Sikunder Burnes

by Craig Murray

  Lieutenant Wood was continually out in small boats conducting detailed measurement. Burnes agreed that Wood should dictate the pace of their progress, as his work was at this stage the most important, characterising this trip as a ‘survey’ compared to which his first voyage was a ‘reconaissance’.

  At Tatta Burnes noted the very large numbers of African slaves. ‘They were shipped from Muscat via Karachi but also through British held Cutch. Every Mahomedan who can afford it purchases them […] All people who have shops of the better order have slaves.’21

  Burnes’ instructions from Macnaghten included a demand on the Amirs of Sind to stop the raids on Indus traffic by the Mazari tribes, who inhabited the northern limit of the Amirs’ territories. The instructions were based on a report on Mazari depredations by Mohan Lal. Before Burnes could take action, Ranjit Singh seized on this excuse for further aggrandisement. He annexed the Mazari capital of Roghan and then razed a frontier fort garrisoned by Shikarpur itself, and mobilised Sikh forces on the frontier. It became plain that the efforts of Burnes’ mission to open the commerce of the Indus could be jeopardised by the start of a major war along its banks.

  In Haidarabad they were enthusiastically received by the Amirs, who offered to accompany them as far as Shikarpur, with the intention of deterring any move by the Sikh army on Mithankot.22 Burnes reported that the Amirs could field 32,000 men between them, but none of their artillery was serviceable. He noted the extensive links between the Shia Amirs in Sind, and religious shrines in Persia, and constant communications between the Sind and Persian religious hierarchy and ruling families. He saw danger in this if Persia gained ground in Afghanistan: ‘if the King of Persia were successful in his present expedition, the religious commerce that exists between Sinde & Persia might avail the enemies of India’.23

  On 2 February 1837 Burnes wrote a letter from Haidarabad to Masson in Kabul, explaining his mission:

  Hydrabad in Sinde

  2 February 1837

  My Dear Sir,

  You will doubtless have heard rumours […] of my having been deputed by Lord Auckland to conduct a Mission up the Indus to Attock and thence by Peshawar to Cabool, Candahar and Shikapoor […]

  the main and great aim of Government is to open the Indus and to inform the Chiefs in Afghanistan and the merchants […] of the arrangements that have been entered into – Runjeet Sing threatened Sinde and was alone prevented by British influence from attacking it – the Government said justly that if the balance of power on the Indus is destroyed our commercial hopes are ruined and we therefore concluded a Treaty with the Ameers taking them under our protection and fixing a British Agent in Sinde.

  We have no wish to extend our political relations beyond the River but a great one to enter into friendly commercial ones […] I shall travel with as little parade as possible […] unsuited particularly for the duty which I am executing –

  I go to Mittun to be present at a Congress […] of the Vakeels of Lahore, Bhawulpore and I hope Sinde who with Cap. Wade, Mr Mackison and myself are to fix upon a site for a bazar and arrangements similar to Nijni Novogorod

  […]

  We hardly know what is the object of this invasion of Herat and here I can scarcely find out if the King has advanced on it or not – if he has […] I would not be surprised at the British Government withdrawing their Ambassador from his Court –

  To Dost Mahomed Khan I should feel obliged by your expressing my remembrance of his kindness […] Tell the Nawab […] that he lives always in my remembrance and I have some hundreds of kinds of seed for him […]

  My Dear Sir

  Yours sincerely and faithfully

  Alex Burnes24

  Mohan Lal joined the party at Haidarabad, having been sent, not now as munshi but as an agent on Rs250 a month. Burnes was delighted at their reunion.

  Pottinger, who detested the Amirs and their capital, was less than delighted to be appointed to the Residency at Haidarabad. However he remained also Resident in Bhuj. An Assistant, Lieutenant Eastwick, was appointed in Haidarabad on the substantial monthly salary of Rs1,000, on the understanding Pottinger would be much of the time away. The Court of Directors declared itself delighted with the results of Pottinger’s diplomacy. They were, however, disappointed that he had not been able to sell the Amirs an iron steam boat for the Indus which the Company had speculatively sent to Haidarabad.25

  Since Burnes’ first river mission, the work of surveying the Indus had proceeded apace.26 Claude Wade had set out with Mohan Lal, Lieutenant Mackeson and a Mr Hodge, and conducted a survey sailing down the Sutlej and then the Indus as far as Bhawalpur,27 where Mackeson moved his station. In January 1836, Charles Hugel noted Mackeson an excellent linguist and ‘a most intelligent young officer, who has accepted a place in a desert, 300 miles from Ludhiana, where he will have to superintend and protect the English vessels in the navigation of the Indus […]’28 In both 1836 and 1837 surveying missions under Lieutenant Corless drew up charts and maps of the river from the sea to Mithankot.29

  The British had also taken practical steps to encourage Afghan merchants to participate in the Indus trade. In Kabul, Karamat Ali was instructed by Wade to

  tell all the merchants […] of the establishment of a mart at Mithenkote and the advantage of their finding a market at that place for the fruits of Cabul […] whatever quantity of fruits they may bring […] they will find purchase for it among the merchants of Hindustan and other parts who will supply them with any kinds of goods they may require. By this means they will be saved the trouble and inconvenience to which they are exposed on a long journey through the Punjab to Hindustan.30

  After Masson replaced Karamat, he took up the promotion of the Mithankot market with renewed zeal, working with the major Kabuli merchant Mullah Khair al-Din. Masson drew up a list of those British articles for which he believed a ready market existed in Kabul and beyond, replacing Russian items of inferior quality:

  Chintzes, fine calicos, muslins, shawls […] broad-cloth, velvet, paper, cutlery, china, gold and silver lace, gold thread, buttons, needles, sewing silks and cotton thread, iron bars, copper, tin, brass, quicksilver, iron and steel wire, looking glasses […]

  The notion was not fantastic. In 1835 Central Asia had not yet slipped from regional trading hub to backwater, and was not economically far behind Iran and India. Khiva, Bokhara and Khokand were undergoing a period of economic resurgence. Afghanistan was recovering from the years of civil war. Incorporating Central Asia into the economic system of the British Empire was not judged unprofitable by those who studied it closely. The impracticality lay in creating the political conditions for the incorporation.

  Ranjit Singh proved keen on opening up the Indus to commerce. He was persuaded to invest in sending a cargo of opium and Cashmere shawls by boat down the Sutlej and Indus, to be trans-shipped at Karachi, and on to Bombay. The Company provided a Dr Gardner to accompany Ranjit’s goods safely through Sind. The speculation was deemed a success.31

  All Burnes’ missions appear to have been remarkably free of friction between the participants, and fast friendships were formed. Admiral Charles Malcolm (John’s brother) had in 1836 instructed Lieutenant Wood to carry out the survey work on the lower Indus. He now wrote on 4 May to Wood approving his proposed surveying techniques for the Burnes mission, adding ‘I am very happy to find that you continue to be so well pleased with the chief of the expedition.’32 This larger mission gave Burnes more chance to exhibit his talent as a leader. Malcolm also notes that he had advised Burnes to take an additional midshipman to help with soundings and sextant readings, but Burnes had declined as he was under instructions to keep down expenses.

  Alexander was anxious to further Mohan Lal’s prospects and get others to accept that an Indian could be a competent officer, given responsibility. While the mission was in progress, he sent reports by Mohan Lal direct to the Governor-General, pointing out that this was not because they were prepared by ‘an Asiatic’, but because they
were ‘a very useful public document’.33

  The mission, in addition to the four British officers, consisted of sixty people, quite a substantial camp. In addition to two surveyors, there were various categories of servant, cook, groom, grasscutter, and an escort of irregular cavalry. Before reaching the Khyber they had been augmented by a harem of Kashmiri concubines and six Arab bodyguards.34 In addition qasids were continually arriving and being despatched again, with McNeill in Persia, Pottinger in Sind, Masson in Kabul, Mackeson on the Indus, Wade in Ludhiana, Macnaghten in Calcutta and the Court of Directors in London, not to mention personal mail. Burnes paid the qasids Rs40 to carry mail from Dera Ghazi Khan on the Indus to Kabul, with a promise of a further Rs40 when they returned with confirmation of delivery. The parsimonious Masson paid Rs25 for the same journey.35

  This was a time of financial strain for the Company. Trade was depressed, the great Calcutta banking houses had collapsed, and there had been major falls in the prices of tea, opium and cotton.

  The ‘Great Panic’ of 1837 was the first truly global banking crisis as confidence evaporated in New York, London, Moscow, Calcutta and Beijing. The drive to open up the Indus as a new area of commercial opportunity should be seen against this background. Britain was in the turmoil of the greatest economic collapse of the nineteenth century, from 1836 to 1843, when the textile industries in particular, after a period of massive expansion of factory production, found the home market unable to absorb their products. In summer of 1837 there were 50,000 unemployed workers in Manchester.36 The numerous reports Burnes sent back on the prospects of selling British woollen cloth to Central Asia, continued a quest for elusive markets for broadcloth that runs as a woollen thread through the history of the EIC, but also reflected an urgent national priority in 1837.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The Gathering Storm

  Back in London the Court of Directors were therefore keeping a close eye on Indus policy. John Stuart Mill wrote to Auckland with a comprehensive clarification of the Company’s views.

  1.The communications with Runjeet Sing on [Sind] were very skilfully conducted by Captain Wade […]Though [the Maharaja] has not renounced his claims on Shirkapoor he has recalled his troops […] and has apparently abandoned all serious thought of prosecuting an enterprize by which he now knows he would forfeit the friendship of the British Government.

  2.Meanwhile your reasonable demonstration of a determination to preserve the integrity of the Sinde state has had a most beneficial effect upon our relationship with the Ameers […] Every request of Colonel Pottinger with regard to the navigation of the river, is now granted as soon as made, and no facilities for commerce […] are likely to be refused […] The survey of the river is in progress […] The Ameers have consented that a British Officer should be stationed in their country […]

  3.Both Runjeet Sing and the Ameers have given a favorable reception to the suggestions which you have made to them, for the establishment of Fairs (resembling those on the Russian Frontier) […] one of these fairs to be held at Tatta, or Shirkapore, and the other at Mithenkote. The commercial Mission of Captain Burnes, by the Indus and Attock, to Cabul and Candahar, will tend to supply information from which you may better judge of the expediency of establishing these fairs […]

  4.The intelligence we have received of the progress of Captain Burnes as far as Attock is satisfactory […]

  5.The state of Afghanistan is apparently becoming more and more unsettled, but any observations which it may be thought proper to make on this subject will be addressed to you by the Secret Committee. We approve however of the intimation you have made to Shah Shooja, that if he makes any further attempts to recover his throne by means of an armed force, he will forfeit his Asylum in the British Territories.1

  On 10 April 1837 Auckland therefore wrote to Burnes instructing that he inform Dost Mohammed that ‘The circumstance of the British Government having resolved decidedly to discourage the prosecution by the Ex-King, Shah Shooja-ool-Moolk […] from further schemes of hostility’2 was proof of Britain’s friendly intent.

  John McNeill, now British Ambassador in Persia, had also in January 1837 advised Auckland against backing Shuja, sending him a lengthy memorandum which concluded: ‘I cannot venture to affirm that […] it would be wise to identify our interests with those of the Suddozais.’3 When Auckland was invited at the beginning of 1837 to attend the spectacular wedding ceremonies of Ranjit Singh’s favourite grandson, Nao Nehal Singh, Auckland declined precisely to avoid giving offence to Dost Mohammed and causing problems for Burnes’ mission.4 Sir Henry Fane, Commander-in-Chief, represented him.

  The events of 1837 were to make the commercial aspects of Burnes’ mission irrelevant. Suddenly Afghanistan became the scene of warfare above the normal border skirmishes and tribal disputes. Dost Mohammed’s informants in Peshawar noted the withdrawal of most of the occupying Sikh forces to participate in the wedding in Lahore and Amritsar, and the tardiness of those forces in returning (due to conflicts over pay arrears).5 Seizing the moment, Dost Mohammed declared jihad and launched an army towards Peshawar, and in May 1837 the Afghans, under Dost Mohammed’s valiant sons Afzul and Akbar, inflicted a close but bloody defeat on the Sikhs at Jamrud.

  Ranjit Singh’s best general, Hari Singh, was killed, leading a charge of cavalry in an attempt to secure captured guns. He was felled by cannon fire, alongside the cavalry commander, a Colonel Gordon (known to the Sikhs as Carron). These were staggering blows to the dangerously ill Ranjit. Hari had been the driving force behind the occupation of Peshawar, about which Ranjit Singh had entertained serious doubts. Jamrud marked the end of the extraordinary expansion of the Sikh Empire.

  It now became certain that the new Shah of Persia, Mohammed Mirza, was determined to launch a major assault on Herat, the western key to Afghanistan and last territory of the Saduzai dynasty. This in the face of strenuous objections to the Shah from McNeill, who believed the war was being urged on by his Russian counterpart – something Nesselrode constantly denied to Palmerston.

  Burnes not only faced a war ahead of him, but also sniping from the rear. Pottinger used his longer experience to discredit Burnes’ reports. On 15 April 1837, he wrote to Charles Metcalfe:

  I have nothing to do with Capt. Burnes’ reports other than to pass them on […] I have seen enough of them to satisfy me that his information is incorrect. He asserts in one of them that Karachee had been […] ‘for ages’ the sea port of Scinde and dwells on the ‘beaten path’ thence to Tattah as the desirable one for a passage – so far from this being the case, Karachee was only taken from the Khan of Kelat (Beloochistan) by the present Emirs in 1795 […]6

  Pottinger was being pedantic;7 Burnes’ point was simply that Karachi would be the best site to develop a commercial port. Today one of the busiest areas of Karachi is Burnes Road.8

  After leaving Haidarabad Burnes started to encounter discipline problems with his growing party,. Some of their servants got drunk and robbed and beat a shopkeeper, and he noted ‘we have had great difficulty in keeping our people in order & a scuffle followed by abuse left me no remedy but to sober the offenders by cold water and a few stripes which latter I abhor as a punishment.’9 As the Amirs were relaxed about it, Wood was detached to spend his time surveying the river. Burnes was now travelling up river with the Amirs, who were on a hunting expedition. The hunting consisted of shooting from hides at penned animals driven towards them. Burnes found it very dull: ‘The weather seems to have no influence on the Ameer – it rains – it blows – he goes to hunt notwithstanding – his passion seems almost a disease.’ After enduring a fortnight of this, they finally had an audience of dismissal from Amir Nur Mahommed Khan at Nasri on 16 February 1837.

  Burnes declared the meeting ‘shewed the Ameer in a light truly favourable’. He fully supported British proposals for Indus commerce, and said he would send a vakeel (advocate) to the meeting at Mithankot. Moreover, he stated that he understood that the recent agreement co
ncluded with Henry Pottinger meant the British would be taking control of the country. He stated his trust that the Amirs would receive the kind of ‘munificent treatment’ accorded the Emperor at Delhi.10 They were to be greatly disappointed.

  On 25 February the party were sent a present of cooked fowl by a local Sayyid. Burnes found the bird’s feet unusual, and sent out bearers to capture some live specimens to be recorded.11 He bemoaned in his diary the absence of a qualified naturalist on the expedition, but himself catalogued the longtailed grass warbler, Prinia or Laticilla Burnesii, among hundreds of samples sent back.

  Burnes had received letters of welcome from his friend Rustam Khan of Khairpur, and as promised a fleet of vessels awaited his mission at the frontier when they arrived on 1 March.

  Alexander had suggested Dera Ghazi Khan as the site for the proposed Indus inland port and trade fair. Wade proposed Mithankot as an alternative, and requested the meeting of British Agents and local vakeels there. Wade also believed their display at Mithankot would be a deterrent to Ranjit’s designs in that direction. Ranjit accepted the invitation to send a vakeel to the meeting, and cautioned the Amirs through Burnes that it was in their interest to follow suit.12 Burnes wrote to Wade

  I have notified to all the chiefs and merchants […] that such a meeting was to take place at Mithankote; and as it has naturally excited the greatest interest at Shikarpoor and other marts, and has been to them a solid proof that the British Government has in earnest taken up the subject of the Indus trade, it is of the first importance to keep our faith and word on this point.