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Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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Karim Khan and the Nawab were both convicted of the crime, sentenced
to death, and executed at Delhi, I should mention that suspicion had
immediately attached to Karim Khan; he was known for some time to
have been lurking about Delhi, on the pretence of purchasing dogs;
and it was said that, had the Nawab really wanted dogs, he would not
have sent to purchase them by a man whom he admitted to his table,
and treated on terms of equality. He was suspected of having been
employed on such occasions before--known to be a good shot, and a
good rider, who could fire and reload very quickly while his horse
was in full gallop, and called in consequence the 'Bharmaru.'[16] His
horse, which was found in the stable by the Gujar spies, who had
before been in Mr. Fraser's service, answered the description given
of the murderer's horse by Mr. Fraser's attendants; and the Nawab was
known to cherish feelings of bitter hatred against Mr. Fraser.

The Nawab was executed some time after Karim, on Thursday morning,
the 3rd of October, 1835, close outside the north, or Kashmir Gate,
leading to the cantonments. He prepared himself for the execution in
an extremely rich and beautiful dress of light green, the colour
which martyrs wear; but he was made to exchange this, and he then
chose one of simple white, and was too conscious of his guilt to urge
strongly his claim to wear what dress he liked on such an occasion.

The following corps were drawn up around the gallows, forming three
sides of a square: the 1st Regiment of Cavalry, the 20th, 39th, and
69th Regiments of Native Infantry, Major Pew's Light Field Battery,
and a strong party of police. On ascending the scaffold, the Nawab
manifested symptoms of disgust at the approach to his person of the
sweeper, who was to put the rope round his neck;[17] but he soon
mastered his feelings, and submitted with a good grace to his fate.
Just as he expired his body made a last turn, and left his face
towards the _west_, or the _tomb of his Prophet_, which the
Muhammadans of Delhi considered a miracle, indicating that he was a
martyr--not as being innocent of the murder, but as being executed
for the murder of an unbeliever. Pilgrimages were for some time made
to the Nawab's tomb,[18] but I believe they have long since ceased
with the short gleam of sympathy that his fate excited. The only
people that still recollect him with feelings of kindness are the
prostitutes and dancing women of the city of Delhi, among whom most
of his revenues were squandered[19] In the same manner was Wazir Ali
recollected for many years by the prostitutes and dancing women of
Benares, after the massacre of Mr. Cherry and all the European
gentlemen of that station, save one, Mr. Davis, who bravely defended
himself, wife, and children against a host with a hog spear on the
top of his house. No European could pass Benares for twenty years
after Wazir Ali's arrest and confinement in the garrison of Fort
William, without hearing from the Windows songs in his praise, and in
praise of the massacre.[20]

It is supposed that the Nawab Faiz Muhammad Khan of Jhajjar was
deeply implicated in this murder, though no proof of it could be
found. He died soon after the execution of Shams-ud-din, and was
succeeded in his fief by his eldest son, Faiz Ali Khan.[21] This fief
was bestowed on the father of the deceased, whose name was Najabat
Ali Khan, by Lord Lake, on the termination of the war in 1805, for
the aid he had given to the retreating army under Colonel Monson.[22]

One circumstance attending the execution of the Nawab Shams-ud-din
seems worthy of remark. The magistrate, Mr. Frascott, desired his
crier to go through the city the evening before the execution, and
proclaim to the people that those who might wish to be present at the
execution were not to encroach upon the line of sentries that would
be formed to keep clear an allotted space round the gallows, nor to
carry with them any kind of arms; but the crier, seemingly retaining
in his recollection only the words _arms_ and _sentries_, gave out
after his 'Oyes, Oyes,'[23] that the sentries had orders to use their
arms, and shoot any man, woman, or child that should presume to go
outside the wall to look at the execution of the Nawab. No person, in
consequence, ventured out till the execution was over, when they went
to see the Nawab himself converted into smoke; as the general
impression was that as life should leave it, the body was to be blown
off into the air by a general discharge of musketry and artillery.
Moghal Beg was acquitted for want of judicial proof of his guilty
participation in the crime.


Notes:

1. The author's remarks concerning military officers refer to
officers serving with native regiments, now known as the Indian Army.
Before the institution of the reformed police in 1861 the native
troops used to be much scattered in detachments, guarding treasuries,
and performing other duties since entrusted to the police.
Detachments are now rarely sent out, except on frontier service.

2. Firozpur, the Firozpur-Jhirka of the _I.G._, is now the head-
quarters of a sub-collectorate in the Gurgaon district. The three
Districts of the Delhi Territories in Sleeman's time seem to have
been Delhi, Panipat (= Karnal), and Rohtak, which were under the
jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western
Provinces. In 1858, after the Mutiny, they were transferred to the
Panjab. Since then, many administrative changes have occurred. The
latest took place on October 1, 1912, on the occasion of Delhi
becoming the official capital of India, instead of Calcutta. The city
of Delhi with a small surrounding area, 557 square miles in all, now
forms a tiny distinct province, ruled by a Chief Commissioner under
the direct orders of the Government of India. The Delhi Division has
ceased to exist, and six Districts, namely, Hissar, Rohtak, Karnal,
Ambala (Umballa), Gurgaon, and Simla, now constitute the
Commissioner's Division of Ambala in the Panjab.

3. _Ante_, chapter 31, text between [10] and [11]. Some great
landholders of the present day pursue the same policy.

4. The story of the murder of Fraser is told very differently in
Bosworth-Smith's _Life of Lord Lawrence_, where all the detective
credit is given to Lord L., apparently on his own authority. See also
an article in the _Quarterly Review_ for April 1883, by Sir H. Yule,
and another in _Blackwoods Magazine_ for January 1878.

Miniature medallion portraits of Nawab Shams-ud-din and his servant
Karim Khan are given on the frontispiece of Volume II in the original
edition.

5. The inglorious second administration of Lord Cornwallis lasted
only from 30th of July, 1805, the date on which he relieved the
Marquis Wellesley, to the 5th of October of the same year, the date
of his death at Ghazipur. 'The Marquis Cornwallis arrived in India,
prepared to abandon, as far as might be practicable, all the
advantages gained for the British Government by the wisdom, energy,
and perseverance of his predecessor; to relax the bands by which the
Marquis Wellesley had connected the greater portion of the states of
India with the British Government; and to reduce that Government from
the position of arbiter of the destinies of India to the rank of one
among many equals.' His policy was zealously carried out by Sir
George Barlow, who succeeded him, and held office till July, 1807.
That statesman was not ashamed to write that 'the British possessions
in the Doab will derive additional security from the contests of the
neighbouring states'. (Thornton, _The History of the British Empire
in India_, chap. 21.) This fatuous policy produced twelve years of
anarchy, which were terminated by the Marquis of Hastings's great war
with the Marathas and Pindharis in 1817, so often referred to in this
book. Lord Lake addressed the most earnest remonstrances to Sir
George Barlow without avail.

6. Amin-ud-din and Zia-ud-din's mother was the Bhao Begam, or wife;
Shams-ud-din's the Bhao Khanum, or mistress. [W. H. S.]

7. Sir James Edward, third baronet, who died November 5, 1838. He was
paternal uncle of Henry Thomas Colebrooke, F.R.S., the greatest of
Anglo-Indian Sanskritists. The fifth baronet, Edward Arthur, was
created Baron Colebrooke in 1906.

8. Sir Charles Metcalfe was for a time Assistant Resident at Delhi,
and was first appointed to the Residency at the extraordinarily early
age of twenty-six. He was then transferred to other posts. In 1824 he
returned to the Delhi Residency, superseding Sir David Ochterlony,
whose measures had been disapproved by the Government of India. He
left the Residency in 1827.

9. The editor once had occasion to deal with a similar case, which
resulted in the loss by the offending Raja of his rank and title. The
orders were passed by the Government of Lord Dufferin.

10. Colonel Skinner, who raised the famous troops known as Skinner's
Horse, died in 1841, and was buried in the church of St. James at
Delhi which he had built. The church still exists. The Colonel
erected opposite the church, as a memorial of his friend Fraser, a
fine inlaid marble cross, which was destroyed in the Mutiny (General
Hervey, _Some Records of Crime_, vol. i, p. 403).

11. According to General Hervey, the provocation was that Mr. Fraser
had inquired from the Nawab about his sister by name (op. cit., p.
279).

12. I print this word 'Bulvemar's' as it stands in the original
edition, not knowing what it means.

13. The habits of Europeans have now changed, and to most people
escorts have become distasteful. High officials now constantly go
about unattended, and could be assassinated with little difficulty.
Happily crimes of the kind are rare, except on the Afghan frontier,
where special precautions are taken.

14. For the 'Baiza Bai' see _ante_, chapter 50 note 4. Hindoo Rao's
house became famous in 1857 as the head-quarters of the British force
on the Ridge, during the siege of Delhi.

15. Many of the Gujar caste are Muhammadans.

16. That is to say 'load and fire', or 'sharpshooter'.

17. No one but a member of one of the 'outcaste castes', if the
'bull' be allowable, will act as executioner.

18. This sinister incident shows clearly the real feeling of the
Muhammadan populace towards the ruling power. That feeling is
unchanged, and is not altogether confined to the Muslim populace. See
the following remark about the populace of Benares.

19. This remark was evidently written some time after the author's
first visit to Delhi, and probably was written in the year 1839.

20. On the death of Asaf-ud-daula, Wazir Ali was, in spite of doubts
as to his legitimacy, recognized by Sir John Shore (Lord Teignmouth)
as the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, in 1797. On reconsideration, the
Governor-General cancelled the recognition of Wazir Ali, and
recognized his rival Saadat Ali. Wazir Ali was removed from Lucknow,
but injudiciously allowed to reside at Benares. The Marquis
Wellesley, then Earl of Mornington, took charge of the office of
Governor-General in 1798, and soon resolved that it was expedient to
remove Wazir Ali to a greater distance from Lucknow. Mr. Cherry, the
Agent to the Governor-General, was accordingly instructed to remove
him from Benares to Calcutta. The outbreak alluded to in the text
occurred on January 14, 1799, and was the expression of Wazir Ali's
resentment at these orders. It is described as follows by Thornton
(_History_, chap. xvii): 'A visit which Wazir Ali made, accompanied
by his suite, to the British Agent, afforded the means of
accomplishing the meditated revenge. He had engaged himself to
breakfast with Mr. Cherry, and the parties met in apparent amity. The
usual compliments were exchanged. Wazir Ali then began to expatiate
on his wrongs; and having pursued this subject for some time, he
suddenly rose with his attendants, and put to death Mr. Cherry and
Captain Conway, an English gentleman who happened to be present. The
assassins then rushed out, and meeting another Englishman named
Graham, they added him to the list of their victims. They thence
proceeded to the house of Mr. Davis, judge and magistrate, who had
just time to remove his family to an upper terrace, which could only
be reached by a very narrow staircase. At the top of this staircase,
Mr. Davis, armed with a spear, took his post, and so successfully did
he defend it, that the assailants, after several attempts to dislodge
him, were compelled to retire without effecting their object. The
benefit derived from the resistance of this intrepid man extended
beyond his own family: the delay thereby occasioned afforded to the
rest of the English inhabitants opportunity of escaping to the place
where the troops stationed for the protection of the city were
encamped. General Erskine, on learning what had occurred, dispatched
a party to the relief of Mr. Davis, and Wazir Ali thereupon retired
to his own residence.' Wazir Ali escaped, but was ultimately given up
by a chief with whom he had taken refuge, 'on condition that his life
should be spared, and that his limbs should not be disgraced by
chains'. Some of his accomplices were executed. 'He was confined at
Port William, in a sort of iron cage, where he died in May, 1817,
aged thirty-six, after an imprisonment of seventeen years and some
odd months.' (_Men whom India has Known_, 2nd ed., 1874, art. 'Vizier
Ali.') But Beale asserts that after many years' captivity in
Calcutta, the prisoner was removed to Vellore, where he died (_Or.
Biogr. Dict._, ed. Keene, 1894, p. 416). It will be observed that the
author was mistaken in supposing that 'all the European gentlemen,
except Mr. Davis and his family, were included in the massacre.'

21. These names stand in the original edition as 'Tyz Mahomed Khan,
of Ghujper,' and 'Tyz Alee Khan'. In 1857 the then Nawab of Jhajjar
joined the rebels. He was accordingly hanged, and his estate was
confiscated. It is now included in the Rohtak District. See
Fanshawe's _Settlement Report_ of that District.


22. The disastrous retreat of Colonel Monson before Jeswant Rao
Holkar during the rainy season of 1804 is one of the few serious
reverses which have interrupted the long series of British victories
in India. A considerable force under the command of Colonel Monson,
sent out by General Lake at the beginning of May in pursuit of
Holkar, was withdrawn too far from its base, and was compelled to
retreat through Rajputana, and fall back on Agra. During the retreat
the rains broke, and, under pressure caused by the difficulties of
the march and incessant attacks of the enemy, the Company's troops
became disorganized, and lost their guns and baggage. The shattered
remnants of the force straggled into Agra at the end of August. The
disgrace of this retreat was speedily avenged by the great victory of
Dig.


23. This old Norman-French formula. Oyez, Oyez, meaning 'Hear!' is
still, or recently was, used at the Assizes in the High Court,
Calcutta. The formula would not now be heard at Delhi, or elsewhere
beyond the precincts of the High Court.




CHAPTER 65


Marriage of a Jat Chief.

ON the 19th[1] we came on to Balamgarh,[2] fifteen miles over a
plain, better cultivated and more studded with trees than that which
we had been coming over for many days before. The water was near the
surface, more of the field were irrigated, and those which were not
so looked better--[a] range of sandstone hills, ten miles off to the
west, running north and south. Balamgarh is held in rent-free tenure
by a young Jat chief, now about ten years of age. He resides in a mud
fort in a handsome palace built in the European fashion. In an
extensive orange garden, close outside the fort, he is building a
very handsome tomb over the spot where his father's elder brother was
buried. The whole is formed of white and black marble, and the firm
white sandstone of Rupbas, and so well conceived and executed as to
make it evident that demand is the only thing wanted to cover India
with works of art equal to any that were formed in the palmy days of
the Muhammadan empire.[3] The Raja's young sister had just been
married to the son of the Jat chief of Nabha, who was accompanied in
his matrimonial visit (barat) by the chief of Ludhaura, and the son
of the Sikh chief of Patiala,[4] with a _cortege_ of one hundred
elephants, and above fifteen thousand people.[5]

The young chief of Balamgarh mustered a _cortege_ of sixty elephants
and about ten thousand men to attend him out in the 'istikbal', to
meet and welcome his guests. The bridegroom's party had to expend
about six hundred thousand rupees in this visit alone. They scattered
copper money all along the road from their homes to within seven
miles of Balamgarh. From this point to the gate of the fort they had
to scatter silver, and from this gate to the door of the palace they
scattered gold and jewels of all kinds. The son of the Patiala chief,
a lad of about ten years of age, sat upon his elephant with a bag
containing six hundred gold mohurs of two guineas each, mixed up with
an infinite variety of gold earrings, pearls, and precious stones,
which he scattered in handfuls among the crowd. The scattering of the
copper and silver had been left to inferior hands. The costs of the
family of the bride are always much greater than that of the
bridegroom; they are obliged to entertain at their own expense all
the bridegroom's guests as well as their own, as long as they remain;
and over and above this, on the present occasion, the Raja gave a
rupee to every person that came, invited or uninvited. An immense
concourse of people had assembled to share in this donation, and to
scramble for the money scattered along the road; and ready money
enough was not found in the treasury. Before a further supply could
be got, thirty thousand more had collected, and every one got his
rupee. They have them all put into pens like sheep. When all are in,
the doors are opened at a signal given, and every person is paid his
rupee as he goes out. Some European gentlemen were standing upon the
top of the Raja's palace, looking at the procession as it entered the
fort, and passed underneath; and the young chief threw up some
handfuls of pearls, gold, and jewels among them. Not one of them
would of course condescend to stoop to take up any; but their
servants showed none of the same dignified forbearance.[6]


Notes:

1. January, 1836.

2. 'Balamgarh' is a mistake for Ballabgarh of _I. G._ (properly
Ballabhgarh), which is about twenty-four miles from Delhi. In 1857
the chief was hanged for rebellion. The estate was confiscated and
included in the Delhi District, under the Panjab Government. From
October 1, 1912, that District ceased to exist. Part of the
Ballabhgarh sub-district has been included in the new Chief
Commissioner's Province of Delhi, and part in the Gurgaon District.

3. Few observers will accept this proposition without considerable
reservation.

4. Patiala is the principal of the Cis-Satlaj Sikh Protected States.
Nabha belongs to the same group. Both states are very loyal, and
supply Imperial Service troops. For a sketch of their history see
chapters 2 and 9 of Sir Lepel Griffin's _Ranjit Singh_.

5. The Sikh is a military nation formed out of the Jats (who were
without a place among the castes of the Hindoos),[a] by that strong
bond of union, the love of conquest and plunder. Their religions and
civil codes are the Granths, books written by their reputed prophets,
the last of whom was Guru Govind,[b] in whose name Ranjit Singh
stamps his gold coins with this legend: 'The sword, the _pot_,
victory, and conquest were quickly found in the grace of Guru Govind
Singh,'[c] This prophet died insane in the end of the seventeenth
century. He was the son of a priest Teg Bahadur, who was made a
martyr of by the bigoted Muhammadans of Patna in 1675. The son became
a Peter the Hermit, in the same manner as Hargovind before him, when
his father, Arjun Mal, was made a martyr by the fanaticism of the
same people. A few more such martyrdoms would have set the Sikhs up
for ever. They admit converts freely, and while they have a fair
prospect of conquest and plunder they will find them; but, when they
cease, they will be swallowed up in the great ocean of Hinduism,
since they have no chance of getting up an 'army of martyrs' while we
have the supreme power.[d] They detest us for the same reason that
the military followers of the other native chiefs detest us, because
we say 'Thus far shall you go, and no farther' in your career of
conquest and plunder.[e] As governors, they are even worse than the
Marathas--utterly detestable. They have not the slightest idea of a
duty towards the people from whose industry they are provided. Such a
thing was never dreamed of by a Sikh. They continue to receive in
marriage the daughters of Jats, as in this case; but they will not
give their daughters to Jats. [W. H. S.]

6. The Emperors of Delhi, from Jahangir onwards, used to strike
special coins, generally of small size, bearing the word _nisar_,
which means 'scattering', for the purpose of distribution among the
crowd on the occasion of a wedding, or other great festivity.

a. It has already been observed that the author was completely
mistaken in his estimate of the social position of Jats. It is not
correct to say that they 'were without a place among the castes of
the Hindoos'. 'The Jat is in every respect the most important of the
Panjab peoples. . . . The distinction between Jat and Rajput is
social rather than ethnic. . . . Socially the Jat occupies a position
which is shared by the Ror, the Gujar, and the Ahir; all four eating
and smoking together. Among the races of purely Hindoo origin I think
that the Jat stands next after the Brahman, the Rajput, and the
Khatri. . . . There are Jats and Jats. . . . His is the highest of
the castes practising widow marriage.' (Ibbetson, _Outlines of Panjab
Ethnography_, Calcutta, 1883, pp. 220 sqq.) The Jats in the United
Provinces occupy much the same relative position.

b. The Sikhs are mostly, but not all, Jats. The organization is
essentially a religions one, and a few Brahmans and many members of
various other castes join it. Even sweepers are admitted with certain
limitations. The word Sikh means 'disciple'. Nanak Shah, the founder,
was born in A.D. 1469. The _Adi Granth_, the Sikh Bible, containing
compositions by Nanak, his next four successors, and other persons,
was completed in 1604. A second _Granth_ was compiled in 1734 by
Govind Singh, the tenth Guru. The only authoritative version of the
Sikh scriptures is the great work by Macauliffe, _The Sikh Religion_
(Oxford, 1909, 6 vols.).

The political power of the sect rested on the institutions of Guru
Govind, as framed between 1690 and 1708. In 1764 the Sikhs occupied
Lahore. Full details of their history will be found in Cunningham, _A
History of the Sikhs_ (1st ed., 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1849, suppressed
and scarce; 2nd ed. 1853); and more briefly in Sir Lepel Griffin's
excellent little book, _Ranjit Singh_ (Oxford, 'Rulers of India'
series, 1892).


c. See R. 0. Temple, 'The Coins of the Modern Chiefs of the Panjab'
(_Ind. Ant._, vol. xviii (1889), pp. 321-41); and C. J. Rodgers, 'On
the Coins of the Sikhs' (_J.A.S.B._, vol. 1. Part I (1881), pp. 71-
93). The couplet is in Persian, which may be transliterated thus:--

Deg, tegh, wa fath, wa nasrat be darang
Yaft az Nanak Guru Govind Singh.



The word _deg_, meaning pot or cauldron, is used as a symbol of
plenty. The correct rendering is:--

Plenty, the sword, victory, and help without delay,
Guru Govind Singh obtained from Nanak.

d. This prophecy has not been fulfilled. The annexation of the Panjab
in 1849 put an end to Sikh hopes of 'conquest and plunder', and yet
the sect has not been 'swallowed up in the great ocean of Hinduism'.
At the census of 1881 its numbers were returned as 1,853,426, or
nearly two millions, for all India. The corresponding figure for 1891
is 1,907,833. At the time of the first British census of 1855 the
outside influences were depressing: the great Khalsa army had fallen,
and Sikh fathers were slow to bring forward their sons for baptism
(_pahul_). The Mutiny, in the suppression of which the Sikhs took so
great a part, worked a change. The Sikhs recovered their spirits and
self-respect, and found honourable careers open in the British army
and constabulary. 'Thus the creed received a new impulse, and many
sons of Sikhs, whose baptism had been deferred, received the _pahul_,
while new candidates from among the Jats and lower caste Hindoos
joined the faith.' Some reaction then, perhaps, took place, but, on
the whole, the numbers of the sect have been maintained or increased.
(Sir Lepel Griffin, _Ranjit Singh_, pp. 25-34.) For various reasons,
which I have not space to explain, the statistics of Sikhism are
untrustworthy. The returns for 1911 show an increase of 37 per cent.
in the Panjab. We may, at least, be assured that the numbers are not
diminishing.

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