DOCSLIB.ORG

11 the City of the Dead

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
11 the City of the Dead 11 THE CITY OF THE DEAD Hodson’s plan for the capture of the King got off to an inauspicious start. As Maulvi Rajab Ali and Mirza Ilahe Bakhsh approached Hu- mayun’s Tomb, they were ambushed by a party of jihadis, and four of their escort of horsemen were badly wounded. They wheeled around and fled back towards Delhi; but coming across Hodson after a short distance they were persuaded to continue with their mission, since the attack ‘appeared to be the act of fanatics and not due to the King’s party’.1 On arrival, Hodson hid in some ruins, out of sight of the gate- way of the tomb, and sent in his understandably nervous 485/756 negotiators, Rajab Ali and Ilahe Bakhsh. They were attended by a small armed escort of fifteen men from Hodson’s Horse, led by a Sikh risaldar (cavalry commander) named Sirdar Man Singh. Hod- son gave orders that the maulvi was to direct the negotiations. He was instructed to pass straight through the large and unstable rabble of refugees, shahzadas (princes), courtiers, hangers-on and jihadis who had taken shelter within the walls of the garden tomb. When he reached Zafar, he was ‘to say to the King that if he came out quietly and gave himself up, I [Hodson] would ensure his safety, but if he ventured to leave the tomb, I had command of the entrance and would shoot him and his attendants without mercy’. For two agonising hours nothing happened. Hodson was just about to assume that his envoys had been murdered when, after a long delay, the Risaldar came to say that King was coming. Presently Mirza Ilahee Buksh and the Maulvee ap- peared escorting the King’s Palanquin, closely followed by that of the Begum [accompanied by her son Mirza Jawan Bakht and her father Mirza Quli Khan] with their attend- ants and a host of the fugitives from the palace and city. The Palanquins stopped and a message was sent to me that the King wished to hear from my own lips that his life would be spared. I rode up to the spot, seizing the opportunity to interpose my men between the King’s immediate party and the crowd pressing behind, the appearance of which was threatening. I dismounted for a moment and reassured the King and the Begum (both of whom were evidently much agitated and frightened) by the promise that his life would be spared, provided no attempt was made at a rescue.2 486/756 In addition to guaranteeing Zafar’s life, Hodson promised the King that he would not be subject to ‘dishonour (be-izzat) or any per- sonal indignity’.3 I then remounted and in sufficiently loud tone to be heard by the crowd repeated the words, adding a command to my men to shoot the first person who attempted to move. I then desired Mirza Ilahi Bakhsh and Maulvi Rajab Ali to proceed with the Palanquins as soon as they were a suffi- cient distance from the crowd.4 The journey through the no-man’s-land towards Delhi seemed to Hodson to take for ever. As he told a colleague, ‘the slow shuffling pace of the [palanquin] bearers, their continual changing of their shoulders, and the pressing on of the crowd,’ kept the atmosphere edgy and tense. But the cavalry sawars rode close to the King’s pa- lanquin, and no attempt at a rescue was made. As the party neared the walls of the city, the crowd of stragglers slowly thinned until by the time they got to the Lahore Gate, Hodson’s sawars found they were alone with their captives.5 The guard at the gate asked who Hodson had within the palanquin, to which he replied, ‘only the King of Delhi’. They then passed down Chandni Chowk, and into the Fort, as Zafar returned to his ancestral palace no longer Em- peror, but now prisoner. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare. One British surgeon described ‘an old man with an anxious expression on his thin face’ being carried through the litter of his ransacked palace. ‘His countenance gave no signs of cruelty,’ wrote the surgeon, ‘but appeared mild.’6 Hodson handed his prize over to Charles Saun- ders, the successor to Hervey Greathed as head of the civil admin- istration of Delhi, and then went to report his coup to General Wilson. 487/756 To Hodson’s surprise and disappointment, Wilson did not seem especially pleased by the news of the King’s capture: ‘Well I am glad you have got him,’ was all he said. ‘I never expected to see either of you again.’7 According to Fred Maisey, who was also in the room at the time, the old general was actually ‘in the most tre- mendous rage at the king being brought in alive … it seemed to me that the news was far from welcome, which made me doubt all along the assertion [by Hodson] that General Wilson had guaran- teed the King’s life’.8 General Wilson later strongly denied that he had ever done so, and there is good reason to believe him, for both the civil and military authorities in Delhi had received strict and specific instructions from Canning in Calcutta not to offer any terms to the Mughals save that of unconditional surrender. That afternoon, Zafar was taken to Zinat Mahal’s haveli in Lal Kuan, where to add to his sufferings he was given the charmless and aggressive Kendal Coghill as a guard: ‘I had the satisfaction of receiving the “King of Hindoostan” as a prisoner,’ Coghill wrote to his brother the following day, ‘and immediately placed him safe with a double sentry over him. It wasn’t a manly thing to do, but I couldn’t help calling him a pig and other appropriate epithets, and to ask him about our families. I would have shot him dead if he had only looked up, the brute, and gave the sentries orders that if he tried to stir to drop [i.e. shoot] him.’9 The following morning Hodson persuaded Wilson to sanction a second expedition to Humayun’s Tomb. This time the object was to pick up Mirzas Mughal, Khizr Sultan and Abu Bakr, the three princes who had commanded the Mughal 488/756 forces during the Uprising, and whose presence in the tomb had now been confirmed by Mirza Ilahe Bakhsh.*10 As before, Wilson made it a condition that he should not be bothered by the prison- ers, and as no guarantees of the princes’ lives had ever been dis- cussed, Hodson interpreted his General’s orders as he wished. Hodson rode out with an escort of 100 sawars at eight in the morning, accompanied as before by his negotiators Maulvi Rajab Ali and Mirza Ilahe Bakhsh. Again, Hodson and his two British deputies halted outside the entrance to the tomb complex, and sent in the two Indians to negotiate. According to Lieutenant MacDow- ell, who left the only record of what happened, ‘We sent in to say that the princes must give themselves up unconditionally, or take the consequences.’ A long half hour elapsed, when a messenger came out to say that the princes wished to know if their lives would be promised if they came out. ‘Unconditional surrender’ was the answer. Again we waited. It was a most anxious time. We dared not take them by force, all would have been lost, and we doubted their coming. We heard the shouts of the fanatics [jihadis] begging the princes to lead them on against us, and we had only one hundred men and were six miles from Delhi. … There were about three thousand Mus- salman followers [in the walled tomb garden]. In a suburb close by [Nizamuddin], about three thousand more, all armed; so it was a ticklish bit of work … At length imagining that sooner or later they must be taken, the princes resolved to give themselves up uncondi- tionally, fancying, I suppose, that as we had spared the King, we would spare them. So a messenger was sent to say they were coming. We sent ten men to meet them, and by Hodson’s orders, I drew the troops up across the road, ready to receive them and shoot them at once if there was 489/756 any attempt at a rescue. Soon they appeared, in a small ‘Rath’ or Hindustanee cart, drawn by bullocks, with five troopers on each side. Behind them thronged about two or three thousand (I am not exaggerating) Mussalmans. We met them and at once Hodson and I rode up, leaving the men a little in the rear. They bowed as we came up, and Hodson, bowing, ordered the driver to move on. Hodson told the sawars to hurry the princes along the road, while MacDowell and his troopers formed up between the crowd and the princes, advancing slowly towards the courtiers and attendants, forcing them back into the garden of the tomb. Hodson and myself (I stuck to him throughout) with four men, [then] rode up the steps [and] through the arch, when he called out to the rabble to lay down their arms. There was a murmur. He reiterated the command and (God knows why, I can never understand it) they commenced do- ing so … What we wanted was to gain time to get the princes away, for we could have done nothing had they attacked us … There we stayed for two hours collecting their arms, and I assure you I thought every moment they would rush on us.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench, New Delhi. OA
    1 Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench, New Delhi. OA-568/2013 New Delhi this the 11th day of May, 2016 HON’BLE MRS. JASMINE AHMED, MEMBER (J) Sh. Deepak Mohan Technical Officer- C DTRL, Metcalfe House, Delhi-110 054. ... Applicant (By Advocates: Sh. Anil Srivastava) Versus. 1. Union of India Through Secretary Ministry of Defence South Block, New Delhi- 110 001 2. DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) Research and Development A Block, DRDO Bhawan New Delhi- 110 011 3. Joint Director (Personnel) (TC) Directorate of Personnel Research and Development A Block, DRDO Bhawan New Delhi- 110 011 4. Director DTRL (Defence Terrain Research Laboratory) Metcalfe House New Delhi- 110 054 ... Respondents ORDER (ORAL) Hon’ble Mrs. Jasmine Ahmed, Member (J) Vide order dated 05.02.2013, the applicant has been transferred from DTRL, Delhi to Dte. of Planning and Coordination, 2 DRDO, HQ in public interest. Learned counsel for applicant submits that the impugned order has been issued not in the interest of administration or exigency of service but for extraneous reasons and in colourable exercise of power by the concerned authority, particularly for the reason that the applicant did not accept and put his signature on the inventory, placed on record as A-7, without doing verification. He also alleges malafide against said respondent No.4. Accordingly on 15.02.2013, while notices were issued status quo with regard to posting of the applicant was directed to be maintained by the respondents. Applicant is enjoying the said interim order in his favour for more than three years. 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Reactions of Emperor Bahādur Shāh Zafar and Laureate Mirzā Ghālib to the Celestial Events During 1857-1858
    Indian Journal of History of Science, 53.3 (2018) 325-340 DOI: 10.16943/ijhs/2018/v53i3/49464 Historical Note Reactions of Emperor Bahādur Shāh Zafar and Laureate Mirzā Ghālib to the Celestial Events during 1857-1858 R C Kapoor* (Received 13 December 2017; revised 05 June 2018) Abstract The revolt against the British broke out at Meerut on 10th May 1857 that soon turned into a Great Uprising and shook the foundations of the colonial power in India. A conjunction of Mars and Saturn took place in July 1857. A solar eclipse occurred on 18th September 1857, two days before the capture of Delhi by the British. There followed a lunar eclipse, on 28th February 1858. Then a comet brightened up in the evening skies only days before the British Crown was about to take India in its fold on 1st November 1858. How Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), central to the upheaval, and the laureate Mirzā Ghālib (1797-1859), a remote observer, reacted in such a scenario is central to our theme. Z. afar was a superstitious man and had a spiritual incline. What is unique is that he had never mixed up the outcome of the war with the celestial events and left it to Almighty. That he was unaware of these events is difficult to believe. Ghālib was a skeptic and came to believe the celestial events as signals of divine wrath. In the process we discover an unexplored side of Mirzā Ghālib and his grasp of astronomy. Key words: Annular solar eclipse of 1857, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Donati’s Comet, India’s Great Uprising of 1857, Mirzā Ghālib, Mughal India.
    [Show full text]
  • Directory of Institutions and Resource Persons in Disaster Management Content
    DIRECTORY OF INSTITUTIONS AND RESOURCE PERSONS IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT CONTENT S. No. Topics Page No. 1. Preface 3 2. Forew ord 4 3. Prime Minister’s Office, Govt. of India 5 4. Cabinet Secretariat 5 5. Central Ministries and Departments of Government of India 6-18 6. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) 19 -20 7. DM Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India 21 8. National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) 22-24 9. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 25 -26 10. Principal Secretaries / Secretaries (Disaster Management) or Relief 27 -31 Commissioners of States and UTs 11. State Disaster Management Authorit ies 32 -34 12. Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs) of States and UTs 35 -38 13. Faculty, Disaster Management Centres in ATIs of States and UTs 39 -43 14. Chief Secretaries of States and UTs 44 -47 15. Principal Secretaries / Secretaries / Commissioners (Home) of States 48-52 and UTs 16. Director General of Police of States and UTs 53-56 17. Resident Commissioners of States and UTs in Delhi 57-60 18. National Level Institute s / Organizations dealing with Disaster 61 -76 Management 19. Organizations Providing Courses for Disaster Management 77 -78 20. SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC) 79 21. National (NIRD) / State Institutes of Rural Development (SIRD) in 80 -83 India 22. Resource persons / Experts in the fields of Disaster Management 84 -133 • Animal Disaster Management and livestock Emergency Standards 84 & Guidelines (LEGS) • Basic Disaster Management 84-90 • CBRN Disasters 90-91 92-93 • Chemical
    [Show full text]
  • Reconstructing the Lost Architectural Heritage of the Eighteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Century Delhi
    Text and Context: Reconstructing the Lost Architectural Heritage of the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth Century Delhi Dr. Savita Kumari Assistant Professor Department of History of Art National Museum Institute Janpath, New Delhi-110011 The boundaries of the Mughal Empire that encompassed the entire Indian subcontinent during the reign of Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707), the last great Mughal ruler, shrank to Delhi and its neighbourhood during the later Mughal period (1707-1857). Delhi remained the imperial capital till 1857 but none of the Mughal rulers of the post Aurangzeb period were powerful enough to revive its past glory. Most of the time, they were puppets in the hands of powerful nobles who played a vital role in disintegrating the empire. Apart from court politics, the empire was also to face internal and external rebellions and invasions, the most significant amongst them being Afghan invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali from the North. However, it was the East India Company that ultimately sealed the fate of the Mughal dynasty in 1857 between the Indians and the British. The city became a battleground that caused tragic destruction of life and property. During the Mutiny, opposing parties targeted the buildings of their rivals. This led to wide scale destruction and consequent changes in the architectural heritage of Delhi. In the post-Independence era, the urban development took place at the cost of many heritage sites of this period. Some buildings were demolished or altered to cater the present needs. It is unfortunate that the architectural heritage of this dynamic period is generally overshadowed by the architecture of the Great Mughals as the buildings of this period lack the grandeur and opulence of the architecture during the reign of Akbar and Shahjahan.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last Mughal: the Fall of Delhi, 1857 Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    THE LAST MUGHAL: THE FALL OF DELHI, 1857 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK William Dalrymple | 608 pages | 07 Sep 2009 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781408800928 | English | London, United Kingdom The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857 PDF Book A must read for all Indians. Although all these attacks were beaten off, the besiegers were ground down through exhaustion and disease. At the pivotal moment of his doomed reign, Zafar concentrated not on his role as a leader of men or on the sparing of innocent lives, but rather on his flowers. Three Bengal Native Infantry regiments the 38th, 54th and 74th were stationed in barracks 2 miles 3. When the heir apparent dies of cholera or maybe poisoning? On a dark evening in November , a cheap coffin is buried in eerie silence. Although they had ample warning of disaffection among the Bengal Army after earlier outbreaks of unrest at Berhampur , Barrackpur and Ambala , they had assumed that at Meerut, where the proportion of European to Indian troops was higher than anywhere else in India, the Bengal units would not risk open revolt. View Product. Mughal Empire. Simply put: This is how history should be written. After this, it was accepted that the odds were too great for any assault to be successful until the besiegers were reinforced. I wanted insight into complicated Muslim, Sufi, Hindu, Christian relations and got exac Fast paced, flashing like an epic movie, round about page I was convinced of Dalrymple's brilliant talent, incorporating Urdu texts and British writings from the era to show how a tolerant creative, if excessive Mughal court was torn asunder by violence and racism; how something so small and inconsiderate as to how bullets were manufactured could erupt into such violence, followed by even greater revenge.
    [Show full text]
  • A Narrative of the Siege of Delhi with an Account of the Mutiny at Ferozepore in 1857
    A Narrative Of The Siege Of Delhi With An Account Of The Mutiny At Ferozepore In 1857 Charles John Griffiths The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Narrative Of The Siege Of Delhi by Charles John Griffiths This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: A Narrative Of The Siege Of Delhi With An Account Of The Mutiny At Ferozepore In 1857 Author: Charles John Griffiths Release Date: January 28, 2004 [EBook #10856] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NARRATIVE OF THE SIEGE OF DELHI *** Produced by Ted Garvin, jayam and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team A NARRATIVE OF THE SIEGE OF DELHI WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MUTINY AT FEROZEPORE IN 1857 BY CHARLES JOHN GRIFFITHS LATE CAPTAIN 61ST REGIMENT EDITED BY HENRY JOHN YONGE LATE CAPTAIN 61ST REGIMENT WITH PLANS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1910 INTRODUCTION The ever memorable period in the history of our Eastern Empire known as the Great Indian Rebellion or Mutiny of the Bengal army was an epoch fraught with the most momentous consequences, and one which resulted in covering with undying fame those who bore part in its suppression. The passions aroused during the struggle, the fierce hate animating the breasts of the combatants, the deadly incidents of the strife, which without intermission lasted for nearly two years, and deluged with blood the plains and cities of Hindostan, have scarcely a parallel in history.
    [Show full text]
  • December 2012
    Issue: I No: XII Compulsions Of Good Neighbourliness Pakistan's Mindset Remain Unchanged Good Governance - Strong Nation Transformation In Afghanistan and many more__ Published By : Vivekananda International Foundation 3, San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi - 110021, [email protected], www.vifindia.org Contents ARTICLES - JPCs Must Have The Power To India And The South Asian Summon Ministers 51 Neighbourhood 3 - A Surya Prakash - Kanwal Sibal Special Laws To Counter Terrorism Dealing With The Neighbour From Hell - In India: A Reality Check 56 The Prime Minister Must Not Visit 19 - Dr N Manoharan 103 Pakistan - PP Shukla 107 India’s Nuclear Deterrence Must Be Professionally Managed 26 EVENTS - Brig (retd) Gurmeet Kanwal Vimarsha on “Transition in America Reviewing India-Afghanistan and China: Implications for India” Partnership 30 59 - Nitin Gokhale Grandma’s Remedies For Governance Issues 35 - Dr M N Buch CAG And The Indian Constitution 44 - Prof Makkhan Lal VIVEK : Issues and Options December – 2012 Issue: I No: XII 2 India And The South Asian Neighbourhood - Kanwal Sibal ndia’s relations with its thy neighbour as thyself” elicits no neighbours need to be obedience from the chancelleries of I analysed frankly and the world. unsentimentally, without recourse to the usual platitudes when Before talking of India and its pronouncing on the subject. It is neighbours, we should have a fashionable to assume that there clearer idea of what, in India’s is some larger moral imperative eyes, constitutes its that governs the relations between neighbourhood. Should we look at neighbours, with the bigger India’s neighbourhood country obliged to show a level of strategically or geographically? If generosity and tolerance towards a the first, then a case can be made smaller neighbour that would not out that India’s neighbourhood be applicable to the attitudes and encompasses the entire region the policies towards a more from the Straits of Hormuz to the distant country.
    [Show full text]
  • British Patronage in Delhi (1803 – 1857)
    SSavitaavita KKumariumari National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology, New Delhi ART AND POLITICS: BRITISH PATRONAGE IN DELHI (1803–1857) he British established their foothold in India after Sir Thomas Roe, the English diplomat, obtained permission to trade for the English East TIndia Company from the Mughal emperor Jehangir (1605–1627). By end of the seventeenth century, the company had expanded its trading operations in the major coastal cities of India. The gradual weakening of the Mughal Empire in the eighteenth century gave the East India Company a further opportunity to expand its power and maintain its own private army. In 1765, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II (1759–1806) was forced to give the Grant of the Dīwānī1) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India Company. However, it was in 1803 that the company became a formidable power when Shah Alam II accepted the Company’s authority in exchange for protection and mainte- nance. The British Residency at Delhi was established. This event completely changed the age-old political and social dynamics in Mughal Delhi. The event symbolised the shifting balance of power in Mughal politics. The real power belonged to the Company and was exercised by its residents. A substantial amount of funding was at the disposal of the British residents of Delhi who were directed by the Company’s government to maintain a splendid court of their own to rival the court of the Mughal emperor2). Thus, a parallel court was set up alongside that of the Mughal. It was the Kashmiri Gate of the Shahajahanabad (the Mughal imperial city) and the area beyond it on the northern side up to the ridge that became 1) Right to collect revenue.
    [Show full text]
  • BAKHSHISH SINGH NIJJAR M.A., Ph.D
    y Graduate and post-graduate students of Punjab History have always felt greatly handicapped for want of a comprehensive history of Punjab under the British Raj. The present volume is primarily designed to fill that long-standing gap. The period 1849-1947 has been treated systematically in detail. The entire period has been divided in three volumes and every aspect of the period has been ex­ plored documented. The learned historian Dr. Shri Ram Sharma has observed in his forword that it can easily be recommended for refe­ rence and even for study to students of history of the Punjab under the British Rs. 100 Each Vol BY THE SAME AUTHOR 1. Panjab under the Sultans. 1000-1526 2. Panjab under the Great Mughals. 1526-1707 3. Panjab under the Later Mughals. 1707-1759 4. Catalogue of the Rare Paintings etc. 5. A Guide to the Records of the Punjab State Archives 6. The Anglo-Sikh Wars. (In the press) 7. Maharani Jind Kaur. (In the press) PANJAB UNDER THE BRITISH RULE (1849-1947) [Volume III—1932-1947] DR. BAKHSHISH SINGH NIJJAR M.A., Ph.D. (History), M.A., M.O.L. (Persian), M.A. (Punjabi) Director, Punjab State Archives, Patiala Member of the Indian Historical Records Commission K. B. PUBLICATIOx\S NEW DELHI To one reader however it seems that he has made too much of the Hindu-Sikh, Muslim riots in the Pan jab during the year 1924-1932 to which he devotes twenty one pages. Thirty two pages have been devoted to the terrorist Movement (The Babar Akalis) in the twenties.
    [Show full text]
  • Narayani.Pdf
    OUR CITY, DELHI Narayani Gupta Illustrated by Mira Deshprabhu Introduction This book is intended to do two things. It seeks to make the child living in Delhi aware of the pleasures of living in a modern city, while at the same time understanding that it is a historic one. It also hopes to make him realize that a citizen has many responsibilities in helping to keep a city beautiful, and these are particularly important in a large crowded city. Most of the chapters include suggestions for activities and it is important that the child should do these as well as read the text. The book is divided into sixteen chapters, so that two chapters can be covered each month, and the course finished easily in a year. It is essential that the whole book should be read, because the chapters are interconnected. They aim to make the child familiar with map-reading, to learn some history without making it mechanical, make him aware of the need to keep the environment clean, and help him to know and love birds, flowers and trees. Our City, Delhi Narayani Gupta Contents Introduction Where Do You Live? The Ten Cities of Delhi All Roads Lead to Delhi Delhi’s River—the Yamuna The Oldest Hills—the Ridge Delhi’s Green Spaces We Also Live in Delhi Our Houses Our Shops Who Governs Delhi? Festivals A Holiday Excursion Delhi in 1385 Delhi in 1835 Delhi in 1955 Before We Say Goodbye 1. Where Do You Live? This is a book about eight children and the town they live in.
    [Show full text]
  • 82. Indian Subcontinent, 1750–1947
    82. Indian Subcontinent, 1750–1947 Tania Sengupta [CHAPTER KEYWORDS: India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; Burma; Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Britain; France; British Raj; prison; railway station; market (bazaar); bungalow; veranda; cutcherry (office); zilla sadar; cantonment; Neoclassicism; Indo-Saracenic; New Delhi; Edwin Lutyens] [CHAPTER ABSTRACT: The Indian subcontinent under colonial rule from the mid-eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries witnessed the establishment of British economic and political dominance, suppressing other European powers, and consequently creating a long-term negative balance of the subcontinent’s trade with Europe and loss of its political sovereignty to Britain. Starting with Bengal around the mid-eighteenth century, the British gained territories across India, Ceylon and Burma over the nineteenth century. British colonial rule consisted of creating a ‘military fiscal’ state with agricultural revenues used to fund British wars worldwide. It also exploited cash cropping and plantation economies along with political control. In the full-blown imperial era (starting in 1858, following the Indian Mutiny of 1857), the colonial administration developed major institutions and other forms of infrastructure, accompanied by Victorian health and sanitary regimes, to organise and control its subjects’ lives. Following numerous peasant uprisings and increasingly including the middle classes, Nationalist resistance to British rule had intensified by the early twentieth century. This opposition, along with the war-impoverished British economy, finally led to the independence of the nations of the Indian subcontinent in the late 1940s. Colonial sociocultural encounter from the late eighteenth century involved the confrontation of European Enlightenment ideals with those prevalent in the Indian subcontinent. Early colonial travellers and Orientalists engaged in the study of Eastern cultures viewed the East as an exotic but decaying civilisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Mongol Invasions of India
    Mongol Invasions of India The Mongol Empire carried out several invasions of the Indian subcontinent from 1221 to 1327. Some of these invasions were punitive raids intended for plunder while others were carried out with the intention of occupying key city centres. The Mongols suffered a series of defeats when the Delhi Sultanate undertook military campaigns against them in the mid-1300s. This article will give details about the Mongol Invasions of India within the context of the IAS Exam. Background of Mongol Invasions of India The Mongol were a nomadic tribe that lived on the plains of Central Asia from the Ural Mountains to the Gobi Desert. They were a fractious tribe always at war with each other until a warlord, Temujin united them in 1206. Taking the name Genghis Khan. He set on a path of conquest in which he would forge an empire that would scratch from Korea in the east to the borders of Poland in the west at his height in 1237. To date, the Mongol Empire is the largest contiguous land empire in human history. Genghis Khan made several incursions into the Indian subcontinent when he chased the Jalal al Din, the last ruler of the Khwarezmian Empire, all the way to the Indus river in 1221. The Khwarezmian Empire was destroyed by the Mongols the year before and Genghis Khan had ordered anyone member of the ruling family to be tracked down and killed. In their pursuit of Jalal, the Mongols sacked several cities in the Punjab region but their incursions were limited towards the western banks of the Sindh river at the time.
    [Show full text]