He strong position in Southern India, which had at Murshidabad, and the price of this honour become independent of Delhi and was divided was put at £2,340,000 in addition to the grant Into three large States-Hyderabad, Tanjore, to the Company of the land round Calcutta and Mysore-and a number of petty states now known as the District of the twenty-four under local chieftains. In the affairs of these Parganas. In the year after Plassey, Clive States Dupleix, when Governor of Pondicher- was appointed Governor of Bengal and in ry, had intervened with success, and when that capacity sent troops against the French Madras was captured by a French squadron, in Madras and in person led a force against under La Bourdonnais (1746) Dupleix wished the Oudh army that was threatening Mir to hand it over to the Nawab of Arcot-a Jafar, in each case with success. From 1760 deputy of the Nizam's who ruled in the Car- to 1765 Clive was in England. During his natic. The French, however, kept Madras, absence the Council at Calcutta deposed Mir repelling an attack by the disappointed Nawab Jafar and, for a price, put Mir Kasim in bis as well as the British attempts to recapture it. place. This ruler moved his capital to The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored Madras Monghyr, organized an army, and began to to the English. The fighting had shown the intrigue with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh. Indian powers the value of European troops, soon found, in a dispute over customs dues, and this was again shown in the next French an opportunity of quarrelling with the English war (1750-54) when Clive achieved enduring and the first shots fired by his followers were fame by his capture and subsequent defence the signal for a general rising in Bengal. of Arcot. This war arose from Dupleix sup- About 200 Englishmen and a number of sepoy porting candidates for the disputed succes- were massacred, but his trained regiments sions at Arcot and Hyderabad while the were defeated at Gheria and Oodeynullah, and English at Madras put forward their own nomi- Mir Kasim sought protection from the Nawab Dees. One of Dupleix's officers, the Marquis of Oudh. But in 1764, after quelling a sepoy de Bussy, persuaded the Nizam to take into mutiny in his own camp by blowing 24 ring his pay the army which had established his leaders from the guns, Major (Sir Hector) power, and in return the Northern Circars, Munro defeated the joint forces of Shah Alam, between Orissa and Madras, was granted to the the Mughal Emperor, and the Nawab of Oudh French. This territory, however, was cap in the battle of Buxar. In 1765 Clive (now tured by the English in the seven years' war Baron Clive of Plassey) returned as Governor, (1756-63). Dupleix had by then been re- "Two landmarks stand out in his policy. First, called to France. Lally, who had been sent he sought the substance, although not the to drive the English out of India, captured name, of territorial power, under the fiction Fort St. David and invested Madras. But of a grant from the Mughal Emperor. Sethe victory which Colonel (Sir Eyre) Coote cond, he desired to purify the Company's won at Wandiwash (1760) and the surrender service, by prohibiting illicit gains, and by of Pondicherry and Gingee put an end to the guaranteeing a reasonable pay from honest French ambitions of Empire in Southern India. sources. In neither respect were his plans Pondicherry passed more than once from the carried out by his immediate successors. Bu one nation to the other before settling down our efforts towards a sound administration to its present existence as a French colony in date from this second Governorship of Clive, miniature. as our military supremacy dates from his victory at Plassey." Before Clive left India, in 1767, he had readjusted the divisions of Northern India and had set up a system of Government in Bengal by which the English received the revenues and maintained the army while the criminal jurisdiction was vested in the Nawab. The performance of his second task, the purification of the Company's service, was hotly opposed but carried out. He died in 1774 by his own hand, the House of Commons having in the previous year censured him, though admitting that he did render great and meritorious services to his country." Battle of Plassey. While the English were fighting the third French war in the South they became involved in grave difficulties in Bengal, where Siraj-udDaula had acceded to power. The beadquarters of the English at Calcutta were threatened by that ruler who demanded they should surrender a refugee and should cease building fortifications. They refused and he marched against them with a large army. Some of the English took to their ships and made of down the river, the rest surrendered and were cast into the jail known as the "Black Hole." From this small and stilling room 23 persons, out of 146, came out alive the next day. Clive who was at Madras, immediately sailed for Calcutta with Admiral Watson's squadron, recaptured the town (1757), and, as war with the French had been proclaimed, proceeded to take Chandernagore. The Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula then took the side of the French, and Clive, putting forward Mir Jafar as candidate for the Nawab's throne, marched out with an army consisting of 900 Europeans. 2,000 sepoys and 8 pieces of artillery against the Nawab's host of over 50,000. The result was the historic battle of Plassey (June 23) in which Clive, after besitating on the course to be pursued, routed the Nawab Mir Jafar was put on the throne Warren Hastings. The dual system of government that Clive had set up proved a failure and Warren Hastings was appointed Governor, in 1772, to carry out the reforms settled by the Court of Directors which were to give them the entire care and administration of the revenues. Thus Hastings had to undertake the administrative organization of India, and, in spite of the fac tious attitude of Philip Francis, with whom he fought a duel and of other members of his Coun cil, he reorganized the civil service, reformed the system of revenue collection, greatly improved the financial position of the Company, and created courts of justice and some sem lance of a police force. From 1772 to 1774 he was Governor of Bengal, and from 1774 to 1775 he was the first Governor-General, nominated large tracts of territory in lieu of payment under an Act of Parliament passed in the overdue as subsidies for British troops, he ther previous year. His financial reforms, and the won over the Nizam to the British side, and forced contributions he enacted from the after exposing the intrigues of Tipu Sultan rebellious Chet Singh and the Begam of with the French, embarked on the fourth Oudh, were interpreted in England as acts Mysore war which ended (1799) in the fall of of oppression and formed, together with his ac- Seringa patam and the gallant death of Tipu. tion in the trial of Nuncomar for forgery, the Part of Mysore, the Carnatic, and Tanjore basis of his seven years' trial before the House roughly constituting the Madras Presidency of Lords which ended in a verdict of not guilty of to-day then passed to British rule. The on all the charges. But there is much more five Maratha powers-the Peshwa of Poona, for which his administration is justly famous. the Gaekwar of Baroda, Sindhia of Gwalior, The recovery of the Marathas from their defeat Holkar of Indore and the Raja of Nagpurat Panipat was the cardinal factor that in- had still to be brought into the British fluenced his policy towards the native states. net. The Peshwa, after being defeated by One frontier was closed against Maratha inva- Holkar, fled to British territory and signed sion by the loan of a British brigade to the the Treaty of Bassein which led to the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, for his war against the third Maratha war (1802-04) as it was reRobillas, who were intriguing with the garded by Sindhia and the Raja of Nagpur at Marathas. In Western India he found himself a betrayal of Maratha independence. In this committed to the two Maratha wars (1775-82) the most successful of British campaigns in owing to the ambition of the Bombay Govern- India, Sir Arthur Wellesley (the Duke ment to place its own nominee on the throne of Wellington) and General (Lord) Lake carries the Peshwa at Poona, and the Bengal troops all before them, the one by his victories of that he sent over made amends, by the con- Assaye and Argaum and the other at Aligad, quest of Gujrat and the capture of Gwalior, for and Laswari. Later operations, such as Colothe disgrace of Wadgaon where the Marathas nel Monson's retreat through Central India overpowered a Bombay army. In the South- were less fortunate. The great acquisitions where interference from Madras had already of territory made under Lord Wellesley proved led (1769) to what is known as the first Mysore so expensive that the Court of Directors, bewar, a disastrous campaign against Hyder Ali coming impatient, sent out Lord Cornwallis a and the Nizam-he found the Madras Govern- second time to make peace at any price. He, ment again in conflict with those two poten- however, died soon after his arrival in India; tates. The Nizam he won over by diplomacy, and Sir George Barlow carried on the govern but against Hyder Ali he had to despatch a ment (1805-7) until the arrival of a stronger Bengal army under Sir Eyre Coote. Hyder ruler, Lord Minto. He managed to keep the Ali died in 1782 and two years later a treaty peace in India for six years, and to add to Briwas made with his son Tipu. It was in these tish dominions by the conquest of Java and acts of intervention in distant provinces that Mauritius. His foreign policy was marked by Hastings showed to best advantage as a great another new departure, inasmuch as he opened and courageous man, cautious, but swift in relations with the Punjab, Persia, and Afghaaction when required. He was succeeded, nistan, and concluded a treaty with Ranjit after an interregnum, by Lord Cornwallis Singh, at Lahore, which made that Sikh ruler (1786-93) who built on the foundations of civil the loyal ally of the British for life. administration laid by Hastings, by entrusting criminal jurisdiction to Europeans and establishing an Appellate Court of Criminal Judicature at Calcutta. In the Civil Service he separated the functions of the District Collector and Judge and organized the "writers " and merchants" of the Company into an administrative Civil Service. This system was subsequently extended to Madras and Bombay. Lord Cornwallis is better known for his introduction, on orders from England, of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. (See article on Land Revenue). A third Mysore war was waged during his tenure of office which ended in the submission of Tipu Sultan. Sir John Shore (Lord Teignmouth), an experienced Civil Servant, succeeded Lord Cornwallis, and, in 1798, was followed by Lord Wellesley, the friend of Pitt, whose projects were to change the map of India. Lord Wellesley's Policy. The French in general, and "the Corsican In particular, were the enemy most to be dreaded for a few years before Lord Wellesley took up his duties in India, and he formed the scheme of definitively ending French schemes in Asia by placing himself at the head of a great Indian confederacy. He started by obtaining from the Nawab of Oudh the cession of The successor of Lord Minto was Lord Moira, who found himself obliged almost at once to declare war on the Gurkhas of Nepal, who had been encroaching on British territory. After initial reverses, the English, under General Ochterlony, were successful and the Treaty of Sagauli (1816) was drawn up which defines British relations with Nepal to the present day. For this success Lord Moira was made Marquis of Hastings. In the same year he made prepa rations for the last Maratha war (1817-18) which was made necessary by the lawless con duct of the Pindaris, gangs of Pathan or Rohilla origin, whose chief patrons were the rulers of Native States. The large number of 120,000 that he collected for this purpose destroyed the Pindaris, annexed the dominions of the rebellious Peshwa of Poona, protected the Rajput States, made Sindhia enter upon a new treaty, and compelled Holkar to give up part of his territory. Thus Lord Hastings established the British power more firmly than ever, and when he resigned, in 1823, all the Native States outside the Punjab had become parts of the political system and British interests were per manently secured from the Persian Gulf to Singapore. Lord Amherst followed Lord Hastings, and his five years' rule (1823-28) are memorable for the first Burmese war and the capture of Bharatpur. The former opera tion was undertaken owing to the insolent de mands and raids of the Burmese, and resulted in the Burmese ceding Assam, Aracan, and the coast of Martaban and their claims to the lower provinces. The capture of Bharatpur by Lord Combermere (1826) wiped out the repulse which General Lake had received there twenty years earlier. A disputed succession on this occasion led to the British intervention. Social Reform. A former Governor of Madras, Lord William Bentinck, was the next Governor-General. His epitaph by Macaulay, says: "He abolished cruel rites; he effaced humiliating distinctions; he gave liberty to the expression of public opinion; his constant study was to elevate the intellectual and moral character of the nations committed to his charge." Some of his financial reforms, forced on him from England, and his widening of the gates by which educated Indians could enter the service of the Company, were most unpopular at the time, but were eclipsed by the acts he took for the abolition of Sati, or widow-burning, and the suppression-with the help of Captain Sleeman of the professional hereditary assassins known as Thays. In 1832 he annexed Cachar, and, two years later, Coorg. The incompetence of the ruler of Mysore forced hia to take that State also under British administration-where it remained until 1881. His rule was marked in other ways by the despatch of the first steamship that made the pas sage from Bombay to Suez, and by his settlement of the long educational controversy in favour of the advocates of instruction in English and the vernaculars. Lord William Bentinck left India (1835) with his programme of reforms unfinished. The new Charter Act of 1833 had brought to a close the commercial business of the Company and emphasized their position as rulers of an Indian Empire in trust for the Crown. By it the whole administration, as well as the legislation of the country, was placed in the hands of the Governor-General in Council, and authority was given to create a Presidency of Agra. Before his retirement Bentinck assumed the statutory title of GovernorGeneral of India (1834), thus marking the progress of consolidation since Warren Hastings in 1774 became the first Governor-General of Fort William. Sir Charles Metcalfe, being senior member of Council, succeeded Lord William Bentinck, and during his short tenure of office earried into execution his predecessor's measures for giving entire liberty to the press. Afghan Wars. With the appointment of Lord Auckland as Governor-General (1836-42) there began a new era of war and conquest. Before leaving London he announced that he looked with exultation to the prospect of "promoting education and knowledge, and of extending the blessings of good Government and happiness to millions in India;" but his administration was almost exclusively comprised in a fatal expedition to Afghanistan, which dragged in its train the annexation of Sind, the Sikh wars, and the inclusion of Baluchistan in the protectorate of India. The first Afghan war was undertaken partly to counter the Russian advance in Central Asia and partly to place on the throne at Kabul the dethroned ruler Shah Shuja in place of Dost Mahomed. The latter object was easily attained (1839) and for two years Afghanistan remained in the military occupation of the British. In 1841 Sir Alexander Burnes was assassinated in Kabul and Sir William Macnaghten suffered the same fate in an interview with the son of Dost Mahomed. The British Commander in Kabul, Gen. Elphinstone, was old and feeble, and after two months' delay he led his army of 4,500 and 12,000 camp followers back towards India in the depth of winter. Between Kabul and Jallalabad the whole force perished, either at the hands of the Afghans or from cold, and Dr. Brydon was the only survivor who reached the latter city. Lord Ellen borough succeeded Lord Auckland and was persuaded to send an army of retribution to relieve Jallalabad. One force under Gen. Pollock relieved Jallalabad and marched on Kabul, while Gen. Nott, advancing from Kandahar, captured Ghazni and joined Pollock at Kabul (1842). The bazaar at Kabul was blown up, the pri soners rescued, and the army returned to India leaving Dost Mahomed to take undisputed possession of his throne. The drama ended with a bombastic proclamation from Lord Ellenborough and the parade through the Punjab of the (spurious) gates of Somnath taken from the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni. Sikh Wars. Lord Ellenborough's other wars-the conquest of Sind by Sir Charles Napier and the suppression of an outbreak in Gwalior-were followed by hie recall, and the appointment of Sir Henry (1st Lord) Hardinge to be Governor-General. A soldier Governor-General was not unacceptable, for it was felt that a trial of strength was imminent between the British and the remaining Hindu power in India, the Sikhs. Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Kingdom, had died in 1839, loyal to the end to the treaty he had made with Metcalfe thirty years earlier. He left no son capable of ruling, and the khalsa, or central council of the Sikh army, was burning to measure its strength with the British sepoys. The intrigues of two men, Lal Singh and Fej Singh, to obtain the supreme power led to their crossing the Sutlej and invading British territory. Sir Hugh Gough, the Commander-in-Chief, and the Governor-General hurried to the frontier, and within three weeks four pitched battles were fought at Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon. The Sikhs were driven across the Sutlej and Lahore surrendered to the British, but the province was not annexed. By the terms of peace the infant Dhuleep Singh was recognized as Rajah; Major Henry Lawrence was appointed Resident, to assist the Sikh Council of Regency, at Lahore; the Jullundur Doab was added to British territory; the was sent to garrison the Punjab on behalf of Sikh army was limited; and a British force the child Rajah. Lord Hardinge returned to England (1848) and was succeeded by Lord Dalhousie, the greatest of Indian proconsuls. Dalhousie had only been in India a few months when the second Sikh war broke out. In the attack on the Sikh position at Chillanwala the British lost 2,400 officers and men, besides four guns and the colours of three regi- the sepoys at Meerut rose in mutiny, cut down ments: but before reinforcements could arrive from England, bringing Str Chartes Napier as Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gough had restored his reputation by the victory of Gujrat which absolutely destroyed the Sikh army. As a consequence the Punjab was annexed and became a British province (1849), its pacification being so well carried out, under the two Lawrences that on the outbreak of the Mutiny eight years later it remained not only quiet but loyal. In 1852 Lord Dalhousie had again to embark on war, this time in Burma, owing to the ill-treatment of British merchants in Rangoon, The lower valley of the Irawaddy was occupied from Rangoon to Prome and annexed, under the name of Pegu, to those provinces that had been acquired in the first Burmese war. British territories were enlarged in many other directions during Lord Dalhousie's tenure of office. His "doctrine of lapse" by which British rule was substituted for Indian in States where continued misrule on the failure of a dynasty made this change possible, came into practice in the cases of Satara, Jhansi, and Nagpur (which last-named State became the Central Provinces) where the rulers died without leaving male heirs. Oudh was annexed on account of its misrule. Dalhousie left many other marks on India. He reformed the administration from top to bottom, founded the Public Works Department, initiated the railways, telegraphs and postal system, and completed the great Ganges canal. He also detached the Government of Bengal from the charge of the Governor-General, and summoned representatives of the local Governments to the deliberations of the Government of India. Finally, in education he laid down the lines of a department of public instruction and initiated more practical measures than those devised by his predecessors. It was his misfortune that the mutiny, which 80 swiftly followed his resignation, was by many critics in England attributed to his passion for change. a few Europeans, and, unchecked by the large European garrison, went off to Delhi where next morning the Mahomedans rose. From that centre the mutiny spread through the North-Western Provinces and Oudh into Lower Bengal. Risings in the Punjab were put down by Sir John Lawrence and his subordinates. who armed the Sikhs, and with their help reduced the sepoys, and Lawrence was subse. quently able to send a strong body of Sikhs to aid in the siege of Delhi. The native armies of Madras and Bombay remained for the_most part true to their colours. In Central India, the contingents of some of the great chiets joined the rebels, but Hyderabad was kept loyal by the influence of its minister, Sir Salar Jung. The Sepoy Mutiny. Dalhousie was succeeded by Lord Canning in 1856, and in the following year the sepoys of the Bengal army mutinied and all the valley of the Ganges from Delhi to Patna rose in rebellion. The causes of this convulsion are difficult to estimate, but are probably to be found in the unrest which followed the progress of English civilisation; in the spreading of false rumours that the whole of India was to be subdued: in the confidence the sepoy troops had acquired in themselves under British leadership; and in the ambition of the educated classes to take a greater share in the government of the country. Added to this, there was in the deposed King of Delhi. Bahadur Shah, a centre of growing disaffection. Finally there was the story-not devoid of truth-that the cartridges for the new Enfield rifle were greased with fat that rendered them unclean for both Hindus and Mahomedans. And when the mutiny did break out it found the Army without many of its best officers who were employed in civil work, and the British troops reduced, in spite of Lord Dalhousie's warnings, below the number he Considered essential for safety. On May 10 The interest of the war centres round Delhi, Cawnpore and Lucknow, though in other places massacres and fighting occurred. The siege of Delhi began on June 8 when Sir Henry Barnard occupied the Ridge outside the town. Barnard died of cholera carly in July, and Thomas Reed, who took his place, was obliged through illness to hand over the command to Archdale Wilson. In August Nicholson arrived with a reinforcement from the Punjab. In the meantime the rebel force in Delhi was constantly added to by the arrival of new bodies of mutineers attacks were frequent and the losses heavy: cholera and sunstroke carried off many victims. on the Ridge: and when the final assault was made in September the Delhi army could only parade 4,720 infantry, of whom 1,960 were Europeans. The arrival of siege guns made it possible to advance the batteries on September 8, and by the 13th a breach was made. On the following day three columns were led to the assault, a fourth being held in reserve. Over the ruins of the Kashmir Gate, blown in by Horne and Salkeld, Col. Campbell led his men and Nicholson formed up his troops within the walls. By nightfall the British, with a loss of nearly 1.200 killed and wounded, had only secured s foothold in the city. Six days' street fighting followed and Delhi was won; but the gallant Nicholson was killed at the head of a storming party. Bahadur Shah was taken prisoner, and his two sons were shot by Captain Hudson. Massacre at Cawnpore.' At Cawnpore the sepovs mutinied on June 27 and found in Nana Sahib, the heir of the last Peshwa, a willing leader in spite of his former professions of loyalty. There a European force of 240 with six guns had to protect 870 non-combatants, and held out for 22 days, surrendering only on the guarantee of the Nans that they should have a safe conduct as far as Allahabad. They were embarking on the boats on the Ganges when fire was opened on them, the men being shot or hacked to pieces before the eyes of their wives and children and the women being mutilated and murdered in Cawnpore to which place they were taken back. Their bodies were thrown down a well just befors Havelock, having defeated the Nana's forces, arrived to the relief. In Lucknow a small garrison held out in the Residency from July 2 to September 25 against tremendous odds and enduring the most fearful hardships. The relieving force, under Havelock and Outram, was itself invested, and the garrison was not finally delivered until Sir Colin Campbell arrived in November. Fighting continued for 18 months in Oudh, which Sir Colin Campbell finally reduced, and in Central India, where Sir Hugh Rose waged a brilliant campaign against the disinherited Rani of Jhansi-who died at the head of her troops-and Tantia Topi Transfer to the Crown. With the end of the mutiny there began a new era in India, strikingly marked at the outset by the Act for the Better Government of India (1858) which transferred the entire administration from the Company to the Crown. By that Act India was to be governed by, and in the name of, the Sovereign through a Secretary of State, assisted by a Council of fifteen members. At the same time the GovernorGeneral received the title of Viceroy. The European troops of the Company, numbering about 24,000 officers and men were greatly resenting the transfer-amalgamated with the Royal service, and the Indian Navy was abolished. On November 1, 1858, the Viceroy announced in Durbar at Allahabad that Queen Victoria had assumed the Government of India, and proclaimed a policy of justice and religious toleration. A principle already enunciated in the Charter Act of 1833 was reinforced, and all of every race or creed, were to be admitted as far as possible to those offices in the Queen's service for which they might be qualified. The aim of the Government was to be the bene fit of all her subjects in India-"In their prosperity will be our strength, in their contentment ou: security, and in their gratitude our best reward." Peace was proclaimed in July 1859, and in the cold weather Lord Canning went on tour in the northern provinces, to receive the homage of loyal chiefs and to assure them that the "policy of lapse" was at an end. A number of other important reforms marked the closing years of Canning's Viceroyalty. The India Councils Act (1861) augmented the Governor-General's Council, and the Councils of Madras and Bombay by adding non-official members, European and Indian, for legislative purposes only. By another Act of the same year, High Courts of Judicature were consti tuted. To deal with the increased debt of India Mr. James Wilson was sent from England to be Financial Member of Council, and to him are due the customs system, income tax, license duty, and State paper currency. The carea of office had broken down the Viceroy's health. Lady Canning died in 1862 and this hastened his departure for England where he died in June of that year. His successor, Lord Elgin, lived only a few months after his arrival In India, and was succeeded by Sir John (after wards Lord) Lawrence, the saviour of the Panjab." 64 Sir John Lawrence. The chief task that fell to Sir John Lawrence was that of reorganising the Indian military system, and of reconstructing the Indian army. The latter task was carried out on the principle that in the Bengal army the proportion of Europeans to Indians in the infantry and cavalry should be one to two, and in the Madras and Bombay armies one to three: the artillery was to be almost wholly European, The re-organisation was carried out inspite of Un financial difficulties and the saddling of Indian 1872 |