Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T02:30:16.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘The Habitual Nobility of Being’: British Officers and the Social Construction of the Bengal Army in the Early Nineteenth Century1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Douglas M. Peers
Douglas M. Peers
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The ethnocentric and racialist overtones of the Victorian empire have long been acknowledged. Most work in this field has generally centred on the mid to late nineteenth century and, by emphasizing the intellectual and cultural currents in domestic society, has focused our attention on the metropole. This reveals only part of the equation; British attitudes towards the outside world arose from a complex matrix of ideas, assumptions and contacts that linked the metropole and colonial environments. In order to understand more fully British responses to non-European societies, and the impact these had on imperial developments, this paper will examine the Bengal army in the 1820s and demonstrate that it was during this period, and under this institution, that many of the assumptions were established under which the later Raj would operate. Of great importance were experiences in the Burma War (1824–26) and the simultaneous mutiny at Barrackpore which, by bringing to the surface doubts about the loyalty and reliability of the Bengal army, hastened a transition from an army modelled on caste lines to one that rested principally on race. This transformation from a caste-based army to an army of martial races was not fully completed, although the foundations were laid, in the years before the Indian Mutiny of 1857, largely because even those who rejected Bengal's dependence upon the highest castes could not bring themselves to argue for the recruitment of the lowest castes no matter what ‘race’ they were drawn from.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 1991 , pp. 545 - 569
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 Lorimer, Douglas, Colour, Class and the Victorians (Leicester: Leicester Univ. Press, 1978)Google Scholar and Bolt, Christine, Victorian Attitudes to Race (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971) are two excellent examples.Google Scholar For a more recent discussion of race and empire which directly relates to India, see Washbrook, D. A., ‘Ethnicity and Racialism in Colonial Indian Society,’ Robert, Ross (ed.), Racism and Colonialism (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

3 Fortesque, J. W., A History of the British Army, 13 vols (London: Macmillan, 1899–1930)Google Scholar; Philip, Mason, A Matter of Honour; An Account of the Indian Army, its Officers and Men (London: Jonathan Cape, 1974).Google Scholar

4 Greenhut, Jeffrey, ‘Sahib and Sepoy: An Inquiry into the Relationship between the British Officer and Native Soldiers of the British Indian Army’, Military Affairs 48(1984), pp. 15–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Robertson, Thomas Campbell, The Political Prospects of British India (London: Thomas Hatchard, 1858), p. 44.Google Scholar

6 Shore, Frederick John, Notes on Indian Affairs (London: J. W. Parker, 1837), ii, pp. 479–80.Google Scholar

7 Oriental Herald XI (1826), p. 232.Google Scholar

8 Briggs, Asa, ‘The Language of “Class” in Early Nineteenth century England’, Flinn, and Smout, T. C. (eds), Essays in Social History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 155.Google Scholar

9 Evidence of Mackenzie, Holt, S. C. on East India Company Affairs (P. P., 1831/1832, Vol. XIII), p. 166.Google Scholar

10 Nottingham University, Bentinck, Memo on the Indian Army, 1825, PwJf 2739/i/iv (Bentinck Papers).Google Scholar

11 For a breakdown of these other castes, see Badenach, Walter, Inquiry into the State of the Indian Army (London: J. Murray, 1826).Google Scholar

12 Peers, Douglas M., ‘Between Mars and Mammon: The Military and the Political Economy of British India at the Time of the First Burma War, 1824–26’ (University of London, unpublished PhD thesis, 1988).Google Scholar

13 Evidence of Duff, James Grant, S. C. on East India Company Affairs (P.P., 1831/1832, Vol. XIII), p. 484.Google Scholar

14 IOL [India Office Library], memo by Lt Col. Frederick, 1828, Eur MS F765/3 (Frederick Papers).Google Scholar

15 Barat, Amiya, The Bengal Native Infantry: Its Organisation and Discipline, 1796–1852, (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1962), pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

16 Walsh, James, Military Reminiscences: Extracted from a Journal of Nearly Forty Years' Active Service in the East Indies (London: Smith, Elder and Co, 1830), i, p. 15.Google Scholar

17 See for example the comments made by Nicolls, Jasper in his letter to Stapleton Cotton, Lord Combermere, in Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, Dispatches, Correspondence and Memoranda (London: John Murray, 1867–1871), iv, pp. 148–9.Google Scholar In Bengal, the minimum standards for recruits were 5’8” versus 5’6” in Madras and Bombay. Bengal recruits were also required to weigh twenty pounds heavier than those in Madras. Singh, Madan Paul, The Indian Army under the East India Company (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1976), p. 251.Google Scholar

18 Stocqueler, J. H. (ed.), The Old Field Officer; Or the Military and Sporting Life of Major Worthington (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1853), i, pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

19 Spiers, Edward, The Army and Society, 1815–1914 (London: Longmans, 1980), pp. 48–9.Google Scholar

20 Nottingham University, Robertson, T. C., Memo on the Indian Army, 1827, PwJf 2584 (Bentinck Papers).Google Scholar

21 S. C. in East India Company Affairs (P. P., 1859, Vol. VIII), p. 173.Google Scholar

22 Ram, Sita, From Sepoy to Subedar: Being the Life and Adventures of Subedar Sita Ram, a Native Officer of the Bengal Army, Lunt, James, ed. (London: Macmillan, 1988), p. 4.Google Scholar

23 Nottingham University, Bentinck, Memo on the Indian Army, c. 1830, PwJf 2862/vi (Bentinck Papers).Google Scholar

24 Robertson, , Political Prospects, p. 21.Google Scholar

25 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, new series, X(1833), p. 214.Google Scholar

26 Military Letter to Bengal, 21 July 1822, L/MIL/5/386.

27 Evidence of Scott, Robert, S. C. on East India Company Affairs (P.P., 1831/1832, Vol. XIII), p. xxxii.Google Scholar

28 Jacob, (see fn. 1), p. 111.Google Scholar

29 Hervey, Albert, A Solidier of the Company: Life as an Indian Ensign, 1833–1843, Charles, Allen, ed. (London: Michael Joseph, 1988), p. 112.Google Scholar

30 [Carnaticus, ], Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, XI (1821), p. 65.Google Scholar

31 Arnold, W. D., Oakfield or Fellowship in the East (Leicester: University of Leicester reprint, 1973), ii, p. 116.Google Scholar

32 Nicolls to Combermere, 27 Oct. 1827, Wellington, , Dispatches, iv, p. 149.Google Scholar

33 IOL, Adjutant General to Frederick, 11 Sept. 1828, Eur MS F765/3 (Frederick Papers).

34 Jacob, , Tracts, p. 5.Google Scholar

35 Barat, , Bengal Native Infantry, pp. 189 and 195.Google Scholar

36 Stokes, Eric, The Peasant Armed: The Indian Revolt of 1857, edited by Bayly, C. A. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986), p. 49.Google Scholar

37 With regards to Brahmins in the Madras army, Jasper Nicolls recorded that they ‘adopt cheerfully the habits of the coast army’, Nicolls, to Combermere, 27 Oct. 1827, Dispatches, iv, p. 149.Google Scholar

38 Penner, Peter and Richard, Dale Maclean (eds), The Rebel Bureaucrat: Frederick John Shore as Critic of William Bentinck in India (Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1982), p. 13.Google Scholar

39 See Bayly, C. A., Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars; North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 (Cambridge: CUP, 1983), esp. pp. 51–7, 271–5Google Scholar; Stokes, Eric, ‘Agrarian Society and Pax Britannica in North India in the Early Nineteenth Century’, in Stokes, Peasant and the Raj (Cambridge: CUP, 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 Ram, Sita, Sepoy to Subedar, p. 5.Google Scholar

41 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, new series, X(1833), p. 209.Google Scholar

42 Hough, William, The Military Law Authorities (Calcutta: np, 1839), p. xiii.Google Scholar

43 Hough, William, A Casebook of European and Native Courts Martial, 1801–1821 (Calcutta: np, 1821), pp. 624–5.Google Scholar

44 Bentinck, William, Minute on Corporal Punishment, 16 02 1835, Philips, C. H. (ed.), The Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck (Oxford: OUP, 1977), ii, p. 1426.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., ii, p. 1429.

46 Siddiqi, Asiya, Agrarian Change in a North Indian State; United Provinces, 1819–1872 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1973), appendix 2. The impact of inflation on the sepoys was recognized by some contemporaries.Google Scholar See, for example, PRO [Public Record Office], Ellenborough, Memorandum on the Indian Army, Nov. 1830, 30/9/4/21 (Colchester Papers).

47 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, new series, X(1833), p. 210.Google Scholar See also Abridged General Orders of the Madras Presidency (Madras, 1840), p. 219Google Scholar and passim for details of the provisions made for the care of sepoy' families.

48 Jacob, (see fn. 1), p. 126.Google Scholar

49 NLS [National Library of Scotland], Melville to Dundas, 19 Oct. 1810, 1060, f. 190 (Melville Papers).

50 Arnold, , Oakfield, i, p. 231.Google Scholar

51 Nottingham University, Nicolls to Taylor, 29 Nov. 1826, PwJf 2743/I (Bentinck Papers).

52 IOL, Adam to Swinton, 24 Oct. 1823, Eur MS F109/J (Adam Papers).

53 IOL, Paget to Amherst, 25 Oct. 1823, Eur MS F140/79 (Amherst Papers).

54 Even a conservative estimate reveals that European units experienced a casualty rate of 45% with sepoy units much lower at 20%. Medical State of European Troops Overseas (P.P., 1842, Vol. XXVII), p. 255.Google Scholar

55 Doveton, F. B., Reminiscences of the Burmese War in 1824–5–6 (London: Allen and Co., 1852), p. 118.Google Scholar

56 A total of at least 15 books were published within ten years of the end of the war. See Peers, ‘Between Mars and Mammon’.

57 IOL, Amherst to Munro, 19 Feb. 1825, Eur MS, F140/74 (b) (Amherst Papers).

58 BL [British Library], Lt Blackwell's Diary, Add MS 39811, ff. 77–8, 93 and passim (Blackwell Papers).Google Scholar

59 IOL, Wynn to Amherst, 1 Aug. 1825, Eur MS F 140/104(d) (Amherst Papers).

60 William Bentinck, Minute on Military Policy, 13 March 1835, Philips, , Correspondence, ii, p. 1450.Google Scholar

61 S. C. on East India Company Affairs (P.P., 1831/1832, Vol. XIII), p. 165.Google Scholar

62 Fortesque, , History of the British Army, Vol. XI, p. 295.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., p. 350.

64 Ibid., p. 308.

65 Bruce, George, The Burma Wars: 1824–1886 (London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1973).Google Scholar

66 See [Veritas, ], ‘Siege of Bhurtpore’, Naval and Military Magazine, 3 (1828), pp. 396–408.Google Scholar In this article, the author takes exception with another author's interpretation of the events in which the were casually dismissed. An Old Indian [Gleig, G. R.], ‘The Indian Army’, Blackwoods 21 (1827), pp. 563–73.Google Scholar The pseudonym ‘An Old Indian’ is misleading for Gleig had never in his life visited India.

67 Evidence of Major General Reynell, reported in Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, new series, X(1833), p. 215.Google Scholar

68 Doveton, , Reminiscences of the Burmese War, p. 293.Google Scholar

69 Oriental Herald 7(1825), pp. 567–8.Google Scholar See also Belich, The New Zealand Wars for other examples of this craft.

70 IOR, Cunliffe to Military Department, 2 Jan. 1827, H/MISC/670/14.

71 Ibid.

72 IOR, Bengal military letter to Court of Directors, 20 April 1825, L/MIL/3/21.

73 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, new series, 19(1825), p. 469.Google Scholar

74 SRO [Scottish Record Office], Ramsay to Dalhousie, 10 Nov. 1824, GD45/5/4 (Dalhousie Muniments).

75 Barat, , Bengal Native Infantry, p. 196.Google Scholar

76 Robertson, Thomas Campbell, Political Incidents of the Burma War (London: Richard Bentley, 1853), pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

77 Diary of Dempster, Thomas, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 54(1976), pp. 3–14.Google Scholar

78 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, 19(1825), p. 469.Google Scholar

79 IOR, Minutes of Evidence, 18 Nov. 1824, L/MIL/5/389/124(a).

80 Peers, ‘Between Mars and Mammon’, ch. 4.

81 He wrote to his wife that ‘My aversion to this country, and to all its concerns so daily increases in growth that I am in a state of constant terror … of any intentions to condemn me to another year's purgatory here’, quoted in Paget, Edward, Letters and Memorials of General the Honourable Sir Edward Paget (London: privately printed, 1898), pp. 176–7.Google Scholar

82 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, 19(1825), pp. 697–8.Google Scholar

83 Ibid., p. 468.

84 IOR, ‘State of the Native Army’, 1828, L/MIL/5/468.

85 Oriental Herald 5(1826), p. 16.Google Scholar

86 University of Southampton, Wellington to Liverpool, 10 Oct. 1825, WP1/830/12 (Wellington Papers); BL, Wellington to Liverpool, 30 Oct. 1825, Add MS 38196, f. 133. (Liverpool Papers).

87 ‘The Bengal Army’, East India United Services Journal 4(1833), p. 492.Google Scholar

88 IOL, Wynn to Munro, 29 March 1826, Eur MS F151/72 (Munro Papers).

89 Nottingham University, Bentinck to Ravenshaw, 17 Nov. 1832, PwJf 2685 (Bentinck Papers).

90 He advocated changing the ratio of Indians to Europeans from 9 to 1 to 3 to 1. Nottingham University, Bentinck, Memo on the Bengal Army, 1832, PwJf 2668 (Bentinck Papers).

91 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register 20 (1825), p. 223.Google Scholar

92 ‘Considerations on the Native Army and General Defence of India’, United Services Journal 3(1831), p. 4.Google Scholar

93 Nicolls, to Combermere, 27 10 1827, Dispatches, iv, p. 154.Google Scholar

94 Major Lovett, Alfred Crowdy and SirMacMunn, George Fletcher, The Armies of India (London, 1911), p. 2.Google Scholar

95 Jacob, , p. 2.Google Scholar

96 S.C. on East India Company Affairs (P.P., 1831/1832, Vol. XIII), p. lv.Google Scholar

97 Arnold, David, ‘White Colonization and Labour in 19th Century India’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 11 (1983), pp. 133–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

98 Jacobs, , pp. 102–3.Google Scholar

99 S.C. on East India Company Affairs (P.P., 1831/1832, Vol.XIII), appendix a, no. 3.Google Scholar See also [Finbrace, Col.], ‘A Chapter in the History of John Company’, United Service Journal 3(1844), pp. 33–44.Google Scholar

100 Barat, , Bengal Native Infantry, p. 70.Google Scholar

101 Gleig, G. R., The Life of Major General Sir Thomas Munro (London: Colbourn and Bentley, 1830), ii, p. 407.Google Scholar

102 Nicolls, to Taylor, 11 1827, Dispatches, iv, p. 148.Google Scholar

103 Penner, and Maclean, (eds), Rebel Bureaucrat, p. 283.Google Scholar

104 Nicolls, to Combermere, 27 10 1827, Dispatches, iv, p. 156.Google Scholar

105 Jacob, , p. 1.Google Scholar

106 IOR, Draft Analysis of Evidence, 1826, L/MIL/5/402/202.

107 Munro to Hastings, 12 Nov. 1818, Gleig, , Munro, ii, p. 85.Google Scholar

108 Lovett, and MacMunn, , Armies of India, p. 211.Google Scholar