Lawrence James - Raj: the making and unmaking of the British India

Lawrence James studied History and English at York University and subsequently undertook a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. Following a career as a teacher, he became a full-time writer in 1985, and is the author of The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia; Imperial Warrior: The Life and Times of Field Marshal Viscount Allenby; and the acclaimed The Rise and Fall of the British Empire.

He now lives in St Andrews, where his wife is headmistress of St Leonards School, with their two sons.

Crimea: The War With Russia in Contemporary Photographs

The Savage Wars: British Campaigns in Africa 18701920

Mutiny: Mutinies in British and Commonwealth Forces 17971956

Imperial Rearguard: The Last Wars of Empire

The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

The Iron Duke: A Military Biography of the Duke of Wellington

Imperial Warrior: The Life and Times of Field Marshal Viscount Allenby

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

Published by Hachette Digital

ISBN: 978-0-748-12533-3

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright 1997 by Lawrence James

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Hachette Digital

Little, Brown Book Group

100 Victoria Embankment

London, EC4Y 0DY

www.hachette.co.uk.

To Nick and Jane Roe

PART ONE
THE COMPANY ASCENDANT: 1740 84

PART TWO
THE CONQUEST OF INDIA: 1784 1856

PART THREE
THE RAJ CONSOLIDATED: 1784 1856

PART FOUR
THE MUTINY: 1857 59

PART FIVE
TRIUMPHS AND TREMORS: 1860 1914

PART SIX
DISTURBANCES AND DEPARTURES: 1914 48

I would first like to thank my wife, Mary, for her forbearance, patience and good humour during the preparation and writing of this book. Thanks are also due to my sons, Edward and Henry, who have provided many valuable services. Help, suggestions, advice and information were also provided by Vice-Admiral Manohar Awati, Dr Richard Boyden, Dr Ian Bradley, Geordie Burnett-Stuart, Mrs Elsie Butler, William Dalrymple, Richard Demarco, Dr and Mrs Martin Edmonds, Sir Gerald Elliot, Professor Ray Furness, Dr Nile Gardiner, David Gilmour, Andrew Gordon, Ruth Guilding, John Hailwood, Robert Harvey, Mr and Mrs Guli Juneja, Professor Bruce Lenman, Andrew Lownie, Philip Mason, Michael Mates, Lieutenant-Colonel David Murray, Professor Alan Pat, Liz Pert-Davies, A-Rajagopalan, Professor Jeffrey Richards, the late General Sir Ouvry Roberts, Professor and Mrs Nick Roe, Trevor Royle, Buddahev Saha, Alan Samson, Dr Bill Shields, Linda Silverman, W. A. Simms, Captain James Squire, Emma Strouts of Christies Images, Deepak Vaidya, Andrew and Cherry Williams and Andrew Wilson.

I am greatly indebted to the staff of St Andrews University Library and the India Office Library for their courtesy and efficiency in handling all manner of enquiries. I would also like to thank the staff of the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Library, Strathclyde Record Office, the Scottish Record Office, the National Army Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Public Record Office and the Ministry of Defence. All have been generous with their time and knowledge.

Quotations from Crown Copyright collections appear by permission of the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office, and those from the papers of General Sir Richard Savory by kind permission of his Literary Trustees.

Picture Credits

SECTION ONE

1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10: The Hulton Getty Picture Collection; 2: Popperfoto; 3: Christies Images; 5: Trustees of the Blair Athol Estate; 6: Victoria & Albert Museum; 11, 12, 17, 18: India Office Library; 15, 16: Courtesy of Deepak Vaidya

SECTION TWO

1, 12: Popperfoto; 6: Christies Images; 8: Trustees of the Blair Athol Estate; 11: The Hulton Getty Picture Collection; 16, 17, 18, 19, 20: Courtesy of Geordie Burnett-Stuart; 21, 22: Imperial War Museum

SECTION THREE

1, 2, 3: Courtesy of Geordie Burnett-Stuart; 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17: The Hulton Getty Picture Collection; 9: Camera Press; 13, 14: National Army Museum; 16, 18: Popperfoto

I

I ndia is a land of vanished supremacies. Each proclaimed its power and permanence by architecture on the grand scale, designed to inspire admiration, awe and even fear. Always the observer is compelled to look upwards. One cranes ones neck to see the strongholds of Rajput warlords, perched precariously on the hilltops of Rajputana (Rajasthan), and one stands back to view the great mosques and mausoleums of their overlords, the Mughal emperors. Approach requires a degree of supplication; one trudges up the hillside to reach the Jaipur maharajas palace at Amber and vast flights of steps skirt the government offices of the British Raj in New Delhi. The overall impression is of a country where power has been concentrated in a few hands and always flowed downwards.

There is much truth in this. The public buildings of the Mughals, the Indian princes and the Raj were expressions of their authority, reminding the onlooker of his place in the scale of things. Wealth went hand in hand with political power; the elaborate and intricate marblework, jewelled inlays and painted panels which decorated mosques and palaces announced their patrons and owners as men of infinite richness. The British were more cautious about this sort of ostentation. Sir Edwin Lutyens, the mastermind behind that complex of official buildings which was to form the heart of imperial Delhi, considered traditional Indian architecture too florid and therefore unsuitable for a regime whose chief characteristics were integrity and firmness. Like other, earlier architects of the Raj, he preferred to assert its supremacy with solid stonework and severe classical motifs, which was understandable given that they and their patrons saw Britain as the new Rome. The fashion had been set in the early 1800s by the Marquess Wellesley, who believed that the dignity of a Governor-General of Bengal required a colonnaded mansion in the contemporary Georgian neo-classical style. Opposite his austere but imposing Government House was a triumphal arch surmounted by a vigilant imperial lion, which soon became a popular roost for Calcuttas cranes, vultures and kites.

Indias official architecture was a backdrop for the traditional public rituals of state. The formal processions in which a ruler presented himself to his subjects and undertook his devotions, and the durbars (assemblies) where great men met, exchanged gifts and compliments and discussed high policy, required settings appropriate to what was, in effect, the theatre of power. At the heart of the Emperor Shahjahans great palace in Delhi, now called the Red Fort, are the great audience halls, one a vast open courtyard, the other enclosed and reserved for foreign ambassadors and other elevated visitors. Both are now stripped of their awnings and wall-hangings and the private chamber lacks the Peacock Throne, a stunning construction of gold and jewels surmounted by a golden arch and topped by two gilded peacocks, birds of allegedly incorruptible flesh which may have symbolised not only the splendour of the Mughals but also their durability.