topics: |  history | india | british-raj |

a thousand mutinies

this much neglected work was the first to highlight an important aspect of British Rule in india, and is the seed from which much postcolonial historiography, such as the subaltern history movement, grew.

the general impression has been that british rule was qualitatively different from earlier despotic rulers, in that the "rule of law" was introduced. the apparent peacefulness of british rule was remarked on in the phrase "pax britannica".

these ideas are challenged in this book, which reveals how an intense underlying dissafection with british rule showed up in the frequent revolts and uprisings. ranajit guha's (1999) "simple count" of revolts involving overr a thousand people, yields 117 such revolts in 130 years, about one major revolt every year (elementary aspects of peasant insurgency in colonial india)

unravelling the myth of "pax britannica"

understandably, colonial historiography had found little need to analyze these revolts as a persistent aspect of british rule. as subodh chandra sarkar notes in his introduction:

	The impact of British rule on India in its beneficial aspects has
	long been a commonplace in historical literature. British authors
	have dwelt upon it with understandable pleasure, and Indian writers
	have more or less followed the beaten track. The British exploitation
	of India has been recognised of course, but in standard histories
	this is almost a footnote, and Indian criticism of British rule in
	India has been either too general or too technically economic.

	That British Power in this country, even in early days, had to
	contend almost ceaselessly with resistance from large numbers of
	people in very many parts was not indeed unknown, but this aspect of
	our history has not yet been adequately dealt with in a factual,
	concrete manner.

	I venture to think that after Dr Chaudhuri's pioneer work it will no
	longer he possible to ignore thus subject in any important treatment
	of British Indian history.

prof. sarkar's prophecy has turned out correct, and thanks to this book,
today the documentation and analysis of revolts is a major industry in
colonial history.

chaudhuri the much-maligned historian

however, in his time, chaudhuri (1907-1983), who did his doctoral work
under r. c. majumdar in the 1940s, in india, faced much criticism from
british historians, and his work was often pooh-poohed as "nationalist"
history, or more often, simply ignored.  nonetheless, this is the first
work to investigate this important question. chaudhuri shows great
scholarship by stringing together a description of these events based on
farflung narratives in remote archival sources, and bringing them under one
analysis.

opening up of the national archives

reading this book in the 21st century, one forgets that that during
the colonial period, access for indian historians to the archives were
limited.  until 1926, the "imperial department of documents" was accessible
only to officials (including the indian ICS).  though it was opened up to
natives later, various hurdle such as a copying fee were imposed.  jadunath
sarkar faced considerable difficulties while writing his early work on the
economics of british india. 

Sabyasachi Chakrabarty has written of the Archival Policy in Colonial
times:  
	[...] early colonial policy prevented access to the records of the
	Indian Government.  [Colonial officials sought] rules in the archives
	which would “prevent unscrupulous students from selecting and
	publishing those portions of records which tell in favour of their
	point of view”.

	Till the 1920s the records could be read only by the ICS officers and
	the members of the British Indian bureaucracy. Historians like Sir
	Jadu Nath Sarkar and nationalist intellectuals like M.G.Ranade had to
	fight a long battle against the “closed-door” policy at the archives.
	The freedom to access governmental records was slowly won against the
	opposition of British officialdom.

this volume was among the earliest works to appear after the records were
opened up in 1947, under the new name, national archives of india, with
historian surendranath sen as director. this enabled sashi bhusan
chaudhuri, who had finished his doctoral work (under r.c. majumdar) on
ancient india in 1946, to shift emphasis to the colonial period.  

as he says in the preface, he was initially looking at the history of
bengal in the 1850s, and while going through the "reports, minutes,
despatches, and memoranda," he was struck by how frequently there was
some mention of various uprisings.  eventually, he decided to shift his
emphasis to make this the central theme of his work.

dismissing revolts as fomented by "agitators"

the topic is not completely new. it is not that the princely revolts,
soldier rebellions and agrarian uprisings were not mentioned by british
historians.  however, they were considered each a separate instance,
motivated by a few "agitators".  here, for the first time is an analysis
that attempts to find a common thread running through these insurgencies.
as sarkar says in his introduction:

	The risings against British authority have often enough been
	dismissed as the outcome of the machinations of a number of
	dispossessed malcontented persons. [But the problem is where
	did such large followings] come from?  Why did [so many] people
	respond to the 'intrigues' of the interested parties.

	It is after all a superficial view of history to remain satisfied
	with attributing all disturbances to 'agitators'. In any broad
	perspective, it seems natural to hold that the alien British conquest
	of India would meet with the same type of resistance which was
	encountered by other imperial powers in other 'colonial' countries.
	Dr Chaudhuri has, I think, demonstrated with sufficient material that
	the Pax Britannica in India was only a very relative peace and that
	there was plenty of opposition from substantial sections of the
	common people often enough.  p.xiii

interestingly, the language of "agitators" persists in the mainstream
discourse against such rebellions worldwide, which are now couched in the
language of "terrorism".

sources: british official reports

the source material for this volume is almost entirely based on reports
written by british officials:

    the history of this resistance to British rule has not been written
    by the spokesmen of those who resisted, but is incidentally referred to
    by the British themselves who provoked this resistance, and is, to that
    extent, worthy of credence. ... [Even] the little that is noticed in
    official publications and unofficial accounts, if written in a fairly
    critical spirit, may not be found inadequate for extending an enquiry
    into the history of this tension of Indo-British relationships.
					[preface, ix]

the list of sources itself is daunting:

    The materials lie scattered in a great variety of repositories, often
    in minute forms, mixed up with subjects of a very different nature.

    A string of reports, minutes, despatches, and memoranda sometimes
    alludes only to a small portion of what is relevant to a specific
    case. The enquiry committee reports of the major incidents throw much
    light on certain aspects of the movements.

    Also, materials have to be extracted and sifted from the voluminous
    records of British legislation, the Parliamentary Papers and
    Parliamentary Debates. A large number of books written on India, in its
    various aspects, probably larger than has ever been written on any
    other Asiatic country, also contain very useful information. Private
    correspondence, Biographies, District Gazetteers, Annual Registers, and
    publications of that sort, and the numerous pamphlets on India
    published by many societies of London, the contemporary newspapers of
    India, and old magazines and journals of England furnish reliable
    source material of the history of these disturbances.
						[preface, x]

despite this painstaking work, in the initial decades after this
publication, his investigations were largely ignored.  however,
s. b. chaudhuri has been vindicated in recent times as this topic has
gained importance in colonial historiography.

inspiring the subaltern historians

chaudhuri's work also inspired the subaltern historians; one of the
pioneering works of the genre, ranajit guha's investigation of rebellions,
elementary aspects of peasant insurgency in colonial india_
(1999) states:

	... agrarian disturbances in many forms and on
	scales ranging from local riots to war-like
	campaigns spread over many districts were
	endemic throughout the first three quarters of
	british rule until the very end of the
	nineteenth century.  at a simple count there
	are no fewer than 110 known instances in 117
	years (p.1-2)

the investigation continues today, with recent works such as a.k. gupta,
defying death: struggles against imperialism and feudalism (2001),
a miscellany of mutinies and massacres in india by terence r. blackburn
(2007), and the mutiny at the margins series (ed. crispin bates and
others, 2008).

many uprisings not listed here are gaining focus such as the
vellore mutiny in 1806, caused by a leather hat, which was opposed on
religious grounds by both the hindu and muslim soldiery, similar to the
greased cartridges of 1857.

chaudhuri makes a strong case that so many rebellions, carrying immense
personal risk for the participants, would not have taken place unless the
east india company was mis-governing on a large scale.
he gives many instances of over-taxation and reckless profiteering.

what is interesting is that a significant fraction of these rebellions are
by the tribals, who found themselves increasingly disenfranchised by the
british traders' avarice for forest produce.  even more sadly, this pattern
continues even today.

1857: not qualitatively different

chaudhuri also emphasizes that 1857 was not an isolated instance; this line
of thought has become influential today.  for example, we have noted
cambridge historian c. a. bayly, who remarks in his
indian society and the making of empire (1988):

	... several broad types of dissidence can be isolated from the great
	range of revolts between 1800 and i860. Most notable were the
	periodic revolts of zamindars and other superior landholders fighting
	off demands for higher revenue or invasions of their status as
	'little kings' in the countryside. Then there were conflicts between
	landlords and groups of tenants or under-tenants objecting to the
	transformation of customary dues into landlord rights or to some
	violation of the obligations between agrarian lord and dependant.
	Next there was a range of conflicts arising from tension between
	wandering or tribal people and settled peasant farmers which usually
	centred on the control of forests, grazing grounds or other
	communally exploited resources. Finally, there were frequent revolts
	in cities and towns. These had many causes: some were riots over
	market control and taxation. Some involved bloodshed between
	religious or caste groups or the protests of embattled artisan
	communities. All these types of conflict were widespread but they
	surfaced in exaggerated form in the course of the Mutiny and
	Rebellion of 1857.

	what distinguished the events of 1857 was their scale ...  (p.170)


this out of print book, which i could read only thanks to the
digital library of india, deserves to be more widely known.

Excerpts

from Preface

Originally enquiring about the condition of Bengal during the fifties of
the nineteenth century, I drifted to this  subject by a process of
back-calculation and started my investigations to find out how far this
aspect of study would fit in with the historical perspective.

Difficulties were experienced by the fact that the great scene of Indian
reaction to British rule was depicted nowhere, neither in India nor in
Britain.  Thornton, Mill and Wilson had taken note only of the more
important episodes as they were connected with the conquest of India by
British arms and the progress of British rule, but
British historians and administrators in general, like their Roman
counter-parts of the imperial period, have given scant attention to this
long trail of disturbances, and have hardly described them in their proper
perspective, probably from a feeling of solidarity of their empire or from
other considerations as well.

Introduction by S.C. Sarkar

	It is indeed true that civil disturbances were common in other
	periods of history as well, for example in pre-British times.  There
	is nothing surprising in this, for governmental oppression is a very
	ancient story, and people have often reacted against it in an active
	manner. But the point of the present study seems to be the conclusion
	that British rule in India also had at least a very important aspect
	in the shape of an alien and unpopular pressure on the common masses
	which led to a good deal of resistance from the conquered
	people. From this point of view it was not qualitatively superior to
	other conquests.

Wide range of dispersed sources

    The materials of popular commotions and discontents lie scattered in a
    great variety of repositories, often in minute forms, mixed up with
    subjects of a very different nature. A string of reports, minutes,
    despatches, and memoranda sometimes alludes only to a small portion of
    what is relevant to a specific case. The enquiry committee reports of 
    the major incidents throw much light on certain aspects of the
    movements. Also, materials have to be extracted and sifted from the
    voluminous records of British legislation, the Parliamentary Papers and
    Parliamentary Debates. A large number of books written on India, in its
    various aspects, probably larger than has ever been written on any other
    Asiatic country, also contain very useful information. Private
    correspondence, Biographies, District Gazetteers, Annual Registers, and
    publications of that sort, and the numerous pamphlets on India published
    by many societies of London, the contemporary newspapers of India, and
    old magazines and journals of England furnish reliable source material of
    the history of these disturbances.

It is evident that very few persons can afford the time to peruse even a
moderate portion of the documents from which the history and character of
these disturbances can be told. I have been able to scrutinise and study a
portion of them and hope to do more in future, but this little book will
have served its purpose if it draws attention to the line of study thus
indicated, especially at this time when the History of the Freedom Movement
in India is being written.

The term 'Disturbance' has been used to imply every species of rebellion
and insurrection against the ruling authority started by large bodies of
people or by their chiefs or by both jointly, as also the revolt of the
ryots against their landed chiefs protected by British arms, and
depredations committed upon persons and property on either side. It also
includes purely political commotions originating from the conspiracy of
ambitious or disgruntled Indian rulers which were definitely of a
subversive character. It also relates to the many communal struggles of the
period which, on all accounts, disturbed the peace of the country. The
number of people who joined these different types of insurrection or took
part in other ways, or the amount of property actually destroyed, or the
casualties suffered on either side, and the area directly affected or the
effects of the excesses committed, cannot now be determined in every case
with the degree of accuracy the importance of the subject deserves.

Presidency College,
October, 1954, Calcutta
S. B. Chaudhuri

Approach to the subject

The hundred years which began with the battle of Plassey and ended with the
outbreak of the great revolt of 1857, constituted a clearly marked epoch of
Indian history. It passed through many stages, underwent different phases of
development, but as a whole, the Plassey epoch presented a singular unity in
its fundamentals : the rise of the British power in India, and the consequent
change, one of tremendous significance, in the economic and political
structure of the country.

Though not the first ot the foreign conquests of India, the British conquest
differed from its predecessors in that it was made by a people possessing a
highly developed civilization based on improved methods of production in
sharp contrast to the Asiatic conquerors who had previously ruled India. The
bourgeois revolution through which the English passed and the full support of
a bourgeois state which was extended to their mercantile enterprises enabled
the East India Company to eliminate even the competition of the French
Company...

The early period of British rule was characterised by commercial adventuring
on the part of a relatively small number of British expatriates, and the
excesses of the early conquistadores.  As the nineteenth century opened, the
rule passed slowly into the second phase of its development, and began to
disclose its expansionist tendencies which eventually culminated in the
conquest of the whole subcontinent after the suppression of the Mutiny of
1857.

Exploitation by the early conquistadores

These extracts from different sources will show that the evils of commercial
exploitation were aggravating the misery, and discontent of the people of
Bengal. 7


Mir Qasim's letter of March 26 1762, to the English governor:

	In every Perganah, every village, and every factory, they (the
	Company's Gomostahs) buy and sell salt, betel-nut, ghee, rice, straw,
	bamboos, fish, grannies, ginger, sugar, tobacco, opium, and many
	other things ...  They forcibly take away the goods and commodities
	of the Reiats, merchants and etc., for a fourth part of their value
	...

which followed up on an earlier complaint by Mir Jafar:

	The Poor of this country, who used always to deal in salt, Bettle
	Nut, and Tobacco, are now deprived of their daily Bread by the Trade
	of the Europeans.

Flogging of natives reluctant to sell at low prices

The picture of rapine and misery drawn by the nawab, headiug towards his
doom, is substantially borne out by the letter of Mahammad Ali, collector of
Dacca to the English governor at Calcutta in October 1762. [not quoted],
and the Rackergunge letter of sergeant Brego, of May 25, 1762:

	A gentleman sends a Gomastah here to buy or sell; he immediately
	looks upon himself as sufficient to force every inhabitant either to
	buy his goods or sell him theirs; and on refusal (in case of
	non-capacity) a flogging or confinement immediately ensues.

	This is not sufficient even when willing, but a second force is made
	use of, which is to engross the different branches of trade to
	themselves, and not to suffer any person to buy or sell the articles
	they trade in; and if the country people do it, then a repetition of
	their authority is put in practice; and again, what things they
	purchase, they think the least they can do is to take them for a
	considerable deal less than another merchant, and oftentimes refuse
	paying that; and my interfering occasions an immediate complaint.

	These, and many other oppressions more than can be related; which are
	daily used by the Bengal Gomastahs, is the reason that this place
	(Backerjunj, a, prosperous Bengal district) is growing destitute of
	inhabitants; every day numbers leave the town to seek a residence
	more safe, and the very markets, which before afforded plenty, do
	hardly now produce anything of use, their peons being allowed to
	force poor people...

	Before, justice was given in the public Catcheree, but now every
	Gomastah is become a judge, and every one's house a Catcheree; they
	even pass sentences on the Zemindars themselves, and draw money from
	them by pretended injuries,

		[quotation not in original, added from
		Vansittart's Narrative (1766)
		(Henry Vansittart was governor from 1760-64, and was
		responsible for replacing Mir Jafar with his son-in-law Mir
		Qasim.]

Governor Harry Verelst (1767-69) reported to the Court of directors of the
Company (19 February, 1767} that upon his arrival in Bengal (after Clive):

	We beheld a Presidency divided, headstrong and licentious; a
	government without nerves; a treasury without money, and a service
	without subordination, discipline, or public spirit. ... individuals
	were accumulating immense riches, which they had ravished from the
	insulted prince and his helpless people, who groaned under the united
	pressure of discontent, poverty, and oppression.
		(Verelst, A View of Bengal, 47).


Richard Becher, the Resident at Murshidabad who
is noted for his outspoken views, complained in a strain of exasperation
(1769) :

	I well remember this country when Trade was free, and the flourishing
	state it was then in ; with concern I now see its present ruinous
	condition which I am convinced is greatly owing to the Monopoly that
	has been made of late years in the Company's Name of almost all the
	Manufactures in the country. Let the Trade be made free, and th1s
	fine country will soon recover itself.
		[Quoted in Thompson and Garratt, Rise and Fulfillment (1958)]

Destroying the silk industry in Bengal

	quote from Edmund Burke : Ninth Report of the House of Commons, 1783,
	p. 64, and Appendix, 37·:


The Directors in their letter to Bengal, of 17 March, 1769, desired that
encouragement should be given for the manufacture of raw silk, but
'prohibition under severe penalties' should be enforced against the factory
work of the winders.  This policy of encouragement alternating with
prohibition operated in a malignant way to destroy the manufactures of
Bengal and left that country fit only for the production of crude materials
'subservient to the manufactures of Great Britain' .

To prevent Silk Winders from working in their private Houses, where they
might work for private Traders, and to confine them to the Company's
Factories, where they could where they could only be employed for the
company's benefit, they desire that the newly-acquired power of government
should be efiectually employed. ...

This letter contains a perfect plan of policy, both of compulsion and
encouragement, which must, in a very considerable degree, operate
destructively to the manufactures of Bengal. Its effect must be (so far as it
could operate without being eluded) to change the whole face of that
industrious country, in order to render it a field for the produce of crude
materials, subservient to the manufactures of Great Britain.

Contents

Preface 								ix-x
Acknowledgments								xi
Introduction 								xiii-xiv
Approach to the Subject  						xv-xxiii

Chapter I

Historical Background 							1-53

Chapter II : Bengal and Upper India

 1 Revolt of the Rajas of Dhalbhum (1769-74)
 2 Major Hannay's Black rule in Bihar (1778-81)
 3 Rebellion at Rangpur (1783)
 4 Rebellion at Bishnupur (1789):
 5 Rebellion of the Chuars (1799)
 6 Disturbances in Sylhet (1799)
 7 Revolt of Vizier Ali (1799)
 8 Disturbances in Bundelkhand (1808-12)
 9 Commotion at Benares (1810-11)
10 Rising at Bareilly (1816)
11 Conquest of the Fort of Hathras (1817)
12 Insurrection of the Paiks at Cuttack (1817-8)
13 Rising of the Gujars (1824)
14 Rebellion at Baraset (1831)
15 Explosion of the Kols (1831-2)
16 Revolt of Ganganarayan of Manbhum (1832)
17 Explosion of the Khasis (1829-33)
18 Insurrection of the Pagal Panthis at Sherpur (1833)
19 Explosion of the Kukis (1844-50)
20 Disturbances in Assam (1830-50)
21 Explosion of the Khonds (1846)'
22 Ferazi disturbances (1838-47)
23 Explosion of the Santals (1855-6)  					54-115

Chapter III : Madras and Southern India

24 Revolt of Vizieram Rauze (1794)
25 Revolt of Dhundia
in Bednur (1799-1800)
26 Revolt of the Pyche Raja (1796-1805)
27 Struggle of the Poligars in Tinneveli (1805)
28 Suppression of the Poligars in the Ceded Districts (1803-5)
29 Struggle of the Poligars in North Arcot (1803-5)
30 Struggle for independence in Travancore (1808-9)
31 Rebellion at Mysore (1830-31)
32 Disturbances in Parlakimedi Estates (1813-34)
33 Disturbances in Vizagapatam District (1830-34)
34 Struggle in Ganjam (1800-5) and Gumsur (1835-7)
35 Rising of Narasimha Reddi (1846-7) 					116-152

Chapter IV : Bombay and Western India

36 Risings at Kittur (1824 and 1829)
37 Rising of the Ramosis at Poona (1826-9)
38 Explosion of the Bhils (1818-31)
39 Disturbances in Cutch (1815-32)
40 Gadkari rising at Kolhapur (1844)
41 Koli Outrages (1828-30, 1839. and 1844-8)
42 Outbreak in Savantvadi (1844-50)
43 Survey Riot (1852)
44 Disturbances in the Bombay Presidency
45 Disturbances in Jat Rajput and Maratha countries
46 Disturbances in the Frontier Provinces 				153-181

Chapter V : Ceylon Burma and Malacca

CEYLON:
47 Struggle for independence in Ceylon (1803-5)
48 Explosion at Kandi (1817-8) 						182-187

BURMA
49 Thugyi rebellion at Sandoway (1829-31)
50 Rebellion of the Minlaungs
51 Revolt of Gaung Gyi (1853-8)
52 Disturbances in Burma ... 						187-195

MALACCA
53 Revolt of the Panghulu of Naning (1831-2>:

Chapter VI

Concluding Remarks 							198-219

Appendix-Communal Disturbances in India  				220
Political Map of India

Index 221-231