March 9th, 2001
Around 1800 when most of India had been conquered by the East India Company, the British deliberately set about creating the tools necessary to perpetuate their rule. The Marquess of Wellesley created a new ‘native’ language which was to be learned at Fort William by young Britishers required to administer India. The compradors were to come from an English knowing class of Indians.
By the end of the 19th Century this British attempt to perpetuate their rule by creating a class of Indians who were closer to them than to their own heritage had failed as the new class was asking for more and more share in the governance as well as objecting to discrimination based on colour.
In 1905 Curzon partitioned Bengal to debilitate the educated, mostly Hindu Bengalis. This move had the opposite effect and gave a great boost to anti-British sentiments.
Instead of learning the lesson that educated Indians wanted their dignity and self respect restored and a share in governance the British continued to play games of make believe.
In 1911 a new Viceroy Lord Hardinge of Penshurst thought that he could propitiate alienated Indian opinion by reuniting Bengal [partitioned in 1905]. His other, more daring move was the declaration that Delhi would be the capital of the British Indian Empire. Both announcements were made by the King-Emperor from the 1912 Durbar held in his honour at Delhi from a hollowed out amphitheatre accommodating 4000 special guests, 35000 troops in uniform and 70,000 spectators.
There was an element of surprise about the decision on Delhi as it was not even discussed earlier. The idea was to awe Indians with pomp and pageantry.
The decision to make Delhi the Capital was considered by the British to be great move for winning Indians over to their side. It unfortunately involved the use of the Diwan-I-Khas –o–Aam and other Mughal edifices by gora [white] officers and men wearing boots and preening themselves as inheritors of Mughal glory. This was looked upon as a sacrilege* by the old Dilleewaalaas and C.F. Andrews in his biography of Moulvi Zakaullah records the anguish of his friend at this outrage to Indian sentiment.
There is, however everywhere and always a nostalgia for the past howsoever grim it may have been. The Stalinist regime has been described as ‘Darkness At Noon’ by Arthur Koestler but the Russians find Putin of the KGB the best bet for President. Many Indians still labour under the impression that the British period saw administration of a high order because the rulers knew the ruled and were sensitive to their needs. This is a false impression. We quote from some encounters between the British and the Indian princes at the 1912 Durbar in Delhi to help correct the ideas.
British Political Service officer to Ruler who has come from afar:
- ‘Does your Highness not find Delhi warm?’
- ‘Sir, I have been shivering since I left Travancore!’
The officer changed his line for the next guest:
- “Does your Highness not find Delhi rather cold?’
- ‘Sir, the heat is somewhat exhausting compared to Chitral’.
The wide gap between the British and their Indian subjects can be further illustrated by quoting from an American visitor.
William Scawen Blunt, in his ‘My Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events 1884-1914’ records seeking out ‘old Kipling’ – John Lockwood Kipling, the father of Rudyard Kipling in the hope that this ‘typical Anglo-Indian’ could explain the political deadlock in India and suggest some way which would help defuse the situation. This was in August 1908.
In April of this year teenager revolutionaries from Bengal had pursued a notoriously cruel Magistrate, Kingsford to Muzaffarpur and thrown a home-made bomb at what they thought erroneously to be his carriage. One of them committed suicide while the other, Khudi Ram Bose faced the gallows with exemplary courage.
Kipling’s reaction as recorded by Blunt is
‘like all the rest, however, he has no remedy to propose besides ‘severe repression’ for the time being though he does not pretend that this will cure the disease.
He puts down the causes ;
- [The Japanese victory in the war against Russia. [This was the first war won by an Asiatic nation against a European nation]
- Education
- Official lack of time to be polite [to Indians]
These are the common explanation, but for none of them has he a remedy.
The Japanese victories are not to be denied, the education given cannot be withdrawn, the lack of race sympathy cannot be mended.
He admits the need for a new policy, but can suggest none’.
The cult of the bomb was the only outlet possible for young and sensitive Indians in the period 1900-1914.
Even the bomb failed to awaken the British to the reality of the situation. After the attempt on the life of the Viceroy Lord Hardinge in Chandni Chowk on 23rd December 1912 succeeded symbolically by knocking off the sola toapee headgear of the target and injuring Hardinge enough to incapacitate him the second in command, Wilson took over the procession. He said “It ought to appear to all loyalists as a sacrilege on such an occasion and I hope everyone of them here will make it clear to their countrymen that such an attempt checks all progress.”
“It puts the clock back maybe for fifty years and remember what happened here fifty years ago (1857). Thanks to the Almighty the attempt failed”
“Sacrilege” for Dilleewaalaas was the feringhee in the Red Fort while Wilson of the British Raj believed that sacrilege was the bomb thrown at Hardinge!
A reward for Rs 10,000 was announced. Ruling Princes and individuals wishing to curry favour with the alien rulers added to the amount until it totalled Rs 1 lakh [1,00,000]
The Rajas Maharajas Nawabs and Nizams who benefited from British Rule were its natural supporters and because of them the British thought that they were well liked and respected. They continued to pamper their quislings and repressing all who expressed dissent until their departure in 1947. The gap between their perception and the reality is still not appreciated by bodies like the British Council who continue to support Raj institutions instead of holding seminars and workshops to put 1757-1947 in correct perspective.
Perhaps better sense will prevail in the new millennium.