Army Factory, Cawnpore—Native Cutters at work.] We now leave Benares,
noticing the great railway bridge over the Ganges, and travel by rail
over the grey monotony of the plains, varied by patches of cultivation,
herds of long-eared goats, long-legged pigs, large black vultures, and
here and there a string of camels. So we come to Cawnpore, the
Manchester of India. Cawnpore is the chief inland manufacturing city of
India, a great contrast in all its ways with Benares. Western capital,
Western ideas, and Western organisation are at work on a large scale.
There are mills and factories for the spinning and weaving of wool,
mostly Indian wool, but some Australian brought by way of Calcutta. One
of these mills seen by our artist had on hand at the time of his visit
an order for eleven thousand coats, and had just finished thirty-three
thousand for the police of the great native state of Hyderabad. This is
the mill in question. The cutters are shearing coats from a great piece
of khaki, on which the patterns to be cut have been chalked. Both the
spinning of the yarn and the weaving of khaki cloth have been
accomplished by native labour and British machinery at Cawnpore. Khaki
signifies the colour of khak, or dust.
[Sidenote: 32.
The Same—the Raw Hide Shed.] [Sidenote: 33.
The Same—unloading Bark.] [Sidenote: 34.
The Same—the Boot Shop.] [Sidenote: 35.
Well in Messrs. Cooper Allen’s Model Village, Cawnpore.] [Sidenote: 36.
Native Potters.] [Sidenote: 37.
The Same.] Here is a leather factory for making Government boots and
army equipment. This view shows the raw hides, mostly buffalo, gathered
by rail from all parts of India. The hides on the weighing machine have
been dried. This is bark being unloaded from the train for use in the
tannery. Then we see the boot shop itself, thronged with workmen. These
workmen are mostly Musulmans. As will be seen, the boots are hand-sewn.
One large firm, employing daily some three thousand five hundred hands,
has built a model village, of which we have here the well, the central
feature of every Indian village, whether of the new and garden type, or
of the old and traditional. What a contrast must all this be to the
inhabitants of the country districts, where village tradesmen still
follow their traditional crafts! Here, for example, are two views in a
pottery near Benares. The potters turn the wheel with their feet. Most
Hindu workmen use their feet a good deal, and of course the typical
squatting attitude makes it easier for them to do so.
Consider the revolution in all the social life of India, which is
involved in the steady displacement of these village-made wares by the
cheaper machine-made products of Cawnpore and other factory centres.
There is a change beginning throughout the length and breadth of this
vast land, not wholly unlike that which took place in Britain under the
name of the Industrial Revolution a century and a half ago. As higher
and more skilled industries are introduced, it seems likely ultimately
to result in a migration of workers from the villages to the cities, in
the growth of the size of the cities, and in the greater monotony of
life in the rustic villages. No doubt there will be some inevitable
suffering, especially on the part of those workers who cannot adapt
themselves to the new conditions. In the main, however, the factory
operatives have thus far been peasant proprietors who forsake their
villages only for a time.
[Sidenote: 38.
The Rumi Gate, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 39.
The Same—from within.] [Sidenote: 40.
The Imambara, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 41.
The Same—the Great Hall.] Lucknow is a city of modern temples and
palaces, many of them stucco buildings of debased architecture, which
appear beautiful only by moonlight and when artificially illuminated. We
have here the Rumi Gateway, and here the same gateway from within. Then
we have the Imambara, built under Asaf-ud-daulah, who also built the
Residency, as a relief work in a great famine in 1784. The most striking
feature is the successful construction of an enormous roof of coarse
concrete without ribs, beams, pillars, or visible support of any kind,
except that from the four surrounding walls. Here is the great hall,
beneath this roof. It is about a hundred and sixty feet long, fifty feet
wide, and some fifty feet high. On the floor is the tomb of
Asaf-ud-daulah, a slab of plain masonry surrounded by silver, and
covered with a canopy. The tomb is not in line with the sides of the
hall, but is a little askew in order that it be oriented in accordance
with the direction of Mecca. Near by can be seen a huge tazia, which is
carried through the streets on the Musulman anniversary of the Moharam.
[Sidenote: 42.
In the Chauk Bazaar, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 43.
The Same.] [Sidenote: 44.
A Musulman Woman in a Burka.] [Sidenote: 45.
The Jama Masjid, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 46.
The Husainabad Imambara, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 47.
Karbala of Diana-ud-daula, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 48.
The Kasmain, Lucknow.] Next we have two views in the Bazaar of Lucknow,
which forms one of the six wards of the city. In the bazaar are to be
found jewellers and silversmiths, together with brassworkers and
woodcarvers. Then we come to a very characteristic Indian scene, a
Musulman woman wearing a burka, that is to say, a veil with eye-slits.
All Musulman women of a higher class are veiled when they leave the
privacy of their houses, in accordance with the general feeling of
Islam, alike in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Here we see the Jama Masjid, a
three-domed mosque, with decorations painted in blue and purple upon its
walls. Within it is a curious ledge used by the Shiahs, one of the two
great sects of the Musulmans, for resting their foreheads at prayer
time. From the platform of this mosque, we have a view of one of the
largest Muhammadan buildings of the city, the Husainabad Imambara, built
in 1837, by Muhammad Ali Shah, as a burial place for himself and his
mother. It is almost entirely of painted stucco. Beyond its tallest
minaret can be seen in the distance the red brick Clock-Tower of the
city. Here we see the Karbala or burying place of Diana-ud-daula, of red
sandstone, with a gilded cupola, and close by is the Kasmain, whose
architecture is copied from that of a sacred place in Bagdad.
[Sidenote: 49.
The Chhattar Manzil, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 50.
Women planting Tobacco Plants, Lucknow.] Next we see the Chhattar
Manzil, once the Palace of the Kings of Oudh, now transformed into the
United Service Club. Finally, in contrast, is a scene near the
Residency, showing women planting out young tobacco plants, with an
irrigation well in the background. Notice the oxen pulling at the rope
with a skin attached, which draws up the water.
Already the busy hive of industry at Cawnpore plays no mean part in the
economy of the Indian Empire, but for British ears Cawnpore and Lucknow
have a historical and deeper interest. These two cities were the focus
of those events in the tragic year 1857, which we speak of as the Indian
Mutiny. At that time British India was still ruled by the East India
Company, an Association founded at the close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
The British East India Company had at first purely mercantile aims, but,
as we have already heard in these lectures, was soon involved in native
intrigues and wars owing to the rivalry of the competing French Company.
Robert Clive went out to India as a writer or clerk in the employ of
“John Company,” as it was called, but he exchanged the pen for the
sword, and by his defence of Arcot brought about the defeat of the
French party in the Carnatic, and the supremacy of the British Company
in that state. So he established the Madras Province around Fort Saint
George on the southeastern coast. The great Colonel Clive, who
recaptured Calcutta and won the Province of Bengal by the decisive
victory at Plassey, was the same soldier grown a little older in the
service of the same great Company.
By successive stages in the next two or three generations the East India
Company was deprived of its trading monopolies. At the time of the
Mutiny it was in fact merely the Government of India, and was controlled
even in this function by the British Government. The Company maintained
a large army of sepoys or native soldiers, officered by Europeans, and
also a small force that was wholly British. In the years immediately
preceding the Mutiny, great changes had been made in India. In one way
or another several native governments had been overthrown, and among
these was the Kingdom of Oudh, whose capital was at Lucknow, which was
annexed because of its misrule. There was hence much unrest among some
of the Indian peoples, and the spirit of discontent spread to the native
army of Bengal, mostly recruited from Oudh. Then an unfortunate incident
occurred. A new form of cartridge was supplied to the troops, the end of
which had to be bitten off before the old fashioned gun of those times
could be loaded. Rumour got about that beef grease or pigs’ fat had been
employed in the manufacture of these cartridges. Now the Hindus regard
oxen as sacred, and the Musulmans look on the pig as unclean. The Hindus
use oxen as draught animals for their ploughs and their carts, but to
kill them or to eat their flesh is sinful. So it was that the agitators
were able to play on the superstitions and prejudices of the ignorant
soldiers. The mutinous troops murdered many of their white officers, and
gradually gathered into three armies, which attacked the small loyal
native forces and the white men and women who had collected at Delhi,
Cawnpore, and Lucknow. Of the fall of Delhi and its re-capture by the
British we will speak later when we come to describe in the seventh
lecture the northern part of India. Assistance came to that place, not
from Calcutta and the sea, but from the great newly acquired Province of
the Punjab, which remained loyal. Cawnpore and Lucknow lay, however, far
to the southeast of Delhi, and were inaccessible from that direction.
Sir Henry Lawrence was in command at Lucknow, and General Wheeler at
Cawnpore. In each case the native city was abandoned, and the small
loyal native force and white refugees were gathered into an area more
possible of defence. General Havelock led the first army of relief from
Calcutta and Allahabad towards Cawnpore, but before he arrived, the
little garrison, trusting to treacherous promises, had surrendered. They
marched down to the river to take boat for Allahabad, and there most of
them were slain—men, women, and children. A few were imprisoned at
Cawnpore and were massacred a fortnight later.
[Sidenote: 51.
Massacre Ghat, Cawnpore.] [Sidenote: 52.
The Same—another View.] We have here the ghat, now known as Massacre
Ghat, by which the English went down to the fatal shore, and here
another and wider view of the same scene. The road that leads down to
the ghat is shaded by some fine trees, behind which were hidden on the
27th June, 1857, the mutineers who carried out the massacre. In the
distance can be seen the red brick piers of the Oudh and Rohilkund
Railway bridge, built of course since the Mutiny.
Retribution soon came to the mutineers. General Havelock marched from
Allahabad with some two thousand men, and in a fierce battle defeated
the rebels under Nana Sahib, and entered Cawnpore. He then tried to
carry relief across the forty miles of plain northeastward to Lucknow.
Twice he failed, and was forced back, but at last he effected his entry
to that city, with a force so weak, however, that it was impossible to
keep open his communications, and the reinforced garrison at Lucknow was
subjected to a renewal of the siege. At last Sir Colin Campbell,
afterwards Lord Clyde, arrived with an army sent out from Britain. We
must remember that in those days there was no Suez Canal, and
communication with India was round the Cape of Good Hope. Fortunately an
expedition was on its way to China when the Mutiny broke out, and this
force was diverted to Calcutta, and supplied the first relief, which was
led, as we have seen, by General Havelock.
[Sidenote: 53.
The Residency, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 54.
The Tower of the Residency.] [Sidenote: 55.
The Baillie Gate, Lucknow.] [Sidenote: 56.
The Ammunition Mosque in the Residency.] [Sidenote: 57.
The Monument outside the Residency.] The defence at Lucknow centered in
the Residency, the official home that is to say of the British Resident
at the court of the recently dethroned King of Oudh. The Residency is
now in ruins, as we see in the three slides which follow. Here is a view
taken from the direction of the Baillie Gate, and here is the Tower.
Here is the Baillie Gate itself, the scene of the most furious attacks
on the British position. The old man whom we note with his hat off and a
medal on his breast is the guardian of the place, a veteran of the
Mutiny, who as a boy took part in the defence of Lucknow. These Mutiny
veterans have now become but a very small band. Here in the Residency is
another ruin, the mosque in which the ammunition was kept during the
siege, and here is the Monument to the loyal native soldiers. It bears
the following inscription:—“To the memory of the native officers and
sepoys who died near this spot nobly performing their duty.” This
monument was erected in 1875 by Lord Northbrook, Viceroy and
Governor-General of India, and serves to remind us that the Indians who
fell in defence of our flag outnumbered the British. The Tower of the
Residency can be seen in the background.
[Sidenote: 58.
All Souls Memorial Church, Cawnpore.] [Sidenote: 59.
The Well Memorial, Cawnpore.] At Cawnpore, also, there are sad memorials
of massacre and defeat, not of ultimate victory as at Lucknow. We have
here All Souls Memorial church, containing monuments to those who fell
near by. The low evergreen hedge seen in the picture marks the line of
General Wheeler’s unfortunately chosen entrenchments. Here, at the east
end of the city, in the beautiful Memorial Gardens, over the well into
which the dead bodies were cast after the second massacre, is a figure
of the Angel of the Resurrection, sculptured by Marochetti in white
marble. In each hand is a palm, the emblem of peace. Around the circle
of the well is the following inscription:—
“Sacred to the perpetual memory of the great company of
Christian people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot
were cruelly murdered by the followers of the rebel Nana Dhundu
Pant of Bithur, and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well
below, on the 15th day of July, 1857.”
[Sidenote: 60.
The Queen’s Statue, Cawnpore.] Finally, we look at the bronze monument
of the Queen-Empress Victoria, whose direct government displaced that of
the East India Company after the quelling of the Mutiny in 1858. Hindu
gardeners are at work in the foreground. No Briton can visit Lucknow and
Cawnpore without being moved. We may well be proud of the heroic deeds
of those of our race who in 1857 suffered and fought and died to save
the British Raj in India.
--------------
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LECTURE V.
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=BOMBAY.=
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THE MARATHAS.
[Sidenote: 1.
Map of Indian Railway System.] Two new facts have of recent years
altered all the relations of India with the outer world, and have
vitally changed the conditions of internal government as compared with
those prevailing at the time of the Mutiny. The first of these facts was
the opening of the Suez Canal, and the second was the construction, and
as regards main lines the virtual completion of the Indian Railway
System. Formerly shipping came round the Cape of Good Hope, and it was
as easy to steer a course for Calcutta as for Bombay. To-day only bulky
cargo is taken from Suez and Aden round the southern point of India
through the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta. The fast mail boats run to
Bombay, and thence the railways diverge northward, northeastward, and
southeastward to all the frontiers of the Empire. Only the Burmese
railways remain for the present a detached system. But in regard to
tonnage of traffic Calcutta is still the first port of India, for the
country which lies in rear of it in Bengal and the United Provinces
contains a very large population.
From Bombay inland runs the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, or as it is
known everywhere in India, the G.I.P. This line branches a short
distance from the coast, striking on the one hand southeastward in the
direction of Madras, and on the other hand northeastward in the
direction of Allahabad. A second great railway system, the East Indian,
begins at Howrah on the shore of the Hooghly opposite to Calcutta, and
thence crossing the low Rajmahal spur of the central hills descends to
the bank of the Ganges at Patna, from which point it follows the river
to Allahabad, and there branches, one line continuing northwestward to
Delhi and beyond, the other striking southwestward through the hills to
Jubbulpore, where it meets the northeastward branch of the G.I.P. Each
week, four hours after the arrival of the mail steamer at Bombay, three
express trains leave the Victoria Station of that city. One of them is
bound southeastward for Madras. The second runs northeastward over the
G.I.P. and East Indian lines, by way of Jubbulpore and Allahabad, to the
Howrah Station at Calcutta. The third also runs northeastward by the
G.I.P. line, but diverges northward from the Calcutta route to Agra and
Delhi. When the Government of India is at Simla, the last mentioned
train continues northward beyond Delhi to the foot of the mountains. The
time taken to Madras is 26 hours, to Calcutta 36 hours, and to Delhi 27
hours.
Access to the great plains at the foot of the Himalayas was formerly by
the navigation of the Ganges and of its tributaries. Then the Grand
Trunk road was constructed from Calcutta northwestward through the
Gangetic plain to the northwest of India. It was by this road that
relief was brought during the Mutiny to the besieged garrisons of
Cawnpore and Lucknow. Finally, the East Indian Railway was built from
Bengal to the Punjab through the whole length of the densely peopled
belt which is enriched by the monsoon rains of the Himalayas.
Recently a more direct line from Bombay to Calcutta, which does not pass
through Allahabad, has been constructed through Nagpur, the capital of
the Central Provinces of India. This runs, however, through a hilly
country, much forested and relatively thinly peopled. There are now two
daily mails between Calcutta and Bombay, the one running via Nagpur and
the other _viâ_ Allahabad.
[Sidenote: 2.
Indian Railway Station.] We have here an Indian train standing at a
platform. Note the screens constructed to give shade in the heat of the
day.
[Sidenote: 3.
Bhor Ghat Reversing Station.] [Sidenote: 4.
The Same.] The two branches of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway
approach one another at an angle from Allahabad and the northeast and
from Madras and the southeast. They descend the steep mountain face
which edges the Deccan plateau by two passes, the Bhor Ghat and the Thal
Ghat. The lines are constructed downward, with remarkable skill of
engineering, by loops, and in places by blind ends on which the trains
are reversed. Here are two views of the Bhor Ghat Reversing Station, the
first taken from below, and the second from above. The Junction of the
two lines is in the narrow coastal plain at the foot of the descent.
Thence the rails are carried by a bridge over a sea strait into Sashti
Island, and by a second bridge over a second strait into Bombay Island,
and so to the great Victoria Terminus in the midst of the city.
[Sidenote: 5.
Map of Bombay District.] The island of Bombay is about twelve miles long
from north to south. The harbour, set with hilly islets, lies between
Bombay and the mainland, the entry being from the south round the long
Colaba Point. Westward of Colaba is Back Bay, formed by the Malabar
Point, on whose end, extended as it were to meet Europe, is the
residence of the Governor of the great Province of Bombay.
[Sidenote: 6.
Plan of Bombay City.] [Sidenote: 7.
Bombay, from top of Rajabaie Tower, looking South.] [Sidenote: 8.
The Same, looking Southeast.] [Sidenote: 9.
The Same, looking Northeast.] [Sidenote: 10.
The Same, looking Northwest.] [Sidenote: Repeat Map No. 1.] The most
conspicuous feature of the now magnificent city is a range of public
buildings, running north and south about mid-way between the harbour and
Back Bay. East of these buildings is the oldest quarter of the city,
known as the Fort. Westward, on the shore of Back Bay, is a broad
expanse of garden. The native town lies to the north, and beyond it is
Byculla, where are the mills and factories, and to the east of Byculla
on the harbour front is the dockyard of the Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company. How fine a city is Bombay may be realised from
the top of the great tower of the University, some two hundred and fifty
feet high, the most conspicuous building in the place. It is the central
feature of the range of public buildings just referred to. We have here
in succession from south and southeast to northeast and northwest, four
views from the top of this tower. The first is to the south, and shows
the Union Jack flying from the Secretariat of the Government of Bombay,
and the entry to the harbour beyond. The edge of the garden belt towards
Back Bay is seen along the right hand edge of the view. In the
southeastward view we have the shipping and the islands of the harbour,
and the Government Dockyard with its long jetty. Notice the island fort
guarding the channel. In the northeastward view we look towards the
native city, and see the factories smoking in the distance. It will be
seen that there are practically no chimneys on the nearer buildings, and
no smoke in the air. Finally from our tower top we turn northwestward,
and look across the head of Back Bay towards Malabar Point. The building
on the shore of the Bay is the office of the Bombay and Baroda Railway,
which runs northward along the coast into a densely peopled lowland
round the head of the Gulf of Cambay. Away in the distance on that
Malabar Promontory, but not visible in this view, are the Towers of
Silence, where the Parsis dispose of their dead.
[Sidenote: 11.
Group of Parsis.] [Sidenote: 12.
Parsi Tower of Silence.] The Parsis (_i.e._ Persians) are a community,
chiefly of merchants, who came to Bombay in the Middle Ages, flying from
Persia when the Musulmans conquered that land. They hold the ancient
faith of Persia, and are commonly described as Fire Worshippers. They
regard the elements fire, water, and earth as sacred, and therefore
refuse to pollute them with the decay of dead bodies. They build round
towers, known as Towers of Silence, and these they place in large
grounds equivalent to our cemeteries. Each tower is hollow and exposed
to the sky within. There on stone ledges the dead bodies are laid, and
the vultures pick the flesh from the bones. The ash of the bones is
washed by the rain into a central pit at the bottom of the hollow tower,
where it slowly accumulates, so that, in accordance with one of the
tenets of their faith, the Parsis, rich and poor, meet in death. The
Parsis of Bombay are a wealthy and enterprising community, who do no
small part of the commerce of the city. One of their number recently sat
in the House of Commons at Westminster as the representative of a London
constituency. They have no caste prejudices like the Hindus, and no
seclusion of women like the Musulmans, so that their ways of life are
nearer to those of Europeans.