Page 82

Chapter 32 – The Charter of 1833 – Sir Charles Metcalfe’s Administration – Benevolent Exertions of the Company’s Government, 1833–1836

The New Charter; Extinction of the China Trade, 1833’

The period of twenty years for which the commercial and political privileges of the Company had been renewed in 1813, being about to expire, Lord

Page 83

Ellenborough, the President of the Board of Control, moved for a Select Committee in 1830, to collect information regarding the finances, trade, and revenue, and the judicial administration of the Indian empire. The report was presented in August, 1832, and, including the oral and documentary evidence, filled nine closely printed quarto volumes. The Tory Ministry having been displaced by their rivals, it fell to the lot of Mr. Charles Grant, the new President of the Board, to introduce to the notice of the House the question of the new Charter, as it was inappropriately designated. With more than the talent of his father, who was for twenty years the presiding genius of Leadenhall Street, though with less than his industry, he inherited all his zeal for the moral and intellectual improvement of India.

The two principal questions which demanded the attention of the House were the continuance of the China monopoly, and of the Government of India, in the hands of the Company. The merchants and manufacturers of England demanded with an irresistible voice that the trade to China should be thrown open to the enterprise of the nation, and the first line of “hints “for the new Charter drawn up by the Board of Control contained the ominous words “the China monopoly to cease.” The Company strenuously resisted the extinction of their only surviving commercial privilege, and endeavoured to show that without this monopoly they would be unable to carry on the government of India, inasmuch as it was the profits of their trade which had supplied the deficiency of their territorial revenues. On the other hand, it was as resolutely affirmed that the trade had resulted in a loss, and had been sustained by territorial funds. It was, however, beyond the power of any Ministry, Whig or Tory, to prolong the monopoly in the face of universal opposition, and the Court of Directors were obliged to submit to the extinction of it. The Company was thus finally divested of its commercial character, and the last remaining monopoly of the reign of Queen Elizabeth was extinguished, after a duration of nearly two centuries and a half. The

Page 84

Company was required to dispose of its magnificent fleet, to the great chagrin of the old civilians, one of whom was heard to enquire “of what use it was for their honourable masters to send them out to India to make fortunes, if they did not send ships to take them home when the fortunes were made?” The assets of the Company after a faithful scrutiny were estimated at twelve crores of rupees; they realized within a tenth of that sum, and were applied to the objects of the Government in India, with the exception of two crores appropriated to the formation of a guarantee fund. The capital stock of the Company amounted to six crores, and the new Charter Act ordained that interest at the rate of ten and a half per cent. on this sum should be provided from the revenues of India for a period of forty years. The intrinsic value of the stock in the market was consequently doubled. The guarantee fund was to be invested in Government securities, to accumulate at compound interest, till it amounted at the end of that period to twelve crores, with which the proprietors were to be paid off.

Continuation of the Government of India with the Company, 1833

The India Bill proposed that the government should be entrusted for twenty years longer to the Company, and it was passed without any difficulty. The nation, having secured its own pecuniary interests in regard to the China trade, treated this imperial question, though it involved the interests of a hundred millions of the subjects of the Crown, with profound indifference. The House of Commons exhibited unequivocal signs of impatience and disgust whenever it was brought forward. During the discussions the benches were never as full as during a turnpike debate, and Mr. Macaulay truly observed that a broken head in Coldbath Fields excited greater interest in the House than three pitched battles in India. The Court of Directors made a strong effort to obtain the privilege of an appeal to some higher authority in cases of a difference of opinion with the Board of Control, but the attempt was successfully opposed, and the writ of mandamus was still suspended over their heads.

Page 85

On the other band, the Ministers endeavoured to obtain a veto on the power vested in the Court by former Acts of recalling the Governor-General, the Governors, and the Commander-in-chief, but the India House resisted the proposal with such pertinacity that it was at length abandoned. Several important changes were likewise made in the constitution and policy of the Government in India. A fourth Presidency was constituted to embrace the north west provinces. A commission was also appointed to consist of men of experience in the administration of justice in India, and one or two English barristers, to report on the practicability of establishing a uniform system of law and judicature throughout the Indian empire. The power of legislation was now for the first time conferred on the Government of India, and the enactments which, under the advice of Sir William Jones in 1790, had been modestly designated Regulations, were now, under the advice of Mr. Macaulay, dignified with the name of Acts. At the same time the privilege of enacting laws was withdrawn from the subordinate Presidencies, and the Governor-General in Council was invested with power to legislate for the whole empire, including all persons, British, foreign, or native, all places, and all things, as well as all courts, whether created by the local Government or established by Royal charter, but with certain necessary reservations touching the prerogatives of the Crown and the authority of Parliament. A fourth member was added to the Council, who was to be an English jurist of reputation, and the office was rendered illustrious by the genius and labours of Mr. Macaulay. Two of the provisions of the Bill afforded an index of the growth of liberal principles in England, – the admission of natives to all offices, and the permission granted to Europeans to hold lands. Forty years before this period, Lord Cornwallis had pronounced the natives unfit to take any share in the government of their own country, and resolved to work the machinery by European agency alone. The Charter of 1833 enacted that no native of India, nor any natural born

Page 86

subject of His Majesty, should be disabled from holding any place, office, or employment by reason of his religion, place of birth, descent or colour. To this liberal measure the Court of Directors gave their unqualified consent, but the clause which sanctioned the purchase of land by Europeans and which contained the germ of colonization was introduced and passed in direct opposition to their wishes. The power to exclude interlopers from the sphere of their operations was among the earliest privileges conferred on them by Queen Elizabeth, and it was confirmed to them by various statutes for two centuries. It was designed at first only to protect their commercial enterprises, but was made applicable to their territorial possessions when they had become sovereigns. It was the most cherished privilege of Leadenhall Street, and the Directors clung to it with unabated tenacity, even after they had consented to relinquish their trade. The Charter of 1813 had permitted the free resort of Europeans to India, but excluded them from forming any settlement in it, by the purchase or lease of lands. Meanwhile, the cultivation of indigo by European capitalists, under cover of fictitious leases which were winked at by the local authorities, had increased to such an extent as to enrich the maritime trade with an additional article of export of the value of a crore and a half of rupees a-year. Lord William Bentinck was anxious to relieve this enterprise from the restraints imposed upon it by the prejudices of the India House, and to legalize these leases for the culture of indigo, as well as for other staple products, but this slight relaxation of the old system of restriction was peremptorily negatived by the Court of Directors. The arguments of Lord William Bentinck, however, and of his liberal colleague, Sir Charles Metcalfe, carried more weight with the Ministry, and a clause was introduced into the bill which granted permission to Europeans to settle in the country and acquire unrestricted rights and interests in the land.

Character of the Company’s government, 1833

The separation now effected of the functions of state from all commercial speculations served to give a more elevated tone to the views and policy

Page 87

of the Court of Directors, and to impart a more efficient character to their administration. The feelings with which they entered on the imperial duties to which their attention was now to be exclusively devoted were eloquently expressed in a despatch to the Government of India, which was drawn up by Mr. Mill: “In contemplating the extent of legislative power thus conferred on our supreme Government, and in the second instance, on ourselves, in reflecting how many millions of men may, by the manner in which it shall be exercised, be rendered happy or miserable, in adverting to the countless variety of interests to be studied, and of difficulties to be overcome in the execution of this mighty trust, we feel the weight of responsibility under which we have been conjointly laid. . . We feel confident that to this undertaking your best thoughts and care will be immediately and perseveringly applied, and we invite the full, the constant, and the early communication of your sentiments in relation to it. On our part we can venture to affirm that no endeavour shall be wanting in promoting your views and perfecting your plans. . . . And we trust that by the blessing of God on our united labours the just and beneficent intentions of this country in delegating to our hands the legislative as well as executive administration of the weightiest, the most important and the most interesting of its transmarine possessions will be happily accomplished.” These enlightened sentiments were faithfully reflected in the correspondence and the proceedings of the Court of Directors during the twenty-five years they continued to administer the government of India. Relieved from the management of a large mercantile establishment and the influences inseparable from it, their minds rose to a level with the great political trust confided to them by their country, and it may be affirmed without the risk of contradiction that, notwithstanding an occasional outburst of traditional and narrow-minded prejudices, the principles and the measures they inculcated on their servants in India were marked by a degree of moderation, wisdom, and beneficence

Page 88

of which it would not be easy to find another example in the history of conquered dependencies.

Sir C Metcalfe, Governor-General, 1835

The Act of 1833 erected a fourth Presidency in the north-west provinces, and the distinguished services of Sir Charles Metcalfe were rewarded by his appointment to the governorship of Agra, and likewise to the still more dignified position of provisional Governor-General. He proceeded to the upper provinces in December, 1834, but he had no sooner held his first levée than he was required, in consequence of the premature departure of Lord William Bentinck, to return to Calcutta and assume the charge of the Government of India, which he continued to hold for a twelvemonth. When a youth of sixteen in the college of Fort William he had avowed to one of the professors that he would be satisfied with nothing short of the Governor-Generalship, and he had now reached the summit of his ambition, after a career of thirty-four years. With the exception of Warren Hastings, no member of the Indian civil service had ever been more eminently qualified for this imperial trust, by his natural genius for administration, his sound judgment and large views, as well as by his long and universal experience. He began his political career in Lord Wellesley’s office, and received the first rudiments of statesmanship under his tuition. He was entrusted with the management of important diplomacy before he was twenty-five, and he had subsequently taken a prominent part in the political movements of every court, from Hyderabad to Lahore. There were few important movements of his time which had not enjoyed the benefit of his co-operation, or advice. His experience had not been limited to a single province, but embraced the entire range of the empire, and he was thus enabled to take the same interest in the development of every division of it. The new character which the growth of British ascendency had gradually imparted to the policy of the various native courts had been moulded, for the most part, under his eye, and there was no other officer in

Page 89

India who possessed the same extensive knowledge of the antecedent as well as the existing feelings and aspirations, the fears, and cabals of the native courts, or who enjoyed in the same degree the respect and confidence of the native princes.

Lord Heytesbury and Lord Auckland, 1835

On receiving the resignation of Lord William Bentinck, the Court of Directors requested Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone to allow himself to be put in nomination for the Governor-Generalship, but he declined the honour on the ground of his feeble health. They then proceeded to pass a resolution, by a majority of fifteen to two, to the effect “that adverting to the public character and services of Sir Charles Metcalfe, it would be inexpedient at present to make any other arrangement for supplying the place of Governor-General.” But the Whigs who were then in power, were little disposed to confirm this choice. Mr. Canning, when President of the Board of Control, had recorded his opinion in December 1820 that “the case could hardly be conceived in which it would be expedient that the highest office of the government of India should be filled otherwise than from England, and that one main link at least between the system of the Indian and the British Government ought for the advantage of both to be invariably maintained.” Mr. Charles Grant, the President of the Board at this period, informed the Court that His Majesty’s Ministers saw much to enjoin the continuance of this general practice, and nothing to recommend a departure from it. The Court of Directors remonstrated with great warmth against the adoption of a principle which involved the wholesale exclusion of their servants from the highest prize in their service, and there was every prospect that the unseemly contest between the Court and the Ministry hi 1806 would be renewed, when the Whigs were obliged to give place to a Tory cabinet. Lord Ellenborough who succeeded Mr. Grant lost no time in offering the post to Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, and laid claim to the merit of having exhibited a more

Page 90

liberal spirit than the preceding administration. The flourish would have been more legitimate if the offer had been made to Sir Charles Metcalfe who would have welcomed it, and not to Mr. Elphinstone who it was well known would decline it. The vacant office was conferred on Lord Heytesbury, a diplomatist of European reputation. He was sworn in at the India House, received the prescribed allowance for his outfit, and the usual farewell entertainment at the London Tavern, but on the eve of his embarkation, Sir Robert Peel’s Ministry was subverted, and the Whigs again came into power, with Sir John Hobhouse as President of the Board. The Tory Government which succeeded to power in 1807 had refrained from interfering with the appointment of Lord Minto by their Whig predecessors, though he had not left the shores of England when they came into office. In like manner, the Duke of Wellington had not thought fit to disturb the appointment which Lord William Bentinck had received from his political opponent, Mr. Canning, when it was in his power to cancel it. But one of the first acts of the Whigs when they returned to Downing Street was to revoke the appointment of Lord Heytesbury, and the exercise of his power was limited to the bestowal of the writership, which was courteously placed at the disposal of each newly appointed Governor-General, on his nephew, Mr. – now Sir Cecil – Beadon. The Court protested with great vehemence against a proceeding which made the vital interests of the British empire in India subordinate to the interests of political partisanship in England; but Sir John Hobhouse replied that what he had to consider was merely whether the Ministry would become responsible for Lord Heytesbury’s administration of the government in India, and, not wishing to assume this responsibility on themselves, they had taken the simple and obvious mode of cancelling his appointment. The explanation was more plausible than satisfactory, inasmuch as. it has always been considered a principle of vital importance to protect the government of India from the disturbing influences of party politics in

Page 91

England. Lord Auckland, who had been the Whig first Lord of the Admiralty, was nominated Governor-General.

Liberation of the press, 1845

The great measure which has rendered the administration of Sir Charles Metcalfe memorable in the history of British India was the liberation of the press, the position of which at this period was altogether anomalous. At Madras, there was no legal restriction on it. At Bombay it was free at the Presidency, and fettered in the provinces. In Bengal the illiberal and stringent law passed by Mr. Adam was still on the statute book; but after two or three journals had been suppressed, and two refractory editors had been expelled the country, it was found impossible to enforce it without inflicting great embarrassment and odium on the Government. During the last five years of Lord Amherst’s administration, and the whole period of Lord William Bentinck’s government, the law remained a dead letter, and the press was practically as free as in England. The Charter Act of 1833 had conferred the power of legislating for all India on the Supreme Council, and a law on the subject of the press which should embrace every portion of the empire, and establish uniformity of practice at all the Presidencies, became a manifest necessity. The power of deportation had been withdrawn from the Government. Europeans were, moreover, privileged to settle as colonists in India, and they naturally expected to enjoy the same liberty of giving expression to their opinions which their fellow countrymen possessed in other dependencies of the Crown. Lord William Bentinck had acknowledged that it would be impossible to leave the question of the press as it stood. A few weeks before his departure, the inhabitants of Calcutta had petitioned for a repeal of Mr. Adam’s Regulation, and he assured them that the unsatisfactory state of the laws relating to the press had not escaped his notice, and that he trusted a system would be established at no distant period, which, while it gave security to every person engaged in the fair discussion of public measures, would effectually secure the Government against sedition, and individuals against

Page 92

calumny. Sir Charles Metcalfe had always been an ardent advocate of the liberty of the press, and had declared five years before his elevation “that if he were sovereign lord and master he would give it full swing.” Re remarked that it was clear the liberty of the press would come, that Government could not prevent it without a despotism and an oppression contrary to its own disposition, and totally opposed to British institutions, and that it would be better to give it with a good grace than to wait till it was extorted. It was with these sentiments he entered on the duties of Governor-General, and he lost no time in bringing in a Bill for carrying these liberal views into effect. The Supreme Council had recently been strengthened by the accession of Mr. Macaulay, who gave his cordial support to the measure, and recorded his opinion in a masterly minute worthy of the author of the Essay on Milton. An Act was accordingly passed in September, 1835, which repealed all the Regulations by which the press had been muzzled, and established its freedom upon the solid foundation of law.

Result of the liberty of the press, 1835

The Act was received with feelings of enthusiasm by the European community in India, and the principal inhabitants of Calcutta, including the native gentry most eminent in rank and accomplishments, met and voted an address of thanks to Sir Charles Metcalfe for the boon he had conferred on the country, and raised subscriptions to commemorate it by the erection of a noble hall, which bears his name. In his reply to the address he said that “the Act evinced to the world that the government of the Company desired no concealment, that it was happy to have the most minute particulars of its Indian administration scrutinized, and displayed to the gaze of the universe, that it sought information and instruction wherever they could be found, and did not wish to rule India as a conquered, ignorant, and enslaved, but as a cherished, enlightened, and free country.” The experience of thirty years has proved that the apprehensions of those who objected to it on the ground of

Page 93

public safety were without any foundation. At the India House, however, the highest authority in the Court, Mr. Edmonstone, maintained that “the unrestricted discussion of public subjects and public measures, and the latitude of observation on the Directors and persons high in office, must necessarily diminish that deference and respect in which it is of so much importance that the Government should be held.” But no one will question the fact that Lord Dalhousie obtained as much “deference and respect” when the press was free, as Lord Wellesley received when its voice was stifled. The press has, in fact, been found to be rather the handmaid than the antagonist of Government, and the efficiency of the public administration has been indefinitely promoted by the freedom and independence of its remarks. It has placed the salutary check of exposure on the subordinate functionaries of the state, and given the Government the eyes of Argus to watch the working, and to detect the deficiencies of its vast and complicated machinery. By permitting a more unrestricted publication of opinions in a conquered country than is enjoyed in many of the European states, the ruling power has afforded an unequivocal proof of the benevolent spirit of its intentions and measures. No occasion has since arisen to call for the interference of the public authorities except during the great crisis of the mutiny of the sepoys in 1857, when the liberty of the press was suspended, just as the Habeas Corpus Act would have been suspended in England on a similar emergency.

Reduction of the Government of Agra, 1835

While Sir Charles Metcalfe was officiating in Calcutta as Governor-General, an important change was made in England in the character and position of the Government of Agra which had been conferred on him. The Court of Directors had always been opposed to the establishment of a fourth Presidency upon the model of those already existing at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. They considered that the exigencies of the public service might be fully provided for by the more modest and less costly machinery of a Lieutenant-Governorship. The Board of Control, who had

Page 94

taken a different view of the subject, were at length brought to concur with the India House, and an Act was accordingly passed in Parliament, in 1835, empowering the Court to cut down the scheme to a subordinate lieutenancy. Sir Charles Metcalfe felt a natural repugnance to descend to the inferior position of a lieutenant of the Governor-General, after having himself occupied that supreme post, and he formed the determination to retire from the service; but the chairman of the Court intimated to him that it was their unanimous wish and hope, that, acting on those high and patriotic principles which it was well known had always governed his conduct, he would be disposed to retain the office on the reduced scale, and thus enable them to secure his highly valuable services at Agra, and, should the contingency happen, at the head of the Supreme Government. In the hope of inducing him to accede to their wishes, he was named a third time provisional Governor-General, and decorated with the Grand Cross of the Bath. Lord Auckland, who had assumed charge of the Government, joined his own solicitations to those of the Court, and Sir Charles Metcalfe yielded to the kindness of this importunity, and took his departure for Agra, after a continued residence of eight years in Calcutta, during which he toiled seven and eight hours daily, without any interval of relaxation.

Displeasure of the Court, 1836

But he was not destined to remain there long. Soon after his arrival, he learned that the press law had exasperated the India House and produced a complete revulsion of feeling regarding him and his merits. For two centuries the Company had been nurtured amidst the sensibilities which the despotism of a monopoly always begets. During the past ten years in which the press had been practically without restraint in India, its remarks on the Court of Directors had not been sufficiently deferential, and its tone was not likely to improve after it had become legally free. The East India Company now governed an empire as large as that of the Cesare, but it was not easy for them entirely to

Page 95

shake off the old associations of the counting-house. They looked upon the freedom of the press with the same aversion which they had formerly felt regarding the freedom of trade, and the free admission of Europeans into India; and it was not long before an opportunity occurred of giving the author of this measure an indubitable token of their displeasure. The Government of Madras had unexpectedly become vacant, and Sir Charles Metcalfe reasonably expected that it would have been conferred on him, more especially as he had consented to sacrifice his own feelings, and accept an inferior appointment at Agra, out of deference to the wishes of the Court. But although they had been ready a twelvemonth before to do battle with the Ministers of the Crown to secure hint the Governor-Generalship, they would not now condescend to mention his name in connection with the Government of that Presidency. Lord William Bentinck generously came forward, and urged his claims with great zeal on the India House, but found, to his mortification, that while there was a ready and universal acknowledgment of his great services and his pre-eminent qualifications, there was also a general avowal that his late proceedings regarding the press had cancelled all claim to their consideration. Lord William then appealed to the justice of Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister: “Let the worst possible construction,” he said, “be put on this act and the motives of it, it surely ought not to have cast into the shade the thirty-six years of uninterrupted service in the highest appointments in which no man ever bore a higher character for high mindedness, usefulness, and ability. . . . Pray excuse this long appeal. We served together for seven years. His behaviour to me was of the noblest kind. He never cavilled on a trifle, and never yielded to me on a point of importance.” But this appeal was equally unavailing. Sir Charles Metcalfe had always manifested the utmost loyalty and devotion to “his Honourable Masters “in Leadenhall Street, and he looked for their approbation and confidence in return. He therefore lost no time in writing to Mr. Melvill.

Page 96

the Secretary of the India House, stating that reports had been for some time in circulation that he had fallen under the displeasure of the Court, and had lost the Government of Madras in consequence of the law he had passed as Governor-General in Council legalizing the liberty of the press. If this misfortune had befallen him, he had no wish to retain by forbearance an office conferred on him when he was honoured with their confidence; if that confidence was gone, it was his earnest entreaty that they would withdraw from him the provisional appointment of Governor-General, or otherwise intimate their pleasure that he might retire from their service, as he could not reconcile it to himself to hold his office on mere sufferance, or to serve in any capacity under the stigma of displeasure and distrust. The Court kept the letter four months without acknowledgment, and then sent him a curt and contemptuous reply. Mr. Melvin was “commanded to express the Court’s regret that he should have made a communication which appeared to them to have been altogether unnecessary, as the continuance in him, provisionally, of the highest office which it was in the power of the Court to confer, might have satisfied him that their confidence had not been withdrawn.” The day after the receipt of this letter, he tendered his resignation to Lord Auckland, and his connection with the Government of India was brought to an abrupt termination by treatment similar to that which had been inflicted on his great predecessors who had been instrumental in building up the empire, but had incurred the displeasure of the Court of Directors. The services which the Company thought fit to discard were fully appreciated by the Crown, and Sir Charles Metcalfe was entrusted, successively, with the government of two of the most important of the Crown colonies, and raised to the peerage.

Remarks of Sir C Metcalfe’s administration, 1886

Since the departure of Warren Hastings, no Indian ruler has been overwhelmed with such a profusion of honourable testimonials from all classes, European and native, as Sir Charles Metcalfe. He was the

Page 97

pride and ornament of the service; his hospitality was princely, and his generosity almost without bounds, while his genial temper created a perpetual sunshine around him. But it is to be regretted that with all his high qualifications, he took little, if any, interest in the establishment of steam communication, or the opening of the Indus to commerce, or, indeed, in any of the plans for the promotion of material improvements in India which distinguished Lord William Bentinck’s administration. This was the natural result of his long residence in India. An ardent zeal for such improvements is scarcely to be expected from those whose habits have become reconciled to the stationary associations to which they have been accustomed. With an occasional and rare exception, the government of any local functionary who has been raised to supreme power, however beneficial in the various departments of administrative reform, has been marked by the dullness of material progress. It is to a European mind like that of Lord William Bentinck or Lord Dalhousie, fresh from scenes of activity in Europe, and imbued with the animation they inspire, that we must look for a spirit of enterprise in this important department of government. On the other hand, a Governor-General coming direct from England, is generally apt to be more sensitive to the political dangers of the empire, than an Indian Governor-General who has been accustomed to contemplate them as the normal condition of our rule, and to hold himself ever ready to encounter them. Lord Wellesley and Lord Minto were more vividly impressed with a sense of these perils than Sir John Shore or Sir George Barlow. But in the case of Sir Charles Metcalfe and Lord William Bentinck, this feeling was reversed. Lord William Bentinck always expressed the strongest confidence in the security of the empire, while Sir Charles Metcalfe asserted that our government, which was one of conquerors and foreigners, was always precarious, and that as it arose, so to say, in a day, it would disappear in a night. “My notions,” he said, “of Indian policy begin and end in a powerful and efficient army; our real strength

III.

Page 98

consists in the few European regiments, scattered singly over a vast space of subjugated territory. My general creed is confined to two grand specifics – army and colonization.”

Benevolent efforts of the British Government

The suppression of barbarous rites, and the introduction of the blessings of civilization and knowledge, are among the most important functions of European power in Asia; and as this narrative draws to the close of a period of peace which lasted twelve years, and approaches a period of war, of nearly equal duration, a fitting opportunity is presented of adverting to the efforts made by the Government of the East India Company to fulfil these noble obligations. The early proceedings of British agents in India, however, were not, it must be admitted, marked by that spirit of humanity which has since pervaded them. The first rough code of Regulations promulgated by Mr. Hastings in 1772, embodied the recommendation of the Committee of Circuit, and ordained that every convicted dacoit should be executed in his own village, and that his entire family should be sold as slaves. For twenty-five years, moreover, after the establishment of the Company’s authority in Bengal, the barbarous practice which had previously prevailed of punishing criminals by mutilation was perpetuated in the courts over which European and Christian gentlemen presided, and it was distinctly authorized by the Regulations of 1787. It was not till 1791 that Lord Cornwallis suppressed this revolting custom, and enacted that the offender should be subjected to fourteen years’ imprisonment, where he had formerly been deprived of two limbs, and to seven years with hard labour where the loss of a single limb had been usually inflicted. But the growth of benevolent principles in the administration of India steadily kept pace with their development in the government of England, and rendered the supremacy of the Company a blessing to tribes which had been for ages immersed in barbarism. The prohibition of human sacrifices at Saugor, the abolition of Suttees, and the extinction of Thuggee have been

Page 99

already noticed, and we now proceed to narrate the labours of the public servants of the Company in other spheres of philanthropy.

Augustus Cleveland, 1784

In the van of those who have shed a lustre on the British administration by their earnest efforts to civilize barbarous and predatory tribes stands Augustus Cleveland of the Bengal Civil Service. The hills and forests of the Rajmahal district were inhabited by a race of men of wild habits and savage disposition, who had been accustomed from time immemorial to make raids on the lowlands lying between their hills and the Ganges. Soon after the establishment of the Company’s government their feelings appear to have been exasperated by the treacherous slaughter of some of their chiefs by the neighbouring zemindars, and they avenged themselves by depopulating the villages and rendering all travelling by land or by water impossible. To check their inroads a corps of light infantry was stationed at the foot of the hills under Captain Brooke, who pursued them into their fastnesses, and created a salutary dread of British power. He was succeeded by Captain Brown who endeavoured to reclaim the savages by kindness and laid the foundation of that system of conciliation which was subsequently completed by Mr. Cleveland, when placed in charge of the district. His benevolent labours were gracefully commemorated by the elegant pen of Warren Hastings in the inscription on the monument erected by Government, “in honour of his character and for an example to others” – ” To the memory of Augustus Cleveland, Esquire, who without bloodshed or the terror of authority, employing only the means of conciliation, confidence, and benevolence, attempted and accomplished the entire subjugation of the lawless and savage inhabitants of the jungleterry of Rajmahal, inspired them with a taste for the arts of civilized life and attached them to the British Government by a conquest over their minds, the most permanent as the most rational mode of dominion.” Mr. Cleveland died in 1784 at the early age of

Page 100

twenty-nine, and the zemindars erected a monument to his memory. which is still held in the highest veneration by the inhabitants both of the hills and the plains.

The Bheels, 1790

Candesh, in Western India, watered by the Taptee, was a great and flourishing province under the Moguls, covered with rich cultivation, and studded with prosperous towns. But the tide of Mahratta desolation passed over it, and the extortions of the Peshwa’s officers, more especially of his Arab mercenaries, combined with the ravages of the Pindarees completed its ruin, and left it almost without inhabitants. On the downfall of the Peshwa it was brought under British rule, and one of its districts, inhabited chiefly by Bheels, was formed into a separate collectorate. They are usually considered one of the aboriginal tribes, driven to seek refuge in the hills by the progress of Hindoo invasion. It was at a fountain in this wild region that Kishnu, the deified hero of the great Sanscrit epic, was slain. The Bheels were a race of unmitigated savages, without any sense of natural religion, violating all law, defying all authority, and habitually indulging in drink, licentiousness, and murder. They eschewed all honest labour, and lived by the chase or by plunder. From their mountain fastnesses they poured down on the plains, sacked the villages, drove off the cattle, and carried away the chief men whom they held to ransom. By the former rulers of the country they had been hunted like wild beasts, and as every man’s hand was against them, their hand was against every man. The measures which were at first adopted by the British functionaries to reclaim them were marked by an excess of severity which defeated its own object, and demonstrated that the gibbet was not the fittest instrument of civilization. The task was at length confided to the late Sir James Outram, then a lieutenant of Native Infantry, a man of benevolent sympathies, sound judgment, and unflinching perseverance. The lawlessness of the barbarians when he took charge of the agency had risen to a pitch which was found to be unsupportable and he

Page 101

considered it necessary to teach them the power of Government as a preliminary step towards enabling them to appreciate its kindness. He pursued them into their rugged hills with the greatest vigour, and defeated a large body which had assembled for a foray. The captives he made were treated with kindness, and sent back with conciliatory messages and offers of employment to the chiefs. It was the first act of kindness the wild men had ever experienced from the rulers of the country, and they responded to it with cheerfulness. A friendly intercourse was gradually established with the chiefs; Lieutenant Outram listened to their tales, joined in their pastimes, feasted them when well, and prescribed for them when ill. Having succeeded in gaining their confidence, he proceeded to organize a Bheel corps, which was filled up by degrees and served to diffuse a principle of order and obedience throughout the tribe, and enabled him in the course of a twelvemonth to report that not a single case of robbery had occurred within a circle of thirty miles. To carry forward the work of civilization, special European officers were appointed as Bheel agents, with instructions to mix with the people and settle their disputes, to encourage industrial pursuits and to reward the deserving with a grant of land rent free for a season, as well as to supply them with a plough and bullocks and a small advance of money. By these efforts, the object of converting them into agriculturists was accomplished, and little colonies of husbandmen sprung up in every direction in these primeval forests. A Bheel police was established to maintain the peace of the country, and a province which had hitherto been desolated by gangs of marauders, was in 1829 pronounced by the Collector to be in a state of profound repose. The Court of Directors expressed their cordial commendation of this happy conversion of a predatory tribe into useful and obedient subjects of the state, and a prosperous agricultural community: “This signal instance,” they wrote, “of what we have so often impressed on you – the superior efficacy of conciliatory means in

Page 102

reducing uncivilized and predatory tribes to order and obedience – is one of the most gratifying events in the recent history of British India.”

Mairwarra, 1832

In the year 1818 Sindia ceded to the Company the province of Ajmere in Rajpootana which included the hill tract of Mairwarra, about ninety miles in length, and from six to twenty in breadth. It was inhabited by the Mairs, an aboriginal race, living in their native hills almost in a state of nature, the boys tending their flocks of goats, and the men, mounted on their diminutive ponies, passing their time in plunder. They murdered their female offspring, and committed every kind of atrocity without remorse. Captain Hall, who was placed in charge of the country, found it swarming with banditti who set the public authority at complete defiance. He put down all opposition by the strong hand of power, and then determined to make the Mairs the instruments of their own civilization. A Mair battalion was formed, by which suitable employment was provided for the highland chiefs, who proved to be good and loyal soldiers, and contributed essentially to the suppression of crime and the maintenance of the public peace throughout the hills. Courts were established for the adjudication of rights, and the punchayet, or Indian jury, superseded the barbarous ordeal which had hitherto been practised of grasping red-hot shot, or dipping the hand in boiling oil. The Mairs were also in the course of time prevailed on to relinquish the two barbarous customs of female infanticide and the sale of women. The failure of his health obliged Captain Hall to quit his post after he had been employed for fourteen years without intermission in endeavouring to introduce the arts of civilization into this wild region, but happily his mantle fell on Captain Dixon, an officer animated with the same benevolence of heart, who entered upon the duties of his office with a feeling of enthusiasm. He felt that to render his labours successful he must be continually out in camp, in fervid heat or drenching rain, and that he must become a slave to his task

Page 103

until it was fully accomplished. To this honourable bondage he consecrated his official life. He lived among the people, and made himself acquainted with the condition of every village, and often of every household in it. He was without any European assistance, but under his training and discipline his native establishment became thoroughly efficient. To accustom the wild highlanders to habits of agricultural industry, it was above all things necessary to secure a supply of water for their fields. But the fall of rain in that hilly region was very capricious, and when it came could with difficulty be retained for continuous use. He accordingly prevailed on Government to make advances for works of irrigation, and dug reservoirs and wells, and formed embankments to husband and distribute the water. He covered the slopes of the hills with terraces, and by these appliances gave the waste jungle an aspect of luxuriant cultivation. The financial result of this improvement was encouraging in no ordinary degree. The sum advanced by the state for these waterworks – and in India they always return cent. per cent. – was a little above two lacs, while the augmentation of the revenue through the increase of the assessment, exceeded four lacs. The moral result of these labours was seen in the transformation of a wild and predatory tribe into an orderly, docile, and industrious population, with unbounded confidence in their European benefactors. To encourage the resort of traders, Captain Dixon erected a town in the district, and surrounded it with a wall, to give a feeling of security to the immigrants. It appeared to rise in the wilderness with the wand of a magician, and in a short time was filled with two thousand families engaged in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. In all the annals of the India House there is no record more grateful than that of the energetic and successful labours of these two officers in the civilization of Mairwarra.

Female Infanticide, 1833

In the year 1789, Mr. Jonathan Duncan, the Resident at Benares, discovered for the first time that the custom of destroying their female offspring was

Page 104

prevalent among the Rajpoots. After his appointment to the government of Bombay, in 1800, he found that the same barbarous custom existed also to a great extent in the west of India among the Rajpoot tribes, and especially in the Jharijah families of Cutch and Kattiwar. The lowest estimate of victims in these two provinces reached 3,000 a-year; and in the household of the raja not a single female infant had been spared. It was subsequently ascertained to prevail also among the Rajpoots of Joudhpore and Jeypore, and, indeed, throughout the whole extent of Malwa and Rajpootana. The number of victims was computed without exaggeration at 20,000 annually. Throughout a territory 700 miles in extent, stretching from Cutch to Benares, two thirds of the female offspring of the tribes were systematically put to death. These murders were committed generally under the directions of the father, either by starvation or by the administration of drugs; in some cases the mother became the murderer of her own offspring by rubbing her nipples with opium, which speedily extinguished infant life. There was no evidence to show that the custom had a religious origin; it was traced exclusively to the pride of caste. To maintain the honour of his family connections was the one paramount object of the haughty Rajpoot, but owing to the manifold and complicated gradations of rank within the tribe, and the limited number of families with whom a matrimonial affiance could be contracted without dishonour, it was difficult to obtain suitable matches, and for a girl to remain unmarried after she had reached the age of maturity, was regarded as an indelible disgrace. It was likewise considered indispensable that weddings should be celebrated on a scale of magnificence fixed by prescriptive and inexorable usage, and any attempt to abridge it was supposed to indicate the declension of the family. The expense of weddings arose chiefly from the exorbitant demands of the bhats and churruns, the bards and genealogists of the Rajpoot races, who exercised a more tyrannical influence in the tribe, than the priesthood. They employed themselves in

Page 105

composing ballads which celebrated the antiquity and renown of the family, and its fame throughout the tribe was dependent on their eulogy. They kept the pedigrees and recorded the alliances of the family, which regulated its social position. Their presence was considered indispensable at every marriage festivity, and on some occasions they had been known to flock to a wedding to the number of two or three thousand. To conciliate their good-will, it was necessary to regale them with profusion, and to load them with gifts. If they were satisfied, their ballads traced the family up to the race of the sun or the moon; if otherwise, they revenged themselves by holding it up to the contempt of the country in ribald songs. To avert the disgrace to which the Rajpoot was exposed from these causes, he was prepared to submit to any sacrifice, and to incur any amount of debt, though it might inflict a permanent encumbrance on his property. But every difficulty arising from the risk of mésalliances, and from the extortion of the bards and genealogists was at once removed by extinguishing the life of his female offspring.

Efforts to eradicate the practice, 1834

The officers of the Company resolved to make a vigorous effort to eradicate this infamous custom. Mr. Duncan took the lead in this benevolent crusade, and exacted a solemn pledge from the Rajpoots, who were British subjects, to relinquish it forever, and it was soon after prohibited under severe legal penalties. Colonel Walker, the Resident in Cutch, spared no labour to eradicate it by personal importunity and by a judicious exercise of authority, and at length prevailed on the Jharijah chiefs to bind themselves by a written engagement to renounce it, and to expel from the caste any who should be found to practise it. On the strength of these documents it was believed that this inhuman practice had become extinct, and Colonel Walker and the Court of Directors received the hearty congratulations of the benevolent in England and in Europe on the result of their labours. But in the course of time this conclusion was

Page 106

found to be premature; the success which had attended these labours was partial and transient, and in all the provinces in which the practice was supposed to be extinguished, it was discovered to be almost as prevalent as ever. Renewed efforts were made to suppress it, but it was painfully felt that so long as the feelings and the interests of the people indisposed them to aid in the detection of delinquents, our exertions must be impotent; and the public officers appear at length to have resigned themselves to despondency. But in 1834 Mr. Wilkinson, one of the ablest and most philanthropic servants of the Company, and Mr. – the late Sir John – Willoughby, determined to adopt the most vigorous measures to root out the crime. Mr. Wilkinson assembled the chiefs of Central India, who were our allies and not our subjects, and through his personal influence prevailed on them to affix their seals to deeds abandoning the practice, and then issued a notification denouncing it. Lord William Bentinck addressed letters of congratulation, written, as well as signed, by himself, to the Rana of Oodipore and the other chiefs who had thus pledged themselves to the abolition of the practice, and the Court of Directors ordered special messages of commendation to be conveyed to them. But the chiefs signed the agreement only to deprecate the displeasure and to court the favour of the paramount authority, not from any motives of humanity, and Mr. Wilkinson had the mortification to learn that one of the number had put his own female children to death within two months of signing the deed. A general census of the province of Kattywar was likewise obtained, which revealed the melancholy fact that although the practice had unquestionably diminished, only one girl was to be found to three boys even in the most favourable places, and that in others five-sixths of the female infants had perished by the hands of their own unnatural parents. This discovery only led him to redouble his exertions. He insisted on a periodical census of the inhabitants. He issued fresh proclamations announcing the unshaken determination of Government to exterminate the

Page 107

custom. He offered rewards to informers, and bestowed gifts on those who preserved their offspring. One chief was fined 12,000 rupees, and another sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment for having practised infanticide; but this procedure was openly resented as arbitrary and unjust by the other chiefs who still clung to the practice. In these benevolent labours Captain – now Sir Philip – Melvil took a prominent and active part, but he was likewise doomed to disappointment. The nobles of Cutch were successful in resisting the order for a census of the population, which they considered derogatory to the honour of their families. The benevolent efforts of Willoughby, Wilkinson, Melvil, and others were followed by only partial success, because they were not backed, as might have been hoped, by the natural feelings of the people. Humanity has been a plant of slow growth even in England, but in India it can scarcely be said to exist, either among the high caste Rajpoot or the savage Khond. Tribes which professed to be so tender of life as to call on their chiefs to prohibit the slaughter of sheep, were resolutely opposed to the preservation of their own female offspring. This humane work has proved to be the most difficult task we have ever undertaken in India. It was easier to subdue the country than to conquer the blood-thirsty prejudices of its inhabitants. The efforts which have thus been made by a succession of philanthropists for more than half a century to preserve life, and to make the triumphs of humanity co-extensive with the triumph of British arms, have secured to them the gratitude of their own country, though India be not able to appreciate their value. These benevolent labours, notwithstanding every disappointment, must be pursued without relaxation, and they will eventually be crowned with complete success; but this happy consummation is necessarily dependent on the continuance of British power in India, the extinction of which would be followed by the revival of those atrocities which the Company has been employed in putting down.

Human sacrifices among the Khonds

The tract of country in the province of Orissa

Page 108

lying south of the Mahanuddee in the belt of hills facing the bay of Bengal, is inhabited by the Khonds, an original race which from time immemorial has maintained its primitive language, habits, and superstitions. Some of the tribes have successfully resisted every effort to reduce them to subjection, while others have paid a nominal allegiance to the neighbouring rajas. The revolt of the raja of Goomsur in 1835 determined Government to incorporate his territory with the Company’s dominions, and their officers were then for the first time made acquainted with the existence of this singular people, though they dwelt within a few miles of one of the oldest British stations. Their fields were found to be in a high state of cultivation, and their villages swarmed with bullocks, goats, swine, and poultry. The normal pursuit of agriculture was diversified by the chase and by incessant conflicts among the tribes. To such an extent did they pride themselves on the virtue of hospitality that any man who could once make his way to the hearth of his deadly foe, considered himself in perfect safety. The government was patriarchal, hereditary in the family, and elective in the individual. Each tribe possessed a distinct portion of territory which was parcelled out among the different families, and the descent or sale of which was regulated by prescriptive custom. The women were held in high esteem, and no measure was completed without their advice. The men were brave and resolute, but revengeful and the slaves of drink. Of the different tribes in the hills, some abhorred human sacrifices, but practised female infanticide; others were the votaries of the “earth goddess,” and firmly believed that the fertility of their fields depended on her favour, which could be secured only by the sacrifice of human life. The victims were called meriahs and, though generally obtained by purchase, were often acquired by violence, through the agency of two of the hill tribes, who gained their livelihood by procuring them from the low countries. When it was intended to perform a general sacrifice the villagers within the circuit

Page 109

assembled in the first instance for the performance of religious rites. The three days preceding the sacrifice were spent in frantic dances and drunken revelry. On the last day the associated tribes proceeded with loud huzzas and barbaric music to consummate the act. The meriah was in most cases bound to a stake, and the priest inflicted a slight wound with his axe, when the excited crowd rushed forward and cut off slices of flesh from the writhing victim. The villagers then hastened home with the share of flesh they had been so fortunate as to obtain, carefully wrapped up in leaves. The village priest divided it into as many particles as there were heads of families, and the flesh was then buried in the favourite field with the firm conviction that it would ensure a good crop.

Efforts to eradicate the practice, 1829–34

On the discovery of this infamous custom the Government of Madras resolved to adopt immediate measures to suppress it, and committed the duty to Captain Campbell, who proceeded to summon the chiefs and their followers to his encampment. After dwelling on the atrocity of the practice, he exacted an oath from them to abandon it, the immediate effect of which was the surrender of two hundred victims who had been procured for sacrifice. For four years he continued thus to labour in the cause of humanity till he was obliged to quit the country from the failure of his health; but the good he effected was found to be transient. His course of action was described by the Governor of Madras to consist in entering the hills with an armed force, calling together the influential men of each tribe, denouncing the practice, and demanding delivery of the victims which had been collected. The elders and priests who had taken an oath to abstain from the practice, relapsed into it as soon as they were relieved from this pressure, and for every victim they gave up, another was procured from the plains. It was felt that the partial success of Captain Campbell was delusive, and that no permanent benefit was to be expected from compulsory measures. This was

Page 110

evidenced by the fact that on a subsequent festival no fewer than two hundred and forty victims were collected for sacrifice in one small portion of Khond land. The Marquis of Tweeddale, the Governor of Madras, deemed it indispensable to permanent success to obtain an influence over the hill chiefs, and while they were impressed with a just but favourable opinion of our power, to prevail on them by moral suasion to renounce the rite. Major Macpherson, who had previously been employed in surveying the country, and had accumulated much knowledge of the people, and of their character and circumstances, was entrusted with this duty, and likewise invested with the office of Judge, Magistrate and Collector. His first object was to establish the supremacy of Government throughout the country. He then visited tribe after tribe, entered into free and friendly communications with the people, and by the employment of reason more than of authority, induced a determination to abandon the practice. In return for this concession he offered them the inestimable boon of an authoritative settlement of their mutual disputes, which had never before been decided without bloodshed With one hand he distributed justice and established tranquillity, with the other he rescued the victims and exacted pledges of discontinuing the rite. The result of these efforts was the extinction of the practice throughout the whole province of Goomsur. These labours were followed up by the establishment of schools, for which he caused suitable books to be compiled in the Orissa character. It was the firm belief of the Khonds that their priests alone could cure their diseases, and the priests had but one prescription – a human sacrifice – for all complaints and wounds. Send us, said the barbarians to the Major, a doctor, and we will make him a god; the request was complied with, and a new and powerful influence was established over them. In the course of time they found that their fields yielded an abundant harvest without human blood, and they concluded that the “earth goddess” had lost her power, and they ceased to pay her homage. Dr. Cadenhead, the

Page 111

energetic assistant of Major Macpherson, was likewise sent into the adjacent district of Bond to put down the rite. The Khonds delivered up more than a hundred victims at his requisition, but not before they had put to death a hundred and twenty as the last act of sacrifice. The uncle of the raja, instigated by one Sam Bisoye, who, while eating the salt of Government, was secretly counteracting all its benevolent efforts, raised an opposition to the British authorities, which was joined by the raja of Ungool, and ripened into an insurrection. The camp of the agent was attacked, and it became necessary to call out a military force. Violent prejudices were excited against Major Macpherson, and the Vice-President in Council allowed himself to be persuaded that the rebellion was directed against him, and not against the authority of Government. The Khond agency became, in fact, a party question, and truth and justice disappeared. While Major Macpherson was engaged with great success in quelling the revolt, he and his assistants were summarily dismissed from their appointments. Mr. – now Sir John – Grant was sent to investigate the charges which had been brought against him, and, on receiving his report, Lord Dalhousie assured Major Macpherson that nothing could in his opinion compensate for the treatment he had received, but that he still enjoyed the undiminished confidence of every member of Government. The Court of Directors pronounced the most favourable judgment on his proceedings and ascribed the extinction of this crime to the judicious and conciliatory measures he had adopted, and to the admirable power of his individual character. After his removal, Colonel Campbell was reappointed to the charge of the district, and completed the work which had been so happily begun. The entire number of victims rescued from death exceeded fifteen hundred; and this atrocious rite, which had probably been practised by the Khonds for as many centuries as the immolation of widows had been practised by the Hindoos, was finally extinguished under the auspices of British humanity.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
hosted by ibiblio Support Wikipedia