The Court of Justice, Lahore.] [Sidenote: 26.
Mayo School of Art, Lahore.] [Sidenote: 27.
The same—Wood-working.] [Sidenote: 28.
The Same—Metal-working.] [Sidenote: 29.
Statuette of Buddha.] At Lahore there are a number of really handsome
modern buildings. We have in this view the Court of Justice, situated in
the chief street, the Mall. Next is the fine building of the Lahore
School of Art, showing students sketching out of doors, and then a
number of Punjabis in the wood-working room of the school. Here is the
metal-working department. At the back of the room some senior students
are finishing a large lamp in hammered brass-work, which was afterwards
exhibited in London. The Lahore Museum, a corner of which we saw just
now in the view of the “Kim” gun, is another fine building, containing
among other curiosities a statuette of Buddha after his forty-nine days’
fast, excavated at Sikri near Peshawar. This statuette, some three feet
high and two feet broad, is one of the finest examples of ancient
sculpture found in India. It is carved with extreme delicacy and
refinement, and is supposed to date back to about the first century of
the Christian era.
[Sidenote: 30.
Bridge of Boats over the Ravi, near Lahore.] [Sidenote: 31.
Jehangir’s tomb.] We will drive out from Lahore to the west of the city
on the high road to Peshawar. We pass the Musulman cemetery and the
Hindu burning ground, and then reach the banks of the Ravi. A bridge of
boats crosses the river a little below the railway bridge. Here we turn
aside from the Peshawar road and reach Shahdara, where is the tomb of
the Emperor Jehangir. In this picture we have a close view of part of
it, showing the inlaid marble. Near by is the ruined tomb of Jehangir’s
wife, Nur Jehan. It was probably never finished, and has been neglected.
[Sidenote: 32.
Edwardes Gate, Peshawar.] [Sidenote: 33.
Kissa Kahani, Peshawar.] [Sidenote: 34.
Police Station, Peshawar.] [Sidenote: 35.
Silk Market, Peshawar.] [Sidenote: 36.
In the Silk Market, Peshawar.] From Lahore we travel by the Northwestern
Railway to Peshawar, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. Peshawar,
as we have already learned, is the most important garrison city on the
Northwest Frontier, and the capital of the recently created Northwest
Frontier Province. It has about a hundred thousand inhabitants, chiefly
Musulmans. Here we see the Edwardes Gate, with its fine pointed arch,
and passing through it we enter the Kissa Kahani, the Lombard Street of
Peshawar. The Edwardes Gate may be seen from within at the end of the
street. Here is the Kotwali, or Police Station, and just within the
gateway of the Kotwali is the Silk Market. Peshawar is a most important
commercial centre on the great road from Samarkand and Bokhara in
Central Asia, through Kabul and the Khyber, to Lahore and Delhi. In the
bazaar we find representatives of many Asiatic races. Here we see skeins
of Chinese silk, red and white and yellow, hung out in the sun to dry
after being dyed. Near by are the stalls of bankers and money-changers,
which are sometimes raided by the wild tribesmen visiting Peshawar from
the neighbourhood of the Khyber Pass.
[Sidenote: 37.
Ghor Khatri, Peshawar.] [Sidenote: 38.
Peshawar from the Ghor Khatri, looking north.] [Sidenote: 39.
The Same, looking west.] In the northeastern corner of Peshawar is the
famous Ghor Khatri, which stands on a piece of rising ground commanding
a fine view over the whole city. Here is a part of the building, with a
bullock cart in front. The Ghor Khatri was successively a Buddhist
Monastery and a Hindu temple, and is now used as municipal offices and
as the official residence of the agents of the Ameer of Afghanistan when
they visit Peshawar. We climb to the roof and look upon the city
beneath. A second view is in the direction of Jamrud and the Khyber.
[Sidenote: 40.
Gymnastic Class, Government High School, Peshawar.] [Sidenote: 41.
Lowest Class, same School.] Here in Peshawar, on the very border of
British rule, it is interesting to see the progress of western
education. This is the Government High School. A class is in the
playground under gymnastic instruction. The boys are mostly Musulmans,
though a few Hindus may be distinguished by their caps in the place of
turbans. This is the lowest class of the school, and is being taught
reading and writing by a native master. Notice that the boys’ shoes have
been taken off.
[Sidenote: 42.
Jamrud.] [Sidenote: 43.
Khyber Rifles drilling.] [Sidenote: 44.
Khyber Rifles marching.] [Sidenote: 45.
Zakka Khel Afridis.] [Sidenote: 46.
The Sarai, Jamrud.] [Sidenote: 47.
Caravan, near Jamrud.] [Sidenote: 48.
Ali Masjid.] [Sidenote: 49.
Ali Masjid, nearer view.] [Sidenote: 50.
A Subadar, 59th Sind Rifles.] Jamrud, at the immediate entrance to the
Khyber, lies some nine miles west of Peshawar. Here is a distant view of
it from the Peshawar road. To the right can just be seen the Fort, and
to the left Jamrud Village. Next we see a company of the Khyber Rifles,
photographed at Jamrud, and here the same company marching. By way of
striking contrast, are a group of the Zakka Khel Afridis in their native
dress. They are the raw material from which the Khyber Riflemen are
made. Typical wild tribesmen of the hills, they have been enlisted in
the British Army to keep them out of mischief, and also to assist in
repelling raids by their fellow-tribesmen, who continue to dwell amid
the hill fastnesses of the region. The Afridis, of whom the Zakka Khel
is a clan, seem perfectly well content, provided that there is fighting,
which they love for its own sake. Here we see the Sarai at Jamrud, where
all caravans going into India or returning to Central Asia halt for the
night. The men in this picture are mostly Kabulis, with long-haired
Bactrian camels from Central Asia, stronger and finer than the Indian
species. These camels are laden with tea, sugar, and general supplies.
Outside Jamrud we see a caravan of Indian camels taking stores back to
Peshawar after operations in the Khyber against the hill tribes. Beyond
Jamrud the road enters the Khyber, with the sweeping curve seen in this
view. The Fort of Ali Masjid, nearly three thousand feet above sea
level, crowns a steeply sloping hill on the crest of the path between
Jamrud and Landi Kotal, where begins the descent into Afghanistan. Here
is a nearer view, with the tents of an expeditionary force at the foot
of the Fort. It shows the continuation of the way in the direction of
Landi Kotal. Notice how steep are the cliffs and how narrow the Pass at
this point. Beneath the Fort, in the face of the hill, are seen caves in
which dwell during the winter months the wild clan known as the Kuchi
Khel. Finally, we have a portrait, painted in the camp at Ali Masjid, of
Nasar Khan, a Subadar, or native officer, of the 59th Sind Rifles.
We now leave the Khyber region and, following the Indus for some six
hundred miles, we travel southward through a land which was not very
long ago a desert. To-day, as the result of a great investment of
British capital, irrigation works have changed the whole aspect of the
country. The provinces of the Punjab and Sind have hitherto been
regarded as significant chiefly in relation to the defence of the
Northwest Frontier of India. They have now no less importance when
considered in their economic development. The plain of the Indus has
become one of the chief wheatfields of the British Empire, for wheat is
the principal crop in the Punjab, in parts of Sind, and outside the
basin of the Indus itself, in the districts of the United Provinces
which lie about Agra. The wheat production of India on an average of
years is five times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and about
half as great as that of the United States. In one recent year at least,
the export of wheat from India to the United Kingdom has exceeded that
from the United States to the United Kingdom.
The brown waste of the plains of the Punjab becomes after the winter
rains a waving sea of green wheat extending over thousands of square
miles. Cultivation now spreads far beyond the area within which the
rainfall alone suffices. The lower Punjab and the central strip of Sind
have been converted into a second Egypt. Though the navigation of the
Indus is naturally inferior to that of the Ganges, yet communication has
been maintained by boat from the Punjab to the sea from Greek times
downward. The Indus flotilla of steamboats has, however, suffered
fatally from the competition of the Northwestern Railway, and the wheat
exported from Karachi is now almost wholly rail-borne.
[Sidenote: 51.
The Lansdowne Bridge.] [Sidenote: 52.
The Same.] [Sidenote: 53.
Khwaja Khizir Island.] Running southward through the fertile strip, not
very far from the left or western bank of the river, the railway leaves
the Punjab and enters Sind. At Rohri, one of the hottest places in all
India in the summer time, a line branches northwestward to Quetta and
Chaman, on the frontier of Afghanistan. Sukkur stands opposite to Rohri
on the right bank of the river, and the Lansdowne Railway Bridge between
these two towns is perhaps the most remarkable bridge in India. It was
built between 1887 and 1889, and about three thousand tons of steel and
iron were employed in its construction. It is eight hundred and forty
feet in length, with two magnificent spans. We see in this slide a view
of the Rohri end of it, taken from Suttian, an old nunnery founded for
women who preferred seclusion rather than the funeral pyre. The Hindu
custom was to burn the wife or wives with the husband’s body, until the
British Government intervened to prevent the practice. One end of the
town of Rohri, with its tall grey wattle and daub buildings, can be seen
under the bridge. A train is upon the bridge, and in front are some Pala
fishers, sailing on metal chatties into which they put the fish as they
catch them. This is another view of the bridge seen from Rohri itself.
We are here in the very heart of the rainless region. During twelve
years there have only been six showers at Rohri! A great engineering
scheme is now under consideration for damming the Indus near this point
so as to raise the level of the water in the upper reaches of the river.
In this manner the irrigation canals would be fed not only in time of
flood, as at present, but in the dry season as well. Near Rohri, in the
middle of the Indus channel, is Khwaja Khizir Island, on which stands an
ancient Hindu temple. In the foreground of the picture near the water’s
edge are Sindi boatmen mending their sails.
From Sukkur, passing through Shikarpur and Jacobabad, the railway
traverses the desert to the foot of the hills, and then ascends to
Quetta either by the Mashkaf—the actual line of the Bolan having been
abandoned—or by a longer loop line, the Harnai, which runs to the Peshin
valley. The latter is the usual way. By the Mashkaf route the line is
carried over a boulder-strewn plain about half a mile broad in the
bottom of a gorge with steeply rising heights on either side. Here and
there the strip of lower ground is trenched and split by deep canyons.
At first the line follows the Mashkaf river, and the gradients are not
very severe, but once Hirok, at the source of the Bolan river is passed,
a gradient of one in twenty-five begins, and two powerful engines are
required to drag the train up. The steep bounding ridges now close in on
either side with cliffs rising almost perpendicularly to several hundred
feet. Occasional block-houses high up amid the crags defend the Pass.
[Sidenote: 54.
The Chappar Rift.] [Sidenote: 55.
The Same.] The gradients of the Harnai route are not quite so steep as
those of the Mashkaf. Should either way be blocked or carried away by
landslips or floods the other would be available. The Harnai line passes
through the Chappar Rift, a precipitous gorge in a great mass of
limestone. In this view we are approaching the Rift from Mangi, and then
we have a view looking back from the middle of the Rift. As will be
seen, the railway runs across high bridges and through tunnels in the
mountain masses.
[Sidenote: 56.
Native Bazaar, Quetta.] Quetta occupies a very important strategical
position, about a mile above sea level, in the midst of a small plain
surrounded by great mountain ridges rising to a height of two miles and
more. Irrigation works have been constructed in the Quetta plain, which
is now an oasis among desert mountains, and has a population of some
thirty thousand, including many Afghans. The Agent General for British
Baluchistan resides there. The town, with its outposts, is of course
very strongly fortified, commanding as it does the railways leading
southeastward to the Indus, and the Khojak Pass leading northwestward to
Chaman and Kandahar. Here we have a scene in the native bazaar, with
Hindus performing a festival dance.
[Sidenote: 57.
Street in Chaman.] From Quetta the railway is carried northwestward,
through the Khojak tunnel, for another hundred and twenty miles to
Chaman on the frontier, where is a British outpost. Here is a street in
Chaman, with two old Pathans. Chaman is at present the terminus of the
railway. The material is, however, kept ready for its continuation, in
case of need, to Kandahar, in Afghanistan, seventy miles further. From
Kandahar through Herat to the rail-head of the Russian Trans-Caspian
Railway is some four hundred miles. By this route, did circumstances
allow, a connection might be made, giving through railway communication
between Europe and India.
[Sidenote: 58.
The Proclamation of the Queen-Empress at the Delhi Durbar, 1st Jan.,
1877.] At this last outpost of British Power we complete our journey
through the great Indian Empire. It was with no intention of Empire that
a few London merchants formed themselves into an East India Company in
the days of Queen Elizabeth. It was with no great force of white
soldiers that the conquest was in after centuries effected, but by the
organisation of Indian strength in a time of disorder, due to the
downfall of the Mogul Empire at Delhi. Province was added to province
under the British Raj of no set design and ambition, but for defensive
reasons under the threat of French or Maratha or Sikh rivalry. In the
great Mutiny the system of power and administration, thus upbuilt almost
casually, was tested, and it survived the test, but with a fundamental
change. The East India Company was dissolved, and the British Government
made itself directly responsible for peace and order in the Indian
Continent. The proclamation by which Queen Victoria assumed the rule of
India solemnly promised that in the administration of the country due
regard should be paid to the ancient rights, usages, and customs of
India. The change which was made in 1858, after the Mutiny, was
completed in 1877, when at a great durbar of the princes of India, held
at Delhi, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.
[Sidenote: 59.
The Same.] The British Raj in India is an organisation unparalleled in
history, for the Roman Empire consisted of provinces grouped round the
Imperial City, but Britain is a quarter of the globe removed from India.
Our power ultimately rests on our command of the seas and on the justice
of our administration. When either of these fail, the British position
in India will crumble. Within our duty of justice is included the
generous but firmly-directed readjustment of the methods of Indian
government, so as to adapt them to the now changing conditions of
oriental society.
[Sidenote: 60.
The Same.] The responsibility for India is, indeed, a great one. It is
idle to ask whether our forefathers should have assumed it. We could not
withdraw now without throwing India into disorder, and causing untold
suffering among three hundred million of our fellow human beings. Yet
the administration of such an Empire calls for virtues in our race
certainly not less than those needed for our own self-government. Above
all, we require knowledge of India, and sympathy with the points of view
begotten of oriental history.
---------------------
LIST OF VICEROYS OF INDIA SINCE THE TRANSFER
OF THE ADMINISTRATION FROM THE EAST INDIA
COMPANY TO THE CROWN IN 1858.
VISCOUNT CANNING, to 1862
March,
EARL OF ELGIN, 1862-3
SIR JOHN LAWRENCE, 1864-9
EARL OF MAYO, 1869-72
LORD NORTHBROOK, 1872-6
LORD LYTTON, 1876-80
MARQUESS OF RIPON, 1880-84
EARL OF DUFFERIN, 1884-88
MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE, 1888-94
EARL OF ELGIN, 1894-99
LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, 1899-1905
EARL OF MINTO, 1905-1910
LORD HARDINGE, 1910
---------------------
NOTE (I).—Many of the artistic and other objects mentioned in the
preceding pages can be better appreciated after a visit to the Indian
Museum at South Kensington.
NOTE (II).—The thanks of the Committee are due for a few of the slides
to Colonel Frederick Firebrace, R.E., Managing Director of the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway Company, and to Mr. A. L. Hetherington, of the
Board of Education.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Additional line spacing has been added before paragraphs with side
notes to make more room for the them.
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_);
text that was bold by “equal” signs (=bold=).
End of Project Gutenberg's Eight Lectures on India, by Halford John Mackinder