Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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After the death of Le Vaisseau, the command devolved on Monsieur
Saleur, a Frenchman, the only respectable officer who signed the
covenant; he had taken no active part in the mutiny; on the contrary,
he had done all he could to prevent it; and he was at last, with
George Thomas, the chief means of bringing his brother officers back
to a sense of their duty. Another battalion was added to the four in
1787, and another raised in 1798 and 1802; five of the six marched
under Colonel Saleur to the Deccan with Sindhia. They were in a state
of mutiny the whole way, and utterly useless as auxiliaries, as
Saleur himself declared in many of his letters written in French to
his mistress the Begam. At the battle of Assaye, four of these
battalions were left in charge of the Maratha camps. One was present
in the action and lost its four guns. Soon after the return of these
battalions, the Begam entered into an alliance with the British
Government; the force then consisted of these six battalions, a party
of artillery served chiefly by Europeans, and two hundred horse. She
had a good arsenal well stored, a foundry for cannon, both within the
walls of a small fortress, built near her dwelling at Sardhana. The
whole cost her about four lakhs of rupees a year; her civil
establishments eighty thousand, and her household establishments and
expenses about the same; total six lakhs of rupees a year. The
revenues of Sardhana, and the other lands assigned at different times
for the payment of the force had been at no time more than sufficient
to cover these expenses; but under the protection of our Government
they improved with the extension of tillage, and the improvements of
the surrounding markets for produce, and she was enabled to give
largely to the support of charitable institutions, and to provide
handsomely for the support of her family and pensioners after her
death.'[33]

Sombre's son, Zafaryab Khan, had a daughter who was married to
Colonel Dyce, who had for some time the management of the Begam's
affairs; but he lost her favour long before her death by his violent
temper and overbearing manners, and was obliged to resign the
management to his son, who, on the Begam's death, came in for the
bulk of her fortune, or about sixty lakhs of rupees. He has two
sisters who were brought up by the Begam, one married to Captain
Troup, an Englishman, and the other to Mr. Salaroli, an Italian, both
very worthy men. Their wives have been handsomely provided for by the
Begam, and by their brother, who trebled the fortunes left to them by
the Begam.[34] She built an excellent church at Sardhana, and
assigned the sum of 100,000 rupees as a fund to provide for its
service and repairs; 50,000 rupees as another [fund] for the poor of
the place; and 100,000 as a third, for a college in which Roman
Catholic priests might be educated for the benefit of India
generally. She sent to Rome 150,000 rupees to be employed as a
charity fund at the discretion of the Pope; and to the Archbishop of
Canterbury she sent 50,000 for the same purpose. She gave to the
Bishop of Calcutta 100,000 rupees to provide teachers for the poor of
the Protestant church in Calcutta. She sent to Calcutta for
distribution to the poor, and for the liberation of deserving
debtors, 50,000. To the Catholic missions at Calcutta, Bombay, and
Madras she gave 100,000; and to that of Agra 50,000. She built a
handsome chapel for the Roman Catholics at Meerut; and presented the
fund for its support with a donation of 12,000; and she built a
chapel for the Church Missionary at Meerut, the Reverend Mr.
Richards, at a cost of 10,000, to meet the wants of the native
Protestants.[35]

Among all who had opportunities of knowing her she bore the character
of a kind-hearted, benevolent, and good woman; and I have conversed
with men capable of judging, who had known her for more than fifty
years. She had uncommon sagacity and a masculine resolution; and the
Europeans and natives who were most intimate with her have told me
that though a woman and of small stature, her 'ru'b' (dignity, or
power of commanding personal respect) was greater than that of almost
any person they had ever seen.[36] From the time she put herself
under the protection of the British Government, in 1808, she by
degrees adopted the European modes of social intercourse, appearing
in public on an elephant, in a carriage, and occasionally on
horseback with her hat and veil, and dining at table with gentlemen.
She often entertained Governors-General and Commanders-in-Chief, with
all their retinues, and sat with them and their staff at table, and
for some years past kept an open house for the society of Meerut; but
in no situation did she lose sight of her dignity. She retained to
the last the grateful affections of the thousands who were supported
by her bounty, while she never ceased to inspire the most profound
respect in the minds of those who every day approached her, and were
on the most unreserved terms of intimacy.[37]

Lord William Bentinck was an excellent judge of character; and the
following letter will show how deeply his visit to that part of the
country had impressed him with a sense of her extensive usefulness:

'To Her Highness the Begum Sumroo.

'My esteemed Friend,--I cannot leave India without expressing the
sincere esteem I entertain for your highness's character. The
benevolence of disposition and extensive charity which have endeared
you to thousands, have excited in my mind sentiments of the warmest
admiration; and I trust that you may yet be preserved for many years,
the solace of the orphan and widow, and the sure resource of your
numerous dependants. To-morrow morning I embark for England; and my
prayers and best wishes attend you, and all others who, like you,
exert themselves for the benefit of the people of India.

'I remain,
'With much consideration,
'Your sincere friend,
(Signed) 'M. W. BENTINCK.[38]

'Calcutta, March 17th, 1835.'

Notes:

1. The reader will observe that the lady's name is spelt Sumroo in
the heading and Sombre in the text. The form Samru, or Shamru,
transliterates the Hindustani spelling.

2. The author means General Regholini who was in the Begam's service
at the time of her death. (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. iii, p.
295.) The church, or cathedral, was consecrated in 1822, and coat
400,000 rupees. A portrait of the General, from Sardhana, is now in
the Indian Institute, Oxford, which also possesses a portrait of the
Bishop.

The best account of Begum Sumroo is to be found in _A Tour through
the Upper Provinces of Hindustan_, 1804-14, by A. D. = Ann Deane
(1823). Walter Scott introduces more than one of the stories about
the Begum into _The Surgeon's Daughter_ (1827), e.g.: "But not to be
interred alive under your seat, like the Circassian of whom you were
jealous," said Middlemas, shuddering (vol. 48, Black's ed. of the
novels, p. 382).

3. The Begam's benefactions are detailed _post_.

4. 'This remarkable woman was the daughter, by a concubine, of Asad
Khan, a Musalman of Arab decent settled in the town of Kutana in the
Meerut district. She was born about the year A.D. 1753 [see _post_.]
On the death of her father, she and her mother became subject to ill-
treatment from her half-brother, the legitimate heir, and they
consequently removed to Delhi about 1760. There she entered the
service of Sumru, and accompanied him through all his campaigns.
Sumru, on retiring to Sardhana, found himself relieved of all the
cares and troubles of war, and gave himself entirely up to a life of
ease and pleasure, and so completely fell into the hands of the Begam
that she had no difficulty in inducing him to exchange the title of
mistress for that of wife.' (E. T. Atkinson in _N.W.P. Gazetteer_,
1st ed., vol. ii, p. 95. The authorities for the history of Begum
Samru are very conflicting. Atkinson has examined them critically,
and his account probably is the best in existence.) An anonymous
pamphlet published apparently at Sardhana and sent to the editor
anonymously long ago, gives the name of the Begam's father as 'Lutf
Ali Khan, a decayed nobleman of Arabian descent' living at Kotana.
Some writers state that the Begam was a dancing girl, and was bought
by Sumroo. Her name was Zeb-un-nissa.

5. This first wife died at Sardhana during the rainy season of 1838.
She must have been above one hundred years of age; and a good many of
the Europeans that he buried in the Sardhana cemetery had lived above
a hundred years. [W. H. S.] She was a concubine, named Baha Begam.
(_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. iii, p. 96.)

6. His name is spelt Reinhard on his tombstone, as in the text. It is
also spelt Renard. According to some authorities, his birthplace was
Treves, not Salzburg. He is said to have been a butcher by trade, and
certainly deserted from both the French and the English services.

7. A more probable explanation is that the name is a corruption of an
alias, Summers, assumed by the deserter.

8. Kasim Ali Khan is generally referred to in the histories under the
name of Mir Kasim (Meer Cossim). Mir Jafir was deposed in 1760, and
his son-in-law Mir Kasim was placed on the throne of Bengal in his
stead by the English. The history of Mir Kasim is told in detail by
Thornton in his sixth chapter, and also by Mill.

9. Probably 'Gorgin' is a corruption of 'Gregory'. This name may be a
corruption of 'Georgian'.

10. Mill observes upon these transactions: 'The conduct of the
Company's servants upon this occasion furnishes one of the most
remarkable instances upon record of the power of self-interest to
extinguish all sense of justice and even of shame. They had hitherto
insisted, contrary to all right and all precedent, that the
government of the country should exempt all their goods from duty;
they now insisted that it should impose duties upon all other
traders, and accused it as guilty of a breach of the peace towards
the English nation, because it proposed to remit them.' [W. H. S.]
The quotation is from Book iv, chapter 5 (5th ed., 1858, vol. iii, p.
237).

11. The 3rd of October was the day of slaughter at Patna. The
Europeans at other places in Mir Kasim's power were also massacred;
and the total number slain, men, women, and children, amounted to
about two hundred. Sumroo personally butchered about one hundred and
fifty at Patna.

12. Our troops, under Sir David Ochterlony, took the fort of
Makwanpur in 1815, and might in five days have been before the
defenceless capital; but they were here arrested by the romantic
chivalry of the Marquis of Hastings. The country had been virtually
conquered; the prince, by his base treachery towards us and outrages
upon others, had justly forfeited his throne; but the Governor-
General, by perhaps a misplaced lenity, left it to him without any
other guarantee for his future good behaviour than the recollection
that he had been soundly beaten. Unfortunately he left him at the
same time a sufficient quantity of fertile land below the hills to
maintain the same army with which he had fought us, with better
knowledge how to employ them, to keep us out on a future occasion.
Between the attempt of Kasim Ali and our attack upon Nepal, the
Gorkha masters of the country had, by a long series of successful
aggressions upon their neighbours, rendered themselves in their own
opinion and in that of their neighbours the beat soldiers of India.
They have, of course, a very natural feeling of hatred against our
government, which put a stop to the wild career of conquest, and
wrested from their grasp all the property and all the pretty women
from Kathmandu to Kashmir. To these beautify regions they were what
the invading Huns were in former days to Europe, absolute fiends. Had
we even exacted a good road into their country with fortifications at
the proper places, it might have checked the hopes of one day
resuming the career of conquest that now keeps up the army and
military spirit, to threaten us with a renewal of war whenever we are
embarrassed on the plains. [W. H. S.]

The author's uneasiness concerning the attitude of Nepal was
justified. During the Afghan troubles of 1838-43 the Nepalese
Government was in constant communication with the enemies of the
Indian Government. The late Maharaja Sir Jang Bahadur obtained power
in 1846, and, after his visit to England in 1850, decided to abide by
the English alliance. He did valuable service in 1857 and 1858, and
the two governments have ever since maintained an unbroken, though
reserved, friendship. The Gorkha regiments in the English service are
recruited in Nepal.

13. Aasaye (Assye, Asai) is in the Nizam's dominions. Here, on the
23rd of September, 1803, Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of
Wellington, with less than 5,000 men, defeated the Maratha host of at
least 32,000 men, including more than 10,000 under European leaders.
Ajanta, or Ajanta Ghat, is in the same region. (Owen, _Sel. from
Wellington Despatches_ (1880), pp. 301-9.)

14. His tombstone bears a Portuguese inscription:
'Aqui iaz Walter Reinhard, morreo aos 4 de Mayo no anno de 1778.'
(_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 96.)

15. According to this statement she must have been born in or about
1741, not in 1753, as stated by Atkinson. If the earlier date were
correct, she would have been ninety-five when she died in 1836.
Higginbotham, referring to Bacon's work, says she died at the age of
eighty-nine, which places her birth in 1747. According to Beale, she
was aged eighty-eight lunar years when she died, on the 27th January,
1836, equivalent to about eighty-five solar years. This computation
places her birth in A.D. 1751, which may be taken as the correct
date. The date of her baptism is correctly stated in the text.

16. She added the name Nobilis, when she married Le Vaisseau.
(_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 106, note.)

17. The author spells the German's name Pauly; I have followed
Atkinson's spelling. The man was assassinated in 1783.

18. This circumstance indicates that the execution of the slave girls
took place in 1782. (See _N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 91.)

19. The darker aide of the Begam's character is shown by the story of
the slave girl's murder. By some it is said that the girl's crime
consisted in her having attracted the favourable notice of one of the
Begam's husbands. Whatever may have been the offence, her barbarous
mistress visited it by causing the girl to be buried alive. The time
chosen for the execution was the evening, the place the tent of the
Begam; who caused her bed to be arranged immediately over the grave,
and occupied it until the morning, to prevent any attempt to rescue
the miserable girl beneath. By acts like this the Begam inspired such
terror that she was never afterwards troubled with domestic
dissensions.' (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. ii, p. 110.) It will
be observed that this version mentions only one girl. According to
Higginbotham (_Men whom India has Known_, 2nd ed., s.v. 'Sumroo'),
this execution took place on the evening of the day on which Le
Vaisseau perished in 1795. (See _post._) He adds that 'it is said
that this act preyed upon her conscience in after life'. This account
professes to be based on Bacon's _First Impressions and Studies from
Nature in Hindustan_, which is said to be 'the most reliable, as the
author saw the Begam, attended and conversed with her at one of her
levees, and gained all his information at her Court'. But Bacon's
account of the Begam's history, as quoted by Higginbotham, is full of
gross errors; and Sir William Sleeman may be relied on as giving the
most accurate obtainable version of the horrid story. He had the beat
possible opportunities, as well as a desire, to ascertain the truth.

20. Atkinson (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii, p. 106) uses the spelling
Le Vaisseau, which probably is correct, and observes that the name is
also written Le Vassont. The author writes Le Vassoult; and Francklin
(_Military Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas_, London, 8vo reprint
(Stockdale), p. 55) spells the name phonetically as Levasso. 'On
every occasion he was the declared and inveterate enemy of Mr.
Thomas.'

21. Thomas was an Irishman, born in the county of Tipperary. 'From
the best information we could procure, it appears that Mr. George
Thomas first came to India in a British ship of war, in 1781-2. His
situation in the fleet was humble, having served as a quarter-master,
or, as is affirmed by some, in the capacity of a common sailor. . . .
His first service was among the Polygars to the southward, where he
resided a few years. But at length setting out overland, he
spiritedly traversed the central part of the peninsula, and about the
year 1787 arrived at Delhi. Here he received a commission in the
service of the Begam Sumroo. . . . Soon after his arrival at Delhi,
the Begam, with her usual judgement and discrimination of character,
advanced him to a command in her army. From this period his military
career in the north-west of India may be said to have commenced.'
Owing to the rivalry of Le Vaisseau, Thomas 'quitted the Begam
Sumroo, and about 1792 betook himself to the frontier station of the
British army at the post of Anopshire (Anupshahr). . . . Here he
waited several months. . . . In the beginning of the year 1793, Mr.
Thomas, being at Anopshire, received letters from Appakandarow
(Apakanda Rao), a Mahratta chief, conveying offers of service, and
promises of a comfortable provision.' (Francklin, op. cit., p. 20.)
The author states that Thomas left the Begam's service in 1793, after
her marriage with Le Vaisseau in that year. Francklin (see also p.
55) was clearly under the impression that the marriage did not take
place till after Thomas had thrown up his command under the Begam. He
made peace with her in 1795. The capital of the principality which he
carved out for himself in 1798 was at Hansi, eighty-nine miles north-
west of Delhi. He was driven out at the close of 1801, entered
British territory in January 1802, and died on the 22nd of August in
that year at Barhampur, being about forty-six years of age. A son of
his was an officer in the Begam's service at the time of her death in
1836. A great-granddaughter of George Thomas was, in 1867, the wife
of a writer on a humble salary in one of the Government offices at
Agra. (Beale.)

22. This incident happened in 1788. (See _N.W.P. Gazetteer_, vol. ii,
p. 99; _I.G._, 1908, vol. xii, p. 106.)

23. 'A more competent estimate may perhaps be formed of his abilities
if we reflect on the nature and extent of one of his plans, which he
detailed to the compiler of these memoirs during his residence at
Benares. When fixed in his residence at Hansi, he first conceived,
and would, if unforeseen and untoward circumstances had not occurred,
have executed the bold design of extending his conquests to the
mouths of the Indus. This was to have been effected by a fleet of
boats, constructed from timber procured in the forests near the city
of Firozpur, on the banks of the Satlaj river, proceeding down that
river with his army, and settling the countries he might subdue on
his route; a daring enterprise, and conceived in the true spirit of
an ancient Roman. On the conclusion of this design it was his
intention to turn his arms against the Panjab, which he expected to
reduce in a couple of years; and which, considering the wealth he
would then have acquired, and the amazing resources he would have
possessed, these successes combined would doubtless have contributed
to establish his authority on a firm and solid basis.' He offered to
conquer the Panjab on behalf of the Government of India, for the
welfare of his king and country. (Francklin, pp. 334-6.)

24. A small town in the Bulandshahr district of the North-Western
Provinces, seventy-three miles south-east of Delhi. Its fort used to
be considered strong and of strategical importance.

25. Afterwards Lord Teignmouth.

26. Major Bernier was killed at the storm of Hansi in 1801. His
tombstone at Barsi village was found ninety years later (_Pioneer_,
Dec. 14, 1894). For epitaph of Joseph Even Bahadur see _N.I.N. &
Qu._, vol. i, note 265.

27. Francklin says that the troops overtook the fugitives 'at the
village of Kerwah, in the begum's jaghire, four miles distant from
her capital', (p. 58.)

28. 'For three days it lay exposed to the insults of the rabble, and
was at length thrown into a ditch.' (Francklin, p. 60.)

29. According to George Thomas (whose version of the story is given
by his biographer), the Begam, when the mutiny broke out, was
actually preparing to attack Thomas. A German officer, known only as
the Liegeois, strenuously dissuaded the Begam from the proposed
hostilities, and was, in consequence, degraded by Le Vaisseau. The
troop then mutinied, and swore allegiance to Zafar Yab Khan.
(Francklin, p. 37.)

30. Thomas says that the overtures came from the Begam. 'In a manner
the most abject and desponding, she addressed Mr. Thomas . . .
implored him to come to her assistance, and, finally, offered to pay
any sum of money the Marathas should require, on condition they would
reinstate her in the Jagir. On receipt of these letters, Mr. Thomas,
by an offer of 120,000 rupees, prevailed on Bapu Sindhia to make a
movement towards Sardhana.' After negotiation, Thomas marched to
Khatauli, and 'publicly gave out that unless the Begam was reinstated
in her authority, those who resisted must expect no mercy; and to
give additional weight to this declaration, he apprised them that he
was acting under the orders of the Maratha chiefs.' After some
difficulty, 'she was finally reinstated in the full authority of her
Jagir'. This version of the affair, it will be noticed, does not
quite agree with that given more briefly by the author.

31. The paper was written by a Muhammadan, and he would not write
Christ _the Son of God_. It is written 'In the name of God, and his
Majesty Christ'. The Muhammadans look upon Christ as the greatest of
prophets before Muhammad; but the most binding article of their faith
is this from the Koran, which they repeat every day: 'I believe in
God, who was never begot, nor has ever begotten, nor will ever have
an equal,'--alluding to the Christians' belief in the Trinity. [W. H.
S.] For Mohammed's opinion of Jesus Christ see especially chapters 4
and 5 of the Koran.

32. To my mind the circumstances all tend to throw suspicion on the
Begam. The author evidently was disposed to form the beat possible
opinion of her character and acts.

33. After the Begam's death the revenue settlement of the estate was
made by Mr. Plowden, who writes in his report, as quoted in _N.W.P.
Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. iii, p. 432, 'The rule seems to have been
fully recognized and acted up to by the Begam which declared that,
according to Muhammadan law, "there shall be left for every man who
cultivates his lands as much as he requires for his own support, till
the next crop be reaped, and that of his family, and for seed. This
much shall be left to him; what remains is land-tax, and shall go to
the public treasury." For, considering her territory as a private
estate and her subjects as serfs, she appropriated the whole produce
of their labour, with the exception of what sufficed to keep body and
soul together. It was by these means . . . that a factitious state of
prosperity was induced and maintained, which, though it might, and I
believe did, deceive the Begam's neighbours into an impression that
her country was highly prosperous, could not delude the population
into content and happiness. Above the surface and to the eye all was
smiling and prosperous, but within was rottenness and misery. Under
these circumstances the smallness of the above arrear is no proof of
the fairness of the revenue. It rather shows that the collections
were as much as the Begam's ingenuity could extract, and this balance
being unrealizable, the demand was, by so much at least, too high.'
The statistics alluded to are:

Average demand of the portions of the Begam's Rs.
Territory in the Meerut district . . . . 5.86.650
Average collections . . . . . . 5.67.211
Balances . . . . . . . . 19.439

'Ruin was impending, when the Begam's death in January, 1836, and the
consequent lapse of the estate to the British, induced the
cultivators to return to their homes.'

Details of the Begam's military forces are given in _N.W.P.
Gazetteer_, vol. iii, p. 295. For the last thirty years of her life
the Begam had no need for the large force (3,371 officers and men,
with 44 guns) which she maintained. In her excessive expenditure on a
superfluous army, in her niggardly provision for civil
administration, and in her merciless rack-renting, she followed the
evil example of the ordinary native prince, and was superior only in
the unusual ability with which she worked an unsound and oppressive
System. She left L700,000. The population of Sardhana town has risen
from 3,313 in 1881 to 9,242 in 1911.