We now come to the Sikhs, and we must trace their history from an earlier period. You will remember my telling you of Guru Nanak. He died soon after Babar came to India. He was one of those who tried to find a common platform between Hinduism and Islam. He was succeeded by three other gurus, who, like him, were perfectly peaceful and were only interested in religious matters. Akbar gave the site of the tank and the golden temple at Amritsar to the fourth guru. Since then Amritsar has been the headquarters of Sikhism.
Then came the fifth guru, Arjun Singh, who compiled the Granth, which is a collection of sayings and hymns, and is the sacred book of the Sikhs. For a political offence Jahangir had Arjun Singh tortured to death. This was the turning-point in the career of the Sikhs. The unjust and cruel treatment of their guru filled them with resentment and turned their minds to arms. Under their sixth guru, Hargovind, they became a military brotherhood, and from that time onwards they were often in conflict with the ruling power. Guru Hargovind was himself imprisoned for ten years by Jahangir. The ninth guru was Tegh Bahadur, who lived in Aurangzeb’s reign. He was ordered by Aurangzeb to embrace Islam, and on his refusal, he was executed. The tenth and the last guru was Govind Singh. He made the Sikhs into a powerful military community, mainly to oppose the Delhi Emperor. He died a year after Aurangzeb. There has been no guru since then. It is said that the powers of the guru now rest in the whole Sikh community, the Khalsa, or the “chosen”, as it is called.
Soon after Aurangzeb’s death there was a Sikh rebellion. This was put down, but the Sikhs continued to grow in strength and to consolidate themselves in the Punjab. Later, at the end of the century, a Sikh State was to emerge in the Punjab under Ranjit Singh.
Troublesome as were all these rebellions, the real danger to the Moghal Empire came from the rising power of the Marathas in the south-west. Even in Shah Jahan’s reign, a Maratha chieftain, Shahji Bhonsle, gave trouble. He was an officer of the Ahmednagar State, and later of Bijapur. But it was his son, Shivaji, born in 1627, who became the glory of the Marathas and the terror of the Empire. When only a boy of nineteen he started on his predatory career and captured his first fort near Poona. He was a gallant captain, an ideal guerilla leader and adventurer, and he built up a band of brave and hardened mountaineers, who were devoted to him. With their help he captured many forts and gave Aurangzeb’s commanders a bad time. In 1665 he suddenly appeared at Surat, where there was the English factory, and sacked the city. He was induced to visit Aurangzeb’s Court at Agra, but he felt humiliated and insulted by not being treated as an independent prince. He was kept a prisoner, but escaped. Even then Aurangzeb tried to win him over by giving him the title of raja.
But soon Shivaji was on the war-path again, and the Moghal officers in the south were so terrified of him that they paid him money for protection. This was the famous chauth or fourth part of the revenue which the Marathas claimed wherever they went. So the Maratha power went on increasing and the Delhi Empire weakening. In 1674 Shivaji had himself crowned with great ceremony at Raigarh. His victories continued to his death in 1680.
You have been living at Poona, in the heart of the Maratha country, for some time now, and you must know how Shivaji is loved and adored by the people there. He represented a religious-nationalist revival of the kind I have already mentioned. The economic breakdown and general misery of the people prepared the soil; and two great Marathi poets, Ramdas and Tukaram, nurtured this soil by their poetry and hymns. The Maratha people thus gained in consciousness and unity, and just then came a brilliant captain to lead them to victory.
Shivaji’s son, Sambhaji, was tortured and killed by the Moghals, but the Marathas, after some setbacks, continued to grow in strength. With the death of Aurangzeb his great empire began to vanish into air. Various governors became independent of headquarters. Bengal fell away. So did Oudh and Rohilkhand. In the south the Vazir Asaf Jah founded a kingdom, the modern Hyderabad State. The present Nizam is a descendant of Asaf Jah. Within seventeen years of Aurangzeb’s death the Empire had almost disappeared. But in Delhi or Agra there was a succession of nominal emperors without an empire.
As the Empire weakens, the Marathas grow stronger. Their prime minister, called the Peshwa, becomes the real power, overshadowing the Raja. The office of Peshwas becomes hereditary, like that of the Shogun in Japan, and the Raja sinks into the background. The Delhi Emperor, in his weakness, recognizes the right of the Marathas to collect their chauth tax all over the Dekhan. Not content with this, the Peshwa conquers Gujrat, Malwa and central India. His troops appear at the very gates of Delhi in 1737. The Marathas seemed to be destined for the overlordship of India. They dominated the land. But suddenly, in 1739, there was an intrusion from the north-west, which upset the balance of power and changed the face of northern India.
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The English Triumph over Their Rivals in India
September 13, 1932
We have seen that the Delhi Empire was in a pretty bad way. Indeed, one could almost say that, as an empire, it was in no way at all. Yet Delhi and northern India were to sink much lower still. As I have told you, it was the day of adventurers in India. A prince of adventurers suddenly swooped down from the north-west, and after much killing and plundering, walked off with enormous treasure. This was Nadir Shah, who had made himself the ruler of Persia. He took away with him the famous peacock throne which Shah Jahan had had made. This terrible visitation took place in 1739, and northern India was prostrate. Nadir Shah brought his dominions right up to the Indus. Thus Afghanistan was cut off from India. From the days of the Mahabharata and Gandhara, right through Indian history, Afghanistan was intimately connected with India. It is now cut adrift.
Delhi saw yet another invader and plunderer within seventeen years. This was Ahmad Shah Durrani, who had succeeded Nadir Shah in Afghanistan. Yet, in spite of these invasions, the Maratha power continued to spread, and in 1758 the Punjab was under them. They did not attempt to organize a government over all this territory. They realized their famous chauth tax and left the ruling to the local people. Thus they had practically inherited the Delhi Empire. But then came a great check. Durrani came down again from the north-west and, in alliance with others utterly defeated a great host of the Marathas at the old battlefield of Panipat in 1761. Durrani was then the master of the north of India, and there was no power to check him. But in the moment of his triumph he had to face trouble and revolt among his own people and he returned home.
For a while the Marathas seemed to have ended their days of domination and ceased to count for much. They had lost the great prize they sought after. But they recovered gradually and again became the most formidable internal power in India. Meanwhile, however, as we shall see, other and even more powerful forces had come into play, and the fate of India was being decided for a few generations. About this time there arose several Maratha chieftains who were supposed to be dependants of the Peshwa. Most prominent of these was Scindia of Gwalior; there were also the Gaekwar of Baroda and Holkar of Indore.
Now we must consider the other events I have referred to above. The dominating fact of this period in South India is the struggle between the English and the French. Often during the eighteenth century England and France were at war in Europe and their representatives fought each other in India. But sometimes the two fought in India even when their countries were officially at peace. On both sides there were bold and unscrupulous adventurers, over-eager to gain wealth and power, and there was naturally intense rivalry between them. On the French side the most prominent man in these days was Dupleix; on the English, Clive. Dupleix started the profitable game of taking part in local disputes between two States, hiring out his trained troops, and grabbing afterwards. French influence increased; but the English followed his methods soon enough and improved upon them. Both sides, like hungry vultures, looked for trouble, and there was enough of this to be found. Whenever there was a disputed succession in the south, you would probably find the English supporting one claima
nt, and the French another. England won against France after fifteen years of struggle (1746–61). The English adventurers in India received full support from their home country; Dupleix and his colleagues had no such help from France. This is not surprising. Behind the English in India were the British merchants and others holding shares in the East India Company and they could influence Parliament and the government; behind the French was King Louis XV (grandson and successor of the Grand Monarque, Louis XIV), heading merrily for disaster. The British mastery of the sea also helped greatly. Both the French and the British trained Indian troops—sepoys they were called, from sipahi—and as they were better armed and disciplined than the local armies, their services were in great demand.
The English and French Fight for India
So the English defeated the French in India and completely destroyed the French cities of Chandarnagore and Pondicherry. Such was the destruction that not a roof is said to have been left in either place. The French faded out from the Indian scene from this time onwards, and though they got back Pondicherry and Chandarnagore later, and still hold them to this day, they have no importance.
India was not the only battleground of the English and French at this period. Besides Europe, they fought each other in Canada and elsewhere. In Canada also the English won. Soon after, however, the English lost the American colonies, and the French revenged themselves against the British by helping these colonies. But we shall have much more to say about all this in a later letter.
Having got rid of the French, what further obstacles did the English have in their way? There were of course the Marathas in Western and in Central India and even to some extent in the north. There was the Nizam of Hyderabad, but he did not count for much. And there was a new and powerful opponent in the south, Haider Ali. He had made himself master of the remnants of the old Vijayanagar Empire, which correspond to the present Mysore State. In the north, Bengal was under Siraj-ud-Daula, a thoroughly incompetent individual. The Delhi Empire, as we have seen, existed in imagination only. Yet, curiously enough, the English continued to send humble presents in token of submission to the Delhi Empire till 1756—that is, till long after Nadir Shah’s raid, which had put an end even to the shadow of the Central Government. You will remember that the English in Bengal once ventured to take the offensive in Aurangzeb’s time. But they were badly defeated, and the defeat sobered them so much that they hesitated for a long time before venturing out again, although conditions in the north were an open invitation to any resolute person.
Clive, the Englishman who is so much admired by his countrymen as a great empire-builder, was such a resolute person. In his person and in his deeds he illustrates how empires are built up. He was daring and adventurous and extraordinarily covetous, and his resolution did not falter before forgery or falsehood. Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal, irritated by many things that the British had done, came down from his capital, Murshidabad, and took possession of Calcutta. It was then that the so-called “Black Hole” tragedy is said to have taken place. The story goes that the Nawab’s officers locked a large number of English people in a small and stifling room for the night, and that most of them were suffocated and died. Undoubtedly such a deed is barbarous and horrible, but the whole story is based on the narrative of one person who is not considered very reliable. It is thus thought by many people that the story is largely untrue and, in any event, is greatly exaggerated.
Clive took revenge for the Nawab’s success in capturing Calcutta. But the empire-builder set about it in his own way by bribing the Nawab’s minister, Mir Jafar, to play the traitor, and by forging a document, the story of which is too long to relate. Having prepared the ground by forgery and treason, Clive defeated the Nawab at Plassey in 1757. This was a small battle, as battles go, and indeed it had been practically won by Clive by his intrigues even before the fighting began. But the little battle of Plassey had big results. It decided the fate of Bengal, and British dominion in India is often said to begin from Plassey. On this unsavoury foundation of treason and forgery was built up the British Empire in India. But such, more or less, is the way of all empires and empire-builders.
This sudden turn in fortune’s wheel went to the heads of the adventurous and covetous Englishmen in Bengal. They were masters of Bengal and there was no one to hold their hands. So, headed by Clive, they dipped into the public treasury of the province and completely drained it. Clive made a present to himself of about two and a half million rupees in cash and, not content with this, took also a very valuable jagir or estate yielding several lakhs a year! All the other English people “compensated” themselves in a like way. There was a shameless scramble for riches, and the greed and unscrupulousness of the officials of the East India Company passed all bounds. The English became the nawab-makers of Bengal and changed nawabs at will. With each change there was bribery and enormous presents. They had no responsibility for government—that was the poor, changing nawab’s job; their job was to get rich quick.
A few years later, in 1764, the British won another battle, at Buxar, which resulted in the nominal Emperor at Delhi submitting to them. He became their pensioner. The mastery of the British in Bengal and Bihar was now unchallenged. They were not content with the vast plunder they were taking from the country, and they set about finding new ways of making money. They had nothing to do with internal trade. Now they insisted on carrying on this trade without paying the transit duties which all other merchants dealing with home-made goods had to pay. This was one of the first blows struck by the British at India’s manufacturers and trade.
The position of the British in northern India was now one of power and wealth without any responsibility. The merchant adventurers of the East India Company did not trouble to distinguish between bona-fide trade and unfair trade and plunder pure and simple. These were the days when Englishmen returned to England from India overflowing with Indian money, and were called “Nabobs”. If you have read Thackeray’s Vanity Fair you will remember such a bloated person in it.
Political insecurity and troubles, want of rain, and the British policy of grab, all combined to bring about a most terrible famine in Bengal and Bihar in 1770. It is said that more than a third of the population of these areas perished. Think of this awful figure! How many millions died of slow starvation! Whole areas were depopulated, and jungles grew up and swallowed cultivated fields and villages. Nobody did anything to help the starving people. The Nawab had no power or authority or inclination. The East India Company had the power and authority, but they felt no responsibility or inclination. Their job was to gather money and to collect revenue, and they did this so efficiently and satisfactorily for their own pockets that, wonderful to relate, in spite of the great famine, and although over a third of the population disappeared, they collected the full amount of revenue from the survivors! Indeed, they collected even more, and they did this, as the official report puts it, “violently”. It is difficult to grasp fully the inhumanity of this forcible and violent collection from the starved and miserable survivors of a mighty calamity.
In spite of the victory of the English in Bengal and over the French, they had to face great difficulties in the south. There were defeats and humiliations for them before final victory came. Haider Ali of Mysore was their bitter opponent. He was an able and fierce leader, and he repeatedly defeated the English forces. In 1769 he dictated terms of peace favourable to himself under the very walls of Madras. Ten years later he was again successful in a large measure, and after his death his son, Tippu Sultan, became a thorn in the side of the British. It took two more Mysore wars and many years to finally defeat Tippu. An ancestor of the present Maharaja of Mysore was then installed as a ruler under the protection of the British.
The Marathas also defeated the British in the south in 1782. In the north, Scindia of Gwalior was dominant and controlled the poor hapless Emperor of Delhi.
Meanwhile Warren Hastings was sent from England, and he became the first Governor-General.
The British Parliament now began to take interest in India. Hastings is supposed to be the greatest of English rulers in India, but even in his time the government was well known to be corrupt and full of abuses. Some instances of extortion of large sums of money by Hastings have become famous. On his return to England Hastings was impeached before Parliament for his Indian administration and, after a long trial, was acquitted. Previously, Clive had also been censured by Parliament, and he actually committed suicide. So England satisfied her conscience by censuring or trying these men, but in her heart she admired them, and was willing enough to profit by their policy. Clive and Hastings may be censured, but they are the typical empire-builders, and so long as empires have to be forcibly imposed on subject people, and these people exploited, such men will come to the front and will gain admiration. Methods of exploitation may differ from age to age, but the spirit is the same. Clive may have been censured by the British Parliament, but they have put up a statue to him in front of the India Office in Whitehall in London, and inside, his spirit dwells and fashions British policy in India.
Hastings started the policy of having puppet Indian princes under British control. So we have to thank him partly for the crowds of gilded and empty-headed maharajas and nawabs who strut about the Indian scene, and make a nuisance of themselves.
As the British Empire grew in India there were many more wars with the Marathas, Afghans, Sikhs, Burmans, etc. But the unique thing about these wars was that although they were carried on for England’s benefit, India paid for them. No burden fell on England or the English people. They only reaped the profit.
Remember that the East India Company—a trading company—was governing India. There was growing control by the British Parliament, but, in the main, India’s destinies were in the hands of a set of merchant adventurers. Government was largely trade, trade was largely plunder. The lines of distinction were thin. Enormous dividends of 100 per cent, and 150 per cent, and over 200 per cent, per year were paid by the Company to its shareholders. And, apart from this, its agents in India picked up tidy little sums, as we have seen in the case of Clive. The officials of the Company also took trade monopolies and built up huge fortunes in this way with great rapidity. Such was the Company’s regime in India.
Glimpses of World History Page 48