by Ali Baba, the formation of the Imperial Service troops, and the
Imperial Cadet corps, furnished and in some cases officered by Indian
Nobles and their sons, many of whom were educated at Delhi and Indore
by Aberigh-Mackay, surely warrants us in believing that more than a
mere "pannikin of water" is _now_ available, if need be.
No. 8
WITH THE POLITICAL AGENT
The position of Political Agent, important though it was in 1879, is
much more so now. The territories of the Indian Princes are being
daily opened up more and more by railways; many of them contain coal,
iron, gold, and other minerals in payable quantities, and the
development of these resources call for very delicate handling in the
matter of friendly advice by Political Agents.
In recent years, nay, at the present time, loud complaints have been
published, emanating from experienced and unbiassed sources, that the
position of many of the great feudatories of India, who by their
treaty rights are much more allies than subjects of His Majesty the
King-Emperor, has been reduced to that of a mere figure-head, with no
real authority except when they meekly obey the dictation of the
British Resident.
It is a fact that many of the Political Agents in 1879 were officers
who had served in Madras Cavalry Regiments, the Central India Horse
and other corps, but it is also a fact that many of the most
successful administrators India has ever seen have been
Soldier-Politicals.
Colonel Henderson, so pleasantly cited by Aberigh-Mackay, and happily
still alive, was himself a Madras Cavalry Officer, who served as
Under-Secretary to the Foreign Department of the Government of India,
as Resident in Kashmir and latterly in Mysore, and Superintendent of
operations for the suppression of Thagi and Dakaiti.
Our late King's visit to India as Prince of Wales in 1875-6 owed a
good deal of its success to Colonel Henderson, who was special officer
in attendance, and his services in connection therewith were
recognized by a Companionship of the order of the Star of India. It
may also be mentioned here that Aberigh-Mackay became his
Brother-in-law in October, 1873.
No. 9
WITH THE COLLECTOR
In this sketch, warm with local colour, the real pivot of the great
official wheel of Indian administration, "the Collector," is drawn
with the exactness due to his importance. Withal very lifelike and
picturesque in many of its touches.
Thirty years have of course made great changes in many of the details
of life in the districts of an Indian Province, now as a rule
connected up by lines of railway. Improved leave rules and many other
causes have rendered intercourse with the home country much easier.
Whether or no this far easier intercourse is altogether an advantage
to the rulers and the ruled is what is termed a "burning question" at
the present moment. In a word, that improved communications have not
correspondingly increased our sympathy with a new birth in intellect,
social life, and the affairs of state, all of which are mainly the
results of British rule.
The functions of a Collector, sketched by Ali Baba in an entertaining
medley, have increased enormously of late years, and the position is
now said to be less desirable than of old, when it was amusingly said
of every member of civilian society, that the verb "to collect" was
conjugated thus: "I am a collector, you are a collector, he should be
a collector, they will be collectors," and so on, _ad infinitum_.
NOS. 10, 20 AND 35
BABY IN PARTIBUS
This sketch, which may well be termed a beautiful lament over poor
Baby, has brought back vividly to many a one touching recollections: a
picture in fact which appealed, and continues to appeal, to an
audience infinitely wider than that of Anglo-India. The same may be
said of the sketches "The Grass-Widow," p. 139; "Mem-Sahib," p. 157,
by many considered the best sketch of all; and "Sahib," p. 181. All of
them full of that pathos and tenderness akin to, but yet differing
widely from, the bantering style of the others, which are also full of
allusions and covert references to individuals and affairs of the
Anglo-India of thirty years ago.
In "Sahib," however, there are traits of character and other touches
taken from the life of one who was--among many other features--a
"merry Collector," not yet forgotten by a rapidly decreasing circle of
contemporaries. While time and ameliorated conditions have changed the
"loathsome Indian cemetery" into something of a garden in which Ali
Baba our friend in common would have rejoiced.
No. 11
THE RED CHUPRASSIE
Alas! the Red Chuprassie is still a rift in the lute of Indian
administration; a reform in Chuprassies would doubtless be more
beneficial to India than any wonder-working _nostrum_--such as
Advisory Councils or extended Legislative Councils.
The cry for reform in Chuprassies, or in other words the underlings of
many Departments, is a very old one. Ali Baba's denunciation of the
"Red Chuprassie" powerfully expands that one by Sir Alfred Lyall,
where in his poem of _The Old Pindaree_, written in 1866, the "belted
knave" is associated with the "hungry retainers" and others forming
the camp establishment of an official on tour.
Ali Baba's practice of adequate payment, which he states--in a spirit
of banter--to be potent to remove temptation to bribery and
corruption, has received attention in connection with recent
ameliorations of the terms of subordinate service in India, and it is
believed has met with a certain amount of success.
The well-meant but not altogether satisfactory trial of the Gaikwar of
Baroda, by a mixed tribunal of Indian Nobles and highly placed British
officials, which took place during Lord Northbrook's viceroyalty, is
alluded to in the conclusion of the article; in which the Anglo-Indian
soubriquet for a subservient person--Joe Hookham, literally _jaisa
hukam_ = as may be ordered--is also introduced.
No. 12
THE PLANTER
It is now upwards of thirty years since this genial picture of a
veritable "Farmer Prince" was painted--in bold and broad outline, of
course. The years that have passed bringing in their train many
altered conditions, the most important of all, perhaps, being the
replacing of a natural vegetable dye such as indigo by chemically
produced substitutes.
Probably in a few more years the still remaining features of the
Bengal indigo planter's off duty life as depicted by Ali Baba will
have quite disappeared, unless the substitution of sugar planting for
that of indigo now receiving considerable attention in various Bengal,
and more particularly Tirhoot, districts prove a success.
Anyway, the Macdonalds, the Beggs, and the Thomases, names now, as
formerly, prominently identified with the great indigo industry, have
been assured of continual remembrance. So prominent, in fact, has the
Scotch element among planting families always been that it is said
that if any one present at a race, polo, or Christmas week gathering
were to shout out "Mac!" from the verandah of the Tirhoot Club, every
face in the crowd would be simultaneously turned towards the speaker.
The bantering allusion to "Mr. Caird and _The Nineteenth Century_,"
applies to that great authority on many and very varied agricultural
subjects, the late Sir James Caird, who died in 1892. In 1878-79 he
was deputed to India by the Secretary of State as a member of the
Indian Famine Commission called into being by the Strachey Brothers;
the general impressions then formed by a six months' tour through
India being embodied in the series of articles, entitled "Notes by the
Way in India; the Land and the People," which appeared from July to
October, 1879, in _The Nineteenth Century_ magazine, thereafter in
book form in 1883, and in an augmented form as a third edition in
1884.
For a detailed account of a Bengal indigo planter's life, mainly
confined, however, to the processes and surroundings of planting and
manufacture, there is no more valuable record than the late
Colesworthy Grant's well illustrated book, "Rural Life in Bengal,"
which was published in 1860. In that work may be found a drawing of
"Mulnath House," a glorified illustration of the fast disappearing
surroundings of a Lower Bengal planter's residence.
No. 13
THE EURASIAN
In November, 1879, when this "Study in chiaro-oscuro" was published,
renewed attention was being directed to the Eurasian community in
India, mainly by the discussions in all circles aroused by the
publication of the late Archdeacon Baly's Bengal Social Science
Association Paper of May in the same year, which dealt with the
employment, _inter alia_, of Europeans of mixed parentage in India; a
question which still engages the anxious consideration of many Indian
statesmen. Ali Baba's "Study" is not an ill-natured summary of the
widespread discussions of 1879, but indeed as far back as 1843, the
late John Mawson in his paper, "The Eurasian Belle," which first
appeared in the Calcutta newspaper, _The Bengal Hurkaru_, had
approached the social and domestic side of the question, and to some
extent may be said to have anticipated Ali Baba.
NOS. 14 AND 17
THE VILLAGER AND THE SHIKARRY
Both of these sketches are examples of what maybe termed Ali Baba's
contemplative mood, the villager's life being revealed to us in all
its pathos and interest, otherwise than through an atmosphere of
statistics and reports--the daily life of probably two hundred million
of the inhabitants of India.
Aberigh-Mackay early showed in his book "A Manual of Indian Sport,"
which, in addition to collecting in small compass lessons taught by
many a noted Indian hunter, contains a great deal of original matter
useful to every would-be sportsman, that he was well fitted to depict
"The Shikarry" in correct and graphic manner and from actual personal
knowledge.
NOS. 15 AND 16
THE OLD COLONEL AND THE CIVIL SURGEON
"The Old Colonel" and "The Civil Surgeon," p. 123, are both types of
characters that have since practically ceased to exist in India,
although fairly numerous in the 1870's.
"The Old Colonel," a relic of the great changes caused by the
disappearance of many regiments during the Indian Mutiny, and the
alterations in Army organisation due to the introduction of the "Staff
corps" system, has disappeared from the scene, having long since
attained the pensioned rank for which he was ripening when depicted by
Ali Baba.
As regards "The Civil Surgeon," an entirely new state of conditions
has altered him also. Even, however, in Ali Baba's time it could not
be said--as it was "long ago"--that a medical officer intended for an
Indian career, in order to become perfectly qualified need only sleep
one night on a medicine chest.
All the same, to those of us who can look back to life in India forty
or fifty years ago, there will surely arise visions of many genial old
colonels and doctors, full of good stories and much sympathy in health
or sickness for those just entering upon an Indian career.
Captain Atkinson, in his book "Curry and Rice," published at the lime
of the Indian Mutiny, depicted by pen and pencil individuals who in
after years developed into Ali Baba's subjects. Illustrations which
may now surely be regarded as valuable records of past Anglo-Indian
life and character.
NOS. 19 AND 21
THE TRAVELLING M.P. AND ALI BABA ALONE
"The Travelling M.P." requires no elucidation. He is still with us and
has developed greatly during the course of years, in fact, increased
facilities of communication between England and India have much
increased the species. Happily there are correctives in the shape of
adverse votes by constituents which, in some notorious instances at
the last Parliamentary elections, have relieved the situation.
As to "Ali Baba Alone," nothing could add to the perfect picture
which, among other things, good-naturedly alludes to many surmises and
rumours current at the time as to the identity of the Author, leading
in some cases to public disclaimers by various highly placed officials
and others.
THE TEAPOT SERIES
"SOCIAL DISSECTION" and "THE ORPHAN'S GOOD RESOLUTIONS"
These papers when first published in _The Bombay Gazette_ aroused keen
speculation as to their authorship. They are as applicable to Society
everywhere as to that of Anglo-India. Greatly appreciated all over
India, they were, with the others of the series, reprinted in book
form and published shortly before the Author's death in a volume,
entitled "Serious Reflections by a Political Orphan," which has long
been out of print.
"THE GRYPHON'S ANABASIS"
The amiable and other idiosyncracies---personal and official--of the
late Sir Lepel Griffin, K.C.S.I., who, born in 1840, died on March 9,
1908, having retired in 1889 from the Bengal Civil Service, which he
entered'in 1860 by open competition, and of which he was a
distinguished ornament, are very well pourtrayed in this article. An
article of very tragic interest, because its publication was the
indirect cause, in all human probability, of the death of its Author.
This is not the place to recount Sir Lepel Griffin's career in many
high places of Indian administration and diplomacy, latterly more
particularly in the Punjab and Afghanistan.
Suffice it here to say that in 1880, when Chief Secretary of the
Punjab, a post he had then held for upwards of nine years--earning the
reputation of being the _best_ occupant of that very important and
responsible appointment ever known--Mr. (as he then was) Lepel Griffin
was selected by the Viceroy--Lord Lytton--to proceed to Kabul, and
arrange for its Government as a prelude to the termination of the
British occupation of Afghanistan.
Under the Viceroyalty of Lord Lytton's successor, the Marquess of
Ripon, and after anxious negotiations, Abdur Rahman was proclaimed
Amir of Afghanistan, July 22, 1880. In a spirit of thoroughly
good-natured banter the Gryphon's veritable "Expedition" from Lahore
to the seat of Government to receive the Viceroy's instructions, and
thereafter Afghanistan-ward to carry them out--made under very
different conditions from that one by Cyrus the younger--is amusingly
pourtrayed.
Travelling through the provinces then ruled over by the late Sir
George Couper and Sir Robert Egerton respectively, until finally Kabul
is reached, where Sir Frederick Roberts handed over his powers to the
Civil authority, as embodied in the Gryphon. A progress which, as
profusely chronicled by the correspondents of the innumerable
newspapers, British, Indian, and Foreign, attracted to India by the
second Afghan War, is lightly, yet not unkindly, satirized by
Aberigh-Mackay under the _nom de plums_ of "Your Political Orphan."
Who also in this article gave expression to the general impression of
the day, that by entrusting Mr. Lepel Griffin with the direct
negotiations, the position of the then Foreign Secretary to the
Government of India, Mr. (now Sir) Alfred Lyall had been somewhat
ignored.
Be this as it may, for his undoubtedly great services, in which he was
very greatly aided by his intimate acquaintance with the Persian
language, still the French of Afghanistan and other Central Asian
lands in diplomacy and etiquette, Mr. Griffin was created a K.C.S.I.,
and shortly afterwards appointed Governor-General's Agent in Central
India and Resident in Indore--where Aberigh-Mackay was Principal of
the Rajkumar College--the College for the "Sons of Nobles"--the first
"Eton" established under British rule in India. These appointments Sir
Lepel held from 1881 until 1888, when he was appointed Resident at
Hyderabad, the last official position he held in India.
The article now under elucidation appeared on March 29 1880, in _The
Bombay Gazette_, then edited by the late Mr. Grattan Geary, whose
narrative of a journey from Bombay to the Bosphorus through Asiatic
Turkey, published in 1878, did much to revive and stimulate interest
in those important countries, where happily British trade and other
influences are now being actively commented upon by the press of
Western India, and developed by the merchants of Bombay, Karachi, and
Western India generally.
Mr. Thomas Gibson Bowles, the proprietor of _Vanity Fair_, who had
always warmly appreciated the literary work done for him by
Aberigh-Mackay, about this time offered him the editorship of the
paper. This post Aberigh-Mackay had virtually accepted.
Shortly before Sir Lepel Griffin took up his appointment as
Governor-General's Agent, gossip, more especially at Indore and in
Central and Western India, was very busy with surmises as to the fate
in store for the writer of this article, as well as many other
paragraphs commenting, _inter alia_, upon Afghan affairs, and, _en
passant_ Mr. Lepel Griffin, which had appeared in _The Bombay Gazette_
from February to December, 1880, under the general heading of "Some
Serious Reflections." These articles, hitherto anonymous, having being
republished in book form, with their authorship avowed, at Bombay in
1880, shortly before the new Resident and Governor-General's Agent
arrived at Indore.
The gossips were--as is nearly always the case--quite wrong, for one
of the first men to extend a friendly welcome to Aberigh-Mackay when
he arrived at Lahore on the 13th August, 1869, to take up his
appointment of "Manager of the Government Zoological Collection" was
Mr. Lepel Griffin, then the Deputy-Commissioner of the City and
District.
Afterwards, at Simla and elsewhere, these two kindred spirits--in many
ways--met frequently, and learnt to understand each other thoroughly
well. They also had several common friends, civil, military, and
non-official; and their literary pursuits in historical directions
were also much in sympathy.
In 1881 they were not fated to meet, although Aberigh-Mackay had taken
immediate steps to endeavour to do so, as soon as he became aware that
a prevalent rumour was abroad to the effect that the Gryphon would--to
use a colloquialism--now make it hot for him.
Aberigh-Mackay indignantly repelled any such surmises, and laughed to
scorn the idea that Sir Lepel could possibly entertain any revengeful
thoughts of the kind that were anticipated by those who knew
absolutely nothing of the old and existing intimacies of either of the
two men concerned.
To effectually dispel and give the lie to all such insinuations, he
arranged to postpone his departure for England until after the arrival
of Sir Lepel Griffin at Indore, and then make patent to official and
other society the true inward state of affairs.
Aberigh-Mackay was a very keen all-round sportsman, and in the first
weeks of December, 1880, had played at Mhow and Indore in the
interesting polo matches between the 29th Regiment and the station of
Indore, both matches being won by Indore, notwithstanding a good fight
by the Regimental team, headed by Major Ruxton.
On the 7th January, 1881, he read and played with the Chiefs and
Thakores of the Rajkumar class of his College; on the evening of the
8th he played lawn-tennis in the Residency garden, when he caught a
chill. The next day--Sunday--symptoms of tetanus appeared which
created anxiety among his relatives and friends. On Tuesday, the 11th
January, signs of imminent danger became apparent, and at 11 a.m. on
Wednesday, he died, some weeks before the new Governor-General's Agent
arrived at Indore.
It is a very pleasing fact that the most eloquent and very evidently
heart-felt testimony to the great and abiding worth of Abengh-Mackay's
work at Indore and far beyond, came from the very pen of Sir Lepel
Griffin in his "Report of the Central India Agency for the Year
1881-82," issued in July, 1883, as follows.--
'The death of Mr Aberigh-Mackay was for Central India, an
almost irreparable loss. The patience, tact, and enthusiasm
which he brought to his responsible educational duties were
worthy of all admiration and those young Chiefs who had the
benefit of his guidance will compare most favourably both in
acquirements and manners with any students trained under the
most favourable conditions in the colleges of British India.
It so happened that at the time Mr Mackay was in charge of
the Rajkumar College, a large number of important Chiefs
were minors, including the Rajah of Rutlam, the junior Chief
of Dewar, the Nawab of Jaora, and the two sons of His
Highness the Maharaja Holkar. At present there are no Chiefs
of the first rank in the Residency College. It will be well
if the earnestness and devotion which animated the work of
Mr. Abengh Mackay will be felt by those who succeed him.
In Elucidation No. 1--"The Viceroy"--Lord Lytton's _personal_
nomination of Abengh-Mackay to a Fellowship in the Calcutta University
has been referred to. This act of _noblesse oblige,_ in the highest
sense of the term, was happily known to Abengh-Mackay during his
lifetime.
"SOME OCCULT PHENOMENA"
In the autumn of 1880 many strange stories were afloat in India
concerning the studies and practices of what is now widely known as
occult science, indulged in and made manifest by the late Madame
Blavatsky, the authoress of _Isis Unveiled,_ who claimed to possess in
a high degree, by nature, those attributes which spiritualists
describe (without professing to understand) as "mediumship".
Prominent members of Anglo-Indian society associated themselves with
Madame Blavatsky, supported her, and believed in the _bona fides_ of
her powers, derived as Madame declared from Eastern "adepts" in the
science of Yog-Vidya, as this occult knowledge is called by its
devotees.
A science according to some--to others a mere vulgar imposition--with
which, as maintained by certain renowned Western exponents, Lord
Lytton was well versed and largely imbued, his _imagina-tive_ account
of the achievements accomplished by Vril in the _Coming Race_, being,
according to the school and scholars of Madame Blavatsky, altogether
inspired from that Eastern fount.
"Mr. Cypher Redalf, the eminent journalist," in the proper person of
Mr. A.P. Sinnett, editor of _The Pioneer_, a daily newspaper published
at Allahabad, and then, as now to an increased degree, the leading
English newspaper in India, printed in that journal an authoritative
statement of various occurrences in Blavatskyian circles at Simla when
Madame was on a visit to Mr and Mrs. Sinnett.
It is this statement, the outcome of "the true spirit of devout
inquiry ... by persons of consideration in evening dress" which forms
the _leit motif_ of Aberigh-Mackay's powerful satire, in which a
gingham umbrella, "conceived in the liberal spirit of a bye-gone age,"
is substituted for an old fashioned breast brooch set round with
pearls, with glass at the front and the back, made to contain hair,
which, long lost, was stated to have been recovered for its owner as a
result of Madame Blavatsky's occult powers.
Powers made manifest at a dinner in Mr. A.O. Hume's house at Simla on
Sunday the 3rd of October, 1880, at which were present as guests Mr.
and Mrs. Sinnett, Mrs. Gordon, Mr. F. Hogg, Captain P.J. Maitland, Mr.
Davison, Colonel Olcott, and Madame Blavatsky.
Most of the persons present believed that they had recently seen many
remarkable occurrences in Madame Blavatsky's company, and the
conversation largely turned on occult phenomena, in the course of
which Mrs. Hume was asked by Madame if there was anything she
particularly wished for. After some hesitation Mrs. Hume replied that
she was particularly anxious to recover an old-fashioned brooch she
had formerly possessed, which she had given away to a person who had
allowed it to pass out of her possession.
The brooch having been minutely described as above, and roughly
sketched, Madame then wrapped up a coin attached to her watch-chain in
two cigarette papers, and put it in her dress, and said that she hoped
the brooch might be obtained in the course of the evening.