India Under British Rule from the Foundation of the East India Company
PART II.
THE BRITISH CROWN.
CHAPTER THE LAST.
CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT.
1858-1886.
§1. Awakening of the British Nation. §2. Government Education in India: Toleration. §3. British Rule after the Mutiny: Legislative Council of 1854 and Executive Council: Wrongs of Non-Official Europeans. §4. Mr. James Wilson and his Income-Tax. §5. New Legislative Council of 1861-62. §6. New High Court: proposed District Courts. §7. Lord Canning leaves India. §8. Lord Elgin, 1862-63. §9. Sir John Lawrence, 1864-69: Governments of Madras and Bombay: Migrations to Simla: Foreign Affairs. §10. Lord Lawrence leaves India. §11. Lord Mayo, 1869-72. §12. Lord Northbrook, 1872-76: Royal visits to India. §13. Lord Lytton, 1876-80: Empress Proclaimed. §14. Second Afghan War. §15. Political and Judicial Schools. §16. Constitution of British India: proposed Reforms.
[Sidenote: Extinction of the East India Company.]
The great and grand East India Company was brought to a close after a busy life of two centuries and a half, extending from the age of Elizabeth to that of Victoria. It was still in a green old age, but could not escape extinction. The story of mutiny and revolt raised a storm in the British Isles which demanded the sacrifice of a victim, and the Company was thrown overboard like another Jonah. In July, 1858, India was transferred to the Crown by Act of Parliament. In the following November proclamation was made throughout India that Her Majesty Queen Victoria had assumed the direct government of her Eastern empire. The Governor-General ceased to rule in the name of the East India Company, and became Viceroy of India. The old Court of Directors, which dated back to the Tudors, and the Board of Control, which dated back to William Pitt the younger, were alike consigned to oblivion. Henceforth India was managed by a Secretary of State in Council, and Great Britain was an Asiatic power.
[Sidenote: Alarm and panic in Great Britain.]
§1. The sepoy mutinies awakened the British nation from the lethargy of forty years. At one time it was aroused by the discovery that the East India Company had acquired an empire larger than that of Napoleon; but was soon immersed once more in its own insular concerns. The sepoy revolt of 1857 stirred it up to its innermost depths. The alarms swelled to a panic. Exeter Hall clamoured for the conversion of Hindus and Mohammedans to Christianity. Some called aloud for vengeance on Delhi. The inhabitants were to be slaughtered as David slaughtered the Ammonites; the city was to be razed to the ground and its site sown with salt. Others, more ignorant than either, denounced the East India Company and Lord Dalhousie; demanded the restoration of British territory to Asiatic rulers, and the abandonment of India to its ancient superstition and stagnation.
[Sidenote: British ignorance.]
In the olden time India was only known to the bulk of the British nation as a land of idol-worshippers, who burnt living widows with their dead husbands, tortured themselves by swinging on hooks, thrust javelins through their tongues, prostrated themselves beneath the wheels of Juggernauth's car, and threw their dying and dead into the holy Ganges, under a child-like faith that the safest way of going to heaven was by water. Educated men knew that the greater part of India had been previously conquered by Mohammedans, just as Syria and Persia were conquered by Arabs and Turks. It was also known that Mohammedans hated idolatry, broke down idols and pagodas, built mosques in their room, and forced many Hindus to accept Islam. But few, excepting those who had lived in India, knew anything of its affairs, or cared to know anything about them, except when war was declared against Afghans, Sikhs, or Burmese, or when Parliament was about to renew the charter of the late East India Company.
[Sidenote: Missionary and educational movements.]
But the instincts of the British nation are generally healthy and sensible. It subscribed largely to missionary societies, and was led by flaming reports to expect the speedy conversion of Hindus and Mohammedans. Such aspirations, however, were not to be realised. The devout were obliged to wait and pray; the sensible urged the East India Company to provide for the secular education of the masses. For centuries the rising generation had learnt something of reading, writing, and arithmetic from village schoolmasters, mostly Brahmans. These hereditary schoolmasters taught the village boys from generation to generation, in the same old-world fashion, with palm-leaves for books, sanded boards and floors for writing lessons, and clay marbles for working out little sums. Christian missionaries had established schools from an early period, especially in Southern India; and to this day nearly every Asiatic servant in the city of Madras can speak English indifferently well. Meanwhile the East India Company had done little or nothing for the education of the masses, nor indeed had much been done by the British government for its own people in those illiterate days.
[Sidenote: Government High Schools, 1841: Hindus and Mohammedans.]
§2. In 1841, when a British army was still at Cabul, the British government established high schools at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Hindu boys flocked to the new schools, but Mohammedans kept aloof. The followers of the Prophet would not accept an education which rejected the authority of Mohammed and the Koran. Meanwhile there was an agitation for teaching the Bible in the government schools. Had it succeeded, respectable Hindus would probably have followed the example of the Mohammedans.
[Sidenote: State education, 1854.]
At last, in 1854, a State system of education was introduced, beginning with primary schools and middle-class schools, and ending in British colleges with professors and lecture-rooms. The whole system in every presidency, and gradually in every province, was placed under the control of a Director of Public Instruction. Grants in aid were made to schools established by missionaries and others, according to the educational results of their teaching. A University was established at Calcutta, another at Madras, and a third at Bombay, for the conduct of examinations and the granting of degrees. In a word, secular education was proceeding on a liberal scale, and some Hindus, who took high degrees, got appointments in the revenue and judicial departments, whilst others entered the service of Asiatic rulers, and rose to the rank of ministers.
[Sidenote: Bible teaching.]
Then followed the terrible sepoy mutinies, and wild cries from the British Isles for teaching Christianity and the Bible in every government institution. Had British statesmen yielded to the demand, the general population would have felt that the rebel sepoys were in the right; that they had fought, not from childish terror, but for the defence of their religion and caste; that they were martyrs to their faith, who had been crushed by the European red-coats to clear the way for the conversion of helpless Hindus and Mohammedans who were without arms.
[Sidenote: Toleration proclaimed, 1858.]
Fortunately, the Royal Proclamation of 1858 was drafted by a statesman who felt that the machinery of government had no more to do with religious movements than the machinery of workshops. It announced, in clear and unmistakable language, that the British government had neither the right nor the desire to interfere with the faith of its Asiatic subjects, and the question of religious toleration in India was settled for ever.
[Sidenote: Hostility of non-official Europeans.]
§3. The sepoy mutinies had paralysed the executive government of India. To make matters worse, the non-official Europeans--the merchants, bankers, planters, and lawyers--had been hostile to the government of Lord Canning from the very beginning of the outbreak. The cause of this collision is important. It suggested the necessity for future reforms. It will be seen hereafter that something was done in this direction in 1861-62; but something else was undone, and further reforms are still needed.
[Sidenote: Representation in the legislative council.]
The legislative assembly of 1854 has already been described as the earliest germ of representative government in India. This was due to the fact that in addition to the executive members of council, the legislative chamber included four representative members, each one chosen from the civil service of one or other of the four Presidencies; also two judges of the old Supreme Court, who were not in the service of the East India Company, but were appointed by the British Crown, and were consequently independent legislators.
[Sidenote: Controlled by the executive.]
In every other respect, however, the executive government, including Lord Canning and the members of his executive council, exercised supreme control over the Indian legislature. They introduced what measures they pleased. They excluded what measures they disliked. Being mostly Bengal civilians, they were accused of ignoring the representative members from Madras and Bombay, and Madras and Bombay had some ground of complaint. No member of the legislative council of India had the power to introduce a bill without the consent of the Indian executive; nor even had the power, common to every member of the British parliament, to ask any question as regards the acts of the executive.
[Sidenote: Class legislation.]
At this period there was a nondescript body in England known as the "Indian Law Commissioners." These gentlemen prepared an act cut and dried, and the Court of Directors sent it to India in 1857, and recommended that it should be passed into law by the legislative council of India. This act began with asserting the equality of Asiatics and Europeans in the eyes of the law; but laid down a still more invidious distinction between non-official and official Europeans. It proposed to subject all non-official Europeans to the jurisdiction of Asiatic magistrates, but to exempt from such jurisdiction all Europeans who were members of the Indian civil service, or officers of the army or navy.
[Sidenote: Agitation and withdrawal.]
The first reading was followed by alarm and indignation. The press thundered, outside orators raved in public meetings, and European petitions against the bill poured in like a rushing stream. For a long time not a single member of the legislative chamber raised a voice against such vicious legislation. The Penal Code had not become law, and judges and magistrates, whether European or Asiatic, administered the law very much at their own discretion, by the light of "equity and good conscience," and voluminous regulations. Then, again, the time was out of joint for such an innovation. Mutiny and revolt were at work in the upper provinces, and isolated European planters might soon be at the mercy of Asiatic magistrates who sympathised with the rebels. At last, however, Sir Arthur Buller, one of the ablest judges of the old Supreme Court, rose from his seat in the legislative chamber, and virtually tore the bill to shreds. From that day it was doomed. Bengali baboos vainly petitioned the British government to pass the bill in all its integrity. It perished in the maelstrom of the mutiny, and was then formally withdrawn by the Court of Directors.
[Sidenote: Executive council remodelled.]
When the mutiny was over, Lord Canning remodelled the executive council into the form of a cabinet. He divided the administration into six branches, namely:--foreign, home, legislative, military, financial, and public works. The Viceroy was the prime minister, who sat as president of the council. He took charge of "foreign affairs." The other members were ministers; each had charge of a separate department, and transacted the bulk of its business. All important business, however, was transacted by the whole cabinet of ministers, which held its regular sittings at Government House, as it had done in the days when the governor or president was only the head of a factory.
[Sidenote: Ministers and secretaries.]
The post of minister was not, and is not, doubled up with that of secretary, except during the earlier years of the public works department. In the present day there is a minister for every department. Every minister transacts the business of his branch at his own house; leaving the secretary and under-secretary to control the office of his particular department, conduct the correspondence, and carry out orders.
[Sidenote: Mr. Wilson, Finance Minister, 1860.]
§4. In 1860 an English financier, the late Mr. James Wilson, was sent out from England to put the Indian budget to rights. He was a famous man in his day; a noted leader of the anti-corn law league, and had a large reputation as a sound financier. He freely conferred with Calcutta merchants and bankers, and so far poured oil on the troubled waters; but in those days the merchants of Calcutta were as ignorant of India outside the city of palaces as Mr. Wilson himself, who was sent out to tax the people.
[Sidenote: Income-tax.]
Mr. Wilson quoted the laws of Manu in the legislative chamber, and proposed an income-tax. It was not an ordinary tax on incomes above 400_l._ or 500_l._ per annum, with which India has since been burdened. It included a tax on Asiatic incomes rising from eight shillings a week to twenty shillings. It was as oppressive as the poll-tax which drove Wat Tyler and Jack Cade into rebellion. But India was prostrate. British red-coats were masters; and British financiers might do as they pleased.
[Sidenote: Protest of Sir Charles Trevelyan.]
Sir Charles Trevelyan was Governor of Madras and knew India well. He protested against the tax and sent his protest to the newspapers. The Viceroy and the Secretary of State were filled with wrath at an act of insubordination which amounted to an appeal to the public opinion of India against the ukase of the supreme government. Sir Charles Trevelyan was removed from the government of Madras, but within two years he was revenged. The obnoxious clause had filled 600,000 households with weeping and wailing, in order to collect 350,000_l._, of which 100,000_l._ was spent on the work of collection. Accordingly the clause was repealed.[34]
[Sidenote: Independent Judges.]
Later on, the two judges who sat in the legislative chamber were guilty of a still more flagrant act of insubordination. Whilst 350,000_l._ was exacted from 600,000 poor Asiatics in the shape of income-tax, the Secretary of State for India overruled a previous decision of Lord Dalhousie, and capitalised half a million sterling, in order to improve the pensions of the descendants of Tippu! The controversy is obsolete; the two judges ventured to question the justice of this measure, and the heinous offence was punished in due course.
[Sidenote: Legislative council remodelled, 1861-62.]
§5. In 1861-62 the legislative council of India was reconstituted by act of parliament. The two judges were excluded from the legislative chamber, and European merchants, and Asiatics of wealth and influence, were nominated in their room. The control of the executive was thus stronger than ever, but it is doubtful whether the legislature has profited by the change.
[Sidenote: Legislative councils at Madras, Bombay, and Bengal.]
Legislative councils, on a similar footing to that of India at Calcutta, were granted to the governments of Madras and Bombay, as well as to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. They include both European and Asiatic members, who are nominated by the local government. They legislate on purely local measures, such as port dues, hackney carriages, canal tolls, and municipalities. They are, however, under the immediate control of the executive, and have no power to make laws, or to initiate legislation in the legislative council of India.
[Sidenote: New High Courts.]
[Sidenote: Judges in council.]
§6. A still more important measure was carried out at this period. A new High Court of Justice was created at Calcutta, and also at Madras and Bombay, by the amalgamation of the Supreme Court and Sudder, which had been separate and rival courts ever since the days of Warren Hastings. In other words, the barrister judges appointed by the British Crown, and the civilian judges appointed by the Indian governments, sat together in the new High Court. Moreover, as a crowning innovation, an Asiatic judge was appointed to each High Court, to sit on the same bench as the European judges. The amalgamation of the two courts is an epoch in British rule in India. The coalition of barrister and civilian judges, and the presence of an Asiatic judge on the same bench, enlarged and strengthened the High Court. It was, however, unfortunate that a European and an Asiatic judge did not also sit in the legislative chambers. Such an addition would have converted the chambers into schools of legislation. An Asiatic judge, who had graduated in the High Court, would have taught something to his Asiatic colleagues in the legislative council; whilst a European judge would have smoothed away many of the asperities which have sprung up of late years between the acts of the Indian executive and the rulings of the High Court.
[Sidenote: European and Asiatic magistrates.]
The mixed constitution of the High Courts might be extended with advantage to the District Courts. If European and Asiatic judges sit on the same bench, why not European and Asiatic magistrates, deputy-magistrates, and subordinate judges? Such an amalgamation would prove a school for Asiatic magistrates and judges; whilst the evil spirit of race antagonism, which was raised by the unfortunate bill of 1857, and revived a few short years ago, would be allayed for ever.
[Sidenote: Lord Canning leaves India, 1862.]
§7. Lord Canning left India in March, 1862, and died in England the following June. His administration had been more eventful than that of any of his predecessors. At first he hesitated to crush the mutinies, and was named "Clemency Canning"; but he never lost his nerve. After the revolt at Delhi he rose to the occasion. Later on, non-official Europeans, as well as officials, learned to respect "Clemency Canning," and his sudden death was felt by all as a loss to the nation as well as to the empire.
[Sidenote: Lord Elgin, Viceroy, 1862-63.]
§8. Lord Elgin succeeded Lord Canning. He was a statesman of experience and capacity, but cumbered with memories of China and Japan. Lord Elgin's reign did not last two years. He died in November, 1863.
[Sidenote: Sir John Lawrence, 1864-69.]
§9. In those days of imperfect telegraphs, there was an interregnum of two months. Meanwhile, Sir William Denison, Governor of Madras, acted as provisional Governor-General. With great presence of mind, he sanctioned all the measures which he had previously sent up from Madras for the confirmation of the government of India. In January, 1864, Sir John Lawrence landed at Calcutta as Viceroy and Governor-General.
[Sidenote: Sir William Denison at Madras.]
Sir William Denison returned to Madras. He is said to have been hostile to competitive examinations, and anxious to govern Southern India without the help of an executive council. But his ideas of government were not in accord with those in power, and competitive examinations and civilian members of council have remained to this day.
[Sidenote: Sir Bartle Frere at Bombay.]
At this period Sir Bartle Frere was Governor of Bombay. He was an Anglo-Indian statesman of the first order, with capacity and experience combined with diplomatic tact. He had done good service as commissioner of Sind. Since then he had graduated in the Indian executive as Home member of Lord Canning's cabinet. But, like many Indian civilians, he was too self-reliant, and fell upon evil times when Indian experiences could not help him.
[Sidenote: American war: cotton famine.]
Sir Bartle Frere was transferred from the cabinet at Calcutta to the government of Bombay at the moment when war was raging between the North and the South in the United States of America. A cotton famine was starving Manchester, and Indian cotton rose from threepence a pound to twenty pence. Bombay cultivators loaded their women with jewels, and shod their cattle with silver shoes. The spirit of speculation was rampant. Europeans and Asiatics, shrewd Scotchmen and cautious Parsis, rushed blindly into the wildest gambling. Mushroom companies sprung up in a single night like the prophet's gourd, and flourished like the South Sea Bubble. Clerks and brokers woke up to find themselves millionaires, and straightway plunged into still madder speculations, dreaming, like Alnaschar, of estates as large as counties, of peerless brides, and of seats in the House of Lords.
[Sidenote: Crash and panic.]
Suddenly the American war collapsed, and cargoes of cotton were hurried from the States across the Atlantic. Prices fell to zero. There was joy at Manchester, but weeping and wailing at Bombay. The Bombay Bank had been drawn into the vortex of speculation, and loans had been advanced on worthless shares. How far Sir Bartle Frere was implicated is a disputed point; but the bank stopped payment, and Sir Bartle Frere lost his chance of becoming Viceroy of India.
[Sidenote: Civilian experiences of John Lawrence.]
The Viceroyalty of Sir John Lawrence was altogether exceptional.[35] Most Viceroys are noble peers, who land in India with parliamentary and diplomatic experiences, but with no special knowledge of Asiatic affairs, beyond what has been "crammed up" at the India Office during the interval between acceptance of office and embarkation for Calcutta. In 1864 Lord Lawrence knew more about India than any previous Governor-General, Warren Hastings not excepted. He, and his foreign and home secretaries, the late Sir Henry Durand and the late Sir Edward Clive Bayley, were, perhaps, better versed in Indian history than any other men of the time. Lord Lawrence had gone through the ordeal of the mutiny with the salvation of the Empire in his hands. Since then he had sat on the council of the Secretary of State at Westminster, and learnt something of public opinion in the British Isles on Indian affairs.
[Sidenote: Yearly migrations to Simla.]
Lord Lawrence hated Bengal, and could not endure her depressing heats and vapour-baths.[36] He was the first Governor-General who went every year to Simla, and he was the first who took all his cabinet ministers and secretaries with him. Old Anglo-Indians disliked these migrations, and likened them to the progresses of the Great Mogul with a train of lords and ladies, in tented palaces, escorted by hosts of soldiers and camp-followers, from Agra to Lahore, or from Delhi to Cashmere. But the migrations of the British government of India required no army of escort, and entailed no expense or suffering on the masses. Railways shortened the journeys; telegraphs prevented delays; and civilian members of government, whose experiences had previously been cribbed and cabined in Bengal, began to learn something of the upper provinces.
[Sidenote: Sir John Lawrence and Sir Henry Durand.]
Lord Lawrence, like his immediate predecessors, took the Foreign Office under his special and immediate charge. At that time Colonel, afterwards Major-General Sir Henry Durand, was foreign secretary to the government of India. Both Lawrence and Durand were firm to the verge of obstinacy, but Sir John was sometimes hasty and impetuous, whilst Colonel Durand was solid and immovable.
[Sidenote: Foreign and political.]
The main business of the Foreign Office is that of supervision. It directs all negotiations with the Asiatic states beyond the frontier, such as Afghanistan, Cashmere, and Nipal. It controls all political relations with the feudatory states of Rajputana and Central India, which are carried on by British officers known as political agents and assistants. In like manner it controls the political relations with other courts, which are carried on by "Residents." It also overlooks the administration in newly-acquired territories, which, like the Punjab, are known as "non-regulation" provinces.[37]
[Sidenote: Afghanistan: death of Dost Mohammed Khan.]
The main question of the day was Afghanistan affairs. Dost Mohammed Khan died in 1863, after a chequered life of war and intrigue, a labyrinth which no one can unravel. He had driven his enemy Shah Shuja out of Cabul; he had been robbed of the coveted valley of Peshawar by Runjeet Singh; he had coquetted with Persia, Russia, and the British government. He had abandoned his dominions on the advance of the British army in 1839-40; fled to Bokhara; then surrendered to Macnaghten; was sent to Calcutta as a state prisoner; played at chess with the ladies at Government House; and finally returned to Cabul. He seized the valley of Peshawar during the second Sikh war. Finally he had become friends with the British government, and made no attempt to take advantage of the sepoy mutinies to recover Peshawar.
[Sidenote: Jacob _versus_ Esau.]
But old Dost Mohammed had a patriarchal weakness for youthful wives. He had been beguiled by a blooming favourite into nominating her son as his successor, to the exclusion of the first-born. It was nearly a case of Jacob _versus_ Esau, and when the old man was gathered to his fathers, the younger son and the first-born, with their respective partisans, tried to settle the succession by force of arms. The British government did not interfere, but left the brothers to fight on, until the elder was carried off by death, and the younger, the late Shere Ali Khan, gained the throne.
[Sidenote: Mysore.]
Mysore was another vexed question. Lord Wellesley had acquired Mysore by the conquest of Tippu in 1799. He incorporated some provinces into the Madras Presidency, but formed the remaining territory into a little Hindu state, and placed a Hindu boy, a kinsman of the Raja who had been supplanted by Hyder, on the throne of Mysore. The boy grew to be a man, and turned out a worthless, extravagant, and oppressive ruler, deaf to all remonstrances and warnings. His subjects rebelled against his tyranny and exactions. Even Lord William Bentinck, a sentimental admirer of Asiatic principalities, was disgusted with his conduct and deposed him, and placed Mysore territory in charge of a British commissioner, and brought it under British rule.
[Sidenote: Restoration of Hindu rule.]
Thirty years passed away. There was an outcry in the British Isles against annexation. It was proposed to restore the ex-Raja to his throne, but Mysore had become to all intents and purposes a British province. In the teeth of these facts, it was determined to restore this flourishing territory to the rule of the worthless Hindu who had been deposed by Lord William Bentinck a generation previously. Sir John Lawrence fought against the measure, but was overruled. At last there was a compromise. It was decided to place an adopted son of the ex-Raja on the throne, and to remove the British administration from Mysore, and place an Asiatic administration in its room. The ex-Raja was extremely annoyed at this arrangement. It put an end to all his aspirations. He did not want an adopted son, and would willingly have left his territories to the British government, had he been only allowed to handle the revenues during his own lifetime.
[Sidenote: Opposition of Durand.]
Sir John Lawrence, like every practical administrator in India, was most unwilling to replace Mysore under Asiatic rule. He submitted under pressure, but not without misgivings. Colonel Durand, however, opposed it tooth and nail. Had he been a Roman general, ordered to restore the island of Albion to an adopted son of Boadicea, or had he been an English lord of the marches ordered to restore the principality of Wales to a son of Llewellyn, he could not have felt more indignation. Durand was, of course, powerless to resist, and the restoration was carried out. The future alone can decide the merits of the question.
[Sidenote: Oudh talukdars.]
Next arose a controversy about the Oudh talukdars. Lord Canning had dealt liberally with the talukdars, restored most of their so-called estates, and converted them into landed proprietors. Sir John Lawrence discovered that the rights of joint village proprietors had been overlooked. Again there was a paper war, which ended in another compromise. The talukdars were eventually confirmed in the possession of their estates, but the rights of under proprietors and occupiers were defined and respected.
[Sidenote: The cabinet and legislature.]
Meanwhile Colonel Durand was transferred from the Foreign Office to the executive council, with charge of the military department. As a member of the council he had a seat in the legislative chamber, and on one occasion he voted against the other ministers. This raised a question as to the right of a member of the cabinet to vote against the majority of his colleagues in the legislative chamber. It was argued on one side that in England a cabinet minister must vote with his colleagues in parliament; in other words, he must either sacrifice his conscience for the sake of party or resign his post in the executive. On the other side it was urged that an Indian cabinet had nothing whatever to do with party, and that any cabinet minister might vote in the legislative chamber as he deemed best for the public service, without thereby losing his position as member of the executive council.
[Sidenote: Sir John Lawrence leaves India, 1869.]
§10. Sir John Lawrence retired from the post of Viceroy in 1869. With the exception of an expedition into Bhotan, a barbarous state in the Himalayas next door to Nipal, there was peace in India throughout the whole of his five years' administration. He returned to England and was raised to the peerage. He had strong attachments, but the outer world only knew him as a strong, stern man, with a gnarled countenance and an iron will. He lived for ten years longer in his native country, doing good work as the chairman of the London School Board, and taking an active part in every movement that would contribute to the welfare of his generation, until, in 1879, the saviour of British India found a final resting-place in Westminster Abbey.
[Sidenote: Lord Mayo Viceroy, 1869-72.]
§11. Lord Mayo succeeded as Viceroy and Governor-General. To him is due the greatest reform in the constitutional government of India since the mutiny. He delivered the local governments from the financial fetters of the Viceroy in Council, and left them more responsibility as regards providing local funds for local wants, and devoting local savings to local expenditure. Hitherto every presidency and province got as much as it could out of the imperial treasury, and spent as much as it could during the current financial year, for any balance that remained was lost for ever by being credited to imperial funds. Henceforth every presidency and province was interested in improving its income and cutting down its expenditure, since it was entrusted with some discretion as regards the disposal of the surplus money.
[Sidenote: Tragic death.]
The assassination of Lord Mayo in 1872 by an Afghan desperado in the Andaman Islands, brought the career of a great and energetic Viceroy to a sad and sudden close. By force of character, noble address, and genial open-heartedness, Lord Mayo had charmed every Asiatic feudatory that came to do homage; and even brought Shere Ali Khan, the sour and suspicious ruler of Afghanistan, to put some trust in the good faith and good intentions of the British government. His death was a loss to every European and Asiatic in India, and a loss to the British empire.
[Sidenote: Lord Northbrook, 1872-76.]
§12. The later administrations of Lord Northbrook in 1872-76, of Lord Lytton in 1876-80, of Lord Ripon in 1880-1884, and the advent of Lord Dufferin, the present Viceroy, are too recent for personal criticism. They have been characterised, however, by events and changes which have left their mark on British rule in India.
[Sidenote: Royalty in India.]
The personal influence of Her Majesty, and the presence of princes of the royal blood, have imparted a new prestige to British sovereignty. The visit of the Duke of Edinburgh during the _régime_ of Lord Mayo, and the extended tour of the Prince of Wales during the _régime_ of Lord Northbrook, were welcomed in India with every demonstration of joy and loyalty. The old East India Company was a magnificent corporation, but had always been a mystery to Asiatics. The presence of British princes, the sons of Her Majesty, solved the problem for ever.
[Sidenote: Lord Lytton Viceroy, 1876-80: proclamation of the Empress.]
§13. Finally the Imperial assemblage at Delhi on the 1st of January, 1877, when Her Majesty was proclaimed Empress of India by Lord Lytton, in the presence of all the members of the Indian governments, all the high officials of the empire, and of all the Asiatic feudatory rulers and their ministers, gave a reality to British sovereignty in India which had previously been wanting. When Queen Elizabeth gave a charter to the East India Company, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Queen Anne received a present of "tay" from the Court of Directors, and even when George III. and Queen Charlotte graciously accepted an ivory bedstead from the polite Warren Hastings, not a soul in the British Isles could possibly have dreamed that the nineteenth century would see the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland reigning as Empress over the dominions of the Great Mogul. Neither could the Asiatic populations of that dim commercial period, who beheld the European gentlemen writing letters and keeping accounts in factories and fortresses, have imagined that a day would come when the descendants of the "European gentlemen" would be the rulers of India.
[Sidenote: Second Afghan war.]
§14. Under Lord Lytton's _régime_ there was a second war in Afghanistan. Shere Ali Khan had become estranged from the British government. He imprisoned his eldest son, Yakub Khan, and refused British mediation. He was offended because the British government would not conclude an offensive and defensive alliance on equal terms. He received a mission from Russia at Cabul, and refused to receive a mission from the British government.
[Sidenote: British designs.]
Accordingly, it was resolved to establish British supremacy in Afghanistan; to advance the British frontier to the Hindu Kush; to convert the mountain range into a natural fortress, with Afghan-Turkistan for its _berme_ and the river Oxus for its ditch. Russia already held the glacis, as represented by Usbeg-Turkistan.
[Sidenote: Massacre and submission.]
Shere Ali Khan fled away northward as the British army advanced, and died in exile. Yakub Khan succeeded to the throne, and submitted to the demands of the British Resident. Then followed the cruel and cowardly massacre of Sir Louis Cavagnari, the British Resident at Cabul, with all his officers and attendants; the abdication of Yakub Khan; and finally the accession of Abdul Rahman Khan, the present Amir, who was son of the first born of Dost Mohammed who was ousted in favour of Shere Ali.
[Sidenote: Regulation and non-regulation provinces.]
During the generation that followed the mutinies, the administration of British India has been undergoing an important change. The old patriarchal rule of non-regulation provinces has been fading away. The distinction between regulation and non-regulation is being effaced. The Punjab and Oudh, the Central Provinces and British Burma, which for years had been exclusively controlled by the Foreign Office, are being brought more and more under the Home Office; and the same laws and forms of administration will soon prevail throughout every presidency and province of the Anglo-Indian empire.
[Sidenote: Asiatic students: European masters.]
§15. British India is a school for Asiatics in which Europeans are the masters. The teaching has hitherto been successful. Asiatic students are becoming monitors; some are under-masters; and some may in due course hope to be masters. The British government is appointing educated Asiatics to posts of responsibility and trust, which few European merchants and bankers have hitherto ventured to do. Accordingly, non-officials, as well as officials, are awaiting the results of an experiment that will serve to show how far the Asiatic has profited by his European education; and how far he may be entrusted with the higher duties of administration, or with the exercise of self-government and political power.
[Sidenote: Hindu culture.]
Hindus have many virtues. They are obedient to parents, polite to equals, respectful to superiors, and reverential towards priests and preceptors. But for ages they have lived under the despotism of caste, custom, and religion, which is slowly melting away from European capitals of India, but is still rampant in Asiatic towns and villages. British education is elevating their intellects and enlarging their experiences, but cannot change their nature, nor hastily emancipate them from the usages of ages. The result is that to this day, both Hindus and Mohammedans lack those political ideas of constitutional government and public life, in which Englishmen have been trained since the days of Queen Elizabeth.
[Sidenote: Child marriages.]
Hindus are married in their childhood, and are often husbands and fathers when British boys are still at school, or learning trades and professions, or competing at boating or cricket. All this while, and for years after they have attained manhood, the bulk of Hindus are living under the roof of their parents. Husbands are ruled by fathers as though they were still children, and wives are the victims of their mothers-in-law.
[Sidenote: Temper and repression.]
Occasionally Hindus will exhibit a petulance and passion like that which drove the sepoys into mutiny; but as a general rule, they are kept within bounds by the despotism and discipline which reigns supreme in Hindu families, as well as by the severe self-control, which Asiatics esteem as one of the highest virtues. Moreover, during a long course of ages, they have become more or less enervated by that depressing heat, which often shakes the nerve and loosens the muscle of Europeans. Consequently, they have little relish for active life, and generally prefer sedentary duties which do not involve physical exertion.
[Sidenote: Village communities.]
Hindu village communities may have had some public life in the pre-British period. They governed themselves, and administered justice amongst themselves, but they in their turn were governed by caste, custom, and superstition. Sometimes they defended themselves against brigands or tigers, and they environed their domiciles with mud walls, wooden palisades, or hedges of prickly pear. If however there were any rumours of an enemy appearing in force, they all fled to the jungle until the danger was over. In Bengal, the villagers were helpless to resist dacoits, who occasionally committed the most horrible crimes; but since the organisation of police under European superintendence, such atrocities have disappeared from British India.
[Sidenote: Despotic commonwealths.]
Where the village community was strong, the little commonwealth was a despotism. The joint proprietary was an oligarchy, and tenants and cultivators were serfs or slaves. The officials and artisans were hereditary, and hereditary officials are almost invariably inefficient and untrustworthy. Village justice may have been administered by the elders, but generally at the dictation of some domineering Brahman or Guru.
[Sidenote: Old civilian conservatism.]
Indian civilians of the old school, like Thomas Munro and Mountstuart Elphinstone, were much inclined towards Hindu institutions. In those ancient times the whole village would turn out to welcome the arrival of a new British collector and magistrate. The Asiatic officials appeared with music, flags, and garlands, whilst the village dancing girl performed before the "great man," and sung his praises. The "great man" in his turn was charmed with these manifestations of respect for British rule; but a later generation was aghast at the enormity, and the demonstration was stopped by the Court of Directors.
[Sidenote: Failure.]
In the Madras Presidency Munro turned the headmen of villages into munsifs, and empowered them to settle all civil disputes up to the value of twenty shillings. The village munsifs might also summon a punchayet, or council of arbitrators, to settle disputes above that amount. In the Bombay Presidency, Mountstuart Elphinstone made similar attempts to utilise the Mahratta collectors and sub-collectors. But in both cases the experiment failed through hereditary incapacity or corruption.
[Sidenote: Trained Asiatic officials.]
The creation of new classes of Asiatic officials has been more successful. Munsifs, trained and educated, are deciding civil cases in the districts, and have proved efficient and trustworthy. Deputy-collectors and magistrates, as well as subordinate judges, have also been found to do their work well. Pay and position have been improved, and the number has been increased; and possibly more might be done in this direction. But this question can be best worked out with that of placing European and Asiatic magistrates on the same bench.
[Sidenote: Viceroy of India in council.]
§16. The Viceroy is sovereign over the whole of India. He is no longer drawn away from the cares of supreme control by the separate and direct government of Bengal and the North-West Provinces. Each of these presidencies has now a lieutenant-governor of its own. The Viceroy is thus the presiding deity of the whole of India. During the cold weather months he reigns at Calcutta on the banks of the Hughly, where he is president alike of an executive council and a legislative council. During the hot weather months, he is enthroned at Simla like another Indra, on the slopes of the Himalaya mountains, attended by his cabinet or executive council. He exercises sovereign authority over every presidency and every province; and every Asiatic ruler in India, Hindu or Mohammedan, Rajput or Mahratta, acknowledges the supremacy of the Viceroy and Governor-General as the representative of the Queen and Empress.
[Sidenote: Secretary of State in Council.]
But Indra himself is subject to some mysterious power, who is omnipotent and invisible. In like manner the Viceroy of India in Council is subject to a _deus ex machinâ_, in the shape of the Secretary of State for India in Council. The Secretary of State, or one of his under-secretaries, is sometimes asked questions in Parliament; but the Secretary of State for the time being generally manages to have his own way, or treads cautiously in the footsteps of his predecessors, or relies on the wisdom of the reigning Viceroy.
[Sidenote: Strengthening of legislative council.]
The executive council of the Secretary of State, as well as that of the Viceroy, are essential parts of the constitutional government of India. But the legislative council of India lacks strength and independence. It was a mistake to shut out the two judges from the chamber. One European and one Asiatic judge would be as useful in the council as on the bench. Again, in these days of railways and steamers, there seems no reason why governors of presidencies, and lieutenant-governors and chief commissioners of provinces, should not occasionally sit in the legislative council of India to exchange views and give the weight of their personal support to their respective representative members. The sittings are generally held in the cold season, when the British Parliament is not sitting. The occasional presence of high Indian officials and British members of Parliament would improve the debates, educate public opinion, and convert the chamber into a high school for Asiatic legislators.
[Sidenote: British Residents in Asiatic states.]
Meanwhile the idea of a school should be borne in mind in every branch of the administration, civil and judicial, and especially in the foreign or political department. A British officer at an Asiatic court is often the one solitary representative of civilisation and progress; and this feeble light ought to be fed, strengthened, and kept constantly burning like the fire of the Vestal virgins. By that light, Asiatic rulers may hope in time to rise to the level of Europeans; without it, they may sink back into the barbarism of the past century, when the Mogul empire had lost its hold, and was tottering to its fall.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] Mr. James Wilson died in 1860. He was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Laing as financial minister, who in his turn was succeeded in 1862 by Sir Charles Trevelyan.
[35] During the Viceroyalty he was plain Sir John Lawrence, but when it was over he was raised to the peerage.
[36] Calcutta is by no means an unpleasant residence for Europeans with tolerably sound constitutions. Sir John Lawrence was only in his fifty-fifth year, but he was sadly worn by hard work and unexampled anxieties.
[37] British territory in India comprises 900,000 square miles, with a population of 200,000,000. Asiatic territory comprises nearly 600,000 square miles, with a population of 52,000,000.
NORTHERN INDIA is fringed on the west by Afghanistan, on the north by Cashmere, Nipal, and Bhotan; on the east by Munipore and Burma.
CENTRAL INDIA is traversed from west to east by a belt or zone of states and chiefships--Rajput, Mahratta, and Mohammedan--which extends from the western coast of Gujerat facing the Indian Ocean, and the western desert of Sind facing Rajputana, through the heart of the Indian continent eastward to the Bengal Presidency. This belt includes, amongst a host of minor principalities and chiefships, the three leading Rajput states--Jeypore, Jodhpore, and Oodeypore; the Jhat state of Bhurtpore; the Mahratta territories of the Gaekwar of Baroda in Western India, and those of Sindia and Holkar in Central India; and the Hindu states of Bundelkund, including Rewah, along the eastern hills and jungles to the south of the river Jumna.
The DECCAN includes the Mohammedan dominions of the Nizam of Hyderabad, to the eastward of the Bombay Presidency.
SOUTHERN INDIA includes the Hindu states of Mysore and Travancore to the westward of the Madras Presidency.
The term "foreign" as applied to the Indian Foreign Office is a misnomer, and has led to confusion. The term "political department" would be more correct, as it deals mainly with Asiatic feudatory states which are bound up with the body politic of the Anglo-Indian empire. The relations between the British government and its Asiatic feudatories are not "international" in the European sense of the word, and are not controlled by international law. They are "political" in the imperial sense of the word, and are governed by the treaties, and regulated by the sovereign authority which is exercised by the British government as the paramount power in India. A British officer is placed in charge of every state, or group of states, and is known as "political agent" or "Resident."
Lord Macaulay, versed in European history, but with no special knowledge of Asia, condemns the word "political," which had been used ever since the department was founded by Warren Hastings. He declared that Asiatic feudatories were "foreign states," and that the relations between those feudatories and the paramount power were diplomatic. Lord Macaulay in his time was as great a literary authority as Dr. Samuel Johnson. Lord Ellenborough took the hint when he was Governor-General, and changed the Political Department into the Foreign Office. It would be better to call it "Political and Foreign."
INDEX.
A.
Adoption, question of, 175; present aspect, 177
Afghanistan, Elphinstone's mission, 103; Russian advances, 143; first Afghan war, 146; insurrection at Cabul, 149; British losses in the Khyber Pass, 150; end of war, 152; vulnerable frontier, 186; death of Dost Mohammed Khan, 290; fratricidal war, 291; Shere Ali Khan, _ib._; second Afghan war under Lord Lytton, 296
Agnew, Mr. Vans, murdered at Multan, 161
Agra, captured by General Lake, 95; presidency formed, 128; water way, 171; isolation during the sepoy mutinies, 215, 231
Ajmere, acquired by the British, 120
Akalis, Sikh fanatics, 156, 157
Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammed, heads revolt at Cabul, 149; murders Sir William Macnaghten, 150
Alam, Shah, Padishah, seeks British protection, 95
Alexander the Great, defeat of Porus, 163; his invasion of India, 225
Alighur, fortress of, captured by Lake, 94
Aliwal, battle of, 159
Allahabad, at the junction of the Jumna and Ganges, 171; position during the sepoy revolt, 215, 217, 220, 238; mutiny and massacre, 241; fortress besieged, _ib._; relieved by General Neill, 242
Amherst, Lord, Governor-General, 120; first Burmese war, 121; Bhurtpore war, 122
Amir Khan, an Afghan Pindhari, 105; founds principality of Tonk, 112, 113; surrenders to the British, 115
Amritsar, city of, 155
Andaman Islands, 294
Anderson, Lieut., murdered at Multan, 161
Anson, General, at Simla, 216; movements at the revolt of Delhi, 216-271; his death, _ib._
Appa Sahib, defeated by the British, 117; flight from Nagpore, _ib._; succeeded by his grandson, _ib._
Arakan, annexed by the British government, 122, 169
Arcot, captured by Clive, 34; suppresses mutiny at Vellore, 100
Arrah, besieged by rebels, 266; relieved by Major Eyre, 267
Asia, Central and Northern, the cradle of India, 142; rise of Nadir Shah, 143; rise of British power in, 145
Asiatics of India, better phrase than "native," 186; characteristic craft, 240; officials, 300
Asiatic rulers, acknowledge British supremacy, 301; British political officers in India, 302
Assam, overrun by Burmese, 121; acquired by the British, 122; tea cultivation, 123
Assaye, battle of, 94
Attock, fortress of, captured by Dost Mohammed Khan, 163
Auckland, Lord, Governor-General of India, 141; declares war against Dost Mohammed Khan, 145; sends expedition against Cabul, 146
Aurangzeb, the Great Mogul, 21; stops supply of saltpetre to the British at the bidding of Turkey, 25; his death, 31; persecutes the Sikhs, 155; detested by the Sikhs, 222
Ava, _see_ Burma
B.
Baird, Sir David, commands storming party at Seringapatam, 86
Bala Hissar, fortress of, 148
Barlow, Sir George, provisional Governor-General, 98; political half measures, 99; sacrifices revenue in Bundelkund, 101; annuls protective treaties, 104
Barnard, Sir Henry, commander-in-chief in 1857, advances against Delhi, 218; his death, 230
Baroda, Gaekwar of, 112
Barrackpore, cantonment and park, near Calcutta, 192; story of the Lascar and Brahman, 194; sepoy agitation, 196; incendiarism, 197; outbreak of Mungal Pandy, 201; disbandment of 19th Native Infantry, 202; of the 34th Native Infantry, 205
Barwell, Mr., member of the Council of Warren Hastings, 65
Bassein, efforts of the British at Bombay to acquire from the Mahrattas, 72; treaty of 1802 concluded with the Peishwa, 92, 119 _note_
Bayley, Sir Edward Clive, Home Secretary to Sir John Lawrence, his knowledge of Indian history, 288
Behar, a province of Bengal, 42-44, 127, 129; mutinies at Patna, Dinapore, and Arrah, 266
Benares, ceded to the British, 73; turbulent population, 235; triumph of Mr. Gubbins, 236; mutiny of sepoys, 237
Bengal, early English trade, 25; British supervisors, 55; terrible famine, _ib._; British administration, 58; zemindari system of land revenue, _ib._; no village communities, 128; people, 190
Bengal army, _see_ Sepoys
Bentinck, Lord William, recalled from Madras, 101; Governor-General, 123; wise and just administration, _ib._; civil and judicial reforms, 126; appoints Asiatic officials, 127; settles land revenue in the North-West Provinces, 131, 167; popularity, 140; appoints Asiatic deputy collectors, 166
Berhampore, sepoys at, 192; mutiny against greased cartridges, 198
Berar, British relations with, 72; vacillations of the Raja, 95; _see_ Nagpore
Bhotan, beyond Northern India, expedition to, 293
Bhurtpore, Jhat Raja of, pays a heavy fine to the British, 98; destruction of the fortress, 122
Bithoor, palace of Nana Sahib, 244; destroyed by Havelock, 259
Bombay, old fortress and town, 24; interference in Mahratta affairs, 73; bravery of sepoys, 118; acquires the territories of the Peishwa, 134; stagnation, 139; want of roads, 172; state education, 278; cotton speculations, 287; failure of Bank, _ib_.
Brahmans, hereditary schoolmasters, astrologers, and priests, 129; survival of, 131; position in the Bengal army, 188, 191
Britain, Great, an Asiatic power, 140, 180, 276
Buller, Sir Arthur, his opposition in legislative council, 281
Bundelkund, lawless condition of, 101; chiefs of, defy the British, _ib._; peace restored, 102; condition, 255, 289 _note_
Burma, aggressive demands of the officials, 120; invade British territory, 121; end of first war, 122; second war, 168
Burnes, Sir Alexander, at Cabul, 148; environed by Afghan mob, 149; murdered, _ib_.
Buxar, battle of, 52
C.
Cabul, _see_ Afghanistan
Cachar, under British rule, 122; tea cultivation, 123
Calcutta, founded, 28; captured by the Nawab of Bengal, 35; Black Hole tragedy, 38; recaptured, 42; auction sales of lands, 60; British garrison of, 186, 192
Campbell, Sir Archibald, at Rangoon, 121
Campbell, Sir Colin, commander-in-chief, Bengal army, 271; sets out for Lucknow, _ib._; reaches Residency, _ib._; brings away besieged, _ib_.
Canara, landholders and land revenue of, 133
Canning, Lord, Governor-General, 181; war with Persia, _ib._; settlement with the Delhi family, 182; uneasy about Oudh, _ib._; alarm of the sepoys at Barrackpore, 192; mutiny at Berhampore, 200; outbreak at Barrackpore, 201; disaffection in Oudh, 202; disbandments at Barrackpore, 202, 205; mutiny at Meerut, 206, 208; orders General Anson to Delhi, 217; refuses to abandon Peshawar, 229; offends non-official Europeans at Calcutta, 279; turns the executive council of India into a cabinet, 281; departure and death, 285
Carnatic in Southern India, conquered by Aurangzeb, 22; war between Great Britain and France, 32; interference of the Nawab, _ib._; rival Nawabs, 33; invasions of Hyder, 74; acquired by Lord Wellesley and incorporated with the Madras Presidency, 87, 88
Cashmere, conquered by Runjeet Singh, 103; sold by Lord Hardinge to Golab Singh, 160; relations with the British government, 289
Caste in Bengal army, 191; its disadvantages, _ib_.
Cavagnari, Sir Louis, murdered at Cabul, 297
Cawnpore on the Ganges, British cantonment in Lord Lake's time, 94; position, 171, 175; outbreak of the sepoy mutinies, 233; story of Cawnpore, 243; peril of General Wheeler, 244; palace of Nana Sahib at Bithoor, 245; suspense, 248; mutiny, 251; treachery of Nana Sahib, 252; revolting cruelties, _ib._; massacre, 254; advance of Havelock, 256; story of the "well," 258; defeat of Wyndham, 272; victory of Sir Colin Campbell, _ib._
Central India, feudatory Asiatic states and chiefships, 289 _note_
Central Provinces, under Home Office, 297
Chamberlain, Neville, his flying column in the Punjab, 224; services at the siege of Delhi, 227, 230
Charnock, Job, imprisoned and scourged by the Nawab of Bengal, 25; flies to Madras, 27; founds Calcutta, 28
Charters, _see_ East India Company
Child, Sir Joseph, frames a municipal corporation for Madras, 16; makes war on the Great Mogul, 25; plans the protection of British trade in India by three great fortresses, 26; his humiliation, 27
Chillianwalla, battle of, 163, 164
China, East India Company's trade with, 138
Chout, paid by the Mogul to the Mahrattas, 28; plunder of Bengal and the Carnatic for non-payment, 32; Mahratta demands on the Nizam, 82; demanded by Holkar, 96
Clavering, General, appointed member of council, 66; insolence to Warren Hastings and Elijah Impey, 67, 68
Cleveland, Augustus, humanises the Sonthals, 78
Clive, Robert, saves British interests in India by the capture of Arcot, 34; expedition to Calcutta after the Black Hole disaster, 40; victory at Plassy, 42; instals a new Nawab, 43; relieves the Mogul Prince Imperial, 45; refuses the post of Dewan to the Great Mogul, _ib._; offers it to William Pitt, 46; Governor of British settlements in Bengal, 53; accepts the Dewani, 54; returns to England, 55; inferior authority to that of Warren Hastings, 56
Code, Penal, 281
Colvin, Mr. John, besieged in fortress of Agra, 220, 231 _note_
Combermere, Lord, captures fortress of Bhurtpore, 122
Company, _see_ East India
Cornwallis, Lord, appointed Governor-General, 78; proclaims the perpetual settlement, 79; judicial reforms, _ib._; war against Tippu, 80; Governor-General a second time, 98; dies, _ib._
Councils, executive and legislative, _see_ Government
Courts, _see_ Judicature
Currie, Sir Frederic, Resident at Lahore, 161
D.
Dalhousie, Lord Governor-General, 161; enters on the second Sikh war, 163; annexes the Punjab, 164; introduces British administration, 166; second Burmese war, 168; annexation of Pegu, 169; progressive policy, 170; public works, _ib._; roads, 171; railways, 173; telegraphs, 174; Ganges canal, _ib._; annexation policy, 175; question of adoption, 176; annexation of Jhansi and Oudh, 177; opens the legislative council of India, 179; leaves India, 180
Deccan, definition of the term, 2; Mohammedan Sultans of Golconda, 22; bad roads, 172
Delhi, capital of the Mogul empire, 44; flight of the Prince Imperial to Calcutta, _ib._; proposed British expedition stopped by Clive, 53; defended by Ochterlony against Holkar, 95; occupied and plundered by Nadir Shah, 144; water-way to Calcutta, 173; family of the last of the Moguls, 182; occupied by the rebel sepoys from Meerut, 208; the city and its surroundings, 210; massacre of Europeans, 213; explosion of the magazine, 214; rebel successes, 216; avenged, 219; the siege, 221; the capture, 230; imperial assemblage at, 295
Denison, Sir William, Provisional Governor-General, 286; returns to Madras, _ib._
Dharna, sitting in, 81; abolished, _ib._
Dhuleep Singh, nominal sovereign of the Punjab, 157
Dinapore, European regiment at, 186; mutiny at, 266
Dost Mohammed Khan, ruler of Afghanistan, 145; defeated by the British, 146; a prisoner at Calcutta, 147; returns to Cabul, 152; recovers Peshawar during second Sikh war, 162, 163; helped by the British in the Persian war, 181; death, 290; wars between his sons, 291
Dravidian races, 142
Dumdum arsenal, near Calcutta, 186; musketry school at, 192
Dupleix, French Governor of Pondicherry, 32; his brilliant success, 33; appointed Nawab of the Carnatic, _ib._; ruin of his schemes by Clive, 34; return to France, _ib._; disgrace and death of, _ib._
Durand, Sir H., Foreign Secretary, 288; relations with Sir John Lawrence, 289; proposed restoration of Mysore, 292
Dutch, settlements of, 9
E.
East India Company, charter and factories, 1; English house at Surat, 4; territory and fortress at Madras, 7; Fort St. George, 12; charter from James II. for municipal corporation, 16; settlement at Bombay, 24; at Hughly, 25; war against the Great Mogul, 26; submission, 27; war with France, 32; saved by Robert Clive, 34; Black Hole tragedy, 35; Plassy, 42; exasperated by their civil servants at Calcutta, 53; accepts the office of Dewan for Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, 54; orders Warren Hastings to assume the direct administration, 56; false position of the Company in Bengal, 69; first war against the Mahrattas, 71; Fox's hostile India bill, 75; Pitt's Board of Control, 76; trial of Warren Hastings, 77; wars of Lord Wellesley, 84; conquest of Mysore, 86; annexation of the Carnatic, 88; subsidiary alliances, 89; second Mahratta war, 94; recall of Lord Wellesley from Bengal, 98; recall of Lord William Bentinck from Madras, 101; war against Nipal, 108; Pindhari and Mahratta wars, 110; paramount power in India, 120; first Burmese war, _ib._; administration of Lord William Bentinck, 123; stages in the relations between the Company and the Crown, 135; old East India House, 136; patronage under Pitt's bill, 137; charters of 1813 and 1833 granted by Parliament, 138; abolition of licences, _ib._; constitutional changes, 139; appointment of Lord Macaulay, _ib._; charter of 1833, its evil results, _ib._; an Asiatic power, 141; first Sikh war, 154; second Sikh war, 161; acquisition of the Punjab, 165; second Burmese war, 168; splendid administration of Lord Dalhousie, 170; question of adoption, 175; annexation of Oudh, 177; end of charter of 1833, 178; competitive examinations for the Indian civil and new legislative council of India, 179; sepoy revolt, 185, 232; end of the East India Company, 275
Edinburgh, Duke of, visit to India, 295
Education in India, 277; state system, 278; Bible teaching, 279
Edwardes, Herbert, defeats rebels at Multan, 161, 162; opposes withdrawal from Peshawar, 229
Elgin, Lord, sends British regiments to Lord Canning, 233; Viceroy and Governor-General, 286
Ellenborough, Lord, Governor-General, 151; hears news of Khyber Pass disaster, _ib._; interferes in Gwalior, 152; recalled, 154; proposes removal of the Delhi family, 182
Elphinstone, Mountstuart, his mission to Cabul, 103; Resident at Poona, 112; negotiations with the Mahratta Peishwa, 113; destruction of his library, 116; Governor of Bombay, 134; conservatism in India, 299; its failure, 300
Empress of India, proclamation of, 295
F.
Ferozshahar, battle of, 158, 159
Foreign Office, Indian, relations with Asiatic states, 289; misleading term, 290 _note_
Fort St. George, _see_ Madras
Fort William, _see_ Calcutta
Francis, Mr. Philip, member of Bengal Council, reputed author of the _Letters of Junius_, 66; jealous hatred of Warren Hastings, _ib._; bitter charges against Hastings and Impey, 67, 68; denounces appointment of Impey to the Sudder, 70; fights a duel and returns to England, 75
Frere, Sir Bartle, Governor of Bombay, 286; his career, 287
Frontier tribes on the north-west, 225
G.
Gaekwar of Baroda, 112, 289 _note_
Ganges canal, 174
Ganges, river, 171, 175
George III., his hostility to Fox's India Bill, 137; accepts presents from Warren Hastings, 296
Ghorka, conquest of Nipal, 106; war against British government, 108-110
Gillespie, Colonel, commands garrison at Arcot, 100; suppresses mutiny at Vellore, 101
Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, 2
Goddard, Colonel, leads an expedition from Calcutta to Bombay against Mahratta country, 73
Godwin, General, commands expedition to Burma, 169
Golab Singh buys Cashmere from Lord Hardinge, 160
Goojerat, battle of, 164
Gough, Sir Hugh, commands army in Gwalior, 153; his victory at Maharajpore, 154; battles at Moodki and Ferozshahar, 158; at Sobraon, 159; Chillianwalla, 163; Goojerat, 164
Government, old merchant rule in Madras, 5, 8, 12; municipal experiments, 14, 16; Nawab rule in Bengal, 43; offer of the Dewani, 45; Great Mogul installed in British factory at Patna, 48; collision between the British and the Nawab in Bengal, 49; Clive's double government, 54; Warren Hastings a sovereign ruler, 56; British zemindar at Calcutta, 59; appointment of British collectors, 61; members of council at Calcutta appointed by Parliament, 65; quarrels, 66; Governor-General in Council empowered by parliament to make laws, 69; changes under the charter of 1833, 135; executive council remodelled by Lord Canning, 280; legislative councils of 1854 and 1861-6, 179, 284; relations of legislative and executive, 293; British India a school for Asiatics, 297
Govind, Guru, 155; founder of the Sikh Khalsa, 156
Graves, Brigadier, commands station at Delhi, 209, 210; preparations to resist rebel sepoys from Meerut, 211; escapes to Flagstaff Tower, 213
Gubbins, Mr. Frederic, his municipal reforms at Benares, 235, 236
Gwalior, fortress of, captured, 73; interference and war by Lord Ellenborough, 152
Gwalior contingent formed, 154; mutiny of, 228, 229; victory of, at Cawnpore, 272
H.
Hands, Right and Left, Hindu antagonism in Southern India, 10, 11; _see_ also 39 _note_
Hardinge, Lord, Governor-General, 154; commands the army at Moodki, 158; at Sobraon, 159; settles the government of the Punjab under a regency, 160; returns to England, 161
Harris, General, commands British army against Mysore, 86
Hastings, Warren, appointed Governor of Bengal, 56; virtually sovereign of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, _ib._; previous career, 57; introduces British administration, 58; dealings with the zemindars and land revenue, 59, 61; judicial administration, 62 creates the Sudder Court, 64; surprised by the arrival of three new members of council, and the creation of the Supreme Court, 65; appointed Governor-General, _ib._; quarrel with Philip Francis, 66; trial and execution of Nundcomar, 67; inaction, _ib._; collision between the Supreme Court and the Sudder, 68; points in dispute, 69; settled by parliament, _ib._; alleged corruption of Elijah Impey, 70; war with the Mahrattas, 71; plottings of three Asiatic powers, 73; Hyder invades the Carnatic, 74; interference of parliament, 75; India bills of Fox and Pitt, _ib._; returns to England, 76; trial in Westminster Hall, _ib._; case of the Oudh Begums, _ib._; services of Hastings, 77, 78; presents to George III., 296
Hastings, Marquis of, Governor-General of India, 107; war against Nipal, 108; converted from non-intervention to imperialism, 110; suppresses Pindhari raids and Mahratta disaffection, 111; humiliation of Sindia, 113; submission of Amir Khan of Tonk, 114; treachery, defeat, and flight of the Peishwa, 115; dealings with Nagpore, 116; defeat of Holkar, 117; capture and conquest of the Peishwa, 118, 119; renewal of protective treaties in Rajputana, 120
Havelock, General, his career in India, 256; advance on Cawnpore during the sepoy mutinies, _ib._; hangs a deputy collector, 258; enters Cawnpore after the massacre, _ib._; advances towards Lucknow, 259; retreats, 266; second advance with Outram, 268; relief of the garrison, 269; death, 272
Herat, besieged by Persia, 145; defended by Eldred Pottinger, 151; second siege by Persia, 181
Hindus, protected against European soldiers at Madras, 14; rebel against the house tax, 15; municipality in the 17th century, 16; abolition of Suttee, 123; overawed by Thugs, 125; village communities in the North-West Provinces, 128; in the Madras Presidency, 131; ancient colonisation, _ib._; ancient migrations from Central and Northern Asia, 142; accept Sikh religion in the Punjab, 155; absence of roads in Hindu kingdoms, 172; belief in adoption but reluctant to adopt, 175; caste system, 188, 191; worship of the cow and horror of beef, 195; forced conversions to Islam, 196; hostility of the Brahmans at Benares, stamped out by Mr. Gubbins, 235; Hindu culture, 298; child marriages, _ib._; temper, _ib._; social despotism, 299; failure of hereditary officials, 300; successful training, _ib._
Holkar, Jaswant Rao, the bandit, 92; drives the Peishwa from Poona, _ib._; occupies Indore territory, 93; relations with the British, 95; defiance, 96; campaign of Lord Lake, _ib._; Monson's disastrous retreat, 97; joined by Sindia, etc., _ib._; flies to the Punjab, 99; confined as a madman, _ib._; dies of cherry brandy, 111; _see_ Indore
Holkar, _see_ Indore
Holwell, Mr., elected Governor of Calcutta, during the siege, 38; sells Calcutta lands by auction, 60
Hughly, old Portuguese fortress at, 19; demolished in punishment for slave dealing, 20; British factory at, 25; Mogul oppressions, _ib._; British retreat to Madras, 27
Hyder Ali, of Mysore, desolates the Carnatic, 74
Hyderabad, disbandment of French battalions, 85; subsidiary force at, 113
I.
Impey, Sir Elijah, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, 65; charges against, 70
Indore, revolt of the army of Holkar, 115; defeated at Mehidpore, 117; subsidiary alliance, 118; outbreak during the mutinies, 272; political relations, 289 _note_
J.
Java, wrested from the Dutch, 104; restored to Holland, _ib._
Jeypore, Raja of, fights for princess of Oodeypore, 105; asks British government to arbitrate, 106
Jhansi, massacre at, 176, 255
Jodhpore, Raja of, contends for princess of Oodeypore, 105; asks British to arbitrate, 106
Judicature, justices of the Choultry at Madras, 13; mayor's court, 31; British zemindar at Calcutta, 59; magistrates and judges, 62; courts of circuit and appeal, 63; chief court or Sudder, 64; patriarchal system, _ib._; supreme court of barrister judges, 65; collisions, 67, 68; judicial reforms of Lord Cornwallis, 79; of Lord William Bentinck, 126; Asiatic judges, 127; amalgamation of Supreme Court and Sudder in the existing High Courts, 284; Asiatic judges and magistrates, 285; proposed changes, 300
Julinder, mutiny at, 227
K.
Kali, goddess, worshipped by the Thugs, 124; Calcutta a corruption of Kali-Ghat, 125 _note_
Keane, Sir John, captures fortress of Ghazni, 146; created Baron of Ghazni, 147
Khalsas, the Sikh, 155; army of, 156; sent to plunder India, 158; defeated at Sobraon, 159; broken up, 164
Khyber Pass, British disaster in, 151; faces Peshawar, 225
Korygaum, glorious action of sepoys, 118
Kumaon, ceded to the British by Nipal, 109
L.
Lacouperie, Professor Terrien de, on the right and left hand castes, 39 _note_
Lahore, Council of Regency at, 161; sepoy mutinies at, 223, 224; European strength, 243
Lake, General, commander-in-chief of the Bengal army, 94; his campaign in Hindustan, 94, 95; attacks Holkar, 96; fails to reduce Bhurtpore, 97, 98
Lawrence, Sir Henry, Resident at Lahore after first Sikh war, 161, 164; chief commissioner of Oudh, 202; suppresses a mutiny at Lucknow, 216; holds a public durbar for rewarding sepoys, 259; preparations for the defence of Lucknow, 260; wounded at Chinhut, 261; dies, 265
Lawrence, John, chief commissioner of the Punjab, 165; patriarchal rule, 166; land settlement, 167; telegram to General Anson, 217; executions at Peshawar, 226; sends Punjab "Guides" to Delhi, _ib._; proposes to withdraw from Peshawar, 228; overruled by Lord Canning, 229; disarms all Bengal sepoys in the Punjab, _ib._; created a baronet and afterwards a peer, 286 _note_; Viceroy and Governor-General, 286; yearly migrations to Simla, 288; relations with Sir Henry Durand, 289; leaves India, 293; burial in Westminster Abbey, 294
Legislation, no code of laws, 13; powers of, granted to the Governor-General in Council, 69; legislative council created in 1833 under the charter, 139; new legislative council of 1854 under Lord Dalhousie, 179; new Penal Code, 180; new legislative council of 1861-2, 284; relations of cabinet and council, 293; proposed changes, 301
Lucknow, capital of Oudh, description of, 203; the British Residency, _ib._; first mutiny suppressed by Sir Henry Lawrence, _ib._; further durbar for rewarding loyal sepoys, 259; general mutiny, 261; hostility of the city, 263; disaster at Chinhut, _ib._; British Residency besieged by mutineers and rebels, 264; death of Sir Henry Lawrence, 265; anarchy in the city, _ib._; retreat of Havelock, 266; desperate defence, 267; advance of Havelock and Outram, 268; triumphant entry, 269; final relief of Sir Colin Campbell, 271
Lumsden, Sir Peter, his mission to Candahar, 181
Lytton, Lord, Viceroy, 295; proclaims Her Majesty as Empress of India, 295; the second Afghan war, 296
M.
Macaulay (Mr., afterwards Lord) appointed legal member of the Council of India, 139; drafts the Penal Code, 180
Macnaghten, Sir William, British minister at Cabul, 146, 147; his difficulties, 148; murdered by Akbar Khan, 149, 150
Macrae, Mr., Governor of Madras, in the olden time, 31
Madras, foundation of fortress, 7; growth of Fort St. George and Black Town, 8; wars of the Right and Left Hands, 10; first Hindu town under British rule, 13; Asiatic revolt against European taxation, 14, 15; corporation founded, 16; trade in slaves, 18; abolished and revived, 21, 22; flourishing private trade, 23; Governors Pitt and Macrae, 31; Madras captured by the French, 32; restored, 33; village communities of Southern India, 131; creation of zemindars, 132; establishment of ryotwari, 134
Maharajpore, battle of, 154
Mahrattas, raids on the Mogul empire quieted by the payment of "chout," or black-mail, 28; origin of Mahratta power, 71; rise of the Peishwa and his feudatories--Sindia, Holkar, and the Gaekwar, 72; first British war against the Mahrattas, 73; refuse the British alliance, 89; rise of Sindia, 92; acceptance of British suzerainty by the Peishwa, _ib._; campaigns of Wellesley and Lake, 94, 95; Holkar's defiance and successes, 97; non-intervention, 99; disaffection, 111; hostility, 115; final establishment of British supremacy, 116, 119; _see_ also Sindia and Holkar
Malcolm, Sir John, sent on missions to Persia, 91, 103; negotiations with the Mahrattas, 112, 113; defeats Holkar, 117; captures the Peishwa, 119
Mayo, Lord, Viceroy and Governor-General, 294; his tragic death, _ib._
Meerut, sepoy mutinies, 206-212
Mehidpore, battle of, 117
Metcalfe, Charles, his mission to Runjeet Singh at Lahore, 102; Governor-General, 140
Minto, Lord, Governor-General, 101
Mogul, empire in India, 2; his vengeance on the Portuguese at Hughly, 20; conquers the Deccan, 21; breaking up, 31; enthronement of a Great Mogul in the British factory at Patna, 48; settlement of Lord Clive, 54; flight to Delhi with the Mahrattas, 57; a pensioner of the British government, 95; makes common cause with the rebel sepoys, 209, 216; banishment to Rangoon, 231 _note_
Mohammedans, proportion of, in the Bengal sepoy army, 191; conversion of Hindus by force, 196, 210; revolt of Delhi, fanatics preaching rebellion, 220; capture of Delhi, 231
Moira, Lord, Governor-General, 110; _see_ Hastings, Marquis of
Monro, Sir Hector, victory at Buxar, 52; takes possession of Oudh, 52
Monson, Colonel, disastrous retreat from Holkar, 97, 98
Moodki, battle of, 158
Mornington, Lord, _see_ Wellesley, Marquis of
Mulraj, Sikh governor of Multan, his revolt, 161; murder of two British officers, _ib._; surrenders, 164
Munro, Thomas, his career, 133, 134; his conservatism, 299
Munsifs, or civil judges, appointed, 80
Mutinies, _see_ Sepoy
Mysore, Raja, restored to the throne of Mysore, 87
Mysore, conquest of, by the British army, 86; restoration of a Hindu Raja, 87; Mohammedan mutiny at Vellore, 100, 188; brought under British rule, 221; restored to Hindu rule, 292
N.
Nadir, Shah, checkmates Russia, 143; invades India, 144; an Asiatic Napoleon, _ib._
Nagpore, 111; plottings against the British government, 116; annexed by Lord Dalhousie, 176
Nana Sahib, a _protégé_ of the ex-Peishwa of the Mahrattas, 245; his preposterous claims against the British government, _ib._; pertinacity and cunning, 246; pretended loyalty at Cawnpore, 249; deludes the British, 250; unpopularity with the Bengal sepoys, _ib._; joins the sepoy mutineers, 251; parleying and perfidy, 253; massacre of Europeans, 254; his triumph, _ib._; his terrors, 255; his army defeated by Havelock, 257; massacre of women and children, 258; flight into Oudh, _ib._
Nanuk Guru, founder of the Sikh religion, 154; his teaching, 155
Napier, Sir Charles, defeats Amirs of Sind, 152; supersedes Lord Gough, 164
Natives, _see_ Asiatic
Neill, Colonel, his advance towards Allahabad and Cawnpore, 234; delayed at Benares, 238; at Allahabad, _ib._; restores order, 242; joined by Havelock, 256
Newars, Buddhist people of Nipal, 106
Nicholson, John, the sainted warrior, 227; worshipped by the Sikhs, _ib._; crushes the rebel sepoy brigade from Sealkote, 229; mortally wounded at Delhi, 231
Nipal, Ghorka conquest of, 106; aggressions on British territory, 107; war, 108; peace, 110
Nizam of the Deccan, 33, 82; disbandment of his French battalions, 83; accepts subsidiary alliance with the British government, 89; political relations, 290 _note_
Non-intervention, policy of, 82; sad results, 99; bad effects in Rajputana, 106; in the Punjab, 158
Northbrook, Lord, Viceroy and Governor-General, 295
North-West Provinces, land settlement of, 167; revolt and suppression, 231
Nott, General, at Candahar, 146, 151; advances on Cabul, 152
Nundcomar, his charges against Warren Hastings, 67; arrested on charge of forgery, _ib._; trial and execution, _ib._
O.
Ochterlony, Colonel, defends Delhi from Holkar, 97; services in the war against Nipal, 109; operations against Bhurtpore, 216
Orissa, a province of Bengal, 44, 127; village communities, 129
Oudh, old aggressions on Bengal, 44, 47; settlement of Lord Clive with the Nawab Vizier, 53; case of the Begums, 76; acquisitions of Lord Wellesley, 91; annexation by Lord Dalhousie, 177, 178; land settlement, 182; disaffection of the talukdars, 183; discontent of sepoys, 184, 190, 202; Sir Henry Lawrence, chief commissioner, 203; disaffection, 220; mutiny and rebellion, 259, 262; peace restored, 272; causes of revolt, 273; settlement of Lord Lawrence with the talukdars, 292
Outram, Sir James, his mission to the Persian Gulf, 181; joins Havelock, 269; chief commissioner of Oudh, 270
P.
Parliament, interference in India, 75, 135; Charters of 1813 and 1833; opening out trade, etc., 138; creates the Legislative Council of India, and introduces competitive examinations, 178; transfers India from the Company to the Crown, 275; Council Act of 1861, 284
Patna, massacre at, 52; Mohammedan plots, 220, 266
Peacock, Sir Barnes, revises Penal Code, 180
Pegu annexed by Lord Dalhousie, 169, 170
Peishwa, Mahratta, his feudatories jealous of the British, 186; refuses the subsidiary alliance, 89; flight to British territory, 92; accepts subsidiary alliance at Bassein, _ib._; disaffected, 99; intrigues, 111; hostility, 115; defeat and flight, 116; extinction, 119; at Bithoor, 245
Penal Code, drafted by Lord Macaulay, revised by Sir Barnes Peacock, 180
Persia, mission of John Malcolm, 103; collision with British India, 140; menaced by Russia, 141; advance of Russia checkmated by Nadir Shah, 143; Persian invasion of India, 144; British expedition to the Persian Gulf, 181; its return to India, 217
Peshawar, valley of, wrested from the Afghans by Runjeet Singh, 103; reoccupied by Afghans in second Sikh war, 163; the key to India, 225; frontier tribes, _ib._; peril during the sepoy mutinies, _ib._; execution of rebels, 226; proposed withdrawal, 228; overruled by Lord Canning, 229
Peter the Great, covert advance to India, 143; checkmated by Nadir Shah, _ib._
Pindharies, freebooters in the Mahratta armies, 104; horrible raids in British territory, 110; George Canning's denunciations, 111; campaign of Lord Hastings, 113; extinction of the gangs, 115
Pitt, Thomas, Governor of Madras, 29; his diamond, 30
Pitt, William, the younger, his India Bill, 75; creates a Board of Control, 76; marvellous statesmanship, 137
Plassy, battle of, 42
Pollock, General, avenges the British losses in the Khyber, 151; relieves Sale and restores British prestige, 152
Pondicherry, French settlement, 32; British carried prisoners to, _ib._
Poona, head-quarters of the Sivaji family, 71; capital of the Mahratta Peishwas, _ib._; interference of Bombay, 72, 73; negotiations of Lord Wellesley, 86; flight of the Peishwa to Bassein, 92; subsidiary alliance, _ib._; intrigues, 112, 113; British residency burnt, 116; incorporated with the Bombay Presidency, 119
Portuguese in India, their fortresses, 3; thwart the British at Surat, 4; intermarriages with the British at Madras, 12; slave trade, 19; settlement at Hughly, 20; destroyed by the Great Mogul, 21
Pottinger, Eldred, Captain, 151
Provinces, regulation and non-regulation, 166, 289; distinction effaced, 297
Punjab, Sikh rule under Runjeet Singh, 102; relations with the British government, 103; attitude in the first Afghan war, 146; opened to British troops after the death of Runjeet Singh, 147; a Sikh army under French officers a menace to Hindustan, 153; review of Sikh history, 154; army of the Khalsa, 156; anarchy, 157; despotism of the army, _ib._; Sikh invasion of British India, 158; Aliwal and Sobraon, 159; end of first Sikh war, 160; mixed government, _ib._; revolt at Multan, 161; second Sikh war, 162; Chillianwalla, 163; Goojerat, 164; annexation, 165; patriarchal rule, 166; non-regulation system, _ib._; land settlement, 167; frontier province of India on the north-west, facing Afghanistan and Cashmere, 186; musketry school at Sealkote, 193; John Lawrence, chief commissioner, sends the Punjab "Guides" to Delhi, 222; disaffection of Bengal sepoy regiments, 224; valley of Peshawar, 225; Sikh volunteers, 226; John Nicholson, the sainted warrior, 227; difficulties of John Lawrence, 228; fall of Delhi, 231
R.
Railways in India, 173, 174
Rajputana, princes and chiefs taken under British protection by Lord Wellesley, 95; annulment of treaties by Sir George Barlow, 99; plundered by the Mahrattas, _ib._; ravaged by Sindia and Amir Khan, 105; renewal of protective treaties by Lord Hastings, 120; relations with the British government, 289
Rajputs, in Bengal sepoy army, 191
Rama, the ancient hero of Oudh, 104
Rana, of Oodeypore, his descent, 104; war for his daughter, 105; her death, 106
Rangoon, expedition to, 121; second Burmese war, 168
Rawlinson, Major, at Candahar, 146, 152
Revenue, Board of, 128
Rewah in Central India, 289 _note_
Roe, Sir Thomas, Ambassador to India, 135
Rohilcund, mutiny in, 228
Runjeet Singh, Sikh ruler of the Punjab, 102; relations with the British government, 103; attitude in the first Afghan war, 146; death, _ib._; genius and depravity, 156; family pensioned, 165
Russia menaces Persia, 141, 143; driven back by Nadir Shah, 144; cat's-paw policy, 145; hold on Turkistan, 296
Ryotwari settlement, in Madras presidency, 133; introduced into Bombay presidency, 134
S.
Sale, Sir Robert, sent to Jellalabad, 149; besieged by Afghans, 151
Sealkote, mutiny at, 229
Secretary of State, Council of, 301
Sepoy army of India, 188; old mutinies, 189; separate armies of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras, 190; high caste in old Bengal army, 191; mutinies against greased cartridges, 193-274
Seringapatam taken by storm, 86
Shere Ali Khan, Amir of Afghanistan, 291; estranged from British government, 296; flight, _ib._; death, 297
Shore, Mr. John, presses for an inquiry into rights of ryots, 79; Governor-General, 81
Sikh, kingdom founded by Runjeet Singh, 102; review of Sikh history, 154-157; first Sikh war, 158; second Sikh war, 161; annexed to British India, 165; help the British against Delhi, 222, 226, 237
Sind, Amirs of, defeat of, 152; their territories incorporated with the Bombay presidency, _ib._
Sindia, Mahadaji, feudatory of the Peishwa, 71; established a dominion in Hindustan, 72; French battalions, 83; rule of Daulat Rao, 90; his vacillation, 93; flight at Assaye, 94; joins Holkar, 97; returns to the British alliance, 98; ravages Rajputana, 105; secret negotiation, 111; submission, 114
Sitabuldi Hill, battle on, 116, 117
Sivaji, hero of the Mahrattas, 71; his tomb repaired, _ib._ _note_
Slavery, Hindu and Mohammedan, 18; Mogul restrictions, 19; Portuguese trade, _ib._; abolished at Madras, 22
Sobraon, battle of, 159
Sudder Courts, 127 _note_, 128, 284
Supreme and Sudder Courts amalgamated, 284
Surat, British traders at, 3; factory, 4; foreign guests, 5; decay, 24
Suttee, abolished, 123
T.
Talukdars, or zemindars, 130; discontent in Oudh, 220; healed, 293
Tayler, Mr. William, quashes plot at Patna, 266
Thomason, Mr., Lieut.-Governor, land settlement finished, 167, 168; constructs macadamised roads, 172
Thugs, atrocities of, 124; hereditary gangs, _ib._; suppression, 125
Tippu of Mysore, first war against, 80; alliance with the French, 84; second war and death, 86; family, 100, 283
Trevelyan, Sir Charles, protests against income tax, 283
Tucker, Mr. Robert, at Futtehpore, murdered, 257
Turkey, menaced by Russia, 141
V.
Vellore, sepoy revolt at, 100, 188
Village communities in the North-West Provinces, 128; in the Madras Presidency, 131; changes, 299
W.
Wales, Prince of, his tour in India, 295
Water-ways in India, 171
Wellesley, Marquis of, Governor-General, 82; political system of subsidiary alliances, 89; fears of France, 90; mission to Persia, 91; acquisitions from Oudh, _ib._; wars, 94; reversal of his policy, 98
Wellington, Duke of, opposes recall of Lord Ellenborough, 154
Wheeler, General Sir Hugh, commands at Cawnpore, 244-249; surrenders to Nana Sahib, 253
Willoughby, Lieut., blows up the magazine at Delhi, 214; murdered, 215
Wilson, Mr. James, Finance Minister, 282; proposes income tax, _ib._; death, 283
Y.
Yakub Khan, imprisoned by his father Shere Ali, 296; succession and abdication, 297
Z.
Zemindars, status in Bengal, 59; created in the Madras Presidency, 132
LONDON: RICHARD CLAY & SONS, PRINTERS.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's note: | | | | Obvious punctuation errors were corrected. | | P.113. 'the' changed to 'then'. | | P.170. 'Dalhouise' changed to 'Dalhousie'. | | P.171. 'Sihks' changed to 'Sikhs'. | | P.173. 'statesmen' changed to 'statesman'. | | P.184. 'courts' changed to 'court'. | | P.210. 'serjeants' changed to 'sergeants'. | | P.216. 'nealy' changed to 'nearly'. | | P.226. 'secresy' changed to 'secrecy'. | | P.228. added '§' to '§18' | | P.289. Footnote [37], 'Scindia' changed to 'Sindia'. | | P.304. 'judical' changed to 'judicial' | | P.304. 'Laskar' changed to 'Lascar'. | | P.308. 'Korigaum' changed to 'Korygaum'. | | P.312. 'Hindostan' changed to 'Hindustan'. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+