The Tears of the Rajas

Title: The Tears of the Rajas – Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805 – 1905

Author: Ferdinand Mount

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2015 (First)

ISBN: 9781471129452

Pages: 773

An intensely objective historical narrative full of the romance and vibrancy of subjective fiction.

The British came to India as merchants on the heels of the Portuguese and the Dutch. At first, they were dazzled by the splendours of Indian royal courts. But gradually this changed in response to Europe’s growing affluence caused by the flow of newly discovered South American gold and the surplus derived from keeping Arab middlemen out of its Asiatic trade. They became bolder and began to deal on equal terms with native rulers. No time was lost before the foreign traders took it on their heads that combining possession of land on the subcontinent was very conducive to trade. This led to battles with royal houses that was easily won by the East India Company’s superior firepower. But even then, Britain lacked the economic as well as human resources to subdue a country which was many times her size in every parameter of national reckoning. The solution to this problem led the British to grab the country like a ripe cherry. The Company recruited Indians in their army and solved the manpower problem. Large sums of money were borrowed from Indian moneylenders at first, and then from local rajas for the Company’s campaigns, thereby resolving the financial question as well. This worked perfectly for the foreigners and in no time, large tracts of the country were annexed to the Company’s possessions. The book tells the story of 19^th century India when the British completed their quest for landgrabbing and how a shocking counter-offensive was offered from the Indian side in the form of the Great Mutiny. The story is told keeping the family of John Low, a Scottish military officer who served in India in the Company’s Army and also in administrative capacity as Resident of Lucknow, Hyderabad, Gwalior and Oudh, completing his tenure with a position in the Supreme Council of the Governor General. It narrates the lives of British officials in India at that time, full of the agony of making a living in a foreign land that was riddled with heat, sickness and social isolation. The families kept close to each other in the provinces and the newly established hill stations. The mortality rate was astounding in all age groups. Mount describes the historical events of the century interspersed with family stories of the prominent among them – the Lows, who were incidentally the distant relatives of the author as well as David Cameron, the serving British prime minister. Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, usually known as Ferdinand Mount, is a British writer and novelist, columnist and commentator on politics.

The book starts with an interesting and balanced narrative of the mutinies at Vellore in 1806 and at Masulipatam in 1809. The first was undertaken by native Indian sepoys and the latter by white officers themselves. In a country where almost everybody is still living by obeying the commandments of religion – mostly of the ceremonial and definitely very little of the moral type – it is understandable that the native soldiers would be disaffected at the slightest pretext of an affront to their caste and religion from British authority. The spark that lighted the conflagration was the decision to introduce a new uniform and turban among the sepoys. In a classic case of outright insensitivity to the religious feelings of Indians, the cockade of the turbans was made of pig-skin or cow leather, the objects abhorred by Muslims and Hindus in equal measure! The political and military leadership decided to ride roughshod over dissent in the name of discipline. The sons and daughters of Tipu Sultan, who was killed earlier, were lodged in Vellore Fort at that time. The sepoys erupted in mutiny under the princes’ moral authority. The mutiny lasted hardly a few hours, but it spilt European blood. A greater crime was unthinkable to the White administration. Hundreds of sepoys were mowed down in cold blood summarily, without any trial or court martial, and even without asserting whether all of them were indeed mutineers. Compared to this, the white mutiny was a damp affair, caused by the disparity between the Company’s white soldiers and the Crown’s white soldiers stationed side by side in Madras Presidency. Miffed by the paltry pay and perceived lack of opportunity for promotions as compared to the Crown’s soldiers, the company’s white officers rebelled. It was soon brought under control, but what is evident from the whole episode is the dissimilar punishment meted out to the rebels. While the sepoys who only obeyed the orders of the mutinous officers were summarily dismissed, the quantum of punishment was extremely light for the whites. Even after being sacked for the time being, some of them rose later to the level of even Generals.

The title of the book is justified by the absorbing description of how the British managed to oust the local kings from power and annex that state to the Raj. The petty rulers provided ample excuse for them to intervene as a result of internecine warfare. When one side asks the foreign power for support, they convince the ruler of the need to garrison a considerable number of the company’s troops in that state. The troops were called ‘Subsidiary’ in the sense that they are maintained on subsidy paid by the raja who had no other choice. They could pay this hefty sum either in cash, or more probably, lending a large tract of land to the Company whose revenue may be used for maintaining the sepoys. An officer called ‘Resident’ will be posted to the kingdom who oversaw all the administrative decisions of the king. Even though the king paid for the soldiers, the Resident had absolute control over them. Falling in arrears was a dreaded thing. They were also asked to lend huge sums as loans to the Company to meet its balance of payment crises or to send an expeditionary force to subjugate another state in the vicinity. It was a Win–Win situation for the British. A lion’s share of the Company’s army was native sepoys – ten to one against Europeans – recruited from North India. The pay and perks of a very large portion of them was met by the rajas themselves for the ‘privilege’ of stationing the troops in their country. For war expenses, the rajas could again be approached for loans, which was to be repaid at the Company’s sweet will. The colonizing British subdued Indian states one by one using Indian military manpower and Indian money. A more ingenious scheme is hard to find anywhere in the world. But another important thing should also be kept in mind. The local rulers were mostly cowardly, profligate and licentious. The sins of the British were considerable, but that in no way absolved the equally loathsome depredations of the native kings. The king of Lucknow, Nasir-ud-din Haidar, was so deranged by liquor and piety that he donned the attire of a pregnant woman when the celebration of the birth of the Imam was held in the Shia-dominated Lucknow court. He came out with a doll to symbolize the child birth he had undergone. Gangadhar Rao, the king of Jhansi and the husband of Rani Laxmi Bai was said to be in the habit of dressing up as a woman and abstaining from religious practices for four days in a month, as if menstruating! All royal houses constantly lived in the fear of usurpation. They lavished state funds on wine, women and magnificent buildings. The fabled art and culture of Lucknow court is a direct byproduct of this extravagant expenditure, but expressing the idea in such a brutally straightforward way makes one sound philistine, isn’t it?

As is usually seen in British books on the Mutiny of 1857 produced after India’s independence, this one too brings to light the injustices of the colonial administration’s expansionist policies. This achieved momentum during the reign of Lord Dalhousie, who forcibly annexed the principalities of Nagpur, Jhansi and Oudh and a large part of the fertile districts of Hyderabad renowned for its cotton production. English textile mills ended their shameful reliance on cotton produced by slave labour in the southern U.S. after its supply was thus ensured from India. The British failed to conceive popular antipathy generated on account of forcefully ousting hereditary sovereigns who had ruled the country for several generations and who possessed the adoration and awe of the people in spite of their moral and financial depredations. Many officials thought that the people would wholeheartedly support their rule, once the king was deposed along with his corrupt and extortionate courtiers. The Mutiny came as a rude shock to them, seeing the troops they recruited, trained and armed, turn against them. The atrocities on the white population were gruesome, but equally horrible was the retribution by the well educated gentlemen who composed the Queen’s and Company’s officer corps. At Lucknow, they set on fire the bodies of hundreds of rebel sepoys making a large heap of the corpses as well was seriously injured Indian troops. Eye witnesses state that the cries of the living ones from among the fire, imploring them to shoot instead was heartbreaking. The book presents in revealing detail the sieges of Delhi and Lucknow which the British soldiers retook from the mutineers.

Mount presents the events in crisp logical order and analyses the events with current practices in a witty and down to earth way. He brings out the inconsistencies of British foreign policy towards the native states by comparison with the stated objectives and actual practices. Some of the royal customs seem strange to modern society, but couched in a different language and setting, we see them repeating again and again to this day. Wajid Ali Shah, the deposed ruler of Oudh used to contract muta (temporary marriage sanctioned by religious law) with the women to whom he was attracted to. This royal prerogative may seem barbaric and immoral to us, but the author compares these women to the White House interns under the tenures of John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton, suggesting that eventually, the end result was the same! The book includes good photographic plates displaying the major characters in the narrative. It also provides a comprehensive set of notes for further reference and an excellent index for the inquisitive reader.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star