Two Native Narratives of the
Mutiny in Delhi
THE EMPEROR BAHADUR SHAH.
King of Delhi in 1857
After a miniature painted for the late Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, 1844.
Two Native Narratives
of the Mutiny in Delhi
TRANSLATED
from THE orignals
by THE late
CHARLES THEOPHILUS METCALFE, C.S.I.
of the Bengal Civil service,
Westminster
ARCHIBALD
CONSTABLE & CO.
2 WHITEHALL GARDENS
1898
PREFATORY
NOTE.
My
husband, in the introduction to this book, has explained how these native
narratives of the Siege of Delhi came into his possession. The translation and
arrangement of the originals were to him an endless translation and a source of
interest and enjoyment, during the last years of his life, and his task was only
completed a few weeks before his death in 1892. Accounts of the Indian Mutiny
by Englishmen, and from an English point of
view, have flooded the literary world, but feeling strongly, as he did,
the intense interest of this (so far as he knew) the only native narrative, its publication was one of the dearest wishes of
his heart. Death prevented his seeing the fulfilment of his desire ; and it has
remained for me to carry it out as best lay in my power. If the British public evince as much
interest in the reading as he did in the translating and compiling, his work
will not have been thrown away.
ESTHER G. METCALFE.
THE
BEGUM ZURAT MAHAL,
Chief Wife of the King of Delhi.
Taken when she was a prisoner after the Mutiny, 1857.
INTRODUCTION.
--------------------
0n the 1st of February, 1885, I received from
Hyderabad the following telegram :
"Mainodin Hassan Khan died yesterday morning." This event releases me from a promise,
made so far back as 1878, that I would not, during the lifetime of Mainodin,
publish the contents of certain papers
which he had given to me under circumstances hereafter stated. I now offer a translation in English
of those papers, as a contribution to
the history of the Indian Rebellion of 1857-58. The chief interest of the
narrative is confined to the events as they occurred in and around Delhi. So much has already been written about the
socalled Indian Mutiny, that I feel some hesitation in offering this
book to the public. In the interests of India and England it is best that the
bitter memories of that cruel rebellion should be forgotten. On the other hand,
a lasting historical interest is attached to that great event. The generation
that saw the Mutiny of the Indian Army is fast dying out. Many of the principal actors have passed
away. The rising generation, which is
to govern our greatest dependency, knows but little of the details of the stirring
scenes. Each corner of India where
the soldiery mutinied had a special
history of its own ; but around Delhi and Lucknow the greatest interest was
centred. Upon one of these two centres in Northern India the rebel soldiery
gradually converged, as regiment after regiment mutinied, and it was at Delhi
that the question of English supremacy was virtually decided. I hesitate in recalling painful scenes, the
thought of which stirred up the feelings of Europeans at the time, to an extent
which can now be hardly realized. A side of native character was shown
which few Europeans had ever fully realized to be existent. No men
had more faith in those they led than the officers of the Company's Army --- often up to the last moment when the
deadly blow was given. Amidst the
bloodshed and violence of those times, however, there were found natives loyal
and true, whose minds remained unaffected by the madness of the times. The writer of one of the narratives which is
here given was an example of this constancy. Munshi Jiwan Lall was an educated
native gentleman, closely associated with the court life of the King of Delhi
for many years before the Mutiny, and during the time of the outbreak. His father, Girdhari Lall, a lineal
descendant of Rajah Rogonath, Prime ,Minister of Aurungzebe, had been Munshi or
writer, first to Sir David Ochterlony and afterwards to Sir Charles Metcalfe,
when Agents to the Governor‑General at the Court of the Mogul. Jiwan Lall in younger days, had been
present both at the siege of Bhurtpur and at Jeypur, when in Junc, 1835, Mr. Blake, the Assistant to the Resident,
was killed. Later in life, being appointed as Accountant of the numerous
pensions paid by the British Government to the King's family, he became a kind
of go‑between, taking confidential messages from the Governor‑General's
Agent to the Mogul. He for many years
lived in daily contact with the King and his family, and was thoroughly
familiar with all the various characters about the King, and with the Palace
intrigues. During the actual Mutiny at Delhi and the siege of the city, he was resident within the walls ; a careful
observer of every event and acquainted with every incident that occurred ;
often in fear of his life, but protected by Palace influence. A writer by caste
and profession, he recorded each day's.events as they happened, and has thus
preserved a valuable detailed record of what occurred in the city during the
siege. After British power was re‑established, Jiwan Lall was made an
honorary Magistrate and a Municipal Commissioner, and died respected by his
countrymen and regretted by those British officials who had known his worth and
his goodness. No more trustworthy or
loyal native servant has the British Government ever had, and no more
trustworthy or reliable source of information could be obtained than the record
he has left behind of the Summer of 1857. On the occasion of the Imperial
Assemblage at Delhi, he gave me the original diary he had kept, and he procured
also for me the official Court Diary, kept by the Moulvi or Royal Chaplain, of
the King's private mosque in the Palace.1 (1 The
practice of keeping diaries is common throughout the East : every court, police‑station,
and temple of note has its authentic record of daily events. The priests of
Juggernauth boast that they haye a diary of a thousand years.)
A
long‑standing family connection, since 1767, with India, and since 1803
with Delhi, brought me, in addition to acquaintance with Munshi Ji'wan Lall,
some connection with one Mainodin Hassan Khan, previously referred to. This
man, styled by courtesy Nawab Mainodin Hassan Khan, was descended from a noble
family, who came as freebooters from Samarkand to try their fortunes in
Hindustan. As a boy he was taken some notice of by the then Resident of Delhi, Sir Thomas Metcalfe, and was,
later in life, together with his younger brother, appointed to an Inspectorship
of Police. He held a like appointment in May, 1857, at the outbreak of the
Mutiny. Well known to the King, to the courtiers and intriguers about the
Palace, he, by his imprudent conduct at the very first outbreak, became
identified with the King's party -- first, as the City Kotwal, or Police
Officer, charged with the police administration under the rebellious King ;
next, as a Colonel, commanding one of the rebel regiments, which was formed by
him out of the mutinous soldiery.
Flying, after the capture of the city by the British, with a price on
his head, he made his way to Bombay, as the nearest port from which he could
escape to the deserts of Arabia. There he lived for some years, in company with
many others of the rebel leaders, who had also managed to escape from India. In
the meantime, his brother Mahommed Hassan, who, during the siege had attached
himself to Sir John Metcalfe, and had subsequently travelled with that officer
in Kullu and Thibet, urged him to return. He ventured as far as Bombay, and
there stayed for some time, until the longing for home became too strong to be
resisted.
He
yearned to see the few surviving members of his family. Under advice, he
surrendered to the authorities at Delhi. Sir John Metcalfe, then in England,
telegraphed out that the best Counsel available was to be retained for his
defence. He was tried and acquitted of all complicity in the murder of
Europeans, and was pardoned for his share in the fighting at Delhi. At the time
of the Imperial Assemblage in that city his case was represented to the
Government of India, which granted to his family a small donation, in
consideration of his services to Sir John Metcalfe, whose life he had saved at
Delhi during the Mutiny. After his acquittal, Mainodin from time to time
visited me in the various districts in which I was stationed, and later he
busied himself in writing, from materials in his possession, the narrative
which I have translated and placed first in order in this book. The part which
he played he has described, with characteristic honesty. He undoubtedly threw
himself into the rebellion with all the zest of a Mahommedan, eager to see the
re-establishment of the Mogul Dynasty.
His conduct, I have no doubt, was moderated by the recollection of
kindnesses received from the Englishmen whom he had served, and from the
knowledge that the master whose life he had so recently saved was watching his
career beyond the ridge at Delhi.
From the foregoing remarks it will be seen that the great value attaching to these records lies in the fact that they are from purely native sources, and are, so far as I know, the first trustworthy contribution, from the native side, to the history of the Indian Mutiny. To prepare the English reader for these narratives, I propose to enumerate briefly,
(1)
the causes which led to the mutiny of the native army;
(2)
the position of the titular King of Delhi at the time of the rebellion ; and
lastly the weakness of the British position in India, which made the temporary
success of the mutineers possible, and comparatively easy of achievement.
THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE MUTINY.
Many
opinions have been expressed as to the causes which led the Bengal Army to
mutiny. Some have contended that it was the revolt of a class, which had long
been injudiciously pampered and petted into insubordination. Some have declared
it to be the result of a national movement, to free the country from foreign
government and to re-establish a Mahommedlan rule. The Annexation Policy of
Lord Dalhousic has been assigned by others as the primary cause. Sir John Kaye quotes a statement of Sir
James Outram that the rebellion was set on foot by Mahommedans long before we
took Oude from its rulers. An
impression has been created by some writers, that the native army was corrupted
by agents of the old princely houses, which English power had from time to time
destroyed, and that these agents had wandered from city to city, sowing the
seeds of sedition. Another writer believes the Mutiny to have been the result
of fanaticism, created by a Royal Proclamation, emanating from the Court of
Persia, copies of which had undoubtedly been circulated throughout India. Some
have contended it was a purely Mahommedan rebellion, others a joint Hindu and
Mahommedan revolt; and that in order to create a sympathetic movement of both
Hindu and Mahommedan in a joint resistance to the British power, the cartridge
grievance was created. Possibly the publication hereafter of Lord Canning's
papers may throw some light on this much debated question. In the meantime the
opinion of a native, himself an actor in the rebellion, and in close
communication with more than one of the rebel leaders, when refugees together
in Arabia, is of extreme interest. No positive evidence has been published
since the rebellion, to throw much new light on the subject, although I have
personally inquired from many distinguished natives. No new facts have ever been elicited beyond that, for years
before the outbreak, there had been a growing disaffection towards the British
rule. Gradually we had spread from South to North, and from West to East,
enforcing British authority with a cold, unyielding hand ; controlling the
predatory habits of the lawless and fighting classes, checking the unlawful
practices of the landed classes and wealthy Rajahs. Every class found itself
curbed and subjected to law, with curtailed privileges. The professional
thieves, robbers and dakoits, of whom whole villages existed, found their
occupation becoming more and more hazardous.
Thugs and prisoners, smugglers and distillers of illicit spirits,
slave-dealers, forgerers and perjurers, coiners and cattle-lifters, all had for
years felt the strength of the new Administration. Under 'Mahommedan and Mahratta rule there had been some
repression of crime, but an infinitesimal amount as compared with that under
the English police. Bribery might still
deliver some evildoers from the penalties of crime ; but as years went on, money failed more and more to provide an
avenue of escape. From one end of the peninsula to the other, the silent power
of the English administration was creeping over the land, and using natives for
its agents. For generations past, village had hated village, State had been
jealous of State, the sword and club had been the arbiters when men's passions
were loosed. It had become an hereditary instinct to decide every dispute by an
appeal to force. That practice was being gradually repressed.
The
landholders, who, from the days of their ancestors, had tortured recalcitrant
tenants to extort rent, found they could no longer do so with impunity. There
was repression and control over every class of society, in every grade of the
population. The very law-courts, more particularly the lowest Civil Courts,
constituted a grievance, although the judges were native, for they undoubtedly
were often used as a means by the rich to oppress the poor. The lead`ers of the
Hindu race, the Brahminical class, found their influence fading, their priestly
dignity lowered, privileges which they had enjoyed under native dynasties
curtailed, their sacred language learned by the detested foreigner, their creed
controverted by strange missionaries. Discontent reigned everywhere; Hindus
were disaffected; Mahommedans, mindful of' their warlike traditions, were
dreaming of the past glories of their Emperors, and were daily praying for the
restoration of their power ; Mahrattas were still mourning over the conquests
of Lake and Wellesley. Hatred of the British amongst the higher classes,
ignorance and fanaticism amongst the lower, intrigue everywhere, a partial
rebellion here and there, now amongst the Coles, again amongst the Sonthals and
Khonds. A handful of Englishmen holding a continent, not by overwhelming
forces, but mainly by the impression on the native mind that they were
invincible. As years went on, familiarity with our system of government and
resources opened the eyes of many to the belief that our numbers were
insignificant. "What number of fighting men could a wretched little island
(japu) ever so far away in the Northern Seas produce ? " and " Who
was this John Company (Jan Compani) Bahadur who ruled so vast a territory as
Hindustan? Was he an individual?" Opinions differed as to who or what he was.
It was clear that " he " or " it " held India by a native
army. If that could desert his cause,
what could the few Feringhis scattered here and there do, cut off from all
co-operation and assistance ? It needed no teaching to instil this idea into
the native mind. The truism was patent to everyone who devoted a moment's
thought to the matter.
Whether, then, this idea first suggested a plan to tamper with the native army, or whether the tampering was attempted on the discovery that there was serious disaffection in the ranks, has never been, and probably never will be, satisfactorily ascertained. The general impression is that the Mahommedans were the instigators, and induced the Hindus to join them. But Mahommeclans are bad conspirators: their methods are too clumsy, they are too ready to break into violence ; they are wanting in many essentials to work out a successful conspiracy. On the other hand, the Hindus have a genius for conspiracy : they possess a power of patience, of foreseeing results, of carefully weighing chances, of choosing time and weapon, of profiting by circumstances, never losing sight of the object desired, taking advantage of every turn of fortune - all qualities invaluable for success in intrigue. The circulation of the chupattis before the outbreak was an exact repetition of what happened before the Mahrattas invaded Northern India, only in place of goat's flesh a sprig of millet had accompanied the bread. Before the Sonthal rebellion, a branch of the sal tree (Shorea robusta) had been sent from village to village. Hindus being vegetarians, it seems probable that a bit of raw flesh had a Mahommedan origin; or, as has been suggested, it might have signified extermination. I am inclined to think that this was its real meaning. A Mahommedan Jeha'd would have been proclaimed by preaching, and raising the standard of the Prophet. The probability is that it was a joint proclamation, the work of Hindus as well as of Mahommedan conspirators. It may be accepted as a historical fact that the annexation of Oude intensified the prevailing disaffection and hastened the Rebellion. That act would have affected both sets of religionists, as the Hindu population is largely in excess of Mahommedans in Oude. Other instances, as that of the mutiny of the cavalry at Segowlie, which was brought about by Mahommedan emissaries from Lucknow, and the rebellion of Koer Sing, a Hindu of Shahabad, show clearly that both religions were at work against British authority. Koer Sing was no doubt influenced by that arch-fiend, the Nana, from Bithur, with whom he had been in constant correspondence. Koer Sing, in his turn, attempted to influence the Rajahs of Behar; but in the cases of the Maharajahs of Durnraon and Dev, and the old Maharani' of Tikhari, the English found loyal friends, for they turned a deaf car to both threats and promises. It has always been a matter of surprise to me that the histories of the Indian Mutiny have taken so little notice of the part played by the Nana of Bithur, whose r6Ie it was to stir up the Hindu population.
THE POSITION OF THE TITULAR KING OF DELHI AT THE TIME OF THE REBELLION.
In 1737 the great paramount power over the Continent of India was the Mahratta. A confederacy of Mahratta States under a Minister of ability and tact, with Scindia and Holka as Generals, held the country under subjection. BundeIkund, Agra, and Delhi all at one time acknowledged Mahratta rule. The Mahommedan power, which had so long prevailed, was dead and gone. When Lord Lake crossed the Jumna on September 15, 1803, and entered the city of Delhi, he found the Mogul Emperor virtually a prisoner, blind and helpless, emaciated and infirm, his face marked with extreme old age and the settled melancholy of a broken-hearted man. The British found him a puppet without a Court or a Treasury, and as such they retained him. The sequel has shown it was a fatal error, though under the circumstances, at the time, it seemed the safest policy. The Mahommedans attached to the dynasty accepted our rule in a certain fashion, as an improvement on Mahratta severity. A considerable portion of the conquered territory was set aside to meet the stipends of the pensioned King and his family. The old Mogul was allowed to appoint his own agents for the management of the estates assigned to him, as well as the city police. So delicately did the British deal with the King, that the Resident was debarred from all interference with the executive control of the city. On municipal matters, and on the revenue administration of the assigned territories, the Resident might advise the King; but he was to exercise no executive authority. The King was to be absolute, within his own palace grounds and in the city. He was to be surrounded with all the dignity of a monarch he was to live in luxury and pomp, with a remnant of fiscal power over a limited territory. " He was to be the mere shadow of an Eastern potentate; he was to be preserved, not because he was wanted, but because his existence would gratify the Mahommedan Princes of India, and make English rule more
acceptable
to a conquered people." The policy was fatal, and the evils of such an
arrangement soon became manifest. The
Emperor Shah Alum, old and blind as he was, wasted his money, and encumbered
the estates set apart for his maintenance by reckless gifts of land to
favourites. Surrounded by avaricious dependants, his money thrown about with
lavish hand, there soon gathered in and about the palace a band of dissolute
and desperate men. The palace stood, as
it now stands, immediately on the banks of the Jumna. It was built about 1631-2
by the Emperor Shah Jehan, and in the early part of this century covered a
space of a mile in circumference. The actual palace was about 3,000 feet long
and 1,800 broad. It contained the beautiful
Dewan-i-Am, or Public Hall of Audience, and the Dewan-i-Khas, or Hall of
Private Audience; the latter built of white marble, beautifully ornamented, the
roofs supported on colonnades of marble pillars. In the centre of the Hall
stood the famous Peacock Throne, which was ascended by steps, covered by a
canopy with four artificial peacocks at the four corners. Around the exterior
of the Dewan-i-Khas was the well-known inscription : " If there be a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this
it is this!" The terrace of the
building is composed marble, and the building itself is crowned with four
pavilions or cupolas of the same material.
To the north of the Dewan-i-Khas were situated the palace baths,
surmounted with domes of white marble. Adjoining the baths was a large mosque.
The palace gardens occupied the river frontage, its walls looking down upon the sands of the river. Adjoining,
but connected with the palace by a bridge, was the Fort of Selimghur. On the
river-side, the palace was protected by a solid masonry wall of red sandstone, loopholed
; and on the city side by a substantial wall of brick. Inside these walls was a
maze of houses, some of masonry, some of mats, some of mud. The larger houses
contained underground rooms, intricate passages, enclosed courtyards, dark and
mysterious holes and corners, secret doors and outlets, which communicated from
house to house. Dirt and filth were everywhere, inside and outside. Rich
carpets and dirty mats were side by side on the floors ; ivory and silver
chairs were covered with filthy rags. The English mind of the well-to-do classes, trained in the
domestic life of an English home, and to a great extent guarded from contact
with evil, has no conception of the life within an Eastern palace, such as existed
at Delhi. Hundreds of young men and women living without occupation and with
little to amuse them ; hundreds of worn-out old men and women, with nothing to
look forward to but the grave were-the young, given over to lust-the old to
intrigue. Conceive a life where human passions were inflamed by every possible
indulgence, and stimulated by devices unheard of even in the lowest haunts of
vice in Europe ; every natural law violated. Where there is no restraint there
can be no morality. Incest, murderings,
poisonings, torturings, were daily occurrences. A school of professors of the
art of crime flourished in the purlieus of the King's Palace. Men and women
skilled in the preparation of poisons, of drugs to cause unconsciousness, so as
to facilitate robbery and incest, throve within the palace walls. Wrestlers,
jesters, dancinggirls who danced naked to inflame the passions of old age,
musicians, forgers, swindlers, thieves, receivers of stolen property,
distillers of spirits, compounders of sweetmeats and opium, all formed a part
of the palace community. Criminals, to escape punishment, sought refuge there.
Political intrigue was as rife as sensual. Wives intrigued against wives,
harlots against wives, mothers against sons ; men and women scoured the country
far and wide for beautiful girls to sell as slaves within the palace. In such a
hotbed of villany, any conspiracy was possible. Assassinations were frequent,
and the silent river was close at hand to bear away all traces of the victim.
Such
is a true picture of the palace life shortly after the British occupancy of the
Delhi province. But while inside the palace, debauchery and villany ran riot,
the estates assigned to the King for his sustenance, had so far benefited from
the peace and order consequent upon English administration that the revenue
collections, which in 1803 were some £41,058, in 1804 had increased to
£145,754. A very short experience of the arrangements made for the King's
stipends showed that whilst the outside of the platter was getting cleaner,
there were serious apprehensions of danger from the internal intrigues of the
Mogul's retainers. The folly of the whole arrangement was noted and commented
on by General Ochterlony as " more injurious than beneficial." In
1807 his successor, Sir Charles Metcalfe, wrote as follows:-" I do not
conform to the policy of Seton's mode of managing the Royal Family. It is by a
submission of manner and conduct, carried on, in my opinion, far beyond the
respect and attention which can be either prescribed by forms, or dictated by a
humane consideration for the fallen fortunes of a once illustrious family. It
destroys entirely the dignity which ought to be attached to him who represents
the British Government, and who, in reality, is to govern Delhi, and it raises,
I have perceived, ideas of imperial power and sway, which ought to be put to
sleep for ever. As it is evident we do not mean to restore imperial power to
the King, we ought not to pursue a conduct calculated to make him aspire to it.
Let us treat him with the respect due to his rank and situation; let us make
him comfortable in respect of circumstances, and give him all the means, as far
as possible, of being happy. But, unless we mean to re-establish his power, let
us not encourage him to dream of it. Let us meet his first attempts to display
imperial authority with immediate check, and let him see the mark beyond which
our respect and obedience to the shadow of a king will not proceed." Mr.
Archibald Seton, who was at the time Resident at Delhi, did not sympathize with
these views. He held that the British could not do too much to soothe the
feelings of a family so situated. He thought that the most obsequious
attentions on the part of the Governor-General's Agent did not hurt the
Resident, but that in yielding in small things, he could, with a better grace,
assert his authority on great occasions. There has been a traditional tendency
on the part of the Government of India always to adopt a middle course. Take,
for example, the two recent cases of the Manipur State and the Age of Consent Bill.
Any course which does not push matters to a conclusion has always commended
itself, generally with evil results. It was deemed a better policy to tolerate
a double executive authority in the city, to retain the shadow of a Mogul
dynasty, lest the King's deposition should alarm the whole Mahommedan race in
India. Yet it was patent to the dullest comprehension that, although the new
power which possessed Delhi might for the time being, in the estimation of the
natives, be the virtual ruler of Hindustan, still, so long as the shadow of the
old dynasty remained, it would be regarded as the one and only fountain of
honour, the one authority to be reverenced.
Princes still bore the titles conferred by the King. The current coin of
every kind still continued to be struclc in the name of the existing monarch ;
applications for confirmation of successors to the chieftainship of petty
States, still were made to him ; and when from time to time these applications
were refused, appeaIs were lodged with thee Resident to use his influence with
the Mogul to grant the prayers of his petitioners. When serious riots occurred,
as they frequently did, the people looked to the King for protection from the
British authorities. " I am convinced," wrote the Assistant Resident,
on the occasion of one of these riots, " that it would never have taken
place" if the "people had not expected that the King would (as he
did) protect them. It had its origin in the palace, and if traced to its
primary cause would be found to have arisen from the effect of the Resident's
too delicate and submissive conduct. Ideas of the exercise of sovereign right
ought, I think, to be checked in the bud. It may be difficult to destroy them
when they have been suffered to grow for some time--at least, greater
difficulty than there would have been in suppressing them altogether."
By-and-by, under pressure from the British Resident, the Court of Directors
consented to modify the system : while the actual administration over Revenue
and Customs was vested in the Resident, every honour was to be continued to be
paid to the puppet king. He was to be treated as a mighty potentate, and
particular attention was to be paid to the feelings of His Majesty. The result
was again that, while these modifications in the Delhi administration resulted
in failure, the real political danger was tolerated--the existence of the
Emperor in the very heart of the city, in a palace capable of being converted
into a formidable fortress. In 1806 died the blind old Emperor Shah Alum, for 45
years the nominal Emperor of Hindustan. He was succeeded, November, 1806, by
Shah Akbar II. In 1809 increased allowances were demanded by the Shah, and
sanctioned by the Court of Directors. Not satisfied with this increase, there
was shortly another demand for a larger stipend, and the aid of the Nawab Wazir
of Oude was sought to further these claims. The more the Governor-General
yielded, the more was asked. Intrigue followed upon intrigue, pretension upon
pretension, until in I814 the Mogul claimed precedence of the Governor- General
himself.
In
September, 1837, died Shah Akbar 11, leaving issue eleven sons and six
daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Shah Mahommed Abu Zuphur
Sarazodain Mahommed Bahadur, titular King and Emperor. He was
the pensioned representative of the Mogul Dynasty when the rebellion of 1857
occurred. The internal condition of the palace had in no way improved since the
days of Shah Alum. The "dalals" of India are a professional
classsolicitors, who live by the results of intrigue. It is their business to
stir up litigation, to find out the heartburnings in every family circle, and
convert them to their own purposes by framing them into plaints at law. They
hang about every lawcourt, every royal court, and every family of
wealth and position. They gamble and speculate in lawcourts, ever ready to
suggest or frame demands in the hopes of sharing the pickings. This class was
not wanting around the King. Under their advice the feeble old Mogul made
demands which had to be resisted. Ever in debt, the greed of his family for
money was unlimited. He was a burden on the administration, but it was rightly
deemed impolitic to wound the feelings of the whole Mahommedan race in
Hindustan by his removal from Delhi. No
inducement could make him leave his palace ; not so much a fear of a revival of
the Mahommedan power was entertained, as that the King might become the
rallying-point of a confederacy of native states. From time to time the English
newspapers pressed the necessity of removing the King. On January 13, 1849, the
Delhi Gazelle, then the leading paper of the NorthWest Provinces, wrote as
follows:-" On Thursday morning departed this life Prince Dara Bulcht,
heir-apparent to the throne of Delhi, leaving Shahzada Fakir-u-din as heir, and
with him we have some reason to believe that all the right of the Royal House
to the succession dies out, such having been guaranteed to him individually and
to no other member of the family. We sincerely trust that such is really the
case, and that our Government will now be in a position to adopt steps for
making efficient arrangements for the dispersion, with a suitable provision, of
the family on the death of the King." " It is a curious fact,"
writes the author of " The Wanderings of a Pilgrirn," " that
nearly all the native papers have long since omitted the designation of 'Padshah' when alluding to the King, styling him merely 'Shah. For six centuries Delhi had been the seat of
the imperial power in India, and the opinion had long existed among the better
informed class of natives-an opinion which had leaked out of the earlier
dispatches of Lord Wellesley-that the British had contemplated the extinction
of the Mogul Dynasty ; that their intention had been to rescue their former
Emperor, Shah Alum, from the dominion of the Mahrattas, and to retain
possession of his person in safe custody as a guarantee ; to protect him and
his successors from the oppression of
the Mahrattas. The capture of Delhi by Lord Lake was, at the time, hailed with
genuine delight by the Mahommedans of the Western Provinces.
That their great city should be captured and plundered, and its inhabitants massacred, was familiar history to the natives of Delhi, but each conqueror had respected, though he had humiliated, their king. Timour, in 1398, although he pillaged the city and for five days gave up its inhabitants to the sword, constructing a pyramid of human skulls to mark his departure, left Nazir-u-din on the throne. Again, when in March, 1739, Nadir Shah captured the city, he massacred, so native historians say, 100,000 of its inhabitants, yet he spared and left Mohammed Shah on the throne. After each humiliation the Sovereign continued, and gradually regained his ascendancy. Therefore, whilst the natives accepted the position of a humiliated monarch for their Emperor, there was always the possibility of his once again regaining power, and they were content to wait. But when it was known that the British intended to close the succession and disperse the family, the deepest feelings of both Hindus and Mahommedans were roused. When Bahadur Shah succeeded to Shah Akbar in 1837, an attempt was made, under instructions from the Governor-General, to obtain a formal renunciation of all claims upon the East India Company. The King, who was an old man when he succeeded, refused to comply. Another proposal to remove the King to the Kutub, was also indignantly rejected. A little later, a Board was appointed to discuss and report on the course to be followed with regard to the retention of the Royal Family at Delhi. To this Committee were nominated Shahzada Fakir-u-di'n, heir-apparent to the King and the eldest of nine princes, of whom the next in succession was Mirza Kobash. Sir Henry Elliot, Mr. Thomason, and Sir Thomas Metcalfe (Resident at Delhi) were the other members. The Committee submitted their report, and the whole subject was still under consideration, when Lord Dalhousie's tenure of office expired in 1856. It is a painful and yet noteworthy fact that of the persons who composed that Committee, Shahzada Fakir-u-din died of poison 10th July, 1856; Sir Thomas Metcalfe, Bart., of symptoms believed to have been the result of vegetable poison, November 1.
Lord Canning, who entirely concurred in Lord Dalhousie's views of the danger arising from the position of the strong fortress at Delhi, in the very heart of the principal city of the Empire, recognized Mirza Mahommed Kobash as the heir-apparent on the death of Fakir-u-din.
THE WEAKNESS OF THE BRITISH POSITION IN INDIA AT THE TIME OF THE
MUTINY.
The English were living over a volcano ready to burst into deadly violence at any moment, but they could not, or would not, apprehend their danger. Of warnings there were plenty; but they made little impression, for reasons which are difficult not to understand. In the first place, the distances in India are so great and the circumstances of each district so varied, that rumours reaching a central authority in a far off capital appear too contradictory and uncertain to be entitled to credit. In the second place, the natives have an unfortunate habit of sending anonymous information to the authorities with the view of injuring some personal enemy. All such communications are generally disregarded and consigned to the waste-paper basket. Every civil and military officer, with district experience, has felt the difficulty or other of making those above him see what is going on around him.
He
finds he is misunderstood, and often discredited. Another distinctive feature
of Indian official life is, that the higher the grade of an officer the less he
is likely to hear of what is going on around him. Members of Council and
Lieutenant-Governors
A DESCRIPTION OF DELHI.
It may not be out of place here to give the reader a description of the city of Delhi, in which so much interest was centred from May to December, 1857. Delhi is situated on the western bank of the river Jamna. The present city is about ten miles in circumference, surrounded on three sides by a high wall of brick and stone. It has seven gates, viz. : the Lahore, Delhi, Ajrnere, Turkorman, Moorgate, Cabul, and Cashmere. These are all built of stone, and have handsome arched entrances, with quarters for the city guards. The Cashmere Gate had been renewed not many years before the outbreak by Colonel Edward Smith of the Engineers. The present city is the work of Mahommedans, having been laid out and constructed by the Emperor Shah Jehan A.D. 1631-2. The more ancient city lies further inland back from the river, outside the walls. When Richard, King of England, was leading the Crusaders against Saladin and the Saracens, a Hindu Raja " Prithvi was King of Delhi. Under the Hindu Dynasty the city was called Indrapesta, or the abode of the God Indra. It is identified as the modern Marowli, the site of the famous wells and the burial-place of the three Emperors Bahadur Shah, Shah Alum, and Akbar Shah. The tombs and ruins which on every side surround the modern city for a circumference of twenty miles, are evidence of the sites occupied by the city during different periods of its history, for with a Hindu it is a duty never to repair the works of his ancestors, but to build on a fresh spot. The country is, on all sides, much cut up by ravines and broken ground. The north and west of the city are occupied by the remains of spacious gardens and the country-houses of the nobility. About a mile and a half away stands an observatory erected by Jey Sinha, of Ambhere, about 1693, called by the natives the Jantr Mantr. This great astronomer also prepared a set of tables, which are to this day used by the natives in their preparation of almanacks. The buildings consist of a large equatorial dial built of stone, with the edges of gnomon, and the arches where the gradation was, of white marble. There is also a second equatorial dial-a graduated semicircle for taking altitudes of bodies that lie due east or due west from the eye of the observer. A double quadrant is for observing the altitudes of bodies passing the meridian either to the north or south of the Zenith. Two other buildings stand near designed for the same purpose, so that two persons may make observations at the same time. There is also a concave hemispherical piece of masonry to represent the inferior hemisphere of the heavens. The buildings are a copy in masonry of the brass instruments used in the observatory at Samarcand. To the north of the city lie the Shalimer Gardens, from which a wide expanse of the suburbs of Delhi may, be seen, covered with the ruins of many a mosque, mausoleum, and garden-house. Within the city are many beautiful palaces, large, substantial, stone-built structures, with baths of white marble, and underground rooms for use in the hot weather, with many a safe corner in which to hide a fugitive, if only the house-owner were so minded. Alas ! the only use made in 1857 of these palaces was to gather the fugitive Europeans, in order to deliver them over en masse to their murderers.
In the centre of the city stood the beautiful Jumma Musjid or principal mosque, on an elevation named Jujula Pahar, which had been scarped on purpose. It is ascended by a flight of stone steps, with an entrance through a gateway of red stone. The courtyard or the body of the mosque is an open space, 1400 feet of red stone. In the centre is a fountain in which the faithful perform their ablutions, previous to prayer. It was on the walls of this mosque that, after the capture of the city, some discontented versifier chalked the lines of which the following is a rough translation
When war is nigh, and battle
sighted,
'God and the soldier is all
the cry !
When battle ends in victory,
God is forgotten, and the soldier slighted."
An arched colonnade of red sandstone surrounds the whole of the terrace, which is adorned with octagonal pavilions for sitting in. The mosque is of an oblong form, 261 feet in length, surmounted by three magnificent domes of white marble, interspersed with black stripes, and flanked by two minarets, of alternate black marble and red sandstone, rising to the height Of 130 feet. Each of these minarets has three projecting galleries of white marble, their summits crowned with light octagonal pavilions of the same. The whole front of the building is faced with large slabs of beautiful white marble, and along the cornice are ten compartments, four, feet long and two and a half broad, which are inlaid with inscriptions in black marble in the Nishki character,1 (1 Wanderings of a Pilgrim, by Mrs. F. Parke.) and are said to contain the greater part, if not the whole, of the Koran. The outside of the mosque is paved throughout with large slabs of white marble, decorated with a black border, and wonderfully beautiful and delicate. The slabs are about three feet in length by one and a half broad. The walls and the roof are lined with plain white marble, and near the " Kibla " is a handsome niche, looking towards Mecca, adorned with a profusion of frieze work. Close to this is the pulpit (mimbar) of marble, with an ascent of four steps balustraded. It would be interesting, could we know, what counsel was given from this pulpit during those eventful months in 1857. The ascent to the minarets is by a winding staircase of a hundred and thirty steps of red sandstone, and from the top a lovely view of the city and palace is obtained. The domes are crowned with cullises of copper, richly gilt, and present a glittering appearance from afar.
This
mosque, begun by the Emperor Shahichan in the fourth year of his reign, was
completed in the tenth. It cost ten lakhs of rupees. The musjid stands so far
from the outer fortifications as to have escaped injury from the shells fired
from the ridge by the English; but one shell did reach the mosque, and exploded
within the courtyard. The city possessed about forty other mosques besides
Hindu temples amongst them the Kala Musjid or Black Mosque, built 450 years
before the building of the modern city of Delhi, i.e. about 1181 A.D. No
religious service is ever performed here, and none but the lowest dregs of the
populace ever go near it. The place is regarded as unholy. Then we must mention
the English church built by Colonel Skinner, an ugly building with a dome,
inside the Cashmere Gate. The mutineers attempted to destroy the gilt cross
which surmounts the dome, but failed to do so. The Tomb of Humaon is a building
rendered doubly interesting since the Mutiny as being that to which the Emperor
fled when the city was attacked. The mausoleum stands on a terrace of red
sandstone, which measures 2,000 feet in circumference: it is circular, and
surmounted by a stupendous dome of white marble, so shaped that a man can walk
up the slope, which from below looks too steep for such a possibility. For
miles around the mausoleum can be seen. Minarets at the four corners, of red
and white marble, mark the extremities of the terrace. These are crowned with
octagonal pavilions of red stone, having marble cupolas. Franklin (to whom I am
indebted for the above details) judges the height to be 120 feet. A staircase
leads from the ground to the terrace below, which consists of a series of
arched rooms. The principal room is paved with large slabs of white marble ; it
contains the tomb of Humaon, elegantly decorated with chisel work. In adjoining
chambers are interred several princesses of the House of Timour. The terrace is
occupied by the graves of various princes who were from time to time
assassinated: the Emperor Alumgir is buried here, assassinated at the
instigation of the Vizier Gazi-ud-din Khan. The Zinut al Musjid, another
beautiful mosque on the river bank, with inlayings of marble, and a spacious
terrace in front, and the Musjid of Roshan-ul-Dowlah, at one end of the
Chandnii Chauk- from which the King of Persia witnessed the slaughter of men,
women, and children, without distinction of age, sex, or condition- are also
marked features of the city. In the suburbs are the remains of many splendid
palaces: among others of " Metcalfe House," built by my father, Sir
Thomas Mletcalfe, when Resident at Delhi. Having elected to make India his
home, he stripped his family seat in England of all his books and family
treasures, little apprehending the fate in store for them, all being destroyed
in one morning by the villagers of Chundrowli.
The house stood in a large garden of about 1,000 acres, planted with
orange trees, which were all cut down during the siege. Besides the injury caused
by fire, the house was considerably knocked about by shot and shell during the
siege, so that little remained but its walls. The only relic found amongst the
ruins was a lady's glove, which a falling roof had guarded, while the lady to
whom it belonged had been providentially saved from the horrors of a terrible
death.
There all the silence, here love,
In the slow long Summer months when
There are none to break the stillness.
The stillnes5s cannot be so still, but that
for my sake
The memory haunted, lonely rooms will take
Some echo of my vanished voice.
ALICE ROLLINS.
