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Robert Wilberforce Bird

While many early sources tended to assign the authorship of this book to
the activist-journalist Samuel Lucas, the true author is believed to have
been Major Robert Bird, who served in Lucknow from 1844 to 1856, initially
with the East India Company, but later with Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. 
[see Notes in Derek Davis, Premchand Plays Chess, JRAS Apr '15;

Llewellyn-Jones seems to think that Lucas may have been a barrister, (Last
King in India, 2014), but this seems unlikely.  Michael Fisher thinks
that Samuel Lucas was a pseudonym. (Margins, 2013, p.142).

The most compelling evidence of a role for the journalist Lucas, is that
Disraeli wrote him on Sept 10, 1857, saying

	I have read your Excelsis, with great attention.  Affairs appear
	grave.  [Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859]

Thus, this work may have had some influence on Disraeli's searing invective
in Parliament.  However, after the mutiny, it was extinguished from public
gaze.


It seems that Robert Bird grew close to Wajid Ali Shah owing to a mutual
interest in horses and racing.  Subsequently, while serving as Assistant
Resident in Lucknow, he came into conflict with his boss, Colonel Sleeman.
Bird looked after the Lucknow office for 16 months while Sleeman was on
tour, allegedly to collect evidence for Dalhousie that the state was
abominably managed.  Sleeman's narrative was duly submitted, and showed the
state's

	revenues as failing  — its army disorganised — its landholders in
	rebellion  — its cultivators impoverished, and its industrious ryots
	sold off into slavery ... This fiction of official penmanship could
	not, to the evident surprise and discomfort of its propagators, be
	reconciled to one simple and obstinate fact, — that the people of
	Oude, nevertheless, preferred the slandered regime of their native
	princes to the grasping but rose-coloured government of the Company.
 					(p.iv-v, introduction)

Bird remarks on the The trip was paid for by three lacs rupees billed to
the Nawab, and the narrative based on it led
to the foregone conclusion that Awadh was to be annexed.

Agent of the King

After all this, Bird became disgusted at British rapacity, and resigned
and joined the King's service.

This book was written anonymously in 1856, to rally public opinion for the
Awadh king.  That the author was Bird - or that he substantially provided
the write-up - is clear, though he never acknowledged authorship.  In fact,
though he appears in third person in the narrative, some documents detailed
are said in the story as having been only in his possession.

In the period following 1857, the book had very little readership, while
the British nation was carried away by jingoism.  In fact, we find almost
no reference to Bird or this work in the three decades until his death in
1888.

During the mutiny, however, Bird did give a couple of lectures emphasizing
British extortion as a prime cause, but this too was largely ignored.

With the Awadh delegation in London, 1856

After resigning from the East India Co on pension in Feb 1856, Bird
accompanied the Imperial delegation to London, with Special Envoy Muhammad
Maseehud-din and the king's friend Brandon.  The king himself did not go,
possibly for political reasons, and the 113-member delegation was headed by
the Queen Mother, Malika Kishwar (or Jenabi Auliah Tajara Begum), 55 years
old.

Upon this team setting out, The East India Company, who had deposed Wajid
Ali Shah without giving him a chance to defend his position, now for the
first time framed a list of accusations against his rule (the Oude Blue
Book) offering it as explanation for parliament.  Today this book is often
considered to be a set of fabrications (e.g. see Dalrymple, Last Mughal
p.126: "a largely fictional dossier")

Eventually, Malika Kishwar was given an audience with Queen
Victoria in July 1857.  But by then the mutiny had broken out, and there
was of course no undoing of the annexation.
[for some of this material on Bird, see
	Empire and After: Englishness in Postcolonial Perspective
			 	By Graham MacPhee, Prem Poddar (2007)

A native-friendly history

Unlike the typical colonial history, Bird is vehemently against the
unethical means by which the Company kept enriching itself at the expense
of the accumulated surplus of the Oudh state.  This particular history,
with its provocative title, was published at the juncture when Wajid Ali
Shah had already been deposed (1 Feb 1856) and exiled (Mar).  Though
the tone is clearly partisan, Bird's facts are all accurate, since he
was a participant in the process and is careful to cite all his sources.

Also, as Bird observes on many occasions, other neutral observers also
agree as to the rapacious nature of the British depredations on Awadh.  He
cites Mill in his "History of British India":

	[Cornwallis] declared that, for the nine preceding years (under Hastings),
	unjustifiable extortion, to the amount of thirty-four lacs per annum,
	had been practised on that dependant prince.

while Thomas Macaulay finds the Company enriching itself by any
"means, fair or foul."

But it is a tribute to the quality of the colonial propaganda machine
that all these grasping manoeuvres were covered-up by carefully constructed
narratives of better administration.  Particularly interesting is the manner
in which John Shore plays off the erstwhile King's brother (Saadat Ali)
against the rightful heir, who had already been installed.  Ali accepts to
pay a higher ransom in return for British support in his installation.
Similarly Ghiyas-ud-din is given the empty rite of a coronation (where "God
Save the King" is sung) in return for severe exactations.

Text is lost

Bird's text, published anonymously, is clearly in violation of the unspoken
imperialist norm, what Gautam Chakravarty in The Indian mutiny and the British imagination,
2005, calls the "dominant interpretation".  It came out just before the
mutiny, and there were some reviews such as that in The Press (12 Sep
1857), but thereafter we find very little discussion on the work.  For the
best part of a century, the large group of scholars working on the British
Raj take no heed of this rather well-written book.   We find a similar fate
for the very soberly argued work by schoolmaster Edward Leckey, who had the
temerity to merely point out some obvious exaggerations and contradictions
in the increasingly overheated mutiny narratives.
(Fictions connected with the Indian outbreak of 1857 exposed, 1859).
Fortunately, both these texts seem to be undergoing a renaissance in the
scholarly gaze.

The only early reference to this work I can find is an 1858 pamphlet by one JMF
Ludlow : The War in Oude (1858).  Ludlow makes the claim that the
"reconquest" of Oude is unjust since by 1858, it had ceased to be a
soldier's mutiny, but were being led by the talookdars, the natural leaders
of the region.

	Surely the complete revolt, in less than eighteen months, of
	a country annexed on the ground of intolerable misgovernment, proves
	one of two things, if not both : —

	   * Either the misgovernment alleged must have been exaggerated, or

	   * It was succeeded by a state of things more intolerable than
		itself.

So while supporting the lessons being taught to the savage rebels who
"should learn that Englishwomen could not be outraged with impunity," the
author seeks to make an exception of Oude on account of the recent
annexation, in which there was ground for some injustice.  In this he agrees
with some of the views in Bird.

In addition to the fact that no one cited the work, it also seems that no
one really knows, despite more than a century gone, who had really written it.
Even now, we find the author taken as Samuel Lucas (the publisher), e.g.
in the very recent novel "Tears of the Rajas" by Ferdinand Mount (2015).

Revitalization of the text

In the early deacades of the 20th c., it was in India that the book began
to attracted renewed notice.  It was reprinted once by in Allahabad
(Liverpool Press?)  in 1924, followed half a century later with an edition
edited by Lucknow University historians Nurul Hasan, Hiralal Singh, Ram
Gopal, and K.C. Srivastava (Pustak Kendra in Lucknow, 1971).
Unfortunately, this edition says nothing about the authorship of the tract.
This brought it back into the limelight for Indian historians, and we see
it being mentioned in the work of some Indian authors such as D. Bhanu
(History of NWP/ Agra, 1957, 1988).  In 1982, Rudrangshu Mukherjee used it
as a primary source to show how the Company (British government) increased
in thirty years to Rs. 76 lakhs annually in 1797
(Trade and Empire in Awadh, 1765-1804, Past & Present, 
v.94 (Feb., 1982), pp. 85-102).  Subsequently, citations for this work have
been rising. 

Careful construction of the civilizing narrative

That the propaganda was afoot even several decades before Wajid Ali Shah we
find in this remark by Bishop Heber, who visited Lucknow 1824 (en route
from Allahabad to Almora):

	I was pleased, however, and surprised, after all which I
	had heard of Oude, to find the country so completely under
	the plough ; since, were the oppression so great as is sometimes
	stated, I cannot think that we should witness so considerable
	a population, or so much industry.
		- Bishop Reginald Heber, Narrative of a Journey, 1824 Sept

[Heber was Bishop of Calcutta 1823-1826.  A year after his arrival in
India, he went on a 16 month tour - up the ganga to Allahabad, then
overland via Lucknow to Almora and then to Delhi where he met the emperor
Akbar II, and onto Bombay from where he sailed back to Calcutta.  During
his tour, he was much appalled by the "bullying, insolent manner" of
Britishers towards Indians, and also by the fact that very few Indians were
promoted to senior positions. ]

Persistent misconceptions of British benevolence

The book makes for very interesting reading.  Even today, Indian histories
tell of how Saadat Ali willingly gave up half his kingdom in exchange for
his coronation -

	was crowned on 21stJan., 1798 at a grand darbar held at Bibiyapur
	Palace, by Sir John Shore. As a mark of gratitude he ceded half of
	Awadh Kingdom to the British in 1801.
				- http://lucknow.me/Saadat-Ali-Khan.html

but here we learn that a few months after the uxurious treaty with John
Shores, a new governor-general - Wellesley - arrived.  as part of his
attempts to increase revenue, he first "reformed" the Awadh army -
effectively preventing the nawab from maintaining any forces.  A year
later, he increased the Company troos deployed to "protect" Awadh, and
since Awadh was not able to pay the rapacious compensation, he gave Saadat
Ali an ultimatum - either he retire on a pension hand over the entire
kingdom to the company, or he give up a number of provinces amounting to
half its territories.

we learn here that contrary to the impression today, Saadat Ali resisted
this this imposition tooth and nail -- at one point telling his ministers
that he would become a recluse in the land of the Haj rather than agree -
but was eventually forced.

Repeated promise-breaking

At each treaty, there was a clause that no further increases would be
there, but in a few years, there is again a exhortation.  Territories that
were taken from Awadh (Allahabad and Kora) are sold back at high price,
returned "for perpetuity", and then taken again.

Despite the careful construction of a civilizing narrative, it is clear
today that it was violence that served as the ultimate imprimatur of
colonialism. "There was no power in India", wrote Philip Francis, "but the
power of the sword, and that was the British sword, and no other".
In Terry Deary's Barmy British Empire
the comic treatment opens with the lines:

	You're sitting at your house one day when in marches a bunch of
	soldiers and they say:
	 

which is funny, because it is also true. ]

Bird suggests that such repeated violations of contract would not have been
possible in the moral atmosphere of Europe, and it is clear that these acts
showed the "civilizing mission" of the English in a rather poor light.  It
is not difficult to relate the strain of anger in the general population
towards the British at least partly to these extended acts in bad faith.

Excerpts

Chapter I (Shuja-ud-Daula)

	Showing how the company made acquaintance with Shoojah-ood-dowlah's
	rupees, and how quickly they improved their intimacy with his
	treasures and territory.

The kingdom of Oude is situated at the root and in the heart of the Indian
peninsula.  Interposed between the Ganges and the Himalayas, it comprises
about 24,000 square miles, and contains 5,000,000 inhabitants.  Its
population is bold and warlike, and furnishes the best constituents of our
Indian armies.  Its fertility is so remarkable among the principalities of
this prolific region, that it is commonly spoken of as "the Garden of India;"
and its national revenues have been in fitting proportion to its
productiveness.

The East India Company, with that discernment which has ever distinguished
them, turned its capacities of every description to their profit from an
early date.  Not only have they drawn their best troops from its peasantry,
but they have taken a large portion of its revenues for professing to defend
its princes with this very soldiery.  Oude has been simultaneously their
recruiting ground and military chest, their fiscal tributary and bank of
advance.  By subsidies, loans, exchanges, and other devices, it is computed
that they have drawn from it, since their connection with the province, a sum
of not less than fifty millions sterling. Up to the day when they ruthlessly
wrung the neck of the royal goose, this was the rate at which it laid them
golden eggs.

dates in the history of the East India Company

1601 : Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a company of merchants to trade to
	the East Indies.
1634 : This company obtained an imperial firman from the Emperor Shah Jehan
	to trade with Bengal by sea and to establish a factory. In
1652 : permission was granted to the company by the same prince to trade
	throughout the province of Bengal.
1686 : the company of merchants entertained an armament to maintain their
	rights.
1698 : leave was obtained from the Subadar of Bengal to purchase the ground on
	which Calcutta now stands.
1699 : Fort William was completed.
1717 : the company obtained an imperial confirmation of all their former
	privileges, and continued to conduct their commercial affairs with
	success until
1756 : Seraj-ood-Dowlah succeeded his grandfather,
	Aliverdi, as Subadar of Bengal, and in consequence of Governor Drake
	having refused to give up a native who had fled with his wealth to
	Calcutta, he attacked and captured the place.
1757 : Calcutta was retaken on the 2nd of January, 1757, and Seraj-ood-Dowlah
	having marched towards Calcutta to oppose the English, was completely
	routed by Lord Clive, and the first treaty was concluded between the
	company of merchants trading to the East Indies and Serajood-Dowlah,
	Subadar of Bengal.

Sovereigns of Oude

1711. Saadat Khan.
1739. Suffder Jung.
1756. Shoojah-ood-Dowlah.
1775. Asoph-ood-Dowlah.
1797. Vizier Allie. (Spurious, and displaced in favour of Saadat Allie.)
1798. Saadat Allie.
1814. Ghazee-ood-deen Hyder.
1827. Nusseer-ood-deen Hyder.
1837. Mohummud Allie Shah.
1842. Soorye-a-Jah. Amjud Allie Shah.
1847. Wajid Allie Shah.

Battle of Buxar and Treaty of Faizabad

The circumstances under which they were first included in its toils arose out
of the Company's dealings with Bengal, from the Subadar of which, in 1698, it
had avowedly purchased the ground on which Calcutta now stands, while it had
really prepared a fulcrum from which to overturn India.

The Company had supported an aspirant to the throne of Bengal, for the
consideration which afterwards became so familiar in their various treaties,
a large sum of rupees, amounting in this instance to one crore and
seventy-seven lacs, when the victory of Clive at Plassey, on the 23rd June,
1757, gave effect to their bargain, by installing their protege and
annihilating their antagonist. The protege was removed in 1760, on the plea
of incompetency, and a successor set up, who was also deposed, whereupon
protege No. 1 was reinstated.

The only name among these unfortunate favourites of the Company which is at
all material to our present purpose is that of the preferred and rejected
No. 2, Cossim Ali, who, after sustaining a series of defeats in contending
against his deposition, fled to Shoojah-ood-Dowlah, Nawaub of Oude, and
involved him also in the inconvenience of friendly relations with the
Company. Shoojah-ood-Dowlah, in the first instance, espoused the cause of
Cossim, and marched his army into Behar ; but coming in contact with the
forces of the East India Company at Buxar, on the 23rd October, 1764,
something less than one hundred years ago, he was there defeated, and was
eventually compelled to enter into a treaty for
"perpetual and universal peace, sincere friendship, and firm union"
with the East India Company, which by this means inserted its syphon into
his treasury, and unsealed the precious fountain of his coveted rupees.

This treaty was concluded on the 16th August, 1765. And, in addition to the
payment by the Nawaub of £500,000 for the Company's expenses, for which it
stipulated, it prepared the Wuzier for a further series of disbursements, as
the natural consequence of the "friendship" and "firm union" to which it tied
him.  Thus, the second article of the treaty provides for mutual offensive
and defensive arrangements, and that, "in the case of the English Company's
forces being employed by His Highness, the extraordinary expense of the same
to be defrayed by him."  ...

This was simply the first step ; but the process thus begun was never from
that moment interrupted, and the syphon then inserted never ceased to
flow. By this slender thread the kingdom of Oude was gradually drawn into the
meshes of the Company, was taxed and impoverished, cramped, tethered, and
tormented, until it was presumed to be ready for final annexation. The
process was singularly stealthy and protracted, for it was not assisted by
any imprudence or insincerity on the part of the rulers of Oude. Their good
faith was never successfully impeached, and at this day their good services
are admitted by their worst enemies. Not one letter, it is said, among the
many hundreds which were intercepted subsequently, contained aught that could
raise the slightest suspicion of their fidelity and attachment.

Restrictions on the Nawab's army, further exactions

But, three years after the above treaty was signed, rumours, which were
afterwards ascertained by three members of the Council to be without
foundation, reached the Indian Government to the effect that the Nawaub of
Oude was levying forces in order to oppose them.  A correspondence
accordingly took place, and explanations were freely given ; but the Company
improved the occasion by exacting an additional engagement, by which the
Wuzier was restricted from entertaining' a force exceeding 35,000 men.  This
restriction, which of course rendered him less independent of British
assistance, was the second step in the stealthy process, and it followed in
three years on the engagement for "sincere friendship and firm union" with
the ally whose power it tended materially to diminish. This restriction,
however, was commended to the Nawaub by the accompanying engagement that, so
long as it was observed by himself and his successors, the East India Company
would not introduce any addition to its provisions.  That such apparent
securities accompanied most stages of their intercourse was not, however, as
practically delusive as might be supposed ; for such engagements would soon
be estimated at their correct value, if on the part of the Company they were
consistently and invariably broken. That such was the case in this instance
we shall have many illustrations, and the first of these we shall come upon
in the incident next to be mentioned.

In the treaty of 1765, as a guarantee for the payment of the half-million
sterling (payable by its sixth article); the fort of Chunar had been retained
by the British (under the seventh article).  But but when this sum had been
paid, there was no longer any pretext for keeping it in their hands, and it
was accordingly again given up to the Nawaub.  Still the desire of the
Company to possess it had not diminished in consequence of their temporary
occupation ; but they coveted a permanent retention of the security, in
addition to the rupees which they had already pocketed.  So a pretext was
devised for getting Chunar into their hands, and, simultaneously, for
retaining the fort of Allahabad, which, while it was in their occupation,
the Emperor of Delhi had made over, in 1771, to the Nawaub of Oude; and the
pretext devised was simply " the better to enable the East India Company to
assist His Highness with their forces for the preservation of his
dominions."  It appears that the Mahrattas were then threatening Oude
through Rohilcund ; that is to say, Oude was threatened to the north and
west, while Allahabad and Chunar were situated to the south and east.

	[Though Bird doesn't say so, the reasons cited for taking Chunar and
	Allahabad, which are on the side away from where Oudh is threatened,
	reminded me as I was reading it of the story of the wolf, who accused
	the lamb of muddying his water, though the lamb was downstream from
	him.  In the end, the wolf always eats the lamb.]

The reason for appropriating these places as a matter of strategy is not,
therefore, as obvious as the diplomatic inducements for their transfer. It
is not quite so clear that their surrender served the interests of the
Nawab, as that their occupation promoted the ends of the Company.
Nevertheless, by a couple of treaties, both dated the 20th of March, 1772,
Chunar was taken and Allahabad was kept; and thus, during the lifetime of
Shoojah-ood-Dowlah, two steps were taken in advance of the treaty of
August, 1765 ; that is to say, his forces were restricted, his forts were
appropriated, and he was so far prepared for further exhibitions of the
"sincere friendship and firm union," the complete fruition of which was
reserved for his successors.

Shoojah-ood-Dowlah accordingly was not at his ease, for the firm union was
beginning " to draw " after the manner of an adhesive blister. He therefore
sought an interview with Warren Hastings, who had become Governor of Bengal
in 1772, and discussed a revision of existing treaties, to which the
circumstances of both parties at this time predisposed them. On the one hand,
at the period of Hastings' assumption of the Government, the East India
Company were in one of those normal crises of their state, in which, having
absorbed largely from the substance of India, they had spent all their
income, and were struggling with a deficit.

The finances of Hastings' government were in an embarrassed state, and to
take the history of his acts at this date from Mr. Macaulay, " this
embarrassment he " was determined to relieve by some means, fair or foul."
The language of the eminent historian so admirably describes the conduct of
the Governor at this conjuncture, that we adopt it as an indispensable
portion of our own narrative. According to Mr. Macaulay, "... Hastings saw
that it was absolutely necessary for him to disregard either the moral
discourses or the pecuniary requisitions of his employers.  Being forced to
disobey them in something, he had to consider what kind of disobedience
they would most readily pardon ; and he correctly judged that the safest
course would be to neglect the sermons and to find the rupees."

Now Shoojah-ood-Dowlah possessed rupees, but he was our firm friend and
faithful ally.  There was no excuse, therefore, for taking them from him
against his will, as Hastings did take from the Nabob of Bengal, at this
conjuncture, half the income of .£320,000 a year, guaranteed by the Company,
and as he also took from the Mogul, on the plea that he was not independent,
the districts of Corah and Allahabad, which had been given to him by the
treaty of the 16th of August, 1765.

With respect to the latter piece of plunder, the sequestered districts, the
difficulty remained that they were so situated that they could be of no
present use to the Company.  They might, however, be of use to
Shoojah-ood-Dowlah, who was thereupon induced to purchase them for about half
a million sterling, and the stipulations for this purpose were included in a
treaty of the 7th of September, 1773, dated at Benares ("Parliamentary Return
of Treaties, &c.," p. 57), by which our favoured Ally was also allowed to
assume the title of Wuzier of the monarchy of Hindostan.

There was much economy, if not foresight, in transferring these districts,
with title to boot, to the particular purchaser, seeing that in less than
thirty years, by the treaty of 1801, the Company were able to exact from
Saadat Allie, a successor of Shoojah-ood-Dowlah, the very provinces which the
latter now purchased of them, for 50,000,000 rupees, or £500,000 sterling. It
is true that for the present they guaranteed "that, in the same manner, as
the province of Oude and the other dominions of the Vizier are possessed by
him, so shall he possess Corah and Currah and Allahabad for ever. He shall by
no means," says the emphatic treaty, " and under no pretence, be liable to
any obstructions in the aforesaid countries from the Company and the English
chiefs ; and, exclusive of the money now stipulated, no mention or
requisition shall, by any means, be made to him for anything else on this
account."  Requisition, nevertheless, was made to his heirs and successors to
surrender the lands which he had bought and paid for.  The money's worth
followed the money itself, and, like a well-trained pigeon, returned to its
former owner, without invalidating the original transfer.

But at this date they were seemingly a reasonable excuse for a further clip
into the treasury of Shoojah-ood-Dowlah; while they were ingeniously and
opportunely conferred as a part of that revision of existing treaties which
he himself had solicited.

As we said, Shoojah-ood-Dowlah was at this time uncomfortable. ... His army
was restricted ; his fortresses were occupied ; by every fresh arrangement he
was brought more directly under the influence and control of the East India
Company. If their forces were not indispensable to his support, at all events
it was an inevitable consequence of the alliance that they should be
quartered upon him, and that he should pay their " expenses."

Foreseeing this, with the resolution of an unhappy man who wishes to take a
full measure of his calamity, it was his object to ascertain how much he
would have to pay henceforth for services thus obtrusively
rendered. Therefore, in the treaty which provided for the cession of Corah
and Allahabad, he obtained a provision, entitled a security against
"disputes," that he should pay for a brigade, at the rate of 2,10,000 Sicca
rupees per month,* and that, "exclusive of the above-mentioned sum, no more
should, on any account, be demanded of him."

This treaty was concluded on the 7th of September, 1773, at Benares...  in
the year 1775 Shoojah-ood-Dowlah died, and so escaped the further demands of
his pertinacious Allies.

Chapter II : (Asaf-ud-Daula)

Shoojah-ood-Dowlah having been finally released from the toils of the East
India Company, his son, Asoph-ood- Dowlah, suffered in his stead.  The
accession of a Prince was just one of those occasions which the Company
rarely failed to improve; and it was improved on this occasion without the
slightest reluctance.  p.21

Shoojah-ood-Dowlah had gone to his grave with the comfortable assurance that
a brigade of the Company's troops would cost just 2,10,000 rupees per
month. The Company, however, speedily initiated his son into their modus
operandi, by screwing out of him 50,000 rupees per month more. The improved
levy was contrived in this way. Though Shoojah-ood-Dowlah was assured by
treaty that, "exclusive of the above-mentioned sum, no more should on any
account he demanded of him," a "majority of the Council "judiciously"
considered the treaty concluded "with him to have ceased with his death," and
exacted, accordingly, a more expensive treaty from his successor.  This
treaty was signed on the 21st May, 1775, and its object was stated to be "
that universal peace, firm friendship, and perfect union shall for ever be
established between the Nabob Asoph-ood-Dowlah and the English East India
Company."  From such excellent and praiseworthy motives, the expense of a
brigade was raised to the sum mentioned in excess of that agreed upon less
than two years previously; and certain other requirements, were imposed.

Treaty of 1775 : Benares is ceded

In the first place, this treaty deprived the Wuzier, without equivalent, of
a considerable portion of his then revenue, for by its fifth article,
Benares and the surrounding tract of country were to be ceded to the
friendly Company in perpetuity. "The sacred city," as it has been termed,
of the pious Hindoo was at this date the entrepot of the luxurious commerce
of Northern India, Its Rajah, in the disorganisation of the Indian empire,
had become independent of the Mogul, but had subsequently been compelled to
submit to the authority of the Nawaub of Oude. He had paid tribute to the
latter ; and now, by this cession, the tribute was carried directly into
the coffers of the Company.

Thus, while the Company were requiring increased contributions from their
Ally, they curtailed the resources out of which he was to pay them.  They
burnt their candle at both ends, with consistent indifference, seeing that
the cost was, in this instance, defrayed by the tallow-chandler.  Nor were
these the only particulars in which they improved the occasion of the
accession of Asoph-ood-Dowlah to their "firm friendship and perfect
"union."  On the one hand, they diminished his securities for the retention
of the districts of Corah and Allahabad, which they had engaged to his
father should be possessed by him "for ever ; "for in the fourth article of
the present treaty they engaged to defend his possession of these
districts, only "until the pleasure of the Court of Directors shall be
known."  And, on the other hand, by the seventh article of the treaty, they
made provision for a further payment from the Wuzier, in case he should
want further assistance over and above the specified brigade...

Treaty of 1777: further payments for brigade at Kanpur

Thus in the year 1777, a brigade called the Temporary Brigade, and of which
the express condition was that the expense should be charged on the Wuzier
"for so long a time only as he should require the corps for his service,"
was added to the permanent brigade, of which the charge had been lately
raised; yet the Directors were still apparently anxious that the burden
should not be fastened upon the Nawaub contrary to his will.

In short, his total expenses on account of troops, in respect of subsidies,
and their marching and counter-marching within his dominions, had,
notwithstanding the Directors' scruples, increased by degrees until they
amounted to the sum of one and a half crore of rupees, or £1,500,000
sterling. Then his country became so exhausted in consequence, that the
unhappy Wuzier could bear it no longer, and "having repeatedly and urgently
represented that he was unable to support the expenses of the
temporary brigade cavalry and English officers with their battalions, as
well as other gentlemen who are now paid by him under the denomination of
Sebundy, &c.&c., and having made sundry requests to that and other
purposes," in the year 1779 he addressed a letter to the Governor-General
in Council, complaining of the continued demands and exactions of the
Company, and the oppression and tyranny of their military officers, begging
at the same time that the so-called temporary brigade might be
recalled. p.26

Violating the terms of a treaty

But the temporary burden proved to be like the Old Man of the Sea after he
had lifted himself upon the shoulders of the unfortunate Sinbad.  In the
first place, Warren Hastings himself made objections to its withdrawal until
the Wuzier, having "expressed a particular desire for an interview," he was
obliged to consent to a meeting at Chunar on the 11th of September, 1781.
Here the Wuzier, representing his utter inability to meet the expense
with which he was saddled, and no reasonable grounds appearing for refusing
to withdraw the brigade in question, the Governor went so far as to sign an
agreement for its removal on the 19th of September following. This
agreement will be found in the "Parliamentary Return of Treaties," pp. 60,
61, but without the intimation that it was never carried out.

In fact, for several years, notwithstanding this express engagement, the
extra brigade was still imposed upon the reluctant Wuzier, and its expenses
were ruthlessly drawn from his impoverished dominions.

Appointing the Resident as overseer

In the meantime, it is desirable here to direct attention to the earliest
evidence of interference with the government of the Wuzier's territories, and
which will be found in an undated agreement, apparently contemporary with
that just above-mentioned (see "Parliamentary Return of Treaties, &c.,"
p. 61). By this agreement, the Wuzier is recommended to reduce his troops, to
establish a private and a public purse; into the former of which he is to
receive "no more than a fixed monthly sum" for the expenses of his person and
household, while the remainder of the net revenue is to be left in a public
treasury, under the management of his public ministers "and the inspection of
the Resident."  Thus, in addition to the appropriation of the Wuzier's
revenues, the grasp of the Company descends upon his affairs, and, by the
introduction of an inspecting Resident, with the contingencies arising, we
are prepared for the final swoop of Andrew Marquis of Dalhousie.

From the 1st of February, 1774, to the end of September, 1783, within a
period of little more than nine years (as is admitted in a dispatch of the
Court of Directors, dated 8th April, 1789), the Company bad squeezed out of
their Wuzier ally two crores and thirty lakhs of rupees (£2,300,000
sterling), and the Directors allowed that the dominions of the Wuzier were
reduced to a deplorable condition in consequence ; in fact, that it was
evident so serious a drain upon the treasury of a state must eventually bring
about the bankruptcy of their tributary.

Even Warren Hastings himself, speaking of the conduct of the Company
towards Oude, remarks that "the number, influence, and enormous amount of
the salaries, pensions, and emoluments of the Company's service, civil and
military, in the Vizier's service, have become an intolerahle hurden upon
the revenue and authority of His Excellency, and exposed us to the envy and
resentment of the whole country, by excluding the native servants and
adherents of the Vizier from the rewards of their services and attachment."
In short, it was evident to the factors themselves that their milch cow was
getting low in flesh, and that it must have careful nursing unless they
were ready once for all to realise the value of its famished remains.
[As a result Hastings took the] preliminary step of abolishing the Residency,
on the 31st December, 1783.

It is remarked by M. M. Musseeliood-deen that, during the respite which the
state enjoyed from the presence of the Residents at the Court of Lucknow,
neither did disturbances of any kind take place, nor was the slightest
difficulty experienced in realising the revenue ; but, on the contrary, the
country began once more to revive, its resources to recover their elasticity,
and the Government to be administered to perfect satisfaction of all
subjects.

This proves the truth of the Hon.  F. J. Shore's observation — "So extremely
difficult is it to discover the slightest benefit arising from the
establishment of Residents at the native courts, that there is even ground
for the supposition that the measure has been adopted and maintained for the
express purpose of promoting misgovernment and confusion in the different
principalities, so as to afford plausible excuses and opportunity for our
taking possession of them."  - "Notes on Indian Affairs,"

Moreover, it followed that in 1785 Hastings quitted his Indian dominion, and
the brief interval of milder treatment thus accorded to Oude commenced with
the accession of Lord Cornwallis in 1786. ... After Hastings' departure there
was, however, some remission in the exactions as well as the interference of
the Company, for the attention of Lord Cornwallis was drawn to the affairs of
Oude; and he took some efficient measures for its temporary rescue.

He declined, it is true, to withdraw the temporary brigade, and suggested
that the Wuzier should discharge as much of his own army as should allow for
the additional expense attending the continuance of these effective
troops. But he granted a very considerable remission of the tribute for their
maintenance, and which had been exacted without warrant of reason or justice.
The annual payments by the Wuzier to the Company required by treaty amounted
to little more than thirty-four lakhs per annum ; but in respect of the
additional brigade thrust upon him by Hastings, and on other pretexts, these
payments had been actually raised to as much as eighty-four lakhs. It was now
agreed that they should be reduced again to fifty lakhs, a sum still beyond
the stipulations of former treaties, but bearable in comparison with the
exactions which preceded it, and coupled with the assurance (to he violated
hereafter), that from the date of this agreement His Excellency should not be
charged with any excess on this sum, and no further demands should be
made. p.30

Lord Cornwallis, moreover, interposed to curtail the clandestine pay and
presents at that time received by the Company's officials ; and in the minute
by which he required that the Directors should be informed of these illegal
levies, with a view to their suppression, he also insisted " that the troop
which was raised and officered by order of Warren Hastings, and called 'Body
Guard,' and which was paid by His Excellency the Vizier, should be abolished,
as it ought to have been long ago, it being a very burdensome expense to His
Excellency."  At the same time he remarked on the charges of the Private
Agent who had replaced the Resident, and which amounted to the annual sum of
£112,950 sterling per annum, out of which £22,800 was the salary of the happy
major who then occupied this lucrative post; and though his Lordship did not
relieve the Wuzier of this expense, with a view, it is presumed, to
negotiations for a re-establishment of the Residency, which had cost the
Wuzier but £65,000 per annum...

In the words of J. S. Mill:

	In the pecuniary burthen, [Cornwallis] admitted some alteration. It
	appeared that, during the nine preceding years, the Nabob had paid to
	the Company, under different titles, at the rate of eighty-four lacs
	of rupees per amnum; though by the treaty of 1775, he had bound
	himself to the annual payment of only 31,21,000, and by the treaty of
	1781, to that of 34,20,000 rupees.

	It was agreed that fifty lacs should be the annual payment of the
	Nabob; and that this should embrace every possible claim. The
	Governor-General declared that this was sufficient to indemnify the
	Company for all the expense which it was necessary for them to incur
	in consequence of their connection with the Vizir. In other words, he
	declared that, for the nine preceding years, unjustifiable extortion,
	to the amount of thirty-four lacs per annum, had been practised on
	that dependant prince.
		Hist. British India, vol. v. p. 259

The boons of Lord Cornwallis were conferred, however, only to be withdrawn
after his departure by other hands; but the respite of the devoted province
lasted for his time.  A commercial treaty was concluded in 1788 between the
Company and the Wuzier, in a fair and liberal spirit.  The subsidy of fifty
lakhs, under these conditions, as Lord Cornwallis admitted previous to his
quitting India, and while admonishing the Wuzier, was paid with
regularity. Oude was again prosperous, happy, and solvent.

The succeeding Governor-General, Sir John Shore, required "the wretched
Vizier" (to use the language of Mr. Mill) to add to his former subsidy the
expense of one European and one native regiment of cavalry, provided the
annual amount should not exceed five and a half lakhs of rupees. Thus the
engagement of Lord Cornwallis was shamefully violated.  Again the scale of
charges and exactions, which the Wuzier must have regarded as finally fixed,
began to mount, and gathering courage from his sense of the injustice, he
boldly refused to pay one cowry more.

Vain courage! Vain confidence in an incontestable promise and declared
guarantee! The unsophisticated Wuzier had yet to learn to what lengths
"sincere friendship and firm union" would encourage his disinterested allies.

The British authorities suspecting, it is said, Maharajah Jhaoo Lall, his
minister, to be the cause of his refusal, seized upon that gentleman, and, 
despite of all the remonstrances of the Wuzier, detained him, although
guiltless of any crime, as a state prisoner in their own territory ; and
then, to compel the Wuzier to grant the additional subsidy. Sir John Shore,
in March, 1797, proceeded to Lucknow, and "by means of threats, artifices,
&c.," forced him to make the addendum they required.


Thus an additional body of troops, consisting of two regiments of cavalry,
one of European and two of native infantry, was quartered upon the kingdom
of Oude at an additional charge of five lakhs, and fifty thousand rupees
annually ; and another result was attained, which was probably neither
desired nor deprecated : Asoph-ood-Dowlah took his treatment so much to
heart, that he fell ill and refused medicine, exclaiming, "There is no cure
for a broken heart;" and so, a few months subsequently, died, and left the
Company, as their custom was, to improve the incident of a fresh
succession. p.34

Chapter III

In the first instance, after the death of Asoph-ood-Dowlah, the Company
recognised the succession of Vizier Allie, his natural son ; but seeing that
a better bargain could be made with a brother of the deceased Wuzier, Sir
John Shore repaired to Benares, and proposed to the latter, who was named
Saadat Allie, to dethrone Vizier Allie, offering the support of the Company
on the intelligible condition that the subsidy should be largely increased,
and that their support should be paid for otherwise in money and kind.

[related detail...

The rebellion of Wazir Ali Khan

Wazir Ali Khan (Hindi: वज़ीर अली खान, Urdu: وزیر علی خان‎)(b. 19 April 1780 –
d. 15 May 1817) was the fourth[1] nawab wazir of Oudh from 21 September 1797
to 21 January 1798,[2] and the son of Muhammad Nasir.[3]

He was adopted the son of Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, who had no son. He adopted a boy
who was son of daughter of a servant. At 13 years of age Ali, was married at
the cost of £300000 in Lucknow.

After the death of his adopted father in September 1797 he ascended to the
throne, with support of the British. Within four months they accused
him of being unfaithful. Sir John Shore (1751–1834) then moved in with 12
battalions and replaced him with his uncle Saadat Ali Khan II.

Ali was granted a pension of 3,00,000 Rupees and removed to Benares. The
government in Calcutta decided that he should be removed further from his
former realm. Cherry, a British resident, relayed this order to him on 14
January 1799 during a breakfast invitation at which Ali had appeared with an
armed guard. During the ensuing argument Cherry abused and ignored Ali's
request which resulted in Ali striking Cherry a blow with his sabre,
whereupon the guards killed the resident and two more Europeans. They then
set out to attack the house of Davis, another colonial officer. He defended
himself on the staircase of his house until rescued by British troops.

Subsequently Ali assembled a rebellious army of several thousand men. A
quickly assembled force commanded by General Erskine moved into Benares and
"restored order" by 21 January. Ali fled to Butwal, Rajputana and was granted
asylum by the Raja of Jaipur.   On request of Arthur Wellesley, Earl of
Mornington, the raja turned Ali over to the British on the condition that he
neither be hanged nor be put in fetters. Ali surrendered to the British
authorities in December 1799, and was placed in rigorous confinement at Fort
William, Calcutta.

The colonial government complied with this: Ali spent the rest of life – 17
years – in an iron cage in Vellore Fort, the Madras Presidency. He was buried
in the Muslim graveyard of Kasi Baghan.

Ray, Aniruddha; Revolt of Vizir Ali of Oudh at Benares in 1799; in:
	Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 49th Session, Karnatak
	University, Dharwad, 1988: S 331–338.
]

To this stipulation, bold and barefaced, the aspirant to the princedom
"cheerfully consented," and, after a preliminary process at Lucknow, termed
in the "Parliamentary Return of Treaties" "a full investigation," and
purporting to be an inquiry into the spuriousness of Vizier Allie's birth,
that Prince was deposed, and Saadat Allie was proclaimed in his stead, at
Lucknow, on the 21st January, 1798.

Then, on the 21st February, 1798, a treaty of seventeen articles, in its
principal stipulations absolutely stinking of rupees, was signed in pursuance
of the previous understanding between Saadat Allie and Sir John Shore.

The Wuzier is required to give up the fort of Allahabad, and to pay eight
lakhs of rupees to put it in repair for the presentees.  The Wuzier is to pay
three lakhs for repairing fort Futty Guhr.  The Wuzier is to pay expenses of
moving troops, the number of lakhs being as yet indefinite. The Wuzier is to
pay the Company twelve lakhs in consideration of their expenses in
establishing his right. The Wuzier is to pay a pension of one lakh and a half
to his deposed rival.  And lastly, by article 2, the annual subsidy paid by
the Wuzier, and which amounted to something over fifty-six lakhs, is now
raised to seventy-six lakhs, that is to say, from about £555,000 a year, the
subsidy is screwed up to £760,000.

[Total: Rs. 10,050,000 paid to E.I. Co, and the fort of Allahabad ceded] in
violation of the engagements of Lord Cornwallis, and in virtue of the union
now growing firmer between themselves and the victim in their coils. 38

Lord Wellesley

Lord Mornington (better known as Marquis Wellesley), arrived in Calcutta in
the month of May, 1798.  In October of the same year he had under his
consideration the best means of securing the regular payment of the subsidy
from Oude, and of reforming the Nawaub's army."  p.40

[The reforrms really meant] "the disbanding of the Nawaub's regular army,
except as far as portions of it might be wanted for purposes of state"
[Mr. Hale, pamphlet on Oude].

Some particulars of these negotiations may delay the course of the narrative,
but they are so illustrative of the Company's dealings with the Princes of
Oude, that it is neither right nor expedient to omit them here.

Without allowing the Nawaub time to draw up the remonstrance above mentioned,
the additional troops had been actually ordered into Oude ; and the ground on
which this measure was attempted to be justified was this : that, as the
Company was bound by Lord Teignmouth's treaty to defend the Nawaub's
possessions, that treaty must be understood to confer upon them, by
implication, the power of augmenting the British forces stationed in Oude
entirely at their own pleasure, and even in spite of the Nawaub's assent,
whenever they should think such a measure necessary to the discharge of their
defensive engagements with the Nawaub.

Demand for half the lands of Awadh

In a further letter, dated the 22nd January, 1801, Lord Wellesley
peremptorily required Saadat Allie either to resign his princely authority
altogether, and accept an annual stipend, or to cede one-half of his
territorial possessions to the Company by way of indemnity for the expenses
incurred on account of the two bodies of troops already mentioned.  The draft
of a treaty to this effect was at the same time forwarded, as well as the
necessary instructions to the Resident.

[The official District of Lucknow website says this of Sadat Ali:

	Yamin-ud-daula-Nawab Saadat Ali Khan was the son of
	Asaf-ud-daula. Saadat-Ali-Khan was crowned on 21st Jan., 1798 at a
	grand darbar held at Bibiyapur Palace, by Sir John Shore. As a mark
	of gratitude he ceded half of Awadh Kingdom to the British in 1801.
				http://www.lucknow.nic.in/Saadarali.htm]
'

which gives the impression that the 1801 grant was given freely.   Clearly,
language such as "a mark of gratitude" is based on British propagandist
histories.

Here we learn how Saadat Ali (who actively made many improvements to
Lucknow and built many of the fine palaces) resisted this new claim, saying
at one point that he would leave his kingdom and go live in Haj rather than
agree to such a step.]

The aspect of the case was now this. The Company were no longer content with
the annual seventy-six lakhs of rupees guaranteed them in addition to other
items by the treaty of 1798, but they demanded a district having a gross
revenue of 135 lakhs rupees.  The Wuzier at first remonstrated against the
demand, urged as usual in violation of an existing treaty, but the
Governor-General, without deigning to answer him, addressed a letter dated
April 28th, 1801, to the Resident, authorising him, in the event of the
Wuzier not consenting to make over the said provinces to the Company, to
take forcible possession of the same ; and instructing him, moreover, not
to wait for further advice on the subject, but to act upon the present
orders of the Governor-General ; in short, instigating him to an act of
dacoitee second only to that in which the Marquis of Dalhousie has so
recently involved the reputation of General Outram.

Lord Wellesley letter to the Resident, 1801:

	I am satisfied, that no effectual security can be provided against
	the ruin of the province of Oude, until the exclusive management of
	the civil and military government of that country shall be
	transferred intact to the Company, under suitable provisions for the
	maintenance of His Excellency and of his family.  No other remedy can
	effect any considerable improvement in the resources of the state, or
	can ultimately secure its external safety and internal peace.

Lord Wellesley, at all events, did not appropriate the entire province, but
when his intention to take half the Wuzier's territory was announced, the
latter, apprehending that the end had commenced, exclaimed, "If such be,
indeed, the case, it will not be long ere the remaining portions of the
country will be wrested from me."

At the same time, it required all the assurances of the Resident and of the
Governor's private secretary, the Hon. Henry Wellesley, to induce him to
attach any value to the promise that he should have an undisturbed authority
over the territory left to him; and in fact he at first seriously
contemplated a voluntary exile from his native land and a pilgrimage to the
holy places of his religion and to foreign climes, leaving liis oppressors
to act as they might think fit during his absence. "Let me," said he,
"speedily be permitted to depart on my travels and pilgrimage, for I shall
consider it a disgrace so show my face to the people here."

[But] eventually the Wuzier consented to sign the treaty placed before him,
after discussion and expostulation had proved to be vain. Thus an act of
tyranny was consummated, and the treaty was procured on which so much
stress has been unwarrantably laid.

Thus an act of tyranny was consummated, and by such preliminaries,
[the treaty] was forced upon our reluctant Ally.

The Company first poured upon the Wuzier such numbers of troops, they
heaped demand upon demand on him so incessantly, that at length his
resources became inadequate to their payment ; and then, when he was
compelled to make an avowal of such inadequacy, they seized upon that
avowal as a ground for demanding a perpetual cession of one half his
remaining territory. In short, to put the matter in its true light, they
took away half his possessions because they had exhausted his purse, and in
token of their "friendship and union" they made him bound to them — by a
halter.

The treaty which accomplished these infamous results was signed on the 14th
November, 1801, and some account must now be given of its principal
provisions. Its first article is that which pays off the mortage with a
portion of the estate enormously beyond its value.  The districts to be
ceded, with their revenues, amounting in gross to one crore and thirty-five
lakhs of rupees, in commutation of the subsidy, &c., are scheduled in full ;
and if the reader will refer to the map of India published by Mr. Wyld, he
will see that these districts are the very Doab coveted by Sir John Shore in
1798, the country which we could not then take as rulers and sovereigns, of
which we then desired "a lease" as a transition to permanent ownership, but
which we now took without any such preliminary formality.  Included in this
country, also, will be found the identical districts of Allahabad, Corah, and
Currah, which the Company had sold "for ever" to Shoojah-ood-Dowlah in 1773
for half a million sterling. Thus the Nawaub was stripped of his most valued
possessions, while, as to the remainder, it will be seen what securities were
taken for a further interference with his government and ownership.
[Further], by article 4, a British detachment is always to be attached to his
person, and by article 6, he is expected to "advise with, and act in
conformity to the counsel of the officers of the Company."

The engagements in this article are especially material, as they furnish the
plea on which Lord Dalhousie confessedly proceeds, half a century later, to
final confiscation, without regard to treaties made subsequently, and, as
will be seen hereafter, without reason, if this present treaty still
subsisted, for wresting from it a sanction for his independent act of
violence.

The Resident however, was asked to

	conduct himself towards the Nawaub Vizier, on all occasions, with the
	utmost degree of respect, conciliation, and attention, and must
	maintain cordial union and harmony in all transactions, and 'inust
	endeavour toimpart strength and stability to His Excellency s
	authority.

	The Resident must never proceed to act in the affairs of
	the reserved dominions, without previous consultation with His
	Excellency or with his ministers,

Mr.  Mill, as usual, has discerned the true bearing of these principles in
the views of those who came afterwards to interpret them. Referring to the
practical result he remarks that,

	The impatient desire to extinguish the military power of the Vizier,
	exhibits the sort of relation in which the English Government wishes
	to stand with its allies. It exhibits, also, the basis of hypocrisy
	on which that Government has so much endeavoured to build itself.
	The Nawaub was stripped of his dominions yet things were placed in
	such a form, that it might still be affirmed he possessed them.
				[History of British India," vol. vi. p. 214]

Dacoitee in excelsis Or the spoliation of Oude by the East India Company., 5990010156252. NULL. 0. 169 pgs.
http://dli.gov.in/data1/upload/0010/995