[JRFF 6.1 (2016) 49–67] ISSN (Print) 1757–2460 ISSN (Online) 1757–2479 James Burnes

[JRFF 6.1 (2016) 49–67] ISSN (print) 1757–2460 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jrff.31864 ISSN (online) 1757–2479

James Burnes (1801–1862): Scottish Freemason and Empire Builder

Simon Deschamps1

Université Toulouse—Jean Jaurès, France Email: [email protected]

Abstract

James Burnes (1801–1862) was one of the most charismatic and polarizing figures of nineteenth century Scottish freemasonry. He is best remembered for his work on the history of the Knight Templars and as the primary mover of the first Indian lodge specifically designed to welcome native candidates. In the Indian presidency of Bombay, he became an enthusiastic promoter of freemasonry and a zealous political agent defending British colonial interests wherever his travels took him. Although much has been written about his masonic career in India, there is no extensive biography of James Burnes, or at least no satisfactory attempt at a biographical approach that would seek to situate his masonic career within the more general frame of his career as a soldier and empire-builder. This study is therefore meant both as biographical approach that seeks to attempt to offer a more accurate insight into the life and works of this fascinating character, and as an insight into the intricate relationship between freemasonry and imperialism.

Keywords: British Empire, India, freemasonry, biography.

Introduction It has sometimes been claimed by colonial historians that the Indian Empire was conquered by Irish soldiers for the benefit of Scottish merchants.2 This theory is particularly interesting because it emphasizes the distinctive role played by the Scottish as empire builders, which had long been ignored. And it is true that there were many Scots amongst the employees of the

1. Simon Deschamps is Associate Professor of British Studies at the Université Toulouse—Jean Jaurès, France. He is a member of the research group Cultures Anglo-Saxonnes (EA 801). 2. Nadine André, “Alexander Burnes, un héritier des Lumières écossaises dans le sous-continent indien à l’âge des réformes”, Etudes Ecossaises [online] 14 (2001): 33.

British East India Company, which received a royal charter in 1600 and came to rule over large areas of India. James Burnes (1801–1862) was one of them. The story of his life and masonic career, especially in British India, has been told elsewhere, most notably by Robert Freke Gould in his Military Lodges: The Apron and the Sword of Freemasonry under Arms, but never extensively.3 Besides, most of the biographical material dedicated to James Burnes offers a flattering portrait of him. According to Gould, there was ‘nothing more remarkable than the absolutely unique position which he attained in the Craft within less than three years’.4 Gould’s comment also points to the fact that most biographies insist on his masonic achievements, while very few offer an insight into both his career as a soldier and his career as a mason, and fewer still have focused on how they intertwined to form an essential component of empire-building within the Indian subcontinent. James Burnes played a significant part in the political history of the presidency of Bombay, and a most decisive role in the masonic history of that same presidency. His name is not absent from the existing historical accounts of British India but has often been eclipsed by that of his younger brother, Alexander Burnes (1805–1841), also known as ‘Sekunder’ Burnes by those who admired his exploratory work of the Bokhara (one of the major cities of what is today Uzbekistan). It is therefore high time that James Burnes be given the historical attention he deserves.

Early Years and Medical Training Born on 12 February 1801, James Burnes grew up in Montrose, a small coastal town in the East of Scotland, half way between Dundee and Aberdeen. His father, James Burnes (1780–1852) was the local provost, and his mother Elizabeth was the daughter of the chief magistrate of that same city. In Memoirs of Alexander Burnes, George Buist also brings to the attention of the reader that James Burnes senior played an active part in the agricultural and municipal improvements of the eastern district of the county. In fact, he seems to have been one of the leading local public figures. Interestingly enough, he was also related to the great Scottish poet Robert Burns, insofar as his grandfather was the elder brother of William Burnes (Burns), the father of the Scottish poet.5 James Burnes senior had five sons, of which James was the oldest.

3. Robert Freke Gould, Military Lodges: The Apron and the Sword of Freemasonry under Arms (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2003), 53. 4. Freke Gould, Military Lodges, 196. 5. Nigel Leask, Robert Burnes and Pastoral (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 35.

James began his education in Montrose Academy, and was then sent to Edinburgh University where he studied medicine, before undertaking his medical training in St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. Once the time came to seek a position, the choice of India was as obvious as it was for most surgeons with a middle-class background who sought recognition and fast promotion. India and the East India Company service then offered more career prospects than England and Scotland could ever provide. Besides, James’ father was acquainted with Joseph Hume (1777–1855), the Scottish doctor and radical MP, whom he had met on the benches of the Montrose Academy.6 Hume had studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and joined the naval services of the East India Company as a physician. On his return from India, Hume had made a name for himself and purchased a seat in parliament for Weymouth in 1812. By then he had gained significant influence over the Court of Proprietors, the governing body of the East India Company.7 This may explain why James Burnes senior turned to Joseph Hume for help in getting Alexander employment in the East India Company.8 Although it cannot be ascertained for certain, it is quite likely that Hume put in a good word for James too. James was then 20 years-old while his brother Alexander was 16. The patronage of Joseph Hume may explain how they were able to obtain employment in the East India Company the same year, leading them to embark for Bombay together in the summer of 1821.9

From Indian Medical Service to Political Agent James and Alexander arrived in Bombay in October 1821. Both were to join the army, the first as a medical officer and the second as a cadet in the Infantry.10 To be more precise, James had signed up as an assistant surgeon and took on several minor positions of the Indian Medical Service (IMS). For some time, he served in the artillery of Matoonga (a locality of Bombay), then in the convalescent hospital of Severndroog (a fortress between Bombay and Goa), in the Madras infantry, and finally in

6. Craig Murray, Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game (Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2016), 11. 7. Ronald K. Huch; Paul R. Ziegler, Joseph Hume: The People’s MP (Philadelphia, PA: The American Philosophical Society, 1985), 3–4. 8. Stanley Lane-Poole, ‘Burnes, James (1801–1862)’, rev. James Mills, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2005. 9. Katherine Prior, ‘Burnes, Sir Alexander (1805–1841)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008. 10. Robert Freke Gould, ‘Dr. James Burnes, 1801–1862’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 13 (1900): 44.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017. 52 Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism the 24th regiment in Bombay. His mission in most of the cantonments he was active in consisted of keeping cholera at check, a rather dangerous task, especially when bearing in mind that most of his predecessors died from that very disease.11 In 1825, James Burnes’ career as a surgeon took a decisive turn when he won the position of surgeon to the Residency of Kutch, which had been made available the same year by Governor- General Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779–1859), another Scotsman and empire builder.12 One of the prerequisites for holding the position he was given was the mastery of native languages, which obviously means that Burnes had a good knowledge of them, although it was not unusual for surgeons operating in India to know some of the vernaculars. It should also be mentioned that his brother Alexander, who joined him one year later as assistant to the Resident of Kutch, Sir Henry Pottinger (1789– 1856), also mastered Hindustani and Persian.13 The same year, James Burnes volunteered in the British expeditionary force that fought back the Sindhian forces, which had devastated Kutch despite the treaty signed with the Ameers of Sindh (a princely state in the north of India), which effectively made it a British dependency. Despite the increased tension with the British colonial administration, the Ameers solicited James Burnes two years later, in October 1827, on account of his being ‘the most skilful of all physicians’, and the best suited to attend the alleged sickness of Meer Ali Murad Talpur, the most powerful ruler of Sindh.14 The Political Department, founded in 1783 with the aim of promoting British interests within the Indian princely courts, was unsurprisingly supportive of Burnes’ potential visit to the court of Sindh, especially as the Ameers portrayed him in their invitation as the ‘cementer of the bonds of amity between the two governments’.15 In his correspondence with the Political Department, Sir Henry Pottinger later recalled how James Burnes was entertained by the Ameers in a traditional state durbar with all the formality of an

11. F.W. Birch, ed., Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges with R. W. John Grant’s Memoir of Brother Burnes (Calcutta: Samuel Smith and Co., 1840), 10. 12. James Burnes, Notes on His Name and Family (Edinburgh: Printed for private circulation, 1851), 5. The resident was the diplomatic official in charge of representing British interests at the courts of Indian princes. 13. Katherine Prior, ‘Burnes, Sir Alexander (1805–1841)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008. 14. James Burnes, A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde: A Sketch of the History of Cutch, from Its First Connexion with the British Government in India till the Conclusion of the Treaty of 1819; and Some Remarks on the Medical Topography of Bhooj (Edinburgh: J. Stark, 1831), 10. 15. James Burnes, Notes on His Name and Family, 5. It is to be noted that the names of James and Alexander Burnes are mentioned in relation to the Political Department in Terence Creah Coen’s The Indian Political Service published in 1971.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017. Deschamps James Burnes (1801–1862) 53 official visit, and as ‘an officer of the British Government deputed in that capacity’.16 This clearly confirms the political nature of James Burnes’ work in Sindh. When he returned to Kutch, his report was passed on to the Court of Directors of the East India Company and published in 1830 under the title of A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde. His Narrative received much praise from the international scientific community for the unprecedented wealth of information it contained. 17 In fact, it was such a major contribution to the geopolitics of the Indian sub-continent that it was printed at the expense of the State, while the Governor-General made sure it was presented to the Royal Asiatic Society and circulated to public servants.18 Burnes had made sure to collect as much strategic information as possible and portrayed the Ameers as militarily inferior and subject to superstition: The Ameers are, I believe, perfectly aware of the utter hopelessness of any defence they could make, in the event of an invasion by our government […] the magic of our name linked with success […] have not failed to exert their superstitious influence on the anxious and foreboding minds of the natives.19 In fact, James Burnes’ exploration of the Indus must have played a central part in Sir Henry Pottinger’s embassy in 1832–33, for the purpose of demanding the free navigation of the Indus to British merchants. In his report, Burnes had indeed predicted that ‘the river Indus might once more become the channel of communication and wealth between the interior of Asia and the Peninsula of India’.20 Beyond these practical considerations, it is clear that Burnes’ Narrative contributed to furthering his name and authority in India among the British as well as the Indian. When his brother, Alexander, undertook his travels to Bokhara (Central Asia) he was warmly welcomed by the Ameers as the brother of Dr. James Burnes. Although he was then in the midst of his fame, poor health compelled him to leave Kutch and return to Britain. In 1833, he embarked for Europe by the overland route, though the Middle-East, Italy, Switzerland and France.21

16. F.W. Birch, ed., Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges with R. W. John Grant’s Memoir of Brother Burnes (Calcutta: Samuel Smith and Co., 1840), 5. The ‘durbar’ was a traditional Indian royal audience ceremony. 17. Lane-Poole, ‘Burnes, James (1801–1862)’. 18. James Burnes, Notes on His Name and Family, 6. 19. James Burnes, A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde, 118. 20. James Burnes, A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde, 150. 21. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 8.

Return to Europe: Social Consecration and Masonic Membership James Burnes’ successful military career as a surgeon and political agent in India is essential to understand the path that led him to join a masonic lodge. Unlike his younger brother Alexander, who had become a mason in India in 1828, James was only initiated in 1834 at the age of 32 and once he was back in his home city, Montrose.22 In fact, he was entered, passed and raised in St Peter’s Lodge No. 120, the lodge of which his brother, Adam Burnes, was the master, and his father a long-standing member. His brothers Charles, of the Bombay army, and David, a naval surgeon based in London, were initiated on the same day as he was.23 James became the master of St Peter’s Lodge two years later. The account of his initiation reveals that James Burnes senior and his five sons all attended the lodge on that particular night. The question that arises at this point is why did James Burnes join freemasonry the very year he went back to the motherland? What did it represent for him? What interest did he have in doing so? The obvious family involvement with freemasonry is only part of the answer. The case of James Burnes’ sudden interest in freemasonry can only be explained in the light of the more general frame of nineteenth century sociability and social recognition. The many honours that were bestowed upon him while he was back in the motherland, testify to the extent of the political and scientific recognition he received in Britain and on the Continent, as a consequence of his geopolitical work in Sindh. As early as September 1834, he was elected to the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh on the proposal of Professor John Thomson, who also obtained that the usual probation of nine months be dispensed with.24 On 2 April 1835, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society in London.25 His Narrative also earned him the recognition of the Royal Asiatic Society and the French Société de Géographie, which had issued a notice as early as 1834 in which the fellows insisted on the fact that ‘les deux frères ont bien mérité de la géographie, en nous donnant des details sur des pays peu connus’.26 In 1837, he was made Doctor of Laws honoris causa by Glasgow University.27 He was also awarded the Knighthood of the Guelphic Order by King William

22. In fact, Alexander Burnes, who was then lieutenant, was initiated in Benevolent Lodge No. 746 in Kira, Gujarat, and was made an honorary of lodge St. Peter’s No. 120 on the night that James was initiated. 23. The Masonic Illustrated (June 1904), 23. 24. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 9. 25. Lane-Poole, ‘Burnes, James (1801–1862)’. 26. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta, 21. 27. Robert Freke Gould, ‘Dr. James Burnes, 1801–1862)’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 13 (1900): 44.

IV, after he was presented to the King by his friend, General George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie (1770–1838), who had served in India as Commander-in-Chief from 1830 to 1832.28 This event and the form it took can only further confirm the political nature of Burnes’ achievements in India. It is also particularly interesting in the sense that it throws light on the role of sociability in building a social identity, and further confirms that belonging to a club or learned society was constitutive of one’s social status. It also speaks volumes about the proximity and interconnection that brought all of these institutions together. Furthermore, it seems that the masonic connection was rather central in the honours received by James Burnes. After all, the 9th Earl of Dalhousie was himself a mason and had served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland from 1804 to 1806.29 In his account of the life and career of James Burnes, Gould rightly underlines the uniqueness of Burnes’ meteoric rise in freemasonry.30 In fact, the year following his initiation, he was exalted to the Royal Arch Chapter in Canongate Kilwinning No. 56, in Edinburgh. Not only did James Burnes reach the highest degrees possible within the masonic order in the years that followed his initiation, he also came to be known as an authoritative specialist of the Knight Templars, following the publication of his Sketch on the History of the Knight Templars in 1837.31

The History of the Knight Templars According to John Grant’s Memoir, James Burnes first took an interest in the history of the Knight Templars in Edinburgh, shortly before his departure for India. In fact, he is said to have been encouraged to undertake the task of writing his Sketch on the History of the Knights Templars (1837) by brethren who supposedly associated his name with the antiquity of the Templar tradition, and offered to provide him with ‘valuable documents in the possession of old and noble families’.32 In the introduction to his work, Burnes mentioned Adam Paterson and

28. Bruce Hogg; Diane Clements, ‘Freemasons and the Royal Society: Alphabetical List of Fellows of the Royal Society who were Freemasons’, United Grand Lodge of England: Online Resources. 29. Bruce Hogg; Diane Clements,’Freemasons and the Royal Society: Alphabetical List of Fellows of the Royal Society who were Freemasons’, United Grand Lodge of England: Online Resources. 30. Robert Freke Gould, ‘Dr. James Burnes, 1801–1862)’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 13 (1900): 47. 31. The Masonic Illustrated (June 1904), 23. 32. James Burnes, Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars (Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons, 1837) i.

William Pringle Esquires, who had both worked on the history of Templary in the past and provided him with the manuscripts in their possession.33 He also thanked William A. Laurie, then Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, for his help and support. Besides, the book was actually dedicated to His Royal Highness, Prince Augustus Frederic (1773–1843), Duke of Sussex and also Grand Prior of England. Based on this account, it is obvious that his work on the Templars received official support, which may explain why he is often remembered as having played a decisive part in reviving Templary in Scotland and throughout the UK. In fact, Burnes was very often quoted in the masonic periodicals as an authoritative specialist of the Knight Templars. In 1837, the very year of the publication of his Sketch, the Freemason Quarterly Review published an article in which James Burnes was said to have ‘called a new order into existence’ and that his name would ‘be blazoned as first and foremost of its chiefs’.34 In his historical account of Templary, James Burnes traces back the origins of the Knights Templar to Jerusalem, and later focuses on the particular origins of the Templars in Scotland. In the last chapter of the book, entirely devoted to the Knights Templar of Scotland, he mentions the French theory according to which the first connection between Templary and Freemasonry can be traced back to the spoliation of the Templars by the Catholic Church and the new order they formed under the banner of Robert Bruce (1274–1329), the origins of Scottish freemasonry.35 Although he gives particular attention to this theory, Burnes then appears to distance himself from its exponents when he points out that there are no ‘authentic records anterior to the Reformation, to prove a connection between the Knights Templar and Freemasons in any part of the world’. According to him, it was only at the time of the ‘renunciation of Popery’ that the Templars sought refuge among the ‘Brethren of the Mystic Tie’.36 And yet, James Burnes’ work on the Knights Templar came at a providential time, a few years after the Scottish Knight Templars were revived as a semi-formal body, in 1808, and as its members were seeking a historical tradition that would contribute to give the organization the legitimacy and prestige it needed to grow more popular.37 In fact, Robert Cooper explains that there was no such history of the Knights Templar prior to the publication of

33. James Burnes, Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars, i. 34. Freemason’s Quarterly Review (March 1837), 111. 35. James Burnes, Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars, 60. 36. James Burnes, Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars, 66–67. 37. Robert Cooper, Cracking the Freemason’s Code: The Truth About Solomon’s Key and the Brotherhood (New York: Atria Books, 2006), 158–59.

Burnes’ Sketch, and that he supplied its members with an account that allowed them to ground their Order in a Scottish setting and some of the most romantic periods of Scottish history.38 Interestingly enough and despite his doubts as to the medieval origins of the masonic order of the Knights Templar, it seems that Burnes nevertheless contributed to promoting the Order in India when he returned to Bombay as Provincial Grand Master of Western India, in 1836. On 17 April 1841, John Grant, who was then Provincial Grand Master of Bengal, wrote a letter to the United Grand Lodge of England in which he mentions James Burnes’ role in making him a member: ‘[…] being a genuine Knight Templar, to which order I have been admitted through the final instrumentality of Brother James Burnes, P.G.M. of Bombay’. 39 In fact, in his Memoir of James Burnes, John Grant mentions that by 1840, more than 20 gentlemen had enrolled as Knights Templar within the Grand Priory of India, which further suggests that James Burnes, in both his qualities as Provincial Grand Master of Western India and a major historian of Templary, must have contributed to making the Order more popular amongst the Indian brethren.40

Back to India as Provincial Grand Master of Western India In December 1836, the minutes of James Burnes’ mother lodge in Montrose reveal that he sent a gift in the form of a mahogany case containing a splendidly bound Bible which bore an inscription by Lord Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (1812–1860), the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Ramsay’s inscription was made on Burnes’ request, which would tend to suggest that he held him in high regard. This may also explain why on 30 November 1836, shortly before James Burnes was to make his return to India, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Lord Ramsay, suggested that he be appointed Provincial Grand Master of Western India, on account of his honourable service in the East India Company and his superior knowledge of freemasonry. By the time he returned to India, James Burnes had achieved great fame and prestige in Europe. He left London for Bombay on 24 December 1837, and was appointed to the Garrison Surgeoncy of

38. Robert Cooper, Cracking the Freemason’s Code: The Truth About Solomon’s Key and the Brotherhood, 159. 39. Letter from John Grant to the Grand Lodge of England, 30th November 1840 (United Grand Lodge of England: Indian Correspondence, HC 17/D/24). 40. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 49.

Bombay soon after his arrival.41 Over the years, he was entrusted with more prestigious appointments as he went on to become Secretary to the Medical Board, Superintending Surgeon, and finally Physician-General of India in September 1849.42 In January 1838, in the weeks that followed his arrival, Burnes opened the Provincial Grand Lodge of Western India under the Scottish constitution. Initially this gave him control of Scottish freemasonry in the Bombay presidency.43 But in August 1844, following the retirement of the Marquess of Tweeddale, then Provincial Grand Master of the Eastern Provinces, Burnes became Grand Master of Scottish Freemasonry. His jurisdiction was then extended to the presidencies of Bengal and the Carnatic, meaning he was in a position to warrant new lodges all across the Indian subcontinent. Judging by its composition, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Bombay was again very much a family initiative, considering the roll of members gives Alexander Burnes as Provincial Grand Warden, and Lieutenant Charles Burnes as Provincial Grand Registrar.44 In fact, not only was it a family initiative, it appears to have had a strong political dimension. Indeed, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, James Erskine, was a political agent at Kathiawar, Alexander Burnes had been appointed as envoy to Cabool, Lestock R. Reid, the Junior Grand Warden, was Chief Secretary to the Government, Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnott was a magistrate in the Deccan, while the vast majority of the other members were soldiers.45 The surprising number of ‘politicals’ involved in the Provincial Grand Lodge of Western India comes as further evidence that James Burnes saw freemasonry as a handmaid of empire-building. Of course, freemasonry was not the only circle in which he interacted with other political agents. On 24th August 1844, he chaired a meeting of the Byculla Club in Bombay in the form of an entertainment given to Sir Henry Pottinger, a political agent, once resident administrator in Sindh, and then governor of Hong-Kong (1843–44).46 When James Burnes reached Bombay, there was only one active masonic lodge left, which had been warranted by the United Grand Lodge of England. Interestingly, James Burnes chose to devote his

41. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 10. 42. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 10. 43. The English masonic provinces were modelled on the administrative divisions of British India, the presidencies of Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay. English freemasonry was therefore divided into three provinces. Scottish freemasonry, on the other hand, was divided into Eastern and Western provinces. 44. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (June 1838), 151. Unfortunately, his two brothers, who were both soldiers, died in Cabool in 1841. 45. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (June 1838), 151. 46. James Burnes, Notes on His Name and Family, 11.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017. Deschamps James Burnes (1801–1862) 59 efforts to preserving the only remaining English lodge, Perseverance Lodge No. 546, rather than opening a new lodge right away under the Scottish banner. He joined the lodge in November 1838 and was elected Worshipful Master the following month. At that point, Burnes clearly had no intention of promoting Scottish freemasonry at the expense of English freemasonry. Nevertheless, Perseverance Lodge switched to the Scottish banner a few years later, and thus became the first active lodge under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Western India. Gould situates the passage of Perseverance Lodge under Scottish banner somewhere in the year 1841. In fact, Gould suggests that Burnes’ final commitment and dedication to the Grand Lodge of Scotland might have been caused by the fact the United Grand Lodge of England would not grant him the office he expected as Provincial Grand Master.47 This is indeed a possibility, but the Freemasons’ Quarterly Review also reveals that the United Grand Lodge of England was not as responsive and concerned about Indian lodges as their members had expected. In 1844, a letter signed ‘Frater’ strongly condemned its indifference and lack of interest: ‘Unnatural mothers will ever produce undutiful children; the Grand Lodge of England having proved herself an inattentive and disobliging guardian, a foster mother has been found, who will watch more carefully over her adopted children’.48 On 25 April 1842, Burnes warranted a second lodge, this time in Karachi, the capital of Sindh. The choice of this second lodge is particularly significant because it gives even more weight to the argument according to which Burnes saw freemasonry as the handmaid of empire-building. The warrant for Lodge Hope of Karachi No. 337 S.C. was delivered to General Charles Napier, just a few months before he ordered the annexation of the province, then greatly exceeding his orders.49 In Burnes’ Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde, there is evidence to suggest that Burnes was particularly sensitive to the liberal ideology of ‘anglicization’ implemented by Governor-General Charles Bentinck and most actively promoted by Thomas Babington Macaulay. In his History of British India (1818), James Mill provided the ideological backing for Britain’s civilizing mission. India suffered from ‘an absolute renunciation of all moral duties, and moral affections’, so that the British had a duty to bring about the moral reformation of India.50 Interestingly

47. Robert Freke Gould, ‘Dr. James Burnes, 1801–1862)’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 13 (1900): 49. 48. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1844), 113. 49. D.F. Wadia, History of Lodge Rising Star of Western India No. 342 S. C. (Bombay: British India Press, 1912), 15. 50. James Mill, The History of British India, Vol. I (1820), 365.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017. 60 Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism enough, James Mill had also attended the Montrose Academy until the age of 17 and a half, before entering the University of Edinburgh, a background that is remarkably similar to that of James Burnes. The Montrose Academy was in all likelihood a pool of liberal thinking. In Burnes’ Narrative, there are many passages that describe the province of Sindh as backward and in need of civilization. The most powerful of the Ameers, Mourad Ali, is thus portrayed as being essentially driven by ‘avarice’ and readily willing to sacrifice ‘his own dignity and the interests of his people’.51 More generally, Burnes quite clearly associated Sindh to the theory of ‘oriental despotism’ which was then used by the British to justify further annexation: the government of Sinde is a pure military despotism; and the great misfortune of the people, next to the circumstance of their being entirely at the mercy of their rulers, is, the latter are ignorant of the important truth, that in a well regulated kingdom the interest of the prince and the people are identical.52 Burnes thus appears to have been quite favourable to a British takeover of Sind in the first place, and he most likely granted a warrant to Sir Charles Napier, who shared his views, as a means to promote civilization.

The Prime Mover of Native Inclusion The most noticeable achievement of James Burnes as Grand Master of Scottish Freemasonry in India was the creation of the first ‘native lodge’ in Bombay, at a time native inclusion was far from unanimous. On 1 December 1843, James Burnes responded favourably to the petition signed by 27 freemasons of Bombay for the creation of a lodge designed to accommodate the ‘[…] native gentlemen of recognised respectability and character of Bombay’.53 This is how the first native lodge, Rising Star of Western India No. 342 S.C., came into being. James Burnes thus played a decisive role in opening up freemasonry to native participation. There are many explanations that may account for Burnes’ interest in native participation. Like many of his predecessors who contributed to furthering the cause of the initiation of natives, such as Terence Gahagan, who initiated the first Indian, Umdat-ul-Umrah in 1776, Burnes belonged to the medical professions. The surgeons of the East India Company were often led to work in close contact with the local populations whose traditional medicines they were particularly interested in. Besides, they often spoke the vernacular languages, just like James Burnes, who

51. James Burnes, A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde, 65–66. 52. James Burnes, A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde, 73–74. 53. D.F. Wadia, History of Lodge Rising Star of Western India No. 342 S. C., 4.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017. Deschamps James Burnes (1801–1862) 61 addressed himself to the members of lodge Rising Star of Western India No. 342 in Persian in December 1844.54 It could also be argued that Burnes’ Scottish origins made him particularly receptive to the cause of native inclusion. According to Murray Pittock, the Scots who served in the Empire were prone to ‘frequent and sometimes striking demonstrations of sympathy and cultural, political, and even military support for colonized or dispossessed nations’.55 In fact, Pittock theorized this phenomenon with the concept of ‘fratriotism’, which he defined as ‘the performance of nationality displaced into a reading of the other as the unachievable self: cultural alterity as a response to political defeat’.56 This may well explain why the first ‘native lodge’ came into existence under the Scottish banner. When James Burnes agreed to the creation of lodge Rising Star of Western India, there is no doubt he was driven by honourable motives, most notably the desire to see freemasonry live up to its universal creed. Many of the speeches he delivered prove it, starting with the speech he delivered before the Calcutta lodges on the occasion of his visit to the sister province in July 1840: I have devoted my utmost energies to freemasonry in India, not only because it draws closer the bonds of social unity between educated individuals like ourselves […] but also as a means admirably suited for extending, without awakening religious prejudice, a truer knowledge of the Grand Architect of the Universe, and more just notions of their duties to each other, among the natives of this mighty empire.57 That James Burnes was genuine in his belief that freemasonry should not deny admission to candidates on account of race or religion cannot be denied. In fact, many of the speeches he delivered as Provincial Grand Master of Western India reveal that he actively promoted a mystical masonic tradition that extended far beyond the limits of organized Christianity, as shown in lodge Saint Andrews in the East, in Pune in June 1847: ‘No one who has studied history can doubt its [freemasonry’s] connection, or rather identity, with the ancient mysteries of the Hindoos and Egyptians, and others that Emanated from them’.58 Further in that same speech, he added that freemasonry ‘was certainly not of Christian origin, any more than are the arts and Sciences’ and that it ‘prevailed ages before the birth of our Redeemer’.59

54. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1845), 138. 55. Murray Pittock, Scottish and Irish Romanticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 240–41. 56. Murray Pittock, Scottish and Irish Romanticism, 240. 57. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 2–3. 58. The Freemason, 18 (February 2001). 59. The Freemason, 18 (February 2001).

And yet, in the light of his role as a political agent and commitment to the Empire, it would be a mistake to exclude the political and other ideological factors that may have influenced his decision. As mentioned above, Burnes fully subscribed to liberal imperialism and its project of moral improvement through the spread of Western civilization, best embodied by the governor-generalships of William Bentinck (1828–1835), and James Ramsay Marquess of Dalhousie (1848–1856), another mason mentioned above.60 As early as 1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay, one of Britain’s most famous liberal imperialists, had successfully argued in favour of English language education and its instrumentality in the formation of ‘a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect’.61 Burnes’ commitment to improving the lives of the natives through the promotion of education is mentioned in Grant’s Memoirs, when he describes him as ‘a warm promoter of the schemes for the promotion and encouragement of the arts and manufactures, in an improved form, among the natives’.62 In fact, Burnes was a member of the Bombay Board of Education.63 Finally, most of the native candidates for admission into freemasonry were then members of the Parsi community, the disciples of Zoroaster who had fled Persia between the 8th and the 10th century to settle down in Sindh and Gujarat. Not only were the Parsis trading partners of the British, they also proved to be quite receptive to western values.64 The Parsis were therefore among the ‘armies of middle-class metropolitans’ to whom ‘Anglicization offered rosy opportunities’ described by Benedict Anderson.65 All of these factors need to be taken into account when assessing the causes of the particular attention Burnes paid to the inclusion of natives. In the letter he addressed to the brethren who had petitioned for the constitution of lodge Rising Star of Western India No. 342, his decision is quite clearly explained in terms that recall the rhetoric civilising mission: I have long looked forward to the time when in the spread of civilization and to aid its progress, it would be becoming or rather imperative on us, as enlightened men and Masons, to throw our portals open to particular individuals, and I know no class from amongst whom a selection for this

60. The Freemason [online] (July 1874), 9. 61. Zareer Masani, Macaulay: Britain’s Liberal Imperialist (London: The Bodley Head, 2013), xiii. 62. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 14. 63. Lane-Poole, ‘Burnes, James (1801–1862)’. 64. Jessica Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, 1717–1927 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 222. 65. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 2006) 91–92.

purpose may with greater propriety be made than the highly respectable, intelligent, and enterprising community of Bombay.66 James Burnes’ decision to open a lodge dedicated to the initiation of natives can thus be interpreted in the light of his belief that the masonic bond could contribute to guaranteeing the collaboration of the native elite and help further consolidate British rule in India. Interestingly, the English Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, held very similar views. In response to a letter sent to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Calcutta in 1840, he argued in favour of the admission of natives on account of it being ‘no doubt a great object to impress Brotherly and friendly feelings between Europeans and enlightened Hindoos’.67 Sussex is therefore likely to have further comforted Burnes in his belief that the time had come to move forward with the integration of natives.68 Still, James Burnes’ commitment to the cause of native inclusion was so complete that in June 1845, he decided to create a new order called the ‘The Brotherhood of the Olive Branch in the East’, in order to provide for the natives who were denied access to the high degrees, and most notably the masonic chivalric degrees. In the speech he delivered before 80 brethren in Bombay, he stated that the chief objective of the new order was ‘[…] to supply to natives of the East, who are Masons, a substitute for the higher chivalric degrees, their exclusion from which creates heartburning’.69 The new order comprised three degrees, Novice, Companion, and Officer. Interestingly enough, in his speech he was rather critical of the existing chivalric orders, which he claimed were nothing but ‘[…] a cumbrous invention of the last century’.70 Burnes also mentioned that although he was perfectly qualified to confer those chivalric degrees, he was rather ‘[…] indisposed generally to encourage grades to which the natives could not be admitted’.71 It is also to be noted that he placed the new order under the banner of peace between the peoples, as opposed to the existing chivalric orders, whose only ‘[…] bond of union was war and hatred to the nations of the East’.72 This episode stands in sharp contrast with the commonplace view of James Burnes as a fundamental contributor of the revival and promotion of

66. D.F. Wadia, History of Lodge Rising Star of Western India No. 342 S. C., 8. 67. Letter from the United Grand Lodge of England to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Bengal, 2nd July 1842 (United Grand Lodge of England: Indian Correspondence, HC 17/D/28) 68. Jessica Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, 224. 69. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1845), 377. 70. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1845), 378. 71. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1845), 378. 72. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1845) 378.

Knight Templary. His severe criticism of the Order tends to suggest that he grew increasingly aloof from the Knights Templar over the years, and maybe further testifies to the full extent of his commitment to native inclusion. Although ‘The Brotherhood of the Olive Branch in the East’ was the object of much enthusiasm amongst native masons, it never really took root, to the point where nothing actually seems to have come of it. Burnes’ eagerness to see to the full inclusion of Indian masons was far from being shared by all his brethren. As early as September 1845, John Morris, the Deputy Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Coromandel wrote to James Burnes to inform him that he considered the new order to be ‘[…] not only unnecessary, but dangerous and unconstitutional’. In fact, he hardly attempted to conceal his scorn for the natives: ‘[…] if the Natives of Bombay have any fancy to wear Doves or other ornaments, by all means let them do so, but I strongly protest against such puerile conceits being designated as appertaining to Freemasonry’.73

Conclusion In November 1849, poor health compelled James Burnes to leave India and return to Britain. It was the last he was to see of the Indian subcontinent. The following year, he resigned his masonic appointment as Provincial Grand Master of Western India and was succeeded by his Deputy, Bro. Le Geyt. 74 When he left the Medical Board Office, the Commander-in-Chief testified to ‘the untiring zeal and great ability’ with which he had carried out his duties.75 Once he was back in the motherland, James Burnes resided chiefly in London and paid occasional visits to his native town of Montrose. On 1 June 1857, he was affiliated to St. John’s Lodge in Alloa (central lowlands of Scotland), and introduced by the Grand Master as ‘perhaps the Greatest Mason in Europe’.76 Burnes also worked as a magistrate in the counties of Middlesex and Forfar. He was added to the roll of justices of his native country by Lord Brougham, although he had no property in the shire.77 Burnes’ public appearances remained rather limited, although he did appear in the meeting organized to honour Sir James Outram (1803–1863), the

73. Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (1845) 378. 74. The Masonic Illustrated (June 1904), 23. 75. Birch, Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges, 11. 76. The Freemasons Magazine and Masonic Mirror (July 1857), 592. 77. William F.B. Laurie, Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians (London: Savoy Steal Press, 1875), 29.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017. Deschamps James Burnes (1801–1862) 65 prominent soldier and statesman who served in Gujarat and Lucknow, and who was a fellow member of the Royal Asiatic Society.78 In 1857, James Burnes lost his eldest son to the Indian Mutiny (1857–1858). This may partly account for the contents of the speech he delivered to the Court of Proprietors on the ‘India Question’ on 27th January 1858: A native of India has no notion of political rights; his forefathers had none, and he cannot comprehend their being yielded to him except from a cowardly terror of himself. Such concessions, in fact, are diametrically opposed to his conception of the dignity and authority of a ruler. What he requires from England is a well-chosen, vigorous, and benignant Governor-General, armed with ample power to enforce authority, protect person and property, and administer justice promptly and efficiently to the people.79 Burnes quite clearly subscribed to the most common interpretation of the Mutiny, according to which it was first and foremost the product of Indian superstition.80 Of course, this reading of the events quite conveniently swept aside the obvious political dimension of the mutiny. Although his interpretation of the events was tainted with the loss of his son, his testimony displays the full extent of his commitment to the per manence of British India. Despite the fact he was only 20 years-old when he first landed in Bombay in 1821, and 33 years-old when he was initiated into freemasonry in 1834, he was to become one of the most illustrious and enthusiastic masons in the history of British India. Based on the account that has been given of his work and career, it is clear that he considered his commitment to freemasonry and his commitment to the Empire as not only perfectly compatible, but perfectly complementary. This is yet another proof that freemasonry ought to be considered as one of the driving forces of British imperialism on the Indian subcontinent. Finally, the Scottish specificity of Burnes’ career both as a mason and empire- builder calls into question Linda Colley’s claim according to which ‘The empire […] made Scots, Welsh, English, and even many Irish men and women call themselves British’, and stands as an invitation to reassess the role of the Empire as a foundation for ‘Scottishness’.81

78. Laurie, Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians, 30. 79. Laurie, Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians, 26–27. 80. Laurie, Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians, 27 81. Linda Colley, ‘Britishness in the 21st Century’, Speech at the Centre for Citizenship, London School of Economics, 8 December 1999. John M. MacKenzie and T. M. Devine, eds, Scotland and the British Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) 10.

References Magazines and Correspondence Freemasons’ Quarterly Review [online] (March 1837). Available at: http://www. masonicperiodicals.org/ Freemasons’ Quarterly Review [online] (June 1838). Available at: http://www. masonicperiodicals.org/ The Freemasons’ Quarterly Review. London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1845. Letter from John Grant to the Grand Lodge of England, 30th November 1840 (United Grand Lodge of England: Indian Correspondence, HC 17/D/24). The Freemason, 18 [online] (February 2001). Available at: http://lodge342.dgli-sc.com/ fmfeb01.htm The Freemasons Magazine and Masonic Mirror [online] (July 1857), 592. Available at: http://www.masonicperiodicals.org/ The Masonic Illustrated [online] (June 1904). Available at: http://www.masonic periodicals.org/

Other Sources Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 2006. André, Nadine. ‘Alexander Burnes, un héritier des Lumières écossaises dans le sous- continent indien à l’âge des réformes’, Etudes Ecossaises 14 (2001) [online]. Birch, F.W. ed. Addresses of R. W. James Burnes. K. H. to the Calcutta Lodges with R. W. John Grant’s Memoir of Brother Burnes. Calcutta: Samuel Smith and Co., 1840. Burnes, James. A Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde: A Sketch of the History of Cutch, from Its First Connexion with the British Government in India till the Conclusion of the Treaty of 1819; and Some Remarks on the Medical Topography of Bhooj. Edinburgh: J. Stark, 1831. —Notes on His Name and Family. Edinburgh: Printed for private circulation, 1851. Coen, Terence Creagh. The Indian Political Service: A Study in Indirect Rule. London: Chatto and Windus, 1971. Colley, Linda. ‘Britishness in the 21st Century’, Speech at the Centre for Citizenship, London School of Economics, 8 December 1999. Cooper, Robert. Cracking the Freemason’s Code: The Truth About Solomon’s Key and the Brotherhood. New York: Atria Books, 2006. Gould, Robert Freke. ‘Dr. James Burnes, 1801–1862’, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 13 (1900): 44–53. —Military Lodges: The Apron and the Sword of Freemasonry under Arms. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2003. Harland-Jacobs, Jessica. Builders of Empire: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, 1717– 1927. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Hogg, Bruce, and Diane Clements. ‘Freemasons and the Royal Society: Alphabetical List of Fellows of the Royal Society who were Freemasons’, The Library and Museum of Freemasonry. Available at: http://www.freemasonry.london. museum/resources/ Huch, Ronald K., and Paul R. Ziegler. Joseph Hume: The People’s MP. Philadelphia, PA: The American Philosophical Society, 1985. Lane-Poole, Stanley. ‘Burnes, James (1801–1862)’. Rev. James Mills. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, eds. H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edn, ed. David Cannadine, October 2005. Available at: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4057. Last accessed 3 September 2016.

Laurie, William F.B. Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians. London: Savoy Steal Press, 1875. Leask, Nigel. Robert Burnes and Pastoral. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572618.001.0001 MacKenzie, John M., and T.M. Devine, eds. Scotland and the British Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Masani, Zareer. Macaulay: Britain’s Liberal Imperialist. London: The Bodley Head, 2013. Mill, James. The History of British India, Vol. I. London: Bladwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1820. Murray, Craig. Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2016. Pittock, Murray. Scottish and Irish Romanticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232796.001.0001 Prior, Katherine. ‘Burnes, Sir Alexander (1805–1841)’. Katherine Prior. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, eds H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edn, ed. David Cannadine, January 2008. Available at: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4056. Last accessed 3 September 2016. Wadia, D.F. History of Lodge Rising Star of Western India No. 342 S. C. Bombay: British India Press, 1912.