Loading ...
Situation in Patna : Government by the Gallows
July 4Yesterday, about 200 men with guns displaying green banners of Islam broke into the Roman Catholic Mission in Patana and destroyed some property. Dr Lyell, an assistant to the opium agent proceeded to the spot with an escort. In the melee that followed Dr Lyell was killed.
However Rattray’s Sikhs, a police battalion, soon arrived and dispersed the crowd and saved the situation for the British. The retribution was swift and thirty men, suspected to be involved in the outbreak, were tried by the Commissioner Mr Tayler and fourteen of them including Peer Ali, a Muslim bookseller of Patna, who is said to have shot Dr Lyell were sentenced to death and were executed the very same day! The rest were sentenced to imprisonment.
This is what British rule looks like now ” “Government by the Gallows”.
So which side were the sikhs on? I have heard that they helped the British and also that they helped the sepoys. Did they act as a unit?
The role of Sikhs in the events of 1857 has not been properly appreciated because we seldom go into the reasons for their not supporting the uprising.. Sikhs did not view the rebellion as an attempt to throw the Firanghis out of India. They did not trust the Poorvias ie the sepoys of the Bengal army because not only had these Poorvias served the British Indian army with dedication for the last hundred years but it was through them that the British had conquered India. Besides, when the Battle of Chillianwalla (which proved beyond doubt, the indomitable spirit and valour of the Sikhs) was fought in 1849, only about eight years before the Revolt, the sepoys had helped the British in defeating the Sikhs who were the last defenders of liberty in India.. , Besides a Mughal emperor on the throne of Delhi was an anathema to the Sikhs as they had all along been the victims of Mughal tyrrany.and their Gurus had been murdered by them
Governemnt by the Gallows, indeed a very appropriate title. After reading the above, I feel we are practically not taught about anything in Indian history in schools. Now after almost seventeen years of completing schooling, I feel we could have learnt more, if books had what this blog is doing today.
The more one reads, more one feels how did we let this happen to us, what happened to intelligensia and the independent spirit of the people. If Sikhs were brutally treated by the Mughals, why was there no political leader to safegurad their interests or for that matter why did not any HIndu leader take it upon himself to stand up for Sikhs. Looks like unity, intergrity were only words.
I think it is important to make a clarification here. When reference is made to ‘ British rule ‘ and ‘British Government ‘ it promotes a misunderstanding of the state of affairs in India before the Great Uprising . For clarity the British government in Great Britain did not rule or govern India until after the Uprising, on Queen Victoria issuing Pardons to all except the most murderous of Insurgents and assuring religious toleration with the abolition of the East India Companies charter (1858). The British government had passed various India Acts, with the intention of curbing and controlling the excesses of the East India Company. This however, does not mean that the British Parliament ruled India as the Uprising was against the East India Company , not Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.
Opium.It made a lot of people’s fortunes.The Boston Brahmins,whose descendants include John Kerry and Franklin Roosevelt.The opium trading Forbes family finaced Alexander Graham Bell who stole Antonioni Meucci’s telephone invention and launched a corporate empire.The Tatas
and the Birlas also got started with opium trade profits.
Peter, are you taking Opium? If not, will you explain these hallucinatory claims please?
FJ
No I’m not.This is hard historical fact.All of it.Hidden of course,but true nevertheless.Aren’t you aware of the opium trade and the figures involved ? Research this on the net before you come up with crappy allegations and questions.
John Kerry’s middle name is FORBES.Franklin Roosevelts middle name is DELANO.Both opium trading Boston Brahmin families.There were two opium wars between Britain and China when the latter tried to stop the opium trade.One in the 1840’s,the other in the 1860’s.
FJ ,Britain has the filthiest and bloodiest history in human history.
Filthy and bloody, yes, but not quite the filthiest and bloodiest.The records of France, Portugal and Belgium in Africa has been horrendous to say the least . France. Belgium and Portugal; continued to hold on to their African empire even after England had abandoned most of its colonial possessions. The brutalities perpretated by France in Algeria have few parallels in history.The difference is that Attlee Government in the UK could see the writing on the wall whereas these three European nations continued to suffer from their imperial delusions.. About the Opium War Peter is absolutely correct.—- it is one of the most shameful legacies of the erstwhile British empire.
One recent book suggests the death toll after 1857 could have been 10 million over a ten year period.If this is true,the British exterminated 50 million Indians since it is documented fact that
40 million starved to death.This would be hard to match except for the Spanish/Portugese
extermination of over 50 million in the Americas.
Peter, I am well aware of the history of the Opium wars and the Opium trade and Britains role in its perpetuation. Within context, what has your rantings to do with the historical epoch of 1857-58? As for researching on the net, do you suggest a referal to the misinforming and misleading wikipedia? I prefer books. As for Britains filthy and bloody history the burden of shame must extend to its legacy. Democracy, sanitation, education, laws, roads and railways, abolition of slavery, abolition of Sati, abolition of child marriages, regulation of weights and measures, et cetera, et cetera.
Peter, I apologise if I caused you offence. It was not an allegation. Nor do I pose crappy questions.
FJ
I thought democracy was first proposed by the Greeks.Anyway I am sceptical about democracy in practice.It doesn’t happen.Big business and the usurers are in the saddle and we the people are collectively the horse.Ancient Harrappa had drainage.The Industrial revolution was financed by post Plassey plunder.Sati was only practiced in pockets.Britain sided with the South in the American civil war.I prefer books,too but most of them are written by the victors.The Encyclopedia Brittanica has nothing on the opium trade and wars.The world is a more dangerous and unstable place since Columbus blundered into the Americas looking for India and all it had to offer.And India invented the number system,more universal than any other invention.
i think we are digressing. Let us confine our discussions to the events of 1857-58.Let us also refrain from passing subjective judgments.No nation or peoples can be said to be transparent, sincere and upright in absolute terms.The human rights record of the African and Asian nations which had emerged from the colonial yoke in the last 60 years or so is abyssmal to say the least.Suharto, the ex- President of Indonesia who died the other day had killed 5,00,000 of his poitical opponents in his own country and in addition he had murdered about 3,00,000 people of East Timor. The word “Corruption” assumed a different meaning altogether during his rule as everything was in the hands of his family members– his daughter was a terror in those days.The weapons by means of which he had kiled 8,00,000 people were all supplied by the Western nations and most of those by the USA– the American arms dealer made enormous profits.Nevertheless, we were witness to the nauseating spectacle of Lee, the ex- Prime Minister of Singapore ,rushing to his bedside during the final hours of the dictator to express his solidarity– the same Lee who never tires of lecturing us– the lesser mortals on the ethical and moral values. We all know what happened in Rwanda and what is now happening in Kenya.. We all know how Idi Amin used to eliminate the opponents of his regime..So let us be honest to ourselves and desist from moralising– it would lead us nowhere. We all have skeletons in our cupboards.
We may be a little off topic but whats most important is that we learn the lessons of history and get a grasp of the broader scheme of things.The semi colonial countries,India and the others you mention are just that -semi colonial.Autonomous zones of the global empire.And tinpot dictators like Suharto and Lee are just following orders.Those who step out of line are severely dealt with,like Milosevic and Saddam.I like this blog since it deals with topics that the machines of mass deception steer clear of.Keep up the good work.
Add A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.