Massacre at Cawnpore
Page 23
On 4th June, he wrote to inform Sir Henry Lawrence that all non-combatant civilians had been ordered into the entrenchments, adding: “Trust in any of the native troops is now out of the question … it is said that the 1st Native Infantry is sworn to join (the mutiny) and they speak of its going off this night or the next morning … doing all the mischief in their power first, this is to include an attack on our positions… .” The rest of his letter was a bitter expression of resentment at the news that General Sir Patrick Grant, commander-in-chief of the Madras Army, had been chosen to succeed General Anson, in preference to himself. He was fifteen years senior to Grant, so that his resentment was understandable when he wrote: “I can but serve under him but it is a poor return for above fifty-two years of zealous service to be thus superceded. My name with the Native Army has alone preserved tranquillity thus up to the present time and the difficulties that I have had to contend with can only be known to myself … I have performed subaltern duty in going the round at midnight because I felt that I gave confidence … I write with a crushed spirit, for I had no right to expect this treatment… .” The letter ended with the alarming admission that “We can offer protection to nothing with our entrenchments… .”
Despite his final statement, the old general made no attempt to blow up the Magazine and when, as predicted, the four native regiments rose at dawn on 5th June, the Nana’s bodyguard permitted them to possess themselves of the £100,000 contents of the Treasury and of the arms stored in the Magazine. The mutineers—almost certainly because of the high esteem in which their commander was held—offered no violence to their officers, and eighty men of the 56th Native Infantry entered the entrenchment to pledge their loyalty to the old “Sepoy General.”
The rest, after a brief orgy of arson and looting, prepared to march on Delhi, 268 miles to the north-west, dragging their treasure and their looted guns behind them. They had travelled as far as Kalianpore, six miles outside Cawnpore, when the Nana Sahib revealed himself in his true colours. Invited by the native officers to become their leader, the Maharajah gave them a qualified assent and, in callous betrayal of the trust General Wheeler had reposed in him, he rode after the mutineers to persuade them to return to Cawnpore… .
GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS
Ayah: Nurse or maid servant
Babu: Clerk: loosely applied to those able to write
Bazaar: Market
Bearer: Personal, usually head, servant
Bhisti: Water carrier
Brahmin: High-caste Hindu
Cantonments: European quarters, residences, civil or military, usually military.
Chapatti: Unleavened bread of wheat flour
Chapkan: Knee-length tunic
Charpoy: String bed
Daffadar: Sergeant, Cavalry
Dhal: Lentil flour
Din: Faith, Moslem war cry “For the Faith!”
Doolie: Curtained litter for wounded
Eurasian: Half-caste, usually children of British fathers and Indian mothers.
Fakir/Sadhu: Itinerant holy man, Hindu
Feringhi: Foreigner, term of disrespect
Ghat: Landing place, river bank, quay
Godown: Storeroom, warehouse
Golandaz: Gunner, native
Gram: Coarse grain, usually fed to horses
Hanuman: Hindu monkey god
Havildar: Sergeant, Infantry
Jemadar: Native officer, all arms
Khilluts: Gifts, rewards
Khitmatgar: Table servant
Lal-kote: British soldier
Lines: Long rows of huts for accommodation of native troops.
Maro: Kill
Moulvi: Teacher of religion, Moslem
Munshi: Teacher, usually of Hindustani to Europeans
Nana: Lit. Grandfather, popular title bestowed on Mahratta chief.
Oudh: Kingdom of, recently annexed by East India Company
Paltan: Regiment
Pandy: Name for mutineers, taken from the first to revolt, Sepoy Mangal Pandy, 34th Native Infantry
Peishwa: Ruler or king of the Mahratta race
Poorbeah: From the East, an inhabitant of Oudh
Pucca/Pukah/Pukka: In this context, means brick-built.
Punkah: Ceiling fan, usually pulled from outside by coolie.
Raj: Rule
Rissala: Cavalry
Rissaldar/Rissaldar-Major: Native Officer, Cavalry
Ryot: Peasant small-holder
Sepoy: Infantry soldier
Soor ka bacha/batcha: Son of a pig.
Sowar: Cavalry trooper
Subadar/Subadar-Major: Native Officer, Infantry
Sweeper: Low-caste servant
Tulwar: Sword or sabre
Vakeel: Agent
Zamindar: Landowner
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