all the rest
to his family. A great number of the sepoys of our regiment live upon
the increase of two rupees, and send all their former seven to their
families. The dismissal of a man from such a service as this
distresses, not only him, but all his relations in the higher grades,
who know how much of the comfort and happiness of his family depend
upon his remaining and advancing in it; and they all try to make
their young friends behave as they ought to do.'
'Do you think that a great portion of the native officers of the army
have the same feelings and opinions on the subject as you have?'
'They have all the same; there is not, I believe, one in a hundred
that does not think as I do upon the subject. Flogging was an odious
thing. A man was disgraced, not only before his regiment, but before
the crowd that assembled to witness the punishment. Had he been
suffered to remain in the regiment he could never have hoped to rise
after having been flogged, or sentenced to be flogged; his hopes were
all destroyed, and his spirit broken, and the order directing him to
be dismissed was good; but, as I have said, he lost all hope of
getting into any other service, and dared not show his face among his
family at home.'
'You know who ordered the abolition of flogging?'
'Lord Bentinck.'[6]
'And you know that it was at his recommendation the Honourable
Company gave the increase of pay with length of service?'
'We have heard so; and we feel towards him as we felt towards Lord
Wellesley, Lord Hastings, and Lord Lake.'
'Do you think the army would serve again now with the same spirit as
they served under Lord Lake?'
'The army would go to any part of the world to serve such masters--no
army had ever masters that cared for them like ours. We never asked
to have flogging abolished; nor did we ever ask to have an increase
of pay with length of service; and yet both have been done for us by
the Company Bahâdur.'
The old Sardâr Bahâdur came again to visit me on the 1st of December,
with all the native officers who had come over from Sâgar to attend
the court, seven in number. There were three very smart, sensible men
among them; one of whom had been a volunteer at the capture of
Java,[7] and the other[s] at that of the Isle of France.[8] They all
told me that they considered the abolition of corporal punishment a
great blessing to the native army. 'Some bad men who had already lost
their character, and consequently all hope of promotion, might be in
less dread than before; but they were very few, and their regiments
would soon get rid of them under the new law that gave the power of
dismissal to regimental courts martial.'
'But I find the European officers are almost all of opinion that the
abolition of flogging has been, or will be, attended with bad
consequences.'
'They, sir, apprehend that there will not be sufficient restraint
upon the loose characters of the regiment; but now that the sepoys
have got an increase of pay in proportion to length of service there
will be no danger of that. Where can they ever hope to get such
another service if they forfeit that of the Company? If the dread of
losing such a service is not sufficient to keep the bad in order,
that of being put to work upon the roads in irons will. The good can
always be kept in order by lighter punishments, when they have so
much at stake as the loss of such a service by frequent offences.
Some gentlemen think that a soldier does not feel disgraced by being
flogged, unless the offence for which he has been flogged is in
itself disgraceful. There is no soldier, sir, that does not feel
disgraced by being tied up to the halberts and flogged in the face of
all his comrades and the crowd that may choose to come and look at
him; the sepoys are all of the same respectable families as
ourselves, and they all enter the service in the hope of rising in
time to the same stations as ourselves, if they conduct themselves
well; their families look forward with the same hope. A man who has
been tied up and flogged knows the disgrace that it will bring upon
his family, and will sometimes rather die than return to it; indeed,
as head of a family he could not be received at home.[9] But men do
not feel disgraced in being flogged with a rattan at drill. While at
the drill they consider themselves, and are considered by us all, as
in the relation of scholars to their schoolmasters. Doing away with
the rattan at drill had a very bad effect. Young men were formerly,
with the judicious use of the rattan, made fit to join the regiment
at furthest in six months; but since the abolition of the rattan it
takes twelve months to make them fit to be seen in the ranks. There
was much virtue in the rattan, and it should never have been given
up. We have all been flogged with the rattan at the drill, and never
felt ourselves disgraced by it-we were _shâgirds_ (scholars), and the
drill-sergeant, who had the rattan, was our _ustâd_ (schoolmaster);
but when we left the drill, and took our station in the ranks as
sepoys, the case was altered, and we should have felt disgraced by a
flogging, whatever might have been the nature of the offence we
committed. The drill will never get on so well as it used to do,
unless the rattan be called into use again; but we apprehend no evil
from the abolition of corporal punishment afterwards. People are apt
to attribute to this abolition offences that have nothing to do with
it; and for which ample punishments are still provided. If a man
fires at his officer, people are apt to say it is because flogging
has been done away with; but a man who deliberately fires at his
officer is prepared to undergo worse punishment than flogging.[10]
'Do you not think that the increase of pay with length of service to
the sepoys will have a good effect in tending to give to regiments
more active and intelligent native officers? Old sepoys who are not
so will now have less cause to complain if passed over, will they
not?'
'If the sepoys thought that the increase of pay was given with this
view, they would rather not have it at all. To pass over men merely
because they happen to have grown old, we consider very cruel and
unjust. They all enter the service young, and go on doing their duty
till they become old, in the hope that they shall get promotion when
it comes to their turn. If they are disappointed, and young men, or
greater favourites with their European officers, are put over their
heads, they become heart-broken. We all feel for them, and are always
sorry to see an old soldier passed over, unless he has been guilty of
any manifest crime, or neglect of duty. He has always some relations
among the native officers who know his family, for we all try to get
our relations into the same regiment with ourselves when they are
eligible. They know what that family will suffer when they learn that
he has no longer any hopes of rising in the service, and has become
miserable. Supersessions create distress and bad feelings throughout
a regiment, even when the best men are promoted, which cannot always
be the case; for the greatest favourites are not always the best men.
Many of our old European officers, like yourself, are absent on staff
or civil employments; and the command of companies often devolves
upon very young subalterns, who know little or nothing of the
character of their men. They recommend those whom they have found
most active and intelligent, and believe to be the best; but their
opportunities of learning the characters of the men have been few.
They have seen and observed the young, active, and forward; but they
often know nothing of the steady, unobtrusive old soldier, who has
done his duty ably in all situations, without placing himself
prominently forward in any. The commanding officers seldom remain
long with the same regiment, and, consequently, seldom know enough of
the men to be able to judge of the justice of the selections for
promotion. Where a man has been guilty of a crime, or neglected his
duty, we feel no sympathy for him, and are not ashamed to tell him
so, and put him down[11] when he complains.'
Here the old Sûbadâr, who had been at the taking of the Isle of
France, mentioned that when he was senior Jemadâr of his regiment,
and a vacancy had occurred to bring him in as Sûbadâr, he was sent
for by his commanding officer, and told that, by orders from
headquarters, he was to be passed over, on account of his advanced
age, and supposed infirmity. 'I felt,' said the old man, 'as if I had
been struck by lightning, and _fell down dead_. The colonel was a
good man, and had seen much service. He had me taken into the open
air; and when I recovered, he told me that he would write to the
Commander-in-Chief, and represent my case. He did so, and I was
promoted; and I have since done my duty as Sûbadâr for ten
years.'[12]
The Sardâr Bahâdur told me that only two men in our regiment had been
that year superseded, one for insolence, and the other for neglect of
duty; and that officers and sepoys were all happy in consequence--the
young, because they felt more secure of being promoted if they did
their duty; and the old, because, they felt an interest in their
young relations. 'In those regiments,' said he, 'where supersessions
have been more numerous, old and young are dispirited and unhappy.
They all feel that the _good old rule of right_ (_hakk_), as long as
a man does his duty well, can no longer be relied upon.'
When two companies of my regiment passed through Jubbulpore a few
days after this conversation on their way from Sâgar to Seoni, I rode
out a mile or two to meet them. They had not seen me for sixteen
years, but almost all the native commissioned and non-commissioned
officers were personally known to me. They were all very glad to see
me, and I rode along with them to their place of encampment, where I
had ready a feast of sweetmeats. They liked me as a young man, and
are, I believe, proud of me as an old one. Old and young spoke with
evident delight of the rigid adherence on the part of the present
commanding officer, Colonel Presgrave, to the good old rule of 'hakk'
(right) in the recent promotions to the vacancies occasioned by the
annual transfer to the invalid establishment. We might, no doubt,
have in every regiment a few smarter native officers by disregarding
this rule than by adhering to it; but we should, in the diminution of
the good feeling towards the European officers and the Government,
lose a thousand times more than we gained. They now go on from youth
to old age, from the drill to the retired pension, happy and
satisfied that there is no service on earth so good for them.[13]
With admirable _moral_, but little or no _literary_ education, the
native officers of our regiments never dream of aspiring to anything
more than is now held out to them, and the mass of the soldiers are
inspired with devotion to the service, and every feeling with which
we could wish to have them inspired, by the hope of becoming officers
in time, if they discharge their duties faithfully and zealously.
Deprive the mass of this hope, give the commissions to an _exclusive
class_ of natives, or to a favoured few, chosen often, if not
commonly, without reference to the feelings or qualifications we most
want in our native officers, and our native army will soon cease to
have the same feelings of devotion towards the Government, and of
attachment and respect towards their European officers that they now
have. The young, ambitions, and aspiring native officers will soon
try to teach the great mass that their interest and that of the
European officers and European Government are by no means one and the
same, as they have been hitherto led to suppose; and it is upon the
good feeling of this great mass that we have to depend for support.
To secure this good feeling, we can well afford to sacrifice a little
efficiency at the drill. It was unwise in one of the commanders-in-
chief to direct that no soldier in our Bengal native regiments should
be promoted unless he could read and write-it was to prohibit the
promotion of the best, and direct the promotion of the worst,
soldiers in the ranks. In India a military officer is rated as a
gentleman by his birth, that is _caste_, and by his deportment in all
his relations of life, not by his _knowledge of books_.
The Râjpût, the Brahman, and the proud Pathân who attains a
commission, and deports himself like an officer, never thinks
himself, or is thought by others, deficient in anything that
constitutes the gentleman, because he happens not to be at the same
time a clerk. He has from his childhood been taught to consider the
quill and the sword as two distinct professions, both useful and
honourable when honourably pursued; and having chosen the sword, he
thinks he does quite enough in learning how to use and support it
through all grades, and ought not to be expected to encroach on the
profession of the penman. This is a tone of feeling which it is
clearly the interest of Government rather to foster than discourage,
and the order which militated so much against it has happily been
either rescinded or disregarded.
Three-fourths of the recruits of our Bengal native infantry are drawn
from the Râjpût peasantry of the kingdom of Oudh, on the left bank of
the Ganges, where their affections have been linked to the soil for a
long series of generations.[14] The good feelings of the families
from which they are drawn continue through the whole period of their
service to exercise a salutary influence over their conduct as men
and as soldiers. Though they never take their families with them,
they visit them on furlough every two or three years, and always
return to them when the surgeon considers a change of air necessary
to their recovery from sickness. Their family circles are always
present to their imaginations; and the recollections of their last
visit, the hopes of the next, and the assurance that their conduct as
men and as soldiers in the interval will be reported to those circles
by their many comrades, who are annually returning on furlough to the
same parts of the country, tend to produce a general and uniform
propriety of conduct, that is hardly to be found among the soldiers
of any other army in the world, and which seems incomprehensible to
those unacquainted with its source--veneration for parents cherished
through life, and a never-impaired love of home, and of all the dear
objects by which it is constituted.
Our Indian native army is perhaps the only entirely voluntary
standing army that has been ever known, and it is, to all intents and
purposes, entirely voluntary, and as such must be treated.[15] We can
have no other native army in India, and without such an army we could
not maintain our dominion a day. Our best officers have always
understood this quite well; and they have never tried to flog and
harass men out of all that we find good in them for our purposes. Any
regiment in our service might lay down their arms and disperse to-
morrow, without our having a chance of apprehending one deserter
among them all.[16]
When Frederick the Great of Prussia reviewed his army of sixty
thousand men in Pomerania, previous to his invasion of Silesia, he
asked the Prince d'Anhalt, who accompanied him, what he most admired
in the scene before him.
'Sire,' replied the prince, 'I admire at once the fine appearance of
the men, and the regularity and perfection of their movements and
evolutions.'
'For my part,' said Frederick, 'this is not what excites my
astonishment, since with the advantage of money, time, and care,
these are easily attained. It is that you and I, my dear cousin,
should be in the midst of such an army as this in perfect safety.
Here are sixty thousand men who are all _irreconcilable enemies to
both you and myself_', not one among them that is not a man of more
strength and better armed than either, yet they all tremble at our
presence, while it would be folly on our part to tremble at theirs--
such is the wonderful effect of order, vigilance, and subordination.'
But a reasonable man might ask, what were the circumstances which
enabled Frederick to keep in a state of order and subordination an
army composed of soldiers who were 'irreconcilable enemies' of their
Prince and of their officers? He could have told the Prince d'Anhalt,
had he chose to do so; for Frederick was a man who thought deeply.
The chief circumstance favourable to his ambition was the imbecility
of the old French Government, then in its dotage, and unable to see
that an army of involuntary soldiers was no longer compatible with
the state of the nation. This Government had reduced its soldiers to
a condition worse than that of the common labourers upon the roads,
while it deprived them of all hope of rising, and all feeling of
pride in the profession.[17] Desertion became easy from the extension
of the French dominion and from the circumstance of so many
belligerent powers around requiring good soldiers; and no odium
attended desertion, where everything was done to degrade, and nothing
to exalt the soldier in his own esteem and that of society.
Instead of following the course of events and rendering the condition
of the soldier less odious by increasing his pay and hope of
promotion, and diminishing the labour and disgrace to which he was
liable, and thereby filling her regiments with voluntary soldiers
when involuntary ones could no longer be obtained, the Government of
France reduced the soldier's pay to one-half the rate of wages which
a common labourer got on the roads, and put them under restraints and
restrictions that made them feel every day, and every hour, that they
were slaves. To prevent desertions by severe examples under this
high-pressure System, they had recourse first to slitting the noses
and cutting off the ears of deserters, and, lastly, to shooting them
as fast as they could catch them.[18] But all was in vain; and
Frederick of Prussia alone got fifty thousand of the finest soldiers
in the world from the French regiments, who composed one-third of his
army, and enabled him to keep all the rest in that state of
discipline that improved so much its efficiency, in the same manner
as the deserters from the Roman legions, which took place under
similar circumstances, became the flower of the army of
Mithridates.[19]
Frederick was in position and disposition a despot. His territories
were small, while his ambition was boundless. He was unable to pay a
large army the rate of wages necessary to secure the services of
voluntary soldiers; and he availed himself of the happy imbecility of
the French Government to form an army of involuntary ones. He got
French soldiers at a cheap rate, because they dared not return to
their native country, whence they were hunted down and shot like
dogs, and these soldiers enabled him to retain his own subjects in
his ranks upon the same terms. Had the French Government retraced its
steps, improved the condition of its soldiers, and mitigated the
punishment for desertion during the long war, Frederick's army would
have fallen to pieces 'like the baseless fabric of a vision'.
'_Parmi nous,' says Montesquieu, 'les désertions sont fréquentes
parce que les soldats sont la plus vile partie de chaque nation, et
qu'il n'y en a aucun qui aie, ou qui croie avoir un certain avantage
sur les autres. Chez les Romains elles étaient plus rares--des
soldats tirés du sein d'un peuple si fier, si orgueilleux, si sûr de
commander aux autres, ne pouvaient guère penser â s' aviler jusqu'à
cesser d'être Romains_.'[20] But was it the poor soldiers who were to
blame if they were 'vile', and had 'no advantage over others', or the
Government that took them from the vilest classes, or made their
condition when they got them worse than that of the lowest class in
society? The Romans deserted under the same circumstances, and, as I
have stated, formed the _elite_ of the army of Mithridates and the
other enemies of Rome; but they respected their military oath of
allegiance long after perjury among senators had ceased to excite any
odium, since as a fashionable or political vice it had become common.
Did not our day of retribution come, though in a milder shape, to
teach us a great political and moral lesson, when so many of our
brave sailors deserted our ships for those of America, in which they
fought against us?[21] They deserted from our ships of war because
they were there treated like dogs, or from our merchant ships because
they were every hour liable to be seized like felons and put on board
the former. When 'England expected every man to do his duty' at
Trafalgar, had England done its duty to every man who was that day to
fight for her? Is not the intellectual stock which the sailor
acquires in scenes of peril 'upon the high and giddy mast' as much
his property as that which others acquire in scenes of peace at
schools and colleges? And have not our senators, morally and
religiously, as much right to authorize their sovereign to seize
clergymen, lawyers, and professors, for employment in his service,
upon the wages of ordinary uninstructed labour, as they have to
authorize him to seize able sailors to be so employed in her navy? A
feeling more base than that which authorized the able seaman to be
hunted down upon such conditions, torn from his wife and children,
and put like Uriah in front of those battles upon which our welfare
and honour depended, never disgraced any civilized nation with whose
history we are acquainted.[22]
Sir Matthew Decker, in a passage quoted by Mr. McCulloch, says, 'The
custom of impressment put a freeborn British sailor on the same
footing as a Turkish slave. The Grand Seignior cannot do a more
absolute act than to order a man to be dragged away from his family,
and against his will run his head against the mouth of a cannon; and
if such acts should be frequent in Turkey upon any one set of useful
men, would it not drive them away to other countries, and thin their
numbers yearly? And would not the remaining few double or triple
their wages, which is the case with our sailors in time of war, to
the great detriment of our commerce?' The Americans wisely
relinquished the barbarous and unwise practice of their parent land,
and, as McCulloch observes, 'While the wages of all labourers and
artisans are uniformly higher in the United States than in England,
those of sailors are generally lower,' as the natural consequence of
manning their navy by means of voluntary enlistment alone. At the
close of the last war, sixteen thousand British sailors were serving
on board of American ships; and the wages of our seamen rose from
forty or[23] fifty to a hundred or one hundred and twenty shillings a
month, as the natural consequence of our continuing to resort to
impressment after the Americans had given it up.[24]
Frederick's army consisted of about one hundred and fifty thousand
men. Fifty thousand of these were French deserters, and a
considerable portion of the remaining hundred thousand were deserters
from the Austrian army, in which desertion was punished in the same
manner with death. The dread of this punishment if they quitted his
ranks, enabled him to keep up that state of discipline that improved
so much the efficacy of his regiments, at the same time that it made
every individual soldier his 'irreconcilable enemy'. Not relying
entirely upon this dread on the part of deserters to quit his ranks
under his high-pressure system of discipline, and afraid that the
soldiers of his own soil might make off in spite of all their
vigilance, he kept his regiments in garrison towns till called on
actual service; and that they might not desert on their way from one
garrison to another during relief, he never had them relieved at all.
A trooper was flogged for falling from his horse, though he had
broken a limb in his fall; it was difficult, he said, to distinguish
an involuntary fault from one that originated in negligence, and to
prevent a man hoping that his negligence would be forgiven, all
blunders were punished, from whatever cause arising. No soldier was
suffered to quit his garrison till led out to fight; and when a
desertion took place, cannons were fired to announce it to the
surrounding country. Great rewards were given for apprehending, and
severe punishments inflicted for harbouring, the criminal; and he was
soon hunted down, and brought back. A soldier was, therefore, always
a prisoner and a slave.
Still, all this rigour of Prussian discipline, like that of our navy,
was insufficient to extinguish that ambition which is inherent in our
nature to obtain the esteem and applause of the circle in which we
move; and the soldier discharged his duty in the hour of danger, in
the hope of rendering his life more happy in the esteem of his
officers and comrades. 'Every tolerably good soldier feels ', says
Adam Smith, 'that he would become the scorn of his companions if he
should be supposed capable of shrinking from danger, or of hesitating
either to expose or to throw away his life, when the good of the
service required it.' So thought the philosopher-King of Prussia,
when he let his regiments out of garrison to go and face the enemy.
The officers were always treated with as much lenity in the Prussian
as any other service, because the king knew that the hope of
promotion would always be sufficient to bind them to their duties;
but the poor soldiers had no hope of this kind to animate them in
their toils and their dangers.
We took our System of drill from Frederick of Prussia; and there is
still many a martinet who would carry his high-pressure system of
discipline into every other service over which he had any control,
unable to appreciate the difference of circumstances under which they
may happen to be raised and maintained.[25]
The sepoys of the Bengal army, the only part of our native army with
which I am much acquainted, are educated as soldiers from their
infancy--they are brought up in that feeling of entire deference for
constituted authority which we require in soldiers, and which they
never lose through life. They are taken from the agricultural classes
of Indian society--almost all the sons of yeomen--cultivating
proprietors of the soil, whose families have increased beyond their
means of subsistence. One son is sent one after another to seek
service in our regiments as necessity presses at home, from whatever
cause--the increase of taxation, or the too great increase of numbers
in families.[26] No men can have a higher sense of the duty they owe
to the state that employs them, or whose 'salt they eat'; nor can any
men set less value on life when the service of that state requires
that it shall be risked or sacrificed. No persons are brought up with
more deference for parents. In no family from which we drew our
recruits is a son through infancy, boyhood, or youth, heard to utter
a disrespectful word to his parents--such a word from a son to his
parents would shock the feelings of the whole community in which the
family resides, and the offending member would be visited with their
highest indignation. When the father dies the eldest son takes his
place, and receives the same marks of respect, the same entire
confidence and deference as the father. If he be a soldier in a
distant land, and can afford to do so, he resigns the service, and
returns home to take his post as the head of the family. If he cannot
afford to resign, if the family still want the aid of his regular
monthly pay, he remains with his regiment, and denies himself many of
the personal comforts he has hitherto enjoyed, that he may increase
his contribution to the general stock.
The wives and children of his brothers, who are absent on service,
are confided to his care with the same confidence as to that of the
father. It is a rule to which I have through life found but few
exceptions that those who are most disposed to resist constituted
authority are those most disposed to abuse such authority when they
get it. The members of these families, disposed, as they always are,
to pay deference to such authority, are scarcely ever found to abuse
it when it devolves upon them; and the elder son, when he succeeds to
the place of his father, loses none of the affectionate attachment of
his younger brothers.
They never take their wives or children with them to their
regiments, or to the places where their regiments are stationed.[27]
They leave them with their fathers or elder brothers, and enjoy their
society only when they return on furlough. Three-fourths of their
incomes are sent home to provide for their comfort and subsistence,
and to embellish that home in which they hope to spend the winter of
their days. The knowledge that any neglect of the duty they owe their
distant families will be immediately visited by the odium of their
native officers and brother soldiers, and ultimately communicated to
the heads of their families, acts as a salutary check on their
conduct; and I believe that there is hardly a native regiment in the
Bengal army in which the twenty drummers who are Christians, and have
their families with the regiment, do not cause more trouble to the
officers than the whole eight hundred sepoys.
To secure the fidelity of such men all that is necessary is to make
them feel secure of three things--their regular pay, at the handsome
rate at which it has now been fixed; their retiring pensions upon the
scale hitherto enjoyed; and promotion by seniority, like their
European officers, unless they shall forfeit all claims to it by
misconduct or neglect of duty.[28] People talk about a demoralized
army, and discontented army! No army in the world was certainly ever
more moral or more contented than our native army; or more satisfied
that their masters merit all their devotion and attachment; and I
believe none was ever more devoted or attached to them.[29] I do not
speak of the European officers of the native army. They very
generally believe that they have had just cause of complaint, and
sufficient care has not always been taken to remove that impression.
In all the junior grades the Honourable Company's officers have
advantages over the Queen's in India. In the higher grades the
Queen's officers have advantages over those of the Honourable
Company. The reasons it does not behove me here to consider.[30]
In all armies composed of involuntary soldiers, that is, of soldiers
who are anxious to quit the ranks and return to peaceful occupations,
but cannot do so, much of the drill to which they are subjected is
adopted merely with a view to keep them from pondering too much upon
the miseries of their present condition, and from indulging in those
licentious habits to which a strong sense of these miseries, and the
recollection of the enjoyments of peaceful life which they have
sacrificed, are too apt to drive them. No portion of this is
necessary for the soldiers of our native army, who have no miseries
to ponder over, or superior enjoyments in peaceful life to look back
upon; and a very small quantity of drill is sufficient to make a
regiment go through its evolutions well, because they have all a
pride and pleasure in their duties, as long as they have a commanding
officer who understands them. Clarke, in his _Travels_, speaking of
the three thousand native infantry from India whom he saw paraded in
Egypt under their gallant leader, Sir David Baird, says, 'Troops in
such a state of military perfection, or better suited for active
service, were never seen--not even on the famous parade of the chosen
ten thousand belonging to Bonaparte's legions, which he was so vain
of displaying before the present war in the front of the Tuileries at
Paris. Not an unhealthy soldier was to be seen. The English, inured
to the climate of India, considered that of Egypt as temperate in its
effects, and the sipâhees seemed as fond of the Nile as the
Ganges.'[31]
It would be much better to devise more innocent amusements to lighten
the miseries of European soldiers in India than to be worrying them
every hour, night and day, with duties which are in themselves
considered to be of no importance whatever, and imposed merely with a
view to prevent their having time to ponder on these miseries.[32]
But all extra and useless duties to a soldier become odious, because
they are always associated in his mind with the ideas of the odious
and degrading punishment inflicted for the neglect of them. It is
lamentable to think how much of misery is often wantonly inflicted
upon the brave soldiers of our European regiments of India on the
pretence of a desire to preserve order and discipline.[33]
Sportsmen know that if they train their horses beyond a certain point
they 'train off'; that is, they lose the spirit and with it the
condition they require to support them in their hour of trial. It is
the same with soldiers; if drilled beyond a certain point, they
'drill off', and lose the spirit which they require to sustain them
in active service, and before the enemy. An over-drilled regiment
will seldom go through its evolutions well, even in ordinary review
before its own general. If it has all the mechanism, it wants all the
real spirit of military discipline--it becomes dogged, and is, in
fact, a body with but a soul. The martinet, who is seldom a man of
much intellect, is satisfied as long as the bodies of his men are
drilled to his liking; his narrow mind comprehends only one of the
principles which influence mankind--fear; and upon this he acts with
all the pertinacity of a slave-driver. If he does not disgrace
himself when he comes before the enemy, as he commonly does, by his
own incapacity, his men will perhaps try to disgrace him, even at the
sacrifice of what they hold dearer than their lives--their
reputation. The real soldier, who is generally a man of more
intellect, cares more about the feelings than the bodies of his men;
he wants to command their affections as well as their limbs, and he
inspires them with a feeling of enthusiasm that renders them
insensible to all danger--such men were Lord Lake, and Generals
Ochterlony, Malcolm, and Adams, and such are many others well known
in India.
Under the martinet the soldiers will never do more than what a due
regard for their own reputation demands from them before the enemy,
and will sometimes do less. Under the real soldier, they will always
do more than this; his reputation is dearer to them even than their
own, and they will do more to sustain it. The army of the consul,
Appius Claudius, exposed themselves to almost inevitable destruction
before the enemy to disgrace him in the eyes of his country, and the
few survivors were decimated on their return; he cared nothing for
the spirit of his men. The army of his colleague, Quintius, on the
contrary, though from the same people, and levied and led out at the
same time, covered him with glory because they loved him.[34] We had
an instance of this in the war with Nepâl in-1813, in which a king's
regiment played the part of the army of Appius.[35] There were other
martinets, king's and Company's, commanding divisions in that war,
and they all signally failed; not, however, except in the above one
instance, from backwardness on the part of their troops, but from
utter incapacity when the hour of trial came. Those who succeeded
were men always noted for caring something more about the hearts than
the whiskers and buttons of their men. That the officer who delights
in harassing his regiment in times of peace will fail with it in
times of war and scenes of peril seems to me to be a rule almost as
well established as that he, who in the junior ranks of the army
delights most to kick against authority, is always found the most
disposed to abuse it when he gets to the higher. In long intervals of
peace, the only prominent military characters are commonly such
martinets; and hence the failures so generally experienced in the
beginning of a war after such an interval. Whitelocks are chosen for
command, till Wolfes and Wellingtons find Chathams and Wellesleys to
climb up by.
To govern those whose mental and physical energies we require for our
subsistence and support by the lash alone is so easy, so simple a
mode of bending them to our will, and making them act strictly and
instantly in conformity to it, that it is not at all surprising to
find so many of those who have been accustomed to it, and are not
themselves liable to have the lash inflicted upon them, advocating
its free use. In China the Emperor has his generals flogged, and
finds the lash so efficacious in bending them to his will that
nothing would persuade him that it could ever be safely dispensed
with. In some parts of Germany they had the officers flogged, and
princes and generals found this so very efficacious in making those
act in conformity to their will that they found it difficult to
believe that any army could be well managed without it. In other
Christian armies the officers are exempted from the lash, but they
use it freely upon all under them; and it would be exceedingly
difficult to convince the greater part of these officers that the
free use of the lash is not indispensably necessary, nay, that the
men do not themselves like to be flogged, as eels like to be skinned,
when they once get used to it. Ask the slave-holders of the southern
states of America whether any society can be well constituted unless
the greater part of those upon the sweat of whose brow the community
depends for their subsistence are made by law liable to be bought,
sold, and driven to their daily labour with the lash; they will one
and all say No; and yet there are doubtless many very excellent and
amiable persons among these slave-holders. If our army, as at present
constituted, cannot do without the free use of the lash, let its
constitution be altered; for no nation with free institutions should
suffer its soldiers to be flogged. '_Laudabiliores tamen duces sunt,
quorum exercitum ad modestiam labor et usus instituit, quam illi,
quorum milites ad obedientiam suppliciorum formido compellit.'[36]
Though I reprobate that wanton severity of discipline in which the
substance is sacrificed to the form, in which unavoidable and trivial
offences are punished as deliberate and serious crimes, and the
spirit of the soldier is entirely disregarded, while the motion of
his limbs, cut of his whiskers, and the buttons of his coat are
scanned with microscopic eye, I must not be thought to advocate
idleness. If we find the sepoys of a native regiment, as we sometimes
do at a healthy and cheap station, become a little unruly like
schoolboys, and ask an old native officer the reason, he will
probably answer others as he has me by another question, '_Ghora ârâ
kyûn? Pânî sarâ kyûn?' 'Why does the horse become vicious? Why does
the water become putrid?'-For want of exercise. Without proper
attention to this exercise no regiment is ever kept in order; nor has
any commanding officer ever the respect or the affection of his men
unless they see that he understands well all the duties which his
Government entrusts to him, and is resolved to have them performed in
all situations and under all circumstances. There are always some bad
characters in a regiment, to take advantage of any laxity of
discipline, and lead astray the younger soldiers, whose spirits have
been rendered exuberant by good health and good feeding; and there is
hardly any crime to which they will not try to excite these young
men, under an officer careless about the discipline of his regiment,
or disinclined, from a mistaken _esprit de corps_, or any other
cause, to have those crimes traced home to them and punished.[37]
There can be no question that a good tone of feeling between the
European officers and their men is essential to the well-being of our
native army; and I think I have found this tone somewhat impaired
whenever our native regiments are concentrated at large stations. In
such places the European society is commonly large and gay; and the
officers of our native regiments become too much occupied in its
pleasures and ceremonies to attend to their native officers or
sepoys. In Europe there are separate classes of people who subsist by
catering for the amusements of the higher classes of society, in
theatres, operas, concerts, balls, &c., &c.; but in India this duty
devolves entirely upon the young civil and military officers of the
Government, and at large stations it really is a very laborious one,
which often takes up the whole of a young man's time. The ladies must
have amusement; and the officers must find it for them, because there
are no other persons to undertake the arduous duty. The consequence
is that they often become entirely alienated from their men, and
betray signs of the greatest impatience while they listen to the
necessary reports of their native officers, as they come on or go off
duty.[38]
It is different when regiments are concentrated for active service.
Nothing tends so much to improve the tone of feeling between the
European officers and their men, and between European soldiers and
sepoys, as the concentration of forces on actual service, where the
same hopes animate, and the same dangers unite them in common bonds
of sympathy and confidence. '_Utrique alteris freti, finitimos armis
aut metu sub imperium cogere, nomen gloriamque sibi addidere_.' After
the campaigns under Lord Lake, a native regiment passing Dinapore,
where the gallant King's 76th, with whom they had fought side by
side, was cantoned, invited the soldiers to a grand entertainment
provided for them by the sepoys. They consented to go on one
condition--that the sepoys should see them all back safe before
morning. Confiding in their sable friends, they all got gloriously
drunk, but found themselves lying every man upon his proper cot in
his own barracks in the morning. The sepoys had carried them all home
upon their shoulders. Another native regiment, passing within a few
miles of a hill on which they had buried one of their European
officers after that war, solicited permission to go and make their
'salâm' to the tomb, and all went who were off duty.[39] The system
which now keeps the greater part of our native infantry at small
stations of single regiments in times of peace tends to preserve this
good tone of feeling between officers and men, at the same time that
it promotes the general welfare of the country by giving confidence
everywhere to the peaceful and industrious classes.
I will not close this chapter without mentioning one thing which I
have no doubt every Company's officer in India will concur with me in
thinking desirable to improve the good feeling of the native
soldiery--that is, an increase in the pay of the Jemadârs. They are
commissioned officers, and seldom attain the rank in less than from
twenty-five to thirty years;[40] and they have to provide themselves
with clothes of the same costly description as those of the Sûbadâr;
to be as well mounted, and in all respects to keep the same
respectability of appearance, while their pay is only twenty-four
rupees and a half a month; that is, ten rupees a month only more than
they had been receiving in the grade of Havildârs, which is not
sufficient to meet the additional expenses to which they become
liable as commissioned officers. Their means of remittance to their
families are rather diminished than increased by promotion, and but
few of them can hope ever to reach the next grade of Sûbadâr. Our
Government, which has of late been so liberal to its native civil
officers, will, I hope, soon take into consideration the claims of
this class, who are universally admitted to be the worst paid class
of native public officers in India. Ten rupees a month addition to
their pay would be of great importance; it would enable them to
impart some of the advantages of promotion to their families, and
improve the good feeling of the circles around them towards the
Government they serve.[41]
Notes:
1. This chapter and the following one were printed as a separate
tract at Calcutta in 1841 (see Bibliography). That small volume
included an Introduction and two statistical tables which the author
did not reprint. He has utilized extracts from the Introduction in
various parts of the _Rambles and Recollections_. I am not sure that
the tract was ever published, though it was printed; for the author
says in his Introduction: 'They (_scil._ these two essays) may never
be published; but I cannot deny myself the gratification of printing
them.'
2. This order is confined to the Indian Army.
3. The punishment of working on the roads is long obsolete.
4. The author spells this word 'sipahee'. I have thought it better to
use throughout the now familiar corruption.
5. The ordinary infantry pay was raised from seven to nine rupees in
1895.
6. General Orders by the Commander-in-Chief of the 5th of January,
1797, declare that no sepoy or trooper of our native army shall be
dismissed from the service by the sentence of any but a general court
martial. General Orders by the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Combermere,
of the 19th of March, 1827, declare that his Excellency is of opinion
that the quiet and orderly habits of the native soldiers are such
that it can very seldom be necessary to have recourse to the
punishment of flogging, which might be almost entirely abolished with
great advantage to their character and feelings; and directs that no
native soldier shall in future be sentenced to corporal punishment
unless for the crime of _stealing, marauding, or gross
insubordination_, where the individuals are deemed unworthy to
continue in the ranks of the army. No such sentence by a regimental,
detachment, or brigade court martial was to be carried into effect
till confirmed by the general officer commanding the division. When
flogged the soldier was invariably to be discharged from the service.
A circular letter from the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Combermere, on
the 16th of June, 1827, directs that sentence to corporal punishment
is not to be restricted to the three crimes of _theft, marauding, or
gross insubordination_; but that it is not to be awarded except for
very serious offences against discipline, or actions of a disgraceful
or infamous nature, which show those who committed them to be unfit
for the service; that the officer who assembles the court may remit
the sentence of corporal punishment, and the dismissal involved in
it; but cannot carry it into effect till confirmed by the officer
commanding the division, except when an immediate example is
indispensably necessary, as in the case of plundering and violence on
the part of soldiers in the line of march. In all cases the soldier
who has been flogged must be dismissed.