The Last Mughal and Indian Muslims

The thing that is the most striking about The Last Mughal, for me anyway, is that for the first time I got some perspective on why the Indian Muslim disappeared from public life. After a thousand years of being the ruling class in Northern India, they were, at best a marginal force in pre-independence India. What happened to them is a subtext of The Last Mughal. At the time of the Mutiny, Delhi was still a Mughal city, marginal to the British led power structure of the Raj, but still an important center of Mughal, and thus, Muslim power and culture. For six months during the Mutiny, the Mughal empire returned, but this was a Mughal empire that depended as much on Hindus as it did on Muslims. In a sense, it was the first sign of a nationalist India. Once the Mutiny was over, the British took a series of steps that left the Muslim population of India out in the cold.

1. For almost two years Delhi's muslims were excluded from the city! By the time they returned, they had lost control of business and property and, even in Delhi, the punjabi hindus were in ascendance. The economic and cultural impact on the muslim community was enormous.

2. They excluded muslims from the army. Read anything about the Mutiny in 19th century histories and you realize the extent to which the pre-mutiny Company army was drawn from the muslim population. It seems to me that at least 40 to 50% of the army was muslim. Post-mutiny, the army was drawn from the "martial races," the Sikhs and the Gurkhas, who also happened to be the main sources for the British army that fought the mutineers. The Sikhs were a part of British India by then, but the Gurkhas were the offering of an opportunistic Nepali king who joined the British when he had figured out who would win.

3. The creation of a Babu class that was mostly drawn from loyal Hindus and actively excluded muslims. The large recruitment of Sikhs, Gurkhas, and "Madrasis" in the army, and the creation of a loyal english speaking educated babu class, largely left muslims out of the two avenues of government service open to Indians, the army and the civil service.

The Indian Mutiny

So, how long and how important was the Indian Mutiny or the War of Independence anyway? I always thought it started and ended in 1857. Asked around and almost everyone thought the same thing. No one came even close to the actual length of the mutiny, two years and two months from the first incident in Berhampore near Calcutta in February 1857 (the 19th Regiment Indian Infantry refused to take their bullets on parade and was subsequently disbanded), to the capture of Tantia Tope, or rather the opportunistic betrayal of Tantia Tope by Man Singh, in April 1959. From the history I read at school I always got the impression that the First War of Independence was fought by a few kings (Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope, Rani Laxmibai) and that it was a brief affair that resulted in the crown taking over India from The Company. I'll give a timeline of the mutiny in a later post.

I am reading "History of the Indian Mutiny," by G. W. Forrest. Three volumes, two published in 1904 and one in 1912. A fascinating book. The entire mutiny is discussed from the point of the view of the British and gives absolutely no mention of the strategies, troop movements, etc. of the mutineers. Much more of a victors view than a real history. (Yes, I have read William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal.) With a lot of stuff about the brave English soldiers fighting to save the empire. Don't get me wrong, they were brave. One only has to read the history of the siege of the Residency at Lucknow to see that. But surely the Indians fought with equal bravery on both sides.

The other striking thing is the degree to which the English were hated by their own men. They, the English i.e., thought that they had loyal soldiers who would follow them anywhere. Many of these soldiers were veterans of other battles fought under British command. But, almost to a man, entire regiments not only deserted but also hacked/shot their commanders to death whenever they got the opportunity. Here is an extract from Forrest (writing about the evacuation of the British from Kanpur at the start of the mutiny):

“A litter containing Colonel Ewart, commanding the First Native Infantry, who had been severely wounded, fell into the rear, and when passing St. John’s Church was stopped by seven or eight men of his own regiment. ... The sepoys then mockingly asked their wounded commander [Colonel Ewart], “Is this not a fine parade, and is it not all well dressed up?” Two of them then cut him to pieces.” (Vol.1 462). They then killed his wife as well. One boat that managed to cut loose was chased for days and almost everyone killed.

Colonel Ewart's men were clearly passionate about killing their masters. Time after time, as one regiment after another mutineed, their officers were caught off-guard. "My men will remain loyal," they said.