Sikunder Burnes

by Craig Murray

  The Coach headed the procession and in the rear of the dray horses we ourselves followed on elephants with the officers of the Maharaja […] The streets were lined with cavalry, infantry and artillery, all of which saluted as we passed; the concourse of people was immense […] On entering the first court of the palace we were received by the Raja Dihan Sing, a fine soldier-looking person draped in armour

  […] At the very threshold I found myself in the […] embrace of a diminutive old looking man, the great Maharaja Runjeet Sing – he was accompanied by two of his sons who likewise embraced me, when the Maharaja conducted me by the hand to the interior of his court […] We found Captain Wade and Dr Murray in the durbar and all of us were seated on chairs in front of his highness.15

  Ranjit Singh’s hall of audience was built entirely of fine white marble. A huge silken canopy, studded with glittering jewels, covered most of the hall. Ranjit himself wore a necklace, armlets and bracelets of myriad emeralds, some of which were very long, and his gold sword hilt and scabbard were encrusted with diamonds and rubies. Many of the nobles wore almost equally stunning jewels, and all were dressed in fine silk of a bright yellow, the favoured colour of the Court. Burnes found the overall effect gaudy but magnificent.16

  Burnes now handed over Lord Ellenborough’s letter, which as an extravagant cover for spying must be one of the most peculiar ever issued by a British cabinet minister:

  His Majesty Maharajah Runjeet Singh

  Chief of the Sikh Nation and

  Lord of Cashmere

  The King my most Gracious Master, has Commanded me to express to your Highness, His Majesty’s acknowledgement of Your Highness’s attention in transmitting to His Majesty […] the splendid Manufactures of your Highness’s subjects of Cashmere.

  The King, knowing that your Highness is in possession of the most beautiful horses of the most celebrated breeds of Asia, has thought that it might be agreeable to your Highness to possess some Horses of the most remarkable breed of Europe, and […] has commanded me to select for your Highness, some horses of the gigantic breed, which is peculiar to England. These horses, selected with care, requiring much time, I now send to your Highness, and as their great weight makes it inexpedient that they should undergo the fatigue of a long march in a hot climate, I have decided that they should be conveyed to Your Highness by the Indus and such River of the Punjab, as may be most easy of navigation […]

  Ellenborough

  June 21st 183017

  Ranjit Singh had the letter read out to the durbar. Ambassadors from neighbouring states had been summoned, to witness how close was Ranjit’s alliance with the British. Ranjit gave theatrical expressions of delight, and reinforced this by an enormous artillery discharge of sixty guns, each firing twenty-one times.18

  Ranjit Singh’s reply is equally remarkable:

  From Maha Rajah Runjeet Singh Bahadoor to The Minister of His Majesty the King of England for the Affairs of India

  At a happy moment when the balmy zephyrs of spring were blowing from the Garden of Friendship and wafting to my senses the grateful perfume of its flowers; Your Excellency’s Epistle, every letter of which is a new blown rose on the branch of regard, and every word a blooming fruit on the tree of esteem, was delivered to me by Lieutenant Burnes and Mr John Leckie, who were appointed to convey to me some horses of superior quality, of singular beauty, of Alpine form and elephantine stature […] which had been sent as a present to me by His Majesty the King of Great Britain, together with a large and elegant carriage – these presents […] have arrived by way of the River Sindh in perfect safety, and have been delivered to me […] by that nightingale of the garden of eloquence, Lieutenant Burnes – and the receipt of them has caused a thousand emotions of pleasure and delight to arise in my breast […] these animals in beauty, stature and disposition surpass the horses of every city and every country in the world. On beholding their shoes the new moon turned pale with envy and nearly disappeared from the sky – such horses the eye of the sun has never before beheld in his course through the universe. Unable to bestow upon them in writing the praises which they merit, I am compelled to throw the reins on the neck of the steed of description […]19

  In the durbar, Ranjit declared delight at their size and colour, insisting his nobles took turns to sing their praises. He then displayed horses from his famous stud, but Burnes was surprised that these did not seem to him very good, though caparisoned in fabulous jewels and from bloodlines which Ranjit Singh could recite.

  Ranjit became fond of his drays, and had them trained to be ridden. According to Ranjit’s physician John Martin Honigberger, who was in charge of their veterinary care ‘Alex Burnes had brought them up the Indus, and they were much admired for their size and uncommon height. One of them became the famous riding horse of the Maharajah, who being of very low stature, appeared when on the back of the animal […] on an elephant.’20

  Charles Hugel saw them in 1836, and wrote, ‘The equipage is by no means splendid […] an old coach, lined inside with blue velvet, and coarsely painted without […] to send four brewers’ horses and a monstrous dray horse to a prince who has a peculiar fancy for the most elegant saddle horses, is something like giving a man who loves rare flowers a cart-load of potatoes.’

  Hugel was scathing of the idea that local rulers were taken in by Burnes’ mission. ‘The Amirs of Sindh were as little to be deceived by the pretext as Ranjit Singh himself; and it certainly did evince great ignorance of the circumstances and affairs of India […]’21 Hugel was right; nobody was fooled by the subterfuge. But nevertheless, the pretext worked. Nobody cared absolutely to call the British bluff, and so the survey was made.

  During the hour and a half of the presentation ceremony, Ranjit asked penetrating questions of Burnes. He was particularly interested in the navigation of the Indus and the depth of its water, making crystal clear he knew Burnes was surveying. He also asked about the rulers and the political, economic and military strength of their states, and discussed ‘the riches of Sinde which seemed to excite his utmost cupidity’. Ranjit asked Burnes straight out what the British attitude would be to his annexation of Shikarpur. Burnes replied that it was ‘too grand a subject for me to answer’.22 It was scarcely a secret that Ranjit coveted lands for his still expanding empire. Claude Wade had just reported that Ranjit had received a proposal from Mehrab Khan, ruler of Kelat, that they should join forces and take both Haidarabad and Kandahar.23

  The Maharaja was in poor physical health and Burnes gave a perceptive little pen portrait of this remarkable man:

  The exertions which H. H. underwent appeared to exhaust him […] Nature has indeed been sparing in her gifts to this personage and there must indeed be a mighty contrast between his mind and body. He has lost an eye, and is pitted by the small pox, and his stature does not certainly exceed 5 feet 3 inches. He is entirely free from pomp and show, yet the studied respect of this Court is remarkable, not an individual spoke without a sign […]24

  Ranjit Singh invited his British guests to a military review the next day. Before going to bed, Burnes wrote to Bentinck, copied to Clare, informing them of the successful completion of his river journey and his warm reception. He must have been delighted when he received the reply from Bentinck’s Secretary, H T Prinsep, which began ‘I am instructed […] to convey to you the Governor-General’s congratulations on the successful issue of the enterprise […] his conviction that the government is greatly indebted to your skill and prudence for this important result.’25 The hostility was over.

  The following morning they met Ranjit in front of five regiments of infantry, drawn up on the parade ground outside the city walls. They were dressed in European-style uniforms, white with black cross belts, and bore muskets, which Ranjit explained were manufactured locally at a cost of Rs17 each. Burnes accepted an offer to review the troops, after which they went through a series of manoeuvres under a Sikh general, all the commands being given in French. Burnes was highly impressed, consideri
ng them the equal of Company troops.

  Ranjit Singh now spoke of his newly conquered territory of Kashmir, taken from Kabul. He had received Rs36 lakhs of revenue this year. He complained, ‘All the people I send to Cashmere turn out rascals (haramzada).’26 They became corrupted by the pleasures of that country. He would either have to govern in person, or send one of his sons. Ranjit Singh’s difficulties in governing Kashmir and Peshawar became the hinge on which Burnes’ career turned.

  In Lahore, Burnes and Leckie lived in the absent Ventura’s house, an elaborate building supposedly in the style of an English cottage, with a beautiful garden containing ninety fountains. Ventura, from Modena, had been a Colonel of infantry at Waterloo, having survived the march to Moscow and back with Eugene de Beauharnais’ Italian army. He kept many concubines, who lived behind the house in the marble tomb of Anarkali, the assassinated wife of Akbar the Great, while his stunning half French, half Armenian first wife lived in the main home with their children. She left him at around the period of Burnes’ visit, to live as one of the peculiar collection of British government pensioners at Ludhiana.

  Burnes spent much time with another of the Maharaja’s Frenchmen, M. Court. Another Napoleonic veteran but also a distinguished scholar and graduate of the Ecole Militaire, Court had served the King of Persia before travelling in disguise through Central Asia to join the Sikhs. His principal work for Ranjit Singh was in the ordnance department, designing and producing cannon and shells for the formidable Sikh artillery.

  Burnes and Court discussed at length the plan Burnes was forming of a journey to the forbidden city of Bokhara. Court showed Burnes his own extensive maps which much surpassed anything available to the British government. They talked of Russian influence in Persia and the possibility of a Russian invasion. They discussed passes, forage and baggage trains, and routes for heavy guns. Court freely gave advice, furnishing Burnes with specially written notes for his projected journey. At Burnes’ suggestion, the Company purchased Court’s papers for the considerable sum of Rs5,000.

  Much of the entertainment Burnes received was plainly of a sexual nature. Nautch girls sang and danced, but were essentially prostitutes, albeit originally in the service of temples. George Hadley recorded what common sense tells us must be true: ‘When a gentleman gives an entertainment, he often gives a dance “nautch” […] The entertainer generally compliments his guests with the liberty of chusing their partners for the night.’27

  Ranjit paraded a ‘regiment’ of women in uniform, which was overtly sexual, as was a fight between girls he staged for Burnes. There are many accounts that Ranjit liked to watch the performance of sexual acts. As a young man he would have sex in front of his court if the fancy took him.28 The public display of potency may have been a considered act. One young wife, Rani Chunda, had many lovers, some of whom were encouraged by Ranjit: ‘To give a detail of these affairs and of scenes acted in the presence of the old Chief himself and at his instigation, would be an outrage on common decency.’29

  While we may doubt whether Burnes participated in open orgies, it is most probable that he accepted women. In 1809 an earlier British Envoy, the principled Charles Metcalfe, had been provided by Ranjit with an Indian mistress, who became his wife. Captain William Osborne recorded this conversation with Ranjit Singh:

  ‘Did you see my Cachmerian girls?’ ‘How did you like them?’ ‘Are they handsomer than the women of Hindostan?’ ‘Are they as handsome as English women?’ ‘Which of them did you admire most?’ I replied that I admired them all very much, and named the two I thought handsomest. He said ‘Yes, they are pretty; but I have got some more that are handsomer, and I will send them this evening, and you had better keep the ones you like best.’ I expressed my gratitude for such unbounded liberality; his answer was: ‘I have plenty more.’ He then led the conversation to the subject of horses.

  Osborne recounts the story of a beautiful dancing girl nicknamed ‘The Lotus’, with whom Ranjit fancied himself in love. General Ventura was much taken with her. The Maharaja bet Ventura a substantial sum that he could not seduce her. Two days later Ventura was collecting on the wager. The girl was then enrolled as an officer in Ranjit’s female ‘regiment’. William Osborne was fascinated by her, and in 1838 gave her a pearl brooch presented to him by Ranjit, drawing a reprimand from Macnaghten, Political Secretary to the Governor-General at Simla, as gifts to officers were the property of the Company. The Lotus was to be burnt alive on Ranjit’s funeral pyre.

  Ranjit rather liked his guests enjoying sex with his women.30 This is not a diplomatic practice that has died out. I was offered girls on a number of occasions in my diplomatic career, routinely though not only in Central Asia and the Middle East. The young lady and I would normally agree to pretend we had sex, in order not to cause her any trouble with my host. Burnes was in Lahore when George IV, formerly Prince Regent, was on the throne and British sexual morals were extremely loose; even more so for the British in India. We can be confident he accepted sexual entertainment in Lahore.

  It was not just the Maharaja himself who was thoroughly debauched, it was his entire court. This was openly bisexual, which exceeded British tolerance:

  Suchet Singh was, from his early youth, remarkable for his debaucheries. Like his brother, Dehan, he had risen to favour and station in the court of Runjeet by the most infamous of means. They both attracted the eye of the old monarch by the beauty of their person, and secured his patronage by the most criminal compliance with his desires.

  Victor Jacquemont, a French visitor this same year, noted that Ranjit had ‘le bon esprit d’être amoureux de moi (en tout bien et tout honneur, cependant; circonstance à noter car, lorsque messieurs les Sikes sont amoureux, c’est en général d’une manière bien peu vertueuse)’31 Europeans enjoyed chronicling the erotic pleasures of the Sikhs, which were real. But we should not forget Sir Lepel Griffin’s caution ‘the bazaars of Lahore […] were not so shameless as Piccadilly’.32

  On 16 August 1831 Burnes and Wade were given an audience of leave by Ranjit Singh, who was fulsome in his tribute to his visitors. He was also very generous. Burnes reported, ‘Previous to my departure His H invested me with a string of pearls, and seven other jewels – also a sword, with a horse richly caparisoned in gold besides a handsome khilat, or robe of honour. He gave a like token of friendship to Mr Leckie. Three natives of my establishment received presents and he ordered 2,100 rupees to be distributed among my servants.’33 The horse Ranjit Singh gave Burnes was to have an exciting history.

  Wade left immediately for Ludhiana by dak – the express porterage service of British communication routes – leaving Burnes and Murray to follow by normal stages.34 This would enable Wade to get his reports off first to the Governor-General.

  The narrative account of his Indus journey, which Burnes submitted to Bentinck on 12 September 1831 became the third volume of his Travels into Bokhara. All of Burnes’ publications were drawn from official reports, after removal of survey results, particularly those relating to military logistics, and of political content. In publishing, Burnes was at pains to downplay danger. A shipwreck and a flash flood are much more graphically portrayed in his official reports than in his books.

  Burnes’ great skill was political insight; he was able to understand complex situations and grasp the salient points. The following observation about Ranjit Singh’s Sikh Empire was in his official report but deleted from his published travels:

  It cannot, however, be disguised that he stands alone and unequalled in his kingdom, and that the power he has consolidated must fall dismembered at his death […] he has no successor in his own family; his eldest sun, Hurruk Sing, is a man of no energy […] and without fitness to rule. Among the Seik Sirdars of the Punjab, we find no-one that possesses much political influence – most of those about the person of Runjeet are unpopular, and have been raised by himself […] The Maharaja himself bids fair, before his demise, to shake the power he has so diligently acquired, for his t
roops have ceased to be the object of his primary solicitude, and his increasing avarice keeps their pay in arrears […]

  Burnes seems to have been the only relevant British official who took full account of the personal and precarious nature of Ranjit’s empire.

  He wished to obtain permission from Bentinck for his proposed expedition to Kabul and Bokhara, but relations there were Wade’s responsibility. To have Burnes take away his mantle as the Afghan expert was a career threat. Wade therefore threw up an objection, in a letter written to Bentinck on 3 August 1831:

  Lieutt Burnes informed me […] he has submitted a proposal thro’ his Government to visit Afghanistan; and explore the countries which lie along the Oxus […] with reference to the important interest which we are supposed to have in that part of Asia from the recent extension of the Russian arms in Persia, and the ambitious view which the former nation is believed to entertain toward India […] considering the ostensible motive of Lieutenant Burnes’ mission to Lahore, I put it to him that he could not, in my opinion, prosecute his scheme without exciting the suspicions of Maha Rajah Runjeet Singh, and that if Government approved of a plan […] it would be better to commence it after his return to Bhooj.35

  In Simla, Burnes now met Macnaghten for the first time. Macnaghten had a commanding personality and tremendous capacity for work. He was the second son of Sir Francis Macnaghten, and his ancestors were chiefs of the clan. Born in Ulster, he had been sent to Charterhouse and was at ease with the aristocracy. In 1809, aged sixteen, he came to India with a cadetship in a Madras cavalry regiment. Bentinck was then Governor of Madras. Macnaghten was appointed to his bodyguard and lived in the Residence as one of the family.36 He was a phenomenal linguist, and in 1814 gained a coveted transfer to the lucrative Bengal Civil Service.