by Craig Murray
the ryots have been deprived of the scanty pittance which remained to them after two years of famine – Not content with carrying off their grain and cattle, their houses and implements of husbandry were burnt to the Ground […] I am afraid a final emigration will ensue […] All trade has been suspended, the merchants have only been restrained from leaving the town in a body – by a promise which I have made to visit them […]22
The officer asks for permission to spend official money for relief – but concludes that Cutch’s only hope was to be ‘taken under the protection of the Honorable Company’. Britain’s next annexation was in train.
Britain’s move to take Cutch caused consternation to the Amirs of neighbouring Sind. They had ambitions of suzerainty over Cutch themselves, and were not prepared to allow local civil wars to pass without an attempt to impose their own interests. Sindian irregulars started to pour through the Thar desert into Cutch via the Nagar Parkar oasis, and there was suspicion that these were stiffened by Sindian royal levies. It seemed that a British territorial advance was likely to lead into a further advance into the neighbouring state, for the sake of ‘stability’ in their newly conquered territory, and in 1825 a field force of 8,000 was gathered for the invasion of Sind. Both Burnes brothers immediately volunteered. James was appointed assistant surgeon – his superior, five years older, was Dr John McNeill of Argyll. Alexander obtained the coveted position of Persian interpreter. It would put him right next to the commander.
Still anxious to assist the Burnes brothers, in January 1825 Joseph Hume had sent them letters of introduction to General David Ochterlony, also of Montrose parentage. Unfortunately Ochterlony, despite a highly distinguished history, had been relieved of command following disagreements with Calcutta. But Alexander replied to Hume, informing him that war with Sind appeared inevitable, and that:
I am proud to say that the same good fortune which I had at the commencement of my career seems still to attend me, and that the late disturbances have elevated me from the regimental to the general Staff, having been appointed Quartermaster of Brigade to the Cutch Field Force […] which makes my pay and allowances 400 Rupees a month.
Alexander now compiled a statistical paper on the district of Wagur. Statistics were the engine of British India, enabling revenues to be assessed and collected, troops to be raised, moved and supported, and economic development to be planned. Alexander’s work was viewed as a model and submitted up the military hierarchy, eventually bringing Alexander to the attention of the newly arrived Governor, Sir John Malcolm, who approved a welcome financial bonus.
We have already bumped into John Malcolm several times; as Henry Rawlinson’s companion on the passage out to India, as Ambassador to Persia in 1809, and as the Brigadier General who accepted the surrender of the Peshwa. At the fierce battle of Mahidpur on 21 December 1817, Brigadier Malcolm had with great personal courage led a frontal attack on the massed Mahratta cavalry.23 Alex in his first Indian weeks had attended a Bombay farewell party for Malcolm, who was now back. Malcolm noticed Alex’s work favourably. As did the Commander in Chief of the Bombay Army, General Sir Thomas Bradford, who instructed that Burnes attend Major T B Jervis to be taught surveying and mapping techniques to equip him for more political and intelligence work.24
In collecting detailed statistics for a survey of Cutch and Kattiawar, one fact leapt out at Burnes. In 112 towns and villages inhabited by Rajput tribes, there were nearly six male children for every female; not a single village had more girls than boys. Saira in the district of Dang had twenty boys and no girls, while Bibar in the district of Pawar had forty boys and five girls. Burnes was shocked by the prevalence of female infanticide, and produced a paper which baldly stated that British claims to have reduced the practice were unfounded.
This paper gives a vital insight into the mind of the twenty-one-year-old Burnes. He does not, as his contemporaries were increasingly inclined to do, write a homily about spreading Christianity among the heathen. His approach is humanistic. He explains the social causes of female infanticide: the Rajputs were an elite social group of landholders, with a non-Rajput peasantry beneath them. Their landholdings were by law divided equally among sons. To maintain their economic position, they wished to limit subdivision by preventing marriage. They had strict rules of caste which prevented females from marrying outside a very narrow group, in addition to which their rules on incest were extensive; potential husbands were therefore scarce. Unmarried women normally became to European eyes, prostitutes entailing a degree of disgrace. Burnes’ perception was not one of orientalist misconstruction – even senior female members of the Bhuj royal family were sometimes compelled into prostitute status. All of these factors combined to result in 80 per cent of Rajput girls being killed at birth.
Most males therefore remained unmarried, or with lower-caste partners whose children could not inherit land, which was the social purpose of the abhorrent system – to keep landholdings together. Burnes argued that to tackle the practice of female infanticide, preaching or exhortation were insufficient and police action impractical, and what was needed was economic reform to address the fear in Rajput society of loss of status
This scientifically-based approach seems startlingly modern. There is nothing in Burnes’ paper which could not have been written by a modern development agency. He was acutely aware that those who try to analyse and explain, rather than simply condemn, are often called apologists: ‘By these remarks I am very far from advocating the barbarous custom of female infanticide. I wish merely to give an outline of the changes which our measures may, and will, produce.’ His paper was submitted to the Governor, who ordered it read at the Bombay Asiatic Society. That Society forwarded it with a commendation to the Royal Asiatic Society in London, who published it.25 Young Burnes was building an intellectual reputation.
He was also burgeoning socially. The Asiatic Society was the social hub of Bombay. The Literary Society, Geological Society and Geographical Society shared the same premises, which are still a joy to visit. The Asiatic Society had been founded by the Scottish lawyer and philosopher Sir James Mackintosh, with the aim of making the oriental knowledge of Company servants available to a wide European audience. John Malcolm was not just patron, but a prolific contributor.26 On 27 June 1827 Alexander Burnes was elected to membership of the Bombay Literary Society, proposed by his brother James and seconded by Major Henry Pottinger.27
Burnes was entering public life in the tradition of a specifically Scottish school of imperialist and orientalist thought led by Malcolm, Elphinstone and Munro. This rejected Christian conversion and European institutions, and had an innate respect for Indian culture.28 It was under strong challenge, not so much intellectual as emotional, from the Britnat evangelising ideology which was to replace it.
Another central social institution for the British of Bombay was the Masonic Lodge. Sir John Malcolm became a member of the Benevolent Lodge in Bombay on his arrival as Governor in November 1827, and Alexander Burnes, firmly in the family tradition, the following year.
The Benevolent Lodge was regarded as ‘aristocratic’. Thirteen freemason NCOs of the Bombay Horse Artillery were posted to Bombay from Pune, where the Lodge was more democratic. They started holding meetings in the Apollo Gate of Bombay Fort. The Benevolent Lodge learnt of this, and invited them to join as honorary members. At their first meeting, the NCOs were told there were refreshments for them downstairs, while the officers were to dine upstairs. The men walked out.29
The next day the ‘ringleader’, Sergeant Willis, was summoned by the Colonel of the Horse Artillery. Willis stood his ground: the first law of freemasonry was that Masons ‘meet upon the level’. Against much officer opinion, Malcolm insisted the men should join as equals. A decade later the Lodge split over the admission of Indians, which Burnes actively supported. It is reasonable to presume he was on Malcolm’s side over the admission of non-officers.
In late 1827, Burnes’ training in surveying techniques com
pleted, he undertook a geological survey of Cutch, with particular attention to changes caused by the great earthquake of 1819. This had reshaped the Indus delta, and the Runn of Cutch, a great salt desert, was now under sea-water for much of the year. It allowed Burnes to apply his formidable scientific mind, and his talents as a draughtsman. It also was an adventure for a twenty-two-year-old, involving riding alone through new British territories still potentially hostile.
At the submerged town of Sindri, Burnes journeyed by boat for thirty miles along a salt lake that had recently been arable land. At the submerged fort, he stood on the top of battlements which rose to only two inches below the surface, and drank in the ‘novel sensation’; no land was visible to the horizon, around all 360 degrees. He found that 2,000 square miles had been inundated, while westward a mound fifty miles long and up to sixteen miles wide had been raised. Burnes also noted the new channels the Indus had cut to the sea since 1819, scouring through the newly raised land formations. He carefully drew the new geological sections.
Burnes returned in 1828 to complete this survey. His work was so good it was used as the base for UN scientific studies of the next great Cutch earthquake in 2002. Published at Malcolm’s request by the Bombay Asiatic Society, it caught the attention of the great geologist Sir Charles Lyell, one of the founders of the modern science. In his Principles of Geology he quotes from Burnes’ study, and uses his maps and illustrations.30
Lyell’s popular work did much to foster a fashion for geology, but also did a great deal to advance rationalism and undermine improbable religious beliefs. Lyell had the most direct influence on Darwin – he was his tutor at Cambridge. An understanding of the processes of geological change was incompatible with the belief that the earth was but a few thousand years old. Burnes had a great interest in geology and palaeontology, and a modern outlook. This may have related to his religious scepticism.
Burnes continued to pay close attention to geology, beyond his obligation to report to the Company on exploitable minerals. Charles Lyell was to be a signatory of Burnes’ nomination to a Fellowship of the Royal Society, along with John Franklin.31 Burnes and Lyell met a number of times in London including at the Geological Society in February 1835.32 They became regular correspondents and Burnes sent back interesting discoveries, particularly fossils. In the New York edition of the Principles of Geology of 1868, Lyell acknowledged ‘my friend the late Sir Alexander Burnes’.
Alexander also became a friend and collaborator of the great palaeontologist Hugh Falconer and his associate Proby Cautley as they went about classifying 80 per cent of then known species of dinosaur.33 Falconer originated the evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium, now scientific orthodoxy. Burnes was able to discuss palaeontology with them and continually sent samples.34 Lyell and Falconer were, like Burnes, from north- east Scotland, Lyell from Kirriemuir and Falconer from Forres.
In his wide-ranging intellectual interest and cool rationalism, Burnes was very much a product of the Scottish Enlightenment. This attitude combined with his unabashed joie de vivre mark him out as the pre-Victorian he was. Had he lived longer, perhaps like his acquaintance Charles Trevelyan, Burnes would have learned to cloak his past in Victorian hypocrisy. Burnes wrote to Charles Masson that in 1837 Trevelyan was travelling in India with four wives.35 Burnes’ early death exposed him to the full wrath of censorious Victorian historians in the immediately succeeding generation.
In his paper on the Cutch earthquake, Lieutenant Burnes did not forget he was surveying for military intelligence:
In a military point of view I do not think we have benefited from the alterations in the river […] it is ill adapted for military operations […] the approach to the country of the Ameers [is] more difficult to a regular army than ever […] in invading Sinde it would always be advisable to reach the Indus as high up at its delta as possible as rivers will be less frequent in the march of an army […]36
The Bombay Asiatic Society forwarded this paper to the Royal Asiatic Society in London, where on 5 February 1831 it was read to a meeting by Alex’s proud sponsor, Joseph Hume.
The Amirs of Sind were determined to keep the British as distant as possible; it was obvious that they were next in line for annexation. It was therefore a surprise and an intelligence-gathering opportunity when on 23 October 1828 Henry Pottinger received a letter from Murad Ali Khan, the principal Amir, requesting the help of a British doctor. Forty-eight hours later James Burnes was on his way, with a substantial escort.
James won the goodwill of the Amirs of Sind and put their relationship with the British on a friendlier footing than it had been for decades. However his report was scant of information on military resources, fortifications, revenues, trade and navigation, which the British government required. Pottinger described it to Malcolm as ‘most unsatisfactory and meagre’.37 Malcolm thought it of sufficient interest to order it published by the Bombay Asiatic Society, but agreed regarding its political and military content. In this period a number of Company surgeons were being transferred into the much sought-after Political Department after producing useful work, but James was not offered the chance. He was exceptional as a medical man; the Government of Cutch observed that ‘there was no one of any class or rank who would not, if sick, reckon upon his services at midnight.’38
Alexander’s work was attracting glowing opinions. In December 1827 General Bradford forwarded more results of his surveying to Malcolm with a striking commendation:
In handing up for the information of […] the Governor […] the accompanying Supplementary Memoir to the Map of the Eastern branch of the River Indus by Lieut Burnes […] I have again the gratifying task of recording His Excellency the Commander in Chief’s unqualified approbation of the indefatigable zeal, talent and perseverance of that officer, whose labours have already on several occasions received […] the favorable notice of Government39
Again Malcolm forwarded the work to the Bombay Geographical Society for publication40 with his public comment that it ‘affords a very creditable proof of Lieutenant Burnes’s disposition to combine the advancement of general knowledge with a satisfactory performance of his public duties’.41 Malcolm was an ardent fan of Robert Burns, and always travelled with a book of his poetry. This helped his increasingly warm relationship with the poet’s young relative. Alexander’s prodigious output continued. In August 1828 the Society received his paper on the alum mines of Mahore, together with geological notes of various strata revealed by the mining operations.42 Promoted now to Assistant Quartermaster-General, his monthly salary had reached Rs800, approximately £1,000 per year, which made him one of Montrose’s wealthiest citizens. On 25 February 1829 Alexander was elected to the Committee of the Literary Society; at the same meeting young Lieutenant Henry Rawlinson became a member.43
CHAPTER FIVE
Dawn of the North-West Frontier
British India had benefited from a decade of comparative peace and consolidation after the great period of expansion culminating in the conquests of Wellesley in the Mahratta wars. The Governor-General, Lord Bentinck, was interested in internal reform and ideologically opposed to aggressive war. Second son of the Duke of Portland, the family were so wealthy that his career had been unimpeded by two major crashes.
In 1807 he had been dismissed as Governor of Madras after being blamed for the Vellore mutiny. Then, appointed Captain-General of Sicily (1812–15), he had ignored urgent orders to support Wellington in Spain, and instead pursued Quixotic schemes with Louis-Philippe d’Orleans for the unification of Italy. Returning to Sicily in 1815 after campaigning in Tuscany, he was forcibly prevented from landing on the orders of British Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh.
On appointment as Governor-General of India in 1827, he told the Montrose utilitarian James Mill, Secretary of the Board of Control, ‘I am going to India, but I shall not be Governor-General, you will.’ Less quoted is Mill’s view of Bentinck: ‘a well-intentioned but not a very well-instructed man’.1
/> During Bentinck’s pacific rule, the eyes of the leaders of British India turned to far horizons, where they dimly perceived a new threat. Despite decades of Russian encroachment, in 1820 Persia still ruled a territory much larger than present Iran, extending into Muslim territories in the Caucasus. The Russian Empire was in successive wars capturing more of this territory. By the Treaty of Turkmenchai of 1828, Russia consolidated advances including the strategic fortresses of Yerevan and Nakhchivan. Russia now had full control of the Caspian. The articles of the treaty on stationing Russian Consuls throughout Persia, and Russian training of the Persian military, reminded British officials of the terms they themselves imposed on Indian states they were preparing to subsume. In addition Russian expansion was to be subsidised by Persia with £4m, precisely the device the British used against indigenous states.2
In September 1828 Bentinck wrote to Malcolm:
The fact is, that Persia is now little better than […] a Maratha power […] she is completely at the mercy of Russia; and if Russia should take it into her head to invade India, she will begin, not by the invasion of Persia, but […] by a close alliance.3
Britain was bound by the treaties of 1809 and 1814 to assist Persia if attacked by a European power and had failed in this.4 Persia concluded Russia was a better bet.
Not by coincidence, Alexander Burnes was now given his chance to explore the new boundaries of British India, towards Persia. As an officer of the Quartermaster-General’s Department it was his duty to know the supply of provisions and facilities for quartering British troops, and he was ordered to journey to the mountain of Abu – which Burnes called ‘the opportunity of exploring the whole North Western Frontier of the Bombay Presidency’. The twenty-three-year-old’s report recommended further work as ‘it was considered as the most probable line of route by which our Eastern possessions might be invaded by a European power’5