General Sir Charles Napier's Administration of Scinde

HISTORY OF GENERAL SIR CHARLES NAPIER’S ADMINISTRATION OF SCINDE, AND CAMPAIGN IN THE CUTCHEE HILLS. By LIEUT. GEN. SIR WILLIAM NAPIER, K.C.B. LONDON: 1851. Reproduced By: Sani H. Panhwar CONTENTS Preface .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 Chapter – I .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 Chapter – II .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 17 Chapter – III .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 35 Chapter – IV .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 54 Chapter – V .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 69 Chapter – VI .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 86 Chapter – VII .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 107 Chapter – VIII .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 119 Chapter – IX .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 134 Chapter – X .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 156 Chapter – XI .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 178 Chapter – XII .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 202 Chapter – XIII .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 219 Supplement .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 251 APPENDIX I. Report of Kurrachee Collector on Criminal Trials wider the Ameers. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 254 APPENDIX II. Extracts from a Report upon Production by C. W. Richardson, Esq., Deputy Collector in Scinde. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 255 APPENDIX III. Extracts from Letters by Sir C. Napier to the Supreme Government about the Mullaree River. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 256 APPENDIX IV. Extracts from a Letter by Sir C. Napier to Lord Ellenborough when preparing to commence the Campaign against the Hillmen. .. .. .. 257 APPENDIX V. Extracts from Letters by Sir C. Napier to Lord Ellenborough and Sir Ii. Hardinge, touching the Mutiny and Sickness of Troops. .. .. .. 262 APPENDIX VI. Observations by Sir C. Napier on the 8th Section of the New Articles of War for the Indian Army, re-introducing Corporal Punishment. .. .. 265 APPENDIX VII. Compressed Observations on the necessity of restoring Corporal Punishment in the Indian Army. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 267 APPENDIX VIII. Memoranda on the Baggage of an Army, addressed to Lord Ellenborough. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 274 APPENDIX IX. Extracts from a Letter to Lord Ripon on Prize-Money. .. .. 281 APPENDIX X. Extracts from a Letter to Lord Ripon on the Hill Campaign. .. .. 282 APPENDIX XI. Names of the Volunteers from the 13th Regiment who scaled the Rock of Trukkee. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 283 APPENDIX XII. Extract of a Letter by Sir Roderick Murchison upon the Geo-logical Specimens collected by Captain Vicary in the Cutchee Hills during Sir C. Napier’s Campaign. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 284 APPENDIX XIII. Letters by Sir C. Napier to the Governor of Bombay touching Forged and Stolen Letters published by Dr. Built. .. .. .. .. .. .. 284 APPENDIX XIV. Letters from Sir C. Napier to the Governor-General relative to Lieutenant- Colonel Outram’s published Slanders. .. .. .. .. .. 285 APPENDIX XV. Extract from a Letter addressed by Sir C. Napier to the Governor-General about Medals. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 287 APPENDIX XVI. Letters from Sir C. Napier to the Widow of the Ameer Noor Mohamed—and Extracts of a Letter to the Governor-General touching the Secret Scheme of the Ameers and their Women. .. .. .. .. .. .. 289 APPENDIX XVII. Statement of General Hunter touching the Progress of the Horse-mart at Sukkur. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 291 APPENDIX XVIII. Observations by Captain Rathborne, Chief Collector of Scinde, confirmed by Comments of Mr. Edwardes, Civil Magistrate at Simla, showing one source of immense profit to the Company by Conquest of Scinde. .. .. 292 APPENDIX XIX. Notes by Major Beatson on his March to blockade the Northern Entrance of Trukkee. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 294 APPENDIX XX. Information relative to the Resignation of the Turban by Roostum—and Letter from Sir C. Napier to Sir Jasper Nicholls. .. .. .. .. 299 PREFACE. WHEN the History of Sir C. Napier’s Conquest of Scinde was published, an account of his after-administration in that country was promised as a sequel; hence the present work, which includes also his campaign against the hillmen of Cutchee. It is dedicated, as the History of the Conquest was, to the British people, because from the people only can support be looked for against the unceasing efforts made to suppress the just claims of a victorious general, and successful administrator, to the applause of his countrymen. But to obtain that support ingenuously, the man’s thoughts as well as his actions should be made known with all integrity—wherefore his opinions of government generally, of particular systems, and his views and feelings on every important occasion, have been, where the necessity of compression would admit, recorded in his own words. A more artful structure of composition might have been adopted to the advantage of the writer; but the original turn of genius, the natural temper and unsophisticated character of Sir C. Napier could not then have been presented with such naked honesty: nor could he be in any way so successfully defended from slanderers as by letting the reader hear him think aloud. Many of his opinions, thus recorded, will however be misunderstood, if taken otherwise than as applications to the peculiar customs and prejudices of the people he was dealing with. He might, for example, be supposed to advocate military in preference to civil government, if his reasoning on that head was not entirely dependent on the exigencies of a recent conquest over a violent, warlike race, which was to be at once controlled and civilized. In like manner his objection to the employment of civil servants, if not read with reference to the particular state of affairs at the time, and especial reference to his conviction, that the system of civil administration established in India was essentially vicious as well as inapplicable to the condition of Scinde, would seem to imply an indiscriminate contempt for all civil servants and all civil government. But this would be entirely opposed to his real sentiments, and to his practice; for all his efforts were directed so to use his military power as in the shortest time to render the Scindian population fitted to receive and willing to uphold civil institutions, of which he laid the foundations. How he performed that difficult task this work will show; and also the many obstacles opposed to his success; for he was not a man working with and sustained by power—the flame of his genius burst upwards through the official ashes heaped to keep it down. Military despotism had no part in his scheme of government beyond the first necessity: and it may be here stated as a fact honorable to both, that his successor, Mr. Pringle, a Company’s civil servant, zealous and of a just disposition, after two years’ Sir Charles Napier’s Administration Of Scinde; Copyright © www.panhwar.com 1 experience voluntarily proffered an acknowledgment of the great capacity for civil government evinced in Sir C. Napier’s Scindian institutions. Sir Charles Napier’s Administration Of Scinde; Copyright © www.panhwar.com 2 CHAPTER I. WHEN Shere Mohamed, called the Lion, was defeated near Hyderabad, his vanquisher publicly declared that another shot would not be fired. This was ridiculed as a vain boast, but it proved a sound prediction, and well founded on the following considerations. A country peopled by distinct races, having different religions and opposing interests, could not furnish either the passions or the material means for a protracted contest under misfortune. The Scindian proper, the cultivator of the soil, was but an oppressed bondsman, an unarmed slave, and the destruction of the Ameers was his deliverance. The Hindoos, numerous, timid, and of a faith condemned by Beloochee and Scindian alike, were an isolated plundered people and sure to accept peace with protection. The Beloochees only had an interest to prolong the war; for having been habitually oppressors they desired to maintain their profitable ascendant position. But they had lost two great battles, their treasury had been taken, six of their princes were captives, and their political and military organization was so shattered they could not take the field again for regular warfare, while the diversity of religion and interests was a sure bar to any general insurgent resistance. Moreover, the Belooch polity was feudal, and its natural tendency to disunion was augmented in Scinde, because the sirdars and chiefs owed service to many heads,—each Ameer being sovereign—and though their princes lived in families and even in the same fortresses, it was in hatred, agreeing in nothing save to oppress their subjects and turn the land they misgoverned into a wilderness for hunting. Mohamed, the Lion of Meerpoore, was the hardiest of the Talpoorees, but he had been signally defeated at Hyderabad-. At Meeanee he had not fought at all, and his failing to do so, though caused partly by the rapidity of the English leader, resulted chiefly from a miscalculation of chances and advantages; for, Sobdar excepted, the Ameers had been to him always inimical, and he, thinking like all of his race the British could not stand before the fierce swordsmen gathered on that fatal field, moved slowly. Victory he knew would render the other Talpoor princes more insolently encroaching towards himself and he reserved his contingent force of twelve thousand warriors entire, to influence the after- arrangements. While on the march he heard with astonishment that the battle was lost and the Talpoor dynasty overthrown; whereupon, falling back to Meerpoore, he offered peace, yet insincerely and only to gain time for collecting all his own feudatories and rallying the fugitives from Meeanee. But though a temporary union of the tribes had taken place before that battle, old feuds were

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