Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 329

NOVEMBER, 1923 )
IN THE CENTURY BEFORE THE MUTINY
313
novel occurrence. Calm consideration will show that in the conditions it must always be a liability to be guarded against. This liability to get out of hand did not, however, mean that in time of war the Sepoy Armies were not to be relied on. Their whole history shows the converse. The emotions actuating the fighting man, as the sepoy has always been in war and activity, are not those that move him in peace and in action. This same martial capacity has also made him work side by side in a spirit of true comradeship with that other fighting man par excellence, the British soldier.
The Bengal Army in 1857 was not conducted on the ideal principles, which guided the founders of the Sepoy system. Originally the Bombay and Madras Regiments consisted of high caste Hindus and good class Muhammadans, but soon different castes and races entered and made a successful blend. However, when Clive used his experiences at Arcot and in the South generally, and formed the Bengal force that fought under him at Plassey, it consisted chiefly of Brahmans and high caste Hindus. This peculierity the Bengal Army retained right up to the Mutiny of 1857, but otherwise it was run on the same general principles as its predecessors. But there came changes. The number of the European officers increased and the influence of the native officers decreased. The constant widening of the British territories and military responsibilities led to the raising of many irregular troops to which the best officers went. The officers left behind began to lose influence and the men their old sense of discipline. l'ay, allowances, and pecuniary rewards were interfered with, which caused the deepest dissatisfaction. The practices of the other armies showed that caste prejudices were given too much prominence. Promotion of British Officers went by seniority and thus too old or incompetent men occupied the higher commands. In consequence of all this an insubordinate spirit increasingly prevailed. Add the national liability of the sepoy to credit any story of a cock and a bull that any rascal chose to bring to him and it will be perceived that by 1857 the Army was oftener than not ready to Mutiny. Add again the political unrest caused by the progressivo British supremacy over the native rulers and their dependants during a long period, and to that neglect to maintain anything like a sufficient proportion (it approached one to six in the most favourable view) of British to native troops, and the withdrawal of some of the former for the wars in Persia and China. Then one realises that the native leaders began to think that they had before them a real chance to upset the British power, and that the sepoy began to bo puffed up with his own importance and to think that he could safely try conclusions with his British Officers.
In 1857 the Bengal Army was indeed ripe for Mutiny. Many competent lookers-on in India saw this and kept on insisting on it, though the seniority-promoted officers in immediate command were blind. Dalhousie, too, saw that generally the position was dangerous and proposed an increase in the British and a decrease in the sepoy forces. But he was sick unto death, and his successor, Lord Canning, arrived just in time to face the irruption of the long-rumbling volcano.1
1 Mr. F. W. Buckler of Cambridge read a lecture on the Political Theory of the Indian Mutiny beforo the Royal Historical Society on January 12, 1922, which has been printed in its Transactions, 4th fries, vol. V, pp. 71--100. In this lecturo he propounds an entirely new theory of the causes of the Indian Mutiny, with a large number of notes giving the places where the data for his statements are to be found, many of them French sources. In the small space available to him he has not been able to do inore than merely state his conclusions, which are, however, so novel and so subversive of the views I have expressed in the present text that I can do no more than just allude to them. No doubt in time Mr. Buckler will further elucidate his ideas at greater length and with more detailed references to his authorities. His main theory is perhaps best expressed by a sentence on pago 29 : "the main cause, then, was the treatment [by the English) of the Emperor [Bahadur Shah)."