A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIA.--THE SEPOY MUTINY.--PRESENT CONDITION OF THE
ARMY IN INDIA.
At six o'clock in the morning after the departure from Allahabad the
train brought the three travellers to Jubbulpoor, 229 miles from the
junction of the Ganges and Jumna rivers. Here the East Indian Railway
terminates, and the rest of the journey was made over the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway. The appearance of the country told very plainly that
they were no longer in the valley of the Ganges; the broad plain
disappeared, and in its place there were wooded hills and mountains
which afforded many picturesque views. A few miles from Jubbulpoor the
train entered the valley of the Nerbudda River, which was followed for a
long distance; then it ascended a steep incline to cross a chain of
mountains, and afterward descended to the valley of the Godavery. The
Ghaut Mountains of Central India were seen in all their magnificence,
and the boys frequently compared the views from the car windows to those
that greet the traveller over the Alleghanies, on the great routes
westward from the seaboard cities of the United States.
[Illustration: RAILWAY VIADUCT IN THE MOUNTAINS.]
The mountain passes on this route are the Thull Ghaut and the Bhore
Ghaut, which are respectively 1912 and 2027 feet above the level of the
sea. The steepest inclines are one in thirty-seven, or about 143 feet to
the mile, and there are many tunnels, viaducts, and bridges, as might be
expected in a railway through the mountains. Doctor Bronson said the
engineering work was excellent, and very creditable to the builders of
the road, though it was not equal to what had been accomplished in
America--perhaps for the reason that there were not so many difficulties
to encounter and surmount.
The boys had devoted their spare moments to the preparation of their
accounts of India, previously promised, and during some of the long
rides in the railway train they read aloud the results of their work.
Frank had taken the general history of India for his share of the work,
while Fred had prepared a short account of the sepoy rebellion;
consequently Frank's composition was the first to be read. We are
permitted to examine that valuable document.
A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIA.
By FRANK BASSETT.
"There is a good deal of uncertainty about the early history of India,
as the Hindoo accounts are not to be believed in any way. They make the
Hindoos the first people that ever lived here, and give their race an
antiquity of millions of years; they talk about kings and dynasties that
never existed, and mix their performances with those of their gods. Here
is a fair sample of their stories:
"'A goddess in Ceylon had a headache, and it was said the only thing
that could cure her was a plant on one of the Himalayas, a thousand
miles to the north. One of the gods went to bring it, and was gone only
a few hours. When he got to the mountain he was not sure which plant was
wanted, and so he took the mountain on his shoulders and carried it to
Ceylon, and he did it so quietly that none of the inhabitants or wild
animals that lived on the mountain were disturbed in the least. Going
over a plain of Central India he dropped a few stones from the mountain,
and formed a range of hills that stand there to-day. If anybody doubts
the truth of the story he can see the hills, and then he must be
convinced.'
[Illustration: HINDOO GIRL OF HIGH CASTE.]
"The Hindoos are thought to have come here, about 3200 years ago, from
the north; they enslaved the wild tribes that lived in the country, and
traces of these aborigines are still to be found in Central and
Southern India. The Persians under Darius conquered a part of the
country; and then Alexander the Great destroyed the Persian Empire, and
of course took what belonged to it in India. The country was then
divided into numerous small kingdoms, which were quite independent of
each other; many of them were captured by the Mohammedan conquerors who
began to come here eight or nine hundred years ago, and kept coming till
within 200 years. The story of their wars, and of their empires and
kingdoms, would fill a large volume, but we will skip them all, as even
the shortest account would be tedious.
"In 1599 a company was formed in London, called 'The Governor and
Company of Merchants of London Trading with the East Indies,' which was
afterward shortened to 'The East India Company.' Queen Elizabeth gave
them a charter, and a monopoly of all trade east of the Cape of Good
Hope, for fifteen years, and they had a capital of £30,000.
"The company did so well in the first fifteen years that it had its
charter renewed, with more capital, and every fifteen or twenty years
afterward, down to the year 1854, it was renewed in one form or another.
The capital was increased with most of the renewals until it reached
£6,000,000, or $30,000,000, in 1793; it remained at that figure, but the
profits were so great that the shares were often held at five or six
times their par value. From a very early period in its history the
company had the power to govern the country, to make war upon all
barbarous people, to administer laws not conflicting with those of
England, and to make such laws of its own as were thought necessary.
"From 1833 the company ceased to be a trading association, but was
continued in the Government of India, the country being thrown open to
any British subject who chose to engage in business. All the property of
the company was declared the property of the English Government, and
held in trust for it by the company, which was to receive ten per cent.
dividend on its stock, and the Government was privileged to buy the
stock at any time at twice its par value. The last renewal of the
charter was in 1854, but not for any definite period; in August, 1858,
the company was virtually abolished by act of Parliament, and all its
powers were transferred to the Queen, its army and navy were declared a
part of the national forces, and all persons holding commissions under
the company were transferred to the service of the Crown. Thus ended an
association that had existed more than 250 years, and conquered a
country containing nearly a fifth of the inhabitants of the globe.
"Since 1858 the power of the British Government has been extended and
strengthened, while that of the old 'John Company,' as it was called by
the Chinese, has disappeared. The Governor-general of India is appointed
by the Queen, and he lives at Calcutta in the winter season, and at
Simla in the summer. There is a Governor for each of the presidencies of
Madras, Bombay, and Bengal, and under him are all the local and district
commissioners, collectors, and other officials. Then there are
lieutenant-governors, or commissioners, for the Punjaub, North-west
Provinces, Oude, Central Provinces, and Scinde; while the provinces of
Hyderabad, Mysore, and one or two others are controlled directly by the
Governor-general. The villages manage their own affairs, subject to the
approval of the officer in charge of the district where they are
located, and the native magistrates are held responsible for the good
conduct of their subjects. In some parts of the country the land is
leased to _zemindars_ or large landholders, and sublet by them to the
villages; in others the villages lease from the Government; and in
others the individual cultivators take leases and pay their taxes
without the intervention of anybody.
"The power of the Government is not the same all over India. In some
parts of the country the title of the native princes has been quite
extinguished, while in others they live almost as they did before the
English went to India; they collect their taxes, maintain their armies,
make their own laws, have their thrones, courts, and ceremonies, and do
pretty much as they like. An English official, called a 'resident,' or
political agent, lives near the prince, and when he thinks the latter is
going too fast he gives a gentle hint to that effect. The prince is
restricted as to the number of troops he shall keep under arms, and he
pays a tax to the Government in return for being let alone. The resident
has a force of English troops to support him in case of trouble, and the
prince cannot make war upon any other prince without the resident's
permission, which he is not likely to obtain. Before the Mutiny there
were many native states of this kind; those whose rulers remained loyal
to the English have been continued, but those who joined the rebels were
absorbed into the British possessions, and the princes were dethroned.
Altogether, there are now about seventy native states, but some of them
are very small.
[Illustration: A NATIVE PRINCE OF INDIA, WITH HIS SONS.]
"The largest of the native states is Gwalior, and its prince, Scindia,
holds a very high rank. When he goes to Calcutta he receives marked
attention from the Governor-general, and his privileges are greater than
those of any other prince. Indore and Baroda have a form of Government
similar to that of Gwalior, the resident having a force of troops to
protect the British interests and maintain the authority of the prince.
Rajpootana consists of eighteen native states, under as many rajahs, or
princes; each of them has an English official near him, and the whole
are under the orders of the British political agent, who resides at
Ajmere. There is rarely any trouble between the native rulers and the
political agents, as the former know very well that a revolt would be
certain to cost them their power, and possibly their heads.
[Illustration: RECEPTION OF TRAVELLERS.]
"These princes are fond of ceremony, and whenever a foreigner of
distinction pays them a visit he has a special 'durbar,' or reception,
in his honor. Frequently he is met at the frontier by a deputation of
officials to escort him to the capital, and soon after his arrival the
ceremony of _attar and pan_ is performed. The guests are received by the
prince; and as soon as the formalities of presentation are completed
each guest receives a handkerchief of the finest muslin covered with
delicate embroidery. This is placed on the palm of the recipient's open
hand, and then the prince rises and pours attar of roses on the
handkerchief, and at the same time throws a garland of jasmine flowers
alternated with small pearls around the neck of the visitor. The
ceremony is an ancient one, and was introduced by the Mogul conquerors
of India centuries ago.
"The English understand this native love for display, and encourage it
on many occasions. For example, when the Queen of England was proclaimed
Empress of India there was a grand durbar at Delhi, which lasted
twenty-one days, and cost an enormous amount of money. A great many
native princes were invited to the festival, and so were all the foreign
consuls in Calcutta and other cities of India; nearly half of the troops
in India were gathered there, and not a day passed without a ceremonial
of some kind or other."
* * * * *
Here ended Frank's history of India; the youth explained that he might
have made it much longer, and had been puzzled to know when to stop. He
only wanted to give a short account of the country which would not be
tedious; and if any boy or girl wished to know more--and he hoped he had
roused their curiosity to do so--there were plenty of books to be had on
the subject.
Fred's account of the Sepoy Mutiny was now in order. He prefaced his
story with an intimation that it would be very brief, as they had
already listened to stories of the Mutiny during their visits to
Lucknow, Cawnpore, and other places, and his time had been so much
occupied that he had only sketched out the causes of the revolt, and the
changes in the army since it occurred. Here is the story he prepared:
"The word sepoy is of Persian origin, and means a soldier; and its
practical application to-day is to the native soldiers of India, who
were first employed by the French about the middle of the eighteenth
century. In 1748 the East India Company organized a battalion of sepoys
at Madras, and ten years later this small body had grown to a strength
of 14,000. Bengal and Bombay followed the example of Madras, and the
native army grew steadily till it numbered 240,000 men of all arms in
1857. Each regiment was nominally 1000 strong, and had twenty-four
English officers, besides a full complement of native officers for each
company; the natives were not allowed to rise above the rank of captain,
through fear that they might turn their knowledge against their masters.
The failure of the Mutiny is partly due to this precaution, as the
rebels could find no man with sufficient military knowledge to lead them
properly.
"The regiments were differently composed in the three presidencies.
Those of Bengal were mostly high-caste Hindoos; those of the North were
Moslems; and those of Bombay and Madras included several classes. The
prejudices of caste led to the assemblage of men of one caste only in
each regiment, and in this way the revolt was made easy. It was entirely
confined to Bengal. Only one regiment in Madras made any trouble; there
was none in Bombay, and the troops in the north all remained faithful to
England, and aided in suppressing the Mutiny.
"The Bramins had long predicted that the English would be overthrown in
1857, the hundredth anniversary of the battle of Plassey; they organized
a conspiracy that extended all over Bengal, and told the soldiers that
the cartridges they used, and were required to bite when loading their
muskets, contained grease from the cow, an animal they hold to be
sacred, the object being to deprive them of caste and convert them into
Englishmen. Worse yet, the cow's grease was said to be mixed with that
of the pig, the latter animal being detested and abhorred as much as the
cow is revered. Other stories were told to excite them against their
masters; the revolt was so well planned that there was hardly a
suspicion of it till the moment of the outbreak; and so secretly was it
arranged that even to this day the English have not been able to learn
all the facts connected with it.
"The first outbreak was at Berhampoor, near Calcutta, on the 25th of
February, 1857, where the 19th Regiment refused to use the cartridges or
obey any orders. The regiment was disbanded a month later, and meantime
there had been trouble in other regiments in various parts of Bengal; by
the 1st of May the spirit of revolt had spread through the entire
presidency, and within a fortnight from that date the horrible massacres
of Allahabad, Delhi, Dumdum, and a dozen other points had taken place.
The whole country was lighted up with the fires of rebellion, and the
ground was red with the blood of the victims, which included every
person of European or Eurasian origin on whom the rebels could lay their
hands.
[Illustration: TRIAL OF A MUTINEER.]
"Then came the revenge, as soon as the English could assemble the
necessary troops. One stronghold after another fell, and before the
end of the year the revolt was in a state of suppression; several
battles occurred in the spring of 1858, and in some localities the
rebels held out till autumn of that year. Anybody who wishes a full
account of the scenes of that terrible time is referred to the many
books that have been written concerning it, and particularly to 'The
Sepoy War in India,' by J. W. Kaye.
[Illustration: ENGLISH OFFICERS IN INDIA.]
"Since the rebellion and its suppression there has been a radical change
in the organization of the army. The native forces in all India are
about 130,000, and the English 75,000. Compare this arrangement with
that which existed at the time of the Mutiny, when the native strength
was 240,000 and the English less than 40,000, and you will see a vast
difference. Each cavalry and infantry regiment has only eight European
officers, including the surgeon, and none of them are attached to the
companies, which are all led by their native captains. The native
captains are drawn from the higher castes, and appointed to their
places, as in England, while in the old formation they were promoted
from the ranks, and were often of low caste, so that they were despised
by many of the soldiers they commanded.
"In the rank and file the system that made the Mutiny possible has been
entirely abandoned; instead of forming a regiment of a single caste,
religion, or nativity, great care is taken to mix them up as much as
possible, and thus prevent the formation of a plot. Sometimes the
companies are from one tribe or district, but no two companies in a
regiment are of the same kind. As there can be no affinity under such
circumstances, there can be no plot, since there would be no common
cause for one. According to the report of Sir Garnet Wolseley, during
the last year of his service in India the native army of Bengal
contained 6000 or 7000 Hindostanee Moslems, 8000 or 9000 Rajpoots, 2000
Jats, 6000 low-caste Hindostanees, 6000 Punjabee Moslems, 1000 Hindoos,
12,000 Sikhs, 1200 Mwybee Sikhs, 5000 Afghans and Pathans, 5000 or 6000
Ghoorkhas, 4000 Dogras and other hill tribes, besides other
classifications of greater or less importance. None of the regiments are
kept for a long time in any one place, and whenever a review or other
circumstance causes a large number of native troops to be assembled,
there is a large British force conveniently at hand and taking part in
the manoeuvres."
"This may possibly be dry reading to somebody at home," Fred remarked as
he folded the paper. "If the young folks don't like it, they can skip a
few pages; but I am sure the older heads in the family will wish to know
something about the Mutiny and the present condition of the army in
India, and therefore I shall make a nice copy of what I have written and
send it home by the next mail."